The room was silent, Pepper and Tony frozen on the spot in shock. Peggy had always been a take-charge kind of person, though, and took control of the situation right away. "Well," she said, standing up in one quick motion, "are we going to collect Sargent Barnes or will your SHIELD agents be mucking up his introduction to the future, like they did with us?"
Tony blinked quickly, wide eyes staring at her blankly until Pepper slapped him lightly in the chest. "Right. Yeah, we have to go pick up the Sargent. Holy fuck, this day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" He rolled his shoulders and stalked out of the room. When no one followed him, he shouted down the hall for them to hurry up or he would leave them all behind.
Peggy and Howard were happy to be leaving the tower, especially if they were getting another time traveler to bring home with them. Neither of them had been particularly close with Sargent Barnes during the war, but they knew for sure that his presence would make Steve happy.
Everyone followed Tony down to a parking garage and in to a large SUV. Pepper voiced her surprise that he was actually driving it himself, but he waved her off, saying something about it being too short of notice to call Happy for a ride. He sped down the busy New York streets, no doubt breaking quite a few traffic laws. It made no matter to Peggy, who had sat in the back seat while Colonel Phillips had driven her and Steve at break neck speed after Schmidt's plane. And Howard had always been a bit of a thrill seeker, anyway, so he was just enjoying the ride. The SSR facility that housed the odd time traveling portal was only a mile or two further into the city than the Tower, thankfully, and they arrived in record time.
They pulled up outside and peered through the windows, like they were expecting Barnes to suddenly appear and ask them nonchalantly, what's up? Everything was eerily silent, though. There weren't any lights on, and Tony wasn't getting an answer from any of the SHIELD agents that had been posted there for this very reason.
"Just can't find good help nowadays," Tony grumbled, rolling his eyes as he stepped out of the SUV with his briefcase. Peggy and Howard looked on with fascination as Tony set it on the ground and kicked a button on it, the Iron Man suit springing up and wrapping around him in seconds.
"Wait!" Peggy shouted, jumping out of the car as well. "We're coming with you."
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Aunt Pegs," Tony said, his voice tinny and robotic coming through the speakers of the suit.
Peggy just rolled her eyes and physically dragged Howard out of the backseat with her. Tony threw up his hands in defeat and turned to Pepper, as if expecting her to want to tag along, too. "Don't look at me. I'm staying in the car like a sane person," she announced, hands placed primly in her lap.
Tony just shrugged and turned back toward the building, not waiting for Peggy or Howard to catch up with him. They were only a step behind him when he pried the front doors open, poking his head in before taking a step inside.
"Stay behind me, alright? He's got a gun; I don't want either of you shot."
"Is the bright red metal armor really the best first impression we want to give him? I mean, other than the SHIELD agents that he apparently already took out," Peggy asked, Howard nodding along beside her.
"Cap told me that good ol' Bucky Barnes loved all those shitty dime store sci-fi novels when they were younger. He'll love the suit. Besides, we don't really have much of a choice. I don't want to get shot by shoddy World War II weapons, thanks." And then he was clanking down the hallway, checking each room he passed for some sign of life. Remembering the way to where they had originally found Howard, Tony went straight to the same room. Looking around for clues and finding nothing but the busted surveillance camera and an unconscious SHIELD agent at the doorway had Tony sighing once more. He kicked the agent lightly and rolled his eyes when all he did was groan.
"Quality agents, my ass," he grumbled. He had Jarvis take a scan of the room, but no one was in there except the agent on the floor.
Tony groaned and turned around. "Okay, J. Are there any other heat signatures in the building? It seems like a waste of time to search everywhere if he's already flown the coop."
Jarvis took a moment to work through the scans, but his slightly panicked voice came back a moment later.
"Sir, there is an armed man fitting Sargent Barnes' description approaching the vehicle where Miss Potts is sitting."
Tony didn't waste any time, twisting on his heel and jetting back outside. It took Peggy and Howard longer to get back down to the ground floor, but when they did they found Pepper standing outside the car, looking a little shaky but no worse for wear. Her skin was glowing a faint orange, the light coming off of her glinting off of Tony's metal suit.
Barnes was slumped on the ground, his blue army jacket smoking slightly.
"You didn't injure him, did you?" Peggy asked, worry bleeding through to coat her voice. She stepped over to loom over Barnes, trying to see if he was hurt or not. Other than looking scruffy and dirty, he seemed to be all in one piece, if unconscious.
"I think he's fine," Pepper said, taking deep, even breaths to try and calm herself down. "I only singed him a little bit."
Howard gave Barnes a passing glance before hopping over to Pepper's side excitedly. "How did you do that? Why are you glowing?"
Pepper rolled her eyes, trading a look with Tony over Howard's shoulder. Talking with Howard always reminded her of talking to an even more excitable, younger Tony Stark. "It's a long story. I got experimented on as leverage against Tony, because he pissed off a scientist. I'll give you all the details later if you help Tony get Sargent Barnes into the back seat."
Of course, with that incentive, Howard did as he was asked. He took one of Barnes' arms while Tony took the other, and together they shoved him (a little roughly, whoops) into the center of the back seat. Peggy took her seat again and deftly removed the gun from his slack hand, pocketing it for herself. Then Howard slid in on his other side and Tony and Pepper situated themselves in the front after Tony slid the suit back off.
