#I don't know why Hawkeye looks evil though

[kira-light0]

Happy Trapper Tuesday everybody!!!

(Reference + closeups under the cut)

[writingoddess1125]

okay okay JC hear me, what about Alucare and Vivian interaction ?

Oh I like this! EVIL SMILE 😈 I like this a lot

Oh Hell No-

For just 10c a day you can help a starving author, that's less then a cup of Ko-fi

Shanks, Mihawk x Reader + Alucare, Vivian

Check out the Old Man Series

It had been a exhausting month out to sea, Shanks insisting the crew go to the grandline. Paired with also having Vivian start training to be a pirate like him-

She didn't object to this, her eyes still following her inspiration of Luffy. She worked hard, Went out to assist the crew and learn the ways of the ship and of being a pirate. Much to everyone's surprise however was the two skills she had picked up- Sharp Shooting and Gambling.. Shanks wasn't too thrilled about either however he couldn't lie he was impressed- She had taken up to learning from Yassop on guns while naturally able to win a lot of card games from the crew and walk away with heavy pockets.

Making port in a small Village to do some basic restocks Vivian traveled off to explore the peer. Deciding to spend some of her winnings-

Vivian was blown away, seeing such a pretty guy standing there at the docks. He was older then her by a bit, he had lovely dark hair tied in a low ponytail and dressed in dark clothes ment for training. However it was his eyes- She could see his eyes from there, bright yellow like gold. A feeling of warmth hit her cheeks and chest as she stared- However he must have felt it since he began to look around with a scowl on his face, Vi quickly walking away to pretend she hadn't been staring at the teenager. Her face she was sure was as red as her hair-

"Don't travel far Vi!" Shanks called out, Even though he knew she had a small pistol that Yassop had gifted her. She kept his words in mind and went around the pier to explore, buying a few snacks and so on till a flutter of black caught her eye- Turning to see a smaller sea vessel and a boy standing infront of it like he was impatiently waiting.

"Well I'll be damned- Is that Hawkeye?" Shanks said, Snapping Vivian from her spying fantasy to look up at her father.

"Ah there you are Vi-" Shanks called out as he walked back towards his daughter and saw her red face. Raising a brow at her red face, going to speak on it till his eyes caught the teen still glancing around.

"You know him?" She said softly, Shanks however looked confused as he stared at the teen. Waving for her to stay put while he walked forward to the teen and the sea vessel.

Shanks shook Alucare's hand and smiled at the young man-

Vi watched from afar, It seemed the two talked briefly before the teen headed back to the sea vessel. Returning with two adults, a clearly pregnant women and a tall man looking like the teen but older and with weird facial hair and short hair.

Shanks spoke with the tall man before he waved Vivian over.

"This is 'Hawkeye' Mihawk a old friend of mine, and This is Vi my daughter" Shanks said proudly, Mihawks eyebrows raising at hearing this and stared at Vivian, a hint of a smirk on his lips.

"It's nice to meet you Vivian" Mihawk said calmly, (Y/N) however smiled brightly and shook the young lady's hand.

"It's very lovely to meet you Vivian, Shanks" She said calmly and Alucare nodded as well giving a fast greeting to the child.

"It's nice to meet you Vivian" He said as he shook her hand politely- The girl barely able to mutter the words in return as she looked nervous. The teen quickly releasing her hand and offering it to the older red head.

"Nice to meet ya, Damn you look just like your father" He said with a laugh, truthfully he felt a odd clench in his chest since Alucare looked like Mihawk when Roger's died.

"Well since we are all here, why don't we go to the pub near by, I hear they also have good food so it shouldn't be an issue" Shanks suggested with a happy smile, you of course agreeing at this and thinking it would be nice. Mihawk and Alucare giving similar sighs and nodding in agreement-

"This here is the rest of my crew-" Shanks introduced with a smile- Alucare being silent but polite, That was till he saw Ben Beckman and heard his name, Glancing back to his father with pleading eyes that read 'please say no-' But all Mihawk did was nod silently making the teenager deflate slightly. Deciding that keeping his mouth shut was the best option-

A short journey back to Shanks Ship he gathered his crew to all venture to the pub and of course they were familiar with Mihawk but gave sweet introductions to (Y/N) and Alucare.

