"I just want to make sure that I've got this all correct," Patrick spoke slowly as he leaned forward. "In twenty-five days I am going to be one of the strongest people on earth. Like out of a comic book. Throwing cars around and shooting lightning out of my eyes."

"That's accurate, more or less." Stanley replied.

"Well, neat." At this point Patrick could not think of any other way to respond.

General Stanley Morton had been the one to proclaim that Patrick was going to be a hero. Over the last few hours Patrick had discovered that Stanley was, despite that intimidating first impression, an easy man to get along with and considerably less up his own ass than might be expected. A small comfort while trying to process the barrage of information that had been sent his way.

The incident at the clinic had only been a few hours earlier but to Patrick it might as well have been another lifetime. So far he had been briefed on what the German Battleships had shown themselves to be capable of of and therefore what he would be able to achieve in the near future. Most of that education had come in the back of a jeep heading south, away from the fighting. From what the General had told him they did not want to risk what little of the Catalyst they had anywhere near enemy lines. Not that Patrick had been informed of just where they were heading.

Sitting back in his seat Patrick pressed his eyes shut. His hangover had disappeared quickly only to be replaced by a sense of dread. He hated letting down people who relied upon him but now the expectations were far higher. If he understood Stanley then he was going to be the linchpin for holding off a superior German force long enough for Britain and the US to even out the odds. Just being a soldier was bad enough and Patrick had never wanted much more responsibility than that.

"Now I know that this is a lot to take in. We're all in the same boat right now. What I figure is that even if the means of war have changed on us all of the sudden our reasons for fighting haven't. So why did you join up?" Stanley asked in a calming tone.

"It was something to do," Patrick's flippant response brought a snort of laughter from the older officer, who raised an eyebrow as he silently pressed for an actual answer. "Well it's the truth isn't it? I'm a big guy, I'm young and I'm healthy. If I hadn't volunteered I would have been drafted. Not like I was some big shot back home, I worked down at the docks for Christ's sake!"

"Would have figured you for a navy man then, instead you come and play in the mud with the rest of us."

"I worked on the docks. As in I moved stuff after it came off the ships. It was bad enough having to survive on that tub on the way over here. My stomach gets a bit tender from the waves." That was a face-saving understatement on Patrick's part. He had spent most of the voyage to Britain dry heaving in his cot. It had taken a full week for his health to return once his feet were firmly on dry land again.

"Happens to the best of us," Stanley clapped him on the shoulder. "How about your family, anyone else come along for the ride?"

"My little brother, Eamonn, he's over in the Pacific the lucky bastard. Getting to enjoy the sun and the surf. He does pretty good on ships considering that he's a scrawny little guy. Mary, she's the oldest of us, her husband has a crap leg but I think he got some sort of desk job back home and Colleen, she's the next oldest after me, her husband is a transport pilot." It was calming in a way to think about everyone else in his extended family who were fighting as well. Made Patrick feel a little less like he had been singled out.

"Just how many of you O'Connors are there?"

"It goes Mary, then me, Colleen, Siobhan, Eamonn and finally Annie. Plus Ma," Seeing the unspoken question on Stanley's face Patrick added. "Dad died about eight years ago now."

"Sorry to hear that. Always a rough thing to lose one of your parents," After a moment Stanley's face brightened up. " But I have two beautiful daughters so I know what it is like to be outnumbered in a household. Let me guess, are you the one who always has to get things off the top shelves?"

"That's the story of my life pal, I mean sir." Realizing that he was getting a bit too familiar Patrick belatedly added on the honorific. Surprisingly Stanley just waved him off.

"In my books you are about to risk your ass to save a whole lot of people Patrick," Stanley nodded to himself as he spoke. "So I won't get hung up on protocol. Now to get to why I've been dragging you down memory lane for this little trip, I firmly believe that if we are going to win this war then we need to fight for concrete things. Freedom and liberty are lovely ideals but you can't reach out and hold them. You can hold onto your family, your friends and your home. Those are what is at stake. I don't think you'll let any of them down, will you?"

"No sir," Patrick slipped back into routine despite the General's assurances. "No I would not."

That ended the conversation for now. After all it gave Patrick a lot to think about.

