Chapter 27
Coming to, Steve looked around himself. Lifting his head up, Steve saw that he was in some sort of cell and he had been placed on the cot. His uniform was gone, someone had changed him into simple blue cotton shirt and pants. He didn’t know where he was, all he could see were steel walls and bars surrounding him. Sitting up was difficult as he found himself restrained by a set of strangely thick handcuffs and ankle chains. Pulling at them, he strained for several minutes before stopping with a pant. Whatever these cuffs were, they weren’t regular handcuffs and were strong enough that he wasn’t going to be able to break them easily.
Turning to study the room again he got up and approached the bars. From this angle he could see two guards stationed on either side of the short detention block. He was at the end of the three cells; the other two were empty. “Hey! Let me out!”
“Hey you! Let me out! You have no right to hold me here!” Steve saw the two men, they looked to be in Navy uniforms, look over at him, but neither of them moved toward the bars. Rattling his cuffs, Steve set himself, and again he started straining, pulling one knee up under the chain for more leverage. Several minutes later and he was starting to feel the shackles give, metal groaning.
So busy trying to break out of the chains holding him, Steve didn’t realize the two guards watching him could also hear and see the metal giving way. One of them reaching over from where he was stationed to speak quietly into an intercom.
The chain running between his wrist cuffs had just started to separate when a group of men coming into the room distracted him. Looking up, Steve jumped to his feet, moving over to the bars. “Hey you! Let me out!”
“Steve Rogers?”
Steve looked away from the Navy lieutenant he had been focusing on and towards an unremarkable looking man in a simple slacks and shirt. The man had some sort of badge clipped on his belt, but Steve couldn’t see it properly. “What?”
“Steve Rogers, I am Police Lieutenant…”
“Why am I in here, let me out!”
“…here to inform you of your rights. You have been placed under arrest for assault, attempted kidnapping, and assault of several police officers, not least of which is Commander Steve McGarret.”
“What! Let me out!”
“You have the right to remain silent…”
“What are you talking about! I didn’t assault anyone! You don’t have the right to hold me here!”
“You have the right…”
Steve again yelled over the man’s voice. He hadn’t done anything wrong! This was all Stark’s fault! As the man continued to drone on, Steve looked around at everyone else on the other side of the room. If he could just get out of here, he could get to Stark and all of this would go away. Pulling on his cuffs again, he looked up in shock as he heard two rifles being worked only to see them being aimed between the bars and directly at him.
“Mr. Rogers, if you continue in your endeavor you will be shot with tranquilizers and we will add attempting to escape to your charges. Now, do you understand your rights?”
“Why are you doing this! You have no right to hold me, I didn’t do anything wrong! You have no right to threaten me like that!”
“Mr. Rogers, that is not up to me to decide. I am simply here to tell you your rights and what you’re being charged with. Everything else is out of my hands.”
Steve sputtered as the man in front of him continued, “we have taken precautions to ensure your continued cooperation and the safety of the men charged with holding you. A federal judge signed an emergency remit that allows for the administration of tranquilizers if you, as an enhanced human, attempt to escape. The tranquilizers are the same ones that were used to arrest you. They have already been proven to be safe to use with your advanced metabolism and they were designed by Dr. Bruce Banner to be strong enough to take down the Hulk before he fully transforms. Do you understand?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Steve didn’t understand why this man was talking like that.
“As I said, Mr. Rogers, that is not up to me to decide. I am simply here to inform you of your rights and the charges being brought against you.”
“What do you mean?” The man, he had introduced himself, but Steve wasn’t paying attention at the time, was staring at him with a flat look on his face. Steve could tell that he didn’t like him for some reason. No doubt he was friends with that scum McGarret. That must be why he was lying and trying to say that he couldn’t do anything to get Steve out of here. If he wasn’t unreasonably against Steve, he would just open the door and Steve could leave. The keys must be around here someplace.
“You have been charged by the State of Hawaii, Mr. Rogers. You are being held for trial. You do not get to just declare yourself innocent and leave. Now, do you understand your rights, or do I need to repeat them to you?”
“Why are you doing this? I haven’t assaulted anyone! You shouldn’t arrest people who haven’t done anything wrong! The public won’t stand for it when they hear what you’ve done.”
Steve was getting impatient as the man just stared back at him for several minutes, “well!” He was very disgruntled. The man might say he was a Police Officer, but Steve could tell he wasn’t a very good one. Threatening him like that. Trying to say Steve had done something wrong when it was that McGarret that had started it, arguing with him. And Stark; all of this was Stark’s fault.
“You have been arrested, Mr. Rogers. You are now going to trial. As no investigations are necessary, my part in this is now over. I have read you your rights, as soon as you acknowledge that you understand them, I will arrange for the DA and your own lawyer to meet with you.”
Steve stared back; he couldn’t understand what was going on. This man reminded him of Coulson with his bland face. But Coulson never would have stood on the other side of bars from Steve and not tried to get him out. Coulson had understood that Steve was a good man; this man didn’t seem to care. He just droned on in his boring voice, like none of this mattered to him at all.
