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It took the usually unflappable inventor a full thirty seconds to finally respond to my statement.

"Are you fucking serious?" He asked, his eyes wide. "Where the hell did you find an ingot of vibranium? Do you have any idea how much money this is worth? No, of course you do, or you wouldn't have done your whole dramatic reveal thing."

"Of course I do." I confirmed with a smile and a shrug.

Of course my issue wasn't not knowing what it was worth. My issue was knowing if anyone would recognize the name or not. Thankfully it seemed they did.

"I'm not really looking to sell it per say. Money really isn't an issue at this point."

"Sounds to me like you're looking to trade." He pointed out.

"It's possible." I said with a smile before shifting to a more serious look "I want you to help me build something."

"Really? Going to be all dramatic about that too?" He asked, rolling his eyes before looking back down at the vibranium. "You know one of the dumbest things my dad ever did was gather all the vibranium he could find and build it into a shield? The things we have been able to learn from the tiny amount we have found since then…"

"It's a versatile metal. Unfortunately all I've been using it for is to reinforce my armor."

"Wait, you did your combining thing with vibranium? How much did you use? Where the hell did you get it?"

"A few dozen ingots." I explained, smirking now. "And I have as much as I need."

"As much as…" Tony made a critical face for a moment, looking at me suspiciously. "You fucked with reality again, didn't you."

"I absolutely did."

"Alright, I'll bite." He said, throwing the ingot back to me, which I caught and put down on the counter. "What do you need help building?"

"Well, honestly, at this point I have most of my problems solved." I admitted. "My armor is… well I won't say unstoppable but I consider it sufficient for now. Money problems are solved, and I have access to intel and other resources through Shield. I'm pretty stable in most areas. Which leaves nothing else to do but expand and experiment."

"You're bored." Tony said, smirking now. "You're looking for the next project because you're bored."

"Not really, not yet at least. I'm just looking for the next project. I have a few planned out ideas, some of which are kind of depending on Shield to… well they need some-"

"You realize I know about Hydra already right?" Tony said with a smirk. "Jarvis hacks the pentagon daily and makes a list of everything I need to know. Shield is a bit more challenging but once Hydra came in his report I got curious. Why do you think I was so adamant about getting my armor running before I let you work your voodoo?"

"Huh… Alright, that's fair. Then you know about…?"

"That you de-aged Peggy Carter and she is running around with the all American popsicle? Yes, I know." Stark said, turning to tap on the computer behind him.

He worked for a moment before pulling up cell phone camera footage of Steve, Bucky and Peggy, along with a few Shield agents storming a building. The footage zoomed in on Steve and Peggy's faces.

"I recognized them pretty quickly. Dad idolized Steve Rogers and Peggy worked with him on a daily basis. I got an invitation to her retirement party." He said, turning back to look at me. "Not a very big leap from someone finding the fountain of youth and someone offering to heal my chest within the next few weeks. How did you do it by the way?"

"You mean how did I de-age her? The same amulet that fixed your chest." I said, rubbing my face. "I can't believe I forgot to make her a face changing mask. Please don't spread that around."

"…Does that mean I'm younger than Pepper now?" Tony asked, continuing when I gave him a harsh look. "I won't… as long as Pepper and I get some of the good stuff when I start seeing grays."

"Thank you." I said, purposely not answering his unspoken question. I honestly hadn't figured out if I was going to offer that to people beyond Peggy, even people I was close to. I didn't know if the world was ready for immortality.

"So what kind of projects are you looking for now?" Tony asked, sitting down in his computer chair, spinning it around to face me.

"Well I could use your help with one idea…"

By the time Ema and I left Tony and Pepper's home it was almost one in the morning. We had eaten with the couple before Stark and I returned down into his workshop to talk about more of my ideas and eventually hammer out a deal. The inventor promised to help me with one of the most promising plans, agreeing to call in a few days when he was done. In exchange for producing the foundation for my idea, Stark would get two ingots of vibranium, one of which already I left with him.

I knew I was way over paying for his help, considering that I could sell that single ingot for around thirty six million dollars, according to Stark himself. That said, I didn't mind much considering that for now Stark seemed to be relatively sane and determined to be a good guy, with no hint of the near insane control freak he was in most of his comics. He did drink a bit too much before, during and after dinner, but his medical scan hadn't said anything about alcoholism, at least not yet.

The following morning Ema and I started a round trip around the country, flying to and distributing my teleport pads to several new cities. By the end of the next day I had three landing pads in New York, and one in Washington DC, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, St Louis, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, Honolulu, Seattle and Salt Lake City. We used the travel time to find our new top speeds, which ended up being just around Mach three. Content that I could now reach anywhere in the United States in a few minutes, I made another batch of landing pads, this one attached to a stretchy leather band I could wear around my bicep.

During the day I worked on smaller projects, mostly getting my production capabilities even further into the ridiculous by starting to duplicate and stack the UCM's, as well producing some basic materials and doing some shopping for my upcoming project. While I was doing that Ema was fly around the world, dropping off landing pads. Pretty soon I could get to any place on the planet in thirty minutes max. I ended up having to make a map of all the places I could travel to to keep track. Being able to fly at mach three was very useful.

By the time Ema was done distributing landing pads all over the world, Tony was done with his project.

"It looks good." I said, walking around the humanoid robot shell he designed and fabricated for me. "How much did it cost to make?"

"A few million." Tony responded with a shrug. "Most of it is made from parts I already had around for the suit, save a few actuators that I had to customize to work properly. It's just a shell remember, nothing up top, not yet at least."

The robot was about five feet tall and stood ramrod straight. Its frame was simple and looked vaguely skeleton-like, with bulkier joints and a vaguely V shaped head. It was actually shockingly similar to a T-800 from Terminator in some ways, though not quite as intimidating.

"And its closed state?" I asked, prompting Tony to give it a verbal command.

The robot shivered slightly in place as its pistons and actuators unlocked. It shifted in place before slowly folding itself up. It wasn't nearly as impressive as what I could do with some transformation cards, but plenty impressive for normal restrictions. In the end it was small enough to fit into my UCM, which is what really mattered. When it finally stopped moving its body tucked and folded into an approximate two foot cube.

"It's exactly what I needed." I said, watching as it began standing back up after another command from Tony. "And it doesn't have any way whatsoever to connect wirelessly?"

"Nope, it's completely isolated. It doesn't even have a radio. The only way to update its programming is to pull this, download whatever you want to it and put it back in place." He said, handing me a small square cartridge. "It has the absolute bare bones [programming right now. It's basically only a few steps ahead of Dum-E."

