《A marvel rise》


 prologue rewrite

    A ten-year-old boy was staring down at a newspaper article, he was sprawled out on his house''s living room floor, The paper article was about a new up and coming company, Stark Industries. Alexander Grey or just Alex was stunned speechless.


    "How is this possible." He mumbled, for the first ten years of his new life he figured that he had come back in time on earth, a weird odd earth but still earth. He figure he''d reincarnated to a time before he was ever born, like way back in the past compare to his previous life. Now, the truth was right before him, he didn''t come back in time, he traveled into a completely different dimension.


    "What? This is so not fair! I''m in the fucking marvel universe and I don''t get anything?! Where are my mutant powers or cheat system, why God why!" He was rolling on the ground mourning and bitching about his lost opportunity.


    It''s a good thing that for the past ten years he had shown off an above level of intelligence. While he did show off, it could easily be traced back to him remembering his past life. He had grown to be a 40-year-old man before dying of a heart attack. So understanding his school work and having A+ on all subject was easy, since before he was living in the year 2020 when he died. And now he was in the year 1929, and so since he had shown a high level of intelligence and maturity his parents didn''t mind leaving him home alone for a few hours.


    At first, he was sad on loosing everything and anyone he knew, he also was frustrated that he was back in time before anything even close to his level of comfort. He bounced back form that in about the first two years, to which he had promise to black out that periode of his life, the humiliation of being completely defenceless was not pleasant and other darker things as well. So he came up with the idea of becoming an inventor of all kind of product and making billions. But now with the revelation of him being in the fricking marvel universe, he started to slowly re-evaluate his future plans.


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    "Ok enough moping." He stopped rolling around and wiping off his tears and snot with a tissue. He was still shocked that the world as he knew it was completely different, and that it was a world were he was at bottom of a very dangerous food chain. Just thinking about all the future events and then looking at the year he was in, he realized that in few years ww2 would start, instead of simply having to fight a bunch of human natzis, he would have to watch out for other supers in the war.


    "I''m so very screwed, if this is anything like i think, my chances of survival are very low rigth now. I thought that I could become a scientist and stay back in a base surrounded by soldier creating stuff, instead of being in the middle of a fucking war. But this crap, even if i stay in a base, theirs a good chances that even staying in a safe place could put me in danger. Wait a minute, isn''t the birth of Captain America on the horizon." He stop and thought about this, could this be a chances to bring up his survivability.


    "If I could..., maybe I could become Captain America! Yeah that could work, all I need is to prepare now and I could become one of my all-time favorite superhumans!" Alex grin as imagine himself in that classic red white and blue, and let''s not forget the shield. The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea of taking up the role of one of the most iconic superhumans in the Marvel universe.


    "Sorry Steve, I''m going to take your place in history." Alex said with a grin as he laughed.

 Chapter 1 rewrite

    A young man in his twenties was sitting in a diner sipping his coffee. He glanced at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time. He was tall, athletic an in peak physical health. With dark brown short hair, steel grey eyes a straight nose, chiseled chin, he wasn''t bad looking. Heck, he was handsome and knew it. He looked out the window and finally release a sigh of relief, as he spied an older man walking in the diner''s direction.


    The door of the diner chimed softly as it opened, the older man walked to the young man''s booth and sat down.


    "It good to see you again my young friend." He said as he gave a faint but tired smile.


    "I see you''ve been burning the midnight oil again. I thought I told you to take it easy." The younger man said in a worried tone.


    "You do realize that a lot is riding on this, and you getting sick is no good for anyone. So please for the love of god take better care of yourself or you''ll end up driving yourself into the ground at the pace you''re working." A frown had appeared with that last statement as he worried again that the old man would ignore him.


    A chuckle came from the old man."My, my. Listening to you nag, this is a welcoming change from the usual groveling or yelling."


    "So how are you professor, since the last time we spoke."


    "Tell me, are they safe." This time the old man lost any amusement he had as he looked intensely at the young man.


    "Yes, Mila is safe. Your niece is doing well, in a new and happy family. She''s getting along very well with her new stepmother and Brother." The younger man said in a warm an reassuring tone.


    "And what of my brother is he still angry. Is he also happy." You could hear his worried and reluctance in his voice.


    *Sigh* "Professor Reinstein, we talked about this. Your brother still blames you, us for what happened to his life back in Germany. But yes he is happy, hell, he even remarried. He still is not willing to see you though, not yet, I''m sorry." The young man said in a defeated tone, for months he had tried to ease the tension between the two. But it not easy when one was a renowned scientist, who had defected to the states. The other was a farmer who had lost his lands, his home, and all his friends.


    "Friedrich is rights to be angry not only did he warn me about my ex-employer before I took the job, but we also had to move away because of me defecting." Josef Reinstein held his head down and his shoulders sagged in defeat at the memory of his younger brother''s rage months ago.


    "Professor please, you of all people know what those monsters would have done to them just to get to you. The important thing is that they are safe." The younger man reached out and placed his hand on Josef''s shoulder.


    "Thank you, agent Grey, you''ve gone above and beyond for me and my family." Josef said.


    Alexandre Grey waved the man gratefulness away and told him it was nothing, they continued to chat and exchange pleasantries for a few more minutes. Ordering breakfast, as was their custom over the months, they talked until 10am when they both got up, a handshake and they walk out of the dinner going each their own way.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    As Alexandre Grey walked to his car, he mourned the fact that his plan of eleven years ago crumbled like a sand castle in the tide. His plan was simple, replace Steve Rogers as Captain America. Not so easy it turns out, for the first step thing went well. His grade remained all A+, but then he had to figure how to approche the super serum creator. He thought about joining the army, but he wasn''t sure he wanted so many officer telling him what to do. So he figure science, but then he rememberer that this is the marvel universe, the chances of him getting into a acciden and ganing some crap or powerful power was just to unstable for his taste.


    So the last option was going for being a spy. He was lucky that some recruiters had already approche him, he wasthen fast-tracked up quickly, he found that he had a natural talent for it. The only problem was that he was, to good, so on the way he made ennemy, but with the possible war looming. His ennemy left him alone since they needed more agents on the ground. He was sent out in the field, he managed to get himself stationed in Germany.


    He had the idea of finding professor Abraham Erskine, gaining his trust and acquiring the super serum, then he wouldn''t need to replace Steve and could simply power himself up.


    Sounds easy enough, the only problem is that nothing went according to plan once he got to meet Abraham. First off the guy had a family, a brother and niece that he loved very much, of course this wasn''t in any comic or story he knew so already the world was fucking him over. Then the niece was taken hostage by Heinrich Zemo a closes agent for the red skull, she was taken in an attempt to force the doctor to work for him.


    And his brother was beaten half to death as a message to Abraham. So one thing led to another, and he found himself helping the Prof in springing his niece out of her captures hands, and spirited away his brother from his farm, all the way to the good old USA. You would think that after all that, he would be the Prof''s first pick on ''project super soldier''. But no, the guy was so grateful that he didn''t want to risk losing possibly the only friend and ally he had, so no serum.


    Let not forget that his boss, being one the peope that hated him. Complain about him, not being of the right stuff. So instead he was designated as the handler, to monitoring the Erskine''s family safety. Ensuring that Hydra never found them, and also passing on secret monitoring info on Abraham between the CIA and the army. Oh and also gaining the Abraham Erskine aka Josef Reinstein trust. And if possible the serum formula as well.


    "Who knew going up against the origin story would be so fucking difficult." Alex got into his car and drove away, he kept to the speed limit and drove in circles to make sure he wasn''t being followed. He pulled into a parking lot, dropped off his car and walked to a building. The name of the building was Stark Industries. It was his new cover, not even the famous Howard Stark knew he worked for the CIA. Here he was Paul Monroe, a tech-savvy engineer. He wasn''t the smartest in the room by far, but he could keep up with them.


    Which is one of the reason his boss put him here, Stark was too smart for his own good, add his ego and, well, some people wanted some eyes on him. They figured since he seemed to understand all this egghead stuff, and he had proven his loyalty to the presidency he was the best fitted at keeping tabs on all the things that went over at Starks. Plus he was working on making sure thar project Rebirth went on without any sabotage.


    "Well since the serum plan didn''t work, maybe I could get my hands on some of Howard''s personal tech..." He did not really think he would be that lucky, but he was involved in the direct building of project Rebirth, the same that gave Cap his tranformation. He also found that most of his investments had started to pay off. If one was to check his account, his fortune was rising at staggering rates. How you might ask? Well, he followed the future. Knowing how things develop, investing heavily in Stark Industries and any tech company he could find that he remembered the names of the big one that had seem to be everywhere. He was setting himself up to have quite a nice mountain of gold in a few years. Of course he had to be careful some of the investment, he had to dig into the agency funds. But he was confident of it not coming back to bite him in the ass later.

 Chapter 2 rewrite

    "We have to figure this out people." Stephan said in annoyance as looked around the lab.


    "We''ve been over this like a million times. There''s no way they have the safety over the timing working in sync over that much power." Alex/Paul said with a dirty look toward Stephan, they''ve been stuck on this for over four hours and everyone was tired. But Stephan, their chief, refused to let anyone go until there was some kind of breakthrough.


    "Maybe if we added a program to drop them in a certain order." Nathan spoke up in a tired and hopeful voice.


    "No we tried that, it blew up, next." Stephan said in a condescending tone.


    "You know we''re all tapped out here, why don''t we all go home, and sleep on it. Who knows, with fresh eyes we might figure this out." Alex/Paul said in a tired voice, his shoulder drop as he massaged his neck.


    Stephan turned toward Paul, his face red with anger."We are not going anywhere! I promised Mr. Stark results by the end of the week." He stared at Paul daring him to defy his orders.


    "But its Friday, are you saying that we have less than 3 hours until this deadline? And just when pray tell did you moron promise this?" As Leo went from confused to angry at this new revelation.


    "Mr. Stark asked me for an update, this morning and I told him you should have an answer on his desk tomorrow." Stephan raised his head up, his chest puffed out in pride. He narrowed his eye at Leo not liking his tone toward him.


    Everyone else groaned in annoyance, Stephan might be the project chief but he was universally hated by his entire team and any other who had the misfortune to work with him. He kept them in the dark about the deadline that he promised, and always managed to slide any accident of responsibility on whomever he had it out more for that day. Docking pay or a mark on their record was added every time they couldn''t deliver on his maverick leadership. Add on the fact that he was arrogant, and he believed himself superior to all but his idol of worship Howard Stark.


    Alex/Paul massaged his head trying to remember the movie of Captain America''s origin story, trying to picture the experiment scene. He hoped he could glimpse some inspiration from it. Suddenly he remembered all the big ass boxes around the chamber. "What if we use computers outside of the chamber, connected by wires, could it work?" He mumbled quietly.


    Leo turned to him "What was that?" An intrigued look on his face.


    Alex/Paul looked up, he was only half focused on them when he spoke he was still trying to work of the Maths. "I said what if we use outside computers connected by wires from the floor, we could program each with a different timer, so that each injection goes down in order. And since they are not touching the chamber, the power won''t need to loop, since we can cut the power toward the computers after the injection." He looked around as the idea became cleared as he was voice it out loud.


    "Yes that would work, it solves all the problem we''ve had. Outside instead of inside. Ha so simple." Nathan excitement covered his face as he saw the light out, of the tunnel.


    "Well done my boy! We finally got something that could work." A huge grin on Leo face as he went over the idea in his head. Calculating all the variables that they would need to make it work.


    A look of jealousy and frustration was on Stephan''s face. "Fine, we go with that let''s get started."


    The team came back to reality and move toward making what was discussed. A few hours later they finally had a working prototype. Stephan waved them away telling them they could go home and have the weekend off.


    Alex sigh in relief, he waved goodbye to Leo and Nathan, and gave a brief node to Stephan as he walked away. When they came in on Monday he wouldn''t be surprised, nor would the other two, in learning that his idea miraculously became Stephan''s Idea. Just another reason why no one wanted to work with the asshole.


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    "I knew the guy was an asshole, but I needed to get on the team. The Boss''s wanted an inside man on the project." He remembered receiving the order from the Pentagon. Keep them informed on the project and record all the steps in the report. " Probably someone wants to reproduce the project in their own image somewhere."


    He signed off at the desk, waving at the guard and walking toward his car to go home. Well at least to Paul Monroe''s home, it''s a good thing that he was only on the prototype project, and not on the liaison team to professor Reinstein. Or else the good doctor would start having some doubts about him. Not good if he was tasked with keeping tabs on the Professors and keeping his trust at the same time.


    He finally arrived at his apartment, he parked his car, locked up and walked to the entrance. Inside the lobby, the security guard looked up. "Coming home late today Mr. Monroe, burning the midnight oil?"


    "Yeah, the boss was riding our ass about a bullshit deadline cause he got caught with his pants down. Any message for me?" Alex asked with a tired grin.


    "Heh, ain''t that the truth. Nope, no messages for you tonight. Get up there and get some rest, night Mr. Monroe." The guard responded with a chuckle.


    Alex waved his hand in the air as he walked to the elevator. Once the door chimed, he entered and pressed for the 10th floor. Resting his back on the elevator wall as he waited for the slow crawl up.


    Once he arrived at his floor, he walked down the corridor to his door, took out his keys, open his door walked in, closing and relocking it behind him, then froze.


    His head was down when he came in, his back to his apartment, he was facing his door and he was staring, the tiny sliver of wood that he had slanted against his door this morning. It was gone, someone had been in here, or could still be in his apartment. Continuing as if nothing were wrong, he knocked his head on the door gave a tired groan. "Fucking Stephan, I''m going to beat his ass one day." He spoke out loud.


    He turned, walking casually to his kitchen, flicking on the kitchen lights, dropping his stuff on the ground as he made a beeline straight to the fridge. Angling himself to see into the lounge, Alex opened the fridge door and grabbed some random container of leftovers and placed it on the counter, next he opened a cupboard, reached in and placed his hand up, grabbed his gun taped to the ceiling of the cupboard. Alex spined around, rapidly ducked down and firing off a shot toward the shadowy silhouette he had spotted in his peripheral vision.


    Bang!


    The shadow ducked down, hidden behind the couch and also fired a few rounds in return. Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Alex returned fire as he leaned out from the side of the kitchen wall separating it from the living room. Bang! Bang!


    The shadow was quietly cursing as it rolled away and fired. Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Alex moved away from the door, to the opening to the open counter wall of the kitchen he quickly shot up fired again. Bang! Bang! And he quickly ducked back down.


    The shadow offered more cursing as he move around dogging, trying to get to the wall of the bedroom for cover. As he wildly fired his last bullets. Bang! Bang! Bang! Click!


    As soon as Alex heard the click he rushed out of cover, speeding toward the Shadow.


    The shadow with one last silent curse threw his empty gun at Alex. He then also rushed at him.


    Alex barely dodged out of the way of the gun coming toward his face, in the process he lost his balance which gave his assailant the chance to tackle him. Alex got launched up in the air and slammed back down on his coffee table, smashing it to pieces. He lets out a groan as he tries to aim his gun at his attacker.


    The shadow grappled his gun away as his other arm punched him in the face. Alex got his arm up in time to block as he swung his legs down to the ground trying to buck his attacker off him.


    A distinctly male gasp of surprise was heard as the shadow stumbled off him, but in the ensuing chaos, he lost his gun. With no time to look for it, Alex grabbed a broken leg of the coffee table and attempted to smack it on the head of his attacker.


    The guy managed to move his head back, out of the way but it still grazed him, over the forehead cutting him enough for blood to flow, blinding him in one eye.


    By this time Alex has gotten back up on his feet, he started swinging the makeshift club at his assailant. Trying to inflict maximum damage or cause him to make a mistake so that he can capitalize on it.


    The shadow did his best to block the club with his arms, he twisted and turned his body, but suddenly he miscalculated a swing thanks to his blood blocking his sight creating a blind spot just for a second.


    Alex quickly twisted his body and delivered a devastating knee to his attacker''s gut. Knocking the wind out his lungs, his guard dropped. Using all of his upper body strength he slammed the club down on the shadow''s head. A loud crack sounded in the apartment, as the shadow''s body slumped down to the ground.


    "Who fuck are you?" Alex gasped heavily to the unconscious shadow on the ground.

 Chapter 3 rewrite

    Alex took a few deep breath to calm himself down, slowing down the adrenalin coursing in his system. He needed a clear head right now and quick action or response wasn''t it.


    "First thing check, if he alone or anyone else around." He looked around until he spoted his gun, he pick it up as he made his way to his room to pick up more ammo. Then he check the place for any suprise, finding none he went to his door, opening it and looked out in the hall.


    "Haven''t heard anyone and the neighbours are being oddly quiet. Fuck me this probably mean the whole place is compromise." He went back inside to check the body for clues.


    He got down to have a closer look at his new friend. He grab him and flip him on his back, removing his black ski face mask. He got his first look at his attacker, he was blond, reaching out he check his wound and notice it bleeding pretty bad. He could also spot bone and what he assume was brains. Guest it was safe to say he definitly not waking up any time soon.


    "Can''t spent to much time here, all that shooting alerted alot of people. I probably have mabey 5 to 10 min before Frank comes up here, asking some very uncomfortable question." He open one eye an then the other he noted in a dispassionate mood that the man had green eyes. He took a few second to stair at the face trying to see if hed seen him anywhere. He shook his head when nothing came to mind.


    Next he''d check the body, by doing a pat down, he found a piece of paper with an address, his address. "Not good, so he came for me that''s for sure." He also found a black bag the kind you use to put on a prisonner head. "He migth of wanted to interrogated me, but about what? And why me? Did he know that I was also a spy?" He frown as he tried to piece the few puzzle piece he had.


    He focus back on the body he started removing clothing. On his left hand he found a ring nothing on it so he remove it. He keep searching for clues but got nothing. He knew that his attacker had spoken but he wasn''t able to clearly make out the voice at the time, so he wasn''t sure which dialect he spoke. He next turn his attention on the ring, nothing jump out on the outside it seem a pretty normal steel ring. He flip it around and look inside he spoted something he quickly move to lamp and turn it on.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Wen the light reflected on a symbol, he was shock he''d recognize that symbol anywhere it was hydra."No, no, no, no, no, this is bad very bad." He started to pacing around and thinking fast, going over everything about before during and after the fight. "First thing first, Paul Monroe cover is compromise. Which mean the CIA is compromise to a certain extent. Ok that bad but not terrible." He stop and looked around he should leave right now, the rest he can think about it later.


    He quickly went to his room, push his bed all the way to the wall, crunch down and remove some loose floor boards. Inside the floor was a safe he lost no time on the combination, moving in a very calm and confidant way. Once he heard the click he open the safe took out a small brief case. Not even bothering to open it yet, he reach down once more into the safe an grab the gun and holster with the two clips of extra ammo.


    He left the first gun that was CIA issued on the bed desk in his room. He then carried everything else with him toward the phoned. Place it down, as he was picking up the receiver and equipping his weapons. He dialled a special sequence of number that buy past the unsual operator.


    The phone rang twice before somone pick up on the other side of the line."Ive been compromise, need clean up in nest, going dark for 8, contact again in 0800, if not, then rogue or dead." He didn''t wait for response and hung up. Who ever answer didn''t call back to clarify his situation, they simply past the message to the higher ups. He knew that this would no doubt come back and haunt him, but for now he had to disapear his life was more important then procedure.


    He finish gearing up, grab his brief case, walk to the door of his apartment. He stop for a moment, turn around went over his attacker grab his head and with a quick sharp movement snap his neck for good measure. He had no idea who was going to be the first on the scene, but right now he wasn''t sure who he could trust.


    He left his apartment not bothering in taking the elevator. He walk toward the stairs he check down making sure no one was coming up. He move 4 floors down exited the stairs walk to another apartement. Slide the keys in the lock, open the door and relocking behind him. Moved to the window open it and he proceded to use the fire escape in going down the building. Once he hit the streets, he walk in the opposide direction of his car. He walk a few blocks away, took some alley way, double back a few time to finaly stop at another building. This one abandon, he walk to the stairway climb six flyte of stairs.


    He arrive at a new apartment unlock it, and walk in. The room had couchs with sheets on top of them he just walk to the bedroom, removed the sheet. And crash on the bed he could figure it out later right now he was dead tired, in a few hours he woukd figure it out, just not now.

 Chapter 4 rewrite

    Alex groan as he got off the bed. "Hell of a day." His stomach cried out in protests. "Guest il eat, before I figure this out." He looked at the clock he''d sleap a little over seven hours. "One more hour before check up." He stumbled toward the kitchen, he looked down on the dried rations that stared back at him. Sigh "Looks like flavour mooch it is, so what im I in the mood for? Is it beef and apples or pineapple and pork." Looking at the two dried ration, he just shut his eyes and twisted his finger in the air, droping it down toward the rations.


    "Woopy I get peas and ham." He said in a mocking enthusiastic tone. He set about preparing his meal. As he waited he started to place the puzzle pieces together. Ok what did he know, the assailant was probably not their to kill him off first chance he got. Witch means he wanted something from him. So what are the thing only he knows.


    That the world he live in is base off of a bunch of comic book writer, unlikely, what else? "Shit im the only one the could get to." Alex realise that this no doubt involved the good doctor. Hydra had found the doc but with the amount of protection surrounding him, they figured that a direct approach was to risky. So going for his familly was better, the only snag was their was only one person that could lead them to his brother and niece. "Come for me, get answer, and as a nice little bonus they get to kill someone that mest up their plans in the past."


    "Only the agent they sent was sloppy, not that i mind much, better him dead then me." Taking a plat out and placing his meal in it he sat down at the table, mechanically chewing on what he tried to convince himself, as good food. "So if they failed with me whats their next move?" Alex went over different plans, he came up that the most likely plan was assassination like in the movie or the comic book.


    He liked the old prof, yeah sure he first targeted him for the formula. With time he''d grown on him, their weekly breakfast was one of the only high lights he had.


    The saving of his niece and getting his brother and him out of the country, forge a deep relationship with him and his niece, as for his brother it felt like he was tolerated. He melod down thanks in part to his new wife. Hell he event gave up on the serum, he''d figured that he wasn''t meant to be captaine america. So he started learning different languages, especially older languages that had a root in magic. So far it was slow especially since he was studying by himself, he was still looking for some teachers but it wasn''t easy went he had so little time for himself.


    He clean up after himself, making sure not to leave any evidence behind. And headed back out their, he needed to go to a different safe house in order to make the call.


    15 min later he enter a new safe house, making his way to the phone he dialed. "The owl has hunted, the fox is back in the chicken coop." He said.


    "The parrot has heard, do you want a peach or cracker?" The voice on the other side said.


    "Peach." He saidStolen story; please report.


    "Director Lamberge would like a word in person." The voice said.


    Groan could be hear on the other side. "Fine, but later, I have to secure my asset first." Alex responded with a pain in ass expression, he did not like his boss all that much the man was an idiot. Many a times he gave him task that was mind boringly pointless, all in that point to asserting his dominance.


    His boss resented him because, he humilated some son of a friend and well lets just say that thing got ugly fast and a feud was born. The worst was that Lamberge had the muscle to tranfer him over to his department, he then made his life hell, by being a stickler for rules, but only to him. To everyone one else he was a good boss. He tried many time to send a complaint or ask for a transfer, but everytime he was denied. The fact that Lamberge insisted on reviewing every single piece of paper, that past his hand, trying in his own way to find fault on him. Just made it worst.


    "No, Director Lamberge wants you in yesterday. He was not happy that you went dark instead of coming in." The voice said.


    "Ah for the love of God, I need to secure my assets, they could be in danger, if who ever attack me gets to any of my assets i need to reloc...."


    "No exceptions, your coming in now or the agency sends a team after you." The voice said in a cold, but calm tone.


