Lithium’s breathing was steady, though elevated, as she ran, pushing herself past yesterday’s limits, if just barely. Steve passed her again, his usual warning coming to her ears. “On your left.” She let out a low groan, hating that he could pass her with such ease. A sheen of sweat was already coating her skin, and they were only halfway done.

Well, she was only halfway done. Steve was already done, but he always kept running just to keep an eye on her or whatever his reasoning was. It was irritating that he experienced this with such ease, and she was still struggling. Every day was a push, seeing how much faster she could go, how much more she could lift.

They continued on. Lith kept focusing on some tune inside her head that she’d heard a while ago, playing it over and over to distract herself from how badly her muscles and lungs ached. It was easier to keep herself going if she could keep her mind elsewhere, but she didn’t always have complicated scenarios to keep her mind busy for as long as it took to get through the morning runs. In those instances, she kept her thoughts off track with a musical tune rather than allow herself the lull to focus on the pain that was shooting through her legs, especially her left ankle. It had been giving her trouble lately, but she assumed only because it was being a bit overworked. She was always careful to stretch it and ice it now.

“On your left.” Lithium groaned again. The predesignated finish point was no more than two hundred meters ahead, no more than half of an outdoor track, running on the inner lane. She was close, and even though her legs were already screaming at her to stop and crumple into a heap until the aches settled, Lithium dug deep into her willpower.

She didn’t just push on. Lithium picked up the pace until she began to sprint. Even when she felt like she’d topple over, Lithium kept going, leaning forward slightly, her toes springing off the pavement as she ran faster, harder, aiming for the finish point for what felt like an endless amount of time.

Lithium knew she’d crossed it when her feet began hitting grass and soil, and she began to slow down, walking until she came to a stop, hands on her hips. Utterly exhausted, Lithium still refused to sit down. She knew how bad it was to stop moving altogether after a run, especially an intense run. Steve had scolded her plenty of times to keep moving and she’d learned quickly to keep herself going.

So, Lithium began to walk again, back and forth, pacing for the sake of just moving with nowhere to go. A hand slapped against her shoulder, and Lithium nearly fell over. “Good job, Lithium,” Steve praised, a smile on his face. “You kept pace with me that last eighth of a mile. I know the four miles is hard, but you did exceptionally well. I hope to keep seeing this kind of progress with you. You’ll be a soldier in no time.”

Still breathing raggedly, Lithium nodded, unable to really say anything concrete at the moment. She was aching and sore, but it was good to have Steve praise her, especially when she’d just been trying to do what she believed was expected of her. If anything, her inability to give a solid answer seemed to make him happier.

