Chapter 10
Just like Fury said, the car that was to pick them up was waiting at 9am sharp, and Steve and Lee put their duffel bags in the trunk, and got in the car. The car took off, and they got to the military airport terminal by 9:45. The car stopped next to a huge, advanced-looking type of plane, and Lee explained that it was called a Quinjet. They grabbed their bags, and entered the cockpit.
Lee introduces an agent already on board, Phil Coulson, and Coulson looked at Steve in awe. Steve tried not to notice, but Lee's smug smile didn't help his embarrassment. Lee grabs a tablet, and loads up the briefing files for Steve. Steve takes the tablet, and takes a seat. The Quinjet takes off, and now they wait. Lee takes it his phone and plays a simple game, and Coulson checks in with the pilot. Steve's tablet replays the footage of Bruce Banner as the Hulk destroying a university as the army attacks him.
Coulson walks back into the cockpit and walks over to Steve.
“So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on us?”
Coulson nodded. “A lot of people were. You were the world's first superheroes. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula.”
In the video, the Hulk roars with fury as he slams a jeep apart.
“Didn't really go his way, did it?”
He shook his head. “Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking.”
Steve looks confused, and turns to Lee. “Scientist, considered the smartest person to ever live. Currently still alive.” Steve nodded, grateful and turned back to Coulson.
“I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially.”
Steve smiles politely at Coulson, and looked back at the tablet.
Coulson continued. “I… sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping.”
Steve frowns, awkward, and Lee tries his best to stifle a laugh. He stands up and hands the tablet back to Lee, who skims over the files himself. Steve turned and decided to watch out the front window behind the pilot, and Coulson followed.
“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.”
“Well, I hope I'm the man for the job.”
Coulson nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input.”
Steve turned around and faced Coulson. “The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?”
Coulson smiled warmly. “With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned.”
Steve smiles back, just as warm, and appreciated his sentiment. Lee looked up from the tablet.
“Brace yourself, Stevie. We're here.” The Quinjet hovered over a massive battleship, and landed on a designated space.
Coulson, Lee, and Steve walk down the ramp of the Quinjet, meeting up with Natasha.
Coulson introduced them. “Agent Romanoff. Captain Rogers. You already know Agent Leigh.” Natasha nodded at them cordially, and turned to Coulson.
“Hi. They need you on the bridge. Face time.”
Coulson looked almost disappointed. “See you there.”
Agent Coulson walked away, leaving Lee and Steve with Natasha, walking towards the railing of the ship. Lee watched the waves breaking from the ship, and Natasha talked to Steve as they walked.
“There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?”
Steve looked confused. “Trading cards?”
Natasha looked fondly amused. “They're vintage, he's very proud.” They walk past a small crowd of soldiers, headed elsewhere, and the crowd breaks as an extremely nervous-looking Bruce Banner wanders through the crowd. He apologizes to anyone he bumps into, and looks lost.
Steve calls out to him, recognizing him from the file. “Dr. Banner.” Bruce looks up, and spots them. He takes the remaining steps to the three, and they all shake hands.
Bruce is polite, but Lee noticed he was extremely tense. “Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming.”
“Word is you can find the cube,” Steve says, and Bruce grimaces.
“Is that the only word on me?”
“Only word I care about.” Steve decided then that he liked Bruce. He was strong, going through he's gone through.
Bruce looked sympathetic. “Must be strange for you, all of this. Both of you, actually. Nice to meet you, Agent Leigh.” Lee nodded politely to him.
Natasha interrupted the conversation. “Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe.” The entire ship began to shake, and a mechanical whirring sound filled the air. Steve looked confused. Lee just waited, and braced himself on the railing.
“Is this is a submarine?”
Bruce acted shocked. “Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?”
They both moved closer to the railing, at the edge, and Steve's mouth dropped open. Four huge lift fans, mounted on the side of the ship, lifts into the air, and begin to spin. The ship lurches as the entire thing takes off into the air, and Steve's grip on the railing causes finger-shaped dents. Lee laughed at his reaction and turned to Bruce.
Bruce smiles and laughs. “Oh, no. This is so much worse.”
