Steve Rogers' POV

Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent. - William Shakespeare

Trust no agent. Yeah, I learned that the hard way. And it was hard for Fury's eyes to negotiate for themselves when he only had one.

Anyway . . . Hi. The name's Steven Rogers, but people call me Steve, or Captain. I'm the supersoldier known as Captain America, and yes, I'm the one from World War II. I'm the Captain America. And I've been plopped down in the middle of the 21st century.

I have a lot of things to say, about how difficult it is to adjust to this life. How hard it's been to leave everyone I loved so suddenly, and without a formal goodbye. Things have been tough for me – tougher than they've been for the others, at least. Everyone's always looking up to me; expecting so much from me. As I said to Agent Coulson: "I just hope I'm the man for the job."

And I'm a lot more vulnerable to outside attacks, too. Of the four bigshots in the Avengers – including me – I'm the only one with an actual chance of getting hurt. Thor's immortal; Mr. Stark has his suit of armor; and the Hulk is basically impossible to kill. I'm the only guy who can be shot and wounded – I'm the only one who can really be damaged. And that makes me feel a lot worse than I let on.

Of course, now that Sam's come along, I'm not the only one anymore. But I'm getting to that.

Contrary to Mr. Stark's beliefs, I have a lot to say about all this. But the time will come. For now, I'm just supposed to tell the story.

Where did Mr. Stark leave off again? Oh, right. He was talking about Phase Two. Mr. Stark's an odd man – he likes to read what he's writing out loud while he's writing it. It's infuriating, and it means I've heard every insult he's written down. Yes, I'm thinking of the nickname "Freedom Pants", Stark. I'm not too happy with that one.

I try to be nice to Mr. Stark, honestly. But he makes it so difficult; so glaringly impossible. He acts so egoistic and arrogant; he doesn't appreciate his talents and gifts. And as I told him, he cares more about himself than others. He's selfish. Although he's changed since the events of this story and now . . . he's still pretty selfish and egoistic.

"What is Phase Two?" I heard Mr. Stark ask in the lab, as I stormed down the hall with the HYDRA weapon in my hand. I'll admit it, I was angry that people could still be so obsessed with war, after all these years. That S.H.I.E.L.D was learning from HYDRA, and making weapons with the Tesseract.

"Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was running a little slow for me," I walked into the lab, slamming the gun down on the table and looking at Mr. Stark pointedly.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury tried to cover up, but his battle was already lost. "This does not mean that we're-"

Mr. Stark got up and stood by his computer screen, swinging it around so everyone could see the weapon plans.

"I'm sorry, Nick-" he started, even though I could tell he wasn't, "-what were you lying?"

"I was wrong, director," I glared, upset. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Oh, and Freedom Pants?" Mr. Stark chimed in, and I raised my eyebrows at him, resenting the nickname already. "That's not all. Fury's also been holding minors against their will."

"What?" I exclaimed, losing composure for a second. This angered me almost as much as the HYDRA weapons – and that was probably why Mr. Stark had said it. If I was there for one thing, it was to protect the general public. And Fury could not be holding minors against their will. That went against everything I stood for. If Mr. Stark was telling the truth, then I wanted out of this stupid organization. Now.

"That's not true," Fury crossed his arms over his chest, glaring daggers at Stark.

"Oh, yeah? Sammy, dear, you can come out now," the billionaire kicked a table none too gently.

"Don't call me Sammy," a female voice grumbled, and to my astonishment, someone crawled out on all fours from underneath the table that Mr. Stark had kicked.

"What's not true, Director?" Mr. Stark asked snidely. "The fact that you locked this minor in a room on the Helicarrier for six days?"

"Actually, it was five rooms," Fury's gaze made my blood run cold, even though it was directed at Mr. Stark. "She kept lighting the walls and her furniture on fire." The girl who had crawled out from under the table snickered, standing up.

