The Whole World Is Watching
“She said what?” Sam shouts into the phone exasperated with worry. “Right. Hold on, hold on. I know, I know. Listen, pack an overnight bag and take the boys,” he commands.
“What happened?” Bucky interrupts.
All three of them are walking on the sidewalk. And Y/n can see concern etched on every inch of Sam’s face.
Sam pulls his phone down, “Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews,” informing the pair. He picks his phone back up, “Okay. Go somewhere safe,” he tells Sarah.
Y/n pulls out her phone, tapping on Sam’s shoulder, and interrupts Sam, “—I’ve got a safe house in the area. I’ve sent you the coordinates and security codes.”
Sam looks back at her then, “You sure?”
“The windows are bulletproof,” is her only response.
He turns back around, talking into the phone, “Alright, there’s a safe house you can go to. I’m sending the location. Only pay cash. All right? Let me know when you get there. I know… Look, I love you. I’ll never let anything happen to you and the boys, you know that… Okay. Bye.” He hangs up.
They come to a stop.
“Karli wants to meet. She left a contact number,” he informs them, just as his cell phone chimes up a notification. “She said come alone,” he reads off the text.
“We’re coming with you,” Bucky replies, looking at Sam. The tone of his voice tells Y/n he won’t be taking no for an answer.
After a quick reroute to pick up their gear and put on their suits, they head out to meet Karli at the location she specified. And as much she hates to admit it, Y/n regrets not bringing her suit along. Hates her past self for being so damn stubborn. Cause currently she’s dressed in some black tights, a black bodysuit, and a short leather jacket with combat boots. She feels exposed.
“KARLI!” Sam shouts as they make their way into the courtyard.
It’s pretty damn rare to see Sam that angry, but family brings that out in people, she knows.
Karli pops out, leaning onto the railing on the balcony on the first floor. She along with Bucky and Sam make their way up the stairs.
The entire building is built around the free space of the courtyard in the middle.
As they pile out, Sam walks straight on, to face Karli, Bucky stays behind close to the exit. While Y/n passes Bucky, takes a right, coming to stand on the opposite side to him, across the courtyard.
“You called my sister? That’s how we’re gonna play this?” Sam accuses.
“Sam, I would never hurt her. I just wanted to understand you better,” Karli defends, getting up from where she’s leaning with her back against the railing. “I see you, um, didn’t come alone.” She glances over Bucky first and then Y/n.
“You have to end this now,” Sam declares.
“I don’t wanna hurt you,” Karli says, undeterred, “You’re just a tool in the regimes I’m looking to destroy. You’re not hiding behind a shield. If I were to kill you, it’d be meaningless. I was gonna ask you to join me. Or do the world a favor and let me go.”
If only it were that damn easy, Y/n thinks.
She notices Sam looking down on the screen on his arm, looking back at Bucky he states, “It’s Walker.”
And everyone swings into action in an instant.
Bucky jumps over the railing but gets tackled by Karli midair before he can hit the ground. Sam and Y/n follow suit, landing swiftly. While Sam back kicks Karli onto the pillar behind her, Y/n helps get Bucky off the ground.
“I’ll send you the location, go!” Sam tells both of them and flies off. Bucky takes off running ahead but Y/n runs up the stairs, getting to the roof.
Parkouring from one roof to another, she lands on the roof of St. Gabriel Monastery and Church of the Annunciation, where Sharon tracked Lemar and Walker back to.
She notices a broken skylight and jumps in. Propelling herself using a railing, she lands onto a gallery only to notice Bucky climbing up the stairs behind her.
“James!” She warns too late as a Super Soldier rams into him, before he can make it up the stairs to her.
“I’ve got this,” Bucky calls out while his throat is being squished by the other man’s biceps from behind. “Get to Sam!” He shouts before pushing his legs against the wall and throwing the other man off balance. “GO!”
Y/n breaks into a run out the only exit in sight. And it’s in times like this she misses being an Avenger with F.R.I.D.A.Y. in her ear.
