Author's Note: Hello! This story will probably be my last for awhile. I'm just not feeling inspired lately but maybe that will change when season 2 rolls around. If there is one. Updates will probably be irregular so please be patient.
Consider this as...well, not a sequel, but an episode or two after "Puniatores, Congregate!" in my alternate season two story timeline.
Special thanks to FluffleNeCharka for her time, advice, and inspiration.
A True Hero
The frigid waters of the North Atlantic were gray and violent. Waves battered the small research vessel like fists and the scientists were finally coaxed below deck by the experienced but wary crew. The last thing they wanted was for the idealistic eggheads to be washed overboard before their check cleared. The scientists weren't in good shape, and the odds of them treading the frigid water long enough for the ship to circle back and rescue them were low, to be kind.
The research on global warming was not going as smoothly as Litant had hoped. He was no sailor and was sure the little boat would be dashed against an iceberg at any moment. He shuddered dramatically at the icy death he was sure approached. They'd explained to him about emergency procedures at great length, and the man knew exactly what would happen if they went down. One out of every five of them would make it in ideal circumstances. These were not ideal circumstances; they were overweight and over the safe number of people. He knew from the moment the captain had said that that things were destined to go wrong. He was no mathematician, but the odds of anything important going off without a hitch in the middle of the North Atlantic were low even on a good day.
His suspicions we confirmed when the radio squawked a warning about an approaching squall. The whole ship creaked around them and the lights flickered before the ship began to rock wildly. That was nothing new, and Litant might have dismissed himself as just being paranoid if he hadn't heard several sailors scream that they were finished. And while it wasn't hard to knock a scientist off his feet, when the rocking was bad enough the sailors couldn't stand, it was a real red flag. Worse yet, not only were there not enough freeze suits for everyone on board, but in this weather the few that managed to locate and put on a suit wouldn't be rescued in time.
The arctic sea was a cruel mistress. Twenty minutes ago it had been a picturesque day. Now Litant about to die. Dying to bring the world the truth about global warming. He supposed there were worse ways to die. He just wished he hadn't dragged so many of his fellow scientists out here with him.
He needn't have worried. Armored salvation was on its way.
One hour earlier..
"And what are you doing?"
Tony swiveled in his chair and regarded his best friend with solemn eyes. It was Tony's business face, as Pepper liked to call it, and if his bloodshot eyes were an indication he'd been here for a while.
"I'm monitoring the emergency channels. Looking for trouble. Some of us aren't lucky enough to have beautiful girlfriends to spend our Saturdays with."
"And whose fault is that?" Rhodey countered with a teasing grin. "Whitney was interested in you for years with no acknowledgment. And you treat Pepper like a sister. Most girls at school think you're weird."
"Gee... thanks for reminding me of my social ineptitude. Anything else you wanna rub in?"
"I'm still better looking than you," Rhodey quipped, smirking faintly.
Seriously, Rhodey was looking good lately. His raw umber eyes shone with a private joy and his walk was more confident. He and the lovely blonde were spending a lot of time together and while Tony knew it was good for his best friend to get out from under his shadow, he missed having his best friend and honorary sibling all to himself. He expected an engagement announcement any day now. Even Stane could not disapprove of Rhodey, and Tony knew he'd tried at length to do so because Stane had a track record of hating all his daughter's boyfriends. But no one with half a brain disapproved of Rhodey, not when the black boy had spent his whole life being the mature one in every group he was in. Tony privately thought the taller boy should be nominated for sainthood for all the grief Rhodey went through on Tony's behalf.
Not that that meant he'd let that remark go without quirking an eyebrow and asking, "Says who?"
Rhodey slowly ticked off names on his fingers. "Whitney. My mom. Pepper. That Goth girl in science class..."
"Speaking of, have you seen Pepper lately? She hasn't been at the lab as much as she used to."
"Well, she has a life outside Team Iron Man now. It's healthy. Aww..." Rhodey reached down and rubbed Tony's head, cooing like a concerned mother. "Is my widdle boy lonely? Is he?"
Tony brushed his friend's hand away in mock irritation, although a faint smile tugged at his lips. "Knock it off, 'Mom'. I'm fine. This just means more uninterrupted lab time for me."
