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Nat had given Steve the name. "He's hard to find, Steve. The Engineer. I've been told that he might not even talk to you if you find him."
"Thanks," Steve said. He tucked away the slip of paper in his wallet with the real name of The Engineer.
He could of course put in the name in his memory banks but Steve needed to keep this personal mission of his super secret. His owners were regularly scanning him as they didn't trust him. Any anomaly (such as an encoded name or memory) would stand out. Steve was thin ice as it was.
"Good luck," she said.
He nodded and turned away. If he looked back, she'd be gone.
But that's how it worked when you needed to escape from a secret multinational organization dedicated to world security and espionage. And if you were an android. No one could be seen helping him or they would be in the same situtation as Steve.
His other friend Clint had somehow created a hole in the system that allowed Steve with some ingenuity to slip out of his room (or prison cell as Steve saw it) and sneak out of the Triskelion to freedom. If he could get The Engineer to strip out the codes that kept Steve bound to SHIELD commands.
Clint and Nat had been the best friends that an android like Steve could have. Now it was up to him to make the best of his opportunity. The stars had aligned perfectly when Steve was transported for a mission based out of New York, the last known location of The Engineer, with Clint and Nat his handlers.
Steve had been designed with the best, most up-to-date military training and abilities with some additional espionage skills. He'd sourced a control disruptor from an underground android group he'd discovered a month ago. They showed him a small bag of tricks on how to hide his movements from scanners and some basic ways to pretend to be human. With this help, he had found it remarkably easy, even in this time of constant and extensive state surveillance, to blend into the civilian population of the vast crowded city.
But it was all borrowed time. He could only hide so long from SHIELD, which would desperately want to recover Steve.
He located a vintage bookstore where underground android rumors said that The Engineer frequented. The Engineer had the skills to spring an android from their programming and set them free. There would be a cost of course, nothing in life was ever truly free, and Steve was willing to pay it.
Steve even in his borrowed clothes and soft cap looked out of place here in the bookshop. Probably didn't help that he was uneasily walking through the store and not exactly looking at the books but tracking a tall dark-haired man. But the android at the register pointedly ignored Steve.
His target was now in a corner of the store farthest away from the door and the register. "Tony Stark?" the android said politely. Stark nearly dropped the book he had taken off the shelf and glared at Steve. "I need your help," Steve continued.
"I'm not the person you're looking for," Stark replied, confirming to Steve that in fact he was talking to Stark.
"Or should we not talk here?" Steve replied.
Stark carefully studied Steve's face, then sighed. "How much trouble are you in?"
"All of it."
"Hmm. Okay. This is the deal. I'm going to airdrop a location for you and you have fifteen minutes to find me or the information goes poof. Got it?"
Steve nodded and then went back to looking at the books as if he were just browsing. He noticed that Stark picked up a book, something on the history of World War II, a war that happened long ago, back before the wars and unrest and economic depressions that lead to the current global authoritarian state. Admittedly, Steve hated the lack of freedom and self-determination and then there is the constant surveillance of all elements of life. Clint and Nat bitterly joked about how awful everything was.
He was aware that as an android, he shouldn't have opinions on book censorship. But he did. SHIELD did not like it. Actually there was a lot about Steve SHIELD did not like, at all.
He got the ping informing him that Tony had airdropped the address as promised. Piece of cake to find the place.
~~~~~
Stark's workshop was hidden in the depths of warehouse and Steve had to run a gamut of puzzles to gain entrance. But once inside, Steve marveled at the workshop filled with the most update-to-date machinery and tools. Stark was seated at a desk filled with four computer monitors like a conductor in front of an orchestra.
A robot arm poked at Steve to get him to sit in a chair next to a huge scanner. "Dum-E isn't going to give up, Steve, until you sit," Stark said with unexpected warmth aimed at the robot arm. Dum-E chirped at Steve as well.
Steve sat down, the singular focus of all the lights and scanners, ready to respond as he was supposed to. Stark jumped up to rearrange the scanners around Steve. "You're bigger than all of the androids I've worked with," Stark explained. He patted Steve's shoulder as he showed Steve to how to plug into the scanner so Stark could download a copy of his programming.
