Steve's Diary

June 1, 2012

Dear Diary,

Everything just seems to get more and more confusing and complicated and I don't exactly know what to do.

It feels like there's just been a ridiculously large amount of information thrown at me and I don't know where to begin with looking at it all.

—————

First, I was on a super fast airplane with an Agent of some kind... that guy Phil Coulson that Nick Fury was talking to me about a little bit ago. In the most nice and not rude way possible, it almost feels like he's nearly obsessed with me and how much of an honor it was to be in my presence- though, maybe that's just his job, it's a bit odd for me.

Who the Hell watches someone while they're fucking frozen?

We talked a bit about this giant green guy who's name name is Dr. Bruce Banner, I think. Though, I don't see how he's a giant green doctor... Anyway, apparently, after Dr. Erskine died, the search for the original super soldier serum began all across the world, as I was Earth's first superhero.

I died and came back a Goddamn superhero. I don't feel like much, though.

Anyway, this search for the correct serum has, apparently, lasted ages. People have gone to extremes to figure this out and, as I remember Peggy taking my blood that one day that feels like only a few years ago, I suppose nothing ever amounted from it.

This green guy is terrifying in the videos I've been watching, frankly, though Agent Coulson over here seems to think he's a genius scientist... like some other really smart guy who's also pretty super that I'm apparently unaware of. Banner doesn't look all that damn smart. Hell, if he thought Gamma radiation was the way to looking like me and he ended up like that, he's gotta be just plain dumb.

Hell, and I'm gonna meet this... thing? That's where we're going, huh, a room of monsters? What does that make me?

Oh, God, then there's my uniform. You see, they've put my old one in a museum - so much for keeping it, Buck - and have designed me a new one... apparently Phil Coulson had some design input. Yipee.

Eventually, we landed on a ship, like, in the ocean... however the Hell that's possible. Honestly, looking at all this, I have a lot of things I need to read up on... somehow.

Upon exiting the craft, I'm introduced to a beautiful red headed dame. "Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Coulson says.

"Ma'am," I regard her with a nod. Sure, I was in a leather jacket...  but damn, she was in a leather jacket.

"Hi. They need you on the bridge, they're starting the Face-Trace," she tells him, seemingly pushing me aside.

"See you there," Phil says, leaving me with her abruptly. Is it just me, or are people a Hell of a lot more direct and rude nowadays?

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," she begins as she leads us. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading Cards?"

"They're vintage. He's very proud."

"Dr. Banner," I call out at him, as he looks lost among the crowd. He looks at me and I truly do recognize the beast hidden behind his eyes.

"Yea, hi," he says, taking my hand and shaking it as I extended it. "They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is, you can find the cube," I said, deflecting from the obvious jealousy and judgement he was sending my way.

"Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about," I told him, to be frank.

He nodded. "It must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," I replied, looking around at how military it all felt to me.

"Gentlemen," Agent Romanoff began. "You might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

I looked around as announcements came onto the P.A. system, warning the crew. "Is this a submarine?" I asked.

"Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?" Banner added as we both walked closer to the edge to get a better look.

They were pretty damn serious about all this, weren't they?

"No, no, this is much worse," He said to me as turbines somehow managed to break through the water's surface. It was a Goddamn fucking aircraft?

We, eventually, made it inside and Agent Romanoff led us throughout the plane-type-thing to a room. A massive, glass room filled with a very large number of Agents. I looked around for someone I knew but, I suppose it was no use. Everyone I ever knew is long gone; I had only just met anyone that I would recognize.

"Gentlemen," Nick Fury begins, approaching us.

I walk towards him, open my wallet, and hand him a $10. He takes it and looks at me like I have three heads but... there ain't no such thing as a free ride.

I walk past him in awe, looking around at this insane vesicle that we're all in that is now, somehow, flying.

I hear Banner and Fury talking, then Agent Coulson pops in, too. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell Phones, laptops... if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Woa woa woa, hold on, what is a cell phone? And, if it's anything like a Rotary Phone, how could it possibly not have wires anymore? How the Hell does that work? And... uh, what even is a laptop?

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Agent Romanoff joins in.

"You have to narrow your field," Banner tells them. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

How many what?

"How many are there?" Fury asks.

That's also a good question, I guess.

"Call every lab you know," Banner replies. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places... Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff," Fury calls. "Could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"

And off they were, leaving me standing there having no fucking idea what was even being said.

Well, at least Coulson then pulled me to the side. I thought he was gonna ask me to do something to help, though, he only asked me to sign the cards Agent Romanoff was talking about earlier.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble," he said.

"No, no. It's fine," I told him, as I really didn't mind. I could tell he really cared about this.

"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all," he paused. "Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges, but-"

"We got a hit. A 67% match," a man calls over to us from his station. "Wait, cross match, 79%."

I look to my side, but Coulson had already left. He was at the man's station. "Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany," the Agent replied. "28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain," Fury called from far behind me. I turned to look at him. "You're up."

Fucking finally.

—————

And, now, I get to go on my first mission... my first modern day mission, too.

I really hope my lack of technological knowledge doesn't hold me down.

~ S. R.