You'll Never Walk Alone

07

"Look, it's 20 miles to the airport. You guys need a ride." He opened the back door. "Guys. Ma'am. Gary, stop." The three exchanged a look and reluctantly got in. All Mattie wished for was for silence, but that clearly wouldn't happen. "Okay, so we've got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?"

Sam let out a sigh. "They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during The Blip. Maybe they're just trying to help."

"They had a funny way of showing it," Bucky and Mattie said.

"That serum doesn't exactly have a great track record," John stated, looking at Mattie. "No offense."

Mattie narrowed her eyes. "Well, we need to figure out where they're going."

"How'd you track them here?" Sam asked. "The Flag Smashers?"

"Uh, no, we didn't track them, we tracked you, uh, through Redwing," Lemar replied, scratching the back of his head.

"You hacked my tech?"

"Sorry," John said with a chuckle. "It's not exactly hacking. It's government property." He gestured to himself. "Kind of the government." He chuckled, then glanced at Mattie. "Does she always just stare like that?"

"You get used to it."

Bucky swallowed and narrowed his eyes at John.

"Okay, look," he cleared his throat, "you know, things have gotten kind of, uh..."

"Chaotic," Lemar finished, glancing at John.

"Yeah. Well, the GRC, they're doing the best they can to get things up and running smoothly, post Blip."

Mattie narrowed her eyes and John and two stared at each other with the same expression.

Bucky glanced at Mattie as he took her hand and she nodded slowly.

Lemar continued. "Reactivating citizenship, social security, health care. Basically just managing resources for the refugees who were displaced by the return."

"The Global Repatriation Council does all that," Sam said. "I get that. So why exactly are you two here?"

"Well, they provide the resources and we keep things stable."

"Yeah, violent revolutionaries aren't usually good for anyone's cause," John added.

Sam smirked lightly. "Usually said by the people with the resources."

"We got a lot of resources. If you joined with us, we could..."

"No," Bucky and Mattie interrupted.

Lemar gestured between the three Avengers. "I got mad respect for each of y'all. But you were getting your asses kicked till we showed up."

Sam frowned. "Who are you?"

"Lemar Hoskins."

"We just saw you hanging out of a helicopter in full-on tactical gear. We're gonna need more than just "Lemar Hoskins"."

"I'm Battlestar. John's partner."

""Battlestar"? Stop the car!" Bucky ordered.

Gary stopped the truck, Bucky got out, and John looked between the three as he said, "Look, I... I get it, okay? I get the attitude, I do. You didn't think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky, Mattie. And I'm... I'm not trying to be Steve. I'm not trying to replace Steve. I'm just trying to be the best Captain America I can be. That's it."

Mattie glared at John as she climbed out of the car and followed after Bucky. The two walked away, quickly matching each other's stride.

John frowned slightly at her words. "It'd be a lot easier if I had Cap's wingmen on my side."