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romanoffsbish · 1 year

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I Can’t Lose You

Natasha Romanoff x F!R

Request | Prompts

Warnings: Suspected/Mentions of Cheating

Smut: Daddy (N), Fingering/Oral (R), Thigh Riding (N)

A discontented groan fell from your lips as soon as you passed over the threshold of your house. Every muscle in your body currently ached after that lengthy plane ride home from your work trip to California. The golden state was beautiful, but you couldn't exactly enjoy the views while stuck in a temporary cubicle.

On the last day the company orchestrated a barbecue at the beach, but you couldn't find joy in the scenery without your girlfriend there. Instead you traipsed around in her hoodie, and sporadically picked fruit from the tables. The team played games, but you just mindlessly watched waves cascading against the shore.

——

While watching the sun set behind the horizon that night you saw a vision of Natasha laid out on a blanket in her cherry red bikini. She lazily smirked up at you when she caught you staring, and for the first time since you left her back in New York you genuinely smiled.

Your duffle naturally slipped from your body, you instinctively rolled your shoulders, and cringed at the crackling. When it finally hit the ground it was as if a metaphorical weight was lifted off your shoulders with the physical.

The only things on your mind currently were how you desperately needed a hot shower, and how being in your lovers strong arms could heal the rest of your jilted soul. Proof found as with every step you took you felt your mood lighten, catching whiffs of Natasha's cologne making you hopeful that she was home too.

Hope is often futile though, and that happiness you felt moments ago melded into despair as the closer you got to your room suggestive noises could be heard through the walls. You took a deep breath, heart hopeful that she was having some alone time, but as you pushed the door open you were met with a damning scene.

Natasha, the absolute love of your life, was straddling a mystery man, and her soft pants only gave way to her being guilty in your mind. Your entire world was crumbling fast, your labored breathing alerted your lover to your presence, and she turned to you in horror.

It was clear to her you couldn't see him, which was unfortunate because had you been able to you might've saved yourself a bit of heartbreak. Because just beyond Natasha's back that was turned to you laid an unconscious bearded man with a knife pressed against his jugular.

Natasha hadn't been the most forthcoming when the two of you'd started dating, and you were seemingly oblivious to her status as a former KGB assassin turned superhero. It's not that she never planned to tell you all about her sorted past, because of course she did, it was just for a short time she enjoyed being just Natasha Romanoff, cuddle extraordinaire, the big spoon to your little; your Tasha boo bear.

You completely melted her beyond recognition.

With you around it was as if the crippling weight on her shoulders merely vanished. Neither of you had found that in another before, so this cataclysmic moment would be ultra devastating if it was leading to ruin.

Everything with you was picture perfect, you were a kind, beautiful, down to earth young soul, and she loved the balance you brought to her otherwise chaotic life. Two years in and she'd still yet to tell you her public identity, and in this exact moment she was regretting that.

"Y/N! Wait!" Natasha was desperate, and quite frankly she hadn't the time for a fight right now, not with the Hydra man she's knocked unconscious still out cold in your shared bed. The same one that you unfortunately found her straddling. "It's not what it looks like detka."

"Yeah, I know," you scoffed bitterly while shoving whatever you could into your duffel bag, "It never fucking is with you cheaters."

"I'm not cheating," her tone was one of clear devastation, as if she had a right to that when you had just walked in on her in bed with another. "Please, just give me a chance to explain," she pleaded while following you around the room, she tried to grab you but you quickly shook her off with a violent body jerk.

Then you turned around with an accusing glare that terrified her, "This was never real, was it?" Natasha stumbled slightly at your words, you had every right in this moment to say such a thing but it hurt her nonetheless to see you believe that. "No! It was—it is real!"

You tried to maintain a steely composure, not wanting her to know just how hurt you were, but you could hardly keep it all in the longer you stood before her, you felt exposed, and her heart completely shattered when she heard your harsh, misconstrued conclusion come through a shaky voice. "I was just a warm body for those cold winter nights..."

"No, it wasn't like that, I would never do..." Natasha heard a grunt from your room, she looked back in annoyance before her gaze returned to you as the door abruptly opened, all of her windows were closing in on her here. "Just wait at Lena's, please detka, I'll explain."

You were about to negate her request as you turned to face her, but you could see a clear desperation in her eyes that didn't exactly fit the cheaters narrative. There was obvious guilt, but you could tell it somehow went deeper, so you offered her a nod before promptly leaving.

As soon as you disappeared the reformed assassins genuinely broken expression faded into one of purely terrifying stoicism, she warned her sister of your arrival, then she returned to your room with a devilish smirk. This man was going to wish he was never born for ever trying to come after you, she'd see to it.

—

Once you arrived to the blonde's it didn't shock you much to see her waiting on the stairs of her farmhouse with a bottle of vodka, and a smirk.

"I heard my sister is an idiot," Yelena took a massive swig just before tipping it in your direction. You threw it back and grimaced, body trembling slightly at the bitter taste, "Yeah, she's an even bigger one than you."

"Ha-ha, so funny Y/N Y/L/N," Yelena mocked, her finger joining her as she flipped you off.

"Point me to the guest room or I'll leave and you can face your sisters wrath instead."

Yelena rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, but did exactly as you said as she escorted you there. Then as soon as the door shut your steeled façade crumbled and you fell asleep in tears.

—

Natasha raced to her sister's house within an hour of when you'd left in a rush. She handled the Hydra agent with ease, then ensured you'd never be on their roster again by putting a bullet straight through their leaders forehead.

Nothing had ever meant more to the redhead than you, so to think using you as a bartering chip would result in anything less than their blood shed left the redhead truly confused. They had to know she was just the perfect amount of unhinged to ensure your safety.

So once Natasha got to her sisters land she burst through her doors appearing frantic. "Sestra, chill down." Yelena gestured down the hall with her gun before putting it down. "She's beauty resting, trust me, she really needs it."

Natasha frowned as she realized just how tired you probably are, you'd only just returned from a week long business trip when you stumbled into your house to find her in that horribly compromising position. With a quiet step she made her way to you, stopping by the side of the bed so she could just admire you sleeping in case this would be her final time doing so.

"I love you Y/N," Natasha whispered the words that were tattooed on her fragile heart, and for a blissful moment she pretended like it was all alright as you remained motionless in the bed, but then you were glaring up at her, and she was reminded of the situation.

"Why do people only say that to me when they've wronged me?" You blinked away the grogginess as you moved to sit up and face the woman, putting a heartbreaking bit of distance neither of you were familiar with between your bodies as you shuffled into the headboard, and she remained on the edge.

"Am I not deserving of the guiltless love?" You smiled with a bitter sense of longing, hands flailing about as if that somehow strengthened your sentiments. "Like the ones I see in fairytales, where they get swept away smiling," you frowned now as a tear suddenly cascaded down your cheek, "and not where I curl up to weep in my bed for another damn night."

A beat of tense silence fell over you two as the redhead tried not to cry. Saying I love you (aloud) to you for the first time was meant to be a joyous thing, but she somehow mussed it all up and was left to say it in the hopes that it would be enough to stop you from leaving her. This whole situation was all her fault, so to make it all about her heartache now would only be selfish, and so with all her might she kept her composure as she candidly admitted her truth, "I'm not exactly who I said I was Y/N."

You scoffed humorlessly, "That's for sure."

"No, please, I know you're mad," she began to trip over her words, and for some reason this truly concerned you, because for as long as you'd known her Natasha had always been an eloquent speaker, even in the most stressful of times she got the job done. "Just please, let me explain, it'll make sense if you only listen."

"Okay," you breathed, "Make it make sense."

Natasha nodded and swallowed thickly, then she set her shaking hands under her thighs to lessen their distracting movements, normally you'd hold them, but she couldn't ask you to, not yet at least. With much struggle she lifted her gaze up from her lap to look into your eyes. It momentarily took her breath away, seeing that you were already trying to forgive her, she felt undeserving of your never ending love.

She decided to start slow. "I'm an Avenger."

You chuckled humorlessly, "Yeah, I know that."

Natasha looked to you rather dumbfounded, "You know?" You nodded, "How could I not?"

"Th-then you know about my past?" Your nod was more hesitant this time, telling her you didn't know much beyond her current title, so, in a moment of bravery she divulged to you what she fears would be enough to send you running, "I have many vindictive enemies..."

Your lips pursed, you thought her words over for the briefest of seconds before the lightbulb went off and you chuckled, "Thank God! That guy was so ugly I worried I might be as well."

"Detka what?" Natasha shook her head, she was experiencing emotional whiplash here.

"You're saying that guy in our bed was some sort of rogue agent right?" Natasha nodded frantically, then took the initiative to scoot closer to you when your defensive stance fell.

"I-I need to tell you about my past Y/N, it's unfair to have left you in the dark for this long. If you got home before me, I might've lost you, and I can't imagine who I'd become if I did."

Natasha's anxiety halved as soon as you intertwined your hand with hers, "You would have been the person to avenge my death, and then with the help of family you'd move on."

"No!" Natasha's teary eyes held a sternness that her saddened voice currently couldn't, "I'd never move on, you're my everything detka."

"Natty, death comes for us all, you have to promise me you'll at least try." She shook her head, and sighed, "I barely let you into my heart detka, you were a once in a lifetime find, and when that horrid day comes my heart will die with you—there's no after you my love."

You smiled sadly, tightening your hold on her hand, "I feel the same way Nat, when I thought you were cheating my whole heart shattered."

"I'd never cheat Y/N," she fiercely reassured, "It serves no purpose when all I want is you."

"I know that now Natty, I jumped the gun instead of remaining rational. I should've realized it was an enemy of sorts."

"No," she shook her head, "You were tired, and in the end I should've told you far sooner about who I was; I'm not exactly a picturesque hero."

"Hey, don't say that." You frowned as you saw the guilt swimming behind her eyes, you knew it ran far deeper than today's instance, but you didn't like her feeling forced to come forward with her darkest secrets. Everyone had a past, and you couldn't begin to imagine hers. "You're an inspiration to millions baby, me included."

"The people who came after you today..."

"Hey, you don't have to do that Nat, I already refused to read the articles when they released them." You softly kissed the skin of her palm, "I knew what I signed up for with you, I always did, and I understood you weren't ready to share back then, and I still understand now that your past is yours alone to hold onto."

"But what if?"

You shocked her into silence when you kissed her, "We can't live in what if's, only the now."

Natasha smiled insecurely. "For today, okay." She kissed your cheek, then her face softened. "I still need to keep you safe," she reaffirmed, "I want to move you closer to Yelena or Clint."

For a moment you froze as she spoke her thoughts aloud, you wanted to fight her on this, to tell her you'd been fine thus far, but you also knew this was likely the safest bet. "Okay."

"Really?"

You snorted, "I'd rather be your pretty princess in a castle than your ugly unwanted girlfriend."

"Don't ever think such things again detka," she cradled your face in her hands, eyes shining with unshed tears, "Your beauty's abundant, truly you're the most spectacular person I've ever had the fortune of knowing." Natasha genuinely smiled at you while marveling at your aforementioned beauty, "There's nobody else I'd ever love like this."

You moved to straddle her lap in an instant. "Kiss me, please," your words were beyond breathless, eyes growing darker by the second. Natasha slowly leaned forward, leading you to believe she'd give you what you wanted but she brushed passed your lips to rasp into your ear, "Is that all you want baby, is for me to kiss you?" You shook your head, "N-no, I also want you to fuck me senseless, but a kiss sounded far more romantic."

Natasha chuckled, "You're adorable detka, but more importantly, your wish is my command."

The redhead disposed of both of your clothing in record time, articles of all sorts were now strewn all over the room without much care. Her lips fleetingly pressed to yours before they traveled all over your body, leaving your nerves to almost overcompensate and for your skin to feel as if it was permanently set on fire.

"I need you daddy, please..."

"Shh, daddy's going to take care of you detka," Natasha's fingers slid through your sensitive folds, she pinched your clit and marveled in the way your body convulsed due to the sensation.

"So responsive," she mused as you gasped at the intrusion of her finger, your hips began to buck out of time with her lackadaisical thrusts. "Stay still, or I'll have you warming daddy's cock all night long." Your mind was decently fuzzy, but you still weren't dumb enough to fall for such scams so you stilled.

"That's a good girl." Natasha beamed, her lips kissed yours again as her pace picked up, it was a heady sort of make out as you were no sooner reduced to a panting mess the longer her fingers worked your dripping cunt over.

Normally she’d tease you, keep you teetering on the edge for hours until you just couldn’t handle it anymore, but you were clearly tired, and she was eager to see you come undone, and beyond grateful for your forgiveness so she didn’t tease. With every few thrusts she curled her fingers, dragging her calloused tips down your velvet walls as she slowly pulled out, to then have you cry out as she slammed back in.

“Daddy please,” your back arched and you clung to her biceps with a bruising grip. Natasha leaned down to peck your lips, “It’s gonna be okay detka, you’re being so good.”

Her teeth nibbled at your jaw and you mewled, your pornographic noises spurred her on and she began to kiss down your body in quick succession, a bite left here and there to make your throat sore as your moans kept going.

“Let go for me kotenok,” Natasha rasped against the sensitive skin over your pelvis, a shiver ran down your spine as anticipation seeped into your every bone. “Make a mess of my face,” she commanded, soft lips wrapping around your clit as she sucked rather harshly.

“Oh fuck!” Your body jerked off the bed as the coil in your abdomen suddenly unraveled. Natasha swirled her tongue around your bundle as she unlatched her lips, then she slid down your slit on a mission before replacing her nimble fingers with her hot tongue.

Natasha continued to fuck you into another mind numbing high, her slicked fingers slid into your mouth to soothe you with your essence as she greedily drank it from the source, you were pleasantly addicting.

