Steve Rogers

After all of the pressure from the STRIKE team to get back to headquarters, immediately, it turned out that the meeting Steve was going to have had been postponed for an hour--enough time for Steve to grab a shower, a clean uniform, and three giant cups of coffee before heading up to meet the chairman of the World Security Council, Alexander Pierce.

Pierce stood up from his desk to greet him. "Ah, Captain," he said with a warm smile. "I'm Alexander Pierce."

"Sir, it's an honor," Steve said, shaking his hand.

( Where Alexander Pierce is kind of a weasel and Steve kicks ass in an elevator )

After more than a week of dithering about it, Steve finally sucked it up and took his motorcycle back into DC to attend Sam's veterans' meeting. It was more informative--and closer to his own experiences in the service--than he'd been expecting.

He and Sam chatted after the meeting and then Steve returned to the now darkened meeting room for a final cup of coffee. Nick Fury was slouched in a chair in the corner. Steve blinked. "I don't remember telling you I'd be here."

"You really think you need to tell me where you are?" Fury asked, arching an eyebrow and typing on his phone as Steve got closer and narrowed his eyes--was Fury injured? Fury held up the screen for Steve to read: ears everywhere. "Sorry to do this," Fury continued, "but I had no place else to crash."

Steve's eyebrows drew together. "You want to...head back with me?" he asked, careful not to mention where he lived now.

Fury held up the phone again for Steve to read, SHIELD compromised. Steve felt his stomach drop. "Who else knows?" he asked quietly. Fury's phone read, you and me as he said, "Just...my friends," out loud.

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked, frowning.

"That's up to you," Fury replied. Steve took another step forward just as the glass in the window exploded. He instictively hit the deck as three bullets slammed into Fury's chest. Steve looked out the window to see a flash of silver from the buidling across the street, then moved over to Fury, pressing his hand against one of the wounds to try to staunch the bleeding. "Don't trust anyone," Fury breathed, handing Steve a flash drive.

Steve glanced down at it as Sam came barging into the room, first aid kit in hand. "What the--" he moved quickly to Fury's side. "I was a medic back in the Air Force," he said as he began to work. Steve was already on the phone to SHIELD. "I need EMTs," he said. "Fury's been shot."

"Do you have a twenty on the shooter?" the agent asked.

Steve's eyes went back out the window. "Yeah. I'm in pursuit."

"You're what?" Sam asked, glancing up at him. Steve shoved the phone at him. "Back soon."

"You'll what?" Sam repeated as Steve--and his shield--went barrelling out the broken window and across the street. The silver glint on the roof began to move and Steve put his shoulder behind his shield and just plowed through the door...and then the next door and the next and a few walls as he made his way up to the roof. He got to the roof just in time to see a man in a face-covering mask and a metal arm preparing to jump to the next building.

He threw his shield as hard as he could at center mass...and held in a gasp as the man reached out with the arm and caught the shield, then threw it back just as hard. He went skidding back across the roof at the force behind it, and by the time he recovered, the mysterious assassin was gone.

"Dammit," he murmured to himself, heading back to help Sam.

"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star," Rumlow said, voice loud over the engines of the cargo plane the STRIKE team, Steve and Natasha were in. "It was sending up their last payload when pirates took them, ninety-three minutes ago."

Steve made a face. "Any demands?"

"A billion and a half," Rumlow replied. "Why so steep?" Steve asked.

"Because it SHIELD's," Rumlow said.

"So the ship's not off-course, it's trespassing," Steve concluded, looking unhappy.

"I'm sure they have a good reason," Natasha said, tugging on the sleeves of her catsuit and making sure her weapons were in order.

"You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor," Steve told her.

"Relax, it's not that complicated," Natasha said.

( Did someone say let's have a quick movie recap? No? Tough )