Half of the guys back on the docks were assholes so he was not too worried about letting any of them down. Then there were the folks who frequented the bars where Patrick spent most of his free time. That crowd was mostly friendly and he would hate to see the iron fist of the Nazis reach out and clamp down on the vibrant, though often chaotic, underbelly of New York. What worried him most was unsurprisingly his family.

Ma was usually a tough lady but she had cried her eyes out before Patrick and Eamonn had left. The last conversation they had before he left had involved her switching between making him promise to stay safe to making him promise to be a 'good Christian boy' over in Europe. He had already lapsed on the second promise too many times to count but he was not going to break the first one. Besides, his mother had known well enough that he would find some way to have fun just like he did at home. More than once he had considered asking one of the girls he had gone steadier with over here to marry him just to see the shocked look on his mother's face when he came home with a blushing bride. Smiling Patrick mused that at least his sense of humour still seemed to be working.

His youngest sisters Siobhan and Annie were innocent enough that they still looked up to him. They never pointed out his flaws and he loved them for it. Both had been as teary eyed as Ma while saying their goodbyes and Patrick considered his promise to come back home to them just as important.

Colleen was the odd one out of the family. She was quiet and not given to showing much emotion. With her husband having already gone off to training she had other things on her mind when Patrick was leaving. It turned out that she had been three months pregnant and that Patrick now had a chubby little nephew to meet when he came back home. That really struck him. Even if he had never met the kid he would be damned if he let him grow up in some kind of screwed up world.

Mary, well Mary just was. Over here guys thought that Patrick was tough and when he told them that they should meet his older sister they laughed at the joke. Patrick had never had the guts to tell anyone that he was not joking. Even if he was about a foot taller and a good bit heavier than Mary he held no delusions over who would win any fight between them. It had been a bit of a relief when she had gotten married and moved out. Now she ran her household as tightly as any that Patrick had ever seen, keeping her husband and two young daughters on a short leash. He could still remember what she had said to him during his send off party. Pat, don't get yourself shot now. Think of all your bastard children that you've yet to meet. She had laughed and after a moment he had laughed too. Funny how she was the only one who had not made him feel nervous about going to war.

Then there was Eamonn. Patrick's kid brother wanted nothing more than to be like him. God had other ideas though. Where Patrick was tall and broad shouldered Eamonn was shorter and lanky. While Patrick could go out into a crowd of strangers at the bar and be laughing alongside them like an old friend within an hour Eamonn never knew what to say and usually just sat off to the side nursing a pint. Though not one to go looking for fights Patrick could lay out almost any man that decided to challenge him. Eamonn was always one to stick up for people but he could not hold his own as well as his brother could.

Still Patrick wondered if Eamonn had only joined up to emulate him. Even though he was as likely to get his ass kicked as he was to win a fist fight Eamonn had always stood up to bullies. That was what this whole war boiled down to in one sense, standing up to the biggest and roughest bullies of them all. Only this fight had ended up with millions dead and God only knew how many more injured or displaced. Patrick liked to laugh about Eamonn only battling sunburn in the Pacific but he knew that there was just as much danger there as here. Much as he felt responsible for putting his little brother in danger Patrick knew that the younger man would never have been able to just sit idly by.

If Eamonn was sitting right where he was now there would be no hesitation, no doubt. Patrick was sure of that. Since he was the one sitting here he knew that he could not let Eamonn down. Terrifying as the whole prospect was Patrick would fight to the bitter end if he had to.

While Patrick had been lost in thought they had covered a few miles. Now the jeep pulled up to the gate of a small camp out in the middle of nowhere. Stanley was leaning out the window talking to the guard, who then waved them through.

"We're here." Stanley told Patrick as they got out of the jeep.

Looking around Patrick could see nothing special about this place. A few buildings and a couple of larger tents. The usual mishmash of equipment and supplies laying around. All in all nothing that he would not have expected to see anywhere else.

"Is it crazy that I was expecting something, I don't now, a bit more imposing looking?" Patrick asked as they entered the main building.

"Discretion is the word to remember. The Germans don't know that we managed to get our hands on their secret weapon just yet and we want to keep it that way. This station was set up for us to get the process started before we move you back to safer grounds. I won't lie to you, it is going to hurt like a son of a bitch and you're going to be blacked out for a good long while. First dose seems to do the biggest number on folks."

"Any chance I could get a drink? If I'm going to be blacking out anyways." Patrick asked, followed by a nervous chuckle.

