Steve

It has been a week since I woke up from the ice, since I was pushed into this modern age. When everything was explained to me, I was speechless. I never expected to live after putting that Hydra plane under the cold water. Somewhere in my heart, I wished that I just died and they never found me. If they didn't, I wouldn't be here right now suffering from culture shock and struggling to find my place.

Until now, I still didn't feel like I belong. Well technically, I really didn't belong here since I was not from this time. I still haven't adjusted to how things worked during this era. You could say that technology and I didn't work well together. The alarm clock on my bedside table read 5:30 in the morning. The sun wasn't even up and yet, I couldn't go back to sleep. It was those again. I was haunted by my memories during the war.

Since I woke up from being frozen for almost 70 years, I haven't had one decent sleep at night. Whenever I closed my eyes, those nightmares of mine would always haunt me in my sleep. I would always end up getting out of the bed and going to the old gym near my apartment, that was styled like those in the 40's. That was exactly what I was doing right now. Going to the bathroom, I got changed into a white shirt and khaki pants. The things that would need were already inside my duffel bag. Then, I went out of the apartment and made my way to the gym. The walk to the gym only took about ten minutes. When I got there, I immediately went to the basement.

On my way down, my curiosity was raised when I noticed that there was light coming from the basement. I wonder who it was. People rarely came to the basement and more so this time of the day. Quickly, I went down to look at the gym. I was very shocked to see a woman punching a bag and it appeared that she had been for quite a while. She was so focused on beating the bag that she didn't even hear me coming down the basement. The woman had mid-length dark brown hair and had a lean and well-built body. Judging from the way she was punching and kicking the bag, this woman might be a veteran in self-defense.

Carefully going to a nearby bench, I placed my duffel bag on it and put on my hand wraps while still observing the woman. Until now, she still hasn't noticed my presence. From my angle, I couldn't see the woman's face so I went to an unoccupied punching bag close to the woman's. Once I could see a part of the woman's face, I was very shocked. Her cheeks were flushed, not just from her rigorous workout but also from crying. The streaks of tears that stained the woman's face were very evident. As she threw another punch, another tear fell down her cheek. The woman was glaring at the punching bag as if it had done her wrong.

Her eyes told a story that was filled with pain and sadness. The way she looked at the bag was just like me. Every punch was a memory of what we lost or what we try to forget. When she punched the bag, every single memory of pain and regret flashed before her. I wonder what had happened to this woman that made her this broken. It seemed another memory was the last straw because the woman kicked the bag with so much force that a part of it got torn. My eyes were glued to the woman as she went to a bench and drank from a bottle of water.

"Didn't anybody tell you it's rude to stare?" I snapped out of it once I heard an annoyed feminine voice. The woman was glaring at me because she had caught me staring.

"I-I'm sorry, ma'am." My face was probably as red as a tomato right now because of embarrassment. The woman still glared at me and looked at me with a piercing gaze. I fidgeted as she stared at me in an intimidating manner. The way she looked at me felt like it was penetrating deep within me.

I then awkwardly punched the bag before my eyes trailed off to the woman again as she drank some water. For some weird reasons, I couldn't help but be interested with this person. She was different from all of the people that I had encountered so far.

"What? If you want to say something, spill it." She snapped, glaring at me again. My cheeks flushed because of another embarrassing moment. I gulped, seeing her scrutinizing gaze.

"I- It's just that… uh… I've never seen you here before, ma'am." I smiled.

"I'll throw that back at you. I've never seen you here before. People don't usually go here in this part of the gym." She answered back with a blank face. I didn't know why but I felt like I could tell this person about what exactly I felt.

"Well, I just started coming here a week ago. It just brings back memories and here, it feels like…"

"The place where you belong." She cut me off as I looked at her with shock and interest. "Home."

I was about to say something but a ringing sound stopped me. She searched through her bag and took out a device that they called mobile phone these days.

"Excuse me, I have to take this." I nodded as she slightly turned away from me. She brought the phone to her ear but she immediately pulled it away. The woman scrunched her face in annoyance.

"Well, hello to you too, Carter." Her sarcastic greeting made me chuckle but I held it in. It appears the person on the other line said something that made her more annoyed because she started to rant.

"You have got to be kidding me, right? Carter, I just got my vacation after not having any day off for three months. Also, my uncle and Pepper are going to kill me if I took another job. They would think that I'm over exerting myself again like last time." When she stopped, her face immediately fell and it turned in to a serious one. Her posture straightened and she suddenly became tense. That conversation must have been very important and serious.

"I'm on my way." She ended the call and quickly fixed her bag. She then immediately went to the exit but I stopped her. For some weird reasons, I needed to know her name.

"Um, ma'am! What's your name?" She turned around to face me.

"Why should I tell you? I don't even know you." She raised a brow.

