Steve had never considered himself a petty man, and he wasn't, he generally didn't worry himself over what other people might think of him. But the sight of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton staring at him made him want to turn around and leave.

Steve hated how embarassed he felt, but he couldn't help it. It was a similar situation as not wanting your co-workers to see you dressed in a ridiculous clown suit or something, the Avengers were essentially Steve's peers. It was really Tony Stark's ineviteable ridicule that Steve was worried about, the others like Natasha, who Steve had grown somewhat close to, didn't bother him as much. Though they had made their amends after the battle of New York, Steve still wasn't a big fan of Tony Stark. Tony just had a way of rubbing Steve the wrong way and having him see him like this was very unwelcome.

What were four of the Avengers even doing here in the first place? The Avengers weren't meant to be called together unless there was something seriously dangerous going on. If there was something seriously dangerous going on, then it couldn't have happened at a worse time. And if the Avengers were being assembled then where was Thor? Was there even a way to contact him when he was on Asgard?

Steve didn't really like being the center of attention, that was why being Captain America and being all over newspapers and posters back in the 40's had been kind of weird for him. Steve knew how to operate in the spotlight, but only barely. So seeing five pairs of eyes trained on him, obviously judging him, made Steve more than a little uncomfortable.

"Uh, who's the kid?" Tony asked, giving Steve a quizzical look, clearly not recognizing him yet.

Steve let out an annoyed sigh. He was well aware that he was short, but he didn't think that he looked like a kid.

Nicky Fury stood up from his seat, wearing a look of disbelief on his face as he looked at Steve. Fury at least had seemed to realize who Steve really was right away.

"How did this happen?" Fury asked, recovering from the inital shock and quickly composing his face into a serious look.

"Fury, what are you talking about, who is this?" Clint asked, glancing from Fury to Steve in confusion.

"That's the problem, I don't know." Steve said, keeping his eyes on Fury.

At the sound of his voice both Natasha and Bruce seemed to finally figure it out, both faces shifted into a look of shock and Natasha let out a slight gasp.

"Oh my God." Natasha murmured.

"Is there something I'm missing?" Tony asked, sounding a bit frustrated at the fact that no one would let him in on what was going on.

"Tony, it's Steve, Captain America." Bruce told Tony.

At this both Tony and Clint squinted their eyes at Steve as if scrutinizing him for any signs of the Captain America they had known, after a moment both of them seemed to suddenly see it and they too took on expressions of surprise.

"Whoa." Clint breathed.

Steve felt incredibly awkward just standing there in the doorway so he stepped into the conference room and took a seat in the remaining empty chair at the large conference table, the eyes of everyone in the room following him as he did.

"You have no idea how this could have happened?" Fury asked him.

"No, I-I just woke up this morning like this." Steve told the director of SHIELD grimly.

Bruce spoke up, "The serum couldn't have just worn off, it's not possible." He said with a brow creased in thought.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second. So this is the size you were before the whole super soldier thing?" Tony asked, a grin beginning to form on his face.

Steve threw a dirty look towards Tony before turning to look at Bruce. "You studied Erskine's serum didn't you? Do you have any idea what could have happened?" He asked.

"Yes I did but I don't know, I could look into it but-"

"How tall are you? Can't be more than 5 feet." Tony interrupted, a full grin spread across his face now.

"I mean I knew you were small back in the day but man, you're probably the scrawniest person in the United States." Tony laughed.

Clint had a small smile on his face, but otherwise the other Avengers looked much less amused than Tony, as Steve had predicted. Natasha wore a look of concern, Fury was clearly all bussiness and Bruce looked perplexed.

"Quiet Stark." Fury ordered, giving Tony a cold look.

"Oh come on Nick, don't tell me you don't find this funny. The irony is too sweet." Tony said, smirking across the table at Steve.

"Get over it Stark." Steve said darkly.

"I could probably knock you down in one punch even without my armor." Tony mused, clearly he was enjoying this.

Natasha looked about ready to say something, but before she could Fury spoke up. "We don't have time for this right now. I didn't call you all here to bicker, though you always seem to do it."

