Across the Universe

Steve Rogers' day was peaceful if not a little lonely. Such was the norm for someone like him. He had been sitting and enjoying Battery Park during the afternoon after a lunch at his favorite diner. Afterward he’d spent his time on a bench watching people pass by. Tourists took pictures, some asked directions, others called him a creep for staring. Regardless, Steve loved this city. New York was the greatest city on earth.

He tossed the remainder of the pretzel he’d picked up out to the pigeons after it had gotten too stale to finish. He ripped up the last two pieces in his hand when the world suddenly trembled beneath his feet with a tremendous growl. Immediately he jumped up from his seat and stopped feeding the birds who looked deeply offended that he’d done so. They obviously didn’t care that something was deeply amiss. Steve swore that even after the world ended the pigeons of Manhattan would be there to take cover.

Several people nearby had lost their balance after the shake. Steve rushed to help them to their feet but searched the skyline for smoke. With a tremor that big, surely something had to have collapsed. Even after others returned to their feet, Steve towered over them. He was tall but he hadn’t always been that way. Once he’d been the shortest kid on the block.

“What was that? What’s going on?” An older woman asked him feebly as he helped her to her feet.

“I don’t know, ma’am.” Steve had a way of speaking that was very charming. Maybe that had something to do with being raised in a time long past. Steve Rogers was no ordinary civilian; no he was far more than that.

He was Captain America.

That didn’t mean much to the everyday person but to those who knew and understood it meant a whole hell of a lot. He was super human.

Steve was the only man who had been successfully enhanced during the original attempts to create what was referred to as a super soldier back in the forties. To most people he was simply remarkable but very few people were privy to just how remarkable he really was. With super human strength, increased metabolism, speed, and abilities bordering on supernatural Steve was the very definition of remarkable. In his own mind he was still the scrawny kid from Brooklyn who had to practically sneak his way into the military for a chance to fight for his country. There was nothing special about him; he’d just gotten lucky.

“Are we under attack?” People seemed to be looking to him for guidance since he’d helped so many people up. The crowd around him grew in numbers of tourists and city dwellers alike, each uttering the same questions, the same fear under their breath. New York had seen its fair share of war and terror, Steve hoped he could alleviate their fears.

“Remain calm, ladies and gentleman! I don’t know what’s going on, but…” He drifted off when someone’s phone rang loudly to interrupt him. The ringing continued even as he politely waited it out. “Will someone get that?” He looked around the crowd in search of the source of the ringing and others did the same. There was a chorus of people responding that it wasn’t them.

“Young man, I do believe that you are ringing.” The older woman nearby spoke sympathetically and pointed to his pocket where the sound was coming from. Steve stopped and then smiled shyly and apologetically. He was still getting used to carrying a portable phone on him everywhere he went. He’d lost seven of them since he’d been woken up from a frozen sleep a year ago and had broken more than he could remember. Technology of the modern age was way above his head, he liked to leave that to the people who understood it and enjoyed it.

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting about this thing.” He pulled the handheld phone out of his pocket and stared at the screen, clueless. If he was interpreting it correctly then S.H.I.E.L.D. was calling him. Were they under attack? And how did he answer this thing to find out? Technology was not his forte. He hadn’t wanted a portable phone in the first place! But S.H.I.E.L.D. had insisted they needed a way to contact him while he was away and at a moment’s notice. Steve had spent a good part of the last seventy years in a block of ice. When he woke up he found that the world was very much in a hurry.

“You slide that little arrow there across the bottom.” The older woman pointed at him, seeing the obvious confusion on his face. She was trying to be kind but he could see the amusement behind her eyes.

“Thank you, I’m still…” Steve drifted off. These people didn’t care. Technology was a part of their daily lives, even the older generation. Sometimes Steve still felt as though he was living in an alien version of the New York he loved and remembered. It was the same city but it was also completely different. Either way he had sworn to defend it with his life and though it had changed he still loved it. He slid his finger across the green arrow as instructed and the phone answered the call as predicted. Putting the phone to his ear waited for a response. The whispers of the panicked civilians gathered around him

“Rogers! I need backup at the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility downtown. There’s been an… incident. Are you close by? Time is sort of a factor.” Phil Coulson spoke without so much as a hello. Conversation with Agent Coulson was always odd; he was something of a fan of Steve’s and for some reason couldn’t seem to carry a normal conversation with him without stuttering or making it awkward.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in just a minute. I’m at the park. But, sir…”

“Call me Coulson. I mean Phil. I mean… Can this wait? This is an emergency!” Phil stuttered on his words again. Even when handling orders things were awkward between them.

