Author's note: Hey another chapter here. I'm happy that so many people love this story. Just to let you all know: July is going to be a very busy month for me so there's a possibility that I won't be able to do as much fanfiction as I did this month. I'm not sure about August yet because in the middle of that month school starts back up again, but don't worry I'll try my hardest to keep this story, other stories and new stories updated constantly. There will be deleted scenes added into this story some of them will be in this chapter. I don't own anything that's related to Marvel, not even the deleted scenes.
The Avengers pt2:
"Well, Diva don't you think you over did it?" Tony smirks.
Loki glared at him, and then Tony spoke to Fury "Hey eye patch what do you suppose we do with the information about Thanos and how Reindeer Games wasn't fully in charge of the invasion?"
Fury glared at the nickname, "We will keep note of it and I can say that it's a safe bet that we have a truce with Loki for right now. He has all the information about them and we know that he was forced into it."
Thor smiles, "This is wondrous news right brother?" Loki glared at him but nodded being a little happy with the news.
"But, if you try to kill anyone you'll be in deep trouble." Fury glared.
"I would not, since as of right now I'm kept away from Thanos who would want to get to me for failing to get him the Tesseract."
"So we have a truce right now." Clint asks not very happy.
"Yes, but I'm keeping those cuffs on you right now until further notice." Fury says pointedly at Loki who looks not happy with that statement.
A train whistled loudly as it clambered along its tracks under the starless night sky, a barren and wrecked multilevel warehouse standing alongside the rails. On the third leval there shone a single spotlight, a women with bright red, curly hair cropped level with her chin bound with her hands behind her back in a sturdy wooden chair. She was surrounded by three men, and one stepped forward to hit her across the face.
"What the heck?" Steve says not happily looking at the screen showing the man that hit Natasha; after all he came from an era where you have different rules regarding gender.
Jane and Darcy looked shocked to see what Natasha was doing when Loki arrived on earth. The other teammates and agents looked a little shocked.
Loki was a little surprised to see this type of action but not overly shocked.
She groaned sharply at the impact, but resolutely kept her mouth shut against letting escape any further sound of pain. She rolled her head along her shoulders in defiance to face forward again, the older man standing in the center wearing a military ensemble stating in Russian, "This is not how I wanted this evening to go."
"Oh thank god! There are subtitles." Tony says dramatically causing Pepper to smack him.
I know how you wanted this evening to go," she replied in the same language, displaying an unimpressed expression from her forced position. "Believe me – this is better." Her black dress accentuated her curves and ended above her knees, black tights covering her legs and feet, the material over one knee ripped and depicting a bleeding scrape, her shoes removed.
Phil Coulson, Clint and all the other SHIELD agents smirked when they heard her reply.
"Who are you working for?" he asked. "Lermentov, yes?" The man that had hit her before strode forward again to grasp the side of the chair, tilting her back threateningly over the drop to the ground floor. She tried to steady herself with one foot that barely touched the floor beneath her at the new angle as the other continued, "Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?"
"I thought General Solohob was in charge of the export business," she interjected, confused. Her chair was set upright again and the man stepped back.
"Solohob? A bagman, a front," he explained, his hands casually resting in his pockets. "Your outdated information betrays you. The famous Black Widow," he announced, the male standing on his other side smirking in amusement, "and she turns out to be simply another pretty face."
"You really think I'm pretty?" she teased, raising an eyebrow coquettishly.
He scoffed and motioned for the man to grab her as he walked away, ordering, "Tell Lermentov we don't need him to move the tanks." Her hair was fisted with one hand and her jaw with the other, her mouth forced open. "Tell him he is out." He had moved over to a low chest upon which several tools lay, concluding in English as he lifted a pair of old pliers and turned to face her, "Well, you may have to write it down."
She panted in fear of her tongue being ripped out-
The entire room was full of tension; the agents down below in front of computers were staring at the screen intently. Erik, Jane, Darcy and Pepper sent her concerned looks.
Loki was looking at the screen a little bored knowing that she obviously is okay now and her teammates were looking very angry forgetting that she was right next to them with a tongue still in her mouth and alright.
