Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types, Captain America (Chris Evans Movies)

Relationships:

Kip Grady/Scott Hunter, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (implied)

Characters:

Kip Grady, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Carter Vaughn, Shane Hollander, Matti Jalo, Gillis (Game Changers), Eric Bennett, Greg Huff

Additional Tags:

Aliens, Humor, Crack, Crossover

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-09-07 Words: 1,806 Chapters: 1/1

you're like all of your New York City friends

Summary

A man in a base cap, sunglasses, and oversized zip-up hoodie hops over the boards, joining them in the box. It's funny, Scott thinks, because that's exactly how he dresses when he wants to go out and not be recognized –

"I'm Steve, I can help."

-
Aliens attack Madison Square Garden during a home game. Because of course they do. Because that's just what living in New York is like these days.

Notes

Aliens attack Madison Square Garden during a home game. Because of course they do. Because that's just what living in New York is like these days.

"Goddamnit," Carter curses, batting one of them away with his stick. "We were winning!"

They're not very cool, or, as far as Scott knows, dangerous aliens. He's heard Iron Man call them space vermin on TV, and they do kind of look like roaches, only they're each roughly the size of a small dog. The problem with them is that they multiply very quickly, and infestations have made whole building blocks temporarily unusable, so the general consensus is that an early and strict intervention is required wherever they show up.

Also, they give off a horrible stink when they die, according to people on Twitter, so Scott is glad they have that to look forward to.

At least the audience isn't panicking. They seem more entertained than anything, watching the players try to fight off the intruders, whose main mission it seems to be to crawl around and slobber green space slime all over everything.

They're coming in through the tunnel to the locker rooms, which also happens to be the only way out for the Admirals and the Metros, so that means the players are essentially trapped in the arena. They've been told over the speaker system to take refuge in the penalty box until help arrives, because apparently no one in the league wants to take any chances with that slime.

The aliens don't really care about the boards separating them from the players though, and they're happily crawling all over them. Thus Carter's attempts at self-defense. Hitting them with a hockey stick does very little though except make a sort of metallic, hollow clonk sound, and all their sticks are really good for is trying to keep them at a distance.

Shane Hollander somehow manages to shoot a puck at one of them, which seems to stun it for a moment, but also not do much else.

All in all, Scott doesn't have much hope to end the day slime-free.

"Hey." A man in a base cap, sunglasses, and oversized zip-up hoodie hops over the boards, joining them in the box. It's funny, Scott thinks, because that's exactly how he dresses when he wants to go out and not be recognized –

"I'm Steve, I can help," the man says and takes his sunglasses off so they can see his face better.

"Woah."

"Holy shit."

"You're –"

Steve – that is, Steve Rogers, Captain America, national icon and war hero and Avenger and probably a million other really cool things – punches one of the space roaches in the head, sending it flying almost all the way across the ice.

Scott is starstruck (and honestly a little turned on). But if there was ever a moment to keep his cool, he's sure this it it.

"Thank you," he says solemnly. "Scott."

He offers his hand to shake, but Steve holds up a slime-covered fist and makes a face at him. Okay. Later. He will shake Captain America's hand later. But he will shake Captain America's hand.

"Can't take you anywhere without drama."

And there, behind Steve, walking up to them in what can only be described as a swagger, is –

"No way!"

"Oh my God."

"This is the best day of my life."

"It's not like I invited these guys, Buck," Steve sighs. The actively-dying-space-roach smell from the first one Steve just punched out is starting to waft across the stadium and it is – just as bad as expected. Maybe worse.

Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, hero-turned-brainwashed-assassin-turned-hero-again, one of the most attractive men Scott has ever seen in his entire life, is standing in their penalty box looking annoyed. And honestly, annoyed is a fantastic look on him. Scott really hopes Kip is catching at least a glimpse of all this from the stands. He's going to lose his mind.

Bucky punches another alien roach out (with his actual metal arm, holy shit) and looks around the arena.

"Are there any weapons?"

Huff holds up his stick and Bucky gives him a somewhat pitying look. Hayden Pike offers a puck, which is met with a shrug and then hurled across the ice with the metal arm, its momentum powerful enough to go straight through two space roaches, and then punch a hole into the boards on the opposite end of the field.

"I mean, that works," Scott offers.

"We need something that can do damage to more of them at once," Steve says. "I don't have my shield and this is gonna take ages if we go one by one."

Hayden holds up one of his skates that he's taken off, pointing at the blade. The man has ideas, Scott will give him that. Steve accepts it and tests the weight in his hand, then throws it like a frisbee and – hits one of the roaches in the head, but unfortunately not with the pointy end.

"Wow," Bucky says, sounding bored.

"Oh shut up. You're the knife guy, you do it."

