All Along - Steve Rogers {1}

Chapter 6: Time For A Little Rebranding

Chaos had torn through the SSR like a hurricane. Dr Erskine's death and the loss of the final vial of the serum meant that the formula had been lost forever. Dr Erskine had never recorded the formula with fear that it would fall into the wrong hands, he had only taken note of Nellie's calculations for the female version of the serum but had never actually told her what the formula entailed. This now meant that instead of an army, the Colonel now had a single super-human soldier and a super-human scientist.

Nellie had transformed from a petite 5ft 2 in height to an astonishing 5ft 9, and likewise Steve went from 5ft 4 to 6ft 2. Both their strength and speed were unmatched, though Steve did have the upper hand with being that little bit stronger and faster than Nellie but they had been made in that way. Their abilities had not been tested to their limits but from the aftermath of the events from that morning, it was now known that no regular human could stand against them.

"Think you got enough?" Steve asked as he watched the nurse retract the needle from his arm. Steve and Nellie were back in basic uniform rather than their T-shirts and pants that were a little too short for them. It was now late afternoon, and Nellie had been mostly silent since their return from the docks. Seeing multiple violent deaths in the space of a few minutes had hit Nellie hard. Dr Erskine was the first dead body that Nellie had ever seen. Though, if she was to become a solider, she would have to get used to it.

"Any hope of reproducing a program is locked in both your genetic codes. But without Dr Erskine, it could take years." Peggy explained from her place in the doorway as Steve jumped down off of the bed and made his way over to Nellie. She was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room, staring at her feet until Steve approached. He took one of her wrists delicately in his hand and pulled her towards him. Without looking at him, Nellie rolled down Steve's upturned shirt sleeve.

"He deserved more than this." Steve attested as he brought Nellie closer to his body to help lead her out of the room as Peggy led the way out of the medical room, passing the technology lab that was also in the base. The Hydra submarine was now in the centre of the lab, suspended from the ceiling so Howard Stark and his team could evaluate the machine.

"If it could only work this once, he'd be proud it was the both of you." Peggy said through clenched teeth. If Nellie wasn't feeling so numb she would have been surprised by the compliment.

As the three of them walked along a suspended gangway over the top of the submarine they were met by Colonel Phillips, Senator Brandt and one of his assistants. "Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers." The Senator began as Nellie finally looked up from her feet and at the three men before them.

"Great. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?" The Colonel snapped as Nellie straightened out a little and out of Steve's hold. She didn't want to seem completely weak in front of these men, she knew they would hold her emotions against her, despite now being the second strongest person in the room. "What have we got here?" The Colonel asked as he addressed Howard who was working on the submarine below them.

Steve watched Nellie cautiously as she peered over the edge of the railing to get a better look at the submarine. She had seen so much death in such a short space of time and he couldn't protect her from that, all he could do was comfort her and hope that she would accept the comfort that he offered.

"Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country. But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology." Howard admitted as Nellie huffed, to get a closer look she leapt down over the gangway and landed on the floor beside Howard. The elegance and swiftness of her movements were effortlessly perfect.