December 8th 1941 12:30 PM West Virginia
"Mr Vice President, Mr Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:
Yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.
Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack. It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces.
I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves.The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defence. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire."
I switched off the radio and the table descended into an uncomfortable silence. Of the three occupants in the room around the table, I was the only one that already knew what President Roosevelt was going to say word by word. In another life, I had seen and heard this speech on my laptop. But hearing this speech in the presence of my current family was somewhat depressing.
I sneaked a peek to my father Richard Price who was steadily ignoring the fact that the president even spoke. He was concentrating firmly on the crowd pork chops in his plate. Then I looked at my mum Catherine Price who made eye contact with me and shook her head as if to warn me. Quick as a horse she concentrated on her plate as if she was doing that all along.
"I would like to enlist…." I barely finished the sentence as my father banged on the table hard with his right-hand startling e.
"We are not having this conversation you hear me. We are not and you are certainly not going away from home." My father growled out through gritted teeth.
"Dad, this war is important. It will decide the fate…"
"Blah…blah…blah. All smoke and mirrors son. They are just propaganda to make youngsters like you throw away your lives for nothing. Trust me I know. There is no right side or right cause in a war. It is just men killing men." my father said with a far off look and I could see the pain in his eyes. He was a ww1 veteran so he was speaking from his experience.
"But dad this war is different. Look at what happened at Pearl Harbour. We will be fighting Japan and then the Nazis." I tried to push but my dad stood up from his seat in rage.
"You will not throw away your life like your foolish brothers. Edwin and John are in Britain. I will not have my third son march off into war and throw away your life."
"But father…"
"You will obey me." My father shouted. My mother reached across the table and took my hand into her own.
"Richard I will speak to him." My mother gave my father a look and the anger drained out of him in an instant.
"You talk some sense into him."
I watched on in silence as my father marched out of the dining room leaving me and mom. I turned to my mother who was sporting a disappointed look.
"I just want to serve my country mom."
"If that is the case then you can serve the country by running our business. Your father tells me that a lot of military contracts are coming our way and I want you to focus on that."
"But mom I…"
"You will not join the army and that's final. Two of my sons are in Britain and every day I pray to God they stay alive. You are my youngest and I won't have you throw away your life in this war."
"Mom I don't think that your choice. I am a grown-up and I can make my own decisions."
"You are a grown-up, are you? You are barely out of college and you think you know what war is like. Your father fought in Europe and so did my brother. I cried for weeks when my brother returned all torn up fighting someone else's war. Your father barely survived and when he returned he was not himself. He nearly drank himself to death and what pulled him out was you and your brothers. You three saved him from himself. Your father lives because of you and your siblings. The least that you could do is respect his wishes."
I sighed and leaned back into my seat watching my mother finish her lunch leaving me at the table by my lonesome. I sullenly played with the pork chops on my plate thinking about the morbid future waiting around the corner.
The Pearl Harbour attack had happened exactly as I remembered. I had hoped and prayed to God that it would not happen but it did. I would have liked to stop it but I was not arrogant enough to think my opinions would be heard by the US Navy or the leadership in Washington. Why would they take the mad ravings of a college student when they refused to believe their own intelligence officers? So it left me with two options. I could pray to God for somehow diverting the attack or I could prepare for what came after the attack. The first option obviously failed but I did prepare for what comes next.
My grandfather was a small scale gun manufacturer and my father expanded on the business after the Great War to Heavy Vehicle manufacturing like trucks, tractors, armoured vehicles, special purpose machines. His contacts in the military helped him to expand his business and business was booming because of war in Europe. Having a knack for engineering in my previous life I did help around the factory a lot mostly in designing new vehicles and engines. It was one of the reasons my father chucked me into college to get an Engineering degree.
Till I went to college I was of the opinion I had no reason to disbelieve that I was merely displaced in time. But when my father sent me to Culver University I knew that I was in a whole other universe, to be exact the Marvel Universe. To my knowledge, Culver University existed only in the Marvel franchise as Willowsdale never even had a college, to begin with. But I was proven wrong with this simple revelation. My entire planning crashed down around me at that moment. Nazis, Communists and genocidal imperialists were one thing but HYDRA, mutants, magic, aliens, Titans and gods were a whole different dimension of crazy.
My college days were spent pouring over every scrap of books I could find and in my spare time formulating hundreds of plans. The major event that would happen in the US was the Super Soldier Serum. Outside of that, there was hardly anything worth mentioning. Well, there was the Tesseract but it was on another continent. The only avenue that I could exploit my otherworldly knowledge was the order of Mystic Arts. Unfortunately, they were far away and I had no idea how to contact them. There was supposed to be a Sanctum in New York but I don't have an exact location. This was true for all the other Sanctums. Also, I had no idea just what kind of timeline this universe was following so I was limited in my options.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that chasing after abnormal powers was a bad idea at the moment. Power attracts unwanted attention and I had no intention of being the target of super-powered villains and aliens. Setting aside any power-seeking adventure I embraced my life as normally as I could. I moved forward with plans against the mundane threats like nazis, Empire of Japan and Communists. I passed college with flying colours owing to my previous education and the goals that were driving me on. If nothing else I was fired up to contribute in any way so that I can punch a hole through Hitler's and Stalin's dark heart.
Even when I was in college I was deeply involved with the family business. While my skills lay in electronics and computing I was a dab hand in mechanics mostly thanks to my dad. By the time I finished college I had three patents to my name on magnetic dampers, hydraulic suspension and a power steering system. While magnetic dampers didn't get that much attention my other two patents were a gold mine. One of the reasons why the Price trucks were in high demand was because of its sophisticated operating systems. A fully functioning cooler and heater coupled with power steering and high torque was just the thing for heavy trucks.
The profits from truck sales were so high that they were able to expand their business into aircraft production. While no sales have so far gone through it was only a matter of time especially with the war picking up its pace. My eyes shifted to the black suitcase sitting innocently on the nearby chair. It contained some of the designs for some new projects that were long overdue. In fact, it was something that I have been working on for some time but several design flaws forced me to put the projects in the backburner.
The sound of phone ringing forced me out of my stupor. I stood up and went to pick up the phone that was in the drawing-room but before I could make it my dad was there.
"Price residence."
He heard his father say and then there was a whispered conversation that was hard to follow. A few minutes later my dad put the receiver back.
"Who was that?" I asked
"A contact in the army. We can expect a visit from their representatives as well as from the navy. They are interested in our planes."
"That is good news isn't it?" I asked awkwardly because I could see no happiness on his face.
"That depends…"
"On what?"
"Whether you are going to be here to show them our planes or are you intent on getting yourself killed in the war."
"Dad I…"
"I get that you want to defend your country trust me I do. But there are other ways of serving our country. You have a very sharp and imaginative mind son. Use that and help our country rather than fall prey to a bullet and waste your life."
"I will be here." I promised eventually and so ended my dream of enlisting in the navy. 'Looks like it was normal civilian life for me.'
AN: This was just an idea that was floating around in my head after I saw Captain America: First Avenger once again this week. What do you guys think? Does it have more potential than my Vex story?