The Masters

The Day Is Brightest Before The Dusk

Stark Tower

June 13, 2013 – 4:30 PM

Another day, another hard battle for the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. They got the call hours earlier from the mayor of Houston, Texas about a swarm of wasps and ants that had appeared out of nowhere. Normally, that would have been a job for the Orkin man, but it turned out that they were all the size of luxury sedans. Which, as didn't need to be said, wasn't normal.

When they arrived, Thor and Iron Man immediately engaged a hundred of the airborne pests. Their stingers were hardier and their venom was more potent. One sting killed a normal sized man in seconds. The same with the ants. Their mandibles were capable of crushing steel with ease. The Avengers stuck on the ground had to keep on their toes to keep from being snapped in half.

Hawkeye did his best to weave around the massive insects, while Black Widow laid into them with the quinjet's fifty caliber ordnance. She managed more hits than misses, but her misses ripped holes through buildings, cars, and almost people, if not for Quicksilver moving them out of the way in time.

Scarlet Witch was more than capable of handling the ants with her telekinesis and hex magic. Simple spells turned them from giant monsters to giant beds of flowers. Between her and Spider-Woman and her bio-electric blasts, they made short work of the insect swarm from Brobdingnag. Thor and Iron Man – well, mostly just Thor was needed – carved through the wasps in record time. The city sustained only minimum damage, and there was no loss of life.

All in a day's work from the Avengers.

Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, was the first out of the quinjet and into the common sitting area of Stark Tower, the Avengers' headquarters. He wasn't even winded after running for a cumulative thirty miles during the mission, as was usually the case. He sat down on the largest sofa, and was just about to kick his feet across it when his twin sister, Wanda, sat down just before.

She smirked at his annoyed glare. "Brother, do you mean to tell me you would not rather sit next to your dear sister?" she teased.

"Of course not," he replied with a sly smirk. He placed his feet in her lap and sighed contently, much to her consternation. "You make a rather comfortable foot rest."

"Well, that happened," Tony Stark declared. He had taken his battered suit off by simply walking down the balcony. There was a spinning platform that removed the individual pieces from his body as he walked and took them down below to his workshop so his machines could repair what needed repairing. "I could use a drink."

"You speak my language, mate," Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, agreed. Her red and yellow catsuit was covered in blood and grey matter from ants exploding in every direction, and usually covering her in filth. She stepped over to his bar and pulled a bottle of Lagavulin 21 scotch and poured both of them a drink. "Cheers to victory."

"Not so fast," he said, pulling his glass back before she could toast him. "Something occurred to me during the battle. And no, I'm not talking about the big ass bugs that just appeared out of nowhere." That just went without saying. "I'm talking about for the last, what, year we've been a team, Clint's been our best shot by far. No one can argue that. So, how have we gone this long with him stuck piloting the jet, while Tasha mans the guns. Or womans the guns. I don't know." He shrugged and took a smooth sip to savor the aged taste. "Man, that's good."

"Makes sense," Natasha agreed in a level tone. She walked over and pulled her half-full bottle of Russian vodka from the bar and picked up a shot glass. "But, that's been our deal since the beginning, like you said. He's the only one who can pilot the jet, so that means I have to shoot. I think I'm a pretty good shot."

"Yeah, but you're no Hawkeye," he said carefully. To that, she had to agree, to his relief.

Clint shrugged expansively at the conversation. "What can you do? Tasha's right. I'm the only certified SHIELD pilot on the team, and SHIELD doesn't have any pilots to spare. Especially since there's a crisis every other day." Natasha offered him a shot glass full of vodka, which he took.

"Who said we had to use a SHIELD pilot?" Bruce inquired. "Makes more sense for us to hire a civilian pilot of our own and keep him on our payroll. Tony, don't you know someone from the Air Force?"

He nodded. "Yeah, my best friend, Rhodey." He gave Bruce's idea some thought. It was risky, that much was immediately certain. They were put into some of the most dangerous situations in the world; their good days were easily on par with the most dangerous Air Force operation. He didn't feel comfortable with putting his friend in that kind of danger, but it wasn't up to him. "Let me give him a call and talk it over with him." With that settled, he turned to Clint and Natasha. "Don't take this the wrong way."

"It's fine," she intoned. "I'd rather be out there with you guys than stuck in the jet, anyway. Same with Clint, right?"

He nodded silently.

"That's that, then," Steve Rogers, Captain America, said. "Regardless of what Colonel Rhodes says, I'll talk to Nick about it tomorrow at our briefing."

Tony nodded and walked out to the balcony to make the call.

