Avenge | Book 1

Star-Spangled Man

Peggy and I stand there watching as Steve gets his blood drawn. Steve does not like needles, so his face throughout the whole time was not so excited.

"Think you got enough?" He says pulling down his sleeve.

"Any hope of reproducing the program is locked in your genetic code. But without Dr. Erskine it would take years." Peggy says.

"We need all the blood we can get to try to recreate the serum." I add on.

"He deserved more than this." Steve says walking up to Peggy and I.

"If it could work only once, he'd be proud it was you." Peggy smiles up at him.

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"Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers." A guy addresses as Colonel and another guy walk into the SSR lab.

"Great. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?" Phillips suggests, "What have we got here?" He turns to ask Stark.

"Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country." Stark turns to face them, "But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology." Stark admits.

"Then who is?" One of the guys say.

"Hydra." Phillips faces the guy, "I'm sure you've been reading our briefings."

"I'm on a number of committees, Colonel."

"Hydra is the Nazi deep-science division." I say as Peggy, Steve, and I walk into the lab, "It's led by Johann Schmidt. But he has much bigger ambitions."

"Hydra is practically a cult." Phillips tells the man, "They worship Schmidt. They think he's invincible."

"So, what are you going to do about it?"

"I spoke to the President this morning." Phillips says walking towards us, "As of today, the SSR is being retasked."

"Colonel?"Peggy says.

"We are taking the fight to Hydra. Pack your bags, Agent Carter." He turns around, "You, too, Stark and Grace.... We're flying to London tonight."

"Sir? If you're going after Schmidt, I want in." Steve stops him.

"You're an experiment. You're going to Alamogordo." Colonel says.

"The serum worked." Steve exclaims.

"I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough."

"Yea but, Hydra would have had the serum if Steve didn't go after him." I step forward.

"This is my call, Agent Grace." Colonel says, "He would have no use in the battles."

"Steve might not be the army you wanted, but he still had that serum injected into him. He's all that is left of the serum, Colonel." I take a step closer, "We need to make use of what we have left of it."

"I think I changed my mind, Agent Grace." He pauses, "You're not coming with us to London, you're going with Steve to Alamogordo."

I scoff as he walks away.

"With all due respect to the Colonel," The guy who came into the lab originally with Phillips walks up to Steve, "I think we may be missing the point. I've seen you in action, Steve. More importantly, the country's seen it. Paper." The guy snaps his fingers at the other guy who came in with them, "The enlistment lines have been around the block since your picture hit the newsstands."

I grab the paper from the guy and start to read it as I walk over by Peggy, she looks over my shoulder to skim through it.

"You don't take a soldier, a symbol like that, and hide him in a lab. Son," He puts his hand on Steve's shoulder, " do you want to serve your country on the most important battlefield of the war?"