She copes though, mostly with instinct and some lucky guesses, she finds her way to a spacious hall where Sam and Walker are fighting off more Super Soldiers. That, however, isn’t what stops her dead in the tracks. Something’s changed about Walker.
Pulling herself out of her reverie and punching one of the Soldiers right in their stupid masks, she looks over to Sam. He gives her a pointed look and that’s all the confirmation she needs.
Walker took the serum.
Two more Soldiers fly in at her as she spots Bucky’s joined the fight. Someone throws a knife at Bucky and he catches it in the air looking more annoyed than anything else.
And, if Y/n wasn’t herself busy with two Super Soldiers, she’d probably wolf whistle at the sight because that was fucking hot!
Dodging their punches easily, she notes while being strong, they like Tony—before she taught him otherwise—fight with their weight instead of their head. Which makes sense. They’re all essentially just players hopped on steroids who only know the basics of the game. Y/n however is a seasoned veteran. While her steroids are currently out of order, she doesn’t really need them to kick some rookie ass, Super Soldier or otherwise.
She takes a few steps back and then breaks into a run gathering up the momentum and launching onto the man ahead of her, deflecting his fist swinging at her, with one hand and using the other to pull him in by his collar and kneeing him in the gut. He stumbles back a bit, but she pulls him back in by the collar again, headbutting him and letting him fall to the ground.
Moving her neck aside to dodge the knife coming at her from behind, she holds onto the attacker’s arm, snatching the knife with the other hand while pulling the arm down over her shoulder. If he wasn’t a super soldier it would have broken, but all she can manage to do is crack it. He punches her from behind on her side, and for fuck’s sake she’s getting too old for this shit.
She swings around with the knife in hand, stabbing him in the shoulder. But the fucker doesn’t relent. He punches her jaw with the other hand and she can hear the world ring. Her knife clatters onto the ground. Unmoving, she can sense a gooey taste in her mouth and she wishes she didn’t know exactly what it is. Blood.
She spits it out on the ground. She gives the man a pointed look while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. And now, that she’s utterly and painfully pissed off, she brings up her fists, ready to beat his ass.
He makes his first move, throwing a punch. She blocks it with one hand, using the other to punch his throat repeatedly and fluently. He tries to stop her with the other, she doesn’t fucking care. Putting some distance between them, she kicks him in his stomach. As he falls to the floor the one from behind is coming at her. She turns around, crouching a bit, dodging his knife and bringing her fists down onto her gut repeatedly till he falls.
She breathes in. But before she can take a look around, assess the damage, Walker is being held back by a guy without a mask and Karli is charging at him with a knife. Y/n begins to intercept but Lemar runs in first. He tackles her to the ground. They both get up at once and Karli punches Lemar with everything she’s got.
Lemar goes flying and crashes against a pillar and Y/n can hear his neck crack.
Fuck.
Everyone freezes. Walker is let go by the guy and he walks over to where Lemar has fallen on the ground. He desperately begins to try and wake him up.
She’s been exactly where he’s standing, she knows exactly what’s going through his head. She fucking resents every second of it. This is why she wanted out of this damn life. It never ends well for anyone.
Karli and her Soldiers disperse, fear and anxiety clear in their eyes.
Walker, however, is nothing but vengeance in a red, white, and blue suit. He gets off the ground slowly and a chill runs down Y/n’s spine.
Bucky and Sam begin running after Karli but Y/n feels like her feet are glued to the ground. That is until Bucky pulls her by her hand, his eyes sympathetic but urgent. She lets him lead her out onto the street, the Jungmann square with a monument in the middle.
At the steps on the said monument is lying the man—who was holding Walker—back flat on his back with Walker’s feet on his chest. He’s squirming screaming, “It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me!” as Walker brings the end of the shield down on his neck. Again. And again, and again. And again.
