Artemis laid under her hover bike working on the hover engine "Casey, I know you're there" she called
Casey sighed going over to the bike "Fury needs you to come in" she said when she got there.
She then noticed Peter by Artemis's legs playing with a wrench but ignored it, that's not the craziest thing she seen him with
"Why" Artemis asked coming out from under the bike with grease on her face
Casey backed up a little when she saw Artemis with a screwdriver "Barton's been compromised" Casey said
Artemis tensed for a second "I'm sorry, did you just say Hawkass been compromised" she asked
Casey nodded eyeing the screwdriver
Artemis yelled throwing the screwdriver and it stuck into the wall "Fury always wants you to recruit someone" Casey said
Artemis gave her a look
Artemis walked into a gym making sure her heels clicked on the ground just in time to see a man punch the punching bag clear off the hook.
The assassin turned hero made her presence know when the man put up another one from a row beside him and began punching it
"Trouble sleeping" she asked
Steve paused momentarily before deciding to continue boxing whilst he spoke, "I slept for 70 year, ma'am. I think I've had my fill."
"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world" Artemis joked
Steve stopped boxing and walked away from Artemis, he hasn't really looked at her and began unwrapping his hand wraps. "When I went under the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost" Steve said in a melancholy tone.
Artemis sighed at that "We've made some mistakes along the way," Artemis agreed "some, very recently." She thought about how she and Tony came to be the Iron Siblings
Steve finally looked up and for a second saw a glimpse of Maria Carbonell "Sorry ma'am, Steve Rogers" he said sticking his hand out
Artemis shook it "Artemis Stark" she introduced shaking his hand
Steve looked at her confused "is there a reason you're here, Ms. Stark" he asked
"Artemis, please, every time I hear that I start thinking of excuses to tell my mother to get out of trouble" Artemis said "Fury has a mission for us"
"What is he trying to get me back into the world" Steve asked
Artemis held up a folder and shrugged "he told me to save the world" she said handing him the folder
Steve opened the folder and saw a picture of the Tesseract.
"HYDRA's secret weapon," Steve stated.
"My father fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Artemis informed Steve "He thought what SHIELD thinks. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs. But most would use it to make dangerous weapons, that's why we need to get it back"
"Who took it" he inquired handing the folder back to Artemis
"From what I was told he's called Loki" Artemis told him, "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 anything would surprise me" Steve said standing.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong" Artemis bet.
Steve hoisted one of the spare punching bags up onto his shoulder as Art continued to talk to him "there's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment"
Steve kept walking away not really acknowledging Artemis's word "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Artemis asked
"You should have left it in the ocean," were Steve's last words as he disappeared out the door
Artemis watched him leave with a smile "he is so related to Grammy" she muttered leaving as well.
Time to read the packet Coulson supplied her with
The next day Artemis set in a jet with Salt and Peter she already memorized the stuff Coulson presented her last night; both women were wearing their catsuits
Steve was looking over Dr. Bruce Banner's file
"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?" Steve queried.
"A lot of people were" Coulson confirmed "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."
"Didn't really go his way did it" Steve muttered.
"Not so much" Coulson agreed.
"When he's not that thing, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking," Coulson continued.
Steve gave Coulson a confused look as he didn't get the reference causing Artemis to look up from where she was coloring with Peter "He's like a really smart person."
Steve seemed to accept this and took one last look at the screen before it turned off
"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially," Phil said nervously as Steve gave him a smile, "I've sort of met you," Phil continued, "I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."
Steve looked uncomfortable as the women held back a laugh
"I mean, I was present when you were unconscious from the ice," Phil attempted to recover as Steve stood up and made his way to the front of the plane, "you know, it's really just a huge honor to have you on board this…"
"I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve replied.
"Oh you are, absolutely," Phil said glad he'd regained control of the situation.
"Steve, I never introduce you to my assistant" Artemis saved him
Steve looked over at her and Coulson mouthed a thank you to her "Addison Mercer, but you can call me Salt" Addison said
"Nice to meet you Salt, Steve Rogers" the cap said shaking her hand
"My grandma, told me so much about you" Salt said
"Speaking of, is Grammy gonna be there" Artemis asked and Coulson nodded
Artemis smirked "who's the baby" Steve asked
"My godson Peter" Artemis answered him "his parents died almost two years ago and his aunt and uncle are on their yearly vacation"
Steve nodded "anyway we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input" Coulson said
"More like he stood over the shoulder of the people making it and told them what they should be doing" Artemis muttered to Salt who snorted
"The uniform?" Steve said clearly slightly baffled by the sudden return to the former conversation topic, "Aren't the stars and stripes a little… old-fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening and the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned," Coulson explained.
"Artemis, no going after Morse" Coulson order as they were about to land
Artemis looked at him "1) she starts it and 2) she's not gonna be an Avenger is she"
Coulson shook his head causing her to sigh in relief
They all disembarked and met by Natasha
"Store the Captain's gear," Coulson ordered which was followed by "yes, sir."
"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Coulson introduced.
"Ma'am," Steve said formally.
"Hi," was Natasha's response.
"They need you on the bridge," Natasha said turning her attention to Coulson, "They're starting the face-trace."
Coulson nodded and departed with a quick, "see you there."
Natasha "it was quite the buzz around here finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?" Steve almost laughed.
"They're vintage. He's very proud," Natasha continued.
Standing around slightly aimlessly on the deck near where the pair was heading was a thoroughly uncomfortable looking Dr. Bruce Banner. Upon seeing him Steve called out, "Dr. Banner."