“What’s going on? Is everything okay? People are scared. What am I supposed to tell them?” Steve held his hand out to silence the crowd around him and people listened immediately. It was amazing that people relied on him so easily. With his blond hair, blue eyes, strong jaw, and muscular frame he must have looked worthy of trust. Steve was the quintessential all-American man.

“Tell people to stay calm and head to their homes. Turn on the news and follow instructions.” That was all Phil Coulson could say to him. Steve instantly knew that whatever had happened they weren’t at liberty to discuss it with the American people.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He put his phone in his pocket without bothering to hang up. If the call wanted to end it would figure it how to do it on its own. Steve was more than tired of fumbling with the machine. “Ladies and gentleman, thanks for being patient. Everything’s going to be just fine, I promise. Stay calm and head back to your homes until things calm down. The news will report on whatever’s happened but you’re safe right now. I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you.” Steve turned away from the crowd so he could avoid their questions. The people of New York deserved to know what was going on but Steve didn’t have any answers to give them. Coulson had sounded anxious, more so than usual, and Steve knew that meant he needed as much help as he could get.

Steve hurried through the crowd and to the edge of the park where he’d left his motorcycle. At least this particular technology hadn’t changed since the forties, at least not in functionality. Zipping up his tan leather jacket, Steve jumped onto the back of his motorcycle and revved the engine. He’s finally learned how to use the siren that had been built into his bike a few weeks ago so he flipped the switch, as he remembered, then went speeding down through busy streets of lower Manhattan.

He was about to try to use his phone to call S.H.I.E.L.D. back and ask for directions but as he pulled around the corner toward the familiar headquarters he saw exactly where he needed to be. The apartment building across the way from the S.H.I.E.L.D. building was on fire and there were literal holes missing from parts of it! It was leaning severely toward the street, threatening to collapse at any moment now. People were being ushered inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. building to safety and a perimeter had been set up at the end of the block to avoid any further incident. People who had been evacuated from nearby buildings were standing at the barrier watching.

As he approached the perimeter on his bike the barriers were moved out of his way by agents guarding the scene so he could speed through. He parked his motorcycle quickly, but out of harm’s way and jumped off the back of it. Where would he start? Were there people trapped inside the building still? He could hear an agent he didn’t recognize shouting out orders from the back of a van but she seemed too busy to bother.

The Black Widow stumbled past him, singed and exhausted. She was obviously injured and though he knew he should ask her if she was okay, he didn’t. Despite her small stature Black Widow still intimidated the hell out of him. Maybe he’d wait and ask the next agent he saw instead, preferably a male agent. The fairer sex was still something Steve hadn’t gotten down to a science. He often forgot that he was no longer the scrawny awkward kid who didn’t know how to ask a girl out to save his life.

Standing below the building, Steve stared in awe at the scene in front of him. He’d seen some terrible destruction in his time, but he’d never seen a building torn to pieces quite like the one in front of him. Through the smoke near the top he could make out the form of a woman standing high above him on the far side of the building, precariously balanced outside the window. Nearby was a helicopter that had gotten dangerously close in an attempt to reach her. She was helping a few people out a window and onto the helicopter. Even watching he knew that the helicopter couldn’t stay there much longer, not without causing damage to the building or to itself.

“Agent Pierce!” Finally an agent he recognized walked toward him through the smoke, guiding people away from the building that didn’t look like it was going to stay up much longer. Steve jogged toward the brunette who was out of breath and covered in soot. She looked to him in surprise and stared expectantly. “What is a civilian doing guiding people to safety up there?” As she opened her mouth to explain the ground again shook violently and the building creaked dangerously while additional parts of it collapsed to the ground. There was no time to ask questions. Steve had to get that woman and those she was helping to safety! He had no idea if, physically, he could survive being crushed by a building but he knew for certain that a civilian wouldn’t!

Fire burst out of one of the side windows of the top of the now tilted building. There was whirring of machinery inside of the rubble at the bottom that drew his attention. It seemed that something was attempting to stabilize what was left of it. That seemed like something S.H.I.E.L.D. would try to do. There was no amount of technology that was going to save that building, of that Steve was sure of. Nothing short of magic was going to repair the damage that had been done. As far as he knew there was no magic left on earth.

