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Avengers Assembled- Ch 3: 'Awakening'

Deviation Actions

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TRISKELION
NEW YORK HARBOR


“Hold on just a second.”

Dressed as if they were attending a meeting of the College Republicans, Janet van Dyne and Hank Pym stood patiently as the agent who had greeted them at the entrance tried yet again to get their passes to work. Holding one of the laminated passcards under the red light of what looked like a space-age can opener, the dumpy agent in a suit smiled nervously as he waited for the computer to green light the data-chip encoded cards.

 “It doesn’t usually take this long, I don’t know why it-”

 With a pleasant chime, the light became green, and the grateful agent presented them to Hank and Janet. They took the passes, and slipped the lanyards over their necks.

 “Alright!” the agent began, clasping his hands. “Now that you’ve been properly vetted, I’d like to introduce myself; I am Agent Eric Koenig, Triskelion security, and I would like to formally welcome you to SHIELD.”

 “Happy to be here, Agent Koenig.” Janet spoke cheerily. Handshakes had already been exchanged when they entered the building, the smell of the bay still clinging to her blazer from the ferry ride that brought them to the artificial island.

 “How could we refuse.” Hank mused with no small degree of unease.

Koenig eyed him with suspicion for a heartbeat, but his face relaxed into humor as he accepted the expression as benign.
“The Director made you one of those offers huh?” he joked with a finger in their direction, following it with a small chuckle. “Come on you two, he’s waiting for you upstairs.”

 Hank and Janet followed him through the security station, three other agents in black suits and black sunglasses tracking them as they passed. Approaching an elevator embedded within a faultless stainless-steel column, Koenig turned back to them; “Remember, lanyards out at all times.” he cautioned them as the door slid open with a ding.

 Entering a large, circular room Hank gave a slight look over his shoulder as Agent Koenig parted from them at the doorway. The man returned a polite nod before abruptly facing left and walking off.

 “Hmm.” Janet said, as they entered further, her neck craning around to examine the room. “I thought there’d be like huge weapon racks, and secret alcoves where they keep all the fancy spy gadgets.”

 “Maybe all that stuff is downstairs?” Hank offered, taking a seat at a large crescent table. The rooms tone was dark, no windows. Four concentric rings of lights hung from the ceiling, though only one was on, leaving much of the room’s extremities in shadow. Nearly a dozen swivel chairs lined one side of the table, each of them facing the same direction, and exactly the same distance apart.
 Facing the semicircle, was a large flat-screen monitor, turned off at the moment.

 “Trust me…”  came a voice from a dark corner that surprised them both. They turned in the direction it had come, and saw a familiar man step into the light. “We got closets like that all over the place. We just hide ‘em real well.”

 Janet swallowed hard, “Will we be learning sneaky spy stuff like that?”

 Fury shrugged his shoulders as he rounded the corner of the table, tracing a finger along the surface. “If you want. With your powers stealth infiltration would be right up your alley. Both of yours really.”

 “Is that what you have in mind for us?” Hank asked, he and Janet slipping into seats. “You want us to steal something? Take pictures of some secret foreign project?”

 “Someday probably.” Fury said, seeming to mull the thought in his head. “But you ain’t reached that level yet. Plus, The job I have in mind for you three isn’t exactly under the radar.”

 Hank and Janet traded confused glances, “What do you mean ‘you three‘?” she probed.

 “He means me.”  
 The metal boots clanging with every step, Iron Man entered the room. Four SHIELD agents buzzed around him, including Koenig who was embarrassingly trying to halt his advance by pushing against his chest.
 “I’m so sorry Director, he just-”

 Fury cut him off with a raised hand, much to Koenig’s mortification. “It’s fine Agent, he’s expected.”

 Iron Man placed his left hand on Koenig’s head, and moved him aside. “I like your moxie kid, but check the guest list next time.”

As Koenig exited, Iron Man stood there, observing the others.

“Glad you could make it Iron Man.” Fury greeted.

