Author: Black Dragon on the Rocks/animealam

Rating: T

Pairing: None so far, mentions of one sided Steve/Peggy

Summary: The Universe stared at the boy for what seemed an eternity to him, only to change into a decrepit, dirty alley, and that was the last thing Steve saw before loosing consciousness. The small frail boy banished in a flash of blue flames. Be warned VERY AU Young Time Travelling genius tech savvy Steve.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, I'm just borrowing them. I'm using a good number of the movie dialogs, even if I added bits and pieces so some of them. So if something looks familiar they are obviously not mine, and belong to their respective owners.

Warnings: NOT SLASH, AU, Completely totally AU, Time Travel, Younger Steve, Violence, Adoption, Smart Steve, Technopaths, Technopath Tony, Technopath Steve, Canon Character Deaths, Minor Character Deaths, OOC-ness, there are quite a lot of movie dialogs which I decided not to change but I did add my own twists and turns to make them a bit more interesting.

Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Thor, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Sarah Rogers, mentions of Bucky, mentions of Peggy Carter, mentions of Howard Stark, mentions of Colonel Phillips, mentions of the Howling Commandos, Jarvis, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey

Timeline: Pre Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers, Post Avengers

Author's Note: tommyboynv made a very interesting point in his review (at ff dot net) about passing both Tony and Steve as mutants. I could have made them mutants, but frankly, I know very little about the whole X-Men mutant scene. I've only ever seen the very first two movies, and can't remember much. So I decided to respect X-Men fans and not mangle the fandom.

Total size without notes: 5,660

Keys: "Speaking aloud."
'Thoughts'
'Name: /Mental interfacing between technopaths and/or tech\'

Finding the truth

Tony went back to checking their work on tracking the Tesseract, and monitoring JARVIS progress on the secure files once the kid was asleep. He tended to pretend to be uncaring, and for the most part he was a selfish bastard, but Rogers had wormed his way behind his masks with surprising ease.

Well, anyone who was so deviously evil as to play all versions of Il Pulsino Pio available on the Internet, It's a Small World after all, The never ending song, and a ton of other equally annoying catchy tunes for the poor SHIELD creeps monitoring the lab for hours rated an awesome in his book. It was a shame it had not occurred to him before.

When he let him browse through the annoy SHIELD playlist, Bruce had actually laughed so hard he cried, and nearly burst a vein or something while he tried not to wake Rogers, specially after realizing the agents watching them had been hearing the tunes for hours. Tony had already sent the playlist to his personal servers to use when the agents were being specially obnoxious. A pretty good, harmless revenge on the pesky spies.

Tony wondered if it would actually get him shot if he hacked Fury's smartphone and changed the ring tone to one of those. Then he decided to get Rogers on board and change the ring tones on every cell phone on the helicarrier, to different tunes. Between the two of them they could manage in little time, and it should lighten the tense atmosphere.

He actually found himself feeling surprisingly protective of the kid, and knew his fellow scientist felt the same way. Specially after JARVIS located Kraft's files, and a security camera video of the 'supposed' debriefing.

What they did to him, to a child was… sickening. Why in fucks name did SHIELD keep a psycho like that amongst its personnel? That animal should have been behind bars in a high security prison at the very least.

Following Kraft's orders, the two agents had actually tortured the kid, just to see how long the serum took healing him. They had beaten, shot, cut, stabbed, and applied electroshocks to him. Then Kraft had gleefully stabbed Steve with huge needles to take samples of his liver, kidneys, bone marrow, and who knew what else, without any anesthetics.

The worse though, was the fact they resorted to rape to get the kid's body to respond so they could obtain semen samples naturally. Rogers had been too dazed from the paralyzing pen, and the drugs the nut case was pumping into him, to fight them; and after continuous stimulation he had been too out of it to do anything but cry and beg to be left alone.

Hearing Steve beg for the bastards not to touch him… hit him hard, and awoke protective instincts Tony hadn't known were there. He wanted the motherfuckers dead right then and there. But that anger did not compare to what he felt when he saw what happened next.

When the kid could not give then more, the had taken their turns with him. They were going to die, very painful and slow deaths. Tony was going to be sure they suffered. It was no wonder Steve shuddered just at the mention of that beast. Because it was not just the rape, those animals had messed up with Steve's self-esteem and confidence. Tony was sure the kid believed his own body had betrayed him.

