A/N: Wrote this on an impulse. Had to put something out in FanFiction after a year-long absence. So this is a collection of connected short stories which on their own are nearly enough by themselves. The events here take place in between the movies, when the Avengers are mostly not avenging. I felt I wanted to know the characters a little better than we see them. Tried not to break anything cannon though.
The Future Is Now: Part-1
A Steve Rogers Story
"Hello Captain Rogers, how are you catching up?"
"Just fine Sir, thank you."
...
Manhattan grew to be extremely busy. People were like machines going about only doing their own task. No sideways glance. Huge billboards with pictures of ice creams, coffee, burger, and shoes changed within seconds into something else. Maybe into a car. Or some celebrity.
There was a book and stationary store which caught the eye of Steve Rogers, a lonely man amidst an ocean of ignorant pedestrians. He couldn't tell why the store got his attention. Maybe because of its simplicity, without those banners that screamed "you are in the twenty-first century soldier!".
A huge guy wearing a baseball cap sat at the counter. Steve walked past him. The inside of the store was cold. There were these vents at the top of the walls that blew in cold air. Those must be the air conditioners.
There wasn't any specific reason Steve had walked into the store. And nobody inside even recognized him, which wasn't bad. Steve didn't want to go on explaining to people why he looked like Steve Rogers. Sometimes anonymity was a good thing. It was something he hadn't had for a long time. Even before he went into the ice.
He went into the "fiction" section where his hand stopped sliding on a book that read "1984". He pulled it out of the pile. He checked the price. The next stop was at the opposite side of the store. He pulled out a diary. Hell, he had the cash. Better not walk out empty-handed. It would be rude.
...
April 14, 2012
I may have underestimated the saying "people change".
They do, dramatically, and it is not something I am used to. Back in the day before joining the army Buck and I would lie on the ground and watch the stars. We used to talk about the future. I was pessimistic of changes. My imaginations were limited. We had to wait every Saturday evening to listen to the popular songs. Occasionally they played our favorite ones. Most of the time they didn't. I wished they did. We weren't wealthy enough to afford a phonograph. I would tell Bucky how I wished we could have one. I'd play my favorites over and over again.
Bucky on the other hand had a wider and wilder imagination. He said the television in our homes would get color some day. I scoffed at the thought. We even bet on it. Hundred dollars. Whoever was right would earn a hundred dollars. It was a lot but we agreed anyway. I knew he'd be wrong, and even if he wasn't, I didn't think we would have lived long enough to have witnessed it.
Even the roads have televisions now. Instead of posters, billboards have colored television, huge and life-sized, so real I could walk right into them.
I'd have lost a hundred dollars if Bucky were here today.
I learned a lot about radio from this thing they call the "internet". The internet knows each and everything about radios. Stereos. And now people only listen to music they like. It really is the future. You can carry a thousand songs right in your pocket. You don't need to drop any needle on a disk. The era of disk is already leaving and I didn't even witness its beginning. Seventy years is a long time.
Right now I am listening to Harry James. Somehow it's the only thing that feels a little like home. A little real. None of the other things feel real to me. Only a dream. A dream from which I would gratefully wake up. I've been pinching myself, but the nightmare just doesn't end.
"I'm sorry I guess we started off on the wrong foot Captain. I was under orders."
"No no, Ma'am, it's fine, really. I think that was actually a nice trick and it would have worked if not for the game over the radio."
"We wanted to break it to you slowly. I mean, you just woke up."
"I know. So I was told by Director Fury. It was nice though. How'd you do that? The set."
"Wasn't really much of a problem. We do these kinds of things all the time."
"So there are more people asleep from the forties?"
"No no. The... set, I mean. They make for good interrogation and therapeutic techniques."
"Oh, right. My bad."
"Don't worry about it."
...
April 17, 2012
Dear Mom,
We won the war. I miss those days. Not the war, but how the city looked back then. And I also miss having something to do. There were things to worry about then. Yet we all had time for each other. The future just doesn't have time. Nobody stops to even look at you. Cars have gotten much faster and stranger looking. I'll have to ride one someday and I'll soon have to one of those taxis. I mostly use the train. Most of the times I walk.
Everyone's got a car now.
I visited Brooklyn today. Couldn't really find our home. Found the place but the house is gone. I guess the area was reconstructed. People aren't very jolly nowadays. Not that they were back in the days, but we did talk right? Remember Mrs. Hess from down the street? She had a cat which always tried to run away. The cat's name was Dorothy I think. Or was it Bella? Well I did find her house. It's grown an extra floor now. They have a weird ceiling. It wasn't made exactly out of shingles, if I am not wrong. That is to say, if shingles are still the same.
