Morden Man

Guardians of Infinity

The Brits have such silly expressions.

@Hillan

You take that back.

@Kablamicus doesn't speak for us.

Guardians of Infinity

Only pig my genitals ever touched is your mum.



Nice bit of banter, naturally.

@Hillan

Guardians of Infinity

Turns out the french word for "Red" Is Rogue. Poor Remy just keeps on his heart torn.

@Hillan

Guardians of Infinity

Bucky sighed heartily and reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet, and producing his Avengers card. He handed it towards the women who were sat at the table dressed in revealing clothing and plastered in makeup. Cap reached down, grabbed Quill by the arm and lifted him to his feet, before gesturing to Hercules bounding out of the club without so much as a look back at them. "I'm sorry about him, he's usually a really nice guy. Buy yourselves some drinks on Tony Stark and please, please, don't be shy about it. He can more than afford it."

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Word. You guys are moving extremely wayyy too fast.

@Strawberry425

Much better than having the inverse problem!

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

If she wasn't Steve's daughter she was doing an awfully good impression of him. Bucky held the shield a little tighter as he considered what to do and then gazed into Stephanie's eyes. Something in him told him that Stephanie needed this. Bucky had spent the best years of his life fighting beside Steve Rogers, he had enough memories of him to last him a lifetime, and now he bore the mantle Steve had made his own. The shield was all Stephanie had of Steve. Bucky wasn't any closer to understanding how it had happened but he was convinced that Stephanie was telling the truth. She was Steve's daughter and Bucky held in his hands the only link she'd ever had and ever would have to him.

He lifted his wrist up to his mouth and spoke into his radio. "I engaged the target on my position. She got away, took the shield with her too, I'm on my way back."

Stephanie's eyes lit up at his words and Bucky walked towards her and handed her the shield. "Do not make me regret this."

Bucky turned away from Stephanie, pulled up his cowl, and began to make his way out of the alleyway towards Sharon Carter's apartment where the SHIELD agents were waiting. As he reached the mouth of the alley he looked back at Stephanie who had climbed atop her motorcycle. "Oh, and keep in touch. Steve would never forgive me if I let a little thing like a nationwide manhunt get in the way of telling you about what really happened the time he punched Hitler in the face."

With that Bucky disappeared down the alley way and began to play through the conversation that would follow with Nick Fury later on. He wasn't sure whether Fury would buy Carter getting the better of him and he wasn't sure whether he cared whether he bought it or not. For the first time since Bucky had been woken up he'd actually done something that had made him feel good. So, Steve's shield was gone but it had gone to someone that needed it more than Bucky ever would. It was what Steve would have wanted.

A man like Nick Fury would never understand that. But Bucky understood one thing. Fury had kept him in the dark about Carter's parentage. If he was willing to cover something like that up from him, what else was he hiding? Bucky wasn't sure, but he was sure as hell going to find out before the day was done.

Guardians of Infinity

A pained expression appeared on Cap's face and he leaned over towards Quill and whispered to him. "Do you know what that meant? He lost me somewhere around the fourth dude."

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Bucky glanced at the radio that Fury had embedded into the wrist of his prosthetic arm and pondered radioing him before shaking his head. He kept the shield pressed against Stephanie's neck and watched as her face began to grow discoloured and she started to visibly gasp for air but looked no closer to going back on what she'd told him. Could it be true? Could she really be Steve's daughter? It made no sense. Then again, nothing that had happened over the past twenty-four hours made any sense when he stopped to think about it. They'd told him that when they'd found him he'd been perfectly preserved in ice for the past sixty years. That was as unbelievable as what Stephanie was saying. Maybe more so.

He pulled the shield away from Stephanie's neck and she gasped for air. He stepped away from her, careful to keep the shield at his side and away from where she was sat on the ground attempting to catch her breath. Stephanie rubbed her throat a little and looked up at Bucky with an unimpressed look on her face. As much as he hated to admit it, she did look like Steve.

