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“This is fucked up,” John says, looking around at each of his team members to see who’s on his side.
Yelena, squashed between Alexei and Bucky on the opposite three-seater, makes a face, “We get it. Stop saying that.”
The van is cramped and hot. John is not allowed to complain about the last part but he still bitterly flicks his sweat in Yelena’s direction. She bares her teeth at him like an angry cat.
(Bob spent twenty-nine seconds fiddling with the aircon before it broke and the engine light lit up on the dashboard. He thinks they don’t know, but the mic had been on the whole time. The little shit.)
“It’s a little tight here, I admit,” Alexei adds. His chin is dropped to his chest, helmet pressed against the roof of the minivan they were given, “But nothing we cannot handle.”
“Speak for yourself, please,” Ava retorts grimly. Her arm, leg, and most of her body weight are pressing against their ‘portable arsenal’- a dusty old military pack John dug up from his attic before he had to move out- to keep it from bouncing and massacring them.
Part of ‘owning Valentina’ meant not being able to use her credit card because she’s petty. Part of being the ‘New-Avengers’ meant Alexei had to park his limo along with a steady paycheck and generous tips. Part of this shitshow meant that Bucky had to use his retirement check to buy them a van so they could perform their duties as ‘Heroes’. Getting a van from a cheap place because that thing wouldn’t survive the first mission anyway, meant striking a shady deal with an alleged car thief.
“We’re almost there,” Bucky sighs.
Ava kicks the wall between them and the driver, “Almost there, right?”
Their driver is 20-something-year-old Nadia, who had arrived in New York roughly a month earlier, had gotten her license ‘sometime before that’ and had to be introduced to the concept of Avengers. Bucky found it refreshing, while Ava took great pleasure in convincing her that John was a version of the Hulk.
Not that she needed convincing. John had clocked the flinch and the tightening of her eyes the second he reached out to give her a hand and said his name. She hid it well, though, props to her, but it lingered on his mind. Yelena and Bucky had noticed it too and the three shared a meaningful glance- a habit that’s been slowly developing since their first mission.
They’re not in any danger though. Their local nuke is in the passenger's seat beside Nadia, wearing a mic and holding up his phone with the route.
A muffled voice yells back, “Half an hour!”
It’s hard to tell who it is- what with Nadia’s voice being high-pitched and Bob losing his goddamn mind.
“Great,” John complains, “the aliens are going to be gone before we even pull up in the parking space.”
The van swerves to the left. Ava and their bag full of weapons crash into his side. John gasps for air. Alexei groans, Yelena wheezes and Bucky looks like it’s just another Tuesday. To him, it probably is. John hopes his own retirement is filled with beaches and grandchildren. Not this.
“Can you speed it up?” John yells over the screeching of the tyres.
“On it!” Nadia shouts back. Bob shrieks and a second later the right tyre becomes airborne for a terrible, no-good, absolutely horrifying moment, before landing heavily back on the pavement. The smell of rubber permeates the air. John can feel the impact in his spine.
“She doesn’t sound bothered,” Ava comments, wiping sweat off her brow with her glove. Her right arm is wrapped around the bag, the other is digging in between her and John.
Yelena’s eyes narrow at the partition, “Bob? You okay in there?”
On cue, Bob wails, “Left, left! Go left! Oh my God-“
“Relax!” Nadia yells back, “I know what I’m doing!”
The four in the back share a dark look.
“Did anyone screen her?” Yelena demands, “Is she a plant?”
“Doubt it,” Bucky replies through clenched teeth as he yanks his arm out of Yelena’s kidney. She gasps in relief and John feels a pang of sympathy for her. He smothers it vehemently, reminding himself that she didn’t try to stop Ava’s Hulk comparisons.
“Valentina doesn’t know she exists,” Bucky adds as pulls out his phone and turns it on, “I think.” His brow furrows with each passing moment.
“Sam’s texted me ten times,” he announces darkly, “Calling them Chitauri-like.”
“Chitauri-like,” John echoes, “Why did we bring Bob again?”
“Jesus fucking-“ Ava groans at the same time, “We don’t need to be there, they got superpowers!”
“Bob does too,” Alexei interrupts and looks away when they all level a glare at him.
Just as Yelena opens her mouth to give her two cents, the car screeches, turns right, skids sideways and the whole vehicle shudders to a stop. John feels his breakfast behind his eyeballs.
“That wasn’t half an hour,” Yelena hisses, eyes wide.
Ava kicks the partition, “Oi!”
“Euh,”
Nadia’s voice is barely audible over Bob’s hyperventilation, “The battle is here.”
“What?” Bucky leans in.
A thud sounds on the roof, followed by a sickening crunch. Light and sounds pour in from above as the roof is peeled away, exposing them like sardines in a tin.
“The battle came to you!” Nadia stammers, her voice finally reaching the appropriate level of panic.
