Take-Off
Steve finished packing his duffel bag as Amy carried the bag of Konstatine's belongings towards him. "Who's gonna watch them while we're gone?" he asked, bending down to pet the dog's massive head. His pink tongue rolled out as he was petted by his mistress's brother, who he began to see as his secondary master.
"A friend," she said, not wanting to break Clint's secret. Rebecca was a nervous wreck, as Amy could imagine. As soon as she made that dreaded phone call, her stomach twisted as she heard Rebecca's sniffles over the phone. Clint was one of her best friends. She was going to bring him back home in one piece. It was a common goal for both her and Nat. This mission wasn't an ordinary one. She was looking straight at the past. It made her nervous. "I'll be right back. Our car should be here in half an hour to take us to the airstrip. Okay?"
"Okay," Steve smiled, patting the dog's head one more time. "We'll see you when we get back, okay buddy? You be good."
"Come on," she cooed, patting her thigh. Konstatine lept towards her and entered the portal behind her. She landed effortlessly on the farm and she smiled. Knocking on the door, she smiled as a little blonde head popped out. "Hey, Coop!"
"Auntie Amy!" Cooper Barton cheered, rushing his tiny body towards his legs.
"Oof! You're getting so big! You nearly knocked me over!"
"Cooper! What did I tell you about opening the door!" Rebecca shouted, cradling a baby in her arms. "Oh! Hey, Ames."
"Hey...Hey there, Lila."
Lila continued to sleep in a milk coma as Rebecca offered a free arm to hug her husband's friend. Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged the blonde woman. Amy hugged her carefully, avoiding crushing the baby in Rebecca's arms. "Hey...I'm gonna get him back. I promise."
Rebecca sniffed, giggling as she wiped her eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep."
"This one I'm keeping. You know that I don't let people in often. But I need a smartass in my life. I mean, who's gonna set me up on a bad blind-date and buy me condoms?" Rebecca and Amy laughed. "Nat and I will do everything in our power to bring him home to you. Stay strong, Beks, okay? Clint needs you to stay strong for him and the kids."
"Okay," Rebecca whispered as Amy set down Konstatine's dog bag.
"All of his stuff is here. You know he won't wander. I gotta go."
"Be careful, okay?" Rebecca said, worried about her friend.
"I will...Next time you see me, I'll be dragging Clint back here by his ear."
Rebecca laughed as Amy portal back to her apartment as Steve stood and waited. "Ready?" she asked.
"Yeah," he nodded, grabbing both of their bags. Amy locked their apartment behind them and headed out to the black town car. Steve flipped through the file until they reached the airstrip that was classified by SHIELD personnel. Steve stared at the Quinjet, uneasiness filling his stomach. The last time he was on a plane, he crashed and basically died. Amy sensed his anxiety and grabbed his hand and squeezed.
"You and me, right?" he asked.
"You and me," he repeated, following her up the stairs.
"PTSD," she explained as they sat next to each other.
"Huh?"
"PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Back in our day, people called it Shell-Shock, remember? But it now has a name. It's okay, Steve. Trust me, I have those moments too."
"What do you do?" Steve asked.
"I scream. Howard taught me that after you went under. I fell into a deep depressive hole. Howard took me to a tank and I screamed my head off until I sobbed and my throat was burning. Now...I have a SHIELD-appointed therapist. My friends help too. I'll help you, Steve."
Steve wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her hair. "Amy," Coulson greeted, hugging his friend.
"Phil, hey. Phil, this is my brother, Steve Rogers."
"Hello," Steve greeted, offering a hand.
Coulson was in heaven as he quickly shook his hand. "Captain Rogers! It's a great honor to meet you! I've been a fan of yours for the longest time!"
"Leave him alone, Phil," Amy ordered, pulling Steve towards a seat. "You have plenty of time to ogle him later."
Steve still felt weird about the praise he's received. Amy warned him that he was a big celebrity. People knew of Captain America and all that he sacrificed for the war. He was an idol...a hero. Throughout the plane ride, they huddled over the tablet in Steve's hand as Amy operated it. They were getting briefed as much as they could before they reached their destination. They were currently looking at a video feed of a Dr. Bruce Banner that was hulked out.
