My Star Spangled Invisi-Gal [MCU/Dispatch]

[cliffc999]

Author's Note:

People familiar with my snippets thread know that I've been having a persistent attack of vignettes and mental images about a certain crossover 'ship pairing that's been forcing my muse to post omake about it for the past several days. They also know that I swore up and down that I would not try to turn it into a full-length story, that I didn't remotely have that much ambition. To those who actually read the draft snippets, you are warned that you have no guarantees I won't rewrite some things in production.

People familiar with me personally already probably knew that soon enough I'd succumb to temptation and try anyway. And so we embark on my latest authorial exercise that I really hope my muse doesn't fall apart on me in mid-stream again, the adventures of an isekai'ed Steve Rogers who gets accidentally dimensionally displaced from the time period in-between 'Thor 2' and 'The Winter Soldier' as he lands in the world of 'Dispatch' just about at the start of the game.

Time to make you all suffer through my shippy dramedy thing.

Pairings: Captain America/Invisigal, Robert/Blonde Blazer

---

Earth-MCU
Insight Day: D Minus 106

"Reactor chamber's sealed off and adjacent to the central bunker, here." Captain America pointed at the relevant part of the holographic diagram being projected over the map table in the rear of the Quinjet. "Main control station is here, and auxiliary control is here. Those are the only two places the reaction can be shut down from, so we've got to have at least one of them secured within sixty seconds of going loud. Everyone's already memorized the emergency shutdown sequence, so whoever reaches a panel first enters it first."

"Our approach routes suck, Cap." Agent Brock Rumlow drawled confidently from where he sat sprawled in the nearest chair. "We either have to get through that surface entryway's guard detachment whisper quiet and with zero callouts, and then it's several minutes through all these corridors to the central bunker with the risk that any random idiot we trip over going out for a bathroom break might sound an alarm. Either that or we use the tech-toy we brought to burn our way in straight from the roof… with all the risks that carries of dropping a giant cutting beam straight into the middle of a dark energy research lab we only have outline floor plans of."

"I know they hate telling us grunts about sources and methods, but if we got these plans and codes from an inside guy then the team will at least need a mugshot so we know who not to shoot." Agent Rollins said reasonably.

"Good thinking, but the Director assured me that our source is already clear." Captain America reassured him. "As for our entry decision, that's still a coin flip… and Natasha's still in the infirmary from the Bangladesh mission so we don't even have that stealth option available." He breathed out and nodded crisply, his voice firming with decision. "All right, it's the rooftop. Both options are risks that can't be calculated, so let's go with the one that makes the enemy have to catch up to us and not vice versa."

"Just to review, there's no plan C for us here?" Rollins nodded.

"None that I can figure." Rumlow answered. "Or the Cap, or Fury. Those idiots are going to kick off their wannabe Arc Reactor's first full-power test today, and according to Stark if we let them open up the throttle it's 99 to 1 it'll go unstable and then we've got an unscheduled nuclear incident in Southeast Asia to deal with. Add in that intel says this new AIM outfit's black lab here is actually deniable-fronting for the one of the last governments in the world anybody would want with arc reactor tech and, well, wait and see just ain't an option."

"Speaking of Stark-" Hendricks, the team's technical specialist, began.

"There's no way he could make it this far into contested airspace without them going to a higher alert status." the Captain said regretfully. "His ECM's good, but that suit's not a dedicated stealth aircraft."

"Still wish the heavy metal could be here, though." Rumlow agreed. "But, woulda coulda shoulda maybe. All right, STRIKE, lock in and load up. Time for drop."

"Altitude is ten thousand feet, wind is negligible, visibility is clear moonless night. Stealth mode nominal, no detection." The pilot called from the front. "Drop point in ninety seconds."

"Check parachutes, fore and aft." Captain America called out. "Stack up… door open… standby… stand byyyyy… jump!"

