RED HOOK, BROOKLYN, NYC - JULY 31, 1991 12:03PM

A plan was quickly formulated. It turned out that mind-controlled or not, Clint had a big mouth when it came to SHIELD history and secrets, which when combined with the Black Widow's infamous powers of persuasion meant that Natasha was able to provide shockingly specific details about exactly where the SSR headquarters were located.

The problem of how to get to the necessary location was solved by Steve's habit of hoarding subway tokens. Tony couldn't help but make a crack about boy scouts and being prepared when he found that out. He and Steve may have put their fight aside temporarily, but Tony was never one to let things go completely, and Steve was just too easy a target sometimes.

Soon, the four Avengers plus Pepper were standing in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, not far from what appeared to be a munitions factory that very prominently featured the Stark Industries logo on its sign. Tony had a very, very bad feeling about this.

"Guys," he reminded them, "just remember to be careful. Anything you do could have lasting repercussions that could follow us back to our own timeline. If we get back to our own timeline at all."

"It'll be fine, Tony," Bruce said reassuringly. "We discussed this. Natasha is going to take out a couple of the guards, quietly, so that we can borrow their badges. Thankfully, technology wasn't at the point in 1991 where we have to worry about security measures beyond a couple of guards and an alarm system. Are you certain that the instructions you gave Pepper will enable her to hack the SSR computers for information in case Natasha isn't able to find what we need in the hard files?"

"Please," Tony said, "We're talking about a time when MS-DOS 5.0 and Linux were considered cutting edge. I could teach Steve how to hack them right now."

"Right then," said Bruce, "are you all right, Pepper?"

Pepper nodded, shyly. Tony hadn't exactly been thrilled that she was going with them and he wasn't, but he knew that going into a Stark Industries building wasn't exactly a good idea for him given the circumstances and Pepper's help was needed.

"Okay then," said Bruce. He was nervous, as he always was when he couldn't hide away in a lab and ensure the Other Guy didn't cause problems. "Let's go."

Tony and Steve could only watch as the others approached the back entrance to the factory.


SSR SERVER ROOM, NYC - JULY 31, 1991 12:30PM

Infiltrating the SSR's base had almost been too easy. The alarm system and security camera technology were laughable compared to what Natasha was used to dealing with and the guards, while well trained, had not put up much of a fight. Now, it was just a matter of the three of them blending in and finding the information they needed.

"Are you going to be okay in here?" Natasha asked Bruce, once they had located the room housing the base's computer server. She motioned to Pepper, indicating that it wasn't really Bruce she was concerned with.

"We'll be fine, Natasha. You hit the agents in here pretty hard. I don't think they're getting up anytime soon." He motioned to the two unconscious men who had been unfortunate enough to be working when they entered, sounding sympathetic towards them.

"Ten minutes, okay? Then, I'll be back to check on you." Natasha said, sneaking out the door to look for where the hard copy files were kept. Pepper moved towards one of the computers and began to hack into it according to the instructions Tony had provided.

"How are you holding up, Pepper?" asked Bruce.

"I'm doing about as alright as is possible, given the circumstances," she replied. "This is not what I was expecting when I woke up this morning."

"Yeah," said Bruce, giving her a small smile, "me neither."

The pair worked together in silence for several tense minutes. Suddenly, the two were startled by sound of intermittent static and near unintelligible voices coming from the unconscious agents radios. "there... are you... come in... alarm system down... come in?"

"What do we do?" asked Pepper. They began to hear the sound of footsteps running down the hallway outside the door. They were in trouble.


SSR FILING ROOM, NYC - JULY 31, 1991 12:39PM

Natasha moved swiftly, stepping over the unconscious bodies of the SSR agents unlucky enough to have been in her way in the filing room. She opened each of the large, deep drawers of files and skimmed quickly for any reference to the Tesseract. She was still having no luck and about to give up and return to Bruce and Pepper when she felt the unfortunately all too familiar feeling of a gun barrel press into the back of her neck. She froze.

"I don't know who the hell you are or what you're doing here, but whatever you're looking for better be worth your life," said the voice, in an instantly recognizable firm baritone. "Turn around, slowly."

Betraying none of her shock, Natasha did, only to be face to face with the seemingly immortal face of none other than Nick Fury. He looked identical to the man that they had spoken to just that morning, 23 years in the future. And not for the first time, Natasha wondered exactly how little she really knew about SHIELD history if even an agent as seasoned as Clint hadn't been able to fill her in on the most important details.

