𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 | bucky barnes

74: Too far

Cat flew forward at one of the Flag Smashers, while the other went toward Bucky with carefully curated moves.  The one she was fighting had a braid in her hair, and wore a green cargo jacket over a navy sweatshirt.  It was a very incognito outfit.  If she wasn't wearing the mask of one, Cat would never have thought she was a Flag Smasher.

Cat didn't even attempt pulling her punches.  She knew she was fighting a Super Soldier.  John was around— but she didn't care anymore.  Without the full extent of her powers, she had no chance in this fight.  The Flag Smasher wasn't holding back either.  For her first couple punches, Cat just dodged, formulating a plan in her head.  But sooner than later, the woman began swinging her knife at Catarina, and she knew that she would get aggravated at her dodging. 

Cat began pushing back.  She threw punches straight into the woman's chest. There were wooden chairs about a yard away— she took one of them up with her powers and threw it so carefully that the female Flag Smasher was caught in between the legs, and pushed it back so hard that it flew into the drywall, and the Flag Smasher was stuck there.

She gave her one last dirty look, as a good luck getting out of there, and walked away.  She looked at Walker, who was fighting off two of them in turns, and began going over there to help him— but as soon as she turned around, she felt a hand on her wrist and fore arm.  Before she had time to react she was flipped over with superhuman force.  She glanced toward the wall to see the chair strewn sideways and two large cracks where the legs had been indented into the concrete.  She looked back up at the woman with the braid, then pushed her backwards, causing her to go flying toward another wall. Out of the corner of her eye, Catarina saw the red-haired Karli sliding over a table in the room, grunting.  She threw herself onto Lemar.  Cat looked back at the Flag Smasher with the braid— she was coming back for her.  But then, Cat heard another loud crack and looked to the right of her.  Some yards away there was a now cracked pillar, and leaning against it, Lemar Hoskins.  Blood leaked from his mouth.

He leaned forward in an idle position, and did not move.  Everything in the room froze when they heard the noise.  Cat could almost hear the crack echo in her head, over and over.   She backed further away from the spot where he laid, toward where Sam and Bucky stood, but she did not take her eyes off the Captain.

The maskless Flag Smasher that was holding back John stared wide eyed at Hoskins against the pillar. Walker grunted as he pushed him away, and the man basically allowed it.  Sometimes, silence could make people do things so much more than loudness could.

All the Flag Smashers watched John closely.  Some backed away toward exits.  But because all eyes in the room were on Walker and Hoskins, Sam, Bucky, and Cat didn't seem to notice.  They only sound they heard was Walker's heavy breathing. 

"Hey," said Walker.  Nothing.  "Hey." He patted his friend on the shoulder.  "Hey. Hey."  Quicker rubbing on the shoulder.  Still nothing.  "Lemar," he said, putting his hand around his face and shaking it.  "Lemar." He turned Hoskins's face toward himself, then looked at it for another second. 

Cat could see him tensing up.   His denial stage was short— she watched as his hopeful thoughts of Lemar being only unconscious went straight to anger.  There were no more Flag Smashers in the room— Cat watched the last one leave out of the corner of her eye. It had been Karli. She turned her head that way as Sam and Bucky dashed after her. With one last glance back at Walker, who ran toward one of the windows in the room, she ran out. Catarina heard the breaking of glass as she started her sprint down the staircase after Sam and Bucky.

They got out of the building and ran forward, but soon realized they were chasing nothing. They all stopped in their tracks, glancing around— Karli was nowhere to be found. But yelling came from somewhere close. They all looked in the direction where they heard a crowd gasp.

"It's coming from over there," discerned Catarina. She pointed to a street to the left of them. It lead them to a town square with a statue in the middle. People gathered around with their phones out, taking photos and videos. Sam, Catarina, and Bucky jogged to the front of the crowd, stopping short when they saw John Walker with a bloody shield in his hand. He stood over one of the Flag Smashers— the one that had been holding him back— who was covered in blood and lying motionless at the base of the chrome statue.

Defiled. Darkened. Ruined. The American symbol that was the shield of Captain America was now defaced by the fact that it had killed a man in cold blood— by the looks of it, dug into his body over and over. Cat didn't want to look anymore. She didn't want to watch John Walker and his uncontrolled anger stand over the man he had just killed with something that meant so much to so many people. But Cat couldn't help but stare. Her mouth hung slightly open at the sight, still in the spot after the gasp from her arrival in the square. She hated it. She hated everything about this moment right now.

Walker finally picked his head up slowly and looked around at all the people watching, at their phones and cameras, every single one pointed at him. Some of the people looked a little scared. But John just stood there with the bloodied shield angrily.

Cat thought of Bucky. She wondered how he felt. She knew his face had tended up by now, his jaw clenched and his brows pointed in anger. If she was him, Cat was quite sure she just wouldn't be able to stand this. That shield belonged to his best friend. His brother. His Steve.

Steve would never, in a million years, have gone this far.

a.n.:

happy friday

DID ANY OF YALL WATCH SHARPER YET??? OMG ITS SO GOOD MAX IS SO HOT

anyways don't forget to vote :)

molly