"Yeah, well, it looks like since the Red Army are slowing down their pushes for now, German High Command thinks they can spare her to shore up the defense here. And it'll be even worse for those Anzio landings in the next few weeks if she stays. Our best chance to outflank the Germans and finally break those defensive lines once and for all could be crushed before it could begin... literally.", Bucky replied with a grimace.
Peggy nodded, "Yes, I can see the advantage for the Germans.", before looking thoughtful, "She would expect us to come from land. What do you say to find out how fast we can swim, Steve?", as she emerged out of the water, grabbing her war outfit to put it over her one-piece bikini, glad that she got Steve to put her hair into a braid.
"Only if we're able to quickly swim back away, we'll be behind the German lines, remember?", Steve pointed out as Peggy nodded.
"I know, if things get to be too much for us, we can quickly make our way back to the waters... let the Navy and Air Forces saturate where she is.", Peggy said.
Steve nodded as he emerged out of the water, grabbing his war outfit to wear over his swim shorts, putting it on, and glanced at Bucky as he used his paddleboard to get back on shore, "Tell the CO that we're on the way to Rome.".
Bucky nodded, "You got it, Steve. And hey, take care of yourselves. You two are 50 ft tall while she is 100 ft tall. Just think of her as a high school bully or something.".
Steve grinned, "Already are. Ready, Peggy?", as he went back into the water, his war outfit impervious to the water, and Peggy smiled as she stepped back into the water, her war outfit same as well, waterproof, and winked to Bucky, "Set us off, Bucky.".
Bucky smirked, and called out, "On your mark, get set, go!", and he shouted in surprise as a wave soaked him immediately as Peggy and Steve stroked-swam, and saluted them, smiling to himself, "Give that Eris what's what for.", before leaving the shore to inform the CO.
The two of them swam for a few hours, taking small breaks while making sure they were somewhat further away from the shore as not to attract any German attention once they swam past what they were sure was the solid front line. It honestly was insane to see it, soaked in mud and further inland would be the snow-covered Apennines Mountain ranges; not to mention all the shell holes as the front line, being stalled, resembled the Western front of the last war. Sunny Italy had turned into the hell of Flanders in only a few weeks.
"Peggy...", Steve whispered as they kept swimming. "It might be better if we pull ashore soon, at least somewhat closer to the front line. All the way to Rome and we'll be exhausted before the fight.".
Peggy nodded, whispering, "Alright. 5 more minutes, and then we pull up to shore, but carefully.", and Steve smiled, agreeing with her, and so, after 5 more minutes of swimming, they carefully found a clear spot to get up into shore, crawling to the ridgeline, taking a peek over.
Seeing no town or any German signs, they recovered first for another 5 minutes before getting up, and with a nod of understanding between the two, they then went on a sprint on the shore, watching their pace.
"Still no sign of trouble...", Steve said in a low voice as they moved, wanting to wait as long as possible before they would probably attract undue attention. "We might be able to make it all the way to Anzio at this rate. Maybe we could also see if the Germans are setting up defenses on the shoreline.".
"Think air recon can spot those too, but a closer look never hurts. Somehow, I get the feeling we might not make to there if the Germans spot us and Eris comes our way.", Peggy whispered. "Might make it to some of the Pontine Marshes... might not be a bad place to fight her; fairly open space and not running the risk of tearing up a city.".
Steve nodded, "Good. I don't definitely wanna tear up a city by accident, especially Rome, if she has bypassed it by now. Anzio is smaller, but still a city by standards.", speaking quietly.
Peggy smiled, "At least we can destroy tanks and guns easily, and sweep normal Germans off where they will be hurt enough not to shoot our allies.".
"If they even think of defending the area; despite our naval dominance, they might just think it's not worth the time to defend every inch of coastline.", Steve chuckled. "But we'll deal with that if it comes, right now, our focus is Eris. Now the only question is how do we lead her out here?", he wondered quietly as the two of them reached the small Rio Martino River.
Peggy frowned in thought before glancing at the few boats on the river, and then blinked as she remembered the tangled net earlier, and then grinned, "We make slingshots and tiplines. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. If we slingshot at her with tank balls, she will be really annoyed, and she will come our way, and then bam, the tiplines, and she falls, and we attack, along with any plane guns who is seeing it.".
"Hopefully the USAAF and the RAF is flying by, might need heavy bombers to finish her off.", Steve said as the two of them went over to the boats to grab what they could use. "Either way, she'll be pretty mad.".
Peggy nodded, "Yes, she will, and we must not underestimate her. If she gets too dangerous, we can get back to the ocean, and swim off like you said earlier.", as they got to combine the nets, working together to make slingshot ropes and rope tiplines.
"Hope the locals don't mind us taking this stuff...", Steve said. "I think they've got bigger things to worry about, considering German occupation. Depending on where, it's either light order like Denmark or Norway, or brutality on an unimaginable scale compared to the east.", Peggy sighed as she tied a rope line.
