Author: Black Dragon on the Rocks/animealam
Rating: T
Pairing: None so far, mentions of one sided Steve/Peggy
Summary: The Universe stared at the boy for what seemed an eternity to him, only to change into a decrepit, dirty alley, and that was the last thing Steve saw before loosing consciousness. The small frail boy banished in a flash of blue flames. Be warned VERY AU Young Time Travelling genius tech savvy Steve.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, I'm just borrowing them. I'm using a good number of the movie dialogs, even if I added bits and pieces so some of them. So if something looks familiar they are obviously not mine, and belong to their respective owners.
Warnings: NOT SLASH, AU, Completely totally AU, Time Travel, Younger Steve, Violence, Adoption, Smart Steve, Technopaths, Technopath Tony, Technopath Steve, Canon Character Deaths, Minor Character Deaths, OOC-ness, there are quite a lot of movie dialogs which I decided not to change but I did add my own twists and turns to make them a bit more interesting.
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Thor, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Sarah Rogers, mentions of Bucky, mentions of Peggy Carter, mentions of Howard Stark, mentions of Colonel Phillips, mentions of the Howling Commandos, Jarvis, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey
Timeline: Pre Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers, Post Avengers. I use the Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline in Wikia for all date purposes.
Author's Note: It seems there's some doubt as to how Steve managed to escape Kraft and his minions, I made a subtle reference of Kraft having to be careful Fury did not find out what he did. I guess I was too subtle, so I added a few references in this chapter that hopefully will clear that confusion.
Also, since I do have at least up to chapter fifteen, I'll try to post once at week. Maybe even twice a week. I'm just doing some corrections, and proof reading to the next chapters, and making some a bit longer since they were really short.
Total size without notes: 5,844
Keys:
"Speaking aloud."
'Thoughts'
'Name: /Mental interfacing between technopaths and/or tech\'
The Gym
Nick stood at the entrance to the old boxing gym where Rogers had chosen to seclude himself that night, and simply observed the Captain pound on the punching bags with increasing anger. Proof the young man was both, affected by his experiences, and a much better actor than anyone gave him credit for.
A man who might not even be considered a man yet, as he could be much younger than everyone initially thought. After the skateboarding incident a few days ago, which had sent him, Coulson, and Hill in for a loop, Nick had concluded he needed more information about Steven Grant Rogers, as opposed to Captain America than what was in their database.
He chose to do a more in depth investigation on the Captain, and the SSR's records. A thorough review of the surveillance reports on the Captain followed. He had had several junior agents unearth everything they had on Captain Rogers, and which had not been digitalized yet; which was shockingly over eighty percent of the information available.
Nick had not been happy when he realized just how much was missing, but had to admit going through the many reports, and memos, was not as tedious as he thought it would be; even if he had yet to finish going through all they had. Actually, it had been rather eye opening, and he had to wonder why nothing of what he discovered had been included in the official report.
For starters Nick found out that contrary to his official file, Steve Rogers was a good man, not a good soldier. This was something he needed to know since he was contemplating having the Captain as a member of SHIELD. Rogers guided himself by his moral compass, and would most likely balk at some types of missions.
The Cap was actually a very accurate sniper but he objected to outright assassination. Which was why the Howling Commandos depended so much on Sergeant James Barnes, because Rogers had had to compromise at times, and Barnes had offered to take those decisions off his best friend's shoulders.
He also found specially telling, the fact there were several reports concerning suspicions about Captain Rogers' real age. There were a few people who believed he was actually a minor. Mostly because of the way the Commandos treated him, or hear say, since the members of his unit tended to call the Cap, or refer to him as, kid when not on missions.
Colonel Phillips had been swift to quiet them down, and refute the accusations, but most of those who reported it were either transferred to other units, or were sent to the front. Despite the transfers, reports still popped here and there throughout the time Rogers served as part of the SSR, all of which were discredited by Phillips.
If the reports were true, and it became known the SSR not only experimented on a minor, but actually allowed him to fight as well as lead men into battle, well, a court martial would be the less of their worries. The public outcry would most likely affect the war bonds sales, which at the time were sorely needed.
There was a birth certificate stating Steven Grant Rogers was indeed born in 1918, which Phillips blandished as proof Rogers was indeed an adult. A twenty-four year old grown up man. The experts were certain it was original, but the document had been obtained in 1941.
