Happy Early Halloween. And college is a bitch, which is my latest excuse this time lol. Enjoy!

Ralph Dibny murmured as he woke up.

He was a young redheaded and blue-eyed kid, aged 20, donned only in a logoless black long-sleeved shirt and black pants, and he had no idea where he was. All he had seen for the past month was green metallic walls. Every now and then, a soldier donned in green and yellow would come in and check up on his well-being, but other than that, he had little contact with the rest of the human race. There were many languages he had heard. He only truly understood English, but had picked up on bits of German, Swedish, Spanish, French, and Italian during his time in his base. But some other languages, like Russian and Mandarin, were lost on him due to their completely different alphabets.

But today was a bit different. He was not up in his usually cell that these people – 'Hydra' was their name, and he had picked up on it through the soldiers that would come into his cell -, but in a massive room with a gray wall. And this was not the green metallic obstructions he was used to. These were regular gray walls. And he was not alone. The first person he saw was a tall, somewhat muscular (though certainly not to the level of Wonder Woman), and long black-haired woman with a large nose and green eyes. She looked just as confused as he did, and she was looking around at the walls.

There were four other people in the room. One of them looked to be just a regular gal with long auburn hair, a slender face, and brown eyes, and she was murming; Ralph barely heard what she said, and he didn't know how he caught this, but he noticed an Eastern European accent in her voice. The man next to her had pure white hair unlike anything Ralph had ever seen before on a person, and he had a similarly slender face, except his nose was much bigger than the gal's. The other two people, however, were really interesting cases. There was another gal in the room, and unlike anyone else here, she sported green skin and light green hair. Ralph wondered if she was even human. Sure, she had a humanoid look to her, but Superman looked exactly like a man and everyone knew him to be Kal-El, The Last Son of Krypton. So he let out an 'mmph', placing his bets on this lady being from another planet. And then the final man in the room had something no one else in the room had: A mask. It was a black, plain mask, just sitting there and hiding his face. Behind the mask, he saw dark brown hair, but that was all he could see.

They all wore the same clothing as Ralph, and barring the masked man whose face could not be seen, all of them looked completely baffled.

It was silent for a long, awkward minute, but then the black-haired lady finally spoke. "Where…where the hell are we?"

"Beats me, lady," Ralph replied, looking up at the blank ceiling that stood above them.

"It's honestly just nice to see actual faces again, after a month of seeing those masked soldiers."

"Oh, yeah, indeed."

But it was just then that several soldiers slammed the door open and marched into the room, with the six prisoners just standing there, looking confused. The soldier leading the others had a weird tablet device in his hands. "Alright, let's see who we have here…Ralph Dibny," he said, pointing towards Ralph, "Jessica Drew", he stated as he pointed towards the black-haired lady, "Wanda and Pietro Maximoff," he added on, pointing towards the auburn and white-haired pair, "and finally…Jennifer-Lyn Hayden and Todd Rice," he finally finished with, looking at the green-skinned lady and the man in the black mask. So much for the former one being an alien, Ralph thought to himself.

The soldier looked at the last two for a moment, and then chuckled. "I remember the higher ups being so happy when we finally found you two…" He said, which caused Jade and Todd to look at each other, confused.

Then, a lady walked into the room. She had red hair with some gray sprinkled her and there, and she wore the same color scheme as the Hydra soldiers. The main difference was that she wore no mask that concealed her face, and she had many noticeable wrinkles, though she wasn't too bad-looking all things considered. "Yes, we have, my children,"

Ralph raised an eyebrow, and the pair looked really confused now. "Yes, when dear Alan gave you two away to protect you from me, it seemed like he had done a damn good job of hiding you for decades. But alas, none escape the eyes of Hydra. And your adoptive families are dead, by the way, in case you didn't know. But as for all of you…Hydra has been watching over you for years. All of you are mutants, whose X-genes simply would not activate or trigger no matter what."