When your quivering legs came to an abrupt stop, and your mewling died off she pulled away with a harsh inhale and drooping eyes. If you were awake you’d probably cum again just at the sight of her, with her reddened cheeks from the voluntary oxygen deprivation and with your slick dripping from her chin onto the swell of her breasts. Natasha did, she rutted into your thigh a few times desperately while staring at your peaceful face, and in less than a minute she relieved the last of her tension.

The redhead made her way back up your body once she came down, she kissed your lips tenderly, "Everything I do is for you—my beloved." She smiled in pure adoration at your fucked out state as she pulled away from you, your swollen lips prettily parted, with your spent body slumped into the firm mattress.

Your soft snores slowly filled the space, and Natasha relished hearing them, she never thought such a fear could exist, but it did. Your lover couldn't help but to finally let hot tears run down her cheeks as everything sunk in.

You just looked so beautiful, you always did, but this time you were somehow more so.

You were still hers, and her heart couldn’t be more fulfilled knowing that. That you weren’t afraid of her demons, no, you were only here to love her in spite of them, and with you by her side the future for once looked bright for her.

Natasha slid out of the room in a robe she found in the bathroom, she planned to collect snacks for when you inevitably awaken hungry, and as she entered the unfamiliar kitchen her eyes fell to the note on the fridge, and she finally remembered exactly where she was.

"I WENT TO KATE'S—Burn the entire room!"

——

3,296 Words

🩵 Kaitlyn 😏

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff imagine #natasha romanoff smut #natasha romanoff fluff #natasha romanoff angst #natasha romanoff oneshot #natasha romanoff fanfiction #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x you #natasha romanoff x female reader #natasha romanoff x y/n #natasha x reader #natasha x y/n #natasha x fem!reader #natasha x you #gxg

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gerec · 1 year

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Hello! Could you please rec the cherik funniest stories for me? I desperately need a laugh.

Thank you!

And because I don't want to just post angst recs, here's a very long list of my favorite cracky/humorous fics! Enjoy!!!

Protect, Serve, Troll by keire_ke

Erik's fire department has a special relationship with the local university. They visit often. Sometimes, there even is a fire.

Erik Lehnsherr's Guide to Parenting by keire_ke

Alex disapproves of school car washes, despite the abundance of wet bikinis on pretty girls. Erik doesn’t approve of his son shirking money-making duties.

Humane Society by smilebackwards

Once Erik finally allows himself to decide that Charles is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread, he spends the next week being incredibly bitter that he's Charles' cat and not his boyfriend.

Other Life Challenges by professor (series)

“Why am I here again?” Erik groans.

“I need you to lift things and glower at people over my shoulder when I tell people that it’s not ‘politically correct’ or a ‘war on Christmas’ to have a non-denominational winter holiday festival,” says Theresa Pryde.

Well, at least those are two things he’s good at.

Wednesday by Red

Getting confined to a nursing facility for a six-week course of iv antibiotics would have been dreadfully dull, had Charles not found a way to "occupy his time."

In which Erik Lehnsherr, retired nazi hunter, becomes the latest victim of Charles Xavier's charms.

Scenes from the Wild by nekosmuse

Erik Lehnsherr, world renowned wilderness survivalist, alongside his husband, Charles Xavier, survive the perils of the wild in order to bring you, Two Men, One Knife, an award winning reality survival series, available only on the Discovery Channel. Follow Erik and Charles as they travel to the world's most remote locations with only the most basic of supplies. Pitted against nature, this husband-husband team struggle to survive in some of the world's harshest climates while battling the planet's fiercest predators. Can they survive the Canadian North? Find out next season, on Two Men, One Knife

The O(l)dd Couple by winterhill

Futurefic, fixit, fluff. In public, Erik and Charles are immensely powerful and charismatic world leaders. In private, they're a pair of stubborn old men.

Assassination (It's Not For Everyone) by silverdawn89

In which there are guns, mayhem, cold-blooded torture, more guns, explosions, girls (and boys) in leather, even more guns, knives, chess, and just for a change, a fuckload of guns. Or to put it another way: assassin AU!

Timeline by Unforgotten

After Magneto of an X2-ish future succeeds in the unthinkable, Charles sends his consciousness back to 1962 to guide Erik away from the path that will lead to the genocide of the human race forty years hence.

Charles knows that Erik has always loved him, and intends to use this knowledge + sex to seduce Erik away from his ideals in his youth.

There's no way this well-thought-out, sensible, debugged and 100% bulletproof plan can possibly go wrong.

scandal of the century by joshriku

The headline reads:

STEAMY SEX TAPE BETWEEN MAGNETO AND PROFESSOR X LEAKED!

“All right,” Charles says. “I wouldn’t call it steamy, you know, that’s an exaggeration.”

“That is seriously not the point, Professor,” Jean answers.

(A sex tape is leaked. PR crisis ensues).

Bad Guy Saves the Day by ferretbaby

Total crack. How the 'divorce' could have been averted if Azazel and being pregnant worked in your favor. Also Charles is really pissed at Erik's penis.

Salem Center Mass by listerinezero

Erik Lehnsherr is a professional hitman and has no intention of attending his ten year high school reunion. But since he happens to have a kill lined up in the same town at the same time, he decides he may as well stop by. After all, his high school sweetheart, Charles Xavier, might be there. And it's not like he's spent the past ten years pining over Charles. Not at all.

How to Get a Midgardian Boyfriend: a Guide by Charles Odinson by cachinnation

The king of all Asgard had three sons, and of the three Odinsons, one was golden and tempestuous and kingly, and the other two were right headaches. After Charles, Odin stopped bringing children home.

True Story by Unforgotten

In which Charles and Erik meet for the first time at the urinal, and somehow years later end up basically co-parenting Erik's baby daughter.

[A How I Met Your Mother AU featuring Charles as bi!Ted and Erik as gay!Barney.]

Big Gay Mutant Miracle Baby by listerinezero

Erik is under the mistaken impression that Charles is somehow pregnant, and he's so happy that Charles doesn't have the heart to tell him that the bump he's caressing is just a food baby.

surely shifted my way by Traincat

The one where Erik and Charles get engaged, Raven is an x-treme wedding planner and the kids get way too involved. Oh, and there are doves everywhere. Modern slightly!AU, where everyone is together and alive and happy because it's weddingfic and weddingfic is allowed to do that.

Omega Online by miss_aphelion

Newly imprinted Charles is having trouble dealing with his overly protective alpha—so in desperation he seeks advice in an omega chat room. Emma Frost is more than happy to help, Raven isn't helping at all, and Erik can't stand to be out of touch with Charles for more than five minutes at a time.

Kidnappings, Hangovers, and Homecomings by listerinezero

Seven years after Cuba, Erik is miserable. His life is nothing like he expected it would be. He hates the Brotherhood, his subordinates are all idiots, and now, on top of everything else, he's been kidnapped. But when Charles comes to rescue him, Erik starts to think that maybe things might turn out all right for him after all.

We Welcome Our New Sexbot Overlords by professor (series) Robot!Erik falls in love, takes over the world, and keeps Charles in a giant birdcage. And then, it gets complicated.

Grin and Bear It by professor

The one where Erik hates bears, and falls in love with Charles -- who is a werebear. Hijinks and feels ensue.

Oysters and Champagne by listerinezero

Erik is the extremely talented, extremely scary chef at one of the top restaurants in New York, and Charles, the head waiter, is the only person with the balls to stand up to him. Their fights are the stuff of legend, and their argument over the Valentine's Day menu turns into one for the history books.

I thought you already knew by winter_hiems

“Wanda… did our dad… boink Professor X?” Wanda took a sip from her mug of coffee. “Pietro, our dad is still fucking Professor X. I thought you already knew. Literally everyone knows.” - Pietro finds out about his father and Charles Xavier. Apparently everyone else already knew.

drastic measures by goodmorningbeloved (3799steps)

Erik glowers.

“I can’t believe we’re back to this,” Charles says, like he wants to throw his hands in the air. He’s pouting a little bit. “Years of progress, and we’ve returned to you brooding. Don’t tell me I have to break out the terrible flirting again.”

Erik glowers a little less. “Flirting,” he repeats, bland but also maybe just very, very, very slightly, faintly, vaguely hopeful.

“Oh, yes,” Charles says absently, until something seems to strike him. “Don’t tell me you don’t…” He raises his left hand and brandishes the ring. “We promised ourselves to each other last week.”

Alternatively: Erik's memory is swiped clean of his and Charles's relationship.

One Hundred One Night Stands. by Sophia_Bee

Charles has a rule. Never fuck the same guy twice. When he refuses to see Erik again after a one night stand, Erik goes about trying to get Charles to violate that rule using accents and disguises.

My Barbaric Darling by baehj2915

Erik is revivified caveman. Charles is the anthropologist(?) taking care of him. This is as ridiculous as it sounds. Romcom misunderstandings and prehistoric wooing ensues.

Charles Xavier's Baby by Gerec

Charles Xavier is pregnant. With a baby. Due to a previously unknown secondary mutation.

He might be a little freaked out.

Also, there's a fifty percent chance his ex fathered his baby. And a fifty percent chance the new boyfriend knocked him up.

#gerec rambles #cherik #gerec's fic rec #fic rec #humor #crack #long post #this is not letting me add a read more???#whyyyyyyy

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secretswiftymarvelfan · 2 years

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The Demigod From Asgard - Steve Rogers (Part 25)

Summary: With the Strike team hunting you down, you, Steve and Nat work to find out exactly what’s on the hardrive

Word Count: 4k

Warnings: Angst! Fluff! Slow burnn!

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Series Masterlist / Masterlist

Chapter 25: Honeymoon Planning

You and Nat were still hanging about in the hospital waiting for Steve to return. You were both sat in a waiting room when you spot him walk past now dressed in a navy hoodie and sweatpants. His hood was pulled up over his head to help hide his identity.

“There he is” you say nodding out the window.

You and Nat walk out silently following him to the vending machine. The two of you move to stand behind him so he could see you in the reflection of the glass. Nat smirked blowing a large bubble with the gum you’d brought to retrieve the flash drive.

Steve quickly turns round his eyes flashing in anger. He looks at you, glancing up and down before turning to Nat grabbing her and pushing her into the room behind you.

“Steve!” You hiss quietly, surprised at his outburst.

He slams Nat into the wall before turning and glaring over at you “where is it?” He demands.

“Safe” Nat tells him making him look back at her.

“Do better” he hisses.

“Where did you get it?” Nat asks tilting her head.

“Why would I tell you” Steve growls his brows creased in frustration.

“Fury gave it to you, why?” You ask him, making him glance over at you giving Nat some space.

Steve looks back at Nat “what’s on it?” He questions.

“I don’t know” Nat admits.

“Stop lying!” He growls again.

“I’m not lying, I only act like I know everything Rogers” Nat tells him blinking a couple times.

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates didn’t you?” He states.

“We worked it out, makes sense the ship was dirty Fury needed a way in” you tell him making him sigh.

“So do you” Nat adds making Steve’s temper flare again.

“I’m not gonna ask you again” Steve says slamming Nat back against the wall.

“Steve calm down” you tell him putting your hand on his arm.

He looks down at you and you can see him slowly calm down, taking a few deep breaths. Something must have happened back at SHIELD to make him this agitated.

“I know who killed Fury” Nat says making both you and Steve look back at her in surprise.

“Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists, the ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years” Nat tells the both of you.

“So he’s a ghost story” Steve scoffs not believing her.

Nat shakes her head gently “Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the winter soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me” Nat says lifting her top to reveal a nasty scar near her navel.

“Soviet slug, no rifling, bye bye bikinis” She finishes putting her top back down.

“Yeah I bet you look terrible in them now” you smirk earning a small smile from the redhead.

“Going after him is a dead end. I know I’ve tried. Like you said he’s a ghost story” Nat says nodding over to you.

You pull the flash drive from your pocket holding it up to Steve. He sighs taking it from you and putting it in his pocket.

“Well let’s find out what the ghost wants” he says taking a step back away from Nat.

“SHIELD has been compromised I don’t know how or by who, but Strike are already on my tail, they attacked and tried to arrest me as I left SHIELD” Steve tells the both of you.

“There’s an apple store in the mall down the block, we can boot the drive up there see what’s on it, get you some different clothes too because you’re still too recognisable” Nat tells him nodding down to his outfit.

“Right let’s go” Steve agrees as the three of you head out of the hospital and down the street to the mall.

Your first stop was a clothing store to pick up a change of clothes. You and Nat could suffice with just different hoodies but Steve needed a whole new set of clothes.

“Here I’ve already paid now go change” Nat says walking over with a large pile of clothing.

When Steve walked out of then changing room you could see he didn’t look completely comfortable in the outfit Nat picked out.

“Nat these shoes are a size too big” he complains with a huff, his shoulder dropping as he pouts.

“Can you walk in them?” She asks raising a brow.

“Yeah” he says shrugging his shoulders.

“Then they’re fine now put these on” she says passing him a pair of fake glasses and a cap.

“Right let’s find out what’s on this drive” you say heading out of the shop.

“I’ve already trained Y/N in this but first rule of going on the run is don’t run, walk” Nat tells steve.

“If I run in these shoes they’re gonna fall off” he mutters.

You chuckle rolling your eyes at him, he glances down at you smiling despite the current situation. It was nice to see him smiling again.

Making your way into the apple store Nat find a computer and hold out her hand for the flash drive. Steve pulls it from his pocket and passes it to her.

“The drive has a level 6 homing program so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are” Nat warns you.

“How much time will we have?” You ask.

“About nine minutes from now” she says putting in the flash drive and immediately getting to work.

“Fury was right about that ship” Nat says as you and Steve keep watch.

“Someone’s trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands” Nat sighs as she continued to work away.

“Can you override it?” Steve asks.

“The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me, slightly” she sighs.

