Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Rikki Barnes, who was Captain America’s sidekick Bucky in a parallel world, is now in ours; she lives in Manhattan and attends high school under the name Rikki Baines. Her dream is to meet this world’s Cap—Steve Rogers is dead but she’s on the lookout for his replacement. One evening she hears a news report that Cap is engaged with armored villains downtown; she quickly dons her Bucky costume and heads to the scene. As she prepares to join in the battle, she is stopped by Black Widow who knows all about her otherworldly origin and advises her to not get involved with superheroing at such a young age. Frustrated, Rikki goes home….
The next day in school she meets up with her best friend John—who was her mean brother in her world. Social studies teacher Doctor Powers assigns the class to attend the speeches made by candidates for Student Council President that afternoon. The addresses are a pretty dull lot until the last candidate Desmond Daniels speaks. He criticizes the students’ lack of responsibility and challenges them to make a difference. To Rikki’s surprise, five students immediately stand up and pledge to do that—and they are a startlingly diverse lot: a popular girl, a jock, a nerd, a punk, and a slacker. In the days that follow these five begin a campaign of calling out and publicly shaming fellow students for bad behavior (necking in public, dirty language, disrespect for teachers, etc.). Suspicious, Rikki trails the popular girl, Natsuki, and finds her meeting after hours with the others at the school. Donning her Bucky costume, she enters the building and descends into a previously unknown dungeon-like area; there she as attacked by a huge and fearsome dog-man. Fighting to get away, she escapes though with a slash to the arm. Making her way hone, she discovers on her bed a suitcase containing a costume and a top secret file on Nomad….