The training room was very different then what I thought. It looked like a metal jungle gym. Bars on the ceiling, and walls, and there was a large tumbling mat on the floor. Though I had no idea what they were made out of. The material, seemed to be a weird cross between glass and metal.
But I wasn't really looking at the equipment…It was the people training that grabbed my attention.
There were two people sparing on one of the weird mats. One of them was a black girl around my age, and the other…was Arrow. I was shocked. Not only were there two girls fighting in front of me, they were good. Really good. Each of their attacks, their blocks, and movements, were precise and clearly strong. Whoever had trained them, had done a good job.
"I know that clothing has changed and that they are quite a sight, but my father is right there so you might want to stop staring at my sisters," Taiga said, making me suddenly look away.
I hadn't even noticed their clothes, until Taiga mention it. But as soon a he said it, my face flushed hot with shame. The girls weren't wearing any shirts. Thankfully, they both had something covering their breasts and had pants on, but I still didn't want to see them in their unmentionables.
Taiga started to chuckle, "Sorry, I probably should have warned you about the changed clothing standers."
"This is legal?" I murmured. I thought seeing Arrow in pants, was strange, but this was a whole new ballpark.
"As long as they aren't completely topless, though, they usually don't dress like this 24/7."
"Thank god," I mumbled, still not entirely comfortable with this.
I heard heavy footsteps coming towards us, but Taiga's next words pretty much identified who they belonged to.
"Hello, dad," Taiga said.
"Hey, son, uhm, what's going on here?" Christin asked, he gestured to me, but I didn't see it as I was too busy burying my face into my only hand.
"I forgot to warn him about Jet's and Row's workout clothing."
"Ah, don't worry kiddo, you'll get used to it."
"I'm not sure if I want to…" I spoke.
"Well, I can't wait to see his reaction to the women in the clan who don't believe in bras," Taiga said.
I choked.
Christin gave Taiga a scolding glare, one that I probably would have laugh at if I wasn't so shocked. I continued to look at the floor, the ceiling, anything that wasn't the dueling dames in front of me, until I saw something that was even more puzzling. I wasn't the only one who had been watching the girls.
Sitting on the side of the dueling mat, was about six little kids. These kids were thin, boney even. The clothes they had one hung loosely around their limbs, though they were mostly wrapped in blankets. The oldest of them, a small girl with her hair chopped off in different places, couldn't have been more than seven.
Christin wasn't kidding. There were mutant kids out in the world who were taken and abused. It wasn't difficult to see why some of them were taken, two of them had bright red scales on their heads, and their eyes were just yellow. No iris, no pupils, just yellow and empty. And it was almost impossible to not to notice the scars that they tried to hide. This wasn't right.
One of the smaller ones, glanced away from the fight, and looked right at me. It was a small boy no older than three. His shaggy black hair was constantly falling on to his face, and a noticeable scar was etched into his cheek. His black doe eyes, were dull and tired. I had only seen that look in the eyes of the veteran soldiers on base. It didn't feel right for a kid to have that look in his eyes.
There was a sudden blast from the fight. I turned quickly only to see the remaining flames of what every happened dissipate. I didn't mean to but I started to track their movements once again. Arrow knew how to plant her feet, in order to throw the force of her whole body into the hits, while still managing to shift her weight to allow quick escapes and strikes. She was good, but that wasn't what took the breath out of my lungs.
The black girl had palmed Arrow in the face, blinding her, before quickly ducking down and kicking her legs out from under her. Arrow fell to the ground, but managed to roll out of the way of the Black girl's next strike, and on to her feet. Arrow raised her hand and a burst of flames sparked from her finger tips.
My eyes widened, and my mouth hung agape. Since when could she do that?!
"Okay that's enough!" Christin said to the girls.
The black girl said something, before quickly leaving Arrow on the mat and rushing over to a nearby table. She pulled on a thick grey baggy shirt while exclaiming some more, in the language that I still didn't understand. What did Taiga call it? Chosen Tongue?