“I’m gonna try running a tracer, this is a program SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, if we can’t read the file maybe we can find out where it came from” Nat says before you all get interrupted by one of the store assistants.

“Can I help you guys with anything?” He guy asks.

You and Steve step round Nat to block to view of the computer screen. Nat grabs your shoulders resting her head on your shoulder smiling up at the assistant.

“Oh no I’m just helping my sister and her fiancé with honeymoon destinations” Nat smiles sweetly.

You feel heat rising to your cheeks and your heart flutter at Nat’s insinuation. Glancing up at Steve he looked equally flustered, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously sending a small glare Nat’s way.

“Right we’re getting married” Steve says wrapping his arm around your shoulder and pulling you towards him, his other arm resting across your waist.

“Congratulations where are you guys thinking of going?” The guy asks.

Steve glances over your shoulder at the screen reading the name that just popped up “uh New Jersey”

“Huh nice” the guy smiles before tilting his head looking at Steve with his brows furrowed.

For a moment you thought the guy recognised him but breath out a sigh of relief when he says “I have the exact same pair of glasses”

You have to stop yourself from laughing when Nat pipes up behind you “wow you two are practically twins” she deadpans.

“Yeah I wish, specimen” the guy chuckles gestures down at Steve.

“If you guys need anything I’ve been Aaron” he says before backing away.

When you turn back to Nat, Steve removes his arm from around your waist but the arm around your shoulder just drops so his hand rested on the small of your back.

Glancing down at his watch Steve notices the time, or lack thereof.

“You said nine minutes come on” he presses.

“Relax, I’ve got it” Nat says as a location pops up on the screen.

Steve leans forward looking down at it in surprise “you know it?” You ask him.

“I used to come on” he says grabbing the flash drive.

As you make your way out of the store Nat turns to the two of you “we’re too obvious as a three, split up and meet in down the block, Y/N stick with Steve and don’t forget what I taught you” she says before flipping her hood up and heading away.

As you and Steve walk through the mall you spot all the Strike agents milling around.

“Standard tact team, two behind, two across and two coming straight at us. If they make us, I’ll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro” Steve whispers.

“Shush and put your arm around me, laugh at something I said” you tell him making him look down at you confused.

“What?” He asks.

“Just do it, please” you tell him.

He wraps his arm around you, you grab the hand hanging over your shoulder turning into him more to hide your face. Steve drops his head towards you and starts laughing. You place your other hand on his chest smiling along with him. The Strike team walking straight past you.

Steve glances over his shoulder to check they didn’t notice before looking down at you.

“How did you know that?” He asks, arm still around your shoulders.

“Nat’s been giving me lessons in espionage, most people don’t recognise me out of my Asgardian armour making me perfect for it” you explain.

The two of you make your way towards the escalator and start making your way down. As you do so you notice Rumlow coming up the other side.

You quickly turn around to face Steve “kiss me” you tell him trying to ignore to funny feeling in your stomach.

“What?” Steve asks the tips of his ears going red.

“Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable” you explain fumbling over your words slightly realising you didn’t actually explain it properly.

“They do” Steve agrees nodding his head slightly.

Knowing you had seconds before Rumlow saw you, you grabbed Steve’s cheek and pulled his lips down to yours. You use your hand to block his face, feeling his hand move to your hip squeezing it slightly. You had to try and focus and not lose yourself in the kiss, which honestly was mind numbingly good.

When you pull away your eyes quickly find Steve, the weird fluttering feeling returning to your gut. You quickly turn around and start walking down the rest of the escalator.

“Still uncomfortable?” You ask trying to make light of the situation.

You hear Steve clear his throat behind you “not the exact words I’d use” he says.

Eventually you make your way out of the mall meeting Nat a block down the street.

“Okay we need to find a car” Nat says glancing around.

“I can handle that, but I need to get my shield first” Steve tells her.

“Where is it?” You ask.

“I hid it at your apartment” he explains.

“Well, that was stupid, they might have checked there already” Nat sighs shaking her head at him.

“Well in my defence I thought you’d be at your apartment not waiting in the hospital to ambush me” he states glancing down at you.

“Fine but we better be quick” nat sighs.

After grabbing Steve’s shield from your apartment, which thankfully hadn’t been raided by SHIELD yet, you found a car. Steve easily broke into it and jumpstarted the car telling you and Nat to get in.

Soon enough the three of you were on the road heading towards New Jersey.

“So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” Nat asks from the back seat, her feet resting up on the seat beside her.

“Nazi Germany, and we’re borrowing take your feet off the seats” Steve tells her glancing at her through the rear view mirror.

“How did you find getting out of the mall?” She then asks you.

“Good, had to use a couple techniques you taught me” you tell her twisting in your seat so you could face her.

“Oh, really which ones?” She asks with a lopsided grin.

“The put your arm around and laugh, and the um er PDA one” you say coughing slightly at the end.

“Oh really, how was your first kiss since 1945” Nat smirks looking over at Steve.

“It wasn’t my first kiss since 1945, I’m 95 not dead” Steve sighs shaking his head.

You furrow your brows slightly since Steve hadn’t told you that he had been dating. Looking away you turn to look out of your window feeling a tight sensation in your chest.

“Who’ve you been kissing?” Nat asks shocked.

“No one, I saved this lady on a mission and she just grabbed me and kissed me” he sighs glancing over at you.

“Nobody special then?” Nat asks.

Steve doesn’t answer immediately and you turn to look over at him, catching him glance at you before fixing his eyes back on the road.

“There aren’t many people out there with shared life experience” he sighs.

“I’m sure you’ll be surprised, if not you could always make something up” Nat tells him.

“What like you?” He scoffs.

“The truth is a matter of circumstance, it’s not all things to all people, all the time. Neither am I” Nat sighs leaning back in her seat.

“That’s a tough way to live” you say looking over at her.

“It’s a good way not to die though” Nat says quietly.

“You know it’s kinda hard to trust someone when they don’t know who that someone really is” Steve says looking at Nat through the rear view mirror.

“What do you want me to be?” She asks.

“A friend?” You suggest looking over at her.

She lets out a small huff of a laugh “I don’t know what it was like on Asgard or in the 40s but if you want that there’s a chance you’re in the wrong business. Being emotionally compromised is a dangerous game” she tells the two of you.

Steve sighs nodding his head slightly “you two rest up, it was a long night last night and we’ve still got a couple hours until we get there” Steve says.

“Okay, let us know if you wanna swap over” you tell him.

“I won’t lie to you doll, your driving terrifies me” Steve chuckles when you slap him on the arm.

“Give me a break, I’m used to vehicles that fly” you laugh.

“Okay, okay, just get some rest” Steve says smiling over at you.

A couple hours later Steve pulled up to an old, abandoned army base.

“This is it” Steve sighed as you all got out of the car.

“The file came from these coordinates” Nat says sliding her phone back into her pocket.

As you walked over you spotted the sign to the base, walking over to read it properly. When you did so you looked over at Steve who was also looking at the sign.

“So did I” he sighed.

Steve moves towards the gate smashing the lock with his shield so he could push the gates open. The three of you start looking around as the sun began to set.

“This is the camp where I was trained” Steve tells you as you walk side by side through the camp.

“Has it changed much?” You ask him looking around.

“A little” he sighs looking up at the flagpole that stood before him.

When you look back up at him you see an expression you knew too well. He was getting lost in his memories, his eyes flickering over something that wasn’t there. You reach out taking his hand in your, squeezing it reassuringly.

“This is a dead end, zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio” Nat says scanning with her phone.

“Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off” she sighs putting her phone away.

You sigh in annoyance as you and Steve turn round to face Nat. Glancing up at Steve, you see him frowning at a building in the distance.

“What is it?” You ask as he starts walking over to it.

“Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place” Steve explains as you all walked over.

He quickly smashes the lock pulling open the door with a noisy creak. The three of you head down the stairs, Nat moving to turn the lights on. As the flicker on you see the room full of desks and the SHIELD logo on the far wall.

“This is SHIELD” she says walking over.

“Maybe where it started” Steve says as you all walk further into the building. You step inside what looked to be an old archives room, the walls lined with bookcases. On one of the walls hung three photos, all of which you recognised from Steve’s stories and your trip to the Smithsonian.

“There’s Stark’s father” Nat says nodding to the picture in the middle.

“Howard” Steve says with a small sigh.

“Who’s the girl?” Nat asks but Steve doesn’t answer, instead he walks away towards the bookcases.

“That’s Peggy” you tell her quietly.

“Oh, have you met her?” Nat asks.

“A couple times, she’s amazing, powerful woman in a male dominated world” you say looking at Peggy’s picture.

“Sounds like you and your brothers” Nat says making you chuckle slightly.

“Don’t let Thor hear you say that” you smirk.

The both of you turn to see Steve taking particular interest in one of the bookcases.

“If you’re already working in a secret office” he says starting to pull at the bookcase, pushing them aside to reveal a corridor.

“Why do you need to hide the elevator?” Steve asks once the doors were fully revealed.

Nat steps forward moving to scan the keypad with her phone to decipher the passcode. Once the doors open the three of you step inside letting it take you down further into the bunker.

As you step into the room the lights slowly turn on revealing a bunch of dust covered computers along with hundreds of different databanks.

“This can’t be the data point, this technology is ancient” Nat says looking around.

You look over the large desk spotting the one piece of modern technology present. You nudge Nat pointing it out to her, she moves closer plugging in the flash drive. Everything begins to boot up, more lights turning on around you revealing even more databanks.

The screen turns on, text popping up asking to initiate system. Nat steps towards the keyboard to type in the command.

“Y.E.S spells yes” she says before smirking “shall we play a game?”

When neither you nor Steve respond she looks over her shoulder at you.

“It’s from a movie that was really-“ she says before Steve interrupts.

“Yeah we know we’ve seen it” he tells her grimacing slightly as he remembered it, he wasn’t a fan.

A grainy face appears on the screen, the camera above moving to face Steve.

“Rogers, Steven. Born 1918” the computer says in what sounded like a German accent.

The camera then turns to you “Y/N, Daughter of Odin. Born 1962”

The camera finally turns to Nat “Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984” it says.

“This must be some sort of recording” Nat mutters.

“I am not a recording Fraeulein, I may not be the man I was when the captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am” the computer says pulling up an image of a man on the other screen.

“You know this thing?” You ask looking over at Steve confused.

Steve walks around the computer as he spoke “Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the red skull, he’s been dead for years” Steve explains.

“First correction I am swiss, second correction, look around I have never been more alive” Zola corrects “in 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis, science could not save my body. My mind however was worth saving on 200,000 feet of databanks”

“You are standing in my brain” he finishes as Steve walks back round.

“Gross” you mutter under your breath.

“How did you get here?” Steve asks.

“Invited” Zola answers simply.

“It was operation paperclip, after world was 2, SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value” Nat explains.

“They thought I could help their cause, I also helped my own” Zola says.

“Hydra died with the red skull” Steve states.

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place” Zola tells him.

“Prove it” Steve demands.

“Accessing archive” Zola says as a video began to play on screen.

“Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realise was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much, humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new Hydra grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For 70 years Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed” Zola tell you all.

“That’s impossible SHIELD would have stopped you” Nat says.

“Accident will happen” Zola says bringing up news clippings of Tony’s parents, as well as Fury’s picture.

“Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity if finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, Hydra’s new world will arise. We won Captain your death amounts to the same as your life, a zero sum” Zola says.

Steve feels his blood begin to boil. All the work he did, all the lives sacrificed to stop Hydra had been for nothing, Bucky’s death had been for nothing.

You see Steve grow visibly and understandably angry as he punches the large screen cracking it easily.

“As I was saying” Zola says moving to a smaller screen.

“What’s on this drive” Steve demands.

“Project insight requires insight, so a wrote an algorithm” Zola answers.

“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Nat asks.

“The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it” Zola says.

You all turn to the sound of large metal doors closing, cutting you off from your only exit. Steve tried to stop them with his shield but couldn’t throw it in time, it bouncing off the walls back to him.

“Guys we’ve got a bogey, short range ballistic… 30 seconds tops” Nat says as her phone bleeps.

“Who fired it?” You ask concerned.

“SHIELD” Nat answers.

“I am afraid I have been stalling Captain, admit it, it’s better this way” Zola says.

Nat quickly grabs the flash drive as you and Steve look around trying to find an escape route or cover. Steve runs over to a grate in the floor pulling it off and shouting for you and Nat to jump in.

As he jumps in behind you he holds up his shield as the missile hits. Looking up you could see his shield wasn’t big enough to protect all three of you. Not knowing if it would work since you’d never tried it before you hold your hands up above your head. You will the air to thicken around the three of you, effectively creating a force field.

You groan as the weight of the blast and debris pushes down. You could feel yourself getting lightheaded, exhaustion trying to take over. Your body was already tired from lack of sleep, this was pushing you closer and closer to the edge.

Eventually you hear the rumbling stop, in one last bid to keep everyone safe you push outwards making sure any debris that fell wouldn’t fall on you. When you stopped your vision was blurred and your whole body felt heavy. You could hear Steve shouting your name as your knees gave out. As you collapsed to the floor your head hit a large slab of concrete knocking you out before you even hit the floor.

LIKE FOLLOW AND REBLOG!

Series Masterlist / Masterlist

I don’t have a tag list so follow @secretswiftymarvelfanlibrary and turn on post notifications for updates!

#NiamhWrites #the demigod from asgard series #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #captainamerica #captain america x reader #captain america x y/n #captain america x you #marvel #mcu #chris evans

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oonajaeadira · 1 year

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For the Love of Fic: December 5

I’m lazily making my way through my read list. Some weeks I’m slower than others, and this one was no exception. But I loved a fair few this week!!

MAX PHILLIPS

Effective by @prolix-yuy The sexytime sequel to Reflective, this follows straight on the heels of that horror romance right into the bedroom. He’s a vampire, she’s got a mirror, and it’s hot AF.

