The Conceptual Deck Chapter 42: Awake

Chapter 42 - Awake

When I finally stepped back into Steve's room it looked quite a bit different. Ema was standing in the corner, visibly relaxing when she saw it was . The room itself had been cleared of most dical equipnt, leaving it a simple, undecorated space. If the door wasn't an extra inch and half thick and visibly armored from the outside I would have assud it was just a boring white room. Before I could say anything Ema took my arm and led back outside into the hall. Once the door closed she turned and let go of my arm.

"He started transitioning to a normal sleep cycle an hour or so after you left." She explained. "They cleared the room so it didn't look so off putting."

"Oh, why didn't you call ?"

"I did, but it didn't connect." She explained, rolling her erald eyes. "You carded the secure cell phone Fury gave you and I wasn't going to use your normal phone."

"Crap. Okay, I need to make a secure phone. I'll ask Speak of the devil."

I looked over Ema's shoulder and watched as Agent Coulson and Nick Fury made their way down the hall, stopping at the dorm, right next to us.

"Hey Fury, Coulson." I said with a nod, pausing for a mont before smirking. "Fury, how would you like a revolver that continuously regenerates ammo and is twice as powerful as a normal revolver?"

Fury looked taken back for a mont before quickly recovering.

"...Yes, I would like that." He said, looking at Coulson, who shrugged. "What's the catch?"

"No catch." I said, smirking before continuing. "Just the usual stipulations, three fourths of the usual paynt and a bunch of cell phones and communication equipnt that is designed to be safe and secure from outside listening in and tracking."

"Half of the usual paynt." Fury countered. "The Security council is starting to complain about the cost."

"Really? They are complaining about the cost of impossible, reality breaking equipnt?" I asked, my eyes wide in shock before I shook my head. "Fine. But you let them know if they drop too low that I know a few billionaires who would not bat an eye at triple my price for half of what I'm making."

The one eyed soldier narrowed his eyes before nodding. He looked to Coulson, about to open his mouth before Coulson shook his head, looking over at the door that led to Steve's room. Fury let out a very uncharacteristic sigh and pulled out his phone. After a quick text he nodded, gesturing to a room on the other side of the hallway. Both of us stepped into it, while Ema and Coulson stayed outside.

Forty five minutes, a bunch of questions and a quick binding later Nick Fury was the proud owner of the pistol I had used to test out my regenerating ammo and ammo capacity ideas, and I was two hundred thousand dollars richer and had a box of communications equipnt that should combine together well to make untraceable phones.

I had just carded the box, and Fury was examining the revolver, when Ema pushed open the door.

"He is waking up." She said simply.

After a minute or so of quiet chaos, Director Fury wrangled everything into order. Instead of ambushing Captain Rogers the mont he stepped out of the room, Ema and Coulson joined us in the eting room. The floor was mostly cleared, the excessive security banished to be at least out of sight for now. Director Fury had spent the last fifteen minutes as we waited asking for more guns like the one bound to him for his agents.

"What would it cost to get a pistol like this into the hands of more Shield agents?" Fury asked, his revolver already strapped to his hip, his old pistol moved to the other side.

"Really? Not going to spend ti with it first?" I asked, smirking a bit. "Test it out, put it through its paces?"

"Is there sothing wrong with it?" He asked.

"No, it does what I said it does. As long as you don't spam it, ammo regenerates as fast as you shoot." I assured him, before moving on to his request. "I'm sorry Fury, this was an exception. I'm not deviating from what we have going on already. I'll accept the slightly decreased pay if you guys keep paying and supplying , but that's about all the flexibility you're going to get out of , save for special circumstances."

"And if all of the people I send you ask for a weapon like this?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Then I stop being flexible." I said with a shrug. "I appreciate the leeway and allowances Shield has made for , but being squeezed for weapons and ordered around is exactly why I refused to join up in the first place. I will vanish if you try to turn into your personal toy maker."

My tone was final and unmoving, despite the fact that I was very anxious. I would absolutely follow through on my threat if need be, but having access to Shield resources solved a lot of problems that I would have to dedicate ti to solve myself. Eventually I wouldn't need them but for now, they were very helpful.

I was saved from more explanation by a knock at the door. We all looked over to see Peggy at the door, looking happy and smiling. Beside her stood Steve Rodgers. He looked bewildered, but calm, much calr than one would expect given his circumstances. Peggy pushed the door open and I stood, as did Coulson and Fury.

"Steve, this is Director Fury, Agent Coulson, Maker and Ema."