Rhodey laughed out loud until the computer chirped an alarm.
"Speaking of interruptions..."
"Quiet, you."
The young inventor's storm blue eyes widened as he listened in to the signal. "A scientific research team is stuck in a squall. A rescue helicopter can't get through to save them."
Rhodey jerked his thumb in the direction of his War Machine armor. "Want some company?"
"Nah, I can handle a storm." Besides, Whitney would rip him to shreds if Rhodey didn't show up for their picnic on Sunday. She was what Pepper referred to as a Knight Templar girlfriend, although the two girls were on better terms now than they had been before. Whitney and Pepper were fond of telling people not to 'pull a Tony' and be late for things. In Rhodey's case, they needn't have bothered reminding him. Unlike his friend, the black boy was pretty reliable when it came to that sort of thing.
Still, though, he was a worrier by nature, and he frowned. "I'll monitor you, then. But... you know... be careful." The words 'for once' hung unspoken in the air.
The familiar red and gold armor encompassed the teen's body and he smiled reassuringly at his companion. "Hey, relax. I'm Iron Man. What could happen?"
The face plate slid into position and Rhodey remembered all the times things had gone wrong when Tony used that phrase. He paled considerably. "Two words, egghead: Murphy's law."
"Yeah, well, Murphy didn't have lasers," Tony retorted dryly, before taking off. He was gone before Rhodey could get in a reply. Not that his friend had one.
It was a valid point, after all.
The sea tossed and turned and Litant fought hard to quell his rising nausea. The beleaguered vessel groaned and strained all around the frightened scientists and crew. The small group of lab coat wearers huddled together for warmth and comfort; with death impending they saw no need in appearing brave and macho in front of the veteran sailors. Most of them were either trying to locate what rafts and safety equipment they could find and calling their loved ones for a final good-bye.
"This is the SS Amelia calling the SS Fidens. Please respond if you can hear us. Over."
The captain was familiar with the Amelia. She was a fairly large and sturdy crab vessel and could easily accommodate the extra weight of both crew and passengers. The dilemma lay in the other ship arriving in time. The sea was rough, but manageable if they moved carefully and had the balls to take the chance of crashing into stray ice out here. Which, of course, the Amelia's captain did. He knew no fear and would sooner shoot himself through the head than leave someone to die out in the frigid sea. His name was Veeran Olkowski, but out of respect he was mostly referred to as Captain Olkowski, even by his family. In thirty three years on the sea he had never lost a crew member. Never. He set the record for both safety and reckless rescues. Everyone who overheard the name Amelia on board the Fidens immediately grew hopeful. If Olkowski was coming for you, you were going to make it. Even if you'd been shot through the stomach with a harpoon. (It was a long story. But it had earned him the nickname North Aqua man, and thus solidified him as a hero to the fishing world.)
"This is the SS Fidens. We read you. Over."
"We received you SOS and are on our way. Please send your coordinates. Over."
The captain dutifully relayed his ships coordinates but had little hope for rescue as the deck beneath him splintered and pitched upward, impaling his calf. White hot pain shot through him like a knife. Even Olkowski, he thought bitterly, wasn't going to be able to save them this time. But he had no time to call for help when the ship he spent most of his Navy pay on disintegrated and threatened him with icy, ignoble death. The water was so cold it was white hot, and they didn't have enough emergency suits nor the time to get everyone into them even if they'd had them. In the event that the captain survived this – which he doubted more and more as he rapidly lost feeling in his injured leg – he would lose his boating license and never be allowed to command a ship again. And, as he fought to stay conscious, he felt that was right. He should never have put all these people in such grave danger. The icy sea was a murderess enough on its own without his foolishness adding to this problem. As the crippled man fought to stay afloat, he prayed that someone would survive this waking nightmare.
The group of scientists held on to each other as they plunged into the frigid waters and submerged before they broke the surface, shivering. Only one-quarter of them could swim and only in a pool under controlled conditions. They were too busy keeping their colleagues afloat to give their own safety much thought but the first mate had enough sense to get as many people as possible to any piece of floating wood he could find bigger than a coffee table. Cussing, the shaking black man pulled the rapidly frosting scientists onto the wood with sheer force of will. There was a piece of metal lodged in his side that he completely ignored as he allowed a shaking man to climb onto his back when there was no more room left on the wood. The first mate was yelling angrily at someone not to die when a voice interrupted the swear-laden statement.