    Alex grited his teeths, this wasn''t that suprising considering his boss and boss''s boss. Lamberge being a dick had spread rumors about his loyaty around. And since then as much as he tried they never really trusted him again, his intelligence was once looked at as one of his strengh became a weakness in Lamberge silver liying tong, and ever since then it away made thenparanoids, that he was hiding something. Which to be fair he was, but he never hid anything missions related, he alway gave his all in following orders. The thing he held back was him being recarnated and about the possible future of the marvel universe.


    "Il come in, where the meet?" He said as he calm himself down by counting down, trying to remain clear headed.


    "56th, parking lot, one hour, a car will pick you up." The voice said still in that calm tone.


    The pick up went without a hitch, the ride over was cramp. With two in front and Alex in back between two goons, who keep giving him a stoic death staire. Once they got to the location his escort stick to him like glue. It would have been nice except, the four made no effort to hide the contempt they had for him. Again his reputatio, curtise of Lamberge, creating a barrier, he personally found the fact, that higher up attitude toward the rumors spun by that fat slab of meat frustrating.


    On one hand they use him to uncover things they had difficulty figuring out, and making it clearer to understand. And on the other the fact that they needed to go trought him to figured it out, made them nervous, since for a brief moment thing were out of their control.


    As he got out of the elevator he was directed to a double wood door. His escorted stop and motion him to go in. Not bothering to nod he simply followed in the direction of the doors. Walking in the room, their was desks pack together in the middle were an army of women where typing away. On the sides office were men, their were some that was going trought files, others were on the phone.


    Alex walk toward the back, their he found a lady that was typing away, she didn''t stop typing as she said. "He''ll be with you in a few minutes sit over their and wait." She motion with her head, not even looking up away from her work.


    Alex made his way to a chair, this was going to be a long wait.

 Chapter 5

    "He''ll see you now." The secretary said, as she motion to go in with one hand, as she switch the paper in the typewriter.


    Alex nodded as he made his way to the door, before opening he knock.


    "Come in." Lamberge voice came out muffled from the door.


    Alex open the door walk in. "Close it behind you." Lamberge said as he looked up from the file he''d been reading. Lamberge was 40 year old chubby grey hair ugly bastard. His face looked like what a Doberman mix with a human in a bad marriage, would look like. His eyes were bloody from all the wiskey and tobacco. He did manage to retain a head of full of hair, to his credit.


    Alex nodded, close the door behind him and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Lamberge desk. "You wanted to see me sir." Alex said in a neutral tone.


    "Do you know the shit storm you''ve gotten yourself in, AGENT!" Lamberge said as he look at Alex in anger, but his eyes were telling a different story, they were filled with glee. "Not only do you have a un sanction kill in your cover apartment. But you got the balls to bail and leave us on clean up! Ive been on phone all day trying to clean up your F***ing mess. Month of undercover work gone up in flames!..." Lamberge keep going on and on about how much of a fuck up Alex was and how he''d screwed up, right left and centre.


    This tirade keep going for a good 15 min without Alex saying one word, his face remain neutral from begining to end. As he sat and remain still during, Lamberge demonizing him as the worse scum to walk this world.


    "Well what sorry excuse do you have this time AGENT!" Lamberge practically spiting in Alex face.


    "Sir, the attacker was already in my apartment when I arrive." Alex said in a neutral voice. "Sir, since he was their I did not want to take a chance that more were on their way. Sir, so I followed protocol an went dark sir." Lamberge just stared at him with contempt and fury. "Sir, was the team able to identify the attacker?" Alex ask not really expecting much, it wouldn''t be the first time he was frozen out of information buy his own agency.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "That not your concerns anymore, you''ve got another problem." Lamberge said in a calm menacing tone.


    "Sir?" Alex said as he had a questioning look, his grey eyes reflected cation. Inside he was piste, not only did he have to sit and listen to an undeserving sermon, but on the first question he was shut down. Not for the first time he wonder if he should just Leave. He had hit nothing but walls with this agency, saddly he knew that event if he wanted to leave they wouldn''t make it easy on him. And he wasn''t ready yet to just give up and walk away. Not until the end of the war, at the very least, he''d own them that at the very least.


    "We''ll you''ve been remove from your liaison duties with Josef Reinstein, so you need to hand over all files and information on the good professor." A smirk was on the old ugly face as he had a look of triumph. For months the power that be had wanted Josef to disclose more info on his serum, but he keep all crucial information in his head and refuse to give it up. So the boss decided to trying black mailing him, only problem no one could find his brother and niece once they arrive in USA. And the only person who knew was him Alexander Grey, and he also refuse to share their location. Witch was why his boss was so happy to finally have better negotiation chips for the serum.


    "No sir I can''t do that sir." Alex said in a neutral tone.


    That brusted Lamberge bubble. "What did you just say? This is not a request Agent! That was an order to hand over the info!" Lamberge got up and staired down at Alex, hunching over his desk, his face was filled with rage. You could see a few veins pulsing. "Your going to hand everything now you dumb shit, or else I send you down in a hole so deep,that they will have to dig all the way to the center of the earth to find you."


    Alex reach inside his jacket pocket and placed a folded letter down on Lamberge desk. "No sir, after you''ve read this you will not do anything sir. And don''t worry sir, you can keep this one."


    Lamberge blink, he was confuse since he had no idea about this letter. Hell he was pretty sure that his group had no idea about this letter either. He pick it up and started to read, and very slowly he sat down his eyes never leaving the letter. He keep reading it and going back and reading it a second time around.


    "H......ho........how.....how t.....how the......how di..?" Lamberge keep trying to finish his sentence but couldn''t. The letter was a presidential pardon, and a document that stated that the person carring this letter, was following orders directly from the president.


    "I trust this will but an end to my dismissal. Now if you excusme sir i need to get in contact with my asset sir." Alex got up and walk out, leaving a Lamberge still trying to understand what just happen.

 Chapter 6

    Alex step out of the building releasing a sigh of relief. "Shit, now I''m down to only one letter." He recalled when he receive them, only after running around dodging bullets in Germany. Springing one defector scientist after another. His count was a record of 79, now that might seem small but keep in mind that he did that alone with almost no back up. The president was so please to steal all those goodies from the Germans, that he was summon to the white house and was ask about what to give him as a reward.


    He saw an opportunity to get out off under his boss''s thumps. Event then as good of an agent he was, his intellect and well his lack of suffering idiotic orders. Gave him a foundation of enemies, that would like nothing more, but to grind him down into submission. And so he ask for those letters he receive three. And now he was down to one, that was four months agos. He use the first to get the hell out of Germany, his boss at the time found it humiliating. And so he never spoke of it to anyone, beside who would think that he had three of those. They were s''oppose to be get out of jail free cards, but saddly his rapport with the higher up and reputation was his own worse enemy.


    "At this ratio all probably loose the last in two mongths." He groan in annoyance, he had to use the letter he had no choices. If they kick him away now, it would ruin any chance he had, no matter how small of getting something from the Dr Reinstein. He hailed a cab and made his was to the apartment that he had use to get into contact with Lemberge. He didn''t need to be sneaky for this, he figured that the place had been already expose. And keeping it would only bring him danger, but he still had to go back and grab his brief case, without it thing would get alot harder.


    He told the driver bye and quickly enter, he only slowed down to check to make sure no one was inside waiting for him. Luckily it was attacker free, quickly going for the hidden catch. He pick up his case and left just as quickly. Going back on the street, he hail a new cab.


    Now to insure that he wasn''t being followed by any one, he bribe the driver to drive in circles, he manage to spot the tails. Then he gave some bugus story about a lovely but very married women, and her, rich overly jealous husband. With money and a good story the driver was more then happy to leave his tails in the dust.


    Arriving to his destination, he made sure to give a generous tip and wave the cab away. Walking on foot for ten minutes, he arrive at an old abandon garage. He slip inside, once their he stop to admire his babby. As soon as he saw it he new he had to have it, hell back in his old time any car enthusiast would be willing to give an arm or a leg just to own it. A real smile broke on his face as he practically drooled himself silly, just looking at it. It was a duesenberg model J 1928, Al Capone car, he remembered that he was jumping around it in exitement at the shop. He keep getting weird looks from everyone, for everyone else it was a good car, expensive but nothing to be exited about. But to him it represented a link to his old world pop culture, a trip down memory lane.


    "Hello beautiful! How my babby doing? Yes I know daddy been busy...." He went on for longer, saying thing about him and it that would disturbs many if their was anyone around. Finaly getting it out of his system, with a final look he went to the phone in the run down offices. He hope he could sent for a earlier meet, he couldn''t wait around for next week.


    "Hello operator, yes could you patch me to fort terry please, yes Il hold. Hello, my identification number? Its AZ69WT931JO6. Yes I need to speek to professor Josef Reinstein. No It can''t wait, yes right now. Look i know he''s busy but he will want to talk to me. Fine just tell him to call me at this number and that its a familly emergency ok, yes thank you, good bye." He could do nothing for now but wait.


    A few hours had come and gone he''d left earlier to get food, taking his sweet babby out for a drive. He''d return with the days paper, looking at the date he knew that it was a matter of days before Steve Roger became all that he can be. The Stark project was probably already in the beginning stage of the final tests at this point. All possible problems had been solved, the chamber had already been build, and his well ex team had been in charge of brain storming the few problem that had pop up.


    "I at least got some blue prints off Stark, not as much as I wanted but some." Alex walk to his case and open it took out a files as thick as three fingers. This was all he had been able to copies before his attacker and his agency f**k everything up. When Lamberge was in his angry tirad he let slip that, they had swap his attacker body for Paul Monroe''s identity. Effectively burning his bridge to Stark, and opening the way for one of their more trusted agent.


    "Its not like I don''t try to get along, but most of the time my supervisor tend to give me some terrible intel and then I have to improvise to get the job done. Witch then makes them look like idiots." He question agains just how much longer he cloud hold on, before they finally figure how to fire him and look good while doing it. Yesterday fiasco included, he was sure that he was sold out bye someone. But he had not idea who, he knew it wasn''t Lamberge and his gang of greedy asshats. They might hate his guts but they would never cross that line those idiots where loyal to a fault, they would ratter work with him then turn traitor.


    Witch was why no matter how much they piste him off, he couldn''t touch them, and boy did he try, but when he did his situation got worse. He found out the hard way that those pigs had a hell of a backing and a clean spotless record to boot. After Germany he''d gotten promoted pretty high, so he''d figured that it was the time to hit back, he could''ve use one of the letters back then but he''d just use one to get out of Germany. The result, he was demoted to Junior agent and stuck under Lamberge, who looked at any possible mistake to boot him out. Today drama was just because he''d neglected to contact Lamberge and get approval, usually no agent need to take that step since time and danger trumps policy. But whit Lamberge it was a God damn gift he gave him, well sleep deprive and not having any solide faith in the agency made him waste a letter.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Finally the phone rang, He pick it up. "Josef?"


    "What happen to my familly?" An anxious Jesof, practically shouted on the other end.


    "Sorry, your family fine and safe I just needed to get a hold of you right away we need to meet now!"


    A sigh of relief on the other end. "That was not nice you almost gave a heart attack. But what could possibly that important, you know in a few days Rebirth will begin. And I need to....."


    "No you don''t, looked this involves Rebirth directly, we need to meet now Abraham."


    Silence, on the other side. "When and where?"


    Alex gave him an adress, and hang up. Getting up he''d got into his car drove to the location and waited. He was their mabey 20 minutes, he saw a car drive toward him. He put his hand on his gun, leaving it on the handle but ready for a fight. The car drove up beside and he saw Josef Reinstein alone. He release a sigh, letting go of the gun and getting out of the car.


    Both men stood in front of each outer, outside in the middle of the road far from any pring eyes. "So what going on Mr Grey? This isn''t like you." Josef sounded calm but in his eyes you could see a bit of fear.


    Alex looked at man infront of him, he new that this man would have a huge impact on the world. And he would pay for it with his life, in this moment if he convince him everyting could change in a way that he had no control over. "Hydra is here and they have found us."


    Shock, fear, confusion and rage where but a few emotion playing across Abraham Erskine face. Their was also sorrow and regret, as he replayed a few faces of friend and familly that he couldn''t save, as they had suffered at the hands of wrath by Heinrich Zemo. "How is this possible?"


    "It doesn''t matter right now, they send one of there agent after me. My guest is that you where just to well protected or that Zemo still wants your..."


    "My serum hes still obsess with it, and hopes to force me into given it to him or sabotaging the up coming experiment, for safety of my familly throught you." Josef said as he close his eyes in pain his hands cupeling his face and his body hunch down as if the weigh of the world press on him.


    Sigh. "Yeah, got it one. So you need to come with me Il contact the army and we''ll reshuffled the experiment another day." Alex began explaining the next few steps.


    "no..." Josef wishper.


    "What? Did you say something?"


    "I said no." Josef seem to grown back up with strength, he looked up at Alex. "Im not going to hid and run this time, I will not back down, if I run then my candidate will be switch."


    "God damn, Abraham this is your life where talking about the hell with the experiment. My priorities is to make sure you keep breathing. And your canditdate can just waite!"


    "I can''t do that, the general was very clear, if their was more time he would change my choice with one of his. And I will not stand by and watch another red skull come into this world." Josef shook his head in firm denial of the monster he''d unwittingly created.


    "Abraham please see reason, you have a huge say on this if you refuse to go on until they give you your choses, they will surely give in. But right now their definitely a hit order on you, and since it failed on me, their responce on you will no doubt be a kill order. But if we retreat and change location the risk go down." Alex approche Josef and place both hands on his shoulders, as he tried to convince him in running and hidding in order to preserve his life.


    "I sorry my friend but I must do this." Abraham look and the grief filled face of his young friend. He knew that this man had approche him first for the serum, but along the way they both form to be fast friends. They just seem to click, he knew that Alex had suffered from going above and behond in protecting his family.


    "Please the experiment can wait a few days, you can''t. If you don''t give up this suicidal path, im going to take you by force if i have to."


    Abraham looked into his friends eyes and saw thing, that for quite sometime he''d yearn for, he smiled. "I have to."


    Looking at the sheer will in Abraham Erskine Face, Alex knew that event if he manage to force him with him, the first chance he gets he would return to perform the experiment no matter what. He looked at his friend in sadness. "They''ll kill you and won''t be their to save you."


    "I know, but I need you to do something for me." Josef said as he came to terms with his destiny, it seem right some how. His serum gave birth to a monster and now it will give birth to hero that will stop it.


    "what do you need?" Alex said in a tired and sad tone.


    "I have something in a safe in Poland that i need you to destroy."


    Looking up Alex had a confuse look. He seem to very clearly ask about all and any hidden things that could be link back to the Erskime.


    "This is the location, now when you find it, destroy everything don''t let anything left. This is my last request i can only ask you since your the only one I trusth to do this." Josef said in a very somber tone.


    "Ok Il do it." Alex responded with no really energy, this he would do. He watch as his friend when back into his car and drove away, for the last time alive he would only see him again as corps in few days.


    "In the end I couldn''t change it." Tears started to fall as he mourn his friend. Alone under the night skie he cried for not being strong enought to change anything.

 Chapter 7

    Alex heard a few days later about the death of Josef Reinstein. His death was very much like in the movie, he got shot in the chest dying in Steve Roger arms. He figured that he said the same last words to Steve. As for Lamberge he could not be more angry at the lost of an army of super soldier. Apperently Josef never told anyone about the danger of assassination he could run into, if he went forward with the experiment. So no one was aware that Alex had knowledge about the hit.


    Josef brother and niece no longer had any potential to either the agency or hydra. So they could resume their life with freedom inside the US, of course breaking the news to Friedrich and Mila was heart breaking. Mila cried which he''d expect, since during their time here Josef had visited ofter, in so doing forging a new found kingship with his niece. As for Friedrich his reaction surprise Alex, he punch him in face an told him that he''d killed his brother by not taking the old fool away. Then he broke down in tears, and howled at the heavens for taking his brother away, after he ask to forgive him for his rage.


    Alex got out of the car, he look at the church as he made his way toward it. He didn''t really know who would be their, Joseif familly for sure but he wasn''t sure who else. When he enter the cruch was relatively empty, in the familly side he could see Friedrich and Mila. But on the guest side only a few people, he made his way to front. He was spoted by Mila who signal him to come over.


    "He would want you by us please sit." She said their was something in her voice that made it impossible to say no to.


    Alex noded and sat down beside them, he notice in corner of his eye that the people sitting across looked toward him in confusion. He decided to ingnore them for now, the ceremony was somber but well done. Friedrich had offer to let him speak but, he''d refuse, anything he''d wanted to say was said to them both, no one else needed to hear. But he did agree on carrying the coffin, during this time he didn''t really pay to much attention on the others. He staid inside himself going trought all the time with Joseif.


    The final rites wore perform, and they started to lower the coffin into grounds. He watch as his friend was buried in his new country soil, again the pain of being weak stab at him, he''d failed to find a way to save him.


    "He was a good man." A voice said their was something about it that just called to him, something warm and comforting.


    Alex raise his head only to freeze, right infront of him was Steve Rogers. He looked a little like Cris Evans, except he was taller broader with yellow golden hair, deep vivide blue eyes and looked like some kind of greek god made mortal. The charisma was pratically oozing off him, by just standing their, he had a sudden urge of wanting to follow this man to the end of the earth. And the only thing going throught his head at this moment was. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooo! That could''ve been me GODDAMNIT!


    "Oh you knew Joseif, from where?" He tried to keep calm, his emotion where all over the place on one hand, he wanted to grab Steve and get lost in his deep blue eyes, and on the other he wanted to go home grab a bunch of stuff and have him sign it. But he manage to not freak out an go fan girl on him.


    "Yeah, I admit I didn''t get to spend to much time with him. But I owe him everything for what hes given me, a chance to fight the good fight and work toward a better tomorrow." Steve said in a almost reverend tone.


    Alex could hear in his voice just how much Steve was thankfull and their was also sorrow in him as well.


    "Hum, so your his choice I can see why he was adamant on you."


    "Wait you know about...."


    "Project Rebirth, yes I do. Im the one who got him out of Germany and his family in the first place. Also became the one to place his familly in safety an over time we became friends. And with me being in goverment I also know about what he was working on and you of course."


    A flash of suprise an gratefulness glaze his face only to go to a more pondering look. Steve turn to Alex with a seriuse look in his eyes. "Since you where closes, then could you tell me if he looked or acted different the last few days?"If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "You want to know if he knew about the attack, and still went througth with it." Alex said with a small smile across his lips.


    Steve was silent as few moment. "So he knew, then why did he do it?" A mix of confusion and anger in his voice, as he stared at him.


    Sigh. "I told him about the attack a few days before, tried to convince him to change location and time. But he refuse, he said that he found the pecfect person for the power he was going to give. You get it now Mr Rogers, he pick you cause your are all the best of what a good man can be and so much more." He looked directly in Steves eyes, trying not to swoon and get lost in his haunting deep blues eyes. Frankly he was starting to question if his power was just being so fricking damn perfect. He was having serious questions about his sexuality.


    "He said the same thing before he died." Steves said as he went into a deep reflection about what all this really meant, for him and his new place in the world.


    "Look if you ever want to talk, heres my card on it is the way to get into contact with me." Alex place the card in Steves hand, patted his shoulder and walk away. As he was walking away he keep staring at his hand, he''d just touch Captain America. I''m never going to wash this hand again!


    Time move on by now it was a few weeks after the funeral. He decided to give Friedrich a huge check and told him to use it as he saw fit. At first he refuse, saying stuff like its not money he wanted just being around would be good enought. Then he had to talk him out of burning it, he then explain that the money was for him and his familly. The goverment wouldn''t cover them like in the past, and him coming from Germany would make it difficult in finding a job. So to money was for him to start his own farm from the ground up. The rest could be past on to the kids, if they needed it for college or university. Friedrich agreed with the condition that he''d stay in contact, he agreed finally putting it to a closes.


    Sadly his stay the US wouldn''t last for long. Lamberge and his gang of cronies had done their homework this time around. They gather together a file that stated he''d know about the assassination plot and didn''t inform them, of course he''d pretty much figure that Steve had told them. He was sure their was no way for the capt to know their motives, so he didn''t blame him no he blame himself, for being so star struck that it completly slip his mind about warning Steve to keep this between them.


    "I hate this." Alex said in down cast voice.


    "Your not the only one, when they ask me if I was ready to serve my country. I didn''t think that they meant going around in costume to put on a show for moral. I thought that I would fighting on the front line." Steve said also sounding down.


    Alex look at Steve, sigh "Yeah we both tend to piste the wrong people off, me with my section chiefs and you with that general. I still find his anger at you weird, I mean it not like you went out of your way to make him looked bad. But he just decided to dump all the fault on you. And in the process benches you."


    Grining "Really cause the way I heard it you went at them guns blasting first chance you got. As for me I think it has more to do with politics that anything else. Someone doesn''t want to risk their one and only superhuman." Steve said as he flex his arms, with a playfull look.


    Alex snicker "Your probably right, but still they sent me too keep watch on you. The only thing is they never told me what I was looking for, sigh which just show that im here just to be out of site out of mind."


    The two keep on talking, they ended up telling each other their life story. Steve recounted his childhood, schools he when to and also how proud he was about his best friend Bucky. Alex told stories about how he was gifted in school, jumping grades and his difficulties with being the youngest student in all his classes. He also talk about some of the lease sensitive mission he went on. Also he wasn''t shy about disclosing some of the more embarrassing moment in his life. Steve replied with his stories of getting into fights and having Bucky jump in to save him. Mostly the two found a friendship in their lest that stellar situation.


    "Mr Roger we''ve arrive time to get ready." The show manager shouted.


    "Go get them big guy. Guest this is one thing that you''ve got worst then me." Alex said as pat Steve in a mixt of piety an humor.


    "You know every time I do this its gets harder an harder, to convince myself that this is where I''m s''oppose to be. And then I remember that sometime, to get where you need to be, you got to go where you don''t want to be, to get where you need to be. So I hope that all this will be wort it." Steve said in one of his many self motivation speech.


    Alex looked at him and smiled. " Trust me Steve, your on the right path we just got to go with the wave first but we''ll get there." They both laught but for different reason. For Steve it was knowing that he wasn''t the only philosopher around and thing would get better. Alex was thinking of the moment in a couple of months when they where schedule to rally the troops in Europe.

 Chapter 8

    " Gentleman please give a warm welcome to Captaine America. Who came all the way from, good old USA to help rally you up from the enemy desperate attacks on are morals." The entertainer shouted with an evident over enthusiastic voice.


    The music started to play, as six young woman ran up the stage to start a dance routine. The soldiers cheered the girls, wolf whistles and cat calls could be heard. And Captain America step on the stage.


    "I hope this is the place. If I''m not mistaking it should be soon, I just can''t do one more of this gruelling baby sitting. Alex sigh as he watch the poor excuse of a show that Steve was force to do. If he was being honest, he would never be able to do this, he greatly admire Steve for putting up with it. The worst was the soldier mockery and jeering, in a way he agreed with them but Steve had no say in his position.


    He watch as the soldier called Steve a fraud, told him to get off the stage and let the girls back on. And Steve trying to convinced them that he was not a fraud, but a soldier just like them following orders. And finaly he watch as the soldier berated Steve as he claimed that wasn''t true, an told him about the capture soldier and the platoon number. Finaly setting him on the warpath an his chance to do something, now after month of being force to sit on his ass. He got a chance at getting back in the action, if he was lucky he would also meet James Howlett AkA the wolverine.


    Steve walk off the stage in a hurry, making a bee line for the base command tent. Alex was wondering whitch would be better follow Steve or go pack some suplies and weapons for the up and coming rescue. In the end he decided to go and prep the bags, cause if he remember correctly, the only help Steve got was from Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. He alway found that Steve was severely under equip for his first crazy rescue, and he wanted to correct it if he could.