SHIELD's most elite special-operations squad leapt out into the moonless night and arrowed down towards the ground in precise formation, falling towards the expertly-camouflaged enemy complex in the jungle below. Rumlow and Rollins each dropped one of the two sentries patrolling the roof of the barely-visible bunker half-buried in the soil with a silenced headshot before they even touched the ground, then expertly flared out their chutes and came in to a standing landing. The rest of the squad touched down feather-light around them, Captain America grunting mildly with the effort of holding the several-hundred-pound repulsor-powered "tunneller" that Tony Stark had custom-built for this mission on his back.

The large metal cylinder of the Starktech 'tunneler' was rapidly whisked down and set up on its folding tripod, aimed down at the precise center of the precalculated point in the bunker roof. Tony Stark had custom-built it to cut a four-foot hole twenty feet straight down through the top of the bunker and into the main control chamber. The team carefully plotted their entry point on GPS to aim the beam where it would hopefully come down in-between two of the control stations and well away from any critical infrastructure, and then activated the timer. A slight whining built as the device charged up to full power.

"To review, first we put the concussion charge through the hole to shock the room and then follow it down single file in squad order." Cap stated briskly as the 'tunneler' continued charging. "I cover the breach, Rumlow goes for the nearest panel, Rollins as his wingman, everybody else deploys and reacts as needed to whatever we end up facing."

"Still think me and Jack should hold the LZ and you do the run, Cap." Rumlow said amiably. "You're a lot faster than either of us on the sprint."

"It's barely twenty feet, that's virtually no difference at our comparative speeds." Cap answered reasonably. "But whoever's first in has to sweep the entire room for potential threats to give the rest of you a chance to land, and who's got the fastest reaction time?"

"You're the boss." Rumlow nodded, as the whine of the capacitors charging reached its peak.

"Stack up." Cap ordered. "Breaching in three… two… one… now."

The 'tunneler' flared a brilliant blue circle as it's own one-shot miniature Arc Reactor cell destructively discharged all of its built-up charge in one burst, and the repulsor variant beam molecularly shattered the earth, steel, and concrete layered between it and the target. Barely one second later the burn-through completed and STRIKE's demo expert immediately armed the fire-extinguisher-sized giant 'flashbang' charge and dropped it into the hole, the eye-searing flash and devastating concussion almost being felt even on the surface. A fraction of an instant after that a climbing cord was unreeled from the tripod and Captain America smoothly leapt forward and caught it with his rappelling gloves, sliding down the rope with practiced ease just like it was a routine long-line drop from a helicopter with the rest of the STRIKE team hot on his heels.

The darkened room rang with the sound of the Mighty Shield arcing through the air and striking down the only two of the security guards still able to stand with a single two-corner bank shot before flying smoothly back into Cap's hands greeted Rumlow as he touched down, and him and Rollins ran smoothly forward in practiced unison towards the main reactor control station as the rest of STRIKE swept out to secure the room, dropping the just-arriving security reaction force with single aimed shots and making it look easy even despite the dim flickering of the emergency lighting.

Rumlow reached the panel and pulled away the slumped form of the scientist who'd fallen on it, ready to enter the carefully-practiced shutdown sequence-

-and glared incredulously down at the darkened keyboard and controls, which were entirely deactivated.

"Shit!" Rumlow swore. "Panel's dead! I can't input the code!"

"All these panels are dead!" Rollins swore from one of the adjacent stations. "Either the tunneler or the concussion charge must have fragged the room power!"

"What kind of walking lobotomies don't put critical reactor controls on the same emergency power bus as the backup lights?!?" Hendricks swore incredulously. "Hang on, let me try and find the breaker box and reset-"

The room flared brilliant blue through the viewing window leading down into the main reactor chamber as AIM's bootlegged, hotwired kludge of an Arc Reactor attempt suddenly ramped up from standby and began climbing to full. Everyone in the room stopped dead at the realization that they were now at ground zero of a nuclear detonation… with barely a minute left on the clock.

"Rumlow, get them out!" Captain America commanded as he took off sprinting. "I'm going for aux control!"

"Even you aren't that fast!" Rumlow swore as the super-soldier left the main control room at his maximum speed, practically knocking the door off its hinges as he frantically set out to run a full half-circle around the complex to reach the aux control station on the other side of the reactor gallery.

