InsaneJournal

Who: Steve Rogers
What: Steve
When: November 6th, 2018
Where: Manhattan, New York
Rating: Yellowish
Status: Complete



"Fifty million wired to my account and a helicopter on the roof in ten minutes or I off my first hostage! Don't mess with me, man! I'll do it!" The masked man had one hand on his pistol, pointed at a cowering hostage, and the other on the phone he was using to make his demands. Most of the office building had been cleared out with the exception of the armed men, six in all, and the twelve hostages. Red and blue lights shone from the street below where the police had set up a perimeter and where, somewhere in the chaos, the hostage negotiator spoke on the other end fo the line trying to take some semblance of sense into the man.

That argument continued in the background while a pair of armed men surveyed the flashing lights below. One of them looked up and out at the New York skyline, fancying what he might do with his share of the ransom when something caught his eye. "The Hell is that?"

"Some kinda bird?" This, from the other man.

"No idiot, too big for that. Kinda looks like a plane maybe but no it's-"

"Incoming!"

There was the briefest, most fleeting instant that the widening eyes of the men reflected a blue shimmer of light before the glass exploded inward and they were knocked back by the shards, and then bodily to the floor as a streak of motion bowled them over. Their skulls thudded, their guns clattered, and little pieces of glass rang as the shape stood and slowly straightened into the broad shouldered figure of a man.

A man with a glowing blue shield on one forearm.

From the floor, the hostages looked up awed and for the first time in some hours, hopeful.

Near them the four remaining armed men, including the one on the phone looked awed too but not so much hopeful as embodying the look of a deer caught in head lights. Too startled to react, too surprised to move.

The man with the shield was on the next man before the others began to shake off their shock. A pistol was leveled at him and fired once as the man coolly dodged to one side and reached up in a blur, closing his hand tight around the slide of the gun to prevent it from cycling and loading another round into the chamber. Not that it would have mattered much. An elbow and a cracking jaw sent the gunmen down and then there were just two.

Pinpricks of energy rippled across the shield, brightening where the lead struck as the remaining two men shot wildly at the shield-bearer who ran at them undaunted. Launching one of the men from the floor as the shield struck with such force it was as if the gunman had been hit by a bus. Before he hit the ground the last man was dropped with a straight punch to the jaw.

From the window commotion could still be heard from the police units below as red and blue light filtered in, partially outlining the man who once wore those colors in contrast to the dark uniform he now stood in above the hostages who were marveling as much at him as they were their sudden rescue.

"You're safe now", Steve said, kneeling down beside one of the women to check her for injuries before grabbing the phone the lead gunman had been using to talk to the hostage negotiator who was shouting through the other end and clearly believing the worst had happened.

"The gunmen are down and the hostages are unharmed", Steve interrupted, "you can send your people up now." Questions came from the negotiator but Steve handed off the phone, the energy shield on his forearm dematerializing as he approached the broken window. He stood on the ledge for a moment as open air blew against him, his head turning briefly to give the men and women one last look before jumping out, just as an armed SWAT team flooded the room from each side.