Tony spent the next hour showing me how to insert and remove the cartridge, how to remove the robot's limbs and how to access, charge, remove and replace its power source, which was a pretty unimpressive lithium ion battery. After he was done explaining everything I carded it, examining its concepts in detail. A humanoid robot, with no hint of intelligence or method of control, it was a remarkably simple item. I couldn't help but smile as I pulled out a second ingot of vibranium and passed it to Tony.

"You earned this, just try not to advertise that you have it. Might want to cover it in a layer of a different metal or something if you use it in your armor."

"Pfft there is no way I'm wasting this in armor plating." He said, placing it down on the counter.

A short conversation and an even shorter flight later and Ema and I were back at the quarry, the UCM already scanning the robot shell in its folded form.

"Why did he just let you leave like that?" Ema asked, floating around as she scrolled through the quad stacked UCM's control screen. "I mean… as basic as it is, it's still a robot platform."

"If I had to guess? Because he assumed he would be my only source if I wanted new ones, and that it's not that advanced. I could have gotten something from half a dozen different places. I bet Hammer industries would have given me a dozen drones for half an ingot of vibranium. " I explained with a shrug. "Tony wasn't kidding when he said that the important part was missing. Making a bipedal robot isn't the hard part, programming one to interact with the world with any sort of proficiency is."

We waited an hour for the UCM's to spit out their first copies before starting to experiment. I combined the cartridge with books on speech, language and conversations, as well as basic psychology, body language, and even a few books on bedside manners for nurses and doctors. I then added a dozen books on first aid, paramedic training, triage and all sorts of other medical knowledge, all focused on in-the-field treatment. When I was done I inserted it back into one of the copies. The robot jerked as its limbs unlocked before it turned to look at me.

"Greetings." It said in a robotic voice. "Are you injured?"

"My hand is a little sore." I said, holding my glove covered hand out to it.

The robot stepped closer before gently taking my hand and removing my glove. It examined me, turning my hand over and checking for anything wrong. Finding nothing it stepped back and looked up at me.

"You are uninjured. If you continue to feel symptoms please notify your doctor as unexplained pain can be a symptom of several deeper issues."

The robot said clearly, before looking around and noticing Ema, who was floating just next to it.

"Greetings. Are you injured?"

"...No." She answered, looking the robot up and down before looking back at me. "Not the brightest bulb in the batch, huh? I'm made of metal, floating and less than six inches across for crying out loud."

"It's just a proof of concept Ema, Just wanted to make sure it would work at all." I assured her, stepping around the robot and pulling it into a card. "Not bad all things considered, it even adopted a slightly more natural pose."

I examined the card for any hints of sentience, nodding in satisfaction when I found none, though its knowledge had grown quite a bit. Satisfied my concept was achievable I knuckled down and got to work.

I started by removing each of the robots arms, combining one with a powerful healing flashlight, augmenting with a copy of my own healing amulet. I combined the other with one of my medical scanners. I pulled the robot apart piece by piece, enhancing, reinforcing and empowering everything I could. I even combined an energy cell with its battery, as well as some powerful multi stacked solar panels to its plating. My final act was to bind it to myself, but instead of using a lock, I used a combination of instruction manuals, a children's book on the importance of obeying those in charge, and a few other bits of electronics and switches. At first I deliberately left out any trace of magic save the healing flashlight now embedded in its left palm, but I soon gave up on that concept when it started getting in the way of how far I could push its design.

When I was finally done two days later I reactivated the robot, standing outside the tent of the quarry. It stood up from its folded form, now fully fleshed out instead of just a robotic skeleton. It still retained its fully robotic look, but between the vibranium, Asgardian alloy, super metal plating and several other additions, it now looked more streamlined and finished. It had a wing pack permanently attached to its back, though it was a basic version that was stuck going under five hundred miles per hour. Its metallic plating, which was smooth and sleek, was painted completely white, with various red accents painted on, a large caduceus staff softly glowing red and blue on its chest and shoulders, signifying its singular purpose.

"Hello" It said, finally standing upright, its face turned to me. Its stance was completely natural, the robot doing its best to seem open and peaceful. "I'm here to help. Are you injured?"

"No." I said simply. "There aren't any injured people here."

"Really?" The robot said before looking around, scanning across the open space before nodding in agreement. "Very well. Please notify me if you become injured."

"Could you do me a favor?" I asked the robot. "Jump in place ten times."

It got into position and started jumping, smoothly following my orders immediately. I spent the rest of the day checking its abilities and obedience, making sure that it would only follow my directions, even if I asked it to damage itself. I would have liked to have made it follow Ema's orders as well, but I couldn't risk adding any sort of electronic control mechanism into it. When I was done putting it through its paces I instructed it to fold up and hibernate, which it promptly did.

"That… was not bad for a few days of work!" I said excitedly, fist bumping Ema before she exited her exosuit. "It seemed to follow my directions pretty well, and not hurting people seems pretty well locked in. I need to test it on other people, but I think we successfully made an autonomous healing robot doctor. The Caduceus Droid."

"...why though?" Ema asked, flying around my head, before floating down and scanning the hibernating robot. "I asked before but you just waved me away."

"This is a Marvel world Ema. We have already had a few small scale fights, but a huge massive conflict will happen eventually. Skrulls, Kree, mutants, inhumans, demons, vampires, the list is fucking endless. Having a bunch of quick healing droids could save hundreds, if not thousands of people who get stuck in the crossfire. " I explained, reaching down and carding the robot once Ema was done scanning it. "Plus…This is still just a proof of concept. I already have ideas for the next few sets."

I stepped into the Triskelion for the first time in four months, getting plenty of looks as my armor slowly receded to its undeployed form, the bands of metal and armor plating receding into the remaining chest plate. Ema followed behind me, her own "armor" shifting into a more compact state. My leather jacket extended onto my body when my armor was done shrinking, all of it done automatically, the initial transformation triggered by a thought.

A lot had changed in the last few months, and I had had plenty of time to work on refining my gear.

"And what if they aren't interested?" Ema asked, holding the door open.

"Then we give them to Stark to sell. And if that doesn't work then I'll just do it myself," I answered with a shrug.

Working on and finishing the Caduceus Droid had made me realize the potency of designing and making my own objects to then use in my conceptual crafting. Since then I had been in a flurry of building, expanding and crafting that resulted in quite a few powerful developments. Two of which were following behind Ema and I, hovering a foot and a half off the ground.

