TGS - #22

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Stuttgart, Germany May 4, 2012

–Steve Rogers–

When he had first awoken in this strange new world, he was surprised, wary, a bit glad, and a little sad. Mostly because he had a date he needed to get to which he missed. At the same time, he was also a little glad because he got to live again when he had crashed the ship into the ice, fully prepared to die.

Because that's who he was, the perfect soldier, the person who would not hesitate to sacrifice everything he had to make sure that good prevailed over evil.

Except…he did not feel like that guy these days. The war was over, the good guys won and everybody got to go back home. Except…him.

He had visited his old house, to see if he could feel some sort of familiarity with it but that turned out to be a lost cause. Sure, the buildings looked the same from the outside but the people, the feel, the noises, the kids, the cars, everything. Nothing was the same.

So, he did what was expected of him. He tried to move on, to get a handle on this new lease of life that was given to him by God's grace.

Except….he did not know how.

All his life, he had been the scrawny one. The little one. And even then, the war had been a major part of his scrawny life where he had wanted nothing more than to join the war efforts and help the good guys win. Then, he had met Doctor Erskeine and war only became a more important thing in his life. 

So much so that at this point in his life, he had…forgotten. Forgotten how to live without having the constant shadow of war over his head.

He tried. He really did. To live in a world that didn't need him anymore. That didn't need a super soldier to win wars because the wars he was used to, didn't really happen anymore. 

Sure, he was still stronger than anyone the Army could throw at him, but he had seen the news on the strange thing called the Internet. Stark, for one, had suits that could fold him in half from far away and do the same to dozens of others, all without needing to undergo any life-threatening procedure.

Whereas he was the same, capable of taking down platoons by himself but that's not how the current wars were fought. There was no large-scale war where he could be deployed. No, as far as his SHIELD handler could explain to him, there were only small battles, not even between countries but between organisations that could be declared as rogue at a moment's notice if their dastardly deeds ever came to public attention.

Then, he encountered the Green Guardian. He had seen him fly around the city, patrolling the city and stopping many crimes on his way. Almost like clockwork, the Green Giant would come floating in the air during the day and would descend with the sun, making the city a supremely safe place during the day. 

He had even met him briefly but he did not get much out of him and honestly, he was also not in the right space of mind to perform a subtle interrogation. He was just happy that even after having such tremendous powers, the person chose to use his powers for good. 

The SHIELD interest in him was warranted but he never gave them anything beyond him spotting him and coming to meet him in his gym, the same gym that Bucky used to go to, when he was enlisted in the army and he was but a scrawny man.

He was already feeling out of place in this modern world, wasting away slowly but surely with nowhere to apply his skills when the call for this mission came. He had been a little happy about it at first then he realised who the other members were. He had already been feeling a little useless in the entire scenario but seeing the scenario play out in front of him just drove in the fact. 

Seeing Stark and Thor's fight had already proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that even with his shield, he could probably only barely survive even one of their onslaughts.

Then he was surprised to see Stark's shield breaking and Thor just sending a vast amount of lightning at Stark's suit. He was about to say something but stopped when he saw the Green Guardian move. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the green barrier which protected Tony from the attack.

He secured Loki and stood on the edge of the cliff as he saw the Green Guardian float down to the ground, requesting Thor to cooperate with them. His words were true but Thor took one look at the restrained Loki and not liking what he saw, jumped up with his hammer glowing white from all the lightning falling down on it from the sky.

He tensed, even though he knew within that even if there were a hundred of him, there was no way to truly stop that attack. Even then, he released Loki and reached for his shield to try and throw it in between the attack to give some breathing room but before he could even get a hold of his shield, he saw the Green Guardian with his arm outstretched towards Thor as a huge green wall appeared in front of him, tanking all the lightning attacks and in the next moment, Thor's hammer struck the barrier, lighting up his vision with white.

He shielded his eyes and dropped his shield, to hold onto Loki as well. The task was made harder by the shockwave that appeared after the loud noise which destabilised the entire hill, making them fall down on their butts.

He hurriedly blinked the spot out of his vision and sat upright, looking at Loki who was looking at the scene with wide eyes.

Seeing that Loki had not fled the scene, he looked in front of him and his jaw hung agape as he looked at the absolute devastation that spread for miles. Where before there was a huge vibrant green forest, was now a ravine that seemed to stretch for miles. 

He looked at the green glow that appeared out of all the dust that had been raised and was relieved to see that everyone was still upright, standing in the crater that had formed.

Thor was shaking his hand as he looked at the still-standing shield with wide disbelieving eyes. Tony was standing behind a smaller green barrier that seemed to have protected him from the worst of the shockwave.

