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November 5th, 1943
"So you're telling me," Howard said with furrowed eyebrows, "that all of Schmidt's Norse obsession with 'a higher power' mumbo-jumbo stuff was real ?" His fingers ghosted the crown of his forehead.
Peggy and Steve stood across from Howard and Colonel Phillips in the otherwise empty office, and Hermione nodded her head slowly.
"Huh. And he's using your magical rune language from his mumbo-jumbo obsession combined with this tesseract thing, that's most likely not of this world, to make nearly inexhaustible weapons on a mass scale that no one has ever seen or experienced before?" He looked around the room. "Did I miss anything?"
"No, that's - that about sums it up," Hermione said.
"Well- good," Howard answered, and flopped into a chair. Fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. "Christ."
"Language," Steve admonished reflexively.
Peggy looked to Colonel Phillips. "Knowing this, how do we proceed?"
Colonel Phillips fingered the wooden table separating his small team with the nail of his thumb. He looked up. "The same as before. Those weapons need to be destroyed now more than ever. At least we know what we're up against," he answered. "Captain Rogers will assign a team to wipe out those Hydra bases. Agent Carter will provide assistance in intelligence. Agent Granger," he paused and looked to Hermione. "Will begin assessing and creating her own weapons and protective measurements for Allied troops. Mr. Stark will work with you on this. Priority: Number One."
Hermione swallowed.
The Colonel settled the weight of his expectations heavily to her shoulders. "Hydra has a sparkly cube. We have you."
And what could Hermione say against that? "Yes, Sir," she answered.
"Good." The Colonel stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a bottle of scotch to acquaint myself with before I report in."
Hermione and the others saluted Phillips on his way out.
Before the Colonel made it through the office door, he turned back around. "Oh, and Captain Rogers?" he said, and Steve straightened. "There's a couple of men that just made it to base that the higher-ups want you to meet."
Steve grimaced. "Is it to accept some sort of award from them, Colonel?"
Hermione held back a smile. Steve had been issued to receive a medal from the Senator a few days ago for his work with the Hydra camp, and Steve hadn't showed up. Completely out of the Senator's grip with Steve now solely with the SSR, the senator couldn't do anything about it. Hermione found the entire situation brilliant.
Colonel Phillips seemed to think so too, and grinned. "No, Captain. They want you to consider adding these two men in your new team. Not forcing you to, but heavily suggesting."
Steve tried hard not to frown. "Can I ask why they're interested in assigning someone, Sir?"
"You'll figure it out," Phillips answered easily. "Word of advice however, take a look at how far back these men's history runs with the military before you make your decision. Some individuals might find working with them to be - difficult."
Steve did frown at this, and Hermione mirrored the action. "Where will I find them?" Steve asked. "And their names, Sir?"
"They're brothers. Both staying before assignment at the hotel next to Whip and Fiddle, a bar in London. You'll be looking for a Victor Creed and Logan Howlett."
Peggy and Hermione exchanged a glance, they'd never heard of them from the Colonel before or read their files.
Steve nodded. "Yes, Sir."
November 6th, 1943
Hermione smoothed the edges of the lilac material against her ribs. The draped evening dress she wore cinched tight at her waist, and it fell in elegant folds to the bottom of her stocking covered knees. The top of her dress wrapped from one side overlapping the other, leaving a considerable gap of cleavage available to the brisk London air.
She had pinned her glory rolls to the top of her head so that the rest of her curls fell off one shoulder, leaving her neck, just as vulnerable as her chest, to the winter wind. Hermione rubbed her red painted lips together and followed after Peggy, an absolute vision in the form fitting red dress she had chosen for the occasion, down the cobbled street.
Music wafted from the window cracks on the outside of the bar, and Hermione could smell the heavy pungent odor of cigarette smoke carrying from its' cracked windows. Live piano music, loud cheers, and off key singing got louder as the pair of women arrived at the door to the busy bar.
Peggy led through the entrance first, and Hermione shivered at the feverish air that enveloped her when she followed. Eyes of both soldiers, and other patrons, immediately fell on the two women as they made their way forwards, and raunchy songs sung with gusto in time with the piano players fell silent. Their eyes felt like live wires under Hermione's skin, and a flush built over her cheeks and down her chest.
She passed a group of staring soldiers, and saw her old friend, Pinky, surrounded by several other men. When his eyes trailed upwards to her gaze, he winked.
