Zeal ▹ Steve Rogers [1]

3 | steve rogers

3 | STEVE ROGERS

"When you said that I was going to help you find the most suitable soldier, training soldiers was not on my mind." Amelia mumbled to Dr. Erkinstine.

"I apologize, Ms. Stinson, but I knew if I told you about your new position in the SSR, you would have never taken consideration." Erkinstine smiled weakly at her.

"Recruits, attention!" Agent Carter's vehement voice sounded throughout the army base.

Amelia crossed her arms and stood directly beside Agent Carter. As soon as Dr. Erkinstine left the camp, Amelia allowed her annoyance to peak through her placid face. "Gentlemen, I am Agent Carter. This is Agent Stinson," Peggy gestured toward Amelia, "we supervise all operations for this division."

Amelia walked over to each of the soldiers, handing clipboards that outlined what they would be doing in that sector. "What's with the accent, Queen Victoria?" One of the men spoke up. "I thought I signed up for the US army."

"And I thought you signed up to be a soldier, dickhead. Show some respect to your superiors." Amelia scoffed.

"Who died and made you queen?" The same, bold soldier sniggered.

Amelia raised a daring brow at him. "What is your name?" Amelia pursed her lips into a firm line.

"Gilmore Hodge, your majesty." He bowed slightly.

Amelia strode over to the arrogant soldier and connected her first to his jaw. Instantly following, she kicked him in the groin. Leaving Hodge on the ground, whimpering like a puppy. The rest of the line of soldiers began to stifle their laughs.

"Men..." Amelia sneered.

Agent Carter slightly tapped on Amelia's shoulder, indicating for her to step away from the line. The Colonel had entered the base, with a slight smirk of admiration plastered on his square face.

"Agent Stinson, Carter." The Colonel greeted, removing his cheeky smirk.

"Colonel Phillips." Agent Carter saluted.

"Colonel." Amelia greeted tiredly after Peggy.

"I can see that you are breaking in the candidates," He eyed Amelia, as she flinched slightly; ready for her chastise, "that's good." He noted.

The Colonel spotted Hodge scrambling up from the ground. "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand on that line at attention until somebody comes and tells you what to do!" He yelled at Hodge.

Hodge straightened up in the line. "Yessir!" He shouted assuringly back at the Colonel.

The Colonel began his oh so inspirational speech to the soldiers. "General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men." The candidates squared their soldiers as Colonel Phillips walked up and down the line, checking out the fresh meat.

"We are going to win this war because we have the best men." Colonel Phillips caught a glimpse of a scrawny man standing in the line and cringed. Although the scrawny soldier stood tall and proud, he wasn't exactly soldier material.

"And because they are going to get better, much better. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is the create the best army in history." The scrawny man diverted his eyes to Peggy and Amelia, he was quite fond of them. Although Amelia didn't want to be there, she stood proudly next to Peggy at their post.

"At the end of this week, we will choose that man. He will be the first in a new breed of super-soldier," Amelia rolled her eyes as the Colonel continued, "and they will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of hell." The Colonel immediately dismissed the soldiers after.

"They are so full of themselves." Peggy shook her head.

"They're men." Amelia snarked.

* * *

A week had passed and no one had caught Amelia's attention as being the perfect candidate to become the next super-soldier. This was possibly because she was too biased on her decision making, she was far too critical, or because she was having too much fun tormenting the men.

However, what she did take notice of one quality that only appeared in one soldier out of the multitude: determination. That one soldier was Steve Rogers. No matter how much he struggled with the obstacles and fell down, he always got back up, ready to take another beating.

Peggy checked off tasks on the clipboard that the soldiers had completed one at a time as Amelia hollered at the men, directing them to keep pushing. When the Colonel lead the soldiers onto the next task, Amelia hopped into the car with Peggy. "No one can even do the next one, so why even try?" Amelia asked.

"Being in the army isn't all about strength, we need brains too." The troop stopped at the next obstacle: the flagpole.

"That flag means we're only at the halfway point! First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Stinson and Agent Carter!" The Colonel shouts. The soldiers throw themselves, like fish out of water, at the pole.

"Nobody's got that flag in 17 years!" The Colonel chuckled. "Fall back into line!" Colonel Phillips ordered. However, one of the soldiers didn't fall back. He had been lagging behind for a bit and when he finally caught up, he swiftly walked up to the pole and unscrewed the bottom of the poll. The poll fell with a loud ding! The soldier plucked the flag from the end of the pole and handed it over to Colonel Phillips. The rest of the soldiers felt quite idiotic, their mouths hung open with shock evident in their eyes.

"Thank you, sir." Steve thanked the Colonel as hopped into the vehicle, next to Amelia. Amelia smirked at the scrawny little man sitting next to her. Amelia put out her hand in front of Steve. He looked at her questionably.

"High five me, idiot." Amelia laughed. Hesitantly, he high fived Amelia's hand and smiled.