We were now back in Brooklyn. I was in the front seat of a car with the driver and Steve and Peggy sat at the back. We drove past a group of boys playing cricket and I smiled as one of them cheered when they successfully hit the ball down the street.
I smiled at them, hoping that one day, I could have a child of my own.
"I know this neighbourhood. I got beat up in that alley." Steve spoke up, pointing to a random alleyway. "And that parking lot. And behind that diner…"
"Did you have something against running away?" Peggy asked suddenly, keeping her eyes to the front of the road. Steve began shaking her head suddenly.
"You start running, they'll never let you stop. You stand up, you push back. They can't say no forever, right?"
"I know a little of what that's like, to have every door shut in your face." Peggy replied.
"I guess I just don't know why you would join the Army if you were a beautiful dame. Or a-a woman. An agent. Not a dame. You are beautiful but…" Steve suddenly said. I seemed to silently gape at his words.
Steven Grant Rogers is flirting with a woman. He's failing horribly but he's still doing it!
If Bucky were here, he would laugh and pat Steve on the back, probably congratulating him and saying how proud he is.
"You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" Peggy asked, looking at him incredulously.
"I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one. Well aside from Faye but I could NEVER see her in any other way aside from a close friend." He says truthfully.
"Guilty." I smiled from the rear-view mirror.
"Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on." Steve continues, looking down as if ashamed.
"You must have danced." Peggy turned towards Steve.
"Well asking a woman to dance always seemed so terrifying. And the past few years, it just didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait."
He is so flirting…
"For what?"
"The right partner."
Is he trying to ask her out?
I leaned back in my seat, a smile playing on my lips.
We finally parked outside an old antique shop, people mingling by the streets. We all stepped out, walking in and towards the elderly woman at the desk. "Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?" I remember the code that Phillips had drilled into my mind a dozen times.
"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella." I reply, smiling. The woman pressed a button, revealing a buzzing sound and we go to the back room, Steve following behind, amazed by everything.
A large bookshelf suddenly moved right automatically, revealing a hallway with people looking our way as we stride down with confidence, our faces holding no emotion and Steve looked out of place in his small, private uniform. Two people at the end of the hall open the doors for us revealing the large lab in which Steve would have the procedure. Everyone stopped talking, looking towards Steve with curious glances.
Steve shared a look with Peggy and they walked downstairs, me following a little behind. We stopped at Erskine and he took Steve's hand.
"Good morning." He spoke first.
"Guten Morgen, Sie auch. Nervös?" I asked. (Translation: "Good morning to you too. Nervous?")
"Sie haben keine Ahnung." He replied. I nodded my head in understanding. (Translation: "You have no idea.") "Are you ready?" He asked, facing Steve now. Steve slowly nods. "Good. Take off your shirt, your tie and your hat."
I walk upstairs to the observation deck where I see Senator Brandt.
"Senator Brandt. Glad you could make it." Phillips speaks up.
"Why exactly am I in Brooklyn?" He snaps and Phillips looks offended at first but shook it away.
"We needed access to the city's power grid. Of course, if you had given me the generators I requisitioned…" He's cut off.
"A lot of people are asking for funds, Colonel." He then pulls someone over. "Oh this is…"
"Fred Clemson, State Department. If this project of yours comes through, we'd like to see it used for something other than headlines." He speaks up, holding his hand out for a handshake. Phillips takes it begrudgingly and then pulls me over.
"This is one of my top agents. Agent Faye Whitechapel. Faye, I assume you know their name because of your eavesdropping into our conversation." He speaks. I blush, a bit embarrassed.
"Hello. Lovely to meet the two of you." I shake hands with them but the Senator, instead brings my hands to his lips, placing a small kiss. I cock and eyebrow.
"What is a beautiful woman like you doing working for the Army?"
"I suck at cooking and I like this job." I add in and the senator lets out a small laugh.
"This one has fire. I see why you chose her Colonel." Then he turns towards Steve who is just laying down on the lounge chair. "Jeez. Somebody get that kid a sandwich." I peak my head over the door, looking down at Erskine who calls for Stark's name.
"Mr Stark? Levels?"
"Level's at 100%." He responds.
"Good."
"We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready as we'll ever be." Erskine then excuses Peggy to the observation deck but I don't miss the obvious look that Steve and her share. I smile at the thought of Steve living through this, ending up happy with Peggy.
Erskine then grabs for the microphone, tapping it a couple times to check it was working as Peggy and I seat ourselves down at the front row.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace. We begin with a series of microinjections into the subject's major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then, to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita-Rays." He stops talking for a moment to share a few words with Steve. "Serum infusion beginning in five, four, three, two, one." Something happened and Steve grunted and his eyes shot open, awake. Then Stark's name was called and he pulled a lever down, lifting the capsule and the doors closed. Two lab assistants placed in two large cords, beginning the serum. Stark turned a knob, a humming level starting. He then proceeded to a wheel, putting on sunglasses and so did everyone else in the lab.
"That's 10%." Stark started, slowly turning the wheel as the Vita-Rays began performing as the capsule started to brighten. "Twenty percent. Thirty." It started shinning more and more. "That's 40%." A lab assistant pointed out that the vital signs were normal. "That's 50%. Sixty. Seventy." Then Steve started screaming from somewhere in the capsule.
Erskine screamed Steve's name, running on the stepping stool as Peggy suddenly got up from her seat. "Shut it down!" Peggy cried, running to the railing. "Shut it down!" She cried again and Erskine ordered Stark to shut it down but then we heard Steve yell.