Hermione held back her own returning grin, and Pinky nodded to an antechamber just behind their group of chairs.
Peggy had gone forwards to the bartender at the side, but Hermione gripped the edge of her red sleeve, and gently pulled the woman to follow after her. Silence followed their retreat, and Hermione felt the heat of numerous eyes track her as she stepped into the adjoining room.
Steve and Bucky were standing up from their wicker chairs at a tall table, leaving several drinks laid out between them, as Peggy and Hermione entered. Steve's eyes widened, and immediately glued to Hermione.
She felt the heat roar up in her ears and down her sides. "Captain," she greeted, and was surprised at the smooth level of her voice.
Bucky's eyebrows were high on his head, and she flashed him a small smile as both women came to a stop before the soldiers.
"Agent Granger," Steve answered, his eyes roving over the panes of her face.
Then silence.
"Bucky," Bucky said after a moment, introducing himself to Peggy.
"Agent Carter," she answered easily, and Hermione blushed. She flashed a guilty look at her friends.
Peggy ignored it and turned to Steve. "Howard developed some new equipment for you to try," she stated. "Tomorrow morning. Eight o'clock?"
Steve nodded to her, and smiled politely. "Sounds good."
The piano started up from further in the bar again, and voices began to sing loudly with the music. Hermione grinned at the group of men she assumed was Steve's chosen soldiers just outside the room as they joined in.
"I see your top squad is prepping for duty," she smiled.
Bucky glanced back at his team and smiled. "Aw come on doll, I know you like this song. We danced to it at Coney Island," he winked at her.
Hermione laughed, and scanned her eyes over the new faces. "What about the Creed and Howlett brothers?" she asked, turning back to Steve. "Are they among the men?"
Steve shook his head. "I haven't run into them yet. Every man I wanted to ask already said yes to the team. They're all that's left."
"Well then," a chocolate baritone voice spoke from further down the bar. "I guess now's as good a time as any."
Heads turned, and Hermione saw two men step away from a tall table and make their way towards her.
If the men were brothers, they looked nothing alike. One was tall, taller than even Steve at about 6'6 in American feet, with dark blonde hair and amber colored eyes that settled deep into his face. Thick blonde mutton chops covered the planes of his cheeks, but his squared chin was left bare; a look Hermione was certain was against-regulation. The other brother was much shorter. Shorter even than Hermione by about an inch. He had dark midnight colored hair, made even darker from the shadows of the bar, with brilliant sapphire colored eyes that stood out behind his eyebrows. The only things the brothers seemed to share were the mutton chop sideburns down their faces, the unholy amount of muscle that looked stacked atop them, and the cold glint of other in their eyes that immediately set Hermione's inner radar off the charts. Something was different about them, but Hermione had no idea what.
The tallest had spoken, and approached first.
"Sorry to barge in," he said and tipped his head down. From the glint in his eye, he wasn't at all. "Ladies," he added, and Hermione dipped her head in return. "I heard my brother's and I's name."
Hermione very much doubted that, as the bar was picking back up in volume. He would have had to have very impressive hearing if that was the case. She swallowed the urge to rebuke or question him on the statement.
Steve looked between the two men. "You Victor and Logan?" he asked, and extended a hand.
The tallest accepted the handshake with a firm grasp. "Yessir, that would be us." He turned to the man at his side. "This here is my younger brother Logan, and I'm Victor," he motioned to the stockier of the brothers first, and them himself. "I heard we were to meet with a Steve Rogers and Co tonight."
"That first part is me," Steve said, and let the man's hand go. He extended it to Logan and they shook. "Beside me is Sergeant Bucky Barnes, previously of the 107th." He motioned to Peggy. "Agent Peggy Carter of the SSR and liaison with MI6," he said and continued to Hermione. "And Agent Hermione Granger of the SSR as well."
Hands were shaken, and Victor pressed his lips to the back of Hermione and Peggy's hands. Hermione held back a grimace.
"Pleasure to meet you," Victor smiled, and Logan nodded silently beside him. "My brother and I were shipped in just this morning from the front of the Maginot Line."
Bucky raised an eyebrow. There was thick fighting in between France and Germany, known as the Maginot Line, and it wasn't pretty. "Bet you're glad to be away from the fightin' for a minute."