"Greetings! My name is Iron Man and I'll be your hero today. You can thank the fine crew of the Amelia for your rescue though. Specifically, Captain Olkowski for radioing me the second I got into range."
The wet and shivering crowd looked up in astonishment at the scarlet and gold figure clearing a path through the ice for the crab vessel. Before anyone could react he began scooping up castaways two by two and depositing them on the deck of the rescue ship. Through his helmet some of them caught faint bits of conversation between him and Olkowski. Or to be more accurate, they heard Olkowski going on at length on what to do, which injuries to treat and which to leave alone. Occasionally Iron Man would get in a 'yes', but even the iron clad super hero knew not to argue with the virtuous fury of the Russian man. Twenty minutes passed and all of the scientists and crew were now safely out of the water and recovering in the ship's mess. A handful bemoaned the loss of their data, only to be shouted down by the sailors who reminded them that they were alive and able to start over and should count themselves lucky they didn't drown or die of hypothermia. It was a miracle that Olkowski had managed to get the ship through the blocky ice to get to them at all and how Iron Man had managed to come to their rescue so quickly they'd never know. Fate was on their side that day, it seemed.
Iron Man carefully searching the surrounding sea for anyone he missed. The on board computer cheerfully sounded a warning.
"Alert! Casualty detected. No vital signs can be ascertained."
Tony followed the route indicated by the computer and found a human figure floating in a large chunk of ice. He could not determine the age or gender of the person and scanned the body carefully. Large, muscular, not a child, but other than that he had no way of knowing specifics. Still, an adult meant that it could've been one of the people from the ships earlier. Worried, he contacted the fishing vessel.
"Iron Man to Amelia. Are you guys missing anyone? Err, over." It was hard to remember that, sometimes.
"Negative, Iron Man." Captain Olkowski's frown came across in his voice. "Do you need us to double check, over?"
"Yes. Also, what about the Fidens? Over."
There was a long pause, some soft voices in the background, and then, "I had my crew do another head count. They say they aren't missing anyone, over."
"Well, I found someone out here. Looks like he or she was flash frozen. Over."
"You wanna bring them on board?" Olkowski sounded contemplative. "We may be able to partial-defrost the poor guy, but it'll be a bit before we get to the nearest bay's hospital, over."
Iron Man scanned the person in the ice. Being frozen so quickly had sent the body into a state of shock and stopped the heart, killing instantly but preventing cellular damage. The only way to save the icebound victim was to move him or her into a climate controlled room and allow the body to adjust to the climate change before being moved to room temperature. To put the body into a hot room, as many well intentioned but ill informed people had tried in the past, could trigger a second state of shock and possibly fatal cardiac arrest. The defrost process was slow, but absolutely critical to the survival of the frozen victim. Fortunately for his new best friend, Tony Stark had just the facilities for such a procedure.
"Negative on that, Captain Olkowski. This person needs specialized medical care. I'll take care of it. You focus on pulling off those non-lethal miracle stories you're famous for, I'll handle the Popsicle. Over."
Boot jets activated, Iron Man hefted his icy burden over one shoulder, pausing only wave at the grateful yet confused crowd below before heading for home. Some had injuries, but no one had any that couldn't be kept out of critical condition until they reached the nearest bay. Olkowski had two trained doctors on his boat at all times and his ship could take the extra weight – everyone would be fine. And Tony could, true to his word, take care of the unknown dead man.
He couldn't wait to see the look on Rhodey's face when he brought home an iceberg piñata.
"Have you completely lost your mind?"
Rhodey knew firsthand there was a fine line between genius and madness. His best friend had a penchant for not only crossing that line repeatedly but doing the Hamster Dance on it as well. He understood there was usually a method to Tony's madness, like the time he made a shoulder mounted tennis ball gun to wipe out a bully who was taking lunches and breaking the fingers of anyone who objected. Bringing home a frozen dead man and parking the corpse in the lab was pure insanity.