    Quickly moving around camp, making use of most of the soldier being at the stage ogling the slinky attire girls. He made his way to the armory. Luck was on his side he manage to convice the poor private, that he would replace him at his post so that the kid could join in the fun. Waving him goodbye he fealt a sliver of guilt, he hope he wouldn''t get to baddly chewed up by his superior officer.


    Turning at the task at hand he pulled out a bag, going back in the armory he pick up a couple of M1911 pistol with harness, one Ithaca 37 for tight corners, a dozen Mk 2 grenades for groups and doors, two M42 and a M1 carbine. He also took two parachutes, he skip on the body armor since it would just get in the way.


    Saddly a good design would onlyappear later, since he couldn''t time travel that was out. He was smart but not even closes to the real level of genus, like Howard Stark his son Tony Stark, Richard Reed or Peter Parker. No he could keep up if they talk shop but to comme up with their ideas and builded them, he was saddly left in the dust.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    He got his diplomas fair and square, but his genus status by well, cheating. Having an older soul and remembering one own past life did help in studying, discipline and understanding, on the various stubject he took on as a kid and teenager. He was still piste that he didn''t get a cheat system, super computer power brains, not even a mutant power. Instead he got a mature outlook on life, a stubborn unwilling attitude, for getting his hands on something that would extended his life, and some power to back it up.


    But that did not go as plan, but on the flip side he became a good friend with captain america, so silver lining. Also he didn''t use his last lettre, since he hope to use his staying by Steve side to find Zemo unpolished serum formula. Or maybe he would get lucky an get his hands on some of that tesseract tech, he could use somehow to enhance or improve his own tech.


    By the time he was done with all his pondering, he spoted Steve walking toward his tent obviously agitated. If he didn''t know the man he would''ve never have guest the crazy plan he''d come up with by eyeing the map as he had argued with the general.


    "So I see your talk didn''t go so well." Alex said in a neutral tone, he did not want to have a pistes off Steve using him as punching bag, the only time that happen he was convince he could take on an angry Steve, but to be fair he was drunk that night, and looking for a beating.


    "You remember Bucky?"


    "Yeah, he''s like the only friend you got and your man crush." Alex said in a cold voice.


    Steve gave him a angry look. "Not now, I''m not in the mood for your sick sense of humour." He took a step foward aggressively.


    "Steve, I''m trying to change your mindset so you can think much clearer. Letting your frustration and fear lead will not serve you. Right now your looking to either slam your fist into anything or run all the way to Bucky, you need to breath Steve." He remained calm he knew that what he said was hurtful, but he needed him to snap out of spiralling down, into thinking what if scenarios.


    With some effort he saw Steve slowly calming down, the news he just learn about Bucky an the response of the general had him on edge.


    "Sorry, it was the only way to bring you back, since whatever it is you learn seem urgent. If you like you can punch me later but now tell me whar your thinking." Alex said with an apologetic expression, his guilt about hurting his friend like that wasn''t a pleasing sensation he like having.


    "I know where Bucky is, he''s in danger and Im going after him, I think I can convince Peggy to help me plan the transport to get their. Steve said in his tone that you could see the steel resolves he had.


    "Ok, but you''ll needed this." Alex said as he pulled out the weapons bag and the two parachutes. "Oh and in no way I''m I letting you go alone." A grin spread across his face. "I can''t have you have all the fun."

 Chapter 9

    <hr>


    "The Hydra camp is in Krausberg, tuck between two mountaine, it a factory of some sort." Peggy said in a no nonsense tonne, she looked at Steve across from her in the plane.


    "Thank you again for the lift Ms Carter and Mr Stark." Alex said as was observing that just like after their first meeting she had only eyes for Steve, saddly his friend mist her subtle signals completely. He wonder if he should give him a hand, in at least make some memories with her considering what was likely to happen.


    "We''ll drop you two of right at their door step." Howard said in a most cheered and excited voice as he was piloting the plane. You couldn''t erase the grin across his face if you tried.


    "Get us as closes as you can." Steve said as he went for another weapon and equipment check. He looked up at Peggy you could see the concern in his face. "You two are going to be in a lot of trouble when you get back."


    "And you won''t." Peggy said her eyes never leaving Steve face, a moment of silence communication between the two, as their eyes met.


    Alex remained perfectly still not wanting to ruin this tender moment between the two.


    "Were we are goin if anybody yells at us, we can just shoot them." Steve said in a humorous tonne trying to lighten the mood.


    "They will undoubtably shoot back." Peggy said in a concern voice, the reasons she wasn''t coming was because number one she was already pushing it as it is with the plane ride, number two some one needed to be back at camp with enought authority to order the evac when Steve called.


    Steve smiled as he look to her and knocked on the prop shield that Alex suggested he bring. "Lets hope it good for something." A playful smile brighten his face.


    "Agent Carter, if we''re not in to much of a hurry I thought we could stop off in Lucerne for a late night fundue." Howard said in a charming up beat voice.


    And awkward moment settled between Steve and Peggy. If he didn''t need Howard to fly the plane right now Alex would''ve smack the man head, he just ruin it, the lovy lovy moment. He still remain silent as he watch both slowly coming back but with an obvious divide between the two.


    "Stark is the best civil pilot around and brave enought to take us here in this dangerous airspace, where lucky he agreed." Peggy said she pointly ignored the awkwardness that had grip both of them an push on with her sense of professionalism.


    "So are.......you two........fundue?" Steve stammered trying to remain calm.


    Alex release an involuntary groan as he watch this live crash an burn. He swore that he would inform his saddly novice casanova friend about better ways of flirting, and also what fundue was an that his chances with Peggy was still very good.


    Peggy narrowed her eyes at Him giving him a silent warning, she then turn to Steve having now bluntly ignoring his confuse question. "This is a transponder use it when your done an it will send a signal to come and get you, don''t loose it." She said as she hand it to Steve, avoiding eye contact out of awkwardness.


    "Are you sure this thing works?" Steve ask with a little apprehension in his voice.


    "It been tested more then you pal." Howard said from the pilot seat with a bit of a mocking tonne.


    "Don''t worry Steve, Ive been on plenty of mission so no need to stress just concentrated of saving Bucky ok. Alex said as he place a hand on his friend shoulder in reassurance. Steve look over an nodded his thanks.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Suddenly anty aircraft rounds started to explode arround them. Not getting close yet but it seem Steve had decided something. Hegot up and move to the door, Alex followed right behind him.


    Peggy seem to catch on quick but by the time she was moving Steve was at the door and opening it up.


    "what the hell do think your doing?" Peggy yeld at Steve. "We still have some ground to covert before we get to the jump point."


    " As soon as we''re out turn this plane around and get the hell out of here." Steve said in a charismatic and authority tonne at Peggy as a look of tender longning pass across his face.


    "The hell are you ordering me around you can''t give me orders." Peggy said in a furious tonne.


    "The Hell I can''t Im a captaine." Steve said as he grin just before jumping off. Peggy followed him with her eyes as she place herself at the door.


    " Hey that nice and all but I still have to jump mind moving out of the way agent Carter?" Alex said in amuse voice. He stood with his hands on his hips, and smirk on his face.


    Peggy move out of the way as she blush, just before jumping she place her hand on his arm. "Bring him back."


    Alex look at her " On it." He said just before jumping out of the plane.


    Once he landed he group up with Steve, the made their way toward the camp. Luckily the where only a few clic further then plan, with Steve superhuman abilities and his experience as an agent they made short work of the terraine an distance.


    As they we''re making way, Alex made sure to explain and make fun of Steve lack of understanding women and fundue, he teased him mercilessly all the way. He finally drop it when Steve threaten to expose him on what happen in new orlean to every soldier they rescued in the camp to shut him up.


    "So any idea on how we''re getting in?" Steve ask as he looked around trying to find a way in.


    "Their two ways we can get in." Alex said


    "Ok shoot."


    "The first is you jumping or climbing over that wall and then dropping a rope for me. With your power getting over is easy but we risk a high chance of getting spotted early, to which I''m sure we want to avoide for the longest time possible. The other is that we wait for the trucks that are coming back from patrol, and we sneek on."


    Steve was pondering which one to pick. "You wouldn''t happen to know when the patrol will come by would you?"


    Alex looked at his watch an review the memory of the intelligent report he read before coming in on this crazy escapade. "They should be here in about another 10 min or so."


    "Good then we wait for them." Steve said, they remain crouch down in the bushes close to the road to the camp waiting in the took the time to plan out the mission.


    They came up with a simple plan enter together separate to cover more ground in finding the prisonner, rally them in helping in taking every ennemie down, gather any intelligent they could grab, find Bucky and blow it all to kingdom come. Finally the patrol truck came into site, they waited for the last truck an snuck on. Only to spot two hydra soldier sitting in the back.


    "Hi boys." Steve said.


    The two hydra grunt looked at each other then back at them. By the time Steve enter Alex slip in he didn''t stop and hurried at them, at this point the two grunt we''re looking at each other in surprise. The moment they look back at Steve and Alex, they we''re already on them Steve use his fist to knock his opponent out, Alex use the but end of the gun to smash in the helmet of his grunt as he wipe out his knife in quick succession, stabbing under the helm directly in his throat.


    "Was that necessary. Steve said with a bit of unease in his voice this being the first time he''d ever seen someone killing someone else, also being the persone doing the killing his friend.


    Sigh "Steve, this is war my friend, its never pretty up close and personal. I don''t have your powers so I''m place in a position where i can not be merciful, cause if I am then its going to be me laying in a pool of my own blood instead of my enemies. I sorry that you have to see this, but this is what its going to be like from now on."


    Alex looked at Steve with a serious look. "This is that last chance you get to back off and go home. I''m going to go through with it but if you want to retains your pure heart then this where you get off. Steve if you back out no one can blame you this is not a sane path to take."


    Steve was silence for a moment. " No, I''m goin this is the path I chose, but Im goin to do it my way, with the least amount of dead as possible." As he spoke these words Alex could feel a new vibe from his friend a conviction a vow, the pact that would never be broken.


    "Ready for this?" Alex said


    "Yeah I''m ready. Now let go kick some hydra ass."

 Chapter 10

    They made quick work of the guard outside of the truck. Once out they stuck together as they looked for an entry point as they remaind in the shadows avoiding getting into any action that would attract attention.


    Making their way to the roof they found a Guard taking a smoke break outside alone near a door, once they close on him enough they rush him, Steve knock him out and place him out of sight.


    "Ok thist is we''re we separate you take the west Il take the east. Good luck an stay safe." Alex said as he prepared to go.


    "Alex before you go I just want to say thank you, for comming with me."


    "No problem, besides how could I say no to Captain America." He said with a grin.


    Both men smiled an nodded to each other as they move away in each of their direction. Feeling a good warm in his guts as he work besides one of his favorite comic book heroes. This was awesome, he wonder if he could change anything by mabey killing the red skull or maybe capturing Arnim Zola. He could dream but he had a feeling that it would be very difficult or event impossible to achieve.


    So he figured that he would instead move to look for information on all their projects. He made his way not toward the prisonner he knew that Steve would find them no problem. Instead he snuck toward Zola private lab, of course he needed to ask this nice guard for some friendly direction.


    "Hello their friend Im lost and need your help." He said in German. To the startled guard as he punch him in the gut discarding his weapons, he drag the guard in a closet so they could have a nice quiet chat.


    He open his small pouche on his waist and took out a syringe and vile. Then he injected the content in the guard. This little cocktails was something he''d wipe up in his lab at Starks a few years back. He came accross it by accident it was a serum that was very much like truth serum except it had some nasty side effect of memory lost and hallucination that had a high potential of causing blindness. So of course he keep it to himself this was definitely not to be shared with his greedy boss''s. If it got out it would no doubt bring more harm then good.


    The upside of the serum was that for the next 10 min the guard happily gave him all the info he needed, and also went on and spilled all and anything he knew about the base. The compulsion of talking was completely open up and like a flood gate it came out none stop until he fell asleep. By this time all that he wanted to know he knew he just hope he still had time. Their wasn''t any alarms yet so he hope he would make it.


    He was quickly sneaking his way to the lab, when the alarms went off. "Damn it capt." He gave up on any pretence of sneakiness and simple ran openly toward the lab. On his way he keep shooting hydra guards, never staying hidden and moving like a bat out of hell he unwittingly manage to creat confusion on how many intruder their was over on the guards side. Which gave the prisonner the chaos they needed to overpower their tormentors.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    He finally made it to the lab, he blew up the door using a grenade he had no time for subtleties. As soon as the red skull saw capt he initiated the self destruct sequence, from what he remember from the movie, he had no idea if their was a delay or if he tried to coordinated his men, but he knew he didn''t have much time.


    He was lucky since the lab was empty, no Bucky but it had plenty of documents, he quickly look throught them. Taking files by their titles he didn''t have the time to go in deep with each, he could only hope he grab some good stuff. Looking around he spoted a document with classify on it he grab that as well he turn and trewa grenade on some inflammable chemicals, then ran like hell.


    A loud explosion behind him, trough him accross the air he tumbled around and got up shakily. He got his bearing back an went toward where the most gun fire was, he figured that he would join up with the soldier and help out. On his way he killed more hydra grunts, he also pick up some new guns along the way.


    As he arrive in the outside courtyard it was chaos for the hydra soldier, they had never anticipates their prisonner breaking free an rioting. Alex found them idiotic for believing themself untouchable and superior. He joint in the fight laying some cover fire, he quickly rallied some soldier to his side and they went to work. He even pick up another vehicle.


    As the fight progress, hydra was still scrambling around as if they had no leader to order them and they quickly feel appart. In contrast the soldier wore united and coordinated, he wonder if the red skull had decide to stay and fight if this battle would have been different. Instead he took the tesseract and escape, he alway found it odd that gave up this base so quickly. But then again if he remembered he had broken off from Hitler at this point, so maybe he alway plan on letting this one burn down, so that he could loose their trail.


    "On the right, pin them down, don''t let them get to that jeep." Some soldier yield, several soldier turn to the jeep and drown it in bullets.


    Their was no mercy for hydra, some soldier had been under their cruelty for weeks other had watch as their friends died beaten and broken by theise very targets. Yes Alex noted that not one was spared, the soldier vented out theirs anger and vengence on them. He gladly help them out, he keep on hoping Steve would stay inside long enougt for these men to vent so that he wouldn''t have to see this side of humanity yet.


    A loud explosion came from the factory, blowing up a huge chonk off the roof. "We need to get back the factory goin to blow." He shouted as he wave toward the soldier at his side, they noded and started to spread the word. Slowly the soldier keep firing toward hydra as they move together further away from the factory.


    The fighting keep on going for sometime they saw a plane fly away. They tried to shoot it down but sadly their weapon were not up to the task. He figured that it was Johamn Schmidt in it, so that meant Zola was going to also get away. Looks like history could not be change so easily, not being a protagonist and have a super plot armor protecting him or directing him to event sucked right now. Instead he was no name background character two or maybe four.


    He stood with the other soldier and cheered as Steve and Bucky came out of the crumbling factory. He laugth as Steve showed him the transponder that was in pieces and ask if he thought she would be mad. Then everyone check the wounded did their best to patch them up, the more injured where place on the vehicles they had. Everyone slowly made their way back to camp, a slow somber but comfortable silence march was on its way. If you looked closely, everyone had spark in their eyes and pride in their steps, these men had gone to hell and now they where walking back to home on their own or with their brothers.

 Chapter 11

    The long trek back gave me and Steve some time to discuss, about how to handel the general.


    "I call bull on just surrendering like that." James Howlett said, he angrily kick a stone away.


    "You can''t blame then they did defy orders, just to be clear. I''m grateful they did I''m just saying command migth not see it that way." Jim Morita said he quickly added not wanting to bring the hate from everyone else around.


    "I don''t think that it will come to that, the general is more likely to be grateful then angry." James Montgomery Falsworth said.


    "Look I appreciate the support, but the fact of the matter is that me and Alex, went against a direct order from a superior officer. And that is a court martial offence especially since I''m how did you put it. Steve said as he turn to Alex.


    "Gorvement experimental superior soldier project. Relax about it, I''m sure you''ll be fine. It me that got to worrie, technically I was s''oppose to stop you. But they never told me in my orders what consisted of looking after you, so it still kind of in the grey area here." Alex said in a happy chipper mood, having had the time of his life during the whole gun fight. He also was happy cause he had looked througth the document and he found a few very good idea. He would also have some good chips in his hands when it will come to bargain with his boss.


    "Still can''t believe that your a spook. No other would jump in like that they tend to stay back in back ground." Gabe Jones said the tall man he was still a little surprise to come out of that madness whole and alive.


    "Je trouve que nous avont sacre une peur bleu a ces lache." Jaques Dernier said.


    "What was that?" James Barnes Bucky said.


    "Nothing new still cursing hydra." Alex said.


    "Hey I can very well understand spy." Dernier said, with a grin.


    " Et moi aussi je te comprent." Alex said


    "Je trouve le fait que nous trois parlont le Francais surprenent." Jones said.


    "Guys, lets get back on finding a solution to the problem here." Bucky said annoyed at the shenanigans of the three." Bucky said in exasperation.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Nothing to talk about Il take full responsibility of the whole mission." Steve said in a candid tone full of courage and conviction.


    After that no one was able to suggest a different or better answer to Steve and my circumstance. Instead whe shared story not just are little group but then men around us also shared. It was obvious that the more Steve talk to everyone, the more a quiet acknowledgement was going around all the men about supporting Steve. It became evident to everyone with the exception of Steve. In a way it was fascinating how one man could draw in so many by simply being himself with no hidden agenda.


    By the time we saw the base I could tell that if thing went to hell in camp, these soldiers wouldn''t let it go without a fight. To have a possible mutiny for a man they have only met a few hours ago in a way it was very impressive.


    As a group everyone march silently in camp their was no disorder running around, but a calm an united sense as we all came to a stop infront of the general.


    "Some of these men need medical attention." Steve said in a neutral tone.


    Medic ran to the troops as soon as the surprise of the event pass, men were finally getting the care they needed, but most still refuse to leave until the conclusion of Steve faith was evident. The soldiers around where confuse at the closes nit group, some even spotted a few soldier holding their weapons close almost like they where ready to point them around.


    Steve looked around making sure the medic started on the ones who needed it most. He turn back to the general took a deep breath. "I''m here to surrender myself to disciplinary action sir."


    The mood subtly shifted, Steve stood strait looking foward without wavering. The general notice the troops mood shift he was surprise. This he had never would have believe possible, it was clear that Steve wasn''t aware of it yet, but he had alot of expirience leading men in battle. He didn''t miss the hidden threat stating if he goes, we all GO! In that moment he had a flash seeing it later in battle these men would follow this man to hell and back with their heads up in pride. He wasn''t a idiot he understood right now a literal gem was infront of him, he consider Washington an how to spin it, he figures if he sold them the dream they would go for it right now many would jump on such a fat piece of meat.


    "That won''t be necessary." A small proud smile on his lip, he turn to Peggy. " Faith hum." The general left, happy to go back an cancel many bad news letter to families.


    "Your late." Peggy said as she stood in front of Steve.


    A cocky grin on Steve face came out as he pulled the transponder. "I couldn''t call my ride." A busted mess came up in his hand.


    "Hey let hear it for captaine America." Bucky said.


    All the soldier gave out a loud cheer some finally relenting to medical attention.


    "Now I hope I got enought to stick around." Alex looked down to the pounch holding the document, if not he would be force to finally use up the last letter. Losing that card now would be very bad he would be without any counter to his enemies.

 Chapter 12

    The cheering and celebration went on all night, of course the men keep it relatively tame. Alex was sitting around the table as drinks keep coming, the howling comandos they would be name soon. If things staid the way the marvel movie univers went then Steve would come and invited these guys to fight with him and Bucky.


    After they came back form the front, Steve was whisk away by the general as if he was advertising his new toy to all the other boys in class. It went well, giving a boosts to morale for the war front and not just as a political gimmick. As for him, sadly most of the document he got his hand on he was force to give them up to his boss, and even delegate the credit to another agent.


    "I didn''t even get the chance to read all of them." He said with frustration. He was press for time on the trip back he knew that as soon as he touch ground, someone would be waiting to take him in. So he was force to chooses two document to go throught and give up on knowing the content of the others.


    He pick the confidential one and another about what appear to be a super tank plans. For the tank it was the big one he''d seen in the movie briefly as Steve blew it up. The document gave more specific detail plans about it but the power output should be impossible, sadly he was aware that Heinrich Zemo the right hand of Johann Schmidt had found the tesaract. Arnim Zola an Schmidt were already making Zola designs of weapons, but at the very least they should not know that he had laid claim to some plan.


    As for the confidential one it was about their several attemps on the super soldier serum of professor Abraham Erskine. It took as a base the blood of a certaine red skull or Schmidt, he was glade to see that the project had been put on hold to focus on the Teseract. He did get a nice look on their own spin off for the project and some new ideas that where intriguing. Of course their was alots that was pure fancy and madness in it as well. So he figured it wouldn''t hurt to trow this bone to the agency.


    They of course where very happy to take everything away, luckily the general step in an ask for a transfer on his behalf to his department. The agency where thorn about it, on one hand they where getting rid of him and on they other they couldn''t make his life hell anymore. In the end a compromise was reach, he would be given on probation to the general department, he would stay for the duration of the war and then he would return to them after.


    "Here the man of the hours, nice to see you in one piece Steve." Alex said as he raise his drink to him.


    "He, I thought for sure the general was going to put him up on his wall or something." James said with a chuck.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "Hey guys, look I have something to say you mind if I sit? Steve said smiling in greating an then letting a more seriouse face to what he wanted to say. In a way Steve was feeling guilty, they guys had just come out from the front, had already fought and now he was here to ask them to go right back in their. He took a deep breath he needed them. "Look their no sugar coating it, I need all of you back out their with me. I''m putting a team together that''s going to focus on hydra and Schmidt. An well I would like for you all to join me."


    Most of the guys looked to Steve then to each other. A few voice their worried if he was mad, but after a few jabs one after another they each agreed to jump back in the pit once again. James made his quip about getting another round and Steve readily agreed. He got up and made his way to Bucky, who was drinking alone. He was alway curious about something, he was wondering just how much of an effect the serum had on Bucky cause from what he saw. Bucky seem to not exhibit any signs of the serum, so he''d had come to a theory that it had remaind dormant all this time, and had only awoken later once the russian had pick him up.


    A few minute later Peggy walk in, in that absolutely drop dead gorges red dress. The room went silent as every men in the room got to their feet. She majestically made her way to Steve never wavering her eyes from him.


    "Captain." Peggy said in a smooth voice that traveled all the way down everyone spine. Looking around you could see almost every other men giving jelouse looks at Steve.


    "Agent Carter." Steve said in his own deep voice their was a hint of exitment in it. His eyes never leaving Peggy, you could see a certain desirer in them as he stared at her.


    "Mam." Bucky said as he puff up.


    "Howard has some equipment for you to try, tomorrow morning." Peggy said her eyes staring deeply into Steve. A similar desirer also in her look.


    "Sound good." Steve said in a slit husky voice.


    "I see your squade are prepping for duty." Peggy said as she look at them in the corner of her eye never really giving them any attention.


    "You don''t like music?" Bucky said as he tried an failed to attract her attention.


    "I do, actually, I might when this is all over, go dancing." Peggy said, one could hear a few guys giving loud gasp of excitement.


    "The what are we waiting for?" Bucky said in his smoothes voice, sadly it had zero affect, as Peggy never let her eyes leave Steve.


    "The right partner, 0800 hours. Captain" Peggy turn and slowly walk away.


    "Yes mam, Il be there." Steve said his eyes trailed behind her.


    "Im invisible, I''m....oh God I''m turning into you. Bucky said in a depresses tone. As he also watch Peggy walk out.


    "Don''t take it to hard. Mabey she''s got a friend." Steve said with a grin on his face.

 Chapter 13

    The past couple of months where hectic, the howling comandos went to one battle after another. Remaining in Europe chasing down every hydra base, the map that Steve had copied down no dough contributed to their downfall.


