Steve Rogers couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep ever since waking up from the ice. And currently the only way he could escape the tiredness was by beating on a punching bag. It makes everything, the memories at the very least, a little bit better.
And the memories were never ceasing.
Even now they were going through his mind.
He is running through a forest, dodging mortar shells, gunfire, and Tesseract blasts towards a Hydra base.
"There's not enough time! I gotta put her in the water!" his past self says on board the Hydra bomber.
His punches slammed harder and harder into the punching bag.
He sets the compass he has with a picture of Peggy Carter in it, onto the dashboard as the plane plummets towards the ice.
Peggy's voice. "You won't be alone."
The punches grow harder and, destroying the bag and breaking Steve's fists.
Red Skull picking up the Tesseract and vanishing.
Steve is lying on a table, half frozen, and partially trapped in a slab of ice. Two SHIELD scientists are checking him over for his vitals.
"Oh my god!"
"This guy's still alive!"
The punching bag slams across the room with one swing of Steve's fist, snapping the chain, and plummeting at least a dozen feet. Sand is spilling out from a crack in the fabric.
Steve's breathing hard, and grabs another bag from the lineup, hanging it up and beginning to punch it again.
He looks up when a moment later a familiar voice asks, "Trouble sleeping?"
Steve turns towards Fury for a moment before continuing punching the bag, "I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill."
Fury is moving closer, "Then you should be out, celebrating. Seeing the world."
Steve stopped punching and walked over to a bench as he slowly began to unwrap tape off his hands. He sat down.
"I went under, the world was at war," he said. "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."
"We've made some mistakes," Fury said. "Some very recently."
Steve stared at him for a moment, "You here with a mission, sir?"
"I am."
"Trying to get me back in the world?"
Fury held out file for Steve to take. The picture on top caught his attention almost immediately.
"Trying to save it."
Steve accepted the file, staring at the picture of a very familiar cube, and said, quietly, "Hydra's secret weapon."
"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury explained. "He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs.
Steve handed the file back to Fury, trying not to feel a little betrayed, "Who took it from you?"
"He's called Loki," Fury said. "He's not from around here. 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 that anything would surprise me," Steve responded.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury said. "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment."
Steve gave the director a nod and picked up a punching bag before gathering up his other stuff and starting to walk out of the gym.
"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury asked after him.
Steve doesn't even turn around.
"You should have left it in the ocean."
1111111111111111
Percy entered the Stark building nervously, not because of the fact that he was about to meet Tony Stark, but because of the fact that he had blown up one of Stark's Iron Man storage units and the last thing he wanted was to get on Starks bad side. Of course he likely already was.
So that just mean that Percy could have fun as he was doing this. He did love annoying people, after all. He moved toward the elevator in the front hall of the building and stepped inside after almost casually hacking his way in.
As he entered the elevator a computerized British-sounding voice said, "I'm sorry, sir, this is Tony Stark's private elevator."
Percy looked up and said, "Director Fury of SHIELD sent me. I'm Agent Jackson."
The voice sighed, "I am JARVIS."
Percy smiled, "Nice to meet you JARVIS. Now I really need to see Mr. Stark."
"Very well," JARVIS said. "But I cannot allow you upstairs. You will wait here."
He then told Percy to call Mr. Stark. Percy did. JARVIS said, "Sir, an Agent Jackson from SHIELD is on the line."
Then Percy heard Mr. Stark's voice, "Tell him I'm not in."
Percy sighed and said to JARVIS, "This is important, JARVIS."
JARVIS returned to Mr. Stark, "I'm afraid he's being rather persistent, sir."
This time he was completely ignored by Mr. Stark.
JARVIS then spoke to Percy, "I'm sorry, Agent Jackson, but he will not see you tonight."
Percy took a deep breath and smiled, "I'm sorry I have to do this JARVIS."
"What. . .?" JARVIS began as Percy began to hack into JARVIS's protocols from his phone. He overrode JARVIS's protocols and started up the elevator as the computer spoke to Mr. Stark, "Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden."
Then Percy spoke, directly to Mr. Stark, "Mr. Stark we need to talk."
Stark then picked up his phone and spoke at Percy in a dead-sounding way, "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message."
Percy smirked slightly, trying not to laugh, and said, "This is urgent."
Stark continued, "Then leave it urgently."
Just then the elevator opened, and Percy stepped out into the top floor. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts turned to him.
"Security breach." Stark said pouting, before turning to Miss Potts. "That's on you."
Percy began to move toward them. He held out a hand, "Mr. Stark, I am Agent Perseus Jackson of SHIELD."
Stark stared at his hand for a moment before glancing at Pepper.
"This is on you, Potts," he repeated.
Percy sighed and lowered his hand before reaching into his bag and holding a small hand-held computer towards Mr. Stark, as he said, "We need you to look this over. Soon as possible, if you would."
"I don't like being handed things," Stark said.
Ms. Potts smiled and said, "That's alright, cause I do. So let's trade."
She took the computer and handed Percy her champaign glass before taking Tony's glass and handing him the file.
Stark stared at the file for a moment and said, "Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday."
"This isn't a consultation, Mr. Stark," Percy responded.
"Is this about the Avengers?" Miss Potts asked.
Percy looked in between her and Mr. Stark, and she added, "Which I. . . I know nothing about."
Mr. Stark let out a huff, "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify."
"I didn't know that either," Miss Potts told Percy.
"Yeah," Mr. Stark grumped as he headed away towards his other computers, "apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."
"That I did know," Miss Potts told Percy.
"This isn't about personality profiles anymore, Mr. Stark," Percy said.
"Whatever," Stark said, before he beckoned Miss Potts over to him. "Miss Potts, got a minute?"
Percy watched the woman walk over to Stark and began to scan their thoughts.
He nearly grinned. There was no doubt that Stark would agree to help, even though he might say he wouldn't.
He watched as Stark and Miss Potts talked for a few minutes before Stark pulled up everything in the mini-computer displaying it all in front of him.
Screens appeared of Captain America in action, the Hulk roaring as he attacks the army at Culver University, Thor fighting the Destroyer in New Mexico. And then one of Loki and the Tesseract.
Miss Potts said a few more things to Stark and then turned back to Percy as she headed for the elevator, "I'll walk you out Agent Jackson."
Percy smiled at her before turning back to Stark. "By the way, I can't pay for that Iron Man storage unit I blew up a while back. Talk to Fury if you want some money for it."
Stark turned sharply as Percy and Miss Potts walked out. Percy nearly laughed at the expression on his face.
"You're the Shark." He yelped as the elevator closed in front of Percy and Miss Potts. "Damn you, Fury."
Percy smiled. Not a bad way to end his day. Not bad at all.