"This is gonna be great. I'll need popcorn. Rogers is gonna pass out, I swear," Tony babbled excitedly. As he started the car, he swore loudly and fluently in a few languages while pulling back out into traffic. "This is why I pay for a chauffeur," he complained, honking at a particularly offensive driver next to him.
He was so loud that he woke Barnes up. He was still propped up between Peggy and Howard, and he jerked awake with a growl and then a yip when Peggy smacked him on the back of the head to get his attention. Tony just kept screaming at the other drivers while alternately trying to keep up a pleasant conversation with Pepper.
Barnes rubbed the back of his head and looked around the inside of the car, wide eyed and confused. His eyes widened when his gaze fell on Howard. "Holy shit, Howard, what the hell happened to you? Why do you look so old? I was just walking in to your tent and two steps in, I realized that that was not your fucking tent." Another slap to the back of the head had him swiveling to face Peggy, and he blanched quite comically. "Sorry, Carter. What's going on?" He glanced past her to the window and dropped everything to stare open-mouthed at the New York night life.
"Holy cow," Barnes breathed as they passed into Manhattan.
Tony snorted from the front seat. Barnes frowned, glaring at the people he didn't recognize. "And who the hell are you?" His gaze fell on Pepper's long red hair and he flinched slightly, looking like a chastised school boy again. "Sorry, ma'am. Didn't mean no disrespect," he grumbled, giving Peggy a side-eye, half expecting to get hit on the head again. "I'm just really confused about what's going on. Who were those fake-ass military goons I took out back there? And, no offense, but what was up with that orange shit, lady?"
"Alright, one thing at a time," Tony started, still weaving them closer and closer to the Tower. "I know it sounds like shit, but congratulations. Welcome to the future. Peg and Howard will vouch for me, they've been here longer than you." Barnes turned to look at them skeptically, but they both nodded and turned back to Tony. "My name's Tony Stark, Howard's son. This is my girlfriend, CEO of Stark Industries, and epic badass, Pepper Potts." Pepper rolled her eyes, hitting Tony playfully in the shoulder.
"Do you really have to introduce me like that every time you meet someone new? It's alright right now, but when you introduce me as a 'badass goddess of all things corporate' people tend to think you're lying," she said, exasperation and fondness thick in her voice.
Barnes stared at their back and forth in bemused silence, before leaning in to Howard and whispering loudly, "Are they always like that? It's adorable."
Tony stopped talking long enough to turn around and playfully glare at them, and then went right back in to talking shit with Pepper.
"So, the future, huh? How'd that happen?"
"Well, what were you doing before you showed up? I was doing paperwork, and Howard was working in his lab," Peggy revealed, turning to face Barnes fully.
"Like I said, I was walking in to Howard's tent at camp and then when I stepped through, I was in that creepy, dark office. That was time travel, then? Neat."
Howard grinned, showing more teeth than was really necessary. "Wow. You're taking this much better than either of us did. Tony was right, you really must have been in to all those 10 cent novels." Barnes gave him a funny look, so Howard brushed it off and continued on. "It's not quite time travel, anyway. More like cloning and time displacement, if you want to get really technical."
Barnes raised an eyebrow but nodded along anyway. They were pulling in to a parking lot beneath the Tower now, and Barnes stared at the bright lights and odd-looking cars that they passed. When Tony parked and stepped out of the car, everyone else followed suit.
"Alright, Barnes. This is my building. Houses the Avengers, a little world-saving team put together by the successor of the SSR. You'll get the whole tour and everything after we settle you in."
As Tony babbled on and on, they wandered in to the elevator and zoomed up to one of the uppermost floors. Barnes was itching to look out over the city from that high up, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly. He tried to ignore the fact that he was in a small, enclosed area with people pressing in around him from every side. He still didn't like small spaces, even after months away from Zola and the Hydra base he had been held captive in. With Tony and Pepper in front of him and Howard and Peggy beside him, Barnes felt calmer about the situation than he thought he really should.
As they got closer to the top, Barnes saw Tony's head jerk up in alarm. Barnes felt his body going on high alert right away, looking around for a danger he couldn't see. "Shit. Shit!" Tony mumbled, turning to look at Barnes before giving Pepper a slightly manic look. "Pep, Cap's bringing the Soldier here. How the hell do we explain him?" he asked, throwing a thumb over his shoulder in Barnes' direction.
"Wait, did you say Cap? As in Captain America?" He turned to Peggy and smiled timidly, body still thrumming uncomfortably with adrenaline. "Steve's here, too?" His grin was toothy and wide, his shoulders drooped down in relief. When the doors pinged open Barnes followed the others out happily, only a little deterred by the panicked look on Tony's face.
The tiny spring in his step wasn't there for long. Barnes got one good look at a dark skinned man with a military posture standing by the sofa, Steve sitting ramrod straight on a chair with a worried, faraway look on his face, and a dark haired man stomping from one side of the wall of windows to the other before all hell broke loose.
Their eyes met and suddenly he wasn't smiling anymore. He assumed this was the Soldier Tony had been worrying about, and he could see why. The man had his face, looking half-feral and downright murderous. The Soldier's eyes flicked quickly between Steve and Barnes, before he was lunging across the room and pinning the younger to the wall with a snarl like a wild animal.
All Barnes could think was what. The. Hell.
