Our Finest Hour (Steve Rogers)

Chapter 1: Now You See the Problem

"HOLY SHIT- Steve!" Cara yelled out bracing herself against the framing of the off road vehicle roof.

Swerving suddenly to avoid an explosion, he had thrown her off balance causing an arrow to lodge into a tree instead of a target. She looked down at Steve as he swerved suddenly a second time. Driving over the rough terrain the steering wheel moving back and forth in small motions, he glanced up at her quickly, brow furrowed before looking back at the path ahead through the mountain forest.

"Language!" Steve called out to her.

"Really?!" Cara said frustratedly, knocking another arrow before firing it.

It landed amongst a group of Hydra soldiers who Crossbones had under his command. A few seconds later it exploded causing the men to go flying in every direction.

"Yes really, watch your mouth! And I'm sorry there isn't exactly a road for me to follow sweetheart." Steve responded.

Cara caught the small smirk on his face as they continued on, Tony zooming past them overhead, the quinjet not far behind him above the tree line.

"Hey if mom and dad are done arguing now, let's focus up team. Rogers, Katniss, thanks for clearing out some of the ground troops. Jolly Green is around here somewhere helping you out with that. Wanda, Vision, get your asses on the ground to the North. Barton, land that jet and get the rest of the troops in place, it's time to go to work." Tony said over comms.

"Hey Steve doesn't like that language remember?" Bucky said in response.

"What language? Shit? Ass? Fuck?" Tony responded sarcastically.

"Okay enough! Let's focus, we're on a rescue mission. If anyone can get their hands on Rumlow that's bonus. So is every single one of these guys we take out." Steve said.

"Yeah no offense Cap but I thought we were going to eradicate Hydra when you came back. What happened to that?" Clint said.

Steve and Cara looked at each other briefly before Steve looked back at where he was going and Cara fired a few more arrows. They had been so preoccupied with being together again, then Crossbones, then discovering Cara was pregnant, that they had almost completely forgotten about their vow to wipe Hydra off the map for good. Though it seemed selfish, Cara knew she didn't regret a moment of it and Steve surely didn't either. Now, however, they would have to refocus their efforts.

"We got distracted." Cara and Steve responded together.

A tree soon went flying over them, the trailing dirt raining over them as Steve hit the breaks. With a loud roar, Hulk flew across their path in front of them. Pausing he turned back to look in their direction. Cara took her draw hand off of her bow holding her hands up, bow in one hand the other wide open revealing it was empty.

"Easy big guy, the fights over that way." Cara said.

Flaring his nostrils he exhaled with a grimace before taking off again. When he did, Steve started driving again, passing the rest of the team one by one along the way. When Thor brought a bright booming lightning strike down with him onto a tank as well as the men around it, Loki created illusions of himself to round up the stragglers. Similarly, Wanda was hovering off the ground, her red powers shooting through men like whispy tentacles. When she pulled her powers back, they fell to the ground, dead. Similarly, Vision was with her taking out the stragglers with the Mind Stone, cutting through them like a laser beam.

As they got closer to the stronghold, they saw Tony and Rhodey hard at work, working together like a well oiled machine. Bucky and Clint were in another vehicle similar to the one she and Steve were in, Bucky sticking out of the top while Clint drove. Everything was coming together perfectly. Cara loved when they had these big fights where they all got to work together. The only thing she didn't like about this time was that it was Nat and Sam who were in danger and needed rescued.

As they approached the main gate, Cara climbed all the way out of the vehicle, balancing on the roof. Steve climbed out soon after her, shield at the ready. Having placed something on the accelerator headed straight for the gate, Steve counted down from three and when he did Cara turned and fired an arrow with a cable attachment toward a tree behind them. Steve grabbed onto Cara as they jumped, swinging away from the vehicle, landing on the ground in a roll. As they came out of the roll they turned gracefully in sync to see their vehicle strike through the gate and Clint and Bucky drove through soon after.

Running after them, Steve and Cara quickly caught up, Bucky joining them in their run in on the building, Clint calling Tony for a pick up to a vantage point. Steve threw his shield into a Hydra agent knocking him over into the 8 or so behind him. Cara ran up a stack of nearby boxes, jumping off the top one firing shock arrows in a triangular pattern. When some of the agents started to get up, the arrows sent out a shock blast, singe marks smoking on them. Bucky firing at agents as they ran out of doorways. Landing in a roll before springing to her feet, simultaneously pulling out two handguns, Cara began firing at other agents in windows or positioned behind boxes or other cover.

An agent suddenly burst through a door to Cara's left, a rifle already pointed at her head. Before she could even react, Steve's shield hit him directly in the side of the head, bouncing off violently. Cara looked over her shoulder, blushing slightly, a look of surprise still on her face. She was rarely caught off guard like this especially on a mission.

"Thanks." Cara said exhaling.

"No problem sweetheart. Everyone stay alert, we don't know what it's going to be like once we're inside." Steve said catching up to Cara and Bucky.

Approaching a main entry, Bucky and Steve kicked in the double doors and Cara began firing at the men inside. Bucky and Steve joined in, fighting their way through the facility. They crossed paths with several of the others as they did. Becoming increasingly anxious, Cara finally pulled her knives out beginning to twirl them, throwing one before she spoke into her comms.

"Does anyone have eyes on Sam and Nat?!" She said frustrated.

A moment later Tony and Rhodey answered.

"We do." Tony said awkwardly.

"But there's a problem." Rhodey added.

"What kind of problem?" Cara asked as she slashed through an agents throat.

"You'll see when you guys get here. Sending coordinates now." Tony said.

Cara pulled her phone out and a 3 dimensional mapping of the facility came up with a red dot for their location. Bucky and Steve peeked over her shoulder memorizing the plans as Cara looked for a stairwell. When she spotted it she put her phone away hurriedly and the three of them took off up it, running into little to no opposition on the way up and through the facility.

When the three of them approached Cara could see Nat and Sam on their knees on the other side of the glass window that looked into another room. As Cara approached the glass Nat and Sam aggressively began to shake their heads 'No' as they tried to yell through their mouth gags. Following Nat's gaze, Cara looked down to see under the glass window that there were explosives rigged to wire that were lining the door into as well as the window into the room. Her eyes also followed two more wires, one leading under Sam and one leading under Nat. Suddenly turning to Tony in understanding, she was met with his worried gaze.

"Now you see the problem."