Amy knew of Bruce Banner, but never actually met the man. She was against what he was trying to do. She was opposed to human testing on the serum that made her brother. Sure, it made him much healthier. But there were so many unknowns. "We're about forty minutes out from base, sir," the pilot told Coulson.
Coulson stood and walked over to the Roger siblings as they stared at the screen. "So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked.
Coulson nodded. "A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero, followed by your sister. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."
"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve questioned as they watched the Hulk scream with fury as he ripped a jean apart.
"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking."
Steve looked confused, turning to his sister. "A genius," Amy explained.
"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially," Coulson blurted out as Steve smiled at Coulson. "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." Steve closed the laptop and walked to the side with Coulson and Amy following. "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."
"Phil shut up," Amy sighed.
Steve chucked as Coulson closed his mouth. He could tell that he respected his sister. He could tell that many SHIELD agents he met respected her, even Director Fury. Every time they were together, Amy didn't call him "Sir" or "Director", she called him by his Christian name.
"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve stressed.
"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input," Coulson said, proudly.
"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old-fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned."
The Quinjet landed down on a massive battleship. Amy ran down the ramp and into the arms of her best girlfriend. "Nat!" Nat laughed, hugging her friend back as Coulson and Steve walked down the ramp. Amy turned toward her brother she wrapped her arm around Nat. "Steve, this is my friend Agent Natasha Romanoff. Nat, this is my brother, Captain Steve Rogers."
"Her best friend," Nat corrected, poking Amy in the side. Nat looked Steve up and down, admiring his physique. "Hi," she smirked, turning to Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face trace."
"See you there," Coulson told them, heading inside the helicarrier.
"How long have you two been friends?" Steve asked.
"Since I trained her," Amy said.
"She trained most of us. Your sister is one of the best agents around. She trained me, Coulson, Barton, even Director Fury."
"God, he was a punk," Amy sighed, remembering how arrogant and cocky a young Nick Fury was.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Amy and I had a bet. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?" Steve asked, confused.
Amy nodded. "They're vintage, he's very proud."
Steve followed the two women as they headed deeper into the jet. "Your brother's cute...and so sexy!" Natasha whispered.
"You should've seen him before the serum," Amy said, looping her arm through Nat's.
"You doing okay? It's gotta be hard."
"I'm fine," Amy lied, plastering on a smile.
"Liar," Nat quirked.
"I gotta to find my brother. I'm worried he's gonna get lost."
"Dr. Banner," Steve called out, spotting Bruce who was trying to stay out of the way.
Bruce turned, seeing Captain America heading up towards his way. "Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming. And your sister."
"Word is you can find the cube."
"Is that the only word on me?"
Steve nodded honestly. "Only word I care about."
"It must be strange for you, all of this."
Steve smirked, looking off to where a group of men in training were running. He could remember his days when he was in combat with Amy and Bucky at his side. "Well, this is actually kind of familiar."
"Hey! There you are!" a blonde said, coming up to the two men. Bruce smiled at her, nervous to be around two beautiful women. "Dr. Banner...I'm Dr. Amelia Rogers. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Dr. Rogers," Bruce said, shaking her hand.
"I heard that we're going to be working together."
"We are?"
"Yeah...Haven't you done your research? My powers come for the Tesseract. Maybe you can find out how I tick?"
"Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe," Nat said.
Amy smiled, leading the two men inside. The Helicarrier started to shake as others began to strap down planes and Quinjets in preparation. "Is this a submarine?" Steve questioned.
"No, Steve," Amy said.
"Really? They wanted me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?" Bruce asked. Amy watched as four huge fans mounted on the sides start to lift into the air as the ship began to take flight. Steve watched in awe, while Bruce smiled nervously. "Oh, no...This is much worse."
"Don't worry, Dr. Banner," Amy told him as they headed inside. "Nat...I'm gonna show them their rooms. We'll meet you on the bridge."
"Okay," Nat said, heading in that direction.
"Follow me, boys," Amy said, leading them in the direction of the bunks. "This is yours, Dr. Banner. It's the closest to the lab."
"Thank you," Bruce said, looking in the small room.
