I, uh, appear to have gotten some people's hopes up by mentioning Spider-Man in the previous chapter. Sorry, no Spidey here. I just thought the mention would be cute. Sorry if I did anyone dirty.

Steve had an odd feeling rise through their body. "Well, wait a minute…I wonder if they're really doing alright…I'm sorry about that, Sharon."

Sharon just smiled. "It's fine, Rogers. I get it, you haven't really gotten a chance to really get at the world. I'm sure if they weren't doing alright, they would have given you a call."

"Yeah, I guess you're right…." Steve replied. Then, something occurred to him: They had not once talked about her life as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He figured she wouldn't openly and explicitly discuss it out here in public like this, for that organization was more secret than the NSA. But perhaps there was a way they could discuss it sneakily.

"Hmm, Sharon, there's something I want to ask, and I think I figured out how to ask it."

The blonde lady raised an eyebrow. "Alright, sure, what would that be?"

"What's your…." Steve began, before looking around. Everyone else was minding their own business, as they should be. Still, he decided to make sure that he would whisper this next part. "…other life like?"

"Um, what?"

"Your…you know…work life?"

Sharon perked up. "Aaaaaah, I see…well, just so you know, I'm usually not too keen on discussing that publicly, at all. At least you whispered, but still."

"Ah, forgive me."

"Though I will say…..you remember that agent who was at my aunt's funeral?"

Steve laughed. With everything he had gone through with the Vanguard, he had almost forgotten about Agent Phil Coulson. "Oh yeah, I remember him. How's he doing?"

"Oh, he's really happy to live in a world where Captain America still lives on. I mean, the first conversation I had with Mr. Coulson was him saying that his faith in the world would only be fully restored if Captain America were to suddenly rise from the dead. And well…here we are…"

"Yeah, he must've had a real 'speak of the devil' moment, then. That helps explain why he acted that way at the funeral."

Sharon stopped talking for a moment to finish her food, and after she was done eating, she resumed. "Growing up, and hearing Aunt Peggy tell her stories about you, you really had the feel of a legend to you. The whole idea of a frail boy becoming a super soldier, fighting alongside the likes of heroes that felt pulled out of some mythology, and then making the ultimate sacrifice…I always loved that story, save the last part, of course…"

"I imagine that last part was sad to hear," Steve replied, before taking a moment to finish up his whole food. "And you know, it's weird. Superman admires me. He is this extremely powerful figure, who I've heard get compared to a god on the news a few times, and he admires me. It's so weird."

"Hey, anyone who's admired by Superman deserves respect of the highest order."

After a few seconds, Sharon changed the subject. "So have you heard any of the following: Star Wars, Calvin and Hobbes, the Berlin Wall, Operation Desert Storm, the Beatles, Apple Inc, the Arabian Spring, Malcolm X…"

Sharon went on about stuff that had sprang up since World War II; some of them, Steve had heard of…but others made him really want to scratch his head. Trying to keep up with 70 years of lost history, after all, was a chore.

Superman could feel his lungs rot in a matter of seconds. His liver and kidneys were trapped in a strong crushing sensation, and as for his heart…it felt like a heavy boot was stomping on his heart, again and again and again, with as much strength as possible and without mercy. Superman roared, and his cry of agony was loud enough to make the glass windows crack.

Metallo, meanwhile, merely grinned at the sight of the Man of Steel and his state of agony. He kept blasting and blasting, and after a few seconds, he intensified the strength of his blasts, and his grinned widened until it was ear-to-ear. He got closer to Superman, and now Superman's skin was turning green, and bone was getting more and more visible.

Superman tried to speak. All he wanted to let out was the word 'no', but he couldn't. All he could was yell.

"When I was a boy, I could have never imagined that I would kill a being as powerful as you, Superman," Metallo said while cracking his knuckles. "But here I am now. History shall remember me as the man who killed the Man of Steel!"

"No, not really," Iron Man said as he jumped behind Superman and blasted at Metallo, which made Metallo grunt and stop blasting. Iron Man flew towards Metallo and decked him in the face. "History will remember you for unnecessary monologuing."

Then Metallo felt a batarang strike his knee, and now he was the one yelling in pain as the batarang struck his bone. He saw Batman walking up towards him and Iron Man, and he tried to blast at the Dark Knight, but Batman just barely managed to dodge it. He then blasted right towards Iron Man, and while it did cause some electricity to come out of his armor, Iron Man still had enough power to simply blast right in Metallo's face, which sent him smacking facefirst into the ground. Batman ran up to Metallo as he got up and stomped on his face, and then Iron Man grabbed the Hydra agent, turned him around, and smacked him in the face, causing him to finally go unconscious. Batman looked at Iron Man and gestured towards Superman.

"You go take Kal to the Vanguard medical room, Iron Man. I'll tie up Metallo."

Iron Man nodded and flew towards Superman, who was breathing very heavily and unable to stand up, while Batman grabbed a black rope with bataranags on both ends and began to tie up Metallo.

Meanwhile, Sinthea was faring hardly any better. She tried to kick Black Panther in the shin, but Black Panther's suit merely absorbed that energy and he sent it right back to her. He delivered an uppercut to her face, then punched her in the stomach and the chest. Before Sinthea could think to do anything else, she began to feel blasts coming at her from the Wasp. She loaded her gun back up, only for it to turn into bubbles before her eyes. Though she couldn't see it, that was the work of Zatanna, who smirked. Then, Black Panther delivered the final blow, the one that knocked Sinthea out cold.

