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
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has commented,reviewed, followed, and/favorited the story. I makes me happy to know there are people enjoying the story.
This is a rather short chapter compared to the previous ones. Normally 3000 words is a pretty good sized chapter, but I usually go a bit overboard with the size. It was actually a much longer one (over 6,000 words), but too much was happening at once, so I decided to cut it. The next chapter should be out sooner than the others to compensate, probably by Monday.
I also wanted to mention my characterization of the Hulk was slightly based on the Avengers Assemble cartoon. I normally don't watch much TV (and even less cartoons since I like anime better), but I found it while browsing in Netflix (they had just the one season).
The characters (with the exception of the Hulk and the Falcon) were very similar to those of the movies, and I got hooked. Hulk is smarter there, and I liked it a lot, so I chose to make him a bit more intelligent as well. Bruce does not appear in the cartoons anymore, but that won't happen here.
Total size without notes: 3,170
Keys:
"Speaking aloud."
'Thoughts'
'Name: /Mental interfacing between technopaths and/or tech\'
Engine repairs
Steve and Tony split, while the first went directly to engine three, the later went to suit up. As he made his way to the damaged area, Steve helped a few of the crew to evacuate the danger zones. Most of those men were wearing oxygen masks, as the air was clearly thinner up there, but he was thankfully not having trouble breathing.
When Steve reached the engine, he came upon a rather large part of the helicarrier missing. There was twisted metal, loose cables, and fire besides nothing but air. Most of the electronics there were either dead, or dying, and Steve shuddered at their pain, tightening his mental shields to avoid being affected by them. He really, really was beginning to hate flying.
Steve: /Tony, I'm here.\ He informed the older technopath squinting bit trying to see if he had already arrived.
Tony: /Good.\ He arrived at the damaged engine and saw Steve waiting. /They'll be expecting to hear us, so we need to use the coms,\ he instructed the kid.
Steve: /Got it.\
"Let's see what we've got," Tony muttered to himself as JARVIS assisted him by providing the engine schematics, and layering them on top of the visuals he was getting.
"I got to get this superconducting coolant system back on line before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris…" He listed as he checked the damage on the engine knowing Steve would understand what he was talking about. "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."
Steve just nodded since Iron Man was facing him, then he looked around, and saw no access to the area where he needed to be. So he just jumped across the open space to get to the control panel. He found it and took a look.
"What does it look like in there?" he asked as he worked on getting the engine back on line.
"Better than expected. The panel is not damaged, the relays are intact. They are all overloaded but it does not appear to have yet reached critical. I can take care of them manually," Steve informed him as he located the necessary switches and began working.
Steve berated himself for not stopping to locate a tool belt, or a tool box—besides a gun and his shield—before he reached the engine, especially since he was going to do repairs. At least he only had to work with switches. Thank God for small mercies, but he made a mental note to add a multi-tool to his utility belt, one never knew when it would be necessary.
"There's nothing else to do on the panel," he reported. "What's our next move."
"Even if I clear the rotor this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm going to have to get in there and push," Tony informed Steve knowing there were others listening on the channel.
"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded," he was worried.
"That stator control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that could…" He was about to engage in a long explanation, but was interrupted by the kid.
"Mechanic here, Tony," Steve reminded the genius, "no need for long winded explanations. We can talk shop all you want later, when we're not in the middle of a life and death situation. Right now I don't have your visuals, so where's the stator control unit?"
"You're no fun, Rogers," he did not whine and pout, no he didn't.
"Crashing an aircraft twice in less than a month exceeds my allotted quota of air related disasters; and before you say anything about that being seventy years ago, to me it's only been a bit over two weeks!" He did not see it, but there were collective winces by those who were listening in on the channel.
"Okay, okay, don't get your spandex in a bunch, Capsicle." But he cringed. This must actually be one hell of a nightmare for the kid. Yet, there he was, doing what he could to keep the flying bucket on the air. "Look overhead to your right, see that red lever?" Tony linked with Steve, and projected the equivalent of a reassuring shoulder squeeze.
Steve: /Thanks,\ he said allowing the gratitude to color his mental voice. It had been a reassuring as well as comforting gesture.
"Yeah, I see it," Steve said aloud and sighed. That was another jump over nothing but air. Better not look down, and he simply jumped.
"Stand by it, and wait for my word," Tony instructed as he flew into the turbine.
From his vantage point besides the lever Steve saw hostiles arrive. One was about to throw a grenade at the engine, and they could not risk any more damage, specially not with Tony in there. He jumped when the man threw the grenade, and managed to knock it down.
