"𝐈 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 you said we couldn't go to S.H.I.E.L.D. for help?" Steve questioned, confused by his familiar surroundings once Crystal had finally taken him out of her bag.

Finding an arrangement had been difficult and awkward at first, but she elected to set him on her right shoulder. Although it wasn't easy to maintain his balance at first, Steve was slowly getting the hang of it.

"I did," Crystal replied, checking her shoulder then the hallway ahead of them, "but I left behind some stuff that I don't want them to get their hands on. S.H.I.E.L.D. can't help you, but maybe my tech in storage can."

Once she had determined that the area was clear, she proceeded forward toward one of the helicarrier's more hidden labs. After Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and both organizations went up in flames, S.H.I.E.L.D. gathered what they could and the helicarrier was all that remained of the secret agency. Despite Agent Romanoff's attempt to reveal all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets to the world, there were a few that Fury managed to keep hidden under wing. No matter how much she wanted to flee from the organization, Crystal understood that her only chance of fixing her mistake was the tech she had created, stowed somewhere aboard the helicarrier. Hopefully it hadn't been moved.

So, she had resorted to sneaking around behind security's back hoping to remain unnoticed. Stealth would have been easier to achieve if she was capable of using her watch to walk around invisible to the naked eye; however, the water from the storm had fried the circuitry. When she revealed her wings to the captain, that was the last equation the Watch accepted before it shorted out. Besides, she didn't want to risk mixing the visibility equation with the captain's current state,  especially since she didn't know his exact measurements. She couldn't afford to make things worse.

"Are you doing alright?" she gently asked, looking over at her right shoulder.

"I've been worse," the captain replied vaguely.

She raised an eyebrow, but only received a shrug in response. Moving on, she stopped at the end of the hall and slowly peeked around the corner. Two guards stood in front of the lab doors ensuring that no one entered. She slowly pressed her back against the wall, trying to remember the rotation schedule. It wasn't her first time sneaking into the lab unannounced. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and counted the minute down on the beat. As the time changed to 3:00 a.m., the guards straightened at their posts. The agent on the left released a long yawn before nudging his partner to begin the surveillance round.

Unfortunately, the yawn was contagious. Crystal quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to conceal the sound as her mouth opened with a yawn she couldn't control. The guards paused and glanced at one another, but were clearly too exhausted to inquire any further.

Once they turned the corner, Crystal was quick to act before another pair of guards arrived. She stepped out from around the corner and carefully jogged over to the pair of lab doors. Without hesitation, she entered the code to open the doors then slipped inside. She released a sigh of relief once the doors closed behind her. However, she hesitated once she recalled that the captain had been on her shoulder during her quick decision. She looked over with an apologetic expression, but he was too busy clinging to the fabric of her jacket to notice.

"Sorry."

Without waiting for a response, she carefully made her way around the lab to where her personal devices had been stored. She began to mutter under her breath, listing off the function and names of the devices as she scanned the area. "Transporter, DreamCatcher, Time Modulator... Where is it?"

Unfortunately, most of the devices had no success rate, otherwise she would've tried to escape much sooner than her current predicament called for. She continued to scan the area until her eyes found the device that her heart desired.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed with a whisper of glee. "There it is."

"What is it exactly?" Steve asked, looking around the room with concern. "What's most of this stuff?"

"Matter Manipulator," she explained without really explaining; however, she changed her approach when she noted his small, confused expression. "It works similar to my watch, but with expanded functions... It'll just be easier if I show you."

"Yeah... sorry if I'm wary to try." He eyed the device suspiciously. "Things didn't go so well the last time you 'just showed me'."

"I'm mostly blaming HYDRA for the minor inconvenience," she retorted, "otherwise everything would have been fine."

"Uh huh." He nodded, but remained unconvinced.

"Before we start, I need to collect your measurements so nothing goes wrong this time," she stated as she placed the captain on a nearby table.

He stood, dusting himself off as if trying to retain some of his human dignity. "Perhaps we could try a method where nothing could go wrong?"

"Honestly, I'd prefer that method." She nodded in agreement. "However, since most of my tech is experimental, that's not really an option."

"Of course it isn't." A disappointed look crossed Steve's face as he muttered under his breath.

Crystal crossed her arms, but a smug look of mischief was present in the gleam of her eyes. "You've got a little bit of an attitude, don't you?"

"Please stop with the puns," Steve pleaded. It was clear he didn't enjoy being reminded of his predicament every couple of minutes.

"Oh come on," she chuckled, trying to lighten the mood as she worked. "Don't get short with me now."

"Crystal."

"Fine. Fine..." She held up her hands defensively, but refused to let the joke die. "I wouldn't want to undermine you."

"Don't you have something better to do?" The stern look on Steve's face was hard to take seriously. Plus the way he stood with his hands on his hips didn't help as he looked more like an action figure than a formidable avenger.