A simple trunk, about two feet wide, two feet tall and three feet long sat attached to a hovering dolly, trailing behind us by about six feet as we made our way into the building. Made from a custom hovercraft design, a few drones and a couple of dolly's, the floating cart could carry up to four tons, automatically followed whoever was carrying its key, and could navigate simple obstacles on its own. It also self adjusted its size depending on what you stacked on it.

It was hard to figure out what was getting more stares. Yes I could have carried the trunk in the Deck, but Ema pointed out it was important to show off that I hadn't been sitting back and resting on my laurels.

I stopped a few dozen feet into the entrance, looking around for a moment before spotting Clint, who was already making his way to me. Ema and I met him half way, greeting him with a smile.

"Hey Clint. It's been a while," I said, reaching out and shaking his hand, the agent shaking Ema's hand after mine

"It has, but by the looks of it you've been busy," Clint said with a smirk. before pointing to the trunk. "What is this? Fury said you were coming to make good on an agreement? Something to do with the squad you enhanced?"

"Yeah, I promised to resolve a problem with the enhanced squad. It took a bit for me to get the design just right," I explained, looking around as he led us back to the elevator. I already recognized the path to the underground training facility.

I had promised to enhance the durability of the squad I equipped way back when Shield was still dealing with Hydra. I had figured out the basic formula almost immediately, but felt like there was major room for improvement. When I had eventually gotten around to figuring it out I had redone my own tattoo with the new inks. I was now bulletproof to all pistol caliber bullets and a significant portion of rifle calibers. However, my first attempts of the improved formula were clumsy and resulted in loss of skin sensitivity.

"That's good. They were pretty key in taking down a few of the larger Hydra bases. What was the issue?"

"Their increased strength didn't protect them from hurting themselves," I explained with a shrug, watching the elevator door open. "They could break their own bones if they hit things too hard or leveraged their strength the wrong way."

"And you can just fix that? Make them tougher?"

"Yup," I responded, popping the P.

We stepped into the semi familiar training facility, spotting the same eight soldiers as before, all of them at attention. Once again Fury was there, explaining what was going on. Ignoring the sense of déjà vu I stepped into the large open area.

"Fury!" I called out, waving to the serious man as he turned. "I need a table, two chairs and a privacy screen!"

Fifteen minutes later Ema was tattooing the first soldier behind a privacy screen while I stood by my floating trunk on the other side of the training area. I cracked open the trunk and pulled out a piece of jewelry, one of a few hundred identical pieces inside the trunk.

It was a palm cuff, a rather simple looking and adjustable piece that wrapped around the palm, and had a ring and chain system to hold it in place. On the palm was a red crystal, a mix of jasper, garnet and quartz. I demonstrated putting it on before removing it and tossing it to Clint.

"That is a healer's cuff." I explained. "Instead of healing yourself like my amulets do, this allows you to heal others."

"You mean like your healing flashlights?" Clint asked, looking over the jewelry before passing it to Fury. "What's the deal with using flashlights by the way?"

"Convenience," I answered simply, noting that Clint hadn't been told how my power works. "And yes, the only difference is that I will give these to anyone, without binding them."

Both Clint and Fury looked shocked for a moment before sharing a look.

"What's the catch?" Fury asked suspiciously.

"There are several." I said with a smile. "The first is that if they are stolen in any way shape or form the crystal shatters, the metal tarnishes and the whole thing becomes completely inert."

I pushed a cuff from a card and tossed it to Clint, who caught it deftly. Sure enough the golden metal was tarnished, and a chunk of the crystal fell from its setting.

"I left this on a park bench in New York. It took a surprisingly long amount of time for someone to take it."

"Alright, what else?"

"It will not work if the wearer is being threatened or being bribed. It can't be used to heal yourself and it won't work on or for evil people."

Both Fury and Clint looked at me funny, before Fury shook his head.

"And how does it decide who is Evil?" He asked. "What are the qualifiers?"

"A lot of ethics, psychology and plenty of other research." I answered. "It will stabilize the highest level of evil it recognizes. Rapists, murderers, child molesters. People like that will be healed just to the point that they won't immediately die. After that it depends on the severity and reasoning behind your crime. Steal an old ladys retirement fund? It will close your wounds but you will still have a long healing process after that. Steal to feed your children? It might leave you with some soreness after it heals a broken bone. Kill in true unavoidable self defense? Not even a scar. It takes into account ignorance, brainwashing through deliberate means or by parental pressures. It even takes into account real guilt and true attempts to be better, as well as culpability due to neurodivergence and the general stupidity of youth."

"How… How did you do that?" Fury asked, before waving any response away. "You know what, I don't want to know. Why are you showing this to me?"

"Because I want Shield, with its global connections, to distribute them all over the world." I explained. "Take your time, do what tests you have to do, give out free samples if you want, but help me distribute them to every corner of the world. Hell you could even take the credit for making them."

"And what does Shield get in return for doing this?" He asked with a tired sounding voice.

"Besides the credit?" I asked. "I'll give you as many as you want for Shield's personal use. But keep in mind that breaking a contract is a form of stealing."

"So the second we take them and decide to not distribute them they become useless." Fury said, shaking his head. "I will talk to the Security Council, this… this is beyond my pay grade."

"Well make sure they know this isn't the only thing I plan on doing this with," I explained. "I have quite a few projects that I plan on making available to the general public."

It wasn't much long after Fury's promise to kick my idea up the chain that Ema finished tattooing the eight Shield soldiers. They kept the tattoos simple, mostly singular shapes filled in with the black ink. When everything was packed up Ema and I headed back up to the entrance, leaving the trunk of healers palm cuffs with Fury. Clint was leading us, despite the fact that we could see the exit from the elevator. When I stepped out I noticed Natasha was standing by the doors.

"Maker, Ema, nice to see you both again." She said with a smile, nodding to Clint.

Once Shield had finally cleaned up the last vestiges of Hydra, Natasha had given me a call, just as she said she would. We had a short meeting and, surprisingly, she had explained her issue openly. Apparently when she was younger, going through the hell that was the Red Room, they removed her ability to have children, something that haunted her. I had made her two offers. One, she could put on my most powerful healing amulet, my own personal amulet that was a ten times stacked version of what had de-aged Peggy, or she could wait a few weeks for me to do some research, fiddle with a few ideas to try and see if I could come up with something with less questions about what it would do.

