----- June 15, 1943 - Camp Lehigh, New Jersey -----

(Y/N)'s POV

I'm almost ten and I'm in the army, something that many grown men aren't even able to do. Steve and I were standing in line with a few others at an Army base in New Jersey. And the others were much taller and buffer than us.. So they were most likely idiots.

"Recruits, attention!" a woman says as she walks in front of us, "Gentlemen, I'm Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division." A soldier toward the end of the line speaks up, "What's with the accent, Queen Victoria? Thought I was signing up for the U.S. Army." This one is definitely an idiot. "What's your name, soldier?" Agent Carter asked the idiot. "Gilmore Hodge, Your Majesty," he said smugly. He shouldn't act so smug, his name is literally Gilmore.

"Step forward, Hodge." He smirks and steps forward.

"Mmm... We gonna wrassle? Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like," He winks and then Agent Carter socks him in the face. "Pow! Right in the kisser," I mutter a bit loudly. Agent Carter glances at me and Steve nudges me in the rib despite holding in laughter. 

While Steve and I were holding in laughter, a jeep pulls up. And out of the jeep steps out the man who I assume is the Colonel, "Agent Carter." She turn and salutes him, "Colonel Phillips." 

"I see you're breaking in the candidates. That's good," Colonel Philips walks over and stands just in front of the still fallen soldier Gilmore, "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line at attention 'til somebody comes tells you what to do." Gilmore stands quickly, his nose bleeding from the punch, "Yes, sir."

Colonel Philips looks up to the rest of us, "General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons but they are won by men. We are going to win this war because we have the best men..." He looks over finally seeing Steve and I, "And because they're gonna 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 to create the best army in history. At the end of this week we will choose two men. They will be the first in a new breed of super-soldiers. And they, will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of Hell."

After Colonel Philips' speech Sergeant Duffy ran us through many, many excruciating training exercises over the next few days. Like the Net Wall climb where Steve fell back and was trapped by his legs in the net. Or the barbed wire crawl when Gilmore kicked the barbed wire to nearly drop on me. The guy whos name is literally Gilmore picking on someone. Then there was the laps around the base. We come up at the halfway point where a flagpole was and we were told if someone could get the flag, they'd be able to get a ride back in the jeep instead of running back. The others kept trying to climb the pole till they were called back in formation. But me and Steve realized that we could just drop the pole to get the flag. Now Sergeant Duffy did only say one of us, but I think the fact that the flag was got in the first place distracted him.

A few days later we were doing pushups in the middle of the yard. Well I was doing pushups, Steve was kind of struggling. Agent Carter was pacing up in front of everyone, "Faster, ladies! Come on. My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul. Move it!" Colonel Philips and Dr. Erskine came up next to the truck the was to the left of Agent Carter. I'm guessing they assume I can't hear them. "You're not really thinking about picking them, are you?" the Colonel asks Dr. Erskine.

"I am more than just thinking about it. They are the clear choice," the doctor states.

"When you brought a 5'4 ninety-pound asthmatic and a 5'6 diabetic with arrhythmia onto my army base, I let it slide. I thought, what the hell? Maybe they'll be useful to you, like gerbils. I never thought you'd pick them." Agent Carter notices them standing over there and calls for us to get up and do jumping jacks. Not exactly something I excel at.

Both of them stand there mainly watching Steve and I. "You stick a needle in either of those kids arm and it's gonna go right through him." He motions over to Steve, "Look at that. He's making me cry."

"I am looking for qualities beyond the physical."

"Do you know how long it took to set up this project?" 

"Yeah, I Know," Erskine told the Colonel.

"All the groveling I had to do in front of Senator What's-His-Name's committees?"

"Brandt. Yes, I know. I am well aware of your efforts," the doctor assures Colonel Philips.

"Then throw me a bone. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast, he obeys orders. He's a soldier."

"He's a bully"

"You don't win wars with niceness, doctor," the Colonel grabs a grenade from the truck, "You win war with guts," he pulls the pin and throws the grenade into the middle of the crowd, "Grenade!" Without second thought Steve and I run onto the grenade bumping into each other and on top of each other, while the others ran off to the side. After a few seconds of nothing I stand up, "Who the hell throws a dummy grenade into a crowd of people!" Steve looks up slowly and asks, "Is this a test?"