"Well, none of us can outrun a nuke!" Cap's voice sounded in all their headsets with amused sarcasm as STRIKE obeyed their orders and fell back out of the main control room and out into the exit corridors that would eventually take them to the surface.

The entire bunker started to shudder underneath their feet as the reactor began to destabilize. Rumlow's men continued to struggle their way through the concrete-lined corridors towards the illusionary safety of the surface as Captain America's heaving breath sounded urgently in their headsets. Even for his serum-augmented physique he was setting a punishing pace, desperately trying to race ahead of the blast-

"Made it!" Cap's voice sounded in their headsets. "Shutdown code-"

The entire world shook and went momentarily black, as every one of the fleeing STRIKE squad was sent sprawling by the shock wave. It felt like space itself was twisting around them, until the roller-coaster ride suddenly stopped and left everyone on their knees or flat on the ground, desperately trying to hold down their breakfasts.

"Did it blow?" Rollins asked dazedly. "Are we dead?"

"Michaels!" Rumlow called to their squad medic. "Check your counter! What kind of dose did we take?"

"Point… point two sieverts. Maybe twenty rads." Michaels answered breathlessly. "A little hot, but way below the threshold of actual radiation damage."

"Boss." Rollins said in awe. "Look." He pointed back the way he came… at the starlight streaming down from above, visible through the cut-off end of the corridor. Starting approximately fifteen feet behind them the entire complex had just vanished in a circular globe centered on the reactor core, leaving a neat hemispherical depression open to the sky.

"Jesus Christ." Hendricks said dully. "It didn't detonate, it collapsed into an unstable wormhole. Like the one that took out SHIELD's dark energy lab when Loki fucked with the Tesseract there."

"Cap's gone?" Michaels said, his jaw dropping in shock.

"He's random molecules, got to be." Hendricks nodded. "Or else he's been blown so far into the ass end of the universe that the Chitauri are next-door neighbors compared to wherever he is."

"Shit, some guys just cannot catch a break." Rumlow snorted. "Lost his whole world when he went in the ice, and then he just lost this one… assuming he ain't vaporized." He shrugged. "Well, who knows. But doesn't matter, really. Either way we come out ahead."

"Huh?" Rollins goggled.

"Think, you dumbass." Rumlow said tolerantly. "The only reason we hadn't already arranged an 'accident' for him ourselves was because Fury would have been up the entire incident's ass with an electron microscope, and so we'd be betting everything on the hope that we could fake a good enough crime scene to fool that one-eyed old bastard. And we just couldn't take that kind of risk, not with Insight kicking off in only several months. But now the Cap's gone and heroically sacrificed himself in the line of duty, in a one hundred percent genuine tragedy that has no traces sticking to our fingers." He broke out into a beaming smile. "So everybody start rehearsing your sad faces for the debriefing and the funeral, because Captain America is finally out of HYDRA's hair… forever."

* * * * *​

Earth-Dispatch
Arrival: D Plus 3

"Frozen in ice since World War II? Fuckin' seriously?" the elderly black man narrowed his eyes at Steve suspiciously.

"From 1945 to 2011." Steve answered evenly as he sat across the desk from the man giving him his entrance interview. "One of my enhanced abilities is an augmented metabolism, it preserved me without cellular damage when I was immersed in freezing water after the plane crash."

"Which happened after you saved the whole East Coast from bein' blowed up by a fuckin' Nazi superplane carrying a doomsday weapon powered by some super-science doohickey that glowed blue and shat out infinite power that nobody ever figured out how it worked. And then 70 years later they thaw you out and first you fight off a whole alien invasion practically by yourself and then you go right back into some black ops shit for this SHIELD agency." Chase rolled his eyes. "Captain, you tell a tall tale better than anybody I've ever met and I work in a whole buildin' full of fuckin' liars, but you want to try and give me a little something to work with in this job interview?"

Steve sighed briefly. "What part of the whole tale did you find the least believable, Mr. Chase? The Nazi superplane, the alien invasion, or the energy source?"

