May 4, 2012 (STEVE'S POV)

As I flew to the ground after the explosion in the room, I covered my face to help break my landing. I quickly looked around me to find Maddi, and I saw her sitting up next to me as she coughed from the smoke. After seeing that she was also mostly unharmed, I turned my head to Stark as he looked wide eyed around the room. "Put on the suit," I frantically told him. This time, it was not to challenge, but to help with the damage that was brought our way.

"Yeah," he quickly agreed as we both stood up and helped Maddi to her feet with us.

"Maddi, are you alright," I started to ask her and she nodded her head as we quickly made our way out of the destroyed lab.

"I, I can't help you guys," she squinted in thought and shook her head. "You go, get your suit, I'll find some way to help somewhere." She looked extremely frazzled but I could tell that she was okay, she just needed time to recollect herself.

"You sure?" I stopped and gave her my full attention. Stark stopped with us as she nodded.

"Yes go, please."

"Take this and put it on," Stark handed her a small earpiece similar to our own. "You need anything, you tell me immediately." She nodded in response and looked back at me. I gave her a fast kiss, and I was glad she returned it even though we had been fighting earlier. She needed to know that I loved her in case anything serious happened to us due to this explosion. I ran with Stark to get his suit as he was told that the third engine was down. We agreed to meet there as he suited up in his Iron Man armor. There were a lot of dangerous exposed wires and falling debris on my way there but I was able to avoid it as best I could. As I finally made it to the door to the correct engine, I opened it to see a destroyed engine room open to the air outside. It was loud and the winds were strong all around.

"Stark," I yelled out, hoping he was already outside. "Stark, I'm here!"

He came flying around in his suit and responded "good, let's see what we've got." He assessed the damages of the engine before turning to me. "Rogers, I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position," he told me pointing to the panel above me.

"Got it," I nodded and jumped up to grab the bar and swing myself into the correct level. Opened it up and knew immediately I was way out of my league with all the bright lines, wires, and boxes flashing at me.

"What's it look like in there?" I heard Tony ask and I couldn't even begin to help him out with what was going on with this control system.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity," I replied sarcastically as I felt frustrated at my inability to help in this situation.

"Well, you're not wrong," Tony responded. I could hear him give a sigh before continuing. "Maddi, are you there? Can you get out here and help your technologically inept boyfriend?"

"Yes I'm here," I could hear the amusement in her voice as it came through the speaker in my ear. "I'm on my way but I can't guarantee I'll know what's going on either."

"Sure, but at least I'll be able to talk you through it with a little more ease," Tony said.

"Second floor of the control room, Mads," I told her. Soon Maddi was walking through the hole in the wall next to me and she smiled to let me know that she was doing better. She told Tony she was looking at the panel and he began to tell her the steps to figure out what was going on and how to fix what could be fixed from her end. She struggled to understand it all, but she was quick to ask questions and have him repeat things in simpler terms for her. It seemed like she had successfully helped when she stood up straight and looked back at me.

"Alright Tony, the relays are intact," she spoke up and I just gave her an impressed smile.

"What's our next move?" I asked him as Maddi pushed the panel back in its slot.

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't reengage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push," he explained.

Maddi and I shared the same look of concern. "If that thing get's up to speed, you'll get shredded," I replied.

"That stator control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that could-"

"Speak English," I cut him off quickly as I hadn't understood a single word he had said to me.

"You see that red lever?" He asked and Maddi and I looked around and we spotted one across a large gap in the floor. "It will slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word." I took a few steps back to get a start on the jump and then leaped across to the other side next to the lever.

"You scare me when you do things like that!" Maddi yelled at me and I just chuckled. She stayed where she was, with no way to get to where I stood by the lever. As we waited for Tony to clear the debris, Maddi asked me "do you need my help anymore? They're short on medics here and I know I don't know much, but I can hold gauze to help stop people bleeding or something other than just waiting here."

"Yeah that's fine, Mads. Please stay safe alright?" I told her and she nodded. Before she could begin to leave though saw two men approach from the corner of my eye. I squinted at them, not sure if they were there to help or if they were part of the enemy. I soon realized it was the latter when one of them pulled the pin on a grenade. I acted fast as I jumped to hit the grenade in another direction. It exploded in the air away from the engine and I saw Maddi duck in reaction to the explosion. I was able to fight against the first man and then throw off the second in order to get back to the lever and grab the gun that had been flung there in the fight. Before I could shoot at the attacker, He switched aim and shot several times at Maddi. She was unable to react quick enough.