Steve nodded, "I hope we get to do missions up there, or at least get supply trains to Dead Man's Land or something...I can't stop remembering Erskine's story about the concentration camps...".
Peggy squeezed his shoulder, "Don't worry, Steve. Small changes lead to big changes, and big changes lead to justice, and justice lead to victory, and victory lead to the end of the war, and the end of the war lead to freedom and peace for everyone including our nations and ourselves.".
Steve smiles to her, "You sound so sure, my queen.", and Peggy grins, "Well, perhaps it's time for my turn to be optimistic instead, eh?".
"I guess I should listen then... after all, you've suffered worse from Nazi aggression compared to me. The US has mostly been untouched while London and other cities took bombings for months while holding alone.", Steve said.
"Exactly.", Peggy chuckled as the two of them could've swore they suddenly heard something not too far away; something along the sounds of a motor vehicle and certainly nothing they were familiar with. "Down.". The two of them got as low as they were able to which was still a challenge with their heights.
"It's not a tank, that's for sure.", Steve whispered. "Halftrack or truck more than likely, certainly not one of ours though.", Peggy replied, whispering lowly.
Peggy and Steve kept low and quiet as possible, listening hard, and sure enough, as the engine sound got louder and closer, over the hillside, appeared a German truck chain patrol of five. Peggy whispered, "Not tanks, but still moldable into balls. Surprise attack?".
Steve nodded, "Usual as always, then?", whispering with a grin, and Peggy smirked, nodding, happy to see that Steve completely understands her without missing a step, and the couple split from each other, with Steve going for the left with Peggy going for the right.
Whatever the contents of the small convoy didn't matter to the two of them, it would certainly cause a problem for the frontlines, and it would certainly attract some German attention, hopefully including Eris herself.
The two of them moved fast before attacking the convoy; with Peggy hitting the front truck while Steve took the rear one and trapped the other three in between the two of them as they started to tear them up.
The soldiers were given mercy by receiving quick deaths. Steve and Peggy hated it, but they knew that if anyone survived, they would have gotten a chance to slip away, and do more horrible things like killing the giants' allies. War is war, after all.
Steve and Peggy created a couple of slingshot metals from a couple of the trucks while molding the other three into balls, and grabbing the net ropes, made perfect slingshots from the crevices of the metal, and took the rest of the net ropes with them as Peggy then noticed that there are some really bad boats, and grinned, "More balls.", grabbing them, molding them into more balls.
Steve exhaled, "Okay, we need strong leverage for the net ropes to act as tiplines...", and Peggy nodded, "We can go further up the river. There's enough for three tiplines, so one between trees, one between boulders, and one between watchtowers or something.".
"May get lucky with the watchtowers and boulders, but some trees will be the most likely." Steve said as the two of them slowly moved away from the trail of destruction they laid. A German patrol would surely find it soon and would probably recognize the damage as destruction from the giants.
They went further up the river, heading north, with the ocean in their sights in the left side of them, and then saw perfect spots to plant the tiplines, sad to see no watchtowers, but luckily, they got boulders and trees as they came upon a forest area, subtly marking the spots where they planted the tiplines, not wanting to get caught by them instead of Eris by accident.
They went through the forest from the tiplines, keeping their eyes out, and heard artillery shots in the distance over a hillside, and without speaking, the couple got down, quietly crawling on their forearms and knees, getting to the hillside to peek over to see an entire regiment, recognizing them as the 5th Army, fighting a 100ft woman, and they realized that this is Eris, the mad and vicious blonde.
Peggy held up her slingshot and her round of 4 balls, and Steve grinned, holding up his slingshot and his round of 4 balls, and with subtle gestures, they got to aim the first two shots at Eris, to annoy her, before increasing the shots when Eris is investigating where they came from.
"Didn't realize we were this close to the 5th...", Steve cursed at the fact that the Allied troops were being assaulted by Eris sooner than later though. He shook his head as he got himself ready with Peggy to attack her, "Okay, on three?".
Peggy nodded, and got ready, and exhaled, "One, two, three.", and both of them released their first ball shots, straight at Eris who was busy crushing tanks and such, hitting her on the back of the head and ear.
Now, to a 100ft tall woman, normal shots by a tank or whatever else is merely insect bites, like a finger flick, but shots by 50ft tall people, with the same powers of Quantonium and Super Soldier Serum, it's like major hockey puck hits which is quite painful, especially on sensitive spots of the skin like the back of the head and the ear.
Eris quickly turned around to see what exactly hit her and her eyes widened as soon as she saw the two giants. 'So, the little allies decided to finally play?' She mocked them in German. 'I'll kill you all the same!'
