章 1525: 24
Chapter 24Summary:
Coulson and Fury get a lesson in modern history.
Valkyrie is revealed... sort of...
Chapter Text
May 2nd 2006
"I think we're out of options, Coulson." Fury sighed.
"You ready to try Tony Stark, now?" Coulson asked.
"Yeah, call him. Set up a meeting."
~~~
May 4th 2006
Tony sighed and stepped into the office. "Sorry for the holdup, traffic's a bitch and so's May, when she doesn't get her candied peppers, on time."
"Candied peppers?" Coulson asked before he could stop himself.
"Cravings. She's pregnant, eight months along and the only place that sells them is in Harlem." Tony explained.
Fury barely blinked, while Coulson frowned.
"So, she sent you for them?" The younger of the two men already in Tony's office, asked.
"Nope, not me, her baby-daddy is my driver and I've learnt that keeping pregnant women happy is worth a short delay."
Coulson nodded. "Fair enough."
"So, what can I do for you, this evening, Agent Agent?" Tony was fine with Fury letting Coulson do the talking.
"We're in the process of creating a new… call it a new department, not quite accurate but near enough for this discussion." Coulson said. "Search, Rescue and Retrieval. Maybe. The name might change, yet."
Tony let all levity fade away and seriousness come to the fore. "To what end?"
"During the last few years, we've been… cleaning house, to coin a phrase." Coulson replied. "Unfortunately, a few times we've only found a… rat… while they were on undercover missions with a… non-rat, that could be compromised by the circumstances of that mission. And in a couple of cases, the rat has been actively targeting our non-rat and we would have lost them to the rat and their fellow… rodents."
"Talk about not being nice." Tony muttered.
"Retrieving both the rat and our non-rat, tends to be difficult, as these rats like to hide themselves and their involuntary converts, extremely well." Coulson ignored Tony's comment. "We need a way to locate those hidden rat dens, we have the man power to raid them, but we have to find them first. We're here to speak to you about having you build SHIELD some type of device or software that can locate those hidden dens, or at least find our non-rats, before it's too late."
"Finding hidden things is a Stark specialty." Tony grinned.
"Talking of finding things?" Coulson cast a lightening fast glance at Fury. "We've noticed that you haven't sent ships to the Arctic, so far, this summer? We'd like the opportunity to take on that role. Consider it a chance to field test any devices you come up with."
Fury sat forward. "We also like to speak to you about the Avenger Initiative."
"The what now?" Tony made himself blink.
"The Avengers Initiative." Fury said. "Your manned suits are revolutionary and we believe that you would be ideal for the Initiative."
"You've also got a lot of the skills that we're looking for, outside of the suits." Coulson went on. "Heroes and villains. SHIELD's been trying to keep track of who's who. And you seem to drop down on the hero side of things."
"Heroes?" Tony sounded sceptical.
"It's a big world, Stark and an even bigger universe." Fury said. "The chances that we're alone are… slim."
"Oh, I know…" Tony muttered. "I have two astrophysicists on staff."
"Two?" Fury blinked.
"His wife," he gestured to Bucky, "and her best friend."
"Ah." Fury let his lips twitch, that would make this a lot easier. "We're setting up a team to respond to international and extra-terrestrial threats not just against America but the world as a whole. As yet we only have a few prospects but we plan to increase that until we have suitable team."
"Who's on your list?" Tony asked curiously. They'd changed things by having Clint and Nat not join SHIELD, so who would SHIELD turn to?
"Agent Coulson will be in command and so far, we only have Elena Rodriguez, that's signed on. She's speed enhanced. We'd like to locate Captain Rogers to be the On-field Commander, if we can find him."
"And I believe that Barton, as well as yourself, would be ideal additions." Coulson added.
"Finding Rogers isn't that hard." Tony shrugged.
"No-one's managed to do so, until now. But we're hopeful and we're prepared to allocate a team to that goal until we do." Fury continued.
"Why?" Tony frowned.
"He'd be a great asset to whatever team we put together." Fury started.
"No, not what I meant." Tony shook his head. "I mean why put a team together, it's not like he's hard to find, or anything."
"Captain Steve Rogers has been missing for over sixty years, Dr Stark." Fury chided.
"Yeah, no." Tony snorted. "I know where he is."
"Really…?" Fury wasn't quite sneering but his condescending tone still rubbed Tony the wrong way.
"Really." Tony smirked.
"And where… exactly… would that be?" Coulson knew enough of Tony to be wary of that smirk.
"What's the time?"
"The time? What the time got to do with where Captain Rogers is?" Coulson was confused.