"No!" I yelled as she went down on the ground with multiple shots through her abdomen. I knew she could heal herself quickly, but that was probably worse than any other wounds she had ever received. I couldn't get to her to make sure she was okay as the man continued to shoot at me. More men showed up behind him and I was able to take a few out. I stepped back and slipped on the torn up floor. I went flying back out of the Helicarrier and grabbed a loose wire just in time. I hung on as tightly as possible as the motion of our falling caused me to move all around with no way of getting back on the ledge without climbing my way up the wire.

I could barely think straight as I worried the wire could break and I would go flying to the ground. I worried about Maddi who could still be in pain on the ground from the multiple gunshots, and the possibility of her immortality powers finally getting outmatched weighed over me until I could see with my own eyes that she was healing.

"Cap, hit the lever," I heard Tony say from the engines. I continued to try and pull myself up by the wire as the intense wind made it near impossible.

"I need a minute here!" I responded as I was almost to the top.

"Lever," he repeated in distress. "Now!" As soon as I made it back on the ledge, I crawled my way to the lever as the man below continued to shoot at me. The angle of me being on the ground made it more difficult for him to hit me, and I was finally able to pull down the lever. As The man still shot at me, Tony finally was able to fly through and take him down.

As soon as I saw the area was secure, I climbed down and across to where Maddi was. As I made it to her she had her hands over her stomach and chest and her eyes were squeezed shut in pain. It had been several minutes since she was shot and she was still in pain, which worried me beyond belief. "Maddi," I said as I knelt beside her. "Can you hear me?"

"Mmhmm," she said softly before letting out a long slow breath, releasing some of the tension on her face. As her hands couldn't cover all of it, I could see some of the holes in her shirt from the bullets, as well as the blood that stained it.

"What can I do? How can I help? Should I get a medical team here?" I asked her frantically trying to find a way to make her okay.

She shook her head before replying, "no." she opened her eyes and looked directly at me. She lifted one of her hands and I took hold of it immediately. It was wet from the blood but I didn't care, I just squeezed it as she gave me a small smile. "I can feel myself getting better. Just a couple more minutes, I'm sure."

"What the hell happened?" Tony said in a panic as he got closer to us and saw Maddi in the state she was in.

"The guy you took out did this," I told him.

"Is she gonna be alright?" he asked me. "Are you going to be alright?" he then asked her.

"I'm okay, Tony. I promise." She put her hand not in mine on the ground and tried to push her up in a sitting position. She winced as her abdomen still wasn't completely healed and I quickly put my free hand behind her back to help her. She leaned against my chest and shoulder for support. Once she was situated, she lifted her shirt slightly to show the last of her wounds finally closing up completely. "I've been shot before, but never like that. These things take time for my body to process and learn how to heal. I'm okay now."

Tony still gave her a look of worry and disbelief before sighing and looking up in distress. "How many holes are in your shirt?"

"Tony it doesn't ma-" Maddi tried to reason as she put her hand back on her stomach but I cut her off.

"How many, Maddi?" I asked and she turned her head towards me.

"Well let's count shall we?" she said with a slight edge in her tone. She quickly looked down at her shirt and counted before looking back up. "Twelve. I found twelve holes. Does that make either of you feel any better? Because it doesn't make me feel better. The point is, I'm okay now. Can we please go make sure everyone else who doesn't have magical healing powers is also alright, and then I can go wash up and find some new clothes to wear?"

"Yeah," I gave in with a nod. "Come on." I helped her up and if she was still in any pain, she hid it perfectly. I hoped that everything inside looked as healed as on the outside.

As we began heading back towards the main deck, we all heard Fury through our earpiece saying "Agent Coulson is down." The three of us froze at the news. He seemed like a very good man, and certainly not someone who deserved such a fate. Without any words said between us, we made our way back to our rooms to wash up and change. Maddi and I were together, but still remained silent the entire time. Once ready, we then went to the table to meet Fury. Tony was the only other person there when we arrived.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them," Fury said as he threw a pile of Captain America trading cards on the table in front of us. I picked one up with a frown as they all had blood splattered on them. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." He continued. "Yes. We were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier." I set the card back down and Maddi took hold of my hand. Tony wasn't looking at any of us as he kept his eyes on his own hands in his lap. "There was an idea, Stark and Madeline know this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died, still believing in that idea. In heroes." Tony stood up suddenly and walked out of the room. Maddi seemed to hesitate to go after him, but still remained in her seat. "Well, it's an old-fashioned notion."