Victor clicked his tongue. "Nah," he said. "Fightin's in the veins." He looked to his brother. "Done so much of it now it's just another day."
Steve nodded along, his eyes focused on the older of brothers. "You know, they gave me your file. It said the same thing."
"Is that all it said?" Logan spoke up for the first time, and Victor smiled.
Hermione saw sharp canines poking from the behind his lips. Her eyes flickered between the men, lost at the tension suddenly under the conversation.
Steve tucked his hands in his pockets. "That's the only word I'm concerned over."
Victor's smile became less predatory like, and he mirrored Steve's actions, putting his hands in his trouser pockets. "Good to know, as I hear we're going hunting for some Kraut together."
Steve motioned to the team assembled in the other room. "The rest of the men are in there, I'll introduce you. We leave next week."
December 9th, 1943
They did not eliminate their first Hydra base until over a month later.
Hermione did not go on missions out of base with Steve and his newly dubbed 'Howling Commandos', as she was primarily in the lab with Howard from sun up to late into the night. She applied herself to Colonel Phillips orders, and fully devoted her previous magical degrees to the military's never ending problems.
Several Allied Bases were now untraceable and unplottable against Hydra's spies.
Thousands of Allied soldiers packs held extension and feather weight charms.
Several military companies had trial portkeys that they could use for emergencies to an undisclosed base.
Hermione was in the process of recreating Fred and George's Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, and several new products that could help medics on the field, including Cauterizatus Bandages. It was a handy charm she had stumbled across in Italy after Voldemort's war that was applied to a length of cloth. When the cloth was exposed to blood, usually wrapped around an appendage, the cloth would cauterize the wound from the outside in. A nasty piece of work for the wearer, but potentially, it could save lives.
Hermione also invented charmed needles under what she called the 'Clean Stitch Charm', Consuo Integer, to help medics apply magically disinfected needles and thread against an open wound that would automatically sew them together. She didn't have a full understanding of what spells or methods Magical Healers used in her old world, but she did the best she could off her spell crafting knowledge from the Unspeakables.
Hermione had also fiddled with sewing runes into boots or army jackets with the Imperturbable Charm and the 'Naudiz' rune symbol for willpower, survival, and necessity. It effectively made army outerwear nearly bullet or explosion proof, inspired by the 'shield hats' that Fred and George had sold during Voldemort's war.
The drawbacks to these more intricate pieces of magical defense was that it took time to create, and they didn't last long - the spell would stop the wearer from getting shot by a maximum amount of five bullets, or one bad explosion, before the spell wore off completely as the user did not hold a magical core of their own to sustain the magical depletion afterwards. To renew the spell, Hermione would have to pick the stitches out and reapply the spell into the material. Although handy, and a great idea to help people stop getting shot, it was not efficient in the millions of soldiers that needed her help.
Howard, on the other hand, was elbow deep in testing the tesseract energy from the Hydra weapons. He spoke with Hermione nearly every evening, saying that he believed it to be the key to limitless, renewable, clean energy. Primary testing even suggested that a brand new element structure could eventually be created from it, and that theoretically it would partially replicate the energy of the tesseract. But the technology for this was decades in the future -no where near what Howard could do now. He often joked that his future children would have to rediscover the new element, and name if after the family.
So then in between his research of the tesseract, Howard focused on trying to develop magical weapons. And while Hermione understood the necessity of those weapons for the War, she was loath to create something so fundamentally destructive against the muggles.
Hermione, at her very core, did not want to cause further destruction to a war torn world.
Howard and Hermione were going back and forth on the application of unlimited ammunition on Allied weapons, but without the tesseract, when Steve found them after his mission.
Hermione heard the lab door open, the sound of booted feet approach, but she did not turn from her chalkboard. "As I've said Howard," she continued with their argument while writing an arithmetic equation on the board for one of her projects. "We can't provide the same magical fix-all that Hydra has on their weapons because I can't charm that many guns, or bullets, or magazines, or crossbows, or whatever your going to say next. The tesseract was what powered the weapons, I can't replicate something with that kind of energy." She turned on her heel and pointed the chalk at the intruder in her labs. "And if you're here to report for Colonel-"
Her eyes widened, and the chalk dropped from her fingers. "Steve!" she exclaimed.