"If it's before 5pm he's at the Bayonne PCYC, teaching self-defence for the elderly but if it's after 5.30pm, he's at the community college teaching art for underprivileged kids. If it's after 7pm he's back at the PCYC teaching self-defence for abused women."
Bucky spoke up. "It better not be after 7pm, or I'll be late for my cooking class."
Tony laughs. "Everyone wants Buck to teach them how to make decent pappardelle."
"What?" Fury looked from Tony to Bucky and back. "What are you on about?"
"Oh, my God…" Coulson gasped, his eyes focused solely on Bucky.
"Cheese?"
"Look at him." Coulson pointed at Bucky. "Look at him, closely."
Fury focused his eye on Bucky, who gave the twist of his lips that Darcy called his 'fig jam' smirk. That eye widened and blinked in shock.
"What the hell…?" He whispered. "James Barnes." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah?" Bucky asked.
"James Buchannan Barnes."
"Yeah."
"When…?" Coulson asked.
"How the hell…?" Fury asked.
Tony and Bucky exchanged glances and Tony sighed when Bucky nodded to him. "Dammit." He drew in a deep breath. "1945. After Rogers brought in Arnim Zola, he reported that James Barnes and Peter Fawkner both fell from the train, that Zola had been on. Right?" He looked at Coulson for confirmation and the man nodded. "Right. So, while Phillips and Roger led a raid on Schmidt's mountain-fortress, dad and a few of the discharged 107th who hadn't yet been shipped out, went to retrieve the bodies of the two fallen men, they'd both been POWs at Azzano and everyone felt they shouldn't be left behind, even dead. Fawkner was dead, dad said he was found in pieces, in about five or six places. But Barnes? He was still alive."
Both Fury and Coulson gasped and spoke pretty much at the same time.
"What?" Fury said, flatly.
"How?" Coulson asked.
"The cold." Tony said. "Hypothermia had set in and lowered his body temp enough to stop him from bleeding out when his arm was blunt-force amputated. Dad theorised that dropping him into cryogenic stasis, by freezing him in ice-water, would keep him alive long enough to get him medical treatment. Of course, when they got back to base, Phillips told dad that Steve did a nosedive in Schmidt's plane and suddenly, Buck's not nearly as important. After all, he was stable, frozen but stable and Steve was in an unknown condition in an unknown location."
"Oh, God…" Coulson whispered. Fury seemed incapable of speaking.
"Buck went into a proper cryo-stasis pod as soon as possible, dad wasn't sure how to go about defrosting him, his injuries were… serious…" Tony winced. "And he was kind of… forgotten… Locating and retrieving Steve became dad's obsession. Until I was twenty…"
"What happened then?" Coulson was leaning forward, eager to know.
"Early January 1991, I took over the bunker behind the Mansion." Tony shrugged. "Guess what was being stored in there?"
"Barnes' stasis pod?" Fury managed to speak.
"It took months to get everything in place, to be ready. But December 1991 saw Buck being thawed out and treated. It took another six months for me to design and build him a working prosthetic that linked to his nervous system, then I had to find someone to actually do the surgery… off the books… so to speak. Lucas Charmberson is dead now, but he did good work. Good enough that unless Buck does something stupid, dad and I can maintain Buck's arm in working order." Tony never actually answered Fury's question and while all the information he'd given was true, it didn't all apply to Bucky and his arm.
"Oh, Lord…"
"We kept doing the trips to the arctic and I used them as testing grounds for the DoD drones. In 2000 we got lucky and we found Schmidt's plane. Buck was one of those that went in, on recon. A number of bombs were found, along with various different weapons." Tony paused when Bucky growled. "What?" He asked.
"Bloody punk had taken my gun and knife and left his own back at base." Bucky muttered.
"Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten. You still owe him a thumping for that, according to Dum-dum's grandkids." Tony snickered.
"Excuse me?" Coulson asked.
"One of the guns found," Tony explained, "was initially thought to be Steve's service pistol until Buck got a look at it, it was his and not Steve's, as was the bowie knife." Coulson grunted in understanding. "Yeah, so like I said, lots of weapons and a few bombs were found. Plus, Steve Rogers. Curled up in a ball, clutching his shield to his chest like it was a blanket, frozen in a block of ice. Buck took a few photos for prosperity… and blackmail purposes…" Bucky snorted and looked away from Tony, an innocent expression on his face. "If your kids can't pull that off, neither can you, snowflake." He told the WWII vet, before turning back to Fury and Coulson. "We got a retrieval team to bring him back, we intended to see him cremated and buried, as per his wishes. He'd said to Phillips, dad and Peggy, that he'd already given his body to science once, they weren't getting it a second time. Everything else went to the DoD."