"Hello." He said, reaching out to shake Fury's hand, then Coulson's, Ema's and finally mine. "I would introduce myself, but from what Peggy has said that would be mostly pointless."

"It would be Mr Rogers." Director Fury said. "I'm glad you could join us."

"I'm just glad to have the chance." He said with a nod. "This is Well it's a lot to handle all at once. But"

He looked over at , giving a nod and a smile.

"Peggy said that you're the one who let keep a promise. Even if I was seventy years late."

"Just doing what I can Mr Rogers." I said.

"Still, thank you. For helping Peggy and stopping whoever it was that tried to take . And call Steve, please."

"No problem, just return the favor next ti a nebulous outside force attempts to kidnap for probably nefarious purposes."

Steve chuckled but stopped when I wasn't. I shrugged and finally smiled before sitting down. Steve turned to pull out a seat for Peggy who quietly thanked him and sat down. When everyone was seated Fury opened his mouth to say sothing but Steve cut him off.

"I need to go after Bucky." He said emphatically. "I know I'm missing a lot of ti but whoever has him is obviously brainwashing him and who knows what else."

"While I understand the need for expediency, there needs to be a process here." Fury tried to say. "We should-"

"Cap, I have finding him taken care of." I responded confidently. "There isn't a place on the planet where they could hide him that I won't be able to find him."

Fury looked at , narrowing his eye, while Coulson remained stoic. He clearly didn't like butting in. I could almost see his internal debate on if it was worth it to kick out at this point.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He asked. "We need to find him, before they have a chance to do anything worse to him."

"Steve, Bucky would understand the need to regroup." Peggy explained, her hand reaching over to touch his arm. She hesitated for a mont before following through. "You need to learn so things, take a few days at least."

"... two days. Fine." He said after a long pause. "But not any longer. Bucky wouldn't leave to suffer, and I wont leave him to either."

"Alternatively, Ema and I could do it by ourselves." I offered, sitting back when everyone looked at . "It was just a suggestion."

"No, I need to be there." Steve said, shaking his head. "If sothing goes wrong and I can't then yes, but Give two days. Peggy is right, I'm not at full strength yet."

"No problem Steve." I said with a nod, standing up, Ema joining . "I'll be back in two days, probably a few hours before now. Until then, I have so things to take care of, so things to get ready."

Steve stood as I walked to the door, reaching out to shake my hand again. It was a tight grip that was joined by a respectful nod.

"Thank you for helping Peggy." He said. "I don't know how you make the things you make, but thank you."

I could only nod in return before making my way from the office. I was joined by a guard, guiding out of the building.

- The Next Morning -

With my new deadline in place Ema and I started planning. The dot that marked Bucky's location had stopped sowhere in Washington DC, a concerning location considering who had probably sent him in the first place. Ema quickly ca to the conclusion that being able to travel there with my vambrace would be incredibly valuable, so she convinced that while I was making so last minute things for myself and for anyone coming with and Steve, she would spend the morning driving to DC to put a landing pad sowhere. I reluctantly agreed.

After getting her set and sending her off, I quickly used the box of secure communication equipnt to make a few of the most secure cell phones I could. I worked the entire box into them, with the result being ten B ranked cell phones that had such a large concept of security, protection and communication I was pretty confident that just thinking about calling would connect my phone with whoever was trying to call . I was so confident that after spending so ti ssing with it I called Fury from the one I bound to myself sitting on my couch.

"Who is this?" His voice all but barked.

"It's Maker." I said simply, not wishing to piss off the Director of Shield too much. "I finally got around to making a secure phone, so no more worrying about burner phones, secure lines or anything like that."

"You're saying the phone you're calling from is secure. How secure?" He asked, tone a little less annoyed.

"Feel free to run it through the gamut, you'll recognize the address if it fails at least." I said. "I'll even leave the phone on to give you so extra ti. That's not what I was calling about though. I need to talk to Peggy, if she can step away from Steve for a mont."

"I'll have her call you back on Why doesn't this phone have a number?" He asked. "How does your phone not have a number?"

"Don't think about it too hard Fury, you'll just give yourself a headache." I explained with a smirk. "Tell her to just dial my na."

"Fine, but it's your problem if you're ssing with her." He said with a scoff. "I don't think that would go over well."

I left the phone on for a few minutes, before Fury ca back and confird that the Agent attempting to track my phone was baffled. They were getting almost nothing, and what they were getting was nonsense. He said Peggy would be calling soon and hung up. Satisfied that my phone was now secure I added a cell phone to Steve and Peggy's boxes. I frowned and started to consider what kind of helts I would make for the two before Peggy called.