Iron Man glanced between Hank and Janet, “I see I’m just in time for the scout meeting. What’s our first merit badge gonna be?”

“Hey!” Janet cried out, hands on her hips.

“Kidding, just kidding.” Iron Man said with his hand raised defensively. “I know what brought you two to the table. A young science wiz with a pioneering particle project, and a pugnacious pixie with ah, stinger blasts.”

Janet held up her fist, glowing with energy, fixing the bodyguard with a hard glare.

“Now that cha’ll got the niceties out of the way.” Fury interrupted, “Have a seat and we can get this thing underway.”

A minute later, with the three guests sitting at the table, the SHIELD Director turned on the screen with a remote no bigger than his palm.

“Shoulda thought to bring my movie rewards card.” Iron Man mumbled.

The video ran through a series of anachronistic test screen slides before settling onto a scanned black and white photo of a scrawny young man dressed in an olive-drab Army uniform.

“Anybody recognize this young man?” Nick asked them, his arm raised towards the screen. But the others glanced between themselves, having no answer.
“I didn’t think so.” Fury continued, “That’s because you might better recognize him in this picture.”

With a click of the remote, the picture changed to show the front page of an Army Times newspaper from December 1943, one that was indeed more familiar. On it, Captain America, shield in hand, was pointing to some objective in the distance, with soldiers around him coming down a hill, rifles raised.

“I remember seeing that picture of Captain America in history classes.” Janet said, her head tilted. “But that first guys can’t possibly be him, Cap’s like, twice his body mass.”

Another click, and the screen was filled with several data windows, the top-right of which highlighted and expanded to show what looked like an industrial laboratory, in the center was a sleek pod around which several scientists fussed over.

“The Super-Soldier program,” Nick began, “was designed to create the world’s greatest warfighter. Stronger body, faster reflexes, sharper mind, everything a man would need to be the baddest on the battlefield. And the man they chose for that, was Steve Rogers.”

Another window opened, this one with grainy footage of the skinny Steve Rogers being helped into the transformation pod. Beside it, a modern data scroll of his information; date of birth, home of record, parents, previous enlistment attempts, details of his diagnostics.

“I’ve heard about this.” Iron Man spoke, the tone of his voice denoting his increasing understanding of the science they were seeing. “This is Project Rebirth.”

“Correct.” Fury continued. “Our government’s only flawless application of the Super-Soldier program. Without going into depth, you will recall that between 1943 and 1945, Steve Rogers fought the axis forces in both the European and Pacific theaters. His most recurrent opposition of course, came in the form of the NAZI-splinter cult known as HYDRA.”

The next image was the tentacled deaths-head that served as HYDRA’s emblem. Reflexively Janet flinched, subtly, but Hank did perceive it. He reached for her hand underneath the table, and she let him take it, giving it a squeeze in thanks.

“Led by the charismatic Johann Schmidt, known infamously as ‘The Red Skull‘, ” Fury’s narration was complemented by a side-by-side picture of the Nazi officer Schmidt, and his true face, that of a hideous red visage pulled tight over the skeleton. “for obvious reasons, Captain Rogers spent much of the war uprooting and destroying their bases of operations, and hunting for Schmidt.”

The screen rotated through a series of aerial recon pictures of HYDRA bases in Europe, and one in the Pacific.

“For two years the Red Skull eluded Cap, jumping from one safe house to another, and throwing anything in Caps way to slow him down. Until finally, the HYDRA leader was cornered in Norway, in the last of their major bases.”

“That was the base with the missile silo right?” Hank asked.

“Yep, with a warhead aimed straight for the East Coast.” The next slide was a map of the Atlantic Ocean, with a flight path drawn from Europe to the eastern United States. “Red Skull was going for one last Hail-Mary. Aboard that missile was a brand new biological weapon that would have done god-knows-what to hundreds of thousands of American citizens. Fortunately for us, Cap made sure that didn’t happen.

So while Allied forces launched an assault, Captain Rogers, along with his right hand James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, secretly infiltrated the base with the mission to prevent the launch of the missile.”