"Well, if that's all, I do believe there's a hot bath in my immediate future," Jessica announced. She made a pit stop at the bar to pull out a bottle of red wine and a wine glass. "Tata, lads."

"Want some company?" Clint called out after her vanishing form. She laughed as she entered the elevator.

Steve could only shake his head, then noticed the glare Natasha was giving Clint. He knew that Clint and Jessica had been partners for a few years, ever since he himself joined SHIELD a few months after being found in the ice. Fury made Natasha partner up with him so she could show him the ropes of the organization and help him assimilate himself more quickly into modern society. He knew how close those two were. Even though he didn't feel as bad about breaking them up as he did then, a ping of guilt still rose in his chest every so often.

"A shower does sound nice," Pietro said as he stood. That was all he said before he walked toward the elevator. Wanda got up also and followed him out.

"Do those two bathe together, too?" Clint asked, snickering.

Steve chuckled, despite the creepy insinuations, and allowed his gaze to linger on Wanda's vanishing figure. He watched her until she disappeared inside the elevator. He sighed tiredly and turned back around, only to find his remaining friends all grinning at him. "What?" he asked nervously.

"Oh, nothing," Bruce dismissed, tone not betraying an iota of his amusement.

"I know Wanda's got a nice ass and all, but you could have at least tried to be subtle about it," Clint chided. His and Natasha's smirks increased a fraction.

Thor's godly grinned beamed more brightly than the midday sun. "Indeed, my friend. Your gaze followed our fair witch more intensely than the watchmen of Asgard." He leaned toward him, a knowing eyebrow raised. "Mayhap you hold a bit of affection for her?"

"I..." Steve really hated how perceptive they were when it came to his love life. What could he say? He was caught red-handed staring at his friend, like some lecherous old pervert. He didn't even know why. Wanda was a dear friend of his, and was young enough to be his granddaughter, technically.

Peggy Carter, his old flame from WWII, died a few months ago. And with her died any hope in his mind of finding love. At first, he thought that her great-niece, Sharon, was the one. Natasha even recommended her. It seemed that they were destined to be together. Tony and Clint teamed up to put the kibosh on that in a hurry. They said it was creepy for him to be dating his ex's family member, especially when she was taking Peggy's deterioration at the hands of Alzheimer's so hard. Tony also accused him of trying to have his relationship with Peggy vicariously through Sharon. After a while of thinking on it, he realized that they were right and gave that up.

After that, he outright refused to – as Tony put it – hit the club scene and 'hook up' with one of the loose, seedy girls that inhabited those nightclubs. It just wasn't for him. They didn't understand, no matter how many times he explained that. They even suggested that he just talk to a random woman and have sex with her! They called it a one night stand. Tony very quickly rejected that idea once Steve went to go talk to Pepper Potts, his girlfriend and a random woman.

Steve smirked at the profanity laden threats Tony laid into him. Few of which he would have been able to actually carry out.

Speaking of Tony, "Hello? Earth of Capsicle."

He looked up and saw the others, including Tony, all staring at him. He cleared his throat and gave him his attention. "Sorry."

"Well, like I was telling the others, Rhodey can't do it. But, he does know just the person for us. He said they'll be on the first flight out of Boston tomorrow morning."

To that, he nodded once. "Great. I'll let Nick know in the morning." He got up and stretch out his tired body. A lot of the wounds he suffered in Houston were already healed. The ones that weren't were well on their way. It was one of the many benefits of the super-soldier serum.

He smiled to himself as he walked inside the elevator and pressed the button for his floor. The doors almost closed, but reopened when Thor just barely made it in time. "My apologies, my friend, but I must call Jane. It has been almost two days since we have last spoken."

There was an urgency in his voice that made him smile. "No problem." He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was envious of Thor's relationship with Dr. Jane Foster. He didn't know the woman personally, but he knew of her from her SHIELD file, and Thor spoke of her enough that he practically did know her. And when he was speaking of her, it was like he was a different person. He spoke more wistfully, almost sheepishly. He had a glint in his eye when she was on his mind.

That very same glint Bucky teased him about having whenever he spoke about Peggy. It was love. Something that then was an unreachable dream to him.

Speaking of Bucky, he should have gone to see how he was doing. It had been three years since he and Natasha helped free Bucky from the Red Room's control, but he still wasn't the same. He was closer now than he was then, but he was forever different. They needed each other now more than ever, since there were only four of them left from the original Howling Commandos. Think I'll call him up and see if he wants to get some drinks later on.

"Steve?"

