Alex sat around a table as Peggy confess to everything she had held back, from the day she agreed to help Howard, in proving his innocence.
Peggy was in the far edge on the table, Jarvis was on her right and he was on her left. While Jarvis was sat by her side in support he had his arms crossed with a pissed look, all his work went down the drain. He would have to give a boost for free at this point, all because Peggy had to be a freaking hero just like Steve.
The other people around were Dooley, Sousa and Thompson, who from time to time intervened in asking clarification from Peggy and Jarvis along her story. Like the finding of the volt and setting it up so that Sousa got all the credit, how leaving a certain agent there got him killed, and that she was still kicking herself about it. How she continued to help Stark, up until she found out the lie he had wanted her to cover up. Then she took a grey shape ball, with a flick of the wrist she opened the container. Inside, a vial of a red substance was kept frozen.
"Is that toxic, what is that some kind of weapon?" Dooley said, in a frustrated voice. He just learned that everything he thought he knew about Peggy, was terribly wrong, she wasn't just some damsel, she was perhaps the best damn agent he had. But he been too blind to see it.
Peggy shook her head no, she made sure to look at all of them.
"No this is even more precious and dangerous than a toxin or plague. This is the last of what remains of Captain Steve Roger Blood. Howard couldn't let then squander the last of it like they did the rest." Peggy said, her voice filled with a sense of loss and love, as she carefully held the vial.
"I get why, you would get angry after finding this out from Stark. But why didn't you come forward with it, instead of keeping it in your room?" Sousa said, the hurt and anger had calmed down considerably once he learned of the truth about Peggy. Almost like he was relieved that she had a damn good reason to do what she did.
Peggy looked over as sighed. "I don't really know, I guess I wanted to have another chance at saving the last remaining part of Steve." Peggy said as she gently placed the vial back in its chamber and closed it up.
After hearing about Steve blood, Alex did his very best poker face. He couldn't just reveal that Steve wasn't dead just frozen, somewhere up north. Hell Howard had paid out serious amounts ofcash on trying to find him. He was planning to do the same himself, even if he might fuck over canon, this was his friend, he couldn't just ignore him for what was it, 70 or 80 years? Then just be like, 'oh no man, I like totally gave up on you, sorry man my bad'.
Besides, he had the sinking feeling that the search wasn't going to be so easy. Now that he was going to power up, he knew that he would gain a much longer lifespan. When he would meet Steve once again he wanted to look him in the eyes, and say that he'd never gave up on looking for him, and that he was happy to see him again.
This, of course, brought to mind something else he had forgotten, the blood of Steve was used in some massive tests. And one of the survivors was... Aww fuck. Bradley. He couldn't remember everything about the storyline cause he only past it briefly, but he remembered reading a few of the black Captain America Isaiah Bradley comics. And this being marvel there was a very high possibility of this being the missing husband of Faith Bradley. Hopefully he still had some time to plan in helping her get her husband back. He would have to find some peace and quiet later, in order to go over everything he remembers about that storyline.
As for now, he shifted his focus back on Peggy and the SSR, he was finding this frustrating he only saw the show in passing. He never got into it, he only watched the first season. He had no idea what was going on in the second, he just knew that Peggy was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. And that she was going to go through a tough time. If he wasn't mistaking the bad guys, to which he now only new as the doctor Ivchenko, who was sitting comfortably in the chief office. Was in something called Leviathan, oh yeah not to forget that he had some backup, a women name Dottie Underwood. He couldn't remember if there were more bad guys around or not, it wasn't that important, what was important is him getting to his private lab so he could finally power up.
Peggy made a moving speech, and everyone was convinced of her not being a traitor anymore. It was a little frustrating to Alex cause he saw her use aura, of course, she was painfully oblivious to it. The real victim in all this was him, he could have sold boost a defect product for millions. Instead, he was going to give it away for peanuts to the government, and like they always do, someone would have a stupid idea about it, ignore common sense and create a freaking PR nightmare.
Finally, Peggy and the gang quickly decided to divide and conquer. Peggy, Jarvis and Alex would stay in the office, while Dooley would go and keep the good doc company, and Thompson with Sousa and few men would go over and arrest Dottie.
"That all nice, but I not staying in the office." Alex said?
Everyone turned to him in surprise, they had all expected that their plan was the best option they had considering the time left.
"Alex, you need to stay, or else it will become suspicious to Ivchenko." Peggy said, she frown in displeasure.
"Well let me put it in another way, who here can tell or order me what to do?" Alex said as he smirked.
Suddenly the room was silent, as everyone stared at each other, trying to find a counter at that.
"Looked, I not saying that this plan wouldn't work normally, but something all of you seem to forget. The women you're all going against is a highly trained and tempered weapon, she is not a girl they simply pulled from the streets or a delusional tragic damsel in distress. No offense Dooley, but if your men couldn't even catch Peggy, then they have no hope against Dottie." Alex said.
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"Hey, that's not true we caught Peggy, right in her hotel." Thompson said, as he got up from his chair.
"Really, cause the way I heard it, Dottie is the one who surprised Peggy and was probably about to kill her when you walk in. So no, you didn't catch Peggy, Dottie caught Peggy. You just happen to pick her up, and in a way save her as well." Alex said, as he turned to Peggy and grinned.
Peggy opened her mouth to refute that claim, but slowly close it as she also came to realize the truth. Everyone else had an awkward expression as they also came to the same conclusion.