Old, shaky video footage of the frontal assault on the base began to play, the shouts of men giving orders, screams, and explosions accompanied the scenery. In the background was the stronghold, a fortified castle of concrete built into the side of a mountain. Suddenly, erupting from the highest turret, the missile shot into the air.

“As you can see, Red Skull managed to get it in the air, but not before Cap buried him under the rubble.”

Flash photos of the body of the Red Skull went across the screen, showing his corpse on a coroner’s slab. The body was visibly mangled in several places, crushed and broken.

“Cap and Bucky managed to get aboard the ICBM, and worked frantically over the northern Atlantic to disarm or divert it. They succeeded in getting the propulsion section to jettison the warhead, but in the process-”

“They were lost at sea.” Iron Man finished for him. “The Warhead was recovered, but the bodies of Captain America and Bucky Barnes were never found.”

“Until now.” Fury said, pressing a button to open a new video window on the screen, this one modern and clear, showing a block of ice being extricated and lifted by a helicopter.

Janet perked-up in her seat, pointing to the images, “That’s the iceberg we got stranded on!”

“And that Ms. Van Dyne is the side of Steve Rogers shield sticking out of the ice.” Fury used the palm device to point a laser to where the rounded edge of red metal could be seen embedded in the side of the block. “I would like to thank you Janet, and Hank, and even Iron Man, because we have finally recovered Captain America.”

The three guests leaned back in their chairs, reeling from the surprise.

“Are you saying you have the body of a 70 year old war hero thawing out downstairs, Fury?” Iron Man asked him incredulously.

“Oh we thawed him out yesterday.”
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Floors below them, technicians working in a sterile lab were busy examining the limp form of Steve Rogers. His uniform was pale and ragged, and his cowl was torn in half. His shield lay beside him on a separate table. One tech approached him with forceps, and began to carefully peel back the deteriorated clothing. He opened the double-breasted blouse, where in several documents were still folded, and a pocket watch rested. Using the forceps, he lifted the watch out to examine, but was suddenly distracted by something else.

“Hey check this out Fred.” he said to a nearby attendant with a clipboard, “There’s some muscle spasming in the right hand. Must be an effect of the thawing.”
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Hank stood up from his chair, “While I’m happy to have helped bring Captain Rogers back home, I don’t think this was why you wanted us all here.”

“Astute observation Mr. Pym.” said Fury without looking in his direction. Instead, he minimized the images of Captain America, and brought up a new window that featured a loading bar in the center.

“I brought you here for this.” The bar finished loading, and was replaced by a candid shot of a huge green man standing among the wreckage of a military instillation. He was surrounded by the smoke of destruction, and his face was contorted in a snarl of rage.

“What is that thing?” A stunned Iron Man questioned, getting up from his chair, and coming around the table for a closer look. “Is it human?”

Fury used his pointer to circle the beasts face, “What you are seeing there, used to be called Dr. Bruce Banner.”

“What?!” exclaimed Hank, “Bruce Banner? The nuclear physicist and world’s foremost radiologist?”

“Correct again Mr. Pym, gold sticker for you. What you may not know because it was positively buried by official reports, was that Dr. Banner was involved in a catastrophic accident weeks ago out in the desert. The test run of a gamma bomb was interrupted when a civilian found his way into the area during the countdown process. Dr. Banner heroically risked his life to save the young man, but was exposed himself to the energy blast.

Instead of being killed instantly, like you might think, his body was transformed at the cellular level. His biology became highly reactive to stimuli, adrenaline, and anger. And when I say ‘highly reactive’, I mean this.”

The picture became a video, nosier than the war footage. The vantage was from a soldier’s helmet cam, and was difficult to follow at times. It showed a team of heavily armed military personnel moving down a paved hall, rushing towards an epicenter of demolished vehicles and rubble. A blur of green fury jumped across the picture, and a plume of fire and smoke exploded from the right side of the picture.

A rumbling growl preceded a feral roar that spiked the HUD audio readings. The same figure from the photo lumbered out of the smoke, his chest heaving and teeth bared, he must have towered above the camera-wearer by a good 4-5 feet. All of it bristling with pale green muscle.