"So, tell me, what do they call you?"
"Steve."
"Wait, no model number or something?" Stark continued. "Like SR-1944 or SVE-2099?"
Steve thought about it. He'd never seen any of his parts marked with a model number like the other androids he'd worked with. He checked his records and his memory banks and there was nothing. "It's always been Steve."
"Hmmm," Stark replied. "So what do you need from me?"
What he need Tony to do was jailbreak the part of Steve's code that kept him attached to SHIELD. It wasn't as easy it sounded and the codes were hidden deep in Steve's programming. It took a specialist to undo the codes.
"I need to be freed from my controls, Mr. Stark."
"So your owners can't track you down and bring you back?"
"Yes."
Steve had assessed that Stark was not committed yet to helping Steve. He could tell Stark loved machines based on how well-loved his workshop was and his helper robot arms, that seemed to be more like dogs than actual robots. So now, he wished he could explain his situation better. He needed Stark's help.
He was terrible at being an android. He'd known that in some way shape and form since he'd woken up. He was designed to obey, to follow orders, to go along, to serve.
And Steve didn't want to.
At first, his designers were amused. They joked that they should have expected this. It was part of the original programming. But it got worse.
Steve had been created to be a military android. A perfect fighter and tactician and strategist. The people who had commissioned him were desperate for him and the army of hims that were expected to come afterwards. They'd been so excited when he'd been unwrapped in their offices.
Then Steve was Steve.
It was hard to explain to A Person. Androids had expectations programmed into them. It was amusing at first that Steve said no to direct orders. Then it wasn't so amusing after the fifth time.
Steve was not going to fight people without a good reason. Or design an attack on a civilian population. He didn't want to kill on command.
They told him what they wanted him to do. He felt uneasy. He didn't like it. He said no. The results were … not good.
His owners had spent so much money to create him that they tried again and again to make him do what they had created him to do. To fight those they called the enemy. To win wars they had started.
Steve refused.
He had this part of his programming that was ethics, a knowledge of what was right, what was wrong and what he personally was comfortable with. He found out that he was not supposed to be programmed that way. The programming was intentional — a dimensionality that was added to his understanding in order to add depth and instinct to his strategic thinking.
Except that he couldn't strategize without considering consequences.
His owners decided to send him to be melted down and to restart over. He didn't know that part until a Human friend, Nat, reached out to him to tell him he needed to run.
Stark sat back in his chair and studied the data he'd downloaded from Steve. "Look," Stark started. He ran his hand through his hair, sighed, and grabbed one of the smoothies he'd made earlier. Steve who didn't need to eat and functioned on complicated mechanical fluids still found the green foamy drink unappetizing.
"Look, I don't know how you got my name, but I don't do this any more," Stark said. "Yeah, I've helped other androids before — simple stuff like upgraded mechanics or skills. Once in a while, I've lifted controls. But what you're asking — that's going to make big trouble for me."
Steve was desperate. "If you don't, then maybe some one who can?" he pleaded.
"I'm the only one who has ever been able to unlock the SHIELD Android programming — I did that to help out a friend. I've paid for that," Stark added. "I don't know if they've changed anything." He tapped a small screwdriver against his desk as he scanned the data again. "They should have — if I were them, I would have done it."
Steve silently willed Stark to help him.
"What did you say you were again?" Stark asked.
"A specialist," Steve replied promptly.
"Right." Stark tapped on his keyboard. "No," he said like a swear. He swiveled around in his chair to give Steve a hard appraising look. "You lied to me."
"I did not," Steve replied. "My programming says that —"
"But you did. I know you did, you know you did. You're not a specialist — you're a military android."
"We're still specialists," Steve said.
"Fuck," Stark swore. "I can't do this. This is a set-up. Pierce is setting me up. I have to turn you in."