“Holy shit-“ John has enough time to make out a monstrous eye- what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck- before he’s bodily yanking Alexei out of his seat. A talon the size of his entire leg pierces through the side of the van.
“Move, move, move!” John isn’t sure who screams but it’s either him or Bucky because that tone came straight from bootcamp. Ava has already phased through the van. Alexei and Yelena burst through the doors. Bucky lunges for the bag, uses the bench as leverage and leaps out of the van through the opened roof.
John just jumps.
He lands in New York’s wreckage. Rubble litters the street, and buildings are damaged. Thankfully the civilians seem to have been evacuated.
Bob tumbles out of the passenger’s seat, white as a ghost. Nadia is hot on his heels, gloved hands slipping against the doorframe. They both scamper behind Alexei and look at the rest expectantly.
The Chitauri-thing picks up their goddamn van and throws it a few yards away, before also looking at them expectantly. It looks exactly like the ones from the news back in 2012, but this one is smaller, with more wriggly bits and a snapping jaw.
“What the shit,” Ava whispers. The alien shifts, landing its mass on the ground and looming over them on its hind legs? Paws? Feet? Does it matter? Not really.
“Run,” Bucky grunts, and then louder, “Run!”
The wind is already whistling in John’s ears before he realizes he’s sprinting. Bob collides with him and the momentum throws him over John’s shoulder.
“What about Nadia?” Bob manages to say, words coming out in short bursts as he’s thrown around like a sack of potatoes.
Shit. John can’t afford another scandal- not with the divorce pending, not with custody on the line. He needs to come out of this as a hero-
The distant sound of artillery clears his mind, sharpens his gaze and he can feel the control return. Bob’s weight reminds him of the responsibility he has as one of the most experienced members of the team. John risks a glance back.
Bucky is sprinting on his heels, Nadia in one arm, the bag in the other. The driver in question is as white as the dust flying up in the air. Her lips are in a tight line and she thankfully doesn’t scream.
“Cover!” Yelena screams, “Here!” she points at the entrance of a hotel to their side. John doesn’t think, just barrels in that direction. Bob is yelling something incoherently about tentacles and he really doesn’t want to know.
They whizz past Alexei who tosses a stun grenade outside and slams the door shut just in time. The windows go bright white. They sprint through the lobby, skid over the plush carpet and end up in an adjacent hallway leading to the elevators.
Once there, they all catch their breaths. Bob plops to his feet and steadies himself against the wall. Ava and Yelena share an unspoken look.
“So,” Alexei begins, eyes distant, and doesn’t continue. The distant thumping rattles the chandelier in the lobby and the soft tinkering sounds break up the stunned tension between them.
“How the fuck did Rogers do this?” John demands, feeling rage, shock, adrenaline and a healthy dose of what the actual fuck was that, all at once. Steve was running between aliens with nothing but a star-spangled suit and a shield and somehow won. He didn’t even have the serum John has!
Bucky’s eyes tighten, “Steve had a plan.”
They all turn to him incredulously. A vein swells in Bucky’s temple but he doesn’t elaborate. John personally always suspected the stories about Steve Rogers were at least slightly embellished, but now he’s wondering how much PR the man really had.
“So, ehm,” Nadia clears her throat weakly, “I’m just gonna,” she points at the reception desk, “yeah, go there and uhm, hide?”
Yelena grimaces, “Yeah, do that.”
“Basement,” Alexei advises to everyone’s surprise, “best place.”
Nadia to her credit, turns to Bob, “Are you coming, or do you have some sort of alien-killing power?”
“NO!”
Nadia jumps at the collective shout- Bob’s included.
“Bob, go with her,” Yelena instructs after an awkward beat.
Bob obeys and the two scurry off towards the stairs. The ground rumbles beneath them. Once they’re gone, John glances at the others, “Are you sure we don’t need him?”
Bucky shakes his head, “You want to go convince Sentry to help us out and then go back peacefully?”
“Or the Void?” Ava adds helpfully. The ground shakes harder this time.
“Fine,” John bites out, “let’s go kill some aliens.”
It takes about an hour of fighting the same damn creature before John is willing to admit they are outclassed. Their part of New York- the part they can’t escape- is as good as demolished and John is willing to bet Bob’s hyperventilated himself into a coma by now. Bucky’s dark face flashes by as the Chitauri-mutant swings him around by his chest armour and drops him on a truck. The resounding crash has them all wincing.
“Still good, Bucky?” Yelena crackles over the comm.
A groan returns from the other end and they all sigh in relief. John braces himself, as the thing turns its four eyes onto him.
“Where the hell are the Avengers?” he yells and jumps away from the tail swinging towards him. Yes, they are Avengers too, but he’s willing to see the difference for now. Avengers are the ones with sparkly hands, and New-Avengers are the ones with punching hands.
The comm beeps and then a whole new voice enters.
“You called?”
“Wilson,” John says, too surprised to be snarky, “What?”