"Sorry son, you'll have to face this one dry. I'll see you on the other side." Stanley held out his hand and Patrick embraced it. Once that handshake was over Patrick was in the care of the doctors who had emerged to meet them.

"This way Private O'Connor." One of the men said as he was ushered along into the building. The interior was every bit as plain and unassuming as the exterior. There was nothing to distinguish it from any military building that Patrick had seen. Until they got into the back room.

Sitting in the centre of the room was a sturdy looking chair. Unlike most it had padded straps hanging from the arms, legs and back. Looking closely Patrick realized that it was bolted to the floor as well.

"Fellas, usually I take someone out to dinner first before I let them tie me up."

"First time I've heard that one," The lead doctor let out a laugh before shaking his head. "The process induces some pretty nasty seizures. This is all for your own safety. Only the first one is that bad, the later doses seem to cause less severe attacks and you'll be tougher then. For now we don't want you to hurt yourself while you're under."

"If you say so doc." Patrick took a seat in the chair.

They strapped him in tightly, to the point where even when he tried to move one of his limbs he could not get it more than a half inch. Next his head was secured against the padded rest so that he could not look anywhere but straight forward. There was even a broad belt placed across his stomach that kept him pressed against the back of the chair. Finally Patrick was gagged. At that moment how helpless he was right now struck home. Unable to move or even shout for help if something were to go wrong.

Putting on a pair of gloves the doctor pulled a small vial from a lock box. Inside a small piece of red stone floated in some kind of liquid. It might have been a trick of the light but Patrick could have sworn that it was glowing. The doctor cracked the seal and pulled the stone out with a pair of forceps. Freed from its liquid containment the stone was indeed glowing, like a coal right out of a fire. There was something malevolent about the light coming from that stone. Stuck as he was Patrick could feel the sweat run down his face.

"Now Private O'Connor, take a deep breath in for me and then release. That's good, just like that. This will be over before you know it." The doctor instructed Patrick as he moved towards him. Raising the stone the man aimed it right for the middle of Patrick's forehead. Watching the man carefully move it forwards Patrick was just glad that it was not another needle. Then he felt it touch him.

The stone did not feel like a burning coal. It felt like the heat of a raging inferno had been compressed into one tiny point and now was racing freely through Patrick's body. Immediately every muscle in his body seized up. Had it not been for the straps then in all likelihood he would have launched himself right out of the chair and onto the floor. It seemed like every single nerve in his body was screaming with the worst pain imaginable. Patrick himself was screaming against the gag.

The pain just got worse as time went on. Had it been seconds or hours since it had begun, Patrick did not know. Only that he would have given anything to make it stop. So when he felt the darkness closing in on him it was more of a blessing than anything. As his conscious mind slipped away his body continued to struggle against the straps. All the while the doctors kept a close eye on the progress, making sure that he did not hurt himself beyond a bruise or two. Once the seizures finally subsided they prepared him to be transported. There was little time to lose.

Sitting in the office that the Americans had granted him Lupin could not help but compare them with their German counterparts. Overall the brief glimpse that he had been given into how the Americans operated had left a positive impression. Even if they had been the least organized army in the world they would have gotten high marks just for not being up to their waists in atrocities. If anything they were being far more pleasant than Lupin expected or wanted.

There had been plenty of questions for him but Lupin had been prepared for that. Once they had discovered that he would answer any question as fully as he could, even when the answers did not paint him in the best light, his interrogators had become less adversarial. They still checked every word that came out of his mouth as best as they could but had ceased measures such as having him sit on a crate of live ordinance. After all they had few other ways to threaten a panzermensch. What measures remained were often at Lupin's request. As much as the Americans might have seen him as a hero for helping bring knowledge of the Catalyst to them Lupin knew what he was. A hero was about the furthest thing from the truth. He deserved to be treated as a prisoner.

In the end it came down to the fact that with Stephanie having gone back to the British the Americans were desperate for an independent source of information on the ubermensch. More than once Lupin had noticed that there were some sour feelings over that. It seemed that even among the Allies there was a fear of just how badly the ubermensch could upset the balance of power. Anyone stuck without the knowledge of how to create their own would be left a second rate power at best once the dust settled. That was worrying too far ahead in Lupin's opinion. If Germany was not stopped then there might not be a Europe left in a few years. Still the circumstances were such that even if he had been as slimy of a malcontent as there ever had been the Americans would have treated him like gold for what he knew. He did not like it but he had lived with worse things on his conscience.

