----- January 10th, 2014 - Triskelion, Washington D.C -----

Early in the afternoon, Steve and Y/N walk down a hallway in SHIELD HQ.

Surprisingly, this wasn't the first time Y/N has been here. But no one seems to be aware that he's been there before.

They turn a corner to seen Pierce standing in an Office doorway speaking to Steve's neighbor, who turns out is named Sharon. She turns toward them to walk away, noticing Steve.

She walks past and greets, "Captain Rogers." 

"Neighbor," Steve says, ignoring her. 

Pierce greets the two of them as they approach, "Ah, Captain. Lieutenant. I'm Alexander Pierce." 

"Sir, it's an honor," Steve says as they shake hands.

Pierce reaches out to Y/N, but he just stares at him and replies to Steve, "Speak for yourself."

Pierce smiles and ignores the blatant disrespect before saying to Steve, "..The honor's mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on in." 

A few minutes go by and Steve was looking down at a photo of Fury and Pierce. Y/N was sitting there, fidgeting with his ring.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was at State Department in Bogota. E.L.N. rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was Deputy Chief of the S.H.I.E.L.D. station there, and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out, the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what do they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order, and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil, and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

Pierce tosses a folder on the table in front of him.

"So you gave him a promotion," Y/N says. 

"I've never had any cause to regret it," he replies before directing to Steve, "..Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

"I don't know.."

"..Did you know it was bugged?" 

"I did, because Nick told me," Steve admits.

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it? I'm sure he bugged Superman's apartment as well."

"He would if I had one," Y/N mumbles with a smile.

"..I want you two to see something," Pierce presses a button on the table.

A screen on the wall starts displaying a recording. It was showing the man Steve had dealt with a few days ago.

Batroc.

"Is that live?," Steve asks. 

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers." 

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line." 

"No, no. It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. And he was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through 17 fictitious accounts. The last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."

Y/N grabs the folder from the table. He opens it and starts looking through it.

"Are we supposed to know who that is?," he asks.

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437." 

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?," Asks Steve.

"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death." 

Y/N scoffs at that, "If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true."

"Why do you think we're talking?"

Pierce gets up and moves over to the window before posing like a villain and spewing out an evil Villain monologue, "See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today makes me really, really angry. Captain, Superman, you two were the last ones to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident. And I don't think either of you do, either. So, I'm gonna ask again. Why was he there?"

Steve stands as Y/n continues looking through the folder. 

Pierce waits for a response.

"..He told me not to trust anyone," Steve tells him. 

"I wonder if that included him." 

"I'm sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse me," Steve grabs his shield before making his way toward the door.

Y/N gets up, dropping the folder back onto the table and follows him. Pierce leans against the front of Fury's old desk.

Before they leave, Pierce manages to get out, "Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it.. Anyone.." 

"Understood," Steve calmly says.

Y/N just gives him a thumbs up as they walk out the door.

Steve and Y/N hop on the Elevator.

"Operations Control," Steve tells the AI.

"Confirmed."

Y/N looks over to Steve, "...Soo, you picked up on that threat too, right?"

The elevator starts going down as Steve replies, "Well, It was a little on the nose."

"Might as well just start screaming 'Hey, it's me. I'm the bad guy'"

They come to a stop on a floor a few levels lower. The door opens and Rumlow and a few other people step on.

"Keep all S.T.R.I.K.E. personnel on site," Rumlow tells the others before saying to the AI, "Forensics." 

Rumlow looks at Steve and Y/N and greet, "Cap. Superman."

"Rumlow," Steve greets.

Y/N just stares at him suspiciously. The Elevator continues downward.

"Evidence Response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac team ready?," Rumlow asks. 

"...No, let's wait and see what it is first." 

"Right."

Y/N hits Steve in his side. When Steve look over to him he sees him staring at something. Steve looks in the same direction to see the guy next to Rumlow with his hand over his gun.

The elevator comes to a stop and four more guys step on, "Administrations level."

"Confirmed." 

"Excuse me," one of the guys says as he bumps into Steve.

Steve moves up to the front, next to Rumlow. Y/N stayed leaning against the back wall of the elevator. He had a slight smirk on his face.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury. It's messed up, what happened to him," Rumlow whispers to Steve. 

"...Thank you."

Steve looks over at one of the guys who had got on. He was sweating hard. The elevator comes to a stop again.

Three big guys step on in front of Steve, "Records."

"Confirmed."

