Captain America

Sharon Carter

Agent 13 was working in her office in the SHIELD building in Washington. She was typing up the latest field report on her activities, which these days seemed to include a certain Steve Rogers. Captain America wasn't an official SHIELD agent, but he was an advisor. He had developed a lot of the training programs with Nick Fury, and though the two men had their differences, Steve had always come to the aid of the organisation when it was needed. Sharon Carter smiled as she looked at the picture of the man she loved.

When Steve had been an active member of the Avengers, he'd been able to charge his expenses to the account that had been set up for them by Tony Stark, but these days she had noticed that Forge was paying the expense for the Star Spangled Avenger. She'd not asked for it, and Steve certainly wouldn't, but Forge had done it anyway and the cheque ended up on her desk for him. She had considered asking him to join SHIELD, but she knew he'd refuse and she didn't want to go that route, not with things as good as they were between them..

Then her telephone rang.

"13," she said as she grabbed the handset.

"Miss Carter, I have Director Forge for you." Sharon recognised the voice of Angela, Forge's personal assistant.

"Thank you, Angela," said Agent 13 and she heard the click as her call was transferred.

"Hi, Sharon," said the Director's voice.

"Forge," she replied. "What can I do for you?"

"I've got you an assignment, one in which you might need the help of our... special advisor."

"I see," said Sharon, not happy that she was being used as a link to Cap. He could ask him for help himself and she wondered if Forge heard it in her tone.

"I know it's not protocol to operate like this," he said, "but time is pressing. I need you to go to Georgetown, Massachusetts. We've reason to believe it's a hidden store for a sentinel army."

"Sentinels?" she said, getting the connection to the situation in Latveria. "Is this Doom as well."

"Yes," said Forge. "Which is why you'll need specialised help. I'm rounding up X-Force to accompany you, but I'd feel better if the Captain was with you on this one."

So would I, Carter didn't say. "Understood, but if the sentinels are capable of detecting meta-humans..."

"I'd prefer metas and one of my best operatives than a regular SHIELD cadre," Forge said. "I've also a call in to the West Coast to get hold of Tony Stark to see if he's got anything he can help with."

"I thought Tony was up East this week, doing a business deal of some kind," said Sharon, quickly covering how she'd know that. "He knows Steve through the Avengers and I think they were planning on going out for lunch.

"Even better," said Forge, "Thanks, Sharon."

"When do you want me to go?" she said.

"ASAP," Forge said. "If Doom starts something it may be that he uses the sentinels here to cause a distraction that can't afford. Just imagine what trouble he could cause if the heroes were distracted, or even exhausted from an all out battle. We didn't exactly do too well during Onslaught..."

"Understood," said Agent 13.

"X-Force will be in touch," Forge said. "Good luck, Sharon."

"Thank you, sir," she said and the line went dead and she gave a sigh, though she wasn't sure if it was relief at putting off the paperwork or apprehension over the assignment and she grabbed her jacket. Maria would have to be with the sitter again. It was a good job SHIELD now provided that service as well...

Steve Rogers smiled as he looked upon his adopted daughter Maria. It was something he had never imagined he would have - a family. In the war he'd done his duty and that had been what mattered, then when he was rescued from hibernation by the Avengers, he focused on them, on being the best he could be in a world where heroes and mystery men had started to become common place, as well as adapting to the rigours of the modern world. He'd had his fair share of romances that was certain, but there had never been anything with the potential for family.

His liaisons with Sharon Carter had been the best relationship he had worked on, but she was not exactly the type who would have been able to settle in to motherhood easily or take the time to be pregnant. He knew that was not who she was, and adopting a child had been such a simple solution to the ideals. He loved Sharon, he loved Maria and he had time to be with both. While he was still a reserve member of the Avengers, the new team had not called on him, and Tony's team had been too far for him to relocate.

Then he heard the door open and he went to greet Sharon.

"Hi," he said and then his face fell as he saw she was accompanied by Agent Deborah Walker and he knew that Deborah was here to keep an eye on Maria. "What is it?" he asked and Sharon explained the situation to him and he nodded, in resignation. "I'll suit up, and then we'll head for Mass."

"I'm sorry," she said as she followed him in to his bedroom. "I know..."

"No," he answered, "it's fine. Honestly. It's a clear and present danger."

"You're doing it again," she said. "That whole line."

"What line?" Steve said as he fitted his mask in place.

"The whole patriotic thing which tells me you're annoyed."

"I'm not annoyed," the Captain replied as he pulled his shield on to his back. "It's just... a little warning would have been nice."

"There wasn't time," said Sharon. "With getting a sitter for Maria and then I got the call from Maverick at the X-Force office and then I headed out... and I forgot I hadn't called you. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he said again. "Don't worry about it." Then he smiled her. "We've got work to do."

Georgetown, Massachusetts was a quiet town. Located in the northern Essex County, between the Merrimack River Valley and the communities bordering Plum Island Sound, the place was widely forested, with many acres of state forestland. It was a rural town, with limited facilities and nothing much ever happened in Georgetown, except lately there had been a spate of disappearances. Locals and tourists had gone wandering in the nearby forests. Officer George Isamerde had been looking in to things for a while and not getting anywhere.

The problem was he was local town cop and these kinds of things were out of his league. He knew he was never going to be a big noise in law enforcement and he'd had enough problems with his bosses of late in regards to his attitude and behaviour, but he hoped that if he could solve this he'd clear the slate. His boss had given him another day or so and then he was calling in the feds, and he certainly didn't want that.

