The Pen is Mightier! (penismightier) wrote in chaotic_library, @ 2015-10-29 19:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | bruce banner, bucky barnes, maria hill, marvel, novel, r-rated, sam wilson, sharon carter, steve rogers, thor, tony stark, yuuo, yuuo: marvel |
[Bucky Barnes; R] The Righteous Side Of Hell: Chapter 3
Character/Series: Bucky Barnes, Cast; Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: R
Notes: DUN DUN DUN
Title: The Righteous Side Of Hell - Chapter 3: And Everyone You Meet
Author: yuuo
Word Count: 6032
Summary: Bucky decided that Sam had broken taste buds, if he'd suggested that diner they went to for breakfast as a good place to eat.
all that is now
all that is gone
all that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon
-Pink Floyd
Bucky decided that Sam had broken taste buds, if he'd suggested that diner they went to for breakfast as a good place to eat. He pushed the memory of the botched food out of his mind and focused on their real destination for the day.
The Smithsonian.
The museum had just opened, and it was already crowded, mostly with whining small children who were too young to appreciate where they were, and harried parents determined that their children would get culture, or maybe just have to tough it out because they wanted the trip and the kids were just shit out of luck.
The otherwise reluctant attitude from the children about the museum turned generally positive as their families neared the Captain America exhibit. Bucky and his friends were forced out of the way as a large family, consisting of what looked like three generations of thousands of people, shoved their way through. It gave Bucky time to look at the advertising banners.
"Wait, it's not the Captain America exhibit anymore?" he said, looking from a banner that had, at one time had Steve's face in uniform on it, to Sam.
Sam shook his head. "Nope. You became such an important part of the Captain America legend by coming back that it'd be impossible to have an exhibit just for him with you as a side note like you were before. This place is as much yours as it is his."
Bucky looked back up at the banner that had the words Captain America and the Winter Soldier with the increasingly familiar round emblem that portrayed half Steve's shield, half part of Bucky's mechanical arm. "So how many people think they're clever for that little picture? I've seen it before on merchandise."
Sam chuckled. "I don't think they consider it clever as much as the obvious thing to go with."
Bruce stepped back out of the way of a double stroller roughly the size of a small SUV, pressed back against the wall. "It's quite crowded, isn't it?"
"Only going to get worse," Steve said. "Come on, we're going to have to muscle our way through, or else we'll be stuck at this wall forever." He stepped behind Sharon, helping her push through the crowd without getting separated. Sam and Bruce pretty much attached themselves to the outside of the group, creating a small wall against other tourists, keeping from getting scattered into the crowd.
Like the evening before, Maria grabbed Bucky's hand, although he suspected that it might've been more a case of trying to keep together than any sign of affection.
The hallway from the outer parts of the museum into the exhibit itself was painted on one side, as it had been before, with a picture of Steve in uniform, saluting the flag, and a quote from President Ellis, reading "Welcome back, Cap."
Unlike before, the other side held one of Bucky in his gear and face mask, and another quote from President Ellis, which made Bucky wonder how creative the man really was. "Welcome home, Soldier."
Lovely play on the name, always appreciate that.
The early part of the exhibit looked much the same, the mural and costumes of Steve and the Howling Commandos. "They replaced your costume, Steve," Sharon said, pointing to the large mannequin wearing a decent replica of Steve's uniform with the original Captain America shield in front of it.
"So they did," Steve said. "Good, means I don't have to give mine back."
There were some memorabilia in a display under video footage of one of Steve's USO performances, including the original helmet with an A on it that he'd worn when he rescued the 107th, the broken transponder that would've called Howard and Peggy in for extraction, the gloves from Steve's USO costume.
"I still laugh at that," Bucky said, watching the video of The Star Spangled Man With A Plan performance. "Gotta say though, I'm impressed with those girls, being able to balance on a motorcycle being held up by one person." He looked up at Steve. "I'd be impressed by you holding that, but I've stopped being impressed by the Project Rebirth effects a long time ago."
Steve gave him an amused look. "Thank you. It means you freak out less at me."
"You miss it," Bucky said, wandering away with the others to the next display. Things from the war, their guns, Steve's original motorcycle. Pieces of Bucky's life that were now just pieces of history.
The display that once was Bucky's, the simple glass etching, was gone, leaving a more open space for moving through. Bucky was glad for the loss and the extra space, but he knew that meant things were just going to get more detailed later down the line. He paused a second where the glass had been before moving on.
They passed through a small section about the Avengers fight in New York City against the Chitauri aliens, focused mostly on Steve's part. His uniform from that fight was cleaned up and on display.
"I'm surprised they salvaged that thing," Steve said, studying the uniform. "That got pretty beat up and bloodied."
Sharon groaned, a hand over her stomach. "And this is what I deal with all the time, you running off and getting beat up and bloodied."
Steve patted Sharon's shoulder. "You didn't even know me then. And you had to know that Fury had given you the toughest protection detail possible."
"I did, but then I got turned over to the CIA and you went mercenary on us," Sharon said. "You were harder to track when we didn't work for the same institution where I can get status updates on you during missions."
Maria looked at Sharon. "You got turned over to the CIA? You weren't given a choice?"
