Chapter Text
Steve flipped through the documents spread across Sam's kitchen table. “I'm pretty sure that HYDRA never had Barnes at this place,” Sam said “But it is HYDRA and we’re getting low on leads.”
“In other words, you're at the same place we are with regards to the search for Loki's scepter,” Natasha remarked. “We ought to pool resources.”
“That's exactly what we are doing here,” Steve said.
Natasha eyed him speculatively. “That's why we're in D.C. holding a meeting in Wilson's kitchen instead of asking him to join us at Avengers’ Tower? You aren't hiding your search for Barnes from Stark?”
“I'm not hiding it,” Steve stated forcefully. “But, given what Zola implied, I'm not comfortable using Tony's resources to search for Bucky.”
Natasha grimaced, “He won't help Barnes even though he was brainwashed?”
“We don't know that Bucky actually did it,” Steve protested immediately. “Zola could have been just trying to stir up trouble, he's hardly a reliable source.”
“Well, the three of us can't check this place out on our own,” Sam said. “It might be abandoned but so was the last one and it's a miracle that we got out alive.”
“And we lost all but a fraction of the information when the base self-destructed,” Natasha added. “We need the team for this. Just say that there might be leads to the scepter. It’s perfectly true, so there's no reason to invite trouble by mentioning Barnes.”
Steve nodded ‘There's no reason to bring up Bucky. We don't even know that he really killed Howard.'
Steve glanced around the conference room, making eye contact with each of the Avengers, then pointedly clearing his throat to draw Tony and Clint's attention away from whatever they were looking at on their respective cellphones.
Clint gave Steve a shamefaced grin and slipped the phone into his pocket.
“Don't worry, I'm good at multitasking,” Tony said while continuing to type away on his phone.
“It's respectful to give your full attention to the person speaking to you,” Steve reprimanded him.
“What are we, in grade school?” Tony snorted. “How about I make you a deal? Say something more interesting than my R&D group’s need for hand-holding and I’ll put their dithering on hold until you're done. Hell, might do ‘em some good to pull off the safety wheels. Do you think Hill would go for it if I asked her to put a gun to a few heads down there and order them to man up and make a choice?”
Steve walked over and grabbed the phone out of Tony's hands, giving Tony a severely disapproving look as he did so.
“I'm so bringing the armor to our next mandatory team meeting,” Tony muttered after eyeing the phone for a moment, undoubtedly calculating the odds against successfully wrestling it back out of the super soldier’s grasp. Then he made a point of not looking attentive as the meeting got underway.
“Sam's been following up on some HYDRA leads for me,” Steve said. “He's found an abandoned base in Montana, we might be able to get back on their trail if we can extract their current whereabouts. Natasha and I raided a similar base with him a month ago. We ran into more trouble than we could easily handle, so this time I want to bring in the whole team.”
“You left me out of the loop?” Clint asked making puppy dog eyes at Natasha.
“It was the tenth,” Natasha said, giving the date particular weight.
Clint flushed and let it drop.
“I wanted to go over what we ran into last time,” Steve said. He frowned at Tony, “So we’re prepared.”
“There's also some time pressure,” Sam said. “We're not the only ones out there hitting HYDRA remnants.”
“It's probably S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Tony declared nonchalantly.
Everyone stared at him.
“What?” Tony demanded. “Doesn't anyone talk to Hill? S.H.I.E.L.D. is far from gone. In fact it’s multiplying or at least splintering: There's SI-S.H.I.E.L.D. plus at least two underground S.H.I.E.L.D.s who are not HYDRA and that's not even mentioning the dozen factions of S.H.I.E.L.DRA that we’re all hunting.”
Steve bit back a sign as Tony launched into full ramble-mode. ‘Howard was a showman but he’d known when to turn it off and give a concise report. Why hadn’t he passed that skill on to his son?’
