Prologue
June 3, 2011, 8:49 pm
It was a warm summer evening in New York City, the sky blazing orange in the sunset. A woman of around twenty walked into a pizzeria in Times Square, greeting the manager before going up a set of stairs to a small apartment. She took out a set of keys, unlocking the door, and stepped inside.
Beep beep
"This had better be important," the woman said to the empty room, taking a cell phone out of her pocket and answering it. "What do you want, Fury? I just got home, you know."
"We need you to come in. The Times Square office." the man on the other end replied, and the woman rolled her eyes.
"I'll see you in ten minutes."
"ID please," the secretary requested, and the woman pulled what looked like a wallet from her back pocket, showing the secretary what was inside.
"Ah, Agent Russo. Down that hall, fifth door on your right." the woman, Agent Russo, set off down the indicated hallway, counting doors until she got to the correct one.
"Hello?" she called through the door, which opened to reveal a very large block of ice sitting on a metal table.
"You called me in for a large block of ice?"
"Agent Russo, this block of ice contains the body of Captain America. You do know who that is, right?"
"Just because I'm Italian doesn't mean I don't know about Captain America, Fury. But what does him being in this block of ice have to do with me?"
"You are the only agent who has the clearance for this that isn't scheduled for a mission over the next month, Russo. You are in charge of overseeing the melting of the ice surrounding the Captain, as well as checking for signs of life, et cetera."
"Really? You couldn't get fan-boy Coulson to do it?"
"He's in Shanghai on a mission for the next two weeks."
Over the next week, the large block of ice was gradually melted until a body clad in red, white, and blue started to emerge. Once the body was half-uncovered, the lab techs scanned it out of curiosity.
"Hey, this guy's alive!" one of them said, and the door opened to reveal a tall, blonde woman who walked in, looking expectantly at the head scientist.
"Explain," she hissed, giving the man a death-glare.
"Um, well, I thought that since the body was relatively uncovered, we should scan it for anything unusual. And, he's alive." the scientist explained nervously, indicating the still half-frozen body as he spoke.
"All of you, out!" the woman demanded, and the scientist fled, along with his lab techs.
"Good thing I've been watching those squints over the past week, or else I wouldn't know how to work this machine," she muttered to herself, turning on the machine that had been melting the ice.
"What are they doing out there?" the man on the hospital bed heard a voice say from above him. Something soft and warm was pressed rather firmly onto his face, and as he opened his eyes, he realized what the something was, becoming very uncomfortable, very quickly.
"Excuse me?" he said, his voice coming out muffled. His face was uncovered and he saw a tall, blonde woman standing beside his bed.
"Who are you?" the man asked, and the woman gave a half-smile.
"Giovanna Russo."