As Fury stared at her intently with his one good eye, two SSR agents shoved Bruce and Pepper at gunpoint into the room behind him.

"Now," Fury said, "explain yourself. It better be good."


RED HOOK, BROOKLYN, NYC - JULY 31, 1991 12:20PM

Once their teammates departed, Tony and Steve leaned against the wall of the alleyway they'd chosen to hide out in and a tense silence settled over them. Without their teammates as a buffer or the urgency of their situation as a distraction, the harsh words they exchanged earlier were harder to simply put aside.

Finally, Steve broke the quiet. "Tony," he said, and before he even began Tony wished he would just stop. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

"I am trying..." he paused, hesitant, "...very hard... to come to terms with the fact that your father lived a long life after my plane went down. That everyone did. You know that don't you?" Steve said.

"Obviously, Cap," replied Tony, very uncomfortable. His father was the last thing he wanted to be talking about at that moment. "You know we don't have to do this. I said some things, invaded your privacy, you said some things. I'm..." and he almost had to choke the words out "...sorry. I was a jack-ass. Can we just be done? It doesn't matter anymore."

"But it does," said Steve, unwilling to let it go. "It matters to me that you know that. Your father was a good man, but I can't expect that the version of him that I knew compares to the version that you grew up with. I never asked about him because I was trying to respect your privacy. Which is all I was asking for today."

"That's fair," said Tony. "But really, can we not talk about this right now?"

The tense silence returned.

Several minutes later, it was broken not by either of the men in the alley, but by an exclamation from nearby.

"Oh my God." The pair turned, and Tony went pale as though he'd just seen a ghost. Because he sort of had. There, standing a few feet from them in the street facing the alley, was none other than the subject of their conversation, Tony's father, looking just as he remembered him.

"Steve?" Howard asked. He laughed to himself in shock. "Oh my God, Steve!"

Steve wasn't sure what to do or say. They were in big trouble.

Howard nearly doubled over with joy, and then pulled himself back up to look at the heavens in amazement. "I did it!" he exclaimed. "Christ, I actually did it! I don't believe it!" He stumbled over awkwardly and wrapped his arms around Steve, who wasn't sure what to do other than stand there awkwardly. "Howard..." Steve said in shock, hugging the man back slightly, but before he could continue, he was interrupted.

"You did it?" Tony asked, coming to his senses and realizing that the man's reaction to seeing Steve was not what he would have expected. "What did you do?"

Howard looked up at him from over Steve's shoulder as though he only just noticed he was there. "Uh..."

"What. Did. You. Do?" Tony asked.


ARCTIC CIRCLE - JULY 31, 1991 10:17AM

"I think we've got something!" Agent Karlsonn exclaimed excitedly, stumbling as he attempted to run through the arctic snow towards his colleagues. He had to yell to be heard over the loud, persistent whine of the drill as it dug deeper and deeper into the ice.

The signals he was receiving on his equipment were all over the place. Strangely, they matched those of the cube that had been retrieved not far from their vicinity years earlier. That was a good sign. It was possibly an indication that they were near the very wreckage they had been searching for. Were they finally nearing their goal after all these years? The thought sent shivers of excitement rather than cold through Karlsonn's body.

Suddenly, a blue flash lit up the sky and the earth began to quake beneath them. He could hear the sounds of agents yelling around him, but he was in too much shock to run for cover. It was all happening so fast. he dropped his flashlight and it went out, plunging him into darkness. He tried to continue towards where he knew the others were, but he fell backwards, landing on his back in the snow.

After a moment, the shaking stopped. As Karlsonn squinted in the darkness to see and began to sit up, a figure appeared in front of him. "What happened?" he reached over and patted him hands in the snow trying to find his fallen flashlight.

"Something miraculous happened," a voice said. The accent was German, thick too. Funny, Karlsonn didn't recall any Germans on their team for this expedition.

"Is everyone alright?" Karlsonn asked.

Karlsonn finally found the flashlight and flicked it on, only to gasp in horror as the beam found the face of the figure in front of him. It was red, as though it had been burned deeply, and the eyes glinted with madness. It could only be one person, Karlsonn knew, but it was impossible. Wasn't it?

"For now," said the Red Skull answering the man's question. "but they won't be when I finish with them." With that, Karlsonn felt a blow to the back of the head, and blissfully lost consciousness.