The Syndicates || "MARVEL: Avengers" || COMPLETED

T W E N T Y | ' Wheaton, New Jersey '

. . . STEVE ROGERS . . .

By the time Rogers pulled up to Camp Leigh, night had arrived. Hiding their car in a small cluster of trees, the pair made their way to the abandoned facility, flashlights out. Silver tucked a pistol she'd stolen from a police officer into the back of her jeans as they clambered up and over a fence, dropping to the ground with a light thud.

"This is it. This is the camp where I was trained."
Rogers said, a distant look in his eye as he spun full circle, taking it all in.

"Anything new? Out of the ordinary?"

As she spoke, Silver scanned the ground for footprints or tracks, anything that could indicate someone else's presence. The dirt was untouched. He shook his head and they kept moving, making their way past dilapidated cabins and overgrown grass fields. Minutes passed, and they found nothing.

"There." Steve said, pointing towards a large tin structure in the middle of some training grounds, "Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place."

With his shield, he smashed off an old padlock binding the doors together and it fell to the floor, cracked it two. Silver drew her gun, entering first while Rogers lit up the area with his flashlight. The former pulled down a lever and bright LED's flooded the building.

"I'm surprised there's still electricity."

"You think someone's been here?"

Silver glanced down. The floorboards were thickly cloaked in an undisturbed layer of dust.

"I doubt it. This is SHIELD." She said, staring at the worn down SHIELD insignia all around them.

"Maybe where it started."

Silver shuffled through a series of meaningless pamphlets and files on one of the desks, finding nothing of importance. Rogers had had the same experience trying to activate one of the nearby computers and they moved onto the next room in unison.

There, they found portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Colonel. Chester Phillips hanging from the walls in mint condition.

"Stark's father?" Silver asked.

"Howard."

Rogers responded, eyeing it for a moment before tearing his gaze away. He dared not look at Peggy for long, for fear of the painful memories he'd held back for years resurfacing. Spotting something down a corridor, he walked briskly towards it, a theory already formulating. Silver's gaze lingered on Peggy and without thinking, she reached out and ran her hand down the gold frame, lost in thought.

"If you're already working in a secret office...Why do you need to hide the elevator?" Rogers asked, drawing her attention back to the present.

With a grunt, he pushed aside a massive bookcase, revealing the entrance to a rusty metal lift. Peering up at the cables holding it up, he stepped inside and Silver followed, hoping it could still withstand the strain. It did. The elevator crawled to a stop at a basement, the only other level, packed sky-high with century-old technology.

"This can't be the data point, this stuff looks ancient."

Silver said, frowning. At the forefront of the room several computer screens and a large camera sat on a desk. Rogers slid the USB into a flash drive port located in front of the consoles and took a step back as the computer whirred to life.