What Nick found slightly suspicious, was the fact the document was re-issued a few months after most of Brooklyn's birth records had been lost in a fire. It was also the year of Sarah Rogers' death according to the Captain's enlistment form. The young man could have falsified the birth certificate to avoid going to an orphanage.
It was a well known fact Steve Rogers had lied several times in his attempts to enlist, so it would not be too farfetched if he had also lied about his age. Although Nick did not think Rogers would ever admit he was a minor if that was the case. It did not take a genius to realize the young man trusted SHIELD as far as he could throw them… Back when he had been a scrawny little man.
Whatever was bothering Rogers this night must be causing havoc with the young man because, to his shock, he saw the Captain break a punching bag, and send it flying with one single punch. Nick stared eye wide, the sheer strength it took to do that kind of damage to a punching bag was astounding. He did not want to know what such a punch would do to a human being. Although going from the reports he had read, the Cap rarely, if ever, went all out on his enemies.
"Having trouble sleeping Cap?" Nick asked from the gym's door. He decided it was about time he interrupted, before Rogers destroyed another punching bag, which SHIELD would be paying for. After the events last night, their budget would be severely depleted.
Despite the image Rogers was portraying, and which had practically left the heads spinning of everyone at the New York offices who were aware of who the Captain was, Nick knew the young man was not faring as well as he pretended. Everyone would have some kind of lingering trauma from the death of his best friend, the war, and his accident in the Arctic; never mind the seventy years time difference.
The younger man was affected, his visits to the gym were proof of that, as was the punching bag he broke, and which was not the only one to suffer that fate. The Captain was also still very distrustful of SHIELD's motives, and was clearly very angry by their surveillance. His behavior the past couple of weeks showed it.
It was clear the Captain had somehow discovered the bugs in the apartment, found out what they were, and not only disabled three of them more than a couple of times (the ones in the bathroom and the two in his bedroom), he had also rendered the bugs completely useless each time. The agents in charge of the apartment's surveillance decided not to install them back after the fourth time they were ruined.
They had underestimated Rogers once again, and it seemed no one had bothered to read between the lines on all information they had of him, not until he did. The bug disabling abilities might be new, but he had discovered Rogers had been trained to detect if he was being followed, and in fact excelled at it because of the Super Soldier Serum's enhancements.
The reports let him see Captain Rogers had been adapting, faster than any of the psychologists believed possible. It was clear the young man was much more intelligent than what the official report suggested.
The fact he had worked repairing electrical appliances, and all kinds of vehicles before he enlisted, led Nick to believe Rogers might not have as hard a time adapting to the 21st Century as they initially thought. Learning how to disable the electronic surveillance in his apartment would not have been all that hard for an electrician.
Another thing was also clear from the reports. The Captain was testing his boundaries, to see if he could escape. Checking how far he could get, and how much SHIELD would tolerate before they intervened, or questioned him. It was probably one of the reasons why he had not disabled all of the bugs.
To Nick it did not take Stark to realize that instead of earning his trust, as he wanted, they alienated the younger man further. Perhaps once this mission he had planned ended he would remove all minders and a good number of the bugs. Maybe then the young man would allow himself to grieve what he lost.
"I slept for seventy years, Sir. I think I've had my fill," Steve responded without stopping. Not that he truly believed it, frankly the lack of proper sleep, along with his lack of appetite, was beginning to take its toll on him.
"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world. Which is not what you have been doing since you left SHIELD's offices," Nick pointed out. "We're not your enemies Cap."
The Cap sighed and stopped beating the bag, then gave him a look which left Nick a bit unnerved. There was disbelief, and distrust, those he expected, but there was a flash of something… Something which could have been fear but it had passed too fast from him to be certain of it.
Steve just looked at Fury, as it was clear the Director was on to him. Although the master spy did not have the whole facts. It was clear the older man wanted his trust, but Steve was not sure he could give it to Fury, not after what was done to him.
He was aware torture was illegal, which did not necessarily mean it did not happen. Proof enough was the fact Kraft and his minions had tortured him, besides that other THING they did to him. The torture he could accept, and deal with up to a point. It was awful, it had hurt like hell, it left him feeling helpless, but it was not the first time something like that happened to him.
Steve was not sure if he could reveal the torture to the man, much less that other thing. It was mostly because he did not believe Fury would actually do something about it. Sure the Director had threatened Kraft, but those words had fallen on deaf ears. He had ended at the mad scientist's mercy less than an hour after those threats were issued.
