Ian hovered in the night sky, his eyes fixed on Soldier Boy the whole time. He saw him stop at an intersection, saw him walk into a bakery, saw him stand inside the door for a while, then push it open and come back out with nothing extra in his hands, merely straightening his collar before retracing the way he had come.
"Is this guy not taking revenge?" Ian thought he would keep going, but he did not head toward the subway station, nor toward any location connected to Vought International. He walked into an alley, and when he came out the other end, there was a little less dust on his coat. He had not killed anyone.
At least he had not gone on a random killing spree.
"That's not the Soldier Boy I know." Ian stopped high in the air, his gaze following him for a while longer. Only after confirming he did not turn anywhere else did he look away.
His brow furrowed slightly. That tiny deviation made him realize things were much quieter than he had expected.
He was doing something, but his strike against Vought was nowhere near as decisive as Ian had imagined. According to that theory, when a person chose to hold back on something where he should have been ruthless...
Then that mercy had to be made up somewhere else.
"So?"
His intuition was working.
Ian slowly turned in midair, facing another direction in New York.
His gaze passed over layer upon layer of buildings, pierced through the concrete and steel beneath the ground, and landed on a place where he had thought there would be no more abnormalities.
Then.
Ian saw Captain America. He was not on the street, not in a hotel, not anywhere he should have been. He was