Once again, he was too deep in his own head to hear someone else speaking. Which was an impressive feat, considering Thor's bombastic voice. "Sorry, Thor. Just in my own head again."

"'Tis a dangerous place to be alone, my friend. An ear for what vexes you? T'would be best to throw your doubts and troubles 'pon another. Many hands make the load lighter to bear, after all."

He sighed. He didn't want to trouble Thor with his own problems, but he did offer and the god was wiser than he let on. Besides, he could tell that he wasn't going to let it go until they spoke about it, so he relented with a sigh. "I'll never find the right person for me, because she's buried in a cemetery." From the way he had his lips pressed into a thin line, he could tell he disagreed. Not that Steve was in any mood for a debate; his mind wasn't going to be changed.

"Steve, I will not pretend to understand what you are going through with your lost lover," he started. "However, are there not two paths to every destination? As in, when one is closed off to travel, is there not yet another that you can take to arrive to your desired place, happiness?"

Steve breathed out a chuckle. It was very easy to forget that Thor was thousands of years old and thus, had a very different outlook on world problems than everyone else.

"Moreover," he continued, "you claim you will never find true love. But, I ask you this: how can you find what you do not seek? You do not seek because you feel that your only path to the happiness you deserve has perished. Yet, verily I speak, though it may cause you a great deal of pain, you must abandon this path and tread 'pon another. Is that not what Peggy Carter did?"

He was right. That did hurt. While he was certain that Peggy mourned his 'death' as much as he did hers, she eventually moved on with her life. She got married, had kids, and had a long, fulfilled life. It was what she deserved, not waiting on him. He couldn't have even dreamed of expecting something like that from her.

But, at the same time, she was his best girl. He couldn't just abandon her like that; not just a few months after she died.

"I know my words sting, Steve," he said quietly, as if reading his mind, "but, none can claim that words spoken in truth are soothing. Continue this, and you will live a cold life, clinging to a long distant past and yearning for a future that is now impossible to obtain. That is no life to live, and I refuse to see my friend live it."

Steve really hated to admit it, those words hurt worse than the previous ones. Every word he spoke cut him deeply, and sank down into his very essence. He knew that it wasn't his intention, but they hurt. Every word hurt him to the bone. Then, like Thor said, the truth was supposed to hurt, because that was what a person needed to hear to get them to knock off their boneheaded behavior.

It was what he needed to hear. Bucky would have told him the exact same thing. Same for Howard Stark, Peggy, the Commandos, all of them. All the faces from his past life would have told him the same; just not as eloquently.

He had already accepted the Avengers as his new family, insanely dangerous occupation and silly antics and all. Bucky was back with him, as was Nick Fury, so it wasn't like he was completely cut off from his past life. It was high time for him to finally let Peggy go and find someone else. He owed it to her to be happy. It was what she would have wanted.

The elevator finally reached his floor and dinged as the doors opened. He suspected that Jarvis slowed the car down so he and Thor could speak uninterrupted. He allowed himself another smile and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Thanks, Thor. I needed to hear that."

"You are more than welcome, my friend. What purpose does wisdom have if not to be shared with others?"

He smiled again and walked onto the floor he shared with Tony, Clint, and Jessica. He walked inside his penthouse and flopped down on the sofa. It was furnished remarkably similarly to the apartment he and Bucky shared when they were younger, only much better. A lot of the furniture was old-fashioned, as was the wallpaper covering the walls. The floors were covered in either black carpeting or hardwood floors. There was a large panoramic window that overlooked the New York skyline, which was breathtaking at night. The only things that wouldn't have been found in his old apartment were the two fifty inch HD flatscreen televisions in his bedroom and living room.

Not that he was complaining.

On the coffee table in front of him, there was a black and white photo of him, Bucky, Howard, and Peggy. All were smiling brightly after another successful raid of a Hydra base. He picked it up and sat back. "Well. About time, right guys?"

Location Unknown

Not everyone was pleased with the giant insect swarm that menaced Houston earlier that afternoon. Somewhere secluded from the rest of the world, their senders contemplated their next move.

"I told you sending those damned bugs was a waste of time!" a monstrous behemoth said in a deep, gravely voice. "If we're gonna strike the Avengers, we need to strike where it hurts. Hard. You should've sent me."

One of the ones he was speaking to, a woman, turned to him and regarded him dismissively. "Piteous fool. You were defeated by your adversary himself alone. What hope would you have against he and his allies?"

A man interposed himself between the two. "It doesn't really matter whether the test run was a success. It served it's purpose well enough. Tomorrow, we will deliver them our first message, and they will have to know that their time has grown short."