Still not quite full, Miaomiao opened another packet of compressed biscuits and ate them in small bites with tasteless mineral water, desperately missing Butler Batman Alfred's cookies and black tea back at Wayne Manor.
Matt and Bucky exchanged a few probing remarks before Matt realized with a start that something seemed wrong with Bucky's memory.
"Mr. Barnes, you..."
Matt tried to find a less intrusive way to put it.
"I have almost no memories of my past," Bucky admitted readily. "Even my name came from Miaomiao. She seems to know me."
Matt turned back to the girl who was a mystery from head to toe.
"Bucky, hmm." Miaomiao swallowed the biscuit crumbs she had been chewing and gathered her words. "I have a friend in the Avengers named Steve. Bucky seems to be his childhood best friend."
The Avengers had few members, and only one of them was named Steve. Everyone in the United States knew him-
Steve Rogers, code name Captain America, hailed as "the last conscience of the United States" and "America's moral standard," whose educational films were shown in every public elementary school.
At that thought, Matt, who had visited the Captain America museum as a child, immediately made the connection to the name Bucky Barnes.
"Bucky Barnes... Sergeant Bucky Barnes, the only member of Captain America's Howling Commandos who died in action?"
That soldier had been confirmed dead seventy years ago!
"How is that possible... That's absurd..."
"What's impossible about it?" Miaomiao saw no problem at all. "Sure, you land humans don't live very long, but Steve is still alive and well too."
"Wasn't the Captain frozen?" Matt tried hard to recall everything he knew. "Captain Rogers was injected with super soldier serum, which gave him an incredibly strong physique. That's why his cells remained viable