Bucky had taken about two steps into ‘Walt Disney World’s Museum of Hero’s’ before he realized this was a no-good very-bad idea for him.
But the spider-kid, Peter, was bouncing on his toes, visibly excited, not unlike he’d been in every other attraction they went to that day. Actually, everyone (sans Bucky Barnes) seemed something between excited and mildly amused.
The ‘Museum of Hero’s’ was actually less of a Museum and more of an interactive ride. The hallways that the lines twisted through were littered with ‘fun-facts’ about the Avengers, some more true than others, and the present Avengers were having the time of their lives pointing out the inaccuracies.
Sam has Rebecca on his shoulders, she probably doesn’t have a clue what’s going on, but there’s pictures of her family on the walls and she giggles when they laugh at them.
There’s a picture of Bucky, about eighty years ago. He’s not sure how the Museum of Hero’s had found it, hadn’t even known anyone had taken that picture. It’s him during the war, the plaque underneath claims it was taken when Captain America, Steve Rogers had come through with that little show he did in the beginning. It proposes that known womanizer J. Bucky Barnes had looked over to the girls that preformed in the shows.
Bucky was well gone, in actual war, by the time those performers had arrived. The picture is actually of Bucky, tattered football in hand, smiling over his shoulder at Marcus Wesson. Wesson had been, by far, the most attractive man on base, but don’t ask Bucky now what he looked like.
“How come you don’t look at me like that, huh, Barnes?”
“Well, you’re not a show girl, for one.”
Eventually, the group reached the front of the line, splitting up into smaller groups and taking up almost an entire car in the small coaster. The Birthday Boy, spider-brat, and his friends were up front. Followed by Clint’s oldest three children. Then Sarah, AJ and Cass. May Parker got in the next row, shifting over to offer room to the rest of them. Sam shoved Bucky forward, putting their daughter in Bucky’s lap as he squeezed into the seat. Behind them was Thor, Bruce, and Clint. In the last row, Yelena propped her feet up in the space beside her, glaring at the attendants when they tried to add a group of two to their car. It was a slow enough ride that there wasn’t even a safety bar to be lowered, so they let Yelena be.
Clint’s wife, Pepper and Morgan and a few others had stayed outside (for various reasons, including that Pepper didn’t want to see the section she knew would be dedicated to her late husband, not that she’d ever admit to that particular weakness).
Becks giggles when the cart drops suddenly, almost as soon as it had started moving. A few of the group letting out small gasps or yelps at the unexpected but very small drop into darkness.
The voice recording is, surprisingly enough, a very accurate impression of Nick Fury, if not an actual recording of Fury himself.
“The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people,” The left side of the room lights up in holograms. The Iron suit, Captain America, Black Widow, Thor with thunder in the back ground as he appears, Banner shifting quickly into the Hulk, “To see if they could work together when we needed them to,” Hawkeye, then Black Panther, Strange, Falcon, War Machine, Carol Danvers Captain Marvel, “to fight the battles that we never could.”
Spider-Man, or a hologram version of him appears on the ceiling, upside-down. “Hey guys!” A peppy voice thats meant to be Peter’s says. “This way, c’mon!”
“Dude, you’re in the Avengers Museum!” Bucky hears one of the kids (adults, legally) up front say, “That’s so cool!” The cart takes a sharp right turn.
“Ned, shh, oh my god.”
“It is okay,” Yelena calls from her place in the back, “We are only ones on ride.”
The next hologram is a video of Howard Stark, a recreation of the expo, Bucky’s last stop before shipping out to war. Bucky only tunes back into the world when Sam grabs at his hand, the right one, and squeezes. Hologram Howard has moved on from flying cars is talking about the super solider serum. The words aren’t Howard’s, nor is the voice really, but the face is the same.
The opposite side of the wall lights up in blue as Howard fades. Steve Rodgers, as he was when he arrived in the 21st century, is giving his history lesson now. Dressed up in the Captain America suit, lacking the helmet but shield in hand, angled so the entire front is visible to the audience.
“And so starts our journey to becoming the Avengers,” not-Steve says, “As we continue, this story might get a little bit scary, but don’t worry kids, because the Avengers are here and we’ll be with you ‘til the end of the line.”