"When I went under we were at war," Steve chose to say ignoring Fury's last words. It was something he would have said had he truly been from the forties. "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."
Which was true since Johnson and Lozano told him nothing, and he stopped attending their supposed 'lessons' after only three meetings. Steve wondered if those two had reported to Fury about it, but he suspected they did not. Steve had only received a memo from an agent Hill, who he learned was Fury's second in command, to report to the New York City Offices every other day.
Much as he wanted to, he clearly was not getting more time with the punching bags. So with a sigh Steve worked on removing the bandages he used on his hands instead of tape. His trainers in the past had taught him to use the bandages to protect his hands, and while he did try the tape the first time at the gym once in the present, he had not liked it.
"We made some mistakes along the way," Nick admitted. "Humanity, as a whole, does not seem to learn much from their mistakes; some of them were made very recently."
"Are you here with a mission, Sir." Steve asked curious, although he was not sure how he felt about that.
Steve had been fooling around the past two weeks, but in the end he had become a soldier during his time in the past. It was part of who, and what he was for nearly two years; so Steve was not sure he would refuse whatever it was Fury wanted him to do. Because, to be truthful, he really was starting to need some 'real' action.
"I am," Nick admitted, although a bit regretfully.
He believed it was too soon to send the young man out on missions. In his mind, Rogers had just left a war two weeks ago, after experiencing a near death situation. Normally Nick would have given any of his people at least a month's leave, plus mandatory therapy, the later of which Rogers had refused, but they were in dire need of his abilities, specially those as a leader.
"Are you trying to get me back in the world, Sir?" He was not sure a mission was the way to achieve that, because Steve was quite willing to be out in the world, if only SHIELD left him alone.
"Trying to save it," Nick said showing Rogers the file on the Tesseract they had hurriedly compiled to recruit him and others, as well as the events which transpired the previous day.
Steve could not help it, his knees felt weak when he saw what it was in the file. He sat down trying to hide his shock, and was not sure he was successful. He did not want to deal with the thing again, even though there was a piece of it at home. To make matters worse, Steve never got the chance to read the files on the darn thing he had obtained that day.
"HYDRA's secret weapon." He said ominously, not facing Fury as he read what little was in the file.
"Howard fished it out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Nick chose to inform the Cap. "He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."
It really took a lot for Steve not to call bullshit on Fury's words. There was nothing about unlimited sustainable energy on what he had read of the Cube in that folder. Besides, why would SHIELD be interested in the clean energy market? They were a spying agency after all.
Steve also knew Howard's main interest had been weapons during, but specially after, the war. They had even designed several together, and Howard had helped him patent the few he designed himself. In fact, it was not until Tony Stark had been kidnapped two years ago, and chose to close the weapon manufacturing plant, that Stark Industries became interested in clean energy.
He closed the file and gave it back to Fury. "Who took it from you?"
Steve was not averse to retrieving the thing, specially if he could find a way to destroy it. He knew, better than anyone alive, the Tesseract was dangerous, and could do more than power things whether it was buildings or weapons.
"His name is Loki. He's not from around here," Nick informed the young man.
"Loki? Like the Norse God of mischief and lies?" Steve said and Fury looked astounded at his question, like he truly did not expect him to have ever heard the name.
"You have heard of him then?" He asked surprised.
"I tended to read a lot to pass the time when I was bed ridden," Steve responded with a shrug. "Norse mythology was interesting when I was a kid. It later became specially so since Schmidt was interested in it as well." They had needed to know why the Red Skull had such an interest in mythology, which they later realized was how he discovered about the Tesseract's existence and location.
"I see." It was rather unexpected. He had not pegged the Captain for a bookworm. "There's a lot we're going to have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has become stranger than you already know."
"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." He really did. Steve had been born in that century after all. He had seen the recent developments and knew his history, even if it had never been his favorite subject.
"Ten bucks say you're wrong," Nick challenged the young man. Who simply packed his things, and made his way out of the gym. "There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"
"You should have left it in the ocean," Steve told him without looking back. There was more but he was not willing to tell Fury about it, so he just made his way out.
Seeking info
Steve went back to his temporary home. As Fury told him, there were several folders back at his apartment plus a tablet. At least someone was kind enough to leave the later, but he knew it had not been either Johnson or Lozano, since they believed him a neanderthal. It was probably Fury himself.