"Oh that shit sounded perfectly normal." Chase waved his hand dismissively. "But the part where how your joinin' the Army just put you in a position to get your whole life fucked over harder than any man I've ever met, which really means somethin' considerin' some of the people I have met, and you still went back and re-enlisted the instant you got out of the ice?" Chase grumbled. "Do you have the slightest fuckin' self-preservation instinct at all?"

Steve actually chuckled at that one. "If you asked any of my prior commanding officers, the answer would be 'No'." He continued more seriously. "Although I honestly don't believe I'm particularly careless. I just…" Steve trailed off helplessly.

"By all accounts have the shittiest luck ever known to humankind." Chase agreed roughly. "All right, you don't smell like a crazy person or a liar to me, even if your backstory would get laughed out of Hollywood for bein' unbelievable as hell. And I saw the police report on the gear they confiscated when you landed in the middle of downtown, that kind of weapons and tech only comes from the damn CIA or worse. So… I'll sign off on believin' it. Well, the outline of it."

"Thank you." Steve said agreeably. "The government was a lot better than I expected about giving me a basic legal identity, but-"

"Everybody knows magic is real, we even got a demon sorceress workin' right in this branch office." Chase interrupted brusquely. "So other dimensions existin' is known fact, even if crossovers like yours ain't exactly common."

"But I still need a job." Steve agreed. "And while I could have applied for anything… I guess this time I didn't want to re-enlist right away after all. And at least your Superhero Dispatch Network would let me support myself while still using my enhanced abilities to help people, instead of something more… conventional." Steve continued more practically.

"Yeah, you already explained why you rejected the government offer, and who could fuckin' blame you, fuckin' spooks and all their shifty shit." Chase snorted. "Surprised you picked us rather than one of the other corpo teams though. We don't exactly offer the highest salary, and you're exactly the kind of camera-friendly person they love to pack their rosters with."

"Back when I first enlisted the Army had me doing War Bonds tours for months before I could finally get myself a real combat deployment." Steve said disapprovingly. "No. Thank. You. Your company was the only one that agreed to give me a guarantee of no show-pony or PR work, just actual hands-on heroing. Plus, you were one of the only offers that didn't insist I commit to a fixed contract but instead left me the option of resigning at my discretion."

"Still wish you'd agreed to help shoot the PSAs." Chase muttered. "Only other people we got available that have any hope of getting through them without a PR disaster are Phenomaman and Blazer, and he's kinda so-so on them and she's got so many dumped on her already it just makes a man want to weep."

"… maybe later." Steve sighed with pained sympathy. "If she really needs my help. But please… not right away?"

"All right, all right." Chase agreed tolerantly. "Just one more question before I take you down to start your evaluations and training." He raised an eyebrow. "You're Mr. Squeaky-Clean Polite from a bygone era where manners were so good that a gentleman wouldn't even go outside without a hat on, and you haven't even so much as fuckin' blinked at all my cussin' not once? Now I can hardly complain about somebody around here finally havin' some fuckin' self-control for once, but if you don't ever let people see the real you then that's not healthy. For either you or for them."

"Sir, I used to sleep in an army barracks full of World War II paratroopers." Steve raised an amused eyebrow. "Do you really think I haven't heard that kind of language before? Our typical manner of speaking back in the Howlers would have lowered the tone in a maximum-security prison. Our unit's linguist could speak five languages, but he had an encyclopedic knowledge of profanity in maybe fourteen of them." Steve shrugged. "As long as it's just your way of expressing yourself and not meant to hurt or belittle anyone, and your workplace tolerates it, it's not a problem."

* * * * *​

"… I wasn't too hard on the equipment, was I?" Steve asked embarrassedly as he re-slung his shield on the back of his costume. "Sorry, I still sometimes have a problem with that if I don't remember to slow down."

"Dat's okay." Royd, the hulking tech specialist for SDN's Torrance branch office said. "Just a couple of dents, dey polish out of the combat robots easy."