Steve looked like he had just gotten off the motorcycle back from his mission. His hair was windswept, dirt covered the sides of his jaw, his uniform was splattered with mud and something darker that Hermione didn't take a closer look at, and his helmet was tucked under one leather coated arm. He must have just come back from completing their first Hydra base mission, and the uniform suggest that it hadn't been easy.
Steve saluted her after a quick look at Howard. "Agent Granger," he said neutrally.
Hermione withheld the urge to jump forwards and wrap her arms around him. She settled for quickly inspecting him for any obvious injuries, before folding her hands behind her back.
Howard leaned against the blackboard beside her.
"Captain Rogers," she replied. "I hadn't heard that you'd returned."
The open lab door filled with another pair of broad shoulders, and the dark hair of Bucky Barnes filled the space behind Steve. "That's only cause we just got back, doll," he said, and Hermione's lips pulled upwards at the other man. Bucky stuck a thumb at his oldest friend. "Punk jumped right off his ride when we got in, straight to you. No debrief, no nothin."
Steve licked his lower lip and didn't meet Hermione's widening eyes.
"Colonel's gonna have his ass when he finds-"
"Language, Buck," Steve interrupted.
Bucky rolled his eyes. "I don't remember the serum giving you such a big stick up your-"
"Bucky."
The shorter man put his hands in the air. "Alright. Alright." He gave Hermione a wink. "Don't say I didn't I didn't warn ya when he digs his teeth in, yea?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, and turned back to the equation on the board next to her. "Gentlemen, as happy as I am to see you back in one piece, Bucky is right. You should be returning to Colonel Phillips for debrief. He will want to know how the first mission went and what our next steps are."
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am," Bucky shot off a lazy salute, and Howard laughed beside her at the board.
Steve didn't move towards the door, like Bucky did, and it made Hermione look up. He was staring at a spot behind her head like he was deep in thought about something.
Hermione frowned.
Perhaps the mission had emotionally affected Steve more than he was letting on? It was his first time leading a group of soldiers. Perhaps he was in some sort of emotional shock? "Steve?" she said carefully, bypassing his title.
He blinked, and his eyes snapped back to her. Whatever he'd been thinking about still clearly laid heavily over his thoughts, and a flash of worry crossed his eyes.
In the back of Hermione's mind, she wondered when she had begun to read Steve so well.
"Hermione-" Steve said. "You should be there for the debrief. It's got to do with you as well."
Hermione's eyebrows came together. "With me?"
Bruck frowned at the door, and Steve nodded. "Logan interrogated an officer in the building before we left, and he'd mentioned you. Specifically."
Hermione swallowed. Fear rose in her chest like bugs crawling underneath her skin to her heart. Johann. "I'll - Howard, I'll be right-"
"I'll come too," Howard interrupted, and placed a hand on the small of Hermione's back.
Steve's eyes zeroed in at the touch.
Howard continued, "I'm one of the only people here that knows everything else about you. If Hydra's calling you out autonomously, we'll need all hands in."
Hermione barely felt Howard guide her towards the door, and Steve follow after them down the hallways. Her mind was already move forwards, deducing from what she knew and could guess at, and creating hypotheses.
When they came to a seperate office with Colonel Phillips and Peggy, Steve stood next to Hermione's side where Howard had been, pushing the other man behind to Steve's opposite side. Logan and Victor Howlett were present as well, but the rest of the team was absent.
"Captain Rogers, your men tell me that you went to Agent Granger before debrief," Colonel Phillips greeted them coldly. "Now while I don't know what they taught you stateside in basic training, I do know that the SSR is held to a higher standard and basic procedures will always be followed here. Wandering off for some alone time is not acceptable. Do I make myself clear?" His eyes flickered to Hermione, his tone making it clear what he thought Steve had been up to.
Hermione flushed.
"Yes, Sir. I-"
"The same thing goes for you too Sergeant Barnes," Colonel Phillips cut in.
Bucky nodded sharply back at Hermione's other side, but said nothing.
The Colonel put his hands behind his back. "And while I don't know what the three of you were doing th-"
"Colonel!" Hermione snapped, her blush going all the way down to her toes. Eyes widened at her tone, but hot anger was flushed through her chest. The arrogance of his statement. "Your point has been made," she said icily.
Steve stepped forwards, shielding a part of Hermione away, as the Colonel's eyes narrowed further. "Sir, I reported to Agent Granger first because she's part of the report."
The Colonel held back whatever retort he was going to say next.