“I'd have put it in an email but Hill’d kill me since SI-S.H.I.E.L.D. is cover; the ‘Oh yes, we're all the surviving Not-HYDRA S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, ready and willing to jump through hoop, yes sir Mr. Government man’ division. Then there's the business-as-usual minus, you know, the official sanctioning S.H.I.E.L.D. According to Hill I got the folks with family who can't go dark types but you wanna bet on how many of them weren't recruited from, let's say, nonstandard sources?” He glanced at Natasha and Clint, “I'm sure Hush-Hush-S.H.I.E.L.D. would have extended an invite except people might wonder where you'd gone if you weren't Avenging.
“And there's other-S.H.I.E.L.D., Hill suspects they aren't bad, just a group her Hush-Hush-S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't round up, probably thinks they are the ‘real’ S.H.I.E.L.D. survivors or something,” Tony continued blithely. “Odds are it’s one of them beating you to the punch. Talk about reinventing the wheel, this whole secret agent shindig makes communication like getting the right and left hand on the same page after a lobotomy.”
“And you didn't tell us this before?” Steve broke in finally losing patience.
Tony blinked at him. “Why didn't you know? I did email you that I'd scooped up Hill and her crew of unemployed ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. and that they'd be handling logistical support for the Avengers from here on. For the love of all that’s holy, please tell me you do email. I am not going back to the Stone Ages of pen and paper.”
‘And then there are the insults. As if his love-affair with his own voice weren’t enough,’ Steve thought. “Back to a mode of communication where people actually thought about what they were saying before making it public?” he asked dryly.
Tony snorted, “Keep telling yourself that grandpa, I’ve heard the song.”
“Can we get this meeting back on track?” Sam begged when Steve appeared to be floundering.
Steve smiled gratefully at him. “Sam could you tell us about the defenses you encountered?” he asked.
Steve felt a momentary flash of mixed approval and relief when Tony’s attention visibly sharpened as Natasha started explaining the challenges she’d run into while breaking into the previous base’s computers. But after only a few minutes he interrupted her, “I’m shocked, the Black Widow fell for a honeypot trap?” Tony shook his head sadly. “Delegate people, if you don't have the computer chops admit it. We have five ex-S.H.I.E.L.D.’s who specialize in data recovery not counting yours truly. Even if you didn't realize you were in over your head until the last minute JARVIS is on speed-dial.”
Steve put a supportive hand on Natasha's shoulder. “This is intended as a constructive exercise, Natasha is sharing her first hand experience with HYDRA’s security systems. What if scenarios, frankly boasting about how you could have done better if you'd been in her place, accomplishes nothing.”
“And my P.h.D in computer sciences and, oh, I don't know, the fact that I simultaneously broke into multiple governments’ secured servers from my cell phone while playing star guest at a Senate Hearing means nothing?” Tony asked. He turned to Bruce, “Does it actually help people remember that you're an expert, not to mention a fucking genius if you insist on the doctor thing?”
“Language!” Steve reprimanded.
“My old man was always said that but most of what he said to me was a load of shit,” Tony continued over Steve.
Bruce grinned a bit, “I don't know, people might suddenly start expecting you to deliver babies, give stitches or treat PTSD.”
Tony shuddered theatrically, “Can't have that. I'll thank you to keep me away from all your squishy sciences.”
Steve slapped the table loudly, “Could we hear out Natasha’s report like civilized adults?” he demanded. When Tony leaned over and slipped Bruce’s phone out of his pocket Steve decided to ignore it. The debriefing went much more smoothly once Tony was ignoring the meeting. “Alright, we’ll leave at 0500,” Steve concluded. He put his hand over the phone in Tony's hands “You got that Stark?”
“Oooh, military jargon, my heart’s aflutter,” Tony replied as he ignored Steve's personal space to dig his phone out of Steve’s pocket then tossed Bruce’s back to him. “Couldn't get any work done without access to SI’s secure servers but I upgraded power usage algorithms, should increase battery life by ten percent… And I beat your top score. Angry birds, Brucie-bear? Really?”
“What can I say, it's addictive,” Bruce laughed.
Thor's eyes lit up, he draped an arm around Bruce’s shoulders, “Mayhap you could explain why the Pigs would resort to criminal methods…”
The next morning Steve felt a fission of discomfort when he saw Maria Hill and two other agents waiting for the Avengers in the Quinjet’s hangar chatting with Nat and Clint. Tony said all the SHIELD agent currently employed at SI checked out but HYDRA had gotten past Fury’s guard so what did they really know?