Kraft wanted super soldiers at all costs. If cloning did not work, he wanted to use Steve as a stud and artificially inseminate his chosen women. It was clear Tony was not the only one who wanted to murder Kraft, because Banner had gotten rather green as he watched the video and heard the psycho's words. It had not been because he was sick, although they both almost were at one point.

They almost had a Hulk out after Bruce saw the video, and did not only because Hulk did not want to wake the Cap. If that had been his reaction, when Banner believed him an adult, Tony could only wonder what would happen when he told his fellow scientist Steve was a kid.

It took all they had to keep on working, and not go and hug Rogers, or in a rampage to seek Kraft and his cronies, then murder them painfully. They did not because both knew the least thing the Cap would want was for anyone to know exactly what those bastards did to him. Although after his reactions Tony was sure they all suspected something of the sort had been done to Captain America.

Tony removed the video from SHIELD's servers, and any backup they had. Then he and Bruce worked in near silence, while they tried to come to terms with what was done to the kid. He was thinking of painful ways to avenge Steve, and from the slightly green eyes on Banner, he too was contemplating murder.

Suspicions confirmed

A nightmare woke him up two hours later, but he felt more rested than he had in a long time. Steve was also quite surprised to have been able to sleep so long, he usually napped at forty minutes to one hour intervals because of nightmares. Stomach growling, Steve decided it was high time he found the mess hall and got some nourishment.

His faster than normal metabolism demanded he ate a lot, and quite often whenever possible; and it was at least eight to ten hours since he last ate something more substantial than blueberries. It did not help that he had not been eating as he was used to, or needed to, since most days he had not been hungry. But Steve knew there was most likely going to be a battle ahead, and he would need as much energy as he could get.

Steve offered to bring something to Bruce and Tony but they told him they were fine. Tony had actually bribed a junior agent into bringing them large amounts of coffee and tea (for Bruce), and a sandwich every so often for both of them. It was against lab safety protocols, but necessary if SHIELD wanted them to keep on going.

After eating what passed for food in the mess hall, he had a few rounds of poker which he totally won, with some of the agents on break to keep messing with SHIELD. There was actually a warning by Colonel Phillips in his file to never allow him to play poker with the troops. That memo had not been digitalized yet, so he could take advantage of the fact.

He was specially forbidden to play when chocolate rations were involved because he always won. Who could blame him, a) he was a teenager and it was a known fact kids consumed large amounts of sweets whenever possible, and b) his metabolism really demanded a large amount of calories to keep him in peak condition. Army rations had not been cutting it, and he had to get those calories from somewhere.

Steve left the mess hall with some extra money in his pocket, and several disgruntled agents demanding a few more rounds, to appease them somewhat, he agreed on a poker night either on payday night, or the following evening. He actually enjoyed playing card games, although he was not one to get obsessed about it.

He really did not need the money he won, as Steve was practically set for life with just his back pay alone, never mind the pension he got when the Army retired him with the rank of General. Which was the rank he would have most likely earned after sixty-eight years in service.

Steve wished he could use the money he had to help his mother with the many debts accumulated because of his ill health, but he had yet to find a way to do so without SHIELD finding out. He knew they would be able to track any electronic transaction he made.

Since he really had no use for the money he just won, Steve thought he should try to find a way to leave the cash at home for his mother to find with a note to use it for whatever she needed. Or if he really could not go home safely, then perhaps he could donate it to some charity. He would need to think about it.

He remembered then, the neighborhood's Catholic Church was running a shelter for battered women and their kids, Steve knew they really needed all the help they could get. In fact, he should probably make regular donations to them. It sounded like a good option, and the agents' money would not be wasted.

As he rolled back to the lab avoiding any agents in his path with ease, he was not going to stop skateboarding a from one area of the helicarrier to another just because Fury did not like it, Steve decided it was time to confirm his suspicions about SHIELD making weapons from the Tesseract.

His search algorithm had yet to report any results, so he sent a discrete query to the mainframe for the location of the cargo holds, and a manifest of their contents. Steve found one cargo manifest flagged top secret, containing something marked as Phase Two.

Steve found that suspicious, but also a bit stupid. He would not have marked anything he wanted to hide as top secret, doing so was just an invitation to look at the contents of that cargo hold.

He made his way to that particular area, overrode the access code and went inside to take a look. What he found froze his blood. There were weapons, lots of them, and most were manufactured following his schematics, but a few were purely HYDRA, and he suspected they came from the Valkyrie.