The Hess's do live there. Although Theodora isn't around. Obviously. I knocked on their door. I had to wait ten minutes. A guy who looked like in his thirties answered. He looked a bit annoyed. Maybe because he had to answer the door. The family wasn't exactly known for their good temper in the neighborhood back then. He asked me who I was. Nick Fury had requested me not to give my name away, but I introduced myself (blurted out) as "Steve". Force of habit. I asked if Mrs. Hess was still around, how was she, which wasn't very smart of me. The guy looked at me like I had just run out of a mental institute. But he politely answered that she wasn't. She had passed away in the 50's.
Theodora Hess was his great-grandmother.
The alleys haven't changed much. I remember every one of them. Remember Henry? He's not around either. Nor are Ross and Jack. It didn't matter they were bullies. A familiar face would be nice, is all.
I don't think any of the Howling Commandos are still alive today, but I might need to check them out. I'll have to ask Director Fury about it.
Yours,
Steve
P.S.:
1. Those strange-looking roofs at the Hess house are called "solar panels".
2. They use the sunlight from the sun and convert them into electricity. Which only makes me wonder: how do they work at night?
3. Found them in the internet. I'm starting to think the internet knows a lot more than radios and stereos.
April 18, 2012
Dear Buck,
Today I'm going to tell you a little about the "future".
Computers have become household things. They are not scary any more. They're not those huge machines they keep locked in secret buildings. Now they look more like the TV. And TV's have lost weight. I find that quite amusing. They've got slim. Colored pictures. Computers too have colored pictures. They come with these electronic typewriters and instead of the paper, whatever you write shows on a paper inside the screen. If you commit an error, you don't have to type from the beginning again. There is this back arrow key which erases your mistakes. Just like an eraser.
Computers can play songs too. I even watched a movie with a computer. It was called Toy Story. Thing about the computer is that you can stop the song or the movie whenever you want and then resume from that very spot again.
Then comes this pocket-fit wireless telephone they only call the "phone". It's got other names as well, like cell phone, mobile phone, mobile. I guess it's called the "mobile" because you can carry it from one place to another.
Strange name. Back in the days if I knew something named "mobile phone" would exist in the future, I would have thought it'd be a telephone on wheels. Or a cart. But then, where would the wires go?
Weirder things are going on these days. They say the phone is getting "smarter". Those "computerized" billboards advertise them all the time, now calling them "smart phones'. It's crazy. You don't even have to press buttons any more. There's this tiny screen, and you just have to tap on the things you want on the screen. It does what you want it to. Well I've never tried doing any of that, and I don't think I'll for a long time.
And now about this know-it-all called the internet. I'll tell you Buck, it knows a lot more than the radio. It knows everything. Last night I went to a "café" and searched "paintbrush". Hundreds of photos of paintbrushes appeared. I typed in "Toy Story" and there it was. I got more imaginative and searched things like "man riding a car". Guess what appeared? A man riding a car. I searched "toilet paper" and there they were again. Beautifully rolled toilet papers. Well what do you know? I typed President Ellis's name (he's the President of the country right now) and there he was, a picture of him in the Oval office. I typed airplanes and there they were, and have they grown in size.
Maybe next time I visit I should type "Steve Rogers eating cereals," because that is what I've been having since last week for breakfast. I wanna see if my face will show.
Computers were first the size of our schools, and now they've been reduced to the size of our pockets. It's crazy. Still feels like I'm dreaming. I mean, where do all the wirings go? All those machines? Where have they disappeared? Did someone put them under a road roller and they still work?
I'll keep you posted.
Steve.
"Nice to see you again friend."
"You too, Sir."
"How's the diary keeping going?"
"Therapeutic."
"Great. So how can we help you today?"
"Do you happen to keep pocket-sized notebooks?"
"Of course. I'll be right back."
...
To-Do List
Working of solar panels
Helicopters
The Shining (movie)
Schindler's Ark (book)
...
Search Activity of Steve Rogers
April 20, 1800 hrs: Dialogue box
April 20, 1805 hrs: Boot
April 20, 1807 hrs: reboot
April 20, 1820 hrs: fire-up
April 20, 1840 hrs: USB stick and USB port
April 20, 1841 hrs: How to connect USB stick to USB port
April 20, 1904 hrs: Error 404
April 21, 2012
It's funny Buck, but maybe you would really like it here. Maybe. I'm not sure I can say anything positive all on my own. The world's become a marathon. And I am the rabbit. Ahead of everyone at first. Then I fall asleep and everybody's gone far too ahead. Remember when the craziest thing back then was Howard Stark and his levitating cars? You and I used to discuss if anything else was left to discover or invent. World sounded like an impossible place back then. So what do I call it now?
Howard's dead, Buck. He died with his wife in a car crash. Funny learning that he got married. It was nice, I'll be honest. But knowing his attitude with women who would have thought he'd go on to have a son! Yeah he has a son. Like father, like son, only crazier. I read about him, and while the public opinion of his is on the good side, he's clearly got issues.
I'm glad he isn't from our timeline. Otherwise maybe he would have given an entirely new meaning to his father's word "fondue". I wouldn't have liked it.
