Forward to Marvel Cinematic Universe

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***

2005. July.

* * *

Nature was taking its course. Every new day on the earth was getting warmer and warmer. And we had less and less work to do. Rogers and I were lying in deck chairs on the ocean. Hawaii. Rogers was drinking cold lemonade, looking at the girls swimming. Yeah. I was looking at them, too. Nature was taking its course.

- Steve, you still haven't decided to visit Peggy?

Rogers took a deep breath:

- It's hard, but it's necessary.

- Yes. If you want, I can invite her to Aegis. However, you realise, she's one of the creators of the Shield.

- Do you doubt her loyalty?

- No. My abilities allow me to look deeper into a person's soul than a psychologist can. It allows me to carefully choose who to tell, what to say, how much to trust. It's unlikely to come to betrayal, but ...

Stephen hummed and shook his head:

- Peggy's well over a hundred years old. I think it's too late for her to work...

- That's all right. We can make her young again. I can do that.

Since March, all we've done is train. It was good for Steve, like me, to get to know the land. The only difference was that I was interested in earthly things-history, geography, realities... things I didn't even know when I was still living on earth, and then there was no place to learn.

We also did martial arts and Steve learnt about Earth and alien technology. New vehicles, boats, aerospiders, new to himself weapons and new techniques of combat. Instead of "blind hippo" tactics, something more subtle, but no less powerful. So far, there's been no tangible effects - Steve's just starting to get the hang of computers. I also implanted him with an implant I designed. A mental link with Bersie and Ares through a quantum channel that expanded Cap's abilities many times over. Now he could use the thoughts transmitted to him by Bercy to learn much faster. And also - to analyse much faster, to perform those kinds of work that he does not know yet, because Bersi can prompt, and give him not primitive instructions, but a detailed understanding of the situation. Just like in my court case - I didn't know the laws of the land, but Bersih analysed them very quickly and gave me an understanding of their essence, telling me when and what to say. I just voiced the thoughts that came to me. That's convenient, man.

- It's an offer you can't refuse," Steven stood up, "let's go.

- Right now? - I was surprised and even looked at him over my glasses.

- Yeah. Peggy's an old lady, you can't slow down. Just remember, you promised!

Ahem.

I didn't promise anything, but I didn't tell the cap. I had to get up and walk towards our airspeeder. It was shaped like a car. A few minutes on a winding track and we were ready to take off.

* * *

Stephen walked with bated breath into the nursing home where Peggy Carter was spending her last days. Cap remembered the fashionable, young girl with the bright red lipstick and curly hair who'd accompanied the deadbeat Rogers on his way to the lab. He was followed by Hyarty, a young guy in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans, with glasses on his head.

Peggy, a grey-haired old woman, lay in a separate room. The Shield personnel keeping an eye on Agent Carter were suddenly sleepy, and the cameras prudently showed the watchers that nothing was going on. Even the ones mounted in the headboard of Peggy's bed. Synchronising multiple images wasn't that difficult.

Steve entered the room, gazing at the old woman lying on the bed.

- Peggy? - He took a quick step towards her, "Hyarty, leave us alone.

- Yeah. I'll stay outside the door for a while.

Hiarty went out, leaving Stephen alone with Peggy.

- Peggy, it's me.

- Stephen? - She asked as if she'd seen a phantom, "Am I dead yet? Yeah.

- No," Steve chuckled, "not yet, Peggy. Sorry I'm late for our date. Seventy years...

- What a strange dream," Peggy looked out the window, "it's getting dark....

Steve coughed:

- 'Peggy, I'd ask. It's not a dream, I'm here, in the flesh.

- But that's impossible," the old woman propped herself up on her elbows, "you're alive? How can it be?

- I'm not an ordinary man. I've been lying in the ice for a while, cooling down after that bomber story... A friend got me from there.

- Shield's looking for you. Took me a long time," Peggy fell back onto the pillows, "Steven....

There was a few minutes of cooing before Steve got down to business:

- Peggy.

- Yes, Steven?

- If you want to... ahem. How should I put it? - he hesitated.

- Tell it like it is, I've got nothing to lose.

- OK. I've been asked to invite you to join our organisation. Or rather, the organisation that got me out of the ice.

- What organisation? - Peggy was surprised. What do you mean?

- Well, the organisation... it's small. It's new. In a nutshell, we're in the business of defending the earth from external and internal threats.

- You mean like a shield?

- No, it's more serious than that," Steve grinned.

- I don't care if you go to hell. I have nothing to lose.

Steven called out from behind the door to his friend. Hjarti telekinetically lifted Peggy's bed off the floor and carried it to the roof. At the same time, the shuttlecraft launched toward the ground.

* * * * * *

I stood there wondering what to do next. It's almost impossible to rejuvenate a body like this. The age limits are too deep. A new one would take a couple of months to grow. Steve came up to me - we were in the LC hospital bay. Rogers coughed to attract attention:

- Ahem. How's it going? - Steve asked.

- It's not an easy case. Even for me, so it's going to have to wait....

- How much longer?

- Patience, Steve! Growing a person a new body is not as easy as you might think. Even for LK and me, it's an arduous task. So it's going to take a few months, that's for sure.

