The nightmares hadn't stopped, and Steve didn't think they would anytime soon. After all he'd been through, he figured he was lucky to make it through the day without hallucinating their faces.
He couldn't feel the bag under his hands; all he could see was the ice, the bombs, the guns, and Red Skull grinning at him.
The bag went flying.
"Trouble sleeping?" Steve looked up, to see Director Fury standing in the doorway watching him.
"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." He'd grown to like the man well enough, although their method of breaking the news to him still grated. Did they think him stupid?
"Got a mission for me, sir?" He didn't want a mission. He didn't know what he wanted, but another bout of fighting for his country, when he didn't even know what his country was anymore, was definitely not it. Fury handed him a file. Inside was information on the Tessaract. He'd known it by another name, but he recognized it.
"Hydra's secret weapon." Looked like he didn't get a choice; that thing was his responsibility, whether he liked it or not.
"Is there anything about the Tessaract you should tell us now?"
"You should have left it in the ocean." Howard had known the damage it could do. Apparently, he, or SHIELD, had decided that its' power was worth the risk. Power does corrupt, after all.
XxX
"So this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum used on me?" The video screen, whatever the name of the device was, showed a large green man, trashing what appeared to be the city.
"A lot of people were," an agent explained. His name was Coulson, apparently. Director Fury had sent him to accompany Steve to their base. Why he couldn't have done it himself, Steve didn't bother wondering. The boss didn't do small jobs.
Agent Coulson continued, and Steve realized in amusement that the man was an embarrassed fan.
"I hope I'm the man for the job." He didn't feel ready; he still had trouble remembering the name of his mobile telephone. (Cell phone, but it said Stark Industries on the back. Why did Howard start making cell phones?)
"Oh, you are. Absolutely." At least someone had that faith.
XxX
"Trading cards?" They'd made trading cards of him? Why? Why not the ones that actually died in the war, instead of the face of it? He shook his head minutely. Coulson had the full set apparently.
"They're vintage. He's very proud." Agent Romanov, a red haired agent that Agent Coulson had left him with, led him towards another jet, where a timid looking man stood, watching the agents warily.
"Dr. Banner?" He held out a hand, which was met, with a surprisingly strong grip.
"Word is you can find the Cube." Dr. Banner nodded absently, as though being able to find the Tessaract wasn't that big a deal. Perhaps to him, it wasn't. Neither Agent Coulson now Agent Romanov had mentioned why Dr. Banner had agreed to come out of hiding to help. From his file, he certainly had no reason, besides stopping the end of the world.
"It's the only word I care about." Whatever had happened to him in that lab, he was here now, to help out. He couldn't very well judge the man when he'd done the same thing, with more success.
"I suppose this is all strange to you." Steve laughed a bit. People running around, with set duties and strict guidelines? No, that was all perfectly familiar.
Agent Romanov warned them to get inside.
"Is this thing a submarine?" Dr. Banner walked with him to the edge of the platform to look into the water.
"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized container?" Something was rising out of the water. After a moment, Steve could see they were… some kind of turbine?
"Oh no, this is much worse." Dr. Banner looked stressed, though Steve got the impression he always did, or maybe just around the military. They were led inside.
XxX
Steve handed Director Fury a five as they walked into the Helicarrier, watching through the windows as they rose into the sky. It was amazing. Maybe he did need to get more into the future, if it could offer things like this.
XxX
SHIELD had used some kind of facial recognition software that reached every camera in the world, or something similar. Steve wouldn't pretend to understand, but apparently it had found him at a gala of some kind in Germany. It was always Germany, wasn't it? Agent Romanov was flying them in.
The new uniform fit like a glove, and was a close match to what he used to wear. It was thicker material, though. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, though it felt similar to leather.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." This man was odder tha Hitler, sure. Armor, horned helmet and glowing blue scepter certainly didn't match to the mustache and suit. But the ideals were the same, in the end. People hadn't changed, even if the world had.
"Kneel!" He was fast, faster than Steve had anticipated. Not fast enough.
"Not today!" As they fought, Steve frowned. Loki was strong, and that scepter was sharp. Yet he wasn't using either to his advantage. It worried him.
Music blared, from the speakers of the jet they'd flown in, and a loud crash from behind him announced the arrival of another agent.
"Make a move, Reindeer Games." A figure covered in metal walked forward. Loki's hands went up. Steve greeted Mr. Stark as he joined him. He'd been briefed on him as well; ex-weapons manufacturer and creator of the most advanced battle suit in existence. Iron Man.