“Tony brought them in to help him with the data retrieval,” Natasha explained. Steve’s lips narrowed, ‘After all his bragging Tony brought in help for his task. Howard would have handled it himself.’
Tony arrived in the hangar seven minutes late, with a tray of coffee cups that he promptly handed over to the agents, “For keeping you up all night,” he said. “I assume you got all the clearances?”
Maria grabbed one of the cups and held it beneath her nose savoring the aroma and the warmth of the cup. “You’re forgiven for the last minute request, this time anyway, Stark.”
Steve frowned, he hoped Tony hadn’t actually asked her to point a gun at someone from his R&D staff. “You knew the mission was first thing in the morning,” he said quietly to Tony, not wanting to make too big of a deal of reprimanding the man but also not wanting to let the behavior become habitual. “You should have made sure the people you brought into this were fresh for it instead of keeping them up doing you favors.”
“Eight hours is a myth perpetrated by geriatrics like you Cap,” Tony said flippantly.
Just fifty minutes later they landed on the outskirts of a town that, except for the late model cars, didn't look too different from some of the western cities Steve had visited on his USO tour. “There’s the entryway, just like Sam said,” Steve said guiding his team toward an abandoned grain silo.
“I’m getting more heat signatures than an abandoned base warrants,” Tony announced self-importantly.
“Sam wouldn’t give us bad intel,” Steve defended his friend.
“Just because HYDRA moved out, that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t moved in,” Natasha cautioned.
“You’re right,” Steve sighed. “Agent Hill, hold your men back until the site is secured. Clint, Natasha, you think there’s enough cover for you to safely scout it out or should we go in hot and try to subdue them before they can get their bearings?”
“If they’re underground I guarantee they’ve got a healthy vent system,” Clint said.
“We’ll be in and out with none the wiser, trust us Steve,” Natasha added.
Steve nodded. “Be careful and don’t hesitate to call us in if things go pear-shaped.”
Steve watched anxiously while Tony helped Natasha and Clint disable the alarms on secret entrance below the old grain silo then joined the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. trio and Bruce Banner while the spies headed inside. “It is hard to watch those who follow you go into danger without you at their fore,” Thor said sympathetically as he waited with Steve.
Six tense minutes later Steve’s comm crackled to life, “I count upwards of thirty grunts wearing the Serpent Society emblem and carrying heavy artillery,” Natasha reported.
“I could have told you that,” Tony interrupted.
“If you don't have anything useful to say,” Steve reprimanded Tony then pressed his hand to his ear bud. “Clint, what’s your count?”
“Another five mooks plus four costumes,” the archer said. “One of them’s a hottie but no one we've seen before- Shit, I'm made.”
“Iron Man, go through the ceiling. Get us to him and Nat, now” Steve snapped urgently.
“Aye, aye mon Capitaine,” Tony said as his faceplate snapped down and he blasted off. Iron Man hovered over the parking lot for an interminable time before finally firing off a pair of missiles. Before the smoke cleared Steve was through the hole, hitting ground along with the last of the debris from the shattered ceiling. Thor was immediately behind him, then a few seconds later Iron Man joined them.
Natasha was fighting against heavy odds while Clint used explosive arrows to keep the Enhanced criminals from joining the battle and completely overwhelming her. “Damn! Why didn’t I have these on our last mission?” Clint exclaimed as he fired off another round.
Steve glanced over at Thor, if Clint was freed from the burden of keeping the four elite members of the Society off Natasha’s back Steve trusted the two assassins could turn the tide against their numerically superior but less skilled adversaries.
As soon as Steve and Thor moved to engage the Serpent Society’s elites the pink haired woman and the man with the strange cloak both backed off. Steve found himself up against a snake-man with robotic arms attached to his torso and a snake’s coils in place of legs while Thor fought a man wearing a mask that covered the top half of his face and supported a cobra like hood.
Steve threw a punch at the snake-man’s jaw only for his opponent to slither to the side and return the blow with such speed that Steve was barely able to get his shield in place to block. Then he jumped back and narrowly avoided a knife thrown by Pink.