_________xx_______

–Jack Sullivan–

"Can we talk now?" He asked as the barrier that had just tanked Mjolnir's attack dissipated. Well, that was not exactly true. Thor had unexpectedly broken through six of the seven layers of barriers that he had cast, in the expectation that Mjolnir would break through some of them. The last barrier had then flung him and Mjolnir back.

Good to know that he could stop even Mjolnir if he wanted to. Well, a Mjolnir that was being wielded by the current Thor. When he grows into his power, he is sure that no amount of stacked barriers will be able to stop his full strength. After all, Old King Thor could wield cosmic energy with Strombreaker.

"Aye," Thor nodded as he continued to shake his numb hands. Huh, this must be a first for him. Someone stopping Mjolnir aside from the All-Father must be a huge shock. 

'Just wait till you meet Hela then' He thought to himself but did not say out loud. No need to reveal that tidbit of information and send Odin to Valhalla prematurely.

He waved his hands and the barrier protecting Stark broke apart in little shards that then dissipated into thin air. He then gestured to the Quinjet that arrived behind them a moment later, "Shall we?"

He said as he floated up and created two barriers that Loki and Captain stood on, bringing them up to the ramp that he had to force open because the mechanism was all busted. Eventually, he just removed the ramp and tossed it aside, seeing that its structural integrity was busted beyond repair. 

He then looked down to see Tony and Thor standing side by side, looking up at them.

Ah, Tony did not have his repulsors and Thor cannot truly fly. Once the Captain and Loki entered the Quinjet, he waved his hand, sending the barriers flying down to stop in front of Thor and Tony. Both of them stood on it as the barrier began, slowly, taking them up to the Quinjet. 

Once they were all in, he dispelled the smaller barriers and summoned one big one to cover the entirety of the behind of the Quinjet, airlocking it.

"Good to go now, Romanoff," He said as he floated cross-legged and "closed" his flaming eyes to show he was meditating. In truth, he was looking at the situation unfolding as Tony tried to remove his bunged-up suit but all its release mechanisms were partially compromised, it would seem. He could come out of it but doing so was unnecessarily risky considering he would get access to proper tools on the Helicarrier. He was also keeping a close eye on his mental shields as he had the Sceptre in a green barrier, encased under multiple layers of barriers. Hopefully, it did not affect his mind and it should not, considering his training but one could never be sure with Infinity Stones in the mix.

"Roger that," Romanoff muttered as the Quinjet rocketed off, straight to the Helicarrier.

…..

…

"Hello, I am Steve Rogers," The Captain said as he looked at Thor, trying to start a conversation.

"Well met, Steve Rogers. I am Thor Odinson," Thor greeted back as he fiddled with the straps.

The conversation died there with the occasional sounds of something sparking in Tony's suit or the back plate he was carrying disrupting the awkward silence but that was more or less how their entire ride went to the Helicarrier.

Soom, they found themselves landing on the Helicarrier. It was a surreal sight, to see a floating ship in the sky as the ramp was completely transparent, only tinged with green as they slowly positioned for the landing.

"Uh, Romanoff? Are YOu sure this bunged-up thing can land properly?" Stark asked Romanoff as he looked at a display that his suit was projecting, showing the Quinjet and the data from various sensors.

"Says the man wearing metal armour," Romanoff quipped as she focused on the landing.

He sighed and waved his arm, covering the entirety of the Quinjet in his barriers, "Just cut the engine, Romanoff,"

"Well well well, look who can talk now," Stark snarked but he stayed quiet and waited for Romanoff to shut down the engine.

As soon as she did that, red alarms began blaring in the Quinjet but he slowly lowered the jet to safely land on the landing strip. They were surrounded by platoons of heavily armed SHIELD agents as he created a makeshift ramp using his powers and alighted from the jet.

The agents took Loki to take him to his special prison, most probably. All the others waited at the Quinjet for Romanoff to come out and then followed her in the opposite direction.

"Gentlemen, Stark, this way please," She said and took them to the bridge where Fury was, once again, waiting for him. He had a sense of Deja vu as Fury glared at him and Thor for some reason. Stark had already slinked off to get out of his suit and would probably join them or Banner after that, he did not know.

"Do you have any idea how much money the Germans are asking for? You guys damn near destroyed one of their protected forests during your slug match," Fury did not shout but it was a close thing.

"What?" Was the only thing Thor could say to that because to him, destroying a couple of trees must just be another Tuesday. For a civilization that had no appreciation for nature's gifts, it was an outrage. They probably could have destroyed a small town and would have gotten less flak because of the insurance payments they would have gotten. The buildings could be built in years but the trees, especially those old-growth forests could take centuries.