XxX
They both stood in the back of the jet, while Loki was strapped in a seat in the middle and Agent Romanov flew. Steve observed the other man, who had removed his helmet, revealing a trimmed goatee and a grinning face. He didn't seem capable of taking anything seriously.
He glanced back to Loki, who sat quietly, making no move towards a weapon or escape, despite apparently being able to teleport.
"I don't like it." Stark turned to look at him.
"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" He sounded unbothered by the situation. Steve felt his (metaphorical) hackles rise, but refused to react. He'd dealt with people he didn't care for before, this was no different.
"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow." What was Stark going on about now? He was still going on, called him a 'Capsickle.'
"Fury didn't mention he was calling you in." For some reason, this caused Stark to turn away, an odd expression on his face. It was only for a moment, however.
"Yeah. There's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." They both stood silently for a moment, until thunder rumbled from around them. Loki, Steve noticed, seemed nervous.
"Scared of a little lightening?" Loki spared him a glance, before looking back towards the roof of the jet.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Steve glanced at Stark, who looked confused, before there was a loud clang of something hitting the jet.
The doors were yanked open, and a man in armor carrying… was that a war hammer? What? He ran in, yanked Loki out of his seat, and jumped out, carrying him by his shirt.
"Then there's this guy…" Stark grabbed his helmet.
"Another Asgardian?" Agent Romanov sounded as confused as Steve felt, which was a relief. He hated not knowing what was going on.
"Think this guys a friendly?" Stark was walking towards the open doors.
"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tessaract's lost." He pulled the helmet on, and Steve watched, fascinated, as it closed automatically, attaching to the armor.
"Stark, we need a plan of attack!"
"I have a plan. Attack." With that, he jumped. Blue light flared out of cloud as he dropped from view. Steve scowled, reaching for the parachutes.
"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Agent Romanov was fiddling with the controls, trying to level the jet out again. Steve scoffed. He was not leaving Stark to deal with two of them. Or he didn't trust Stark to do the job properly, having no apparent tactical experience. Or both.
"They're basically gods."
"There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." What kind of world had the future become, that they believed in gods like these? Some part of him recognized that that wasn't what she meant, but his mind seemed to find fault in everything the future had to offer lately.
XxX
He fell slowly, giving him time to think. Steve realized that he was far more irritable than he had any reason to be; Stark was obnoxious, but he was finding that many people were, and that had always been true. So why was he reacting like this?
Must be the added stress of a mission and the fact that he was out of time, despite his flippant remark to Loki to the contrary. He felt better at the moment, at least.
Steve could see Stark and the other man were destroying the forest as they tried to take each other down. Stark's armor was powerful, as was the hammer; the trees didn't stand a chance.
He landed, managed to get the parachute off with minimal problems, and ran for the battle, throwing his shield as he reached them. It bounced off of the other man's head, then Stark, before rebounding back to him.
"That's enough!" They both looked at him. He could see no expression on either of them.
"Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here…" The other man interrupted him, scowling now. Steve abruptly hoped that Agent Romanov was going to get Loki, because he had his hands full.
"I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes!"
"Then prove it! Put the hammer down." Stark began to say something about the hammer in protest, before being knocked aside.
"You want me to put the hammer down?!" The man leapt at him, hammer raised. Steve barely got the shield up in time. The resulting explosion (what was that hammer made of?) caused destruction for yards.
Stark and the man got up, standing near him.
"Are we done?" The other man looked sheepish. Stark's helmet held no expression, but his body language spoke of being distracted, not ashamed of acting like a schoolboy.
"I apologize for my actions. I should have informed you of my intentions instead of interfering with them. I an Thor, Prince of Asgard. Loki is my brother." Thor, apparently, latched the hammer onto his belt, and walked forward, hand out.
"Captain Rogers. Good to meet you, Prince Thor. I hope you can help us out on this." Thor's name had appeared in some of the files he'd been set to read. He shook his hand, and felt some hair stand on end from the electricity in this guy.
"Agent Romanov has Loki, and has the jet waiting above us. You want a ride up, Captain?" Steve nodded. He had to accept, as he had no way back up to the jet alone. Thor looked at him with slight confusion.
"Metal Man, you have not deigned to introduce yourself to the good captain and myself. Tell us your name!" Stark looked at him.
"Tony Stark. Iron Man in this armor. Can we wait until we get to the Helicarrier before we break out the name games?" Without waiting for a response, he walked forward, taking hold of Steve by his waist and jetting upwards. Below them, he could hear Thor trying to catch up, however he flew.