Negotiations by @toomanystoriessolittletime Would the man you love give you everything if only he knew how much grief ladies endure with their period? One would hope so. If someone as bratty and selfish as Max can make the deal, then sit up, dudes, and take notice.

DIN DJARIN

Competing for Christmas (1: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, 2: Oh, Christmas Tree, and 3: Jingle Bell Rock) by @something-tofightfor So I’m not a Hallmark girl, but if you put a Pedro boy in and I get to be a main character, okay I’m sold. And I’m looking forward to the hijinks right off the bat. I’ve never been part of a team competition like this before--winter-themed events in a city-wide tournament--but I want it. I love that it gets cute with the tree lighting ceremony and escalates with the competition. The third chapter is a favorite with delicious tension coming from every corner, giving my heart a happy workout and leaving me in a gooey pile. Looking forward to more chapters!

Bes’laar by @the-blind-assassin-12 I would love to be the one who Din showed his scars to. To be the one to make him happy when they weren’t frowned upon, but accepted as dear parts of him. Although the thought that his scars “aren’t pretty” doesn’t apply to Din (although he doesn’t know it). Din. Have you seen yourself? Especially the @stealyourblorbos fanart this fic was inspired by? BANGARANG.

(w/Black Krrsantan) Adrenaline by @honestly-shite This is as naughty as it gets, friends. This is a three way with beskar and fur and--boy howdy--dicks ahoy. It’s growling and praise and Din gets his mouth involved and I kind of just forgot about time with this one.

FRANKIE MORALES

Recurrence by @insomniamamma There’s something so lovely about the quiet parts of love. Like someone taking care of you even if they’re only half awake, knowing you so well that they can literally comfort you in their sleep. Short. Sweet. I want this.

EZRA

Closer by @grogusmum Something of a prequel drabble for her selkie!Ezra series, Seven Tears, this is a short and sweet sigh of a ficlet about forbidden contact, a warm day when it’s good to be a seal on a warm rock...or a girl slipping down to the waters for a swim. I love this selkie man so much.

JAVI GUTIERREZ

More to Love by @mishasminion360 We’ve all had that thing we’ve bought in the store that we love but get it home and have either lost the confidence to wear it or second guess how we look in it. It’s a little more devastating when it’s a bikini and you’re not a supermodel. AND you just happen to be dating a rich, handsome, cinnamon bun and can’t understand what he sees in you...until he tells you.

#for the love of fic #bloodsucking bastards fanfic #max phillips #mandalorian fanfic #din djarin #triple frontier fanfic #frankie morales #prospect fanfic #ezra #tuwomt fanfic #javi gutierrez

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oktested · 5 months

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Amazon lancia il servizio di cloud gaming Luna

Amazon ha lanciato anche in Italia (dopo Stati Uniti, Regno Unito, Germania e Canada) il servizio di cloud gaming Luna che consente di giocare come se si stesse guardando un film in streaming, senza bisogno di hardware di fascia alta o lunghi download. Basta collegarsi a luna.amazon.it. Luna offre una vasta selezione di giochi: che si desideri salire sul Battle Bus e giocare a Fortnite con gli amici o divertirsi con giochi casual, classici retrò o i titoli AAA, è sempre possibile trovare qualcosa di interessante con cui giocare. Si può accedere a Luna su qualsiasi dispositivo supportato: lettori multimediali per lo streaming Fire TV, smart TV, tablet Fire, PC, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, dispositivi mobili Android e su alcune selezionate smart TV di Samsung e LG. L’offerta per i clienti Amazon Prime I clienti Amazon Prime possono giocare a Fortnite, Trackmania e a una selezione di giochi a rotazione senza costi aggiuntivi. Inoltre, è possibile collegare i propri account Ubisoft per divertirsi con selezionati giochi Ubisoft per PC di cui si è già in possesso, oppure acquistarne di nuovi. I piani di abbonamenti Ci sono diverse opzioni di abbonamento: Luna+: è la libreria più ampia e diversificata e include giochi di tutti i generi: azione, avventura, classici e tanti altri, con grandi titoli come Team Sonic Racing, Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom e Batman: Arkham Knight. Inoltre, gli abbonati a Luna+ hanno accesso agli stessi vantaggi dei clienti Amazon Prime, tra cui Fortnite, e l’opportunità di accedere ai giochi Ubisoft per PC. Luna+ è disponibile a 9,99 euro al mese. È possibile provare Luna+ gratuitamente con una prova di 7 giorni. Ubisoft+: consente l’accesso agli ultimi titoli Ubisoft appena rilasciati, tra cui l’ultimo Assassin’s Creed Mirage e l’imminente Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Inoltre, gli abbonati hanno accesso a un ampio catalogo di giochi delle più amate serie Ubisoft, come Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six e Far Cry. L’abbonamento a Ubisoft+ è disponibile a 17,99 euro al mese. Jackbox Games: disponibile solo su Luna, l’abbonamento mensile Jackbox Games da 4,99 euro include party game popolari come Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party e Drawful. Il controller Luna Il controller Luna è stato progettato e ottimizzato per Luna e si collega direttamente ai server cloud di Luna tramite Wi-Fi, per ridurre la latenza di gioco. Grazie alla tecnologia Cloud Direct, è possibile passare senza problemi da uno schermo all’altro, per esempio da Fire Tv a uno smartphone, senza bisogno di ulteriori pairing o configurazioni. Il controller Luna è disponibile in Italia su Amazon.it al prezzo promozionale di lancio di 39,99 euro, invece di 69,99 euro, fino al 27 novembre. Giochi su Fire Tv Oltre a Luna, Amazon ha annunciato il perfezionamento della UI di Fire TV per i clienti in Italia, Francia e Spagna con una nuova sezione dedicata a tutti i giochi. La sezione Giochi riunisce i migliori giochi e contenuti per Fire TV, tutti in un unico luogo. Per iniziare a giocare basta selezionare la sezione Giochi nella tab Trova di Fire Tv. L'articolo Amazon lancia il servizio di cloud gaming Luna sembra essere il primo su Cellulare Magazine. Read the full article

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domandeve22 · 2 years

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Our Games

Last updated: 12/28/23

Bold - E's Favorites Italicized - D's Favorites

PS5

Baldur's Gate 3

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Demon’s Souls

Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition

Elden Ring

Final Fantasy XVI

Ghost of Tsushima

God of War Ragnarök

Hitman 3

Hogwarts Legacy

Horizon Forbidden West

Lost Judgment

Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Persona 3 Reload

Red Dead Redemption 2

Spiderman: Miles Morales

Tekken 8

THE FINALS

The Last of Us 2

PS4

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Gold Edition

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Gold Edition

Batman Arkham Knight

Call of Duty Black Ops 4

Dark Souls Remastered

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades GOTY Edition

Dragon Age Inquisition GOTY Edition

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters Edition

Fallout 4 GOTY Edition

Far Cry 4 Complete Edition

Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition (Unacquired)

God of War

Grand Theft Auto V

Hitman Steelbook Edition

Judgment

Just Cause 4 Gold Edition

Marvel Spider-Man GOTY Edition

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY Edition

Monster Hunter: World

NieR:Automata

MultiVersus

Nioh Complete Edition

Nioh 2 Special Edition

Persona 5

Persona 5 Royal

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Tekken 7 Deluxe Edition

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

PS Plus

A Plague Tale: Innocence

ABZU

Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders

Alan Wake Remastered

Amnesia Collection

ARK: Survival Evolved

Battlefield V

BioShock: The Collection

Brawlhalla

Bugsnax

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered

Call of Duty WWII

Control

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

CRSED

Curse of the Dead Gods

Darwin Project

Dauntless

Days Gone

Deep Rock Galactic

Destiny 2

Destruction AllStars

Dirt 5

Dirt Rally 2.0

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Far Cry 4

Farming Simulator 19

FIFA 22

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Final Fantasy XIV Online

First Class Trouble

Fortnite

Genshin Impact

Ghostrunner

Goat Simulator

Godfall

Granblue Fantasy

GreedFall

Hell Let Loose

Hitman 2

Hollow Knight Voidheart Edition

Hood: Outlaws & Legends

Horizon Zero Dawn

Hot Wheels Unleashed

Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition

Injustice 2

Journey

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Knockout City

LEGO 2K Drive

LEGO DC Super-Villains

LEGO Harry Potter Collection

Little Nightmares

Maquette

Meet Your Maker

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

Mortal Kombat X

Mortal Shell

Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker

NBA 2K20

NBA 2K23

Need for Speed Heat

Need for Speed Payback

Neverwinter

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

Oddworld: Soulstorm

Operation: Tango

Outlast

Outlast 2

Overcooked

Overcooked! All You Can Eat

Paladins

Path of Exile

Persona 5 Strikers

PGA Tour 2K21

Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville

Predator: Hunting Grounds

PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS

Ratchet & Clank

Remnant: From the Ashes

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rocket League

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter

Skyforge

Slay the Spire

SMITE

Sonic Forces

Spellbreak

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated

Super Bomberman R Online

Star Wars Battlefront II

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Star Wars: Squadrons

Stranded Deep

Street Fighter V

Subnautica

Team Sonic Racing

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan

The Last of Us Remastered

The Sims 4

The Witness

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure

Titanfall 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2

Trek to Yomi

Tribes of Midgard

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Vampyr

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown

Warface

Warframe

Worms Rumble

Wreckfest

WWE 2K Battlegrounds

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Zombie Army 4: Dead War

PS Vita

Adventures of Mana

Assassin’s Creed III Liberation

Atelier Meruru Plus

Axiom Verge

Bastion

Borderlands 2

Child of Light

Corpse Party BLOOD DRIVE

CounterSpy

Danganronpa

Danganronpa 2

Danganronpa V3

Darkest Dungeon

Digimonstory Cybersleuth Hacker’s Memory

Don’t Starve: Giant Edition

Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space

Escape Plan

Fantasy Hero

Fat Princess: Piece of Cake

FEZ

God of War Collection

Gravity Rush

Guacamelee!

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X

Helldivers

Hotline Miami 2

Killzone Mercenary

Limbo

LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Vita

Lumines: Electronic Symphony

Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition

Muramasa Rebirth

NFS Most Wanted

OlliOlli2

Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight

Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Persona 4 Golden

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

Ragnarok Odyssey ACE

Rayman Legends + Origins

Resident Evil: Revelations 2

Salt and Sanctuary

Secret of Mana

Severed

Shinobido 2

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Silent Hill: Book of Memories

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sonic Transformed

Soul Sacrifice Delta

Super Stardust Delta

Tales of Hearts R

Tearaway

Terraria

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

The Longest Five Minutes

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

Undertale

Velocity 2X

WipEout 2048

YS VIII

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

Apex Legends

Century: Age of Ashes

Counter-Strike 2

Cuphead

Danganronpa S

Disney Speedstorm

The Elder Scrolls Online

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Honkai: Star Rail

KartRider: Drift

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

Legends of Runeterra

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Omega Strikers

Overwatch 2

Palia

Portal

Portal 2

Project: Eden's Garden

Splitgate

Stardew Valley

Stray

The Stanley Parable

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Tower of Fantasy

Valorant

Mobile

Asphalt 9: Legends

BanG Dream! Girls Band Party

Clue: The Classic Mystery Game

Cooking Mama: Let's Cook!

Diner DASH Adventures

Exploding Kittens - Official

Guardian Tales

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

MONOPOLY - Classic Board Game

Pokémon Café ReMix

Pokémon Unite

Tetris

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michaelallanleonard · 7 years

Photo

Ah, 1996 ... right about the exact moment when the comic industry, riding high on record-breaking sales figures and a diversity of publishers and material that hadn't been seen in decades, went completely batshit and drove the bus right off a cliff by simply assuming that fans would buy just about anything, as long as it was marketed properly (which, in the 90s, was either sex appeal, or the collectability / gimmick factor).

If you wonder why hundreds of thousands of readers threw in the towel in the last couple years of the century, I give you Exhibit A from our Canadian friends at Catfish Comics.

Here, we're tapping into not just one, but two red-hot sensationalistic trends of the time -- 'Bad Girl' comics of wildly varying quality, and the swimsuit pin-up issues virtually *every* publisher was flooding the racks with.

This was when we started scraping the bottom of the barrel: the wannabe Rob Liefelds and Jim Lees got too lazy to even lightbox Penthouse spreads and add in guns, knives, and blood, and just started to hire amateur models in swimsuits or cosplay gear for photo covers, not even bothering to enlist actual professional grade photographers. Assassins? More like the Spring Break special discount at Sears Portrait Studio with a rather unusual choice of props.

Not to mention probably the most uninspired logo in the history of comics, straight off a drop down menu from a '1001 Desktop Publishing Fonts' CD-ROM, because why bother actually making a legitimate attempt at some sort of grindhouse-film-on-paper art? Duuude ... there's REAL-LIFE cute girls in bikinis. Even back in the era of America On-line and 56K modems, you could still find better quality eroticism on the internet for free, that didn't come wrapped around a mediocre comic for two-and-half bucks.

Now imagine longboxes of this lowest common denominator being dumped on the racks every week, alongside a tidal wave glut of pre-fab instant collectible product with every glow-in-the-dark holofoil cover polybagged with a polybagged mini-comic inside that had an exclusive limited-edition trading card polybagged inside of THAT, and you can see why actual readers got fed up and leapt off the cliff like lemmings, and creators threw up their hands and wondered why they even bothered to put effort into actual storytelling. With half the publications sealed in browse-proof plastic and the other half of them looking like amateur porn mags, just walking into a LCS in that era started to make you wonder if you weren't in the wrong kind of bookstore.

If you're gonna do sleaze and expect to get paid for it, at least do it *well* and with some verve, and not something exclusively aimed at thirteen-year-old boys who couldn't buy a copy of Playboy, but could blow their allowance on an armload of this.

