I am so very sorry for not updating. Real life gets in the way sometimes, but it's not an excuse.

Thank you so much for all the reviews everything else.

Hopefully, this is worth the wait. We're getting closer to the end, folks!

Into the New World

Chapter 20

Captain Steve Rogers pushed back from the table that had been serving as a research desk, dining room table, and pillow. His eyes were gritty and he was hours and hours past a five o'clock shadow.

Cap rubbed his eyes and scratched the unfamiliar beard on his face. He looked down at the digital calendar that Dugan had given him; it was Friday. Could it really have been a week already?

He closed his eyes, stretched his arms above his head and attempted to enjoy the silence. Unfortunately, it was broken by Dum-Dum and Bucky arguing loudly in the next room. Taking only a couple of strides, he crossed the room and pushed open the door.

Cap sighed loudly. "What the heck is going on out here?" he yelled.

Aside from the sheer volume of the argument, both of these men should have been working as well.

Both sets of eyes turned to him as they each became silent.

"Seriously, what are you doing? Because I know damn well you weren't working, like you were supposed to be doing."

"The television set was on too loud," Dugan said rather sheepishly.

"It was on really low, like five. Six, tops," Bucky replied.

"Then why did it say thirty-three?"

"Your old man eyes must not be seeing right," Bucky replied. "I hear that can happen."

Dugan shot Bucky a nasty look.

"Listen, all I wanted was for you to put the headphones on so you could watch that stupid program and then you went all crazy on me," Dugan explained.

"We have work to do here, fellas. So, turn the television set off, no more games, no more music, and certainly no more arguing! Just actual honest to goodness research so we can locate the HYDRA base and I can get back to being alive," Steve said angrily.

Steve hadn't slept much in the last few days, but when he had, Steve's dreams always involved Amanda. Some where she was mourning him and her aunt. Some where she was just plain angry that he let Fury lie to her. They were just always about her.

"Sorry, Cap," Dugan replied.

"Yeah, sorry, Steve," Bucky said.

"Don't apologize; just cut it out," Steve said. "So, do you have an extra razor around here?"

Dugan and Bucky both grinned.

"Don't like the beard?" Dugan asked.

"Can't say that I do, Dum-Dum," he smiled back.

"Eh, the US won't be able to sell those trading cards if you keep that shit on your face anyway," Buck laughed.

"You'll find everything you need in the medicine cabinet."

After Steve got cleaned up, he went back to his desk. He began to look through the maps he had; there had to be a clue somewhere.

What did Steve know about HYDRA? It had begun as a branch of the Nazi regime. But Johann Schmitt, aka the Red Skull, took his obsession with mythical things too far and eventually broke HYDRA away into its own entity. HYDRA used its advanced technology for world domination. They had the Tesseract then, and now they had it again.

Steve sighed. Everyone knew these things. It was in the history books, and so was Steve. And apparently, it was featured in a Captain America film that the thought of watching made Steve's skin crawl.

He began looking at known and destroyed HYDRA bases. All major ones had been near bodies of water. So, Steve knew he had to research bodies of water in the US. When HYDRA found something that worked, they continued with it.

Any of the ocean coasts would be too obvious, so Steve started looking at major internal bodies of water.

Steve kept scanning the map, looking at it state by state. Where would he build a secret hideout? That wasn't even a valid question; he hadn't been around in 70 years and his US travel had been extremely limited before that. In fact, when he had been out of New York, it was only to visit other military bases.

He needed someone else's opinion.

"Hey, Buck?" Steve called.

Steve could hear movement and a minute later, his friend appeared in the doorway.

"What's up?" Bucky asked.

"What do you remember from when you were working for HYDRA?" Steve asked.

Buck shook his head. "I don't remember much, Steve," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Think hard, Buck. Do you remember any of the smaller HYDRA bases? If they were sending you out around the US, you must have had check points or safe houses…"

Bucky was silent and concentrated for a minute. He really disliked thinking about his role as Winter Soldier. He caused a lot of damage and even though he had no control of his actions, Bucky knew he was responsible.

