Sam Wilson does what Steve does - (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} justslower) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} avengers_logs,@ 2019-05-26 10:01:00 |
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What: Flying
When: A couple weeks ago
Rating/Warnings: green
The moment that Stark let Sam know he had his wings ready, Sam couldn’t wait to get out and test them. There was nothing in the world like flying, especially out in the open air, and it was even better when he got to do it for fun and not fighting off the latest threat to the planet. He knew that there could be another threat at any moment and wanted to be ready for it, but in the meantime, he didn’t see anything wrong with having a good time.
On impulse, he messaged Carol to see if she’d be interested in joining him. The team had a much stronger air presence these days, which Sam figured would have to give them an advantage in future fights. He was familiar with sharing airspace with Wanda, Vision, Rhodey, and Stark, so it made sense to get some non-battle experience flying with Carol.
He didn’t mention his plans to Steve though. The last thing he wanted was his best friend getting ideas.
Suited up, he waited in an out of the way spot in Central Park for Carol to join him.
The moment anyone asked Carol to come flying, she automatically said yes. Even before she could actually fly, she would have said yes. It was her favorite thing to do. Funny how anyone who could fly, would probably say that. There wasn’t anything really like it. So when Sam said that he wanted to go flying, she just asked where. Finishing up whatever she had been doing before (probably not much to be honest) she flew over to Central Park. People were staring. Oh well.
Spotting Sam, she hovered and then flew down nearby before walking over. She waved, looking quite impressed with what she saw him holding.
“Hey. Oh wow, is this your wings?”
Sam grinned when he realized that Carol had flown over to meet him at the park. It was cool that she didn’t need any sort of apparatus to fly and could just use it as a mode of transportation. To be fair, he probably could too, but after a few years on the run, he was used to keeping a low profile.
“These are the new, improved ones from Stark,” he said. “I’m not entirely sure what to expect.”
Knowing Tony, there would be some surprises. Hopefully they would be good ones. “A long way from the Exo I first tested in the Air Force more than a decade ago,” he added with a chuckle.
Carol didn’t know anything about keeping a low profile. That was for sure. If someone insisted that she walk everywhere, then she probably would try? It would just be really really really hard. She was so used to flying now, she couldn’t think of not doing it. Maybe she should be keeping a low profile.
“Well I don’t know him that well, but yeah maybe you should like start on the lowest setting first.. Before you blast off into the sun or something,” she said with a laugh.
“Yeah? What one was that like? I am ready to take your wings for a test drive if you are.”
“Let’s do it,” Sam said, hitting the button to liftoff. It would take him a few minutes to get a good handle on the controls, but he loved being in the air and he figured Carol wouldn’t let him crash or anything.
He hovered a few feet off the ground, flipping some switches and pushing buttons to see what everything did. After a moment, he flew up higher and gave a little whoop. “Well, these have a hell of a lot more power,” he called.
Her eyes lit up and she waited for Sam to take off, before she joined him. Nah, she definitely wouldn’t let him crash. She let him get his bearings on his suit, just watching with amusement as he figured out what everything could do. “Oh yeah? You wanna race?” she asked, turning around to see if she could find a good place to race to.
“See that building all the way over there? Let’s see how fast you can go.” Was she instigating possibly dangerous stunts? Probably.
What was even the point of flying if you weren’t going to perform dangerous stunts?
“Yeah, okay, you’re on,” Sam said. There had to be some kind of turbo boost on this thing. It was made by Tony Stark. If there was though, Sam had no idea which button to push to activate it and, instead, ended up shooting a laser that blasted off a nearby tree branch. “Oops.”
He was definitely going to lose this race.
She couldn’t help but laugh a little, at the poor tree. “That tree didn’t do anything to you, Sam!” she teased. “I’ll give you a minute to figure out your buttons, so you don’t crash into something, okay?”
Which she did mean. Carol didn’t want to win because he pushed something and then accidentally flew into a building or something. That would not be good. So she waited for him to figure out what each button did.
“You ready?”
Sam was glad that she was far enough away not to see him blush. He was also glad that Steve wasn’t around because he knew that if his friend heard about this, he would never live it down.
“I think I’m good now,” he said. There were still a few buttons he wasn’t sure about, but he would wait and test those later. Or just ask Stark what they did. That might be the safer option. “And how do you know that tree didn’t do anything to me? We have a long standing rivalry and it’s about time I put the tree in its place.”
He knew that didn’t really make any sense, but it sounded good.
Oh yeah Carol was the kind that might tease him about it. Though later on, when they knew each other a little better and she felt okay with that sort of thing. She wasn’t out to totally embarrass him. Promise.