"Is that true?" I asked, not able to keep the disgust out of my voice. I wasn't speaking of the jab about fire – I was speaking of the fact that Fury might've locked a young girl on the Helicarrier. I looked over her – surely she couldn't even be out of high school yet – quickly. She had long, disheveled blonde hair with grown-out bangs, so that her hair framed her oval face in curtains. She was staring at me curiously and unabashedly with storm grey eyes, her full lips parted slightly. She had a straight nose and pale, smooth skin, with rather red cheeks, as if all the blood had just rushed to her head. Her whole appearance was unkempt and disheveled – but not as if she had neglected it. No, it was more like she had actually been locked in a room – or five – for a few days.

"She was a threat to the general population and needed to be removed from the public," Fury said simply, wandering around the room with his hands behind his back.

"I'm a threat?" she blurted out, looking a bit cross.

"You obliterated a-"

"I know what I did!" she burst in quickly, as if she didn't want Fury to say it out loud. "But I told you, it was an accident-"

"You're still an unstable threat."

"But I-"

Thor and Agent Romanoff walked into the room, both looking tense. They could sense that a fight was brewing.

"What I'd like to know," Dr. Banner interrupted, "is why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," he pointed to Stark's screen.

There was a long pause in the room, before Fury spoke: "Because of him," he nodded at Thor.

"Me?" the large man asked in surprise.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge mass that levelled a small town," Fury started. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously out-gunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said in his deep voice.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat," Fury was working himself up into a froth. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. They can't be controlled." At this, I noticed him looking pointedly at the young girl in the room.

"I want to know why you've been holding a minor against her will," I cut in, bringing the conversation back around. "Is she one of these 'uncontrollable' threats you've been talking about? Because I don't see how someone so young-"

"Actually yes, Rogers. She is. Samantha Eleanor Silverman recently acquired superpowers that she has not yet learned to control," he nodded at the girl, who looked like she wanted to melt into the ground and disappear. "She recently destroyed a-"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have any right to pick me up and lock me in here," she snapped, cutting in quickly.

"We're trying to stop another disaster from happening," Fury responded heatedly.

"So you're isolating her to protect others? Like you wanted to isolate me?" Banner raised his eyebrows, challenging the director.

Fury just sighed, turning to Mr. Stark. "You probably think you're awfully clever for finding Miss Silverman, but in truth, I was going to introduce you all to her today. Especially you," he pointed at me.

"Me?" I asked, in the same fashion Thor had a moment ago.

"Not only is Silverman unstable, she's dangerous. And that could be very useful some day," he said in that mysterious way of his. "I want you to train her, Rogers, to teach her how to control her powers."

"But he's freaking Captain America! He has nothing to do with my powers!" Miss Silverman shouted, and one of the computer screens randomly burst into flame. I sprung into action, grabbing a fire extinguisher and putting out the fire. "He's a supersoldier, and I'm a – I'm a –" she glanced between the screen and the fire extinguisher in my hand.

"An elemental controller," Fury responded calmly. "Miss Silverman has already learned to harness the power of wind. But as you can see," he gestured at the screen, "she has yet to figure out how to set things on fire properly."

"Hey, it's just my aim that's bad," she grumbled, looking down. "I can control the fire, just . . . not my aim."

"Then what were you going for just now?" I asked, genuinely curious.

She looked ashamed. "Um, Director Fury's belt. I figured it would scare him, but not harm him. Although now that I think about it . . . it probably would've done some heavy damage."

"So you just . . . set things on fire? By thinking about them?" I asked, a bit confused, and she nodded.

"But with wind, I actually have to use hand movements. Like the Force." I stared at her blankly. "You know, Star Wars." I looked around at the others in confusion, still not getting it (oh, and for the record, I still don't understand. No one ever bothers to explain anything to me).

"Wait, that's only two elements," Agent Romanoff pointed out. "What about . . . water? And earth?"

Miss Silverman cracked her knuckles. "Earth is . . . well, I think I might be able to control it. I haven't tried since . . . well, I don't really want to try," she said, purposefully neglecting to elaborate on what she could do with it, "but water . . . well, I don't know. I don't think I can control water or anything. Maybe I just can't manipulate that element."

"The point is," Fury interrupted, "I believe she could make a handy ally. Just so long as she can learn to control her . . . impulses."

The young blonde crossed her arms over her chest, glancing between me and Fury. "Do you actually want him to train me?" she asked, skeptically.

"Or Stark," Fury responded lightly.