Steve nodded to the stockier man between the strange brothers.
Logan Howlett was as dirty as Steve when he stepped forwards, his hair windswept and tangled with mud that was also embedded in the panes of his discoloured uniform that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks. A thick cigar hung from the corner of his mouth as he spoke. "We caught a Kraut on the run before we detonated the walls," he reported between drags of smoke. "High up. Officer of some kind. He didn't take well to being captured with his friends until he heard Pinky chatting. He said your name," he tilted his chin at Hermione. "Then he said 'Zeitreisende' like it meant something to him. Which, from the small German I've picked up, means-"
"Time traveler," Hermione answered for him, her voice soft. She'd should have known. Johan had spread her existence to his men. They knew about her. She should have known.
Victor crossed his arms over his chest. Logan mirrored his movement and nodded once. "Kraut got excited about it. Said, 'time was coming for their weapon. Jewel of Hydra, or something like it. And it was created for their Zeitreisende, for you." He looked Hermione over closely, like he'd never seen her before. "Didn't know he was talking about about the five foot nothin dame we'd seen earlier, and i'd like to know why he's calling you a time traveler."
"That's need to know Howlett," Colonel Phillips answered instead. "And right now, neither of you need to know." He traded looks with the brothers. "Don't ask again."
Victor's eyes narrowed. "If she's one of us, that's 'need to know'," he argued.
Us? Hermione thought.
"She's not," Steve stated.
Victor turned his eyes to the shorter soldier. "Now I'd hate to think you're lying to me, Captain, just because you're a little hot under the collar for the dame."
Steve stared the man down, and a violent tension filled the air. "I'm not. And she's not what you think she is. Schmidt's just crazy."
Hermione was lost. "Hold on," she said, looking between the two soldiers. "What am I not? I feel as if we're having two separate conversations, and I'm not sure which I should be listening to."
Victor and Logan exchanged a look. They must have had some secret language known only between the flicks of their eyebrows, because after a few silent moments of silence, Victor rolled his eyes and stepped away. The tension drained from his powerful shoulders, and then the room.
Logan, the soft spoken and shorter of the brothers, was the one to answer her. "What do you know about people with special abilities, powers, Agent Granger?"
Things clicked into place. Pinky's conversation with her about the late soldier, McDaniels, from her trek around Italy, filled her mind. Observations and details in previous conversations helped close the remaining gaps. They both had powers. That's why the military wanted them on Steve's team to take out Hydra. They were special, like Steve.
Logan began to explain about he and his brother's past. How the step brothers were born with certain powers at birth, that then had revealed themselves under intense stress as they got older. They weren't human. Not entirely. They could do things that other humans could only dream of, and they did it without magic. They could lift a car over their head. And heal from a dozen bullet wounds in a short amount of time. They were immune to poison. They both could grow sort-of claw things from their hands, just at different positions. They lived for a long time. Over a hundred years in fact, as Logan was born 1832, and Victor in 1828.
Hermione began to learn that they were a different breed of human, and it was absolutely fascinating.
The parallels of Hermione's own difference with regular humans and what people like Logan and Victor could do was similar, but also completely opposite. If one was to take blood from Hermione and look at it under a microscope, there wouldn't be a difference from other humans. However, if one was to try the same thing with Logan and Victor, the same might not be said. There could be something fundamentally different with them to allow such a physical difference in the human body. Something in the DNA perhaps?
"And how many people are affected like this?" Hermione asked, after Logan's explanation.
Only Howard reacted with wonder and amazement like Hermione at the new discovery. The Colonel and Peggy didn't look surprised, and Steve was nodding along during the shorter man's story. Hermione needed to take a look at the brother's file.
"Only met a couple handful of people in the last hundred years," Logan answered, looking her in the eye. "Not many want others to know. Some live remotely enough where they'll never be found. It's hard to tell."
Hermione shook her head. "That's still thought of those people being more-" Hermione shook her head. "I mean the possibilities of what that could mean are infinite, it's absolutely amazing." If there were limitless ideas of the types of powers in Hermione's own imagination, the physical reality of that could be was so much more.
People in this dimension could be anything.
Magic, like Hermione and the Ancient One and her followers. Part beast, or at the very least, sharing animalistic qualities like Logan and Victor. Elemental characteristics, like The Torch back in the 30's. Steve's own incredible transformation from his frail body to now. The things this world had shown Hermione destroyed her standards of normal, and she had worked with experimental magic every day before this.