Unfortunately that drew the hostiles' attention to him, and he did not have a gun or his shield on hand. Well he could see there was more jumping in his immediate future. Steve moved to their level, knocked one man down, then fought the other, and threw him off the helicarrier.
A third arrived, Steve retrieved one of their guns and responded fire. He tried to remain close to the control unit, but it was difficult while under attack. He had no cover, then the helicarrier lost another engine.
"Stark, we're loosing power." Nick informed him.
"Yeah, I noticed." He began pushing the rotors trying to get at least that engine back on line.
Steve was under heavy fire, and he was forced to retreat until there was no more ship. He lost his footing, but managed to grab a hold on some loose cable at the last moment. He dangled several thousand feet on the air, and he tried not to think about it and pull himself back on the ship.
Tony sped as he pushed the rotor and it began gaining the necessary speed. Unfortunately Steve was still hanging by a cable, and about to fall to his death if he did not manage to pull himself back on board the helicarrier. The ship began to level.
"Cap, hit the lever."
"I need a minute here!" He sounded strained. Frankly it was a miracle he managed to respond, as all his concentration was on getting back on the helicarrier. Even crippled it was still better than the alternative.
"Lever… now!" Tony was getting desperate. The engine was working, and getting up to speed. Things were not looking good for him.
Steve managed to get himself back on board and crawled his way to the lever. He was still under heavy fire, while Tony was trapped inside the engine, and being tossed every which way like a red and gold pin ball.
"Uh oh." He was in serious trouble now. "Help!"
Steve managed to get the lever, and Iron Man was able to fly out of the engine. There was still one remaining attacker, and Steve had nothing to repel fire with. Thankfully Tony flew by and crashed against the man knocking him out, if not outright killing him. Both of them just remained where they were trying to regain their breaths.
Tony: /Let's not do that again… Like… Ever,\ he projected to Steve. He was going to feel that tumble in the engine by the end of the day, and the Mark VI was practically out of commission.
Steve: /You won't hear me disagree,\ he said starting to come down from the adrenaline rush. He knew he had just added at least a couple more nightmares to the nightly horrors playlist.
"Agent Coulson is down." Fury's grave voice came through the coms. It sounded ominous.
"A medical team is on it's way to your location," a technician informed him.
"They're here. They called it, " Fury informed them, and there was radio silence. Coulson was a well loved as well as respected agent, and his death clearly hit everyone hard.
Fury's monologue
The atmosphere on the helicarrier was somber. The recent disastrous attack, the heavy damage to the ship, the escape of their prisoner, but specially the loss of Coulson was heavily felt by everyone.
Of the team, Bruce as the Hulk was gone somewhere. They were aware he was not dead, the giant green rage monster was practically indestructible, but who knew what kind of havoc the Hulk was wrecking out there. He had certainly caused enough on the helicarrier's hangar, the lab, and surprisingly some of the detention cells.
Thor was also missing in action. Loki had released the cell designed for the Hulk with his brother in it. They were not sure if the Asgardian was resistant enough to survive the fall unharmed. They also had no way of knowing if Thor needed assistance.
At least they had managed to recover Barton, and from Romanoff's reports he was off the staff's control. They just needed to wait and see if he made a full recovery from the ordeal. Although they might not be able to give him the necessary time if Loki opened the portal anytime soon. They were going to need every able bodied man and woman.
After he had removed the top of his uniform Steve went to the bridge uncertain as to what they were going to do next. The helicarrier was crippled, they lost many men, and had more injured. They lost aircraft and weapons too. The cargo hold where Phase Two was stored sustained heavy damage and most of its contents did as well.
Steve did not know if SHIELD had more forces they could rally when the invasion started. Because that at least was a certainty, not if, but when. He hoped that if they did not have enough, the Army, Air Force, and the National Guard would be called, because they were going to need all the help they could get.
Tony joined him at the bridge's meeting table. He was a far cry from his energetic self, and Steve did not blame him. It appeared he appreciated Coulson more than he let on, and the loss of Bruce to the Hulk was probably hitting him hard as well.
The older technopath was also shielding his mind as tightly as possible, but then so was he. The laments and death throes from all the damaged electronics were wreaking havoc with his mind and feelings. He was sure it was the same for Tony.
Steve tried to help in the background as much as he could, assisting the mainframe in deriving its processes to some of the terminals which still were in good condition and not in use. A few of the main servers were damaged, and it was not yet feasible to use the backups to restore the system.
In the chaos he managed to access the file dump his code obtained before he went to Stuttgart, and uploaded it to his cloud account, then erased it from the terminal. Steve also made sure to clear any sign of his having ever used the terminal, and the Internet connection. The later was probably the only communication with the outside which was still working.