Initially Steve thought the same information was on both, but a quick check let him know it was not the case. The folders were only the dossiers on the people SHIELD was getting together to search for the Tesseract. The tablet had video from the prospective team members in action, as well as one of Loki's arrival, and a bit of data from the research being done to the Tesseract.
Steve sat at his kitchen table and just stared at the things they left him. He needed more information than what SHIELD provided, just from the Loki video alone he could tell there was more. He had seen at least two more CCTV cameras in the chamber where they kept the Tesseract, but they only provided a short video from another camera. He also suspected there was more to the Tesseract than what they provided him with.
He needed to obtain information which was not cleaned up for his benefit. What they 'thought' he should know, as opposed to what he really 'needed' to know to get a good picture of the problem, and what he was up against. Making up his mind, Steve took a quick shower and changed. He was sure his minders would not be paying much attention to him tonight, when he had 'homework' to do.
Steve left through the fire scape, and made his way home. Paying close attention to his surroundings to detect any tail on him. Thankfully there was none. His Ma worked the night shift, so she was not going to be home. But it was better this way, he had a lot to do, and not as much time as he would like for a family reunion.
He entered the apartment from the window in his bedroom, despite it being on the second floor, it was no real problem for him anymore. The window did not lock, so it was easy to open it. It was dark, but Steve could see his Ma had left the room exactly like he had it the day he left. For a moment he thought the asthma was back as he felt his chest tighten, and had difficulty breathing. It passed after a few moments though. He was finally home, but he could not stay.
Steve located his flashlight, and turned on the computer. Bob, as he had named it when he bought it a couple of years ago, was very happy to see him and be able to do things for him again. Bob had missed him very much. Steve patted him affectionately, as he too had missed his trusty computer. He truly wished he had more time to simply chat, and surf the net. Unfortunately he could not linger.
He located a pen drive where he could store the files he obtained of the Tesseract, as well as some of his code. Those things he had written and which might come in handy. Steve instructed Bob to transfer the files he needed to the pen drive, while he went in search of the blue gem.
After seeing so many HYDRA weapons back in the forties, Steve had concluded the gem was actually the crystallized energy the weapons used. From the size, he knew it had belonged to a tank. There had thankfully not been many of them, and the Commandos and him had managed to destroy nearly all of those available before they stormed Schmidt's base in the Alps.
Steve knew the energy in the containers usually dissipated once the weapon was destroyed, so it was strange to have a solid form of it. His only guess was that maybe a tank, or the storage container, survived and all that time had somehow crystallized it. Not a sound theory, but it was the only thing he had.
His mother hid the gem in a shoe box under the kitchen sink, which only made Steve smile and shake his head. He wrote her a note informing her he had a mission, and that hopefully after it the surveillance would be over. He would contact her as soon as he could. Then he checked his files had all transferred properly, said goodbye to Bob, turned him off, and left the same way he came in, carrying the pen drive and the gem.
The night was surprisingly productive. Once he had all his code available, Steve was able to hack into SHIELD easily. Things went much better, as the laptop (which he named Wyatt) was new and more powerful than Bob. It also helped the apartment's Internet connection was much faster.
He found SHIELD's mainframe's security was only slightly tighter than the last time he hacked them. According to SHIELD's New York City Offices mainframe, the security was geared more towards stopping Stark's frequent break ins, than stopping anyone else.
Steve found the protections a laughable effort. If they could not keep him out, even when he had been four years without using a computer, they had no chance of stopping Stark. The man was brilliant with computers. Once Steve was in, he accessed anything they had which mentioned the Tesseract, including the other security videos.
While his programs and subroutines were running on the laptop, and he just kept a mental 'ear' to make sure they encountered no problems, Steve took the time to go over the information provided by SHIELD.
There were the evaluations of several people which Fury expected would form a response team to the threat by this Loki, which was indeed said God of Mischief and Lies from Norse mythology. An honest to God alien from a place named Asgard.
Steve read about Erik Selvig and his work with the Tesseract, but there was almost nothing technical he could use. They did not expect him to know much, and while he was no expert on gamma radiation, he had actually been the one who discovered the Tesseract powered weapons emitted it.