SHIELD had clearly used his notes to make the weapons, and Hill had had the gall to lie to his face. Steve designed those weapons as a last resort, in case they could not defeat HYDRA by normal means. They were to fight them with equal force.

Steve never intended for those weapons to be used for anything else besides fighting HYDRA. Howard and Peggy knew, and they had promised to keep the schematics from the Army should something happen to him. Obviously someone found them and decided it was a good idea to mass produce them. He was not happy, not happy at all.

Discussing Steve

The thick silence in the lab was only broken by soft whimpers and a gasp, which alerted them to Steve waking up. They had a hard time acting normally, but both managed as neither wanted to spook the kid. They needed Steve to trust them so he knew there was a safe place for him. It was only after he left in search of food that they felt free to discuss him.

"You started calling Steve kid after that weird episode he had, why?" Bruce broke the silence deciding to settle on a safer topic. He really did not want the Hulk to come out, specially when he could feel the Other Guy felt extremely protective of the blond man. It never happened before.

He also chose not to comment on the fact Steve had a nightmare. He suspected they all had them. Besides the younger man had been in a war, and actually made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Then he discovered he did not die, awoke seventy years later, and on top of that he was tortured and… molested by those… Beasts. It really would not surprise Bruce if Steve suffered from PTSD.

Bruce was very curious about Steve, there were a lot of things about him that did not add up. While he worked on locating the Tesseract, he had also been going over their conversation earlier. Bruce had questions, but had also come up with some theories.

"Because shockingly, He's one. In fact, he's barely legal for a driver's permit," Tony responded looking up from the terminal he was working at. "He lied on his enlistment form."

"Well that is common knowledge, since he tried to enlist a few times. I believe he had to tell them he was from different towns. He also used different last names if I'm not wrong."

"He lied about his age as well. He told everyone he was twenty-four. He wasn't Bruce, he was fourteen!" Tony exclaimed surprised at his indignation, and a bit angry with the idiot kid. War was no place for children. "Rogers was literally a child, still is for that matter. That was part of why he looked so scrawny, and not just because of his health issues. I really don't know how he managed to fool them."

"How sure are you of this?" Bruce stared at the work table under which the soldier had curled up earlier taking deep breaths to calm himself. The knuckles of his hand were white as he gripped the desk tightly. It was hard to believe a child had been able to do what Captain America had done. What he was still doing.

"Completely, Rogers is a sixteen year old who looks like he's at least twenty-three, with an IQ that's probably as high as ours, and for the most part he has the maturity of an adult. Unless provoked into acting out," and he waved at the tablet still streaming the playlist.

"Dear God!" Bruce exclaimed and took off his glasses to fiddle with them, a nervous habit he had been unable to get rid off.

The Other Guy was raging, he was demanding to be let out to smash Kraft, and made him aware he had known the little Cap was so young, even if he did not look it. Frankly if they had not been onboard the helicarrier, Bruce would have let him out.

With great effort he calmed himself, and directed his mind to other things. Much as he wanted, it was not the time, or place to plot murder. The kid had actually chosen to go down with a plane to save New York City, at sixteen! It was not an easy decision by any means, specially not for a teenager who had a whole life ahead of him.

"That's dangerous information," Bruce said grimly. "SHIELD might have promised to take care of Kraft, but the man was not their only scientist. Then there were also the legal repercussions. Steve was a minor, and would need a guardian, which SHIELD would be only too happy to provide.

"I know. SHIELD would probably try to get guardianship if they knew. They would have too much control over the kid." Tony paused to think of possible solutions, then added when he reached a decision. "I think I'm going to get his guardianship before someone at SHIELD does, if Steve agrees of course. The pesky agents know not to mess with what's mine."

"Hmm… that might not be necessary." This was the opening he needed to share his theory.

"What do you mean?"

"I think Steve has a guardian. He knows too much about our technology to actually be from the 20s, 30s, or the 40s Tony. So I believe he's from our time, or perhaps beyond that." Tony looked startled for a moment, then thoughtful as he considered the idea. "Neither of you told me what you are…"

"We, those like us, call ourselves technopaths," Tony told him. He saw no need to keep quiet since they had already revealed what they were to his fellow scientist.

