𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐃, groaning. It wasn't often that he woke up feeling the side effects of a fight, but his muscles screamed at him. With the exception of raising a hand to relieve the pressure of the splitting headache, he remained absolutely still. While lying in place, he slowly started to piece together what had happened. His memory was a little fuzzy, but he blamed the headache for that. According to Sam's brief explanation, HYDRA was back and had branded him a traitor in the eyes of the law. He wasn't exactly sure what their plan was, but it was hostile as they shut down the electric power of an entire city block, hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. records, and seemed to be trying to take him out once and for all. It looked like he'd been a pain in their side long enough and they were finally fed up.

The chapel had provided little sanctuary as HYDRA easily learned of his whereabouts. That's when he met Fury's little extraction plan, little as in young since she couldn't have been older than maybe fourteen. Like every other plan of the day, it too was a failure.

As the pain in his head and body slowly receded, he started to sit up. A wave of nausea washed over him, forcing him to bury his head between his knees. HYDRA must've done something to counteract the serum running through his veins that usually prevented the ill feelings he was experiencing. The last time he could remember ever feeling sick was as that skinny kid from Brooklyn.

Once the feeling faded, he slowly looked up and turned his head to check his surroundings. It only took a second longer for his mind to catch up and realize that nothing around him was recognizable. Additionally, the girl was nowhere to be seen. A thought flashed to the front of his mind. He didn't actually know the girl, and it's not as if she showed any identification to prove that she was indeed a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He was starting to realize that he may have been duped by HYDRA more than he had originally thought.

His cell only added to his confusion. The walls were beige and there was no furniture whatsoever in the room. There were also no visible doors nor any alternate entrances or exits. He rose to his feet and wandered around the room, feeling around the room for any hidden hatches or doors. Although he was alone, a sigh of relief echoed around him. He checked his shoulder in alarm, but was unable to find the source.

"Oh thank goodness you're awake..." He quickly recognized her voice as that of the girl claiming to be sent by Fury. "I was starting to think the worst."

He looked around in confusion, noting that he was still alone in the room... that is unless she was using the same party trick as before. "Is that you, kid?"

"Crystal." Her voice spread thin with irritation, but was quickly replaced with a nervous concern. "Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Steve lied, wincing at his decision to quickly check his surroundings again. The muscle aches and headache returned with the motion. "Just a minor headache. Where are you?"

She ignored his question. "All your limbs are still attached and your insides feel solid, right?"

"I think so—" He stopped searching and stood in confusion. "What?"

"I might have—um—I might have made a teeny, tiny, itty-bitty, little mistake when inputting a string of calculations..." The girl rambled, quickly growing incoherent.

"Kid—Crystal," Steve interrupted, but corrected himself, allowing the frustration in his voice to show, "What are you talking about? Where are we?"

"It might be better to show you..."

That's when the entire room started shaking. The walls tilted. Soon, the floor was another wall while the ceiling opened up in front of him. Although the transition was slow, he still tripped and slid along the edge of the wall as the entire position of the room shifted. Once the room stopped moving, he slowly rose to his feet and dusted himself off before cautiously emerging from the entrance that had suddenly appeared before him. It took a second for his perspective to adjust, but after it did, his eyes widened. He blinked rapidly just to be sure he wasn't hallucinating, even then he wasn't certain. The room was huge. And as he turned to face the sound of the girl's voice, he failed to form words. His mind was too shocked to process anything past the massive size of everything around him.

"See?" Crystal sheepishly asked. "But it looks like you're alright which is fortunate in your case since if everything isn't input properly the effects of molecular reconstruction could be catastrophic, I mean, you could be missing a few limbs or have permanent brain damage but—"

"Crystal," Steve interrupted as she nervously erupted. "You'll just fix the mistake and we can be on our way to the S.H.I.E.L.D. rendezvous point."

She looked away without an answer. He slowly frowned as the nagging thoughts of her loyalties returned.

"Right?"

"Actually..." She hesitated. "I—um—don't know how..."

"I thought you said this was a little mistake?!"

"Well it is..." she insisted with a sheepish shrug, "... from my perspective."

Steve immediately frowned at her word play. "We'll just have to head to the rendezvous then and see if S.H.I.E.L.D. can reverse the effects—"

"No!" Crystal interrupted with a shout. The quick movement shook the ground and caused Steve to lose his balance. After realizing that she'd caused him to fall, she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Sorry."

"What's wrong with meeting—" He halted mid sentence. "Did you put me in a shoebox?"

"Well I didn't want you to be overwhelmed by everything..." She defended herself quietly. Steve quickly interjected and the two spoke over one another as they argued.

"Yeah, I can't say it worked—"

"I'm trying my best here, it's a lot of pressure..."

"— because I'm completely overwhelmed."

"Look." Crystal took a deep breath and extended her hands as she tried to explain. "We can't go to S.H.I.E.L.D. for help because they'll only make things worse."

"I don't understand," Steve interrupted before she could continue her explanation. "You said Fury sent you to extract me—"

"Yes, that's correct." Crystal agreed. "However, things have changed a bit now. The process of rewriting a person's molecular code is an extremely meticulous process. Any wrong steps and you're pretty much a goner. It's a miracle that you're even alive right now. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have the right people to operate the technology to reverse these effects nor do they have the knowledge in the area of quantum physics."