"Let's say what you're saying is true," Bucky said ponderously. "What makes you think you deserve this thing? You didn't know Steve from the next guy over and running around calling yourself his daughter isn't going to change that. Maybe you are Steve's kin but that doesn't make you any more worthy to carry this thing than anybody else. If Steve were here, he'd be the first person to tell you that."

Bucky looked down at the shield, felt its weight in his hands, and thought of all the times he'd held it before. It was different now, it felt lighter in his hands, but there was a sense of familiarity to it that spoke to him. "Carrying this thing is about more than the blood running through your veins, kid, and if you don't know that by now then you definitely don't deserve to carry it."

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Bucky could feel the blood rushing to his face as Stephanie spoke. Steve's daughter? Steve's daughter? Did she really think he was that gullible? This was some kind of trick. She thought if she confused Bucky with her lies he'd let her walk out of here with Steve's shield. That wasn't going to happen. Bucky tried his best to suppress his rage and feigned surprise and looked around to make sure nobody was coming. Once convinced they were alone and out of view he reached for the cowl of his uniform and pulled it down, revealing his boyish young face and his freshly cut hair, directly contravening the one rule Fury had given him in doing so.

He looked at Stephanie and tried his best to sound earnest.

Stephanie was stood mere inches away from him, watching Bucky as he feigned shock. After a few seconds passed he looked up at her and smiled, extending his hand towards her in as disarming a manner as he could fashion, and Stephanie reached out to shake it. The second Stephanie's hand was in his Bucky pushed his hip into hers and threw Stephanie to the ground with every ounce of his strength. Steve's shield slipped loose from her arm and Bucky reached for it and pressed it against Stephanie's throat. She was too quick for him, too strong, this was his one shot at finding out the truth and he meant to take it.

"Was I meant to believe that crock?" Bucky fumed, his suppressed rage bursting to the surface. "Steve's daughter? Steve's been dead for sixty years, Carter, and last time I checked you don't look a tick over twenty years old. So you'd tell me what's really going on here or so help me God I'll crush your larynx in two."

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Bucky stretched his arm out a little bit and it creaked loudly as he did so, though the damage seemed more superficial than anything else, some of the strength in it had been diminished but he had more than enough left to put Carter down. He placed his free hand over the shoulder and cracked it back into place and then reached for the knife on his hip, throwing it from one hand back to the next, before looking up at Carter with a smile.

"You talk too much," Barnes said as he lunged, missing Stephanie's cheek by an inch. "One of these days that mouth of yours is going to get you killed."

She was brash, overconfident, and reeked of entitlement. The type of kid that had handed everything to her since the second she'd popped out of her mother's stomach. Bucky had known plenty like her growing up. He'd sat round fires with them in Europe as they bragged about their exploits on the battlefield and been there when they'd turned and tucked tail when the fighting had got thick. Bucky had come from the dirt, Steve had too, and if this was the best that SHIELD had to offer they were in trouble.

He lunged towards Stephanie again and again but each time she evaded his slashes. Bucky sneered. "The only reason you're still sucking air is because Nick Fury wants you alive. If it were up to me I'd have made this quick and clean."

"What were you thinking?" Bucky said, his anger growing as his breaths grew more laboured with each slash. "There's not a place on Earth you could have sold that thing where SHIELD wouldn't have found you and made you give back every last ill-gotten cent you got for it."

A surprised look appeared on Stephanie's face as she dodged the last of Bucky's slashes, grabbed his wrist, and managed to slam it against the way in the alleyway. The knife slid from Bucky's fingers and fell to the ground. Bucky was breathing heavily, having underestimated how quick Stephanie was and how out of practise his time in the ice had left him, but as he looked up at Stephanie he could see from her eyes that the gears in her head were grinding around.

Bucky's fists, once raised in Stephanie's direction, dipped slightly as he mirrored her pensive look. "What?"