They landed on the jet again. Loki was in his seat, Agent Romanov in the pilots seat once again.
"You boys done?" Stark had removed his helmet again, and grinned at her.
"Naturally. Want to take these guys back? I need to be elsewhere for a few minutes." She nodded, not even looking back, and Stark jumped out of the open doors just as Thor arrived again.
Steve glared at the empty space, but didn't comment.
XxX
"Loki is going to drag this out. Thor, what's his play?" They sat in a council room in the Helicarrier, watching Loki's interrogation. Thor frowned, his arms folded. Even out of armor, he looked dangerous. Steve was abruptly grateful that the fight hadn't escalated; with the hammer taken into account, Steve wouldn't be placing bets on the victor.
Thor began to explain the Chitari, an alien species of unknown origin.
"An army. From outer space." Sometimes Steve wondered if he was still asleep, or dead somewhere, and dreaming himself into a comic book.
The scientist that Loki had taken from the facility was apparently a friend of Thor's from his first visit to Earth. Definitely personal, taking him.
Dr. Banner was asking about the material stolen when Loki had been captured. Iridium.
"It's a stabilizing agent." They looked up, to see Stark and Agent Coulson walking in. Stark whispered something about a flight to Agent Coulson, before continuing speaking.
"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He paused, hit Thor lightly on the shoulder, before walking forward again. Thor looked confused once again by his behavior. Steve set his teeth while Stark and Dr. Banner discussed the portal. He had no real idea of what was going on in the discussion, only that Stark stopped to yell something about monitors and mention a man playing Galaga. Steve looked up, trying to see what he was talking about, but with no actual idea what Galaga was, couldn't tell if he saw anything or not.
"Finally, someone who speaks English!"
"Is that what that was?" He could almost relate to that, but lost that feeling when Stark began to speak again.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Dr. Banner looked a bit bewildered by the comment, but thankfully didn't seem annoyed. Steve didn't care for how Stark was treating everything like a game.
The scepter came into discussion, as did its' mind controlling properties.
"I want to know how it turned two of the sharpest men I know into Loki's personal flying monkeys."
Steve couldn't help it; he exclaimed happily, "I understood that reference!" It was the first time since he'd woken up to actually be part of the cultural joke. From Fury's face, his reaction was unexpected.
Well, they pulled him straight from the ocean to sixty years in the future, in the middle of a war that seemed straight out of a sci-fi novel. What did they expect, that he'd be perfectly adjusted to everything immediately?
XxX
The lab that Stark and Dr. Banner had retreated to had all glass windows for the walls. So long before he entered, he saw Stark approaching with some stick. As he walked in, Stark jabbed it at Dr. Banner, and watched closely for a reaction.
"Nothing?"
"Are you nuts?" Stark barely spared him a glance, still watching for some sign he'd broken through Dr. Banner's rather remarkable control.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Stark finally turned to look at him, unperturbed.
"Funny things are." The man acted like a child. He'd been told that Tony Stark was a certified genius, but he'd only seen a few glimpses of it, buried below enough immaturity to make an elementary school look like a military base. The man was arrogant. Steve hated arrogance.
"You need to focus on the problem, Stark." Finally, he had the man looking at him without a joke or a grin. Instead, he looked annoyed, and… was that worry?
"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
"You think Fury's hiding something?" He actually liked Fury, he was the one who was trying to get him into the world. He liked most of the agents well enough, to be honest. They had the military attitude he was used to.
"Captain. He's a spy. He's the Spy. His secrets have secrets." From… somewhere, Stark pulled a bag of blueberries, eating them as he gestured towards Dr. Banner.
"It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Dr. Banner abruptly looked nervous to be the center of attention.
"Um… I just want to finish my work here and…" Steve narrowed his eyes. Was there something to what Stark was implying?
"Dr. Banner?" He sighed, before looking up at them both.
"'A warm light for all humanity to share.' Loki's jab at Fury." Steve nodded, unsure of where this was going. Dr. Banner gestured back at Stark.
"Well, I think that was meant for you." They were talking about energy now.
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…" he paused momentarily, realizing that he was essentially insulting the man in front of him. But he had to finish. "… building in New York?" Stark didn't look all that bothered by the insult, though there was something in the back of his eyes that made Steve wonder.
"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Stark looked pleased that Dr. Banner knew this.
