Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own any of characters depicted below that you may recognize...they belong to forces higher then me, and I respect them and applaud them for their beautiful creations


"Fury, we need to talk."

"Don't tell me you're breaking up with me."

Steve made a face, and Fury chuckled. He let the file he'd been reading land onto his desk with a small plop, and settled into his large office chair. "Alright, I'm in serious mode now." Fury straightened the expression on his face, and gestured with one hand to the seat across from him. Steve rolled his eyes and sat.

"Level with me." Fury said simply, and Steve sighed.

"Team two." Steve began, and Fury groaned, leaning forward.

"I've just had a long conversation with Tony about this very topic," He warned. "I'm not mentally prepared to deal with the same argument so soon after the last one."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "What was Tony arguing?" Steve asked, interested.

"That the Team Two initiative be dissolved, or at least handed over to a different group of instructors." Fury rolled his eye. "To put it simply."

"Let me guess." Steve joked. "Tony's argument was longer."

"And louder." Fury agreed. "So. You hear to say the same thing?"

"Not exactly." Steve ran a hand through his hair. "I still believe a Team Two is a good idea. I understand the need for a second response team and a back-up. I also agree with the opportunity that the Avengers have to share their talent and experiences and also learn how to be mentors."

Fury nodded. "So far, we're on the same page."

"But," Steve hesitated and Fury braced himself, "the Avengers simply don't know how to BE teachers, and they don't see how a team two can be helpful. All they're feeling right now is that they're being replaced, and they're lashing out at what they think is the root of all their troubles."

"Which in turn is alienating Team two from them and thusly from Shield." Fury nodded. "Still on the same page. But how do we fix it?"

Steve sighed. "The Avengers need someone to learn from." He admitted. "A teacher that they respect enough to learn from; not only on how to teach, but also on how to share, and how to delegate. Ideally a teacher that Team Two also respects and would be willing to learn from."

"And you're out of the question?" Fury asked ruefully. Steve snorted and nodded.

"I'm the enemy." He added regretfully. Fury grimaced.

"That's what I was worried about." Fury stood and began to pace. "So what we really need is someone both groups respect to not only bring out the best of everyone involved, but also to teach the Avengers how to teach and Team Two how to learn." Fury chuckled. "So basically we need Harper."

Steve laughed. "Pretty much." He agreed.

"But Harper's in the wind." Fury turned slowly. "Or is she?" He asked pointedly.

"You only have one eye." Steve complained. "How is it that you see EVERYTHING?"

Fury shrugged. "I have my ways. So is Harper considerably less in the wind as I first assumed?" He asked.

"Harper is fine." Steve answered after a few minutes. "She's been located, but she's not at this time willing to intervene."

Fury grimaced.

"But…" Steve continued slowly, "I do have another idea…"

Fury faced Steve consideringly, head tilted. He sat back down in his chair.

"I'm at my end." Fury admitted. "So. What do you got?"

Steve smiled, eyes gleaming.

"This is the plan…"


"Team Two: I have a mission for you." Fury marched into the living room of Stark Tower a few days later, a file held in his hands. His words had everyone sitting up.

"Us?" Will asked confused.

"Them?" Tasha asked disbelievingly.

"We haven't cleared them for solo missions," Thor began,

"The punks are definitely not ready," Tony added,

"Excuse you, who are you to say we're not ready," David argued.

"Maybe your boss," Tony rolled his eyes.

"And I'm YOUR boss," Fury interrupted. "And I say Team Two has a mission." Fury raised a brow. "You're more than welcome to come with and keep an eye on them, but you're not to go active." He turned to the five teens sprawled on the couch. "This is your mission." He spoke lowly, and the team straightened.

The Avengers moved to stand behind the couch, eyes narrowed and arms crossed, saying nothing, but listening intently. Their disapproval was palpable. Team Two's excitement was tangible.

And Steve, still sitting at the breakfast bar, watched with a smirk, one hand curled around a coffee cup and the other gripping a cell phone.


His plan so far was going swimmingly.

It was a simple retrieval case. Had the mission not been tampered with in order to achieve specific results, Team Two would've been extremely successful at completing their task.