Shanks set down his drink as his eyes focused, seeing how Vivians cheeks were red, her eyes sparkling and the way she nervously fiddled with her hair. You catching this and seeing her like this as well and how she smiled so awkwardly around Alucare who was clearly seeing this in more of a babysitting light-

Once all introductions were done the pirates filed inside, it didn't take long for drinks to be poured and food to be served. Vivian being seated to a unamused Alucare who seemed to passively be listening to her as she tried to start conversation.

Your eyes wondered around at seeing the drunk patrons, it wasn't like you were in a current condition to drink yourself so the food was your comfort. But you couldn't help but glance to your son every now and again- Shanks also following you gaze.

"Aw, She must have a little crush on Alu" You say with a giggle, Mihawk looking up from his glass at hearing this- his hand still on your lower back to keep you steady from some invisible force.

Shanks whole body seemed to bristle at this voiced notion taking another hard drink of ale.

"No, Vivian is far too... she's-" He stared harder, that's when he saw it. She tucked her own hair behind her ear shyly- he knew that move too damn well it was the one her mother used to do when trying the flirt and a move that lead to Vivians creation paired with other moves much later on.

"Oh Hell No!-" Shanks all but roared. Mihawk smirking into his drink.

This was bound to be entertaining-

[avengersrewatch]

E16: Widow's Bite

Speaking of lady superheroes, here is something else I don't like about this series (and it seems like I have a lot of complaints even though I am rewatching this cartoon because I like it better than other versions): the Hawkeye and Black Widow subplot.

Since the beginning mini-episodes, Hawkeye has thought Black Widow betrayed him to Hydra and that she was a double-agent. And that's fine, even though everyone watching knows she's not evil by now because Black Widow has appeared in the movies at this point. So she's actually more familiar than Hawkeye to a lot of viewers.

So he has been hunting her down and this episode is a lot of continuation of that. I think it makes Clint look stupid that he hasn't figured it out. Because it is definitely made clear in this episode, as if it wasn't set up before, that she is still working for SHIELD and trying to protect him while she is undercover.

I feel like Widow should be part of the Avengers team by now, but instead both Widow and Mockingbird continues to work for SHIELD and Janet remains the only lady on the team. I can't quite figure out why this should be.

Of course this is also the era of "Marvel thinks girl toys don't sell" so maybe that is why?

It's also unclear exactly what the Avengers are at this point. Tony points out that they are supposed to be dealing with the Breakout (the super villains who escaped prison which is the whole start of the series) and Widow isn't one of them. Which would make sense as a reason the organization exists. But they also do other missions, like the alien robot we just saw in the previous, so why can't Barton try to bring this criminal to justice. Nick Fury tries to say because HYDRA is too complicated, but... is it? It doesn't seem that way on the show.

What I like about this episode:

Captain America and Black Panther duo. It's such a fun dynamic. Steve and T'Challa go after Hawkeye, but without permission from Tony. Steve says no one can take on HYDRA alone and T'Challa says he knows what it is like to be blinded by vengeance. So together, they know better than Hawkeye but don't actually stop Hawkeye, just hover like parents hoping their kid will make friends at pre-school.

I repeat T'Challa and Steve are acting like they are Clint's two dads, hoping he and his new bff Bobbi, beat all the Hydra agents up but if he doesn't, they will swoop in and rescue him. (Which they do.) Meanwhile, they are secretly high fiving in the Quinjet that Hawkeye made a "little friend."

After Mockingbird pops up and Hawkeye decides to team up with her, T'Challa says "at least we know his weakness now if he were to turn on us." Like that's a thing he's been worried about. T'Challa is going to fling women at Clint if he goes rogue. I don't know why this makes me laugh so hard. (It's kind of a Batman thing to say.)

There's also a funny bit when they lose Hawkeye, Tony is mad and says he told Hawkeye not to go after Hydra why did they help him? And T'Challa and Steve are both like "I didn't hear you say that." (Steve says it sounded more like a suggestion than an order, and T'Challa says in Wakanda the words of avenge and revenge are the same. So you guys were just confused about the definitions of words, I get it.)

Just when Steve is freaking out that Hawkeye's signal is lost, T'Challa's like "I have faith he will contact us," and an unknown signal appears in the middle of the ocean. Hawkeye's location. T'Challa's like, "That's my boy."