She paused for a moment, and she grinned as she continued on, walking across the room as the six just looked on at her. "But our experiments have paid off. None of you currently have any memory of what we've done to you. You will, however…once you fall in line."

She nodded towards the soldier with the tablet, and he pressed onto it. Suddenly, Ralph and the other five felt agony in their brains. None of them knew how this was possible, but it was. The lady, just smirked.

"My name is Rose Canton. You may address me as Thorn. And now you will all comply to my will."

Ralph roared in agony, as he could only stand there helplessly, with no way of being able to stop what they doing; his mind felt like it was being ripped to pieces.. Hell, he had no idea why this was even happening. He had no idea what his 'mutant powers' were, or how they couldn't be activated until Hydra did a month's worth of experimentation on him. He wanted, above all else, answers.

…But then, it all came to a sudden stop. And he was the first of the six to mutter the words, "Hail Hydra." The other five said it, too, and Thorn grinned once more.

"I'll have two more things of Negra Modelo, ma'am," Namor said, raising his finger up.

He, Jay, Alan, and Steve were all seated at a round table in a sports bar in downtown Keystone City, with various television screens displaying baseball and football on them. The walls in of themselves were silver, and the floor consisted of black tiles.

"..You sure about that, sir?" their waitress, a short blonde with a thick dose of eyeliner, asked.

"Come on, I'm half-Atlantean. We can hold our liquor a lot longer than humans."

The lady simply nodded and walked away, while Namor chuckled a little.

"Just remember, Namor," Jay stated, only having a water in front of him. "You can't hold it all in. You're no super soldier."

Steve smiled at that. Due to the Super Soldier Serum, he was unable to get drunk. Most people might either be estatic or devastated, but he didn't really care. He never drank that much anyway. He did sometimes, to celebrate a victory, but nothing more than that. Like Jay, he was simply having a water. Alan, however, was also having himself some alcohol; in his case, he was having a bottle of Corona Lite, one that he was downing right at that moment.

"Man, Namor, update me on your son's rule as King," Alan said right after his Corona was empty.

"He's doing alright, Alan. Altantis seems to like him just fine," Namor replied, and he paused for a brief moment before looking down at the table, his face morphing into a look filled with lament. "They seem to like him more than they ever liked me, in fact."

"Well, Orin's just a nice guy, but no pushover, and that's exactly what a ruler should be like," Jay added on, sipping down his remaining water as he did so.

Steve just listened on. It had been a while since he was able to hang out with his war buddies…and his only buddies left from the old days. Doctor Fate, Wildcat, the Human Torch, Miss America, and the rest of the Liberty Brigade were all dead. In fact, Ted Grant (Wildcat) had only passed away two weeks before the world found out that Captain America had been alive all these years. He missed them, but there was no one he missed more than Peggy.

Peggy Carter. Cap hadn't thought about her in a while, due to everything the Vanguard had to go through since his return to society. He sighed at the memory of her death. He saw her, old and ill, laying in bed, reunited with him for only a few moments before she passed on. Steve honestly didn't know if he should count himself lucky, because he managed to reunite with her just before she passed away, or unlucky, because he was thawed out just in time to watch her die.

"…Steve?" Alan asked, causing Steve to jump a little, as he had been caught deep in thought. Namor and Jay were also staring at him with confused looks on their faces. And Namor had also gotten his two things of Negra Modelo in the time that Steve had been lost in his mind.

"S-s-sorry," Steve said with a tint of awkwardness to his voice. "It's just…you guys are all that's left from the old days. I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep in touch with you more often."

Jay just laughed. "It's alright, Steve. Being a Vanguardian is demanding and high-maintenance, Captain. We totally understand that your schedule isn't the most flexible."

Steve smiled. "Thanks guys."

He looked around the sports bar for a moment, and had already picked out a better topic to get his mind off of Peggy.

"You know what I want to understand, really? Why does it cost so much to live in New York now? I realize that the Big Apple was never cheap, but I cannot see how it's the second-largest city in the world when Brooklyn and Manhattan alone are so freaking expensive."

