The Enlistment
-Tønsberg, Norway-
-March 1942-
Jan runs.
Erik sets his Molotov down and checks his rifle. The Molotov shakes. An ominous clanking becomes louder until…. a huge tank, the Landcruiser, crashes through a building to Erik's left and crushes him underneath. The Molotov explodes under the metal giant, but it rolls on.
Jan hears the monstrosity but continues to run. He must warn the old man.
Jan races into the stone tower closing the door behind him, and slams a crossbeam, locking it. The owner shuffles down the steps, holding up a lantern.
"They're coming." Jan says.
The old man shakes his head, "they'll never…" The door in front of them explodes open sending brick and timbers.
The owner coughs, clearing the dust to see Jan dead buried under the rubble. Men in green one piece suits with a yellow H on the front pour in, surrounding the owner. A modified car pulls up to the side of the tank, its hood ornament was a skull with tentacles spraying out on either side of the skull.
Two men grab the old man, as four of the troopers go to the stone sarcophagus in the center of the room. They grunt and struggle to push the lid off, as the modified car passenger door opens.
"Hurry." Shouts the Lieutenant.
Rubble is crushed under foot as someone approaches. The hydra soldiers snap to attention. The owner turns to see atop the rubble and Jan's body, was Hydra Leader Johann Schmidt, his eyes were sunken, his skin pale and waxy.
"It has taken me a long time to find this place," Schmidt said, German accent rounding his unhurried speech as the HYDRA emblem glinted from his lapel.
"Pick him up." The owner was hauled to his feet and set before Schmidt, breathing heavily.
"I think that you are a man of great vision," Schmidt straightens the owner's coat, "and in this way we are much alike- "
"I am nothing like you," the owner shouts.
"Of course," Schmidt conceded, "but, what others see as superstition, you and I know to be truth."
The owner shook his head as Schmidt walked past him "What you seek is just a legend."
"Then why make such an effort to conceal it?" Schmidt asks with a jerk of his head towards the sarcophagus. Schmidt removes his hat and hands it to the officer to his right as he reached the sculpted stone. With braced stance and one forceful push of his palms the lid sailed off and toppled off the opposite side, skeletal remains revealed garbed in frayed clothing, rusted armor, sword, and a cube.
Schmidt reaches in and grabs the glass blue cube from the skeleton's chest.
"The Tesseract was the jewel of Odin's treasure room," Schmidt studies the cube, turning it toward the owner.
Schmidt let the cube slip from his fingers.
It fractures into pieces.
"It is not something one buries. But… I think it is close, yes?" Schmidt says as if he was a detective talking out the clues.
Schmidt's eyes caught the wall carving to his left and walked toward it astonished by its intricacies, and beauty. Despite his thirst for power, Schmidt could enjoy beauty. His eyes trailed the roots where he found the snake. Schmidt ran an index finger over its neck before pressing the eye of the sculpture with his thumb.
A section popped forward which emanated a blue glow from underneath the lid. A look of contained excitement slid across Schmidt's face, as his hand grasped the sides of the box and lifted opened it.
The owner remembers the birth that happened within this tower years ago. "The cube has already chosen another; it will not share its power with one such as you."
"Open fire on the village," commanded Schmidt as he closes the box, a German officer rushes out to the tank to relay the order.
"Monster!" the owner yelled. "You cannot control the power you hold. You will burn!"
"I already have," Schmidt said, before he pulled his gun and shot the old man in the heart. Red blood had flecked onto the hydra pin on his chest.
-Enlistment Office-
-September 1942-
Eddie nervously tapped his shoe. Finally the person in front of him moved forward. Eddie stepped up to the empty spot. A man hands out a small black pouch.
"What's this for?" Eddie asked.
"Put your money in and hang it around your neck, keep moving." Eddie took the black bag and kept moving. He almost wanted to make a joke, that he was broke as heck but saw the exasperated look of the young man's face.
Eddie entered a room he would guess used to be a classroom but now turned to a locker room. On top of the entrance was a large handmade sign 'Not Responsible for Missing Items'. It didn't take long to get the gist that every man was stripping to their briefs.
"What are you some fruit, get going." Teases a shockingly familiar face.
"You're…You're…" gasps Eddie.
"You'll be knock to the moon if you don't quit gawking kid." Says the famous Vegas boxer.
"Leave the boy a break, pretty sure he's a big fan of yours Kid Gawaine." Says a man who looked he could be in the same ring with Gawaine. Gawaine gathers up his belongings and heads out of the room.
"Probably should dress down quick kid, before someone with bite comes along." Advised the man who saved Eddie's hide.
Eddie quickly undresses, unlike most of the men here, Eddie only had some brown trousers, a white button up, and his well-worn black shoes.
