On the morning of the procedure, Steve met Peggy Carter just outside the mess hall at camp. "Good morning, Steve," the agent greeted politely, sending Steve a small reassuring smile before she turned and led him to the street outside the mess hall where a car was waiting.
"Best get going, there's a little bit of a drive into the city." Agent Carter hopped into the passenger seat of the car before Steve could try to hold the door for her, so he climbed in the back seat to find another woman already sitting in the car.
She had dark hair that was curled up in a popular style that women seemed to like to wear these days, dressed in an elegant green dress which spoke of money but her face was gaunt like she hadn't eaten for weeks and the woman looked so pale that Steve worried she might collapse at any moment. She looked up as Steve slid into the seat next to her and gave him a soft smile, looking exhausted.
Steve smiled back shyly, "Hello, I'm Steve Rogers." He held out a hand and she shook it with her own paper-thin hand with very little pressure going into the handshake.
Her voice was low and raspy as she spoke, "A pleasure, please call me Angelica."
The woman didn't provide any further introduction beyond that, turning to look out the window with an almost wistful look on her face as she stared out at the countryside slipping past. Agent Carter didn't bother to introduce the woman further either and the car fell silent until they reached the city.
When they drove through Brooklyn Steve looked around and noticed his old haunts, "I know this neighbourhood. I got beat up in that alley. And that parking lot. And behind that diner."
Steve could practically hear the amusement in Agent Carter's voice, "Did you have something against running away?"
"You start running and they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back, can't say no forever, right?"
Agent Carter seemed to sympathize with Steve, "I know a little of what that's like. To have every door shut in your face."
Angelica turned to give Steve a considering look, her hands twisted in her lap as she looked at him in thought, "Barriers that come up because you look a certain way, have certain impediments…" her voice seemed to trail off at the end as she went back to staring out the window, seeming to regret speaking her thoughts out loud.
Steve found the woman perplexing, where did she come from and how did she get mixed up in all of this? She certainly didn't look like an Agent, at least not like Agent Carter, so what was her place here? Before Steve could really voice his thoughts the car pulled to a stop in front of an old curio shop and Agent Carter made to get out of the vehicle. "Here we are, this way."
Steve opened the car door and made to hold it open for the other woman but she got out on her own side instead, not seeming to notice him. "What are we doing here?" Steve turned to Agent Carter.
"Follow me." The trio made their way inside the curio shop to find a little old woman standing behind the desk at the back.
"Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?" The old woman asked, with a peculiar tone of voice.
Agent Carter gave her a small smile, "Yes, but I always carry an umbrella."
The old woman pressed a button behind the counter and a shelf slid open to reveal a hidden hallway that they walked through, leading to the lab where Dr. Erskine and his team were working on prepping the equipment for the procedure. Dr. Erskine looked up to see the group and stepped forward to shake Steve's hand, while Angelica looked around with a slightly resigned expression. "Good morning," Erskine began, shooing away a photographer that took a photo of himself and Steve.
"Are you ready?" Steve nodded, before Erskine looked to Angelica who was staring at something behind the scientist, not paying attention to the conversation.
Before Erskine could speak another voice came up behind them. "Lick! You made it." Howard Stark walked over, a slightly stressed look on his face as he looked over the woman. "You look like hell, darling."
Angelica laughed with a little bitterness, "Wouldn't you?"
Howard dragged a hand nervously through his hair, "Good point, good point. Well, uh we've got you set up over here on this side next to Steve for the procedure," Howard gestured to the other machine that looked almost like a coffin.
Angelica's eyebrows nearly made it past her hairline but she smirked, "Well at least if I die this way I'll already be in a convenient box to bury me in. More expedient than the alternative, don't you think?"
Howard looked horrified at her joke, almost tripping over himself as he led Angelica over to the machine and assured her completely that everything would be fine.
