"Fuck this shit," Captain America said, staring at the television screen full of images from last night of white supremacists in Virginia. "They didn't even hide their faces. Look at them." And indeed they were dressed in ordinary clothes, their torches even illuminating their faces for the world to see who they were. The screen then switched to images from that day's rally and protests.
"And no surprise, but the cheeto in office is remaining oddly silent, even with today's huge white supremacy rally," Bucky said, gesturing at the T. V. from his position on the couch next to Steve. "Oh wait, here's something. 'We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!'"
"Really? That's all he said?"
Bucky refreshed the Twitter page. "Yup, that's it. No condemning neo-Nazism or white supremacy. He just wants everyone to get along."
"So he's saying let's go back to how things were when minorities didn't protest, white supremacist rule wasn't challenged, and people gladly went along with racism, sexism, and other oppression even more than they do today," Steve said, the remote control in his hand starting to compress on itself as his grip got even tighter.
"Basically."
"Remind me, what year is it again?"
"Seventy years past when these bastards supposedly stopped existing," Bucky said.
"Yeah, just wanted to double check and make sure I didn't somehow regress to our past."
"Nope, they're still there on T.V. The color T.V. in our living room, I might add," Bucky said.
"And the cheeto's refusing to call out the real Nazis?" Steve asked, his tone incredulous.
"Yup. And this is after he's already called the FBI, CIA, and NSA Nazis. He's not afraid of the word; he just doesn't want to use it for actual Nazis."
"Because he is one," Steve said flatly.
"At the very least, he's the dictionary definition of a white supremacist. Oh, hey, this is good," Bucky said, his voice brightening.
"What?" Steve asked, peering over his friend's shoulder at the phone screen.
"People are Tweeting that old comic of you punching Hitler, saying that it's time to punch more Nazis."
"I think they might be right," Steve said, cracking his knuckles.
"Hey, guys, have you seen the news?" Tony asked, barging into their apartment. His gaze quickly went from Steve and Bucky's tense position to the television. "Huh, I guess you have. Are we suiting up for this?"
Steve and Bucky exchanged a look. "Much as I want to invoke the Winter Soldier on them, I don't know if we should," Bucky said.
"Why not?" Steve demanded. "There's literal Nazis out on the streets of Virginia right now. We should be there. Heck, we should have been there last night."
"These are all civilians," Bucky pointed out quietly.
"Those civilians have assault rifles," Tony pointed out. "Or have you not noticed?"
"If we go there, people might get violent."
"They're already violent," Steve said.
"I read some of the accounts of those college kids last night," Tony added. "The protesters got damn close to them with their torches."
"Things are bad, but we don't want to escalate it," Bucky pointed out.
"Oh shit," Tony said, his eyes on the television.
Bucky and Steve turned their gazes to the screen. The reporter started talking about how a car had just crashed into the counter-protesters.
"This is bad," Bucky said.
"That's it, we're suiting up," Steve said, heading toward the bedroom to change.
Bucky and Tony exchanged a glance before going their separate directions to do the same.