"Well, I'm sorry that can't feel temperature like a normal person," Arrow said, to her sparring partner.
What were they talking about? I couldn't ask Taiga; he had gone over to one of kids with Christin. So, I couldn't really understand her. But I did have to stop a snicker, when, she threw a shirt at Arrow, hitting her in the face.
Arrow, after glaring at her sparring partner, looked at me and smiled. She put on the shirt, and walked over to me, "Hey" she said.
"Hey," I answered.
"How are you doing?"
"Uhm…As good as I think I can get. I still don't want to be in this wheelchair."
"Embarrassing much?"
"Maybe a little."
"Don't worry about it. No one is judging you on it. Believe me I've been where you are."
"Blown up, stuck in completely different century, and completely confused with half the stuff around you?"
Arrow laughed, "No. I meant I've been in wheelchair."
"What happened?"
"When I was ten, Dad got me a new pair of rollerblades for Christmas. It was still too icy outside to use them, but stupid ten-year-old me, decided that it would be a great idea to go out anyway. I ended up losing control and tumbled down our very long, and very bumpy drive way. I twisted my ankle pretty good."
I chuckled at that, making a mental note to ask what rollerblades were, but then I remembered something… "So, you're not mad at me?"
"Mad at you for what?"
"Your kind of just ran away the last time we talked I was worried I had said something that offended you."
Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, "Oh, uhm, that. I'm sorry about that. Look it was nothing you said. I just thought that I had given away too much information, and didn't know what to do, so I just booked it. I'm a rookie, and I really don't want to make any mistakes. Especially with my Uncle Nico poking around."
"We've met. I can see why you wouldn't want to mess up around him."
Arrow raised a brow, but she didn't question me further on the matter.
"So, what was with the fireworks?" I asked.
"Hm?"
"When you were sparring. What was that?"
"I told you I had powers, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did but you said that you could control wind."
"Well, I'm not a person with just a single power. I'm both an Aeropath, and a Pyropath, or I can control wind and fire, but Dad says that there still is a chance I could develop more."
"That certainly is a gift."
"While it seems cool to be able to send bursts of concentrated heat and lifting books with a flick of a wrist, it does have its down sides."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I have a hard time feeling how hot or cold something is. I always run hot, so most people think I'm sick and running a fever. My body is so sensitive to the air presser around me, that I can feel people obstructing the air that they're in and it can get pretty overwhelming. And no matter what, you can't turn it off."
"I never thought you could have those problems."
"Don't worry, most people don't either. All they see is the flashy powers and costume, but in reality, nothing comes without a cost."
I nodded. There seemed to be a lot of mutant life then one might originally think. Arrow, was right, a lot of people jump on board that the hero is perfect and they don't any other problems other than the bad guys they fight. It was kind of sad really. I used to hear a number of children on a weekly bases saying that they wished to be taken in by a superhero like was. But I had to lose my parents to gain cap, not that I didn't regret meeting him. Even after I got stuck here, I would give anything to see him again.
My gaze slowly drifted back to the kids huddled on the floor nearby. This was probably going to happened to them too one day. Everyone will see their cool powers and flashy costumes but wouldn't think of how they got to where they are. All the pain they had to endure.
"Is something wrong?" Arrow asked snapping me from my thoughts.
"Uh…What?" I jerked my head back to look at her.
"You've been staring at them for a while," She nodded over to the children.
"I just can't believe that this real. I honestly thought the world would get better after the war."
"In some ways it did in some ways it didn't."
I raised a brow at her.
"Well, the Germans didn't start a number three," Arrow said.
"I guess that is a bright side," I looked back at the kids, "Is there more of them?"
"Not with us but sadly, yes," she paused for a moment, "Do you want to meet them?"
"Uhm?"
"The children. If you're going to work with us, you'll need to know how to handle them. There's no point in waiting."