Cool shots of everyone running at the hydra guys. Panther shreds Grim Reaper's arm scythe.

Odd thing:

Madam Hydra (Viper edition) is introduced and there is a scene where she pulls the pin of a grenade out with her tongue, that is cool but also weirdly suggestive for a kid's cartoon.

Unless this cartoon isn't intended for kids in which case Hawkeye is REALLY dumb.

[nocek]

Don't spare us the long rant! We want to hear your thoughts!

Oh you are going to regret this ;P

So here goes my loooooooong angry rant about Taskmaster and also the Black Widow movie in general.

Let's start with my point of comparison. Captain America the Winter Soldier was a good movie. It's still in my top 3 Marvel movies as I'm sure is for many people. And statistically speaking everybody likes Bucky. He is like the most beloved side character right after Loki. I guess.

Anyway. My point is that Taskmaster and Winter Soldier have bit for bit the exact same building blocks: hypercompetent antagonist that is a serious threat to our hero who just can't win with in one on one combat. But then plot twist: our antagonist was just a victim and puppet without free will in hands of actual villain who is bland bureaucrat.

So why did Winter Soldier worked really really well and Taskmaster was just ehh.. ok?

Well the short answer is that catws was a much tighter movie that had clearer goal (and also that goal/theme was singular: good things get corrupted with time and sometimes you get to start over) compared to black widow which had to jump through too many hoops and still somehow managed it but it wasn't as graceful as it would be if they (as in executives) resigned from one or two hoops and flips and explosions.

And I'm omitting a BIG disadvantage of making a prequel movie about a character that they killed off in shitty way. Though that created one of extra hoops for them to jump through: quickly build up Yelena as a character.

And character build they did. Because srsly Yelena is awesome and I love her. BUT. That came at a price.

Lets compare to catws. The new character there is Sam (and kiiiiiiiinda also Natasha a bit but that's a topic for a different rant) who is nowhere near as well build as Yelena. At the beginning. Because he had time to be fleshed out and naturally grow in few different movies and then we got a deep dive in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But Marvel can't give Yelena few movies because she will appear in Hawkguy an Hawkeye series and also Marvel is generally dividing their assets into: outer spaaaace, down to earth heros and magic stuff (aliens, androids and wizards ;P). But also they can only create so many things in a year.

So yeah. Yelena offtopic can be summarized that I love that we have her as we have her but it came at a cost of air time of the movie.

So comparing the movies again:

Catws had the theme of good things being corrupted with time. And the theme was underlined 3 times through Peggy, Bucky and then Shield/Hydra. Which are interconnected and also make nice scale from inner conflict of the main character to the outer conflict of the movie.

In Black Widow there is the topic of the past evil that never went away and is still taking away free will from people. And again we have it shown through 3 outlets: Yelena, Taskmaster and Black Widows. But there is also whole family subplot attached to Yelena and there is Red Room attached to Black Widows. So as you can see things are getting crowded. Which in turn make the theme a bit blurry.

I mean, sure, the Red Room should be the Shield equivalent. Even it could take smaller space because good Shield turns out to be evil Hydra is generally more time consuming to explain than Red Room bad. But still combining Red Room and Black Widows make things a bit crowded.

(There is a reason why the surprise subplot of there is more Winter Soldiers was in separate movie and was kinda handwaved and cut to minimum. But they couldn't do that here).

But it's time to stop my ranting about whole Black Widow movie and focus on comparing Taskmaster and Winter Soldier.

Because to be honest both are bare bones of character and more of an carte blanche in the movie. Both have barely any screen time yet there are colossal difference which stems out of:

first introduction: as I mentioned they are hypercompetent and unstoppable threat that you can't win with, you can only hope to run away (both done equally well)

programmable killing machine:

For Taskmaster we just get a scene with her watching other heroes fighting at the screen. For the sake of building up the mystery of character we think that "he" is just watching. Maybe learning or more likely just being creepy. The information about the chip and literal programming is given to us much later in the movie which makes this scene lose the power. idk how it will work on rewatch? Maybe better? Hopefully. right now there is too many new movies in cinemas to go for a rewatch and disney+ still isn't available here -.-

For Bucky we have literal torture scene. You just can't be more blunt than that. It also hammered the next point in.

there is human behind the mask:

Winter Soldier is introduced with full face mask which he gradually loses and then we have the big reveal of not only: that's a human but also that's a human our main hero cares about deeply.

