"I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from." - Steve Rogers
Tony was going to murder Clint.
"68 bottles of beer on the wall, 68 bottles of beer ~ " Clint sang. "Take one down, pass it around. 67 bottles of beer on the wall."
He was singing what had to be one of the most annoying songs in the world. The only thing preventing Tony from strangling Clint was the fact his hands were chained up and they were in separate cells.
Natasha might help him though once they got out of this.
"Would you shut up?" Natasha's exasperated voice cut through the air, and thankfully Clint stopped singing. "It's annoying."
"I'm bored." Clint sighed. "You have to admit, Nat, even if we're captured by baddies and they're torturing us or something, that's more interesting than being stuck in a cell and chained up with nothing to do."
"New way to torture someone?" Bruce's suggested floated through, and the scientist was sounding more with it than he had in the past however many hours they had been here.
"I don't think it's new." Tony commented. "After all, isn't that the basis behind solitary confinement?"
"Why are we talking about torture again?" Clint frowned at how the subject had somehow turned to this. Tony just thanked whatever deity there might exist that the archer wasn't singing.
"Who knows?" He responded to Clint's question. Tony sighed though. "This really is boring though. Why can't that Zemo guy come back and gloat about his evil plan or something?"
"Why would he do that?" Thor asked quizzically, though his eyes were still a bit hazy from whatever was coming through the IV drip.
"We obviously need to watch more movies if you don't know that." Tony snorted. "All villains have to gloat to his captives."
"Well, we haven't had a pop culture marathon or night since you decided to start avoiding Steve." Natasha's dry voice pointed out.
"I wasn't avoiding him! I was solving the problem!" Tony quickly defended himself.
"And caused Steve to mope around the Tower like a love-sick teenager." Clint muttered, but it could still clearly be heard.
"Over-exaggeration." Bruce said.
"Yeah." Natasha agreed. "Steve doesn't wallow enough to be a teenager. He actually does things and is helpful."
Tony stared at them, mouth agape. He seriously could not be hearing this. They were acting like Steve had some sort of crush on him, which was practically impossible. There was simply no way, because even if Steve did like guys, he wouldn't be into Tony of all people. Even though Tony might kind of, sort of have feelings for him. But that wasn't important.
For a moment, Tony was desperate enough to wish that Clint was singing again.
He was saved from that thought and the conversation as something rumbled above them ominously. The five of them looked up at the exact same time.
"What was that?" Clint asked.
Tony felt his stomach sink to the floor. "Who wants to bet that Steve has something to do with that?"
Silence fell. The rumbling sound came back followed by muffled alarms and crashes.
"I'm not betting against that." Natasha finally said.
"Me either." Clint seconded and Thor nodded in agreement. Tony assumed that Bruce shared their sentiments.
There was the sound of something exploding. Tony looked up worriedly.
"Jeez, what the hell is he doing?" He couldn't help but ask. Tony really hoped that Steve hadn't come by himself.
"I assume that we shall find out." Thor said.
They all grew quiet. There was a tension among them that was almost tangible. After all, Steve was vulnerable right now, but he had obviously come for them despite that. Tony frowned at that thought. It was just like him though. Steve always tried to do the right thing.
He didn't know how long it was before he finally heard footsteps. They were so light and quiet that he almost didn't hear them. There was a second in which they paused and then there was a clicking sound like a switch being thrown.
The door to Tony's cell popped open.
The Avengers stared at it for a moment, before that clicking sound came again and again. Soon, all of their cells were open.
"Uh, Steve?" Tony called out tentatively.
Those soft footsteps came again, and Steve's head poked out from the edge of his cage.
"Hey!" He said with a smile. "I heard there were some damsels in distress, and, being the old fashioned guy I am, I couldn't resist coming to the rescue."
Tony resisted the urge to smile back. He was supposed to be angry that Steve had disregarded his own condition to come to their aide. However, all he could feel was gratitude that the soldier was there. He quickly took in his state. Steve was dressed in a SHIELD uniform, but his own shield was huge on his arm. It didn't seem like there were any wounds on him, but Steve had always had the stoic act down to a T so there was no way to know how he really was.
"Great, you got the doors open." Tony tried to say flippantly, but he could hear the relief leaking through. "How are you going to get these off though?" He wiggled his fingers to show how his hands were still cuffed.
Steve raised an eyebrow, showing how he wasn't fooled.
"How did you even open the doors?" Clint asked.
Steve looked over his shoulder at the archer. "There were a series of old-fashioned switches labeled 'Doors,' so it made sense that they would open the cell doors." He brought out what appeared to be a garage door opener. "As for the cuffs…" He pressed the button on the remote.
Beep! The cuffs on all of them simultaneously popped off, falling to the floor. They all stared at them.
"Huh." Steve looked down at the remote. "I wonder if this is one of those Easy Button things."
"Where did you get that?" Tony asked, rubbing his wrists to restore circulation. He walked out of his cell. Clint helped remove the IV from Thor's while Natasha did the same for Bruce.
"There's a guard station up the hall." Steve jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "It was easy enough to knock out the guy there, and find you on the cameras. This seemed to be the only thing that could be a key or device, so I figured it would either open the cuffs or the doors."
"Please tell me you didn't come here by yourself." Tony was almost begging, except he never begged so it couldn't be that.
"Of course not." Steve looked up at him. Tony started to give a sigh of relief. "JARVIS is with me." He pointed to a comm unit in his ear.
Tony facepalmed. "I thought I told you to stop enabling him."
