A Super-Soldier for the Modern World

Chapter 13

"Are you sure about this?" Amanda asked.

She had composed herself and gone to grab the rest of the few things that she had. Steve's shield was leaning against his leg and the two of them were lined up next to each other on the far wall in Stark's bunker.

"I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen?" Stark asked.

"Oh, I don't know. You could kill us," Amanda shrugged.

"You've got that thing turned down or whatever, right?" Steve asked.

"I've done my research. I hate to admit this, but I've been experimenting with time travel for a fair bit," Stark told them all.

"How do you experiment with time travel?" Amanda asked. "And why are you just mentioning it to us?"

"Well, I didn't think it had worked…" Howard trailed off.

"What are you talking about, Stark?" Steve asked.

"Are you saying that you were doing something when this all happened?" Peggy asked.

"And then told us that you couldn't do anything to help us?" Amanda finished.

"Do you really need me to answer that question?" he asked.

Amanda charged. "You're a weasel!" she launched herself at him.

She had to be restrained by both Steves.

"You can't kill him. He's our only chance to get home, Amanda," her Steve told her.

"I'm fine," she said. "You can let me go," she told the men. "I'm not going to hurt him. Yet."

"You're a little crazy, you know that?" Stark told her.

Amanda nodded. "I've heard that before." She turned to her Steve. "Are we really going to let him shoot that at us?"

"Well, we don't have that many options…" Steve told her. "We're kind of very limited."

"Fair point," Amanda said. "I reckon four things could happen. We could end up dead, we could end up blasted further into the past, we could go home, or we end up still here. Forever," Amanda finished.

"So you've got a twenty-five percent chance of going home. That's not bad odds," Stark told them. "Much higher than any percentage that I've gotten in my experimentations."

"That might not be what you should have said, Howard," Peggy said.

"Unless you are going to do something to say something helpful, I wouldn't say anything at all."

"All right. I've recreated what I was doing a week ago. When I flew you to the Hydra base, when I got back I found a fallen Hydra weapon outside our camp. I decided to see what it was all about, I took it apart and realized that its power source could probably power my makeshift time machine. The energy signature of it is off the charts. I can't fully explain it, but I made a couple adjustments and pulled the trigger forty five minutes later I was talking to you both," Howard explained.

"It was an on purpose accident?" Amanda asked. "It figures."

"I have the thing set to stun, okay?" Howard said to her, a slight anger and annoyance in his voice. "There always has to be some kind of test."

He took aim and fired on the potted plant next to Amanda.

The plant was gone an instant later. It did not explode, but it was definitely gone.

"Trust me now?" Howard Stark asked.

"No," the other four people replied.

"But we don't have a choice, do we?" Amanda asked.

"All right. Say your goodbyes," Stark said.

"Or my apologies," Amanda mumbled. "Aunt Peggy, I'm really happy we've had this chance to meet each other like this."

"Me, too, Amanda. Even if when you get back I can't tell you, I'm very proud of you," Peggy told her. Tears started forming in her eyes.

"Oh no, don't cry. I'll cry. And I just got done doing that," Amanda half-laughed.

Steve shook his counterpart's hand.

"This has been really weird," 40s Steve told the modern Steve.

"It really has been," Modern Steve told him.

They both smiled at each other then modern Steve picked up his shield and Amanda grabbed her bag of clothes.

"Ready?" Stark asked.

Steve put his arm around Amanda's shoulders to brace her. He could tell she was nervous. But like she said, this was really their only option. If they didn't try they would never get back to 2013.

"One, two, three…" Howard counted.

… …

"I am not meant to be in charge of anything," Tony groused.

"I am aware of that," Pepper said dryly.

"I am definitely meant to be more of a figurehead," he told her.

"Like the Queen of England?" she suggested.

"No, well, yes…" he said, narrowing his eyes at his girlfriend. "But no."

"It takes a lot to offend Tony Stark, but I have finally successfully done it," Pepper half-smiled.

"Still no word from Amanda or Captain America? I mean…Rogers?" she corrected herself.

"He isn't here to be offended that you called him by his superhero name. I think it'll be okay. And no, we don't know what happened," Tony told her.

They were seated in Fury's old office, eating at the desk. After three days of not speaking to Tony in person, she showed up at HQ with a bag of his favorite takeouts.

"On the contrary, Miss Potts," JARVIS started. "Both Agent Carter and Captain Rogers were transported somewhere. My calculations say that it was to another dimension. Or perhaps another time."

"You've changed your tune," Tony remarked before he took a bite of his food. He chewed and swallowed. "You told me that the two of them got zapped to a different dimension. Now they time traveled?"

"I continued to run my calculations. And I have been non-stop running them. My results show that it is entirely possible that it was time travel versus some kind of inter-dimensional travel," JARVIS told them.

"I'm afraid you've lost me, JARVIS," Pepper said. "Time travel? Is that real?" she asked Tony.

"I found some crap notes that my dad had left about it. But no results. Just garbage," Tony told her. "JARVIS, you really think that AIM has the tech to send people to another time."

"I do not believe that it was happening because of anything on our end," JARVIS told them.

"And what is that supposed to mean, exactly, JARVIS?" Pepper asked.

"I think someone was dealing with time travel in the past and brought them back," JARVIS said.

"I think your computer has a virus," Pepper said flatly.

"Thanks, JARVIS," Tony said, but he knew it was too late. He knew JARVIS wouldn't be chatting with him anytime soon.

"Really, though, Tony. What happened to them," Pepper asked.

"I wish I knew," he told her. "I've watched the footage a zillion times. And all I keep seeing is them there one second and gone the next. And now, I'm running SHIELD. An organization I'm still not sure I want to be a part of. And then Rhodey brings me the Superhuman Registration Act bull shit."

"I thought you decided to support that," Pepper pointed out.

"I did. I do," Tony told her. "I was just on a roll," he said.

"And there hasn't been any word from Fury either?" Pepper said. "That's what Phil told me."

"No. The man probably wised up and bailed. Now he's got a tinted monocle on his good eye and is lying on a private island living it up."

Pepper nodded.

"Or, and bear with me on this…maybe whatever happened to Amanda and Captain Rogers happened to Fury as well?" she said.

Tony silently pondered the idea for a moment. But he didn't get long.

Agent Coulson let himself into the office and didn't greet them.

"You have to come with me right now," Coulson said.

"What's going on?" Pepper asked.

"We have a slight situation downstairs," Coulson replied. "Please come with me."

"I want to know what's going on before I leave this office," Tony told him.

"Captain Rogers and Agent 13 are back."

Tony was up and out of his seat in an instant. He took off running and Coulson shouted after him. Tony didn't turn around; he simply noted where he was supposed to go.

He ran down six floors and when he opened the door he was shocked.

"What the hell?"

…

To Be Continued…

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