"Well, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tessaract project? I mean, what are they doing in clean energy in the first place?" Steve felt rather uncomfortable. He was a military man, trained to trust his government, at least to the point that they had his best interests in mind, or at least the country's as a general consensus. Yet these two were talking of an open conspiracy of some sort. Then he tuned back in to Stark saying he was hacking all of SHIELD's files.
"I'm sorry, did you just say…?"
"Jarvis has been running since we hit the bridge. Soon I'll know all of SHIELD's dirty secrets. Blueberry?" He offered out the bag, a challenging look on his face.
"We have our orders." Steve scowled, annoyed. While he had no idea who Jarvis was, Stark was breaking into secret files on a hunch, instead of focusing on the issue actually in front of him; the alien invading army apparently being summoned while they stood there.
"Following orders isn't really my style."
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" He'd seen the footage captured of this man in action; all flair.
"Out of the people in this room, who is a) wearing a spangly outfit and b) not of use?" Steve didn't have a comeback to that. He knew perfectly well that until there were actual enemies to attack, he didn't have much use. He wasn't brilliant with science and computers, especially in this century. His skills were in strategy and combat, neither of which were possible yet. So he was useless at the moment, but it stung to have it pointed out.
"Just find the Cube." He stalked out, knowing that he'd lost the argument, which was reaffirmed when Stark spoke, just as the doors closed.
"That's the guy my dad couldn't shut up about?"
XxX
Steve would never admit to Tony Stark that his last barb had hit its mark. But it had. Howard Stark had been a colleague, maybe a friend, but not until he'd ignored his orders and gone in to save Hydra's prisoners. If Howard couldn't shut up about him, it certainly wasn't because he'd followed orders; it was because he got things done, without regard to th trouble he could be in later.
Dr. Banner had agreed that something was up with the situation, and while Stark's methods seemed incredibly wrong, Steve had to wonder.
So when there was nobody guarding the vault that held the remnants of the research on the Tessaract, he went inside. Wasn't that difficult; the doors weren't made for his level of strength. The serial number on the storage containers was the same as that of the files they'd been given.
Inside was proof that nobody learns from the past.
XxX
Steve walked back into the lab, where most of the 'team' was already standing. Stark's program was apparently working.
"What is Phase 2?" Steve walked forward, announcing his presence by setting the gun down heavily.
"Phase 2 is SHIELD used the Cube to make weapons. Sorry," he added sarcastically to Stark, "the computer was moving a little too slow for me." Fury raised his hands, looking at Steve.
"Rogers, we collected all the research on the Tessaract. This doesn't mean…" Stark turned the screen towards them, showing blueprints for even bigger weapons using the same energy.
"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?" Steve wants to scream in anger at how bad the world had gotten while he was asleep. He knew of the atom bomb, knew about Vietnam and Korea, but those were years ago, not today. He'd hoped that people had gotten better, not worse.
"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."
Agent Romanov entered then, and abruptly the room was too full and too loud, people yelling over each other. Fury began to yell at Thor, explaining the need for better weapons, while Thor pointed out that the experiments were what had called the Chitari to Earth in the first place.
"I'm sure if Stark still made weapons, he'd be in this neck deep." Steve frowned to himself. What had possessed him to say that?
"Wait, wait, hold on. When did this become about me?" Stark was glaring at him now.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" The man's arrogance had grated since he got here! Surely he realized that his behavior was obnoxious?
The room was full of arguing. Agent Romanov was trying to get Dr. Banner to leave the room.
"Why not let the guy blow off some steam?" Steve felt his anger mount.
"You know damn well why!" Stark seemed to be the embodiment of everything he didn't like about this century. Selfish, arrogant, too loud and fast and ignorant of any dangers. If the world depended on men like him, they were all doomed.
Stark turned to him, a challenge in his eyes.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." They had pulled away from the others, who were still talking about Dr. Banner.
"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off and what are you?" Somewhere, in the part of his mind that wasn't glowing red, he noticed that the light in Stark's eyes darkened.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." He remarked flippantly, as though the response was well rehearsed and needed no further explanation.
Steve wasn't sure what he said next. He knew that it burned as it came out of his mouth, full of hatred and anger, something his tormentors would have likely been proud of, if the tone was what he thought it was.
"I think I'd just cut the wire."
"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop acting like a hero." Stark seemed to finally snap, lashing out.
