The avengers were on a mission to take out an experimental weapon created by HYDRA. SHIELD had no clue what it did but it had to be destroyed or the whole world could be in trouble. The mission description said it was easy so to them it was a easy mission with a few minor complications.
"Tony, can you take out the weapon prints and blue prints from where you are?" Captain America said, through the coms. "Right on it cap"Tony replied. "Hawkeye, can you take out the weapon from your position?" Cap asked again."no. What about Nat, Thor or hulk?" Hawkeye replied. " Natasha is down and Thor is with her going back to the jet for medical assistance, hulk is on destroying the building and Tony is destroying the prints that can be used to replicate the weapon." Cap replied. "Oh okay cap, I'll clear a path if you go destroy" clint ordered." Good plan. I'm on it" cap replied.
As he raced towards the machine, he looked for any good places he could hit. HYDRA soldiers were falling all around after they came in contact with some arrows dispatched by hawkeye or got in the way of hulk smashing.
A number of them were quite obviously dead as they had broken necks or were bleeding out too much for it to be even deemed as healthy enough to be bought back to full health, even with the correct medical procedures. Deep down, and I really mean deep down,Steve felt sorry for these soldiers. Most were poor people who had no place to go and jumped at the chance to join. Others may of done it get out of their old life, steve could familiarise to that felling, after all, he had just lost his entire family and all his friend through being stuck on ice for 7 decades. All of them were either dead or old. Others from HYDRA may of just joined to do their ancestors justice. He could relate to that too. All Steve wanted to do when he was younger was join the army and be like his father.
As he finds the correct place to hit his shield into the machine, he smirks. Trust HYDRA to leave the energy core unguarded. As he jumps and raises his shield Tony shouts "STOP!" But it was too late. Cap hit the energy core just slightly to the left of the center. It exploded in a beam of energy sending everything into melt down. The few HYDRA afents that were conscious or even able to move ran out of the building, not bothering with stealth.
All the avengers who were in the building, other than cap and iron man, ran out the building. I say this as cap was unconscious so being the courageous hero he is, Tony stayed to find him.
"cap! Where are you?" Tony shouted, through the burning debris. " come on. We're on a mission, no time for hide and seek!" He shouted again. That's when he saw cap. He was next to the energy core with his shield hung over his body in a defensive position. Tony dropped down to the floor and picked him up to find the reason why cap didn't respond. He was unconscious. Cap is never unconscious on a mission, he's always too careful and cautious and has a plan to defeat the enemy what always works and never has them unconscious. This just wasn't right.
"Avengers, cap is down. Prepare the mini med bay on board the jet. He's unconscious but stable-no burns, injuries of the sort." Tony spoke over the com link. "What! Cap is unconscious! He's never knocked down in a fight!" Clint explained, obviously worried. Then there was a groan. "Oh hang on I think he's coming to. I'm coming out the building now." Tony replied, relived that their leader wasn't to be bought down just by blowing up a energy source. Tony did find suspicious though but was already flying out the exit to get any clues.
when they got outside, they were met by a group of very anxious avengers, minus widow, looking at them. That's when cap decided to wake up and jump out of Tony's arms. "Jesus! Give an iron man a warning would you!" Shouted Tony, obviously as scared as the rest by caps quick recovery. "Oh sorry Tony didn't see you there" replied cap, scratching the back of his neck, absentmindedly.
As they boarded the ship, the avengers were taken by suprise about how slow paced their teammate was going. "Are you alright cap or is age finally catching up with you?" Tony joked, but everyone knew him well enough to spot the worry hinted in his undertone. "Yes I'm fine. Just tired after the mission, I suppose." Was caps reply. Everyone just looked at him concerned then. "Cap, when do you get tired?" Clint questioned. "Everyone gets tired and I am still human. I just didn't get much sleep last night, that's all" cap replied, whilst simultaneously yawning.
when they got on board, eventually, they met a very annoyed Natasha. "Well, how did it go?" She snapped, angry that she had to fill back 'cause of a bullet wound. "It went okay and we got to see old capcicle be a human cannonball with shield to blow up an energy core and the entire building with HYDRA and avengers in alike" answers Tony sarcastically. As he turns to say to Steve that it was not a very captainy thing to do, he notices the said comrade is asleep. "Age did tire him out in the end the didn't I...ow! What was that for?" Shouted Tony. "You disrespecting Steve! He got the mission done, did he not?" Questions Natasha, but they all know it's a retorical question. "Yes. Yes he did get it done so shut-up!" She screamed. It was understatement to say that the avengers were shocked to hear her lose control over he emotions like that.
As they flew off and bandaged Natasha's leg, their attention was bought to Steve as he started to mutter in his sleep. "Is cap alright?" Asked Tony, not bothering to hide his concern anymore. This bought the team to give attention as if Tony stark was being serious about something for once then there has to be something wrong. As they stared at their distressed leader, Bruce asked " what exactly hit him?" This wasn't a suprise as he was hulk through the mission so he wouldn't be able to recollect any memories but it made them more concerned as Bruce had the room next to Steve's so he would know if anything about Steve's sleep was out of the ordinary. "Dive bombed right into a energy core. When he came on he did say he was tired." Tony replied, getting more worried by the moment on Steve's condition so when he started to thrash about, they decided to wake him up.
"Come on Steve, wake up!" Shouted Tony. "Steve, come on we really need you to wake up now, so get the hell out of dreamland and join the land of the living!" Yelled clint.
When they got to SHIELD they, had two medical stretchers, one for Natasha and the other for Steve.