“Fancy Stark tech, you wouldn’t know it,” Sam replies and John can hear the smug smile, “Where y’all at?”
The alien speeds at him. John ducks and shoots a salvo in its underbelly. It does fuck-all to bring it down but at least it’s bothered. Thankfully Ava replies, “What, can’t see our location with your fancy tech?”
“Funny, I was actually asking what’s taking you so long?”
“Busy,” John grunts, trying to find another weak spot. The creature roars, realizing it is surrounded. Yelena runs up a car and launches herself at it. Her widow’s bite hits it on its jaw. Blue electricity curls around it and its mouth opens wide. Alexei hurls a grenade inside. Yelena lands, rolls away and then sprints for cover.
“Near downtown, I’m guessing?” Sam sounds slightly strained over the whizzing of his wings.
The grenade explodes and does precisely nothing except annoy the thing and maybe give it a cavity. John is starting to wish he was the Hulk.
“No chance, we’re still thirty minutes away from you by car, Sam,” Bucky replies grimly while he digs himself out of the truck. He waves at John, who lifts his thumb up. At least their senior citizen is still breathing.
“What?” It goes quiet for a moment. Sam’s voice is tense when he returns, “Shit, they’re escaping. Hey, we need to reinforce the containment-“ it cuts off.
There are too many implications there. John refuses to think about them for the sake of his pride.
“We need Bob!” Alexei yells and John feels a bit of said pride crumble when he agrees.
“Sure,” Ava, dodges a wild swing, “and then we’re going to rebuild New York from the ground up, yeah?”
“What else is new?” John jumps on top of the thing’s head and slams his shield between the segments, wringing them apart.
Ava phases through a falling piece of wall- John is not jealous- and looks around, “Honestly, I don’t see the difference.”
“Fuck off,” John replies and jumps away when the thing slams its front leg-things in the spot he just occupied.
“We’re doing plan Double B,” he pants, “This is bullshit.”
They’ve been circling him forever now. Half the street is reduced to a grey mass, the other half is about to get rocked. John lifts his hand to his comm, fiddling with the teeny tiny switches until he can hear Bob’s voice.
“-then I figured, better late than never.”
John frowns. Bob sounds calmer than he expected. Maybe Nadia managed to talk him down, or, he’s trying to keep her calm. For Bob’s sake, he sticks with the latter. Bob’s been making progress since Bucky found him a therapist and since Sam decided to come over every now and then. He’s got this.
“Wait,” Yelena’s voice stops him, “Let me.”
John makes a face at her but pulls his hand away. He might need to add ‘Negotiated with the Taliban’ to his resume and stick it to their shared fridge again.
“Bob,” Yelena says, “listen, I know this is risky but-“
“Yelena? You’re okay?” Bob's voice cracks, “You’re all good?”
It sends a pang of something warm through John’s chest.
“We’re fine, Bobby,” John sighs, “Just need your help out here.”
As expected, Bob’s tone starts wobbling, “Oh, no, no I don’t think that’s a good idea. No, I can’t go-“
John stares at the alien currently chasing Bucky and Alexei around. “Bob, buddy, this is the only idea we have left.”
“Oh noooo, nooo, but what if that thing happens- Huh? Nothing, nothing to worry about-“ His voice drops to a whisper, “What if he comes out?”
Right, so they’re still keeping Nadia in the dark. Well, it’s not like John’s planning to show her the footage of him decapitating-
“We’ll figure it out, but at this rate, we won’t have a city anymore,” Ava says from behind John. He spins around, scowling at her. She mouths back “24-0.”
“Really? Right now?” John hisses back.
She rolls her eyes, pressing one hand against her comm, “Bob, we got this okay? Last time you had enough control as Sentry to not kill us. This is going to be fine. They are really hard to miss.”
“I- I guess… Fine, I’ll be right out,” Bob mumbles in their ears.
“Bucky!”
At the sound of Alexei’s voice, John’s head snaps up. Bucky is flying through the air again, this time straight at the jutting remains of a lamppost.
The world turns into a blur. Sounds fade until all he can hear is his own heart thumping in his throat. John launches himself hard enough to feel the pavement crack under his feet. He stretches himself out, twisting mid-air to grab Bucky’s waist. John’s momentum and weight slam them both into the ground.
White-hot pain lances through his shoulder. Behind him, the pole shudders from the impact. He’s up faster than he’d like. Bucky is a dead weight in his arms.
“Bucky,” John gasps, “Bucky, you okay man?” He unclamps his hands from Bucky’s ribcage, pushing himself up from the ground.
Released, Bucky coughs and rolls onto his forearms. John reaches behind his shoulder. His hand comes away wet with blood. It’s not too deep, and the serum will save him, but it’s not ideal either. Bucky gets on his hands and knees, and then on one knee. His metal and flesh arm spread out to the side.