"Well, Captain, your score on the combat test is…" The SDN functionary carefully adjusted his spectacles. "Uhhh… maximum."

"I tink it only be dat low because the metrics dey don't scale any higher." Royd chuckled.

"The evaluation analysis programming did… start providing rougher estimates towards the end." the trainer agreed dazedliy. "In any event, yes, he tests completely out of the hand-to-hand module, he doesn't even need to take the related training. Or the marksmanship module… the tactical situations module… the situational awareness module… the…" He looked at Chase incredulously. "You're sure he's being assigned to our branch office?"

"Rules are rules, and since we can't actually verify anything he put on his resume what with him bein' from another goddamn alternate timeline, that means the only way we can credit him with anything beyond 'did well on the entrance evaluations' is after he proves it in the field." Chase grumbled. "Which means since he officially has zero seniority and zero credit for anything then he gets assigned to an entry-level squad only, and there's only one of those in LA with a fuckin' opening right now. Even if it is a fuckin' waste and a half to send a prospect like this there."

"I started as a private, I can be one again, relatively speaking." Steve shrugged. "And I do have a lot of adjusting to do, so taking it slow for my beginning instead of jumping straight into a higher-level position is fine by me. Really fine."

"'Slow' is not the word I would use to describe what you're in for." Chase muttered darkly. "Still, ain't no way around it. All right, son, it's another day or so of the paperwork and the orientation to learn how our system works and all, and then you report on duty with the Z-Team in the Torrance branch office right here."

"An 'entry level' outfit, with apparently a high personnel turnover if it always has an opening, and that they've labelled the 'Z-Team'." Steve nodded knowingly. "Let me guess… it's what in the Army we'd have called the awkward squad?"

"Awkward squad." Chase laughed briefly. "Yeah, that's a damn good way to describe it. Still, ain't no fuckin' way around it so the only way is through." He nodded. "Should only be for a couple months anyway, you just have to not fuck it up in the field and soon enough we can rotate you out to one of the better teams. But that's for the future, right now it's about time to clock out." Chase waved off Steve's next question. "So let me take you to the cashier's office so you can pick up your pay advance and get enough to buy yourself some things and get somethin' to eat. Also, I called in a favor from a friend and already found you an apartment cheap. Get you out of that motel and into some place you can actually have a little furniture and shit. You can find your own flop next month if you hate it, but this month's on the house. We'll call it 'relocation assistance'."

"Thank you, sir." Steve said politely as they walked out. "You've been very helpful, all of you."

"You're welcome." Chase nodded. "Sorry I couldn't get you in to meet your branch manager yet, but Blazer's been run ragged these past couple of days with ten tons of everything up at corporate and also tryin' to get this, uh, other new project we're hopin' to spin up actually be signed off on. I'll let you know when she's got an opening so you two can get introduced. You'll like her, she's a sweetheart."

"Looking forward to it." Steve gave a polite smile.

* * * * *​

Earth-Dispatch
Arrival: D Plus 4

Steve straightened his costume and after a quick glance at his reflection in a nearby window to make sure nothing was out of place, he shrugged and entered through the revolving door into the music-filled trendy bar. The superhero bar called 'Crypto Night' had been recommended to him as a place where he could begin to check out the costumed hero scene in this part of LA, and also to get a decent drink without having to change. So after having spent a couple of days completing his employee orientation, settling into his new (minimalist) apartment, and buying some clothes and other essentials with his pay advance, Steve had decided while at entirely loose ends to at least try going out to the local hero hangout and seeing who his new colleagues might be.

Standing and luxuriating briefly in the unique sensation of being out in a public place in his Captain America suit without anyone paying attention to him, Steve looked briefly around the room for any of the very people he'd met and could recognize and saw none of them. He shrugged and went up to the bar.

"So, you're the new guy? Captain America?" the bartender looked consideringly at the obviously flag-themed hero. "Here's hoping you're not as much trouble as the last guy who had that seat."

"What happened?" Steve asked politely.