-just as a ring suddenly echoed through the space. The male not restraining Natasha blinked hurriedly in confussion and reached into his pocket to answer his cellphone, the other three watching him in surprise. "da?" he questioned, pausing for a reply. He turned to hand the phone to the older man, explaining in Russian, "It's for her."
He put down the pair of pliers with a clang and took the phone, starting heatedly, "You listen carefully-"
"You're at 1-14 Silensky Plaza, third floor," Agent Coulson interrupted in English. "We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby.
He lowered the phone from his ear and walked over to Natasha, placing it underneath her ear for her to immediately pin to her shoulder. Coulson said, "We need you to come in."
"Are you kidding? I'm working," she argued in aggravation.
"This takes precedence."
"I'm in the middle of an interrogation – this moron is giving me everything."
"I don't-give everything…." The man stuttered in reply. Natasha's expression transformed into one of skepticism as she shot him a look, raising an eyebrow in disbelief from her seat.
Everyone seemed to relax realizing that she was on a mission and most likely had everything under control from the beginning.
Look, you can't pull me out of this right now-"
"Natasha," Coulson murmured, "Barton's been compromised."
Her eyes widened before her face settled into an impassive mask, uttering after a second, "Let me put you on hold."
She jerked her head slightly and the older man moved forward to take the phone from her, as soon as he had her leg struck out and kicked him sharply in the knee. He flailed and fell as she threw her head forward to knock into his, and he tumbled backwards. She stood with her arms stretched uncomfortably behind her tied to the chair and carried it as she rushed one of the man charging with a knife, kicking him in the chest and sending him flying backwards.
The other male swung a wide punch that she ducked under, spinning and striking his midsection with the chair attached to her. She rolled sideways on her upper back so the chair was horizontal and did not impede her momentum to the first male who was getting to his feet, turning her back to him to use the chair as a shield against his attack. She then sat down and landed on his feet, whipping her head back to slam into his nose when he crouched down in pain.
She crouched low and spun on her heels in order to use the legs of the chair to knock the man's feet out from under him, then she returned to the other man who had tried to attack her.
Agent Coulson waited patiently on the other end of the line, listening to the grunts of pain Natasha was eliciting.
She flipped away from the male's form and flipped high in the air to land on her back on the other, the chair's construction failing under the assault. She stood quickly with one of the wooden legs in hand but the other had run at her and wrapped his arms around her torso pinning her arms to her chest as she struggled. She managed to grasp his hand and twist his thumb backwards, his whole arm stiffening and following the motion as he emitted a yell. She swung the piece of wood at his side and then his chest when she had turned to face him, dropping the weapon and leaping into the air so to kick both feet to the center of his chest, land on her back and roll onto her shoulders with the momentum. Her arms raised above her head and she rocked her body forward to propel herself to her feet, dashing at him while he was still stunned and wrapping her thighs around his neck. She threw the entire weight of her body down and tossed him heavily onto the floor, landing on her feet.
She noticed the older man managing to roll onto his side and stands to attack her and so she grabbed a hold of one of the long chains hanging from the ceiling and turned. She bashed his head into the low rail barring the drop to the lower floor and as he began to fall over the other side she tangled one of his lower legs in the chain.
He fell and jerked to a stop upside-down with a short scream, Natasha turning and bending down to pick up the cellphone and a pair of black peep-toe heels that had been removed from her feet. "Where's Barton now?" she interrogated.
"We don't know," Coulson answered.
Everyone in the room breathed out, knowing that she was going to be fine the whole time. Those who didn't know her that well noted in their minds that she's dangerous even if she looks defenseless. Tony also says to Pepper, "Remind me not to get on her bad side." Pepper giggled in amusement at how Tony seemed to be a little scared of Natasha now.
Clint looked at her happily since she abandoned an interrogation when she found out he was endanger. She nodded at him in response to his unspoken thanks.
"But he's alive?"
"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back." On one of SHIELD's mobile terminals there was displayed footage of the Abidjan Operation, Clint and Natasha fighting from behind a pile of rubble that they would occasionally duck behind, both firing their preferred weapons. Their identifications were brought up to the side under the tag Strike Team Delta, both considered for the Avengers Initiative. "But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."
