Girl in Blue

10 - The Time Has Come

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Atlas asked, walking out of the hotel room to see Steve leaning against a bright blue Volkswagon beetle. The very car that Atlas ignored when searching for a ride to hotwire.

"It's more discrete," Steve argued jokingly. He had gone out of his way to find another beetle. As Atlas walked toward the back seat, Steve opened the door for her. She waited for everyone else to pile into the car.

"Are you serious?" she asked again as Steve started the car.

"Yup," Steve said, backing out of his parking spot.

"I hate you sometimes. I hope you know that," Atlas said, leaning back into her seat, ready to mentally prepare for the fight that was about to come. Steve looked at her through the rearview mirror and smiled. Atlas closed her eyes and chuckled. "You could've at least picked a car with four doors," she deadpanned.

"Sharon's only ten minutes away, and the airport's about an hour," Steve informed everyone. Atlas mentally groaned. She was about to be cooped up in the back seat for an hour. And she could only imagine how Bucky felt with his little to no knee space since Sam's seat was so far back.

~

Steve slowly drove under a bridge. Everyone could see Sharon's figure sitting and waiting in the driver's seat of her own car. Steve turned off the car and got out at the same time as her. Atlas was about to get out too.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked, grabbing Atlas's wrist. She swore she saw Bucky drill holes into his head with his intense stare. Atlas couldn't help but think he was a little jealous.

"I need some air," Atlas said. Slowly moving out of the car and shutting the door. She signalled to Steve that she'd be somewhere in the air. Steve held up a five with his hand, silently telling her to only take five minutes. Atlas nodded and walked out from under the bridge. She shot up into the air and brought up a piece of earth from the ground beneath her so she'd have something to sit on.

Atlas was up high now, at least a hundred feet above the ground. She stopped herself from moving upwards anymore and floated the large piece of rock towards herself. She landed on the floating stone and took a seat on the edge. She had done this so many times that she barely had to think about keeping the rock afloat, it was almost subconscious at this point.

Her legs dangled on the edge of the rock as she examined her arm. "Fuck," she muttered when she felt a ton of resistance when trying to open and close her hand into a fist. Her fingers shook involuntarily as she opened her hand up once more. She knew that she had to hold back on the bending, especially staying away from the avatar state. "I need you for one more day, and then you can pull all the shit you want," Atlas said to her hand as if it had a mind of its own. She traced her fingers over the elevated lines of her surgery scars before she quickly pulled some water from the air and tried healing herself. Though it didn't do the full job, it did make her hand a little bit better and easier to move. It would have to do for now.

Atlas sighed before lowering herself and the rock to the ground. She bent the earth back into place as if nothing had happened, but the scene she landed in on made her jaw drop. Atlas silently rushed back to the car and quietly opened the door as Steve and Sharon shared a sweet kiss. She shut the door and held her hand out for Sam. "You owe me," she said excitedly.

Sam reluctantly pulled out a fifty-dollar bill from his back pocket. "I hate you," Sam said with a smile on his face.

"I'd say it was some spiritual avatar instinct but Steve just has the worst timing ever," Atlas said, proudly taking the fifty and slipping it into her own pocket.