With Taskmaster they fucked up it for chap plot twist. We are learning quite late that oh snap that's Antonia (that we don't really care about) and our main hero kinda feels guilty about her.

I think the big difference is what kind of character Steve and Nat are and also the way they reveal this secret. Steve actively recognizes Bucky by himself and is very openly shocked. Nat is passively told and shown that hey, this is Antonia. And there is no time in the movie for Nat (and for us) to be shocked because that's the 3rd act and we need time for explosions and stuff.

Besides, the problem is that all the big plot twist reveals are boring on rewatch (stil big props for Pacific Rim and giving us the monster reveal in like second minute of the movie, I will never not appreciate that).

Also on related shitty note. We the audience. Bucky is handsome and vulnerable and we can drool all over him (and oh man, we the fandom did a fair share of drooling). Antonia is disfigured and not sexualized in any way. Which I'm actually grateful for but there is no pretending that doesn't make a hell lot of difference. But that's a whole different, ugly and big topic I'm not remotely qualified to write about. I'm just angry ranting here.

they don't have free will:

For Winter Soldier we have amnesia + torture tropes which to be honest have been done over and over again and it shouldn't have worked as well as it worked. Bit it did. In context of Black Widow movie it worked because it was just one guy that actively broke through brainwashing with active help of the hero.

In Black Widow there is a lot of characters that are pasively "woken up" out of mind control over and over again by active protagonist. Unfortunately the repetition kinda cheapens it. Especially in comparison to main gut punch right in the feels scene in the other movie. Which is why it's not fair to compare the two.

So lets talk about lack of free will aspect itself. To be honest the mind control aspect in Black Widow was done really great from story perspective. Evil scientists perfected it to the point it being (bit handwavey but) completely impersonal but also completely dehumanizing to the subject. So I'm buying that it can be completely switched off in equally efficient and impersonal way. Even the way they explained it with Alexei the pig was great and terrifying... to a point. Because then kicked the main problem with this movie. Clearly some execs came and saw it and went whoa... that's too dark for pg13 blockbuster. Let's put some cheap jokes here. And it happens over and over again in this movie :S

humanizing flashback scene that ties them to main hero:

For Bucky, sure we had Captain America First Avenger but a movie needs to stand on it's own legs. That's why we have the flashback scene which shows us that Bucky cared about Steve. Leaving it at the narration in Smithsonian of "best friends since childhood" would be just telling us. And we needed to be shown and we needed a space for the "till the end of line" so it could come back and stab us right in the feels.

Also because we are ignoring previous movie Russos cleverly made us care about Winter Soldier because Steve cares about Winter Soldier. And we already know and like Steve so building up our main character gives us more mileage out of new bare bones character (because let's be honest, Winter Soldier is just that). Two birds one stone thing.

In Black Widow there is no such thing which IMHO is the main reason Taskmaster doesn't work. We just get information about cardboard cutout: insert cute little girl here (only told, not even shown actual cardboard) and all of the emotional connection to Natasha is: I know that my boss that I hate has a daughter, she got in the crossfire. Which means nobody cares.

All it would take is adding a short flashback scene. idk Dreykov is an asshole and doesn't care about Antonia but she is she cutest and most adorable little girl. She treats the Black Widows as older sisters. Hell if you want to make it more horrorish copy of the idea of Thor wanting to be a Valkyrie when he grows up or T'challa wanting to be a Dora Milaje. Little Antonia wants to be Black Widow when she grows up because they are badass and they are nice to her (and are also slightly confused by her) because she is nice to them and is only person that treats them as humans. Hell we could have short interaction between her and Nat. Just a smile between them would be enough.

You could get a lot of character buildup mileage out of such a short scene.

But it couldn't happen partially because the movie didn't have time for that but we didn't get that mostly because it would show us instead of telling that Nat killed a cute little innocent girl for her own personal gain. (well she thought she was destroying Red Room but mostly wanted to get away - vide she didn't check on Yelena or other widows. But I wouldn't hold that against her. It was put your oxygen mask first kind of situation. But still it would make her look bad)

Besides, that would take guts to actually show.

