Steve's view
I couldn't get a wink of sleep all night. Jack and I had decided not to tell Ryan about my happiness. Who knows, he might have smothered me with a pillow during the night. I put on my uniform, looked at myself in the mirror for the last time and adjusted my little ship*. I left the accommodation complex and found myself in front of an inconspicuous black car. I was unsure what to do. Should I just get in? Should I wait until someone came? The decision was taken away from me when Peggy Cater came around the corner. She smiled slightly at me, which was more of an emotion than I had ever seen from her before.
"Did you sleep well Mr Rogers?" she asked me, seeming genuinely interested.
"Not really, no." I answered honestly.
There was an awkward silence for a moment. I just didn't know what to say, this woman was kind of intimidating. Luckily this silence didn't last long, because when Peggy Cater looked at her wristwatch, she raised her eyebrows and muttered something about "That man is always late!"
"Excuse me, who are we waiting for?" this waiting made me even more nervous than I already was. I wanted to finally go there, no one had told me exactly where we were going, and get it over with. If I died in the process, fine, but I didn't want to wait another second.
As it turned out, I didn't have to. Because before the agent could answer me, a rushed-looking man came running around the corner. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Mam', some boys have been causing trouble," he said by way of apology.
She sighed resignedly, "It's okay Jeffrey," and then motioned for me to get into the car.
I struggled to hold back a laugh because Jeffrey didn't look like he had just stopped a fight, more like he had just fallen out of bed a few minutes ago. I dropped into the soft black leather seat of the car and fastened my seatbelt. A slight jolt went through me as the car started. I looked out the window, just to avoid talking to Peggy Cater, I wouldn't know what anyway. Trees and meadows turned into fields and fields turned into concrete, I was back in Brooklyn. I recognised many of the side streets we passed. "I know that alley, I got beat up there." I slipped out.
Peggy Cater looked at me in surprise, whether she was surprised that I finally said something after two hours of driving or that what I said was so banal, I didn't know.
"In that one too." i looked down the side street next to the cinema, smiling as i thought back to that night. Sure I had been beaten up, but more importantly, that was the last time I had seen Bucky. I was really starting to worry about him. I must have sent him five letters in the last few weeks. He hadn't replied to any of them. Jack said it was normal, but I wasn't so sure.
"You're not a big fan of running away, are you?"
I was so deep in thought that I had almost forgotten about the woman next to me. I just smiled "You know I can't spend my whole life running away. Besides, it just goads them on then."
She looked at me thoughtfully "We'll be there soon, are you ready for what's coming?"
"I don't think about it too long or I'd realise how crazy it all is." I actually elicited a smile from her with that statement. Jeffrey braked the car in front of an antique shop. Somewhat surprised, I got out and followed the agent. I looked around suspiciously. Five men in suits were loitering on the pavement. "What are we doing here?" I eyed the antique landers, for a military experiment I would have expected something that looked, well, a bit more military.
"Just come with me." urged Peggy Cater, walking through the jingling front door.
I followed her into the somewhat run-down shop. Antiques were stacked on old shelves that already looked a bit rotten. The little light that fell through the glass front behind me barely reached the back corner of the room.
We had barely taken two steps when we were greeted by an old woman. Her face was marked by age, she had pinned back her grey hair at the top of her head and was wearing a brown flowered dress over which she had pulled an old pink cardigan.
"Beautiful weather outside, isn't it?" she asked, smiling at Peggy Cater.
"Yes but I always carry an umbrella." replied the young agent.
The old woman smiled and disappeared behind the counter again. Peggy Cater pulled me in front of a bookcase that looked as if it would collapse at any moment. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the bookshelves slid aside to reveal a corridor. I followed the agent in front of me. Here and there some soldiers stood around and eyed me suspiciously. Finally we came to a door that was opened from the inside.
What I saw I could not believe for a moment. A huge secret research laboratory was hidden right in Brooklyn. I stood on a platform from which two staircases led down to the right and left to a round ram. The room was almost completely full of technical equipment with a lot of people in smocks working on it, but what really caught my attention was the machine in the middle of the room. It was a kind of capsule, it was opened and a lounger was fixed inside. I had to swallow, it looked anything but reassuring. But then my eyes fell on the lounge where many men were cavorting. I didn't know any of these men except one and he was looking straight at me, it was Cornel Phillips. I straightened my shoulders and went down the stairs. When I reached the bottom I stood around a little lost until I spotted the doctor. I walked purposefully towards him.
"Good morning Steve." he held out his hand to me.
I just shook it without returning the greeting, I was far too nervous for that.
Suddenly I was blinded by something bright. Before I realised what it was I heard the doctor's voice, "Please, not now!"
Then I realised it had been a camera. The doctor looked at me kindly "Are you ready?"
"Not really, but that doesn't change anything does it?" I joked.
"Well please take off your hat, shirt and tie." the doctor replied with a smile.
For a tiny second I did nothing. Then I started with the hat, then came the tie, to put on my shirt took all the will I could muster. I felt terribly uncomfortable standing in front of all these people dressed only in trousers. I climbed into the capsule in front of me, it was incredibly large making me feel even smaller than I already was.
"Mr. Stark, are your devices ready?" I heard the doctor's voice.
And then the face of Howard Stark shifted into my field of vision "All equipment is at one hundred percent power. We'll probably scrap the power grid in half of Brooklyn, but we're as ready as we'll ever be." the billionaire disappeared again and I became even more nervous.
A strap was strapped around my chest and that's when I knew it was starting. The doctor was talking into his microphone, but I couldn't hear him. The only thing I noticed were the vials of serum that were supposed to turn me into a superhuman. Cold metal pieces were placed on my body, their weight almost crushing me.
"The injection of the serum will begin in five, four, three," I tensed and the doctor put his hand on my shoulder reassuringly before continuing to count "two, one."
I squinted my eyes, stabbing pain going through every part of my body, I snapped my eyes open again and bit my tongue to keep from screaming as the pain got worse. Slowly but surely the pain became more bearable and I noticed how the capsule I was lying in straightened up and the lids enclosed me. Through the tinted glass I could not see anything that was going on outside. Suddenly I heard a soft knock "Steve are you alright?" came the doctor's voice muffled through the thick metal.
"Is it too late to go to the toilet again?" I asked sarcastically.
I didn't hear his answer anymore, but I could guess it, because the next moment it became incredibly hot, it felt like my body was melting. I couldn't help it and screamed, I didn't know how long I had been in that capsule, but the only thing I could hear was someone outside shouting "Mr. Stark turn it off!"
But they weren't allowed to, I wanted to do something useful for once in my life. I mustered all the strength I had left and shouted "No, don't, I can take it!" apparently they had heard me because the light got even brighter, the pain even more intense, until all of a sudden it was gone.
The first thing I saw in a blur was the doctor and Howard Stark coming towards me and helping me out of the capsule. But something was wrong, everything around me had shrunk, but then I realised that I had simply grown. "I did it." I muttered surprised at myself.
"Yes you did." the doctor replied with a proud smile on his face.
The billionaire next to me couldn't get a word out. The next moment Peggy Cater was standing in front of me holding out a shirt. "How do you feel?"
" Taller." I answered without thinking.
"Well, buddy, you are." the inventor next to me announced.
I quickly put on my shirt as all the men from the lounge came to congratulate the doctor on his success. But one man stayed in the background. Suddenly he pulled out a lighter and the lounge two metres above us exploded.