The taller boy stared at his heroic friend incredulously. "You have no idea what you've done, have you? Kidnapping is a federal crime, even if the person is already dead. Why not leave him with the authorities and call it a day? This is the craziest thing you've ever done!"
Tony managed a shrug even inside the armor. "You've said that so many times the phrase has lost all meaning."
"I'm serious! Do you have any idea what would happen if my mom found out? Remember all the stricter laws pertaining to corpses after that bust of that organ harvesting ring? Even if she claimed plausible denialbility, this could ruin Mom's career!"
"Relax, I'll buy her a new one." Tony's face took on a mulish cast that meant it was useless to argue further with him because he'd already decided on a course of action and refused to change. "Even the most technologically advanced hospitals don't have a foolproof method of thawing out a frozen person without killing him."
"Even cryogenics haven't solved that little conundrum yet. What makes you think you can? Wait, don't tell me. Because you're Tony Stark. The Infallible." Rhodey sighed loudly. "The least you could have done is call ahead to warn me, boy genius. I could have had the lab prepped and saved you a few hours."
Iron Man rubbed the back of his helmet with his glove and Rhodey could almost picture his best friend's embarrassed smile. "Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't thinking about how this would affect you guys, as usual. It would be awkward to explain this to your mom."
The taller boy chuckled and then said. "So what about Frosty?" He asked, jerking his thumb in the general direction of the cold lab.
"What do you mean?"
Tony was dense. "I mean, how will you explain all this to the poor guy. What will stop him from running to the police with a wild story about some teen genius with a secret lab?"
Iron Man sat down and retracted his faceplate. "Way ahead of you. We thaw him out, he comes to, sees Iron Man, is carried to the nearest hospital for treatment. The Maria Stark Foundation makes an anonymous donation to the hospital for the guy's care and we're home free."
"Murphy's Law, Tony."
"Lasers, Rhodes."
Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Lasers won't stop Mom. She's laser proof. They'll bounce right off. By the way, Einstein, Pepper called while you were off being photographed. I mean, heroic." Tony glared at him but the darker teen went on as if oblivious. "She's coming over later and bringing something to eat."
Tony smiled. He'd been missing his honorary "sister" and swore it wasn't just because she was a soothing balm to his ego. She'd taken her rebirth as a cyborg better than expected and had quickly risen both academically and athletically. Pepper joined the track team and was studying martial arts with Whitney. That friendship continued to astonish.
"In that case, we should clean up a bit. Maybe vacuum, hide the frozen guy..."
"You're still not funny, Tony."
Having a tingling sensation in one's limbs is irritating. Having one's whole body experience the strange experience of nerve numbness is downright vexing, if a bit scary.
Captain Steve Rogers, late of the United States Army woke with a jerk and struggled to his feet, feeling weak and uncharacteristically clumsy. He hadn't felt this way since...but they assured him...was the treatment wearing off?
He looked around him. The walls were concrete and uniformly gray, giving no hint to his location. The floor was similar, if covered with melted water. The last thing he remembered was fighting Baron Zemo and Bucky...brave Bucky had tried to save both their lives only to perish before his startled eyes. His face crumbled for a moment in grief.
Bucky was beyond his help now and safely in the Lord's loving arms. He had to break out of here, wherever "here" was. A quick scan of his cell revealed nothing but himself, and a melting chunk of ice. Yes...he must have fallen into the water and fished out by persons unknown. It could have been the Axis or the Russians; allies or not, they made him nervous.
The water around him sloshed a bit as he walked and he tripped over something. Astonished, he saw his trusty shield silently floating in the muddied water. He picked it up in wonder and held it like an old friend.
So entranced was he with his discovery he didn't hear the doors open until the scarlet and gold...whatever it was...strode in and stood before him. The getup was a bit too Flash Gordon for his taste.
"Hey. Good to see you're awake. How about breakfast in bed?"
Steve drew his sidearm, only to discover decades of rust prevented it from firing. He threw it down in disgust and gripped his shield.
Iron Man brought up his empty hands in a gesture of peace. "Hey, relax! I'm the one who saved you! You're safe!"
"Then why don't you remove that helmet, soldier?"