Sharon made a reluctant expression. "No, I joined willingly, because I wanted to help hunt down Hydra. They gave me the protection detail on Steve, which was fine until Bucky came back and they started running off to parts unknown on a regular basis."
Bucky propped his left arm up on one of Sharon's shoulders. "You did all right handling it last month when we were out," he said, careful to not say "in North Korea" in public. It'd made the news, sorta. The North Korean government was blaming them and America for hiring them, but since neither were in uniform and were fairly well disguised, all the North Koreans could do was whine and cry at America and threaten them a lot. America had raised its proverbial much bigger stick in their direction and that had left them with nothing to do but cry.
But, uniform or no, they still were blamed (the fact that they were actually guilty was irrelevant), because why not? They were public faces, easy scapegoats; they were so good at their jobs that it was hard for them not to draw blame and attenti-
Oh.
"Steve?"
"Yeah?"
"I noticed a flaw in our plan here."
Steve looked at him. "I hate it when you say that. What now?"
Bucky motioned to the next part of the exhibit they were coming up on, the walls lined with small cloth flags bearing their faces, Bucky on the left side, Steve on the right. "We did nothing to make it harder to recognize us, and we're walking into a living photo album full of people who will want pictures and autographs."
Sam exploded into laughter, the jackass, and Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, ducking his head, which barely hid the fact that he was laughing just as much as Sam, just quieter. Bucky had a feeling Bruce wouldn't be so amused if things went south.
Sharon looked up at Steve. "Oops."
"Celebrities are allowed to enjoy a day in public without signing autographs or taking photos," Maria pointed out. "Turn them down politely, if it makes you uncomfortable."
"We'll just... try to minimize drawing attention to ourselves," Steve said. "No names."
The final part of the exhibit, the part that focused more on Bucky and his later partnership with Steve, had few artifacts lining walls, just plates and displays with words, lettering out history. James 'Bucky' Barnes was the eldest of four. Met Steve Rogers in grade school. They were friends for life, on the school yard and later on the battlefield. In '43, Bucky's unit was captured. Bucky had been chemically experimented on. It helped him survive an otherwise-deadly fall in '45.
While there were few displays with artifacts, there were still some, and the one nearest to that plaque was a replica of his arm, with speculation on the part of experts in the field of prosthetics as to how it worked, how it connected, what it was made of. The plaque made it obvious that nobody knew about biomechtium.
"They got that all wrong," he said, voice low. "Just as glad for it."
Maria hooked her arm around his flesh arm, resting against him. "If you need to leave, say so. I'll leave with you, let the others catch up."
He smiled, just a bit, and kissed the side of her head. "You're a good woman, you know that? I dunno how I got so lucky."
She lifted her head to look at him. "You had good luck coming," she said. "And you taught me to cook. That earned you points."
"James?"
Bucky stiffened, looking back around. A woman with a child around twelve was saying his name, hands on her hips. "James Avery, come on! You're going to get lost if you don't stick close."
Bucky breathed a sigh of relief that ended when James ignored her, walking over to him. Goddamnit. "Kid, what do you I have to pay you to not draw attention to me?" he asked, voice low.
"A million bucks," James said. Then he shrugged, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an iPhone. Bucky didn't understand why people went with those. Samsung made better. "Lemme take a picture. My friends won't believe me otherwise."
"James Avery!" The woman had moved on without him, which meant she hadn't seen Bucky.
"Coming, Mom! Hang on a second!"
Bucky was immensely grateful that the kid snapped his picture quickly before his mother noticed who it was that her son had been talking to. He looked at Maria. "If the rest of the morning is like this, I am so sorry."
She smiled, loosening her grip on his arm to take his hand. "I'll deal with it. I'm dating a celebrity, it comes with the territory."
"So that was a close call," Bruce said from behind Bucky and Bucky half turned to face him. "I think there might've been more fuss if we'd all been in a group. Putting both you and Steve together might've been too much for that kid's brain to process."
Bucky rubbed his metal hand over his face, his flesh hand occupied with Maria's. "We're either going to get very lucky not be noticed, or this is about to turn into a nightmare." He shoved his hand into his pocket, suddenly aware of how exposed it was, even despite the leather-palmed glove he wore for traction.
They moved on, displays of fake replicas of the weapons Bucky was known for using, of Steve's shield, and two large displays with their uniforms. The display with Bucky's tactical gear had a plaque with more expert speculation of what it was made from. They got the kevlar right, but missed the nomex.
There was a large glass wall between the two uniforms, similar to what had once been Bucky's only memorial in the former exhibit. It was larger by far, though, a column of text between two etched pictures of Steve and Bucky, one on either side. The group walked over to it.
Rogers and Barnes were separated during the war, each thought by the public to have died. While Rogers was frozen under the Arctic ice, Barnes was found by Hydra. Chemically enhanced and mechanically tortured, he emerged into the world as the brainwashed Hydra operative known as the Winter Soldier. Spending time in and out of cryostasis, Barnes carried out assassination missions for Hydra, unaware of his identity or past.
After Rogers had been found and the fight for New York was over, the two met up again. It is unknown what transpired between that moment and when Barnes was first seen in his company. The two quickly formed a mercenary team, Barnes known as nothing more than his former Hydra code name. The news of his identity became public knowledge a year and a half after he resurfaced. The two continue to work freelance.