"Captain, you seem to know something?"
Having put on their suits, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Captain America pulled open the heavy doors of the Pym Technologies building together. Ant-Man glanced sideways at Steve, who was looking as filthy and disheveled as a vagrant.
"I have already investigated the matter thoroughly, but now is not the time to discuss it." Captain America tightened his grip on his shield. "If we do not win this battle, it won't make a difference whether you know it or not."
"Is it really that serious?!" Ant-Man cried out in surprise.
Captain America nodded. Leading Ant-Man and the Wasp, he ducked into a narrow alley, turning left and right before stopping in front of a bar.
The sun had already risen, and the bar had long since closed for the night, its neon sign no longer flickering.
Even so, Ant-Man could tell at a single glance that this place was actually a strip club.
Without offering an explanation, Captain America pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Ant-Man and the Wasp exchanged a brief look, then followed him over the threshold.
Inside the club, the windows were tightly shuttered, and only a single small desk lamp cast a faint, dim glow.
Ant-Man's eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden darkness, taking a few seconds before he could make out several figures busy at work within the room.
They were calibrating firearms, donning gear, and stretching their limbs.
"It seems these people, like us, were recruited by Captain America to prepare for the battle," the Wasp, Janet, whispered.
Ant-Man nodded, his gaze sweeping across each person in the club.
"Iron Fist, Danny Rand; Jack Russell, the Werewolf; Mockingbird, Bobbi Morse; Falcon, Sam Wilson; and Patriot, Eli Bradley..."
Captain America introduced each person in the club to Ant-Man and the Wasp. However, his voice faltered slightly when he reached the final individual, as if he was not quite sure how to present him.
Ant-Man looked at the last person—a young man who looked like a student. The enthusiasm radiating from him was something even his domino mask could not fully conceal, though Ant-Man could faintly detect a trace of despair in those smiling eyes.
"I'm Jack Monroe. You can call me Bucky," the youth said to Ant-Man with a grin. "And you?"
This was indeed Jack Monroe, whose father had died of illness, whose mother had abandoned him and fled, whose girlfriend had run off with someone else, and whose family had ultimately left him with nothing but a delivery van.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp," Ant-Man introduced themselves simply.
"You sound like you'd be on the shorter side, but in reality, you're a couple of inches taller than me," Jack said with a laugh.
Standing at nearly six-foot-three among the crowd, only Captain America matched Ant-Man's height; everyone else was more or less shorter.
Ant-Man noticed that the outfit Jack Monroe was wearing looked somewhat familiar, almost as if it had been hand-sewn to replicate Captain America's classic World War II uniform.
"You say you're Bucky?" Ant-Man looked at Jack Monroe and shook his head. "I knew Bucky, and he—"
"Hank," Captain America interrupted, cutting Ant-Man off.
Ant-Man had no choice but to swallow the second half of his sentence: "Bucky fell off an icy cliff during World War II."
"I look up to Captain America, but I know I could never become him in this lifetime, especially now that the living legend is standing right in front of me." The smile remained on Jack Monroe's face. "So, I chose to become Bucky."
Ant-Man remained noncommittal. Since Captain America had stopped him from speaking further, he had nothing more to say to this bootleg, copycat Bucky.
Yet, Jack Monroe did not seem to mind Ant-Man's cold shoulder. He eyed the red suit on Ant-Man and pressed on:
"I chatted with the others before you arrived. Iron Fist is a martial artist, the kind you see in movies. The Werewolf is exactly what the name implies. Mockingbird ignored me, but she feels like she has a military background. That Falcon guy carrying the flight pack has a soldier's vibe, too..."
At this point, Jack Monroe lowered his voice:
"Eli is like me—we both received injections of the Super Soldier Serum. I originally wanted him to use 'Captain America' as his alias, but before that idea could materialize, the real Cap showed up right in front of us."
"Serum?" Ant-Man's attention was finally caught, and he looked directly at Jack Monroe.
"That's right. My father left me a van and a job, which is how I met Eli Bradley..." Jack Monroe said.
Before he could finish, Ant-Man cut him off:
"Bradley? What is his relation to Isaiah Bradley?"
"How do you know his great-grandfather's name was Isaiah?" Jack Monroe blinked.
Isaiah Bradley was a product of the U.S. government's secret World War II experiments to replicate Captain America, and he was the sole survivor among more than three hundred Black soldiers.
Ant-Man had heard of this secret experiment before entering the Quantum Realm, and he knew that Isaiah had even briefly operated under the mantle of "Captain America."
He had not expected that seventy years later, not only would the original Captain America be standing alive before him, but the great-grandson of that Black Captain America would appear as well.
"The situation outside is roughly like this: Hydra is the first wave, and high-tech villains from Latveria will follow," Captain America said, not giving the two any more time to chat. Seeing that his recruits were all assembled, he stepped into the center of the room.
"Your responsibility is to join the Manhattan battlefield and fight alongside the superheroes led by Iron Man. But whatever you do, do not reveal my involvement. I am worried that if my name is exposed, S.H.I.E.L.D. will launch an immediate attack on you as well."
Mockingbird, Bobbi Morse, nodded and added:
"S.H.I.E.L.D. is indeed already sending troops here, but they haven't found a suitable opportunity to make a move yet. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s targets are us, as well as the superheroes currently fighting out there."
She was Agent 19, Bobbi Morse, who was originally supposed to guard the Tesseract data at the Cube prison.
However, after discovering two months ago that the Tesseract data had been scrambled into absolute gibberish by Batman—rendering it entirely useless for research—she had abandoned the facility.
After Captain America secretly tracked her down, Mockingbird had helped him recruit Falcon, Sam Wilson.
Combined with Iron Fist and the Werewolf, whom Cap had found elsewhere, and Eli and Jack, who had immediately agreed to become the new generation of Captain America and Bucky—this temporary team looked somewhat ragtag, but it represented almost every resource Captain America could muster.
"The frontline battlefield is in your hands," Captain America said, nodding to the group. "I need to make a trip to the Hydra base alone."
"Leave it to us," Ant-Man promised.
Captain America gave Ant-Man a meaningful look, clearly placing immense trust in this old comrade-in-arms whom he had known since World War II.
What followed was a rapid sequence of tactical arrangements and plans that Jack Monroe and Patriot, Eli Bradley, could barely comprehend. Seven or eight minutes later, the door to the strip club was kicked open, and Captain America and this temporary alliance quickly departed in separate directions.
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