"Technopaths… the name does fit," he mused. "Going back to what I was saying, I suspect that despite the talent," Bruce went on, "you would actually need to have the barest of knowledge about computers and programming to even attempt to bypass SHIELD's security. I know you can't learn to be that proficient in two weeks. Besides, whatever you and Steve think, I KNOW it's not that simple to hack into SHIELD.

"Frankly, you are the only two I've heard about who have managed; and believe me if someone had actually done it besides either of you, it would have been all over the dark recesses of the Internet. SHIELD has many enemies who would handsomely reward anyone who could grant them access to their systems."

"You're correct about the hacking," Tony agreed thoughtfully. He was a genius, so of course he could. But then, Rogers was as well. "It did surprise me when he mentioned it, but I got sidetracked by other things.

"By the way, I think the fact I get through their defenses like they aren't even there is what drives Fury insane." The non sequitur just got him a nonplussed look. "Anyway," Tony went on, "being able to directly interface with the mainframe helps, but yeah, you do need to know what you're doing to get in. Not only that, a new technopath can get overwhelmed by a simple electronic watch.

"They would definitely go into shock if they interfaced with a smart phone, it's happened and we all felt it. It's… not a good thing. All of us, the more experienced ones, have had to shield newbies from technology, regardless of our power level, until they can shield themselves and learn to deal with the world we live in.

"There are three of us in New York City, and I have the longest range. Had Rogers been a newly discovered technopath, I would have sensed him, and would have shielded him, because… Well… it's like an instinct, we simply cannot not do it. So you're right, the kid has to actually be from modern times… but I think there was more to your theory?"

"Yes, let's not forget Steve hypothesis about the gem. He thinks the Tesseract's plasma energy crystalized due to the effect of time passing, and I'm sure he did not mean only a year or two," Bruce paused. "The information in the packages we got tells us HYDRA did not get its hands on the Tesseract until the 1940s.

"So there's no way he would have found it then, and no way for him to have been carrying it when he went down. SHIELD would have found it on him, and they would have certainly taken it.

"The only feasible way for Steve to have the gem is if he found it in this time, but before being placed under surveillance. Which should not be possible if he was from the forties. From what we read, and his own complaints, SHIELD has not taken its eyes off him since he awoke."

"Hmm… complicated, but actually it makes kind of sense. You think the gem did not transport him to a where, but a when instead. Perhaps it does not have enough power to create a bridge between places, so it bridged times.

"That's an interesting hypothesis, I think Doctor Foster, Point Break's lady friend might be interested," Tony mused and Bruce nodded. "Okay, so the gem sent the boy to the forties.

"Steve most probably knew Captain America's history, as well as the fact that he looked a hell of a lot like the man did in wimp form," Bruce snorted at his description.

"We have to assume he simply went ahead and did what he had obviously already done." Tony shuddered realizing the kid must have known he was going to die, along with the when and the how. It was a sobering thought because Steve still went and did it.

"He had to if he wanted to avoid a paradox. The kid's clearly smart enough to understand the repercussions," Bruce pointed out. "It also explains his reticence to speak about 'when' he opened the portal.

"If he's sixteen now, he had to have been at least thirteen when he went back, which means there are probably parents around somewhere, unless he's an orphan."

"I can see that, but if he has family why has he not contacted…" He trailed off, "never mind. SHIELD's been keeping a very close eye on him, anyone in his situation would not risk their families.

"Also, being a technopath would have told him about any of the electronic bugs, and perhaps his war training helped him locate anyone tailing him." He paused. "You know if SHIELD scientists want him now, they'll be breaking every law possible to get their hands on a time traveller."

"Then we keep this to ourselves," Bruce told him firmly.

"Agreed. I'll have JARVIS do a bit of detective work anyway. Have him search for any matches for a Steven Grant Rogers under the age of fifteen, blond, blue eyed, and with an illness list a mile wide."

"Not a bad idea, maybe you can contact the parents and warn them. By the way, how did you find out about his age?"

"When I helped him clear up his mind from the file dump I came across the information. Thanks to SHIELD, He's been on edge since he awoke from the ice. Steve has been pretending not to be affected, which he clearly is.

"It appears he had succeeded in convincing SHIELD until Hill brought up the debriefing. But someone finding about his real age is one of his main concerns, so it was at the forefront of his mind. Steve really hasn't slept a full night since Kraft got his dirty paws on him."

It actually took JARVIS only fifteen minutes to locate a Steven Grant Rogers matching Captain America's description and background. His parents were indeed Sarah and Joseph Rogers, a discharged military nurse and a soldier respectively. The father was killed in Afghanistan when the boy was two.