"No! I can do this!" He yelled. I was now joining Peggy at the railing, comforting her before she decided to stomp down there and drag Steve out of the capsule one-handedly.
Stark ran hack to the wheel, proceeding to turning it. "Eighty. Ninety. That's 100%!" He exclaimed, his knuckles turning white.
The electricity hummed and the brightness could have been mistaken for the sun. Then electricity cracked and snapped from the control panel Stark was at. Sparks were jumping from every control panel now and I placed a comforting hand on Peggy's shoulder.
Then it all stopped.
All of the sparks halted, the capsule shutting off. Everyone from the observation deck stood up to get a good look, Stark slowly removing his sunglasses.
"Mr Stark?" Erskine yelled and Stark ran back to the lever, taking hold of it and opening it.
There, breathing heavily, was no skinny Brooklyn victim. Instead, there was a tanned, muscular man with the same blonde hair as Steve and those same brown eyes.
This was the new and improved Steve.
"Erskine helped him out of the capsule as I could see all of the men from the observation deck walk out and chat about surprised.
"I did it." Steve breathed out heavily, leaning on Erskine and Stark.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think we did it." Erskine smiled, nodding with a smile on his features.
"You really did it." Stark added, much more shocked than the rest.
"Did you doubt him?" I asked Stark, patting him on the back.
"No. Of course not! Just surprised is all." He breathed out.
Peggy spoke next. "How do you feel?"
"Taller." He replied. I snorted but Peggy sent me a look. I threw my hands up in surrender in a joking way.
"You look taller." She smiled, taking a cloth from a nurse.
I could hear Phillips say, "How do you like Brooklyn now, Senator?"
"I can think of some folks in Berlin who are about to get very nervous." He adds even after Phillips walked away from him.
Then it happens. The observation deck explodes, sending glass all over the place. I scream, kneeling down to cover myself. I feel myself be pulled into someone's arms and a gun is pressed to my neck. I squeal and everyone looks at my frightened expression.
He drags me to the last bottled serum and I try my best to kick and thrash but he had a strong hold, he then grabs the bottle, tossing me to the ground and shooting Erskine in the chest.
"NO!" I scream, running towards him as he is about to get away. Steve kneels down next to me but Peggy runs off after the man. Erskine raised a finger and pointed Steve on his chest and to the direction of the fleeing man.
Then he's dead.
The man that I had looked up to as a father figure was dead before my very own eyes. Steve turns towards me, nods and runs off while I cry my eyes out, kneeling at the fallen form of Erskine.
"No…" I whisper. "Why does everyone always leave me?" I cry out but Stark grabbed a hold of me, lifting me from the doctors crumpled body. "Why?" I whimper as Stark placed an arm around my fallen form and hugs me tightly like my brother, Peter, used to do. I cling onto him like he's the last fibre of my body and he whispers soothing words to me like I've known him my whole like.
Stark was the one to bring me outside to the car where he waited with me for Steve to come back. Peggy joined us, taking me in for a hug and the three of us waited for Steve to come back.
Steve finally did. He hugged me first, seeing my obvious swarm of tears.
"Is he dead?" I asked.
"Yes. But it's just the start."
We were now in a facility in Northern Brooklyn where Howard and a whole team of scientists were taking apart and studying the submarine. Steve stood upstairs taking a blood sample. Peggy was upstairs with him.
"Colonel Phillips. My committee is demanding answers." Senator Brandt spoke again. I was really hating his voice now.
"Great. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?" He asked. He seemed fed up with Brandt as much as I was. "What have we got here?" He asked Howard.
"Speaking modesty, I'm the best engineer in this country." He points out first.
Uh. Oh. Bad news…
"But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology." He adds afterwards.
Shit.
"Then who is?" Brandt asked.
"HYDRA." Phillips points out next. "I'm sure you've been reading our briefings."
"I'm on a number of committees, Colonel." Jesus Christ. Phillips would do a better Senator than this guy. He could launch through every meeting, every briefing and every event and still have time for a good old fashioned cup of tea afterwards.
At that very moment, Peggy came downstairs with Steve. "HYDRA is the Nazi deep-science division."
"It's led by Johann Schmidt but he has much bigger ambitions. Ambitions so big, I wouldn't be surprised if he were to completely ditch Hitler and start his own army." I add in, nodding in acknowledgment at her.
"HYDRA is practically a cult." Phillips points out. "They worship Schmidt. Think he's invisible."
"So what are you going to do about it?" Brandt asked.
One more word from him and I'll want to toss up.
"I spoke to the President this morning. As of today, the SSR is being retasked."
"Colonel?" Peggy asked.
"We are taking the fight to HYDRA. Pack your bags, Agent Carter, Whitechapel." Phillips confirms our suspicions. "You too, Stark. We're flying to London tonight."
Then Steve cuts it. "Sir? If you're going after Schmidt, I want in."
"You're an experiment. You're going to Alamogordo." Phillips says, pushing past us only for Steve to take hold of his arm.
"The serum worked."
"I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough."
Ooh. Harsh…
Then Brandt speaks up. "With all due respect to the Colonel, I think we may be missing the point. I've seen you in action, Steve. More importantly, the country's seen it. Paper." He told his assistant and he gave him this morning's newspaper. "The enlistment lines have been around the block since your picture hit the newsstand. You don't take a soldier, a symbol like that and hide him in a lab. Son, do you want to serve your country on the most important battle field of the war?"
"Sir, that's all I want." Steve replied with no hesitation.
"Then congratulations, you just got promoted." Brandt shakes his hand and leads him off.
Is it bad that I have a bad feeling about this?