Peggy sneered and shouted back in German, 'Not if we kill you first!', with Eris distracted, staring at her as she started to run, and Steve shot off another, hitting her on the temple, and Eris roared, seeing Steve, shocked to feel blood streaking her skin.
Steve mocked her, speaking German as best as he could, 'But see if you can get us first!', before turning around and ran down the hillside with Peggy shooting at her with her second ball, hitting Eris on the nose, breaking it, 'Or are you too afraid?!', before running down to join Steve.
Steve glanced at Peggy, "You think that did it?", going for the forest, and before Peggy would respond, there's a screech of womanly fury, and Peggy glanced back to see Eris in full rage mode, destroying the hillside with her feet, and Peggy looked back at Steve, "Oh, heck yeah.".
"At least that'll give our boys some breathing room to pull back. Of course, now we're in her sights!", Steve shouted as they kept moving. "We've got to at least drive back towards the coastline... give ourselves the escape route.".
"If she doesn't keep following us first...", Peggy admitted. "Then we pray there's a small naval task force that might drive her back if we can't do the job.", Steve said.
Peggy replied, "All the same, we must wound her best as we could!", hearing the angry shouts and the stomping run of Eris behind them, and the couple ran to the forest, holding their slingshots, with a signal, the couple split up left and right, heading deeper and deeper into the forest, yet that didn't stop Eris as she ran, destroying trees and boulders in her way, and even creatures too.
Eris came upon the first tipline, and shouted as she fell, creating a indentation into the ground, and Steve shot his third ball at Eris's leg, bruising her knee, causing Eris to look at Steve, roaring with anger as she got up, running after Steve when a third ball by Peggy was impacted on her neck, nearly causing her to choke, creating a bruise on her neck where she wouldn't even shout anymore in a matter of hours.
Eris snarled, turning on her way to Peggy, running when she got caught by the second tipline, falling into a mess of boulders, scraping her skin, and Steve laughed, "Nice shot, Peggy!", as he reunited with Peggy, now having two last balls in their slingshots.
Peggy smirked, "Turns out slingshot targets are pretty much the same as gunshot targets, just less deadly.", before hearing familiar sounds of planes, and they looked up to see RAF planes, "Yes, God Hail the King!", with a grin.
The RAF planes went to shoot at Eris as she shouted, getting up, ignoring the pain, angry as she went to grab boulders, throwing them at the couple and the planes crazily, not having any aim.
"Well, it annoys her but certainly doesn't do much. Maybe if we had one of those railguns the Germans have, hitting her a point blank might do the trick.", Steve said as he shot his second to last shot at Eris, striking her in the chest. The giantess growled in pain as she clutched where she got hit while the fighters kept buzzing her from a distance.
"Yeah, well, we don't have any railguns, and we're down to our last shots...", Peggy bit her lip.
Steve whispered, "We're still having the third tipline.", and Peggy nodded, exhaling, "Watch my back.", before running off, and went around the forest, watching herself as Eris kept throwing more boulders at the planes, growing slightly more clear in the mind as she slowly is piecing together that she's between a hard place and a locked place, successfully hitting a few RAF planes, the pieces scattering off into the forest, igniting a fire swiftly.
Peggy stood on the highest spot, and shot a ball at Eris's spine, shocking her out, and Eris screamed, turning around, seeing Peggy, and Eris ran at her, and then the third tipline caught her, and she fell, crashing into a chasm of mud and boulders.
Peggy smirked, and nodded at Steve in the distance when a roar of anger sounded out as Eris dived for Peggy, her hand swatting her off like a hard-pitch slap, and Peggy shouted as she fell into the growing fire, memories of Steve rushing through her mind as she hit something, getting unconscious yet the fire both did and didn't consume her, with the Super Soldier Serum and the Quantonium discovering and talking to something deeper in her DNA, a gene called the X-Gene, making her impervious to fire yet able to become a human torch herself.
"Peggy!", Steve shouted as he took his final shot and struck Eris right in her left eye when she had turned to look back at him. She cried out in pain as she covered her eye before more planes unleashed a torrent of rockets that struck her in the chest. Her earlier strike from Steve's slingshot made the pain even worse before she started to run away towards the direction of Rome.
'This isn't over, American!', Eris shouted as Steve heard, but his focus was completely on getting to Peggy.
Steve tried to stomp out the growing fire, splashing water from the forest river, running and calling out for Peggy, horror and fear in his heart, memories of her rushing through his mind, barely noticing the 5th regiment coming from the distant hillside, with the RAF planes going for the ocean to direct the naval ships to see if they have water cannons to douse fires.
Steve noticed an unnatural sight, and gasped in terror as he got closer, seeing the silhouette of Peggy in the fire, and he screamed out for her, "Peggy!", running to her, and the combo of her powers sensed Steve, and her fire power turned off, leaving her intact, incredibly flawless, with no burns or such.