There was a knock at the door.

"Enter." Lupin replied as he stood up from his desk and stood at attention. After all what kind of prisoner would go about his work when a guard approached him? Seeing who entered the room Lupin raised his hand in a salute, quickly correcting the straight arm to the American style. General Morton was overseeing this project and though he might not stand on ceremony, Lupin did.

"At ease," The General ordered as he took a seat. "And you might as well sit down. You'll need it."

"What's happened sir, I thought that you were not due back for another week?" Lupin asked. The plan had been for the General to oversee the testing of as many of the American forces as possible before they were redeployed. Not that the regular forces would stand much of a chance against a Battleship or even massed panzermensch. At best they could only give their lives to slow any German advance. Once enough candidates had been gathered and activated they would be brought together for training.

"Well, that was before we found ourselves a Battleship." Morton smiled as he replied.

It took a moment for Lupin to process that. He knew the odds and it hardly seemed possible.

"Not to be disrespectful sir but this is not a joke, correct? I do have some trouble telling when you Americans are trying to be funny."

"No joke. He's already had the primary activation and is sleeping off the aftermath. I came back here with him so that we can start training him and the tankmen that we've found so far. Sooner he is trained the sooner the boys back in Washington can sleep a bit easier."

Lupin clapped his hands together in a moment of joy before bringing himself under control again. Perhaps he had managed to steal Sankt's luck along with his research.

"This is incredible news sir. I shall finish translating the training materials at once and will be ready to begin when needed." Lupin was almost trembling with excitement. He had condensed all of the most successful parts of the panzermensch training program that they had developed at the camp into a more streamlined version for the Americans. It was mostly to get the new tankmen acclimatized to their powers. Tactics and strategy would be decided on by Allied commanders based off of watching what successes the Germans had.

"You'll have a few days for that. Once everyone has had their three doses we will start the training. We want a cohesive unit ready to hit the field as soon as they have matured," The General paused as he looked Lupin over. "Now there is something else that I want to ask you to do. Something that I think is vital to the success of this whole endeavour."

"I am at your disposal sir."

"So our new Battleship, his name is Patrick O'Connor. You know all three of the German Battleships, maybe not well but you know them. What I want you to do is to let Patrick know that he is not going up against Sieglinde or Siegfried or what have you, but that is is going up against people just like himself. They have flaws and they have weaknesses. He needs to see them as humans that he can beat in a fight, not some sort of unstoppable weapons. You get me?" The General relaxed slightly when Lupin nodded, though the German did often have trouble following the American's little figures of speech. "That's good. I've already reminded him of what he is fighting for, you need to give him an accurate picture of what he is fighting against. He has a big enough family that the first one might be all the motivation he needs but I hate leaving things to chance."

"Family?" The word had brought something to Lupin's mind. He even dispensed with his usual care as he rushed to get the question out. "How many? Siblings, children?"

"A brother and four sisters." The General's eyebrows narrowed as he tried to figure out what Lupin was getting at.

"It was in one of the documents that I handed over, surely someone else would have made the connection soon enough, we need to test all of them immediately," Lupin rambled breathlessly until he realized that Morton was still looking at him confused. "We never had a big enough selection to really figure out how it worked but siblings have a much higher chance of testing positive. There were three sets of brothers at the project. This might not just be one Battleship, with five siblings and who knows how many cousins we might be sitting on several! This could change everything, having found even one so soon..."

"Christ Almighty, just when I thought that this little miracle could not get any more miraculous. The brother is deployed in the Pacific right now but he shouldn't be too hard to track down. All the sisters will be at the front of the line for the first tests that make it back stateside. You just made my day son!" The General slapped his palm across his thigh as he channelled Lupin's excitement.

Even as the General continued to praise the turn of events Lupin felt his own happiness wither. He kept a smile on his face of course. When he had come to terms with betraying his country Lupin had hoped that his efforts would help make the coming bloodbath a little more manageable. Now there was a genuine hope that the worst might be avoided. Perhaps that would be enough to make up for everything that he had done. It was a terrible thing, praying that you could help build up weapons to defeat weapons you had already had a hand in making. In the end it did not matter how Lupin felt about things. A life saved was a life saved and this had the potential to save very many lives.