And technically they could have afforded to have that guts. That was last movie with Nat anyway. It would actually make this plotline about her feeling guilty about Dreykov's daughter and red in her ledger work. But well... It was last movie so they wanted to leave us with the most goodest and bleeding hartest and heartwarming mary sue version of Nat with just telling us without showing hey, she got dark past.

On the other hand if we had the rumored Endgame plotline of Nat running an orphanage. Damn that would tie to this plotline so well. We could tie the loose widows also. Dam we were robbed here I tell ya >.<

Ok I'm overdoing offtopic about Nat. Sorry

design

So yeah. Design wise Winter Soldier is like great. For Taskmaster, she sure looks cool but also kinda generic? If in 10 years you'd show me her and say it's antagonist from GI Joe or something I'll believe you :S (not touching the debate that in comics something something because unfortunately I don't know Taskmaster from comics. Although I hear that few recent ones were quite good so I'll check them out sooner or later)

snapping out of mind control

I mentioned before. It would be unfair and there is no point comparing main emotional scene of the movie versus means to an end that were repeated several times through a movie.

Natasha freeing Antonia even if she thought that Antonia will kill her because that would fair was great. What I'm annoyed is a cheap fakeout that went with that. It was just after the bombastic finale with explosions and all the cgi shit. Even without looking at the movie runtime it was obvious there will be no extra fight scene.

In catws it worked because the cgi pew pew extravaganza was a background noise and was part of a continuous fight. In BW helicarriers fell already, there was a second of dust settling and then Nat throws away the shield (uses that capsule). Tension just fell from highest place in a movie (quite literally lol), trying to rise it again for such a short moment just doesn't work.

But that's the general problem with Marvel movies. Bombastic CGI fest as grand finale that probably is "outsourced" and then actual director comes back and needs to end movie super quickly.

disappearing act at the end

So in catws there is mystery of what will Bucky do. We are given some hope since he dragged Steve out of river and visited the museum but thats all. I mean there is this annoying Marvel thing of skipping over the interesting ending of last movie and starting with next plot point. We were hoping for the grand roadtrip/hunt for Bucky but nope. We must run ahead with all the plotlines (same way I'm sure that the Spiderman is Peter Parker and he killed a guy thing will be already dealt with in the beginning of the next movie -.-) But that's bonus mini rant.

In BW they needed to wrap up to many plot lines too quickly so Antonia wakes up and that's all. We don't get a suggestion what she may do. The problem of the chip she still has installed is omitted. There is nothing. She just fucks off to lalaland with other Black Widows the end. Because we needed ending for Nat's actual family which was ok but also kinda rushed.

As I mentioned waaaay before (god, this rant is pretty long) too many hoops to jump through.

Which really sucks because if they added that one flashback scene just for Antonia and spared few more minutes for the overall ending it would work so much more better.

And I even know where they could have saved few minutes (besides the explosions thingies). The supply guy. One extra character in a movie with too many characters. In catws the supply problem (with wings) was solved with nbd shrug. If you wanted to show that Nat has her own web of contacts it should be more than one guy. IDK in Budapest there could be 10 second scene with neighbor saying hi nice to see you again we reinforced the walls after last time. In Norway we could see her visiting some special secret supply stash run by some rando before getting to the mobile home.

But oh she was on the run so that would be too many people. Then cut the people entirely. The shitty helicopter can be worked around with joke that I'm not on speaking terms with Stark rn and that's the best we can have on short notice.

Eh.. side rant again. Sorry.

So to wrap it up. I actually really would love to see what will happen with the loose Black Widows and Antonia because here they were really underdeveloped. And while widows were more of a group hero and we have Yelena as a representative so in a way it balances out but Taskmaster needed so little extra care to make her character so much better and I'm a tiiiiiiny bit salty about it.

