Fire and Ice

•7•

A scream involuntarily escapes Kate as they plummet. Her arms are spread wide, and she looks to Cap. "Hang on to what?!" Nat never trained her for anything like this. Her heart's in her throat, her stomach has dropped, and she's going to hurl.

"Pull this cord when I do!" Cap shouts, grabbing onto his own. Kate finds hers and watches him, pulling a mere second after he does. She's jerked upwards as the parachute deploys, but then her fall slows.

She breathes hard. "That... was... awful," she manages. Cap chuckles.

In the distance, she spots Thor and Loki standing atop a mountain. Thor does not look happy — but neither does Loki.

"Great," Kate mutters, and Cap follows her gaze.

When they make it to the ground, she mimics his landing, then they discard the parachutes and start making their way to the mountain, Kate wondering where Stark is in the silence.

As she's been training with Nat frequently through the years, per Fury's request, she's pretty in shape. But Cap is still a super solider, and she's just been through it besides. When he hears her breathing heavily behind him, he slows a bit. It's not enough.

Suddenly, while they're still in the woods, Kate hears Tony say, "Shakespeare in the Park? Doth mother know you wear-eth her drapes?"

"This is beyond you, metal man," Thor replies, and Kate's fairly certain he doesn't even know who Shakespeare is. "Loki will face Asgardian justice!" They get even closer, and she's able to see Tony from her angle.

"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then, stay out of the way," he replies, then dropping his helmet and adding, "Tourist," as he turns away.

Thor's hammer comes flying at him, hitting him just as he turns back around and knocking him into a tree, splintering the trunk like a toothpick. The hammer goes back to Thor, then Tony stands. Cap starts to jog closer, but Kate, still catching her breath, lays a hand on his arm, shaking her head.

"Wait... Fight... Magic hammer," she manages. It's best not to throw another powerful player into the mix before Kate can walk in and stop anything, especially seeing as it's a mad Thor. Cap is powerful, and Kate loves him dearly, but she's also worried.

Cap looks confused, but his and Kate's attentions are soon taken by Thor calling down lightning, and Kate wishes she had the breath to stop him. He'll start a fire if he's not careful.

Luckily, though, he just hits Tony instead of more trees. Tony is fine, too, just holding a hand up against the blast. Kate sees blue in between the pieces of his suit, and, when Thor's barrage ends, she suspects he's just made things worse. Lightning is electricity, electricity means power. And Iron Man runs on power.

He blasts with both his hand and chest blasters, but Thor flips and lands before they kill any more trees. Cap looks at Kate with worried eyes. "Dr. Carson?"

Before she can answer him, Thor and Tony run at each other, Tony flying off and taking Thor high above the trees. Kate inhales. "Crap."

"What now?"

"Can you fly?" she asks, knowing the answer to that question already. "I mean, now."

"Unfortunately, no."

Kate sits down on the ground, eyes skyward. "Then I guess we wait — unless you want to climb Mount Loki? I haven't been trained to do that either..."

"How can Fury put you in the field if he isn't training you?"

"Well, he has the others training me, but that's more in hand-to-hand combat and controlling my condition and stuff. I don't think he ever expected me to do something like this voluntarily." She sighs again. "Which means this whole jumping out of a jet thing is definitely not gonna be great for me."