Ch 8

The next day, Stephanie was taken back to New York. She and agent Carter got out, going into what looked like an ordinary antique store but it had a secret military laboratory inside.

Stephanie felt uneasy due to everyone staring at the two of them but she took a deep breath and followed Carter downstairs where she had to change for some trousers but her muscle shirt was loose enough.

Erskine then helped her into the pod and she leaned back against the headrest as injectors moved above her head.

"Comfortable?" Erskine asked.

"It's a little big." Stephanie replied.

Erskine just smiled and gave a knowing chuckle.

"You save me any of that schnapps?"

"Not as much as I should have. Sorry. Next time. Mr. Stark, how are your levels?"

"Levels at one hundred percent." Stark said as he walked up.

"Good." Erskine replied.

"We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready as we'll ever be." Stark added.

Then Erskine walked up to the microphone and gave his speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen." he said to the high-ranking officers and politicians. "Today, we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace."

He walked to a cart that one of the nurses had given him, and held up several large vials of blue liquid.

"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."

One of the nurses stuck a needle in Stephanie's shoulder. It stung a little but she could withstand it.

"That wasn't so bad." Stephanie said nervously.

"That was penicilin." Erskine replied. "Serum infusion beginning in five, four, three, two, one."

Then the serum was injected and she closed her eyes, feeling new energy pulse through her as she shuddered.

"Now, Mr. Stark."

Stark lowered a lever and the pod moved upright as its doors swung shut.

One of the technicians then hooked up an oxygen hose to the pod.

"Stephanie, can you hear me?" Erskine asked, knocking on the pod.

"It's probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?" Stephanie joked, making Erskine smile.

"We will proceed."

Howard turned the knob on the control console, then put on goggles, grabbed a big valve, and turned it.

"That's ten percent. Twenty percent. Thirty."

The buzzing sound grew louder and louder as the light from the inside glowed brighter.

"That's forty percent."

"Vital signs are normal." a technician said after looking at Stephanie's heart rate.

"That's fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy."

Inside, waves of pain pinned down her body. She couldn't even struggle. Her head was ringing and every inch of her body hurt a lot.

"AAARGHHH!"

Carter rushed out of the booth to help as Howard and Erskine looked concerned.

"Shut it down!" Carter said.

"Kill the reactor, Mr. Stark!" Erskine told Howard.

His hand was above the lever when everyone stopped as they heard the loud voice. "No! Don't! I can do this!"

Erskine paused, then nodded to Howard, who ran to the valve and continued turning the knob.

"Eighty, ninety!"

Then a supersonic whine filled the air and it was so loud people could barely hear themselves think.

"That's one hundred percent!"

Finally, the light from the pod dimmed and the sound ceased.

"Mr. Stark?" Erskine asked.

Howard pulled a lever and the pod unsealed as steam poured out. When it cleared, there was a six foot, muscular Stephanie and her blond hair grew longer.

"Did it work?" Stephanie gasped out.

"I think we did it." Erskine said with a smile.

"You actually did it." Howard added with a grin.

Stephanie Rogers was now the world's first Super-Soldier.