The Man My Father Always Talked About • A CAPTAIN AMERICA STORY

36

~36~

     "Rogers and Barnes are heading towards the runway," Rhodey informed as he and Tony flew towards the airport in their suits. Clara walked by herself from a hanger, her heart racing. She could feel her hands shaking and sweat forming on the back of her neck. Her suit began to feel tight on her as she grew more and more nervous. A few yards away from her, she saw her brother standing in his glorious red and gold suit as he greeted the two figures hidden behind several of the loading trucks.

"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?" Tony asked as he looked over to Rhodey. Clara waited to come out, waiting to see if they could come to an agreement peacefully.

"Definitely weird," Rhodey answered.

"Hear me out, Tony," Steve started. "That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this." Steve explained. Clara knew he was telling the truth, she had told Tony the same thing earlier, but he didn't believe her.

From nowhere, T'Challa came out in his panther suit, landing perfectly on the cement before joining them. "Captain," he greeted.

"Your highness," Steve said. He looked over his other shoulder to see if anyone would be joining them soon.

"Anyways. Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?" Tony asked.

"You're after the wrong guy." Steve protested again.

"Your judgment is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday." Tony said, annoyed at Steve's arrogance.

"And there are five more super soldiers just like him. I can't let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can't." Clara finally joined them, her iron gloves still concealed.

"Steve..." she spoke as she walked towards them. Steve's heart fell as he saw her standing against him. He knew the moment would come, when she'd choose her blood over her heart, her brother over him. Though he knew it was bound to happen, it still made him hurt. "You know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?" She asked. She hoped that his stare would meet her eyes and see that she was pleading for him to back down.

"All right, I've run out of patience." Tony said before lifting his hands over his mouth and yelling, "Underoos!" A flash of red and blue shot through the sky as a spider web landed on Steve's shield and pulled it towards him. Soon after, more webs were fired and were wrapped around Steve's wrists as a restraint. "Nice job, kid."

"Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit...Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's-It's perfect. Thank you." Peter stuttered, making Clara roll her eyes and wear a tiny smile. Though he was young, she knew he reminded her of Tony.

"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation." Tony said, suddenly realizing the cons of recruiting a teenager.

"Okay. Cap...Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man." Her stuttered again.

"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just..." Tony started.

"Hey, everyone."

"... good job." Clara lifted up her gloved hands to make a thumbs up.

"Don't encourage him." Tony said as he saw what his sister was doing.

"Well what do you expect when you recruit a teenager," Clara remarked, almost reading his mind. "No offense kid."

"None taken Miss Stark. I'm just happy to be here," Peter replied.

"You've been busy." Steve said, bringing everyone back to the topic in hand.

"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep..." Tony stopped as the other words seemed to be heartbreaking for him. "I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart."

"You did that when you signed." Steve said, glaring at him through his helmet.

"Alright, We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. Now! Because it's us! Or a squad of J-SOC guys...with no compunction about being impolite. Come on."

"Alright, Lang." Steve said. Clara furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to figure out who the hell Lang was and why he was there. Clara followed Steve's gaze to Peter as she saw his suits eyes shoot open.

"Hey, guys, something..." From Steve's shield, a life size man grew, retrieving the red, white, and blue frisbee for the Captain.

"Whoa," Rhodey started, "What-What the hell was that?"

The once small man, now life sized man, handed Steve his shield back, "I believe this is yours, Captain America."

"Oh, great. Alright, there's two on the parking deck. One of them's Maximoff, I'm gonna grab her. Rhodey, you want to take Cap?" Tony asked.

"Got two in the terminal, Wilson and Barnes."

"Barnes is mine!" T'Challa said.

"Hey, Mr. Stark, what should I do?" Peter asked.

Clara turned her attention to Steve's latest recruit as he awkwardly stood in front of her. "Do I hit you? Do I not hit you?" He asked, his arms morning back and forth as he tried to figure out what he was doing. Clara tilted her head in confusion before igniting her blasters and pointing them at him.

"Does this answer the question?" She smirked, seeing his demeanor change.

"I really don't want to hurt you." He said, his eyes looking her over through his suit's helmet. He didn't want to hit a woman, especially one of the most known women in the world.

"I wouldn't stress about it..." Clara smirked, raising her blasters agains and she looked over his suit. "What the hell are you supposed to be anyway? A bug?" She swung a punch at him, but he dodged it.

"Well, actually it's an ant. See the suit..." Clara interrupted by kicking him in the groin. Scott groaned in pain before shrinking down and flipping Clara of her feet and onto her back. She let out a groan before she loaded her blaster and shot him off of her. As he was fired back, her became his normal size again before he ran off to aid one of his teammates. When she got up, she noticed Steve, T'Challa, and Rhodey fighting and headed over to them just "Hey, Cap, heads up!" Steve threw what looked like a toy truck at some device. Clara's eyes widened when she saw the truck expand into a normal size truck and come crashing down on her and her team. Clara jumped to the side just as the truck hit, causing her to land on her side rather harshly as she tried to prevent getting burned.

"Oh, come on!" Rhodes yelled in anger and annoyance. Steve was about to run over and help Clara up after he saw her on the ground, but Bucky and Sam came running up to his side to try and figure out their next plan.

"Alright. Now, I'm pissed." Rhodey said as Natasha held her hand out to help Clara get up. Clara nodded a thank you to her before turning to the others.

"Is this part of the plan?" Natasha asked as her as Tony approached.

"Getting out asses kicked?" Clara added and Tony shook his helmet.

"Well, my plan was to go easy on them. You wanna switch it up?" He asked. Clara jerked her head up to the sky when she saw a yellow bean shooting down.

"Captain Rogers." Vision started as he floated down towards the ground. "I know you believe what you're doing is right. But for the collective good you must surrender now." Steve looked over at his team while Tony did the same with his. They slowly started walking towards each other, ready to collide.

"This is gonna end well." Clara said as their pace quickened into a jog.

"They're not stopping." Peter said worriedly as he followed them.

"Neither are we." Tony said.