As he worked, Steve could 'feel' Tony in the background. The older technopath was taking care of reestablishing, and rerouting some of the systems necessary to keep the helicarrier on the air. Steve was impressed with how Tony slowly worked on removing the virus which took down engine one, specially since he was making it look like it was the mainframe's own security systems the ones behind it. But they both had to work carefully to avoid any suspicion.
Fury joined them at the table, but he did not take a seat. He was clearly feeling the loss of Coulson as well. He was somberly looking at something in his hands, holding whatever it was rather gently.
"This were in Phil Coulson's jacket, I guess he never did get you to sign them," Nick told Rogers, then threw the trading cards on the table before him.
He was laying the guilt on thick, but Nick needed the remaining members of the Avengers Initiative to work together. The Cap was the best chance they had at rallying the others into doing that. The younger man just stared at the cards as they had some blood smeared on them, Coulson's. With a sigh the Cap grabbed one.
"We're dead on the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build and arsenal with the Tesseract," Nick admitted, and the look he got from Rogers told him the younger man had already known that. "I never put all my chips on that number, though because I was playing something even riskier.
"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative." As he talked, Nick moved around the table, but kept his distance from Rogers. The least he needed was to trigger a panic attack. "The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more.
"To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." Stark turned to look at him, but just for an instant. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."
It seemed Tony had enough of Fury's monologue because he stood up abruptly, then after a few seconds just staring through the front windows, he left the bridge without saying a word. But Steve could sense he kept his connection with the servers.
"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Nick finished. It was now up to Rogers and Stark to do something about the imminent invasion.
Steve just stared at the blood stained cards, uncertain as to what to feel. The deaths of several agents were already making him feel bad, and more than slightly useless. Yes, he did not like SHIELD, but he had never cared about senseless death.
He felt there should have been something he could have done to prevent what happened. But for the life of him Steve did not know what. Tony and him had sounded the alarm, but by then it had been to late to stop the attack. After contemplating the blood stained cards for a couple more minutes, he left in search of Tony.
The cell chamber
He found the billionaire in the Hulk's cell's chamber, unmoving, and just staring into space. Steve wanted to offer some comfort, but he was not sure what to say, or what to do. He had never been all that good at giving comfort. So he just leaned against the railing for a moment.
"Was he married?" he finally asked, if Coulson was, it would add even more to the tragedy.
"No. There was a… cellist I think," Tony said remembering the conversation he and Agent had before they discovered Steve was a genius… It seemed like it was ages ago even when it was less than twenty-four hours.
"I'm sorry." There was no much else he could say. He had just met the man the previous day. "He seemed like a good man."
Tony scoffed. "He was an idiot."
"Why? For believing?" Steve frowned.
"For taking on Loki alone." Agent should not have died. There had not been any reason for him to die.
"He was doing his job," Steve defended the man's decisions. He would have done the same in Coulson's place.
"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…" Tony just trailed off.
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." He spoke from his own experience. If there had been any other way he would have saved Bucky, and doctor Erskine. Steve would not have crashed that plane and lost seventy years.
"Right, I've heard that before." He was angry, all the more because he knew the kid was speaking from personal experience.
"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" he asked.
Steve had lost many, as he had led more than the Howling Commandos. It was an unavoidable fact of war, even if he did his best to minimize the loss of life. Of those he lost, only Bucky had been really close to him.
Losing men under his command did not get any easier, but one did learn to cope, otherwise he would have been unable to function. It was something someone his age should never have to deal with, but it was part of the price Steve had to pay for becoming who he was now.
"We are not soldiers, Steve," Tony snapped.
He was angry, and he was hurt. He felt like taking it out on someone, but Steve did not deserve that. He was a child having to act not only like an adult, but a leader, and an example to booth.
"I'm not marching to Fury's fife," Tony stated. He really did not trust the pirate, he was sure cyclops was trying to manipulate them with his… attempt at a heart to heart in the bridge.
"I'm not asking you to. Because you know, neither am I, Tony. I think I've made that clear already. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now we got to put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source. If we put together a list… we can narrow it down since we know they were headed for New York."
"He made it personal," Tony said looking at the blood stain on the wall. It was Coulson's.
"That's not the point." They needed a clear head, and going out for revenge was not going to help anyone.
"That is the point," Tony stressed, "that's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"
"To tear us apart." Steve began getting where Tony was going.
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, he already tried it and almost succeeded, because he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." How had he not seen it before?
"Right," Steve agreed, "I caught his act in Stuttgart." That discourse on people needing to be dominated was a dead giveaway.
"Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night, and Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…" he trailed off, and knew then just were Loki was going to open the portal. "Son of a bitch."
"He's going for the arc reactor in your tower, isn't he?" Dread settled in his stomach.