Unfortunately, it HAD been tampered with, and Steve, seated comfortably on the jet the Avengers observed from; 50 feet above the site Team Two had just successfully infiltrated, watched as his plan continued to go exactly accordingly to plan.

It was perfect.

But the other Avengers, watching with horror as the alarm that Team Two had "supposedly" severed went off disagreed.

It was a disaster.

And the Avengers refused to sit around and watch. Quickly enough they disregarded Fury's orders to remain inactive and jumped from the jet.

Steve stayed where he was and grinned.

His opinion had not changed…

His plan was going perfectly.


His plan had gone TOO perfectly. Steve stood in the corner of the conference room, not at all begrudging Fury the difficulty of standing between Team Two and the Avengers.

"What were you thinking!" Thor roared at Fury. "These children were no more prepared for that task than they would be to take their SATs!"

"First of all; True!" Avery jumped up and yelled. "Second of all; how do you even know what SATs ARE?"

"That's not even the question!" Will jumped in. "The real question is; why did you go active when Fury expressly told you to stand DOWN!"

"How about because you guys were failing, and horribly?" Tony snapped. "We saved your asses!"

"Language!" Steve snapped. "And they would've been just fine without our interference, in fact, we made everything worse!"

"We maybe kind of did!" Bruce yelled. "But what's done is done, and we just need to move past this,"

"Move past this? It was on the news!" Jacob joined in angrily. "EVERYONE saw US fighting EACH OTHER!"

"How are the public going to trust us to save them when we're too busy fighting EACH OTHER?" David added.

"Easy!" Tasha jumped in. "We eliminate Team two,"

"Eliminate!" Will threw his hands up. "So what you're going to kill us?!"

"That is not what Tasha meant!" Clint defended her.

"Well what else can you do with us? You can't let us go, we're a threat to you," David reasoned.

"Uh, we let Steve's kid just walk away, and she's a time bomb!"

The room went silent, and Steve pushed away from the table so hard the chair he'd been sitting on screeched loudly.

"This is NOT about Harper." Steve hissed. "This is about you guys. This is about two separate teams who need to find a way to work together and either don't know how, or refuse to even try."

"Probably a little bit of both." Tony admitted, and Steve nodded.

"Scottie?" Scott raised his hand in acknowledgement. "You documented the entire thing. Mind doing a replay?"

Scott nodded, turned to the computer, and let the tape roll.


The tape showed Team Two entering successfully and reaching the hostage; and then the alarm going off and them having to reevaluate their escape plan and deal with unfriendlies. Mere moments before the situation would've been well in hand, the Avengers appeared, making a huge mess and catching the attention of every unfriendly in the room. The situation quickly went downhill from there; and the fighting continued, long after the unfriendlies were taken care of, held between the two teams and catching the attention of the news.

When the video stopped playing, everyone was silent.


Then Tasha sighed. "Now you have physical proof that Team Two just isn't ready." She glared hard at Fury. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Whoa-" Will sputtered. "NO!" He turned to Fury as well. "Now you have tangible proof that the Avengers are purpose sabotaging us. What are you going to do about THAT?"

And the fighting, which had concluded, began again.

Steve threw up his hands, and leaned his forehead against the wall. He was done.

Fury tried to reason with everyone, but quickly had to resort to threats.

"You will force me to pull out the big guns." He threatened over the roar of the fighting teams.

The slam of the door diverted everyone's attention, but it was the person who'd slammed the door open that had the chaos dwindling down into shocked silence.

"And if you hadn't guessed, the guns Fury's referring to, are THESE guns." Harper, dressed simply in Jeans and a gray hoodie, flexed both her arms dramatically.

Those actually weren't the guns Fury had been talking about, but he'd stay silent for the moment.

"Harper?" Will whispered, shocked.

"Harper!" Scott squealed, raising his arm in a victorious fist.

"Not Harper." Harper corrected with a grin that bled into a stern look.

"From this point on….you can call me Coach."


So Steve's a scheming butt-hole, but his plan worked and Harper has now been sucked into the chaos that is the Avengers and Team Two.

yay!

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LLAP.

~CLC~