Alan looked down at the table and shook his head, barely containing his laughter. "Well, that's part of why it's only the second-largest, Steve. Metropolis is cheaper. But hey…like you sad, it's the Big Apple. It's one of the of the most exciting cities in the world."

"It is. But lemme tell you, I at least found the best possible deal in New York. The Vanguard Tower is free of charge. I do want my own place, but what kind of job can I get when I'm publicly known as Captain America?"

The others sat there silent for a few moments, for Steve did have a point. What would that be like for him, having a regular day job? Imagine seeing Captain America as a waiter, or imagine the Super Soldier as a receptionist for a hotel. Steve personally didn't feel that such jobs were beneath him. The problem is that that is exactly what the public would think exactly that.

"Well…have you thought about getting a job at Stark Enterprises? Or Wayne Industries?" Namor proposed, and his voice was noticeably lowered. Steve perfectly understood why. Everyone knew that Captain America was here, albeit it was a slow lunch day. There were only four other tables. But still, the idea of anyone finding out that Captain America had some sort of connections to Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, two of the richest men on Earth, was not something that could be risked, as it could potentially open a floodgate of theories.

That aside, Steve hadn't actually thought of working for Tony or Bruce. Since they did know him personally, they definitely would be able to get him a decent job where he could finally have a life outside of being Captain America.

"Yeah, imagine working for either one of them, Steve. They may not be as rich as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Lex Luthor, but working for them would still be pretty dang cool if I do say so myself," Jay added on.

It would be. It would also be a little weird, Steve thought to himself, working for one of his teammates. But he was not in a position where a beggar could be a chooser. He could try to apply a job for them somewhere and somehow, and he'd see what they'd have to say about that.

…That might just work.

Unfortunately for Steve, he wouldn't have time to really think about it any further.

*Captain America. Come in, Captain America*

It was Wonder Woman. He found himself standing up from his seat, causing the other three to just look at him in silence.

Steve placed his left hand onto his ear com. "Yeah, this is Captain America.*

*Come into New York as soon as you can, Captain. We got some powered goons here wreaking havoc in Manhattan. We're short on manpower right now.*

Now what on Earth could that mean, Steve thought to himself? Steve had figured that they had seen everything, but evidently, he was wrong.

He chuckled nervously at his friends. "Eh, sorry, guys, but I gotta go."

Alan shook his head. "Now, don't worry. Go on ahead, Captain. We can find another time to catch up."

Steve teleported himself to the Vanguard Tower right away to con his Captain America gear, and then he contacted Wonder Woman with his ear comm.

*Where's the threat, Wonder Woman?*

*Around Orchard Street and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Superman, Wasp, Iron Man, and I are currently dealing with four powered beings while J'onn is there at the Vanguard Tower.*

*Copy that. I'll….*

Cap suddenly stopped himself. He was going to go to Grand Street to help battle the four rogues, but he felt…a presence. An odd presence. He looked around the Vanguard Tower, and there was no one around – J'onn must've been on another floor -, but he could swear he felt a presence. He knew this had to be related to the attack on the Tenement Museum. Somehow.

*Um, Wonder Woman….do we have a motivation for those four who are attacking the Museum?*

*We currently do not, Cap.*

Cap sighed at that. What if the real threat was here? What if most of the Vanguard had just been duped? No. That was a pretty leap.

But then, all of a sudden, a figure emerged from his shadow. This figure was donned in a navy blue suit of armor, and he had on a sky blue cape and a black mask that covered his entire face. He smirked, and he decked Cap right in the face, hard enough for him to fall to the ground.

Meanwhile, an auburn-haired lady clothed in a red jacket and black pants and boots levitated down to the ground. Next to her was the Martian Manhunter, who was glowing red and appeared to be struggling to break free from some sort of grip, even though the lady was physically touching him.

"All is according to plan, Obsidian." The lady said.

"Indeed it is, Scarlet Witch. Hail Hydra."