A Time Traveler's Soldier

On the Run

The group of superheroes went to a mall in the city, since they needed to know what was on the hard drive, and they couldn't exactly go back to their apartments. The New Avengers trailed a bit behind the three soldiers, discussing what to do to get back Percy.

"I can manipulate plants, if it's any help to get this Percy guy back. I don't know him, but he seems like a good person." Noor said, her dark eyes gleaming. 

"If we're gonna catch this guy, we need to have codenames." Leo said. 

"I can be Wildfire, Jason can be Storm, Percy could be Riptide, Nico can be Earthquake, Frank can be Speed Demon, Hazel can be Huntress, Annabeth can be The Gem, Thalia can be Strike, Piper can be Magik, Reyna can be Vanish, and Noor, you're Ivy." He rattled off.

Steve and Natasha marched on, wearing disguises consisting of hoodies and sunglasses, Peggy and the New Avengers, being unknown to the public, could just dress as themselves. 

"Rule number one about being on the run, don't run. Walk." Natasha commanded the others.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." Steve muttered as they went into a technology store unlike anything Peggy had seen, leaving the New Avengers to keep watch.

"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are." Explained Nat.

"How much time will we have? About nine minutes from..." she plugged in the hard drive.
"...now."

She began typing in code, looking frustrated.

"Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands." She muttered, not looking away.

"Can you override it?" Peggy asked.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly. I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from." She answered.

Just then, a worker in the store came up to them.

"Can I help you guys with anything?" He asked.

"Oh, no. My fiance was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." Natasha smiled, pulling in close to Steve.

"Right. We're getting married." He said stiffly, glancing at Peggy.

"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" He wondered.

A map popped up on the computer screen.

"New Jersey." Steve replied.

"- Oh." The man spoke, looking over Steve, like he might recognise him. But thankfully, all he said was,

"I have the exact same glasses."

"Wow, you two are practically twins." Drawled Peggy.

"Yeah, I wish." He laughed.

"If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron." he said walking away.

"Thank you."

"You said nine minutes. Come on." Steve pressured.

"Relax." 

Natasha typed in a few more numbers, and an address popped up. One very familiar. 

"Got it." Steve said.

"You know it?" Natasha questioned.

"We used to. Let's go." Peggy answered.

They beckoned the group out, and began leaving, through the maze of people and stores. It looked like there was a group of agents in front of them, no coming towards them. Steve pulled closer to the two women, murmuring something like, 

"Standard Tac 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-"

He was cut off by Natasha.

"Shut up and put your arm around me."

He did.

"Laugh at something I said." She whispered.

"What?"

"Do it."

He laughed a bit too loudly, covering his and Natasha's faces. The tack team passed them by, not noticing the super solider. But, agents were still swarming the place, including Rumlow. They spoke over small radios from all levels of the building.

"Negative at the source."

"Give me a floor rundown." Rumlow commanded.

"Negative on three."

"Negative on two."

"Snake the upper levels. Work down to me." Rumlow told them as he went up the escalator, the one where across from him, the two groups were going down. Natasha spotted him, and turned to Peggy and Steve.

"Kiss her." She spoke.

"What?" Steve countered.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable." She explained.

"Yes, they do." Steve said, once again cut off, this time by Peggy wrapping an arm around him neck and pulling him in for a kiss. It worked. Rumlow looked away.

"You still uncomfortable, Captain?" Peggy said, a small smirk on her face.

"That's not exactly the word I would use."

 As they were walking out the door, an agent spotted them. Before he could assess who they were, all of the lights went off as the team slipped away. It was strange. It almost seemed like someone had done that on purpose. 

Just then, as they made it outside, a blonde girl no older than sixteen strolled up to them.

"Did you like my little light show back there?" She asked, brown eyes staring at them. 

"You did that?" Thalia asked.

The girl nodded. 

"Then yes, thanks, but who are you?" 

The girl smiled at the group. 

"I'm Charlotte, but you may know be by another name. Techna." She said that last part grandly, like it was something they should have been impressed with. The team looked at her with blank faces. She sighed, exasperated. 

"Techna man, legendary outcast and crime fighter? Ugh, forget it. I want in in the New Avengers." She told them.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Steve demanded, coming closer to her.

"I saved you from those agents, didn't I Cap?" She answered.

"How did you know-"

"-you're Captain America? I have eyes, and I can look at records of people very easily. More the reason to let me on the team."

"You get one chance."

Meanwhile, in a Hydra facility... 

Percy struggled against his restraints. He was a superhero, for God's sake, he should be able to get out! A voice from someone behind him, a man, interpreted his fighting.

"Oh New Avenger..." the voice began, "You are going to help us change the world." 

Percy snarled at him through the chains.

"Why would I help you?" 

"We would make you." The man answered.

He thought about his team to himself, thinking hurry up...