𝐈𝐕𝐘 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃 || 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤

☰09- ISAIAH BRADLEY

[BALTIMORE, MARYLAND]

   We had gotten some sleep that night. In the morning I woke up, making us all some breakfast. We ate and got ready for the day.

    We landed in Baltimore and Bucky was now the leader since he wouldn't tell us where he was taking us. I looked around at the rundown area and tried not to think too much about anything.

   "Hey, it's Black Falcon! What's up?!" A kid called.

   "It's just Falcon, Kid." Sam told him.

   "No, No, my daddy told me it's Black Falcon." The kid said and I smiled.

   "Is it because I'm black and I'm the Falcon?"

   "Well, technically, I mean, yes?"

   "So are you like, Black Kid?" Sam asked and laughed, the other boy laughed as well. "I got him, right?"

   "Whatever man." The kid said.

   "What is this gonna do for us?" I asked, catching up to Bucky. He glanced down at me but didn't say anything. "Okay."

   We climbed up the stairs of the old house and waited as he knocked on the screen door. I stared at the 'No Trespassing' sign that sat on the door, I was ready to suggest we leave now but then a boy opened the door and looked at us.

   "We're here to see Isaiah." Bucky told him.

   "Nobody named Isaiah lives here." The boy replied.

   Bucky swallowed. "Look, we just need to talk to him."

   "You must not hear what I just said." The boy tells him. "You ain't getting in this house. Y'all can leave now."
   His eyes glanced me over and I couldn't stop my face from looking offended. "You can stay."

   "You're funny." I roll my eyes.

   "Tell him the guy from the bar in Goyang is here. He's gonna know what that means."

   The boy paused. "All right, wait here." He closed the door.

   "Nice kid. How do you know this guy?" Sam asks.

   "I used to... We had a skirmish during the Korean war."

   "Ooo a reunion." I say with a hint of sarcasm.

   "Hey, you okay?" Sam asked.

   I looked at him confused for a second and then connected it to what the boy had said, I laughed.

   "Oh Sam." I say. "Poor innocent Sam. I've heard much, much worse. That was skimming the surface."

   "Worse?" Bucky asked. "You're 17."

   "Trust me, I've gotten used to it." I assure them and before they could ask anymore questions the door opened back up.

   "Today's your lucky day." The kid from before opened the door for us. "He said he wanna see for himself."

   Bucky stepped in first and Sam let me go next before following, I felt a smile wanting to creep on my face because Sam was being protective.
   The boy closed the door behind us. I looked over Bucky's shoulder at the old man that stood, clearly waiting to see him.

   "Isaiah?" Bucky asked.

   "Look at you." The old man said.

   "This is, uh, Sam and Amelia. Sam and Amelia, this is Isaiah." Bucky introduces us. "He was a hero. One of the ones that HYDRA feared the most. Like Steve.
   We uh.. met in '51."

   "If by met, you mean I whupped your ass, then yeah." Isaiah told him and Bucky smirked but it didn't stay long. "We heard whispers he was on the peninsula, but everyone they sent after him, never came back. So the U.S military dropped me behind the line to go deal with him.
   I took half that metal arm in that fight in Goyang but I see he's managed to grow it back." He shakes his head. "I just wanted to see if he got the arm back. Or if he'd come to kill me."

   "I'm not a killer anymore." Bucky tells him.

   "You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be?" He asked rhetorically. "It doesn't work like that. Well, maybe it does for folks like you."

   "Isaiah, the reason we're here.." He pauses. "It's because there's more of you and me out there."

   "You and me." He stated.

   "And we need to know how."

   "I'm not gonna talk about it anymore!" He threw a tin can of something and it shot half way through the wall. I had fliched, stepping back a bit.
   We stayed silent as he came over to Bucky. "You know what they did to me for being a hero? They put my ass in jail for 30 years."
   His voice broke. "People running tests, taking my blood, coming into my cell. Even your people weren't done with me."

   "Isaiah—" Sam tried.

   "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" He yelled.