"Coulson, you know Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me," she responded with a smirk as she sauntered out of the warehouse.
"No, I've got Stark – you get the Big Guy."
"Bozhe moy," she cursed in Russian as she halted casting a longing gaze back towards the situation she was leaving behind.
"Sorry Bruce." Natasha says to him who shrugs saying, "It's alright, I get that a lot."
A young girl in a frayed dress ran across a dirt street, bicycles and rusted cars ringing and honking at the pedastrians that crowded the walkways and corners of the Indian town. They were bartering and calling to each other as she weaved through them all, a firm destination in mind. She panted as she hurried, circling around a building and entering its neighbor, jogging up the steps.
A man at the top exclaimed in Hindi at the sight of her, another woman approaching where she had paused on the stairwell to ask in the same language, "Who are you?" And then she ushered worriedly, "Get out! There is sickness here!"
Bruce was revealed at the sink behind her, pouring some water from a pitcher and washing his hands as he watched the interaction through the mirror. He dried them on the towel as the girl asked of the women, "Are you a doctor? My father's not waking up!" Bruce approached as he fished his glasses from the pocket of his worn suit jacket. She added, "He has a fever and he's moaning, but his eyes won't open-"
"Slow down," Bruce beckoned in Hindi.
"My father…." She began to plead again, twisting the paper of some money in her hands.
Bruce crouched down so he was more level with her lowered stand on the steps and pointed off to the corner of the room where she had been gazing, asking, "Like them?" a couple of children lay covered in blankets as they coughed, the man that had met her on the stairs sitting and wiping the sweat off of the one's forehead.
"Please," she reiterated in English, offering the money.
"So Brucie, how many languages do you actually speak?" Tony asks as Pepper raises an eyebrow at the nickname.
"I speak a few other languages – I pick what is useful when I'm passing through the different countries."
She led him out to a poorly constructed shack, Bruce reaching out a hand to hold out in front of her as they were about to cross a road. He casually turned his back to the armed truck that rolled by on patrol of the area, before he released her and they continued hurrying into the house.
He walked in through the tattered curtains that had once shielded the interior from view and followed as the girl dashed into one of the back room. He paused as she climbed onto the bed and clambered out over the window frame and out of the house. He huffed out what might of have been a laugh, resting a hand on the support pole he stood next to as he scolded himself, "You should've got paid up front, Banner."
"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress you picked a hell of a place to settle," Natasha commented as he turned to her, walking calmly out from behind a curtained section of the house. She had changed into a long blue skirt and a deep purple, modestly cut, sleeveless top, a red shawl wrapped around her upper arms that she held together over her stomach.
"Wow Natasha you look very pretty with that outfit on." Pepper says to her and Natasha smiles at her.
"That's a completely different impression." Tony says.
A lot of people nodded their heads in agreement. Loki looked at the screen with an expression that was hard to read no one knowing that he was secretly impressed.
He removed the bag from his shoulder and gently placed it on the ground as he replied, "Avoiding stress isn't the secret."
"Then what is it? Yoga?" she asked with a small smile.
"Ah, you brought me to the edge of the city – smart," he commented, bringing his hands together and rubbing them over each other anxiously. He sidled over to the window and peeked out the glass pane, asking, "I-uh, I assume the whole place is surrounded?"
"Just you and me," she answered, removing her shawl and tossing it to the side.
"And, your actress buddy?" he questioned, gesturing vaguely in the direction the child had exited. "Is she a spy too – they start that young?"
"I did," she admitted, her lips pursing slightly in a show of vulnerability.
"Who are you?"
"Natasha Romanoff," she stated.
"Are you here to kill me, Ms. Romanoff?" he questioned, continuing to rub his hands over one another. "Because that's not going to work out – for everone."
"No, no – of course not," she protested. "I'm here on behalf of SHIELD."
"SHIELD," he muttered, lacing his fingers together in front of him. She tilted her head as she observed him, and he interrogated, "How did they find me?"
"We never lost you, Doctor. We've kept our distance," she explained as he leaned back against the wall, "even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."
"Why?" he asked, averting his eyes to the floor before he flicked them to her as she answered.
"Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now we need you to come in."