“You okay?” Its Sam in Bucky’s ear. Bucky nods, not knowing if its a lie or not.
Not-Steve fades as the recording says, “Avengers…” and trails off leaving space for the Spider-Man hologram to reappear on the other wall and yell, “Assemble!”
The hologram of Spider-Man crawls along the wall until he’s in front of their cart. “Oh, man, this is so cool!” He says, scarily accurate in Bucky’s opinion. “Let’s go see what happens next!”
He darts off the the right and the cart follows, taking the turn much smoother than the last one.
The next stop is Steve again, this time there are two people flanking him. “During the war,” Steve begins again, “We found out about a man called the Red Skull,”
Afore mentioned Red Skull appears in front of the cart, seemingly stoping their journey.
“And a very bad group of people.” Not-Steve continues.
He gives a PG version of the events that transpired, Bucky wonders how much truth they can actually achieve in a PG manner.
Here is where not-Steve talks about his shield, and the hologram of Peggy Carter shoots five bullets at Captain America, none of which so much scratch the paint.
“But I lost my best friend in the process,” not-Steve says at one point, Bucky realizes that someone must over see this part of the ride because the hologram version of himself walks the length of the car saying,
“But don’t worry about that,” He starts talking right around the time he reaches May’s side, “We’ll meet again, doll.” The last word the said with a wink towards the last car where Yelena sits. The hologram walks away from the cart until it eventually disappears seemingly into thin air.
“Ugh, gross.”
“Hey now,” Sam warns jokingly.
“Actually,” the Peggy hologram says, “he’s right.”
“What?” Not-Steve asks.
“This isn’t the last you’ll see of Captain Rogers or Sargent Barnes today, folks, but give them a minute to figure that out, there’s still a lot more to see.” Peggy’s voice recording explains before she too disappears.
Bucky feels, not for the first time in his life, that he’s floating through some type of alternate reality.
They follow the spider-hologram-kid into the next section of the ‘Museum’, the Iron Man era of the Avengers timeline, “oh,” its Peter, front and center of the cart, gazing up at his mentor’s hologram.
“Buck, you in there?” Sam again, Bucky must really be checking out because his husband has leaned over into his space to gain attention.
“No, yeah, it’s fine. Becks likes it, I think.” Bucky looks down at the little girl who seems overly mesmerized by all the lights and colors.
“What do you think, babe?” Sam whispers to their daughter.
The tracks that the coaster’s cart is attacked to start to slope upwards, Bucky adjusts his hold on Rebecca as they move.
“Evacuate, evacuate.” There are sirens and flashing lights in this room, caution tape along the walls. This room is decorated to resemble a science lab and there’s no doubt what comes next. ‘Radioactive’ plastered across certain work stations.
A hologram Bruce Banner runs in, clothes tattered and ripped. “What are you guys doing in here?” He yells, panting and out of breath he gestures to the tunnel that Bucky knows will lead to the next room, “This is radioactive material, it’s not safe to be here.” The Bruce hologram’s skin shifts from its normal shade to green and back again. “You need to leave, go now!”
There’s a shifting of metal and a hologram web sticks to the side of the cart, which turns and moves horizontally through the tunnel. Putting Sam and everyone else who had sat on the right side to be in the “front” of the ride momentarily, and allowing everyone to see holo-Bruce turn into holo-hulk, until the cart straightens itself out again. Hologram-spider says, “Whew, that was a close one guys! Radioactivity is not something you wanna deal with.”
“Hey, kid,” Bucky call up to the front of the cart, “Aren’t you radioactive?”
“I mean,” Peter isn’t visible to him, but Bucky knows the boy is blushing, “yeah, kind of.”
“Keep it moving,” A hologram of Natasha Romanov snaps, the room full of people grabbing weapons and running out fake doors. “We’re on a schedule here,”
“Okay, okay, we’re going,” holo-spider says, the cart moves again, “Man, she’s scary.”
The rows on the cart separate and turn, leaving them in a straight line, Peter’s group at the far right, Yelena alone on the left. Everyone facing the open area in front of them, which is a big drop and lots of mechanical bad guys with little red-flashing targets attached to them. A rack of cartoonish guns raise up in front of them.
To be continued…