Steve Rogers couldn't believe it when he awakened up after 70 years to find out though that they had won the 2nd World War the world had practically surrendered without a fuss to the next big dictator wanting to be seen as a god. He couldn't really blame them truly since Loki and his Asgardian army from beyond the stars had magic, technology and an army unlike most of what the Earth had ever seen. He was more than happy enough to sign up with Nick Fury the disposed Director of SHIELD the peacekeeping force that Howard Stark and Peggy Carter had helped found in order to take the Earth back.
Fury had SHIELD bases hidden away which were being used by the SHIELD resistance and Steve had his uniform and shield to help him. He had Carol Danvers who went by Captain Marvel; an air force pilot who was changed by the Tesseract to become super powered and spent years in space. Truly he had come back to a weirder reality...
There was also Colonel James Rhodes who was using a piece of armor that he originally called the War Machine but had repainted red and yellow and was going by Iron Man; in honour of his murdered best friend Tony Stark the son of Howard Stark. Steve really wished that he had got to meet Tony; he seemed arrogant and self-destructive from the stories that he was given by still he wanted to see what Howard's son would have been like. The three were known as the Avengers and it wasn't the powerhouse team that Fury wanted it to be but they used what they needed.
Carol was a big help against the big guns against them as they went on missions to rescue resistors and get what they could to make use. King Loki had a tremendous bounty on all their heads for this treason. Steve got on well enough with his teammates and his SHIELD handler Phil Coulson who weirded him out with how much of a fanboy he was.
Hammer Industries had their Hammer drones sent against Rhodes or Rhodey as he liked to be called; however the drones gave Rhodey a message after hacking his armor. A set of coordinates as they self destructed; a SHIELD team discretely went and brought back Anton Vanko a criminal scientist who had been going on a vendetta against Tony Stark before he had died and had his death faked while in prison. He offered his own not unimpressive brain to help him because as he states:
"Tony Stark was mine to finish off and now he was taken from me and I waited for a new purpose. I believe helping to save the world is as good a purpose as any."
HYDRA it seemed survived within SHIELD and had attempted to assassinate the King with their Winter Soldier but after the attempt failed SHIELD found him and Steve was horrified to find out it was his best friend Bucky Barnes who was survived and Arnim Zola turned him into HYDRA's cyborg super soldier. With help from a psychiatrist on the SHIELD resistance group; they were able to slowly help him recover and regain his memories.
However their biggest victory was when Steve was leading the Avengers to the New Mexico sight of the king's late brother Thor's hammer Mjolnir with the base taken over by HYDRA members who had aligned with the King and they wanted to see what Intel they could gain from the base:
Steve and his team was in position with Carol and Rhodey distracting Loki's ultimate weapon the Destroyer but he reached inside and there were Asgardian guards along with HYDRA agents with guns. He heard in his earpiece from Coulson that they had a mole inside who leaked the plan to Loki and now Bucky is taking care of the traitor.
"The so called Sentinel of Liberty and Freedom; Fury's attack dog; your death shall be an example to those who think they can challenge their rightful ruler... Any last words before your death as I have all TV and internet signals watching this live and so they watch what the bright lure of freedom brings you?" Loki asked mockingly as he was leading his army.
"The price of freedom is high and it's one that I am always willing to pay; no one should be kneeling to you as you the rightful king of nothing. I have met a man who thought like you that he should be a god ruling over this world and you shall fall like he did." Steve did as he charged in using his shield to block the weapon fire coming his way.
He saw the hammer Mjolnir and something was calling to him; he barely made it to it and got a hold of it using his shield to block the beam from the Destroyer. He felt the electricity in his hand as he managed to pick up the hammer and the shield was finding it harder to resist the beam. He stood up with Mjolnir up high with a huge thundercloud at his fingertips. Loki was in shock as Steve charged forward and Loki was punched hard in the face with Mjolnir drawing blood and sending him flying to the wall with his crown sent flying as well.