"Right, that's really rude of me. I'm Steve." I smiled at her. "May I please know your name, ma'am?"

"It's Sarah." I was about to say something but she cut me off. "Caitlyn or maybe Angela. Pick one."

I looked at her curiously before I started to smile. Why wouldn't she tell me her name?

"Will you ever tell me your name, ma'am?" I wasn't expecting the smirk on her face. This was the first time she actually let an emotion appear on her face although I could tell that it was not really genuine. Something just lacked in it.

"Maybe. Who knows if I see you again, perhaps I'll tell you." She smirked tauntingly.

"Then, will I see you again?" I asked in hopeful voice even though I tried to hide it.

"Who knows." The woman then turned around and left.

I wanted to meet her again. Something told me that I would. That woman was different from all of the people that I encountered in this time period. Her eyes held many negative emotions- pain, sadness, guilt, and regret. I wonder what happened to that woman. The woman wore a mask and hid her true self under a facade. She was broken deep inside.

Shaking my head, I tried to forget about the woman and proceeded to my agenda here. Just like the brunette a while ago, I was beating the punching bag with no mercy. Every image and memory of my time during the war was flashing before me.

My team, the Howling Commandos, was assaulting the Hydra bases. I held my shield in front of me as I shot the enemies with my gun. Then, there was that time that I charged at the Hydra base for the last time because of what they did to my best friend.

The bag continued to sway as it hung in the hook. I couldn't care less. This entire burden that I carried was too much. Everything was different and I didn't know how to get through this.

"There's not enough time! I got to put her into the water!" I forced the Hydra plane into the water. Then, I felt nothing but coldness.

Every memory that flashed before my eyes just drowned me in misery every single time. It reminded me of all of the things that I had lost. Gradually, the strength of my punches increase and the bag was now vigorously swaying.

"You won't be alone." Peggy's sweet voice rang in my ears as I looked at her picture that was in my compass. That was the time wherein I crashed the Hydra plane to the ocean which also led to my supposed death.

I lost everything. Sleeping for 70 years made me lose everything that I held dear, one of them being a certain agent that I fell in love with.

"Oh my God! This guy is still alive!" Someone said. Who was that? Wasn't I dead? Where on earth was I? My eye lids were heavy no matter how much I forced myself to open my eyes. Everything was cold and dark. I felt nothing. I was numb and once again, everything went black.

That was the last straw. I punched the bag with so much force that it got torn and flew across the room, spilling the sand inside it. That still wasn't enough no matter how much punching bag I broke. All of these repressed feelings never went away. This anger, that I felt, could never go away. I stood properly and took a few deep breaths. Then, I got another punching bag which lay beside a few more punching bags. Once the bag was securely hooked, I began punching again.

"Trouble sleeping?" A familiar voice yelled. A man wearing all black stood at the basement's entrance. Nick Fury was his name if I remembered correctly. He was the same man who told me that I've been asleep for nearly 70 years.

"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." I pummeled the bag again.

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world." Fury walked towards me. I stopped punching and looked at him for a moment before starting to remove my hand wraps.

"I went under, the world was at war." I went to my bag while still removing one of my hand wraps. I then placed it in my bag before removing the other. "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently." Fury held a folder in his hands. It must be a mission.

"You here with a mission, sir?"

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?" Fury opened the folder and held it before me.

"Trying to save it." This caught my attention. I took the folder as I sat down on the bench. The file contained that one thing that led me into this mess.

"Hydra's secret weapon." I muttered, skimming through the files.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

"Who took it from you?" Closing the folder, I gave it back to Fury.

"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." I picked up my bag and went over to the punching bags.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong." I simply chose to ignore that and picked up a punching bag.

"There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment." He added.