#bikini assassin team #catfish comics #comics #1990s comics #wtf #comic covers

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genofae · 3 years

Note

Not sure how you do prompts, but I saw your request in the Spy x Family tag. So something with the Forger family and the beach?

The Forgers at the beach

Took me more that I spected, but here it is.

T.W: Non, everything is sfw. But I'm not 100% sure about my grammar.

Summary: The Forger Family goes to the beach, that simple.

Wor count: 434

It's summer and the Forger Family knows it, especially Anya; she's the most excited about more adventures. And like many other vacations and family trips, for them is go big or go home.

Neither Anya nor Loid wanted to go to a public beach; they were crowded and dangerous. Kinda problematic for her powers, but they don't need to know that.

Loid paid for a Hotel package that included all; his money management team hates him for that.

Anya convinced Loid to bring Bond with them, the dog has never seen the ocean before.

Before actually going, Loid became a certified dad with all the shopping he did for the family. I'm talking about suncream for everybody, including Bond, hats, sunglasses, sandals, floaties, beach umbrellas, portable chairs, about five beach mats, water bottles. You name it; he has it all.

Of course, Anya picked up some toys, for sure she will build the best sandcastle in existence.

Yor choose the bathing suits, for the pinkette, she bought a yellow one-piece and a simple black high-waisted bikini for her.

Loid's outfit is the most Dad-looking clothing possible. Khaki knee-length shorts, a tropical-looking shirt, a sun hat, and the ugliest sandals you could find. The perfect facade for the best spy.

Unfortunately for Bond, he can't just go with Anya and play. His paws are way too delicate to handle the heat of the sand, he tried, but eventually, the sensation made him uncomfortable. Plus his visions warned him about a possible heatstroke, Bond's fur is quite thick, perfect for the winter, the beach not so much.

Yor is the one playing with Anya, teaching her how to swim and building the sandcastle. Loid brought several books with him, he'll join them later, but meanwhile, he'll stay with Bond and avoid the sun.

Once again, Loid being THE father by cooking an entire buffet of healthy snacks for them. Yes, there were restaurants at the Hotel, but they weren't going to walk wet and covered with sand only to eat some reheated chicken nuggets and fries.

When the afternoon approached, they pack their stuff. That day felt like an eternity, having fun and making memories as a family, a real one.

Anya ate something quick, a cheese hamburger with fries because her parents didn’t trust her with a fish dish, but she wasn’t mad about it. Actually, she was too tired to think of anything besides going to bed.

At the same time, Yor and Loid enjoyed their time by having a nice dinner. No mission nor assassination bothers them; they acted like wonderful (fake) marriage.

Hope you enjoy the headcanons and thanks for the prompt.

Validation as comments, like or reblogs are always welcome

#spy x family #spy x family headcanon #anya forger #loid forger #yor briar #yor forger #Twilight spy x family #thorn princess #i hope you like it #not my first language #but here ya go #spy x family manga

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wiypt-writes · 3 years

Text

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve find Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane and, as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left running for their lives and are forced to seek help…

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Language! Violence, and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

A/N: Not one but TWO edits from @angrybirdcr in this one!!

Chapter 14

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion involving a Quinjet and some nasty looking road blocks, they made it out relatively unscathed all things considered and headed to the boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change. Katie told him to leave his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. At her suggestion, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible, he also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so.

They reached the hospital with no further issues. Katie was feeling the effects of the fight in the elevator and the leap of faith they’d taken out of it and was stiff and bruised but she did her best to keep pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” She looked at Katie’s face, her eyes taking in the bruising around her left cheekbone and the split in her lip.

“Rumlow.” Katie snapped back, unwilling to discuss any further. Her patience with this whole situation was running thin and she was sick of not knowing who she could trust. She had resigned from SHIELD for this precise reason, and here she was, getting dragged once more back into their shit.

“Where is it?” Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he reached up and threw down his hood.

“Safe.”

“Do better.” Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

“Where did you get it?” Natasha asked.

“Why would I tell you?” Steve countered.

“Fury gave it to you,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”

“What’s on it?” Steve ask, ignoring her question.

“I don’t know,” Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. “Stop lying,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I only act like I know everything, Rogers.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn’t you?” Katie said, looking at her.

“Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in…”

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around away from Natasha, groaning.

“I’m not gonna ask you again,” Steve threatened.

“I know who killed Fury.” Natasha spoke as Katie turned to face her again. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

“So he’s a ghost story.” Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

“Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me.”

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

“Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis.”

“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.” Steve half joked.

“Going after him is a dead end. I know, I’ve tried.” Nat stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

“Let’s find out what the ghost wants.”

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat hummed as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette on their way out to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha’s commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team, in which Katie and Natasha’s stealth skills really had been put to the test, although Steve hadn’t objected to one part in particular where he’d had to kiss his girl on the escalator, they had bolted for Natasha’s car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks.” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something.” Nat responded.

Despite himself, Steve couldn’t help but quip back playfully. “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat replied, her voice full of a smirk. “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat beside him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus, Nat!”

“What were your exact words?” Natasha continued, a teasing expression on her face. “Oh yeah, if that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-“ “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie hastily cut her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend went, he supposed that there were far worse things she could be saying.

“So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” Natasha asked a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve looked over his shoulder at her. “And we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat.“

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don’t answer it though, you’re kind of answering it, you know?”

“What?” Steve asked exasperatedly.

“So before in the Apple store… you guys were like engaged…” She began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned and, upon hearing her, Steve felt something in his stomach tighten.

"That bad an idea huh?” He asked stealing a glance over at her.

“I didn’t say that.” Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” Katie shot him a look.

“You gonna grace my other question with a response?”

“Which was?”

“Whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” He stole another glance at her but before she could reply he felt Nat shift a little.

“You asked her?” She aised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, of SHIELD, of everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up.”

“What, like you?” Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it’s not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.”

"That’s a hard way to live,” Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

“It’s a good way not to die, though.” Natasha mused unconcerned.

“You know, it’s kind of hard to trust someone when you don’t know who that someone really is.” Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn’t want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn’t, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

“Yeah.” Natasha replied, looking through the window. “Who do you want me to be?”

“How about a friend?” Steve jumped in.

“Well, there’s a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.” Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every inch of her being. And she wanted him to know, in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.”

Steve’s head whipped round, his mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak.

“Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal.

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

She nodded, returning her gaze to the front, and he did the same as her fingers tangled into his right hand where it was resting on the pillar between their seats, gently pulling it into her lap so she could trace shapes on his palm.

And, surprisingly, there was no sarcastic comment from the back seats.

*****

“It’s some kind of recording,” Natasha frowned as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp and after a long search, just as they were ready to give up, Steve had spotted that the munitions building was in the wrong place. Further investigations had led them into a huge, underground bunker and, after an hour or so more of searching, they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal.

Natasha had plugged in the USB device into the port, which had activated the system and now, well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

“I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945.”

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

“Who is that?” Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

“Do you know this thing?” Natasha questioned sceptically.

“Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He’s been dead for years,” Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

“First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.” Zola explained.

“How did you get here?” Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

“I was invited.”

“Operation Paperclip.” Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value.” Katie replied, her eyes still on the screen.

“They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.” Zola continued.

“HYDRA died with the Red Skull,” Steve snapped.

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.” Zola said confidently

“Prove it.” Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

“Accessing archive.”

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original SHIELD founders.

“HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

Various photos flashed up as he spoke of events through the course of modern history. Besides him Katie gulped when they reached the assassination of JFK, and the photo zoomed in on a grainy image of the masked man with the metal arm in the distance, aiming his rifle, The Winter Soldier.

“That’s impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you,” Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

“Accidents will happen.” The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed. By HYDRA.

When she spoke again, her voice was as desperate as she was. Desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem.” The screen drawled back

“You killed them?” Katie’s chest was heaving, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

“HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security.” Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feltl the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. “Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA’s new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum.”

Steve’s anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie’s had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

“As I was saying…”

"What’s on this drive?” Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

“Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.”

“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Katie demanded.

“The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it.”

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

“Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops.” Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

“Who fired it?” asked Steve, as he starting to look for an alternative escape route.

“SHIELD.” She looked at him, then to Katie.

“Admit it Captain, it’s better this way. We’re both of us, out of time.” Warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. Catching on to what she was saying, he easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

“Get in!” Steve yelled. Natasha hopped down into the space, then Katie followed, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit a split second later. Instantly, heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above rained down into the space they were hiding in. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly as she spoke.

“Nat?”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as, following a third huge heave, light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty shove, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I am, but Nat’s passed out.” Katie blinked up at him, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down on the floor and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong. I think she just fainted, she doesn’t do well in tight spaces, like me.” Katie coughed harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer.

“Quinjets.” Her eyes grew wide.

“Let’s go.” Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble as they headed back to the truck.

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good five minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop.

In the front of the truck, Steve’s head was also reeling. All this time, HYDRA had grown within SHIELD, he’d gone into the ice for what? He wiped his hand over his face and glanced in the rear view mirror. Katie was looking down at Natasha, gently carding her hands through her friend’s hair, but he could see her eyes were wet. He felt another flash of anger. How could Fury have not noticed? How could Peggy have not noticed? So many goddamned questions.

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie looked down at her. “We’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So, where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie shook her head. “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie licked her lips. “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do. Any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “And it’s a crazy one, but one that no one will ever suspect as no on in SHIELD knows the guy exists. Not yet anyway.” Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she finished. “Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve shook his head.

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” Katie snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Once they had tracked down Sam’s address, which was fairly easy to figure out when you had access to JARVIS via a StarkPhone, Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told him all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve, being the gentleman that he was, let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

“You okay?"

"Yeah,” She replied quickly, too quickly.

Steve set down the towel he was drying his hands with and entered the room then sat on the chair across from the girls. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at Natasha carefully. “What’s going on?”

“When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra,” Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. “I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

“There’s a chance you might be in the wrong business.” Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

“I owe you.” Natasha sighed quietly, “Both of you.”

“It’s okay,” Steve smiled.

“If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?” She asked quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

“I would now,” said Steve. “And I’m always honest.”

“Without question.” Katie added as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

“Well,” She said as she looked back at Steve. “You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing.”

“Well, guess I just like to know who I’m fighting,” Steve sighed in response, although she had hit a nerve.

“I made breakfast,” Sam’s voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. “If you guys, eat that sort of thing.” He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late eighties. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Doll.” He started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say was eating her up.

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” Katie sighed gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then.” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie swallowed, shaking her head “I don’t know what’s worse, Steve.”

She looked utterly lost and broken and Steve felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the three had shared in the truck and he knew just how to do it.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” He looked down at his girl as she gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears.

“No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up. “wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But Steve loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips. “You’re a nightmare.”

“Yeah but you love me.” She grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do.” His lips met hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on.” Steve took her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.

“You all look a hell of a lot better.” Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

“Well, it’s been an eventful twenty-four hours.” He responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked at Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

Katie sat down next to Steve at the table and looked at him, then to Natasha before they launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened as Sam listened intently asking questions and serving coffee out to them as they continued explaining over the next thirty minutes or so.

“So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?” Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam’s countertops.

“Alexander Pierce,” Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee. It was amazing how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place following food and caffeine.

“Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world,” Natasha walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

“He’s not working alone, Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star.” Steve continued.

“And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too.” Katie added, as the three of them shared a glance. There was another piece of the puzzle.

“So, the real question is,” Steve looked at Katie then to Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t.” Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

“What’s this?” Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

“Call it a resume.”

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

“Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission-that was you?” Natasha asked and Sam nodded. She then turned to Steve. “You didn’t say he was a para rescue.”

“Riley?” Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

“Yeah.” Sam answered gently.

“I heard they couldn’t bring in the choppers because of the RPGs,” Natasha recalled. “What did you use, a stealth chute?”

“No. These.”

Sam handed Steve another file and he opened it, his eyes growing wide as they looked down at Sam soaring through the air using what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

“I thought you said you’re a pilot?”

“I never said a pilot.” Sam countered with a little chuckle and a smirk.

“I can’t ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason.” Steve shook his head.

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There’s no better reason to get back in.” Sam almost scoffed.

“Where can we get our hands on one of these things?” Katie asked, looking up.

“The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall.” Sam supplied, his tone a little dejected.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” He almost smiled, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” Katie looked to the man who nodded. “Then yeah, I can track him down.” She affirmed, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All four of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if two of them did get caught, the other two still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they now had courtesy of some expert searching via Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” She spoke and Steve nodded.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss.”

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed. Your forty’s programming has been well and truly broken.” Steve rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so what does it matter?” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned.

“You wanna marry her…” She said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now.” Steve tried to shrug it off and Nat snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers! Soon as you can get a ring on it we all know you’re gonna.”

“Who’s we?”

“Everyone.” Natasha added sagely. “You two are like ultimate couple goals. It’s cute.”

Steve took a deep breath, staring ahead as he drove before he took a deep breath. “You know I kinda already asked her.” He looked back at Natasha who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly, but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted, and-” “Great proposal.” Nat cut him off with a snigger. “What did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle.” Nat mused. “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile. “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and, upon arriving at the base, they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched three guards, Natasha another two before they reached the room they were looking at. Natasha easily hacked the security codes thanks to something on her phone, Steve didn’t ask what, and they met no one on their way out.

Frankly, it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking but he wasn’t going to complain. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

***** Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for Katie and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

“So you know this guy we’re looking for?” Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

“Vaguely.” She sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. “But I can work with what I have.”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?”

“Simple, I’m going to check his work calendar.” Katie nodded at the laptop

“And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” She grinned

“Good morning again Miss Stark.” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour. Again. And it’s urgent.” “Of course.” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and access someone’s calendar without them noticing.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask,is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark? Maybe call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” Katie shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

Once she had explained what she needed, JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow him to access the information without being detected.