“I’m fine, thanks,” he rasps and glances back briefly, “You?”
John grits his teeth, “Had worse.”
The creature roars.
“Good,” Bucky says tersely, “Run.”
“Huh?”
John’s eyes zero in on the rapidly approaching alien.
“Fuuuuu-“ he scrambles to his feet, one hand dragging Bucky up by his shoulder. They sprint away just as the alien comes crashing into the pavement.
“-ohn- John- Walker!”
“I’m fine!” he snarls and winces when his shoulder reminds him he’s not that fine actually.
Bucky, looking a bit too pale, gestures to the right and they turn. Ava jumps in their path, phasing through them with two stun grenades in her hands. John doesn’t need to look back. The light reflects off Bucky’s metal arm and his shield.
Faster-
Ava is back at Yelena’s side by the time they get there. Sweat and blood run down John’s back.
“Bob?” he calls over the intercom.
The alien screeches, dancing around blindly, smashing into buildings left and right.
“Everybody still kicking?” Sam comes in, sounding urgent.
“Still alive,” Bucky replies wearily, exchanging a look with John, “They don’t like light.”
“Yeah, just confirmed that here. I’ve called Pepper, she’s on her way with the world’s biggest light fixture to paralyze these suckers.”
“How many are there?” John can’t help but ask.
“Dunno man, twenty?”
Twenty aliens are ravaging New York. Oh, it’s definitely Tuesday. Yelena swears in Russian. Both Alexei and Bucky wince at the sound.
“But you’re all safe?” Sam asks again. It’s annoying actually, the fact that he means it too.
“Somehow,” Ava replies, “we can’t keep this one down.”
The alien in question is doing just as much damage to the neighbourhood as before. Sam huffs tiredly, “Tell me about it. I wish Thor was here. It took ages to get them all in one place and one still escaped!”
“What about Strange?” Bucky asks.
“Off-universe, last I heard.”
“Of course he is,” Bucky mutters, rubbing his chest with a pained look. John makes a mental note to sick a medic on him.
The alien roars. John braces himself, “He’s recovering.”
“You guys should get out of there,” Sam says, “Check for any civilians or something.”
Alexei glances inside the hotel, “No, no, Captain. We need to bring this one to you.”
“It’s going to destroy this place if we leave,” Yelena chimes in.
“Y’all should be called Suicide Squad,” Sam sighs, but it’s warm, “Don’t make good on that name. And where is Bob?”
“There,” Alexei says, pointing behind them.
They turn as one. Bob shuffles out of the destroyed hotel entrance. John feels his insides go cold at the sight of the destruction. In the heat of the battle, he hadn’t even thought to protect the hotel. If Alexei hadn’t told them about the basement-
He shakes it off.
Bob’s eyes are flashing gold. He’s holding something black in his hands, wringing the fabric anxiously.
“Step aside,” he murmurs. It echoes around them ominously. Ava hurries to stand behind Bob. The rest follows just as fast. Better to be out of sight in times like these. Bob stuffs the thing in his pocket and rubs his hands over his sweater several times.
“Remember,” Yelena reminds him, “just the aliens.” And because Sentry has ego issues, she adds, “Please.”
Bucky’s brow furrows as Bob, or Sentry, steps out on the pavement, “Where’s the driver?”
“Inside,” Bob replies. His tone has gone flat but his hands are still busy. “We talked a lot. “
The rubble starts to shift on its own. With each step Bob takes, they shudder a little more until they rise from the ground. The alien stops moving, eyeing this new player curiously. The rubble goes flying at the same time Bob does. It’s a little unstable and a lot like a ballistic missile, but he’s flying all right.
The alien cries out and follows. John follows them with his eyes until they are little more than specks against the blue sky.
“You think he’ll handle all of them?” Yelena asks.
John shrugs, still squinting up. Bucky rubs his neck, “I should probably tell Sam.”
“Tell me what?”
They jump at his voice.
Reluctantly, Bucky raises his hand to his ear, “Bob’s in the air.”
“Bob?” Sam repeats, and then again but more incredulously, “Bob? Bob the living nuke? Bob the guy who’s terrified of his others?”
The New-Avengers resolutely don’t meet each other’s eyes. Bucky clears his throat, “He’s got this, Sam.”
“Bucky, I say this with love because Bob’s a good guy, right?”
John grimaces at what’s to come.
“But Bob should have been in a shelter with noise-cancelling headphones and a blankie. I am not going through the shame rooms again, Buck!”
Yeah, that part is no one’s favourite. Bucky puts on his ‘I finished therapy’ voice, “It’s not him. It’s not the Void. It’s just Bob, with a dash of Sentry. It’s going to be okay.”
The liar.
Ava arches her eyebrows, “How did he fail in politics again?”
“Can’t use violence,” Yelena mumbles back. Both stifle their giggles when Bucky glares at them.
“I’m just saying, this is either going to go very well, or it’s going to kick both our asses,” Sam insists.