    "So no romance for Steve." Alex quietly mumbled as he crouch down waiting for the signal. This was going to be their last clean up mission in this section. A week agos they destroyed the last hydra base camp around, some of the soldier had manage to get away. Fortunately for them The red skull had been less then understanding, so now the soldier were less incline to group back up, they tended to abandoned their psychotic leader.


    It was bad for morale when your leader was powerless to stop their destruction, hunted by all sides, Hitler had order a kill on site for all of hydra. Schmidt blatant betrayal on his weapons promises and the execution of the officer sent by Hitler, had created a rift between the two. All that an the repeated failure on stopping the howling comandos, contributes in deteriorating the situation, oh and lets not forget their leader killing anyone for the smallest of mistakes by them or thoses around.


    But most likely the biggest contributor was the constant delays to their major plans. Alex had debates about giving command a heads up on hydra ultimate plan, but after much deliberating he couldn''t think of anyway to prove hydra plans. And to be fair the most likely senario was everyone not believing him, and once things came to past it would look hell of suspicious, then he would be sitting in a dark hole answering some very uncomfortable questions.


    "Get ready their here." A soldier said as he whispered and prepared his weapons.


    Alex noded an focus on the task at hand. The hydras convoys consisted of around 70 survivors 3 vehicles of the trucks variety, some were armed but most were not. Command had issued order to capture alive if possible, sadly all attemps at having new intel had been difficult. As demoralize as hydra was, every soldier would kill themselves using poison instead of being captured. Making it high on the list of priorities for command to sniff out any new intel on hydra, very little was known about this shadowy groups, to which frustrated the chain of command.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Alex watch as the convoy enter the dead zone, further up a soldier with a bazooka came up and fired on the firsts vehicle blowing it up. At almost in the same moment another soldier in the back blew the vehicle in the back. Creating a trap for the hydra soldiers, next they rain down a few rounds of mortar on them, increasing panic and confusion. The coup de grace was when they open fire using two browning machine gun, after cutting down most of the enemy. The soldier finally came out of their hidding spots an advance on the decimated hydra troops.


    "Surrender now throught down your weapons." Could be heard over the battlefield as the soldiers came across hydra troops. But like every other time their was no surrender from them they either grab their weapons and aim at them or committed suicide.


    "These bugs are worst then natzis at least they surrender, but them their all a buch of ball crazy lunatic." James said as he shook his head in disbelief.


    "You got a point their, I''m seriously starting to reconsider what Alex said. About them being more of a cult, then an political faction." Bucky said as looked over the dead seeing if he could spot any live ones.


    "Ha, that means you buy me a beer when we get back." Alex said with a grin at Bucky.


    "Hey guys I think I found something here?" Steve said as he pick up a document from the pouch on a dead officier.


    "Let me see that for a moment." Gabe said as Steve handel the document over. Gabe looked over the document reading them carefully. Suddenly a look of absolute shock came across his face. "Guys I know were that f***ing Zola is going to be." He said in excitement.


    Everyone rush closer as Gabe started to inform everyone about the document. In it was an orders from Schmidt calling Dr Arnim Zola to move to the alps as quickly as possible by train in order to move up operation valkyrie. After months they finally found some intel on one of their most wanted list, Zola they were coming for him.

 Chapter 14

    "It freezing here." Alex complain to no one in particular.


    "Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?" Bucky said at Steve as they look down from the cliff.


    Steve turn to him with agrin."Yeah, I and I threw up?" He look at his friend in amusement.


    "This isn''t payback, is it?" Bucky said in a worried tone, as he keep eying thezipline.


    "Now why would I do that?" Steve said with obvious mirth in his voice, a big ass grin on his face as he looked at Bucky.


    Bucky saw the grin and curst quietly, knowing that it was.


    "Steve, are sure I can''t switch with Bucky, look the poor guy is shaking like a leaf." This wasn''t the first time he tried to change history, but sadly he had no luck. Just like last night when the plan was set up Steve and Bucky told him it was fine, and their was nothing to worrie about. Steve and Bucky would team up and him and Gabe would do the same. While Steve and Bucky cause a distraction, he and Gabe would go to the front and take control of the train. This prove to be frustrating, also making him feel like crap for not having enought courage, to straight up an tell them about what was going to happen on the train.


    And what could he say. "Hey guys I know this sound crazy but Im from a different dimension and I know what about to happen, so just do what I tell you." Yeah like that would work. The possibilities of thing going wrong were high, oh an lets not forget about everything else that wasn''t in the movie like the troops that died during missions. How was he supposed to just come out and say that he didn''t say anything cause he didn''t know but he knows about this here. And with him having no power to protect himself he would fine himself in a dark deep hole, force to spill all he knew. Which would no dough be a very bad thing for his heath an safety.


    But the worse of it was that he come to consider all of them as his friends, and he hated himself for being a coward an powerless to stop it. He''d tried to convince James Howlett to stick with him after the war, but he was told he had something to do in Canada after but they would stay in contact. Just like he tried to change the plan for today, but with similar results. History it seem will not be easily change, an now he was watching two friends having what would be there last peaceful moment, before they would be torn apart in two very different lives, one frozen in time the other force in slavery and pain. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "We were right. Dr. Zola¡¯s on the train. Hydra dispatcher gave him permission to open up the throttle. Wherever he¡¯s going, they must need him bad." Gabe said as he put down the radio an getting ready for the zipline.


    "Let''s get going, because they''re moving like the devil." Falsworth said as he motion the others to prepare, as the train came into sight.


    "We only got about a 10-second window. You miss that window, we¡¯re bugs on a windshield." Steve said as he grab his thing and getting in position.


    "Mind the gap." Falsworth said in good humour.


    "Better get moving, bugs." James said with a grin.


    "Maintenant!" Dernier said in a loud voice as he wave his arms down.


    Steve followed by Bucky, Gabe an finally Alex zip down across to the train. They all landed of the roof, Steve an Bucky signalled that they were going down. As Alex watch them together for what would be a very long time. He silently ask for forgiveness, this wasn''t how he picture his time in the marvel universe. He thought he would be a superpower badass surrounded by his adoring harem. Instead he was a normal human with no powers, systems or other cheat like item. Curse to watch one major event to another powerless, as his friends march oblivious to their destiny.


    He sometimes wonder if he had any watcher power, but the fact that he couldn''t look into the past or see other hidden events point to him not having any watcher powers.


    "Can''t think on that for now I need to focus on the mission." Alex said quietly as he followed Gabe to the front. It wasn''t long until they started to hear gun fire under the inside of the train. A hydra head came out in front, Gabe shot him straight in between the eyes.


    As the came closer to the edge they slowed down to make sure their wasn''t any hidden hydra soldier waiting in ambush. They could still hear gun fire from inside so they jump over to the next cart an keep on going. They were making good time when suddenly an explosion rock the train an they stumbled down on the roof, Gabe almost slip off down Alex moving fast grab on to him.


    "Merci mon amis." Gabe said in a grateful tone. As he was being pulled back up.


    "Nothing to it. Hey should we go back an check it out those two could be in need of are help." Alex said in a worried tone, he hope that Gabe would say yes an maybe they could make it in time to avoid Bucky fall.


    "Can''t, the sooner we stop the train the best it for all. Beside the capt already said not to stop for anything, Bucky their to help so no need to worrie. Lets go." Gabe said as he patted Alex shoulder and move back toward the front.


    Alex look down in guilt, as it was eating him alive, he ask Bucky and Steve to forgive him for abandoning them to their path. His fists clench as was once more powerless to stop it. After that they made their way up in front, smash open the window and took Dr Arnim Zola prisoner. Only to learn after that Bucky was lost to them. And Alex rack with guilt in having stood aside an done nothing.

 Chapter 15

    Zola was escorted to base camp a few hours agos. Almost everyone wanted nothing more then to crucify him, as a way to avenge Bucky. Steve as in much pain he was in was the one to srep in an say no, that moment would stay with Alex for a very long time. The respect an admiration for the man called captain America, was without limit. To read about someone inner strength compares to see it with one own eyes is completely different. That was truly someone he could never hope to replace, so he started to really understand Abraham hope in Steve. Give power not to the strong who are already strong but to give it to the little guys thoses that wouldn''t abus it. All he could say was that Steve was a much better man then he was.


    Every member of the howling commandos went an looked for the darkest bar they could fine. In principle the mission was a major breakthrough, they had finally caught a live hydra member and he didn''t trie to kill himself, only the price for them was to high Bucky was gone. Alex an Steve after the capture of Zola had booth returned to the frozen river, they spent a few hours searching every corner they could. Steve even dive in the frozen river looking for Bucky Alex an James took each one side of the river hoping to find Bucky on either side of the banks. Everyone knew it was a very small possibility of finding Bucky in this weather, after a few hours they had no choices but to leave.


    "Give me another one." Alex signalled the barman, as he keep going over and over his decision of not telling them the truth. Was he really s''oppose to just keep quiet about what he knows, or should he speek out an spill everything.


    "You seem to be drinking the same thing that Abraham drank last." Steve said as he sat down beside Alex, he also motion for a drink.


    What the hell, in the story Peggy visits Steve to cheer him up what was he doing here? Alex turn to Steve blinking as he tried to understand how this was going to go.


    "Why are you smiling at a time like this, if anything you should have the biggest sadness of us all?" Alex ask in confusion.


    "Peggy came to see me." Steve said a smile lit up his face but his eyes still retain sadness from loosing his friend.


    "So what did you two get it on or something." Alex said in a more monotone voice.


    Steve blush he cough to get his bearing back looking away trying to act casual.


    "Oh, my, God." Alex turn completely to Steve grabing his arm. "How, when, were?"


    Steve at this point just chuckled. "She found me a few hours ago, wallowing in self piety. Don''t get me wrong it still hurt like hell, but I''m not going to give up, Bucky would have been the first to punch me an told me me to get back up."


    "Yeah...Steve I want to...apo..." Alex started to say.


    "No, you have nothing to blame yourself for. As Peggy reminded me we all knew the risk an what Bucky did is save my life. An as she said. It must mean something to him, so me closing myself off from the world when other need me is the last thing I should do." Steve took a deep breath as if this was another thing he would live buy. "The world isn''t always fair, but it not its fault or responsibility, the power to change it is in are hands. So we can crumble under the pressure or rise above it, it are choices."Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Alex just stared at Steve, this is a road that he could never walk on. This man had become larger than life by simply being around larger life events. "Thank you Steve. Not that I don''t appreciate the pep talk but why are you here with me an not with Peggy?"


    "She''s actually the reason I''m here, after hum lets say cheered me up." Steve said in shy voice.


    A snicker escape Alex." Yeah, sure, let go with cheered up." He lightly knock his elbos in Steve ribs and wink.


    Another cough from Steve." Peggy said I wasn''t only responsible for my own sadness, but my teams as well it was my job not to break down an let my team drift away. I had to be strong not just for me but for everyone else that depended on me. Don''t ingnore the pain, learn from it, and use it to improve myself."


    "She very wise." Alex said he held himself back from telling him to hold on to her, since he knew what was to come. He felt happy that both got at the very least one night together, but incredibly sad that it would be the only one.


    They both continued to talk an drink, sharing stories of Bucky and their time together. Until Alex past out drunk on the counter, Steve carried Alex out of the bar an brought him over to his bonk, to sleep it off. If you look around you would see every other member of the howling commandos past out drunk on their bonks. Well except James who last had been seen with his arms around a young red headed nurse, heading towards her room.


    The next day, every membered of the howling commandos, the general, Peggy, Howard and a bouch of other intelligent agents where in the middle of trying to comme up with a way to stop Schmidt. Ever since they had hit his factorizes, Schmidt had been scrambling to find a place they didn''t know about. He found it with Heinrich Zemo or AKA Baron Zemo. Zemo stayed in the ranks of Hitler, he pretended do be loyal to the natzi party, but he was really Schmidt inside man. He had help Schmidt escape not only from Hitler but from them as well, he had provides a castle in the Alps. This was the place where project valkyrie was going to be release. Zola had explain that valkyrie was never s''oppose to be use until much later in the plan, but Steve and the howling had change that. It became evident that Schmidt was desperate and well completely mad, he had lost and this was his last act, he wanted to burn down the world.


    "Johann Schmidt belongs in a bug house. He thinks he¡¯s a God. He¡¯s willing to blow up half the world to prove it, starting with the USA." The general said as he slam a document on the table.


    "Schmidt¡¯s working with powers beyond our capabilities. He gets across the Atlantic, he will wipe out the entire eastern sea board in an hour." Howard said, he had a lost look in his eyes, he''d seen what that power could do and he still hadden found a way to counter it.


    "How much time we got?" Gabe said anxiously.


    "According to my new best friend, under twenty four hours." The general said a smirk slide across his face still proud of finally getting new intel from his new little mouse.


    "Where is he now?" Dernier said as he eyed the document.


    "Hydra¡¯s last base is here." He open the document talking out a photo he points to the base. "In the Alps. Five hundred feet below the surface." The general said as he past copies of it around.


    "So, what are we supposed to do. I mean, it¡¯s not like we can just knock on the front door." Morita said in a sarcastic way, in the photos the base was a heavely fortified castles.


    "Why not? That''s exactly what we''re gonna do." Steve said in a firm convince voice. They then spend the next hours planing one of the most daring assaults ever.

 Chapter 16

    <blockquote>


    "I''ve said this before an I''ll say it again, this is stupid." Alex said as he whispered to Falsworth and Morita.


    </blockquote>


    "Hey this was your idea." Morita said with a grin.


    "Yes I distinctly remember you saying, I know this might sound crazy, but I''ve got an a idea." James said as he joins in the ribbing.


    "Oh come on, I did say it was a stupid idea. I was expecting someone, anyone, to say, hey right no thanks that a insane plan. Not yup lets go with that." Alex said as he trew down the rope over the cliff.


    "Come now old boy, everyone else were stump on how to get to Steve, after he gets capture. Your idea just seem to give us the best chance. And it seem quite fun as well." Falsworth said with a dare devil smile.


    "Yeah cheer up we''ll get first shot on those bastards." Gabe said in a very good mood.


    "It official, I''m surounded by crazy." Alex said with a sigh, as he look down the cliff hoping he got the right length of robe calculates.


    James snorted. "Please everyone knows that your the crazies of us all."


    "No Im not, I''m the most sane among all of you." Alex said in an insulted tone.


    "I do hope your kidding, because you are the most insane one among use, and thats why we are here with you." James said in an almost pitying tone.


    "Ok fine just name one time I went off my rocket." Alex said in a confident voice.


    "Sure, what about that time you rush in head first in building filled with hydra, alone." Gabe said smirking.


    "Hey, that doesn''t count, one of those f***er blew up a museum, they deserve an immediate execution. They burn down all those precious treasure from history." Alex said in a righteous tone.


    "And the time you drove a explosions filled jeep right into a tank." Gabe said as he looked to Alex as he readied his gear.


    "What could I do, It was going to shot on a library I had to stop them." Alex said his voice less righteous, he began to wonder if he was really the odd one here.


    "Uh hun, then their was that time with le poulet." Said Dernier as he put his back to the cliff edge.


    "Hey, all of you wore grateful for the chicken if i remember correctly." Alex puff up his chest as he regain some vitality towards his reputation in the troop. He also move to the edge of the cliff.


    "Yes, true we where very happy, until you told us you got it from an enemy convoy. You killed all of them for a chicken just because you were sick an tired of battlefield rations." Falsworth said in sarcasm at first only to go into exasperation next.


    "See we could go on, cause we got a million of your crazy quirk. But we got a job to do." Morita said as he patted Alex shoulder that were now hunch down in defeat.


    "Oh no, your right Im crazy." Alex said in a sad voice.


    "Don''t be sad, you migth be crazy, but if what were about to do is any indication then your just the quirkier crazy among us." James said as he laugth and slam his hand on Alex''s back.


    The men slowly descended from the cliff all the way to the base. As they move closer they spotted some roofs top guards, fortunately none had look up yet. They continues slowly down, about tens of meters from the roof one of the guard look up. Alex shot him with his silencer, Morita and Falsworth followed shortly by shooting the other guards. Lucky for them the wind was muffling the small sound the silencer made as they cleared the roof. The next step was clearing the guard off the small watch tower. It was set directly in front of the main base as a sort of sniper outlook.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    It also provided the exact high for a quick zipline attack directly into Schmidt main office, all thanks to Zola description of the base layout. With how long the howling commandos had been fighting Schmidt, they understood that Steve charging in like he would do. It would definitely fuel Schmidt arrogance, he would no doubt have him escorted to his office with his guard down.


    Taking out some binoculars, they all settled down and waited. Alex and Gabe work on the hydra radios making sure to answer so that no one would suspect that the sniper nest had been taken. The rest keep a lookout for Steve''s big entrance.


    It wasn''t long before they heard the roaring of Steve bike followed by an exploding tank in front of the main wall. They watch as Steve came flying off the wall and jumping off his bike creating chaos among the hydra troops. The bike keep on going smashing in the entrance an blew up the main hanger doors. Morita sent a signal over the radio to alert the general that the first step of the plan was in motion.


    "Let set up the harpoons." Alex said as he got to work, the other howlings mimicking his movement.


    It really was a boon in having Howard Stark as your personnal weapons smith. The man was a genius, all they had to do was ruffly explain what they needed, and the next thing they knew was that Howard brought out a new toy to play with. Secretly Alex called him santa gears, the rest just rolled their eyes at his terrible nicknamed sense.Once everything was set up, they waited for Steve to be brought in Schmidt office.


    "Mes amis, I see him." Dernier said as he quickly put away his binocular and pick up his gun, he move to his harpoon.


    "Alright bubs, this is for Bucky let give them hell!" James said as also move into position.


    "Let them know no quarter, grind them down into nothing." Falsworth said as he also ready himself to battled.


    "For Bucky." Gabe said in a firm tone.


    "For the capt, let them rue the day they cross any of us." Morita said with a little anger in his voice.


    "Let make those bastard crawl back into their mothers and regret ever coming out!" Alex said.


    "?....Ok new plan, at least one of us stays with Alex." Gabe said with a chuckle.


    "I take offence at that. You bunch of back stabbing Sicilian." Alex said with a grin.


    They all fired their harpoons, the small spear tip was tied to a steel wire flew across with breakneck speed. It slam into the concrete right over Schmidt office. They hook themself of the zipline an rush toward the windows, once they were close using the inertia from the zipline they keep on going firing a few shots at the windows, they came in guns blazing.


    Falsworth shot the guard that was holding Steve shield, he continiue to advance once he''d reach it he bended down. "Rogers! You might need this!" Trowing Steve shield to him.


    "Morita call it in!" Alex shouted as he gun down more guards.


    "We¡¯re in! Assault team, go!" Morita said into the comms.


    The team keep shooting the hydra guard down, once all of them were dead, Steve look around.


    "Great timing, but I got to go after Schmidt." Steve said as he turn.


    "Steve, watch your back, and get him." Alex said knowing that this might be the last time he would ever see his friend.


    "You own me a beer after this Alex." Steve said with a smile as he rush out of the office after Schmidt.


    As Alex keep going around the base shooting hydra soldier, he couldn''t stop thinking about how could he change anything to save Steve and stop Schmidt. He came up with one idea he would try and get on the plan that Steve would have his final battle on. So he gave his team a heads up as they moved toward the runway.


    By the time they got their, they were just in time to see the general driving with Peggy and Steve, chasing one of the planes. He mist it, looking around to vent his rage for a target, he failing once more to save his friend from destiny. He spotted a buch of hydra going into another plane, he rush them firing wildly he hit a few making the others turn around in surprise. As he came closer finaly two woke up from their daze an rush to the plane, the rest staid put only to be gun down by his rage. He didn''t get on the plane he took out a grenade an toss it in the engine, running away after. The blast blew up half the plane, the grenade had explodes exactly at the same time that the engine ingnighted, causing a chain reaction.


    It only took a few more minute to after that to win the day. Hydra had crumbled quickly as they had lost their leader, the general Peggy and the howling commandos made their way to the comunication room. Once everyone arrive after a few tense moment the finaly got into contact with Steve. After that everything happen just like the movie, except no one move an remain quiet listening to Steve and Peggy last moment.


    Alex was crying, in the movie he always cried at this part but living it being in the room knowing what was going to happen next. Almost broke him, he felt a hand on his shoulder he look over to see James Howlett, with eyes filled with lost, sorrow, anger and understanding. For a moment Alex understood James pain, he was bless and curse with a power were he would watch anyone he loved grow old and die. With time he had to learn to move past the pain and keep on going. Alex nodded his silent thanks at James and stood up proud of having been friends with Steve Rogers, as tiers came down his face he stood in the room with everyone listening in on the last words of a good man.

 Chapter 17

    It had been a ruff couples of weeks, first was the search for Steve which only the tessaract was found but no plane. Then the end of the war, with crowds going wild with joy but the howling commandos stricken with grief. Peggy didn''t let Steve sacrifice go in vain, she decided to go on a crusade to wipe hydra off the face of the world. Sadly the department with the genaral was dismiss after Steve dive in the arctic.


    The general was resigned and Peggy was given a choice of retirement or joining another agency, but she would have to start back from the bottom. The howling commandos decided to retired for now, they were overdue for a long vacation anyway.


    Alex got called back to his agency, only to be told he would be immediately resign in records, were he would go over the war files to put them back in order. That lasted for about a month before Alex use the last letter to get out. The deal he made with his bosses was that by using it, he was getting a clean slated. His files where destroyed an he would leave them with no pay. So from the time he was a spy to now, their would be a hole in his record.


    "Now that Im a free man, what hell am I going to do?." Alex said just outside from the agency. He was still a bit pist that he was force to use the last letter, if he didn''t he was going to have to stay their for another 20 years. When he became a spy he had to sign a document that dictates a number of years of service, he had to provide if he broke that contract he would be mark as rogue.


    He only manage 5 out of the original 25 years, cause of the people he''d pist off over the years he was going to spent the rest of his time lock in the basement as punishment. After Steve MIA, the agency decides to use him as a scapegoat.


    They won their case an he was shackled with the blame, so his only way out was the letter which he figured was their aim. But with that he didn''t want to stay in it anymore, if he staid it would only be a major pain in the ass.


    "Il go visit my parents, haven''t seen them for a while." Alex said as he called a taxi.


    Going home was nice his mother was happy to se her little boy come home. His father was proud that his son had fought for his country, when they ask what he was going to do now after the army. Since they had no idea their son had been a spy. Alex had told them that he was a soldier instead, and that now that war was over he''d been discharge like many other had been.


    Over dinner he admitted that he was a little lost on what to do now. He figured he would travel around visiting the members of his units that were around to see how it was now after everything.


    His father offered a place in his law firm if he wanted, but he would need to go back to school to get his diplomat in law. The rest of the evening went well, lots of laughts and stories around all night.


    His mother keep on hugging him happy that he was back home safe and sound, she had heard stories from other wives or mothers. About their husband or son not coming back or returning only to be haunted by the war, as a shadow of their former self. Luckily her son seem to made of sterner stuff, he came back whole and happy, sure theirs was a darkness to him but it didn''t consume him like so many others.


    Alex did exactly what he told his father he would do, he travelled around he visited the general, Peggy, Morita, James and Howard. Falworth had return home, so had Dernier but Gabe had followed Dernier home to visit France.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    His next stop was on a farm, he pull up in front of the house once he got out of his car. A young teen ran out and jump into his arms.


    "Uncle Grey!" Mila said as she held him tight.


    "It good to see you to little one." Alex said as he return the hugh.


    "Happy to see you to, come on in." Jennie said from the porch, she was the women that Friedrich meet after coming to america.


    They were now happily married, she had a husband who just died in the war went they meet, with a four year old little boy, alone she didn''t know what to do. Friedrich had gotten a small farm at the time, but he needed help so he hired her cause everyone else would spite him just because he was Germain. But she didn''t spite him or Mila she was in desperate need of a job, since she was a farm girl and didn''t know anyone In the area, neither did she have enought to go to her relatives she took the first job opportunity she could get.