It didn’t take long. Fifteen or so minutes later Sitwell’s calendar flashed up and Katie gave a little yell of triumph.

“JARVIS, you are a genius, buddy!”

“Why thank you, Miss Stark. But I only have about sixty seconds before I will need to close down the connection.”

“Understood. Right let’s see where you’re at, you fucker.” Katie mused, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” He read, pointing at the screen.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked up at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half.”

“Cutting it fine.” Katie mused. “Ok, thanks J, you can disconnect.” “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it.” Nat’s voice instantly spoke as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm.”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat snorted sarcastically.

“And that’s going to be our only window before he’s back at the Triskellion at two-thirty.”

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA?” Sam asked.

“About twenty five minutes.”

“Okay, so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone.” Katie tapped at Sam’s laptop. “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District, so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat.”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There.” Sam tapped at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down. We can take him up high…”

“And kick him off the edge.” Katie nodded.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Okay so we got the where, now we need the how.” Steve sighed. “We can’t just pick him up at lunch. If the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

”But how do you get him to get in the car?”

“Simple. We give him a choice.” Katie eyed her gun where it lay on the table. “Do it or die.”

***** It turns out fear of death is a very, very good motivator.

Their plan went off perfectly. Natasha spoofed a phone number which Sam used to call Sitwell once he emerged from the restaurant after lunch. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, asking Sam why on Earth he would what he was being instructed to do.

And then Katie had aimed her gun sight at him from her hiding place, the red laser sight clear in the middle of Sitwell’s chest.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I’d hate to mess it up.” Sam smirked.

Sitwell, resigned to his face, followed Sam instructions and as he left the little plaza upon which the restaurant was situated, Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the bar Sam was sat at and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back.

“One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” She informed him, her voice low. Sitwell instantly tensed. "Miss Stark.” He grumbled out, seemingly more annoyed than scared. “Of course you’re involved with this.”

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of the security team with him had realized what had happened. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

“You made me a wanted fugitive.” She shrugged. “Didn’t have much choice.” She stopped walking. “Now, get in the car.” She ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car.” She repeated. Sitwell stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?” Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They drove two blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant.” Sitwell sighed, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was an arrogant little bastard, Steve had to give him that. The soldier easily manhandled the Agent onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where Sitwell had almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

“You’re right. It’s not.” Steve released Sitwell, smoothing out his suit, letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

“It’s theirs.” Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to Sitwell’s chest, sending him tumbling over the edge.

“So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?” Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah.” Steve smiled, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, as Sitwell’s screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola’s algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight’s targets!” He rushed out.

“What targets?” Steve demands.

“You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who’s a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future,” Sitwell continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

“The future? How could it know?” Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

“How could it not? The twenty-first century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it,” He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, “Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola’s algorithm evaluates peoples’ past to predict their future.”

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

“And what then?” He asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me.” He mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

“What then?” Steve demanded louder.

Sitwell sighed as he looked at Steve. “Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.”

**** Chapter 16

**Original Posting**

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #Katie Stark #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers fic #steve rogers fanfiction #mcu #mcu fanfic #captain america #chris evans #chris evans characters

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #133: Scathach (Assassin)

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re once again make Cu Chulainn’s teacher and professional old ha- I mean badass, Scathach! This time she’s an assassin, turning heads at the beach before turning them just a little bit more to snap their neck.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: If love’s a crime, she’s guilty! (She’s also guilty of arson, but she swears it’s unrelated.)

Race and Background

Like the other summer servants, we’re not changing your race and background that much. You’re still a Half Elf, giving you +1 to Dexterity and Intelligence, as well as +2 to Charisma. You also get Darkvision, Fey Ancestry that makes you harder to charm and impossible to put to sleep, and Skill Versatility in two skills- We’ll get more of your beachy stuff later, so for now grab Athletics and Religion.

Like last time you’re still a Sage, giving you proficiency with Arcana and History.

Ability Scores

Scathach’s one of those people who’s good at everything, so we’ve got to turn to point buy for this one. Set your Charisma to 14 to set off a beach panic when you show up. Your Dexterity and Intelligence are both 13- Surviving fights in a bikini requires the former, but you’re also good at carving runes too. Your Wisdom and Strength are 12: Strength is necessary for a spear, but you’ve got daggers to tide you over for a bit. That being said you’re still pretty smart, even though it’s summer vacation. Finally, your Constitution is 10. We just need everything, and something had to fall in last place.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: First level fighters get a fighting style, and Thrown Weapon Fighting makes using thrown (or kicked) weapons less painful for you, but more painful for everyone else. You also get a Second Wind once per short rest for a bit of healing.

Finally, you’re proficient in Strength and Constitution Saves, as well as Acrobatics and Intimidation. Your star pupil still has physical and mental scars from your teaching style.

2. Wizard 1: The fighter levels makes your weapons better, but you still need an AC that isn’t bad, and that’s what we’re here for. First level wizards get first level Spells that they can cast and prepare with their Intelligence, as well as an Arcane Recovery, letting you recharge spell slots on a short rest with a total level equal to half your wizard level rounded up.

For cantrips, you get Sword Burst to summon multiple Gae Bolgs, and True Strike to be slightly better with just one. You get more spells than this, but your important ones are Mage Armor, to make your AC less bad, and Charm Person for more beach panic.

3. Wizard 2: Your second level of wizard makes you a Bladesinger once more, giving you performance proficiency, as well as a Bladesong. A number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, you can start a bladesong that lasts a minute. While active, you can add your intelligence modifier to your AC and Concentration saves, get 10′ extra walking speed, and have advantage on dexterity checks. That means your AC, with bladesong and mage armor, is now 16. Not bad for a bikini.

4. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells. Enhance Ability will help make up for how MAD this build is, and Magic Weapon will make your Gae Bolg a little more special.

5. Fighter 2: Back in fighter now, this level gives you an Action Surge, letting you take a second action in a single turn once per short rest. Multitasking is useful.

6. Fighter 3: Third level fighters get a martial archetype, and the Rune Knight will give you plenty of rune magic that won’t bother with spell slots. You become a Rune Carver, letting you learn two runes at this level and apply them to weapons, armor, or other objects at the end of a long rest. These runes grant benefits to whoever wields them, and they last until your next long rest.

Right now you get the Stone rune, enhancing your darkvision and giving you advantage on insight checks. Also, once per short rest you can invoke the rune, forcing a wisdom save on a creature nearby. If they fail, they’re charmed for up to a minute, becoming incapacitated and having 0 movement. It’s not quite stunned, but you have effectively removed someone from the game until they succeed on their save.

You also get the Cloud rune, giving you advantage on Sleight of Hand and Deception checks, to make this assassin build more... assassiny. You can also invoke this rune once per short rest to redirect an attack within 30′ of you.

Finally, you gain Giant Might, spending a bonus action to transform yourself for a minute a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. You become Large, have advantage on strength checks and saves, and deal an extra 1d6 damage once per turn.

7. Fighter 4: When you finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, spend it on some more Strength for better stabbing.

8. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action, giving you plenty of opportunity to test out that new strength. They say experience is the best teach. Well, second best.

9. Rogue 1: Yes, yes, it’s another 3-class build. As a rogue you get Persuasion proficiency, as well as Thieves’ Cant, a language. You also get a Sneak Attack, extra damage you can add to an attack with a ranged or finesse weapon once per turn. Thrown weapons are ranged, but if your DM doesn’t subscribe to the Red Hare School of Archery you can always just use a dagger. Remember, you don’t have to use dexterity for the attack, just make it with a ranged or finesse weapon.

Finally, you get Expertise in Acrobatics and Persuasion, making you a true gem of the beach, and also making scorpion kicking spears into people slightly less of an unrealistic fighting style.

10. Rogue 2: Second level rogues get a Cunning Action, letting you dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action. Between this and your action surge, you can get a lot done in a turn.

11. Rogue 3: At third level, you become a Swashbuckler. Your Fancy Footwork makes it so creatures you attack can’t make opportunity attacks against you for the rest of the turn. Also, your Rakish Audacity adds your charisma to your initiative, and you can make sneak attacks against creatures if no other creatures are within 5′ of you or it, and you are in melee range.

12. Rogue 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence for a stronger bladesong and spells.

13. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues can use their reaction to make an Uncanny Dodge when attacked, halving the damage you take. If you’re the only one in a campaign wearing a bikini, you’ll probably need that.

14. Rogue 6: Use your second round of Expertise to enhance your Arcana and History. Even in the middle of summer you’re not a slacker.

15. Rogue 7: Once again Evasion rears its head, meaning your failed dex saves now deal as much damage as someone else’s successes, and your successes do no damage at all. Again- bikinis won’t stop a fireball, it’s better to just not get hit at all.

16. Rogue 8: Use this ASI for more Strength again, giving you a more powerful Gae Bolg.

17. Rogue 9: Your final level of rogue gives you Panache, an action to make a persuasion check against a creature’s insight. If you succeed, one of two things happen: hostile creatures have disadvantage on attacks against people other than you, lasting up to a minute, until another ally jumps into the fray against them, or you two are separated. Nonhostiles become charmed for a minute or until your team does anything harmful to it. Nothing quite like sowing a bit of beach chaos!

18. Fighter 6: Finishing things off in fighter gives you another ASI, which we’re putting into Constitution for some more HP and and stronger runes.

19. Fighter 7: Your penultimate level grants you a Runic Shield, using your reaction to force a re-roll on an attack. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. You also learn how to carve a Storm Rune, giving you advantage on Arcana checks, and you can’t be surprised. As a bonus action, you can invoke the rune to enter a propehetic state. While in that state you can use your reaction to grant advantage or disadvantage on attack rolls, saves, or checks. Like all the others, you can do this once per short rest.

20. Fighter 8: Your final level gives you another ASI, and another boost to your Constitution. Again, not the flashiest way to end a build, but it’s always useful.

Pros:

Your runes give you a leg up on your skill checks, and even more in character, you can give those runes to others, effectively becoming their teacher.

Your swashbuckler skills and Cloud rune combine to make you effective at shutting down enemies, letting you affect the flow of battle as you see fit.

Sneak attacks are good, especially when you have multiple attacks to fish for them with. You can deal a pretty good amount of damage each turn if you want to.

Cons:

Without your bladesinging or magic, your AC is pretty bad. Turns out bikinis aren’t always the most practical outfit for adventuring.

The most in-character weapon you’ve got is a spear, and that only just barely works within the rules. If you’re willing to swallow your pride and just use daggers this won’t be an issue, but if you were okay not playing Scathach in your DND game you wouldn’t have read all this crap, would you?

This build is SUPER MAD. If you really wanted this build to get off the ground at all, it’d be best to save it for an incredibly unlikely set of die rolled stats.

#fate grand order #fgo #D&D 5e #Scathach #Fate and Phantasms #Rogue #Fighter #Wizard

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romansrace · 3 years

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If I Judged: Drag Race UK Season 2

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, aside from some livewatch comments, I haven’t been extensively covering Drag Race UK on this blog, but I have been watching every week and, in advance of this week’s grand finale, I’m dropping my judgement on who I would have chosen to win, leave, return, sashay, and shantay every week of the competition.

My only constraints going in: assuming that Ginny quits the first time she falls into the B2, and that Veronica still gets covid and is forced to leave post-break in week 5.

Ok, let’s get into it, beneath the cut:

The first week is a Looks Challenge, where the queens have to show off two runway looks. Originally, the judges chose Asttina Mandella to win this challenge, however, my pick for the best this week was Lawrence Chaney. Tayce and Ellie Diamond will place High. The weakest looks for me on aggregate were Veronica Green’s poorly thought-out ‘English Rose’ look that was just a red dress, and Sister Sister’s plain blue dress Dusty Springfield look; for that reason, those two are our first B2. Veronica handily dispatches Sister in our first lipsync.

The second week is the Rusical. Veronica is a shoe-in to win this after her vampy performance, while Bimini and Tia place High for me despite their respective runway disasters. Originally, Lawrence, Cherry, and Sister Sister worked unconvincingly together, but without Siste to compare against, I don’t think Cherry would have such a poor role. Instead I place in this week’s B2 Lawrence, who was always going to struggle in a dance challenge, and Asttina, for fading into the background in the performance AND for essentially only showing one runway look in the two-in-one looks challenge. As originally, Lawrence proves to be a surprisingly strong lipsyncer and Asttina a surprisingly weak one, and Asttina is eliminated.

The third week is the first Fashion Design Challenge, in which the queens worked in pairs. With this cast remaining, I see the pairs being: Veronica/Tia, Ellie/Lawrence, A’Whora/Tayce, Ginny/Joe, and Bimini/Cherry. The victors of each pair are respectively: Veronica, Joe, Bimini, Lawrence, and A’Whora, with the latter for me taking the challenge win. Of the losing queens, Tayce and Ellie place Safe immediately. Cherry Valentine places Low, with Ginny and Tia facing off in the B2. Ginny has no interest in lipsyncing and quits one episode before she originally did.

Week 4 is the Morning Show Improv Challenge, with the Monster Mashup runway. The combination of a strong challenge performance and exemplary runway sends Lawrence Chaney the win here - while I thought A’Whora had the strongest challenge performance, her runway was for me too ‘pretty’ to justify the overall win. Tia Kofi also places High for me this week. For me, an unmemorable challenge performance and repetitive runway sees Ellie Diamond landing in her first B2 this week. She’s joined by Cherry Valentine, who I see joining Veronica for the goth skit, doing similarly to her, and then having a slightly less strong runway. As we now know, Ellie-D is something of a lipsync assassin, and dispatches Cherry while Veronica places Low this week.

