“Captain? Captain Rogers? Captain, report!”
The crackle over the comms sounded far away, but the voice was still so familiar. Steve groaned, pushing himself up and balking at the mayhem. Smoke billowed from crashed vehicles, people were running around, screaming and panicking. His body ached, protesting the impact of being blown into a car by a shockwave. There were times when he missed it, a sense of nostalgia attached to feeling pain, to feeling human.
“Steve! Sound off, or I’m coming to get you!”
“You better do it, Steve, she’s looking like she might do something you’d approve of,” came Maria Hill’s voice, still a little garbled over the shaky line. “Like, I don’t know, jumping off a moving air craft. Hey! Sit down!”
Steve laughed, a sound that turned into a groan when his ribs protested. “’M here. Just… had a run in with a car. Where’s Sam and Wanda?”
“They’re fine. Wanda’s got a banged up wrist, Sam’s air lifting them out of there,” you told him. “Backup is ten minutes out, they’ll get you out of there before they move in, but we need you to evacuate from the area.”
“Stark’s sending reinforcements,” Maria supplied, “just haul ass out of there, we’ve got a good extraction point three blocks away, but you gotta move now.”
With a succinct “copy”, Steve got up, feeling joints crack as he stretched. It was supposed to be a simple recon mission. Go in, surveil, gather intel. For obvious reasons, he didn’t have his shield, or most of his gear. The nanotech ballistic fabric Stark had approved for testing had done a good job withstanding the blast, but Steve knew his ribs would still ache by the time they got home, and you would insist on sending him to the medbay for a check-up.
Wincing, he jogged through the streets, zigzagging between cars to avoid any possible hostiles that could still be in the area. God, they really needed to start questioning intel more. He’d make it a New Years resolution. Or a mid-year resolution. Bucky would fall to his knees and praise whatever higher power available for that insight, Steve knew it, and he also knew he’d never hear the end of it from his friend when inevitably they found themselves in trouble again after charging into battle because of lacking intel.
“Take a left at the next intersection, and you’re there. Back up will arrive in three minutes,” you updated him, and Steve sprinted the last thirty yards, turning and spotting a dinged up bus stop shelter.
Three minutes stretched out like an eternity. Steve felt like his body was going into a cramp, tensing up every time a distant boom sounded. The streets seemed so much more menacing when deserted, cars abandoned with their doors open, sirens blaring from all directions, smoke rising towards the sky. When the large humvee turned the corner a block away, Steve almost broke into a run, his heart beating wildly in his chest.
“Someone called for a ride?” Clint popped up from the hatch in the roof, shooting him a grin.
“Jesus, you guys are worse than Uber. Can’t even pick me up from my original location,” Steve laughed, pulling Clint into a brief hug when the man jumped down from the roof, while the rest of the team poured out from the doors like clowns out a VW bug
“Gotta stand apart from the competition, Cap. And I can guarantee you that Uber won’t come pick you up from an active battlezone.”
“Barton, if you keep encouraging him, I will end you.”
Clint merely laughed, jogging after the team. Steve climed into the car and was sped out of the city to the sound of screeching tires. His heartbeath calmed, but his muscles still refused to relax. The driver, a rookie agent named Collins, had to have the patience of a saint because she never once commented on the way Steve tapped his fingers against the door panel or jiggled his leg. Well out of the city, they veered towards a wooded area that opened up into a clearing, the quinjet waiting for them. You stood on the opened hatch, arms crossed over your chest. Steve smiled, waving of Collins and walking up to you with a smile on his face.
“I can’t let you go anywhere, mr. Rogers,” you remarked, feigning disappointment.
Steve pulled you into a hug, laying a soft kiss to your lips and melting into your warmth. “No, you can’t, mrs. Rogers.”
pixelskylines
baratheonpilled
blakekathryn
titsay
romaincrisis
snowghoul