"Understandable." Coulson nodded.
"Yeah." Tony agreed. "But as the mortician was prepping Steve, a process that involved removing the ice from around him, his injuries were revealed and that changed everything."
"Why?" Fury asked.
"A cut on his shoulder started to bleed." Tony said.
Coulson frowned and Fury 's eye widened.
"Bleed?" Coulson asked.
"He was alive?" Fury said at the same time.
"Very much so." Tony said. "And by all appearances, he hasn't aged a since day, since he was forced to put the plane down. A medical team took over at that point, keeping him sedated while they treated his injuries and brought his body back up to something approaching normal ranges. It took nearly a week before he woke and the one of the first things he did, was ask us to not let the military know he'd been found, not until he was fully fit. The medical team expected that to take at least three months, or even more. Then there was a physical therapist, who worked with him to regain the muscle control that fifty-five years of no movement caused. He'd just decided that he was ready to face the DoD, when 9/11 hit." Again, all true, but not the entirety of it.
Fury grimaced.
"Yeah, so we waited a bit longer." Tony said. "December that year, the DoD were informed and Steve was officially discharged, his records were updated and he was released under his own cognisance. His back pay and the reparation pay for the Army not actually going looking for him, were quite substantial. He bought the building, just on the corner," Tony looked out the nearest window to ensure he was gesturing in the right direction, before jerking a thumb off to his left, "where he's opened himself an art gallery and supplies shop."
"But you said… Bayonne…? Didn't you?" Coulson asked.
"I did." Tony nodded. "When Buck first started as my bodyguard, he dragged a would-be kidnapper from our factory there, into the local station and forced the idiot to tell the officers, what he'd done and what he'd planned to do. One of the officers' wives was a history teacher and her class had just been studying the Howling Commandos and their impact on the war. The officer recognised Buck and had a panic attack over it, until Buck calmed him down and explained what had happened."
"The public know?" Fury asked.
"Yes and no." Tony held up a hand when it looked like Fury was going to object. "The DoD were responsible for both Buck and Steve's lives being returned to them. As per the DoD's recommendation, we haven't made any sort of public announcement and don't plan to, but at the same time, they advised that we not hide it from those that figure it out for themselves."
"Ah." Fury grunted.
"That would be why you're as well trained as you are?" Coulson asked.
"I've worked with both Buck and another trainer on a regular basis and later with Steve." Tony said. "But if you think I'm good, you need to see Buck's great-granddaughters."
"Great-granddaughters?" Fury demanded.
"Yeah, Nat and Lena." Tony said. "Buck was a little too friendly with a girl in Phillips' office. Dad kept tabs on her and her daughter until the daughter's death in 1973. He contacted Buck's granddaughter and while she kept in contact, she stayed in Europe. She married and had two girls of her own and named dad as in-loco-parentis for them, in the event of emergency. Which was a good thing. Sofia and her husband were killed in a car crash in 1990. Dad set the girls up with a family friend and kept them under Family Services' radar and when Buck was thawed, he was a little shocked to find he had great granddaughters. But other than visiting the from time to time, he didn't interfere in their lives."
"But then it came time for Natashalie to go to high school." Buck said. "The local high school was okay, but both Nat and Lena are above average students, so it was decided that they'd come to New York, for school. But I was still having issues with the whole situation and living in Tony's spare room, so I asked Clint and Laura to be their guardians."
"Then in 1999, Clint was told that his brother, who was believed to be living in Sokovia under forged documents... was killed, along with his wife and that his two children were in danger of being sent to an already severely overcrowded orphanage. But due to the forged documents thing, it took a little delicate paperwork dancing to get Wanda and Pietro brought over and Clint registered as their guardians."
"They're good kids." Coulson nodded. "But I never realised how they were connected, I just assumed that they were all foster children."
"You've met them?" Fury asked, turning to look at his 2IC.
"Oh, yes, a number of times." Coulson said. "Usually it's over the weekend of Memorial Day or the 4th of July. Sometimes I come here, sometimes they come to my place."
"How old are these kids?" Fury asked, annoyed that he knew nothing about any of this.
"Nat's twenty-two, Lena is seventeen and Wanda and Pietro are sixteen." Buck answered. "Although... Word of warning? Don't call any of them kids."
"Steve made that mistake, last year." Tony snorted.
"What did they do to him?" Coulson knew what Clint's pranks were like.
"Tied him to a rope that suspended him over the quarry, on Tony's place, up-state. And left him there." Buck laughed. "Took him an hour to get out of the ropes and climb back to solid ground."