Week 5 is the first week back after the break, RuRuVision, the girl group challenge. It’s also the week we lose Veronica and gain a returning queen. I think the girls would vote to bring back Asttina, the only queen to pick up votes other than Joe when this happened in the show proper. (Joe has of course not yet been eliminated for the first time, don’t forget!) I see Asttina joining the group that was originally Bananadrama, with the United Kingdolls forming as originally. All four Kingdolls win as originally, and the losing team consists of Tia, Joe, Asttina and Ellie Diamond. As I personally didn’t like Ellie’s seagull-bikini mostrosity, she B2s for me here. Joe Black joins her for having the worst challenge performance and is dispatched by a fiercely fighting Ellie. Tia’s runway drags her down to Low, while Asttina is pronounced Safe.

Week 6 brings Snatch Game, and the first of a few Bimini solo wins coming up. Tayce and A’Whora for me place High. Asttina had planned to do Azealia Banks, which I posit would leave her Safe or Low above Lawrence and Tia’s atrocious performances. As originally, Lawrence knocks out Tia here.

Week 7 is a second Design Challenge. A’Whora, as originally, has this in the bag after bringing us her iconic blue laundry bag gown, truly the material of choice for winners in this challenge. Judging by previous design challenge results in the season proper, I see Asttina joining Tayce in the B2 and losing to her. Ellie places High while Lawrence and Bimini both place Safe.

Week 8 brings the ill-fated Stand-Up Comedy Challenge, which the queens need to carry out in front of a room of creepy mannequins. Bimini quite handily wins this, with the best set by far. I give the High placement to Ellie Diamond, who took a risk that was definitely memorable. I place A’Whora and Tayce in the B2 for fairly equal performance, drama between two friends, and actual delivery from talented queens. As there is one available, I see Ru using the double shantay on this performance.

Finally, week 9 is the Beastenders acting challenge that we have just seen in the show irl. I can see these top 5 queens all performing exemplarly well in this challenge. However... Bimini does just that little bit better, and comes to win the challenge, her 4th now. For storyline, drama, and somewhat fair play reasons, Lawrence and Ellie are the B2 here, for both of them their third time. Based on performance, seniority, and resources, it’s another shantay for Lawrence, while Ellie finally takes her leave after gaining a respectable 3 Highs in the competition proper.

Then going into the final 4 performance, we have....the United Kingdolls, once again. This time Bimini has 4 wins, A’Whora 3, Lawrence 3, Tayce and Veronica - 1 apiece.

And here’s that beloved track record for all you (other) stats nerds...

I suspect that at this stage, Bimini has the crown in the bag, especially if the finale episode turns out to be performance-based, but it totally depends on which way they decide to run the final. In any case, I’m excited to see what happens! Tune in this week, folks!

#drag race uk season 2 #druk #drag race uk #rpdruk #if i judged #drag race what if #bimini bon boulash #veronica green #tayce #a'whora #vinegar strokes #if i judged series #drag race uk series 2 #what if

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purpletyrant · 4 years

Photo

reimagined costumes for kokoro and masara!

i really wanted to draw the masara concept that @paeoniamutan did, because theyve done an exceptional job of streamlining some magireco costumes. and i had a few ideas for how to make kokoro better too, so why not draw them together?

thoughts on the changes below

i dont know if these two were designed with each other in mind, but i feel their designs complement each other nicely. white vs black, yellow vs blue, they fit snugly together and look quite good as a pair. for this redesign i decided to push it further and make them really look like a duo without being too matchy-matchy.

the changes for masara should be obvious enough, but some of it was as simple as “i dont want to draw all these fiddly details,” because the busyness of her ornate design doesnt quite mesh with the design rules pmmm set forward. by following paeoniamutans concept, i gave her pants instead of a skirt and tried to give her a sleek, roguish appearance. as a girl who can turn invisible, fights viciously without any thought of defending herself, and has a badass shortsword, i feel like she benefits from having her silhouette simplified. it suits her magia, “invisible assassin” more than the fussy sheer details of the original. with the chaotic way she fights that so concerns kokoro, i cant help but feel her sheer clothing works against her. i cant help thinking, like, wont a titty pop out doing that shit? so i think this design is cool, slick, and simple without compromising too much on the fancier elements that make her look sophisticated and cool.

i dont have as much beef with kokoros design, but ive had to look at it a lot as i am currently closing in on unlocking her doppel, so i work with her on my team a looooot. generally i think that GANs designs are dogshit, their art is creepy, and i may redesign suzune in the future as i recently unlocked her doppel too.

the goal for kokoro was, like masara, simplifying the silhouette. by eliminating the weird pseudo-skirt that served no purpose, her costume is slick and simple, matching the plain white pants masara wears. getting rid of the skirt and taking away the bizarre bikini pattern were really all i had to do. the rest of the changes were made on a whim and were pretty cosmetic and superficial. kokoro had a pretty tight design to begin with and only needed some minor work to be more cohesive, make more sense, and match her girlfriend.

i hope you like them! i will probably do suzune in the future.

#magia record #madoka magica #kokoro awane #masara kagami #mad artz

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brookstonalmanac · 3 years

Text

Events 3.1

509 BC – Publius Valerius Publicola celebrates the first triumph of the Roman Republic after his victory over the deposed king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus at the Battle of Silva Arsia. 293 – Emperor Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesars. This is considered the beginning of the Tetrarchy, known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi ("Four Rulers of the World"). 350 – Vetranio proclaims himself Caesar after being encouraged to do so by Constantina, sister of Constantius II. 834 – Emperor Louis the Pious is restored as sole ruler of the Frankish Empire. 1476 – Forces of the Catholic Monarchs engage the combined Portuguese-Castilian armies of Afonso V and Prince John at the Battle of Toro. 1562 – Sixty-three Huguenots are massacred in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion. 1628 – Writs issued in February by Charles I of England mandate that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date. 1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu. 1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials. 1781 – The Articles of Confederation goes into effect in the United States. 1790 – The first United States census is authorized. 1796 – The Dutch East India Company is nationalized by the Batavian Republic. 1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate. 1811 – Leaders of the Mamluk dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali. 1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba. 1836 – A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico. 1845 – United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas. 1867 – Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state. 1870 – Marshal F. S. López dies during the Battle of Cerro Corá thus marking the end of the Paraguayan War. 1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park. 1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri. 1896 – Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War. 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay. 1901 – The Australian Army is formed. 1910 – The deadliest avalanche in United States history buries a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people. 1914 – China joins the Universal Postal Union. 1917 – The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text. 1919 – March 1st Movement begins in Korea under Japanese rule. 1921 – The Australian cricket team captained by Warwick Armstrong becomes the first team to complete a whitewash of The Ashes, something that would not be repeated for 86 years. 1921 – Following mass protests in Petrograd demanding greater freedom in the RSFSR, the Kronstadt rebellion begins, with sailors and citizens taking up arms against the Bolsheviks. 1939 – An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94. 1941 – World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers. 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces land on Java, the main island of the Dutch East Indies, at Merak and Banten Bay (Banten), Eretan Wetan (Indramayu) and Kragan (Rembang). 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalised. 1947 – The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations. 1950 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data. 1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later. 1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States. 1954 – Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives. 1956 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization. 1956 – Formation of the East German Nationale Volksarmee. 1958 – Samuel Alphonsus Stritch is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first U.S. member of the Roman Curia. 1961 – Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections. 1964 – Villarrica Volcano begins a strombolian eruption causing lahars that destroy half of the town of Coñaripe. 1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface. 1966 – The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria. 1971 – President of Pakistan Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan. 1973 – Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages. 1974 – Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. 1981 – Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze. 1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 1991 – Uprisings against Saddam Hussein begin in Iraq, leading to the death of more than 25,000 people mostly civilian. 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 1998 – Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide. 2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan. 2002 – The Envisat environmental satellite successfully launches aboard an Ariane 5 rocket to reach an orbit of 800 km (500 mi) above the Earth, which was the then-largest payload at 10.5 m long and with a diameter of 4.57 m.[10] 2003 – Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security. 2003 – The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague. 2005 – In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional. 2006 – English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station. 2006 – A shocking child rape and murder of 2-year-old Nurasyura Binte Mohamed Fauzi, better known as Nonoi, first made headlines for her initially-presumed disappearance, which would later on be exposed as a case of rape and murder. Her stepfather Mohammed Ali bin Johari was found to be responsible for the little girl’s death, and he was sentenced to death a year later. 2007 – Tornadoes break out across the southern United States, killing at least 20 people, including eight at Enterprise High School. 2008 – The Armenian police clash with peaceful opposition rally protesting against allegedly fraudulent presidential elections, as a result ten people are killed. 2014 – Thirty-five people are killed and 143 injured in a mass stabbing at Kunming Railway Station in China.

#Events

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strongsassysexysloane · 4 years

Text

You and Me - Cont. Recovery

So I don’t do case specific stuff or medical, but I wanted to write a certain situation so I bit the bullet or in this case bomb.

. . .

Its been two months since you first kissed and emotions were admitted and its been great. You spend most weekends at each others place with a few nights during the week spent together when there's no intruding case. This case has been just out of reach for over a week now. Someone had been going around DC assassinating people by way of small explosions and the toll was currently at three people.

"Found something. Abandoned warehouse down town. Shell company but its the same as the others." McGee explains while everyone grabs their gear.

Everything happens so quickly. You and Ellie enter via the back door of the warehouse and you see the wire spring and you throw yourself over Ellie before the bomb goes off. You can hear voices, its all jumbled but you hear a siren in the distance and just let the blankness take you.

"Please wake up, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Sweetheart just please wake up." You can hear Jack's plea but it feels like a thousand miles away. You want to respond but the blackness pulls you back under.

"She's going to be fine Jack." Gibbs voice doesn't come out as confident as he hoped.

"Don't lie to me Gibbs." Her voice cracks.

"She's going to wake up Jack." He reaches over and squeezes her shoulder. Jack sobs and squeezes your hand.

"She has to. How did you not get bomb squad to go in first?! He's killing people with bombs for crying out loud." Shes defeintely sobbing now. Holding your hand and resting her head against your waist. "Baby please wake up."

"If you need anything Jack, just call. When she wakes up, please call." She doesnt say anything just nods. Gibbs leaves reluctantly but he needs to find the bastrd that put one of his agents comatosed in the hospital. He stops in to see Ellie signing herself out. "You need to stay here."

"Hell I do. How is she?" Ellie has a few scrapes on her cheek and forehead, her left arm is in a sling but she's been cleared by the doctors to leave and take it easy.

"Still out. Jack will call if there's any change."

The day falls to night and you havent shown any signs of waking. It's been 8 hours since the explosion, 4 since you came out of surgery to remove shrapnel from your shoulder and thigh. Jack tries to speak but nothing comes out, she just looks at you with tears falling down her cheeks. Both of her hands wrap around yours and you move a finger. Jack chokes out, afraid she was mistaken.

"Jack.." You choke out and slowly open your eyes to see a red eyes, flushed cheeks and Jack crying. "Hey.." You hate seeing Jack cry.

"It's ok. Don't worry baby. Just relax, I'll get a doctor." She goes to leave but you hold onto her hand and nod slightly towards to call button. She half laughs and presses the call button. You reluctantly let go of her hand once the doctor comes to check on you, your eyes don't leave hers as she calls the team to tell them youre awake.

Its another two days before you're released from hospital and are on strict orders to take a week off work. To your suprise Jack gets a few extra days off because as Vance put it shes getting no work done edge wise so she might as well be at home with you and work from home if needed. You can't complain. Jack has been by your side since you got home from hospital 3 hours ago.

"Come here please." You wriggle back into the couch and you watch Jack walk towards you from the kitchen. She holding a cup of tea.

"What do you need?" She sits on the edge of the couch and you tug are her shirt. She places the cup ong the coffee table.

"You." She smiles and lies down on her side facing you. You wrap your arm around her waist and tug her closer so your noses are only millimetres apart.

"How are you feeling?" Your eyes drop to her lips and you don't answer her question. Just capture her lips in a passionate, moan causing kiss.

"Sorry I put you through that." You rest your forehead against hers.

"You dont need to apologise. Someone should've call the bomb squad." You smirk at her anger. That would've been the smart thing to do but they responded quickyl, wanting to catch the guy but instead you got thrown hard, hitting your head and shrapnel as a reward.

"Probably but it didn't happen and I'm sorry-" You brush your nose against Jacks which makes her mouth curve up into a cute smile.

"Stop it."

"No. Becuase if the roles were reversed I dont know how I would cope." You kiss a tear that rolls down Jack's cheek and you pull her in and she starts crying. "I'm fine. I get you all to myself for a few days at least. If I knew that would happen I'd do it-"

"No!" She chokes out and you stop that sentence.

"No I wouldn't but when I'm back to 100% I think we should go away somewhere."

"That sounds amazing." Jack leans back and looks into your eyes. "Where?"

You smile and run your hand up her arm, cup her cheek. "I'd love to see you surf."

"You just want to see me in a bikini." She accuses and you laugh.

"Maybe." You kiss her and she smiles.

"Only if you wear a bikini as well."

"Sounds like a fair deal." She laughs and curls back into you. You relax with her against you, the slight pain from the position is dulled by having her relax in your arms.

She looks after you, helps you move from the bedroom to the couch. She doesn't go home until she runs out of clothes and only when you insist that you can be left alone for a few hours does she reluctantly leave promising to grab some food before returning with enough clothes to last another week.

"Hey. You were meant to stay on the couch until I got back." Jack comes up beside you, wondering what you're doing. "Why did you all of a sudden need to clear out a draw?"

You smile at her and see the moment she figures it out. "If you need more space, I can move around some other things. There's space in the cupboard as well to hang up your dresses and power suits." She reaches and pulls you by the back of the neck in for a deep, passionate kiss. "Mmm I should've done that sooner." You both laugh and Jack helps you back to the bed to sit down even though you are capable of doing it yourself. You enjoy Jack fussing over you and she enjoys doing it.