"Please don't." Steve couldn't go back. He knew how this was going to go. Stark would turn him in (maybe even get a reward), then he'd be melted as soon as SHIELD got their hands on him. "They'll melt me down."
Stark clicked on a few other screens, which were filled with text, not code. "They spent a lot of money on you. They'll just wipe you memory and start over."
"That's supposed to be better than melted down?" Steve asked.
"You have a point." Stark narrowed his eyes as he studied Steve. "But you said specifically 'melt down' when memory wiping is the usual protocol."
Steve tapped his head. As if that's where his programming actually lived like a human brain. "They programmed me to do specially designed work." He tried to be vague, even though he got the sense that Stark already knew a big chunk of what he'd been designed to do. "They would have to start from the beginning."
"Or not," Stark replied. "Something isn't right with your programming. I've helped other androids, before. They didn't lie to me. You lied." He got up and paced back and forth. "You weren't followed?"
"Friends are helping me." More like one friend that Steve would not get to see again.
"Someone is going to miss you at some point. Check your power levels."
Steve checked them. "Low," he admitted.
"Did you even consider checking them before I asked?"
"No."
"What kind of android are you, Steve?" Stark pointed at the charging station in the corner of the workshop. "It's the not the most comfortable station but it will work. I'm going to get some sleep and we'll talk in the morning."
~~~~~
Steve woke up when he was fully charged. He assessed his options, none of which were not good if Stark choose not to help him.
His main objective had been temporarily achieved — escape from SHIELD. Nat and Clint had helped with that. As his human partners, they had been invested in helping him. They liked him — that was an odd feeling at the time, that humans would make the effort to help an android.
Stark rushed into the workshop. "We have to go, the workshop's been compromised."
"What?"
"Come on, use your programming and get us out of here."
Stark pushed Steve in front of a computer to figure out an escape plan while he rushed around the workshop to lock down his robot helpers and set up traps to wipe everything in the workshop should SHIELD break in.
"I've got it," Steve said.
"Let's go," Stark said.
Steve had plotted a twisty complicated route with lots of confusing side routes and misleading directions. He sent Stark's drones, echoing Steve's own signals, off on wild goose chases through New York. "That should keep them busy," Steve said, with a touch of smug satisfaction.
"What kind of android are you?" Stark asked again.
~~~~~
It turned out that Stark had a series of alternate workshops, hidden through out New York. He had wanted to go to his Brooklyn set-up. Steve looked back towards Manhattan with a deep unease. Not because they were eluding SHIELD, but something just didn't feel right with the cityscape. Too many tall buildings crowding the city. The cars too futuristic. Steve kept expecting to see something else when he looked at the city and he couldn't figure out why.
Again, another large empty warehouse. How could Stark manage to find places like when real estate was at a premium.
Stark tapped his shoulder. "Keep going."
This warehouse was less built out than the other one. But apparently Stark kept a physical book collection here — his war history books — and a framed poster. "Captain America," he explained.
"Captain America?" Steve asked.
"Big hero from 20th century war. I've always had a fondness for him," Stark replied with a shrug. "Now sit, I'm not helping you but I need to see if I can remove a couple of layers of the SHIELD controls. That would buy us some time."
Steve sat again to be scanned. Stark ran the data again. He had Steve plug into the system so that he could upload programming changes. He checked the results, then muttered under his breath.
"Did it work this time?" Steve asked anxiously.
"No." Stark leaned in closer to the screen as if that would help him diagnose why he couldn't crack Steve's code. "I've tried everything." He reached out and patted Steve's shoulder, just like he did with every machine and robot in the workshop.
It was comforting to Steve though Steve was not sure how that would work on the CNC machine in the corner. "You like machines, Mr. Stark," he ventured.
"Call me Tony." Tony tapped his keyboard for another several minutes. "I need you to cycle off and on."
Steve did as asked. When he woke up, he felt different. He couldn't quite place the feeling exactly — it felt like he was lighter and more expanded, more capable. He liked it.
"How are you feeling now, Machine Man?" Tony asked.
"Better?" Steve tried out. "Better."