"Why did you call us here?" Clint asked, apparently Steve wasn't the only one who didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Because of this." Fury said and with a press of a button on a remote, a holographic screen suddenly showed up in the center of the table. The screen displayed a zoomed in satellite image of a forest in what looked like Russia. Pretty much all that was visible was tree tops.

"What is it?" Natasha asked, eyebrows drawn together as she examined the image.

"This," Fury pressed another button on the remote, "Is a cosmic energy signature." The image on the screen altered, now showing a dark blue splotch in the center.

"Cosmic energy? Cosmic as in, what exactly?" Clint asked.

"Cosmic as in the Tesseract." Bruce said suddenly.

"I thought Thor took that thing." Steve said, unable to hide the concern in his voice. The Tesseract was bad news, it had caused him many problems during his long life.

"He did, or we thought he did." Fury said.

"This isn't the Tesseract, the energy signature isn't right. No, this looks like Loki's staff." Bruce stated as he picked his glassess up off of the table and slid them on.

"Does SHIELD still have the data files from the scans we did on that thing?" Tony asked, switching from Steve insult mode to science mode.

"A lot of our files were lost when we leaked HYDRA's secrets onto the internet, we've been able to secure some of it, but most of the data we had on the Tesseract and Loki's scepter was lost." Fury told them.

"How did you lose it? It's a computer file not your car keys. Did you back anything up?" Tony asked in a way that sounded kind of accusatory.

"SHIELD's files were HYDRA's files Stark, there was only so much we could save." Fury retorted, he didn't seem to care much for Tony's tone.

"I thought SHIELD was in possession of the staff?" Bruce asked, taking his eyes away from the screen to look at Fury.

"That's why you're here. We have reason to believe that HYDRA grabbed it on their way out. This image is the closest we can get, but I'd bet there's a HYDRA base underground there." Fury told them seriously.

"I thought HYDRA was supposed to be done." Tony pointed out.

"HYDRA was living inside SHIELD for several decades, they're not that easy to take out." Natasha said, glancing over at Steve who gave a single nod of agreement.

"So what do you want us to do?" Clint asked Fury.

"That scepter is dangerous, some of us know that from personal experience." Fury glanced over at Clint who wore a dark and somewhat haunted look before continuing. "HYDRA probably knows that SHIELD has access to the image, they may be expecting us so I'm sending in people with experience with the thing. This is too dangerous to take risks on, I want the Avengers on this."

Steve really didn't have any doubts that HYDRA was still out there, he never had. After finding out that they had survived all these years within SHIELD, Steve wasn't sure he'd ever believe they were done for.

"Wait, that staff was Loki's, so shouldn't Thor be taking care of it?" Clint asked, voicing Steve's thoughts.

"We have no way to contact Thor. We're on our own for now." Fury told them.

"So you basically want us to bust into this secret HYDRA base, grab the scepter and get out?" Tony asked.

"I'm sending a SHIELD spy I have in Russia to investigate the area, get as close as she can, but after that I want you to do more than get the scepter. Now that we know where this HYDRA base is, I need you to flush it out." Fury announced.

"So you want us to-" Steve started but was interrupted by Fury.

"I don't want you to do anything Rogers, you need to be tested."

"What-"

"Dr. Banner, you know the most about Erskine's serum, would you be willing to run some tests, try to figure out what's going on?" Fury asked Bruce, ignoring and interrupting Steve once again.

"Yes of course." Bruce said.

"Are you expecting me to stay here?" Steve asked, not very much liking where this was going.

"Actually I'd like all of you to stay here until I hear back from my agent in Russia. This mission isn't as simple as punching every alien you see in the face like last time, HYDRA is complex and tactical so I need you to figure out a plan, you can't just go in guns blazing." Fury told them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're asking all of us to stay in your makeshift HQ? Do you even have beds in here?" Tony asked rather rudely.

"A large part of SHIELD's agents stay here 24/7 now. We've had to make do but I'll be able to get a room for each of you." Fury answered, ignoring Tony's less than polite tone but it was clear he had noticed it.

What was worse than having the snarky Tony Stark see him at his weakest? Living with the snarky Tony Stark when he was at his weakest. This was the worst series of events Steve could have imagined.