"Thank you." She smiles and helps you prop yourself up on the pillows.

"Go on. Sort out your clothes. I'll watch." You wink and she shakes her head with a smirk. You enjoy watching Jack move around your room. Like she's meant to be here and you want to tell her but know that the draw and cupboard space is enough for now.

She joins you on the bed not long after, satisfied with her sorting and you roll into her. She sighs and you know what she's thinking.

"I'm fine. I can actually move around you know." You push yourself up and Jack runs her fingers across your cheek, avoiding the scratch just under your eye from the explosion. "I may look like I'm half dead still but I'm good. I've got a check up on Monday and should be back in the office if everything is good."

"I know. But-"

"But you want to be here with me, I know babe. I want you here too but work needs you more. Lots of cases and your paperwork is getting out of hand on my coffee table." She leans over and kisses your lips. "Not that I don't love your crap everywhere in my house." She nips at your bottom lip and you smile.

"You haven't complained before." You kiss the tip of her nose and rest back into her shoulder.

"Not complaining." There's silence and you begin to drift off to sleep but Jack's phone rings.

"Hey, yeah she's alright." You hear the mumbled voice of Gibbs.

"You woke me up!" You groan and here a chuckle through the phone.

"She is a very grumpy morning person. Ow!" She laughs and drops a kiss to your head. "Yeah I know, you what? I'll be there in twenty. Don't start without me!" She snaps the phone shut.

"Found him?" You guess and you roll off her and move to get up.

"Where do you think you're going?" She tries to tug you down.

"You will miss out on interrogating him if you argue with me on this." You here her grumble and you hop out of bed slowly. She helps you put on a jacket and both leave within minutes of Gibbs calling.

"Hey! You aren't meant to be here." You walk in behind Jack into the bullpen. McGee hops up and gives you a gentle hug and then Ellie does the same. You havent seen the team since you left the hospital.

"You look like shit." Nick laughs and you just chuckle.

"Thanks Nick." He winks but the smile disappears when he sees Jack's glare. "She knows I'm joking."

"Go home y/n!" Gibbs orders.

"Don't you have a bad guys to interrogate. Plus Jack drove so I can't really go home without her, now can I?" You can see Gibbs ready to fight it. Probably to call a taxi.

"The sooner we interrogate this guy, the sooner she can go home." Jack mediates and you just smile, looking at your girlfriend and then to Gibbs. Gibbs gives up and walks off to interrogation with Jack in toe.

"Need a hand?" Ellie asks as you hobble after them.

"I'm good. Thanks. Want to see them tear this guy to shreds." Everyone follows you to interrogation.

The guy is smug and tight lipped. He notices Jack's emotional state and plays into it. Jack almost punches the guy but Gibbs is quick to intervene and Nick is quick to jump into interrogation and Jack leaves.

"Smooth Agent Sloane." You lean against the doorframe to observation.

"Like you wouldve kept your cool with that dickhead." You reach out your hand and Jack takes it, you walk back into observation and watch Gibbs finally break the guy. Caught him out on a lie and you rest your head on Jack's shoulder as she wraps her arm around your waist.

"Think Nick was going to punch him if he didn't get caught out." McGee commented from beside you.

"Gibbs was about 30 seconds away from flipping the table." Ellie mentioned and you all chuckle.

"Now can we go home?" You smile at the thought of Jack calling your place home.

"Lead the way." You say your goodbyes to the team and promise Gibbs to have your detailed report from the explosion in his inbox by end of day tomorrow.

. . . .

#jack sloane #jack sloane x reader #ncis #fanfic

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what-is-your-plan-today · 4 years

Text

Stark Spangled Banner Ch 15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve encounter Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane, and as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left reeling and are forced to seek help...

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: None for this chapter bar them saying some bad language words and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

Open for Tags- Ping me an Ask!

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion with a Quinjet, they headed to the small boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change, leaving his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. He also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible.

Surprisingly they reached the hospital, both relatively unscathed. Katie was feeling bruised but she kept pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” she looked at Katie’s face, which was already bruising from the blow she had taken before.

"Where is it?" Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he threw down his hood.

"Safe."

"Do better." Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Steve countered.

"Fury gave it to you," she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

"What's on it?" Steve ask, ignoring her question.

"I don't know," Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. "Stop lying," he said through gritted teeth.

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Katie said, looking at her.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in..."

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around, away from Natasha groaning.

"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve threatened.

"I know who killed Fury." she said as Katie turned to face her again. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So he's a ghost story." Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me."

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

"Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve half joked.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

"Let's find out what the ghost wants."

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat said as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette heading to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha's commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team they had bolted for Natasha's car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something” Nat responded.

Despite himself he couldn’t help but quip back playfully “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat said, her voice full of a smirk “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat besides him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus Nat…”

“What were your exact words?” she teased “If that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-” “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie said cutting her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend he supposed that there were worst things she could be saying…

"So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha spoke again a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve said, looking over his shoulder at her “and we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat."

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" Steve said exasperatedly.

"So before in the store… you guys were like engaged…” she began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned, the red head had no idea how close to the bone she was. Upon hearing the moan, Steve felt something in his stomach stir.

"That bad an idea huh?" he asked stealing a glance over at her.

"I didn't say that." Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” she shot him a look.

“I’m still waiting on you telling me whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” he said, his tone teasing.

“You asked her?” Nat raised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, SHIELD, everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up…”

“What, like you?” Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a hard way to live," Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha mused unconcerned.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is." Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn't want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn't, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

"Yeah." Natasha replied, looking through the window. "Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve jumped in.

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers." Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every bone in her body. And she wanted him to know, just in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.” she said, shaking her head, and his head whipped round, mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak. “Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal. She’d just said yes. She wanted to live together.

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

“Gross…” came a voice from the back seat.

*****

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha said frowning as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp, Steve having identified that the munitions building was in the wrong place, and that had led them into a huge, underground bunker. After an hour or so more of searching they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal. They had plugged in the USB device which had activated the system and now…well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

"I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945..."

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

"Who is that?" Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha questioned sceptically.

"Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain," Zola explained.

"How did you get here?" Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

"I was invited."

“Operation Paperclip," Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value." Katie said.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola continued.

"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Steve snapped.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said confidently

"Prove it," Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

"Accessing archive."

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original shield founders.

"Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you," Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed? By the Winter Soldier? By HYDRA? When she spoke again, her voice was desperate as she was, desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem...” the screen drawled back

“You killed them?” she said, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security." Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feel the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. "Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum."

Steve's anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie's had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

"As I was saying…”

"What's on this drive?" Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Katie demanded.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

"Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops." Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

"Who fired it?" asked Steve, as he starting to look for an escape route.

"SHIELD." She looked at him, then to Katie.

"Admit it Captain, it's better this way. We're both of us, out of time," warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. He easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

"Get in!" Steve yelled. Natasha hopped in, then Katie jumped down as well, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit just as he did so. Instantly heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash and heat in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above us rained down. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly a she spoke.

“Nat…”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as he gave a strong push and light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty cry and a heave, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

"Hey," he called “You ok?”

“I think so… Nat’s passed out.” Katie said, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong…I think she just fainted…she doesn't do well in tight spaces, like me...” Katie said, coughing harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer. Quinjets.

"Let's go." Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble. "Get back to the truck."

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down along the seat so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver's seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good 5 minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop.

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie said, looking down at her “we’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So…where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie said, “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie said, “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do…any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie said, and it was a crazy one, but one that no one would even suspect, as no one in SHIELD knew the man existed. Not yet anyway. “Nat, any chance you can look up an address?”

“Sure…” she said, pulling her phone of out her pocket.

Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she spoke.

“Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve said, voicing his concern

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” she snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue back but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told them all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve being the gentleman that he was let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Well, whatever it was, he wasn’t going to find the answer in here. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she replied quickly, too quickly.

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra," Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. "I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

"I owe you." Natasha said quietly, "Both of you." She added looking at Katie

"It's okay," Steve said.

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?" asked Natasha quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

"I would now," said Steve. "And I'm always honest."

"Without question." Katie said as well as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

"Well," she said as she looked back at Steve. "You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing."

"Well, guess I just like to know who I'm fighting," Steve said in response, although she had hit a nerve.

"I made breakfast," Sam's voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. "If you guys, eat that sort of thing." He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late 80s. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Baby…” he started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say…

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” she said gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie sighed “I don’t know what’s worse…”

She looked utterly lost and broken and he felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the 3 had shared in the truck. He looked down at his girl.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” She gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears. “No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up “Wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But he loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips “you’re a nightmare…” he looked at her.

“Yeah but you love me.” she grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do…” he said, his lips meeting hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on…” Steve said, taking her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.

"You all look a hell of a lot better." Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

"Well, it's been an eventful twenty-four hours." he responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked a Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

"So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam's countertops.

"Alexander Pierce," Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee.

Steve looked at her, smiling softly. She was at it again, that analytical brain was going 10 to the dozen. It was amazing how different and better everything seemed once you’d eaten and how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place.

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world," Natasha said as she walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

"He's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve continued.

"And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too." Katie said, and there it was, another piece of the puzzle.

"So, the real question is…” Steve looked at her and Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"

"The answer is, you don't," Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

"What's this?" Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

"Call it a resume."

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you," Natasha then turned to Steve. "You didn't say he was a para rescue."

"Riley?" Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs," Natasha recalled. "What did you use, a stealth chute?"

"No. These."

Sam handed Steve another file and he looked down at what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

"I thought you said you're a pilot?" Steve asked Sam.

"I never said a pilot," Sam countered with a smirk.

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." Sam almost scoffed.

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Katie said, looking up.

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall," Sam supplied.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. "Shouldn't be a problem." he said, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” She looked to the man who nodded.

“Then yeah, I can track him down…”she said, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind, in an attempt to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All 4 of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if 2 of them did get caught, the other 2 still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they had courtesy of some expert searching on Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” she said.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss” Steve nodded.

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed.” she drawled “Your 40s programming has been well and truly broken.” He rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so…” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned “You wanna marry her…” she said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now…” he said, trying to shrug it off and she snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers!” she laughed “Soon as you can get a ring on it we know you’re gonna.” “You know I kinda already asked her.” he said, looking at the red head who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted…” “Great proposal.” Nat sniggered, rolling her eyes “And what did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle…” Nat mused “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and upon arriving at the base they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched 3 guards, Natasha another 2 before they reached their room, and she hacked the security codes. They met no one on their way out, and all in all it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

And she had.

Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for her and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

"So you know this guy we’re looking for?" Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

"Vaguely." she sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. "But I can work with what I have…”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?" he asked

“First, I’m going to check his calendar.” Katie said, nodding at the laptop

“And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” she grinned

“Good morning Miss Stark…” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour…this is urgent.” “Of course…” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and get me into their server without being noticed.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask…is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark…call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” she shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow her to access the SHIELD remote log in without being detected.

It didn’t take long, 15 minutes later the SHIELD log in page flashed up.

“So People are lazy and 9 times outta 10 use the same passwords for all their accounts.” she said as she tapped away “And Sitwell is an arrogant ass hole, thinks he’s smart, clever so his password will be something to remind him of that, something that every time he types will feed his ego, remind him of what he’s doing right under everyone’s nose…”

And then it came to her. She took a deep breath as she typed in the words.

“Here goes…” she said, pushing the enter button. There was a short pause, before the Welcome Screen flashed up and she gave a yell of success.

“What was it?” Sam asked, hi-fiving her

“Heil HYDRA.” she smirked, tapping again. "Right, let's see where you're at, you fucker.” she said, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” he read.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half…”

“Cutting it fine…” Katie mused.

She had a quick scan through his emails, but there was nothing incriminating in there at all. Not that she had expected there to be, whatever HYDRA were up to it would be held on a completely different, hidden network.

“Ok, thanks J…” she said, logging out of Sitwell’s account “Can you disconnect.” “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it…” Nat’s voice said as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm…”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat said sarcastically.

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA…” Sam asked.

“About 25 minutes.” Steve said.

“Ok so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone…” Katie said, tapping at the laptop. “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District…so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat…”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There…” Sam said, tapping at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down…take him up high…”

“Kick him off the edge…” Katie said, shrugging.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Ok so we got there where, now we need the how…” Steve sighed. “Well can’t just pick him up at lunch, if the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

"But how do you get him to get in the car?" Steve asked

“We make him…” Katie said, simply, eyeing her gun where it lay on the table.

***** Turns out fear is a very, very good motivator. The plan went off perfectly. They spoofed a phone number, had Sam call Sitwell once lunch was over to instruct him to head to Sam’s car which was parked round the corner. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, until Katie had aimed her gun sight at him.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up” Sam smirked.

Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the restaurant and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back as he passed.

“Agent Sitwell.” she said “One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” Sitwell instantly tensed.

"Miss Stark," he grumbled out, seemingly annoyed, "Of course you're involved with this."

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of his security had realized what had happened to him. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

"You made me a wanted fugitive." she managed out through gritted teeth. “Didn’t have much choice. Get in the car." she ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car…” she said again. He stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?" Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

"Yeah, let's go."

They drove 2 blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant” Sitwell said, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was a cocky little bastard, Steve had to give him that. He easily manhandled him onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where the agent almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

"You're right. It's not." Steve said releasing Sitwell and smoothing out his suit letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

"It's theirs" Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to his chest, the two of them sending him tumbling over the edge.

"So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?” Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah…” Steve said, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by your mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, her too looking down as Sitwell's screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola's algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight's targets!" he rushed out.

"What targets?" Steve demands.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future," he continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

"The future? How could it know?" Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores…Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future."

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

"And what then?" he asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me," he mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What then?" Steve demanded louder.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time," Sitwell answered hesitantly after a moment.