"What if I say no?" he said carefully.
"I'll persuade you," she answered with a smirk.
Tony started cracking up when he noticed Steve blushing; he had a certain thought come to his mind at the implication.
Pepper ended up having to slap Tony to get him to stop and then said sorry to Steve for Tony laughing. A few others also thought it was funny but they didn't voice it.
He licked his lips in nervousness and added, "And what if the other guy says no?"
"You've been more than a year without an incident, I don't think you want to break that streak," she replied, turning away.
"Well, I don't every time get what I want," he muttered, stepping over to rock a wooden cradle where it was suspended.
"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe," she announced, having retrieved her chellphone and was focused on sifting through the information contained on it.
He chuckled and said, "Oh, those I actively try to avoid."
Why is it that you're all shy and hiding inside of yourself when I meet you and you're all witty here? I don't get it." Tony whined causing Pepper to sigh at his child like behavior.
Bruce shrugged; he was a little more comfortable without being surrounded by armed men.
"This," she directed his attention to the picture she had selected, "is the Tesseract." She took a seat at the table and slid the phone over its surface for his perusal. "It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."
He walked over to her and put his wire-framed glasses on before lifting the cell and staring at the image of the azure cube. "What does Fury want me to do – swallow it?" he asked in confusion.
That comment, caused a few to laugh a little startled, not expecting him to say that.
"He wants you to find it – it's been taken," she elaborated her elbows on the table as she leaned forward to impress upon him the importance of the event. "It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be." She leaned back in her seat as she clarified her reason for confronting him.
"So Fury isn't after the monster?" he questioned as he removed his glasses.
Loki noted the way Bruce thought of the Hulk, with a little bit of understanding since he considered himself a monster in some sort of way too.
Not that he's told me."
"And he tells you everything?"
She cast her hard eyes up at him before suggesting. "Talk to Fury, he needs you on this."
"He needs me in a cage-"
"No one's going to put you in a c-"
"STOP LYING TO ME!" he yelled as he slammed his hands on the table. She had reached underneath its surface and ripped off the handgun she had attached there, jumping back and aiming it steadily at him.
A lot of the people in the control room tensed up at the interaction between the two.
He smirked and pulled back slowly, justifying, "I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do."
She kept her firearm on him, staring at him warily as he held up his hands and remarked, "Why don't we do this the easy way – where you don't use that, and the Other Guy doesn't make a mess?"
Her breathing and pulse were slow to calm, still unsure if he had started to lose control and might transform to tear her apart. It was only after he says gently, "Okay Natasha?" that she lowered her weapon and exhaled lengthily.
She raised her hand to her right ear and ordered, "Stand down – we're good here," into her earpiece. The two dozen armed agents surrounding the building relaxed their grasps on their rifles and shifted into less alert stances.
"'Just you and me'," he quoted.
She lowered her arm and continued to compose herself.
"I hope there aren't any more recruitments that are very dramatic." Jane says crossing her arms.
"I'm sure that was the only dramatic one." Clint assured her.
"This is out of line, Director," a man stated solemnly, his image cast in shadow as were his three fellow council members. The video feed from their individual locations was spread over four large screens on the wall in the dim lighting, Director Fury standing as the sole occupant of the room to face their inquiries. "You're dealing with forces you can't control."
"You ever been in a war, councilman-" he retorted, "-in a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?"
"SHIELD operates under the World Security Council – we should've been informed of all the details," the councilman reprimanded. Director Fury stood before their displays tall and defiant, his hands clasped behind his back.
"The Council's interest in our work has always been about results, not procedure," he defended.
"Agent Clint Barton is intimate with SHIELD procedure, I believe."
Clint looks at the screen with narrowed eyes, not happy that Council didn't believe in him. He wanted to know what their plans were for him.
"And now we learn he's working with the enemy? A man whose talent appears to be-"
"Killing," Fury interrupted, confessing the fact and finishing the thought. "But he didn't kill me. He didn't take the head shot. He's been brainwashed but I won't write him off."
Clint relaxes and shoots Fury a grateful smile, happy that he believed in him.
"We're on Loki's trail and we're scrambling a response team."
