Poem: A Good Man

[shiori_makiba]

Poem: A Good Man

by: shiori_makiba

Fandom: The Avengers (Love Is For Children)

Characters: Phil Coulson, HYDRA Goon, Steve Rogers, Two Children

Summary: Steve Rogers was a good man.

Warnings!: Kidnapping, references to torture, implied threaten violence to children, death threats, defamation, bigotry

“A Good Man”

Steve Rogers was a good man.

You wouldn't think so

if you listened the man ranting at him

but Phil had learned long ago

how to deal with villain monologues.

You had to look

like you were actually interested

in whatever they were rambling on about.

Because, often while they were talking,

they weren't physically hurting you or anyone else.

And because it gave your rescuers

more time to find you.

Phil knew the Avengers were coming

for him and the other captives.

They just had to wait.

You also had to pay a certain amount

of attention to the monologue.

Because sometimes they let slip

something actually important.

And because it could alert you

to when they were done talking

(for the moment) and were going to try

hurting you again.

Sometimes you get them

to continue ranting

by saying something to them

whenever the speech started

to wind down.

It didn't always work.

But it was something.

Villain monologues were all pretty similar.

The villain's grand plan and

how you were powerless to stop them.

How long and painful your death was going to be.

Or the deaths of your friends and allies.

How badly they were misunderstood,

the real hero while the real villains

run around applauded and praised.

This particular HYDRA goon

seemed to like that last one.

A lot.

He had been ranting about

how HYDRA (and himself) were the real heroes.

The ones who were going to save Earth

from everything that was tearing it apart

(Which seem to range from women with the vote to queer people).

That the heroes like the Avengers

or the Fantastic Four were the real villains,

preventing Earth from being saved

from the real evil.

He had trash-talked all of the heroes

but seemed to possesses a special loathing

for Captain America.

Every complaint about the other heroes

always tied back to Captain America somehow.

That was in-between the rounds of

how brilliant his grand plan

and the usual threats of violence.

There had been some actual violence.

But Phil had been tortured by experts

and this guy was not an expert.

But Phil was willing

to let him think he was.

Just like he was letting him think

that Phil was actually listening

to this nonsense.

That he was afraid.

It was easy.

It wasn't as if

because he could withstand

a lot more pain than this

that his injuries didn't hurt.

And he was afraid.

Not of the HYDRA agent himself.

No, he was petty little loser who,

in a straight fight,

Phil was more than capable

of handling on his own.

But he was afraid of

what the man might do.

Because Phil hadn't been captured alone.

And he would put up with a lot to ensure

that the HYDRA goon keep his attention

on him and not the children.

So he let the evil man have

what he really wanted out of this encounter.

He moaned and groaned at the pain.

He let him see the fear.

He allowed himself to squirm.

And evil man, as evil men often do, fell for it.

He talked.

He gloated.

He watched him squirm.

He put off the moment of murder and even true pain

until he was slammed to the ground

by a familiar figure in a red, white, and blue suit.

No warning,

just a blur of motion out of the corner

of Phil's eye and suddenly there was a

HYDRA goon on the ground and

trying to break the Captain's hold on him.

Unsuccessfully it should be noted.

'Terry Pratchett really was an astute observer,' Phil thought.

'A good man really will take you down with hardly a word.'

Thank everything that Steve Rogers was a good man.

Notes:

My own contribution to a Poke A Bigot In the Eye session being done by ysabetwordsmith, for that . . . . this with Captain Hydra.

The title comes from a quote from the Terry Pratchet Discworld novel, Men at Arms.

“If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”

Edit: Now linked with companion piece, "It Ain't So."

Comments

Re: Thoughts

[shiori_makiba]

>I loved this poem.>

Yay! *big grin*

Re: Stupid Supervillains

As soon as he started running his mouth too much, Phil was pretty sure this guy hadn't read the Evil Overlord List.

He was still careful because even idiots can get lucky.

And because you never know when someone might decide to knock off your script or play with your expectations.

It's the villains who do who can be the truly dangerous ones.

>>:D POW! \o/>>

Yeah, that was my favorite moment and it's so Steve.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>As soon as he started running his mouth too much, Phil was pretty sure this guy hadn't read the Evil Overlord List.<<

I have one villain who seriously read that list: Kovid, my evil warlord-wizard from Penumbra.

>>He was still careful because even idiots can get lucky.

And because you never know when someone might decide to knock off your script or play with your expectations.<<

Point.

>>It's the villains who do who can be the truly dangerous ones.<<

This is very true.