Eventually Fury also left the room and I turned to see Maddi deep in thought. "I should go, go find Tony," she stated softly. "I need to make sure he's alright."

I put my other hand on top of her's and told her "Let me. I'll talk to him." I could tell she was very worried about him, and I wanted to prove to her I could do this. She gave me a look of doubt at my offer. "I know, I know. I haven't really given you reason today to trust me on this, but please. I know how much he means to you, let me do this." She hesitated before nodding in response.

"Okay," she said. "I'm gonna just… I'm gonna just wait here for a bit. I just need a moment."

"Of course," I told her. I leaned in and we kissed briefly before pulling away. "I love you, Maddi."

"I love you too," she whispered back. I got up and went searching for Tony. Soon enough, I found him in the room that held Loki, it was also the room we were told Coulson died before the chamber dropped to Earth with Thor in it.

"Was he married?" I asked to start the conversation.

"No. There was a cellist. I think," He said without looking away from the trap door in the ground.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

Tony huffed before saying "he was an idiot."

"Why? For believing?" I questioned him with conviction in my tone.

"For taking on Loki alone." He started making his way towards me as he spoke.

"He was doing his job," I reminded him with my arms still crossed over my chest.

"He was out of his league," He said with a scoff. "He should have waited. He should have…" he looked down and shook his head. I made my way over to him to meet him halfway.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." I tried to make him understand.

"Right, I've heard that before."

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" I asked as he walked past me and it made him show more emotion than indifference. He quickly turned around and his face was angry at my words.

"We are not soldiers!" He snapped. He stared me down and I did the same at him. His eyes flickered around a bit before continuing. "Maddi, she's not a soldier." He took a shaky breath. "Twelve times. How can you be so damn calm when she was shot twelve times?"

My eyes softened and I took a second before replying. "I'm not calm, not on the inside and definitely when it happened. I knew it was a lot before I could even go over to make sure she was okay. The entire time she never sat up, I couldn't help but think that was it. Her immortal magic had its limits and the rapid fire to her chest was it. And I couldn't even get to her to help because the same man that did that was still shooting at me."

"I shouldn't have asked her to come outside to help. I should have made her a full suit like mine, she was in so much pain. It doesn't matter that she heals, how could I design something that would let her still feel all that pain?" As he spoke, I could finally see what Maddi was trying to get me to see the entire time. Tony had a selfish behavior that did everything for show and attention, but I finally got to see him care about something real. He clearly loved Maddi, and was just as scared for her as I was.

"You know, we haven't really been seeing eye to eye since we met," I began.

"Ha, you got that right," he interjected sarcastically.

"But there's one thing we can both agree on, and that's the importance of keeping Maddi safe. I love her just as much as you do, and we gotta show her that by doing a better job at this." I gestured between us at my last statement. I was out of line when I criticized her for Tony's behavior earlier, I knew I needed to make things right with her and Tony.

He looked at me with sad eyes and nodded slightly. "She's the only family I have, and I feel like I'm losing her to you. This is the first time I've seen her in months."

I chuckled a little at the irony of his words and how I felt. "Honestly, I fear losing to you almost everyday. She's my only family too. The fact that she was still here, still young, after I was in the ice for 70 years… that's something I have thanked God for everyday. I hate the pain she's had to endure because of it, but I am grateful to have her with me. And even though I worry she's never going to talk to me again because we can't get along and she'll pick you, I am still grateful she has you. We wanted children, a family, and I couldn't give that to her. I'm glad she had you, I think it's the only reason she is here today, still the person I fell in love with in the 30s. So we do everything we can together to stop Loki, to keep people safe, including Maddi."

"I agree, but I am not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now we've got to put that behind us and get this done." I began to think of how to tactfully approach locating Loki and said "now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list-"

"He made it personal," Tony cut me off.

"That's not the point," I tried to reason.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point! He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience," Tony got animated as he said his thoughts out loud.

"Right. I caught his act at Stuttgart," I tried to follow his thinking process.