Ignoring Mickey, who was trying to explain what had happened to the building, Steve ran past her and muttered an apology under his breath. He wasn’t going to let a civilian die in that building no matter what she was doing up there. Despite how stupid a risk she was taking, it was a noble thing to be doing! Afterward he’d have to give her a stern talking to about how to handle dangerous situations and what to leave to the professionals.

He found a ladder propped against the side of the building beneath a second floor window so he grabbed it and carried it with ease to the other side. He then scaled it to the top and jumped onto the tilted side of the building, holding onto part of the ruined brick it had been made of. Onlookers gasped in surprise to see him climbing on top of the building. Most people had never seen anything quite so fantastic. Part of the fourth floor was missing as he continued to climb, so Steve leapt over it and barely caught onto the edge of the next floor. Shattered glass flew past him from the nearby broken window and he swept it away as it landed on his shoulders.

He then climbed back onto the side of the building, careful of bricks that were falling away due to the damage. His hand slipped off of a brick and caught onto part of a window, glass barely missing his hand, scraping the side of his flesh. One more inch to the left and he’d have stabbed it right through his hand. He was going to have to be more careful.

Sirens could be heard screaming in the distance, warning people to keep their distance and to get inside and away from the dust that would settle after the building finally gave out and collapsed. Fire burst out through a window nearby and Steve barely jumped out of the way and scrambled to what remained of a bent and torn away fire escape on the floor below. He hung over the edge of the building and nearly fell when his hands slipped on the rusted metal but he somehow managed to keep his grip on what remained of the fire escape. His legs dangled dangerously to the street below around the corner of the building, one arm grasping wildly for something else to hold onto.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were yelling at him from below to get off of the building but he couldn’t do that, not yet. Climbing on the side of the building was far more dangerous than he anticipated, but how much of the inside was still intact from what he’d seen? This was much faster and no less efficient. He’d try to get inside soon and see what he could traverse from there. There was no way he was giving up without a fight. Steve was many things but a quitter wasn’t on that list. Carefully he pulled himself up using the remaining fire escape but it continued to groan and shift as he did so, threatening to pull away from the wall.

With his luck the thing would rip off of the side of the building before he’d managed to find his way to the windowsill. Smoke was billowing out of the windows nearby but not the one with the fire escape. Thankfully the glass wasn’t broken like the one that had nearly left him bloody. He managed to make it close to the window but the metal railing finally gave way as he climbed and flew out of his hand. Thankfully he’d felt the metal give and had managed to jump away, his fingers narrowly catching the frame of the window above it. The railing went clattering to the ground below, skipping over the side of the tilted building. Steve was finding himself dangling on the edge of this building far too much for his liking.

“Time to get inside.” He muttered and swung his body so that both his hands wrapped on the solid brick of the window frame. Propping his feet against the side of the building he climbed carefully so he was steady and then slid inside the window. Once inside he rolled onto his feet. The living room of the apartment was in shambles, all the furniture having slid to the far side, blocking the door. Even though the building was tilted only slightly to the east, it was enough to throw off the entire balance of everything inside it.

Steve pulled off his leather jacket that had torn on a piece of glass and threw it out the window to the ground below. He winced as he remembered that his portable phone was still inside the pocket of it. Maybe it would survive the drop, but he guessed from experience that it wouldn’t.

“Sorry, S.H.I.E.L.D.” He began pulling the furniture away from the far wall piece by piece, tossing them to the side haphazardly. The door behind the furniture was jammed shut. The building shifted with a rumble and some of the furniture rolled back toward him! He deflected it with his shoulder and then shoved it again out of the way. Bracing himself against the entertainment stand that had slid next to the door as the ground moved, Steve kicked the door straight off of its hinges and into the hallway where it splintered against the wall across the way. Being inside the building was turning out to be just as dangerous as being outside of it.

Inside the hallway fire had caught and was spreading from the stairwell. There was no stopping it now. To his left and right the fire was catching onto the wallpaper and spreading quickly. The smoke was overwhelming. Steve pulled up his shirt and covered his nose with it to make breathing easier and ran through the smoke and flames toward the stairs. There were only a few more flights between him and the people he’d seen on the west side of the building. With the building swaying the way it was his bearings were thrown completely off.