[mortallybeautifuldream]

My thoughts on the first two episodes of Hawkeye that no one asked for

Kate Bishop is a Mary Sue. Idc what age you started taking karate, ain't no way that little girl could hold her own against grown male mafia gangsters. Yes Clint and Nat were regular humans (in the MCU at least) but they were highly trained as assassins, I honestly don't remember much of comic Clint's backstory but both comic and MCU Nat were trained day and night for years by experts in multiple forms of combat and martial arts, psychology, seduction, and much more. It's fair that Nat can keep up with the big dogs even though she's a normal human physiologically (in the mcu at least). Kate Bishop took gymnastics under a normal instrustor for normal lesson times, and you expect me to believe she can be a competent super hero and stay conscious after being hurled into a brick wall by a man twice her size and age? Rey ''Skywalker'' much?

and I feel like this does such a disservice to the character, the actress, the series, and the fans when this happens. We all want to see women in powerful lead roles but I want to see them in ones they've earned, and that I can respect them for. It's the same with male characters too, if a character is just super strong and amazing and liked and has all these resources available to them on a whim, they've earned nothing and I have no respect for them regardless of what they accomplish

I'm sorry but Hailee Steinfield was not the right actress for this role come at me

I don't know of any character in the MCU that grunts during a fight as much as she has holy shit I felt like I was watching porn

Evil stepdad cliche

Mom sides with stepdad cliche

Seems Hawkeye is turning into a bit of a Loki situation where the show is actually about some other chick instead of the show's namesake :/ at least Sylvie was a Loki so it was like, okay I wanted a show more about our Loki but she's still him technically so I'll let it slide. But I was so looking forward to a show all about Clint to give his character the depth and value he deserves. I need to stop getting my hopes up that Phase 4 will be anywhere near as good as the previous phases tbh.

not really a genuine critique but I'm sorry who keeps a whole pizza box in the fridge fOR oNe sLiCe oF PizZA

spoiled rich girl is spoiled

The mom said ''young people and rich people always feel invincible and you've always been both" - meaning Kate's always been rich - meaning their family had money back when Kate was a kid and her mom was yelling at her dad for not having any money to pay the bills. Either this is a plot hole or the mom is sus and this will make sense later

I'll be seriously shocked if the dad is actually dead and the mom is not into some shady shit tbh. Feels like that's where the plot is going already so I'll be very pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong

Girl took karate lessons from a 49 year old named Jake in the mall so ofc now she can pick a lock? Why? How? Plot reasons, duh

Edgy girl wears a suit cliche

overall the first two eps felt very cheesy, predictable, and contrived

I really do hope it gets better

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also i'd die for that dog but she better feed him something more nutritious for dogs seriously okay thanks for coming to my ted talk

[jacksficrecs]

In Hopes That You Remember Me - Chapter One

PROMPT: Tony in the Hospital + Steve being guilty

A/N: This is one of my first attempts to learn how to write a decent story again. Enjoy.

POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNINGS: [for the rest of the story] Depression, Trauma, Amnesia, Comatose

STATUS: Ongoing, Unedited

---

Steve has never felt this nervous before.

He stared at himself in the mirror, water dripping from his chin. Tonight was the night.

He remembered the day his relationship with Tony was revealed to the public. Tony had decided it was a good time to sneak a kiss on the taller man's cheek while they looked around a quaint little bookstore just some blocks away from the tower. They could have bought books online, but you know, going outside every once in a while is never a bad thing. Of course, someone had spotted them, took several pictures of him pulling the brunette into a hug and offering a kiss on the forehead before stepping back to take another book of the shelf, he presumed. The next thing they new, it was all over the web. It was posted on any social media platform you can name, and unsurprisingly enough, it gained a lot of attention. Steve wasn't ready to 'come out of the closet' yet, as they say, but he didn't have much of a choice. The public already found out, so he might as well confirm their speculations.

'Steve Rogers and Tony Stark: The Most Iconic Power Couple of the Month'

The two read the article together. It was amusing, to say the least. Very amusing to see the media go crazy over a gay superhero couple. Kind of upsetting to see the close-minded people rant over how they're setting a bad example for the younger generation that looked up to them. Homophobia could never be erased, he supposed.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Knock, knock, Capsicle. You done putting on your makeup yet?" Tony hums from the other side. Steve simply smiled at that, shaking his head. "Hang on, Tony. I'll be out in a second." He responded, taking the towel he had hanging on the towel rack installed into the tiled wall and drying himself off. "You better be. I'm about to fall off what you're telling me to hang onto." Steve only chuckled quietly. This was the man he loved. This sarcastic little son of a bitch. 

"Cap! Come on, snap out of it! We need you-" A voice calls from the distance, though he couldn't quite place who or where it was coming from.