When Bruce located Steve he instantly walked over seemingly relieved that he no longer had to stand around and dodge passing soldiers; It wasn't good for his nerves
"Yeah, hi" Bruce said shaking Steve's hand, "they told me you would be coming."
"Word is, you can find the Cube," Steve said.
"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce asked nervously.
"Only word I care about," Steve clarified getting a nod from Bruce.
"It must be strange for you, all of this," Bruce acknowledged but Steve simply took a look around and shrugged saying, "well, this is actually kind of familiar."
Artemis smiled shaking Bruce's hand "Dr. Banner it's nice to finally meet you, I'm a fan of your gamma radiation research and how you lose control and turn into an enormousgreen rage monster" she smirked
"Thanks, I think" Bruce said
Salt pinched the bridge of her nose as Peter clapped
"Gentlemen," Natasha said interrupting their talk as they moved over towards the edge, "you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe."
There was the ominous click of machinery and the shouts to secure the deck coming over the PA system. The flaps on the side of the ship opened and began to drain away any water. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked amazed.
"Really?" Bruce said incredulously, "they want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?"
Artemis smirked "meet you all inside" she said walking away
Artemis walked into the main control room and greeted Grammy and Nikko, who was in her catsuit acting as Grammy's bodyguard "Pain in the ass" Salt greeted her godmother
Nikko glared as Artemis hugged Grammy "they tell you who's being brought in" Artemis asked and they nodded
"Fury already filled him in about mutants" Nikko said
Grammy took Peter from her goddaughter "where's Rogue and Amber" Artemis asked
"Brazil with Wade, he said he needs more father and daughters time" Nikko said "I think he just wants to keep Rogue away from Remy"
Artemis snorted "so where's Jasmine" she asked
"Portland" Grammy replied
Peter began looking around the room "da" he called used to Clint appearing and stealing him from his mom when Artemis's brings him to work
Just then Nat led Steve and Bruce inside the room
"All engines operating. SHIELD Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect," Hill turned to address Fury "we are at level, sir."
"Good," Fury stated from where he was standing in the center of the room "Let's vanish."
"Engage retro-reflection panels" Hill said
Once they were invisible Fury turned to Bruce and Steve "gentlemen" he said
Steve walked over to Artemis while pulling out some cash and going through it till he pull out a ten and handed it to Artemis
Artemis took it with a smirk
"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury said as he reached out for a handshake.
"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce said trying and failing to keep a hint of sarcasm from entering his voice. He did however accept the offered hand and shook it briefly, "so how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind," Fury reassured him.
"Where are you with that?" Bruce inquired.
Fury gestured over to Coulson who stood by some screens and let him explain, "we're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite it's eyes and ears for us."
Natasha spoke from her position beside the screen with Clint's details on that she had been looking over, "that's still not gonna find them in time."
"You have to narrow your field," Bruce said slipping into science mode, "how many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are there?" Fury said as if it should have been the obvious answer.
"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places," Bruce continued "Do you have somewhere for me to work," he asked.
Fury glanced at Artemis "Agent Carbonell, if you pleases escort and help Dr. Banner out in the lab" he asked
Steve looked at her shocked when Fury said Carbonell
Artemis nodded "follow me doc, you're going love it, this place got most of the toys" she said walking out with Peter waddling behind her along with Bruce
Nikko faced Steve with a raised eyebrow then slapped him "Maria told me to do that" she said as Steve rubbed his cheek
Nikko then hugged him "nice to see you again Steve" she said
Steve returned to hug "you too" he said pulling away "so Maria and Howard finally got together"
Nikko snorted "yeah but Lily, Peggy and I handcuffed them to a table in an integration room until they admitted their feelings" she said
Steve shook his head "only you three"
"Hey, Bucky would've helped" Nikko said then looked down
Steve looked down as well "how did Lily take it" he whispered
"Like Lily, she had the team to help her though" Nikko said "the rest you can ask her yourself"
Steve nodded "after this is all over I'll go find her" he said
Nikko smirked "so willing to walk to your death" she said
Steve sighed knowing Nikko just described it perfectly "Oh, Howard told me to do this to" she said punching his arm
"What for" Steve said
"For jinxing Maria by say you hope she had a daughter like her" Nikko smirked "then not being there to babysit her"
"I lucked out on that didn't I" he asked
Nikko nodded "so did Bucky" she whispered
Steve snorted "please, he'd get her hyper and send her back to Maria" he said
Nikko nodded with a laugh "so who's that" Steve asked nodding to Grammy, who was talking to Hill
"Ann, the Head of Heroes" Coulson said appearing
Nikko smirked, knowing Lily will have fun messing with Steve
Nikko then left Coulson to fanboy over Steve and head to Salt who was sitting at the table talking to Matt on her phone
"So you're in DC" she asked
"Yeah, for a week"
Salt sighed "okay, but you'll call me when you're on your way back"
"Yeah, Addie I will" Matt laughed
Salt looked up as Nikko set beside her "I gotta go Nikko is giving me a look" she said
"Alright, I love you"
Salt smiled "I love you too, bye" she said hanging up
"So you at the, I love you stage" Nikko asked and Salt nodded "then I take it he told you what he was hiding"
"Yep" Salt said
They looked up when they heard beeping from a computer
"We got a hit, 67% match," Stiwell said looking at Coulson then turned back to the screen and added "wait, cross match. 79%."
"Location," Coulson said quickly slipping back into business mode.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstrasse. He's not exactly hiding" Stiwell pulled the footage up on the screen.
"Captain" Fury said making the super soldier look at him "you're up."
Steve nodded and followed Grammy out of the room to where his suit was "good luck Captain America" she said walking away.
Steve smile a little seeing the suit