It had taken me a few days to wrap my head around the problem itself. I had a general understanding of how women were born with every egg they would have in their life, and that removing them would mean that they wouldn't ever have their own children. But if I could regenerate an entire arm, what would that do to a woman's missing ovaries? Would they be her own eggs? Or some sort of weird magic created eggs?"

With no answers in science I decided to go meta with my solution. I gathered everything I could find for fertility, from statues of various goddesses, to wiccan charms and everything in between. However, I quickly ran into an issue. Almost everything I found had double meanings. Very few goddesses were of just fertility, which meant hundreds of different concepts, some of them stacking and some of them conflicting.

In the end I applied my newest lesson, that making my own foundations could really improve the effectiveness and conceptual simplicity of an object. Over the span of three days I carved and dedicated a dozen statues of the kindest, fairest and generous fertility goddesses I could find in my research, making offerings to each one, all with the prayer to miraculously help me heal Natasha Romanoff's infertility. I combined them all together and added them to a quintuple stacked healing amulet. The result was a healing amulet that had a particular angle towards female healing, and had a certain positive concept that really seemed to indicate that using it wouldn't result in anything unfortunate or strange. Finishing it was the final thing I finished before I was ready to return to the Triskelion.

"It's good to see you, Natasha," I responded. "Are you ready?"

"I'm all set," She answered, looking nervously at Clint, who's eyes went wide.

"Wait… He is…?" He started to ask, and upon seeing the confirmation in Natasha's eyes, turned to me. "You think you can…? Jesus Christ Maker, I hope you can."

"I think I have a solution," I said with a shrug. "It's up to Natasha if she takes it."

Clint nodded, seemingly doing his best to not seem too excited at the chance. He gave Natasha a hug and asked her something under his breath, something about telling someone. Natasha responded that she would tell them herself if it worked. When they separated Clint gave me a nod before heading back into the crowd, heading to another elevator before disappearing inside.

"Alright. Take this," I said, pushing out a basic speed wing pack, one that had been improved to be easier to wear. "We are going to be flying some of the way."

Natasha's eyes went wide as she took the pack, looking between me and it for a moment before putting on the simple straps. I motioned to a button on one of the straps.

"Push that when it feels snug."

Natasha looked down, noticed the button and pressed it. The straps shifted, merged and changed, locking the wing pack on her completely.

"C'mon, let's get outside and I'll give you the short version of how they work."

Ema and I led her outside, walking out of the parking lot until we could see the sky, all the while assuring her that they were instinctual and easy to use. After a few more minutes Ema and I pushed out our wings and took to the air, the redhead super spy following just behind us. We flew slowly across the city before landing on the outskirts. I think we would have spent more time flying but I could feel Natasha's anxiety and eagerness to get this done with.

"So where to next?"

"Now we head to the workshop," I said, holding out my hand, one to Natasha and the other to Ema, the latter immediately taking it.

"Where is it?" She asked, looking around before noticing my hand and looking at it for a moment before looking back at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh relax, I promise I won't give you cooties," I said, rolling my eyes. "You need to hold my hand, and I'll take you."

Natasha's skeptical look relented after a long moment, finally taking my hand in a firm grip.

"Alright. I want to warn you. It's kind of intense for a moment but you're safe and it's just part of the process," I warned her. "Try not to instinctually attack me like Steve did."

"Wait, Steve attacked you, why-"

"Travel Alpha Base."

With a rush of bifrost energy and the intense feeling of traveling, all three of us were standing in a massive warehouse. Easily thirty thousand square feet, it was dotted with large metal pillars anchored to a flattened but natural light gray stone floor. The ceiling was a light blue while the walls depicted a pretty impressive mural of the four seasons, though fall and spring walls weren't done yet. Fall in particular was only half done, while spring was still just an outline. A floating bench, laden with painting supplies, hovered in front of the fall wall.

A lot of the warehouse was still empty, about a quarter of it taken up by various machines and workstations. In one area were a dozen ten stacked UCM's along with five metal working machines, flanked by two cargo container sized UCM's that were much slower, but could process and copy much larger things. My storage shed, once a simple purchase from Walmart was now a metallic color, enhanced by vibranium and Asgardian alloy, sat in one corner by my workshop area.

"Maker, I'm going to work on fall a bit more while you talk to Natasha," Ema said, giving the red head a smile. "This is private and I don't need to hear it."

"Sure Ema, I'll shout if I need anything."

My companion nodded and headed to the furthest wall from the landing pad, easily sitting on her floating workstation. She manipulated a set of controls and the bench floated another fifteen feet off of the ground before she picked up a brush and started painting.

"Ema painted all of this?" Natasha asked, turning to look at the summer wall, which was the closest to us.

"Yeah, she picked up painting as a hobby just before this place was finished," I explained with a smile. "It gives her something to do when I'm crafting. Plus she doesn't sleep so she has a lot of free time."

"She… doesn't sleep?" Natasha asked, following me as I made my way to a sitting area, two comfortable couches and a few chairs around a singular table.

"Yeah, but that's kind of her thing to explain, if she feels like it," I said with a shrug, sitting down in one of the chairs.

I waited for Natasha to sit down on the couch, leaning forward to the edge of my seat. I started to explain the process I went through to make the amulet, pushing it out onto the table. It took a bit to explain to her about the more meta things I could get concepts from. When I was done I leaned back, letting Natasha think for a moment.

"And you're sure it won't hurt me?" She asked, looking down at the amulet.

"Absolutely sure," I said with a nod. "You can keep an eye on your progress using one of my medical scanners. If something goes wrong we can either remove the amulet immediately, or we can continue the process and fix any problem after, that is up to you. If the eggs that it produces inside your ovaries are somehow different then what your natural eggs should have been then the scanner will let us know. I've already tested its ability to detect both organs and body parts that have been regrown, as well as the female reproductive organs. You can thank Pepper Potts for volunteering to be scanned for the latter and Bucky Barnes for the former."

As Natasha was thinking I stood, pushed out my cabinet of tricks and pulled out a medical scanner, handing it to Natasha.

"Just point it anywhere on your body. The selector wheel changes between singular scans and a constantly updated feed."

Natasha nodded and pointed the scanner at her hand, scanning herself and going through the results before finally nodding.

"Alright. Let's give it a shot."

I nodded and stood, taking the amulet and putting it around her neck as she held the scanner against her hand. I fought my own curiosity and sat back down, not wanting to invade her privacy. As the minutes ticked by she got more and more emotional, finally letting a few tears trailed down her face. After ten minutes the powerful healing amulet was done, and she pulled it off, laying it on the table.

