To The Ends of The Earth

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Guest

FLAG SMASHERS CONTINUE RAMPAGE ACROSS EUROPE

I pulled the edges of my hood down lower over my eyes as I skimmed the headline. It caught my eye, the big bold lettering with a photo of the Flag Smasher's emblem directly beneath. No matter where I went, I couldn't seem to escape the life I was desperately trying to leave behind.

"Ma'am?"

An impatient male voice broke through my reverie. I looked up to see the man behind the window of the food truck, tapping his fingers impatiently, watching me as I zoned out.

"Oh, sorry." I apologized and stepped up to the counter. I gestured to the item on the menu I'd had my eye on and handed him a few bills. "I don't need any change."

"Did you want a paper too?" He questioned, noting what had sidetracked me.

I shook my head. "No, thank you." I mumbled, still feeling my attention wandering elsewhere. 

I was aware that Bucky and Sam were currently in pursuit of the Flag Smashers, wherever that was exactly. They had reached out to me several weeks prior, begging me to come meet them to assist in tracking down the rebels. 

"It would be just like old times." Sam joked over the phone, referencing our time together as fugitives before The Blip. Before we'd lost Steve. Before we really knew just how much loss we would experience. 

"Consider me officially retired from the whole hero gig." I'd joked, before wishing them luck on their mission.

"Here you go." The gentleman behind the window handed me a brown paper bag and a couple of napkins, snapping me back to reality once again. "Stay dry out there."

I smiled gratefully as I took the bag and slipped it into my backpack, before dipping back out onto the street. Despite the hood pulled up over my forehead I could still feel cold droplets of rain pelting me through the fabric. Another freezing, dismal day. 

After the last showdown with Thanos I had decided to slip quietly away and make myself disappear. New York was too hectic, and too full of memories. People who recognized me as a hero or, after Natasha dumped SHIELD secrets for all to see, people who despised me for my past. I don't know why Seattle had come to mind. Perhaps because it was on the opposite coast, as far away from New York City as one could reasonably get without leaving the States. 

The walk sign blinked green and I darted across the road. I desperately tried to think of something, anything else as I followed the familiar route back to my apartment. My thoughts kept drifting back, all the way back to that first battle. My first time meeting the rest of who would become the Avengers. My family. That life...it felt like a thousand years ago. Sometimes I missed it. But most of the time, well. I valued my sanity. After being attacked by alien armies, maniacal robots, other heroes, and a madman with a dream to wipe out half of life as we knew it, I think it was fair that I'd cashed in an early retirement. 

I was a lesser known part of the Avengers, but nevertheless I'd been there for every world shattering, life altering event. The Chitauri in New York, Ultron, Thanos, the Blip... I'd been there to help save the day every time. I didn't have a fancy title, and I rarely made the headlines as Steve and Tony did. I liked it that way. Much like Natasha, I had a sordid past that I much preferred to keep in the shadows. 

**

I took my hood down and shook my hair free as I stepped through the door of my building. I heard the rain pick up outside, immediately grateful for the shelter as raindrops splashed against the glass panes surrounding the foyer. It was a simple building, certainly nothing to be ashamed of. But nothing to put in Better Homes & Gardens either. The building itself was small, a simple brick structure only three stories high with about six units on each level. The foyer I was standing in had only one set of doors going in or out, which had to be some kind of fire hazard. There was a staircase centered in the middle of the room with an aging wood bannister that worked itself loose every so often. At least once a month you'd find a maintenance man at work, securing it back in place. There were tattered, green carpet scraps glued in pieces to each step. The building mainly housed the elderly, and after several slip complaints the building owner had sloppily laid the carpet down as a preventative measure. Although now the pieces were beginning to fray and come unglued on the edges, which presented a new hazard all its own.