Lucky Is He
Saturday came and Bucky and Sam entered the rather lavish casino. As 11 approached, the two men made their way to the Diamond Hall. Inside was a balcony with a bar and the stairs led down to a gallery area. At first, they stayed at the bar together, but since the watch’s message had listed both parts of the hall as places to be, Sam decided to go down to the gallery.
Sam gazed at each piece and then noticed a stand beneath each one. On the stands were descriptions of each painting or sculpture and then blank sheets where people had written their bets. This was a silent auction, he realized. He moved on from the paintings on one wall and looked at a small sculpture.
“I never took Captain America for an art lover,” he heard a feminine voice and turned his head to look at the speaker. It was a girl, young by the looks of it. She wore a dark green velvet jumpsuit with her curly brown hair down.
“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you’re Ariel,” Sam decided to skip the small talk and jump straight to the point of the conversation.
She smirked and then looked at the sculpture, “Got it on the first try, Mr. Wilson.”
“You hardly look like a hardened criminal, kid,” Sam pointed out.
Kitty smiled again, “Let me just start by saying things are hardly ever as they seem.”
“Where’re your buddies?” He subtly looked around the room for Claws and Paws who were both notably absent, “Or did you contact us to turn them in?”
She shook her head, “Never going to happen. Paws is at the bar with your ‘buddy’ and Claws is.. Around. I just wanted to speak with you one on one.”
“About?” His curiosity was piqued.
“We might have the same enemy,” She looked back at the sculpture, inspecting it.
Sam raised a brow, “You gonna elaborate on that?”
Kitty chuckled and nodded, “The Power Broker.”
“The criminal leader of Madripoor?” He recalled, “He’s not a problem.”
She rolled her eyes, no longer being amused, “They’re a massive problem to both of us.”
“How so?” He prodded her on. In truth, he was quite curious and he wanted to know if this was really negatively impacting anybody or if this elusive trio just had a grudge.
“The Power Broker has been selling government secrets to the highest bidder. And I mean big secrets, stuff the US government doesn’t even want you to know,” She explained quietly.
“And how does this impact you exactly? Sounds like you have a grudge of some kind,” Sam responded, now putting his hands in his pockets.
“Ever since your escapades in Madripoor that got the scientist who made that supersoldier serum killed, the Power Broker has been looking to fill that empty space. They’ve been trying to fill that gap with those government secrets, but replacing super soldiers is a hard task to complete,” She explained slowly, “And it’s been weighing on them, costing them a lot in terms of lost business. But a few months ago, somebody tipped them off about naturally enhanced people among the general public. Ever since then, the Power Broker’s been hunting down people like me and my friends.”
He looked at her darkening expression and said, “You want to kill him.”
“No,” She looked back at him, getting tense. She wasn’t expecting to be accused of anything like that, “I want to take them down a peg. Remove them from power. I don’t want to kill anybody, that’s not who I am.”
“You had a lot of animosity just now when you were talking about him,” He claimed.
“Yeah, well, I’m not a fan of weaponizing people,” She uttered bitterly.
Sam nodded, acknowledging her statement, “Bucky thought you and your friends might be ex-HYDRA.”
“Bucky?” Her brow furrowed and then she realized who he was speaking about, “You mean the Winter Soldier? He’s not wrong.”
“That’s not who he is anymore just like how you said that’s not who you are,” He grew annoyed with her, “So he’s right.”
“The three of us were taken to HYDRA to be used as lab rats because of our abilities,” She looked at the ground.
“So HYDRA didn’t give them to you,” Sam raised a brow.
“No, we have these powers naturally,” She sighed, “If I explain this to you, you have to promise me you won’t say anything to SHIELD. Everything I’ve told you needs to remain confidential, promise?”
Sam hesitated and then nodded, “I promise.”
“People like me who have these powers naturally- we’re called mutants. Our abilities are a result of a mutation known as the X-gene. The mutation can come in a variety of forms. It’s why Paws is blue and can teleport. It’s why Claws has, well, claws. And it’s why I can phase,” She eased him into it.
“I see,” Sam took a moment to process, “So your thing is phasing and a dragon jacket.”
“Lockheed isn’t my power, he’s my friend,” Kitty sighed and then pinched her nose, “And back to the topic at hand, before you ask how many of us there are, there’s a lot, but we’re still a global minority. Most of us are in hiding. It’s why we’ve stayed off of SHIELD’s radar for so long.”
“And where were all of these people when Thanos attacked Earth?” He threw the question out there. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her answer.
“First of all, the general public, including mutants, had no idea the whole Thanos thing was going on until they crashed New York for an hour,” She sighed again, “We didn’t have the chance to act and even if we did, we wouldn’t have been accepted.”
“We needed all the help we could get back then,” He replied.
She crossed her arms, “I’m sorry for then, but I’m trying to make up for it now.”
“By telling me all of this about the Power Broker?” He put his hands on his hips, he wanted to know her motive.
“Yes,” She nodded.
“I’ll be honest, there’s not much for me to work with. If you want our help, you need to have a solid lead and you need to give me an actual reason to help you,” Sam stated.
Kitty’s shoulders dropped and she took another deep breath, “Fine. Let me rephrase this. I need your help taking down the Power Broker, not just to stop the flow of government secrets and mutant mercenaries within the criminal underworld, but to change things. Mutants have been hiding for hundreds of years. Now, we’re getting restless and a lot of mutants are blaming humans for their situation. K- Paws, Claws, and I want to stop the situation from escalating. Paws and I have discussed this whole predicament and have decided that the best way to go about it is to find a common enemy and take them down alongside a human hero. And who better than Captain America?”
“Things are bad. Really bad. And the three of us can’t handle everything on our own. We have a common enemy who’s causing us problems. If we can solve this problem together, not only will we have one less criminal on our hands, it’ll show that mutants and humans can really coexist. That we can see each other as equals and work towards a better future for both sides,” She continued.
Sam paused, processing everything she’d said. He didn’t speak before she did, “I’ve never been one for superheroes. It’s never been my thing- keeping up with the Avengers and whatnot. But, Ku- Paws. Paws does. He fully believes in heroes and saving the world. Not long after we escaped HYDRA, we watched the news of Captain America saving the world and he proclaimed that one day he’d help our community.”
Sam went to respond, “Look, kid, I understand everything that you’re getting at, but you’re asking me-”
“To take down a threat and that’s it,” She cut him off quickly.
He chuckled slightly and then finished his sentence, “You’re asking me to be Steve Rogers.”
Now it was Kitty’s turn to chuckle. She then looked him directly in the eye, “No, I’m not. I’m asking you to be Sam Wilson. And I’m asking you to trust me.”