Crystal bit back her smile and tried to reply calmly as she fiddled with her watch. "The computer's collecting all the data I need. We'll just have to wait... a bit longer."

She failed to remain mature as she broke down in a fit of laughter. Steve was nowhere near as amused. Exasperated, he requested, "Can we just focus on fixing the problem with minimal comments?"

Crystal stifled her laughter. "I'll be brief... All your comments are minimal at the moment."

Steve sighed as Crystal continued to laugh. "I walked right into that one."

"Yeah..." Crystal agreed with a nod, wiping away a faux tear from her eye. "But at your size I can't say you got very far."

"I should've just told Tony." Steve shook his head. "He would've had this fixed by now."

Crys feigned hurt feelings with a gasp. "I can't believe you would stoop so low as to compare me with Stark."

She immediately resumed laughing; however, before she could think of anymore puns, the alarm system overhead flashed and blared. Crystal gasped in surprise, quickly covering her ears that had grown sensitive to the noise. Steve had similarly covered his ears as the sound was too much for his eardrums to handle.

Fear crossed the girl's face as additional footsteps could be heard outside. Realizing that she was out of time, she scrambled around the room moving from one device to the next. As the computer finally finished gathering the necessary information, Crystal had just enough time to stash the printed copy inside a pocket of her backpack and grab a few smaller devices before planning how to escape. However, there were still a few loose ends that needed to be tied up before she left.

"What are you doing?" Steve shouted over the alarm to be heard.

"Making sure S.H.I.E.L.D. can't use my tech," she explained as she rewired some devices and completely cut wires on another. "I'm not leaving machinery this dangerous in their hands."

Steve raised an eyebrow at the description 'dangerous', but didn't question why she'd made the devices in the first place. Instead, he insisted they leave. "We really don't have time—"

"I'm not leaving my tech in Stark, Fury, or anyone else's grasp!" she snapped over her shoulder.

"We've got to go, Crystal."

"Just a moment!" she insisted, begging for a little more time.

Her request was denied as the doors to the lab slid open. A single guard entered the room, checking the security of the area. His shocked expression revealed that he honestly hadn't expected anyone to be inside. With less than no time left, Crystal smashed the few devices that remained unscathed before picking up the captain and shoving her way past the guard to escape the room. She sprinted down the halls trying to remember which path would lead her out of the helicarrier's maze of corridors. She only got lost once and that mistake was enough to learn from as she darted away from the agents turning the corner. When she finally burst outdoors, she raised a single hand to shield her eyes from the sun.

She was completely overwhelmed as her senses went haywire and couldn't decide how to adapt. Her sight and hearing were still adapted to accommodate the captain's miniature size; therefore, everything sounded a hundred times louder and a hundred times brighter.

"Sorry, Mr. Captain America, sir," she quickly apologized as she stashed him inside her backpack. She could hear his complaints, but ignored them as she finally adapted to her surroundings in order to regain her balance.

She then sprinted toward the edge of the helicarrier; however, she stopped as her name was shouted. She winced slightly and turned to face Fury, but frowned when she realized that she'd only heard his voice over the monitor. Instead, the man dressed in an iron suit stood before her. She raised her hands as if to surrender, but only to buy herself time to determine what her odds of escape were. She needed to know how many weapons were trained on her and from which directions they'd be fired.

"Look, Kid."

"It's Crystal." She counted five.

"Kid." Stark ignored her. He took a step closer and gestured to the space around him. "We've got you surrounded. Just come in quietly and you'll be fine. We just need to know where Captain Rogers is at the moment."

Ten. Final Count. He was right that she was surrounded... everywhere but where it mattered most. She quickly glanced behind herself at the clouds beneath the propelling motors of the helicarrier. If she timed everything just right... She didn't have much of a choice really. She needed to stop overthinking things and act. She looked back at Stark and allowed a false sense of confidence to take over. She smirked in defiance before preparing to reveal her final act.

"The Captain's fine," she replied before she flung her arms out to the air at her sides and fell backward.

She closed her eyes as the wind whipped her hair around. She allowed herself to fall a few feet before finally unfurling her wings. Stark had rushed to the edge of the platform and dove after her, but she could tell he hadn't expected the wings as he halted in a dazed stupor. Her watch chirped, revealing that the modifications she'd made in the lab were finally ready. She smirked and offered a mock salute before inputting the calculations back into her watch. She immediately disappeared from his view altogether. She smiled giddily at the thought that she may have just outsmarted the smartest man on Earth.

As the wind carried her farther away from her prison and the sun rose higher in the sky with the dawn, she was comforted by the thought that maybe, just maybe, things were turning around. However, she remained entirely unaware that the smartest man on Earth still had a means of tracking her location. It was only a matter of time before she was caught and returned to her cage.