Steve

He leaned low over the front of the bike as he roared through the snowy forest. The sounds of gunfire and explosions boomed all around him. He followed close behind the tracks that her left behind the jeep Natasha and Barton had to hijacked. He snagged one of the HYDRA soldiers out of the air, slamming him into a tree with vicious satisfaction.

A near inhuman snarl emerged from his mouth as he hurls his shield at one of the firing HYDRA soldiers. Ever since the fall of HYDRA and the rebuilding of SHIELD, the Avengers had been battling with the terrorist group. But in recent months the fighting had grown more intense as the team worked tirelessly to rescue one of their own.

Syrinx Melos.

Sy. His ward, his teammate, his friend. His sister in all but blood. The seventh, final and youngest member of the original Avengers team. She'd been held prisoner within HYDRA for nearly nine months after having been captured the previous September. Guilt clawed at him as he used an embankment as a ramp to jump over a squadron of enemy soldiers. It had been partially his fault that she'd been caught by the terrorist group. He, Tony and Bucky had been fighting and forced her to intervene. In the aftermath of the fight, HYDRA had attacked while they'd been weak and vulnerable.

And HYDRA took her.

Now they were going to get her back. As a team they flew over an embankment, using it as a ramp; weapons firing at the lines of soldiers in front of them. He landed hard, pulling around to roar down the road in the opposite direction. The Hulk roared as he tore through soldiers. Steve and Bucky raced on either side of an open air jeep that Natasha was driving as they advanced on the HYDRA base. The sound of whirring machinery signaled to Steve that Tony and Sam were flying behind them, providing aerial support. The crackle of lightning and the green mist filling the air were their two resident gods. Everyone they knew, every ally they had, had come together to help rescue the youngest Avenger.

He and Tony had been forced to work through or put aside all of their problems over the last few months. Finding and rescuing Sy took all precedent. He jumped over another embankment, shield swung defensively in front of him as they cleared the final major lines of defense that HYDRA had set up.

Steve swerves hard, avoiding the fierce fighting as he focuses on his goal. The intelligence SHIELD had given said that Sy was being held in one of the final major HYDRA outposts. That outpost was the Sokovian fortress he finally had in sight. He threw his shield at another group of soldiers, knocking them off balance so that Bucky could pick them off easily with his rifle.

"Shit!" Tony's voice suddenly echoed through the comms unit.

"Language." He commented without thinking.

"JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?" Steve asked. The cool automated British voice answered immediately.

"The central building appears to be protected by some sort of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken."

"She has to be here. Strucker wouldn't have bothered to mount such a defense without her." Thor growled through the earpiece. Steve wove through the trees, wheels skidding over snow as he sped towards the fortress.

"This is Chitauri enhanced technology. She must be here." Loki added, fear and anger evident in the trickster's voice. The norse god and Sy had a close friendship that Steve didn't fully understand. It had something to do with debt and control and some Greco/Norse pantheon political customs. At first he'd thought that the trickster god was in love with Sy, until he walked in on the god giving her a serious lecture on the dangers of men and how she would be best to swear off of them entirely. It had been pretty entertaining to watch her chew the god out over letting her make her own choices and how her dating life was nobody's business but her own. Steve had mostly agreed with her; but he knew he would reserve the right to judge the men she brought home. Sy was a tough kid, and she wasn't likely to pick anyone bad. But Steve knew she deserved better than just any good person. She deserved the world.

Instead, she was trapped in the belly of an organization she'd helped destroy.

Loki blamed both him and Tony for her capture and had yet to forgive either of them. It made for tense mealtimes most days. Not that he and Tony were any better. Besides, the god wasn't wrong. Steve wasn't sure if he could ever deserve forgiveness, from Loki or anyone else. But none of that mattered anyways; forgiven or not, he just wanted Sy safely at home in New York.

"At long last, we will bring her home." Thor muttered. They were all feeling the same jittery anticipation of finally bringing their friend home.

"At long last is lasting a little long boys." Natasha reminded them. Steve frowned, gunning the bike even harder. He punched another soldier, and grabbed his buddy out of the air, tossing him into another flying HYDRA soldier.

"Yeah, I guess we've lost the element of surprise." Clint voiced sarcastically. Steve heard an distant explosion through the comms unit. Tony piped up again.

