An introverted waitress stumbles into Captain America during Loki's attack on New York. After taking a bullet for him, he lets her go, wondering. She's on the run, but he can't know that. When she meets the Avengers again, escape is all but impossib...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
AMERICA'S POV
"First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk," Natasha says this pointedly to me, as I can't seem to stay in one place or slow down.
We're all dressed as 'civilians' now. At this point, all three of us are easily recognized recognizable in any public place, even a mall. I pull my purple hoodie lower on my face, hoping the combination of the hood and my hair will cover the healing gash on my face. As a super-soldier, I do heal faster than average, but it's still going to take a few days.
"Sorry." We duck into a Mac store and choose a more remote side.
"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are," Natasha warns.
"How much time do we have?" Steve asks warily.
"Uh... about nine minutes from... now. 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 types something in, only to be overridden again.
"Can you override it?" Steve asks. I hold in a sigh. Steve is very smart, but he still has no idea how computers work.
Natasha shrugs. "The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly. I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."
"Can I help you guys with anything?" An Apple employee with a beard and glasses asks. Steve and I inconspicuously move in front of Natasha to shield her work.
"Oh, no," Natasha says sweetly from behind us. "I'm just helping my clients with some honeymoon destinations."
"Right!" Steve jumps in. He plasters on a smile and quickly puts an arm around my shoulder.
"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?"
I sneak a glance behind me. "Um... New Jersey."
"Oh." The employee stares intently at Steve long enough to make all three of us uncomfortable. What if we get recognized? "I have the exact same glasses."
I grin, nudging Steve. "You two are practically twins."
"Yeah, I wish. Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I'm Aaron."
"Thank you," Steve says politely, just waiting for him to leave before turning to Natasha. "You said nine minutes, come on."
"Shhh, relax." She points to a signal on the computer coming from Wheaton, NJ. "You know it?"
A strang expression comes onto his face as he stares at the location. "I used to. Let's go." He pulls the flash drive out of the Mac and we all leave the store. It's easy to tell we're being followed. I see agents everywhere, and I duck my head. "Standard tac-team. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro."