Colonel Philip walks away slightly upset, "They're still skinny."

A few hours later at night, Steve and I were on our bunks. He was reading one of the books he brought with him and I was just lying down staring at the ceiling. There was a knock at the door. We look over to see Dr. Erskine poking his head in, "May I?" Steve puts down his book to the side and replies, "Yeah." The doctor walks over to Steve, placing three glasses next to him, and takes a seat in front of him, "Can't sleep?" 

"I got the jitters, I guess. Pretty sure (Y/N) does too," Steve points over his shoulder and the doctor looks over his shoulder at me. I look over to them, "It's not the jitters. Just an impending sense of doom."

"Can we ask you a question?" Steve asks Erskine.

"Just one?"

I stand up and hop over Steve's bed and sit next to him, "Why us?"

"I suppose that is the only question that matters." He motions to the bottle of schnapps in his hand, "This is from Augsburg. My city. So many people forget that the first country that the Nazi's invaded was their own. You know, after the last war my people struggled. They felt weak. They felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags and he hears of me, my work and he finds me. And he says, 'You.' He says, 'You will make us strong.' Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he's ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power hidden in the earth, left here by the Gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. Schmidt must become that superior man."

"A super man," I say jokingly.

"Did it make him stronger?" Steve asks.

"Yeah. But, there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you two were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion."

"Thanks, I guess," Steve says.

Erskine then pour the bottle of schnapps into the three glasses he brought and hands one to us, "Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you two will stay who you are. Not the perfect soldiers, but good men." I'm not even a man yet but he doesn't need to know that. Free Alcohol.

"To the little guys," Steve toasts. And just as Steve and I were about to drink, Erskine grabbed the glasses and poured the drinks into his glass, "No! No! Wait! Wait! What I am doing? No! You have a procedure tomorrow. No fluids." Damn it. I almost had alcohol for the first time.

"All right. We'll drink it after," Steve tells him.

Erskine looks at him incredulously, "No! I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? I'll drink it now."

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----- June 22, 1943 - Brooklyn, New York -----

I was in the backseat of a car with Steve and Peggy, Agent Carter I mean. We were driving down a street when Steve speaks up, "I know this neighborhood. I got beat up in that alley. And that parking lot. And behind that diner." I laugh to myself at that.

"Did you have something against running away?"

"You start running they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. Can't say no forever, right?" Steve tells her. I nod in agreement, "Right, Stand up for yourself since no ones gonna do it for you."

"I know a little of what that's like. To have every door shut in your face."

"I guess I just don't why you'd wanna join the army if you're a beautiful dame. Or a beautiful.. a woman. An agent, not a dame! You are beautiful, but.." I nod my head in agreement to that too... Wait a minute, beautiful dame? The hells going on?

"You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" Peggy asks him.

"This is the longest conversation I've been a part of with one. Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on," Steve admits.

"You must have danced?" Weird question for someone you barely know..

Steve looks down to the floor of the car, "Well, asking a woman to dance always seems so terrifying. And the past few years just didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait."

"For what?"

"The right partner," he tells her.

We sit in silence for a solid two minutes before I slowly turn toward them, "Was that flirting?" Their eyes widen at my question and Peggy speaks up, "What?"

"The whole dancing thing. Sounded like you two were flirting."

The car pulls over to an antique shop and Peggy quickly exits the car, "This way." Way to dodge the question. Steve and I exit the car and follow after her. Steve also decides to avoid my question and asks Peggy, "What are we doing here?"

"Follow me," She says. So we follow her inside and past the Shop Owner. We come upon a bookshelf that literally opened like a door. We walk down a hall then into a room with two pods in the center. We walk over to him

"Good morning," he shakes our hands when somebody takes a photo of us, "Please, not now." The photographer walks away and Steve looks at one of the pods, "Are you two ready?" We both nod. 

"Good. Take off your shirt, your tie and your hat," Erskine tells us. Little weird but okay.

We proceed to do so and go to lie in a pod. Erskine stands between us, "Comfortable?" Steve replies with, "It's a little big." But I ask the real question, "You save any of that schnapps?"

