2014-06-24 - Cutscene: Project: Lazarus

The alarm goes off at 6:30am. The clock itself is rather old fashioned, with an actual bell instead any sort of digital speaker. The man in the bed stirs quickly and turns it off, not groggy or slow to rise he gets right back up and out of bed, lowering right down to the ground and performed a set of a hundred clapping pushups followed by a set a hundred sit ups, all done perfectly and seemingly with only the minimum of effort. The man is obviously in great physical shape.

He gets in the shower, shaves and dresses himself before heading out his front door at 7:00am on the dot. His neighbor, an attractive young woman is just getting home from her night shift as a nurse at Brooksdale Hospital. The tired woman smiles and says "Hi, Steve."

Steve Rogers, freelance artist and graphic designer smiles warmly to her and replies, "Hey, Nance. Rough night?"

Nance waves him off and says, "Nah, few Codes and a big emergency situation but besides that just business as usual."

"I was about to go down Coffee Barn, want me to pick you up some?" Steve asked Nance. She knew where he was going though, Steve was practically robotic in his punctuality and his schedule. He was always going to Coffee Barn at 7:00am.

She smiled a bit as she opened her door, "Actually I got conned into working this afternoon. I'm only home long enough to change scrubs and maybe catch a few z's in my own bed."

Steve nodded to her and said, "Not a problem at all, ma'am. If you change your mind I'd be more than happy to run out again." That was Steve, the perfect neighbor. Willing to bend over backwards if it meant to help out. Never judged, never pried, never asked uncomfortable questions. Just wanted to help and was willing to wait and let you come to him.

Nance laughs and says, "Thanks Steve. I'll let you know." With that she entered her apartment, closing the door behind her. Once she was sure that Steve was down the hall away from her door and spoke into her wrist, 

A voice in her hidden ear piece said, 

Another voice came over the SHIELD comm line and said, <Affirmative Agent Hooks, we have visual with Sat 1392. Transmitting as well as audio from his wrist watch."

Steve got down to the Coffee Barn and walked in. As he got to the front the barista went "Welcome to Coffee Bar-. Oh hi, Steve!"

Steve smiled and said, "Hi Kali, the unusual, if you don't mine."

"Of course, Steve," Kali said and turned around to make him his extra-large coffee with whole milk. If she wasn't in on the real secret she would wonder how he can drink whole milk and keep the way he looks. She muttered in her subvocal communicator, "

 Agent Hooks said,  Agent Hooks said from the command center called 'The Coffin.'

The 'Mirror' they were speaking of was someone from Steve's past who could possibly jog his memory. They were all SHIELD agents or civilians approved by SHIELD. Today's was one 'Dum Dum' Dugan. A very old ally of Steve's from as far back as WW2. Much like Steve himself he was saved the ravages of old age though the methods were different. Walking down the street in the opposite direction as Steve was, Dugan bumps into to Steve 'by accident.'

"Oh! Sorry about that, brother," Dugan said tipping his Bowler hat, something anachronistic that Dugan never grew out of wearing. It was hopeful that the face and the hat would jog some memory in Steve.

If it did, it was not apparent as Steve just held up his hand as he looked at Dugan, "Not a problem at all, sir. I should have paid more attention.  Just such a nice day. I guess my mind wasn't on where I was walking."

Dugan couldn't help but frown when Steve said all that. He had been pushing Nick to send him to Steve for weeks now. He was sure that he'd make Steve remember who he was. They had worked together both in the War and after he came back for years. He considered Steve one of his best friends and his brother. Yet, there was no reaction. Confirmed moments later by Agent Hooks 

And thus Steve walked away from the 'Mirror' and Dugan walked away saddened to be unable to help his friend. But something no one noticed as the mental monitoring had ceased and standard guarding had started.... Steve looked back with a questioning look on his face before shaking it off and continuing about his day.