The elevator restarts its descent. 

Y/N looks out the window below.

"Before we get started... Does anyone want to get out?," Steve asks.

A few seconds go by when Y/N speaks up, "One last chance. Anyone wanna get out? Fair warning if you don't, You might not wake up."

The guy in front of Steve whips around with a stun baton. Steve dodges it only to be grabbed by a few others and pulled up against the wall. 

Another guy tries a good old fashioned punch to the jaw on Y/N. Unfortunately for him, that leads to him screaming and clutching a now mangled fist.

One guy removes Caps shield as a few others manage to get one out of two mag cuffs on his wrists. Steve tosses them off and kicks in the knee of a guy in front of him. Rumlow is able to kick Steve's cuffed arm against the metal wall.

Y/N is narrowly dodging and weaving punches in a way akin to Muhammad Ali. When one punch flies just next to his head, he grabs it between his arm and snaps it at the elbow.

A guy hits him over the head with a briefcase. 

That half of the elevator stops and stares awkwardly at each other. Y/N slowly turns toward him with a look of disappointment.

"A briefcase? Really? You know what? Just for that, Your head is going up his ass," Y/N points to another guy, "Your head is going up his ass," he again points to another, "And I'm sorry but you drew the short straw, Cuz your head is going up.. my ass."

He then froze the guys leg then kicked it in.

Steve does a flip off the wall. He elbow Rumlow then deflects a hit from an incoming jab. After leg sweeping him directly into a wall, Rumlow stands in front of him holding a hand out.

"Whoa, big guy. I just want you to know, Cap, this isn't personal!," Rumlow then tries to swing at him. 

Steve holds one of his arms away but Rumlow rams the other one with a baton into his gut. Steve pushes it back swings but misses. 

They find themselves back in the same position.

This time Steve hits him with the other fist, then chucks him into the top of the elevator, "It kind of feels personal."

 Steve kicks down on his shield causing it to flip up and attach straight to his arm.

He looks over to see Y/N stepping on a guy while pulling his arm back. Y/N then freezes the entirety of the guys head, but heats up the nose area to melt away breathing holes.

Steve hits a button on the elevator.

But when it opens, a shit ton of SHEILD agents were waiting on the other side. Y/N quickly burns the cables holding the elevator causing it to start dropping down floors.

A safety measure kicks in and grinds the elevator to a halt between floors. Y/N and Steve pull open the top door to see more agents running. They quickly close it and make their way over to the outward glass wall.

"Give it up!," They hear from outside, "Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!"

Y/N looks over to Steve and says with a grin, "You better land on that shield."

Shortly after, he jumps through the glass and starts freefalling downward. Steve backs up for a moment. He then charges and hops out shield first after him.

They crash in through a glass ceiling.

Y/N lands on one knee, Steve directly on top of his shield.

Steve groans as Y/N pulls him up and they start running. They run into the garage. Steve hops on his bike as Y/N decides to take a SHIELD issued bike.

They rev up and ride out of the garage.

A jet pull up and swerves in front of them, the PA system saying, "Stand down. Repeat, stand down." 

They both rev faster.

Steve hurls his shield into one of the engines. Y/N brakes on his bike and flips off to the top of the jet. He pulls the shield out before literally jamming his leg through the engine.

As the jet starts swerving, he runs and corkscrew flips off and onto the back of Steve's bike. The jet crashes down in the road with a mild explosion.

They drive off as Y/N sits backward on the bike, staring back at the Triskelion.

__________

Mere seconds later in the Triskelion, A bunch of SHIELD agents were crowded in the command room.

The screen at the front was displaying to images with only one having an actual name above it. They were of Steve and Y/N

"Eyes here," Sitwell calls for attention, "Whatever your op is, bury it. This is Level One. Contact DOT. All traffic lights in the district go red. Shut all runways at BWI, IAD and Reagan. All security cameras in the city go through this monitor right here. Scan all open sources, phones, computers, PDAs. Whatever. If someone tweets about these two, I want to know about it." 

"With all due respect, if SHIELD. is conducting a manhunt for Captain America and Superman we deserve to know why," Sharon, the woman who posed as Steve's neighbor, asks quickly. 

"Because they lied to us," Pierce says as he enters the room.

He continues after he ends up in the middle of the room, "They have information regarding the death of Director Fury.. They refused to share it... As difficult as this is to accept, Captain America and Superman are Fugitives from SHIELD."

____________________