"Not as much as I should have. Sorry. Next time," He looks off to the left, "Mr. Stark, how are your levels?" Holy Smokes its Howard Stark. He walks up next to Erskine, "Levels at 100%. We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready, as we'll ever be." Erskine turns to Peggy, "Agent Carter, Don't you think you would be more comfortable up in the booth?"

"Oh, yes. Of course. Sorry," she turns and heads upstairs to the viewing chamber but looked back at us halfway.

Erskine grabs a microphone and taps on it a few times gaining the attention on the people in the viewing room, "Do you hear me? I s this on? Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace. We begin with a series of micro injections into both subjects major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then to stimulate growth, the subjects will be saturated with Vita-Rays."

A nurse comes over and injects Steve and I, when Steve decides to say, "That wasn't so bad." I look over to him, "Steve, I'm pretty sure that was just penicillin."

"Serum infusion beginning in five, four, three, two, one." These pads with needles pressed into my arms and they inject the serum. Erskine turns to Stark, "Now, Mr. Stark." Stark flips a lever and the pod I'm in closes and stands upright. I'm assuming the same thing is happening with Steve.

Erskine knocks on both our pods, "Can you two hear me?"

"It's probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?" I can't tell if Steve's joking or not.

"We will proceed," then everything goes bright. Next I hear Steve screaming. And more screaming. And gunfire, cars honking, and explosions.

Then it stops. The sounds from nowhere, the screaming, even the light just stop.

Next thing I knew the Pod was opened and Steve and I were helped out them. And Steve mutters, "we did it." Erskine agrees with him, "Yeah, yeah. I think we did it." I look over to see Steve tall and buff as hell. I look down at myself, only to see that I mainly got taller. I mean I do got abs and shit but I'm not gigantic.

Peggy walks down with the Colonel and some others I don't know. She comes over to us, "How do you feel?"

"Taller," we say at the same time.

"You both definitely look taller."

All of a sudden an explosion rocks the room. I hear Erskine yell, "Stop him!," before a gunshot rings. I look over to see Erskine fall to the ground. Steve and I kneel beside him and Peggy shoots at the man who shot Erskine as he runs. She chases after him. As Erskine dies, points at us both. I stand and grab Steve, "Let's go."

We run up the stairs and past the dead soldiers in the hallway, to see Peggy about to get run over by the shooter in a Taxi. I run and tackle her out the way as Steve runs after the car. I stand quickly, when Peggy says, "I had him!" 

"You clearly didn't," I say before I run and catch up to Steve. So I guess we're faster now.

We run down a street and go to turn, only for it to be a bit harder than normal. As we turn Steve runs into the glass of a bridalwear store while I just kick off the wall part just under the glass. I continue running till I came across a gate I jumped over, and Steve finally caught up. We end up chasing the car into traffic. Then Steve has the bright idea to jump on peoples cars, while I stick to weaving through them.

We catch up to the Taxi and Steve jumps onto and lies on top of it. I jump on the rear bumper. The man pulls out a gun and shoots at us from inside as he drives towards the pier. He turns back to aim at me when a truck comes in front of him. Steve and I jump off. He swerves into the truck and the car slides and flips a few times. The car door falls off and lands in front of Steve.

Steve picks up the car door as the man got out the car and shot a few rounds at us. How the hell did he survive that?

He runs at the group of people in front of the pier and grabs a kid from his mother. We follow as he walk between two buildings. He turns and shoots a shot that narrowly missed my leg. He walks to the other side of the building with the kid and turns to see us standing behind the wall. He aims the gun at the kid but Steve comes out from behind the wall with his arms out, "Wait, don't! Don't!" I come out behind him when the guy turns his gun to us to shoot, only for him to be out of bullets. He throws the kid into the water and runs. 

I run after him and Steve checks on the kid. I run up to the man to see him in a mini submarine. Steve catches up to us and we both dive in after the man. We reach his submarine and Steve punches in the glass. I rip off the top while Steve pulls the man out. We bring him back up to the pier. 

The man tries to stab Steve but he dodges it and kicks him in the chest, causing him to drop a vial of Erskine's serum. I grab the man by the collar and lift him, "Who the hell are you?"

"The first of many. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!" The man begins foaming at the mouth and goes limp. I let go causing him to fall to the ground. 

I look to Steve, "Cyanide capsule... He's dead."

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