“Really? Damn, I’m sorry. By all means, don’t let me talk trash about the tree thing. You and the tree have a thing, I can respect that. You tell that tree who’s boss,” she said with a nod of her head. She was smirking at him though, and pointed up to the sky. “Okay then prepare to eat all of my dust.”
She moved to where there was a clear space, so she could take off.
“Count of three?”
“That’s right,” Sam said with a grin. “The tree will learn respect.”
He had a feeling he was about to lose terribly and be put in his place, but he would take it like a man. At least it wouldn’t be as humiliating as getting beat down by Tic Tac. Which he was still maintaining was an audition for the team if anyone asked. “First one to that building is the winner,” he said, pointing to a distinctive building about a mile away.
“One… two… three, GO,” he counted down after lining up next to her. He hit the turbo button and focused on flying rather than paying attention to where exactly Carol was.
Eyeing the building in the distance, Carol nodded her in agreement. She almost thought about giving him a head start, but she didn’t want to hurt his ego more. After all, she was definitely going to beat him. Right? She took off towards the building, trying not to look to see whether or not she was gaining on him, or even passed him. Instead she zoomed over to the building and landed on the roof with a flourish.
Then she looked around to see if she had won.
Of course she won. Her natural ability was going to dominate his tech any day. Sam wasn’t that far behind though, so he felt like he at least made a respectable showing.
He grinned. “I concede,” he said. “You’re clearly the superior flyer.” After a pause, he added, “At least without a plane.” Though, to be fair, she had outranked him in the Air Force and could probably also leave him in the dust if they were flying an aircraft too.
“Man, the views from up here are great,” he added. “Everything looks so much more peaceful.”
Spotting Sam as she turned around, Carol couldn’t help but laugh. “Oooh, well now we’re going to have to find some jets to fly, and see who wins that one.” Could be kind of fun. She liked racing all types of ways. She was all too happy to leave Sam in the dust, as much as she could. Well mostly because Carol tended to be a little competing.
Gazing around at the view, she nodded her head and went to stand by him. “Yeah, that’s why I love being up above everything. Besides like some shitty seagulls and planes, it’s way nicer up here.
“Your wings are pretty impressive though. I’m really amazed they came up with a way to get people to fly in one of those.”
Sam nodded. “Flying in the open air is a whole different experience than being in a plane.” He loved both, loved the sensation of flying in general, but using the wings and feeling the wind around him was a whole new level and he was grateful that he was one of the few people who got that experience.
Even Tony and Rhodey in their suits didn’t have the same feeling.
“Must be nice to have the ability to fly whenever and wherever you want though,” he added, a little envious of Carol’s powers, though it sounded like she’d been through hell to get them.
“That’s true. The only downside of flying by yourself is that it’s hard to eat anything and fly at the same time without it just going everywhere.” Spoken like someone who had probably tried it a time or two. But she was a lot faster than planes, so she would stick to flying by herself.
Carol nodded her head, smiling a little. “Yeah, it is. I mean I didn’t know I could fly for a while. Hell I didn’t know I could do a lot of things until fairly recently.” Or maybe it was a long time ago, depending on perspective.
“How high have you gotten in that thing?”
“About 5000 feet,” Sam said. “Well, that was my previous one. I assume this one is about the same though.” He hadn’t tried going much higher yet. Largely because he seldom had a need to fly that high. “It’s a good bit higher than a standard jet pack, thanks to Tony.”
Obviously nowhere close to the height you could get in a plane, but that was the point anyway. The wings were designed for stealth work close to the ground. “Yeah, I would imagine it would get messy trying to fly and eat,” he added with a grin.
“Speaking of, you hungry? Figured we could grab burgers or something.”
“That’s not bad. I wonder how high Tony’s suit can go. Because clearly if it’s higher than 5000 feet, you should tell him to put that technology in your wings.” It seemed logical to her anyway. Though she didn’t know much about making those kinds of work, so maybe she was just spitballing. What did she know about creating technology?
Well that was true, she wasn’t exactly the most stealthy person. Flying. Sparkles. Glowing fists. She was kind of a giant wrecking ball.
“You don’t know this about me, but I can always eat. Always. Even if I just ate, I’ll eat more.” Being a ball of energy meant that she ate a lot more than usual. “Burgers sound good. You know where to get some around here?”
The only problem with going higher without a suit was the whole breathing thing. Sam wasn’t sure if there was any tech that combat that issue since he was a regular old human without superpowers.
“Of course I know where to get burgers,” Sam said. “Come on, I’ll make sure you can keep up.”
He couldn’t help the joke.
Yeah that would definitely take all the fun out of it. Maybe sticking to somewhere lower was a good thing. They could use more people in the air, but still not completely out in the open anyway.
Carol laughed and followed after him, going at Sam’s pace of course.