Steve glanced to the right where Natasha and Clint were supporting the other two Avengers. "JARVIS says that he is simply looking out for your best interests." He gave a guarded look back the way he came. "Though speaking of SHIELD…" He paused, obviously listening to the AI. His gaze came back to Tony. "Coulson's on his way to provide back-up."
"Right." Tony could almost imagine Coulson freaking out over his hero going into battle in this state. He would probably have Agent May break all air speed laws.
"You do know this was a trap right?" Clint asked as the group began to make its way down the hall.
"I know." Steve looked straight ahead, scanning for threats.
"Then, why did you come?" Tony demanded.
Steve stopped and gave him a disapproving look. "You're my friends." He simply said. "And I was invited. Though it seems the trap really hasn't been sprung yet."
"So you've met the Baron, huh?" Clint said conversationally.
Steve looked confused for a moment. "Baron?"
"Yes, Baron Zemo. He said something about revenge?" Natasha added. "He is somewhat hard to miss."
Steve stared at them. "You mean the guy who owns this place? I haven't seen him."
They paused at the elevator.
"Really?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, I've only come across scientists and guards. That's why I said that the trap hasn't been sprung yet." Steve turned away from them, and inserted a key card into the pad to call the elevator. "By the way, how soon can you fight, Thor? Any way we could get the Other Guy to make an appearance, Bruce?"
"It should not take me long to recover, Steven." Thor responded.
"No promises about the Other Guy though." Bruce said as they entered the lift. Tony pressed the button for the 1st floor as the doors closed behind him.
"I see." Steve frowned, and Tony could almost see the gears moving in his head. He was definitely planning something.
"Does J have any idea about what happened to my suit?" Tony asked, feeling anxiety creep in. He had vowed to never let his tech get in the wrong hands again, and he could only imagine what HYDRA would do with his suit in their greedy mitts.
Steve listened to whatever JARVIS was saying. "He says that they had to basically break it apart to get you out of it. They still have the pieces but they're all fried, useless." He shrugged. "I think we should prioritize getting out of here, but we can ask Coulson and whoever SHIELD sends with him to bring home what's left."
Tony snorted. "As if having SHIELD handle it is any better." He grumbled. Still, he could see why Steve was placing them as a priority.
Steve gave a small hum, not protesting, but not quite agreeing either. Tony watched as he pulled out his inhaler from a pocket.
"Something wrong?" Tony asked as their leader took a few puffs from it.
"No." He replied, but something seemed off. Tony narrowed his eyes, but Steve just gave him an innocent look in return. "I just have the feeling I'm not going to be able to grab it soon. Better safe than sorry." He frowned as he listened to something JARVIS was saying. Tony wished he could hear what it was.
Trying to distract himself, the genius looked up at the floor signal. And he noticed that the number was switching from one to two.
"Uh, I think we just passed the ground floor." Tony mentioned, attempting to sound nonchalant.
The others looked up to see the numbers going up.
"JARVIS?" Steve asked. He frowned at the explanation. "He can't hack the elevator. Something's blocking him, but we're headed to the roof."
"Oh, joy." Natasha sarcastically said.
"Well," Steve straightened, "I guess it's about time I meet the gracious host who treated you so well."
"What?" Tony looked down at him. "You're not going out there!"
Steve raised an eyebrow. "You know, it was a conversation like this that got you all into this mess."
"No. That is completely different and unrelated." Tony protested.
"Yeah, well, I'm the one who's armed." Steve wagged his shield around a bit. "So I'm a bit more prepared than any of you are. At least until Thor and Bruce recover."
"But," Tony would have made a beautiful argument, he knew he would have, but Steve cut him off.
"Besides, without the suit, you're as vulnerable as I am." Steve bluntly said.
Tony stared at him, mouth hanging open. For a second, he couldn't even think.
"Well, he's got you there." Clint gave a little chuckle.
Before Tony could say anything else, the elevator gave a cheerful little ding and opened to show the roof. Across from them, cutting an imposing figure, was Baron Zemo.
"I'm going, Tony." Steve stared deep into Tony's eyes, and there was a flicker of something that the genius couldn't identify in his eyes. He smiled. "Just sit tight, okay?"
And then before Tony could react, Steve had stepped out of the elevator and made his way to face the Baron. He could only stare after him, stunned.
It wasn't because of worry that he stared, though he could still feel it churning in his stomach. Nor did he stare because a tight band had settled around his chest, reminding him of those moments at the Stark Expo when he thought that Pepper was about to get blown to bits due to Vanko's trap.
No, it was because at that moment, it didn't seem to just be Steve Rogers walking out there. With his shield on his arm, a determined glint in his eyes, and conviction painting his stance, Tony could only see Captain America once more entering the battlefield.
And to see that in this smaller version of Steve was somewhat amazing.
AN: I love how sassy they all are. Sassy characters are part of my happy place. BTW, I feel I should explain something now, because my notes for the last two chapters will probably be longish. Heck, the concluding chapter is probably twice as long as the others since there's so much to wrap up.
This fic was inspired by two quotes. The one in the first chapter of what Tony said about everything special about Steve came from a bottle, and Erskine's explanation for why he chose Steve (which will be split in half and used for the last two chapters). I've come across other fics before of Steve being returned to his pre-serum state, but several of them still haven't been finished which makes me sad. Therefore, I wanted to show that Steve was the same no matter his state. Then, I also got the idea to start each chapter with a quote that showed either who Steve really is or related him back to the serum. After collecting quotes (which are only from the 1st Avengers and 1st Cap movies as Winter Soldier wasn't out yet when I got this idea), I had to put this fic on hold because of life. I'm glad I've finally gotten around to it. Please stay until the end, because I will finish this.