I nodded, and Arrow quickly moved to push my chair over. I felt kind of bad that she needed to do this for me, but I didn't say anything. It seemed to be accepted in this century, and I didn't want to look even more like a fool.
The Kids seemed to eye me wearily, clearly not very accepting of me, the newcomer in the wheelchair. Arrow, said somethings in what sounded like multiple different languages. Though, once she got to Russian, I understood immediately what she was doing. These kids must have been shuffled from all around the globe and as such didn't have the same root languages. It was a good thing I was multilanguage.
Arrow walked out from behind the chair, and into the crowd of children, "This one right here," she pointed to a little girl with blond curls, "is Mazy," she pointed to the kids with the scales, "these are the twins, we call them Scales and Billy," she pointed to the last two little girls, "these are, Moony and Alexis," she pointed to the last little boy, "and this last but certainly not least, is Black Sheep."
Arrow, said something in what sounded like the mutant language, and all of the kids suddenly said, "hello" in English. All except Black Sheep, who remained silent. I said hi back and gave a small wave. Though, that's where the interactions ended as Taiga pulled all the kids away for some reason.
"There adorable, aren't they?" Arrow said.
"Yeah, it's a real shame what happened to these kids," I said, "How can you be so calm about this?"
"Been around it I guess, and you can't change it, at least not by yourself."
"Mind if I asked what's with the names? They just seamed a bit weird, is that normal for the future?" I stopped but quickly started again, realizing something, "I hope that's not offensive."
"Don't worry, and with my name I don't blame you for thinking that. The reason behind it is because a lot of the kids who get stuck in the system, end up with a number code rather than a real name. So, if the kids can remember the name, they had before they were taken, we call them by that, but there are some exceptions."
"The kids who don't remember," I answered for her.
She nodded, "We let those kids name themselves, and if they get adopted the parents can put a more proper name on the papers. Though they usually keep their nicknames."
The girl Arrow had been sparing with suddenly spoke up. Arrow said something back, raising a brow at the girl, who just rolled her eyes. Making Arrow scoff. I looked at Arrow confused.
"Don't worry, about her she's being an idiot," Arrow said, earning what sounded like some very choice words from the girl.
"Does she speak any English?' I asked out of genuine curiosity.
"When she wants to," the girl said.
"So, you decided too not be rude. Good job!" Arrow said.
The girl rolled her eyes.
Arrow turned to me, "Bucky please meet my older sister, Jenette, I am so sorry about her," Arrow gave a surely fake, sickly sweet smile to Jenette, causing her sister to return a deadly glare. To which Arrow stuck out her tongue.
I had to stop myself from laughing at the sisters' interaction. It was clearly nothing but playful banter. No hate or malice, just teasing familial love on both ends. These two were close, that much was clear. I was starting to see that even if they weren't blood, or looked alike, they were clearly sisters.
"And you call me a little kid?" Jenette said.
"Only when you act you act like one," Arrow said.
"Whatever," Jenette rolled her eyes, "I'll leave you to talk with your new boyfriend," she walked away.
"JET!" Arrow, growled as her face flushed red.
"Boyfriend?" I raised a brow. What were these guys talking about?
"Don't worry about it, it's just a little teasing joke that my older brother and sister have been doing a little to often lately," Arrow growled through her teeth.
"I'll take your word for it."
"Once again, I'm so sorry about her," Arrow said, to me.
"Don't worry, about it," I said, remembering the many times, the older soldiers would tease me about girls.
"I'm glad you're not that offended."
"Your sister seems nice."
"Oh, believe me, she's not. In all honesty she was one of the people I was worried about you meeting."
"Let me guess she is one of the people who don't like Cap."
"That was part of it, yeah."
"So, did our first meeting meet your expectations?"
"It went a lot better than I thought actually."
"How?"
"Well, she didn't throw a knife at your head."
A/N:
I hope the interactions were good in this, and I apologize if anyone was offended by my mention of fashion changing over the decades.
I also apologize if this seems slightly sexist, but Bucky was from the forties which is not the most, gender equality century.