"Thank you Maker," She said, wiping her tears. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart. This… this is something I never thought would happen. It's all me, they… I can have kids and they will be mine."

FanFiction.Net

Natasha quickly regained her self control, wiping away her tears and coughing, before looking around as if for a distraction.

"This all looks pretty professional," She said, her intelligent eyes jumping from object to object. "I don't suppose you would give me a tour?"

"That depends, would you immediately pass it all on to Fury?" I asked, leaving back in my chair.

"...That depends on what you show me," She said with a shrug. "I would report anything dangerous."

"Yeah, alright," I said with a chuckle, standing up. "I'll give you the short tour."

I led her around the warehouse, showing off a few of its features. I made sure to call the UCM's simple production machines, giving the illusion that they made simple items without actually lying. I showed her the workshop area, a small space set aside for simple metal fabrication, as well as an area with a few conceptually crafted 3D printers for various sizes and materials.

My last stop was a wooden door that opened into my living area. A much larger space than my old apartment, it was a warm but modern design. The space was very open, with a large kitchen on one side and a fully equipped living room on the other. It lacked a real kitchen table, instead opting for a long island with comfortable bar stools along it. The living room had a crackling fireplace, making the room feel even cozier.

"Your house is connected to your workshop?" She asked as she looked around. "Does Fury know you moved?"

"I hope not considering him knowing where I live is why I moved in the first place," I explained. "You guys might be clean now, but we both know how little that matters for an intelligence agency. With the right leverage in the right place you can learn anything you want."

The Shield agent reluctantly nodded, turning around before her eyes focused on the window on the opposite side of the living room. It displayed a snowy tundra with an incredible view, as if the whole warehouse was perched on a massive mountain overlooking a pristine and unbroken snowy pine forest. It looked as if she was memorizing the image before I clapped twice and the shades descended, blocking the view.

"You don't think you'll be able to figure out where we are just by that view do you?" I asked, smirking as she looked at me annoyed, relenting after a moment.

"Sorry, can't help it," She said with a shrug. "Old habits die hard."

"I suppose that's true."

The tour ended not long after that, the two of us back at the landing pad, which was set

flush into the ground.

"So, not going to show me what's through the other doors?" Natasha asked, gesturing to a heavy armored door about ten feet wide and eight tall, a second much more normal looking door beside it.

"That leads to an area still under construction," I said, pointing to the heavy armored door. "The other just leads outside. You don't want to go out there, it's awfully cold and you're not dressed for those conditions."

For a moment Natasha looked like she was going to ask anyway, but she didn't, instead sticking out her hand.

"Well then I guess it's time I headed back," She said with a genuine smile. "Thank you Maker. I… I still can't believe you fixed me but… thank you."

"Happy to help Natasha," I said, returning her smile and taking her hand.

With a few words I traveled her back to DC, flying with her back to Shield. I took the wing pack back from her and returned to the warehouse. When I got back Ema was still working on the fall mural, specifically a tree with hundreds of different color leaves, most of them shades of orange and red.

"It's coming along nicely."

"Thank you, this tree is going to take at least the next few days to finish," She responded, using the controls on her hovering bench to slowly sink back to the floor. "Everything work out alright?"

"Yeah, she is all set," I said. "She seemed happy with the results, so I won't argue with her."

Ema nodded, cleaning up her paints and brushes before hopping off of her bench.

"So Jarvis called earlier, when you were giving your tour," She said. "Tony and Pepper are coming home from their vacation in a few days…"

"It's fine Ema, I already did most of what I wanted to today, and I'm leaving to see Steve and Bucky soon anyway," I reminded her. "Are you going to the mansion or New York?"

"The mansion," She said, her blue cheeks darkening in a simulated blush. "He has a new recipe he is trying out…"

"Go, have fun!"

"Thanks! I'll have my phone on me if you need anything!" She said with a smile. "I'm stopping by the apartment before I travel to the mansion. Bye!"

With a flash of color she traveled to the old apartment, which she had turned into her own space. She turned the kitchen and living room into an area to store her paintings, and my old bedroom into a closet for her own things, mostly clothes and other knick knacks. The idea of her wearing actual clothes was a newer development, more recent than her painting.

About two weeks after Tony had started me on my large-scale building tear with his robotic shell, Ema came to me and asked if I could help Jarvis realize a desire of his, to have a way to personally interact with the world. I saw no reason not to help, so we all got together, Jarvis, Tony, Pepper, Ema and I, to figure something out. Eventually Tony and I collaborated to create a humanoid body for Jarvis, which we then tied his primary instance to, condensing his entire mainframe into an artificial brain. He was still capable of creating separate instances, as well as multitasking and other computational feats, but now he ran it all from his singular body.

Tony had been against this limitation, but Jarvis insisted, claiming he wanted a body, not a puppet. Using a variety of makeup, a polymer composite that Tony specifically made to be as skin-like as possible and several other things Jarvis now had a robotic body that was visually indistinguishable from a human but was as tough and as strong as I could make it. I also designed a secondary core that Jarvis could use to help come off as more human-like, which he described as having an on and off switch for his humanity.

Ema, seeing her new friend prosper and develop so well, started to wonder what that would be like. After a week of spending time with his new form she asked me to make a secondary core for her as well. Not wishing to alter my friend directly, but also not wanting to deny her wishes, I agreed, but only if it was attached to her exosuit. Within a few weeks she had started to develop more independence, which I was ecstatic about. Her life was no longer about just serving me, though she was still my partner. She also stopped complaining about being in her exosuit for too long, and started developing hobbies. She still left her exosuit occasionally, but she was flourishing and I couldn't be happier about it.

I let out a long breath of contentment before heading back to my new home, entering and kicking off my shoes.

"Alright Alfred, you can come out now," I called, heading over to the couch and plopping down.

Not a few seconds later a humanoid robot, with a painted on suit and bowtie stepped out of its storage closet, gently shutting the door behind it.

"Welcome home sir. Is there anything you need?" The robot butler asked, stepping into the living room.

"Yeah, change the window image to something else, maybe something tropical?"

The robotic butler, a repurposed and selfish offshoot of the robotic shell Tony created for me four months ago, nodded before walking to the thermostat. The small screen lit up when he got closer, and dimmed after he tapped a few buttons and stepped away to the kitchen. The window, which was a perfect live feed from an improved camera attached to a tree somewhere in Canada, switched to a similar feed, this one displaying an empty beach, waves crashing on the sand.

