Chapter 4
The next morning Superman is the talk of the office. Steve imagines that that is often the case. He pours himself a cup of coffee and follows Jimmy to Lois and Clark’s desk.
“And then he just blows out the fire, like they were birthday candles.” Jimmy says, “Steve was there, he saw it.”
“Did you really?” Lois asks, “You need to give me a quote.”
“I thought you and Clark were working on that Nazi story.” Steve says.
“We are, but Superman is front page news.” Lois says. She grabs a pen from her desk. From behind her Steve watches Clark roll his eyes.
“I don’t know, I think a breaking piece on Nazis committing robberies is pretty front page worthy too.”
“It is.” Clark says, “More so than Superman. He’s in the news every other week.”
“Hardly, and what Superman does is newsworthy. How many other people can blow out a raging inferno?” Lois asks.
“It was hardly a raging inferno,” Steve says. Lois glares at him ask Clark snickers.
“Either way, it’s still impressive. No other city has a superhero watching over it.” She says.
“I don’t know, Gotham has Batman.” Jimmy shrugs.
“Who?” Steve asks.
“He’s a myth.” Lois says.
“He’s totally real, they have pictures.” Jimmy says.
“Blurry out of focus pictures.”
“And eyewitnesses accounts.” Jimmy adds. Lois rolls her eyes.
“I’m assuming he doesn’t give interviews like Superman does?” Steve asks. Clark laughs.
“I think he likes being an urban legend.”
Steve nods knowingly. He sounds like Daredevil. Steve remembers trying to meet him once. He spent all night bouncing from rooftop to rooftop without even seeing a shadow of the man, but he had never lost the feeling of being watched.
Perry sticks his head out of the office, “I’m not paying you to stand around gabbing. Get back to work.”
Steve and the others amble back to their desks. He’s curious about Gotham’s vigilante. He’d try to find him, but he doubts he will have any more luck finding Batman than he did finding Daredevil. Besides, he reminds himself firmly, it isn’t his business. His leg brushes against his portfolio tote. It’s stiff with his latest pieces of art, and a little extra. He can just barely feel the outline of his shield amongst the canvas. Batman may not be his responsibility, but Nazis, even Neo-Nazis from another universe, will always be his business. He starts his investigation tonight, after work.
Steve fiddles with the fax machine. It’s beeping at him and Steve imagines the machine shares his frustration. He pokes a random button and the machine beeps faster. Steve finds the nineties to be a bizarre combination of both too modern and too old fashioned for him. While it’s true, even the annoying fax machine is far better than anything he had in the forties, it’s a far cry from the starkpad he had in the twenty-first century. Jimmy passes by and leans over his shoulder. He pushes a button, the same button Steve swore he already pressed, and the machine goes quiet
“It’s ok, CK also hates that fax machine too.” Jimmy says patting him on the back.
“Because this machine is a monster. Where is Clark by the way?” Steve asks.
“He ran out of here about an hour ago.” Jimmy shrugs, “Don’t know where too.”
Suddenly, the whole building shakes. Steve grabs Jimmy before he goes flying over a desk.
“Earthquake?” Jimmy asks. Steve shakes his head. That felt more like the Hulk than an earthquake. He runs to the window just in time to see Superman peel himself off the side of the building. He flies back down to where a man is standing in the middle of the street.
“Aww man, what is he doing here?” Jimmy groans.
“Who is he?” Steve asks.
“Metallo, but I thought that guy was in jail.” Jimmy says. He looks worried. Steve looks down on the street where Superman is keeping his distance as he circles his opponent. He also looks worried.
“What’s this guy’s deal?”
“He’s an android, completely metal body, but that’s not the real problem.” Jimmy says, “He’s got a kryptonite heart.”
“What’s kryptonite?”
“What’s kryptonite? Steve, you have got to catch up on local events. It’s about the only thing that can hurt Superman.”