"I spent some time in Chicago, but there wasn't a base there. It was somewhere north of there."

"Was it near water?" Steve asked.

"Actually, yeah," Bucky replied. "I remember being able to look out and watch the sunset on the water."

Steve smiled for the first time in days.

"I think we have a lead," Steve replied.

Dugan stepped into the room.

"Did I hear that you have a lead?" Dugan asked.

"We might have caught a break, Dum-Dum," Steve said. "Looks like we're heading to Michigan."

Elsewhere…

"You are a different person to find, my dear," Tony Stark said, strolling out onto the balcony on Stark Tower. He blinked in the bright sunlight and put his sunglasses on.

Amanda Carter turned to face him.

"Bull shit," Amanda smiled slowly. "You know full well that I've been overseeing things for Pepper," Amanda replied.

"You know I don't understand that. Pepper went to the west coast for a couple weeks, she didn't invite me along and she didn't leave me in charge of my own company," Tony smiled.

"Also, bull."

Tony looked mock-offended. "What?"

"I know this is busy work while I am off from SHIELD. I also know that you are overseeing the company, not me."

"Nope," Tony shook his head. "So whatcha got there?" he asked, referring to her food.

Amanda narrowed her eyes. "It's a sandwich."

"Mandy, honey, I haven't eaten all day," Tony said.

"Are you kidding? The billionaire is bumming off my lunch?" Amanda asked rhetorically. But she picked up one half of the sandwich and slid the plate with the second half in Tony's direction. "Real classy, Tony."

"I've been left to fend for myself, honey," Tony laughed.

"You aren't going to get any pity from me, Stark," Amanda replied.

"Are you enjoying the change of scenery?"

"No, it's boring as hell," Amanda said after swallowing a bite of sandwich. "But I know Fury wanted me here so he can keep an eye on me without having me nag him every day."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tony said around a bite of sandwich. "How is your scar?"

"Still there."

"I'm working on a gift for you."

"That's unnecessary," she replied.

"It's a new suit," Tony said.

"To keep me from getting stabbed again? I don't need an Iron Man suit…"

"Don't worry, honey, it's not an Iron Man suit," Tony laughed. "It's a blend of Adamantium-mesh, spandex and it contains properties to let you move freely, but it conforms to your body while protecting you from electrocutions and burns."

"Thank you, Tony."

"And I made sure it's in your classic white," Tony said. "Always have to be different."

"Of course I do," Amanda smiled slightly. "And…"

"No, no. Don't bother to ask. I don't know anything about Rogers. Fury is keeping me in the dark, but I plan on getting into his servers soon," Tony said.

"Come here," Amanda said, leading him back into the office.

Tony followed Amanda back into the office and she locked the door while he removed his glasses.

"What's going on?"

"I've already been into Fury's secure servers. Because something didn't feel right," Amanda said.

Amanda typed in some information and suddenly the room was filled with reports on something called the Winter Soldier.

"The Winter Soldier?" Tony asked.

"That is James Buchanan Barnes…Bucky…Steve's friend from the war," Amanda said. "HYDRA turned him into a soldier for them. Gave him their new attempt at the super-soldier serum to try and make him into the Nazi version of Captain America. But the serum, despite the brainwashing they attempted, only made the good stuff stick. He could only go on short missions because the "bad" stuff would wear off relatively quickly. I guess Fury set out to get him back and apparently he's on our side."

"I thought Fury was feeding us some bullshit about that Bucky Barnes guy," Tony said.

"You seemed pretty sure when we discussed this before," Amanda said.

"I was trying to humor him; and to make you feel better," Tony said.

"So Fury hasn't been saying anything?"

"No, the only thing I've heard about him has been on the news and in the Daily Bugle. It's all just conspiracy theories," Tony said. "Fury did say something the other day and it didn't mean anything until now."

"And what was that?" she asked.

"He said that there was always a method to his madness and that we needed to trust him."

"I would feel better about this if I actually did trust Fury," Amanda said. "I've worked for him for a long time, but something about this doesn't feel right."

To Be Continued…

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