“FIRE! FIRE!” One of the men off camera yelled before several rifles opened-up at the beast. It raised its hands to protect its face, but the rest of the bullets deflected harmlessly off its body. Apparently angered further by the assault, the monster brought his hands together with enough power to create a shockwave that bowled all the men off their feet.

The next sound other than the labored breathing of the men, was the ponderous steps of the brute. A huge hand came into the shot, and plucked the camera wearer off the ground, held up for examination. What filled the picture was the grimace of pure rage, a massive, brutalized face, eyes glaring at the hapless soldier.

“HULK SMASH LITTLE MAN!” The monster yelled, spittle flying, before the video went to a smear of colors, then finally black.

“Hulk?” Janet asked.

“That’s what Dr. Banner’s alter ego calls itself, ‘The Hulk’. Capable of ripping a tank in half, and surviving a sidewinder missile without a scratch.”

On the screen, a satellite view of the American southwest popped-up, with several red dots forming a rough path across the map from right to left.

“Since the initial incident, a special task-force known as the ‘Hulk-Busters’ was formed under the command of General Thaddeus Ross to deal with the Hulk, and over the course of the past few weeks they’ve engaged in several conflicts in the Southwest. All of which ended in failure.”

“So do you want us to do?” Iron Man asked.

“Take down the Hulk. Didn’t I imply that?” Fury shot back.

“How do you expect us to take down that thing?” an exasperated Janet probed, her face incredulous as she walked around the table.

Iron Man raised a palm in her direction halting her from coming closer. “To be fair, it’d be mostly me fighting that thing. Isn’t that right Nick?” he turned to ask the director.

But Fury merely shrugged, “That’s up to you all. See, Where Ross tried to come down with a concrete, no-fail plan, that failed every time, I want people who can think on their feet, be creative, think outside the box.”

“Have special powers?” Janet chirped, arms folded across her chest.

“Oh that’s a big help sure, not gonna lie. But if I can get a group of very special individuals, and mold them into a team, then-”

Fury was cut off by the sound of klaxons, an emergency message sprawled across the massive screen. Immediately he put his finger to his ear, trying to listen to someone on the other end. Hank joined Janet at her side, putting an arms around her shoulders for reassurance.

Iron Man spared them a glance before observing the worried twist in Fury’s face.
“What is it Fury? HYDRA retaliating?”

The Director mulled his thoughts for a moment before exhaling, “Guess you bunch get a little trial run.”
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The shouts of men echoed through the darkened hallway, the red emergency lights flashing. A set double-door was blown off its hinges by the force of two SHIELD security agents being projected through them hard enough to slam into the opposite wall. They collapsed in a heap and laid there groaning as another figure ran past them.

The man was partially clothed, and what he was wearing was severely damaged by time and water exposure, and the effects of some harsh explosion had left bits of them charred and torn. Carried on his left forearm, was a large round shield.

Steve Rogers turned his head down one side of the hallway, then to the other. His breathing was labored, as if he hadn’t used his lungs in years. His eyes were wide with alarm but also keen with perception, and analyzed everything in his immediate surroundings. Picking a direction, he bolted to his right and fled down the hall.
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“We’ve got to contain him before he opens a door to something dangerous!” Fury shouted as he, Janet, and Hank hurried down the stairwell.

“What kind of dangerous things do you have in this place?” Janet asked between breaths.

“We got all sorts, I just don’t want it to be something that he’s gonna use to start blasting holes in the walls!”

Behind the others, Pym ran through resolution scenarios in his head “This must be a severely traumatizing experience for him, if we can just slow him down long enough to talk to him, we should be able to get him in restraints until his shock wears off.”

“Kid…” Fury started with a chuckle, “The whole German army couldn’t restrain Captain America.”

Coming to the landing of another floor, Fury reached for the doorway to access the level, but it was pushed open hard from the other side, knocking him against the guardrail. Still huffing to catch his breath, Steve Rogers held his shield in front of him as he swiftly maneuvered around the downed Fury, and brushed aside Janet and Hank.