"You're saying that this…Asgard is declaring war on our planet?" another male questioned.
"Not Asgard – Loki," he repeated.
"He can't be working alone," the female council member argued. "What about the other one? His brother?"
"Our intelligence says Thor is not a hostile, but he's worlds away – we can't depend on him to help, either," Fury responded. "It's up to us."
"Which is why you should be focusing on Phase 2, it was designed for exactly this-"
"Phase 2 isn't ready – our enemy is," Fury impressed. "We need a response team."
"Why are these mortals thinking I'm a bad person?" Thor asks confused.
"They just don't understand you buddy." Tony says glaring at the screen trying to memorize the faces of the people that decided it was a good idea to send a nuclear missile towards New York.
"The Avengers Initiative was shut down."
"This isn't about the Avengers-" he started only to be cut off.
"We've seen the list."
Another councilman detailed, "You're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks. It was a volatile concept at the best of times – which is not."
"Okay that's just offensive." Tony says glaring at the screen along with a few other people who didn't like how the Council thought.
"I'm not leaving anything to anyone – we need a response team," Fury justified. "These people may be isolated – unbalanced even – but I believe with the right push they could be exactly what we need."
"You 'believe', the woman mocked.
"War isn't won by sentiment, Director."
"No," Fury agreed, "It's won by soldiers."
"I suggest you make your response rapid," the female interjected. "We all know what's at stake."
"Their shadowed images faded as the connection was abruptly severed, the Director confirming, "Yes, we do."
"Wow no faith at all." Tony says and Pepper nodded her head.
"War!" Printed boldly as the headline across the front page of The Star Dispatch was 'WAR IN EUROPE!', the logo above the newspaper company's name bearing stars and stripes showing it to be of United States publication.
A few people in the room were a little confused thinking that information was leaked to the press. Not knowing that this is a flashback and an introduction of Steve. Steve is quietly trying to control his breathing knowing what everyone is going to probably see.
"With the forces of darkness pressing in from the East," an announcer dictated, squared ranks of German soldiers shown marching to Hitler's command, and soldiers holding a Japanese flag gathering in support, "from the West America heeds the call to fight for freedom!"
Suddenly the black and white moving pictures showed American's disembarking from a ship to train, and then the troops climbing over hilled terrain, providing propaganda to the masses regarding their soldiers' efforts in the shore of a beach Steve, dressed in his old uniform with packs of supplies on his belt, a gun on his hip, and shield in hand ran with the armed men.
Steve winced at the introduction of himself from the video as the others had a close attention to the film.
"And at the front of the fight, shoulder to shoulder with our battling boys, is Captain America!" He led a group through ruined streets and directed them to aid the survivors left in the buildings.
"A product of old fashioned values and exciting new science!" The images changed to capture scientists garbed in long coats bustling around counters filled with beakers, some of the men injecting additional components into the solution of the vials.
His teammates and others including Loki looked at the screen with narrowed eyes when they heard the word product used to describe him.
"Captain America's the name every Nazi fears!" Steve was caught for a moment dressed in a dark suit and light tie standing beside a smiling brunette before Captain America was once again on the field accompanying rows of enemy soldiers with their hands raised in surrender.
"Adolf's secret weapons are no match for our man!" Men covered in dark armor shoot weapons with the Hydra symbol on the side, Steve plowing through to knock them aside with his shield before waving the troops behind him onwards. "When tough times turn tougher when hope's on the ropes," Steve rode his old Harley Davidson motorbike between fortified tanks, "here's the man to knock the Axis on their backsis!"
The video was framed and shown to be played on a laptop, the reflection of a blond man overlaid on top of the monotone representation. "He's out there fighting for the land that we love – and he won't stop-" The screen reflection staring morosely before his eyes lowered in remembrance of the war.
This is when it came clear to everyone in the room that they were watching what exactly Steve was doing after Loki's arrival. That he didn't feel right in a world full of technology.
Sunlight streamed through the pane that was levered open above the curtained window, Steve is shown sitting in a small apartment at the wooden table of a cramped kitchen. In the corner, on a low mannequin of a torso, was the olive green suit jacket, collared shirt, and white tie he had worn in the forties. He carefully flipped through the pages of profiles stacked before him, each of the men he had known sporting a scarlet stamp beneath their image stating 'DECEASED'.