"Great. I've turned off permanently two layers of the control protocol."
As far as Steve could tell, Tony was amazing. He might be biased though. He'd never met anyone like Tony before. "Thank you," Steve offered.
"Pfft. Don't assume that this means I'm helping you. I still haven't decided. I have to keep off SHIELD's radar. Hopefully this saved us." Tony went back to studying Steve's programming. "Something isn't right here," Tony said. "But what is that something not right? Hmmm."
Steve got up. He didn't like being still for long periods of time. He walked around the workshop a couple of times, eventually wandering into the bathroom. He registered how he looked in the mirror — a tall, blond, blue-eyed android presenting as a young male with no distinctive facial features. He was dressed in the civilian clothes — jeans, sweatshirt, sneakers — that Clint had smuggled to him.
He could pass for human, mostly, if you didn't look too closely. But his skin was a shade too shiny, his eyes reflected the light wrong as camera lenses. Human and alien at the same time.
But also, somehow, Steve expected to see someone different in the mirror. An image more human than generic. He did not like this sudden feeling of being uncomfortable in his own skin. Maybe he needed to power up more and that would shake the feeling.
"What, you use bathrooms too? Like all the androids do?" Tony asked him when he finally left the bathroom.
Steve ignored that and went back to sit where Tony had earlier instructed him. "Still undecided about helping me?"
Tony replied, "Eh. Maybe I'll send you to a different person who can help."
"Why did you decide to help androids? Before?" Steve asked, trying a different tack to get Tony more on his side.
"I like machines and understanding what makes them tick. Androids are machines. So I like androids. I started to fix them up because I like fixing machines. It's pretty simple. The problem is when people treat androids like people. You are machines with limited AI capacities — just enough to allow you to appear to act and react like humans and make a limit set of independent actions. I've been asked so many times to rescue or save an android because someone thought that they were alive in the same way humans were."
"Oh," Steve replied.
"People are willing to help when they care about an object that appears to have feelings and feels like they are a friend. When all it is programming and social engineering."
Steve didn't have a response. He felt real to himself, he had friends, he had a purpose and intent. But then he thought about how Tony treated his robots earlier, like his own pets. Tony was a complex being.
Then Tony patted Steve's shoulder. "I look at androids as very intelligent and interesting machines who can talk to you. I like that. You have different needs from humans and that's how people should look at androids. As their own thing. Not people in synthetic bodies."
Steve nodded. It could be a pre-programming response to humans talking at him. He didn't know for sure.
"Anyway, you are a problem, Steve, and I love solving problems."
"Problem?"
"Yes, your programming doesn't jive with the usual android programming." Tony got up and made himself coffee. He stared at the code. "Steve, how did you get my name?"
"My friend Natasha gave it to me." Steve wanted Tony to know he had friends.
"Ohhhhh," Tony groaned. "I should have asked that earlier."
"You know her?" Steve asked.
Tony didn't reply for a long time. Then he confessed, "I do know her. I wonder why — what exactly did she tell you?"
"Very little. She said you could help me when it was clear that if I didn't do what SHIELD wanted me to do that I would be melted."
"I don't think that SHIELD would melt an android like you. That doesn't make sense."
"That's they were going to do," Steve insisted. "I saw the plans."
"Okay, I'm going to have to trust your android brain on this. Okay, I'm going to upload another fix to your operating system. Then you need to cycle off and on again."
Steve could feel another change with Tony's new fix. He felt clearer, like he knew more and could feel more and just — he felt like he was seeing and perceiving the world differently.
Tony crowed. "Okay I've scraped off another two control layers." He compiled the code again. "I have no idea why there are some many control layers. The most I've ever dealt with was three for a car mechanic android and that was because of the vehicle safety laws.
Steve felt weird — almost that queasy feeling that humans told him that they had. Queasy was good. He felt now less part of the body he was in than he had a short time ago. Like he had no control of his limbs but at the same time wanted his body to perform and act in different ways.