°°°
Lee led the way through a mini tour for Steve and Bruce, pointing out the ship's private quarters for them as well as the cafeteria, the labs, and finally the bridge, where they met up with Fury, Coulson, and Fury's right hand, an exemplary woman named Agent Maria Hill. The bridge was huge, where rows and rows of computers were being used by agents in front of a massive series of windows that showed a spectacular view of the cloud cover they were flying over. Lee joined Agent Hill and took a quick look over some schematics, while Steve walked up to Fury and slid him a $10 bill. Fury smirked and pocketed the bill, and greeted the group.
“Gentlemen,” he walks over to Bruce, and extends his hand. Bruce nervously accepted it, and continued gazing around the room. “Doctor, thank you for coming.”
“Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?” He asks.
“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear.”
“Where are you with that?” Fury turns to Coulson, who pulls up a map of satellites on a monitor, with a photo of Loki next to it. Natasha turns to another monitor of the same map, but a picture of another Agent was next to said map, the satellites searching for him instead.
“We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us.”
Natasha shook her head, disappointed. “That's still not gonna find them in time.”
Bruce moved closer to the monitor, and Lee moved out of the way. “You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?”
“How many are there?” Fury answered.
Bruce began to type out coordinates of lab locations. “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. I assume one of those labs Agent Leigh showed me is for me?”
Fury nods, and turns to Natasha. “Agent Romanoff, if you would please escort Dr. Banner to his laboratory.” Natasha nods and walks off, leading Banner down the hall.
Fury turns to Lee then. “I take it you've shown Mr. Rogers his room?” Lee nods. “Alright then, could you please escort him there and come back, for a debriefing?” Lee turns to Steve, who looks curious, and begins to make his way out of the bridge.
Steve follows, and doesn't say anything until he's sure they're out of earshot. “What do you think he wants to be debriefed about?”
Lee shrugged. “Probably you, no doubt. You're still my assignment, after all.” Steve paused, and Lee walked a few steps before noticing, and walked back to him.
“Was there… something else you were supposed to do in our assignment? Like gather intel on me? Or something?” Lee sighed.
“Not necessarily. Do you remember, when Tony came to my apartment, and I said Fury wanted to recruit him for SHIELD?” Steve nodded. “I have an inkling that it's something to do with that, but…. I don't know. Maybe something bigger.” Lee paused, thinking, then continued. “He didn't explicitly tell me that I couldn't tell you, I just… didn't think I needed to say anything. He just asked me to watch you to make sure there wasn't something wrong, like the way some of us veteran soldiers are after wars.” Steve nodded again, and started walking again down the hallway. Lee followed, and they got to the hallway of their rooms.
“Okay, well, go get 'em, tiger.” Lee smiled warmly, then left, and Steve went into his room, and a bag with a hanger sticking out of it was on his bed. He opened the bag, and studied what was inside.
°°°
Lee made his way back to the bridge, and Fury was still waiting, watching the monitors for any changes.
Lee stood up straight. “Sir.”
Fury turned, and faced Lee. “Agent. Update on Mr. Rogers.”
“He seems fine, no known panic attacks or breakdowns. We haven’t exposed him to any obvious triggers, though. I’d expect the upcoming winter might pose some problems. He doesn’t mention the past, and he hasn’t asked about P-uh, former Agent Carter. I thought about taking him to see her, but…” Lee paused. He wasn’t actually sure why he didn’t take him to see her. He shrugged it off, and continued. “I think he’s fine to work, he’s adjusting well. We’ve been to some of the places he used to frequent before the war, and he took the changes well.” Fury took the assessment of Steve and processed it, thinking. He finally nodded, and began to slowly pace around the small space, still thinking. Finally, he turned back to Lee.
“Come with me.” He walked off the bridge, and walked down another hallway into what looked to be a simple office. He walked in, Lee following, and shut the door, closed the blinds, and settled into a chair behind a desk. “Now. You probably know what I’m going to ask for.”