    At first it was only until she had enought, but as time went by and she got to know the two, and they got to know her and her son the four form a close bond. And by the time she had enought for a trip their and back several times, she no longer had a reason to leave. Since Friedrich pop the question, Abraham had come to the wedding it was the last time Friedrich and Mila had seen him.


    "It good to see you to Jennie, how Will?" Alex said as he approach an also gave her a hug.


    "Hes good, happier then ever, he keep following Friedy around like a lost puppy, drive Friedy nervouse its adorable." Jennie said with a smirk.


    They keep making small talk, as they went in Alex volunteer to help but both girls just wave him off told him to sit an tell them about him while they finish making dinner. After a long talk Friedrich and Will came home, they both also got their own hugs. Then they sat down to eat, Alex censured many story so not to give nightmare to Will and Mila. Laughter could be hear around as he recounted the funnier moment of his time with the howling.


    As night fell the kids gave their good nights, Jennie went up to tuck them in an go to bed with a warning not to stay up to late.


    "You''ve got a loving familly Friedrich." Alex said as he watch them go up the staires.


    "I know, and I have you to thank for this." Friedrich said as he move toward the liquor cabinet.


    "I only brought you over, the rest was all you." Alex said as he tried shifting the praise away.


    They exchange pleasantries as they headed outside to sit on the porch. The talk about, Abraham death, the war and life on the farm for a time.


    "So did you also get Abraham plea to destroy something back in Poland." Friedrich said in a slurred voice.


    "Yeah, but he told me only on the last day we talked." Alex said his voice also slurred but with an edge of pain as the memory resurface.


    "Looked I don''t know what my brother needed me to do, but I''ve got the farm, my kids and Jennie here. To be honest I don''t really want to go back their anytime soon. So could you take care of it." Friedrich said in a sheepish tone. He hunch over not really wanting to visit so many bad memory back their, his time back home had been hard. He''d lost his parents, his brother had shut himself off in his work, the army had ransack his farm on multiple occasion and his wife got sick and died because the natzis party had refuse to sell medicine to a half jew.


    "Not a problem, I was going over their anyways." Alex said as he patted Friedrich.


    "Thank you,....If he left something for me or Mila could you bring it back." Friedrich said as he look up into Alex eyes.


    Staring right back. "I''ll bring it back here if I can." Alex said. Both men staid at each other an nodded.


    "I''m going to bed, good night Alex." Friedrich said as he got up to go back inside.


    "Good night." Alex said, he staid outside going back at the moment that Abraham ask him to destroy something. "Guest I''ll see what was fuss all about."

 Chapter 18

    Alex visited Falsworth first in England, when he arrived they spent the better part touring his country estate. Fortunately for Falsworth his property had suffered very little it being in the country, but the same could not be said for all the in city real estate.


    He also go involve for a month in helping out clearing some rubble in London. He did that for two reasons, the first being that he wanted to go to France via boat. The captain and crews he found told him that they wouldn''t be going to sea until they finish clearing this section of rubble. The second was just seeing the devastation the bomber had done to London, compares to the sturdiness of the people around in fixing their capitol. Had inspired him into lending a helping hand to the work. Bonus points in that during the trip to France the captain an crew were more then happy to have him aboard.


    Once he arrive in France, he meet up with Dernier and Gabe. Sadly for Dernier it wasn''t all fun and games, half of his familly where killed during the occupation. Some because they had joins the resistance, and others because they had spied for the Natzis. It had hit him pretty hard learning that during this trying time his familly had thorn themselves apart. Gabe had been by his side at the very least, so he didn''t have to live througth this alone.


    One of the happiest surprise was that Gabe became very much in loved with Dernier sister, an she in turn accepted his proposal. So he''d unwittingly made it even before he got the letter of invitation. He spend another month staying with Dernier and Gabe waiting for the other member of the howling to show up for the wedding.


    Peggy, Howard and the general also pop in for the ceremony. The general just to congratulate Gabe, and spend time talking to other people about stories of what they lived throughs their in the war. Peggy spend some time like that as well, but she also went around an spoke with each member asking if she ever needed them would they answer the call. Howard entertain and delighted everyone else, he even manage to hook up with a girl at the party, while he already had a girl on his arm when he arrive. The lucky bastard left with the two.


    It became quite the festival, not only was it a wedding but it also doubled as a gattering for friends and comrades. After the wedding Alex once again set out to his final destination before going back home. During his time traveling he''d come to the conclusion that when he got back he would start his own business.


    Somewere in the country side of Poland


    "I think I got the right place?" Alex said as look at the destroyed town. From what Abraham told him and Friedrich as well this should be the place.


    "Looks like they bomb the place. Why the hell would they destroy this place it has no strategic value at all?" Alex was confuse cause this town seem to be an isolated ruin, not one soul around for miles.


    "Still, it a good thing Friedrich gave me this map from Abraham, or else, I could spend years looking around, not even sure what the hell I was looking for." Alex said as took out the map. Even with the map, trying to find some land mark wasn''t easy, since everything around was blown to smithereens. Not one house or building was standing everywhere he looked, rubble was what he saw.


    "Ok, if this was the center of town, maybe it this way?" Alex said as he move in one direction. Only to later turn to another in frustration. He started to curse who ever destroyed this town, this was complete madness, their wasn''t even any dead remains in the ruin of the town. It like the towns people all got taken away, then someone just for the hell of it destroyed the town for no other reasons then to waste ammunitions.


    A few hours went by until Alex came to realise this would take alot longer then expected. So he decided to go back and gather proper equipment and anything else he would need for this excavation.


    A week later


    "Ok, lets start round two." Alex said, he knew that what he was doing wasn''t rational, but he decided to find whatever it was that Abraham and Friedrich ask him to find. He also wasn''t afraid to admit that he secretly hope that he was going to find a treasure chest of some kind.


    That how he spent the next two months going through everything. He finally found the building he was looking for, it took him three weeks to pin point it from the rest of the rubble. Another two to figure he wasn''t digging in the right place, and three more to figure that he had to start all over again but from the foundation of the building. Many a time he would trow down his equipment and curse the heaven, he questions many times his sanity in the pursuit of completing his promises to the Erskine brothers.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    With a final swing the wall of earth crumbles, Alex stop he was suprise to find a tunnel. This wasn''t on the map, maybes this is what he was looking for.


    "Please oh mighty digging god let this be what I seek." Alex said as he knelt down in worship to the earth. The constant digging had gotten to him. He got back up climb out of the hole went back to camp, he decide to eat something before exploring the tunnel. Once he finish cleaning up, he prepared for a quick visit inside the tunnel. Standing at the entrence. "I really hope, this is what I''m looking for." Alex sigh, any exitment was subdued he spent a whole two month going up and down in his emotion spectrum.


    Turning on The flash light he enter the tunnel. " Please don''t let it be some creepy monster I''m unwittingly freeing." Alex beg to himself an any higher powers that might be watching.


    Moving slowly he notice that the tunnel had been reinforce, it being so deep underground it was no wonder that it hadn''t collapse after the towns destruction. Maybe he was in the escape tunnel of the town? This didn''t make any sense why would anyone build this? So many questions he continues moving until he arrive at a dead end.


    Looking at the cave in, he guest that this was the original entrance. But with the destruction of the town this entrance was destroyed, this would explaine the map odd entrance direction.


    "Well, then that means, that what I''m looking for is back their." Alex said as he turn around, he just stood still for a moment, he felt like at this point this might be the last chances to simply walk away. Leaving everything in the ground, Abraham wanted him to destroy something, but wasn''t leaving it here, in the ground, also a way to destroy it, by letting it be forgotten by time.


    "No, he ask me, to do this, so lets see it trough to the end." Alex said with conviction. As he back track his steps, he past once more the hole he made and keep on moving.


    The tunnel went on for a while, he couldn''t understand the purpose of the tunnel, cause from his perspective it seem to keep going down. If it did, then this was the worse escape tunnel ever. He arrives at a iron door with silver marking on it.


    "The hell, it that silver?" Alex got closer to the marking, examining them up close. "What are they? I don''t recognize any of them." He was getting more and more confuse as he got closer to his destination.


    "Ok, so this door has marking I don''t recognize. So that means, Abraham was involve in the occult? But he never strike me as the hocus pocus type." Alex was even more confuse this was almost against everything he knew about the man. Abraham seem on the side of science and not magic. So how did he end up mixt into that world, the answer was beyond this door.


    "So I''m not getting any creepy vibe from the door, beside the usual weirdness. Nor am I getting anything like if I open this door something horrible going to happen. So let get this over with." Alex said as he push on the door.


    "Whoops, I need to pul it." Alex was glad that he was alone down here, it would''ve been very embarrassing otherwise.


    As he open the door he walk in to an old lab, their was some equipment for chemistry on a table covered in dusts. A shelve with books about various scientific subjects, and another with mystical subjects. Looking around their also seem to be some kind of altar. Their was also an old single mattress bed in the corner, he walk over to it, their was door beside. Opening the door he figured that with the hole an bench this was the toilet.


    Looking back at the map, the words on the bottom kind made more sense now. "Look it the red chest." Alex said out loud, he looked around going to another door he found all sorts of things, this seem to be some kind of storage space.


    Under some stuffs he finally found the red chest. "Good at least I don''t have to spend more time digging or looking around for this." Alex said as move the stuff off from the chest. Looking at it he figured it would be to heavy to lift all by himself so he hope he could carry what was inside.


    The chest needed a key, but since he didn''t have any he decided to bust it open with the pickaxes he brought with him. But first he went around and check the lamps in the place. He was lucky since their seem to still be some oil in them. He took out his matches and lit every lamp. Then he drag the chest out of the storage into the open room, it would be easier for him in swinging around his pickaxes.


    "Ok, momemt of truth here." Alex said as he raise his pick, but he stop mid swing.


    "Im an idiot, I didn''t event check it to see if it was boobytrap. Good thing I didn''t hit yet." Alex said as he let sigh of relief out. He then check the chest as best he could but found no traps.


    So without ceremony the pick broke the lock on the first try, Alex open the chest inside was a safe. "Oh for to love of........" Alex began cursing at Abraham cause he never said anything about a safe.


    After some grumbling he calm down. "Look like I need to go back to camp to get some tools to see if I can''t open it." Alex said this whole venture had been very exhausting.

 Chapter 19

    "This is bullcrap!" Alex shouted, he''d been trying to open the safe for hours now, their was many impressive dent in it but the doors remain close. But the most frustrating part was the long treck he had to do back and forth just to get from camp to the room.


    Alex had been questioning Abraham sanity, it was obvious that what he wanted to destroy was in the safe but how was he s''oppose to do that. Let not mention his curiosity was killing him, after all this, did Abraham expect him to just go an destroy the safe and its content without even having a small peak. If getting to it was easy then no, but he''d been working at it for months now. Getting to know what was in it, that he wanted him to destroy had become some what of an obsession over his time here.


    "Look like I need to make another trip to the city." Alex said as he sigh, he pack up his stuff and move back to his camp. From their he took another week long journey from the city back to the town, just to get what he needed.


    And here he was back in the room, but he brought a trolley with him this time he was moving the safe out of the room. During his time down their he had hope that the safe code was somewhere. But he had no such luck, the books did make some interesthing reading materiel. The science books gave him a nice refresher on many subjects, an the mystical books gave hime some suprise as some of them where actual introduction into magic. Others were about variouse material use in rituals.


    He''d tried the intro spell for beginner, sadly he didn''t have enought to even light a candle. So now he knew that he had really nothing special about himself, except that he knew that he was in the marvel universe. "Damn you!!!" Alex wasn''t very clear who he was angry at, God, the universe, web novels or himself. He still keep the books, hence it was one of the reason he didn''t want to use more drastic measure on the safe inside the room. Another would be closes in enviroment would have him burried underground, if he was to use explosive on the safe, to which he was very tempted to do.


    "Im only going to blow it up, if I can''t open it up by drilling it." Alex said as he arrive at camp. To get the safe up in camp he had to build a pulley system just to get the damn safe out of the hole he''d dugg.


    "Now you piece of shit, Im going to finaly open you up an see what makes you so frigging special." Alex said in glee at the safe back in camp. In his imagination the safe was begging for his life as he was drilling it. Alex was laughing maniacally during the whole drilling, it was apparent that he''d gone a little insane over his time alone here.


    With a final crack, the door of the safe came off as Alex gave a final tugg with the crow bar. "Who laughing now, huh bitch, who laughting now! MouHAHAHAhahaha..cough...cough." Alex shouted in exhilaration as he laugh like a true villain at his victory over the safe.


    Once he''d calm down he finally check the content of the safe, he was expecting gold, jewels, pirate treasure or the secret of the universe. "What the hell." Alex said all that was inside was a single book, it wasn''t even a book it was a personnal journal.


    "Oh God, did Abraham send me all the way here to destroy his personal writhing of porn. Is this the 1940ht versions of delete my flash drive." Alex said as fell to his knees, he was even more confuse this build up was way over the top, their had to be something.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    He turn to the journal. "The answer has be in their, or else Im going to find a way to bring Abraham back, so that I can kill the bastard." Alex said as he reach for the journal once he pick it up he notice a lettre under it.


    "Oh, what this?" Alex put the journal aside an look at the letter, It was a letter adress to Friedrich. Alex debated about opening the letter or not, on one hand it was adress to Friedrich, but on the other it might reveal something important about all of this.


    "Screw it, if its personal I''ll stop and apologies to Friedrich when I see him." Alex said as he open the letter.


    The content of the letter, was an apology to Friedrich for not being their when their parents died an for years of distance between the two. It then explaine that he was the only one he could trust, and if he got this letter then the natzis had not destroy the town, and he was abel to get to the safe easily. "Easy my ass." Alex said in anger. It went on about how he knew that his brother would know the combination of the safe, as it was the date of their parent death. "Buch of......" Alex keep cursing as he had no clue about that date the two never spoke of that day.


    Finally the letter ended by pleading to burn the journal without looking in it, Abraham in the letter admited that it was his life work an he couldn''t bring himself to destroy it. But at the same time this could never fall in the hands of evil men, as it would alter the very world they knew. It ended by saying he loved him and was sorry about everything.


    Alex staired at the letter, he read it again and again he focus on the part where he mention his life work and he couldn''t destroy it. "But he did destroy it, didn''t he?" Alex whisper as he remember back when they were escaping from Germany, he had come to get him in his lab. He found him burning all his research in the lab, so that the natzis couldn''t get theirs hands on it, at the time he claim he''d left nothing behind and that everything he needed was in his head.


    "I ask him on several occasion, if he had anything as a back up. He lied, this journal is the last of his research. Oh God, I have a chance to have the same ability as Steve." Alex said as he gently put down the letter.


    "But I got myself a morale issu here, I did promise to destroy this journal. But on the other this is what I desperately needed to change the course of history as I see fit." Alex pondered about his problem, slowly a grin surface. " What the hell am I worried about, I spent two months digging around, and now Im just going to trow away this chance without even looking at it before I decide." Alex chuckled. "I''ll keep my promise an burn the journal, but I never promise that I wouldn''t copie it on something else."


    He didn''t feel any guilt about his decision, for far to long he''d wanted a way to grow strong, only to be denied at every turn. First he wanted smarts only to find he always fell short of the line of genius. He then tried physical strength only to be limited by being a normal humain. He hope to have a mutant power but nothing, he hope to have a system or computer chip but again nothing. Then he tried to have world shaking influence, by becoming a spy but their again he was stop. When the program came on for the super soldier serum he applied only to be denied by a friend. His work at Stark ended as well, and a few days ago he learn he did not possess any magic affinity.


    So after trying again and again the traditional paths, he hope he could finally find his path with this journal. Alex took a deep breath, please don''t let be some erotical literature porn thing, he prayed.


    Opening the journal, he saw two names one was Abraham Erskine the other gave him a pause when he readed it. Dr Laurence Van Helsing.

 Chapter 20

    Alex had spent the whole night up reading the journal, his eyes were bloodshot as he look at the journal and into space from time to time.


    "I don''t believe it, the serum that cap got was a watered down version of this." Alex said as he look at the journal passage again.


    (I Abraham and Dr Van Helsing, have begun to uncover the potions secrets and are about to improve it even more. I''m simply waiting for my colleague to return from one of his many trips. I can not wait to present my finding to him they are absolutely vital in the next step.)


    The journal continues in describing in great detail every step they took, and any finding''s or failures they had in their experiment. It even went so far as to explain a magic for dummies guide. Later on the story became angry, since after the last time Dr Van Helsing left he never returned. So for a time Abraham thought that he''d been betrayed, but as time went by and no news of his colleague or paper''s published. He started to realize that maybe his friend''s stories where not just stories.


    During that period Abraham decides to leave this place and the project, It takes him another nine years to comeback.


    After he returns the magic part is much more subdued, but the chemistry and genetic are light years ahead. But event that, he explains as if he''s teaching a class, it shows that Abraham needed to write down his work to share with someone or something.


    At the end Abraham is more frantic once he has completed the formulas, because he finally comes to understand the possible horror of it, if this falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the world into chaos. But even knowing this Abraham admits that he is a weak man, since he can''t bring himself to destroy his work. In this part he writes about thinking of killing himself, but doesn''t have it in him to end his life, then he writes how he feels guilty since he can''t help himself but needs to bring some of his life work to light, and that Van Helsing is lost.


    "So Van Helsing probably got himself killed by Dracula all those years ago." Alex mumbled to himself.


    At the end, a new formula is created by Abraham by himself, this one Abraham states that it is inferior to his master piece, but if this get''s into the hands of those that would abuse it, they can still be stopped by modern weapons.


    "I''ve always found it odd how Schmidt got the twisted result and not Steve. I guess Abraham was playing everyone to keep this a secret." Alex said not for the first time, as he reviewed his interaction of Abraham.


    Going back to the part where the complete serum formula was. Alex looked at all the possible powers that it could produce, the only downside was that the serum had never been tested. But if the watered down version works just fine, since the core of the formula was the same just added ingredient where removed.


    "Still the risk is worth it, I become stronger, faster basically all my attributes get a huge boost. A healing factor that makes wolverine jealous. And looks like I also get possible extras abilities, like elemental compatibilities, also diseases and curses Immunities. Not sure about the last, but it looks like its also possible that I gain psionic abilities or at least resistance to it. Last but not least a ridicules long life span." Alex said but the major thing that worried him was underneath their was note.


    (Ultimate vampire hunter)


    The way Alex saw it, this serum would give almost all of a vampires ability, just without any blood lust, being allergic to the sun, no shapeshifting sadly or any other weakness they had. In principle this would create the ultimate weapon to end any vampire existence on earth. Hell it could probably give nightmares to any demonic beings. And so if the origin of the serum ever came to light of day, he would be neck deep in demonic attacks. He wouldn''t be surprised if it was now, that his presence would usher a new era of piece among all demons, well at the very least until he was grinded down into a bloody paste.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Now I need to decide, do I copy everything, or just some of it?" Alex said as he looked up lost in thought.


    "No, I''m way to tired to decide anything right now. I need to sleep." Alex said, but right after he had a new problem he couldn''t just leave this book lying around in the open so where would he hide it while he rested?


    A few hours later, Alex woke up, made himself something to eat and cleaned himself up. Sitting down once more, he started to go through a list of steps. Number one on it, was to copy the whole journal until he could remember everything in it. Next on the list was steps he needed to take to acquire everything in the journal to reach the ultimate serum.


    One thing he found intriguing is that Abraham had created a lock in Steve version of the serum, that version had a limit that would shackle it, just like any other serum that would be based on this version. Unlike the vampire hunter version, where its potential wasn''t locked down, and it could even be evolved to be even stronger if he could push himself.


    It had three stages in the journal, the first was very similar to Steve after the serum, the only difference was that the were some added bonus power with it. The second was a powered up version of the first version, to which elemental affinity was awakened. Abraham also stated that the third stage was only a possibility, if one pushed themselves further and harder beyond there limit they had a chance to reach it. After stage three it completely depended on the individual to gain any new progress.


    "This is almost like those wuxia novels, well their is that mystical world in marvel so it not to far fetched." Alex said as he cocked his head sideways in thought. "Still this could become ridiculously broken with time and effort." Alex said with a grin, what did he really care about limits, for some time now he seen what life without power would cover. It was limited on what he could change, but despite knowing thing in advance, he''d been forced to watch friends die or disappear right in front of him, but with this he would have better tools to shape his future and those around him, hopefully for the better.


    "I don''t have any illusion about me anymore, I know that I am definitely not a hero. I''ve seen a real one up close and personal, I am far from being kind like Steve." Alex said as he contemplated for a moment silently as he replayed the conversation he''d had with Steve about what a hero was.


    Alex look up to the sky as he remember Steve reaction to being called a hero. "He always said he''d never considered himself a hero. He simply tried to be a good man, and staying true to himself and others." To have that kind of conviction even when everyone around you was worshipping the ground you walk on. That was some willpower to not let yourself be lost, in ones own powers.


    "Well I guess I''ll have a chance to know what I''m made of once I go through with this." Alex said as he looked back to his list. Many material he needed would take time and lots of money, lets not forget he would also need privacy to assemble everything.


    "Should I have people work on this for me? It would go faster. Nah, better not, don''t want a leak going around that I know how to super charge the super soldier serum." Alex said as he shook his head. Not wanting to open Pandora''s box.


    Alex figured that his best bet, was to create a business in pharmaceuticals and heath. If he went in that direction, any research he tried on the super serum wouldn''t raise to many eyebrows, since a company dedicated to extend life would be easier to swallow then, trying to create an army to rule the world. Not that he wanted to rule the world, although it did give him an idea.


    Should he try an take over Latveria Alex thought. "It will probably not go well if I put myself in Victor Van Doom''s way." Alex said just thinking of all that will go wrong, if he opened that box of mysteries.


    "Besides, having a business will allow me more flexibility, on any future deals with anyone I choose." Alex said, as he look to his list he tried to think if he needed anything on it.


    "Well, it probably a good idea to erase any trace of my time here. Also I should check the room one last time, just to make sure I''m not missing anything." Alex said as he got up, he was filled with confidence. After all this time he had found a new path to follow, one that would hopefully gain him all of his hearts desire.

 Chapter 21

    <blockquote>


    One month later


    </blockquote>


    A tall alethic dark brown hair man was sitting down, he was wearing a fashionable deep blue suit. He had a warm smile, with grey eyes that radiates in neon lights believe me!


    "I''ve look at your portfolio, and in light of your stunning recommendation letter from Howard Stark, but more importantly your impressive detailed plan. Your loan for starting your business has been approve." The Banker said with a angry trembling voice.


    "Thank you sir! Your undying belief in this glorious enterprise, shall shower your descendants in the universal continuum of positiveness, for are supreme ruler jackjack." Alex said with a huge smile.


    Awkwardness could be easily seen on the banker face. Their was also a hint of anger and embarrassment, since Alex had raise his voice to attract the attention of other employees. Some where obviously snickering at his situation.


    Alex had come to this bank before but had receive nothing but contempt at first. Puzzled he at first figure that his proposal wasn''t in order, so he paid a visits to Howard for help, figuring that a multimillionaire would know his way around a business loan proposal and could help him improve it or simply point out his mistakes.


    At first Stark was reluctant since him going into business would mean competition. But once he learn the direction he was going, he wasn''t worried anymore since their interest didn''t conflict all that much.


    It was Howard that told him that their was nothing wrong about his proposal, hell he was even tempted to invest in it. Once Alex heard that, he figured he''d better do a background check on that banker or bank just to be sure. It turn out the bank owner was a friend of his old boss, and the owner son just so happens to work there, at the same desk of the banker he went to meet just a few days agos, who after spending only two minute looking at it, rejected his proposal.