The better opinion is because he is a superhero. Iron Man, that's what he's called, because he flies in a red metallic suit. And there I am, clearly having issues with my cloth-made trousers. The legs of trousers have gotten tight these days. I can't even slip my hand into my pockets. That tight. And it's clearly fashion.
I won't talk much about Tony Stark here. I shouldn't be so biased. If one day I meet him maybe I'll get a better opinion on my own.
Steve
Search Activity of Steve Rogers
April 23, 1808 hrs: steve rogers eating cereal
April 23, 1813 hrs: Captain America shield
April 23, 1815 hrs: SHIELD
April 23, 1816 hrs: S.H.I.E.L.D.
April 23, 2234 hrs: twitter
April 23, 2235 hrs: selfie
April 23, 2238 hrs: emoji
April 23, 2250 hrs: micro soft
April 24, 2012
I guess it'll take some time getting used to this generation's vocabulary.
I stopped by at a restaurant today. It's in front of a huge ongoing construction site. The building they're making is so big it's swallowed the sky. It had "STARK" printed in huge letters on its face. Which isn't a big surprise.
Anyway, the restaurant. I don't really know if I stopped by just because I was hungry. I had got myself a notebook and some pencils earlier and I just found the place really peaceful. There were no roofs where i sat. Just out in the ocean. So I found an empty spot and I started making a sketch of the place. It was a beautiful place. Really. The only thing that was odd about it was the STARK building. But people tell me it's a kind of its own. Some breakthrough innovation with electricity source. Whatever that is. I don't think it's solar panels.
There was this lady today. She was working as a waitress. She saw my drawing apparently. Asked me if I was waiting for the "big guy". I couldn't understand. She was referring to Iron Man, that he would fly by sometimes. People just ate there to see him fly by. I didn't know that, and I wasn't very interested in watching Iron Man fly by. I wish I'd told her that. I was about to pay when she told me I could stay as long as I liked. That was an unusual favor. She poured more coffee into my cup. I thought that was really nice of her. She was saying something about the place having free wireless. I couldn't follow and thought she was talking about the radio, because the only wireless I was familiar with was the radio.
Only later today did I find out wireless means the internet. There are two ways you get the internet: One, with wires. The other, without wires. It's called "wife-eye" I think. Maybe because your wife would have to watch over what you watch on the internet? I heard there are strange content on the internet too. Don't know what that means. Maybe I'll have to find out. Or maybe it is a reference to "big brother is watching you," just like the internet watches over you. Anything you search, you'll find.
By the way I did try searching for myself eating cereals. It didn't work though. There were pictures of me from back in the day. Colored pictures as well. They're accurate too. My uniform was still blue. They didn't paint it red like the other guy. Who knew? And there were pictures of cereals.
People know more about me than I do myself. They wrote stories, some of which aren't even true. Few are imaginary.
Back at the restaurant after the lady left, an old man berated me. He called me a "moron" for not asking for her number. I couldn't understand what he meant either. Apparently, number meant the telephone number. It's what people exchange with strangers if they find each other attractive.
Did I find the girl attractive? Well she was cute and beautiful, I'll give you that. But at the moment I've been so overwhelmed by things, the thought of asking her out on a date never crossed my mind.
Steve.
...
Search Activity of Steve Rogers
April 24, 2005 hrs: Concorde
April 24, 2015 hrs: iPhone
April 24, 2057 hrs: YouTube
April 24, 2100 hrs: Hashtag
April 24, 2300 hrs: sexting
To-Do List
Binge-Watch
Sudoku
Blu-ray
iPod
Walkman
mine craft
April 25, 2012
Things aren't going great.
I found a wooden crate by my door five days ago. It had a lot of files, some cash, some disks, cassettes and a file-sized foldable computer. There was a manual on how to use it with words like "fire-up", "boot" which took some time to understand.
Up until now I thought all the people from my world were gone. Which is largely true.
Jim Morita from my team passed away a while back. He has a grandson working as principal at a high school in Queens. Falsworth's gone too.
And then I find Peggy's file. Till now I thought she was dead, and I really believed it. I didn't want to hear it from anybody. I had a look at her file. No red "deceased" stamp. I felt a little shiver when I hunted down for such references in the rest of her file.
There it was. At the bottom of the page. Status? "Retired". And had a current address. There was even a phone number attached, but I wasn't very sure how to use that thing.
I used my good friend the internet to read more about Peggy. That's when I found out she isn't very well. She's ninety and in a delicate stage. She got married, had kids, then grand kids. That's good for her. She moved on. She had a life ahead and I hope she lived it to the fullest. What was she going to do? The decision to sink the air ship was my own.
Maybe she did think of me at times.
It's just nice, is all, having someone from your era with you, still living and breathing.
A/N: Now there we go. If you've got any ideas about what the Avengers might do in their non-avenging time, do mention them in the reviews. Very likely I might run out of ideas, and I might (might) need your help.