Steve watches as Metallo’s chest opens with a green glow. Superman stumbles back, a look of pain crossing his face. Metallo advances on him, the glow in chest burning bright. Metallo abruptly with a smirk as he changes directions towards a crowd of civilians. Superman tackles him, pinning him in the middle of the street. Immediately, Superman’s face twists in pain. He rolls off Metallo weakly. Metallo stands and kicks him for good measure. Steve’s seen enough. He grabs his portfolio tote and takes off, catching an elevator as it goes down.
Captain America steps out onto the street. Steve tries not to think about how good the shield feels in his hands, ready to do battle. Metallo doesn’t notice him; too busy busting up Superman’s face to acknowledge a new challenger. Steve throws his shield. It sings as it flies through the air, hitting the back of Metallo’s head with a sharp clang before bouncing back to Steve.
“Leave him alone,” Steve says.
“Another costumed freak?” Metallo sneers, dropping Superman’s head onto the pavement. He takes in the star on Steve’s chest and red and blue of his uniform.
“Who are you supposed to be? Super American?” He asks. Steve doesn’t answer, but keeps an eye on Metallo’s open chest. He’s not sure what kryptonite does to humans, but if it can knock out Superman like that, it can’t be good. Metallo runs at him. Steve throws the shield at his legs and he stumbles into Steve’s fist. Metallo reels back. Steve catches his shield and bashes Metallo with it before delivering a powerful blow to the man’s gut. He continues to alternate, shield and fist, never giving Metallo a moment to catch his breath. It quickly becomes obvious that Metallo has no real fighting skills; his throws are sloppy and each move is painfully telegraphed beforehand. Even his advantage of kryptonite doesn’t seem to help him. Steve wonders if the serum is protecting him from its effects, or perhaps kryptonite just works differently on humans.
Though Steve is landing a majority of his blows, it doesn’t seem to do much. It feels like he’s punching one of the Iron Man suits. Metallo laughs, completely unfazed, as if he doesn’t feel the punches against his steel body. He’s like a nineties version of Ultron. That thought only makes Steve punch harder, each one landing with a metallic thud.
Steve doesn’t know much about technology, but he’s hung around enough with Tony and Bruce as they tinker in their lab to know that every piece of technology comes with an off switch. He just needs to find it. Metallo catches Steve’s arm.
“Give me that stupid Frisbee.” He growls trying to rip it from Steve’s hand. Steve let’s go of the shield to grab hold of Metallo and flips him. Metallo’s face smashes into the pavement and he drops Steve’s shield. It rolls away. On the back of Metallo’s neck, Steve sees it; a small switch. He prays that he’s right as he flips it. Metallo powers down.
Steve wipes the sweat from his brow and looks around for his shield. He finds it in Superman’s hands, a look of amazement on his face.
“Thanks,” Steve says reaching for it. Superman hands it over.
“Thank you,” Superman says, “Who are you?”
“I’m Captain…” Steve pauses. Captain America doesn’t exist here, doesn’t have to exist here. “Just, The Captain.”
“Well Captain, you’re help was really appreciated out here today.”
“Don’t mention it.” Steve says, and then notices the reporters streaming out of the Daily Planet, “I’ll let you handle it from here.”
“You don’t want to give a statement?” Superman asks.
“Nah, I’m retired,” Steve grins, “this is all you.”
He checks his watch, almost five. In the chaos, nobody will notice Steve Rogers slips off work a little early. He gives Superman and the reporters a jaunty wave and takes off. He can hear Jimmy’s camera snapping furiously behind him. Steve chuckles to himself, it’s nice not having to deal with the press for once.
As the face of the Avengers he was often the one with the unenviable job of answering to the press. At first it wasn’t bad, but as the novelty of talking to The Captain America faded, so too did the good natured questions. Soon every question became accusatory, why hadn’t he stopped the hulk from doing more damage? Why hadn’t they gotten there faster? Saved people better? There was also a healthy smattering of questions regarding tabloid gossip. Steve had barely restrained himself when a reporter asked if the Black Widow was really carrying his child. Natasha had thought it was hilarious. The smile slips from his face. As far as she knew, as far as any of them knew, he was wandering around the wild somewhere. He wishes he could contact them, just once, just to let them know that he’s doing ok. Steve pushes those thoughts from his mind. He can’t change things and he has a mission to complete.