    Now anyone normal would just go to another bank, and have his plan pass by a different banker. Alex instead signed a deal with Howard, about his future research stating that on this and that he would share his finding within a strict period of time. All so that Haword would write a letter threatening this particular banker, on cancelling any and all future interaction of that bank. Not only would he do that, he would also send a letter to the higher up about his reasons as well.


    To which Alex desided to play crazy, by saying nonsense to the banker outloud during any interaction he would have with this banker, just to push his buttons.


    "Just get out now." The banker said with a red face.


    "Of course, my little buttercup of love, I will make sure to pass your word to the astronaut hidding in the nut. Fear not for me, my little tulip of burn toast, we will meet again under the ever purple of malnourishment." Alex said still grinning as he gave an elaborate bow. He then turn and walk away to snickering and laughter from the bankers colleague around.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    He didn''t look back, but if he had he would''ve seen the bankers manager coming out, asking him if he was insane for giving his approval to a mad men. And the rest of his colleagues and client laughing at his humiliation, the worse was that he couldn''t even give a proper answer since it would damage the bank reputation, more so if the truth came out. So there the banker was taking in this humiliation in silence.


    "I feel so refresh." Alex said as he hum Jimmy Hendrix foxy lady, on the way to his car.


    As he drove away toward home, he started to think on the hasty deal he made with Howard. Now going into business with him wasn''t bad, but it had been done in the heat of anger toward his old boss meddling friends. To be fair it was a really big deal, but the point was he had acted, hastily in retaliation.


    "I need to figure some way to control my emotion, I can''t keep going gun blazing anymore. Should I go into to therapy?" Alex said as he wonder if he had a form of PTSD. It was possible he did just come back from fighting in a high intense stress environment.


    "It would probable be a good idea to se someone, if my world history is still any good, wasn''t their like a huge depression after the war." Alex said he tried to remember from his first life if that was something he saw in school.


    "Ah, thats right, it wasn''t in school that I got that, but an article, that read saying something like the WW2 wasn''t well categorize in its victims, cause they only counted the soldier on the battlefield, and not the ones that came home." Alex said he went quiet for a bit.


    "I have been talking to myself alot lately. Or is it that I just don''t have anyone to talk too about this." Alex said in a somber tone.


    "Well shit, not only do I have to go to therapy, looks like i need to make me some new friends." Alex said as grin slid across his face.


    Alex arrive home, for now it was a modest apartment. When he lost his job as a spy many of the agency safe house had become off limits, and since he didn''t want to move back with his parents. He had to find alternative living location, sure he could''ve gone for a more fancy place, but he was trying to save his rapidly dwindling funds.


    "Fucking spy agency, and their bullshit." Alex mumbled as he went in his apartment. After he signed his release contract from the agency, a clause he should have read but was to sick and tired to bother about, came back to bite him in the ass. His boss and his team of greedy fuckers, had slip in a line stating that he was giving all his resources back to the agency.


    That line had suck almost every investment he made in the past, at least any they could prove he''d done so with the agency money. Sure the first few he use his own money for, but the bigger contracts, the one''s he needed alot of money for, he use the agency as his own personal bank. As long as he was apart of the agency it was fine, but as soon as he was out, without taking the steps he needed he lost almost everything.


    The worse was learning it all when he was over seas, so by the time he caught wind of it, the damage had already been done. Fortunately he still had some money, just not as much as he would need to go really big. It would take time, to not only grow his business, but to get project ultimate going. Like it or not he did not have a secret rich daddy long legs to help him out. Sure Howard could fund it, but the problem would be he wouldn''t be his own boss, and trying to have his more secret research going under the raidar. Would most definitely not go over well with any inspection or Haword, and it wouldn''t become a question of years, but a question of decades for completing it.


    So yes, the money would be faster with Howard, but the cons could erase or delay any chance he had of gaining any power. So he went into his small cramp apartment an sat down, waiting with a beer for tomorrow to come, readying himself for the marathon and not the sprint, that life was trowing at him.

 Chapter 22

    <blockquote>


    Six months, six months of running around after everything. Six months of having to sell to Howard minor projects, just to keep himself afloat with his new and oh so fragile company. But he had finally done it after giving, and giving some more, he finally got his first product. The contract was signed, and his compagnie was going to finally get paid.


    </blockquote>


    "Who knew, that the heath business was so damn cutthroats. I''ll have to give Howard a call and thank him for the assist." Alex said as he sighed, he knew that Howard had place a call and ask for a favor in giving the contract to him.


    Not that he was ungrateful, but it was a humbling experience all the same. Learning to navigate and plan in the business world had really been eye opener, sure he''d taking class about it and ask advice as well but to live it. Totally new way of seeing things, the ideology of going green and fair trade was nice but the reallity was completely different thing.


    "I get it, why in the comic books so many evil business seem to alway make money. Going shady is very lucrative, but if want to have a positive impact and creat loyalty in my followers, I need to live by example. Which equals to the nightmare mode of doing things." Alex said as he looked at the mountain of paper work he had to go trough.


    "Hey boss, I think your three o clock is here." A man said as he lean in the door frame.


    Alex looked up and motion the man to send them in with a grunt. So far he had ten people working for him. Seven of which where busy on producing and researching his product, that left three very poor helpers in the office with him. Since he couldn''t pay very much for the administer side, he was stuck with three guys that sadly were lazy, they did half the amount of work he needed them to do, but they did work.


    For some time now, all three had demanded to get a piece of the pie. Alex at the time flatly refuse, these snakes had been with him for a few weeks and they had all seen the huge potential of his company. So they had approach him with veiled smiles, praising him and telling him that they all believed in the company, so if he let them have a piece of the pie, they will happily give him some money.


    Alex was willing to be open to people, but not to a bunch of scheming snakes. It was painfully obviouse that they wanted to scam him somehow. So he politly refuse, and then told them to get back to work. Since they didn''t get what they wanted, they beggan to half ass their jobs, they also where nice enought to mention just how he could motivate them again. By giving them twice the amount they ask the first time.


    Which was why he had about four time the paper work on his desk compare to theirs. "I hope i find someone useful soon." Alex said to himself quietly.


    Their was a knock at the door, Alex raise his head an took a good look at the person. His eyebrow rose up in inquiry, their standing before him was a black women, she was holding on to her purse like it was some kind of protective talisman. She was beautiful, deep brown eyes long dark curly hair a healthy figure a little on the skinny side, as if she hadden been eating well lately.


    "Hello sir, am here for the job." She said in a nervous voice.


    In the background you could hear laughter. If one was to really pay attention you could hear some high fives as well. Alex could guest what had happen, those Asshats probably mest with the job application some how.


    "Could you close the door please, and please take a seat." Alex said as he motion her to come in, he left his paper work for now an gave hi full attention to his guest.


    "Thank you sir." She quietly said, when she heard the laughting she knew she had been played somehow, but at least the man at the desk didn''t look to be in the loop.


    "I''ll ask for you to forgive me for my surprise, since I believe that we have both been dupe by my employees lack of professionalism." Alex said with as much of a compassionate smile as he could offer.


    "Its no troubled, just is the job still available." She said with a certain plea in her voices.


    "I not sure, I was looking for a secretary to help me with my paper work. What job did you come in for?" Alex said he secretly hope that she had come for it. He really needed help.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    She seem to fidget in her sear until her head bow down in defeat. "I came for the cleaning lady job sir." She said in a sad tone.


    Alex look at her for a moment, he figure he could ask some questions who knows she might just be what he needed.


    "Where are my manners, my name is Alexander Grey who do I have the pleasure of speeking to?" Alex said as he held out his hand.


    She look up in surprise, she was expecting him to ask her to leave. She knew he was giving her a chance so she whit out any hesitation rose from her chair an took his hand.


    "My name is Faith Bradley sir, It nice to meet you to." Faith said with a little more strength in her voice.


    As they where shaking hands, Alex seem to get the fealing that he heard her name somewhere, but he just couldn''t remember where. He figured that if it was important he would remember eventually.


    "Its very nice to meet you miss Bradley." Alex said


    "Its actually mrs Bradley sir, if you don''t mind my husband is gone but not dead." Faith said


    "Oh, sorry about your husband, care to elaborate?" Alex said


    "Nothing much to tell, my husband has gone missing in the war. Im still hoping for him to come home." Faith said


    Alex had strange sense that he heard this somewhere before, like some weird deja vue feeling you get some times. He through it to back of his mind and continued the interview.


    "I hope he does to, now can you read and write without making to many mistakes." Alex said


    "Yes sir, no problem on my end." Faith said


    "Good, do you have any expirience in clerical work?" Alex said


    "No sir, but am a fast learner. If you give me a chance I''ll make you proud sir." Faith said with a fighter will in her voice.


    "Do you have children?" Alex said


    Faith seem to hesitates for a second. "Yes sir I do, a little baby girl sir." She said there was caution in her voice.


    "That fine, do you have some one that could watch her, since its very likely you will work long hours here." Alex said


    "I could but, I would much prefer not to be seperated from her for to long." Faith said, she bitt her bottom lip afraid that she had just ended her chance for a better life. But she would take back her words, she had lost her husband and she refuse to distantce her self from her child for a job. She would rather lose this opportunity then leave her daugther alone.


    Alex pause to consider his options, normally one wouldn''t take on some one like her who had no experience, but considering his current work force to a possible major upgrade. Let not forget that this women seem in serious need of help, if he help her now their was a very real possibility of creating a very strong and loyal minion from her. The question he had to ask himself was, does he take the chance or does he keep on looking.


    "Sir, I want to let you know, that if you take me on, and traine me I will be ever so grateful, sir." Faith said as her last desperate plea. If she couldn''t get this job then she would have to move back away. Which would make it harder for her husband to find her if he ever came home, but if she could get this job it would no doubt change her life.


    Alex made his decision after looking into her un flinching eyes. Her eyes where screaming, Im willing to do what needs to be done. He nodded his head and got up from his desk, he walk to the door.


    For a moment Faith confidence faltered, she had giving her all. Her shoulder slump, as she got up ready to leave with her tattered dignity. At least he had treated her with respect, which was more then any others had done for her this week.


    Alex open the door, looking at the three men who where sitting around joking, kidding around lazily, not doing anything but waiting for a good show.


    "Your all fired. Come in tomorrow to pick up your last pay check." Alex said his voice was final, total silence followed. He turn to Faith. "Be here at eigth sharp tomorrow morning, theirs alot for you to learn."


    The three men jump up and protested, but Alex shot them down by simply saying that it was his company, so he get to chooses who stays and who goes. After some more yelling the three men storm out shouting that he hadn''t seen the last of them.


    Faith stood frozen during the hole time, she only came back after the door had slam shut on the three men. She turn to Alex and jump into his arms crying and thanking him in quick succession.


    After comforting her and telling her that she had the rest of the day to figure something for her daughter. He told her she would be working officially Monday to Friday, but they would most likely to work during the weekend as well. So in light of that and since they where the only two in the office, he would instal a kids room so that she could keep an eye on her daughter.


    But the up side was that she was going to get a higher pay, since she would absorb the three men salaries. Faith who just got a hold on her self, jump back into his arms and gave another stream of thank you and happy tears.


    Faith in her mind swore that she would do anything for this boss as long as he held up his end of the deal.


    As for Alex he got the odd sense that his decision would prove to be invaluable in the far futur.

 Chapter 23

    It was amazing what one year could do to change so many things. Alex was looking out his office window while siping his morning coffe. His company was up and running, he had alot more time to dedicate to project ultimate.


    Once Faith had traine under him, she had use her new found wealth to take some night classes in economic. And now she held the second in command position, he still sweated thinking on those days where she grilled him mercilessly, into finding out what kind of company he wanted. As soon as she had a clear picture about his direction, she express her surprise in finding out his good karma direction, she even tried to persuade him to be a little more ruthless.


    He then explaine he was already plenty ruthless, he just didn''t want to come to work in that type of environment. He wanted to create a place where his employees took pride in their work. Where they cultivated loyalty an comradeship, he wasn''t an idiot he new that their was always a chance to have a knifes in theirs backs. Even then he didn''t want a company that work in prolonging life to give up on it internally.


    So in ligth on a conflictled view point in a company, they had to up the game when it came to security. They created a system that many other company had express interest for themselves. So they ended up selling the design to any who were interested, they made quite a fortune by it to.


    "Excuse me sir but you have a visitor." A voice said from behind.


    "Do you know who it is miss Delvine?" Alex said as took a sip of his coffe.


    "Yes sir, she said her name was Peggy Carter." Delvine said


    "Huh, Peggy is here? Tell security to send her up, she an old dear friend of mine, please tell them to treat her rigth." Alex said as turn from the window and walk to his desk, that had hardly any paper work on it. Most of the things he receive was from Faith personal vetting, after her own team went througth it.


    It had cause an outcry in the business world, when he personally name Faith his vice president, for two reasons the first because she was black, the second because she was a women. Oddly enough the backlash wasn''t as bad, for all the numbers of white men he lost he gain them back in women and immigrant. Their we''re many rich men escaping from europe, and finding a company that had an open arms policy, made it easier for them to open their wallets.


    The protesters didn''t last very long either, when it became clear that their produce were very much irreplaceable. Many company tried all kind of methods, only for it to fail. They tried poaching, only to find all the researched happy and satisfide, plus with a iron clad contract binding them all. Turning to espionage was in a way even worse, since their attemps only fuelled there already good reputation on security. After that they tried a lawsuit, only problem they had no solide case, it again ended being them that where drag into court only to lose billions. They tried a few more times, only to come and realize that the more they struggled the stronger they made them.


    "It has been quite some time Grey. You''ve really move up in the world." Peggy said as she walk in, she was a smilling as she went around the desk as they both open their arms and gave each other a hug.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "It so good to see you Peg, how are you doing. If your not in a hurry why don''t we go out for lunch to cache up, On me of course." Alex said as he held her at arms length, happy ot see her after all this time.


    "That does sound lovely, but im afraid this isn''t a social visit." Peggy said as she smiled knowing that after everything Grey didn''t change all that much. He still reman warm to his friends, he was alway the one she was worried about the most. Not in any romantic way, but more of a fear of what would happen when he''d finally snap.


    She had been around to see him during combat and after. The general, Steve, the howling commandos or anyone else for that matter never truly saw what she had seen in him. This man was a monster, other couldn''t see it yet, but if he ever lost it, he would become one of the most dangerous person around. So she was relived to see the growing darkness in Grey become smaller, seing him more relax and less on edge. Gave her some real relief, she just hope it would last, because if he ever went off completely of his rocker, she saw it as her duty, as his friend to end him.


    "Oh, then sit down, an tell old grey here what I can do for you." Alex said as he sat back in his chair.


    "I need the howling commandos for a missions." Peggy said going straight to the point.


    "Really now?" Alex said as tap his fingers in a rhythm on his desk, as he pondered her statement.


    "Can you elaborate?" Alex said in a serious tone.


    "Not much, but what I can tell you is that it involves Russia and children." Peggy said in her tone one could detect hope that this would be enought to get him on board.


    Russia, children, could it be, it is about the right time after the war. Alex was almost certain that this was the begining of the black widow origine story. He wasn''t sure if he could change anything but he could try, even if it didn''t work, he could still go to see if he could plant any seeds for the futur. Project ultimate was on track, it would take time for the different department to send their pieces of the puzzle to his private lab. He''d come to realize that couldn''t just lock himself in his lab, well he could but it would look really weird. So he outsource separate pieces of the project to different department, only to assemble them together for his needs. Some parts were only create by him but most ot wasn''t. Faith had notice an she had brought it up, he simply told her the truth, that he was working on somthing in secret, and he was trying to hide it from everyone. She took it well even help him in doing it better, she only ask that he didn''t blow up the world.


    "Ok, I''m in what do you need me to do?" Alex said


    "Good, you wouldn''t happen to know someone who speaks Russian?" Peggy said


    "{I happen to speak it.}" Alex said in Russian


    "Splendid, you leave tomorrow here is the address of where to meet me and the rest of the team." Peggy said


    "Sure, now about that lunch? Are sure I can''t interest you in it." Alex said with a grin as he lean in with sparkling eyes.


    Peggy just smiled and sigh. "Fine."


    "Good, I know this nice little english pub that have the most wonderful fish and chips." Alex smiled as he got up and practically race out of the door.


    Peggy just watch him and shook her head, as she got up and followed, at the very least it will be fun.


    Alex race back and shouted. "Miss Delvine, I''m going out, I''ll be back in a few hours. Come on Pegs, keep up, those fish aren''t going to eat themselves." Alex said in exitment.


    Peggy last thought, was wondering who was treating who here.

 Chapter 24

    Over lunch Peggy explain the mission, at the agency she was now working the SSR. She had manage to decode a message that link Howard, a secret group called Leviathan and children. Her boss wanted someone that knew the territory in Russia, she had already contacted the howling commandos they had agreed to meet them their. She was hoping to rope in one more ex soldier to this mission.


    "James should be going, so why are you in need of my help? Cause from what you''ve explain, you have a part of the howling and some of your guys from the SSR are going as well. So what is my role in all this Pegs?" Alex said as he push away his empty plate.


    "I think hydra might be involve. And theirs a secondary location that I need you to hit, while I go with the rest." Peggy said as she lowered her voice.


    "Wait, what? What do you mean second locations? And why is it that I''m going in alone. Tell me Pegs, what really going on here." Alex said any cheer he had over the deliciouse fish an chip left him.


    Peggy sigh. "Howard is in trouble, someone is framing him. I was helping him finding out who but when I last spoke to him, we got into a nasty fight. So I left, then two days ago I come in to work, only to learn that the SSR have captured a coded message. Its about Leviathan, Howard and a weapon deal, that somehow involves an orphanage, near where the deal is about to be struck. The problem is, that my boss is going to ignore the orphanage and focus on the deal. So I need you to go in my place at the orphanage, and see what it has to do with a child package they mention." Peggy said she had started by looking down, only to slowly raise her head as she poured out her heart to him.


    "And why alone, you and I both know what you''re capable of on your own. Who was the one who volunteer to get capture as bait, without weapons, and by the time the rest of the team enter, everyone inside was either dead or knock out cold. We found you in their kitchen making a sandwich, complaining that the food they served you was crap, so you decided to make your own food. You broke out of prison, killed almost everyone, without weapons or back up." Peggy said as she stared at him, with a look that challenge him to deny.


    This was also another reason everyone else of the howling called him crazy, the time were he done something for food or thing he consider important for culture was numerous. But they all had one common factor, when Alex went berserk, his allies had nothing to be worried about they where safe. Not so much if you happen to be his ennemy, if you where it was wise to run like never before.


    "Well shit." Alex said


    "Languages!" Peggy said in a teacher like not approving tone.


    "Sorry, fine you''ve convince me, il go and see what I can dig up. If hydra is involved, I get rid of them, and if something shady is going on with the little Olivers, Il give them some porridges." Alex said as gave her a grin.


    "Thank you." Peggy said as she smiled. Knowing that if Alex went then whatever happen it would be resolve.


    Somewhere over Russia.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "You know it been a while since ive done this." Alex said to the pilot as he shouted over the noise.


    "Are you sure you just want me to fly over, and leave you all alone out their?" The pilot said for the tenth time.


    "Frank, life is like a mystery box, sometimes you just got to rip the lid off, and yell at the hidden puppet inside." Alex said in his best sage voice.


    "My name is Roger, not Frank, Chis, Paul, Bob, laurence or any other names you''ve called me during this flyte. Isn''t my name Im called Roger." Roger? the pilot said in exasperation.


    "Sure, sure, your name is your name. But I kind of think you look more like a Bruce." Alex said with a grin. Alex very well knew what the pilots name was..... He just wanted to pist him off a bit, ever since he told him he was parachuting alone over Russia, he''d ask one to many times if he was serious. Hence the name calling.


    "Whatever where here." Bruce? The pilot said


    "Ok see you on the other side Jane." Alex said he jump out of the plane. As he jump he swore he hear, the word "asshole" being shouted from somewhere, must be his imagination.


    As Alex descended, he went throught what found out before coming here. The location he was going to investigate was a real orphanage, foreshadowing much, officially it was own buy a small shell company who provided weapons. So it was a shadow site no questions, probable governmentally funded to hide whatever it is they where hidding. So this mission was going to go south as soon as he was spotted, the question was does he step in and help if he finds any living victims, or does only smash and grab any info. He would figure it out once he eliminated all hostiles forces.


    He landed without any problem, he pack up his chute, unhook the front bag he had on him, taking out his equipment for this mission. For this mission he brought a map of the area, a compass, a flash light, a sniper rifles scope, M1911 pistol with a silencer with extra amos, a ka-bar knife, a nifty little device that coiled a steals wire in it which it could also be use as a garrote, a nine inch nail that had a long flat rectangle head for better support in one palm, six trowing knives, two flash bangs, two smoke grenades, goggles of his own designs to see in the dark, a mask that filter smoke and water and a rope with a grabbling hook.


    Of Course he was also wearing the lates body armor as well, he was still a normal human, he still hasn''t gone throught the first phase yet. He was only missing a few more things, before his first step into a life full of new possibilities, he should have everything he needed by time he got back.


    Thanks to his night goggles, he could approach the orphanage without any problem. From where he was to their it was about five miles from what he could gather from his map. It was still pretty late so if he hustle he could make it before sunrise. Alex treck in the forest making good time, watching his step as he made his way to the orphanage.


    It was still dark, but soon the sun would rise. Alex was observing the place. "Either the people here really like fortes, or all the orphans are super important to this country." Alex said as he was looking at the fortify building before him.


    It was surounded by a two meter stone wall with only one gate to come in or out, their was about four building inside. One look like it was somekind of storage, another look like a garage, another look like some school and the last looked to be a forte build to resist a siege. Add the guard tower that were at all four corner, the patrol also going around. And well this started to look less and less like an orphanage an more like some shady millitary operation base.


    "Possibles training facility for some sort of super spy or soldier, and if kids are involve, then its more then likely that their being brainwash. Great not only do I need to watch out for the guards and teachers, but the kids might stab me in the back." Alex said in frustration


    "Well Im going to get some rest, observe them during the day and I''ll sneak kill them tonight, if nothing fuck up happens during the day." Alex said as found a nice hidding spot to grab some sleep.

 Chapter 25

    After sleeping for a few hours, Alex settled down to observe the coming and going of the facility. As he was watching he was munching on some dry foods. He notice that the guards in the towers, would alway leave at least one inside every time a shift was going on.


    "My, my, would you look at that, someone''s sleeping on the job." Alex said with a grin. Near the east most tower their was a guard that was yawning and looking bored, not really paying attention to his surrounding. Which create the perfect weak point to infiltrate from.


    Alex continued to observe the place all day, taking breaks From time to time and noting the patrol rounds, the time they took where they went and any other info he would needed for tonight. Having a look at the sky and his watch, he figured he should get some sleep, so that he would be in tip top shape for tonight.


    "Ready or not here I come." Alex said as he sneak closer to the east side wall. At the wall he use his grappling hook and silently climb over, once he was on top, he made a special knot with the rope that would hold his weigh but would be easy to detach from the ground.


    Silently lowering himself down on the other side of the wall, he flick his wrists and rope fell down. He quickly rolled it up and hid the rope behind some metal barrels. He snuck back into the shadows, moving first toward the the building he believe where all the staff were. As he moved toward his destination he heard some sound of walking, he figured it was the patrol passing by, so he went to a spot he had preselected during the day to hid. The patrol pass by none the wiser about his presence, he continued on his way.


    Arriving at the building in question, he climb up using the drain pipe, he climb all the way to the roof. He cautiously look around he spoted one guard, the guard was outside near the roof smoking a cigarette.


    "I love smokers, they alway create and opening for the rest of us." Alex said in a whisper as he sneak up on the guard.