Victor grimaced. "So then, you're not one of us i'm guessin'?"
Hermione shook her head. "No. Well-" Hermione's head tipped to the side. "I was born the way that I am, but I don't think that it's the same as what you are."
"Sounds like denial kid," Logan said gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Which, if that's how to want to get on in life-"
"It's not that," Hermione hurried to explain. "I'm not ashamed of what I can do, or what that makes me. It's just-" She turned to the Colonel with a silent question.
The Colonel sighed and nodded. "Might as well. They won't be telling anyone."
And so the number of people that knew Hermione's secrets grew.
She explained where she was from, what she grew up to be, elements of her old world, and then how she ended up nearly seventy years in the past and in a different dimension to boot. When she was done catching the brother's up on the past three years of Hermione's life, she shrugged slightly. "And that's how Johann knows about me. About where I'm from."
"So he knows you're from the future, but not from a different world. And he doesn't know that you're a-" Logan said.
"A witch," Victor finished, and shook his head. "An actual witch, from a different world. Jesus Christ Rogers, you know how to pick 'em."
"Hey," Steve snapped, eyes burning at the taller soldier. Anger, the kind that Hermione had never heard before from Steve, laced his voice. "Language, Creed."
Victor didn't even blink at the tone. Clearly their tension wasn't new.
"I think we're all forgetting the most important part here," Howard volunteered evenly. "Hydra's got a weapon. A new weapon that they want to use specifically against Hermione."
"It's not just that," Logan said back gruffly. "He wants her. That's what that officer said."
"I can protect myself," Hermione argued immediately. She was not some damsel from their 40's film. "I have already lived through one war. I know how to keep my head down, and I barely ever even leave base to begin with. He wouldn't have the chance!"
"And when he finds out what you can do?" Victor demanded. "When Hydra gets word that a special someone can do what no one else has ever heard of, he going to think of you. And if he already knows you've got knowledge of the future, you'll be enemy Number One, occupied territories and Allies be damned."
"I don't like your tone now," Bucky snapped, taking a step forwards by Howard's side. Anger glinted dangerously from his eyes.
"Don't start. She'll bring half of Hydra if they find her!"
"If! If they find her, which they won't-"
"Don't be such a yuck," Victor snapped back, his anger seemed to fill the room. "Schmidt wants her bad now. What do you think he's gonna do when he finds out what she's capable of? Huh?" His eyes scanned the room. "What are we gonna do when he uses Hydra's gem against her, and she turns that wand on us?"
Several voices broke out at once.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You got-" Bucky started
"Stand down Creed. You got no idea what-" Steve began
"That's easy, they're never gonna find-" Howard said.
Hermione was lost again. Turn my wand on - "Hold on!" Hermione shouted, and the voices cut off. "I thought Johann had a weapon that he wanted to us against me?"
"It is a weapon," Steve said softly to her, but his eyes were focused on Victor. "But it's not to kill you."
Fear crept up her spine.
Victor snorted. Colonel Phillips head snapped to the older soldier, and he only laughed at the narrowed eyes of Steve, Bucky, and Howard.
"No, Agent Granger," he chuckled darkly. "He doesn't want to kill you. He wants to control you."
"That's what it does," Logan explained. "That kraut said that it's supposed to be able to make you do anything he says."
Hermione's mind froze for a moment. How? Was it some sort of imperius curse attached to an object, like a crown, or shackles? Did he find a way to actually cast spells? Was that even possible? The cube wasn't magic, it was energy.
"That's - he can't- I mean, that's not possible-"
Victor snorted again. "Yeah well, welcome to Hydra."
* I gave Logan (Wolverine) an extra two inches of height as in the comics he's 5'3. Now he's 5'5, an inch shorter than Hermione.
* Howard finds the theoretical element that will eventually save Tony's life from palladium poisoning within the tesseract's energy at this point in time. He'll be holding onto this for decades, waiting for the technology to catch up with his brain (that eventually Tony created and finished for him in the movies).
* In the comics Wolverine is born sometime in 1882-1885 era, but the movies had him born in 1832, allowing him to fight in the American Civil War in 1861. I am more inclined to agree with that longer time period as it just works better for his character here.
* Yuck - a foolish or stupid person