"If that is all sir I need to continue cleaning your room," It said with a bow before turning and heading back.

I waved it away and leaned back on the couch, watching the news for a little while, checking the time occasionally. At around two thirty I got up and headed back into my bedroom to change into something a bit less casual, pulling off all of my armor and my shirt, leaving me bare skinned. I turned for a moment, checking out the tattoos on my back. I knew that despite most of my body seemingly clear, save my back, seventy five percent of my body was covered in tattoos. Most of them were just invisible.

I still had a compass done on the back of my right shoulder, as well as the torn skin on the right side of my stomach, though all of them had been redone at least twice at this point using a painless tattoo removal tool I had made. The shoulder opposite to the compass was a sextant, done over the same clockwork gears and detailing as the compass. This contained the essence of my US travel band, made after I copied it a few times, so that my ability to travel couldn't be taken away.

The clockwork steampunk design continued down my back, acting as the background for several circles, all set on a disk. Each smaller circles contained symbols for different "classical" elements. Most of them enhance my resistances to something, like fire and electricity, as well as light making me impossible to blind. Others were less specific or complete misdirections. Water extended how long I could hold my breath to three hours, while air increased my resistance to loud noises and sonic attacks. Earth was perhaps the largest misdirection as it made me impervious to poisons and venoms, while darkness symbol simply increased my natural night vision.

My entire back design was cut in with a single black line that acted as a hard edge, which was accented with marks made to look like places for screws, as if a panel had been pulled away. When my back was done I had decided to transition into more subtle tattoos by making invisible ink. Now most of my non-armor enhancements were tattooed into my body. My danger sense, my strength and stamina/speed cuffs were all tattooed in, though only after some massive improvements by copying and stacking them a dozen times each. Now, even without my armor, I was as strong as Steve, slightly faster than him and while reflexes were hard to judge I seemed to be comparable to him as well. I even had a minor healing ability tattooed in, though it was a basic version, not the divinity enhanced ten stacked version I wore.

I was more than a little paranoid about getting stuck in an endless torture loop.

I even had an emergency travel tattoo, which would travel me directly to Ema's side if I was unconscious for more than forty eight hours in a row, including a coma. If I didn't wake within twenty four hours after that I would be traveled here, to a bed with almost a hundred healing amulets stacked into the mattress, sheets and pillows.

After I got dressed again, my armor and undersuit all in its least conspicuous form, I traveled back to New York. I pushed out my basic truck, which was now black, though it looked just as beat up as it always had. I drove through the city, eventually getting to a now familiar bar. Steve and Bucky were waiting for me outside and I waved as I drove past, pulling into an alley to card my truck. I walked back around to the front entrance, shaking both of my friends' hands.

"Hey guys, good to see you." I said as we greeted each other, stepping into what was now our usual hangout. Apparently the owners father fought alongside Steve and Bucky in the war, and he was nice enough to keep everything low-key

"How have you been Maker?" Steve said as we climbed onto our usual bar stools.

"It's been busy. Making lots of progess on some of my projects," I answered. "Sorry about skipping out last time, I got a bit distracted with something."

"It's fine," Bucky said with a shrug. "Just means you're paying."

I chuckled and motioned for the bartender for three beers, the familiar man knowing what we drank. We all enjoyed our first sip before leaning back in our seats.

"How's everything going with you two?" I asked, turning slightly to them. "You find a apartment you like yet Bucky?"

"Yeah, it's not too far from here actually," He answered with a shrug. "It's a bit expensive for my tastes but it's nice."

"Let me know if you need help moving things or want anything done," I offered with a smile. "I'm the ultimate moving service, and after I custom made almost everything in my new place I have some cool things that really spice a place up. I managed to make my fireplace burn the same logs forever, with no smoke or oxygen loss. It's even adjustable like a gas stove, but with the real deal aesthetic."

"Thanks. I don't know about the custom stuff but I might take you up on the moving service." He said with a small smile before taking another sip of beer.

"What about you Steve? How are things with Peggy?"

"We… are taking it slow," He answered with a shrug. "While the whole…thing… was happening, we both kind of just slipped into old habits, older for her. When it all settled we both agreed to take a step back. She moved into her own apartment and I got one nearby. We have been on a couple of dates, and we spend a lot of time at work together. It's going well though."

"What he did not mention is the love sick puppy eyes they shoot each other whenever the other one isn't paying attention," Bucky said, his smile now big. "I give them three weeks before going slow isn't going fast enough."

I chuckled as Steve groaned, rubbing his face.

"How's work going? Are you three settling into your official positions?" I asked. "Ema and I stopped in today to fix up your fragility problem."

Steve and Bucky had both been officially put in charge of the enhanced squad, with Steve leading and Bucky as his second command. Peggy was given an intelligence position, far away from active field duty.

"You did? How did you manage that?" Steve asked before waving me off. "No never mind, I know you won't actually tell me here. How effective is it?"

"It's significant," I said with a shrug. "Fury has all the data I have on it. If you're interested in it for yourselves just let me know."

They both gave me non-committal shrugs, as they always did when I mentioned my method of permanent personal enhancement.

"I'm glad though, ever since Johnson broke his foot they have all been worried about it," Bucky said. "Bunch of pansies. It's not like it won't get better in less than ten minutes with your other gear."

"Sounds like you two are having fun."

"He is just being overly harsh," Steve said, nudging his best friend. "It's refreshing to work with a team who is both skilled and enhanced. Leading the Howling Commandos was great, but knowing that my team can follow me when I jump fifteen feet from a second story balcony is priceless."

"You're welcome," I said with a smirk. "And Peggy?"

"She complains about the work but she secretly loves it," Bucky said. "Well not so secretly really. You can tell this is what she lives for."

"She thought she put it behind her Buck," Steve said with a somber shake of his head. "After what she went through can you really blame her?"

"If it's too private, it's fine, but what happened?" I asked.

"Peggy was married," Steve explained, sounding a bit lost. Not angry or jealous, just lost. "Long enough to have a son, named Steve. They both died when their home burnt to the ground while Peggy was away on business."

"Fuck." I cursed under my breath, shaking my head as my mind flew back to arriving at the home I grew up in, the whole house a charred shell, knowing my parents had been inside. "That… That's horrible."

"She threw herself into her work after that," Steve continued. "Really burnt herself out."

