Rikki Barnes

For a few brief weeks, she’d thought that maybe the whole business with Black Widow at Milliways would dull the way the Black Widow of this world effortlessly makes her feel so tiny, but nope. Rikki’s all snug in her bed when the Widow strides in like she has all the right in the world, and bam. Rikki goes from confident teenage superhero to subatomic particle, just like that.

In five minutes, Rikki’s awake, changed into the Nomad uniform, and listening to the Widow give her a briefing on whatever it is they’re about to do.

“The Second Shadow operates in a closed system. No information in or out. My source inside was only able to clue me in very recently. They plan to take the chemical agent offsite later today for mass production.”

The chemical agent. A nice neat way of saying they’ve developed a way to turn people into bombs, and they’re going to unleash their nice new explosive humans on the public.

The Widow’s still talking. “It’s being stored in the center of the facility, which is housed half a mile beneath the building. To get there, we’ll need not only stealth and grace but quick wits and the ability to neutralize any threats.”

So why am I here? Rikki wants to ask, but she bites it back. Instead, she watches the Widow finish setting up her zipline.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

On the other side of the zipline is the roof of the building they need to infiltrate. The Black Widow has some kind of laser, which she uses to carve a hole in the outer wall. The Widow takes point, obviously, cutting through the various defenses like they’re nothing.

It’s kinda beautiful, actually. Even if Rikki still has no idea why she’s here, it’s undeniably amazing to watch the Black Widow in action. She can only wish to be that good someday.

They have a pretty simple plan of action. She’ll provide backup for the Widow until they reach the room used to store the chemicals, at which point Rikki will break off to extract the inside man, who’s busy erasing any trace of the formula from Second Shadow’s records.

Only they don’t get that far. There’s way more guys than either of them expected, and even a legendary superspy can’t take them all out. Nomad’s fighting a totally defensive battle, using her shield to block any shots the Second Shadow goons take at them, but it’s just impossible to block everything. Something hits her in the neck, and the world goes all confused and fuzzy. Through the buzzing in her head, she can only just make out the Widow trying to tell her something. “Whatever they try, do not – “

Bowling alleys, it seems, are pretty much a multiversal constant. You get the same funky rental shoes (that you don’t really want to know where they’ve been), same sticky patches on the floor, and same multicolored balls that don’t have the right grip no matter what reality you're in. It’s kinda comforting, actually, enough so that she doesn’t really mind sitting around with her soda and nothing to do while she waits.

Still, she scrambles upright when she seems him approach. “Hey. Glad you decided to show.”

Steve gives her a grin that says he totally thinks he’s about to be super-charming. “Now, how could I turn down an invitation from such a delightful young woman?”

Oh god. She almost facepalms right there. “Forgot what a cornball you were.”

The look on his face evens out into something more serious. “Listen, Rikki – I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking about your decision and what I might have done that – “

Rikki stands up. “Do you remember when we used to go bowling?”

“Uh – vaguely. Like a dream, but sure.”

“Well, you may recall that we have some unfinished business, you and me.” She makes her way to the machine to set up a new game. “A little matter of me finally besting you without you going all easy on me?” She types in their names for the players and grabs hold of the ball she’d picked out while she was waiting. “It could be just like old times. Whatcha say, Steve?”

Two games later, one of which she won only because Steve thought he was being sneaky about letting her, she’s finally feeling good enough about this to actually… talk. About stuff. He’s about to set them up for another game when she speaks up. “Wait. I wanted to, um. To ask you something.”

He sits down across from her smoothly. “What do you want to say?”

Rikki tilts her head a little, looks a touch to the side instead of straight at him. “I wanted to… um. I was going to talk to you, before, about why I said no. Because… I don’t think I can be normal, Steve.”

She can see him gearing up to say something, probably that she could be whatever she wanted to be, so she holds up a hand and cuts him off. “I mean it. I like to think I wasn’t ever, but I’m definitely not a normal kid now. You can’t teach me how to be a hero and then ask me to give it up. I like what I do. I’m good at it, and I don’t want to stop.”

Steve sighs heavily, like he was half-expecting this. “You're right. It’s not fair, and I’m sorry I asked it of you. But I want you to stay safe. What you're doing now, it’s not the same here as it was where you’re from. You don’t have the same support network.”

“So support me.” She straightens up. “It’s not the same, and I’m doing okay on my own, but I could still use you. I, um.” She rubs the back of her neck. “I could kinda use someplace better to stay, actually. I was thinking that… maybe you could help me with that? Like, help me figure out how to get an apartment or something around here? I could probably pass as an 18-year-old if I needed to, or we could say that it's your place or something. I bet Captain America doesn't even have to deal with a background check or whatever.”

He frowns. “I'm not sure, but - it wouldn't hurt to look into it.”

“It wouldn’t have to be anything fancy,” Rikki says quickly. “Just somewhere with, y’know, electricity and running water and stuff.  And… Steve?”

He'd gotten a little lost in his head already, but his attention snapped back onto her when she said his name. “What?”

“Could we find somewhere that takes pets?”

She hears it on patrol, scared, unhappy yips accompanied by the unmistakable noises of assholes getting their kicks by doing what they do best. It barely takes her any time to go from the top of a building to the alley, where she finds a couple teenage idiots terrifying the shit out of a dog.

Rikki gets their attention with a sharp whistle. She’ll fight them if she has to, but they’re barely worth the effort. They’re not exactly supervillains. “I’m gonna give you a couple seconds to look at me and figure out that you’re hopelessly outclassed right now if you wanna fight.  If you decide to leave right now, I won’t follow you, but believe me, I have a memory for faces, and I’m not gonna be happy if I find you doing anything like this again.”

They take off running before she gets the last syllable out. Sometimes it’s good to be a vigilante with a reputation, even if it’s just a local one.

Once they’re out of the way, she approaches the dog they were targeting slowly. She sort of remembers some stuff about handling wild dogs from training, but luckily this one looks pretty… unlikely to attack, mostly. There’s no tags she can see, though she guesses he could still be chipped.  But the way he looks – dirty, thin, and ungroomed – make it a pretty good guess that he’s a stray. “What’d those jerks do to you, huh?”

The dog whines and tries to back away, favoring its left paw heavily. Which is especially bad, because she doesn’t know where she can take a dog like this. A vet? She can’t afford to pay one. A pound? That just… feels like the wrong thing to do here. Which doesn’t leave her with a lot of options.

But there are a couple. Rikki grins lopsidedly at the dog and slowly edges forward to scoop him up. “Hey there,” she says in her best you’re such a good boy and I’m such an unthreatening human voice, “we’re gonna go meet someone who’s going to super-hate me for this.”

As expected, the Night Nurse is not a veterinarian.

As hoped, she examines the dog anyway, declares that nothing’s broken, and sends him off with Rikki with instructions to get him rested and well-fed.