“Do you need me to repeat your rights for you, Mr. Rogers?”
Steve shook his head.
“I require verbal acknowledgement, Mr. Rogers. Do you understand your rights?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. I will inform the DA. The Avenger’s compound in New York was contacted and your lawyer’s contact information was obtained. As far as I know they are contacting firms here in Hawaii to represent you. When your lawyer arrives, he or she will be brought to you. Do you understand, Mr. Rogers?”
“Yes, I understand,” Steve stares at the man, taking in the position of the two guards with rifles that had stepped back against the wall. “Why are you doing this?”
“It is my job, Mr. Rogers. No one is above the law, not even you.” With those final parting words, he turned and with a smooth stride left the room.
Heavy locks and bolts slid into place as the steel access shut after the leaving police officer. “Hooweeii! You done made yourself a mess, boy!”
Steve looked at the man left on the other side of the bars. It was a Navy Lieutenant Commander. He must have been in his early thirties lean, with dirty blond hair. “What do you mean? Who are you?”
“Ah am Lieutenant Commander Anderson, I’m in charge of the brig here on the Indominable. Those folks over in Honolulu didn’t really have anyplace to hold you so the Admiral nominated us.”
Anderson’s eyes flicked down to the chains Steve had almost broken through. “Ooh, boy. You sure are a strong one, huh?”
“The Indominable?” Steve’s eyes flicked around. He’d only been on a few Navy ships, and none since he woke up from the ice. It didn’t look much like the SHIELD ships he’d been on. Instead of the SHIELD black, everything was a flat grey and Steve could see that the ship was older.
“Yep,” Anderson rocked on his feet after saying that annoying little popping, affirmative that everyone here in the future seemed to use. “Now that ya’all’re awake we can get those chains off ya. That is,” Anderson was grinning at Steve, he didn’t like it, “if you promise to behave yourself. You do that, we’ll get along just fine, Mr. Rogers.”
“Captain.”
Steve watched the grin fall off Anderson’s face. “Now that would not be a smart thing to insist on, Mr. Rogers. You might not want to be reminding people that you used to be a Captain.”
That was just plain insulting, “I didn’t used to be a Captain. I’m still a Captain. I’m Captain America.”
“You shore are.” Anderson’s eyes were sharp as they stared through the bars at Steve. “That old call-sign of yours shore is famous. Why, everyone knows who Captain America is.”
Steve nodded in acknowledgment. He’s glad at least one person had agreed with him when he corrected him.
“But it shore would be a bad idea if you tried to insist on being addressed by your former rank. The United States armed forces don’t really like former members running around insisting on being addressed like they were still in the service. Gives people ideas.”
Steve glared, “ideas?” Steve was proud of his service. He’d fought Hitler and Nazis. This man should be thanking him.
“You bet’cha. Ideas like the Army approves of their actions. Trading on the goodwill of the Army or the Navy, and the regard people have for them. Why that’s the kind of thing that might make JAG sit up and take notice when someone gets in trouble with the law.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong! I earned my rank.”
“Military justice is a damn sight more strict than civilian, let me tell you. I do suggest, Mr. Rogers, that you don’t try too hard to insist on your former rank. You can use your call-sign all you want, Captain America ain’t never been a rank, after all. But if you try to insist people call you Captain Rogers now, when you ain’t been in the service for years, well then, they might just transfer your case to the military courts. They can still court martial ya, Mr. Rogers. Once the Army has hold of ya, they ain’t never let go.”
“What?” Steve didn’t understand what this man was talking about.
Anderson, despite his horrible accent had shrewd eyes as he stared at Steve, “you realize you ain’t been in the Army since you was found, don’t you Mr. Rogers? You might have joined that there, spy organization, but that don’t mean you was still in the Army. I don’t know much about that SHIELD, maybe they gave you the rank of Captain. But accordin’ to the Army you, Mr. Rogers, are former Captain Steve Rogers. And outside of social occasions you are not to be introducing yourself by your former rank.”
“But I earned it!”
“Maybe,” Anderson started digging in his pocket before pulling out a small key ring. “But that don’t matter. There’s lots of people out there earned their rank; once you’re out it’s gone. You can tell people all about it if you want to, but you can’t use it no more.”
“Now, Captain American ain’t a rank. That’s a call-sign. If you want to keep your call-sign and have people call you it, that’s up to you. But it ain’t got no more legitimacy than if people are calling ya Bishop; it don’t make you a priest.”
Steve stared at the Lieutenant.
“You try to insist on your old rank, Mr. Rogers, and they just might decide to treat you as if you still had it. As I said, military justice is damn sight more harsh than civilian. Now, if you give me your word that ya won’t be givin’ my boys here any trouble, I’ll take off those chains for ya.”
Steve held his hands out as Anderson took a step forward. His mind was whirling, he didn’t know what to think right now.