he who hesitates is toast

The cage around her crackles into life and she squints to keep from being blinded as electricity surges and her hair lifts onto its ends, giving her the kind of clouded halo Bucky's teased her about so often.

She can't see him anymore, or Aunt Peggy either. She can hear Stark shouting, but she can't understand what he's saying.

Sharon looks up, hoping to see the sky crack open above them. The hum of her cage increases, shrieking with resonance, and as a blast of blue light hits the air above her head she braces for the feeling of being tugged, of falling backwards.

But nothing comes. And the sky stays stubbornly closed.