He had enough background in physics to study gamma radiation, as he had read and researched about it before going back in time. Doctor Bruce Banner's work on gamma radiation, as well as his work on anti-electron collisions had been specially interesting.
Steve had actually read all the papers doctor Banner had published before he had simply gone off the radar. While to him it had been new and interesting information, it had actually been over eight years since doctor Banner published anything. The scientific community wondered what had happened to him, as there had been no reports of his death. Now he knew it was because Banner became the Hulk.
He had been the one doing the research work on the HYDRA weapons and the energy powering them, with Howard's assistance. Although the millionaire could not dedicate as much time as he wanted to it because he was involved in so many other projects, which the military named more important. Project Manhattan being a prime example.
So while Howard tried to keep up with all the Army's requests, Steve had done quite a bit of reverse engineering on the weapons and tanks they had taken from that HYDRA base near Azzano. Colonel Phillips had been shocked to discover he had a brain, and spoke science babble as well as Stark.
The Colonel saw the advantage of having a soldier with the mind of a scientist under his command, and chose not to undermine his usefulness to the SSR again. He contrived to get him lab time so Steve could work on the HYDRA weapons. Thanks to Colonel Phillips finally believing he was more than a chorus girl, Steve had found ways to harness the energy from those weapons to power the ones he designed for the allies.
Steve had managed to make his weapons more efficient as well, so his designs needed less than a fourth of what the HYDRA ones did, while still being as deadly. These weapons were to be a last resort, because he truly feared they would be misused. It was also why he never designed any type of bomb, or projectiles.
He also chose to never document the process he devised to harness the Tesseract's power. He was truly concerned of what would happen if he did. The Atomic Bomb was enough of a nightmare, and he knew any Tesseract powered bomb would be at least ten times worse. So he chose to take the secret to his grave when he crashed the plane, and which he still would now that he was found alive.
Not long after he started his search algorithms located Selvig's notes, and Steve downloaded all information he found into the tablet, which he named Thelma as it had a distinctive female tone to its voice. It was warm, and shockingly southern. She was also of Stark design, which was guarantee for power and quality.
Thelma was quite impressive, and had enough capacity for all he needed to do, plus all his code. It was very easy to connect through her to SHIELD's mainframe, and he did not have to do as much of the processing as he had done with old Bob, or Wyatt.
She could do quite a lot by herself once Steve showed her what he needed. It left him free to work on other things, like analyzing the security footage from Loki's arrival and subsequent battle and theft, as well as have Wyatt take care of the research. As he worked along with the tech, Steve could not deny he had been missing the mental challenges a lot.
Coulson
Early the next morning an agent picked him up, and drove him to a SHIELD's air base not far from the city. Steve had ended on a plane sooner than he expected; a rather modern looking one. He had been fearing some sort of flashback, but was surprised to be handling the flight rather well.
He kept his mind occupied with all the information he got last night, and with hearing the surprisingly comforting chatter of the aircraft's electronic equipment. They sensed he was uncomfortable, and since he was the first technopath they encountered, they wanted to reassure him.
The equipment told him he was safe on board the quinjet, they were at the peak of their operational status, and had just been through maintenance. The humans in charge had flown them often, and were quite experienced, so there was nothing to worry about .
Some of the equipment even gave him tidbits of how they operated, while Thelma crooned softly to him while she processed things. It was not a song he recognized, and he had no clue where she had come in contact with it, but it was indeed soothing his nerves.
Thelma had taken a liking to him, which was no surprise as he was the first technopath she encountered, and he too liked her, so he asked the agent travelling with him if he could keep her. To which the man responded he could.
"So, Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?" This was not common knowledge, but it did explain why the doctor had not published anything in a very long while.
First it had been top secret work for the military, trying to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, then it had been because doctor Banner became the Hulk and went on the run. Well, it seemed the man had been on the right path, although the serum might not have been yet to the stage the Red Skull had taken it. To Steve it was also clear the doctor had not been the right candidate to test it on.
"A lot of people were," Phil Coulson informed him, as he observed his hero frown a bit disapproving. "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 asked.
Getting the serum had been a very painful process, and there had been rays involved. The Vita Rays, which had a frequency similar to gamma rays. But as far as Steve knew, no one had worked on them after Erskine's murder, at least not openly. He had always wondered why Howard Stark had stopped any studies on them, and it puzzled him even more so after being friends with the man.
