As the quinjet hovered over the Indian Ocean, STRIKE leader Rumlow briefed his team on the situation on the waters below.

"Target's a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star." He pointed to the image on the touch screen.

"They were sending up their last payload when pirates overtook them, ninety-three minutes ago,"

"Any demands?" Kyra -agent zero- asked.

Rumlow looked at her with a quizzical look and turned to Cap.

"Who is this?"

"Approved for mission," Cap replied with minimal detail. "Answer the question."

Rumlow was unconvinced but chose not to question Captain America.

"Billion and a half."

"Why so steep?"

"Because it's SHIELD's," Agent Romanoff answered.

That changed things.

"So it's not off course," Steve said. "It's trespassing."

Kyra felt proud making her brother question the company he worked for.

"I'm sure they have a good reason," Nat offered.

"You know," Steve began playfully, "I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor."

"Relax! It's not that complicated."

"How many pirates?" Kyra asked Rumlow and Steve and Nat looked over.

"Twenty-five," Rumlow pulled up a dossier on screen. "Lead by this guy," he focused on the face in the middle of the lineup.

"Georges Batroc. Ex-DGSE.," Nat came to the screen.

"Right. He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilized him, he had 36 kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."

Steve looked over to his little sister.

"Hostages?"

"Mostly techs. One officer: Jasper Sitwell."

Steve made a face as Rumlow pulled up his picture.

"What's the face?" Kyra whispered to him.

"I know Sitwell. He's not a field agent. So what's he doing on that ship?"

Steve went up to the screen and scrolled through the techs of the ship, viewing the galleys and rooms as he formed a plan.

"All right, team!" Cap began, gathering everyone's attention.

"I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat and O, you kill the engines and wait for instructions." He looked to Rumlow.

Kyra looked to Nat, who gave her a raised brow as if proving how awesome Captain America was.

"Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get them out. Let's move,"

"STRIKE, you heard The Cap," Rumlow ordered as he put in his ear comms. "Gear up."

"Secure channel seven," Natasha said into her wrist mic, testing frequency.

"Seven secure," Steve and Kyra echoed.

"So, did you do anything fun Saturday night?" Kyra asked Nat as they prepped.

"Well, all the other ballerinas from my company are dead. So, no, not really."

Steve cocked a smile at her response.

"Comin' up on the drop zone, Cap," Rumlow's voice interrupted.

"You know, if you ask agent Ryan from F.A out, he'd probably say yes."

Lately, he'd started a campaign to get Nat to get out more. Or at all.

Nat smirked and approached Cap as the rear ramp opened up.

"That's why I don't ask,"

"Too shy, or too scared?" Steve teased, knowing Nat was neither of those things. Ever.

"Too busy!" She yelled over the air, and pushed Cap out the plane.

STRIKE agents ran up behind her frantically, watching Captain America free fall towards the ship.

"Was he wearing a parachute?" Rollins- Rumlow's second in command- asked.

"No," Nat replied with a cunning smirk. "No he wasn't." And she jumped, leading Kyra behind her.

❄️🕷❄️🕷❄️

The First Avenger surfaced from the icy water, climbed the ship's hull and vaulted the railing, landing softly behind an unsuspecting mercenary. He soundlessly choked the first, then went counterclockwise around the deck, taking out mercenaries as he found them. One merc had him at the business end of an automatic rifle, another one coming up around. Before either of them could pull a trigger, they both fell one after the other as the STRIKE team finally took their time coming down.

"Thanks," Cap said.

"Yeah," Rumlow grinned. "You seemed pretty helpless without me."

With the team on the ship now, Steve got to the the lower level of the ship's bridge tower and shot a microphone disk up to the bridge window.

"I don't like waiting," one mercenary complained in French.

"Call Durand," another voice ordered. "I want this ship ready to move when the ransom comes."

"Start the engines," Steve heard another say, followed by the hanging of a phone receiver.

Another mercenary picked up the phone in the engine room.

"Starting engines," he confirmed and hung up the phone before turning around to find two women leaning against the staircase, smiling at him.

"Hey, sailor."

Widow made the first move, using the merc as dead weight to swing herself below deck, guns firing on her way down. Agent O phased through the floors, using an array of magical skills to take out the pirates in her way. With Kyra focused on the mercs and making her way to the engine room, Widow snuck out to where she needed to be.

"STRIKE in position," Rumlow's voice came in her ear.

"O, status." Cap asked over the comms, but no reply.

"Agent O, Romanoff. Check in!" Steve demanded.

"Hang. On!" Nat's voice came with a struggle.

"We're. A little. Busy!" Agent O replied.

Putting down her last opponent, Kyra finally got to the task assigned.

"Engine room secure," she informed Steve, her voice not conveying her confusion of being alone.

Exhausted, Agent O took the human route back up, heading towards the rendezvous point. Rumlow was still standing on deck with Sitwell, the rest of the hostages getting on the life pods.

"Hostages en route to extraction," Rumlow told them. "Romanoff missed the rendezvous point."

Agent O snuck up behind a pirate making his way towards the hostages. Rumlow had his weapon ready, but O knocked the pirate out, sitting over his lifeless body.

"Hostiles still in play," she informed Steve, as if he was controlling the practice module.

"Who are you supposed to be again?" Rumlow asked her, without Cap present to defend her.

Kyra swung off the body and stood up, walking past Rumlow to help the techs.

"SHIELD," she replied blatantly. "You?"

"STRIKE," he forwarded his shoulder, revealing the insignia. "Part of being upper level is knowing everyone below. I don't know you."

"You don't have to. Your mission is to extract the hostages. Is that too hard for you?" She moved aside with her arms crossed, giving way for him to get on the life pod.

"You're level O, I'm 6. Watch your tone," his finger was just inches from her nose. "We're waiting for Cap."

Kyra smirked. "That's not your job," she swept her leg out, making the STRIKE leader fall into the pod. She hit the dislodge button before Rumlow could even stand, dropping the life pods down into the ocean.

"Who's below now, asshole," Kyra waved at him with a big smirk before turning on her heel to find her brother.

She saw him fighting the Big Merc, and turned invisible as she followed them to the computer room. Steve wasn't the only one there, not counting the knocked out Batroc.

"What are you doing?"

"Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into."

"Rumlow needed your help. What are you doing here?"

Kyra followed Steve around to the screen side.

"You're saving SHIELD intel."

"Whatever I can get my hands on."

Kyra saw Cap's jaw tense. "Our mission was to rescue hostages."

"No, that's your mission, and you've done it beautifully." Nat finished the download and popped a USB drive out of its socket.

As the two Avengers were arguing, Kyra noticed motion in the corner of the room. They all looked up to see Batroc throw a grenade at them while he ran out the door. Steve grabbed Nat and Kyra jumped after, waving the grenade back to the computer room as she landed after them. She groaned as her arm snapped and her spell broke. Steve pulled her closer to the wall they were hiding behind as smoke and fire billowed over their heads.

"Okay," Natasha heaved while the smoke started to clear. "That one's on me."

"No shit," Kyra replied as she shared a looked with Steve.

Whatever respect her brother had for SHIELD was now clearly gone up in smoke.