The Asgardian army was in shock as the agents tried to fire but Steve used the lightning to send them flying, Loki angrily ordered the Destroyer to kill Steve but Steve jumped and managed to completely oneshot the Destroy sending it down. Loki then called for Heimdall to give him retreat with the Asgardian army.
Steve and the Avengers returned with the SHIELD Resistance cheering for their biggest victory yet, Vanko went up to him and insisted that he and Steve toasted with some Russian beer. "Celebrate Captain; you made a god bleed..." Vanko had told him.
King Loki was humiliated on live TV and the whole world saw it and with a rejuvenated sense of hope; the humans began rebelling with the Asgardian army and supporters struggling to keep the peace. Steve was practically invincible with Mjolnir to go with his shield and the Asgardian army were now terrified of him and called him the Destroyer. Sif and the Warriors Three tried engaging him for holding Thor's hammer but they were defeated.
Steve managed to help take down the Soviet program known as the Red Room which had joined King Loki along with HYDRA; their commander Dreykhov was killed and his Black Widow army were freed and now helping the resistance. One of them Yelena Belova considered Natasha Romanoff a reformed Black Widow and SHIELD agent along with murdered Avengers Initiative candidate a sister and wanted to reform like she did. She had a history with Soviet super soldier Alexi Shostakov the Red Guardian who was sprung from a Russian prison for all the help that they could get. He seemed weird with how he kept insisting he was Steve's eternal rival and that they had fought before.
Vanko had helped reverse engineer the Destroyer remains into guns for the SHIELD resistance and used the upper body to create his own high tech suit which he had colored red and insisted on wanting to be in the field calling himself the Crimson Dynamo. Bucky helped form his own group parallel to the Avengers known as the Winter Guard with his as field leader with Yelena, Alexi and Vanko as members.
They had help taken down Asgard controlled territory in various countries along with the US and taken down the Loki supported barons; the UK and the US had more than half of their territory taken back from Asgard with more countries following suit. However the isolationist African nation of Wakanda had kept resisting Asgard control with Asgard not really able to pierce through their forcefield. There were arguments within the palace:
Queen Ramonda and Princess Shuri listened as Prince T'Challa once again argued with his father King T'Chaka about openly fighting against Asgard and helping the resistance. "The rest of the world surrendered without a fight and that can't be helped and we are continuing to do what we can with our spies. We have to do what is best for Wakanda and that is keeping our people and our home safe; let SHIELD keep Asgard distracted." T'Chaka had told him.
"We could have helped turn the tide of the resistance if we fought openly near the beginning; we are safe for now but we know Loki's ego will mean that he will not accept any kingdom on his 'planet' resisting. Our folly will be thinking that our technology and Vibranium can protect us forever; what happens when he can get through our forcefield? He is an alien God and what happens if he finds Vibranium of his own? Remember that a meteorite brought it our land so we should expect more to exist beyond the stars." T'Challa retorted as T'Chaka looked like he was just tired.
"I have been asking as your father to drop this but now I am ordering you as your king." T'Chaka said calmly but firmly but T'Challa stood firm.
"I will not drop it while you could bring Wakanda and the rest of the world to its doom with your hubris and your cowardice." T'Challa said as T'Chaka stood up glaring at him as Ramonda was stunned. Before his father could say a word T'Challa spoke "I challenge you." You could hear a pin drop in the throne room as no one dare make a sound. "Is that not my right as the prince to challenge for the throne if I so choose?" T'Challa asked and T'Chaka said then so be it.
The duel challenge was made and T'Challa took advantage of his recent training and youth against his father's lack of experience on the field; the king yielded. The spectators were stunned as T'Challa took out his hand to help his father up which was accepted. T'Chaka embraced him and whispered into his ear "May Bast give you the strength you need to succeed my son." He then held his son's arm up high and shouted "What are you waiting for, give your new king and the new Black Panther the respect that he deserves!"
The cheering commenced.