His brow furrowed slightly as he lifted another page, white dress shirt buttoned up to the slightly open collar and sleeves rolled up above his elbows, coming to a sheet lacking the stark declaration: Carter, Margaret, "Peggy", alive and retired. He stared into the dark eyes framed by pale, porcelain skin and glossy, tamed curls captured on the page for a moment before his gaze roved down to the information below it. Her address at 57-J Merryweather, Winchester, UK and her current telephone number of 020-7946-03560 was outlined plainly. He turned his head to the phone standing in its cradle on the end table before dismissing the idea of contact and putting the sheet off to the side.
"Why wouldn't you have contacted your girl?" Darcy asks and smirks when Steve blushes a little.
"Yes Steven, why didn't you?" Thor asks confused.
"I didn't know what I could say to her, it's been 70 years for her so I didn't know what to say." Steve says.
"Oh, that is a long time." Darcy says not really realizing that until now causing Jane to sigh exasperated.
Nobody really notices Tony whisper something to Pepper which was (Do you think I should tell him that I consider her to be my Aunt?) Pepper looks at him and shakes her head whispering back, (Now's not the best time wait till later.)
He passed over the profile of Stark, Howard A. who was also deceased-
A few noticed how Tony scowls at the screen when the picture of his father appears. Pepper puts her hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
-before he gingerly lifted in his hands the only document that was not yet yellowed with age. A picture of Tony Stark outfitted in a tux was to one side, and beneath was a full-body shot of his Iron Man suit. His status with SHIELD was stated as Active, and that of an Adviser.
Steve lay the paper down again and raised a hand to his mouth to worry his lip before propping his chin onto his fist in thought.
Outside on the crowded sidewalks there was a man standing beside a couple of plastic tables with an array of phones advertised. Steve walked past him, now with the businessmen, fashionable women, and young students hurrying to their destinations while obsessively checking cell phones or listening to their iPods. The vendor called out, "Get your phones here! 300 minutes here! Buy some time, buy some time people. Buy a phone-"
Steve ended up wandering to a café with an outdoor patio. He lounged in his seat as he roughly sketched how Stark Tower stretched up into the sky.
"I thought you said my tower was ugly, Capsicle." Tony smirks as Steve gets red in the face very embarrassed.
He itched his forehead before continuing his work with the lead pencil, oblivious to the waitress' approach. Half of her hair was piled atop her head, the rest of the long, waved, blonde locks let down, her lips quirking into a smile as she glanced at his accurate drawing and asked, "Waiting on the big guy?"
"Ma'am?" he questioned, confused.
"Iron Man," she clarified, nodding. "Lot of people eat here just to see him fly by."
Tony smirks, the news making his ego go up a little.
"Right," he said, eyes drawn up to the tower again. He smiled in amusement and reached into his jacket to pull out the bills to pay for his coffee, adding, "Maybe another time."
"Table's yours as long as you like," she offered, while flirting with him and refilling his mug. "Nobody's waiting on it. Plus, we've got free wireless."
He leaned forward in order to replace the remaining money in his pocket as she walked away, finally inquiring in confusion, "Radio?"
A few people were giggling while others cast him looks of sympathy, and then there was Thor who didn't know that much about technology that much either. Loki just sat not wanting to interact with anyone that hates his guts, even if they are at an alliance now that they know some about Thanos.
She looked over her shoulder but could not answer comfortably over the range, disbelieving of the accuracy of her hearing anyhow.
"Ask for her number, you moron," the old man seated at the table behind him suggested as he leaned back before returning to his meal. Steve's expression exhibited his mystification.
"Wow an Old Man getting dating advice from another old man." Tony says embarrassing Steve even more. But Pepper gives Tony a look which shuts him up though.
He travelled by subway, the cars rattling as they moved swiftly over the tracks, his hands folded in his lap as his fingers nervously rubbed along each other in a display of anxiety. He closed his eyes.
Thor was looking at the screen in great interest seeing the unfamiliar machine that Steve was riding in. He only had contact with a different vehicle smaller than this new machine that struck him over a couple of times.