Several of Stark’s repulsor blasts went wild taking down the ceiling on one end of the room and the distraction caused Steve to misjudge one of Pink’s attacks. He managed to turn his head at the last second and only took a graze across his cheek instead of ending up with three inches of steel through his eye. For a moment Steve felt woozy but his enhanced metabolism quickly burned through whatever was coating the knife.
Another explosion shook the room, Steve couldn’t have said if it was one of Clint's explosive arrows or Stark’s missiles.
Steve grabbed the snake-man’s arm and tossed him at a wall. The weight of the man’s coils helped him to land upright and he launched himself back at Steve with unnatural speed.
Thor laughed as he and his hooded opponent tumbled across the floor. The demi-god sounded much too cheerful for a battlefield. Steve thought of the poison on Pink’s blades and spared a second to wonder about it’s effect on Thor’s physiology.
Steve smashed the edge of his shield into the snake-man’s false arms. Then he felt one of Pink’s knives slice across the small of his back, seeking the seam between his pants and jacket.
“I've got the girl, so you boys don't have to feel guilty about hitting her,” Natasha said. Steve felt a measure of relief that he wouldn’t have to worry about the other team’s sniper much longer. Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Natasha and Clint work together to capture Pink, pinning her to the wall with a net arrow.
Then he felt a whoosh of displaced air and heard the whine of Iron Man’s repulsors as Stark practically crashed into him while pursuing the caped leader of the Serpents. Just as suddenly the two of them were gone. From the other side of the room Steve heard Stark shout. “Let’s see who loses their lunch first.” For the next five minutes Iron Man and the the Serpents’ leader were seemingly everywhere, plowing through the other battles without concern for the potential damage to their teammates. There was a ground-shaking bang, “I win,” Stark declared weakly over the comms.
Without the need to watch out for the Serpents’ sniper or Stark’s wild maneuvers Steve was finally able to gain the upper hand against the snake-man, using his shield to bash at the man’s prosthetics until his claw-like arms were nothing more than bent, sparking metal.
Thor laughed as he and Hooded fought for the leverage to pin the other. The demi-god’s face was flushed, his eyes dilated and the small cuts from Pink’s knives leaked discolored blood. “Victory will be Thor’s Midgard Serpent!” he exclaimed jovially as he managed to free a hand to summon Mjolnir. With one hand on Hooded’s throat Thor pressed the man to the floor and raised his hammer as if to smash in his skull.
“Thor stop!” Steve exclaimed feeling disturbed by Thor’s murderous good humor.
Power crackled around the hammer and lightning filled cavernous room. Steve saw one of the discharges strike Clint and send the archer tumbling from his perch “Tony! Grab Clint!” Steve shouted but Tony, functionally their only flier, blasted off toward the hole in the ceiling ignoring Clint’s peril and barely missing being fried himself as another lightning bolt answered Thor’s call.
“Tony!” Steve shouted even as he threw his shield at Clint. The impact knocked the stunned archer back from the precipice, audibly breaking several ribs in the process.
“Big guy, I think he’s down,” Natasha said, adopting her Hulk-calming tones as she staggered toward Thor. “The day’s won, no reason to bring the roof down on your shield-brothers, hmm?”
Thor blinked at her then glanced at the charred corpse at his feet. “A glorious victory,” he said smiling. “We shall feast.”
“Right after Clint and I get a little hospital time,” Natasha promised, leaning into Thor’s side. He lowered the hammer to offer her support. Both Steve and Natasha sighed in relief.
“Everything alright there?” Bruce asked worriedly over the comms.
“Fight’s over,” Steve confirmed as he started free climbing the wall to get to the spot where he’d knocked the archer. “Tell Stark and Agent Hill it’s time for them to get to work.”
“I think I might have a concussion,” Tony whined.
“You’re lucky Clint isn’t dead,” Steve replied angrily as he pulled himself onto the shelf where Clint lay, his expression twisted with pain. Steve ripped open Clint’s body armor and saw a huge, crescent shaped bruise across the man’s back and left side.