The three of us were quiet for a few minutes, before I finally spoke, gesturing to the bartender.

"C'mon, let's get some food, then we can head out to the range. I've got some new toys for us to try out."

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The Conceptual Deck by MetaBettaOmegaLetta

 Movies » Avengers Rated: M, English, Adventure, Words: 375k+, Favs: 1k+, Follows: 2k+, Published: Dec 21, 2021 Updated: Feb 24, 2023

1,090Chapter 62 - Out on the range

An hour or so later the three of us had finished our drinks and food and were ready to leave. The first time we had done this Steve had pointed out that drinking probably wasn't the best thing to be doing before trying out potentially dangerous gear, but I quickly pointed out that none of us were capable of getting drunk any more. Bucky had laughed when Steve blushed, caught being a goody two shoes.

We left the bar and headed to an alley, taking a look around before they both held out their hands and I traveled us to the range, a dozen acres of land I bought with Tony's help, located in the middle of nowhere. We landed in the corner of the same tent that had been set up at the Quarry, now set up as a sort of break area, with self contained fan units, lights and even a fridge that kept itself stocked with beer, soda and a few snacks. Not far outside was a well made range hut, complete with chairs, gun rests, spotter monoculars, anything you could need at a range. A short walk the other direction was a large three car garage, a simple metal structure strengthened by vibranium and Asgardian alloy.

I set this place up shortly after I moved my workshop from the quarry to its current location. Steve, Bucky and I had been coming here on and off for a few months as a way to unwind and a way for me to get some feedback on some of my newest creations.

"So I've got a few updated versions of the guns we tried last time, a new shotgun and a heavy cannon I want your opinion on." I said before gesturing to the garage. "There's also two new vehicles I want you to look at."

As we walked to the gun range I pushed out a trunk of weapons, flicking out a card so it appeared on the concrete floor of the range hut. I cracked the trunk open and pulled out two guns, handing one to each of them before grabbing the third for myself. It was a conceptual blend of several rifles, including the SCAR, the HKMR762 and two M14's, all to try and create the perfect high powered DMR.

This particular attempt had a soft blue glow emanating from the seams, softly pulsing from one end to the other. Each rifle was modified to run off energy cells, and therefore never ran out of ammo, before it was combined into this form. I also fiddled with the individual parts, trying to tweak it into its perfect form before I stacked it for its ultimate version.

The final result was a sleeker, longer rifle that leaned heavily towards the M14 but still pulled from the SCAR. It fired blue pulses of energy which immediately they both recognized when I first showed them off. It had taken a while to assure them that this weapon would not disintegrate its targets unless you specifically set it to that setting.

"You fixed the recoil?" Bucky asked as he checked over the rifle.

"It's scalable now." I explained. "It's on the stock controls."

My last version had removed the recoil in its entirety, and they both immediately complained that without the recoil it was hard to anticipate and get into a rhythm of shooting. Bucky nodded and examined the left side of his stock, pushing open a small panel of buttons. There was a switch to deploy a complete silencer, one to dampen the light, one to deploy a bipod, a small knob to choose between six different scopes and a new one to adjust how much the weapon kicked.

The three of us sat down in the three different bays and aimed down the range. Scattered down the range were barrels, small wooden structures and a few sandbag barricades. After settling in I pushed a button on the wall next to me and a few dozen targets popped up, slowly moving around, back and forth, up and down. After a moment's pause we all opened fire, testing out the different options.

"I like the scalable recoil," Bucky said, nailing a distant target in the head. "Having the best of both worlds comes in handy."

"Still a bit of a space gun for my tastes, but I can feel the M14 influence on it," Steve added, hitting a closer target with a three round burst. "What are you designing this for anyway, you already have your guns?"

My guns, which were each charged with a Destroyer armor beam, had changed little since I originally made them. Each of their forms, two revolvers, a rifle and a shotgun were triple stacked, having all but slammed into diminishing returns at that point. The rifle, which had been the only form that did not have infinite ammo, had been enhanced similar to how these guns were, but with a focus on more mid range.

"Because I can." I said with a shrug, picking off one of the furthest targets as it peaked over a barrel. "Plus having a little extra fire power packed away just in case could come in handy."

"A little extra firepower?" Bucky said skeptically, his eye roll almost tangible. "You could already take over a small country with a dozen of these things and I'm sure you plan on stacking them until they can take out a tank."

I stayed silent, unwilling to lie more, which only made Steve and Bucky chuckle. We spent a few more minutes trying out this iteration of my DMR before we stopped.

"I like it," Steve said as he handed the rifle back. "I'm not sure what else you could add to it at this point. Have you figured out how to make it non lethal?"

"No, and I officially gave up on it," I said with a shrug. "The lethal and nonlethal concepts clash too much, even through a transformation. Plus Tony pointed out that having a gun that is lethal and non lethal is just asking for someone to mess up and shoot one when they meant to do the other. I'm going to make a dedicated non lethal option. "

"That's probably for the best."

Next we tested a shotgun that I had just finished developing that visually looked like a sleek and streamlined Saiga-12, even if it was a combination of several shotguns. The main advancement I had made was the ability to switch between a few different types of rounds to fire. With a simple selector wheel you could switch between slugs that explode, pierce, deliver a small EMP like shock, or deliver a purely kinetic blow. It also had a few "spread" modes that fire smaller, less penetrative but still extremely lethal bolts of energy, for use in situations where going through a wall could mean a civilian casualty. It also had a few different options on the gun frame itself, such as a silencer, a few different types of sights and the same scalable recoil.

"The scalable recoil is perfect on these," Steve said after I had explained the gun's abilities and we all started trying them out. "No one likes to admit it but firing high powered slugs from a shotgun is not fun."

"It's nice to be able to feel my arm still," Bucky added.

"Yeah, it's getting added to all of my guns from now on," I said. "I'm trying to figure out a way to add it to my revolvers."

We shot a bit more before putting them away as well, Bucky taking one last look at the weapon before handing it to me.

"It does too much," Bucky said, sitting back down on his chair. "You don't need the spreading options."

"It would only get in the way I think," Steve agreed "Having options is good, but making something complicated could mean death on a real battlefield."

"Right, so I'll get rid of the spread rounds and add a cleared selector for the four remaining firing options," I said, making a note on my phone. "What else?"

"Full auto like that is probably overkill," Steve pointed out, Bucky nodding his head in agreement. "Is there a reason you have a shotgun at all? Why not attach those options to something else?"