“Look!” Alexei points up.
The tiny flecks of Bob and the alien have stopped moving. The bigger fleck wiggles a bit and then bursts apart.
“Did he just explode a Chitauri?” Sam yells over the comm.
Bucky presses his lips into a thin line, “Uh, yeah, looks like it.”
The rubble that flew up with them spread out in a wide circle. John decides not to think too much of it.
“You should call him over,” John suggests smugly, “It’ll be a piece of cake for him.”
To his surprise, Sam doesn’t disagree, but: “And how do you suggest I do that? Swing a red cape? Hold out a doughnut?”
“Bob does love doughnuts,” Alexei mutters to himself.
Yelena hisses at him and joins the comms, “Bob? Bob, can you hear me?”
It’s definitely not Bob who replies.
“I can hear you,” Sentry says. John massages the bridge of his nose, already seeing the headlines tomorrow and the judge’s disapproving face.
Yelena swallows, “Great. Euh, good job with the alien. There are about twenty more further downtown. If you could…? “
“Destroy them?”
“Please?” Ava joins in and folds her hands in prayer.
“Why?”
John sighs and drops his head. His shoulder throbs painfully. “First we can’t kill one alien, then we release Bob-“
“Don’t forget the civilian we brought along,” Alexei adds helpfully.
“You what?” Sam thunders over the intercom. They all jolt.
Yelena slaps her dad’s arm. “Turn that off!”
“Bucky, what civilian? Where are they?”
Bucky groans, “Safe, Sam, I promise. She’s our- euh, driver.”
“Man, you owe me so many drinks. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put your asses on house arrest?”
“Because you can’t?” John snipes back petulantly.
“Watch me, Walker. And I can’t believe you went along with this. Aren’t you trying to win custody?”
“Hey-“
“Okay, okay, can we skip the lecture for now?” Ava cuts in, “Sentry. If you’re still listening, we need you to clear the rest of those things downtown."
A beat passes. The comm crackles.
“They’re not hurting me,” Sentry replies, “Are they? This one did. He’s gone now. That’s enough, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Yelena says hesitantly, eyes begging the rest for help, “but we really need to protect the rest of the city and possibly the world.”
“The world…”
The comms crackle with empty static. John exhales, grips his shield tighter, "Listen. Bob or Sentry, whoever’s in there, this planet? It needs to not get eaten today. That’s kinda our job.”
“Why?”
Because Valentina fucking tricked them and Bucky still won’t let him shoot her.
“Shooting star?” Alexei asks, pointing up. Sure enough, one of the pieces of rubble flies away at Mach-fuck you and disappears behind the skyline. Not a second later, a building collapses in the distance.
Bucky clenches his jaw. “Why? Because we live here too.”
Not for long because if John’s internal navigation is right, that building was near their ‘office’.
Glass crunches. John turns-
Nadia stands at the entrance of the hotel. She’s white as a ghost and carefully pads over on wobbly knees. One of her gloves is missing.
“Is Bob alright?” she asks quietly and so sincerely, that no one knows what to say.
John blinks at her and then rips his comm out, holding it out to her. “Speak to him. He’s- euh, not himself at the moment.”
She stares at the comm for a second and then reaches out with her gloved hand and takes it.
“Bob?” she asks and winces at the volume of her voice in the dead silence.
“Nadia?” Sentry replies, “Why are you here?”
She shrugs helplessly, “I live here?” she offers weakly.
“Right.”
Ava gives her two over-enthusiastic thumbs up and nods encouragingly. Alexei sticks out his tongue, rolls his eyes, and then pretends to choke himself. Yelena gives him a disbelieving stare. Bucky looks up at the sky, and quickly translates: “Sentry- Bob, killed the alien.”
Nadia takes a deep breath, “You defeated the alien, huh? That’s so cool.”
“It was weak,”
John rolls his eyes. "Oh come on-"
Ava elbows him hard in the ribs.
“Ah, right,” Nadia digs her fingers in her side nervously, “Well, can you do it again? I heard, I mean, there are more right?”
There's a long pause. Then, quieter: “You… want to use me?”
Yelena's eyes go wide. The whole team starts frantically shaking their heads. Nadia turns a nasty shade of grey, “What? No, never. You’re not a weapon!”
She presses her lips together immediately after that.
“I’m not… I’m… I’m a God.”
Nadia glances at Yelena, who sighs and nods as if to say 'roll with it’. Nadia wets her lips, “Euh, I see. That’s… that’s really cool. Uhm, but actually, there is this café downtown that I really want to go to and I haven’t had the chance to go to. And I just figured out the subway system, which was a whole thing, and I'd really rather not have to navigate through, like, post-alien-invasion construction, you know? And if you could get rid of these aliens we could go and try the pastries together? You like pastries, right?”
She gasps for air after that. Alexei gives her a thumbs up.
