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Chapter Five - Tagalong

They climbed in the back, filling the space as Clara quickly moved round to the other side of the rover. She stepped up into the passenger side before lowering herself into the seat beside the driver. She sat sideways with one leg folded under her, letting herself face the group of four.

Barnes' looked over as she sat, seemingly the only one of the men to feel the small shift in the suspension as it lowered ever so slightly on her side. He stared blankly, showing no sign of recognition in his expression, but that in itself told Clara he had figured she was still with them.

There was no visual signs she was still there, she had figured out how to hide the purple glow a long time ago. That being said, she could always bring it back if she needed to be seen. After running a few practise ops with S.H.I.E.L.D. during her training, they soon discovered that not being able to see an ally could become a problem around live ammunition. Of course, that wasn't needed nor wanted right now, so she stayed as she was. 

'Okay, so we've got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?' Walker questioned them, wasting no time jumping into gathering his intel.

Sam looked reluctant to help the new Captain America, but did nonetheless. 'They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during The Blip,' he explained. 'Maybe they're just trying to help.'

'They had a funny way of showing it,' Barnes grumbled.

'That serum doesn't exactly have a great track record,' Walker aired, quickly adding a 'no offense' onto his comment. Barnes' expression remained neutral, and Clara assumed he had to deal with remarks like that fairly often. 

'We need to figure where they're going,' Sam said, breaking the silence. Clara could've thrown herself across the rover at that point, ready to throttle the man for having prevented her doing just that. She didn't though, instead raising an invisible hand and an invisible finger to send an invisible gesture his way. 'How'd you track 'em here?'

'Ah, no, we didn't track them, we tracked you,' Hoskins confessed, hardly looking sorry for it, however. 'Through Redwing.'

'You hacked my tech?' Sam glowered, looking ready to do to Hoskins what Clara had wanted to do to him just moment before.

Walker chuckled lightly, apparently seeing the funny side. 'It's not exactly hacking; it's government property. We're kind of the government.' He looked from Sam, to Barnes, and then back to Sam in the moment of quiet. 'Does he always just stare like that?'

'You get used to it,' Sam told him.

Walker sighed. 'Okay, look. I know things have gotten kind of, uh...'

'Chaotic,' Hoskins said, finishing Walker's sentence for him.

'Yeah, well, the GRC; they're doing the best they can to get things up and running smoothly post-Blip,' Walker said, earning a glare from Clara, who forced herself to bite her tongue. 

Clara knew full well that the GRC were handling this situation terribly - that was the only thing she could agree with the Flag Smashers on. Just storing the goods they were supposed to be handing out to those displaced, choosing to raid hostels housing families rather than distribute supplies to them, they were doing the opposite of what the public were told to expect. 

Hoskins continued after Walker, taking his turn to speak. 'Reactivating citizenship, social security, healthcare - basically just managing resources for the refugees who were displaced by the return.' 

Clara shook her head, her jaw clenched as she felt her anger rising again - something she felt all too often since... She swept the thought aside, focusing on the now, and focusing on the next step. She would do what was needed of her and keep on carrying on - just one step at a time.

'The Global Repatriation Council does all that, I get it,' Sam stopped them before they could go on to tell him something he already knew. 'I want to know why exactly you two are here.'

'Well,' Hoskins spoke. 'They provide the resources, and we keep things stable.'

'Yeah,' Walker agreed, their side of the conversation appearing too rehearsed for Clara's liking. Had they been practising their speech in order to convince themselves, or the people they were supposed to be helping? She wondered bitterly. 'Violent revolutionaries aren't usually good for anyone's cause.'

'Usually said by the people with the resources,' Sam commented snidely.

'Well, we've got a lot of resources,' Walker confirmed. 'If you guys- if you joined up with us, we could-'

'No,' Barnes interrupted bluntly, offering no justification or excuse, just 'no' with a hard expression being the only explanation he needed.

'Man, I got mad respect for both of y'all,' Hoskins said, directing his words to Barnes and Sam. 'But you were kinda getting your asses kicked till we showed up.'

Barnes switched his glare from Walker to Hoskins. 'Who are you?'

'Lemar Hoskins.'

'Look, I see a guy hanging out of a helicopter in tactical gear, I'm gonna need a lot more than Lemar Hoskins,' Sam told him, an eyebrow raised.

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

'Battlestar?' Barnes repeated, dumbfounded. He yelled to the driver, deciding he had heard enough. 'Stop the car!'

The driver did as requested, the brakes once again squealing as they forced the rover to a stop. 'Look, I- I get it, okay?' Walker said, trying to level with them as Barnes opened the back door and dropped out. 'I get the attitude, I do. You didn't think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky.'

Seeing he wasn't going to listen, the man carrying on down a pathway leading away from the road, Walker addressed Sam instead. '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 that I can be.'

Clara looked past the driver, watching Barnes walk away. Hopping down from the passenger seat, she followed after him, hearing the others finishing up their conversation. Walker continued speaking, again not noticing the shift in the suspension level as she left. 'It'd be a whole lot easier if I had Cap's wingmen on my side.'

Sam scoffed. 'It's always that last line.' He clambered out of the vehicle, the rover taking off at a steady pace not long after he dropped down from it. Walker muttered something as they left, but Sam was too far to hear whatever it was he said past the din of the engine. 

Further down the path, Clara caught up to Barnes. She spoke, not being able to resist the quip available to her as he stormed away from the confrontation. 'Who's being immature now?'

'Are you following us?' Barnes muttered, ignoring the gibe but offering an annoyed glance out of the corner of his eye. Having heard her approaching footsteps, her tread lighter and therefore distinct from Sam's, her presence hadn't caught him off-guard as she reappeared beside him.

'Yep,' she willingly admitted. 'As long as you're headed back to the US, or following the Flag Smashers; either way, I'll need a ride.'

'Who say's we'll take you with us?'

Clara pouted. 'You wouldn't leave a kid out here all alone now, would you?'


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