"There's a galley and cafeteria on the second level. Steve, this is your room. Mine is nearby with Nat."
"You and Agent Romanoff are sleeping together?"
Amy shrugged. "Yeah. We got a double room. We always share on missions. It drives Clint crazy because he feels like we're sharing girl secrets."
Steve squeezed her shoulder as she led them toward the bridge. "We'll get him back."
Amy nodded, touching a keypad as the doors slid open. Many people were running around and working while Nick sat in his Commander's chair, ordering Maria to camouflage their ship. "Gentlemen," Nick said, rising from the Commander's chair. Steve handed him ten bucks from their earlier bet. He walked over to Bruce, his hand out, and Bruce reluctantly shook it. "Doctor. Thank you for coming."
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."
"Where are you with that?"
Nick turned to Coulson while Nat stared at the image of Clint. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
"That's still not gonna find them in time," Nat sighed.
"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked.
"How many are there?" Nick said.
"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?" Nick asked.
"I guess, that's my cue," Amy said, squeezing Steve's hand.
"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."
Amy walked with them into the lab where she eyeballed the equipment. Nat lingered, eyes on her best friend. "You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah," Amy said, smiling. "Make sure Steve doesn't want to get into trouble."
Amy watched Bruce turn on a few monitors and sat in a chair. "So," she whistled, swinging her feet. "What now?"
"I guess you tell me about the Tesseract."
"What do you want to know? I know as much as you do."
"Tell me about where it came from. How your powers are connected."
"It was the 1940s. I was in college and took a liking to archeology. It was hard back then for a woman to be a scientist, let alone get a doctorate. My mentor, Dr. Jones, recruited me to work for the government. It gave me my doctorate and I was sent to retrieve the Tesseract before HYDRA. I studied Norse, and their civilization and tracked down the location. I got there, but I was too late. HYDRA got there before me and the townkeeper hid me away. While I was hiding, I fell through a hole. It was the most beautiful thing I saw. A beautiful mural of Yggdrasil, the tree of life. Norse mythology believes that Yggrasil connects all of our worlds. I touched a button and there was the Tesseract. The Red Skull found me. He was going to kill me, but I would have rather died protecting it from letting HYDRA have it. I grabbed for it, and then my whole world exploded. It was like I could see the entire universe and it was beautiful. I fought back against HYDRA. I could teleport myself, and use the energy to charge weapons...I could fight harder, move faster...I became immortal. And then a couple of days ago, it called me. And here we are."
"Do you mind if I scan you?" Bruce asked, holding up a hand-held scanner.
"Knock yourself out," Amy smirked as she stood. Bruce waved the wand over her, seeing the high levels of gamma rays.
"Wow..." Bruce whistled.
"What?" Amy asked.
"You're body-"
Amy smirked. "I know..."
Bruce blushed bright red as he stuttered. "Not like that...Well, it's nice too, but your body is basically full of gamma rays."
"I told you...As soon as I touched it, my entire world changed. My body changed." Amy's phone rang, and she grabbed it instantly. "They found them...I gotta go." Bruce nodded as Amy rushed out of the lab. "What's going on?" she asked as she entered the cockpit.
"We found them," Nick said. "Germany. Captain, Lieutenant, you're up."
Amy and Steve nodded, heading in their separate directions to change into their clothes. Nat entered the room as Amy pulled on her uniform, pulling her hair into a ponytail. Steve went to the locker room, opening the locker to see his updated uniform and shield. His heart clenched at the painful memories as he stood in silence. He dressed dutifully and headed toward his sister.
He stopped, seeing his sister in her new updated uniform. It was like stepping into the past. Amy stopped, staring at her brother in his bright, clean uniform. Each of them remembered how the other looked. Amy closed her eyes, wishing that Bucky was next to her, holding her gloved hand as he whispered dirty things in her ear before a mission. But he wasn't. He was dead, and Steve was alive, and they weren't in the 1940s anymore. Taking a cleansing breath, she headed to the elevator and pulled down her physical and mental mask. She made a promise to Rebecca that she wouldn't lose her husband. Nobody should lose their soulmate. She was going to save Clint, one way or another.