 "Ready for our first date?" The Stark smiled warmly when the blonde finally exits the bathroom, fully dressed in the blue suit Tony's picked out for him. "Ready as I'll ever be." Steve replied easily, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Still not going to tell me where we're going for tonight?" "No. Don't you know what a surprise is, Rogers?"

"Steve!" The same voice. Louder this time. What was happening?

 "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's go." Steve laughed, rolling his eyes as the shorter man led him towards the door with a big, content smile. 

---

"Steve." His eyes opened. He was back in the real world. Gunshots were heard. Explosions. The familiar whine of the Iron Man suit's repulsors powering itself up into the air. "Wh- What-" The blonde started questioning the events, eyes bleary as he tried to process who he was talking to. Natasha. "Steve. You're alright." The redhead sighed in relief, eyes scanning the blonde for any serious issues. "Nat-" He mumbles, swallowing the knot in his throat. It's all coming back to him now. He was in the middle of a battle. He was supposed to be fighting off his HYDRA twin. Speaking of the guy, where was he?

And what did he do to him?

"Steve. I need you to tell me what he did." Her green eyes were full of worry. "What did you see?" "First date with Tony." He answered quickly, grunting as he pushed himself up onto his elbows. He needs to get back into the fight. The others needed him. They needed his help. "Reenaction." The blonde added, forcing himself to stand, using his shield to assist him. God, everything hurt. "Steve, wait," She places a hand on his arm. Steve's attention shifts back towards the spy accompanying him. The earth shakes, and the hulk's yells were heard from a distance. "Nat, we need to get back to-" "Steve. What do you remember him doing? What was the last thing you remember him doing to trigger... Whatever happened to you?" She questioned. It really did seem like an important question. He stood silent for a moment, eyebrows knitting together as he dug through his scattered thoughts and memories, trying to pull something out. "I-"

"Steve?" He turns his head. Natasha. But Natasha was right there, right beside him. He looks back at the redhead that still had her hand resting on his arm. She didn't have the scar from the last fight on her collarbone. He reacted immediately. 

Nat's double landed a hard hit on his temple.

All went black.

---

There was a painful ringing in his ears.

Dazed, Steve opens his eyes, finding himself on the ground, in the middle of a battlefield, with large pieces of debris scattered around him. Since when did he get there? Was the fight over? Head pounding and ears still ringing, he struggles to prop himself up on his elbows to get a clearer view of his surroundings. How long has he been lying there? There was a fire in the distance, or at least, he assumed there was judging by the smoke rising up into the sky. A quinjet had crashed nearby and was a total wreck, leaving several of its pieces everywhere. There wasn't really a lot happening by this point. A couple of tree branches were scattered here and there, and glass and concrete from the few buildings (that were very tall, mind you) decorated the ground. Clint was on the other side of the field, helping Natasha back on her feet. The Hulk was nowhere to be seen, probably off to calm himself down, and Thor was somewhere in the sky, as indicated by the low rumble of thunder off in the distance. Why he was still up there, he didn't know. All he knew was that the battle was over. Thank God. Everything seemed okay.

And then, the realization hits him.

Tony. He wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere to be seen.

With a quiet huff, he pushed himself off the ground a bit too quickly, resulting in a bad headache and a brief moment of vertigo, but he really couldn't care enough. All he could think of was Tony's whereabouts and his well-being. God, what if he's hurt? Disregarding the pain he felt in almost every part of his body and the fact that breathing was just painful, he immediately went to approach both the Black Widow and her good friend, Hawkeye with a bit of a grimace. "Barton, Romanoff." The blonde greets the two, his voice sounding rather hoarse. "Captain." The two spies nod, casually brushing themselves off as if they'd done nothing but trip. "Any of you know where Iron Man's gone?" He asked, his gloved hands finding their way to the belt strapped around his waist. "Nope," Natasha replied simply. "Last time I saw him he was up in the air dancing with his evil twin." Steve's heart dropped. Where could they have gone then?

