Agent Carter, Flags and Grenades

Camp Lehigh, 26th Infantry

Steve's squad is lined up in no particular order, him and Bucky are side by side, but they're just looking around. It's both of their first time being trained, they've seen this place many times before, but now they're viewing it in a different way. They can hear Officer's behind them, yelling at their own squad to 'hurry up,' or 'move faster.' Steve is probably the smallest guy here, even Bucky's bigger than him. I mean, in Steve's point of view, Bucky's probably the biggest guy here, which makes their friendship a little weird, for them at least.

They get snapped out of their thinking space when a woman yells, "recruits, attention!" The men all fall in line, in perfect military fashion, maybe not perfect, some of their backs aren't straight, and their chins aren't high enough, but they'll learn. At least, this is in Peggy's point of view, she's been trained almost as much as Ava was. "Gentlemen, I am Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division," she says, her British accent standing out to most, especially the guy who speaks next.

"What's with the accent, Queen Victoria?" The man says, with a southern accent of his own. Peggy stops walking down the line, when he speaks. "I thought I was signing up for the US Army."

"What's your name, soldier?" Peggy asks, her perfectly done dark brown hair staying in place as she turns to face him.

"Gilmore Hodge, Your Majesty," he introduces himself, still making fun of her accent.

"Step forward, Hodge," she instructs, having the perfect plan that will hopefully put him in place. He does as she says. "Put your right foot forward." He does this as well.

"Mmm…we gonna wrassle?" He asks, with a slight smirk on his face, that Peggy notices, since she is less than a foot from his face. A guy is going down the line, handing a file to everyone, it's their own file. "'Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like," he flirts. And just for kicks, he adds a wink, but is shut up when Peggy punches him and he falls to the ground, like when that man was punching Steve the other day. Steve smiles at Peggy, surprised and proud that she stood up for herself. Most women nowadays don't do that, they only speak when spoken to, and aren't allowed to talk back. Most women, except for Avery, and apparently Agent Carter as well.

"Agent Carter!" Colonel Phillips yells, walking up to the line of soldiers.

"Colonel Phillips," Peggy says, turning around, in a military stance to address the colonel.

"I can see that you are breaking in the candidates. That's good!" He says, when he notices Hodge on the ground, with a bloody nose. "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line at attention till somebody comes tells you what to do," Phillips instructs.

Hodge stands up, and with a high chin and deeper voice replies, "yes, sir!" He's sniffing his nose, to make sure that no blood runs down his face as well.

"General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men. We are going to win this war because we have the best men," he says, faltering when he sees Steve, wondering why someone would accept him into the Army. He's going to get killed, for goodness sake! He realizes who it was, and looks over to Dr. Erskine, who's standing beside Peggy. Erskine glances at him before looking emotionless. "And because they are going to get better," he says, glancing at Steve once again. "Much better. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an Allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history. But every army starts with one man. At the end of this week, we will choose that man, and an additional man as well. They will be the first in a new breed of super-soldier. And they will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of hell." A week into this and Steve can't keep up, he knows Bucky will do good, in fact, he has done good, but Steve can't keep up, but he will try his hardest to, if he can't use muscle, he'll use his brain. In fact, over this week many things have occurred. As men are making their beds in the bunker, Steve with them, Bucky is unpacking his books, the ones that Ava recommended he read during his time here. He's always loved that she has an interest in books and all things science, he loves everything about her at this point. He picks up a small leather box, that's a jewelry box. He opens it and it reveals the engagement ring. He hopes and prays that she's okay, even though in the back of his mind, he knows she is, they're connected, but that doesn't mean he still can't worry. The next day they went through a training course, they had to climb a rope net, everyone was doing good, until Steve went. He tried to climb it, but his leg got stuck in a hole and he fell upside down, dangling from the net.