Rogers nodded in agreement and left the office.

I grabbed my head:

- Bersey, are you sure she can't be fixed up?

- No. Probably not. It's better to do it right away and do it well than to try to fix something that went wrong.

Bersey was right, 100 per cent right. Asked him to prepare the cloning facility. Age changes are written in the DNA, so you can grow clones of any age, old or young. I chose the age of sixteen - old enough to sleep with Steve if he wanted to, but young enough that I wouldn't have to change everything. Let's just say the perfect age to start a girl's life. Sixteen.

Peggy was lying asleep in bed. The droids took a DNA sample from her, and then the cloning began. First - from a sample of her tissue, using a nutrient solution, they grew enough stem cells - the basis of the future clone. The cells took a month to form.

During this month I had to fly out of the base only once - to Ekaterinburg, to participate in the launch of a new line for the production of electronics. The plant promised good productivity, especially thanks to my production methods. Fifty thousand smartphones a week was enough to cover the initial sales flow. Processor synthesis, the longest process, had already begun.

The director managed everything, right down to shipping goods to wholesalers' warehouses. We were selling a smartphone for five thousand dollars and a tablet for twenty thousand. However, their performance was so superior to the competition that the price seemed realistic. The first batches were snapped up like hotcakes - three days after the Ural sales started, I received a lot of invitations, including some at the highest level. I politely declined all of them, deciding not to go overboard just yet.

A week later, Bersi told me that the Russian leadership had officially switched to my smartphone. They just banned other phones in the interests of security. But it was understandable - the Ural had a thorough defence against any attempts to track it by the CIA. Even GPS worked with a slight offset - the satellites received a distorted signal, about five to ten kilometres distorted. I won't say anything about the digital encryption system, no one has been able to crack it yet. And they won't be able to in the next couple of years.

* * *

- One more time! - Steven was outraged.

We were standing on the roof of a building in New York. Steve was wearing cyber armour, a closed helmet... superhuman capabilities didn't make him bulletproof, which meant the armour wouldn't hurt.

- Okay. I'll drive this time.

Steve gave a grudging chuckle, but didn't object.

I shrank down, and Steve followed suit.

- The concrete crumbled under your feet because your mass didn't change as you shrank.

The concrete did indeed crumble like piled sand.

- So I'm still heavy?

- Exactly. And imagine if all your weight was concentrated in your current sole? That's why you have to help yourself with the repulsors. They'll reduce your weight. After I got into the Burrow, I tweaked the system, so there's a microscopic gravity anomaly. That's all there is to it.

I switched on the system and walked calmly to the surface. The concrete beneath my feet was just ordinary concrete. When magnified, it looked like a very uneven surface strewn with cobblestones. It was a pleasure to walk on. Steve followed me.

We reached the ventilation.

- All modern buildings have ventilation. It usually runs through all the floors, and it's a very convenient way to get into buildings. Sometimes there's a defence, though," I pointed my glove at the ventilation box and melted a hole the size of my current self with the beam of my emitter.

- We're not going to stomp?

- No, the vibrations are cancelled out. The system's in the soles. Let's get in.

I got in first.

We went through the vents, a long walk. Finally, we got to the first grate. I looked down and there was a corridor of some kind.

- We're on the forty-eighth floor," Stephen told me.

- And this is the fiftieth. All right, let's keep walking.

We continued our hike. Five minutes later, Steve stood by one of the bars.

- Anything interesting?

- No, no - Steve immediately ran after me. But I slyly returned to see what Steve was so interested in. Ahem. The women's changing room. And there was a pretty girl in there. "Ahem" again.

- Gee, Steve," I quipped as I walked on.

- I'm sorry, I haven't seen a girl in seventy years.

- Good reason," I smiled, "let's get a move on.

We reached the right floor. We had to get out of the ventilation. The working day was already over.

Steve asked:

- What's supposed to be so interesting here?

- Nothing. Just a training mission," we continued walking along the wall.

The server room was locked, but all it took was one shot at the lock to melt and block the entrance, and we slipped under the door.

- That's what, Steve," I took my normal size. So did he, now we're breaking the server. We need to copy all their data.

- How am I supposed to do that?

I handed him a flash drive-like device.

- It's a Bersih communication device. It can work as a flash drive, a modem, and also gives Bersey access to the computer. Just plug it into the USB port.

Steve accepted the device. Good thing the servers had all the standard ports. Steve plugged the device into the port and Bersey immediately spoke:

- There is a connection to the device.

- We need to copy all the information and run a virus into the server.

- As you command, Captain. Bus capacity is limited, it'll take nine minutes.

- You have that time," I shrugged, glancing over at Steve. Rogers was already sitting near the sysadmin's monitor, looking something up.

The work began. Eight minutes later, someone came from the other side of the door, but it didn't distract us from our work. I stood guard. When the work was done, Steve pulled out the flash drive and I shrunk first.

The server room had its own ventilation, so we left the building, not hesitating to use the engines. Quickly we flew outside.

- Wow, that was interesting," we hovered above the building, being the size of dragonflies.

- Yeah, that was pretty good. It was an easy mission this time, I'll pick up something heavier tomorrow.....