A Hero's Journey

The Formation

Ghost and Nick walked into the boxing area, seeing Steve punch a bag off the chain and across the room.

"Trouble sleeping?" Nick asked, and Ghost rolled his eyes.

"Of course he's having trouble sleeping. PTSD is a bitch, Nicholas." Ghost let out.

Steve let out a small huff of amusement. "I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." He grunted, still punching the bag over and over.

Ghost and Nick walked forward, Nick saying, "Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."

Steve gave them both a look before he started walking the other way, unwrapping his hands as he walked. "When I went under, the world was at war."

In his head, Ghost replied with 'it never stopped being at war, it was just a secret one' but he kept it from coming out of his mouth.

Nick and Ghost kept walking forward, Steve continuing seamlessly, "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way." Nick says, and Ghost nodded, agreeing.

Ghost remarks casually, "In some cases, a lot of them."

"This is not about Rebecca."

"You sure? That shit was a nightmare."

"This is not about Rebecca."

"Fine."

"As I was saying." Nick started again. "We've made some mistakes along the way. Some, very recently."

Steve gave him a look before looking down at his hands. "Are you here with a mission, sir?"

"I am." Fury responded.

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it." Ghost replied, asking for the folder, Nick handing it to him before he passed it to Steve.

Steve grabbed it, sitting down on the bench as he opened it, a picture of the Tesseract being visible. "HYDRA's secret weapon."

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world solely needs." Nick said, then Steve went to hand the file back to Ghost, who grabbed it.

"Who stole it from you?"

Ghost answered, "His name is Loki. He's from Asgard. It's not a codename, that is the God of Mischief himself."

Steve gave them a confused look, so Nick replied, "There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

Steve stood up, saying, "At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong." Nick said, and Ghost glanced at him.

"Why don't you ever make bets with me?" Ghost asked.

"You always predict the outcome, or force the outcome to bend in your favor. Betting with you is no fun." Nick replied dryly.

"Fair." He replied. Then he looked at Steve. "There's a debriefing packet waiting at your apartment that I dropped off."

Steve turned to him. "How did you get in?"

"I picked the lock. Wasn't that hard." Ghost replied. Steve just hummed, seeming curious.

"What exactly do you bring to the table?" Steve questioned.