"What, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came from a bottle." Steve wanted to shrug. He knew that his abilities were an experiment, it was how he used them that made him a good person, which was why he had been chosen in the first place. Stark had all the power he needed, and none of the drive to do something good. He just used it for himself. Like everyone else Steve had met.
"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." He never found out the insult behind Stark's eyes this time, because their attention was drawn to Dr. Banner, who was getting angrier by the moment and backing away from Agent Romanov and Director Fury quickly, towards the scepter.
"You want to know my secret, Agent Romanov? You want to know how I'm so calm?" Steve walked forward a step, arms up.
"Dr Banner, please put down the scepter." He looked behind himself surprised to see what he was holding. The computer let out a noise behind all of them.
"I can get there faster." Stark spoke up, watching Dr Banner. Steve began to answer him, annoyed, when Dr Banner spoke again.
"Oh my God…" Then the world around them seemed to explode.
XxX
Steve hauled himself up, reaching towards Stark as well, who was struggling with the rocking Carrier to stand.
"Put on the suit." Stark wheezed something that might have been a laugh.
"Yup!" Together, they raced towards the door. As they ran, Steve noticed the rage he had been feeling faded, leaving confusion. What had been causing his intense anger? Stark may not be the epitome of a hero, but he was still here, and helping.
"You go to the damaged engine, I'll meet you there. It's the one to the left of the control room. Go!" Stark raced down a side hallway while Steve ran another direction, towards the damaged engine.
XxX
The ship was in chaos, and the area around the engine wasn't damaged so much as gone.
"I'm here!" Steve yelled into his ear piece. He often forgot he had one in, they were so small.
Stark flew in, his suit flashing in the sun. He got in close to the trashed machinery. He was speaking, talking about what they needed to do, but Steve just felt lost. He wasn't an engineer, especially for something like this.
"I need you to get to the engine's control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." He pointed towards a panel above where Steve stood, before beginning to work his way into the engine itself, moving debris out of the way and tossing it below them. Steve worked his way towards the control panel, sliding it out of the wall. He almost groaned at the bizarre mesh of wires and switches.
"What's it look like?" Stark's voice came to him from the comm.
"It seems to run on some form of electricity!" Steve replied sarcastically, gesturing in annoyance. Stark chuckled, and began to explain what he needed to look for.
"Alright, the relays are intact. What's our next move?" Steve could hear other sounds from the ship, others on the comms, mostly gunfire and the Hulk roaring. He ignored it for now, focusing on the task at hand.
"I'm gonna have to get in there and give it a push."
"If that thing gets up to speed you'll get shredded!" Steve protested. What was he thinking?!
He began to babble something, but Steve wasn't in the mood to try and translate.
"Speak English!" There was a small sigh.
"You see that red lever? It'll slow the rotors long enough for me to get out. Go stand by it, wait for my word." Steve glanced over, and jumped to the lever.
This would be when they get attacked, he thought angrily to himself as he hung from a few wires out of the large hole in the ship.
"Cap, lever!"
"I need a minute here!" He hauled himself up, fighting off the last of Loki's soldiers, and reached the lever. In the engine, he could hear the clanking stop as Stark flew back in, looking rather dinged up but alive.
Then Steve realized what one of the announcements over the comm had been.
XxX
"It's an old-fashioned notion," Fury had said, and Steve knew, knew he was being manipulated, but couldn't bring himself to care. All he could see were those bloody cards, and the grin Agent Coulson had had when they'd flown to the Carrier.
He followed Stark to Loki's containment chamber. The hole was filled, but Thor was gone. There was no trace of anybody in this room except for some blood smeared on the wall.
"Was he married?" He didn't know what Stark was thinking, staring at the wall like that, and tried to think how he'd feel. Agent Coulson had been his main agent when working with SHIELD, they knew each other well.
"No. There was a… cellist, I believe." Stark began to walk around the room, not quite away from Steve, but not staying close, either.
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Stark rounded on him, glaring.
"We are not soldiers!" Steve remembered what he'd said, Stark not being worth ten of the men he'd worked with, and wondered about this reaction. Stark was talking still, and Steve could almost see thoughts racing through his eyes.
"Yeah. That's just previews, this is...this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" He paused, and at the same moment as Steve, realized what he had just said.
"Son of a bitch."
XxX
Steve entered the room Agent Romanov had said she was, announcing they needed to go. She looked up, surprised.
"Go where?" Steve glanced around the room, wondering why she was sitting in a SHIELD dorm.
"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" A new voice answered, from the bathroom.
