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“We have a lead on recent H.Y.D.R.A. activities. Normally, they’d send two or three of us, but from what we’ve heard this one might be bigger than we think.“

You weren’t looking at Steve but instead at the information in front of you. You were all sat in the quinjet while Nat was flying it. They’d usually take turns and sometimes they’d let you pilot it, despite the fact that you didn’t even have a drivers permit yet. You either walked, flew, or had someone drive you to where you needed to be. Though truth be told, even if you weren’t secretly a nearly 30-year old adult in a teenagers body, you knew how to drive anyways.

You were next to your dad, who was also looking at the information. And while all of them were discussing what the mission was, you were busy thinking.

‘H.Y.D.R.A.?’

You hadn’t heard of that name in a while. While you were more than confident that the group was still up and running in your original timeline, you had stopped joining all missions regarding H.Y.D.R.A. You left that to the government and lived your life as peaceful as can be. 

But now that you were reminded of H.Y.D.R.A., you remember that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by the enemy group. That caused an uproar among the United Nations. Because of that, it was one of the reasons why Steve was so against the government taking control over the Avengers.

You furrowed your eyebrows.

What should you do with that information? Should you take that up with Director Fury? Would he even believe you? Perhaps you should go to Strange. He’d probably know what you should do; he probably already knows that his timeline’s been jacked. 

But… If your sense of time is correct, then chances are Strange isn’t even here yet- at least, with the wisdom of the temple folks and time stone. Perhaps there’s someone else who holds that wisdom? After all, Strange had to get it from somewhere.

But what if they didn’t want to help you? Then should you just remain silent as H.Y.D.R.A. quietly steered S.H.I.E.L.D.’s head in their goals?

Your head snapped forward when you heard Tony call your name.

“(Name)!”

You glanced at him.

“Yeah?”

“You listening?”

You nodded and stood up. You positioned yourself over the map on display and cleared your throat.

“So, Hulk and Thor tank the front line while Black Widow and Hawkeye flank the rear. Captain, Iron Man and I head into the building and take care of each floor, hall, section, whatever. One of the floors holds the files we need, and if our information is right, then it’s not on the first 4 floors. As far as we know, there’s more than a few hundred enemies, soldiers, and non-soldiers alike. No civilians in a 130-mile radius. Anything I miss?”

After your mess up with Tony a few days ago, you made an effort to remember all of the missions from then on, which going on these missions helps with jogging back your memory. This one was easy to remember; Steve chewed you out for not paying attention when you were in the quinjet and you had been pissy for a while afterward. 

You even stole and hid his shield, much to everyone’s annoyance when the next mission came around.

You glanced at the rest of your teammates as you finished your recap of what you assumed Steve said. They were silent and looked at each other.

Steve coughs into his fists and looks at everyone else except for you. 

“Well, I couldn’t have worded it any better.”

You mentally cursed. Steve didn’t say anything about the plan. Shit.

Natasha walked up to you and patted your bicep.

“Well said. Boys, we’re approaching the enemy base.”

Steve nodded. You all positioned yourself as the quinjet lowered itself onto the ground. If your memory serves you right, you should know what you should be doing. This should be easy. Your helmet snapped over your face and you stood there silently. 

The entrance opened and you were greeted with the fresh patch of snow and silence.

You will admit, the nano-tech suit spoiled you silly. It was, by far, the best damn suit that you had ever made and now that you were without it, you had to hulk around in this bulky suit. You grumble quietly.

There were no extra thrusters, barely any heating, and barely any stabilizers, so you were constantly shaking around as you flew. No extra cannons, no armor regeneration, no nothing. And it made you put making a secret nanotech suit on the top priority of your list. 

You knew you’d have to make a greater effort to conceal it. But since all you need was a housing unit for the nanotech- your dad preferred the one over his chest while you went for one around your neck- you’d just have to adapt for now. Maybe you’ll make the base as a watch, or something.

Reminiscent of your dad’s nanotech prototype. 

But for now, you’ll just have to deal with this clunky iron maiden suit. You were lurking around the corner, having already breached the first few stories, and watched as Steve was on the opposite corner from you. Your dad was watching out for any stragglers on the lower floors. Outside were sounds of screaming and gunshots, and the thunder from Thor’s hammer. Chances are, Hulk and Thor probably burst through their 2nd line of defense by now. 

“Apex, you read me?”

That sounded so unfamiliar coming from Steve’s mouth. He hadn’t called you that ever since you disowned that nickname. And even now, you remembered that he’d sometimes slip up and calls you by your name.

“Yeah.”

You glanced over at him. He sent you a hard look and nodded over to his left. You glanced over and saw a staircase. While everyone in the building had already gone out to see the commotion, some had stayed and lingered behind. As far as you could tell, there were around, what, 30 plus? Not too bad, considering you and Steve were there, but it’d be a hassle nonetheless. 

You heard your dad speak over the comms.

“Cap, Iron Kid, I’m heading up.”

Your lips quirked upwards at the nickname. And in true fashion, you heard the faint sounds of his blasters powering up.

‘Weee…! Weee…!’

They were such ugly sounds. Funny, but… You were just glad the noise got upgraded.

Lord knows the number of memes and edits people tagged you in on social media.

Thankfully the guys still around were too busy yelling to notice your dad living it up on the lower level. It all stopped. You raised an eyebrow at Steve, who only sighed.

“So, what’d I miss?”

You jumped and glared at your dad, or as best as you could with the helmet covering your face. He was crouched down in a similar position to you. You saw your dad’s face pop up on your U.I., and rolled your eyes at his smug face. You turned around and mumbled into the comms.

“Not much. Around 30 or so guys. A bunch is armed. There’s a staircase across the room.”

