[movie canon: Peggy and Steve]

Italy, November 1943.

The European tour is not going well.

Steve has been looking forward to this for months--finally! being in Europe! near the front!--but he's not a symbol of hope to the soldiers. He's Tinkerbell. He's a laughing stock.

He's a dancing monkey.

As a dense winter storm pours down, Steve draws.

Making fun of himself doesn't help much, either.

( Hello, Steve )

To be continued...

[movie canon: Peggy, Howard and Steve]

Previously:

"Then you've got to let me go."

"I can do more than that."


Steve has no idea how Agent Carter has pulled this off. She's got intelligence, maps, gadgets that will get him and whoever he finds home safely; and she's somehow talked Mr. Stark into flying him thirty miles behind enemy lines.

It's too much to hope that he'll find Bucky. Funny thing about Steve, though--he's always had an excess of hope.


To be continued...

[movie canon: the rescue]

Previously:

"You can't give me orders!"

"The hell I can't! I'm a captain."

It occurs to Steve as he makes his way through the woods outside Krausberg that this is the first time he's really been tested. Stark was right about that. The day he was given the serum and chased down the HYDRA agent was only a dry run. This matters more than all the dancing and all the shilling for war bonds. This is about saving his fellow soldiers, possibly even his friend, and he hasn't given a thought to what will happen after.

The woods are dark and foggy, thick with old growth. Steve doesn't know the countryside, but he's got the map Agent Carter showed him memorized, and gets his bearings without much trouble. The factory is hard to miss--it's ablaze with light and activity despite the late hour. It's more like a fortress than any factory Steve knows.

The simplest way to get into the factory is to hitch a ride in one of its trucks. The two HYDRA agents in the back are easily disposed of, as is the guard when the truck stops. The guard inside the first door he tries lets him in at a knock, and Steve takes him out quickly, too.

Inside, the place is full of bombs, tanks the size of houses, and tubes of a substance that glows with an eerie blue light. He grabs a gadget for analysis later--maybe it'll help his case if they decide to court-martial him once he returns--and then focuses on his real goal: finding the prisoners.

Finding Bucky.


To be continued...