Chapter 3

After Iron Man, Cap, Hulk, and Thor's ship disappeared into the sky, the first thing Sam did was send a message to the other Avengers, asking them to meet. Within minutes he walked into the Avengers Tower's briefing room to find them already waiting for him.

“Thanks for coming, everybody,” said Sam as he went to the head of the table. Looking around, he was proud to be on a team with each of these heroes.

There was Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, a S.H.I.E.L.D. master spy and specialist in infiltration. Next to her was Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, not just the best archer in the world but also well-versed in several forms of combat.

Across from Hawkeye were the Twins—two young Avengers who had recently joined the team and who had incredible powers. Pietro Maximoff—Quicksilver—could move with superhuman speed, and his sister, Wanda Maximoff—the Scarlet Witch—could use magic powers to blast back enemies.

Rounding out the team was Vision, an android built with a digital intelligence so advanced that he was actually a form of artificial life. Vision had superhuman strength and superhuman reflexes, as well as the abilities to phase through solid walls, shoot powerful beams, and repair himself when injured.

“What's the story, Sam? Why the emergency message?” asked Hawkeye.

Sam used holo-display to help get his teammates up to speed on the possible threat from space.

“So what will we need to do if Iron Man and the others find this Thanos guy?” asked the Scarlet Witch, nervously.

“We're just going to have to wait for news from the advanced team,” responded Falcon, “but the Avengers have beaten Thanos before, so we know we can again.” Falcon cleared his throat after saying the villain's name. Thanos was feared by everyone, including this Avenger.

“Okay. We wait for information. . . . What do we do in the meantime?” asked Widow.

Falcon had been expecting this question. This group of world-saving heroes—this group of Avengers—was looking to him for leadership. Everything had been happening so quickly that Falcon hadn't had time to put together a plan, but he was quick on his feet.

“I was thinking of something like this . . .” said Sam as he presented a rotating patrol schedule that gave every Avenger duties and also time in the training room, as well as time off.

“With the others out in space, there's more world for each of us to protect,” admitted Sam, “but I know that if we work together, we can handle it.”

Quicksilver reviewed Sam's plan, highly pleased with his organizational skills. “Yeah, I think we can do this,” he confirmed.

Even Vision was impressed: “Your proposal operates at near-peak proficiency, Sam Wilson.” That was really high praise, coming from the android.

As the Avengers ended their meeting and headed off to take care of their various responsibilities, Falcon smiled. He was starting to feel pretty good about this whole “leadership” thing. Maybe Cap was right: maybe he was a natural leader.