Bruce repelled down with a backboard to join Steve. “Natasha told me what happened. It’s better to be safe if there’s even a chance of spinal injury.” Steve closed his eyes guiltily, wondering if maybe he still could have knocked Clint back onto the ledge while using less force.
The not-that-kind-of-doctor spent several moments carefully probing Clint’s bruises then declared, “At least two, if not three of his ribs are broken.”
“I hate broken ribs,” Clint groaned, “It’ll be months before I can pull a bow properly.”
“If Iron Man had just been paying attention to his teammates,” Steve muttered to himself.
Bruce glanced up at Steve over his glasses, “Tony usually has a reason for everything he does.”
“Even if he does, he never tells the rest of us what he’s up to,” Steve refused to relent. “He can’t be part of this team and always marching to his own beat.”
Bruce ducked his head and spent a few minutes checking that Clint was properly secured to the backboard.
“Can I do anything to help?” Steve asked.
“Agent Hill arranged for a medical unit from the base in Great Falls to give us a hand,” Bruce said. “There are real medics top-side. But they could probably use your muscles to haul him up.” Bruce waited until the evac team had Clint safely up then climbed the rest of the way down and headed deeper into the facility to find Tony and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brought along to help with data gathering.
Steve stuck close while Natasha and Clint were being treated. There was a part of him that wanted to force Thor under a doctor’s care as well so they could be certain that the poison used by the Serpents’ sniper wouldn’t have any lasting effects but after hearing Bruce’s story… Well, Bruce’s story was the reason he was hovering over Natasha and Clint. They might have been baseline humans but after finding HYDRA in S.H.I.E.L.D. and learning what General Ross had done and tried to do to Bruce, Steve had no intention of letting his injured teammates out of his sight. Besides, Steve could feel that his metabolism had burned away the poison he’d contacted so he decided to trust that it was the same for Thor.
Steve’s comm unit crackled to life. “Could everyone keep an on Tony,” Bruce requested. “I think he probably does have a concussion.”
“He really was hurt?” Steve asked feeling guiltily.
Bruce sighed, “There’s really not much to be done for it. I’d tell him to stay away from computer screens for a few hours but I know better than to expect him to listen to that sort of advice. Other than that the only thing we can really do is keep an eye on him.”
“Thor, you’re feeling alright now?” Steve checked.
“Aye, the witch’s brew on those blades has long since passed from my system,” Thor said.
“Stay here with Clint and Nat, I’m going to go get Tony,” Steve instructed. “Bruce might have more medical knowledge than the rest of us but he doesn’t know when to stand his ground, particularly with Tony.”
It took Steve several minutes to track Tony down but he eventually found him on the compound’s lowest level physically disconnecting HYDRA’s servers for some reason. “I’m sorry,” Steve said. “I was angry, because you ignored my orders in the field the only way I had available to save Clint left him with broken ribs. I didn’t realize you were really hurt.”
“You notice the two lookie-loo kids?” Tony asked shortly. “Was I supposed to ignore them?”
'What kids?,' Steve thought. For a moment he considered backing down or giving Tony a lecture on timely sharing of information but… 'Any sort of suggestion that I might have made a mistake would only encourage him to keep on challenging my orders and constantly acting like a loose cannon.'
“It’s hard,” Steve said. “I know it’s hard to make that sort of choice but collateral damage is going to happen in a battle. You saved those two but Clint’s going to be out of commission for months. Who knows how many unnecessary casualties will happen because we’re a man down next time? We can’t save everyone, I know that’s horrible to say, but it’s the fact of the matter. And if we throw our lives, our teammates’ lives away trying, in the end we won’t save anyone.”
“Fuck you Rogers,” the brunette muttered as he shoved past Steve.
Later, long after Tony had managed to slip away. Probably, hopefully, to try to make his date with Pepper, Steve hated the thought of him alone with a concussion. Steve promised himself, once again, that next time he wouldn’t let Tony get under his skin, that he’d keep their interactions professional no matter how he was provoked. 'For Tony’s sake as much as anyone’s. I’m his team leader, I can’t let my judgement be clouded by emotion. Next time I’ll do better.'