Steve watched the exchange in shock, as he realized the woman would also be undergoing the procedure as well. He turned to Erskine as Howard and Angelica bantered back and forth once Angelica haad returned from changing into a simple cotton outfit. "I didn't realize there was another test subject," Steve said quietly as Dr. Erskine also watched the pair but with a sad expression.
Erskine quietly explained to Steve, "Stark argued that we needed a female test subject for the serum to study the effects on both genders. A brilliant move on his part, as the only way the higher ups would allow it would be if the subject was already terminally ill…" his voice trailed off as Steve and Erskine watched the pair continue to argue, Angelica looking tired and resigned while Howard was frantic and nervous, pulling her into a hug and looking near tears. Howard Stark was a far cry from the confident and self-assured man Steve had seen at the Stark Expo, as Steve felt he was intruding on what was clearly meant to be a private moment.
He looked to Erskine as the scientist watched the pair with a sad expression, "It's his girlfriend? She's terminally ill?" Steve was surprised, Stark didn't seem like the type to go steady with any girl.
Erskine shook his head, "Sister, and yes. Consumption." Steve looked away in sympathy. The procedure was his chance at a career in the army and making a difference, while the procedure was Angelica's chance at *life.* Somehow that knowledge made him feel more nervous about the procedure than before.
Dr. Erskine looked back to Steve and gave him a slight smile, "Not to worry, everything will go according to plan. Follow me." He led Steve over to the pod where he got in and lied down. Angelica was already laying in her own, rolling her eyes as her brother nervously hovered beside her.
Erskine helped to fasten the safety straps in the pod around Steve, "Comfortable?"
Steve felt a little overwhelmed by all that was going on around him but tried not to show it, "It's a little big. You save me any of that schnapps?"
Erskine gave Steve a small apologetic smile, "Not as much as I should have, sorry. Next time." The scientist's eyes shifted up to find Howard Stark now at the control panel, even though Stark looked like he'd rather be standing next to Angelica. Angelica looked wary in her pod, but kept rolling her eyes at Howard. Obviously she wasn't the type of woman that liked to be fawned over, which Steve could respect. She seemed like someone who valued independence, judging from how she seemed to brush off Howard's help when getting into the pod, despite struggling earlier. Either that or a stubborn streak a mile wide.
"Mr. Stark, how are your levels?" Erskine asked.
"Levels at 100%."
"Good."
Stark gave Erskine a lopsided smile as he flipped some sort of switch and checked the dials on his station. "We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are as ready as we'll ever be."
After gesturing for Agent Carter to join the other observers in the booth, Erskine held up a microphone and began to introduce the project to the observers, Steve and Angelica not catching most of what he was saying as they were more concerned with what was about to happen.
"Well, if I go out this way at least it'll be dramatic," Angelica thought, getting a little more miffed as she kept catching Howard shooting her worried looks. She'd helped Howard and Erskine work on the calculations for the serum herself, of course it would work. Part of her knew that even if this was any other procedure, if had been perfected for decades and saved billions of lives, Howard would still be on edge. They were all each other had, after their parents passed, and she could see he was fraught with worry. But if he could just keep it together, that'd be nice.
Angelica heard Rogers speak up from beside her, "It's probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?" She chuckled at the question. It seemed like she wasn't the only one trying to use humour to diffuse the tension.
Erskine gave Rogers a slight smile as well before turning to the observers, "We will proceed." The doors to the pods shut over Angelica and Steve as they began the procedure.
Howard shot Angelica's pod one last glance before turning to the controls, "That's ten percent. Twenty percent, thirty, that's forty."
A doctor spoke up beside Howard, "Vital signs of both subjects are normal."
"That's fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy."
Angelica started screaming out in pain, closely followed by Steve's screams. Erskine yelled out "Steven!" at the same time as Howard yelled out "Shut it down!"
Howard scrambled to get over to the switch to turn the machine off but Steve yelled, "No! Don't! I can do this!"
Howard still made to turn the machine off until Angelica yelled, "Don't you dare Howard! Keep going or I'm dead anyway!"