Once HYDRA got their hands on Tony, they were in big trouble. That man stores a lot of important information in his head. If they ever got it out of him, the team (and probably the entire human race) will be royally fucked. The Avengers will no longer be seen as heroes. Their reputations will drop like a boulder in water as soon as HYDRA released their 'new and improved' creations. Their counterparts. Hell, they might even be stronger than the actual Avengers. IF they got everything out of Tony. But Steve doubts that'll ever happen. Tony was a strong man. And painfully stubborn, might he add. But HYDRA had their ways to get someone to comply. Mind-Control, Brainwash, Torture, you name it. Tony might be strong, but one of their methods could potentially break him. He ran a hand through the tousled nest of hair resting on top of his head, releasing a heavy, painful sigh as his gaze shifts to the ground. "Right. Okay, Thank you. Um... Go contact SHIELD for me, will you? I have a feeling we weren't the only ones here when our 'friends' came for a visit." The Captain says, letting a bit of a commanding tone lace into his voice, trying to maintain the 'Leader' image he was supposed to have even though he knew it was useless. Clint and Natasha knew just how scared he was. He was fucking terrified. Worried. Hell, he was panicking. He just had to find Tony. He had to.

Both spies replied with simple 'Alright's and 'Okay's, sharing a look before going off to deliver his commands while checking around to see if there were any poor souls that needed their assistance. Steve's gone off to look for that one brunette that always seemed to be getting in trouble. With a throbbing headache and hell-giving rib, he goes on to search for his lovely idiot.

---

"Steve!" Natasha's voice crackled through the earpiece. "Yeah?" "It's Tony. We found him." She sounded almost breathless as if she just ran a marathon. Three, actually. "What? Where?" He asks, his heart suddenly picking up the speed as he leaves the injured man he pulled out from under some rubble in the care of the parademics, turning to take another scan of the field where a major clean-up process organized by SHIELD was taking place. "Your three o'clock. Parademics are taking care of him. He's breathing, but..." Her worry was palpable by the way she speaks, and at that, Steve suddenly felt like he wasn't going to like what he was about to discover. Was it bad? What happened to him? "I think you should see for yourself. It's not that horrible, but it's... Something." She didn't know how to say it. She didn't want to be the one to deliver the bad news. "Yeah, okay. I'm coming." Comes his simple reply, voice breaking, spotting the redhead near a group of uniformed parademics who offered a small wave at the captain. The blonde jogs his way over, worry and fear becoming more and more noticeable as he got closer. The Iron Man suit lies near a pile of rubble, lifeless, the blue in its eyes, reactor and repulsors non-existent. A large chunk of the titanium-alloy armor was missing, probably shot off. In other words, it was in pretty bad shape. And then there was Tony himself, eyes closed, breathing slow and not so steady, blood staining the ripped clothes he barely managed to throw on before the battle was called, red staining the side of his head, seeping out onto the ground where he lay. There was quite a lot of bustle as they worked to track the brunette's wounds and give them attention, which they did in record time. Steve's heart practically broke. In all the battles they've fought together, he's never seen Tony in this state, and that was beyond terrifying. Natasha appeared beside the taller blonde, smiling rather sadly. "I'm sorry, Steve. He'll be alright. He'll be back to himself in no time, alright?" She says, in a fruitless effort to comfort him. The supersoldier couldn't speak, so he simply nodded, eyes still set on the brunette in the parademics' care.

The next few hours were a blur of activity. The EMTs taking Tony into an ambulance, requesting a teammate to tag along (Steve did just that, telling the others to still report to Fury on their behalf, asked them to tell the director what had happened, that he would get in touch as soon as news comes available), the brunette being taken to the OR, leaving the Captain to wait anxiously. He was seated on one of the armchairs set against the wall, bothered by the fact that he was still wearing his uniform, not as clean as he'd like to be. He received some treatment for his own minor wounds (well, as minor as a broken rib can go), and he was very much thankful for that despite knowing they would be gone in a few hours. The blonde's shield rests against the wall, occupying the empty space behind him as he fiddles with the pages of those magazines the hospital provided, trying his best to reassure himself that Tony would walk away from this just fine. Occasionally, a child and an adult would enter the room, with the kid eyeing the supersoldier curiously, probably wondering why he was here, of all places. At least, that's what he assumed. He did hear about some children talking about how superheroes didn't need anyone to give them medical attention because they were so 'cool' and 'strong'. It didn't make much sense, but he let them believe what they want to believe.

Time went on, and Steve spent it suffering quietly with everyone that went in and out of the waiting room. He was growing restless, but he refused to leave Tony. He will wait as long as he needed to for Tony's reappearance.