Hawkeye: Agony

Super Soldier

Colonel Ross' office was disturbed as Nicholas Fury burst through his door.
'What the hell do you mean it blew up?' Where's my Agent?!'

Ross turned the page of the legal documents in front of him and frowned at the writing, stating the cost for the rebuild of The Raft.
'Probably at the bottom of the ocean. Did you check?'
"I thought you'd be more concerned, Colonel. The project is over," Fury scowled, "Can't you see that? It's been over a decade..."

Ross looked up from his file and carefully closed it.
"I'm the one who decides when it ends, Director."
"What does that mean?" Fury raised an eyebrow as he took slow steps inside, "We're not training another agent. That was the longest timed experiment we could have hoped for."
"Well I always said, not to use a child when we needed a man," The Colonel smirked a little at Fury, "We tried things your way. Now we're doing it my way. How it was supposed to be."
"And how was that?"
Ross slowly opened a drawer on the side of his desk and pulled out a needle; empty in the case but with a drop of liquid oosing from the tip. He placed it on the table and looked up with red eyes.
"On my own."

**

I walked down the hallway and saw a crowd of agents around the office door.
Mack Mackenzie stood tall, spying through the keyhole, whilst Agents Fitzgerald and Simmons were crouched with their ears pressed against the wood.
'What are you all doing?'
Fitz shot up like a rocket and his head hit Mack's elbow.
'Ouc_!' He went to yell but a large hand quickly covered his mouth before their cover was blown. All three turned and stared at me for a second, then at each other and stammered 'Well ...' And other pauses to themselves. I couldn't make much out without lip reading.
'Sorry, I erm. I was just. I think I'm supposed to be in there,' I pointed at the door that they were all blocking.
'In there?' Mack whispered harshly and looked down at me with a chuckle, 'I don't think so... They're talking about Captain America.'
Simmons piped up, 'It's more serious than that. They're reopening the Super Soldier program!' She smiled excitedly, 'I'm going to get to see so much of the old data...'
I looked between them all a little confused, 'Oh.. I was told to come for an exam. I think I've got the wrong room...' My deaf voice trailing off into a murmur.
Fitzgerald furrowed his eyebrows, 'There's no way they'd use a child..'
'Agent Carter wouldn't allow it,' Mack confirmed.

'Only if he was truly remarkable,' The old lady spoke from behind me, and placed a hand on my shoulder as she shuffled in close, 'Sorry, Clinton. I was running a little behind,' She smiled down at me warmly, 'I'm getting a little too old for this.' She chuckled then nodded to the door and started to walk me towards it and inside.
'You Agents best forget what you heard. It's not what you think. I promise,' She looked between them and I watched her smile flicker into a worried thought.

'What's a Super Soldier?' I said, looking up at her as we walked into the room.
The feeling of the heavy door closing and self locking behind us made me look backwards, avoiding the answer.
As I faced back into the room, my eyes fell on: Director Fury; Agent Coulson, my handler and the military man from my trial.
Fury looked at me and said whilst my gaze was on him, 'Agent Barton, meet Colonel Ross. You've met him before...' His face looked like he was scowling. I don't think they liked each other...
'Him? He's the one you're all putting forward?'
'We are?' Coulson looked around confused, and his eyes landed on Ms.Carter, 'You're okay with this?'
'... I see Steve in him,' She smiled weakly as she sat down, looking back at me, stood in the middle of the room.
'Steve is Captain America?' I murmured, unsure if it was a question or a statement. I knew he was.
'The only way that this boy is like Rogers, is that he's blonde, blue eyed, skinny and too small to be here, let alone be a soldier,' Ross growled.

'Look. We all saw your experiments fail,' Fury went serious, narrowing his eyes at Ross, ' And we know it was your fault. That poor scientist tried to tell you it would fail.'
Ross looked angry, and opened his mouth to argue but he was cut off.
'We're not using serum on a child. But he's the perfect person to see if we're training all of our soldiers correctly. He'll be a controlled experiment. We test him regularly and see how he's improved. And we build an amazing soldier from ... The ground up.' They all looked at me. Eyes hopeful, except Ross who looked like he might laugh.
'You're all just pitching hope. You need a weapon. This is war.'
'Steve wasn't a weapon!' Ms.Carter looked annoyed and sad, 'He did what was good. And this boy is good.'
'Anyway, you've never seen him shoot,' Coulson smirked.
'...If he fails, we do it my way,' Ross raised an eyebrow, '...Show me.'

**

'Apparently he'd been part of this test long before I'd met him,' Nat was saying to the boys, 'But once a month, he'd leave the apartment in the middle of the night. They summoned him with a text message, and he'd come back four or five hours later. He'd look exhausted, beyond that. Like he was about to faint, throw up and die all at once.'
'You didn't find out what they were doing?'
'Oh I did. The first time he fainted, I followed him to his next test. It was a series of timed experiments: How far he could run at top speed on a treadmill. How much weight he could lift. They'd shoot clay pigeons about the size of a coin into the air and he'd try to shoot them all in the night sky. He didn't get breaks, food or water. He just kept going and it all got written down. They'd be disappointed if he ever scored less than the time before so he'd make sure he was a point over every time. But.. there's only so much a human can do.'
'It sounds like they went too far,' Barney growled.
'No,' Bucky muttered in thought, 'I mean at the end of the day, he still did it. He can do it. He had it in him. But... It sounds like something Hydra would have done.' Bucky looked at Natasha sternly.
'I guess he thought the other option was body altering serums. He didn't want a repeat of Banner. Or you...' She looked at him softly, 'He did it for the benefit of other people. For me. So we wouldn't have to get trailed like that.'

'I've worked with Steve, too. Thor, and Banner: Gods and legends. They've all got nothing on him,' She smiled at the back of my head.
As if feeling the gazes, I turned my head and smiled at them all, 'Plane's landing. Buckle up. ... Why you all looking at me?'
Everyone just smiled for a second, 'Admiring the skill,'
Barnes said with a faint smile.