“If I destroy them?”
“If you want,” Nadia squeaks, “I mean, you don’t have to go with me, but, like, I’ll buy you coffee?”
The comm goes silent for so long that they think the connection dropped. Then:
"...I prefer tea."
Alexei pumps his fist. "Yes! Progress!"
John rubs his temples. "We're bargaining with a god using baked goods." His knees feel weak.
Bucky shrugs, "Worked on Thor apparently." He pauses and then drags a hand over his face. Suddenly, he looks exactly 106 years old and John has the odd urge to offer him his elbow.
A distant boom shakes the ground. The team exchanges looks.
"So... is that a yes on the alien smiting?" Ava asks.
The comm crackles to life, one last time: "Don’t come near."
Then it dies. The team looks at each other.
"Well," Ava says, dusting off her hands. "That went better than expected."
Bucky presses his finger against his comm, “Sam, stand clear of downtown. All of you. Just get as far away as possible. Bob’s incoming.”
Sam replies almost instantly, “Man I’m going to go to Wakanda, ask for Vibranium boots, and shove one so far up your-“
“Great, thanks buddy,” Bucky ends the call hastily.
Nadia looks between them, trembling like a leaf with anxiety, “That went well right? Nothing’s going to blow up?”
“Just some aliens,” Yelena reassures her and Nadia goes a little cross-eyed.
“Oh, there he goes,” John says, peering at the sky. The little fleck that is Sentry zaps away. Now they have to wait and hope no more misfortune finds them-
Alexei points in the distance, “Look, it’s Captain America!”
John can just never win.
It is an impressive sight: those white wings spread out against the sunlight, the stars gleaming and the steady hum of the jet. It would make any patriot weep tears of joy. John looks back at Bucky and offers a helpful thumbs up. Bucky sends a flat look back.
Sam and the new Falcon: Joaquin Torres, land a bit away from them, probably to storm up to Bucky more impressively. The latter doesn’t fight it. Sam jabs a finger in his face, “Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
Bucky shrugs, “Depends on your definition.”
“Oh piss off,” Sam snaps, “You put Bob into the sky!”
Joaquin glances around the group, doing a double take on Nadia.
“Yo, are you guys just collecting people now?”
Sam turns around at his voice. Nadia looks like she’d very much like Bob to explode her too. She lifts a hand and gives a weak wave, “Hi, I’m the driver.”
Bucky grimaces when Sam rounds on him again, “Dude!”
“It’s not his fault,” Yelena interjects, “we needed a car.”
“And a driver?” Sam demands, “You got this guy!” He points at Alexei who nods back proudly.
Something explodes in the distance. Sam groans.
“Forget it. You know what?” He narrows his eyes at the group, “You guys can take the credit. All of it.”
Which in business terms means: Good luck at the press conference, suckers. John clenches his jaw and looks away. Sam wins that one.
“What now?” Joaquin says.
“Where’s the rest?” Sam replies as he’s checking his fancy watch. The two put their heads together for a bit.
“Shit,” Joaquin swears, tapping his watch and projecting a holographic image in the air. It looks nothing like Star Wars. The blue projection is without glitches, all Ultra HD and 30fps. It even has a little blinking dot with ‘LIVE’ next to it.
John is not jealous.
The clip is that of Sentry, pointing at a large specimen and exploding it. He looks bored.
“I need to ask Bruce if there’s any type of medication for him,” Sam mumbles, “This shit’s crazy.”
“You can’t drug him into a weapon,” Yelena snaps sharply.
Sam rolls his eyes, “Not what I meant.” And John knows he means it.
Holographic Sentry picks up two aliens and smashes them together until they burst apart. Chunks of alien fly around New York, probably to be harvested by Hermes for their new bags.
“So this is what ‘The axe cuts both ways’ means, huh?” Sam muses. He glances up at Bucky, “What about your boss?”
The mood sours a little at the thought of Valentina. Last they saw her, she was flying to the Middle East to catch up with ‘an old friend’. John wonders if they can get away with crashing her plane in the ocean. The thought, unbidden and sudden, unsettles him.
“She doesn’t know,” Ava replies. Sam nods thoughtfully and exchanges a look with Bucky, who returns it with an equally cryptic frown.
Joaquin gives Nadia once over, “You okay? Need an orange slice or sum’?”
Nadia snaps to attention, spine stiffening for a second before slouching, “No, I’m good. Just… wondering, I guess.” Flushed red, she gestures at the holographic massacre, “I didn’t realize he could do all that.”
“Scared?” John asks, a little bitterly.
Nadia either doesn’t notice his tone or chooses not to take the bait. She shrugs, “He seems nice when he’s… Bob?”
“Bob’s great,” Ava agrees quickly, “This isn’t Bob.”
“Oh,” Nadia swallows and puts on a brittle smile, “Okay.”