"Rogers! Get off of there!" An Officer yells at him as the other men laugh, one of the men being Hodge, who's at the top of the net. Bucky just looks at him with sympathy, having already completed the course. He promised Avery that he would look out for him, and he intends to keep that promise. The next obstacle, they have to Army crawl under barbed wire, carrying a gun. Steve is having a hard time, you'd think that since he's so small he would be able to get through, but he can't seem to drag his body across the dirt that easily. Hodge, in front of Steve, turns onto his back and kicks the post that's holding the barbed wire up, making it fall. Steve tucks his head into his elbow, so he doesn't get cut, but grunt when it falls on his back. "Rogers! Get that rifle out of the mud!" The same Officer yells. Peggy turns to look at what the commotion is when she sees Steve under barbed wire. She can't help but smile a little bit. That's where we get to today, they're running around the whole camp, ten miles in total. "Pick up the pace, ladies!" The Officer who's been training them yells as he leads the group. "Let's go, let's go! Double time!" Peggy, waiting in a car, looks back at the commotion, taking the pencil out of her mouth, that she put there as she flipped the pages on her clipboard. "Squad, halt!" The Officer orders, the group stops, but Steve is still trying to keep up, granted Bucky's at the back of the group, having a little trouble as well. He's not used to running this much. "That flag means we're only at the halfway point," the Officer says, pointing at the flagpole they're standing by. "First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Carter. Move! Move!" All the men start running towards the pole. All of them try to climb the pole, but everyone fails, the trick is to use your brain not muscle. The Officer keeps yelling taunting things like, 'if that's all you got, this army's in trouble,' and it's not helping them. Bucky and Steve stay behind trying to catch their breath after the five mile run, and they still have another five to go. Hodge tries to climb the pole next, he only gets about halfway before he slides down it, back to the ground. "Now fall back into line! Come on, fall in!" The Officer yells. Everyone immediately goes back to the path where they're jogging. Steve and Bucky don't listen, instead they walk up to the pole and examine it. Steve sees that the pole is connected to a smaller one, holding it up. He points at it, and Bucky sees it as well. Bucky removes the smaller pole and the whole flagpole falls over. Instead of racing towards the flag, like Bucky and Steve thought they would, the group just stares at them, gawking with their jaws dropped. Bucky throws the pole down and walks up to collect the flag. Him and Steve walk up to the Officer and James hands over the flag.

"Thank you, sir," he breathes, still trying to catch his breath, before getting in the back of the jeep that Peggy is in. She turns around to look at Steve and he nods, before they smile at each other and the jeep takes off.

….

"Faster, ladies! Come on," Peggy instructs, as she watches the group do pushups on the ground. "My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul." Steve is struggling to do push ups, he can't seem to push himself up, so instead of his body being in a straight line, his hips are still on the ground, while his shoulders rise in the air, making him look like a seal.

"You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you? Barnes I'm fine with, but Rogers!" Phillips asks Dr. Erskine as they walk towards the group.

"I'm more than just thinking about it. They are the clear choice," Erskine answers, in a confident and determined tone.

"When you brought a 90-pound asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide. I thought, 'What the hell.' Maybe he'd be useful to you, like a gerbil. I never thought you'd pick him," Phillips says, focusing on Steve more than James. He really doesn't want Steve to be a part of this, this procedure will surely kill him.

"Up!" Peggy instructs. All of them jump up, like it was practiced, but Steve takes his time getting up, worn out from the pushups. The front of his shirt has dirt stains on it, from him laying in the dirt. Phillips and Erskine stop near a truck that's close by where the group is doing exercises.

"You stick a needle in that kid's arm, it's gonna go right through him," Phillips says, looking at Rogers. The group starts doing jumping jacks, the metal of their dog tags making a clinking sound as they jump. "Look at that," Phillips says, instructing Erskine to look at Steve, struggling to do the jumping jacks. "He's making me cry."

"I am looking for qualities beyond the physical," Erskine says, looking at Phillips in a tired manner, meaning he's tired of arguing about this.

"Do you know how long it took to set up this project?" Phillips asks. So he's going to play that card, huh? Erskine mumbles something in German under his breath as he nods and looks away. "All the groveling I had to do in front of Senator What's-His-Name's committees?"

"Brandt. Yes, I know. I am well aware of your efforts," Erskine says, peering at Phillips over the top of his glasses.

"Then throw me a bone. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast. He obeys orders," Phillips says, begging Erskine to pick Hodge. He doesn't beg much, but when he does it means he really wants something to happen. "He's a soldier.

"He is a bully," Erskine redirects. He's seen Hodge on the field, personally, he thinks he's not a good match, especially for this procedure.

"You don't win wars with niceness, Doctor." Phillips peers around Erskine at the back of the truck. He grabs an object out of a box. "You win wars with guts." Phillips pulls the trigger on the grenade in his hand and rolls it on the ground, towards the group. "Grenade!"

Everyone in the group glances at the grenade before yelling, "move, move!" As they run for cover. Steve, instead of running for cover, he runs towards the grenade and lands on top of it, ready to take the blast.

"Steve!" Bucky yells as he goes to grab Steve, but is held back by his group. He tries to shake them off, but they have a firm grip on his clothing.

"Get away!" Steve yells. Peggy, who went to kick the grenade out of the way, stops and looks at Steve in disbelief, not even trying to duck for cover. After a couple of seconds, when the grenade doesn't go off, everyone gets back up, slowly.

"It was a dummy grenade," someone behind the group says. Steve sits up, in disbelief about what he just did. Ava would probably kill him later for it, if Bucky didn't. Phillips looks down, he didn't think that Steve would do that. Peggy now looks at him differently, in a thoughtful yet caring way.

"Is this a test?" Steve pants, asking the Colonel. Phillips looks at Erskine who shrugs.

"He's still skinny," he says before walking away. Erskine just raises his eyebrows and looks back at Steve, Bucky now helping him up, and then punching him in the shoulder.