"And you do?" Steve asked skeptically.

She shook her head. "No, but I have a guideline to create the reversal equation which is one step closer than S.H.I.E.L.D. Your best chance of survival is with me."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Steve crossed his arms, straightening as if trying to either hold his ground or instill authority. "For all I know you're working with HYDRA."

"I could be," she agreed with a nonchalant shrug. "However, I don't see what HYDRA would want with a miniature super-soldier. Like I said before, Fury sent me to extract you. However, this was my first assignment in the field. As soon as Fury learns of the complications that arose, any smidge of freedom I may have had will be taken away. Do you know what it's like to be locked in a cage?"

Steve glanced over his shoulder at the shoebox sitting on its side. Crystal didn't seem to catch his implication as she continued to ramble nervously under her breath, lifting her hand to her mouth to nibble on the nails. As they were already ground to the nail bed, it was clear the bad habit was partaken quite frequently.

"I don't see Fury locking you in a cell after one mistake."

"It's more of a metaphorical cage," she retorted. "I meant that Fury will be keeping a closer eye on me, not to mention the increase of lab time... not to mention I was pretty much already staying in a cell aboard the helicarrier."

Steve frowned but offered an alternate solution. "Well what about Tony—"

"No way!" She quickly shook her head. "There is absolutely no way that Stark is getting his hands on my tech. I don't need it weaponized or whatever other business he's into nowadays. But that's not even my biggest concern. Do you honestly think this will stay quiet if Stark finds out? Imagine what would happen if HYDRA discovered your condition. Not to mention the field day that the S.H.I.E.L.D. brain bots would have if you were their latest specimen. You're gonna have to trust me on this."

Noting that neither of his choices were great, he slowly nodded his head. "Alright... we'll do this your way."

"Thank you." She sighed with relief. The corners of her mouth lifted into a small smile. "That's quite big of you."

Steve frowned, but Crystal stood and walked to the other side of the room before he could retort. She shuffled through her backpack that was propped up against the wall, tossing out an old fur coat among a few other odd electrical objects. She frowned as she looked at the bag's contents again, clearly searching for something.

Steve took a step closer, making little to no progress of actual movement. His eyebrows knit together in confusion as his mouth twisted into a frown. "Don't tell me that you've made another 'little' mistake."

She absently waved away his concern. "No, it's something else..."

"What is all of this stuff?" Steve asked, referring to the couple of technological items strewn across the floor.

"They used to be inventions," the girl admitted before glancing toward the tech with a look of irritation. "Now they're waterlogged and useless."

"So none of it can turn me back?"

She shook her head in agreement. "The circuitry is fried and half the devices were jostled beyond recognition on the way here."

"Where exactly is here?" Steve looked up at the roof that looked about ready to cave in on top of them. The wallpaper was peeling and the bucket in the center of the room was absolutely necessary to keep the leak in the ceiling from soaking the floorboards.

"A safehouse... kinda." She paused before releasing an excited shout that signaled she'd finally found what she was looking for. "Aha! That's where Fury hid it."

Due to his limited point of view, he was unable to see what she had found, but watched as she placed it on a shelf heavily coated in dust. However, she repeated the process a couple of times before patting herself down. From the time that he'd met her, she'd changed into a pair of dry clothes, now sporting a pair of tattered blue jeans and an oversized, washed-out Queens College sweatshirt.

Her hand stopped at the back of her neck. Although Steve had very little idea what was going on, he certainly hadn't expected the girl to claw at the back of her neck until blood stained her nails. Had he been paying attention, he might have noticed the minor scarring of the surrounding tissue prior to her diy removal, implying that the chip she found in her neck wasn't the first one located in that spot.

She held the small device up to the flickering lightbulb. Her nose wrinkled with distaste and she sneered at the device just a second longer before placing it on the shelf beside the others.

"You're bleeding."

It was an obvious observation as the color red stained her neck and the back of the sweatshirt, but it was all the words he could summon. She simply nodded her head in agreement before bending back down to the ground to reload her bag. Apparently she'd found more in the dumpster than a pair of worn-out old clothes as she loaded some bruised fruit into her bag. Even though she'd said the tech was useless, she also returned the devices to the backpack. She added a few additional supplies to her pack before burying whatever she hadn't packed under the tarps scattered across the room. She slowly turned and tilted her head as she looked at Steve, perplexed.

Steve glanced around the room in confusion before facing Crystal. "Something wrong?"

She shook her head. "Just trying to solve a transport issue... Do you get airsick?"

"What?" Steve raised an eyebrow. His confusion only grew with the question of where she planned to find a vehicle that could fly, much less pilot it.

However, his question was answered when she pushed a few buttons on her watch and suddenly a pair of feathered, white wings flashed into existence upon her back. He assumed that the reason behind her smug smirk was the look of shock plastered to his face. Although he'd seen a lot of bizarre things in his lifetime, it looked like he could still be surprised. Unfortunately, he'd decided that he'd been surprised enough, and that was just thinking through the series of events of the day. If he never experienced another surprise again, he might just be alright with that. That thought was repeated over and over again in his mind as the girl quickly stuffed him inside her backpack then took to the skies.