At least he knew which side of the building she’d be on, judging from the tilted floor beneath his feet. Even if he got turned around, he knew that the tilt was toward the east. As he ran through the hallway he checked the open doors to make sure no one was beyond them, still trapped inside. It seemed that S.H.I.E.L.D. had done a pretty good job emptying out the building before he’d gotten there, even though they had called him to aid with the evacuation.

He climbed quickly up the stairs, taking them three at a time so he could get up the next flight. But as he reached the sixth floor he found that there was huge gap in his way. Half the building was missing from whatever had happened. If he hadn’t known better he would’ve guessed that a series of cannonballs had taken out the building. But who used cannonballs anymore? Unfortunately it was the only thing that he could think of. What else could’ve happened? It was probably some sort of technology he didn’t understand, as usual. He’d seen stranger things. His mind conjured up images of weird technology savvy pirates.

For all he knew, it was something the obnoxious Tony Stark had done that had caused the building collapse. Where was he anyway? Usually he was all over these sorts of situations. Probably too caught up with his not-so-private life to help the common folk. Steve liked Tony Stark about as much as he liked technological advancements.

Ducking back into the sixth floor Steve searched for a way past the gaping destruction blocking his path. The fire was catching up to him along the staircase, following him throughout the stairwell and out through the hallway. On the floors below something crashed hard enough to shake the rest of the building. The foundation tilted the opposite way to the west, knocking Steve off of his feet, back first against the wall. It was a slight shift, but enough to make him dizzy.

“Good grief!” Steve blinked and jumped back to his feet. The floor had evened out from whatever had happened below but the fire hadn’t slowed down. In fact it caught up and now licked at his flesh. He kicked open the door nearby and ran through it just to get away from the flames. A putrid smell caught his senses and he covered his mouth to block it out before running into the apartment, unaware of what caused it. He ran to the window and pried it open then kicked out the screen. But the oxygen flowing into the room along with the smell from the kitchen, that turned out to be the gas stove having been pulled away during the shifting balance of the building, spelled disaster.

The fire from the hallway spread into the kitchen, caught the gas and with the oxygen now flowing freely into the room, the whole place caught fire so severely that it burst through the room and out the window in a roar of flames. Steve ran through the room and into the hallway of the apartment, closing the door just in time as the fire exploded out the windows in the rest of the apartment, blowing glass outward. The sound of the fire exploding through the window was terrible and left his ear’s ringing.

The whole building shook again and groaned from the explosion. Dust fell from the ceiling of the sixth floor and the ground trembled beneath his feet. Steve held the door closed but it blew clear off of its hinges and knocked him back against the far wall, only inches from the window that burst open. He saw stars in front of his vision temporarily but they very quickly wore off as his body healed from the blow unnaturally. Climbing to his feet but staying ducked low, Steve took the sheet off of the nearby bed and broke away the remaining glass on the window frame. Outside, pieces of the building were falling at a heightened pace. How much longer would it be before the entire thing crashed to the ground, killing whoever remained inside?

The helicopter was circling nearby through the smoke and Coulson was hanging out the side of it, holding onto the railing above his head and using a megaphone to speak to them. He was searching frantically for those who remained within the building.

“This is not a drill! Immediate mandatory evacuation of all S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel from the building. Rogers! Damien! Stark! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! Get out of the building now!” Coulson shouted through the megaphone but Steve paid it no mind. No one else seemed to be on their way out either. He had to help whoever was on the floors above. Steve climbed out the window and balanced precariously on the ledge once more and held onto the brick. Vertigo made his head spin as he caught sight of the ground below through the smoke, but he turned his attention to the railing across the way instead. The curtains blew out the window there, burning slowly until there was little left of them.

“I’m not leaving them up there, Coulson!” He shouted when Coulson made the helicopter circle around to offer him a way out.

“This building is coming down, Rogers! Even you aren’t going to survive a collapse like that!” Coulson shouted but when Steve ignored him he continued circling the building and waiting to help his agents to safety. It didn’t seem like anyone was actually listening to the orders that were being given. Everyone was too determined to save as many lives as they could manage.

Steve made the leap at last and grabbed onto the metallic railing there. He pulled himself onto it and then climbed up the fire escape that surprisingly held his weight. He jumped from broken piece of railing to broken piece of railing until he got to the next floor and climbed through the shattered window there. The glass scratched at his skin, but not deep enough to draw any blood.