"It's not even a –"

"Yo, Cap," Carter calls, interrupting their bickering. Both Scott and Steve turn around to look at him. Which feels more than a little embarrassing, actually.

"Sorry," Scott says, "I'm uh – the Captain of the – thing. Team. Hockey team. That's why."

"Yeah, I know who you are," Steve replies, casually punching out another roach as it crawls up over the boards. "Your face was kind of everywhere this spring. Good job."

He nudges Scott with his elbow and Scott feels himself go bright red. Captain America knows who he is?

"Did he just congratulate you on being gay?" Matti Jalo whispers and Gillis gives him a wide-eyed look like he isn't sure that's okay to ask.

"Maybe on the cup win," Shane suggests.

"Both is good," Steve says, completely unbothered, and then, before Scott can process the fact that he just (intentionally or unintentionally) used a meme, as well as the meaning of that meme in the context of their conversation, addresses Carter. "You wanted to show me something?"

Carter points to the goal and mimes something that looks kind of like baseball.

The people operating the cameras have realized what's going on by now and the crowd goes wild when Steve and Bucky appear on the jumbotron.

"Absofuckinglutely," Bucky says over the noise of the audience and hops down onto the ice while Steve gives the cameras an awkward little wave.

"Is he –" Eric sounds concerned, and a few moments later, Scott can see why. Bucky is using his metal arm to literally rip the goal apart, hoisting the two goal posts up onto his shoulder.

"No," Eric whispers quietly and Carter gives him an apologetic look.

"They're just kind of doing their job, you know. Like, defending us."

Eric does not look convinced at all, but he does seem impressed when Steve joins Bucky down on the ice and takes one of the goal posts, swinging it around and sending at least ten space roaches flying.

The crowd screams and cheers, somehow being treated to a better show than they could even have hoped for.

Bucky laughs and shows Carter a thumbs up, which makes Carter look like he's suddenly a little weak in the knees. He leans against Shane, who awkwardly pats his shoulder.

They turn it into a game, trying to get as many roaches as they can at once, and even though the absolutely disgusting smell they give off must have made it up to the stands by now, the audience continues to eat it up. Someone starts playing Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting over the speakers and somehow, it all feels like a big party.

"We'll pay for that," Steve assures Scott, holding up his now slime-covered goal post.

"Just send the bill to Tony Stark," Bucky adds.

The game isn't continued even after all the alien roaches are dead, because the ice is covered in slime and carcasses everywhere and the entire place smells like actively-decaying feet. And also, they only have one goal.

Post-game interviews are not cancelled though, and in one of the more surreal moments of his life, Scott sits between Shane Hollander and Steve Rogers and answers questions about aliens. The press is far more interested in what Steve and Bucky have to say, which is that, no, they weren't previously Admirals or hockey fans, but they are now (good to know). They were only really at the game because the tickets were free and their baseball team got moved to LA in 1958 (which sounds like it's still somewhat of a fresh wound for both of them), so they're trying to find a new sport to follow. Superheroes, they're just like us.

There's a fairly elaborate photo op and Scott thinks he might actually die of a heart attack when Bucky stands next to him and puts his (non-metal) arm around his shoulders for a group shot. He gives Scott a knowing smirk when they part and Scott barely holds in a whimper. Carter laughs at him, but then starts looking very flustered as well when Steve shakes his hand and thanks him for pointing them to the "weapons".

"It's cool, I love – freedom," Carter croaks and Steve gives him a patient smile, like he's very much used to this.

"Sure. Me, too."

---

"Okay, so what you're saying is that Captain America congratulated you on being gay and then the Winter Soldier flirted with you," Kip summarizes later that night, when they're cozy in bed and Scott has recounted his adventures in great detail. "And it wasn't just the adrenaline making you…you know, interpret things that way."

"Kip, I swear – Carter was there, they all heard him say "both", and then later, Bucky – and the way they talked to each other? There's something going on." Scott takes a deep breath, before he gets too excited again. "But we shouldn't speculate."

"I mean, there are several historians who'd agree with you that there's something going on. And, like, many, many people on the Internet."

"It would be so hot," Scott whispers and Kip hums his agreement, eyes glazing over just a little bit. "And so romantic. After all they've been through?"

"We shouldn't speculate though," Kip teases and then laughs when Scott rolls them over and pins his hands to the bed to kiss him breathless.

"Do you think," Kip asks when they break apart, "now that you know them, if there was a space roach in the apartment and we needed saving…?"

"And, uh, maybe it was attacking the bedroom?"

"And also we were just coming out of the shower for some reason…?"

"Naked and vulnerable. Defenseless."

"Save me, Captain," Kip croons, and Scott really is more than happy to share that title today.