Steve was born in Brooklyn, but ended in one of the USA military bases in Italy, when the parents were deployed there. He had been only a few months old. The fact he had not stayed in America during his early years explained why no technopath knew about him. Their Italian had been a kid then as well, but he lived very close to France, and far from the base where the Cap's parents had been deployed.

Giacomo had been lucky to be detected by one of the French. Steve clearly was not, he coped on his own, and had actually been believed to be autistic until after his father's death. The child probably communicated with tech only, and ignored humans initially.

The younger Steven had disappeared from their home on February 2 of that year, the mother had reported the disappearance to the police. He was twelve years old when it happened. His birthdate was July 4 of 1999. Steven Grant Rogers had a very frail health, and spent a lot of his time in hospitals.

The boy had had little to do but read, and learn, besides interfacing with tech while there. He was recognized as a child prodigy, and at the age of six won the Maria Stark Foundation's Grant, something usually only adults won. The grant allowed the mother to pay tutors to home school her son.

The boy graduated last year from MIT, when he was still eleven, with dual Masters; one in Mechanical Engineering, and one in Computers and Philosophy. There was little wonder now as to why, and how, the kid was so good with computers. His Master Thesis had been on the algorithms to assist AI in learning human emotions.

Contacting Sarah Rogers

JARVIS easily located the kid's mother's cel phone's number, and patched him through to Mrs Rogers. The woman had a surprisingly pleasant voice, and did not act awe struck when she learnt who was calling. Brownie points to her. She was cautious initially, but opened up as soon as Tony explained why he was calling.

Mrs Rogers was definitely very concerned about her son when she heard some unscrupulous scientist wanted to run tests on her boy. Tony chose not to tell the woman more than that. It would be up to the kid to confide in his mother. He told her SHIELD'S Director had threatened to take action against the men should they try anything, but Tony was concerned he would not if they found out Steve was a minor.

She told Tony Steve had contacted her as soon as he realized what happened and where he was. He had thought on his feet, and used the cell phones around him to communicate through text messages with her. She had no idea how Steve managed to do that.

Steve told her he used that method to ensure there was no possibility of SHIELD tracking him. Since then the kid had reported daily, and even got to see his mother, and let her see him a few times. But Steve did not approach her as he could not completely shake his tail.

Mrs Rogers knew her son was not the twenty-something he was pretending to be, as Steve had told her his age in a roundabout way. The Super Soldier Serum had aged him physically, and he had been 'away' for four years.

So Sarah was not surprised when Tony brought up the issue of adopting Steve. She could admit to being barely able to make ends meet, and to having to leave her son unsupervised most of the day so she could work to support him, as well as pay the ever increasing medical bills.

SHIELD could use those as arguments to have the boy removed from her custody, and placed into theirs, something that nearly had Mrs Rogers up in arms. No one was taking her son away from her, she would do whatever it took to keep him with her, specially after getting him back when she had believed him dead.

By her words, Tony could tell Sarah Rogers was a formidable woman, who adored her son, and was willing to do anything to protect him. For a moment, Tony thought of his own mother, and wished she had been as protective of him, as Sarah Rogers was of Steve. Even a fraction of that protectiveness would have made his childhood happier, and more bearable.

Tony told Mrs Rogers that by adopting Steve as a second parent he would be in charge of supporting them, Something she was not very happy about. The woman did not want charity, which Tony was quick to point out it was not. Having his money backing her up would remove one of the arguments SHIELD could use to take custody of Steve from her.

His money would also serve to provide them with the services of his very capable lawyers to fend off SHIELD, and any other agency trying to get their hands on Steve. Both SHIELD and the government had learned by then not to mess with him, to which she had to agree, as she did remember his very public appearance in congress about the Iron Man suit.

Tony told her he planned on offering Steve a job as his personal assistant for anything technical. He was a genius, and that intelligence should not be wasted, which it would be if Steve became a simple agent for SHIELD. He suspected that had been the agency's Director's original plan, before one of his scientists decided to disobey orders.

He also told Mrs Rogers the adoption arrangement included an apartment at the tower for them, or two if Steve wanted to have some independence since he had been living on his own for four years. Either way, she would be close to her son. They would of course live rent free with all services covered.

The tower was one of the most secure, if not the most secure building in New York City, so it would be extremely hard for someone to get to Steve, or to her. It would also allow Steve to be available for Tony, although they could discuss the job description at a later time.