He ran through the apartment and kicked open the door in front of him. He then ran into the hallway. With any luck he’d be able to make it up to the next floor from there without having to fight his way through a window or duck beneath explosions. So far, he hadn’t much luck, so he thought he was overdue. The eighth floor had caught fire, but it seemed like most of the damage had already been done. Steve continued his trek up to the ninth floor since the stairs were unobstructed. As he stepped out of the stairwell and into the hallway he stopped and tried to remember where he’d seen the mystery civilian helping children out of the apartment window. Had it been on the ninth floor?

“Hello! Is anyone on this floor? Please! I’m trying to help you! Follow the sound of my voice!” There was no response so Steve continued through the hallway. He could’ve sworn that it was this floor that he’d seen her helping several figures out the window. Maybe she’d evacuated already and he was on a fruitless mission. He hurried down the hallway and felt the floor creak beneath him and shift with every step. Before he could react the base boards gave way beneath his feet. He groped for something to hold onto and made an attempt to leap out of the way but it was too late. He was falling through the floor.

Closing his eyes tightly he braced himself the best he could and prepared to crash through the floor below. With his luck he’d smash right through each level below him and wind up unconscious under a pile of rubble for all his good intentions.

But something or someone caught him by his forearm and stopped him from falling to the floor below. His shoulder tugged uncomfortably. He opened his eyes and looked below him. His body was dangling several feet above another gaping hole in the floor below, fire having caught on the carpet and spread up along the walls. Turning his attention upward to what had caught him he saw blue eyes framed by messy curly brown hair staring back at him. She was holding onto the frame of a doorway nearby with one arm and the other was gripping onto his sleeve. Steve grabbed onto her arm and, still in awe, nodded his head in awkward greeting. This had to be the woman that he saw on the floor above helping people out the window.

Maybe she wasn’t a civilian after all.

“Could you…by any chance…?” Scarlett nodded behind her in hopes he would climb out of the crevice. If she held him much longer she was sure that her shoulder was going to dislocate but the strange man didn’t seem to understand what she was talking about. “No offense, but you’re ridiculously heavy with all those muscles. Come on, get up! We don’t have much time.” The building shook and Scarlett tightened her grip on the door frame so she wouldn’t drop the stranger.

“Oh yes! Right!” Steve nodded, feeling silly that he hadn’t realized the obvious. “Can you swing me a bit?”

“Got it.” Scarlett swung her arm and moved him slowly back and forth in the gap until he gained momentum. He managed to grab onto the edge of the hole in the floor when Scarlett swung him far enough.

“Don’t let go yet!”

“I figured.” Scarlett gritted her teeth, her shoulder aching from the effort of holding up someone much larger than her. Steve reaffirmed his grip on the ground and pulled it to make sure it was steady enough to support himself. Then with Scarlett’s help he pulled himself onto the landing in the hall. He rolled back onto his feet and gathered his wits at once. “The floor here isn’t stable enough to support us both for very long, come on. We have to get a window open up a few floors higher and far enough away from the fire.” Scarlett started away from him and back toward the stairwell at the end of the hall. It had taken her awhile to get back inside the building after it had shaken so violently.

“We’ve got to get you out of here, ma’am, it’s not safe.” Steve grabbed her shoulders and looked at her seriously after he caught up with her. “I can handle the rest of this in here, you’ve done well. I give you my word.” Before Scarlett could respond to him he heard the soft sound of someone crying from the end of the hall near the stairs. He peeked around Scarlett and saw a little boy crying, holding onto the wall near the stairwell. His eyes were red and puffy and he was holding his jacket closed tight around him.

“You can’t leave me here! Don’t make her go!” He spoke between small sobs, his words barely comprehensible behind his tears. Scarlett turned her attention to Steve again once he’d realized exactly why she hadn’t yet abandoned ship.

“I know that you mean well and I hope you don’t take any personal offense to this, but… there’s not a chance in hell that I’m leaving before he does.” Scarlett shook her head defiantly and brushed his hands off of her shoulders. Steve looked behind her again at the child who was crying still, tears streaming down his little face. She wasn’t the child’s mother, he could tell just by looking, but he understood the compulsion to take care of him.

“None taken. Let’s get out of here.” Steve walked over to the little boy and offered out his arms. “Come here, I’m going to help you both get to safety.”

“All of us.” Scarlett didn’t know Steve, but she wasn’t about to leave him inside of the building either.