"Hello? Maker?" She asked. "If this is a prank I won't be-"

"Peggy you dialed five numbers into your phone and it connected, who else would it be?"

"... Fair enough I suppose." She admitted. "What do you need?"

"Well first, does Steve have his shield?"

"Yes, he had it when they recovered him."

"Alright, good. I'll have a uniform for him so tell him not to bother with that."

"Maker how much are you making for us?" She asked, sounding a bit worried.

"Oh just a few things." I assured her. "I'm already done with most of it, don't worry. Do you want a uniform or"

"By uniform do you an a costu?" She asked. I could practically hear her roll her eyes.

"I could an both?"

"Make sothing simple." She said clearly. "And take it easy on Steve as well."

"Yeah sure, of course. I an you've seen what I made right?"

"I have, and you look like sothing from a video ga." She responded.

"Thanks! Oh wait no I see what you're saying. Alright, I'll keep it simple and old school." I agreed. "Anything else?"

"Will you make a gun?" She asked.

"I already did. It's a revolver, a smaller caliber than mine but that hardly ans anything after I did my thing." I explained. "Don't worry I'll explain how it all works, bind everything and show you how it all works tomorrow. It's why I recomnded we et up at noon, so we will have enough ti to show off the stuff and still do this at night."

"Alright Maker, and thank you again."

"No problem Peggy. Happy to help."

A quick goodbye and I got to work. I went shopping for more than a few hours, unfortunately stuck riding my bike around at first since Ema was driving my civilian truck. Luckily by the ti I was almost done she had placed the landing pad in a heavily wooded park. I took a break to eat and pick her up before driving around and making my last purchases. When we got back to the quarry I combined one of the secure cellphones with her exosuit to add in its security.

I started with Steve's uniform next, adding kevlar and other protective materials together with a loose fit leather jacket and a pair of tan army pants. I combined them with a transformation card and a much more basic and subtle full body armor system. I reinforced the body armor with a few plates of super tal before adding thinner clothing to make it smooth and flexible, resulting in a plating system which was visible but wasn't nearly as chunky and sci-fi as mine. The armor smoothly transford back and forth between the more normal clothes, the army pants and leather jacket, and the smooth armor plates. I made a quick helt as well, using the sa technique I had used with the plates to get it closer to what he used to wear in the comics, though it was still obviously armored. I wasn't going to rely on plot armor like the comics did.

Banking on the binding taking care of the coloring I repeated the process for Peggy, this ti working the transformation into a simple looking utility belt and a torc similar to what contained my helt. Once again I made sure to smooth and reinforce the armor so it was more subtle. When I was done with her armor, including her own helt, I combined her gun with a ring, letting her carry it like Natasha did her pistols.

I quickly threw together a pair of super glasses, adding in a zoom, night vision, thermal vision and tal detection, leaving out the others to keep it simple and save on ti. My last addition to the two boxes of stuff was a pair of armored gloves and combat boots, the latter with sound suppression.

Finished with Peggy and Steve's equipnt I combined a half dozen sheets of cloth with various forms of invisible and disappearing ink, combining them all together and combining it to my cloak. The result was a definite improvent.

"How did you not think of this before?" Ema asked as I activated the invisibility, my form fading. "That's a seven point five at least. There is a shimr but its like a heat shimr, not a 'what the fuck is that' shimr."

"I honestly don't know." I said, looking down at myself and nodding. "I'm just glad I caught it before I needed it."

I spent another hour or so making a bunch of repetitive items, coming up with a knock out ring by combining a half dozen types of sleep aides, an electric shock version of a joy buzzer and a simple ring as well. Once I was done with that, Ema and I spent the rest of the day, and the first half of the next day reinforcing the super truck even more. We pulled off parts from the bottom and reinforced them with super tal. I was tempted to card and combine the whole truck at once, but I was afraid it would affect how it looked.

"At so point we are going to strip it down to the fra so I can reinforce that." I said as we finished shoving the last piece back into place and setting up the repair tablet to fix any damage we had done.

"Just one more thing on the list." Ema teased, passing a rag to clean the grease off my hands, simply flicking her hands to get it off of hers.

"I'll crack flying once this is all done." I assured her. "What are the odds that Shield has a jetpack program already?"

"Pretty high."

"What are the chances they would lend one or twelve?"

"Probably zero."

"Yeah I was afraid of that." I said with a frown before throwing the rag at Ema. "Alright. Ho, shower, early lunch and then off to Shield. Steve's waited long enough."