The man looked to be in his mid-twenties and more fit than any one man had a right to be. He could have walked right off a World War II recruitment poster: blond hair, blue-eyed all-American guy. The fatigues he wore looked like they came from a museum. Some sort of crazy war re-enactor? Tony was at a loss as how to answer. He couldn't reveal himself, even to someone who seemed...mostly harmless.
The older man sat down cross legged on the floor, looking resigned. "Fine. I'm your prisoner, but I expect you to follow the Geneva Convention, even if you are a Nazi."
Tony's eyes widened behind his mask as the man began to recite. "You want my name and rank, soldier? You got it. Captain Steve Rogers of the United States Army serving under our great Commander-in-Chief, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And that, mein freund, is all the information you'll get out of me."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Tony! Thought you might be hungry, so I went to the deli and picked up some rotisserie chicken and potato salad. They had a special on potato rolls so I..."
She stopped dead when she saw the man in fatigues, eyes widening. Steve automatically stood at attention when he saw her; good manners and respect for ladies had been drilled into him since childhood. Her mouth quirked with amusement. He looked ready to salute her.
Gently, she balanced bag on her hip and looked at the strange young man. He stared back almost to the point of rudeness and Pepper became self-conscious about her wardrobe choices. "Are you a prisoner here too, ma'am? Does he have you wait on him and dress in those strange clothes? He can't make you do that, ma'am."
Pepper froze and then began laughing. "Prisoner? HA! Besides, if Tony started ordering me around I'd punch him." Something in the man's manner, the way he spoke made her realize something unusual was going on. No one from this century was that polite. Well, maybe Rhodey.
"Sir? Do you know what year this is?" She finally asked gently.
Steve looked at her. She seemed as sweet and pretty as any of the Irish girls he grew up with. But she was wearing funny get-up and asking strange questions. "Sure thing, ma'am. Nineteen forty-five."
Her earth colored eyes widened and she looked at Tony. "I think you'd better remove your armor."
"But-"
"Relax, he's not armed and he's too much of a gentleman to hurt me. Just do it, Tony."
He shrugged. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Steve Rogers had thought he'd seen everything in his day. But to see that armor split apart and reveal a skinny young shaver about Bucky Barnes' age beat all. The boy smiled at him, friendly and open.
"Hi, I'm Tony Stark. This is my friend, Pepper Potts. Listen...Captain Rogers, I think you were in that iceberg for about sixty-five years. It's now two thousand ten. You're in my lab. We're in New York City. In the United States."
The man in fatigues grew unsteady and Pepper rushed to his side to support him. The boy looked American, he sounded American, but this whole nonsense about being frozen longer than the president had been alive was too hard to swallow. It had to be a Nazi trick.
Steve grabbed the girl, who protested. Tony stared in shock. Why is it everyone he tried to help ended up turning on him?
"Relax, ma'am, I'll get us both out of here," Steve whispered to Pepper.
She rolled her eyes in response. "Gee, held hostage again. Surprise surprise. I should have stayed away like I promised myself."
Tony approached Steve cautiously. "Sir, I didn't mean to frighten you, but there's no need to take prisoners. No one's going to hurt you. Just stay calm and we'll-"
He was cut off as Pepper became impatient with the conversation and took matters-and Steve Rogers-into her own hands.
"Kiai!" she exclaimed and before anyone could react, she judo threw the startled man over her hip and kneeled on top of him to hold him down. "Tony, get some rope and tie him up!"
"Uh..." the boy hesitated, "Pepper, don't you think this is kind of counterproductive? I mean, we were trying to prove we weren't the bad guys."
"Just do it!"
Though mostly raised in a male household, Tony still remembered a time when a woman reigned supreme over him and scurried to do Pepper's bidding.
Now trussed to a chair, Steve Rogers sighed in disappointment at Pepper. "A collaborator. I might have known. Ma'am, if you surrender now, I promise you'll be treated fairly. No telling what sort of torture you've been put through."
Pepper frowned. "We should get Rhodey in here. He's the history nut."
Tony pulled out his POD and the prisoner was shocked to see the tiny device whirr to life. Rhodey picked up on the second ring.
"Hello?"
"Rhodey? Are you home yet?"
"Yeah. Just got dropped off by Whitney's driver. What's up?"