“I told Steve. Sort of. About the Initiative.” Fury waited. “I mentioned it to him briefly, sort of, before, when Tony Stark visited my apartment yesterday. I just mentioned that Stark was considered to join SHIELD, possibly for a team. And I told him earlier that you had asked me to evaluate him, possibly about the same idea. He didn’t seem put off by it, which is good.”
Fury leaned back in his chair, and gestured towards the table. “Well? Do you think he’s a good candidate for the Avengers Initiative?”
Lee pursed his lips, and took a moment to think. “I think Steve is stubborn, and he doesn’t follow orders as well as he should. He’s a leader. If he’s going to be a part of this, then he’s going to want to do it his way, not your way. He didn’t like Tony the moment he met him. I don’t think he likes Natasha. I have a feeling Clint, once we get him back, isn’t going to like how Steve leads. I definitely doubt Bruce will agree to join, especially because he is extremely inclined to distrust everyone, which is understandable. I think Steve would be a good fit, but the rest of the group might not fit him.” It was a good observation, especially with how little Lee knew of Bruce, but Fury noted one issue.
“Only thing is, Steve needs to listen to what I want him to do. His morals might get in the way of what he’ll need to do.” Fury’s face darkened. “That’s where you will come in, to keep him in check, but how long will that last? I need to know your priorities, Leigh: when it comes down to it, will you choose Rogers, or will you choose the organization you swore fealty to?”
Lee paled, then fixed his composure while he thought. Scratch that, he hadn’t thought of that scenario happening. If Steve defects, where will he go? He’s been working for SHIELD since its creation, but will Steve change that? He didn’t bat an eye at betraying the Army to save Bucky, and Lee had followed him then, with no hesitation. That was decades ago, and he had loyalties here. Was he willing to break that, for Steve, if it came down to it?
He didn’t like the answer his heart provided.
“I’ll do my best to keep him in line. I can’t guarantee his loyalties, but I do know this: he wouldn’t defect unless SHIELD gave him a reason. Which is why I think you should tell him the real reason you need the Tesseract so badly.” Lee glared at Fury, accusingly. Fury kept his composure, his stance cool, and regarded the suggestion.
“I’ll consider it. You’ve fulfilled your assignment, I’ll put in the paperwork. Dismissed.” Lee nodded, and left the office, making his way to the labs. He wanted to get to know Bruce, get a better impression of him. Instead, he bumped into Coulson and Steve, who were viewing monitors of the search for Loki.
Coulson was handing him a small deck of cards, and Steve awkwardly but politely accepted them. Lee tried to stifle a laugh, but Steve noticed, and turned to Lee, looking grateful for the distraction. Lee grinned mischievously, and Steve’s grateful look disappeared, followed by a look of pure betrayal. He mouthed ‘don’t you dare,’ and Lee grinned wider, casually joining them.
“Say, Coulson,” he said, nonchalant, “what did I tell you about trying to seduce Steve? You gotta amp up the nostalgia! Those trading cards aren’t old enough for him. I’ll find you some baseball cards of the Dodgers, that’ll get him to fall for you.” Both Steve and Coulson turned bright red, with Steve sputtering denial, and Coulson trying to deny he was seducing Steve. Lee cackled, goal met, and Steve glared at him, still blushing, cheeks an adorable bright red. “Fine, fine, Dodgers cards wouldn’t work so much. Now, the Dodgers themselves might do it, you could ask Tony Stark-” Steve wrapped Lee in a half-embrace, half-restraint, his hand over Lee’s mouth, and Lee laughed even harder, twisting out of his grasp.
Fury walks into the room just then, seeing Steve and Lee tangled in an embrace while Coulson embarrassedly laughs, before they all spot Fury and abruptly stop, straightening their poses and trying to act nonchalant. Fury ignores them, and walks to another agent’s work station. Steve and Lee glance at each other, and try not to melt into giggles again, and Coulson awkwardly joins Fury, joining in his conversation with the other Agent.
“Why must we get into trouble at the worst of moments,” Steve whispers, crossing his arms and pretending to study a monitor in front of him.
“Well Stevie,” bit back Lee playfully, “you only get in trouble through your own decisions, smartass. I usually save us from said trouble--” The agent that was speaking to Fury and Coulson leaned forward in his seat, and cut off Lee’s quiet banter.