“You got in a good run, Lithium. Very good. We’ll take a nice fifteen minute break before going in to do lifting and sparring. Are you all right with that?” Again, she nodded, her lungs and mouth too busy with trying to replenish her oxygen and expel the carbon dioxide to bother with something as frivolous as speech.

~~~

It was less of a fifteen minute ‘break’ as it was a fifteen minute walk with water bottles. Lithium had managed to suck down her water within the first five minutes, even though she’d tried to pace herself, at which point Steve offered her his, and she’d promptly refused.

“I’m okay,” she told him, shaking her head, her breathing still a bit heavier than she was comfortable with. “You need it.”

Steve shrugged, a bit of a smile on his face. “I’ll be fine. I’m a supersoldier, remember? I’m perfectly capable of going long periods of time without water, even under strenuous conditions. You should take it. I’ll get some when we get back.”

“I can’t do that to you, Captain. You need water as much as I do. I’ll survive a few more minutes.”

“Lithium, I will not have you dehydrate. I insist you take the water. You’ve earned it. From now on we’ll both bring two, all right? Then we won’t have this problem. Just for today, take the water. You’re sweating now, and I don’t want that to stop. Once you stop sweating, you’re beyond dehydrated. If you’re going to be working under my instruction, you won’t allow that to happen just as much as I refuse to allow it to happen. Take the water. I promise you it’s okay. Okay?” He held the bottle out to her again, and Lithium was a bit grateful her face was already flushed. If it hadn’t been red already under the heat and strain, it would’ve been at his gesture.

With a slow nod, Lithium took the water and drank it conservatively. Steve let out a small chuckle at her reluctance to slam back the water the way she had with her own, but he didn’t argue with her about it any more. She would get there, he was sure of that. So he let her be for now as they walked back to the hotel, trying to get mentally go over the exercises that were on today’s schedule.

Aside from the usual sparring, today was an upper body day: biceps, triceps, pecs, lats and abs. Of course, abs were every day, because they were the only muscle group that could be stressed and strained every day without causing too much wear and tear. Every other needed at least a forty-eight hour resting period. That was why they switched days between upper and lower body exercises. It was a simple way to remember which muscles could be pushed one day and rested the next.

Lithium was fond of the schedule. It divvied up the workouts in a nice way. Every day was cardio, and every day worked on abs. But only every other day involved lifting for her lower or upper muscle groups. It was a nice way to keep it balanced without overdoing it, even if the workouts themselves felt like a whole lot of work.

“Go ahead and get yourself more water, Lithium. I’ll wait.” Steve nodded to her as they entered the building and she gave a small nod back, heading up to her room, filling both bottles to the brim, drinking a few sips, and refilling it again. She wished she’d had water that was better chilled than what came out of the tap, but the fluid still tasted better than it should’ve. Lithium was dehydrated, all right, but thankfully it wasn’t to a worrisome extreme. She could still sweat, and she had the stench to prove it.

After taking in a few last gulps, Lithium stepped out of her room, heading back down to the ground floor, where her instructor was already getting in a few stretches. Saying she felt a bit awkward was an understatement. Stretching at the same time as him was nothing anymore, but walking in on it made her feel . . . out of place.

“So . . . We’re ready to go or . . . what . . . ?” She questioned, handing him his now full water bottle.

“We’re ready, Lith. We just need to get in a few stretches, and we’ll start up.”

She gave a small nod, but considering he’d already started, and considering how sick she was of always being behind him, Lithium decided to see if she could stray from the beaten path. “Mind if I do my stretches in the, um . . . I dunno what you wanna call it, the makeshift gym? The workout room? The sparring room, a.k.a., the room I always get my butt kicked in? You know what I mean. Can I stretch there? It’s air conditioned.”

Steve looked her over for a moment, then shrugged. “Fine by me, Lithium. You know what you’re doing by now. I trust you to wait for me before lifting. Go right ahead. Cool down. I’ll be up in a minute.”

Lithium nodded, letting out a small breath of relief, quiet enough that he wouldn’t hear her, before stepping away again, heading upstairs through the elevator into the room that housed their lifting equipment and small sparring arena.

But she didn’t enter to find the space empty. The small ‘clink’ of metal grazing metal hit her ears as she opened the door. And the sight of Sam Wilson, Falcon, on the bench press, a heavy bar above his chest, hit her eyes. It took her a few seconds to process what was happening, even more so when he didn’t offer some snappy remark to her presence.

Sam had overloaded. And now he was stuck halfway between up and down with the bar slowly inching it’s way towards his collarbone, perhaps his throat once his arms gave out. And that would mean Sam would die.

“Sam!” Lithium screeched his name, even though she wasn’t sure why she called him that. She hardly called him anything at all, really. Regardless, she ran to him gripping the bar in her hands, trying to lift it. He pushed to aid her in her attempt to help him, but it didn’t work. Not enough. It budged upwards a few inches, then started to fall again.

“P-push,” he breathed, groaning. His face was flustered. “C-come . . . On . . .”

“I-I can’t . . . Sam . . .” Another solution crept into Lithium’s mind, and she tried to push it away, but it was hard to ignore. This was an extreme situation, so didn’t it call for an extreme solution? “Promise you won’t tell the captain!”

“Wh-what . . . ?”

“Just promise you won’t tell, Sam! You can’t tell! Not yet! Please!” She tugged at the bar again, but it didn’t do more than lift an inch, immediately working it’s way back down. “Sam!”

He gave the slightest nod, unable to work out the words “I promise”. Lithium took it, releasing the bar. It dropped, heading straight for Falcon’s throat, looking to crush his bones and break his neck.

Inches before it would’ve passed his forehead on it’s way down, Lithium brought both her hands down, pressed together in a prayer pose, the edges of her hands slicing through the metal bar, pinky finger first.

The metal ripped like it was semi-fluid, the tips of her fingers grazing over Sam’s forehead as the now two pieces of weighted metal ripped up into the air, narrowly missing Lithium’s face, the heavy ends crashing into the floor, safely away from Falcon. The pieces sat up for a moment, tilting this way and that, and Lithium fell backwards, shaking despite herself.

Breathing heavily, Falcon sat up, his body shaking as well as he looked over at Lithium, both of their body’s adrenaline levels spiking. “What . . . the hell . . . was that?”

“D-Don’t tell, Sam . . . You promised . . . Not to tell . . .”

“Do I . . . Get to know . . . What the hell . . . That was? It’s not exactly like you can . . .” He paused for breath, shaking his head, feeling a bit lightheaded at the moment. “It’s not like . . . You can hide . . . that.” He gestured to the halves of the former bench press bar. “What the hell are you?”

Lithium bit her lip, looking down at the padded floor, her heart pounding loudly inside her chest. “I . . . I don’t know . . . They lied . . .”

Sam took another deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Whatever the hell you are, it’s pretty damn sweet.”