"Can you come down to the lab? Oh! And bring a paper from last January? January twentieth?"
"Yeah, but-"
"Trust me." Tony clicked the phone off.
The blond man couldn't believe what he was seeing. Albert Einstein was one thing but some of the gadgets these Nazis had was amazing.
"Hey, what's the rush?" Rhodey came in holding an old newspaper. He saw the visitor and stopped. His expression went from confused to severe. "You might have mentioned you had company. Is this the guy you brought from Halifax?"
Steve Rogers stared at the newcomer. He'd been friends with some of the Tuskegee Airmen and was more concerned with their courage and abilities than their skin but was still astonished at the two teenagers easy friendship and treatment of each other as equals. But that was nothing when he saw the headline on the newspaper. He began to suspect this wasn't a Nazi trick; they saw dark skin as being even more un-Aryan than Judaism. What in all creation was going on?
"Barack Obama, forty-fourth president of the United States January twentieth, two thousand and nine." He read aloud and met each of their gazes in astonishment.
He sagged in his chair, finally beginning to accept what they were telling him. "I think I need to hear everything."
Pepper didn't like the defeated look on his face and began to make him a plate of food. "Well, Captain Rogers..."
"Steve, ma'am."
"Steve...and you don't have to call me 'ma'am'. Even though it's nice to be treated like a lady." Tony and Rhodey appeared to take umbrage at that. "I guess we should start with the last thing you remember."
Steve sat at the table with Rhodey and Pepper. The awkward silence between them was nearly tangible. The formerly frozen man had never sat down at the same table as his darker brothers in arms before. He'd met the famous Tuskegee Airmen, even shook their hand and honestly told them how much he respected their work. But his beloved America didn't see them quite as equals and he and they knew it. Unsure about how to interact with the teen without offending him, he kept silent.
Miss Pepper Potts was also a surprise. She had the right name though; full of pep, she was. She reminded him of his mother, who he still missed. He hadn't met a woman so independent and feisty since Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. That was one classy lady who'd make a good president. If women...well, that didn't seem so out of reach now. One lady had tried to run but didn't quite make it. Now she was part of the new president's Cabinet. And a lady was Speaker of the House. He'd bet the WAC s and Rosie the Riveter were proud. Wait until he told-
Reality sucker punched him in the gut. Bucky was...gone. His fellow soldiers were too, or they were old men. His life, his home, his time. All gone.
Rhodey gently tapped him on the shoulder and he held still to keep from flinching away. "You OK?"
The soldier forced himself to nod and then looked up into the young man's eyes. They were kind and compassionate and Rogers could see himself warming up to the teen once he got to know him. He was a bit like Bucky, him and that Tony fella.
"Just fine, soldier. Where am I bunking?"
Pepper found herself liking Steve Rogers. He seemed very honest and forthright and was doing his best to treat them both like equals despite how uncomfortable he was with modern attitudes. But to Rogers, a comrade was a comrade regardless of skin. Girls were OK in his book too.
"There's plenty of room down here." She told their guest. "Tony found you a bed and a place to shower. You can stay as long as you like. In the meantime, we found plenty of books to help you get caught up with our time." She didn't think the good captain was quite ready for computers.
"Please make sure you stay out of sight, Steve." Rhodey joined the conversation. "We'll be in big trouble if my mom finds you." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I'm not sure how we'd explain to her how a man trapped in ice just happened to be here."
Steve frowned. "You're keeping secrets? From your mother? That's not right, son. She's bound to find out sooner or later and lying to your parents is practically un-American."
Pepper shifted ever so slightly in her chair. She was keeping just as many secrets from her own father but not because she feared punishment, but for his own peace of mind. It didn't make it right, though.
"Rhodey's mom is a lawyer. She'd crush us and insist you be turned over to the proper authorities. Then it's off to a lab where they'd run blood tests and..."
"No!" The word burst out of him with more vehemence than he intended and his companions looked surprised. He muttered an apology. If someone tested his blood, they'd find out about the Super Soldier Serum. That was a secret he promised to take to his grave. He decided a compromise was in order.
"All right, we won't tell your mother right now. But I still don't think it's right."
A lady lawyer, huh? Wouldn't Katherine Hepburn be jealous of that.