Howard breathed a heavy sigh before going back to the dial, "Eighty. Ninety. That's one hundred percent." Shortly after everything overloads and the lights flicker while the reactor closes itself down.
Erskine motions for Howard to open the pods and Howard hurries to oblige, hurrying over to Angelica's pod the minute it opens. Angelica laid in her pod for a moment, breathing heavily with sweat dripping all over her body. "Holy shit Lick," Howard breathed, taking in the changes. The procedure has worked, and Angelica breathed in her first full breath of air in a long time. When she finally stood from the pod she realized she was taller. Before the procedure she'd stood at five feet and two inches, but she had probably gained at least ten inches from the procedure. She was also leaner, and had some meat to her bones which consumption had all but taken away from her before the procedure. She felt healthier than she had in her entire life she thought, as she looked down at herself in awe. Angelica threw herself at Howard, pulling him into a giant bear hug and laughing with joy, "We did it! It worked!"
When Howard released her she glanced over at Steve to see that he'd drastically changed. Angelica felt her jaw drop to the floor as her eyes dragged over what used to be a scrawny and sickly looking kid. Erskine was at Steve's side, "I think we did it."
Agent Carter appeared beside Steve and helped him stay upright, "How do you feel?"
Steve looked as confused as Angelica felt, "Taller."
"I'll say," Angelica spoke up, a smile spreading across her lips. "Twinsies?" She grinned, gesturing at Steve and then herself. Howard barked a laughed at her lame joke, just happy that the procedure had worked and that Angelica would live more than a couple months.
Steve smiled and was about to say something to Angelica before Erskine yelled out, "Stop him!"
and the sound of a gunshot rang out. Steve rushed to Erskine's side as the blood spread in his chest from the gaping bullet hole the man had put in the scientist, shocked with grief. Erskine gasped and pointed at Steve's chest before he faded away, leaving Steve covered in blood and furious, with Angelica crouched beside him, her own look of fury aimed at the door the man had escaped out of. Sharing a look of mutual understanding, Angelica and Steve raced after the man and onto the street, where Agent Carter was attempting to shoot the man as he drove towards her, intending to hit her. Steve dove and grabbed Agent Carter at the last second before she could get hit while Angelica punched a hole in the back window and then jumped on top of the car's roof when the car went to speed away, not having enough time to dive into the vehicle itself from her position. The car tried to shake Angelica off as she grab the sides of the roof to hold on. She clutched so tightly to the roof that she molded the metal into her hands, to her surprise, and made better handles for herself to hold on.
Behind her, Steve ran after the car, barrelling into a bridal shop accidentally when he lost control of his newfound momentum from running so fast, faster than he ever could before. He quickly pulled himself out of the window and sprinted after the car and Angelica, catching up as Angelica pulled off one of the sides doors, causing the man to lose control of the car out of shock. The man hurried out of the vehicle, brandishing his gun as he tried to shoot Steve and Angelica, Steve blocking the bullets with the side door of the car that Angelica had ripped off, while Angelica dove behind the car to escape getting hit.
The man grabbed a boy nearby, taking him hostage as he made his way towards the river. "No! No, not my son!" the boy's mother screamed as the man took him away, "Don't hurt him!"
"Let me go!" the boy yelled, trying to bite the man that had taken him hostage.
Angelica and Steve ran after the man, pleading with him not to hurt the boy, "Wait, don't!" Steve yelled, pausing in panic as the man held his gun to the boy's head. Angelica gasped in fear. The man hesitates and then throws the boy into the water of the river, running away as Steve stops to look down at the boy in worry, "Don't worry mister! I can swim!" The boy yelled. Angelica nodded and sprinted after the man, diving and landing on top of the man before rolling him over face up when Steve reached them. "Who the hell are you?" Angelica growled.
The man smirked, not looking fearful in the slightest, "The first of many. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!" The man foamed at the mouth, before laying still, dead.
Angelica quickly stood up and looked at Steve in bewilderment. "Gotta say, this is a lot to swallow all at once."