So when he saw the blue uniforms of SHIELD, in a remote part of the town, he was less than impressed. He felt a growing sense of unease in his gut as he saw another blue uniform and he recognised Captain America. Now that a superhero was involved his chances of clearing the slate were gone and he walked over.

"Hi there," he said as he approached. "Can I help you people?"

"No," said one of the SHIELD agents, and Isamerde could swear he heard a German accent.

"But thank you anyway," said Captain America. "It's not something you really want to get involved with but we can handle it from here."

"Is this anything to do with the missing persons?" the officer asked and they looked at each other.

"I'm afraid we can't comment at this time," said a blonde SHIELD agent and Isamerde began to feel his frustration growing.

"Now wait a minute," he said. "This is my town, I'm the law here and so it concerns me as to what is going on here and I demand you tell me."

"Oh we don't have time for this," said the German and he threw a stone towards the forest.

"What the fu..." Isamerde's voice died as he saw the imagery of the forest dissipate to reveal laser sights, armaments and the stone bounced off an invisible force field shielding the entrance to a cave. "What's going on here?" he said, finding his voice.

"Now you see what we're trying to keep quiet," said Captain America. "Your missing persons may have been the unfortunate victims of the person who set this up. They wandered in to the area and were killed by the weapons."

"My God," said the officer. "I could have, it could... My God."

"Yes," said the blonde agent. "Now, unfortunately, you're going to have to forget you've seen this."

"That's not possible," he said and he could see one of the SHIELD agent's eyes glowing and then they weren't there, and he wasn't sure who they were. Had there been someone here? Maybe he was thinking of the missing people and he got back in to his car and drove off wondering what he'd been doing.

"That was a bit distasteful," said Cap and Sharon nodded.

"But it needed doing," she said. "We can't have people around while we get this done."

"Maverick," called Lydia Del Ruiz as she walked from within the forest, "we have a problem."

"Figures," said the X-Force field leader and Cap could hear the despondence in the man's voice. He had seen the reports, watched the news items on the defection of Peter Wisdom and Katherine Pryde to Hydra and he felt a measure of responsibility because he had spent so long fighting the Neo-Nazi group and they still managed to come back.

They had lost so many good people to them of late - Nick Fury, Wolverine, Pryde and Wisdom and who knew who else had joined them. Cap sympathised, remembering a time when his world had fallen apart after he had darker side of the American dream and he'd lost faith in himself and his country. He had bounced back, eventually, and he was sure the others would as well, but he could see the lifelessness of the team at times. He wandered over to listen in to what was going on.

"The system's extensive," she was saying. "Stretches quite a way and the tech's a lot more advanced than anything I can deal with."

"It is Doom's work," said Cap and Maverick nodded.

"There's got to be a way in though," said North. "The sentinels are in that cave and we've got to make sure they stay there."

"Perhaps I can help," said a metallic voice and they turned to see Iron Man land nearby. "I was in the area and Tony Stark got a call from Forge, requesting assistance."

"Glad you could make it, Shellhead," said Cap and the two Avengers shook hands.

"You think you can deal with the tech?" asked Maverick.

"Oh, I think it's possible," said Iron Man and Maverick could swear that he could see a smile in the slight gap behind the mouthpiece of the helmet. "I did a quick overhead survey and I could see where the cloaking technology extends from."

Lydia nodded and she went over to speak to Iron Man, as Maverick regrouped with Cap.

"So what do you know about fighting sentinels?" he asked. "Only Siryn knows about them from our team and she's out of action."

"Not a great deal," Cap admitted. "However, we'll find a way and these things that Forge had made for us should keep us out of their scanning range."

"Fine," said Maverick. "I really hate sentinels..."

"I'm just sorry the Avengers haven't done anything about them either," Cap said. "Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Beast... we should have sorted something out. There's enough of us with enough connections." He put his hand on the man's shoulder. "Whether it's Nazi guards or robotic ones, history is littered with the same mistakes."

"And that should do it," Iron Man was saying and he unleashed a pulse from his gauntlets that hit the cloaked area and shut it down and there was a the dying of a low pitched hum as the weapon systems were all taken off line.

"Now that was cool," said Marcus.

"Not really," said Iron Man. "Doom needed to get the tech for this from somewhere and I know some shutdown codes. Just took a little time to figure which ones were which."

"Let's go," said Cap and he led them in to the cave only to be met by a repulsor blast that threw him back and he grimaced as he landed on the shield.

"What an interesting group of Avengers," said Doom as he looked at them, his gauntlets primed. "Please don't make a move. Consider yourselves prisoners of war..."

"Like hell!" said Maverick and shot at Doom with a kinetic blast of his own and the dictator was struck in the face, but Doom still stood and he laughed.

"Is that all you have?" he said and he fired his own weapons, making the heroes scatter.

"Doombot," said Iron Man, thinking that the shot should have blinded the Latverian Dictator if nothing else.

"Understood," said Cap. "Take him down!" The heroes fired their weapons, Lydia and Agent 13 using their side-arms, with Marcus putting some extra force on the shots with his telekinetics as Maverick used his bio-kinetic blasts, Iron Man used his repulsors Cap threw his shield and the Doombot's head was taken clean from it's shoulder and the headless Doom staggered and fell to the floor under the assault.

"He doesn't make them like he used to," Iron Man said, looking at the robot.

"Very true," the head of Doom said, "I make them better." Then they all heard the noises, the gears and machinery coming to life as the sentinels awoke.