"So in light of this, I'm joining the assault team, don't get all your panties in a twist, I'll play nice. Chief your men can go first and arrest Dottie to bring her in for questioning, I will stay downstairs just in case she manages to escape from all of your men." Alex said, he put his hand up to interrupt Dooley who was about to get into a screaming match with him, after he heard that he would let his agent go in first, and he would play second fiddle he calm down and nodded his consent.
A few more minute discussion about the details and they all got up to their respective posts. Peggy and Jarvis were sent back to the office to wait, Dooley went to his office to distract Ivchenko.
Alex, Sousa and Thompson along with a few more men went over the building across the street in order to politely invited Dottie to the party.
Alex walked with the group as they arrive in the lobby, Thompson and Sousa took over. They sent men to cover all exits and they themselves went up to find Dottie. Alex looked around calmly made his way to the stairs and waited.
A few minutes later, screaming and shouting was going on upstairs. Alex looked up and as he had expected, Dottie was kicking their ass. He wasn't sure if she'd manage to kill any of them, but soon he saw something very familiar, a woman who he assumed was Dottie was jumping down from stair ledge to stair ledge, avoiding all the men as they either stop in their tracks or look on with their mouth's wide open.
The reason he found it familiar, was that he had used the same move a few years ago, but at the time he was pursuing a target that was running down the stairs, the guy had a head start and he used this move to close the distance.
As Dottie landed on the floor, they were only a few feet from each other. Dottie had a smug confident smirk on her, she seemed to be completely sure of her escape. She had a pretty face, athletically built, Alex could see she was well train in hand to hand combat, quick on her feet as well. Oddly she didn't appear armed, of course, she could have a hidden weapon stash on her.
"Hello, I believe we haven't been introduced, you must be Dottie. Am Alexander Grey, I would greatly appreciate if you would simply surrender." Alex said, as he took his hands out of his pockets, and took a basic boxing stance. "Or, you could take the hard way out." Alex said as he grinned.
Dottie didn't waste time talking, she rushed to him lowering her center of gravity. She was going to counter whatever her opponent was going to dish out.
Alex threw a low side kick at her legs in order to slow her down or force a change in direction. Dottie changed her direction, by moving in the same direction as the kick, coming close to the wall, she jumped on it and used it as a springboard for a superman punch in the face. Alex blocked the punch using one arm, as he advanced closer he grabbed her and did a quick throw, since she was still in mid-air. She managed to twist in the air and landed on her feet, as she was about to sprint to the exit, she dodged back as a foot came crashing past her, she moved just quick enough to evade a nasty head smash between the wall and that foot.
Alex didn't stop after the kick, he followed up with a combination of punches and elbow jabs, adding knees as well. The two exchange several sets of moves, Dottie was on the run, during this dogfight she managed to land a few solid blows, but she received much more damage. Alex managed to pin her in the corner, cutting out any room to dodge, he was forcing her into a savage beat down, he still had room to dodge or sidestep some hits, but she had no room for anything but taking hit after hit. Her face had some bruise and cuts, one rib was cracked as Alex manage to exchange a hit to his face for it.
The confident smirk on Dottie was gone, she suddenly felt like she was back in the red room all those years ago, getting the living shit beaten out of her by the instructor, as they polish their fighting skills. She tried all the trick they pounded in her to get out of the corner, no matter what she did, her opponent seemed to know exactly what to do in order to keep her in the corner and making her suffer every time for any attempt to get away.
Alex finally got a solid hit on her jaw, as she lowered her guard after he managed to sneak a hit to her stomach for the ninth time. He would admit she was good, but he was better, sure he could have pulled out his gun and fired a bullet in her legs and ended this far earlier. He decided not to as she did that stair jumping, instead unfortunately for her he decides to use her in blowing off some steam from losing big on the whole boost fiasco.
A loud crack sounded as his fist left her jaw, she swayed around losing her balance. Alex didn't stop and show any pity toward her, he pressed on and continued to smack a few more powerful punches into her guts, chest and head. He only stopped once she hit the ground, hard. He backed off and waited to see if she would get up.
Sounds of footsteps came running down the stairs behind him.
"My God! What have you done! She just a woman, what is wrong with you!?" Sousa said as he limped over, anger in his eyes as he came right up to Alex.
Alex finally let down his guard when he saw no movement in Dottie, he calmly looked around and found that all the agent were standing around, some were pointing their weapon at Dottie and some at him. He turned back to Sousa.
"I gave her a chance to surrender and she declined, also don't try to play the gentleman with me. She is a highly trained agent, if I was to go all soft on her just because she's a girl, it would have been me down on the ground instead of her. She is one of the best fighters I've ever encountered, the only reason I won is that she was focused on running and not fighting and I caught her by surprise. She wasn't expecting me to be that good." Alex said, in a little out of breath.
"So what? That gives you the right to beat her to within an inch of her life!?" Sousa said, still angry at the outcome.
"Sousa, we got her, let get back to the chief, and I think you should come with us as well Mr. Grey." Thompson said, as he tried to place a calming hand on Sousa.
"Fine, let's go." Alex said as he walked away, leaving Dottie to be arrested by the agents.
Every agent followed him with their eyes, fear and discuss was on all of them. All of them had stood by and watch as Alex mercilessly rendered Dottie into her current unconscious state. They had done nothing to stop it until she was down and out. Even Sousa, who had charged down only did it after she was down. At any time any of them could have called out, but none did, the had silently watch as she was beaten. Their guilt on letting it go on as long as it did, was shifted to Alex for doing what they knew they couldn't have done.