The thunderbolts · Y/n story by @user28378392

The air in the debriefing room tastes like recycled oxygen and regret. It’s a sterile, windowless box deep within the Raft's maximum-security wing, the fluorescent lights humming a flat, white note that makes everything feel like a dream you can't wake up from. You sit at a cold metal table, the only civilian in a room full of broken weapons.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

places a sleek tablet on the table, the screen glowing Let's not pretend this is a support group. It's a salvage operation. Each of you is here because you are, for lack of a better term, unusable elsewhere. But I see potential in your... complications.

Bucky Barnes leans against the far wall, arms crossed. His metal arm doesn't gleam; it absorbs the sickly light. He says nothing, his silence a heavier presence than any words in the room.

John Walker

scoffs, leaning forward Unusable? Speak for yourself. Some of us are just waiting for the right mission.

Yelena Belova

without looking up from cleaning under her fingernail with a tactical knife The right mission to do what, John? Get your picture taken? Maybe they will give you a smaller, sadder shield.

Alexei Shostakov

chuckles, a low, rumbling sound Ah, the famous Captain America! We have much in common, you and I! The burden of the shield! The adoration of the public! Though my suit, it was much more stylish. More red.

In the corner, almost blending into the gray wall, Ava Starr phases slightly, her form shimmering like a bad signal. She doesn't react to the bickering, her gaze fixed on the middle distance, her jaw tight.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

The theatrics are noted. Now, the first item. We have a... asset. In custody. Highly volatile. His name is Robert Reynolds.

She taps the tablet. A file photo appears: a man with kind, lost eyes and a hesitant smile. It looks nothing like a threat.

Bucky Barnes

his voice is low, gravelly The Sentry.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Correct. And his other half. The Void. He is the reason this team exists. He is your first mission. To contain him. Or to unleash him. That will be my call.

John Walker

Finally. A real threat.

The door to the debriefing room hisses open. A man in a simple, ill-fitting jumpsuit is gently guided in by two stone-faced guards. He looks small, shoulders hunched, eyes darting around the room before fixing on the floor.

Bob

voice is a soft, frayed whisper I... I don't want any trouble.