Sarah was thoughtful, the offer was extremely generous, but the insistence on keeping Steve safe made her suspicious. Besides, something was telling her those men had already hurt her son… Perhaps it was the underlying note of anger in Stark's voice when he mentioned them.

"Your offer is very generous Mr Stark…" Sarah began.

"Tony," he corrected, "Mr Stark was my father."

"Okay Tony," she conceded. "As I was saying your offer is very generous, but I can't help but be concerned for Steve."

"You shouldn't worry Mrs Rogers, the kid's fine," he reassured her.

"Call me Sarah Tony, and think of this as mother's intuition, but those… Scientist are not just planning to hurt my son, they have already done something to him…" Her voice had a hard edge of fury underneath the concern for her child.

"Sarah…" Tony began a bit surprised. He really did not want to be the one to tell her, it should be Steve because the kid had not confided in them. He and Bruce only knew because JARVIS had done some detective work.

"What did those men do to Steve?" She insisted. "They clearly did something, because your voice turns to steel just mentioning them. Please Tony, I need to know, did those men hurt my boy?"

Tony sighed, he should lie to her but found out he could not, although he was not willing to tell her everything. "These men managed to incapacitate Steve, and did some tests on him against his will. They wanted to assess his healing abilities." He heard her gasp. "They also took several samples from him without his consent."

"He's hurt?" She asked worried.

"No, your boy does heal much faster than the rest of us, and that happened the day he awoke. Those bastards have left him alone since then, but I know their kind, and they will try again. This is why I contacted you about adopting him.

"Right now SHIELD doesn't know about him being a minor, but if the SSR, who were the ones in charge of Project Rebirth, knew about it then it's bound to be recorded somewhere. Sooner or later they will find out.

"Finding out about his time travelling will be harder. Steve's being very cautious about keeping that from SHIELD, and he might pull it off."

"If we go through with the adoption they will find out Tony, they will learn I'm his mother, and he was supposed to be twelve years old," Sarah pointed out.

"Not necessarily, adoption records are sealed until the child turns eighteen. I also have ways to hide them to make it harder for them to find. Then it's common knowledge Sarah Rogers was a nurse and Captain America's mother.

"What no one knows is the fact she was born in 1976. We'll just let everyone keep assuming you were born at the turn of the century by hiding any information about your date of birth.

"You'll still appear as his mother, and be his guardian, they will just find it harder to find out the Sarah Rogers from his official documents is the same one born in 1976. Should they ever find out, and his time travelling comes to the light, they won't be able to do anything legally to get his custody."

"Okay then," she said after she thought it through. "I agree to let you adopt Steve Tony. So how do we do this?"

Tony had explained time was of essence, as SHIELD was distracted with some crisis. A good number of their resources were dedicated to solve it, so they would not notice Tony's lawyers working behind their backs. The crisis SHIELD was working on was also the reason both Steve and Tony were at that agency's secret base.

"My lawyer, Alan Rutherford, will call you in a few minutes," Tony informed her. "He will explain the procedures, and tell you what you need to do."

"I'll wait for his call. I just hope we're doing the right thing."

"We are, by letting me adopt him, you're giving me the legal right to demand SHIELD have those who hurt Steve detained, and to make them pay for what they did." He and Bruce were plotting murder to avenge Steve, but Sarah did not need to know that.

With her agreement, Tony hung up and called his lawyers. He explained what he wanted, and the fact he wanted it ASAP. Since the mother was giving her consent for the minor to be adopted, it would be a joint guardianship, and it was done for the boy's protection, his main lawyer believed they could get all passed by no later than the end of the week.

It would help their case immensely if Tony sent them the files on the testing the scientist had already done, and what they planned to do. This gave Tony several ideas on how to explain Steve's grown up looks, but he would have to run them by Bruce, and the kid himself, to know which one they could use. It might also solve the problem of what to do with Kraft.

His lawyer would have the pertinent documents redacted in a couple of hours, and he would send one of the aides to collect all the necessary signatures from Mrs Rogers. Then they would proceed to present them at the Family Court in Brooklyn, which was were the boy and his mother lived.

Author's note: This is just a brief note on the adoption process. I know it takes more time than that to go through the legalities for an adoption even when there's one parent giving their consent for it. But well this is fanfiction, and let's just speed the process for the story's sake.