Chapter 8
“Hey, can everybody here me.” Stark’s voice came over the radio as Steve, Nat and Clint suited up along with the French anti-terrorism squad that had been assigned to take out the Hydra base just outside of the Paris metro area.
“We hear you loud and clear, Iron Man.” Responded the squad captain.
Steve glared at the captain as he switched his ear piece on, “we hear you, Stark. Have you run into a problem?” The French team exchanged looks between themselves.
“No, no. We’re just getting close to the operation, go time, and I wanted to make sure everyone is on schedule.”
“Yes, Stark. We are finishing our preparations now. No doubt you’re behind, how much more time do you need?”
“We’re ready to go, just waiting on confirmation.”
“Thank you, Iron Man.” The squad captain nodded to one of the technicians assigned to stay in the mobile command center. “Transmitting now. Switching to secure frequencies. Are you receiving us?”
“Receiving you loud and clear. Operation is a go.”
With that the contact between teams was cut. After all, Steve and his team were all in France getting ready to attack a Hydra outpost on the outskirts of Paris, while Stark was in Germany outside of Berlin. Too much contact between the teams would be a distraction they didn’t need while in such a dangerous situation. Steve was thankful that Stark’s role at least called for him to be in the Joint Counter-Terrorism Taskforce center in Berlin. It was close enough to the Berlin team that no more than a relay center had been deemed necessary for their part of the operations. And by being in the main JCTT in Berlin Stark would have access to all their computer systems and would hopefully be able to help them break into and strip all the computers in all the bases being hit.
7 Hours Later
Steve hopped out of the helicopter that had landed in front of the Joint Counter-Terrorism Taskforce Control Center in Berlin. It was just getting light out as the night was finally passing. Steve, Nat and Clint’s assault on the Paris Hydra base had taken less than an hour. There had been significantly less resistance and personnel than they had expected. The other, smaller bases in France that had been taken out at the same time had been similarly disappointing. Unfortunately for Steve and his team, they had been required to submit their reports after debriefing before they had been allowed to leave.
SHIELD had not had such extensive debriefing questions before their fall. When Steve had asked, it had been explained to Steve that because he was not technically a member of any allied military or an agent in an allied agency, the debriefing and reports were the same as those used for consultants, and thus much more extensive. As consultants Steve, Nat and Clint were considered barely more than civilians when it came to the paperwork that needed done. They had to fill out the equivalent of a personnel file for themselves along with an after actions report so that the people later reading the report would understand their credentials, why they had been included in the raid, and their qualifications for the raid and for answering questions! It was extremely insulting, as Captain America and the leader of the Avengers, much of that should have been waived as unnecessary. But the office worker to whom Steve had expressed that had been confused and unable to understand Steve’s point of view. Steve knew it wasn’t a language barrier, as Steve spoke perfect French due to his time there during the War. In the end, no one of a high enough ranking to confirm that the paperwork was unnecessary could be found. It had taken hours!
This was what happened when Stark tried to be in charge. Steve, Nat and Clint would have definitely been enough to take out all the bases in France. Especially if Stark had just followed orders and not only fixed Sam’s wings, but also used Iron Man. The team would have been all that was necessary, but no, Stark had to bring in outsiders and make everything more complicated. Hydra was Steve’s responsibility, Stark should have realized that, Steve knew how to deal with them.
Walking into the Command Center operations room Steve walked past the Iron Man armor and noted the black singe marks and slight nicking of the paint indicative of bullet impacts. The fractures on the right bicep were the biggest damage Steve could see.
“Stark!”
“Hmm.” Steve could see Stark at a screen looking over some sort of data he could see scrolling past, “stop, stop. Right there.” Stark pointed at a line and the woman next to him leaned forward before doing something and the screen flicked to showing something else. “Yeah, Cap?” Stark finally turned to give part of his attention to Steve. That was another thing Steve disliked about Stark, it seemed like he never gave Steve his full attention.
“Stark!”
“Yes, Cap, what?”
Stark’s eyes finally looked away from the screen he’d been working on and towards Steve as he was striding forward. “What’s this I hear about you joining the Rahnsdorf raid?”
“They had an enhanced opponent show up at the base. He went through half the team before I was able to reinforce them. It’s a good thing I was based here in the operations center and wasn’t on one of the raids, it made my response time much faster.”
Steve stepped up to stand over Stark, sometimes he just wanted to shake the man, but he kept himself from doing so. Looking down into clear brown eyes, Steve tried to get his point across, “this is why this should have been left to us, Stark. If you hadn’t called in these people and tried to pass off our responsibility, those soldiers wouldn’t have died.”
“Died, who died! I thought the French teams came through with only minor injuries!”
Steve was frustrated, “you just said that the enhanced Hydra agent went through half the team on the Rahnsdorf raid. Those deaths could have been avoided if you had just asked me before contacting these people. If we had used our team, we wouldn’t have had any problems.”
“Whoa, Cap. Nobody died. When I said he went through half of the team before I got there, I mean that half of the team got taken out of commission and were unable to continue the fight. The guy had some sort of sonic scream or something. Most of the agents who got hit with it were just on the ground puking their guts out. I didn’t even end up going after him, one of the snipers took him out just before I got there.”
“Snipers! Tony, we don’t kill people!” Steve was very disappointed in Starks continuing lack of morals. “I knew you shouldn’t have been on a different team than me and Nat.”
“What? What’re you talking about, Cap? We’ve already received the reports from the raids that you were on and you, personally, killed three people, two with your shield, Nat killed two, and Clint killed another three.”
“What, don’t be ridiculous. Those were necessary, I’m sure if we had been here a sniper wouldn’t have been necessary.” Steve dismissed Stark’s words. He was always trying to divert any sort of blame off of himself. “If you didn’t deal with the enhanced then what were you doing?”
“Well, it was only chance that the guy turned back and put himself in position for the sniper to get him. But I was already on the way, so I just backed up the team when I got there. When the hydra goons saw me, they pretty much surrendered, except this one man. He grabbed one of the experimental guns they were storing at this facility and started shooting. Once I got him on the ground it was pretty much over. You can read my report, most likely. I wouldn’t think Walter would have a problem with you seeing it. After all, I’ve already read your reports.”
“Just get me all the reports, Stark. And make sure that we have all the information off the Hydra computers. If we need to pass anything on to the JCTT we can do it later once you and Maria have gone over everything.” Steve turned and walked away from Stark after giving his instruction. It had been a long night and he was ready to go home. Heading back to the quinjet Clint had left parked next to the taskforce’s hanger, he called to his team. If they left now, with the 6-hour difference, he should be back in time to go running with Sam. A big breakfast would be nice too.
As the three of them entered the quinjet, Clint asked, “so are we waiting for the Iron Ass?”
“Stark can make his own way home; his suit can fly.” Steve dismissed as he settled in his seat.
“I don’t know, man. That’s a long flight after a day of work and being in a firefight.”
“He’ll be fine; the armor does all the work.” The other two nodded in agreement.