Disoriented » Captain America

chapter thirty

30 x it's not chess so much as battleship at this point

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Smack in the middle of the war zone is where I took Steve and I next. It was apparently a better move than I'd anticipated, given we ended up right where an array of doom bots were . . . but not that great of a move, because the team I'd assigned to said bots hadn't reached this area yet.

Maybe my tagline should be 'oops.'

Luckily for me, my boyfriend is the best thing this side of the sun, so when he realized what'd happened, his shield was off his back and ricocheting between bots, damaging them severely.

The grin on my face when I began to blow up bots one by one was not because I was back in the fight, but because for Steve and I, it was just like old times. Except this time, I wouldn't be disappearing when the damage control was over, and it was because of that that my smile widened.

"Shield!" I heard Steve shout.

My attention switched from what I was doing toward where he was; currently using one of the dismembered bot arms to beat at anything that came too close. It took me a second to see his said patriotic frisbee -- it was stuck in the chest of one of the bots. "Impressive throw," I mused with a slight smile, before shouting, "Arm up!"

We'd done this enough times, he knew what to do. His right arm lifted as though he was calling the shield back, and with a snap of my fingers it teleported onto his arm. "Thanks!" he hollered.

"Any time!"

It was after that quick exchange (and after I'd literally obliterated a dozen bots by shoving a force field out explosively) that a familiar blue form stretched in front of me, twisting several of the Doom bots together before shouting "Now!" a signal which was followed by a blaze of red energy to both the bots heads.

I grinned at Reed before giving Scott a thumbs up. "Nice team work, boys!" I commended them, before I crushed a bot via flattening a force field.

Given Squad Four was finally on the scene, I figured Steve and I needed to get a move on. I made my way to him, destroying bots as I went -- heavens above, there were so many -- before we were back-to-back and he was blocking a shower of bullets with his shield.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" I asked loudly.

"Nothing important!" he replied, shooting me a fast grin over his shoulder. "Why, you have something else in mind?"

"I mean," I paused, clapping my hands together and freezing time completely, allowing me to face him with a smile, "only if you're interested."

He paused then, contemplative, and I watched as he looked around at Squad Four and how they were doing. It was true that the teams were pretty small, given how much ground we had to cover . . . and, well, I knew my captain. I knew the look on his face before I even saw the tiny rise and fall of his chest.

I held up a hand as he looked back at me, reassuring smile on my face. "No need to speak," I assured him. "I understand. But I will need your help at some point."

His brows arched. "And what makes you so sure of that?"

I shrugged one shoulder casually. "Call it a feeling. Mine are seldom wrong."

Steve smiled, that sunshine and sweetness smile that made my heart swell every time. "If anyone'd know that, it'd be me, huh?"

"I'd sure hope so," I smiled. I teleported in front of him for a quick moment, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. "I'm just gonna go check on Magneto. I'll be back . . . soon-ish."

"I'll be kicking butt here," he smiled. "Have fun."

"Don't I always?"

Then I was gone. I hadn't lied about where I was going -- Magneto needed to be dealt with. I trusted the specialized team I'd sent to handle him, but . . . he was a dangerously clever man. Not as clever as me, though, which is why I was going.

Still, I just had this feeling . . . that I couldn't describe. Yet I still chose to shrug it off and threw myself back into the heart of the battle.