"I can." Agent Barton, the mind controlled man who had caused so much of the damage. Steve glanced at Natasha. She nodded, slowly but sure. She knew him better than Steve; if she said he was good, Steve would give the man the benefit of the doubt.
"You got a suit?" Agent Barton looked a bit surprised as well, clearly not expecting such an easy acceptance.
"Then suit up."
The three of them entered the hanger bay, and for the first time Steve could feel how this could be a team. He already knew that Stark was finishing some repairs, enough to let the suit fly him to the Tower. He had two people he trusted at his back, and it felt good to be in a situation he could handle again.
A pilot tried to stop them at the entrance.
"Son, just don't." The look of pure shock and awe at them was mollifying as he strapped himself into the jet, letting Agents Barton and Romanov take the controls.
XxX
The jet crashed. Understandable, considering the circumstances, and as he climbed out, Steve asked Stark if he was seeing it. The Chitari were strange, almost lobster-like, and carried guns of a kind. He didn't even want to think about the whale sized ones flying above him. They swarmed out of the portal like a reversed anthill someone had kicked.
"Seeing, still working on believing. Has Banner showed up yet?"
"Banner?" Why did he expect him to arrive? The man had the easiest out in the world to get away, and they didn't even know if he survived the fall.
"Just keep me posted!" Steve nodded, knowing that he wouldn't be seen, and directed the two SHIELD agents before heading to the police already gathered and began giving orders.
"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" Steve didn't get a chance to answer, from the chaos of two Chitari attacking. As he fought them off, he could hear the chief giving the orders he'd issued, and grinned to himself before readying himself for a long fight.
XxX
Thor had arrived, as had the Hulk, and Steve was as surprised as anyone that either of them had lived, and come back for more. By that, he meant not very. Both were heroes in their own right, and wouldn't desert them.
He directed each member of the team to where he thought they could do the most damage, and was pleased that nobody argued.
As the fight went on, he could hear Stark and Agent Barton exchanging information and banter easily, and was pleased that neither of them were having trouble working together. Most of the team worked well, but the fact remained that the Chitari were still coming. Agent Romanov agreed, and with a launch into the air, she was on her way to rectifying the problem.
She announced that she could close it, so much later he had begun to worry.
"DO it!"
"No, wait!" Stark's voice came over, sounding strained.
"Stark, these things are still coming!" He looked around wildly for Stark, trying to see what he was doing.
"I've got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute!" He could see him now, a missile on his back, flying towards the city.
"And I know just where to put it." Steve realized, heart pounding, just what that meant.
"Stark, you realize that's a one-way trip." He didn't answer, but as he flew into the portal, he really didn't have to. They stood still, watching him disappear, before Steve said, quietly, "Close it."
He'd lost another man, another soldier under his command. He really couldn't say he wasn't a hero, not seeing the evidence before him. He wanted, absurdly, to ask if Tony had been married, or if he was as devoted to his work as his father. Howard had never struck him as being able to be in a relationship, except to gears and circuits.
The portal began to collapse, as did the Chitari, while a large explosion could be seen through the void.
Just as the opening disappeared, a small figure fell through.
"Son of a gun!" He exclaimed, staring in shock at the now-familiar red figure falling towards Earth. Falling.
"He's not slowing down." Thor began to wind up, to go and catch Tony, but was beaten to the punch by the Hulk, who leapt out of nowhere and caught him, holding him carefully as he slid to the ground.
Steve and Thor got close, and Thor ripped away the helmet. Underneath, he looked asleep. The blue light on the front of the suit was off. Steve recalled something being said about it in the files, but couldn't remember what.
The Hulk roared, sounding pained. With a gasp, Tony's eyes shot open, suit whirring to life.
"What happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." He looked at Steve for his answers. Steve looked to the sky. It was a clear day, and without the imminent alien invasion, it looked beautiful.
"We won."
XxX
The final good bye seemed anti climactic, in the end. Thor took Loki to Asgard, along with the Cube. If they were lucky, Steve thought, they'd never see it again. Tony and Bruce were going to rebuild Stark Tower together, along with Tony's CEO and girlfriend, Pepper Potts. Steve wasn't sure if Tony was a mind reader, but the grin on his face at introducing them made him wonder if he knew Steve's random thought in the end.
Natasha and Clint were apparently going back to SHIELD, after a vacation, though neither said where.
Steve, as he drove away, smiled to himself. This century was a strange one, to be sure, but he thought he could handle it. Plus, Tony had had his old bike, from somewhere. Things were looking up.
