ＳＬＡＴＥ ◼ STEVE ROGERS◼

ＴＨＩＲＴＹ－ＳＩＸ

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Got Lottie's signature, guess he never did get yours,"

Charlotte Watson swallowed the lump that formed in her throat as Fury threw out his hands, the trading cards that Phil Coulson held so near and dear to him landing on the table in front of her, Steve, and Tony. She watched as Steve picked one of the cards up gingerly in his hand, bile rising in her throat as she saw the blood that dripped off the corner.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming."

Director Fury walked toward the table, his hand coming to rest on the back of Lottie's chair. She looked to him for a moment, catching his eye, before looking down to the bloody cards on the table once more.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number,though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Charlotte know this, called the Avengers Initiative,"

Steve and Tony looked to him quickly as he stood behind the chair between them, Lottie still looking down to her hands.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Lottie's head shot up as she heard the abrupt movement of a chair. Tony stood form his seat, stalking out of the room as Steve, Lottie, Fury, and Maria watched him go.

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion,"

Fury left the room quickly after, leaving Lottie and Steve to sit at the table quietly. Maria stood in the background, head hung low.

Lottie took a look up at Steve, seeing him looking in the direction that Tony had walked off into. he stole a glance back at the woman beside him, catching her smile.

"Go,"

"Lottie-"

"I need a minute. Just go check on him, please,"

Steve placed his hand on Lottie's squeezing it just as she squeezed it back, before exiting the room and leaving Lottie to have her moment of silence.

Walking through the hallways, Steve Rogers couldn't help but think of all that had happened to him in such a short time. He had gotten Lottie back by some miracle, met the son of one of his best friend back in the war, and joined a war where the people they needed to fight were from outer space. Steve thought he had seen it all when Erksine and Howard turned him and the love of his life into super soldiers, but this was another level of crazy.

Entering the older containment room, where the glass cage no longer sat, Steve came upon Tony standing about the empty room, looking down into the abyss below. He crossed his arms, leaning against the railing behind him as Tony stole a glance at the super soldier.