A few weeks passed without incident, something which could be considered either good or bad.
Shaw still hadn't made me do anything interesting; all I did was attend yet another random event as the Black Knight.
As for Tony, nothing had come up. I had somewhat expected that I would wake up one day with Iron Man hovering outside my window, but that had never happened.
Regardless, I'd find him and annoy him sooner or later when I got the chance.
So I had gone back to my old routine of going after random criminals around New York, a city infested with an apparently unending number of thugs.
Though today, that routine had finally been interrupted.
I picked up Fury's call on the S.H.I.E.L.D. phone he had given me.
Obviously, I never kept it on me, eternally letting it sit at home.
At this point, I was getting a little bored, so I'd pretty much do any job the dude asked of me. Maybe it was the Hanma blood in me acting up, begging for me to go and get into a fight, or something like that.
"We've had our eyes on a HYDRA facility about two hours north of the city. Last night, the surveillance team went dark." Fury began immediately.
This was the first time he had actually given me a job. I didn't really count my visiting Steve as a proper mission.
"How many hostiles?" I asked for further information.
"Conservative estimate, sixty to eighty personnel. A mix of security and research staff. Last night, the whole site went dark, and eight agents who were running surveillance went silent."
I took in the information for a moment.
"So, what exactly do you want me to do? Kill them all?"
I guess Fury was really trying to get his money's worth out of me. Asking me to take out what seemed to be a pretty large HYDRA operation for my first mission was no small thing.
"...There are two objectives. Extract our missing agents if they're alive, and retrieve whatever research you can."
His lack of confirmation basically meant he didn't care how I handled it.
Right as I expected him to hang up, he continued speaking.
"Oh, and Rogers will be coming with you."
That was definitely confusing.
Right now, he should still be in his recovery phase. The first time he'd actually act as Captain America would be when Fury properly recruited him to deal with Loki.
Fury began explaining after a moment of silence.
"After he met you, he's been... itching to get back to work."
'So, this is my fault?'
"Uh, that's fine, but will he be coming as Captain America? Or just Steve Rogers."
"Well, aren't they one and the same? But to answer your question, this won't be an official Captain America operation. No suit and shield, just the supersoldier Steve Rogers."
I considered that for a moment.
"Got it."
"Right, a helicopter will be coming to pick you up soon, Rogers will be on it. By the way, keep an eye on Rogers."
He cut the call immediately after.
The guy was shamelessly asking me to babysit Captain America. I guessed it wasn't all that crazy considering the man had been under ice for seventy years.
The helicopter landed on the roof of my building about thirty minutes later.
Steve was already inside, sitting with his back straight, with a focused expression. He was wearing a tactical military uniform instead of his usual getup, which somehow made him more intimidating than usual.
He looked at me as I climbed in.
"You know what we're walking into?" he asked, raising his voice slightly over the rotor noise.
"Sixty to eighty personnel, three-floor facility, eight missing agents." I settled into the seat opposite him.
He nodded, moving his attention to a tablet displaying various details of the mission.
I was quite surprised to see him so... soldier-y. The last time I had met him, he seemed lost, to say the least.
Maybe this was his comfort zone?
---
The facility emerged from the treeline below as we descended, a large manufacturing plant which had been repurposed as a HYDRA base.
Steve looked at it with an unreadable expression.
I could roughly guess what he was thinking. He'd fought HYDRA for years during the war, and thought he had made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat them, but now he was looking at a fully operational facility, sixty years later, two hours outside of New York City.
Sooner or later, he'd also find out that HYDRA had overtaken S.H.I.E.L.D., but that was a different story for another day.
We landed in a clearing half a kilometre out and moved on foot through the treeline. Steve moved with complete silence, which still slightly surprised me given his size. No weapons visible, just the man himself, which was apparently enough.
The perimeter guards came into view. Four guards, rotating in pairs.
I stretched out my arms whilst focusing slightly.
Four bone spikes burst out like javelins, two from each arm, aimed at all of the guards.
Even from our distance, the splattering sound could be heard.
Steve stared at them for a moment.
"Warn me next time," he said quietly.
I noted that there wasn't any disapproval in his tone.
"Right."
We began moving towards the facility.