Their van, John suddenly remembers, is in bits. He looks past Alexei at the glittering mess of metal and rubble. It’s probably there somewhere and they are going to have to walk home. That’d be something for the Daily Bugle to drool over.
John Walker, Captain America for all of two weeks, drags his feet through the ruins of the New York he failed to protect (again). John grimaces. Yelena casts him a concerned look, eyes flicking to his injured shoulder. John wipes his face clean.
“Since we got time,” He looks at the holograph again, “about five minutes or something, we should get our van back.”
Nadia’s eyes go round, “Oh right, I’m supposed to gather the reusable parts.”
Sam clears his throat pointedly. Bucky shrugs. Sam glares back. After ten seconds of nonverbal ‘Bitch, try me’s’ Sam sighs, “Don’t tell us. We need to get going anyway. I’ll handle the press, but you can handle Valentina.”
Bucky’s expression softens and he pats Sam’s shoulder. Sam gives them all a round of Captain America’s disapproving stare, before nudging Joaquin. The latter rolls his shoulders and takes off at a run, jet whirring to life.
“Call your guy back before he starts going after my team,” Sam orders as his wings expand.
John is not jealous, damn it.
“And John?”
John’s head whips around. Sam’s looking disapproving, but his tone is concerned, “Get that wound stitched.”
They’re both gone before John put together a reply. He watches the two fly off into the sky unsure if the blood loss is getting to him.
“Yelena, you handle Bob?” Bucky asks, and points at the mess, “Me and John will get the van back. Alexei and Ghost, start stabilizing the infrastructure.”
John wants to point out he’s much stronger than Alexei and therefore more suitable to lift the rubble, but Nadia and Bucky are looking at him expectantly. So he sighs and takes the lead. Judging by the sting in his shoulder, it’s probably the wisest choice anyway.
Getting the van back is not the easy task John imagined. Bucky and he move stuff around like rogue Wall-E’s and Nadia climbs over the rubble like a mountain goat and peers in the dark gaps.
“Not here,” She sighs and gets up before moving on to the next.
“Eh guys,” Yelena crackles in their ears, breathless, “I got Bob back, but he’s not Bob yet.”
John meets Bucky’s eyes. They’re both thinking the same thing: Triple fuck this shit.
Sentry lands like an actual messiah and John feels like he’s about to get burned because he stopped attending church years ago. Sentry barely spares them a look, instead focusing on poor, local civilian, Nadia.
They owe her the fattest tip in the universe.
There isn’t much they can do as Sentry walks over to Nadia’s trembling form. John debates the best way to make his way over to Nadia, should she require a human shield. He feels his stomach cramp up the way it did during deployment whenever he caught a glimpse of a destroyed building and the rivulets of-
Bucky holds out his hand to the rest of the team arriving. They can’t do anything without risking Sentry blowing them up. And it’s weird because he’s not in his yellow tights. It’s Bob’s sweaty sweater, and Bob’s worn jeans and those are Bob’s crappy sneakers. John knows because they had to go shopping after Alexei shrunk their loungewear and Bob insisted that ‘vintage’ shoes felt better on his feet.
Sentry towers over Nadia, “I’ve killed them.” He’s standing right in her personal bubble.
She nods, her ungloved hand climbing higher to her chest, probably to check if her heart is still beating.
“They didn’t resist.” Sentry continues.
John wants to scoff desperately, but both Yelena and Bucky are glaring daggers at him, so he clenches his jaw.
“G-great,” Nadia’s head bobs up and down like it’s loose on its hinges.
Sentry doesn’t move, still staring at Nadia like she needs to pay him for his service. John feels his heart hammer in his chest. She’s a civilian. They can’t let her get hurt but what can a group of super soldiers do against a God-like creation?
“High five?” Nadia offers hoarsely, lifting her bare hand to Sentry. John does a double take, not just because she just offered a live nuke a high five, but also because the palm of her hand is marred with scars. Short nicks that could be kitchen accidents, but also a few long ropey ones that would require one of Bucky’s special blades.
Yelena makes a strangled noise and John is brought back to the first problem of the high five.
Sentry lifts his hand, almost curiously, and brings it down against hers. It’s like watching your cat stare at granny’s urn on a shelf, one paw ready to tap it over the edge. John's muscles tense, half-expecting Nadia's arm to spontaneously combust on contact. They make contact as the world’s weakest high five.
Sentry wobbles.
Nadia smiles weakly, still pressing her palm against his. For an agonizing second, John thinks he’s going to blow. But then Sentry’s shoulders droop and his expression goes from ‘Mighty’ to ‘Tiny’.
“Bob?” John blurts.
Bob’s head snaps towards him, “John?”
He looks down at Nadia and his eyes grow wide as dinner plates, “Oh no.”
“You did great!” Yelena yells. Her voice echoes around them and she self-consciously straightens. “No one got hurt.”
Bob’s face still crumples. John has a second to panic before Alexei barrels over and pulls Bob into a crushing hug.
