ERIKA was sat in the passenger seat while Peggy and Steve sat in the backseat as the car drove through Brooklyn. Erika was flipping through the files that were laying her lap as she heard Steve began to talk; "I know this neighbourhood. I got beat up in that alley. And that parking lot. And behind that diner."
"Did you have something against running away?" Peggy asked as a smile formed on Erika's face.
"You start running they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. Can't say no forever, right?" his words caused the smile on Erika's face to grow larger as she looked at him through the rear-view mirror.
"I know a little of what that's like. To have every door shut in your face," Peggy said as she met Erika's eyes through the mirror.
"I guess I just don't why you'd wanna join the army if you're a beautiful dame. Or a beautiful...a woman. An agent, not a dame! You are beautiful, but..." Erika cut off Steve's nervous shutter; "You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?"
He looked up and met her eyes through the rear-view mirror before he quickly looked down again, growing more anxious under her stare. "This is the longest conversation I've had with one. Let alone two. Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on," he informed the two women, feeling their stares on him.
"You must have danced?" Peggy asked with her voice soft.
"Well, asking a woman to dance always seems so terrifying. And the past few years just didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait," Steve explained with a shrug of his shoulders.
"For what?" Erika asked which her question made Steve sigh before answering; "The right partner."
His words ended their conversation, turning the car silent. Erika looked out the window; thinking about Steve's words. Having been raised as a Princess, Erika never experienced love. Her parents were protective over her as she was their only daughter and also their eldest. They wanted her to be Queen, but she denied their request. She believed she was not fit to be Queen. She wanted to help the realms and she could not do that remaining in her world. The young Princess had always admired Midgard and when this war broke out, she was given permission by her father to help them.
Erika was broken out of her trance when the car came to a stop outside an antique shop. She opened the door and stepped out of the car which Steve and Peggy followed. "This way," Erika told them as she walked towards the door of the shop.
"What are we doing here?" Steve asked in confusion as he placed a hat over his hair.
"Follow me," Erika ignored his question as she opened the door and stepped inside the shop.
At the sound of the bell ringing when the door opened, an older woman stepped out from the back and said; "Wonderful weather this morning isn't it?"
"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella," Erika said the code phase causing the woman to nod before walking over to the counter and pressing the button hidden underneath it.
The others followed Erika to the back where the bookcase opened to reveal that it was a door and hidden behind was a long hallway. Erika began to walk down and once she reached the door at the end, they were opened to reveal a large circular room filled with machinery and a pod in the middle. Erskine and his team turned to the balcony where Erika, Peggy and Steve stood, looking down at them. Ignoring the stares, Erika began walking down the stairs and meet up with Erskine. "Good morning," the good doctor said to Steve before shaking his hand.
A flash from a camera went off, almost blinding everyone next to it.
"Please, not now," Erskine told the photographer who walked away.
"Are you ready?" Erskine asked Steve who was looking down at the pod.
Steve answered with a nod making Erskine say; "Good. Take off your shirt, your tie and your hat."
Steve looked behind him at Peggy and Erika which the taller woman looked away as she didn't want Steve to feel uncomfortable. He began to remove what Erskine told him to remove and handed them to the female scientist standing next to him.
Once his chest was bare, Steve climbed into the pod and laid down as Erskine stood over him. "Comfortable?" the doctor asked making Steve answer with a smile; "It's a little big."
His answered caused a small chuckle to escape from Erskine. "You save me any of that schnapps?" Steve asked, remembering their conversation from last night.
"Not as much as I should have. Sorry. Next time," Erskine answered, apologetic about drinking almost the entire bottle.
"Mr Stark, how are your levels?" the good doctor asked as Howard Stark walked towards him.
"Levels at 100%," Howard answered, quickly placing a kiss on Erika's cheek as he walked past her.
"Good," Erskine said, pleased with Howard's reply.
"We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready...as we'll ever be," Howard's confidence faded slightly at the end of his sentence caused Erika to place a hand on his shoulder and give him a smile.
Howard tapped her hand lightly and he smiled back before walking away from her. "Agent Carter? Agent Stark? Don't you think you two would be more comfortable in the booth?" Erskine suggested to the two women.
Erika gave him a nod and a smile while Peggy spoke; "Oh, yes. Of course. Sorry."
As the two walked away, Peggy stopped and looked back at Steve for a moment before she turned back and began walking towards the booth with Erika by her side. Erika lightly knocked her arm against Peggy's who stared at her in confusion. The taller woman just smirked as they entered the booth where many others had gathered to watch the project unfold.
Erskine grabbed a microphone and flicked it a few times, causing feedback to echo through the booth and everyone to turn their attention to him. "Do you hear me? Is this on?" the good doctor's voice rang through the booth.
"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," Erskine explained as his team began to prepare the serum infusion.
Erika watched as a nurse inject Steve with preliminary injection as Erskine walked over to him. "That wasn't so bad," Steve remarked-which Erika could hear due to her enhanced hearing- as the nurse removed the needle from his arm.
"That was penicillin," the good doctor remarked making Steve look over at him with what Erika could only guess was fright.
"Serum infusion beginning in five, four, three, two, one," Erskine counted down as he placed a hand on Steve's shoulder.
After he counted to one, the blue coloured serum was injected into Steve causing him to groan slightly in pain.
"Now, Mr Stark," Erskine ordered Howard who lowered a lever which caused the pod to move into an upright position and enclosed Steve inside.
As the other scientists began to prepare the pod, Erskine knocked on the pod and asked; "Steven? Can you hear me?"
"It's probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?" Steve's rang called out from the pod although it was muffled slightly.