Moonstone let out a blast against Wasp and Zatanna, who both flew into the air. She flew over to Zatanna, grabbed her by her leg, and threw her into the wall. Then, when Was darted towards her, Moonstone swiped her in her hand and began trying to squeeze her to death. Her hand shook, struggling to keep a hold on the tiny superheroine. Then all the chairs levitated in the air, and she looked over her shoulder to see Zatanna in the air as well, with purple lined energy surrounding the chairs. She extended her arms out, and all the chairs were sent flying towards Moonstone. Wasp broke free of Moonstone's grip and flew away while the chairs began to strike the villainess. She landed on the ground, and when she tried to get back on her hit, Zatanna created a giant blue hammer and brought it down on Moonstone, knocking her out cold.

Black Panther breathed heavily. As did Batman as he walked up to the unconscious body of Sinthea. Some of the party attendees were cheering for the Vanguard, and others were murmuring among themselves, but the Vanguard focused their efforts on handing the criminals into police custody when the cops began to arrive on the scene.

Steve and Sharon walked out the restaurant and went on a walk, with Steve letting out a big smile.

"Today was a lot of fun," he said, his hands in his pockets.

Sharon looked up at him and smiled. "It really was! Say, are you free next week?"

"I should be. You know how it is, though. When you have the occupation that I do, literally anything can happen."

"Understandable. Should I clear my schedule for Thursday, though? Just in case?"

Steve looked down at Sharon as they walked the concrete jungle of New York City and smiled. "Hopefully, that will work.

"Awesome! See you then. Hopefully."

The two said their goodbyes, before Steve pressed the button on his earpiece and teleported into the Vanguard Tower. There, he was surprised to be greeted by who he believed to be Alfred Pennyworth, the butler of Bruce Wayne.

"Good afternoon, Mister Rogers," Alfred said, before chuckling. "Heh, the reference was unintentional."

Steve scratched his head. "…Reference?"

"Google it. You'll like it"

"…Right….anyway, you can just call me Steve."

"Ah yes, the humbleness. I genuinely enjoyed reading about that quality of yours back in the day."

Then Alfred began to walk away, and Steve followed him, his footsteps echoing through the steel halls of the Vanguard Tower.

"I must ask, Alfred. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be taking care of Wayne Manor?"

"I'm helping to clean up the Vanguard Tower. I understand that several of your teammates have super speed, but they're more often than not too busy. It's a neat change of pace, but more importantly, I'm being paid extra to do it. And it shouldn't take long, anyway."

Steve wanted to snark about how Bruce and Stark, being billionaires, could've easily paid someone else to do it, but that was almost immediately killed by the reminder that only certain people could be allowed into the Vanguard Tower.

Then, his earcomm went off. *Steve, are you available right now?* he heard Superman ask over the com.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I should be," he responded.

*Good. Batman, Iron Man, and I are in the meeting room. Join us as soon as you can.*

"On my way," Steve said, before looking at Alfred. "Well, it was nice to properly meet you, Mr. Pennyworth, but I must get going."

And with that, Steve ran his way up the various levels of the Tower, not stopping to get changed into Captain America, and walked into the meeting room to see Superman, Batman, and Iron Man. All of them were standing up, and Superman had his arms crossed.

"What's the problem?" Steve asked as he walked into the room.

"HYDRA did a very strange action today," Superman answered, his arms no longer crossed.

Steve did not respond to that. Instead he felt his eyebrows raising once again, and he placed his hands onto one of the chairs at the roundtable.

"Stark and I were attending a charity event hosted by Lex Luthor," Batman continued on.

"Who is the richest man on the planet unfortunately," Iron Man interjected, raising his finger.

"…Right. The richest man on the planet. But two HYDRA goons named John Corben and Sinthea Schmidt shot up the party.

…Schmidt. Steve's eyes widened just at the mention of that name. "Schmidt…any relation to the Red Skull?"

"Granddaughter," Superman said.

Steve then threw his hands up. "Well, why didn't you guys call me as this was happening."

Once more, Superman responded. "You need to get out into the world more often, so we gave you space to go on that date you had set with Agent Carter,"

"Well, on the one hand, the date went nice, but on the other hand, she would've understood if I had to suddenly leave. But I guess that's in the past now."

Batman took a moment to clear his throat before saying, "But what's truly strange is that neither Corden nor Schmidt seemed to have any motivation in interrupting the party. It was a completely random attack."

Now that did not sound like HYDRA. Steve let out a 'hmm' and honestly couldn't figure out a proper response to this. Even during the days of World War II, he and the Liberty Brigade never encountered HYDRA performing a completely random scheme that was unrelated to their major goals. There was only one possible conclusion that sprung unto his mind.

"Is it possible…that HYDRA sent these two…as a distraction, while they pulled off their true goals? Whatever they may be, of course."

"That's the only possible answer we've been able to come up with," Iron Man said.

A river of questions flooded its way into Steve's mind. Why only now was HYDRA sending their agents onto a random distraction mission? Why send the Red Skull's granddaughter of all people? To make it seem more important than it was? If this was a distraction…what is the ultimate endgame for HYDRA? That final question is the one that bugged Steve Rogers most of all. He cupped his chin, conversing with the other three Vanguardians present, and all he could think of was more and more questions.