He quickly took it to a man standing behind a desk.
"Name." he asks quickly as he begins to put Eddie's belongings into a small brown bag.
"Eddie, Eddie Kent." Eddie replies. The man quickly writes the name then ushers him to another nearby line.
After a urine test, and an extra-long physical checkup that revolved around the uniqueness of his bright blue eyes; Eddie was finally able to sit down. He let out a grateful sigh.
The man next to him was nervously flipping through a newspaper while the men behind him talked with red blooded excitement. Everyone in this room but Eddie wanted to be here. Eddie started to tap his foot.
"Nervous" asked the man with spectacles as he puts down his newspaper.
Eddie looked down at his tapping toes, avoiding eye contact, "Yeah."
"Don't worry man, the army needs every soldier they can get." Eddie's foot stop tapping, he didn't want to be in the army, but here he was on his seventeenth birthday with his father's consent. His father had made it very clear that Eddie was going to join the army.
"Li, Mike." The bespectacled man got up and stuck a handout for Eddie to shake.
"Good luck." Eddie said.
"Hopefully, we'll serve together in the same company."
"Yeah, that sounds pretty good."
Eddie watched Mike Li, shuffle off to meet with the psychiatrist. Eddie wondered what he could say to make sure he failed.
"Kent, Eddie." Eddie stands up, 'might as well get this over with.'
"Hi." Eddie says.
The recruiter doesn't say anything as he scans Eddie's folder.
"What your father do?"
Eddie blanched at the question, "uh…he works for Smoak Accounting."
The recruiter doesn't bother looking up and continues to leaf through Eddie's folders as he asks another question, "your mother?"
"She's a secretary at the Tribune Newspaper."
The recruiter scrunches up his eyebrows before finally looking up, he took a momentarily gasp.
"You have very…fantastic eyes." The comment forced Eddie to look down. Eddie's eyes had always warranted mix reactions from many people, some bullied, others showed keen interest, and few continued.
The recruiter began to write something in the folder.
The recruiter cleared his throat, "Are you afraid of dying."
"Yes." Eddie responded quickly.
The recruiter pulls on one of the few stamps and stamped his papers.
Eddie groaned as he took a seat in his father's 1938 Buick.
"Are you in the army?" was the first question Eddie's father asked. The only reason Eddie was at the enlistment was because his father gave him no choice. Frank had found it inconceivable when his own flesh and blood didn't show any desire to join the army. So when Eddie woke up this morning Frank gave Eddie his first present, a signed parental lease that allowed Eddie to enlist.
"I won't know for a while." Eddie admits.
Frank watched his quiet son for a moment, before turning his eyes to the road, "Your mother will have a hearty meal waiting for you at home." Eddie nodded his head. Frank sighed, "open the glove compartment."
Eddie moved forward and twisted open the small compartment and a bright yellow box fell out. Eddie opened it, to find a silver pocket watch. The inside of it had the name 'Kent' engraved.
"Your grandfather gave that to me when I shipped off for the great war.
"Thank you, sir." Eddie said, as he examined the pocket watch.
Frank wasn't lying that Mary had made a feast for Eddie's birthday. It was all his favorites and even Vincent came back from New York to celebrate.
With the food cleared, and a song about how Eddie was a jolly fellow, and gifts opened, Eddie and Vincent went outside.
"How's New York?" Eddie asked.
"It's great and terrible." Vincent says with a lazy smile, as he pulls a pack of cigarettes from inside his coat jacket. "Wish you had gone with me after graduation like we talked about."
Eddie rejected the offered cigarette, "I couldn't think of leaving home."
This made Vincent laugh, "That's bullshit, it's all we could talk about in school."
Eddie shrugged; Vincent took a long drag of his cigarette.
"Well at least you'll be getting out of town."
"If the army accepts me." Eddie counters.
Vincent turns around now leaning against the railing, "oh yeah, what did you do?"
"What?"
"What did you do to avoid being accepted?" Vincent asked again.
"I…I …"
"Did you tell them you're a Nazi supporter, or that you like killing people, or maybe when they asked you to do a push up you collapsed before you could finish."
"…" Eddie opened his mouth but closed it.
"Yeah sounds like you haven't changed much." Vincent said as he put out his cigarette and returned inside.
It took three weeks. Eddie had just come home from the bullet factory and was hoping for his mom still had some meatloaf from yesterday. When he entered the house, he found Frank and Mary sitting at the dining room table with a letter in the center.
"It arrived this morning." His father said, as he pushed the envelope toward him.
Eddie looked at his mother who seemed to have been going through a barrage of emotions.
Eddie opened the letter and prayed to his God it would say rejected. But God had other plans for the young man as when he opened it, he found not only was he enlisted but would be reporting to Camp Lehigh.