Loki rolls his eyes at the look of excitement in Thor's eyes.
Steve tossed a few bills onto the low desk in front of him, a duffle bag grasped in his other hand. The male seated across from his impressive stature maneuvered a key and its ring off another and held it out to him, men shown through the large observation window walking away from the wrestling ring below covered in sweat and wiping their faces with small towels.
Steve had changed into grey sweatpants and a tight white tee, wrapped hands pounding into the hanging heavy bag in front of him. Jabs and punches slammed into the course material as he vented recalling his final moments before he was frozen. His last words echoing in his mind, "There's not enough time," as he justified crashing the plane, and with it, the danger that the Tesseract posted, "I've got to put her in the water."
Peggy's voice reassuring him: "You won't be alone."
And then, faintly, "Oh my god – this guy's still alive," from one of the men who had found him encased in ice.
The bag that had been suspended on a chain from the ceiling flew across the space with the powerful punch Steve had thrown, his frustration at his predicament evident.
A few of them were shocked when this happened. Some noting that he most likely had PTSD and to be cautious with Steve when he's around mostly water, ice, the coldness and dark.
He could also be struggling from emotional and psychological damage from what happened to losing what he knew back then.
Loki also took note of this, now that he's their ally since they all know he wasn't behind the New York attack he could help the avenger team come to terms with what's bothering them. But he'll only be able to help when they trust him enough and when they see what they need to from all of these video's they have to watch.
His chest heaved with his breaths as he stood staring at the retired punching bag lying across the space, his skin gleaming with a faint sheen of sweat and his hair disheveled. He continued to pant as he turned and stepped over to the line of six other bags he had arranged on the floor, bending to grasp the hanging harness at the top of one and lifting to attach it to the chain that fell from the ceiling.
He wiped his forehead with his bandaged knuckles before settling into a firm stance and raising his fists to resume determinedly pounding the heavy bag.
"Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked, having rounded one of the corners into the area.
"Slept for 70 years, sir," he responded, turning back to his workout. "Think I've had my fill."
"Then you should be out – celebrating, seeing the world," he retorted as he approached.
Steve halted his fierce movements and stepped over to the bench with his duffle, starting as he panted, "When I went under, the world was at war," while he unwrapped his hands. "I wake up, they say we won – they didn't say what we lost."
"We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury admitted, manila folder in hand with the SHIELD logo inked on the front, "Some very recently."
"Are you here with a mission, sir?" he asked, stuffing the removed bandages into the unzipped bag and starting on the other hand.
"I am."
"Trying to get me back in the world?" Fury stated, flipping open the folder and spinning it carefully to show Steve the contents.
He gazed at the top page for a moment before reaching forward and taking the file into his hands. There was a large image of the azure cube to one side, 'Tesseract' typed in bold beside it and a few paragraphs detailing what they have observed of its powers thus far. The information required a security clearance level of seven to access it. "HYDRA's secret weapon," Steve murmured
"What?" Darcy asks.
Fury sighs then explains to her, "That's the organization that had control of the Tesseract during WWII."
"Ah." She nodded.
"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury explained. Steve drew out the second sheet, finding another picture of the Tesseract as well as those of HYDRA's signets; details of their use of the cube beneath the paper-clipped images. He cast his eyes up to Fury as he continued, "He thought what we think: the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy-"
"That's something the world sorely needs."
Steve put the papers back into their proper order and shut the folder with a flap, handing it back to the Director as he asked, "Who took it from you?"
"He's called Loki. He's….not from around here," Fury answered before declaring, "There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."
"At this point I doubt anything would surprise me," he remarked, standing and turning away to grab his duffle.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury bet as the Captain strode over to the line of abandoned punching bags and lifted one onto his shoulder, deltoid and trapezium muscles flexing over the movement of his shoulder blade. "There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"
He walked away with the 70-pound heavy bag over one shoulder and in the other hand his duffle, asserting as he exited, "You should have left it in the ocean."
T.B.C
Author's note: Sorry that I ended it right here but I felt that I should have Tony's introduction separate from Steve's. I'll get the next chapter up hopefully soon. Please R&R.