Thanks so much to everyone who read and reviewed and offered suggestions, also, I can't believe how many people are following after just two chapters! Thanks so much! My goal with this story is to make it stand out from my other deagged fics. I don't want them too similar and I want to give all the Kid!Avengers their own distinct personalities. I hope I do a good job! Thanks!
Steve awoke the next morning in a daze. He half expected everything to be a dream but when he looked around he found himself in a foreign room and a bed much larger then his own. After a quick moment of squeezing his eyes shut and opening them several times he got to his feet and walked to the window.
It was New York. He had seen pictures of the city skyline before but it was different. He could make out the Empire State Building and recognized it from the pictures but there were so many more and they were all fantastically tall. Shiny too. Towers of steel and glass. He could see cars down below. They were different looking than any cars he had ever seen. All different colors and sizes. No Model-Ts.
A look around the room was just as impressive. It wasn't too different from any other bedroom but it was bigger than his. In fact he was pretty sure most of his house could fit in it. The bed was huge and comfortable and much larger then his own.
After sticking his head out into the hall he dressed quickly, pulling his jeans on from the day before and picking a clean shirt from the shopping bag. The clothes were a little different from what he was used to. Most of the boys he knew wore overalls or button down work shirts and knickerbockers. Hardly any except the oldest among them wore men's trousers. Just a short sleeves shirt without a collar was a little strange but he decided not to worry about it.
Another difference was shoes. They laced up the same but they had odd soles and weren't leather. They were more comfortable though and he liked that. When he was dressed he used his fingers to comb his hair and hurried out to see if anyone else was awake.
He found the living room with little trouble but it was empty and so was the kitchen and dining room. Not knowing what else to do he wandered around the room, looking at the few magazines that lay scattered and then out the windows. Morning rush hour was crawling by. Thousands of cars filled the streets, more than he could ever remember seeing. Hundreds of yellow taxi cabs dotted the lines and he pressed his face to the glass in awe. People too filled the side walks, some carrying brief cases and purses and others simply hurrying along to work. Occasionally a bicycle weaved through the cars, earning the ire of the drivers.
Suddenly a noise behind him made him jump and he wheeled around. Tony was stepping out of the elevator looking unshaven and rumpled. He yawned loudly and waved to Steve before heading towards the coffee pot.
Shoving his hands into his front pockets Steve made his way towards the couch. "I've never seen so many cars before." He said.
Tony cast an eye out the window and grimaced. "You've never been stuck out there either."
Steve grinned a little and stood swaying. "Nope. Did you not sleep well?"
Tony yawned again and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm fine." He paused to watch the boy as he stood swaying and leaning against the couch. There was something old mannish in the way the boy stood. He shook his head. "Alright, I'm gonna make breakfast and then go shower. Meet me back here when I'm done."
Steve nodded and sat down at the table while Tony threw on some oat meal. He had spent the night reading everything he could find on the 1920's and now felt prepared enough to give Steve a run down of the twenty-first century. "Eat up." He said, setting a bowl in front of him and heading out. "I'll be back in a few."
Alone again Steve ate quietly, blowing on his food and watching the cars through the window. After a few minutes the elevator dinged again and Natasha stepped off. She was dressed from a work out and carrying a water bottle. He greeted her with a smile and she cast an eye over him.
"Did you make that yourself?" She asked.
"No, Mr. Stark made it."
She moved to the kitchen and sniffed the pot. "Smells okay."
"It tastes good." He said cheerfully.
Shrugging she helped herself to a bowl and came to sit across from him. "I suppose we should find something for you to do today."
"Mr. Stark told me to wait here for him. He's gonna come back."
She glanced towards the hall. "I wonder. . ."
"Are you an acrobat?" He asked, looking at her work out clothes.
She looked down and laughed. "No. I was exercising."
He cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"Well. . . running and lifting weights. . . It keeps me healthy and in shape."
He nodded wisely when she said healthy. "You sure got up early to do that and I never heard of a lady lifting weights." He grinned as though it was some special joke and she found herself smiling too. "You must be really strong."
"Pretty strong." She eyed the inhaler package lying on the counter. "Steve, Dr. Banner got you something. It's a kind of medicine. If you start having trouble breathing he wants you to use it." She set the box in front of him and removed the inhaler from the package, fitting the pieces together. She gave a short demonstration of how to use it. "You can use it as much as you want we won't run out of medicine."