“Heads up, we got a hit.” Steve and Lee rushed over to the agent’s station, and Coulson leaned closer to the monitor.
“Location?”
“Stuttgart, Germany. He’s not exactly hiding.”
Fury turned to Steve and Lee. “Captain, Agent, you’re up.” Steve nods, and they leave to their quarters to suit up. Fury turns back to the monitors, and begins barking orders to the other agents, springing them all into action.
०००
Loki stands before a crowd of citizens, where they all kneel in fear, with him looking on proudly, scepter in hand, full battle armor. An old man stands up, defiant and patriotic. Loki raises his scepter, and a blue light glows from it, preparing to shoot. Steve jumps from the Quinjet hidden above the crowd, and lands in front of the old man, just as the blue beam of light hits his shield and ricochets off, hitting Loki square in the chest. Loki goes flying, and Steev stands up, and makes his way towards where Loki fell on his ass. Lee jumps from the Quinjet, and lands nearby the crowd, and begins shouting evacuation orders, to get them out of the way into safety.
Lee joins Steve, and Steve gets a good look at Lee’s suit. The former suit of his was completely updated, the fabric a bit more skintight, and no more leather jacket. Lee wore an all-black suit, with new gloves, no longer as bulky as the first types, and the paneling on the entire suit was conformed to his frame. Lee crouched in a defensive position, in front of Steve, his gloves glowing an eerie green light, reflecting off his armor. He looked imposing, his entire body radiating malice towards Loki, a physical shield in front of Steve. Steve didn’t stare, but rather noticed , how fucking different Lee had become, and he realized then how much Lee was no longer Lee, but rather truly an Agent of SHIELD. Seventy years of training showed in just Lee’s protective stance, and Steve felt a small wave of pride and proudness towards Lee. Loki stared onwards, and stood up.
Loki greeted the two. “The soldier. A man out of time. And he brought his lackey!”
Steve shook his head. “I’m not the one who’s out of time.” The Quinjet above them turns a machine gun to Loki, and locks the target. Natasha’s voice comes out of an intercom.
“Drop the weapon and stand down, Loki.”
Loki spins and shoots a beam of blue energy at the Quinjet, and it maneuvers out of the way, just in time. Steve bursts into action, throwing his shield at Loki, who swats it away, and charges Steve. Lee tackles him, and Loki goes flying again, the energy from Lee’s armor deflecting Loki’s body away from him. Loki recovers quickly, charging Steve again, and they engage in a three-way brawl, Loki dodging both Steve and Lee’s fists easily, his limbs a blur as he strikes back, lightning fast. Natasha can’t get a new target lock, with Lee and Steve getting in the way of Loki, and she grunts in frustration.
“What’s the holdup?” Fury says over her comm, and she tightens her grip on the levers.
“The guy’s all over the place, I can’t get a lock-” Her reply was cut off by the Quinjet’s intercom suddenly blasting rock music, and a shiny red and gold body flies into view, repulsors propelling him forward into the square where Steve and Lee are still fighting Loki.
Tony’s voice rings in Natasha’s comm. “Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?” Natasha scoffed.
Tony lands a short distance away from the fight, and Tony immediately locked on Loki and waited for the right moment. Steve reeled his arm back to punch Loki, and Tony took the shot. Loki was blasted off his feet, and he lands hard on the ground, surrounded by Tony, Steve, and Lee, weapons raised, fists raised, and hands glowing.
“Your move, Reindeer Games,” Tony quipped. Loki put his hands up and surrendered, his armor fading away. “Good move.” Steve turned to Tony, eyes still on Loki.
“Mr. Stark.”
“Cap’n.” Lee hauled Loki up, already cuffing him in reinforced SHIELD handcuffs.
“Tony! What a coincidence.” Tony raised his faceplate, and broke into a huge grin.
“Agent Leigh! Small world. What are you doing here?” Tony nonchalantly gave Lee a firm handshake.
Lee jokingly shrugged. “Oh, you know, work stuff. Never a day off,” he grinned at Tony. Steve walked away, towards the landing Quinjet, and they followed with Loki in tow.