Amalgam: Shield and Lasso

Part One - Reunions

When Diana Prince saw someone impersonating her long-ago friend Steve Rogers during the Chitauri invasion, she had to investigate. She never expected what she found. Part One of Amalgam: Shield and Lasso.

As always, all rights to this story are hereby given to DC and Marvel and/or their parent companies and/or the applicable copyright owners

Normally, Diana Prince's office at the Musee du Louvre was a quiet place to work - especially this late in the evening, just before closing, when most of the tourists were gone.

Today, though, a chatter of voices disturbed her as she reviewed lists of proposed acquisitions and items from the museum's warehouses that might be sold to partially fund the acquisitions, and she looked up from her computer, glaring out her office door to the reception area outside.

A double handful of people, more than she'd ever seen gathered there at one time, chattered amongst each other, even as they surrounded her assistant's desk, staring at something on Helene's computer.

With a silent, resigned sigh, Diana rose from her desk and strode toward the door.

"Helene," she began, but her assistant jumped up from her seat and cut her off.

"Aliens, mademoiselle," Helene said, her eyes wide with both wonder and fear. "It's aliens! Invading New York."

It was on Diana's lips to deny it, but Helene grabbed her hand and tugged her around the desk so she could see the image on the screen.

The image, a news feed from LNN, showed swarms of humanoid creatures on some kind of skycraft pouring from a portal in the sky. Besides the swarms of creatures, there were larger - much larger - ones that looked like a cross between a slug and an armored whale who flew under their own power.

Ignoring the commentator's too-scared-to-be-useful observations, Diana instead let herself absorb the impact of the images themselves. Unconsciously, the fingers of her right hand twitched as though to grasp the Sword of Athena so she could leap into the fray herself.

It was a reasonable desire in the face of such an invasion, but New York was hours away, even by the fastest airplane. The battle would be over before she could get there - and if it weren't, she would prepare to defend Paris against these alien invaders.

Then her breath caught as amidst the destruction a flash of red, white and blue - not the American flag, she thought, not moving as it was.

Then the movement stopped, and the image on the screen froze on a man in a blue cowl with a bright white A on its front. His chestpiece, of the same blue, had a brilliant white star shining in its center.

It couldn't be. It couldn't be …

Steve.

Steve Rogers, the second Steve she'd known, so like the first in temperament and nobility, not just his name. But like Steve Trevor, Steve Rogers had been lost to her, to the world, summoned to Hades' realms much too soon for her liking.

And now someone dared to impersonate her long-ago friend, even going so far as to recreate the man's vibranium shield. Diana's hand clenched into a fist. She would not need the Sword to deal with this impostor - assuming he survived the encounter with the invaders, of course.

Without thinking, Diana pulled a chair closer and perched on it, the voices of Helene and other Louvre employees fading from her awareness because the camera had chosen to follow not-Steve as he ran down a street, dodging falling debris and alien weapons alike before he somersaulted onto the roof of a police car.

He was apparently giving orders to a police officer when a pair of invaders attacked him, and he dispatched both of them with severe efficiency. The familiarity of his moves made Diana swallow hard.

Was it possible, somehow, that this was in fact the Steve Rogers she knew, somehow returned from the dead?

If so, she could only pray to Gaia that he did not return to death at the hands of these invaders.

WW - CA - WW

The battle ended quickly, but it was still late enough that Diana hesitated to make the call she knew she had to make.

Peggy Carter's illness meant that she slept much, and often was asleep by dusk, news of aliens in New York City notwithstanding.

Still, that very news meant Peggy might yet be awake tonight.

Diana retreated to the privacy of her office to dial the number she knew so well.

"Hello?"

It wasn't Peggy's voice, but another that Diana recognized.

"Sharon," she said. "It's Diana. How is she today?"

The younger woman - Peggy's niece - let out a shuddery breath that seemed to echo down the connection. "She wasn't well at all - and then, the news -"

"She saw?" Diana asked gently.

"She did - she was glued to the screen the whole time," Sharon replied, her tone weary. "It was the most … present she's been in days, and she couldn't stop talking about how Steve had finally come for their date. I just got her to bed a little while ago."

Diana swallowed. "She thinks it's really him? Steve Rogers?"

"She knows it, Diana - and she's right."

"She's right?" Diana repeated. Without the Lasso of Hestia and its truth-compelling abilities, how could anyone be certain that Steve Rogers had returned from the dead?

"I had a call from Nick Fury," Sharon said, sounding more awed than she should at a call from her boss. "They found the Valkyrie, the plane he crashed near the end of World War Two, and somehow he survived. I was ordered to move into an apartment near the one S.H.I.E.L.D. arranged for him."

Diana forced her tone to remain neutral. "To spy on him?"

"No, to protect him."

Her mother would be ashamed of the snort Diana let out - it was hardly Amazon-like, let alone princess-like. "Captain America needs protection?"

Sharon managed a weak laugh. "Well, that's what Fury said. It's more like guard duty, I suppose. If he needs help, if anyone tries to get to him…"

"That makes sense, I suppose," Diana said - though it really didn't. Why would a spy organization - which is what S.H.I.E.L.D. was, despite its official name Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division - be keeping an eye on Captain America, a decorated war hero recently returned from the dead?

"I'll be leaving tomorrow," Sharon continued. "I won't be flying into New York directly, obviously, but Fury wants me on site as quickly as possible."

"Safe travels, Sharon," Diana said, her thoughts whirling. "And tell Peggy that I'll be in touch soon."

Sharon bade her a good night, and Diana hung up the phone, frowning at it absently.

She should be thrilled that Steve was alive - and she was, but the conversation with Sharon had raised issues she hadn't considered before, and Diana knew that she couldn't rest easily until she'd sorted those out.

Not, she thought wryly, that she had any idea how to sort them out. She could live in the modern world, but that didn't mean she was familiar with everything she needed.

Fortunately, she knew people who could help. A glance at the time told her that the time difference was far more advantageous for this call than for the one she'd just finished.

She reached for the phone again.