"Not so much. When he's not that thing the guy's like a Stephen Hawking," Phil told him, and when Captain Rogers turned to look at him he added before his hero could ask. "He's like a smart person."
"Yeah, I know who he is, brilliant man, and the comparison to doctor Banner is quite accurate." The doctor was indeed an incredibly intelligent man, a genius in his own right. "As to Stephen Hawking, he has some very interesting theories, but I have not had enough time to study them in depth."
Steve could see agent Coulson's eyes were wide as saucers. There was nothing indicating he could not keep his 'mess with SHIELD and its agents campaign' while on a mission for them. His own file had been amongst those the tablet contained, and there was nothing in there indicating he was more than a soldier, as well as an aspiring artist. So knowing science should throw them in for a loop.
"I'm not too interested in Cosmology as a whole anyway," he went on as if he had not noticed the agent looked shocked. Mentally he smirked. "I'm more interested in the physics and mathematics involved. Like his use of quantum mechanics, and Einstein's theory of relativity to support his own theory."
Phil just stared for a moment at a loss of words. The least he expected was for the man to be interested in science, and he apparently was capable of understanding it. Somehow his hero, Captain America, had a Stark moment. It was… terrifying to think what would happen if Captain Rogers got along with the remaining Stark.
"I didn't know you were interested in science," Phil finally commented after his shock.
"Only very few people knew. It was one of the reasons Howard and I became friends," he chose to tell the agent. "We spoke the same language."
Then he went back to Thelma. Since Coulson had already told him he could keep it, Steve had been using the trip to integrate his coding into it, as well as get rid of any bugs. Thelma was quite happy to help him with that, and would warn him if any new bugs were planted.
"I gotta say it's an honor to meet you officially," Phil began.
Steve looked at Coulson and thought slightly horrified, 'Dear God, he's about to have a fan-boy moment,' and there was no where to hide. He disliked being famous, but understood it had been inevitable. With a mental sigh, Steve managed a half hearted smile, with a bit more sleep he would have probably resorted to his USO one. But he did wonder when the agent met him unofficially.
"I sort of met you, I mean, while you were sleeping…"
'He did WHAT?' He thought alarmed, and for an instant he almost lost it, as he was reminded of what Kraft did to him.
He had lost consciousness before they were through with him, and he had no recollection of how he ended in the room the awoke in the next day. Steve believed they had left him there since Kraft could not keep him in a lab, which was why he was giving Fury the benefit of the doubt even if he did not feel he could be fully trusted yet. Did Coulson meet him then? Steve managed to keep a bland facial expression only by sheer stubbornness.
"I mean, I was present…" Phil kept babbling trying to correct what he was saying, but only digging himself deeper.
Steve mentally shuddered, and a small tremor did make it down his spine. 'When? When did he see me?'
"When you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really just a huge honor to have you on board." He finally managed to say something right.
Steve almost had a panic attack when the agent mentioned being there when he was unconscious. He had been too vulnerable and at their mercy then. But from what he had gathered when Kraft stormed into Fury's office, the madman had not gotten hold of him then. Barely managing to keep a semblance of calm, Steve looked at the agent.
Coulson was more of an avid fan boy than the evil mad scientist, so… perhaps there was nothing more to it than the fact the agent had seen him while he was being defrosted. Still, he was unnerved, so when Coulson came closer, Steve stood up and put some distance between them. He tried to do it casually so the agent would not notice and ask questions.
"I hope I'm the man for the job." Which was true, he really hoped he could be of some used in locating the God forsaken Cube.
Steve did know more than SHIELD thought, but he still was not feeling confident. Never mind he was not in top fighting condition. He had not slept much, and had eaten less than was usual for him, and at times he had had to force himself to finish what was on his plate. Then there was the fact things could go really wrong with the Tesseract involved, and not enough knowledge about it.
"Oh, you are. Absolutely," Phil said with total conviction. "Ah, we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."
Steve mentally cringed, that did not sound good. "The uniform?" He asked anyway. "Aren't stars and stripes a little old-fashioned?"
They were in his opinion, and while the uniform he designed in the forties had been what was needed to up the troops and the country's morale, Steve did not think it was right for modern times. He had actually designed himself a new, and very neat uniform; something more discrete.
"Everything that's happening, and the things that are about to come to light people might just need a little old-fashioned." Phil told the Captain seriously. He had already seen what the Tesseract and Asgardians could do.