He took it and held it carefully, interested in how it worked. "Thank you."
She leaned forward. "Do you have very bad attacks?"
He frowned and nodded, finishing his oat meal. "Sometimes. Sometimes they're not so bad. "
"I hope this helps."
He nodded, thinking hard about it. When she gave it to him he took a pill from the bottle Bruce had set out. He didn't feel immediately better but then he thought, pills never worked that way. The doctor had told him he had a chest infection, he'd heard that before but this was the first pill he had taken for it. Another doctor had given his mother an ointment to rub on his chest but that was about it.
After he finished eating she went and waited on the couch for Tony. Natasha finished her food and left to change, leaving him alone yet again.
He thought these people moved very fast although he wasn't sure what they were moving to but that wasn't so strange. His mother moved fast. She worked long hours and was gone a lot. He wondered what kind of jobs these people had.
Soon after Tony returned looking much more awake. He poured himself a second cup of coffee and then came to sit across from Steve, pulling up a hologram screen next to him. "Alright kid, I'm gonna give you the run down on the twenty-first century." He tossed a pad of paper towards Steve who failed to catch it but picked it up none the less. "For starters. Let's talk about America. There are Fifty States now. There's one up north called Alaska and one down south called Hawaii.
A map of the United States blinked into existence on the screen and Steve wrote down: fifty states on his paper.
"Alcohol is legal again. Yay for that. Now, an important one. Money looks a bit different. More presidents, fewer Indians and lady liberties." The screen changed and a picture of an Indian Head penny next to a modern one appeared, followed by a buffalo nickle and a Jefferson one. Tony clicked through a few more before the screen changed to a picture of the president.
"I know him!" Steve said excitedly. "Mr. Banner told me about him!"
"Okay, moving on. This is a cell phone. It's a portable telephone. You type the numbers into the key pad instead of using a rotary dial." He mimed the dial with his hands.
"I'm not allowed to use the phone. Mr. Glynn who owns the drug store doesn't let kids use it. My friend Bucky tried one time and he chased us off with a broom." Steve grinned slightly. "He just wanted to see if anyone would answer."
"Well you probably won't need to use it. Cars are pretty much the same. Book are the same. Paper and ink. All lighting here is electric. It's pretty much electric all over the country now. Do you know how to work a switch? On is up, down is off. Twist the knob on a lamp." Tony didn't mention that all lighting was linked to the tower's main frame and all Steve really had to do was ask JARVIS but thinking of that brought him to another matter. "There is a computer. . . an electric voice in this building. He's called JARVIS and you can talk to him. He talks just like a regular person. If you get lost in the building just call for him."
Steve looked around but couldn't quite figure this one out. An electric voice. . . "Is he like a record?"
Tony started to say no but stopped. "Like one you can talk to."
"I've never heard of anything like that!"
"Give it a try."
After hesitating a moment Steve raised his voice. "Mr. JARVIS?"
Yes Mr. Rogers?
With a small start Steve realized it was the voice he had heard when he'd first woken up. "How are you?" He asked.
I am well, thank you. I trust you are feeling well yourself?
"I'm okay. Thank you." He grinned at Tony. "That's amazing!"
"Isn't it kid? Now listen, we're gonna find a way to turn you back into an adult but I spoke to Bruce last night and he's not sure how."
"How come I gotta be an adult again?"
Tony paused. "It's the way things are supposed to be."
"You help a lot of people as an adult." Natasha said, stepping back into the room. "We need you back so you can help again."
The boy sat for a moment looking conflicted but then nodded. "Okay."
She brushed a hand over the back of his head and gave him a small smile. "It'll be okay."
"Actually he says you might just return to normal on your own. Whatever chemical bonded to you will probably burn out he just doesn't know how long it will take." Tony said. He stopped when he realized Steve had no idea what that meant.
After that they let Steve draw with the pad of paper and he did so for a while, entertaining himself and staying quiet. In truth he was awfully tired. This was coming as a big shock and more than that he was a little home sick. He had never really been away from home before. Bucky's house didn't count and missed his mother. He was afraid to ask about her because he knew that if he was very old then certainly she would be and it was a very terrible idea that she might not be alive. He tried not to think about it and instead took a seat by the windows and continued to draw.
