Loki sat in the run-down room of the old motel, brooding. His scepter lay across his crossed legs as he sat on the bed, his hands intertwined together under his chin.
"Thor is on Earth, he is here," he muttered to himself. "The young Stark, he is near powerless, he has lost his father, and the young Rogers, he is still a soldier. And a super soldier, just as you said," he muttered again.
He closed his eyes as though listening to a reply.
"I know. I must make both of them weak," a sly grin forming on his face. The scepter glowed a brighter blue as the grin widened. "I must be sure of the devastation of both the young soldier and the young scientist. Make the young chemist angry. And you have a concoction ready to be set off."
He sat and listened again.
"Yes, yes, I understand."
His eyes shot open, bright blue. The grin became a full-toothed smile.
###
Steve drove his motorcycle home in the quiet, dark night, the motor's constant hum nearly lulling him to sleep. He hadn't stopped worrying about Tony for the past week, and it was starting to catch up with him.
Coulson grinned as his nephew walked in the door. He may have been tired, but it didn't matter: Steve was home safe. He gave him a hug and as he pulled away, he asked, "How's Tony?"
"He's better than he was at the beginning of this week..." Steve said, smirking as he rubbed the back of his neck and held back oh, and he also created a suit that flies and has shooting repulsors and he plans on calling it the Iron Man and also made me a shield, I don't know what for yet. He decided to leave that part out.
"I can see you're tired," Coulson said, but Principal Fury has an idea he would like to share with you tonight.
"I suppose I can... Tomorrow's a Saturday, anyway..." Steve almost reluctantly followed Coulson into his office and checked his phone for any texts from Tony.
The computer made a funny "blip" sound as Coulson re-connected with Fury, and the strong man showed up on the screen.
"Coulson," he nodded.
"Sir," Coulson saluted, and brought Steve closer to him. "I have Rogers here, so how would we like to discuss this with him?"
"Hello there, Rogers," Fury nodded, a hint of a smile tracing along his lips, "it's good to see you again."
"You too, sir," Steve said, and decided to add, "please, call me Steve," before asking the most important question. "What's your mission, sir?"
Fury's "smile" disappeared. "Your friend, Bruce Banner, and your acquaintances Clint Barton and Thor Odinson, who is staying... with you, but that may have changed... and your friend Tony Stark, and you. You are all incredibly special. And we have a new force that we have to deal with. The same man that was after Howard Stark..."
"That Loki guy, right," Steve added to Fury's sentence.
"We assume that he's not completely done with his... vengeance, or whatever he has against us."
"Who exactly is we?" Steve asked.
"It's time you knew," Fury responded. "We have this agent type of corporation called SHIELD, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division of the United States Government. Anything the FBI can't or won't handle goes to us. And we solve it. Some man that claims to be from Asgard and have a glorious purpose to free us from freedom, well, the main government would never touch something as wild as that. Which is why we need soldiers like you. Inventors like Tony Stark. Chemists and strength like Bruce Banner. Skill like Clint Barton. You all have so much talent. We could use some talent like that against such a strange power like this."
"Let me see if I get what you're saying," Steve started, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Fury's video on the computer, "you want me, a lost 'super-soldier,' Tony Stark, an unbalanced kid who just lost his father, Clint Barton, one hell of a snarky guy that only knows how to launch arrows and not how to deal with people, his super-skilled Russian girlfriend, and Bruce Banner, who has a green rage monster explode out of him when he gets angry or stressed, to all join together to fight some guy that looked like what Clint called a KISS reject. All due respect sir, but do you have any idea how bad of an idea this is?"
"Chaos can be the best solution to chaos," Fury replied, intertwining his hands together as he spoke.
Coulson turned to Steve. "The least we could do is try this. Find a way to protect you all.."
Steve couldn't keep this secret from Coulson and especially Fury any longer. "You guys should probably know that while Tony sat mourning in his lab, he created this... suit, I guess you could call it. The hands have repulsors, the chest has this area for his arc reactor to shine through, and it flies... he calls it the Iron Man suit. That, and he made me a... shield. Red, white, and blue. With a star. He seems to think I'm a great spokesman for America."
"Hmmm..." Coulson had a glint in his eyes that could not mean anything good. "You're a soldier, and we need heroes... Mind being a Captain? Maybe... Captain America?"
Steve almost giggled, as though Coulson were joking. "Nah, that's a ridiculous name."
Fury was completely serious. "Steve, Coulson may be right. We don't want you risking your name getting out there and you being injured because you were fighting for justice. Stick with the name. Get a uniform together. Talk to Stark. Talk to Banner. Talk to Barton, to Romanov. See what you can do."
He nodded. It was going to be impossible for Tony to cooperate. Bruce would never actually agree to this. Clint? Forget it. He was way too full of himself to actually give up time to save the world. He thought that Natasha would be the only one interested. It wasn't that they weren't cooperative. It was that they all had their own concerns.
"I will, sir," was the last thing Steve muttered, throwing his hand to his head in a salute, before escaping to his room for the night.
Well, if he was going to have to invent a uniform or whatever, he may as well do it now. Steve pulled an old sketchbook out from under his bed and, after flipping through old sketches of his long-lost, brunette, curly-haired English friend, reached a clean slate.
The first thing he drew was his new shield. It may have still been at Stark's lab, but he needed no visual for Tony's magnificent handiwork. Circle after circle, Steve took great care in shading it, bringing out the silver and red through subtle changes in pencil shading. The star sparkled brightly against its final backdrop of blue.
Then came the uniform. All Steve could think of drawing first was a basic body, but it came to life. The chest was shaded to a deep blue (only Steve would be able to tell with his pencil) with a star in the center, like the shield. Seemed like it just... fit there. He added stripes on the lower torso, taking extra care to shade them accordingly: red, white, red, white... but then he just stared at the bare head. The whole reason Coulson wanted him in uniform was so that no one could recognize him, so that no one could know who the super soldier was that bore the shield of Captain America.
So a helmet of sorts covered the entire top half of the face of Steve's sketch, a large white A contrasting strikingly with the navy blue base. He added two wings to the side, just to add to the America effect.
Would Tony ever love to see this.
Right, Tony, Steve thought. He grabbed his cell phone and tried to phrase Coulson's and fury's idea in the sanest way possible.
My uncle and his government division want superheroes of sorts to help fight against the guy who killed your dad. You in?
It was harsh, but Steve knew Tony didn't like things sugar-coated. His phone buzzed.
Superheroes? God, Steve, you didn't tell Coulson about my suit did you?
Steve was about to text back when his phone rang. It was Tony.
"Listen, Tony, I-"
No, tell me why they think superheroes exist, and why they need superhero help.
"I told them about your suit because I was worried about you. But you know you're not the only one involved, right?" Steve hoped Tony would understand.
Well, who else could the government possibly want on a battlefield like this?
"A super soldier? A Hulk? A skilled archer? A Russian acrobat? A ridiculously strong Norse god who performs Shakespeare?" Steve held back a laugh.
Oh my god, Steve could almost hear Tony shake his head, they want a bunch of teenagers to fight this battle?
"That's what I said. And they want uniforms. Would it help convince you if I told you I'd be wearing tights?"
There was a silence, as though Tony were considering it. How much of you?
"I'm not quite sure, I'm deciding it now. I have a sketch right in front of me."
Let's get together tomorrow. My lab. Bring your sketchbook. We have some work to do.
Steve hung up the phone and gazed at the blank screen. Was this really happening? Did Tony really think they could get a group of misfits together to become a group of superheroes? If he was right, one thing was for certain, they really did have a lot to do.
But first, sleep was in order.
Then superhero-ing could commence.