"Just pass on the bill to Stark. We all know he was the one who started the fight,"

"Aye, Metal Man ambushed me," Thor said and he could see Fury process the gal on that man as Thor had been the one who had just ambushed a Quinjet and ripped out Loki, his seat included with him and just flown out of the jet. Tony was just going after the person who just broke a prisoner out of their custody.

"Whoa, whoa. Why me? Most of the damage occurred because of Point Break's hammer fight with Greenie here. Why do I have to foot the entire bill," Stark said as he entered the bridge, a pack of strawberries in his hand as he snacked while walking along the command bridge.

"Well, I suppose you can take out my share of the fine from all the royalty you owe me," He rumbled as he stood there, ramrod straight. The Captain just looked confused at the by-play, as did everyone else.

Fury turned to Stark, only for him to narrow his eyes at Jack, "What Royalty?"

"Oh, don't play coy with me, Stark. I saw the barriers you used. It is so obvious you got the inspiration from me," He said.

"I am not even going to dignify that with a response," Stark said as he strutted to the command console where Hill was standing. Then, he did the iconic scene where he subtly placed a bug on the console stand as he distracted everyone by the insensitive act of placing one hand on his eye and then asking how Fury saw the other display.

"Stark, now that you are here, I want you to help Dr.Banner track down the Tesseract,"

"OK, I don't take orders from you…but it does seem infinitely more interesting than seeing your face," Saying that absolute banger of an insult, Stark turned around and went on his way, presumably to the Lab.

"Stark, this will help," He said and floated over the Sceptre to Stark who leaned away from the pointy staff. He rolled his eyes and then walked towards him.

"Let's go," He said and started walking ahead, leaving Fury and Thor to discuss. He was not inclined to listen to the interrogation. Prioritising Banner was the smart thing to do. He was the most destructive person on the ship, after him of course.

Romanoff would warn them about Loki's plan to release the Hulk on the ship soon anyway. He was more curious about any countermeasures that Loki might have devised for him specifically considering he was now intimately aware of his strength. For all of Loki's life, Thor was considered the gold standard for strength. That standard was raised even more when Thor got Mjolnir. Mjolnir, in Loki's mind, must be the symbol of invincibility, and seeing that get stopped right in its tracks must leave some sort of mark on Loki's mind.

He was curious as to how Loki might respond, considering the big variable in plans that was his existence.

"You seriously think I copied your powers?" Stark said as they entered the Lab. Dr.Banner looked up from his display and was very startled when he saw the Sceptre following them into the lab, probably already knowing its mind-control properties.

"Didn't you?" He said and then floated over the Tesseract and deposited it on the empty table nearby.

"Dr.Banner, match the readings from this sceptre and then search for them. The Tesseract and this worked very similar so I believe they have some sort of connection that allowed Loki to arrive at the same spot as the Tesseract," 

Dr.Banner nodded and got to work on setting up the scanners.

"...Okay, you could make the case that I got some inspiration from your barriers but you have no patent to speak of. How would you even patent your biological powers anyway? Anyway, if you really need the money, just tell me and I can set you up. You know, I have hit a roadblock in strengthening the shield and cannot think of any other option other than throwing more juice at it. Any chance you can-"

"Do you ever shut up?" Tony leaned back, very surprised by the insulting question.

He sighed, "Look, we can talk later, once the Tesseract is secured. I am sure you know how much damage it can do in the wrong hands. Especially with the data you will get from Jarvis once he is done running through SHIELD's database,"

"What? You are doing what?!" The Captain said as he entered the lab.

"Oh yeah, in about a couple of minutes, I will have cracked the mother vault and know every deep dark secret of SHIELD. Blueberry?" He offered it to Steve who just looked outraged and confused at the same time. It was kind of amusing to watch the perfect soldier's brain stop for a split second because the person in front of him was just so good at doing that to people.

"And you support this?" He turned to Dr.Banner and Jack.

He didn't have anything to say but Dr.Banner did, "Just look, this seems suspicious. What was SHIELD doing in the energy sector anyway? And if they were, why not bring in the world's foremost expert on clean energy right now?" 

"Exactly! I am so glad someone speaks my language here. Blueberries?" Stark exclaimed as he thrust the pack of blueberries at Banner who just waved it off.

"Just, Steve, doesn't it look at least a little shady to you?"

Steve's face looked conflicted as he said, "Just…find the Tesseract," He then stormed off, presumably to look for evidence, as he did in the movies.

Now, all that was left was Romanoff and Fury coming here to isolate Banner, to ignite the spark that would end in Loki escaping his prison.

Word Count - 3103

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