"Yeah, that was just the previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…" He paused and I raised an eyebrow at him to continue. "Son of a bitch." he quickly went to leave the room without saying another word.

"Hey, you know where he is?" I asked him as I chased behind.

"Yeah come on, we gotta find Maddi."

May 4, 2012 (same day, back to Maddi's POV)

"Wow are you a SHEILD agent now? A secret spy?" Tony joked as I walked into the room that held his suit. I was wearing navy blue SHIELD attire similar to Maria Hill's. I changed into it when Steve had told me we were leaving the helicarrier soon, and without telling Fury about it.

"Well I figured it was more durable than jeans and a shirt. Especially since your idea of a suit for me doesn't actually sound like one at all." I knew it was important for me to help in this fight, but I was actually really scared inside about it. Of course I have had plenty of proof that I don't need to fear for my life, but I just fear the pain that I had to go through already.

He put his hands up in defense before walking towards the case in the corner of the room. "Alright Kim Possible, you're right on that one," he responded and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Look this doesn't mean I'm in support of SHIELD, I still don't like how they've handled everything that has come to light over these few years of interacting with them. Besides, I stole it from their supply."

"Don't worry, I already have JARVIS working on an actual suit for you. If I'm being honest, I didn't really understand the pain you still go through even though you heal so quickly until seeing you today. It'll be similar to what you're wearing now, but bullet proof. It won't be ready for this battle but maybe the next?" He looked apologetic over not having something for me now, but I was appreciative that he was thinking about it.

"I don't want there to be a next," I told him.

"Nobody does, but we have each other's back, right?"

I gave him a smile and nodded. "Right." I took a deep breath and said "okay, let's see what you do have then."

"Right, it's all here. So basically I gave you the flight and defensive abilities and a JARVIS of your own to have any information necessary right in front of your eyes. It's easy to maneuver, to put on, and to develop. You won't have to worry about helmet hair and you can also do everything I can do in my suit." He opened the chest to reveal the bright red color of the material he had made for me.

"Gloves and boots, you really weren't kidding." I shook my head in disbelief as I reached my hand out to touch the material. It was thin and looked like it would be light to wear, but it was all metal. The gloves shaped the fingers much better than in Tony's own suit. It looked like it was simply a pair of cloth gloves until you felt the material.

"And the super special iron goggles." He joked to try and make me feel better. With a sigh he looked down and continued "don't get me wrong, I want you to be as protected as possible. I just also think it's time you get all the credit you deserve, your healing powers are amazing. It's time people know who Madeline is, not Jennifer." I took a deep breath and let it out at his words. He was right, if I were to do this in a suit like Tony's, nobody would know who I was. I could still decide to do that, but this would then be the final step to force me to tell the truth to everyone who I am.

"You're right." I gave him a look that I hoped showed confidence and he gave me a smile in return. I looked back at the gloves and boots and then realized something I hadn't initially. "Tony, why did you make these red?"

"I thought it could be your signature color, given your red hair, it'll give you that superhero edge."

"You realize that this mixed with my now navy blue suit, I look more like I'm using Steve's signature USA colors?"

"Oh dammit," he replied as he looked at the entirety of it all together. "Well why did you have to go and do that?"

"I'm sorry Tony, but it's definitely too late now," I said with a laugh. It honestly didn't bother me, I thought it was rather funny. "I'm putting these on, you get yours on too. I need to meet Steve to get on the jet we're taking to the city."

"Oh no don't worry about that. You're getting to the city the way I am."

"Excuse me, you want me to fly to New York City with you? Absolutely not."

"You have to practice, and it's not like we have the time to do a training session. Besides, you really don't have to put much work into it, I've made the programming really efficient." I gave him a concerned look of doubt. "Alright suit up, we don't have all day!" He went to put on his own suit and I didn't even bother arguing. I was worried about how completely out of my league I was. Saving the world was Steve's and Tony's job, I had no idea how to do any of this. I pulled my hair back and began to put on the boots.

A/N: I get so nervous when writing in Steve's POV, but I also really enjoy it. I hope you liked this chapter! I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially about the Steve and Tony interaction. How their relationship develops because of their love for Maddi is something that I am excited to write about, but I want to know what you think because I also don't want to screw it up. The hero in Maddi will soon be revealed to the world! Any guesses of what her superhero name might be?