"I thought I was here to help find the Tesseract, not babysit misbehaving children," I snapped, at the same time as Mr. Stark said "Yeah, I'm not here to play daddy. Captain can do it."

Fury sighed. "I knew that both of you would have reactions like that. But as I said, there are people in this world who can't be contained. Silverman is one of them. And you boys might be able to help, so there's one less person to control."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" I couldn't help but say.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it," Thor couldn't stand to be away from the conversation for long, "and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" I asked, my mind panicking as I thought of my time as a soldier.

"You forced our hand," Fury's gaze flickered between the gun on the table and Miss Silverman. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent, 'cause that always calms everything right down," Mr. Stark snapped. I'll admit it; I had found his silence up until this point to be disconcerting. Wasn't he the guy who always wanted to be heard?

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury asked, pointedly.

I chimed in, "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-"

"Wait, wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" he turned towards me menacingly.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" I retorted.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor unjustly commented.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury's voice became annoyed.

Everyone then started talking over each other and arguing, pointing fingers and placing blame. We were behaving by children, and although I'm ashamed to admit it, I was taking part in it.

"Are you boys really that naïve?" Agent Romanoff went on, as Mr. Stark started yelling at me about something-or-other. I heard the Doctor say my name, but was too distracted by Mr. Stark to pay attention.

"You know, just because I'm a 'threat' who needs to be 'trained' does not mean I want to be here," Miss Silverman shouted over everyone, as the precious package of blueberries in Stark's hand caught fire. When that caught no one's attention, Silverman swung out her palm and held it facing one of the computer screens. The screen went flying off its pedestal and crashed into the wall, sparks flying as a gentle breeze lifted around the rest of the room.

That shut everyone up, and on impulse, we all turned towards Miss Silverman. She didn't look the slightest bit guilty; instead, she stared back at us defiantly.

"Will that be all?" she snapped. "Can I go now?" No one said anything, and she lowered her hand. The young girl sighed, deflating a little bit. "So. Umm . . . when and where does this magical training of mine start?" she asked, a bit sarcastically – and then she turned and walked out of the room.

We were all left with our mouths gaping open. "Did she just-" Mr. Stark was the first to speak, "Did she just – ask a question, and then walk out without waiting for an answer?"

Once again, no one said anything.

Mr. Stark's face broke into a grin. "My kinda girl," was all he said, nodding, before walking out of the room after her.

Obviously, things were getting pretty weird. And for once, I had no idea what to do about it.


A/N: Yeah, so, this chapter was basically a bunch of arguing XD But it needed to be done. The next chapter is quite interesting, I promise you :P

Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, this story is a bit AU - and I mean in the sense that Clint Barton/Hawkeye hasn't launched his attack on the Helicarrier yet. That'll still be in the story, but it'll come in later.

I also realized that so long as I'm (attempting to) stick close to the movie plot, it'll be hard for there to be character development. Steve didn't really change in the movie now, did he? And although Tony did, it doesn't have anything to do with the way I want to change him. Since the movie was mostly action, it'll be hard to change the characters. Soooo, in the sequel that has already been planned, there will be wayyyyy more character development and all that jazz. Steve will change, Tony will change (again), and all the others will change. I just need more room to be able to do it - and obviously, if it's my own original stuff, I'll have enough room ;) I hope you guys stick around for the sequel - I've got big things planned . . . more exciting things. You guys have no idea what you're in for once we get there ;)

I don't own any of these characters (except Sam), sadly enough. I just like to take them out and play with them ^_^

I like to respond to every signed review I get, so I can show you guys just how much it means to me when you review! Seriously, please just hit that big pretty blue button down below and leave a comment. It'll make my day - I start smiling like an idiot when I hear what you guys think. Comments, suggestions, anything. Anonymous reviews are accepted, but please . . . no flames.

Thanks so, so much to my reviewers from last time: ILoveReadingAndWriting, LaughingLadybug, booklover1498, A Contradiction, TeddyBearSunshineJoy54 and Little Weasley Girl! You guys make my day. But seriously, this story has been getting a lot of alerts, but not so many reviews. I'd really appreciate it if you all left a comment, telling me what you think :)

Well, until next time . . . readers assemble!

- Lexi