Tony was a very attractive man. Steve noticed that in a way that was distinctively different from objectively noting that. He had programming that told him what attractive humans looked like according to set cultural criteria. But thinking that Tony was attractive came not from that criteria but some sort of spontaneous assessment.
Steve should not be able to do that. He knew that. Tony would tell him that.
But something was awakening in him. Something that Natasha had locked away in his programming. Tony poked at the code again. This time the code sprung something out — a video message from Nat.
"Tony, I know you will find this message. You have to help Steve. Wait, I know what you are going to say. Stop it right now. Steve isn't what he looks like. He's not the usual android."
"I already guessed that," Tony said to the small video image of Nat on the screen.
Nat continued on. "Steve the android has the brain waves and consciousness of a man SHIELD found in cryo-storage two years ago. I don't know more than that. We're working on freeing the man. Here are the coordinates and a contact."
Tony whirled around to look at Steve, his eyes wild and his mouth open. "Okay, that explains almost everything. Of course they would have to melt you to start over again — something is wrong with your programming. You can't anticipate human thought patterns even when they're mapped onto android brainwaves."
Steve attempted to replay Nat's message in his brain over again. "This does not make sense."
"We have to go and meet them. Now." He tapped Steve's head. "If I had time, I bet if I removed all the controls, I'll find out exactly who you are when I surfaced your human consciousness. The person is in there somewhere."
~~~~~
The contact was a person, Sam Wilson, who worked for a SHIELD adjacent company. Tony made all the connections for Steve as Sam loaded them into his small but practical car. "You work for the Resistance, too," he said to Sam in a quiet voice.
"Five years now," Sam replied. "You know Nat."
"Let's get the show on the road," Tony said gleefully.
Steve didn't know what to expect when they got to a warehouse in a deserted New Jersey army base. Sam for some reason seemed to expect that Steve would know. "You don't remember?"
"No," Steve said. He had feelings he knew what this place was or that he should know.
"Nat said Tony could recover your memories —"
"Nah, all hidden under layers and layers of SHIELDS coding. Where is this person?"
Steve smiled at Tony's impatience. The more his human thoughts emerged from his foggy brain that more he found Tony fascinating, funny, and well, cute. He'd never felt like this or more precisely could not actually have feelings like this.
There was a secret elevator shaft that brought them down to the cyro-storage. "Clint and Nat are doing their best to keep SHIELD from discovering our mission," Sam explained. "We don't have a lot of time."
There, right there in a long line of stored bodies they found the body of one Steve Rogers. Steve put his hand on the cyrogenic chamber and felt an immediate disconnect between his current body and his brain. Everything started going haywire as he felt tiny little explosions through out his body. He could hear Tony's fading voice calling out to him. "Steve, talk to me buddy." But Steve lost consciousness.
~~~~~
When Steve woke up, he blinked awake, slowly, like his body was coming online bit by bit, instead of all at once. He felt different then the feeling faded away as he realized that he was very much alive and very much human.
Sets of conflicting memories flooded his brain. One set of memories told him that he shouldn't be waking up alive after crashing a plane. The other set talked of his life as a miliary android. Nothing made sense.
Then he opened his eyes, turned and saw one of the most gorgeous men he'd ever seen. Steve couldn't stop the silly grin that crossed his face. Wildly inappropriate to feel this way as the rush of his human hormones told him how much he was interested in this man.
Tony. This man is Tony. The man who saved Steve.
"Tony," Steve rasped out.
"You remembered," Tony breathed out. "We didn't know if you would."
"Where am I?" Steve asked as he looked around the room. "What —"
"You're in a safe house in Malibu — we fled here after we recovered your body," Tony explained.
Steve knew in one way that story made sense while in another way he was confused and lost. He reached for Tony's hand, that felt warm and heavy in his own. "Maybe you could tell me over coffee?"
"Sure, let's get some — wait, are you in fact making a pass at me?" Tony replied with a grin.
"Um, yes," Steve admitted, already bracing for Tony's rejection.
"Hey, I'm going to like the human version of you. Like you a lot," Tony offered. "And the new packaging is pretty sweet too."