Y/n’s grip on Bucky’s hand tightens. Bucky reciprocates. While the rest of the crowd that has gathered around is nothing but chaos. Some people are filming the whole thing while others are running haphazardly in fear. The three Avengers can do nothing but watch.
She can spot Karli in the crowd looking on, her eyes a mixture of terror and horror.
When Walker finally stops, he puts his shield back onto his arm and takes a look around him as if challenging anyone to do something about it.
When no one steps up, he begins walking away slowly at first and then breaks into a run.
“Y/n glitch us to him. He’s still in sight,” Sam screams out.
“I can’t” she replies helplessly.
“What do you mean—” Sam tries.
“I don’t have my powers!”
Bucky’s eyes fly over to her and Sam looks at her with her mouth agape.
“You guys go get Walker, I’m going after Karli,” she calls out, freeing her hand from Bucky’s grip and breaking into a run as well.
Karli notices her coming and begins running away.
“Karli!” She calls out. “Karli, stop!”
Chasing her down a few allies, Y/n decides she’s had enough. She climbs onto a roof, jumps onto another, and lands a few feet in front of Karli in a small congested lane.
The moment Karli stops, Y/n throws her hands up in defense, “I just want to talk.”
“Like Walker did?” she asks, breathing heavily.
“I’m not Walker.”
“I know who you are. You’ll just try to glitch me away—”
“I can’t,” Y/n replies honestly. She can see Karli trying to assess if she’s lying. So she adds after a pause, “I would’ve saved your friend if I could… would’ve saved Lemar too.”
Hearing that makes Karli believe her. She shakes her head once and says, “I don’t care. I am officially done talking!”
“Karli, come on. You have to see how unsustainable this is. You are making yourself out to be the enemy. You’re hurting people far more than you’re helping them,” Y/n tries to explain as calmly as possible.
Karli’s eyes flint behind Y/n before she replies, “You don’t understand what we went through. You were Blipped out. You didn’t get thrown out onto the streets like yesterday’s trash. You will never understan—”
“I was a goddamn orphan in Madripoor back in the 1920s… of course I fucking understand,” Y/n throws back. “What you’re doing here… it’s not seeking freedom, anymore. It’s just violence-inciting violence. Pretty fucking contradictory to the peaceful world you’re trying to go back to, don’t you think?”
“I wouldn’t do have to do what I’m doing if it weren’t for the likes of you and Walker—”
“He’s doing the same thing you are; fighting for a world he believes in,” Y/n cuts her off.
Karli looks at her in utter disbelief. “How can you say that after what he just did?”
“What he just did was in retaliation for YOUR actions,” Y/n shouts out, losing her patience. She knows she shouldn’t but she can’t really help it. Her heart is beating out of her chest and she’s actively trying not to think back to that day, to the compound, to Ton—
“I didn’t mean for it to go down that way,” Karli replies, her head falling. The coldness in her tone has vanished, leaving room only for guilt. And in that moment Y/n thinks, she finally looks her age. But the moment is gone as quickly as it came. Her demeanor shifts and she looks back up at Y/n and says, “But what’s done is done. All we can do now is fight for what we believe. And watch the one with the strongest faith win.”
Y/n sighs, she knows where this is going. She knew the moment she engaged Karli to begin with but she wanted to avoid it.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” Karli adds, eyes flickering over to balconies of the buildings on either side of the lane they’re standing in. “I suggest you let me pass or—”
“—fight off,” Y/n looks around, counting, “five? of your Superfriends, correct?” Karli seems shocked at her nonchalance. Y/n grumbles audibly, rubbing a hand down her face, “I wish I could. Seriously, I do… But if I do that; I won’t be my brother’s favorite Superhero, will I?”
“While I appreciate the sentiment… There’s five of them, and without your powers—”
Y/n just laughs. “I swear to god, I’m starting to think the misplaced overconfidence might just be a side effect of the serum,” she says as she pulls up her arms into fists. “Come on,” she motions with her hands, “I haven’t got all day.”