Iron Man 3/Captain America: The Winter Solder (Sequeal to The Avengers)

Stories and new leader

As I think of Tony, Nat comes to sight. ''Hey, are you okay?'' she asks me worried.

I look up at her before crossing my arms and leaning my side against the wall. ''I'm fine. It's just...'' I say, not finishing my sentence.

''You're in doubt.'' she says questionably but as a statement.

I look shocked at her. ''No, I just... I honestly just want to go home to Tony right now. I feel I'm letting him down at some point.'' I tell her. She looks confused at me. ''I know this is important and we're getting chased by SHIELD, but I just know that Tony needs me. He can't be alone for so long. I mean, I haven't even been gone for a week, and he's already missing me like hell. Even though I warned him in the first place that I probably will be gone for a long time, he still told me to go here, because he wants me to help you guys.'' I tell her.

She stays silent for a bit. ''I think you should think about Steve in this. He's the one everybody are after. I know he doesn't show it, but he needs you on this mission. You should talk to him about this.'' she tells me.

I sigh heavily and nod. ''All right. I'll talk to him about it.'' I say simply. She's then about to walk out to the others, but then I suddenly remember back from yesterday at the camp. ''Nat.'' I say to get her attention again. She stops and turns around to me. ''Do you remember when you told me about Peggy, Steve's first true love?'' I ask her. She nods as she walks closer to me. I sigh. ''It was her on that picture we saw in the bunker last night.'' I tell her. She looks at me with big eyes. ''That's why he went silent after you asking him about her. That was the reason why he looked at me first... To see how I will react to it, because he could sense on me that I already knew it was Peggy on the picture.'' I tell her.

She stays silent as she sits on the floor against the wall. I sit next to her and take my arms around my knees as I'm looking at her. She looks down. ''He only told me her name and that she was his first love.'' she tells me. She then looks up at me. ''You're Stark's girlfriend. He has probably told you a lot of stories from the past with his father and SHIELD. Do you know what happened to her after Steve got frozen?''

I look away from her and shrug. ''Well, to be honest, Tony hasn't really told me that much of his father, because of all the hatred to his father. But me being me, I was curious to know more about Tony's past, so I talked to various people who has once worked with Howard.'' I tell her.

She frowns at me. ''Who did you talk to?'' she asks me curious.

''Many people. But there was actually one person in particular that I gave extra of my attention to.'' I say. She stays silent. ''His name is Hank Pym. He's the founder and previously CEO of Pym Technologies. He worked with Howard in SHIELD in the 80's, where he was on missions. He also worked with Peggy. She was actually Stark's right hand, if you can say that. They worked together on an event called Original Sin. Since the "death" of Steve in 45, she's stung with Howard. Of course, until Howard and Maria died. After that, she was in SHIELD till her retirement.'' I tell her.

She sighs and nods. ''Are you in doubt now?'' she suddenly asks me.

I look at her. ''Right now, I'm not. Right now, I want to be with Tony, because I have a thought the Steve is having something with agent 13.'' I tell her.

''Sharon Carter.'' she says.

I nod. ''Yes. I think he likes her, so I'll let him choose with that. Of course, I think he's going to choose her, because I'm with Tony.'' I tell her. She nods. I stand from the floor. ''Come on, let's go to the others.'' I say to her and walks to the others.

I see Fury and Hill sitting at a table with some maps and a laptop, while Steve and Sam stands. I walk over to Steve and stand next to him, while Nat sits on a chair at the table. Fury holds up a picture, I can't see from my perspective.

''This man declined the Nobel Piece Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility.'' he says to us and puts down the picture. I can now see it's a picture of Alexander Pierce. ''See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues.'' she says to us.

''We have to stop the launch.'' Nat says to us, looking at me and Steve.

''I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore.'' Fury says and suddenly opens the map on the table in front of him. In the map, lies three targeting blades.

''What's that?'' Sam asks.

''Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized.'' Hill explains us, showing a blueprint of inside a helicarrier on her laptop.

''We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own.'' Fury says.

''One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die.'' Hill tells us.

''We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left...'' Fury says.

''We're not salvaging anything.'' Steve suddenly says in anger.

I look at him and put a hand on his chest to calm him down a bit. ''Steve.'' I say to him.

He looks at me and then back to Fury. ''We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down SHIELD.'' he says with a now more calm tone.

''SHIELD had nothing to do with this.'' Fury says to him in a warning tone, like he suddenly wants to start an argument. And he does, if I know Steve right.

''You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised. You said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed.'' Steve starts to argue with Fury, now with a warning tone himself.

''Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed.'' Fury says.

I look at Steve to see him looking at Fury with a warning expression. ''How many paid the price before you did?'' he suddenly asks him, referring to his "death" by Bucky.

Fury then sighs and looks at Hill for a second before looking down. ''Look, I didn't know about Barnes.'' he says to Steve and looks up at him.

''Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? SHIELD, HYDRA. It all goes.'' Steve says.

''He's right.'' Hill says to Fury and nods at him. He then looks at me. I stay silent and look away. I feel Steve taking his arm around my waist. Fury then looks at Nat. She stays silent as well. He then looks at Sam.

''Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower.'' Sam says to him.

Fury then looks at Steve. ''Well... Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain.'' he says. So this is it. This is where it all really begins.