"They weren't afraid of him falling?" Coulson asked.
"No, not really. They made sure that his rope was above the flooded quarry. If he fell, he'd only land in water." Bucky shrugged. "And bluntly, he deserved it. He's trained with them since he woke up and still tried to pull the 'you're not old enough for this', shit. It didn't go down well."
"Sounds like it." Coulson's lips twitched in amusement.
The two SHIELD men exchanged a long speaking look and eventually Fury nodded.
"Well, it sounds like we don't need to purchase a ship for an arctic hunt, but we still need something to help us locate our people. Can you help?" Coulson asked.
"Of course, I can help." Tony said. "I've developed something similar for the DoD but I'll make some tweaks to it for you. It sounds like your rats like to hide their prizes underground and the DoD stuff doesn't come with ground penetrating sonar, but… I'm not sure that will actually help you, let me think on that for a few days and I'll get back to you with a working prototype."
"Excellent." Coulson smiled his blandest smile. "And the Avengers Initiative? Would you be prepared to talk with us about that?" He looked from Tony to Bucky and back. "Do you think Captain Rogers would meet with us?"
"We would, but…" Tony paused made a pained face. "It won't be just the three of us you'll be meeting. Nor, just us and Clint." He added. "It'll be the whole family. Our wives and children, and in the case of Buck here, his great-granddaughters, too. Plus, our primary trainer as well."
"Aren't Barnes and Rogers your primary trainers?" Fury asked.
"Oh, hell no." Bucky laughed. "That's Valkyrie's job, not ours. Steve's got his shop and classes and most of my time is chasing this idiot." He nodded towards Tony.
"Valkyrie?" Coulson blinked. "A rather distinctive name."
"Not her name, just what we call her." Tony shook his head. "Her name's Brunnhilde, Brunnhilde Helmsdottir." He laughed. "It's fake, but given her history, we're quite happy for her to keep it."
"Only part of it's fake." Bucky corrected. "Her name is Brunnhilde, it's just the Helmsdottir bit that's fake."
"Why?" Coulson asked.
"Initially, dad suspected that she was a Red Room graduate, but there's a few issues with that." Tony explained. "One she doesn't speak Russian or any of the soviet era languages. She does, however speak Swedish and Norwegian like a native. Her English is formal, finishing school formal. And she's been trained in warfare, not modern warfare, though. We're talking swords and daggers and fighting from horseback, stuff. But that doesn't stop her from being a Master at hand-to-hand stuff. She can put Rogers on the ground in seconds, so it's likely that she's been enhanced. But in the time that she's been with us, which is… um… way before I was twenty… She's only interested in teaching. The moment we start talking anything outside of defence or security, she's up and off. Usually, headed for the roof or the gym."
"And this doesn't worry you?" Fury asked.
"Yes, it worries us, not because of her lack of Id, but the fact that someone took a young child and indoctrinated her into becoming a warrior. That's what Brunnhilde calls herself, a Warrior… with a capital 'W', even." Tony snapped. "Whoever taught her, forced her to train with swords, not wooden swords but cut-you-in-half swords."
"And she's scarily good at it." Bucky added.
"Like I said, we think she's enhanced, we know that she's a lot older than she appears." Tony went on with the statement that they'd planned in advance. "I've located images of her, looking exactly as she does right now, that are documented as being taken in 1905. She was clearly visible as a member of Queen Maude's entourage, possibly a bodyguard."
"Queen Maude?" Coulson asked.
"Welsh Princess that married Prince Carl of Denmark, he went on to become King Haakon VII of Norway." Tony said. "There's painted images from England and Norway that go back another hundred years, that bear an uncanny resemblance to her, but… paintings aren't photographic evidence."
"Have you asked her?"
"We have." Tony nodded. "All she'll say is that she had shield-sisters and that while she might be the last of them, she won't be the last Valkyrie."
"Then she started training the girls in whatever she can." Bucky grunted.
"Do you think she'd be interested in showing what she knows?" Coulson was curious.
"Sure." Tony said. "But not down here in the City. We're heading up to the lake house, from the 12th. You're welcome to join us. If you want to bring a couple of extra bodies for educational purposes, that's fine, too. Just drop us a line with how many we'll need to accommodate. Space can be limited when we all get together."
"The two of us and… four(?) more?" Coulson looked to Fury for confirmation of numbers and the other man nodded. "At most, four more."
"Cool bananas." Tony nodded and made a note on his phone. "Don't forget to bring you stuff on the Initiative, we can hammer out some details, while your kids get taught some manners."
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