The good doctor turned back to Howard and said;"We will proceed."
Howard switched a dial before moving over to a wheel which controlled the amount of power being used. "That's ten percent. Twenty percent. Thirty. That's forty percent," Howard called out as the pod began to glow brightly from the Vita-Rays.
"Vital signs are normal," a doctor called out from where he was monitoring Steve's vitals.
"That's fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy," once Howard had called out seventy, a scream began coming from the pod.
Peggy jumped from her spot beside Erika as Erskine moved over to the pod and cried out; "Steven!"
"Shut it down," Peggy commanded as she no longer was sitting inside the booth.
Erika clutched her hands as she also jumped up from her seat and was now standing beside Peggy. "Steven!" Erskine continued to cry out as he banged his fist against the pod.
"Shut it down!" Erika now commanded, her voice carrying power over everyone in the room.
"Kill the reactor, Mr Stark! Turn it off! Kill it! Kill the reactor!" Erskine cried out to Howard but as Howard went to shut everything down, Steve's voice called out from the pod; "No! Don't! I can do this!"
Erika felt Peggy began to grip tightly onto her arm as Howard began to call out as the Vita-Rays got brighter and brighter; "Eighty. Ninety. That's a hundred percent.
The machines began to overload as sparks flew from them before everything turned off completely. "Mr Stark?" Erskine called out before the pod opened, revealing Steve.
Except now Steve was taller and muscularly as the once larger pod now looked almost too small for him. Erika let out a laugh in amazement as she felt Peggy freeze beside her.
"Steven. Steven," Erskine spoke as walked towards Steve and with Howard's help, they helped the newly transformed Steve out of the pod.
"I did it," Steve said he was out of the pod, breathing heavily.
"Yeah, yeah. I think we did it," Erskine spoke feeling proud of both himself and Steve.
"You actually did it," Howard said in amazement as Peggy and Erika rushed towards them.
"How do you feel?" Peggy asked with her eyes looking over at Steve's new body.
"Taller," Steve replied back as he now stood over everyone in the room.
Erika almost let out a laugh when Peggy reached out to touch Steve's chest but stopped herself. "You look taller," Erika remarked as she now looked up at Steve.
She handed him a shirt which he quickly put on as everyone began to congratulate the doctor.
Suddenly a loud explosion from the booth racked through the lab causing glass to fly everywhere. Screams of surprise and terror filled the room as everyone ducked down to avoid being hit. "Stop him!" Erskine cried out as he saw a man with a gun grab the last vial of serum. The man heard Erskine's cry and pointed the gun at him before pulling the trigger twice, shooting the good doctor in the chest. Erika cried out as she rushed towards Erskine with Steve by her side. They knelt down by the doctor who looked up at them. Erskine, in his final moment, raised his hand and pointed at Steve's heart. Erika felt tears stream down her face as she watched Erskine's eyes closed and life leave his body. She turned to Steve who was looking up at where the shooter had gone with a glare. "Go," her voice that was filled with sadness but also power caused him to turn to her before nodding and taking off.
Erika began to cry as she looked down at her friend. Erskine was the only one beside Howard who knew who she really was and now he was gone.
They were in a safe SSR compound where Steve was having his blood drawn in hopes of recreating the serum. "Think you got enough?" Steve remarked after they finally finished drawing up his blood.
"Any hope of reproducing a program is locked in your genetic code. But without Dr Erskine it would take years," Erika informed him from where she was leaning against the desk with her arms holding files against her chest.
"He deserved more than this," Steve told her as he stood beside her.
"If it could only work once, he'd be proud it was you," she told him making him look down at her.
She gave him a small smile as they both mourned for Erskine. "Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers," Senator Brandt's voice echoed through the SSR tech lab that was below the room where Steve and Erika were.
"Great. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?" the Colonel remarked back before turning to Howard who was working on the HYDRA submarine and asked; "What have we got here?"
"Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country. But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology," Howard answered truthfully as Erika and Steve both walked into the lab.
"Then who is?" Brandt asked in annoyance causing Erika to roll her eyes.
"Hydra. I'm sure you've been reading our briefings," Phillips remarked even though he knew that the Senator hadn't read any of the briefings.
"I'm on a number of committees, Colonel," Brandt remarked back before Peggy explained; "Hydra is the Nazi deep science division. It's led by Johann Schmidt. But he has much bigger ambitions."
"Hydra's practically a cult. They worship Schmidt, they think he's invincible," Phillips stated which made Erika scoff under her breath.
"So, what are you gonna do about it?" Brandt asked with a snarl.
"Spoke to the president this morning. As of today, the SSR is being retasked," the Colonel announced causing those around in grow confused.
"Colonel?" Erika asked in confusion as the Colonel walked towards her and Steve.
"We are taking the fight to Hydra. Pack your bags, Agent Carter. You too, Stark. You're flying to London tonight," Phillips informed them as he walked past them.
"Sir, if you're going after Schmidt, I want in," Steve's voice caused the Colonel to stop and look at him.
"You're an experiment. You're going to Alamogordo," Phillips informed Steve who wasn't happy with his answer.
"The serum worked," Steve remarked back, looking towards Erika and Peggy for help.
"I asked for an army and all I got was you. You...are not enough," Phillips said before turning towards Erika.
"You, Agent Stark will be heading to the Italian Front. They are in need of your skills," was all the Colonel said before walking out of the lab.
Erika let out a sigh before turning towards Steve and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck," she said to him with a smile before following Phillips out of the lab.
That night Erika was on a plane heading towards the Italian Front where she knew the 107th Regiment where they were fighting HYDRA.