“There, there, Bob,” Alexei booms, “You did well. You are a hero!”
Whatever Bob wants to say is muffled against his shoulder.
Ava clears her throat pointedly.
John waves her off. "Let him. It's working."
"Not the issue, genius." Ava jabs a finger at the single, flailing arm visible between the two men.
Bucky pinches the bridge of his nose. "Guys. You're suffocating the civilian."
Bob wriggles free, face beet-red. Nadia stumbles back, gasping like she's just run a marathon, but somehow, miraculously, still in one piece.
“I’m fine,” she manages to say, “totally fine.”
It takes a minute before John realizes the bit of fabric in Bob’s pocket is Nadia’s missing glove. Her bare hand sways through the air while she finds her balance again. Bob’s staring at her with big, wet puppy eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” he cries, “This is why I didn’t want to go out.”
She shakes her head, “It’s fine. You saved New York!” She thumps her chest to inflate her lungs, probably.
“And we’re so proud of you, Bob,” Ava adds.
“Very,” Bucky agrees quickly when her eyes flick to him.
Ava kicks John’s heel and he grunts, “So proud, Bob.”
Bob’s lower lip is wobbly and it takes several sniffs before he can speak again, “Thanks, guys.”
John tenses. At the edge of his hearing, there is a rattling sound. He turns his head towards it and listens intently.
“REPORTERS INCOMING!”
They all jump.
“Joaquin!” Ava and Yelena exclaim in various tones of distress.
“Sorry,” Joaquin replies meekly, “But you guys might wanna run. They’re in helis. Sam’s trying to answer their questions in the sky but they’ll spot you in no time.”
“Thanks,” Bucky sighs.
Nadia looks between them curiously. Yelena takes hold of both her arm and Bob’s and starts steering them to the pavement, where the buildings offer some shelter from prying eyes. “We need to get going now.”
Nadia looks back as she stumbles along, “But what about the car parts?”
“We’ll tip you more,” Ava assures her and phases away.
“You are a great driver,” Alexei follows, easily towering over them with his bulk, “Have you done Formula 1?”
“What?”
Bucky thumps John’s good shoulder, distracting him from the strange turn in the conversation. How does someone avoid all news on Formula 1? Olivia would love to know-
“You good?”
John snaps to attention. Bucky’s eyes are narrowed with concern. It’s hard to believe this is the same guy who spent decades getting tortured when John knows family men with colder eyes.
“Yeah,” he replies, “I’m fine.”
Bucky nods at his other shoulder, “Need to get that checked.”
They get under the safety of the buildings, walking at a reasonable pace. John carefully rolls his shoulder, hissing when the sting flares back up.
“Probably,” he agrees, “we got the stapler right?”
“Yeah, no whiskey though,” Bucky looks ahead thoughtfully.
John groans, “Well, there goes my night.”
To his surprise, Bucky huffs a laugh. His eyes tighten immediately and John’s reminded of Bucky’s injuries.
“How about you? You good?”
Bucky glances at him, “I’m just old.”
A thought slips into John’s mind, even while he chuckles. The thought that Bucky’s ageing has slowed down so significantly, means that he will age slowly too. Slower, probably, since his serum is more advanced. His son might reach his age and he’d still look the same. His son doesn’t have the serum. His son will age normally and faster than him-
His throat clogs up suddenly and he’s gripping a drainpipe because his chest burns and he can’t breath-
“John!” Bucky’s voice is distant but he can feel him shake his arm, “John, snap out of it.”
There are more noises around them, with one distinctly calling for Bob. His hand crushes the pipe like a can of soda.
Then the feeling is gone, and the panic dies down to a manageable simmer in his gut. John blinks up. Sweat cools on his forehead and down his neck. Bucky’s eyes are wide and his skin is ashen but he’s steady when he pulls John back to his feet.
“It was Bob,” he murmurs only for John’s ears, “He lost control for a bit.”
John takes a few breaths and nods tightly. He looks past Bucky to see Ava and Alexei subdued, looking between the group with concerned eyes. Yelena and Bob are further down and Yelena is talking to Bob in hushed tones. John spots Nadia behind him. She accidentally meets John’s eyes and ducks her head.
“Everyone okay?” Bucky calls and receives several quiet assents.
Bucky grunts, “Let’s get moving then.”
And they do. Slowly but steadily, until they reach their office- miraculously still standing upright. They part ways with Nadia. Alexei hands her a wad of crumpled cash and she quickly merges in the returning crowd of people. The New-Avengers hurry indoors, ready to be done with the day.
It isn’t until he’s in bed late at night, with fresh stitches and leftover lasagna for dinner, that John remembers that Nadia had held Bob’s hand while he calmed down. He mulls it over for a bit and then rolls to his good side. There were better things to worry about.
The picture of his son on his lock screen lights his face in the dark. John smiles at it and closes his eyes.