Placing the punching bag on my shoulder, I made my way out of the gym completely ignoring the man's presence.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean." I then left, thinking about Hydra's secret weapon and a certain brunette that I met today.

~~~~~X~~~~~

I was currently in what looked a plane but Agent Coulson called it 'quinjet'. Technology really had improved so much that it was hard for me to cope with it. I just couldn't get it even if it was just to use this so called tablet that I was holding right now. It took me so long to figure out how to move from one file to another. Since a while ago, I have been looking at the data about the people who I would work with.

"We're about forty minutes out from base, sir." The pilot said as Agent Coulson stood up from his seat and approached me.

"So this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" I asked, looking at Banner's file.

"A lot of people were. 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?"

"Not so much. When he's got that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." I looked at Coulson in confusion. "He's like a smart person." He simply answered.

I moved to the next file and my face scrunched in confusion. The profile of the next person was empty. Every data about the person was unknown except for his codename, Raven.

"What's wrong?" Coulson asked.

"It's empty." I looked at Coulson with a puzzled expression. "This person's file is empty."

Coulson was also confused so he took a look at the tablet and then sighed in frustration.

"Damn it, Hunt! Seriously?" He glared at the profile of this person called 'Hunt'. "Why do you have to do this every single time?!"

"Hunt?" I looked at Coulson confused before he turned to me apologetically.

"It's Raven's real surname. I'm so sorry, Captain. Our data base must have been hacked again which resulted to this particular profile to be unknown. Agent Hunt most likely deleted the data that would be given to the rest of the Avengers."

"Why would this Agent Hunt delete it?" I stared at Agent Coulson with curiosity and confusion.

"Uhh... Well, it's kind of complicated and it goes way back." He tensed a bit and at the same time sad. I only gave him a looked that said to elaborate on that. "Hunt forgot how to trust people because of a certain mission."

This caught my attention. There was something about this agent. It was like there was something to know about him.

"Certain mission?"

"I'm sorry but it's not my place to say it." Coulson looked at me apologetically while I just nodded in understanding. The tablet turned off. Then, there was a silence. After a while, Coulson decided to break it.

"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially." Hearing this made me smile at him. "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." He muttered with full of admiration. Well, that was awkward. It appears he realized his mistake because he quickly corrected himself. Standing up, I leaned an arm on the entrance to the cockpit and gazed at the scenery outside.

"I mean, I was...I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a...just a huge honor to have you on board." Coulson copied my actions.

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job."

"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh...we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"The uniform?" I raised a brow in confusion and curiosity. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old fashioned?"

"Everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." He assured me and I couldn't help but wonder what exactly awaited me in this mission.

After waiting for half an hour, we were finally landing in one of the runways of what seemed like a battleship. I swear I really couldn't keep up with technology. Coulson called this place the Helicarrier. Coulson and I then walked down the ramp and a woman with short red hair approached us.

"Agent Romanoff. Captain Rogers." Agent Coulson said.

"Ma'am." I greeted the woman.

"Hi." She greeted back before turning to Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face trace."

"See you there." Agent Coulson walked away leaving me with Agent Romanoff. Romanoff started walking somewhere so I just followed her.

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" She was smirking.

"Trading cards?" I asked her amused.

"They're vintage, he's very proud." She just shrugged. Not far from where we were standing, a man was looking every where because he seemed lost and out of place.

"Dr. Banner." I called and a flash of recognition came across his face. He came closer and took my extended hand and shook it.

"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube."

"Is that the only word on me?" He looked at the sides a bit tense.

"Only word I care about."

"Must be strange for you, all of this." Banner gestured the place.

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar." We were about to roam around when Romanoff stopped us.

"Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath."

This so called Helicarrier started shaking while the roaring of engines could be heard. This thing was preparing to sail.

"Is this is a submarine?"

"Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Both Bruce and I moved closer to the edge of the Helicarrier. Suddenly, a big turbine rose from the water and the Helicarrier then started to lift into the air.

"Oh, no. This is much worse." Bruce muttered and all I could do was to stare in awe at what was in front of me.

Agent Romanoff then led us inside and we walked through a bridge before entering a room. I couldn't help but be awestruck at the sight before me. All of the things before me were nothing that I have seen before. I couldn't help but gaze at my surroundings with a smile on my face. Every corner of the room was filled with high technologies and advanced equipment and machinery.

"Gentlemen." Fury turned to us. I had to admit I lost the bet. Walking towards Fury, I gave him 10 bucks while I kept on looking at the technology in front of me. I then roamed around the place before standing near the agents who were doing the face trace. Coulson then stood beside me while I just crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for any result.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble."

"No, no. It's fine."

"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but..." Coulson was cut off by the shout of an agent.

"We got a hit. Sixty seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy nine percent."

"Location?" Coulson asked, going near the agent.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain, you're up." Fury looked at me in the eye and then, he suddenly looked around the place as if he was looking for someone. He then groaned in annoyance. "Where the hell is Hunt?!" He yelled.

Everybody in the room paused at what they were doing for a while. Each person looked at one another, not knowing how to answer Fury. Suddenly, a man with dark brown hair stood up.

"Sir, I know where Hunt might be." He didn't flinch under Fury's annoyed look.

"Williams, find Hunt now."

"Yes, sir." The man immediately left, looking for this "Agent Hunt".

Once again, my curiosity got the best of me. I found it interesting how everyone just acted like that just now. Who exactly was Agent Hunt? What I didn't know was that this Agent Hunt was the certain brunette, who I couldn't stop thinking about since meeting her in that old gym.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS GUYS! Here's a new chapter for you! I'm so sorry for not updating for a long time! I've been busy and I've been updating my other story. I kinda had a writer's block too so I'm really sorry! What do you think of this chapter? Please tell me what you think! :D See you next time~! :D