Bucky has lost count of the number of times he’s had to grab Steve by the scruff of his oversized jacket and haul him away from danger. The guy is like ninety five pounds soaking wet, and tenacity doesn’t make one impervious to bullets and stunner blasts. But that’s how Steve has always been, ever since Bucky had chased off the three guys kicking his ass in an alley behind the movie theater. There’s nothing more Steve hates than bullies, and the Pegasus galaxy is rife with them.

Steve runs through the universe thinking his fancy degree and do good attitude are enough to keep him safe. Meanwhile their team leader despairs of Steve ever being able to shoot anything stronger than a zat without landing on his ass and Command has him restricted to missions on known friendly planets only. Since they’re in Pegasus, shit still crops up to attack them from time to time and they maybe stretch the definition of ‘friendly,’ so Bucky packs all of Steve’s pockets with c4 and isn’t that upset about accepting what amounts to glorified babysitting.

And sometimes – sometimes it’s the other way around, Steve swooping in at the last minute to save Bucky’s ass. He may be the same scrawny kid whose library books Bucky would carry by the dozens, but he has the Ancient gene in spades and the knowledge of how to use it to devastating effect. Nobody can make Atlantis sing like Major Sheppard, but Steve has his own way with her, shy and sweet like with the dames he would eye from the side of the dance floor. He can muddle his way through the weapons and weapons lab defenses the Ancients dropped like candy wrappers throughout the galaxy.

Bucky still remembers being tied to that damn chair, a cannibalized Ancient memory device scrambling his brains and thinking he was hallucinating when tiny Steve Rodgers dropped out of an air duct and slapped a couple buttons, shorting out the chair and releasing the deadbolt seal on the door angry marines had been banging on for quite a while. Bucky had to grab Steve by the scruff of his jacket shortly after and shove them both out of the line of fire, but that’s because the number of times Bucky saves Steve’s ass always seems to equal the number of times Steve has saved his.

A mutant power isn't really that hard to fake. You just need to prep the meet site with explosives, then make sure you've got a friend with very precise timing holding the button.

When the Brotherhood says something you don't like, pretend to get emotional, like you can't control yourself. If they think that every time you get upset, things around you randomly start to go boom, they'll be impressed, but they won't want to see you use your power on a daily basis. Pretty soon, they'll be welcoming you into the fold.

Infiltrating a mutant supremacist group is basically the same as going undercover in any other group. Make friends, but don't seem too nice or it won't be believable. Develop assets who hold key information on the group's organization and resources. And don't ever, ever make fun of the leader's hat.

Of course, there is one difference when infiltrating a group of mutants: when the telepath is back in town, you find a reason to leave. Some missions you can't save.

"Can't fight evil without whiskey."

"I hear that. And a good meal. Can't eat rabbit food salads all day or I might turn evil myself."

"Damn straight. And if you break a few human 'laws' here and there, it's all part of the job."

"Totally. And what's the matter with finding a little comfort in the arms of someone nice, just because you meet that person at a dive and don't know their name?"

"Definitely. Hey, you ever sleep with someone evil? Like not in the act like a jerk in the morning way, but in the actual evil way?"

"Yeah. Professional hazard, I guess."

"Yeah, me too. Is it weird that doing it with evil's, you know..."

"Hotter?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, it's weird. Definitely hotter. But weird."

"Yeah. Well, keep on fighting the good fight."

"Yeah, you too."