    Sneaking up frombehind, he held his nail in his left hand, rushing in he grab the guards shirt with his right hand and pulled back, as he stab the nail in the neck under the skull, penetrating directly into the brain killing the guard before he understood what happen. Alex slowly lowered the body, he then drag it toward the door. He then check the guard and found some keys on him, he open the door an drag the body inside.


    During the day he counted 36 guards, theirs was a at least 18 guards on duty, with a rotation of 9 every two hours. So 9 were sleeping, another 9 were on stand by, that left 18 no 17 on duty. As for the teacher their was 5 or more, he wasn''t sure if he was missing anyone else since he only scouted for one day. He had already time his entry during the last shift, so he had two hours before they find the body.


    He continued down the stairs, moving to the next floor. He open the door of the stairs to the floor, he looking around he didn''t see any one around.


    "All those years of playing shadow strike, really paid off in this life." Alex said as he briefly let himself indulge in his past life.


    Before this life, he had played a virtual reality game that had exploded near the end of 2018 it was an army special forces on steroid. Where player played as a soldier with a team of six sneaking around in enemy bases, you could play as the bases guards or the invaders. Everything in the game was base on real life technic, so sneaking, shooting, lockpick, knife fighting, everything that a real special force could do, in the game a player could also do. He got really good at it in fact he was among the top 50 in the world, he usually fluctuated around number 32 to 46. And that was counting actual veteran soldier that we''re also playing the game.


    After he started his training as a spy he notice a frightening similarities, with the game and their training. The only difference was that the games technic, we''re light years ahead of the training he got as a spy. To his trainers he seem to be a natural at it, a monster even they wrote in their report. Hell he even gave Steve many pointer over the years, since the poor guy only had a two week crash course, before he went all super soldier.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    He came across a room that had a sleeping person in a bed, he decide against doing anything for now. Killing a guard was one thing, killing people went he wasn''t sure who or what they are was another, he wasn''t a maniac, he didn''t get off on killing anything that moved every two second. He continued going around if he spoted a guard he avoided them for now. He made it to what look like the headmaster office, he figure he would pook around for a bit, he check his watch making sure he still had time.


    "Ok, I give myself ten minutes to look around, if I don''t find anything il continue with the plan." Alex said as he move to the desk.


    He picklock the cupboard on the desk, but found nothing of interest, he check the office around finding nothing. Until he found a safe behind a panting.


    "Classic, always behind a painting." Alex said as he got to work unlocking the safe.


    With a click the safe came open, he check his time, he was cutting it close he had less then two minutes left.


    "If nothing of remote interest is found il leave the office." Alex said as he promise himself.


    Looking trought the papers, he found a ledger that most likely was a account book, he just put it back in the safe not important for now. The next item was of more interest, it was a detail report on all the children progresses, in it he learn that this place held about twenty children of the program called the red room.


    Sigh. "Guest that answer my question." Alex said, he continued to read until he found the hydra symbol at the bottom.


    "Ok, kill everyone it is." Alex said in a grim voice.


    As he keep reading the document, he learn where the kids we''re held, he also learned that all of them were in one form or another damage goods. The higher up had decide that once the kids are back to their best heath, they would be use as guine pigs, they would becoming for them in a week.


    "Fucking bastard, first they trains children to be merciless killers, and when they break the use them like lab rats. In a way it commendable on their waste nothing policy, but their methods and complete disregard for human life is sickening." Alex said as rage was coursing in his veins, as any mercy he had evaporated, leaving a murderess intent on any hydra scum in the base.


    He coldly look at his watch, he had mist his deadline by five minutes. But he didn''t really care, having found that this was a hydra base, and the only victims here were mess up kids, gave him an excuse to be completely ruthless with everyone inside the base.


    When he left the office he remembered the sleeper, so he creap back to the room, went in and slit his throat, the man open his eyes wide as Alex held him down and watch him die. He continued in this way, now every guard he found he killed in stealth making as less noise as possible.


    He also found the servant quarters, he held back because every room had four people in it. He figured he would come back for them once he killed of the teachers and guards. He keep going, until he found the guards waiting room, inside he found the next round of guards all pack into one place. When he counted them he found that their was 11 in the room, so he figure that some weren''t in theirs bunks but here.


    He knew that their wasn''t a guard near by cause he''d just killed him a few moments ago, but just to be sure he backtrack and check the area once more. He found nothing that would jump outvand say boo, so he put on his mask an took one smoke grenade pulled the pin, an slowly rolled it in the room.


    The sound of something rolling alerted some in the room, other ignored it. Until one spotted the canister, he snorted as he got up an strutted over.


    "{Enough with the jokes, Boris you won''t fool us again.}" he said in Russian as he pick up the canister.


    Alex had to thank who ever this Boris was cause apparently this trick had been done before, to bad that this time it wasn''t a trick. The grenade exploded right in the hand of the guard as he was looking around for Boris. A cry of pain followed smoke covering everything, chaos, panic, anger, disbelief and confusion. It seem not many had understood what was going on.


    Alex rush in the smoke, goggles coverd his eyes, mask for his breathing, knifes and gun in his hands they stood no chances. As he moved in the smoke any human shape he came across he either shot or cut down. The ones inside cried out in panic and pain, names were called, prayer were cast, scream for help sounded but as time went by, and more voice were silence, those left began to crawl, stumble or plead for their lives. As the smoke cleared, all eleven guard we''re dead, by either bullets or stab and slice. The one common factor was the fear or anger on their faces.


    As Alex reload his gun he look around he notice that one or two might be alive, so he when to each and everyone and stab them in the heart just to be sure that they we''re all dead.


    "That should do for stealth, now let go see if I can find a sniper for the tower guards." Alex said as he made his way to the armory he had notice earlier.

 Chapter 26

    Alex stood in the armoury stocking up on bombs and amos. He figure that staying quiet was going to be pointless soon. The guard at least those still alive would come and realise, that something was very wrong. The two hours were going to be up in about ten minutes. Of the original 36 guards, they were down to 16, he killed a few on his way to the armoury. As far as teachers went he found 6, for the servant after his massacre on the guards, he went back and killed them all as well. It might seem heartless, but everyone of them were here for years, their was no way they didn''t know about the children fate. Just the fact they did nothing, was damming enought, beside from the document he read, he knew that using the kids as lab rats, wasn''t the first time it was done. If he wasn''t mistaken then this would be, group number 187.


    "Not only do I have to try and save those kids from these bastard, but i have to figure out a way to save them from themselves." Alex murmured quietly to himself. He was still trying to figure that part of the plan out, what he came up with was to give them a choices, after he let them read the documents. Either leave and make their own way or stay with him and follow him back home.


    "So much was taken from them, they at the very least deserve to choose this next step they take." Alex said, and if one day one of them decide to come back and try to kill him, then so be it, but at least he hope if that day came, it would be by their choices.


    Once he finish gearing up and planning his next move, he left the armoury then came right back in. " Right, the bomb, almost forgot about it." Alex said, as he took a bomb from the armory and installed a timer to give him enough time to get the hell out of there.


    Alex made his way out of the building towards the one where the kids we''re being detain. It would really suck, if all that work was gone down the drain, just because one guards decide to kill the kids. So during the timer of the bomb he hurried over, just to be sure that the tower guards had a delay reaction he was in a guard uniform, so from afar he look like them.


    "What I''m worried about, is not having seen any officers beside the one inside the common room. I refuse to believe that theirs only one officer." Alex said to himself, what he didn''t know was that in one of the teacher room theirs we''re a drunk guy pass out in bed. To which he had already killed, that man was in fact the guard captain, the reason he was drunk was the guard captain being just really unlucky.


    First off, this place was not a comfy job, watching as one group of kids after another get healed up then sent to become lad rats. Was hard on the soul, so the guard captain for months was having a existential crisis, to which he couldn''t tell anyone. Next about four days agos his wife told him that she was leaving him for a lawyer. To which he became depresses and had gotten into the habit of drinking heavely before going to bed, which was the state Alex found him in his room. For Alex when he found him he tough that the guard captain was a teacher.


    He check his watch, seeing that he still had some time before the armory went up in smokes. He entered the building using some keys he found along the way. Moving as quietly as possible he continued to check for guards, it would be humiliating to get this far only to be caught by a sleepy guard. As he was approaching the corner he stop, their we''re two people talking, he could barely make out what they we''re saying. He considered just letting them talk and going around them.


    "I''m already here, it would be rude not to say hello." Alex said with a snicker.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    He turn the corner slowly, so that he wouldn''t cache their attention right away giving him time to close the distance. As he snuck closer to them, he started to hear what they we''re talking about.


    "{I tell you, comrade, all we need to do is go in, and then keep are mouth shut, and we''ll have no problem.}" Guard one said, as he was patting his friend in an almost comforting way.


    "{You''ve said this many times, but I''m still not convince....you claim that they did not care, but I saw you, everyone saw you, being punish.}". Guard two said in a worried tone.


    "{Oh, relax that was nothing, what they we''re really angry about was me not inviting them when I went, they all wanted a piece, but they were just to shy to get it. So on that day, I was the test subject, and once it was confirm that it was ok, I now get first pick as compensation. So yes I''m sharing this with you, look I told your brother I would look out for you. And right now I''m fulfilling my promise.}" Guard one said.


    At this distance, he could make out that both guards had their back to him and were facing a door. The door looked like a cell door, suddenly Alex seeing this, started to get a nasty feeling about what those two we''re talking about. He hope that it wasn''t what he thought, he hope that they wouldn''t lower themselves to that.


    "{Come, you''ll enjoy it, all we need is to tell them its an order, and if they want food tomorrow, they need to do everything we tell them.}" Guard one said as he encourage his companions.


    "{You''re sure it fine.}"Guard two said, with a hint of anticipation in his tone.


    "{Haha, yes, I''m very sure, as long as we don''t break them or kill any its fine, we get to do anything to them.}" Guard one said with excitement in his voice. He also reach down to his balls and gave himself a squeeze as he motion the door.


    "{Alright, comrade let go in, il go in with you.}" Guard two said, his voice filled with lust.


    Alex had heard enought, rage rush trought his veins, these animals! No that would be an insult to animals. They were more like walking piles of shit, as he saw them opening the door, any semblance of steath went out the window. He was going to kill these bastards in the most painful way possible.


    He ran at them full tilt, to which the sound alerted both guards, as they stop and look down the hall. Alex was approaching fast, for the guards seeing someone running at them with an outfit that scream enemy, that frozen them up for a few seconds. By the time they gather their spirits it was to late, Alex hit the closes guard with a flying knee to the face. Blood flew in the air as a loud crack sounded, the guard was sent flying down, the second guard raise his gun. Alex was already in motion before the guard had a chance to aim, as soon as his feet hit the ground, he twisted his body around and slam his elbow in the second guard face. The knock back of the blow bounce the head of the guard hard against the wall, the guard was dizzy as he stumbled around. Alex was already moving back to the first guard who was now on the floor, the guard tried to ignore the pain as he got back up on his feet. Alex arrive as he trew a punch to his jaw knocking him out cold, he spun around and did a jumping kick at the second guard, who at that moment had begun to fight off the dizziness. The kick smash on side of the head trowing the guard to the ground he slid on the floor for a few moment before coming to a complet stop.


    As Alex looked down at the two he decided, that he wouldn''t just kill them now, he was going to take his time with these two. So he looked around he found some wire, he ripe it off of the wall and use it as rope to tie both men up.


    "Don''t worry guys, Im just going to go and kill everyone of your friends, then I''m going to come back for the two of you, and make you feel as much pain as possible." Alex said to the two unconscious guard. He hated that he could do nothing for any past victims, but he was going to make damn sure that they would never hurt another child ever again.

 Chapter 27

    After tying up the two men and checking the cell, Alex found a bunk with a young girl around the age of 14 lying down chaine to the bed. She had light blond hair and nasty scar that ruin her looks, it was a cut over her left eye, it had already healed nicely. She also was missing her right foot, she simply looked back at him, she didn''t say a word. Alex notice a certain empty look in her brown eye, like if she had given up on the world. Their was no anger, sorrow, panic or confusion, their was nothing as if life had beaten it out of her.


    "{I don''t know if this will matter to you, but I''m here to change things. So before you decide to end it all, find hope once more, for what I offer will give you a chance to gain the power to control your life, but you must be alive to decide your fate.}" Alex said in Russian, he hope that it will intrigue her enought to bring her back long enought for her to choses life.


    On his way out he closes the door, he check a few cell until he found one were it was empty. He disarmed the guards and lock them in the cell. As he was moving to the roof he heard an explosion, that was suppose to blow up when he was in position. The meeting in front of the cell had drastically change his timing, but honestly he wasn''t to worried. If he had simply ingnored what was going to happen in that cell, he knew that a part of his humanity would have died this night.


    "Im kind of happy that I''m no longer a spy, if I was, then the mission would have force me to ignore the girl and move on. Then again if Im link in anyway to this, I could very well be arrested for all kind of fun laws I broke in just one night." Alex said as he keep going up to the roof. His radio started to buzz as the remaining guards contacted each other trying to figure out what was going on.


    The longer the radio buzz the more the remaining personnel started to panic, they keep trying to contact any higher officer or teacher. He hear some shooting as well. "The hell are they shooting at?" Alex said as he wonder what could have possible spook this random firing show.


    When he reach the roof, he open the door expecting a hail of bullets to greet him. Instead he was mostly ignored as the guard continued to shoot around. As he came to a good vantage point he took a look around trying to figure what was going on. Well as it turn out every one of them was in a panic, and no one was reigning then in. As best as he could figure they all seem to be shooting at nothing or just shadows for the moment. They all seem to know that they were under attack, but didn''t seem to understand by what, over the radio some of them seem to scream something about babayka. If he wasn''t mistakend then they we''re afraid of the boogeyman, well in a way he could be consider a honorary member of the babayka club.


    Alex shrug as he line a shoot with the sniper he took from the armory. "What do I care, all this panic is making them easy targets." Alex said as he calm down and started taking out guards.


    The one''s he killed if they happen to be speaking in their radio, only serve to freak out to ones listening in on them, when their voice followed silence. A few he shot were standing right besides another guard, this immediately alerted them of the truth, but just before they announce it to the rest, they died.


    After another ten minutes, the whole sites was quiet. Alex got up from his position, he figures he should do a complete swip of the base. If he wanted to bring the kids out and have a talk, he better be damn sure that there wouldn''t be anyone around, to go all suicide bomb on them, when they were all sitting around talking about their futur plans.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    It was sunrise by the time he had finish the swip. He found only few straggler cowering in some dark corner. They did the usual begging and pleading for their lives, saying things like. I won''t tell anyone or the famous, take anything you want but please let me live. But honestly he wasn''t in the least bit tempted in their pleads, they all work for an organization that was basically cult driven fanatics, bent on destroying the world. All so they could built it back up, in their twisted version of a better world.


    That was the thing about hydra that always piste him off, they were adamant on changing the world, but their version of it would leave billion to suffer a pointless destruction. The stupid part was that the whole destroy it was clear, but the rebuilding was alway kind of vague. As if their doctrine hadn''t thought that far ahead. It like saying, hey lets start a revolution, against what, hum oh i know lets pick the goverment and let replace it with something better, what you ask, we figure it after we win.


    Alex look around trying to find a big enought place for all the kids, that he didn''t redecorate with a nice fresh coat of murder. Finally he settled for a class room, their were plenty of room to sit down and they also had a projector. Which he could use for a show and tell about their fate if they stayed here.


    The first step was goin back to the office and taking all the papers, the next part was goin to the mess hall and wipe out some food. He elected to make scramble eggs in a big pan, toast and all the bacon he could find. The next step was the hardest, convincing the kids not to run but to sit and listen, give him at least one hour before jumping to conclusion. For this he needed someone to vouch for him, the girl he meet back in the cell seem as the best bet he got, so he headed over to the cell.


    He found himself in front of the door, event if he had no need for it he knock on the door before entering. Inside he found the girl still on the bed, her eye looked back at him. This time there seem to be a little bit more life in it.


    "{Hello, I need your help in convincing every other one like you here, that I simply want to talk, I will provide a meal free of any demand. All I ask of you all, is to sit down and listen to what I have to say. Will you help me in convincing them to this.}" Alex said as he approach her. After he said all that he release her of her restraint.


    "{What if we say no?}" she said as she look at him, she sat up in her bed.


    "{Then it will take much longer, since I will go to every cell, and speak to each of you, while you are tied down and only release you once I''ve finish.}" Alex said as he shrug with a grimace, as he was thinking of all the wasted time it would take to go one by one.


    She remained silent, as she never left him out of her sight.


    "{What happens, if we dont want to go with you?}" She said, her voice cold devoid of emotion.


    "{Then I leave you alone, if any of you want, I can also drop you off in the closes town. But let me make myself clear, if I leave you alone, the chances of you all being captured once more is very high, unlike the chance that I will offer all of you.}" Alex said.


    The girl seem to be debating with her self, waiting all the pros and cons. Until she suddenly stop and came to realize something, she looked back at Alex and her eye seem to sparkel.


    "{I will help, but you need to let me speak to each alone.}" She said.


    Alex was worried that she was planing something bad for his heath. But as he look at her eye, some kind of instinct was telling him, that in this moment, the wrong choice could jeopardize everything. Alex took a deep breath this would either work or blow up in his face. He just hope that he was making the right choice.


    "{Ok, you''ve got yourself a deal.}" Alex said, with a sigh.


    The girl smiled for the first time he''d seen her.

 Chapter 28

    Alex looked around the class, in every desk their was a young teen. The ages ran around eleven to fifteen, their was twenty three kids in the room. Fifteen of them wore boys, and eight girls, the reason that their wore more boys then girls, wasn''t because their was more red room boys then girls. It was because for boys at such and age they tended to cripple the opponent more, and girls tended to kill their opponent and cripple the one they hated.


    The competition in the training of the red room installed nothing but a cold hearts, any signed of warm was crushed or killed. Usually by the two friends fighting each other to the death, it was left to the instructor to decided who and how it would go down. The result was that one would die or be cripple, and the other would continue their training in the red room. This wasn''t use all the time, it was only implemented when and if they found two kids forming more than a team relationship.


    In the end, those that came out of this would be super spies. Man made machines, program and train to complete their mission no matter the cost. Also at the end of the training they where given a serum, that was a down grade version of the super serum from Captain America. And lets not forget the surgery they receive before, the were made sterile, so that they couldn''t have children. It was a counter measure so that they form no attachment to anything but the mission.


    Luckily, Alex mannage to gather all the kids in the room, and it was all thanks to the girl in the cell. He finaly learn her name after going trought half the group, she didn''t tell him, he heard it from another girl who seem to know her. Her name was Raiza, for the girls she seem to be in position of power, either that or it was because she was the oldest among them. Just like in the boys their was only one boy that was fifteen, and he also seem to be in a position of power.


    For the past ten minutes Alex didn''t speak a word, all he did was reveal the food and serve each one. If one of the kids seem to want a second he past by and serve them a second plate. The room was filled with the sound of hungry kids eating. Some of the kids had trouble since some had missing fingers, hand or arm. Other had eyes gone or blinded, just one was paralyze from the wast down, and he also was missing his right hand.


    Looking at each, Alex tried to imagine the horrible stories that went with each one of them. He wouldn''t be surprise to learn that some had been push to far and broke, or others had done something that the instructor didn''t like and had been punish. The moment these kids we''re brought to the red room, they lost any freedom. Their only way out, was killing their way out and escaping, following the training by resisting the brainwashing over the years, then make a break for it during a outside mission, or being killed off as a waste once they become to much of a cripple.


    "Hi everyone, I have gather all of you today to lets you have some choices. I know that none of you trust me, I sure as hell don''t trust you either. But I''ve heard rumours of where you all have come from, the red room." Alex said, as he spoke the words he could see a tremble in each of them. That place had become a nigthmare for all. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The reason he spoke in english, was because he wanted to see if their was any brain damage to any of them. Sure this methods wasn''t full proof, but at the very least it showed that each of them was able to understand him in a language that wasn''t their native tong. And if one was heavily damage they might not be abole to responde, oh course to be sure they would need to do a full body check up. But considering that, he and them hadn''t establish any kind of trust, it would not go over well if he did that right now.


    "I want to show all of you something." Alex said, as he move to the back of the class, he turn on the projector.


    He started to place the paper he wanted them to read. "As you can see, this is a direct order from your superior, to bring you all in the best health minius the crippling ones. So that next week you all can become test subject to various drugs or cybernetic experiment." Alex said as he watch from the back the reaction all of them had.


    Some of the kids had their shoulder hunch down, some look pist off and a few rare one looked like the didn''t believe him. He could see that their was at the very least three, that seem to have been further along in their brainwashing programe. But they keep quiet as they had promise until the end of the presentation. Before going in the cells to talk to the kids, Alex had ask Raiza to make sure she delivered a message. He ask that all of them promise to keep quiet until the end, after they could ask all they wanted and event deny anything he said.


    After that paper, he showed more, his whole presentation was on how to anyone else, they all had become irrevelent to the red room. During all this time, Alex keep explaining certain document and their meaning to the teens. He didn''t hold back nor did he hide anything from them, he even showed the parts of their files that had the approval for experimentation in a bold red stap.


    "That was the last one, if any of you wish to have any of these in your hands, il leave them right here. Now I''m going to give you all my professional opinion on your choices. If you choses to stay, and wait for the team that will come here in a week. Either of two things will happen, once they are here they will either kill you after you tell them what happen, or after you give them all the info on me they will send you to the labs. Their is no way that they will be lenient toward you, just because you remain loyal to them." Alex said as he looked arround, he could see that those that had some hope, seem to be lost.


    "All that said, I want to offer you all some option. One such option is that I help you get out of the country, it sad to say but none of you should stay here. If you do it will be the same as if you just stay here, it will only take longer. And they will be looking for all of you, as damage as you are, they aren''t willing to let any of you go. Another option is that you come with me to America, their if you want I can help you find a loving familly to get adopted in, and medical assistance to heal your wound as much as possible. The last consist of some risk but also reward beyond anything you all can imagine. Come with me and swear your loyalty to me, I will give you back all that you have lost, I will use the skills that they have thought you and use them against them. I will offer you a new purpose a mission beyond all that you can imagine, and I will give you the power you need to achieve new highest higher then ever." Alex said as he looked at each of the kids in theirs eyes.


    "Thats is what I offer, now the choice of were you go, is completely in your hands." Alex said, to a class room filled in silence, you could see every teen thinking about what they wanted. And some of them seem realise, that for the first in a very long time, they where given a choice on what to do.

 Chapter 29

    As Alex was driving down the dirt road, he still found himself very fortunate. All the teens agread to go back with him, after he gets back it would no doubt create the foundation for one of his ambition.


    "So, what are we going to do for tonight?" Raiza said as she was looking out the window.


    "The same thing we do every night Raiza, we take over the world, mouhahahahaah!" Alex said, in his best evil genius villain voice.


    The two teens just stared at him like if he''d just grew an extra head.


    "Cough, cough, come on it was funny, ok a little funny, oh trow me a bone here. Im trying to lighten the mood." Alex said in a dejected voice, for the whole time they been on the road he had tried on numerous time to make them laugh. Only to be greeted in stone cold silence, he refuse to give up until he at least saw them smile.


    "So, what are we going to do for tonight?" Osyen said, he was the oldes of the boys group. He had deep blue eyes and dark hair, he was missing his right arm at the elbow, and had a scar that covered his stomach, from what he''d shared he was on a strict liquid diet for the past weeks.


    Both Raiza and Osyen were sittting in the front while the rest were in the back of the truck along with their supply. After the group had made their decision about following him back home, they took everything they could and pack it up in a truck. As they drove away the whole base went up in flames, as for the two men he had lock up, he brought them out, as a show and tell with the kids. It ended up as a beat down slash torture class on the guards, but it also allowed them to vent their emotion, all the teen had long ago lost their sense of what was normal. Denying them this aspect of themselves would not be in their best interest in the long run.


