"The only team I ever picked personally were the Howling Commandos."
That makes Steve's chest constrict painfully but his pride is no less in talking about them. They were the first, his first friends and allies. Closer than blood.
"During the war, er. Your World War II I suppose. The best of the 107th Infantry and most of whom I helped rescue from a HYDRA camp. They were the best soldiers, and the best friends a fella could hope for. After I....went under. I heard they did a lot of good even without me." And without Bucky. There's nothing Steve's read, no chatting with their children (or grandchildren even) that has ever made Steve regret signing them on.
He's proud of them. Happy to have served with them.
"When I was brought back in 2015, I was working for the folks who rescued me. Called themselves SHIELD. Was put on a team of specialists, made up mostly of folks who were like me. Not exactly normal. Son of an inventor I used to know, Tony Stark. Designed a mechanical flight suit that had on board weapons. Real fancy. Bruce Banner, the nicest man you'll ever meet, real real smart, and when he let loose the strongest beast you'll ever see. Thor, an Asguardian who they compared to a god. He's the one who gave me the drinks we shared at Halloween."
Steve turns the drink in his hands.
"Me. Physically enhanced soldier. Then there was Nat. Natasha Romanov, a spy by trade. Calm head and a great shot. Could sneak in and out of anywhere on the map. And Clint Barton, a marksman and field agent who worked with Natasha on their own special forces unit in SHIELD before my team was assembled. I'd only been awake for a few days and already I was getting pulled in to stop an Asguardian who stole a potential WMD and brought a hive minded alien hoard down on New York City."
Steve recounts the fight then, best as he can. Leaves out Loki's possession of Barton and the other SHIELD personnel, the death of Phil Coulson. They weren't a team then, really they didn't even like each other and that whole trip had been a disaster. Steve doesn't consider them a team until they stepped foot on the Isle of Manhattan ready to fight and die together for their country and for the world.
"We had to expand our roster eventually. Thor's not from Earth and Banner wasn't stable enough to stay on reliably. They both left. We took on a...I don't know how to describe Vision exactly. He's an artificial life form, and his mind was partially made up of a good friend of mine. Tony Stark's personal assistant was an AI named JARVIS and he...he was very kind and patient. Helped me come back into the world when I was staying at the tower with some of the other Avengers, before I found my own place. I don't really understand how it happened, but he ended up as part of the programming that became Vision. Wanda Maximoff is a very talented young lady who was experimented on by a HYDRA cell in Sokovia and given extra sensory abilities. All sorts of magic, I guess you'd call it. And Sam Wilson, a veteran soldier part of an experimental paratrooper division and someone I met while on a mission. The team's broken up now, but I'm proud to call them friends and allies."
no subject
That makes Steve's chest constrict painfully but his pride is no less in talking about them. They were the first, his first friends and allies. Closer than blood.
"During the war, er. Your World War II I suppose. The best of the 107th Infantry and most of whom I helped rescue from a HYDRA camp. They were the best soldiers, and the best friends a fella could hope for. After I....went under. I heard they did a lot of good even without me." And without Bucky. There's nothing Steve's read, no chatting with their children (or grandchildren even) that has ever made Steve regret signing them on.
He's proud of them. Happy to have served with them.
"When I was brought back in 2015, I was working for the folks who rescued me. Called themselves SHIELD. Was put on a team of specialists, made up mostly of folks who were like me. Not exactly normal. Son of an inventor I used to know, Tony Stark. Designed a mechanical flight suit that had on board weapons. Real fancy. Bruce Banner, the nicest man you'll ever meet, real real smart, and when he let loose the strongest beast you'll ever see. Thor, an Asguardian who they compared to a god. He's the one who gave me the drinks we shared at Halloween."
Steve turns the drink in his hands.
"Me. Physically enhanced soldier. Then there was Nat. Natasha Romanov, a spy by trade. Calm head and a great shot. Could sneak in and out of anywhere on the map. And Clint Barton, a marksman and field agent who worked with Natasha on their own special forces unit in SHIELD before my team was assembled. I'd only been awake for a few days and already I was getting pulled in to stop an Asguardian who stole a potential WMD and brought a hive minded alien hoard down on New York City."
Steve recounts the fight then, best as he can. Leaves out Loki's possession of Barton and the other SHIELD personnel, the death of Phil Coulson. They weren't a team then, really they didn't even like each other and that whole trip had been a disaster. Steve doesn't consider them a team until they stepped foot on the Isle of Manhattan ready to fight and die together for their country and for the world.
"We had to expand our roster eventually. Thor's not from Earth and Banner wasn't stable enough to stay on reliably. They both left. We took on a...I don't know how to describe Vision exactly. He's an artificial life form, and his mind was partially made up of a good friend of mine. Tony Stark's personal assistant was an AI named JARVIS and he...he was very kind and patient. Helped me come back into the world when I was staying at the tower with some of the other Avengers, before I found my own place. I don't really understand how it happened, but he ended up as part of the programming that became Vision. Wanda Maximoff is a very talented young lady who was experimented on by a HYDRA cell in Sokovia and given extra sensory abilities. All sorts of magic, I guess you'd call it. And Sam Wilson, a veteran soldier part of an experimental paratrooper division and someone I met while on a mission. The team's broken up now, but I'm proud to call them friends and allies."
Even the ones who won't speak to him now.