The main SHIELD Resistance base had a high alert as there was an unknown craft on their sensors. Director Fury and Steve were there as it landed and out came T'Challa in full Black Panther habit along with the Dorae Milaje; "Director Fury and Captain Rogers; I am T'Challa the new King of Wakanda and the new Black Panther. On behalf of my people I offer you an alliance with Wakanda along with a membership application of me joining you in the Avengers." T'Challa said.
The Wakandan scientists and their technology were a big help and were helping to work on the Tesseract which SHIELD had done their best to keep out of Loki's hand ever since he had taken over. They were now getting ready to open a portal to the Asgardian palace and raid their supplies in what could be one of the final attacks to free the world from Loki.
"You know this would have been an election year and yesterday which would have been the Election Day they had a poll in the freed states over who would they vote for President; it was no contest that you were picked on most states with majority of the swing states." Coulson let Steve know showing him the device showing the online poll results with the assembled members cheering.
"Come on Steve; you should retire once the pointy haired wizard is done away with and you could do good work once you moved into the White House." Bucky told him smirking and Steve snapped at him to not encourage them.
The Tesseract opened up the portal and the Avengers along with the Winter Guard made their charge. The Asgardian guards became terrified once they saw what they called the Destroyer leading the charge but did their best to attack. The Winter Guard went to the prisoners area thinking it could help if they stage a riot. They were in front of a particular cell and the inmate got their attention when he said "do my eyes deceive me or is it not the Winter Soldier bogeyman? I know all about Odessa and if only I was not stuck here or else I would take vengeance for my baby girl! I did tell my wife Janet that I wish I could get a chance to take on the supposed Winter Soldier!" Bucky looked guilty as he spot the glaring form of Hank Pym the Yellowjacket and the Avengers candidate killer.
"I remember everything that HYDRA made me; nothing I can say or do can take it back but for what it's worth I am truly sorry MR Pym..." Bucky told him as Pym laughed humourlessly.
"Stark was mine to kill; oh the ways I will make you suffer once I open up this cell!" Vanko shouted in the Crimson Dynamo.
"I have more right than you do to take my pound of flesh; thanks to him I never got to see my eldest girl again!" Alexi said but then Yelena stepped in.
"Natasha was my sister and he will be mine to deal with!" Yelena said as Steve stopped them.
"Captain America the Destroyer; the guards are not exactly silent and now I am sitting here wishing that I had thought to bring my autograph book in my suit before I went to confront Fury at my daughter's grave. The guards are not exactly silent about the trouble the Goth king is in." Pym smirked, "You know if you let me out of this cell; you could have the help of the only man who still knows how the Pym Particle works or the Quantum Realm. Fury took the power source of my suit but nothing that can't be fixed." Pym said.
"Yeah we are opening this cell and I deal with the man that took my best friend from me! He was dying and the last time that I saw him I had to take him down on his birthday taking his suit from him!" Rhodey said as Steve stopped him and said to let him out.
A week later Asgard's territory was close to nothing and it seemed their defeat was inevitable; Steve found Pym nursing bruises in the room for him. "Decided to come here to recover once your friends had their punches at me and I was not interested in you or Fury giving the big hero speeches that my daughter Hope was given." Pym said.
"I am sorry for your daughter and so is Bucky." Steve said sympathetically as Pym brushed it off. "Still you took your anger out on people who had nothing to deal with it to hurt Fury; heroes who could have helped to stop Loki. One of them was his brother and his death invited Loki here." Steve said as Pym sighed.
"I stopped being Ant-Man to stop SHIELD using my work and I couldn't handle the Particles much without it affecting my sanity but anger and grief overridden my. One of the so called heroes was a green monster and I won't lie in saying a part of me enjoyed killing a Stark. My quest couldn't bring Hope back and it led to Loki taking the Earth as recompense which I had a lot of time to think it over and nothing was worth it." Pym said.
"You have a lot to answer for when this is all over." Steve warned him and Pym gave a humourless laugh.
"I expect nothing less." Pym said simply as Steve went back to help planning the final stages to taking the planet back.