Your dad nodded. Clint spoke up in the comms.

“Hey, we’re gonna need you guys to hurry it up there. Not sure if the other two are gonna join us back here, but if he isn’t then we don’t have that much time left.”

In the back was a bunch of gunshots, echoing the ones you just heard then and there. You met eyes with Steve and he nodded.

“Apex, you head straight for the staircase and go up. Iron Man and I will take care of the rest. Files should be straight ahead. Get it, get out. No horseplaying. On the count of three.”

“One.”

Tony squatted and prepared his blasters. His face disappeared from your unit hub when you glanced at your U.I.

‘Thruster Percent: 89…’

“Two.”

Steve readied his shield. He nodded and leaned forwards. You got into position as your U.I. was blinking red.

'Thruster Percent: 97…’

“Three!”

You shot off immediately. The enemies head had turned in your direction, but all they saw was what they thought was Iron Man flying by them and to the staircase.

“Shit, stop hi-!”

Steve threw his shield at him and swung at another soldier. One aimed at him with his gun but was knocked back by Tony. He grunted. 

“On your left!”

Steve knocked his elbow back, colliding it into an enemy’s face. His shield magnetically attached itself back on his arm as he deflected oncoming bullets. Steve rolled his shoulders as he stared directly into the barrel of a gun.

“I can do this all day.”

You were still hovering above the floor as you made your way through the building. Strangely enough, each floor before was loud and filled with people. But the door leading from the staircase was locked from the outside, so it made sense that the floor was silent. The only noise you heard was either from the outside or from the floors below you.

You flew through a few floors until you reached what seemed to be the last one. You blew the hatch open and cautiously walked in, your thrusters out and ready. The screens were off, but you didn’t want to trigger anything by turning them on; for now, you left them alone. 

You settled down onto the ground as you carefully scanned the area. As far as you could tell, your signals weren’t picking anything up. Though, that didn’t mean that pit in your stomach lessoned any bit.

Something felt off.

“Hn, I don’t like this…” You muttered quietly to yourself.

You carefully searched all of the tables and cabinets but it wasn’t until you were deep into the floor did you finally catch a break.

“Sir, on your 5," J.A.R.V.I.S.’ voice spoke up quietly.

Your eyes scanned to your right. 

There was a table next to you that was stacked with paperwork. You carefully approached it. You shuffled through them and scanned each one.

No, no, wrong one, no, no…

Aha.

In your hands, you held a hefty and beaten folder. There was no label, but searching through its contents you founded exactly what you needed.

You held it with a vice grip and prepared your thrusters to break through the ceiling. You got what you needed, and now was the time to dip. But in the corner of your eyes, you spotted a coffee cup.

It was still steaming.

While it wasn’t the toughest thing, beating a group of 30 plus people was a bit of a hassle for the two superheroes. Steve was barely breaking a sweat as he picked his shield back up. He glanced around as all he saw was the beaten bodies lying still. Some were struggling to get back up, but Steve just hit them with his shield and they were down for the count. 

While they were done here, judging by the sounds of gunshots and screaming from outside, the others were still busy.

Steve glanced around the room.

"Iron Man?”

“Over here.”

Steve turned to see where he was, and Tony was holding up an enemy by his shirt. He looked bloody and bruised, and it was clear that he wasn’t going to stay conscious for long. But what bothered Steve was that he had an expression on his face that only said one thing.

Victory.

“What're are you smiling for, soldier?”

Steve spoke up and approached him with his shield in hand. He squared up to the soldier, but he didn’t seem the littlest bit intimidated by the super soldier.

The soldier smirked and chucked, but coughed up blood.

“You… You think you’ve w-won…”

Steve couldn’t see Tony’s expression, but he could tell that he was rolling his eyes.

“And why is that?”

His eyes were glazed, and Tony wasn’t sure if he was looking at him or not. Either way, he didn’t like his expression.

“Those gunshots…”

He chuckled quietly. His nose was bleeding by now. Tony listened closely to those gunshots and Steve’s eyes widened, his stomach dropping to the floor. The soldier shakingly holds up a finger and points it to the ceiling.

Now that Tony thinks about it, they’re a lot closer than they were before. There was thudding, and a sound that rang familiar with Tony too well.

'Wee…!’

“… Where do you think they’re coming from?”

Tony finally realized it. He shot his thrusters in the soldier’s face and knocked him back to the wall. Steve was already in a full blown sprint to the staircase. Tony shot his thrusters and raced towards the upper floors.

“(Name)!”

Tony called out to you through the comms, but he only heard nothing. You didn’t reply back, and that sent slight waves of panic through his skin.

What if something had happened to you? He’d never forgive himself for letting his only child get hurt. What would he tell Pepper? The rest of the team?

While Steve didn’t doubt your fighting capabilities, you were still a child in his eyes. You were also reckless and had only so much experience on the battlefield. 

“What happened to the child?”

Thor’s voice rang through the comms. He was grunting a bit as the sound of Mjolnir hitting against a body echoes in their ears.

“He’s been ambushed; he’s not answering us.”

Steve grunted as he sprinted up the stairs.

“Okay, we got our job done back here, I’ll head up and Nat will get the other guy.”

Clint says.

“As will I.”

Thor responded back.

They didn’t respond as they both made it up to the floor above them and saw that the door had been busted through; the sides were melted and still radiating heat, probably from your thrusters. 

They headed up a few more floors, and each one only made their anxiety worse until they reached the door, which was locked. Steve tried to break the lock by slamming his shield on it, but Tony had to blast it open.

“(Name)!”

While they were expecting to be greeted with an intense struggle, they instead found unconscious bodies lying everywhere, and in the middle stood an unscathed and dumbfounded (Name).