"First off, he came in here without any powers and when he wasn't a hero any longer, when that's against the rules. Then he picks a barfight with like three people at once when they ask him to leave. And finally he dumps a full glass of Everclear on top of a man while his flame powers are already going, singed off all the guy's hair. Left a mess all over the floor, too. Just had to bounce him out a few minutes ago." The bartender shook his head inquiringly. "I have no idea what the hell Blonde Blazer of all people sees in that jerk."

"Oh, she was here?" Steve raised an eyebrow. "I was hoping to meet her."

"You and the entire male half of LA, buddy." The bartender nodded knowingly. "Hottest heroine on the scene. But she's already taken." He shrugged confusedly. "I mean, I thought she was seeing Phenomaman, actually, but she was flirting pretty hot and heavy with the new guy right now… anyway, the relevant point is that she left with him."

"Well, there's always tomorrow." Steve shrugged. "Coke, no ice."

"You came to a bar to drink soda?" The bartender raised an eyebrow. "For what I charge for one glass you could get a whole two-liter at the store."

"With my metabolism, alcohol barely tickles me." Steve shrugged. "And it's not much of a taste either, so why bother?"

"You're not the only one with powers like that." The bartender nodded knowingly. "I got some fortified stuff here, basically pure alcohol with flavor. Slug enough of it back and even someone as strong as Blazer starts feeling the buzz. You want some?"

"Not when I have to work early tomorrow. Coke and keep it coming, I'm just here to meet people." Steve said agreeably.

"Fair enough." The bartender said and handed Steve his drink.

"You said the gentleman before me had 'lost his powers'?" Steve asked after a sip. "How does that work?"

"Oh, right, they said you're from another dimension or something." the bartender remembered. "We had a power armor guy in town called Mecha Man, one of the independents. Was in the game for like fifteen years, didn't do a bad job… at first. But he'd been slipping more and more recently, and finally he gets himself absolutely trashed fighting this guy called Shroud and his whole villain team a few months ago. Armor was totalled, and he'd run out of money somehow so he couldn't fix it. So he gives a press conference saying he's quitting on being a hero." The bartender snorted. "You finally track down the guy who killed your father, and you completely blow the job when you get there? And you quit being a hero because you ran out of cash, and then you come here picking fights and looking for free sympathy? Can you believe that guy?"

"Oh, there was a lot in those last few sentences that I couldn't believe." Steve replied with icy formality. "Thanks for the drink." He pushed the half-full glass back across the bar, laid down just enough cash to pay for it – and no tip – and pushed himself away and headed out the door.

Steve stopped outside the front of Crypto Night and looked up at the brilliant moon in the sky, breathing in the warm California air. It's really a beautiful night, he thought slowly to himself. And this world's mostly at peace, not like the international tensions we were constantly juggling at SHIELD. And yet-

Steve exhaled meaningfully as he began the long walk back to his new apartment. He'd hoped to start getting settled into this new 'community' of heroes he'd joined, but so far the only people he'd heard of who even sounded heroic all seemed either caught up in some corporate maze or else entirely ostracized by the other 'heroes'-

And yet I'm just going to have to adjust. he pondered. Both the scientific and magic experts that SDN consulted about me said they'd keep looking into options, but with the easy solutions already all foreclosed they weren't holding out much hope. Maybe Nick will have some kind of solution for finding me that he kept 'compartmentalized' until he needed it, or maybe Tony will come up with something- heck, Thor was supposed to have a friend who could scan distant dimensions, wasn't he? But-

Steve squared his shoulders with resolution.

But I've already done everything I can do about that. he thought to himself. If a rescue mission comes for me, then it comes. But I can't go all-in on just waiting it to come, and leaving myself with no options if it doesn't. I've got to at least try to actually live here, and not just exist. Natasha already kept telling me that I wasn't doing enough of that, the last thing I need to do is double down.

And I already lost my whole world once, and it felt like I barely had my chance to put my feet down in my new one before I lost it again. Who knows, maybe third time will be the charm.

He exhaled heavily and kept wearily walking. And even if it's not, you have to report for your new assignment tomorrow so just keep putting one foot in front of the other, soldier.

Just take it one day at a time.