A Super-Soldier for the Modern World

Twenty-One

"…In light of the possible assassination attempt on Captain America, the charges against him have been dropped. However, it is possible that when the dust settles, more charges could be brought up again since the Registration Acts call for the superheroes to declare themselves and Steve Rogers has been an opponent all along. The Acts were passed with an overwhelming 96% vote in both the House and Senate. Cap's fiancé and fellow member of SHIELD, Amanda Carter, remains in a coma after being hit with two of the bullets. Police are assuming that the actual target was Captain Rogers.

Tony Stark, who is also known as Iron Man and the current Director of SHIELD, has released the following statement: Amanda Carter is being well-cared for at the SHIELD headquarters, but her injuries remain life threatening. I am personally going to dismember the person or persons behind this…" Stark, who is Amanda's godfather then left the podium immediately with tears in his eyes and did not finish the press conference. Anyone with information, including video footage of the event, is urged to come forward to the NYPD and they will get it to SHIELD."

"Please turn that off," Steve said.

A nurse followed orders and switched the television off. It had been 24 hours since Amanda had taken the bullets. Steve had been wracking his b rain to remember where the bullets had come from.

There had been six shots total. And whoever had done it was a terrible marksman, but that wasn't the point. Two bullets had hit Amanda. One had torn through her side while the second hit her in the back and collapsed her lung.

She had gone into surgery immediately in order to have her lung repaired. She hadn't been awake in those 24 hours, but the doctors told Steve it was because she had been put under a medically-induced coma, whatever that meant.

Amanda's family had called to inquire, but chose to stay out of the media frenzy. Steve wasn't sure what that meant, either. All he understood was that her family wasn't coming.

Their SHIELD family had been in, despite doctor's orders. Natasha hugged him and tried to tell him that it was going to be okay, but he could see the tears forming in the strong woman's eyes. Clint put his hand on Steve's shoulder in a reassuring gesture and nodded. That was enough from Barton.

Bucky called from California. He insisted that he join them out in New York, but Steve didn't want him to make the special trip. He'd assured Bucky that Amanda was going to be awake by the time he got out there anyway. Steve just hoped that was the truth.

Stark had been in every hour on the hour to check on her. He had JARVIS running vitals on her all the time.

Steve glanced at the clock. He was due another visit from Stark any second.

On cue, Stark strolled in and if possible, he looked worse than Steve.

"Any changes?" he asked Steve, despite already knowing the answer.

"I think I saw her eyes flutter about 15 minutes ago, but I don't know what's real and what I hope I see anymore," Steve told him.

The two men had unofficially called a truce in light of the current events. It wasn't going to do her any good to have the both of them butting heads.

"JARVIS?" Tony said.

"Vitals holding steady, sir. Respiration and blood pressure have stabilized."

This was good news since it had been kind of rocky since her surgery. The breathing machine was probably the real reason that her respiration had leveled off, though.

"Has there been any leads generated about the shooter?" Steve asked.

"A ton of garbage ones. Coulson and his team are on this one for right now. I figured they could see what they can get. I could do it, but I just…"

"I know," Steve replied as Tony trailed off.

Tony continued to babble for a few minutes more and Steve didn't stop him. It seemed like Stark needed to talk to keep himself from freaking out.

"She'll wake up," Steve said optimistically once Tony stopped to take a breath. "I did; so will she."

"I hate to be the bearer of this news, but you have the super-soldier performance enhancers. Mandy doesn't have that."

…

"I don't know how they could miss him, Herr Schmidt," Doctor Faustus told his boss.

"You have some awful people at your disposal. Well, had."

"What have you done with them?"

"Eliminated them, Faustus!"

The Red Skull was angry. Which wasn't a foreign concept. But this was a simple enough task.

"What happened to your brilliant plan, Doctor?" The Red Skull shouted. "It's fallen apart at the seams!"

"I…"

"You were spending so much time to implant the thoughts and memories. So much work. It won't be long before that these SHIELD idiots start sniffing around you. You were only covered for so long, Faustus! You're lucky I took care of the fools you employed."

"I understand, Herr Schmidt."

"No, I don't think you do. You don't realize that we won't have another assassination attempt! It was so incredibly perfect. We would have been able to blame it on Agent Carter, because she would have had the memories of it and Captain America would be dead! And you and your people loused it up!"

"Well, Herr Schmidt, Carter is in a medically-induced coma…"

"Which means she could die?"

"Well, no…her vitals are stable…"

"Not helping!" the Red Skull shouted. "Give me good news!"

"Rogers and Stark are basically useless right now. Both are so distraught that neither has left the building. Rogers hasn't left her side."

"Ready the Serpent Squad!" the Red Skull shouted behind him. "I think my little girl is itching to get back out there."

He disconnected the video feed with Faustus. Faustus sat back in his desk chair and rubbed his red beard thoughtfully. This, on the one hand, was excellent. He hadn't been in too much trouble…yet. But now the Serpent Squad was being released once more.

…

To be continued…

Author's note: let me know! I've heard from some of you last night about chapter 20. I'm sorry! Please forgive me? Hopefully more of you all will let me know what you think! Thank you!