As the day passed, the others came and went. Thor and Tony took a mission . Natasha stepped out for a solo job and Clint stayed and made lunch. Very sloppy sandwiches. Steve decided that the world wasn't too different. Maybe people talked a little differently and dressed differently but the people in the tower were nice and he liked them. His only real complaint was that he was lonely. Sure whenever one of them would pass through they would stop and say something to him. Clint looked at all of his drawling and Bruce helped him get another film to play but he was lonely.
Before dinner Bruce took another blood sample and he had ended up taking a nap. When Natasha woke him up the others had gathered with pizza. He was curious about it. He had never had pizza before although he thought he might have heard something about it once before. It turned out to be good and e ate as much as he could which turned out not to be so much. Dinner was fun. He liked listening to the adults talk. Tony spoke quickly and Clint laughed loudly. Thor had a booming voice and his quaint way of speaking was entertaining.
After dinner Natasha agreed to watch a movie with him and they settled for a Charlie Chaplin film. The others stuck around for it too, although Tony couldn't stop talking and Clint didn't really seem to have the attention span for it. Either way it was nice to have the people around.
When the movie ended Natasha checked her watch and suggested that he take a bath. She took him to the bathroom adjacent to his bedroom and showed him how to use the taps. "Do you have running water at home?" She asked, sitting on the edge of the tub as it filled.
He nodded. "In the kitchen. Mom has to boil water whenever one of us takes a bath. Someone said the city was gonna fix it so we got hot water though."
"That will be nice."
He nodded and then stood, waiting for her to leave. She gave him a small smile and did, heading back out to the others. Thor was recounting his favorite parts of the movie.
"That Chaplin in an amusing fellow. Truly a great minstrel."
"One of the greatest of his age." Bruce said, eyes not looking up from his tablet. "Judging by my last blood test the chemicals from the explosion attached themselves to Steve's cells. They probably did the same to us but we're not enhanced with a super soldier serum and it looks like the chemicals over wrote it but from this it looks like they'll burn themselves out. I sped the process up and the sample I took from Steve after lunch and it's back to normal. By my calculations he should be back no normal in side of two weeks, maybe less. Physical activity could excellorate the process or any other number of circumstances. I don't know."
"So he'll turn back." Tony said, leaning back in his seat. "Thank God."
"He's not that bad as a kid." Clint said with a grin.
"Do you know how many things could potentially go wrong with him as a kid? The least of which is some one finding out and him getting kidnapped."
"It does cut out man power down too." Natasha said. Tony cast her a surprised look but she ignored it. "But two weeks isn't that bad.
"There about. I can't exactly pin point it." Bruce cut in, finally looking up. "I'm going to wait until I absolutely have to to take more blood. I may not even need to but he gets so week after that I really don't want to do it again."
"Do you think you'll need much more?" She asked.
He resumed analyzing his data. "I doubt it."
"Well then we'll just have to take care of him until then. Pretty simple." Clint said getting to his feet. "But for now I'm off to bed."
Okay, thanks for reading, next chapter will be up on a few days!
Ok, to Armanda, I completely agree with you about anti-biotics, I've been telling people the same thing for years and after rereading what I wrote I think I made it more reasonable in this chapter. Thanks!
To Stuckyiscute, It's a cute idea but I don't think I can write Steve as gay in this. He's just a kid and if you want to read him as gay you can but I'll leave it up to the reader. My only intention is to write a little boy. If I'm honest, shipping him with anybody has never really appealed to me. I dunno why but he's just not someone I ever shipped. It's a really sweet idea though and If other people want Bucky to be a character I would love to bring him in, it would be a while, I'd like to focus on Steve for a bit but if people want I'd love to bring him in. Also, I listen to requests an try to write them but sometimes I come up blank. If you've got one I can try. Thanks!
Other notes, I was looking at my dad's coin collection and thought about the monetary differences, there were a lot of coins with the figure of Lady Liberty on them in the 20's. This was when it started to change. In 1909 the first Lincoln Penny was minted and distributed to the public so he would have known about them However, half dollars, dimes and quarters still had figures of Lady Liberty. I dunno if people like the historical facts or not, I love them and just wanted to share.
Again, thanks so much for reading!