"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language?'" Steve almost smiled at the familiar banter that had nearly disappeared after Sy had been taken.

"I know." He groaned good-naturedly. Steve grunted as he turned the bike in a tight circle before leaping off. He lifted the entire bike up, tires still spinning, and hurled it at the oncoming HYDRA soldiers. The resulting crash caused the tank to flip over and burst into flames. He stood up slowly, ears ringing from the crash.

"It just slipped out." He said helplessly. Bucky snorted through the comms unit.

"Sure it did." Steve glared at the sky, since his wayward best friend was fighting somewhere else and couldn't see the expression on his face. He noted the Iron Legion flying overhead; Tony's way of minimizing civilian casualties.

"Buc- James you're different. You can't use curse words as commas. Not back when we were kids and not now." He shot back as he threw his shield, catching it when it came back. Steve sprinted through the forest, battling his way towards the massive fortress.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Bucky mutters back.

"Clint!" Natasha cries over the mike. Something slammed into Steve, nearly knocking him over. A blue and white blur vanished into the woods.

"We have an enhanced in the field." He related to the rest of the team, sweeping the area around him, alert for the newest threat.

"Clint's hit! Somebody want to deal with that bunker?" Natasha snarled through the mike.

"The big guy and I got that." Sam said. A minute later a huge crash echoed through the forest.

"Thank you." Natasha quipped distractedly. Steve nodded to nobody in particular as he fought his way ever closer to the fortress, reassured that most of his team was still ok. He hurled his shield, hitting a group of soldiers. He turned and his fist connected with a satisfying thud against another one. The soldier flew back and crashed into one of his buddies.

"Stark. We really need to get inside." He panted. Tony's response was clipped.

"I'm closing in." No matter how much the two of them have worked to patch up the problems in their relationship, Steve couldn't help but still see the gaping hole that remained. A Sy shaped one.

Steve glanced up to see Thor and Loki fighting side by side in perfect harmony. Steve fights his way over to the two brothers.

"Drawbridge is down people." Tony announced. Steve summons his shield back with the magnet mechanism Tony had designed for him shortly after the battle in DC. He jogs over to the godly duo.

"The enhanced?" Thor asked. Steve sighed.

"He's a blur. All the new players we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact I still haven't."

"Clint's hit pretty bad guys. We're gonna need a second evac." Natasha reported. Steve felt irritation well up inside of him. Who knew what kind of shape Sy would be in when they got to her. She'd been held prisoner for months.

He felt guilty the instant he registered the bitter thought. Barton was down and needed the evac. It happened in battle. People get hurt, and it wasn't Clint's fault he got hit.

"No. I'm fine, I want to help. I want to get her out." Clint rasped through his own comms unit. Steve could hear the pain laced through his voice. Steve shook his head and glanced at the two gods. Thor nodded at him.

"I'll get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. You and Stark find Sy."

"Copy that." Steve replied nodding sharply. He glanced over the ridge, where a dozen soldiers and a tank were advancing on them.

"Looks like they're lining up." Thor commented blandly. Loki looked annoyed.

"No. Don't do the thing. Don't." Steve raised his shield up in front of him, angled towards the HYDRA agents and Thor began to whirl his hammer.

"Well, they're excited." Steve replied casually.

"Aaaand they're doing the thing." The trickster god sighed, backing away and raising a magical shield in front of him. A resigned expression crossed his face as the trickster braced himself. Thor hit Steve's shield with his hammer, the two of them recreating a much more controlled explosion than the one they'd made all those years ago when they'd first met. The blast sliced through the HYDRA ranks, clearing Steve and Loki a path towards the fortress.

"Find her. Bring her home." Thor intoned before flying away; the smell of ozone the only trace the god left behind.

"And for gosh sake watch your language." Tony added in sarcastically. Steve let a small smile slip across his face at the tease. Even if it was annoying progress, he wouldn't have traded the barbs for almost anything after the months of tense and overly formal behavior between the two of them. After last fall, his and Tony's friendship had taken a hard hit. This small sign of hope was all he needed to fuel him.

"That's not going away anytime soon." He groaned before sprinting towards the fortress imprisoning one of the most important people in his life.