Janet yelped as she threw herself to the wall just in time to avoid being hit by the shield, but Hank wasn’t as quick. Taking a passing blow from the shield, Hank actually clung on to it, haphazardly trying to slow the soldier down with his bodyweight.
“Captain Rogers! Please just-!”

But with heave, Hank was sent flying back down the steps and tumbling onto Janet. Rogers got to the top of the stairwell, and paused to look out the window, but there wasn’t much to see beside the ocean horizon. Until Iron Man came crashing through it.

Tackling Rogers around the waist, Iron Man took him up the next set of stairs, and through the access door, where he pinned Cap to the wall by his wrists.
“Captain America! You’ve got to slow down and listen!”

Cap sneered in return, “I’m not listening to anything one of Zola’s thugs has to say!”

“Zola?” was all Iron man got out before Captain America tucked his knees into his chest and planted his boots into his opponent’s chest. With a shove, Iron Man was pushed back to the doorway. Rogers threw the shield at his forehead, where it dinged off with a grunt from the man in armor, and right back into Cap’s hands. With a short sprint, the Captain buried a single-leg dropkick in Iron Mans chest, sending him sprawling back down the stairwell.

Rushing his way further down the hall, the windows on his left side were blocked by the metal plates that slammed down just as fast as he raced by them. Several agents appeared from adjoining rooms to stop him, but one after another they were dealt with by reflexes untarnished by decades of confinement. With a trail of unconscious suits behind him, he came to a stop at an intersection, unsure of where to go when a barrage of tiny yellow blasts peppered the back of his legs. He turned to parry an oncoming blow with his shield, but it never came.

Instead Janet deftly buzzed between his legs and positioned herself in the center of the intersection. As Rogers turned to face her, she put her hands up defensively.
“Captain America wait!”

“I don’t know who you are miss, or where I am, just tell me what you did with Bucky.” he asked angrily, poised to lash out at any angle.

“Bucky?” She said aloud, confused at first, but then she realized what must be going through his head. “Just… just watch, ok?”

Slowly, she turned her hands to her right, towards a plated-up window. She fired a twin salvo of her stinger blasts, knocking a hole through the plate and exposing a gap to the outside.

Rogers, who had used his shield to protect himself from the blast, warily peeked over the edge, he had to squint his eyes to bear the sunlight beaming through.

“Just look.” Janet coaxed him. “Just look where you are.”

Steve Rogers approached the gap, it wasn’t big enough to jump through, but it did offer a decent view of the bay. Outside he could see the New York waterfront, and very prominently, the Statue of Liberty.

“I’m… I’m home?” He asked aloud to no one, lowering his shield. He staggered closer to the gap, staring incredulously as his mind constructed the reality of his present circumstance.

“Yes Captain, you’re home.” Coming down the hall, Nick Fury was held-up by Hank, Iron Man just behind them both.
“You’ve been asleep a long time. We need to talk.”

Rogers stumbled backwards, using the shield to prop himself up as he went to a knee. “Bucky...” he said again, “Bucky…”.

Janet knelt down to his side, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“You um… you want a coffee or something?”
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The Avengers origin continues, as Captain America enters the 21st century. With Nick Fury's plan to bring down the Hulk resting on the shoulders of a rag-tag team of heroes, will the Avengers even survive day 1?

    Stay tuned for the next action-packed chapter of Avengers Assembled, "SMASH LAS VEGAS!"


Start the Godzilla/Marvel saga with WORLDS COLLIDE here
Prefer Fanfiction? This story is over there too

  Learn about the alternate Godzilla and Marvel worlds in which the story takes place:
The Modern Kaiju Era
The Seatopians
The Earth Defense Force
Monster Island
The Mutant Internment Act (Marvel)
Dr. Quinn Darien
Kaiju Cults
Avengers Assembled (Marvel)
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Quick question, is this black nick fury or white nick fury?