I looked up with a blank face, my mind spinning around for a moment. My DMR was for mid to long range, and my already tested and finished assault rifle was focused more on mid to short. There was no real reason, beyond the concept of delivering various payloads, for having a shotgun, not with the Deck blurring the lines of what was possible in a rifle frame.

"I… suppose you're not wrong. I'll see what I can do," I said, ideas already popping into my head. I put them aside for now, closing up the trunk and carding it.

"Alright, here is the last weapon, then I can show you the vehicles," I said, pushing the last weapon out of a card.

It was four and a half feet of over the shoulder fire power. A central tube ran through the entire length, starting with a thick rim at the business end, pulling from the FGM-148 Javelin. Most of its heft was in the front end, but instead of equipment for firing a rocket, it was a sleek housing that pulled back into a shoulder rest. It glowed with blue power just like the rifles and shotguns had, with the accompaniment of a soft hum you could only hear and feel when it rested on your shoulder.

"I call this the Combo Cannon," I explained. "Or CC for short. It fires a whole slew of different packages, in either an arcing or straight trajectory. The power and blast radius of each shot can be adjusted and it has no backdraft. It even has a no blast wave setting, which decreases the effectiveness of certain options but drastically reduces the concussive wave put off by the explosions. Its energy projectile can lock on to heat signatures, it can be steered or set to detonate after a certain time or proximity. While the shotgun might have fallen a bit flat, this needs to be in a separate package."

I stepped up to the firing window, adjusting several settings before aiming through the view screen. I designated a target up on the steep rise behind the range, before pulling the trigger.

The Cannon hummed loudly for just a second, charging up before sending a blast of energy down range. It impacted the side of the hill, almost three hundred meters away and detonated, creating a massive blast of blue energy that took down three trees. The sound of the explosion rolled over us, surprisingly quiet for the size of the explosion. Unsatisfied with the test I changed one of the settings before arcing a half dozen shots over everything in the range to blow deep craters in the far sand wall. These were much smaller, but still impressive explosions.

I turned and looked at the two soldiers, who were looking at me with jaws dropped.

"So… you guys want to give it a shot?"

The two soldiers spent the next hour or so absolutely demolishing my range, putting the CC through its paces. In the end they stopped when there wasn't much else to destroy.

"Uh… sorry about your range…" Steve said after realizing just how destructive they had been. "Do you need some help repairing it or…?"

"Don't worry about it," I assured him, the CC disappearing into my deck. "I'll get someone else to do it. So what do you guys think?"

"It's a little complicated," Steve answered. "That's not as big of a deal for something like that since any soldier will know better to just wildly press the trigger for a gun that big. But it could still lead to some issues."

"What if I boiled it down a bit? Two, maybe three dials and a few toggles? One for payload, one for power level and a third for concussive force? It would need a few extras but…"

We talked about the cannon for a bit more before eventually I carded it and started leading the pair over to the reinforced garage, opening the door easily.

"I've been messing around with vehicles for a bit now, just picking random roles and trying to build the best vehicle I could for that role."

Sitting in the garage were a bunch of different vehicles, all clearly modified or completely custom. The smallest was a pair of ATV's with a sleek science fiction vibe to them. The front wheels were attached to different supports, providing the absolute best of shock absorption. It sort of looked like two motorcycles attached together. Next to those was a larger buggy, with massive tires that had the best grip I could conceptually craft into it. The last vehicle was an absolute monster of a truck. Eight wheels, heavily armored and powered by six max stacked arc reactors, it was a behemoth. In fact, that was what I called it, the Behemoth.

It was also too big for me to card, making it almost completely useless. Though it did teach me a valuable lesson.

Apparently, I could make something inside a card that once I pushed it out I could not pull back in. I was just thankful I had kept it in the deck until I was down here at the range. It would have been a pain to deal with at the warehouse.

"Damn Maker, that is massive," Bucky said, walking to the massive truck. "Is it as tough as it looks?"

"Tougher." I assured him. '"It's called the Behemoth."

Eventually the two focused on what I actually wanted them to focus on, the buggy and the two ATV's. After a few minutes of explaining their capabilities, as well as me handing both of them a conceptually crafted helmet, we drove out of the garage. Steve pulled out first in the buggy, with Bucky and myself chasing after him on the ATV's.

For the next few hours we wove between trees, around rocks and along a dozen paths that I had carved out while testing other vehicles. We were traveling at some ridiculous speeds, our enhancements the only reason we weren't smashing into trees, boulders or each other. Eventually we switched up vehicles, with Steve taking an ATV Bucky in the buggy. After another hour we made our way back to range, covered in mud and dirty.

"The buggy was clearly faster," Steve said as Bucky hopped out of the buggy. "But the ATV's had it beat in maneuverability."

"That was the idea," I said with a nod, leading the two out of the garage, shutting the door behind us.

"The buggy was much more comfortable as well," Bucky pointed out. "My butt was getting sore after the first hour on the ATV."

"Hmm… I'll have to take a look at that," I said, making a mental note.

"So… why bother making these at all?" Steve asked as we stepped into the tent, dropping down on one of the chairs. "Last I heard you could fly at what, mach three?"

"Honestly? These are for fun," I said with a shrug. "Some of this stuff is a hobby, some of it is because I want to be prepared."

"Prepared for what?"

"Anything. The world is changing Steve, it's heading to something, I can feel it. I want to be ready for whatever it is," I explained, passing him and Bucky some water bottles from the fridge. "I know it sounds paranoid, but… weird stuff is happening more and more often. I mean look at you Steve, and you Bucky. Two best friends, super soldiers, separated during world war two and then reconnected in the modern era. How crazy is that? And then there is Iron Man, the Hulk, Asgardians, and that's just what we know of."

"I… guess it's hard for me to spot because this is all so new to me," Steve admitted, giving Bucky a look, who only shrugged. "But life did stop being normal for me when I was chosen for the super soldier program."

"Just keep it in mind. Weird is the new normal. And don't be afraid to call me in if there is something weird going on."

"You don't have to worry about that," Bucky responded. "You're already on the short list of people to call if shit stops making sense."

I chuckled and nodded, checking the time on my phone.

"Alright guys, it's about time I get back to the warehouse," I said standing and stretching. "I assume you want to go back to DC?"

A short while, and a few goodbyes later I traveled back to the warehouse. Ema was still gone, but I still had plenty to keep me occupied until she got back. With Tony due back I wanted to get some of my own projects done before we started collaborating again.