The Guide To Moving On

Chapter 3 - Recruitment

Fury's POV

"Fury, you called me?" Agent Romanoff asked as she marched into the room, taking a seat at my desk. I cleared my throat before addressing her.

"Yes, I did call for you," I replied, trying to get my tablet to cooperate so that I could bring some images up on the screen. I gave up in the end and just went back to talking to her directly.

"I gather he is awake?" She asked, looking at me intently. I had known her for long enough to know that she was reading my expressions and emotions like an open book. One of the perks of having one of the most skilled assassins in the world as your agent.

"Yes, he is very awake and he didn't take it as well as we hoped," I said, sighing. The events of this morning were an absolute mess. I told my team to break it to him slowly, but a rookie mistake meant that we had to slap the Captain across the face with the truth.

Sure, I had tried to soften the blow, but how much can you soften it, if you are telling someone that they had lost everything that they knew and loved forever?

"I figured, otherwise you wouldn't have required my assistance. But now you know that he doesn't solely trust you, therefore you need someone else to help you get him on board with the initiative." She said in a bored tone, playing with her fingers whilst she spoke.

Of course, she knew what my intentions were. You could never hide anything from her, ever. It was an asset that was greatly needed at SHIELD but wasn't great when you were trying to get secretive things done in her presence. So, I just nodded in reply.

"We shall go and find him and explain it to him. I wanted to give him time to process, but by now he is for sure getting overwhelmed and is in dire need of a task." I informed getting out of my chair.

"Let's go then. He will be in the old gym for sure." Natasha said as she walked out of the door ahead of me. The old gym, of course. It hadn't been used in decades, but when they wanted to renovate it, I had denied the request as I had a feeling that it would still have a purpose. I suppose this is it.

We both weaved down the corridors, not stopping until we were outside the old gym. We could hear noises coming from the inside, he was definitely in there.

Natasha pushed the door open and we entered quietly. He was in the center, punching the punching bags with a force I had never seen before in someone. Judging by how exhausted he looked and by the pile of bags in the corner with sand pouring out of them, he had been here for hours and hours for it was 11 p.m.

Steve's POV

I heard the door squeak open behind me, so I delivered the final blow to the bag sending it flying before turning to address them.

It was Fury again and it seemed that he had bought a red-headed woman with him. Probably another one of his protégées that were here to try and get me to 'get out into the world'.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury called out as they both walked towards me. I rolled my eyes and hung up another bag.

"I slept for 70 years sir, I think I have slept for long enough." I retorted, whilst resuming my punching.

"Then you should be out, celebrating, exploring the world." Fury said. This was enough to make me stop and glare at him. Of course, no one knew what it was like to lose everything. They just expected that I would be ok with everything, like my emotions would just go away. Well, they aren't, and I am about fed up with Fury and this entire organization. SHIELD, or whatever it is.

"Who are you?" I asked directing my attention to the woman next to him as to divert the conversation onto something else.

"I am Agent Romanoff, one of the agents here at SHIELD." She said. There was something about her, about her presence, that just made you not want to cross her. Like she was dangerous or something, even though she didn't look that dangerous. Pushing that thought to the side, I tried to get to the point of this conversation.

"What are you doing here?" I asked them both, hoping I could get this over with quickly and then they could leave me in peace.

"We have a mission for you, that is if you are interested." Fury said passing me a file that he had in his hands. On the front of the file, there were AVENGERS; CLASSIFIED written in bold on the top. My eyebrows knotted together, what does Avengers mean?

I opened the files and scanned them. Inside there were separate files for 5 people. Tony Stark; Howard Stark's son, Clint Barton; trained archer, Bruce Banner; a doctor, Natasha Romanoff; assassin and me?

Under each person it had a list of their abilities; Tony had an impenetrable iron suit, Clint was an archer, Bruce turns into a big monster as a result of a radiation accident, I had a serum enhanced body but under Natasha, there was nothing other than an assassin. That's weird. There was nothing, not even age or birthplace.

I figured out quickly that Natasha Romanoff was the very Agent Romanoff standing before me, an assassin huh. That explains the dangerous vibes coming from her. But why did Fury give me these files?

"What is this?" I asked impatiently as I looked to Fury for answers.

"The Avengers was an initiative that was ditched years ago, for fear that it wouldn't be successful. But things have changed, especially now that we have you. The initiative was designed to protect the world from large threats to it. We have picked out a group of extraordinary people with the hopes of putting them together and seeing if they can become something more." Fury briefly explained.

"Right, but that's not all that it is, is it? You have gathered a group of people that you believe are downright dangerous and have put them together so that you could keep an eye on them, under the veil of saving the world?" I asked incredulously. This man may be able to fool others, but he wasn't about to fool me.

"Captain, that is not what we're trying to do here. The world has changed since you have been in the ice, each day more and more threats are arising. One day or another it is going to be too much and the very world we know, no matter what time we knew it in, will be destroyed. This initiative would be created to help stop these threats, using the extraordinary powers and talents that you have been given." He said calmly. Yeah right.

I had seen this kind of stuff before but I wasn't falling for it. They use and abuse you with no regard to you being human. You become their weapon, completely under their control, to be used against others.

I passed the file back to Fury and took off my gloves.

"Whatever you say, but I am not going to have any part in it. I don't do any of this. I am done with this, all of this. I am leaving you and your organization. Find someone else for your initiative." I said, handing Fury back the file and marching past them, leaving the room and closing the door hard behind me.

I wanted to sprint, as far away from this place as possible. This time, no one was going to stop me from leaving, no one.