    Sigh. "We really need to work on your sense of humours, or else all the time well be together is going to end being miserable, at least for me it is." Alex said in a depress tone.


    What he didn''t cache, was the smirk on both of the teens faces. For so long, every action or responce was controlled by their teacher or instructors, any mistake or tiny slip up would be punish with either violence or isolation. Now they were experiencing complete freedom of expression, Alex didn''t hurt any of them, or go into a rage if they refuse to listen at any of his orders. They needed to see if this new environment was one were their feedom was real or simply artificial as it had been in the red room. So far everything they had seen or heard pointed to it being a true path to get their freedom back, but they had been deceive so many times before, so for now, they held back and hope that this wasn''t a short ride for what a real life could taste like.


    "And to answer your earlier question, their is a village a few miles from here. I made some previous arrangement for staying the night. The only problem is that I wasn''t expecting in picking up a dozen of homeless orphans on the way back. But don''t you worry, momma gonna take care of all my little love buds." Alex said, he turn to them with an oscar winning smile, only for it to drop against their chilled expressionless faces.


    This time both didn''t event look at him. They opted to ignore him, and focus on the road, dejected Alex look back to the road as he mumbled, something that sounded like kids these days. As he focus on the task at hand, the two teens grinned as they held back from roaring into laughter. What had started as a test, had now become a game. They we''re doing their best not to laugh. Not because they would get punish, but because the reaction of their savior was just to funny. The more time they spent with him, the more it became obvious that he wasn''t completely sane. Not in any bad way mind you, just that he didn''t seem to even be aware that he acted far from normal. But honestly they really didn''t mind all that much, cause it was sooting to find someone who gave a shit about them, and wasn''t here to just use them and once he was done, trow them away like a piece of trash.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    As they came closer to town Alex park the truck on the side of the road. He seem to be thinking about something as he stared down the final few miles to town.


    "I''m thinking of going in alone." Alex said as he turn to the two.


    "Any reason why?" Osyen said as he frowned. Was this the end of the good times?


    "Yeah, is their something we should know?" Raiza said, their was nothing but calm in her voice, but she was hidding her fear that all this was another cruel trick from them.


    "The reason i want to go in alone, is because I''m about 80% sure that their are some spies in town. And none of you are in any shape to fight your way out, if it comes to that." Alex said as he pointed toward the back.


    "So what, your just going to go in their and do what? Ask them all if they could not do any spy stuff while we are their. And let use have a night of rest." Raiza said, her voice was thick with sarcasms.


    "That not a bad plan, but if we do it your way, their a good chance il have to kill alot of innocent lives. Beside their a much better way of doing it." Alex said, he answer her like if she had ask in a seriouse tone.


    "Right, so beside giving the town a new paint job, are you going to steal what we need, cause if you are, with the amount and what we all need it will attract attention not matter what." Oysen said, as he rolled his eyes, he was wondering was brilliant idea this guy would have.


    "Nothing so complex, I''m going in to see if their is anyone who seem a little to jumpy. After the base was destroyed, I''m sure that their someone or perhapses more then one lookout, planted here. As for supplies, why do you think, I insisted that we take everything. I did it, in planning in abandoning to take or buy anything in the town, but if i can get all of you a nice bed tonight instead of sleeping under the stars, il gladly do so, only if their no risque to all of you." Alex said.


    As the two were going over what he said, Alex exited to truck went to the back and spoke to the other kids about what he was going to do. He left them some weapon and the keys to the truck, just in case something would happen to him.


    Arming himself with some of his weapons, he jog to the town. He slow down when he got their, and walk in the main entrence. He went around town spaming his cover story, that he was hitchhiking accross Russia, visiting place to place. He learn from the locals that, they spotted the smoke from afar and some were convinced that the orphanage was burning, other thought it was a forest fire, but to most outlandish one was that it was a bomb tests.


    After an hour of going around, he had spotted a few possibly watcher for the orphanage. Deciding against doing anything, since it would only attract needles attention. He figured that they should be able to camp tonight, and if the woke up early enough they might just sneak past the town at dawn.


    "It probably best to avoid any people, for as long as possible. It should give us enough time and distance to get out of the country. If I''m not wrong, Peg''s plan should be over by now. And by the time I get their, James could no doubt, hook me up with a way out." Alex said, as he was making his way back to the kids. Being careful of large populated area, should lesson the risque of smuggling the teen out of Russia.

 Chapter 30

    A week had past as the group made their way to the howling commandos base camp.They had been fortunate in avoiding any full armour pursuit, hydra or the Russian government had learned to late of the incident. Even with the smoke no one had gone up to the orphanage to check, and once the transfer team had arrived the trail had long gone cold.


    Luck stayed with the group as the howling commandos hadden pulled out of the country yet, and once they had reunited, Alex learn from James that they had been planning to leave the next day. The only small detail he had to settle was he had to pay a hefty sum to the higher up, in order to smooth things over by letting them take in at last minute him and the kids.


    What the millitary had wanted was his research on a certain drug that had rapids healing properties. It became one of the condition for this rapid and quiet extraction. This drug was almost ready to be sold in bulk throught his pharmaceutical companie. It was a revolution drug that drastically decrease the time to heal any injury inside or outside of the body. For example a broken bone could could heal in about 6 to 8 weeks depending on the injury, but using the drug it decrease the time to 3 to 4 weeks. It cut the time to fully heal by a factor of half, with no side effect, well almost none, if you count a increase appetites as a side effects.


    Alex company to which he had name Grey Technology America, or as he like to call it GTA. Of course the fact that he was the only one who grins and giggles when says it, usually makes everyone around confuse. How was he expected to explain the joke, about a famous video game that hadn''t event been born yet. Sure he did it for shit and giggles, but it still remain something only he understood. At least until, if ever, someone else fell from his old home to his new one.


    But back to the present, Alex was sitting in a tent at the howling commandos base camp sharing a drink with James.


    "You are a god send, here I was still bitter of loosing the bourbon that Peg''s brought over, and now you waltze right in and bring in my salivation." James said as took another deep sniff of the bourbon.


    "Oh please, it was the least I could do. Beside its been a while I have seen any of the boys, so how are the remaining guys doing? Are their any more who are thinking of hang it up and going back home." Alex said as he was also slowly savouring a glass.


    James was quiet for a bit, sighing. "Its not easy, whe lost some more a few days ago. Every mission their are less of use every time. Like you said some go home, other go back in a coffins. Ever since the Capt, it been hard on all of us, morale especially. Hell im the one in charger now, any chance I can''t temp you in coming back. James said, with a grin he didn''t really expect him to return, but he secretly hope so.


    Alex shoke his head in a slow no. "Those days are gone for me, don''t get me wrong, if you ever need me if your in a tight spot il come running. Like for Peg''s, but I made a new life back home where my chances of dying in a hail of bullets, is replace buy dying old and fat in a bed. Sorry to hear about the others, you do realise that all of you could retire with honours, if anyone need a job I could give you one or I could even write a reference letter if need be. As for Steve, I''m grateful to Howard he keep looking for as long as he could, I think im going to buit my own team to look for him for as long as it takes. If i can i want to find him and bring him home." Alex said the mood going from jovial to somber in a second.


    "To Steve, a good man and a even better friend." James said as he raise his glass.


    "To Steve." Alex said as he tap his glass to James glass.


    "So you mention loosing some of the guys on the mission? What happen?" Alex said, he still could remember vaguely the episode he saw, it was something about going in and being ambush or something. What was clear, was the forum discussion about the girl possible being Natalia Romanova. What he could do, was ask some questions and see if James had notice anything of note.


    "Damn if I know, when we got their, the place seem abandon. We went in easy enough, then we found a little girl, she ended up stabbing me in the vest and killed one of us. Then she disappear in the God damn air vent, Peg''s order us to separate after that, she found the guys that was supposed to be traded to some Leviathan fella. Next thing I know, were surrounded and Peg''s in a pinch, so I go and pull her out, one of the guys that was inside as a prisoner goes nuts I''m told, take one of the guy hostage, but the other prisonner shoots him. I tell yah, on are way out, Peggy, was right their having are backs just like the good old days. It a real shame her new place isn''t treating her rigth." James said as he shoke his head at the end, he took a sip from his glass, and smiled after he savoured the taste.


    "Sound messy, any chance you got your hands on any intel on who was who?" Alex said as he also took a sip.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "Please, none of the guys have half of your insane skills. It was already enough just to pull out. And from what I hear you took on a whole fringing base by yourself, and came out with a dozen kids and intel. You have those weird ninja moves we don''t, not everyone can do what you do." James said with a smirk.


    "I''ve told you before and I''ll tell you again, you could do what I do if you just followed the training I gave you." Alex said as he looked up with a smile.


    "You mean that training from the nine levels of hell, no thanks, the last time one of us did try, he ended up in the medic bunk for a month. Your training even scared the crap out of the higher up, when you wanted to spread this to the troops as training." James said as he was chuckling, over his friend crazy fitness training, that was more like torture then anything.


    To be fair Alex had started this kind of training, a little after he learn of the world he actually was born in. Once it became clear that he was in a Marvel universe, he train like his life depended on it. Luckily he was able to bring his body to the peak of human potential. But even that he knew, wouldn''t be enough, beside he also wanted to meet his heros. The only problem is that by the time he would meet them, he would be an old frail man, so he figure if he could get his hands on some kind of thing that could extend his life he would have a better chances. He also read alot of web novel before so for a time he was also under the false impression that he was some kind of MC. Sadly when his chance past him by, again and again, his excitement was soon replace by fear, if he wasn''t the main character, then he was a fucking extra. And a extra, they die, like all the time, so he needed power to protect himself and any one else he loved or else, some super power asshole could take it all away, and he would be powerles to do anything. He had already lived throught it, a few time, force to stand a side and watch as his loved one walk down a predetermine path.


    "Look I did warn all of you, about my training regiment. Even when I gave it to the bras, they also panic saying stuff like I was insane for doing it all. But like I''vesaid before many times, if you want to be the best you can be, then you got to work hard to get their. Beside this training can only that me so far, to push beyond my limit I woukd need something like the super serum that Steve got. It just a shame that all my request where denied." Alex said, as he look out in space, a bit depress on thinking about his past attemps to gain power.


    James just looked at Alex for a bit and started to chuckled. "The reason they denied you, was no doubt out of fear. Your already scary enough now, just thinking of adding Steve power on you, scares me to. You migth not see it, but just the monstrous way you are on the battle field. I can see them shake in their boots." James said with a smirk, he grab the bottle and serve them another round.


    "Hey I''m not the only monster on the field, I''ve seen you shrug off wounds that shoud have killed a lesser man. Like that time when you jump right in front of Bucky and took several bullets for him. One moment your down and it seem like your bleeding out, the next your back on your feet right beside use firing back at the enemy." Alex said, of course Alex had pretty good idea of the reason why James Howlett could survive a hail of bullets, having super human healing and being a mutant was the reason. Still James had always remain very tight lip about it during all this time. Alex had never really felt it was his place to judge, beside it not like he was innocent either. On some occasion he could have told them of his past life and everything, but he also chooses to stay silent on his true origins.


    "I got lucky on that time, they hit the vest I was wearing. It was a stupid thing to do since I could''ve died, but here I am alive and kicking." James said with a grin, but it was soon replace by pain and sorrow. "If only I could have switch place with Bucky, Steve or any one of us that died maybe my luck could have save them and me." James said with a sigh, as he finish his glass in one swing and went for another.


    "James, look at me, it''s not your fault. All of us feel that way about any one in the brigade. Loosing those two in a short span, was terrible, but looked at it from this way, we got a chance to meet and know these men in a way that the rest of the world didn''t. I for one I''m proud to call them friends, brothers and are families in the trenches. The blame should never be on you for not doing the impossible to save them, but on the fact that some asshole decided to start a war, just cause he couldn''t find a good head doc to talk to, instead of blaming anyone for not getting enough love as a kid." Alex said, as he move to James and place a hand on his shoulder as a show of support.


    "You and your crazy idea, but thank bub, it good to know I''m not alone." James said, as he also gave a friendly tap to Alex.


    A soldier came in the tent, and saluted. "Sir the plane is ready, all the kids and cargo are ready to go, we just need you to get on sir." The soldier said.


    "Well looks like I got to go, don''t be a stranger James. I hope I get to see you around." Alex said, as he embrace James before going to pick up his bag.


    "You too, take care, and if ever you want a vacation from a desk you know where to find me." James said, as he wave him goobye.


    Alex got on the plane, he look around and saw all the teens safely strap down for the flyte, he found his seat, he couldn''t help but wonder if it would be the last time he would speak with James. The comics had alway been vague about it, and the fact that their wasn''t only one possibility didn''t help either. He could only hope that if James found himself in the same shit, he would contact him before going at it alone. Yeah right like that was going to happen the guy was stubborn, he didn''t mind giving a hand to his friends, but him coming for help was a very rare and seldom seen thing he did. Most likely he would only hear about it after it already happen. It seem certain thing were already set and he had very little influence in them.

 Chapter 31

    As soon as Alex hit the ground back in New York, Ms Bradley was waiting for him.


    "Mr Grey, I hope your trip was to your liking?" Faith said, as she smiled and eyed the dozen teens behind him.


    "Yes I returnedwith a bit more than I was expecting." Alex said, as he looked behind him and shrugged. He looked back with a grin. " So much so, that I believe Im going to adopt some childrens." Alex said.


    Faith just rolled her eyes, she had becameimmune to her boss''s eccentric behavior. That one time she walked in on him on all four, playing horsey with her daughter, nearly giveher a heart attack. Of course with time she found him doing or saying more outrageous things, at some point she gave up. Simply accepted that her boss might be crazy, but he was always good to those that he consider his, and that included her and her daughter. To which she was grateful, her own daughter had started taking to call him uncle Grey. He reciprocatedit by calling her niece Sarah, to her annoyance and his amusement.


    "Since we''ve spoken last, there hasbeen some changes to the situation, Peggy Carter has been arrested by the SSR, for treason and helping the fugitive Howard Stark who is still on the run. As we speak, she should still be getting interrogated, oh and Mr Jarvis is running around like a headless chicken. He hastried to contact Mr Stark about the current events but with little successes. It is my belief that Mr Jarvis will put in play a risque move." Faith said as she handed over some files.


    Alex took a quick look at them, as they made their way to the car, he looked over and saw all the teenager getting into a bunch of nicecars to be brought over to their new home.


    "Give the kids a good check up, and then report their condition to me. As for Ms Carter, sigh, contact the senator tell him about boost." Alex said


    "Sir are you sure, this is boost we are talking about. Trading itin order to clean it up this mess, seem to be a high price to pay." Faith said, she was angry that such a powerful drug would be lost to them.


    Alex simply nodded yes in silence, a few months prior, theteam he had working on one of the formulas, had figured out how to engineer a boost to a human body. What it did was to offer for half an hour ofsuper human strength, speed, reflex, endurance, all sense are heighten and some minor regeneration. Not enough to grow back an arm or even a finger, but enough so that bruises and cuts would heal almost instantly. The super power boost gave up to three times the strength, speed, so on and so on. Of course this also came with a price, for one, the subject would go into a period of weakness once he/she got out of the drugs effect. The second would be a desperate need of nutrient, the body in that state would burn up all reserves in the body, fat, muscle, blood etc. So once someone came out of boost their body would be much thinner than before. Also if one would inject a second dose right after the first injected dosewas over, theylasted only another ten minute, before dying of cardiac arrest, since the strain on the body would be to much. It was recommended that after one dose, a period of 48 hours of resting and eating was to be followed before taking another dose. Of course this only applied to a normal every day human, with a mutant it was unknown what effect it would have.


    "Yes Ms Bradley, I''m sure, besides itsnot the best we got, its only thefirst generation we are handling over. Now i will go and pay a visit to the SSR, and hope I can find and stop Mr Jarvis before he does something stupid. Ah good you broughta suit for me." Alex said, as he started to change inside the car.


    "One more thing sir, the last material you needed for project rebirth came in yesterday." Faith said.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Alex suddenly froze, on one hand he should go and save Peggy, but on the other the first step, on gaining power was just on the horizon. He hesitated for a moment to finally releasea breath and coming to the conclusion, that just the prep work for the first step would take hours. So helping Peggy now was the better option, but he made a promise to himself, if anybody came between him and his promise land, he was going to destroy them.


    "To the SSR please, lets finish the job before I runout for ice cream." Alex said, to himself quietly.


    Faith was on the phone talking to the senator about the deal, Alex was sitting in the car, going throught the various reports he hadmissedduring his (vacation) in Russia. Faith hung up the phone telling him that the deal was on and that the senator was more then happy about the results. Alex nodded, but he couldn''t shake the feeling that he somehow lost on this deal, he remembered very vaguely this episode or was it the following episode.


    Point is he knew that in the show Agent Carter, Peggy turn out fine, but he wasn''t going to let things play out just because she ended up fine.


    "Sir, we are here, and I think that I also see Mr Jarvis sir."


    Faith said as she pointed to a tall man walking with purpose, holdinga suit case.


    "Driver bring us beside him." Alex said


    As the car drove by Jarvis it slowed down, the widow came down and Alex called out to Jarvis. It took a few more calls to grab his attention since the man seem to be very distracted.


    "Mr Grey? What are you doing here?" Jarvis said as hebent down to the window.


    "Well Mr Jarvis, Im here for what I suspect is the very same reason as you. To help Pegout of the jam she manage to jump into." Alex said.


    As he looked at Jarvis he could see an obviousrelief coming over him.


    "Do you have a plan?" Jarvis asked, his voice trembled as if he was on his last rope.


    "Already in motion, do you want to come with?" Alex said with a smille.


    "Yes please sir, are you up to date on the situation?" Jarvis said as he open the car door.


    "Pretty much, Ms Bradley I see you later at the office il go with Jarvis to resolve this." Alex said as go out of the car.


    "Sir, take this just in case thing go south." Faith said as she handed him his gun and silencer with extra clips.


    "Thank you." Alex said, he didn''t refuse, because this was the Marvel universe, a simple walk could end up in a epic gun battle, or a villian announcing that he planted a fricking bomb, somewhere for some crazy reason. And he did now recall that therewas some kind of fight around this time and a bomb maybe. As he was stepping away from the car after putting his gun away, Faith took out a knife and passed it to him.


    "I don''t think I''ll need the knife Ms Bradley." Alex said as he held up his hand in a stop.


    Faith just keep starring at him not moving holding up the knife, after a few moments, she push it toward him.


    "Take the knife Sir." Faith said, their was something about it, that broughtterror in any little boy, it was the same voice his mother use when she was very, very angry at him.


    Cough, cough. "Yes, thank you, Ms Bradley." Alex said in a small voice.


    "You''re very welcome sir, I hope to see you soon sir." Faith said with a bright smile, like if her ordering him around was a lie.


    As the car drove away, Jarvis looked to it and back to Alex.


    "Ms Bradley seem...." Jarvis said.


    "Terrifying, just never tell her that, besides if this is all I have to suffer in order to have the best damn right hand women, then so be it." Alex said.


    Both decided not to delve any deeperinto it, and turn to the SSR building, in order to take Peggy out of the fire she had unwittingly created herself.

 Chapter 32

    Alex and Jarvis announced themselves to the front desk, of course the narrative has changed greatly now that Alex had stepped in. On the way in Jarvis had explained his grand plan, which Alex told him was just terrible.


    It consisted of marching right in, pulling out a briefcase and stating that Howard had signed a confession, which was really written by him, that explained how Peggy Carter was seduced by Howard into helping him clear his name.


    Alex pointed out that you would have to be really stupid to believe that Peggy was so easily seduced. To which Jarvis explained just how little the agents at the SSR valued her. Next Jarvis explained how with this ruse, he hoped that Peggy would go free, and they then could go and find some evidence to prove her innocent.


    Alex and Jarvis were waiting in the lobby for an agent of the SSR to come down and find them.


    "So, your whole plan, was a hail-mary to whoever would listen?" Alex said.


    "Pretty much, yes, look I realise that it wasn''t the best plan, but it was the only one I could come up with." Jarvis said.


    "Then thank your lucky stars, that I asked Ms. Bradley to keep an eye on you and Peggy once she came back from Russia." Alex said.


    "That is something I''m curious about, did you know we were going to be in danger?" Jarvis said as he turned to look at Alex.


    "Jarvis, I''ve know Peg''s a long time, usually if she well supported she is an exceptional agent. Even better if you give her the resources she needs. But cut her off, and leave her alone with almost nothing and she starts to make moves with huge risks." Alex said as he spoke in a carefree way.


    "What do you mean?" Jarvis said not having caught on.


    "Peggy came to me for help, asking me for help, which sounded some alarms in my head so I took some precautions. Peggy knows what I''m capable of and the fact she came to me for my help means she found herself surrounded, by people she can''t completely trust or she been excluded from the core of power. Our styles of doing things are very different, if I was to make a comparison then she is more like a scalpel quiet and to the point. Me, I''m the fucking bomb you drop when you want everything dead or destroyed." Alex said in an almost bored voice.


    Jarvis stared at Alex for a few moments trying to process what he was told.


    "I see." Jarvis said, suddenly he was wondering if he made a mistake in accepting his help.


    An agent came down and got them, escorting them up to where the chief was waiting.


    "What do you want Jarvis?" Dooley said as he was sitting in his office.


    "Ah, well the release of Ms. Carter would do, but I''ll leave it to Mr. Grey to negotiate on my and her behalf." Jarvis said as he motions to Alex to take the stage.


    "Hello, chief Dooley if I''m not mistaken." Alex said as he extended his hand.


    Dooley sat behind his desk making no motion in taking his hand.


    "What does a lackey of Stark want with me." Dooley said, hostility in his voice.


    "Hum, did you perhaps not receive a call from your superior? About me?" Alex said as he cocked his head a little.


    "No, I got the call, didn''t care for it much." Dooley said.


    "Ho, I see, so you''re going to pick the hard way." Alex said as a grin slowly made his way on his face.


    Suddenly Dooley had a feeling that he''d just made a terrible mistake when he saw him grin like that a chill went up his spine as he stared. The man in front of him seemed to morph into a monster who just found a new toy to play with.


    "This is perfect, you have made my day." Alex said with a smirk.


    "I don''t understand, why did I make your day." Dooley said, confusion and a little fear in his voice.


    "Come now, Dooley, did you already forget the call you just had? My, my, such poor memory." Alex said with a creepy grin on his face.


    The more this conversation continued, the more Dooley was losing his cool, there was something very disturbing about the man right in front of him. As he looked around in the office, he noticed that he wasn''t the only one that was creeped out by him. Thompson had his hand on his gun as if he was about to pull his gun out and shoot him. Sousa had a death grip on his crutch, his face had a pale looked to it and his other hand was also on his gun. Jarvis was no better, the man was practically shaking, sweat was dripping down from his forehead. And him Dooley was sitting down his knees were like jello, as he looked to Grey his instinct was screaming him to run from him. Grey was grinning as if he was having a splendid time. Something about the way he carried himself right now, just screams predator.


    Dooley reviewed the phone call he had received not even an hour ago. His boss told him that an ''Alexandre Grey'' was coming to his office, and that he was to give him whatever it was he wanted, no matter what it was. Of course, at first, he had no problem with it since he wasn''t even sure who he was. But as soon as he saw him with Jarvis, he could make a good guess on what he wanted, so figured that he would give him a hard time and make him go running back to his boss. But what he didn''t expect was this feeling he got, as soon as drop any pretence of a respected businessman. He found himself in the presence of a beast who only saw him as a toy, to be played with, and left alone once broken.


    "Let me tell you, what''s going to happen right now, I''m going to go visit Peggy, and you and the Scooby gang are going to stay here and call your bosses. To which you will tell him that I''m not happy at all, then he''s going to tell you, why you need to do everything I say. And by the time I get back, we''ll talk again. Jarvis, come, we''re going to pay a visit to Peggy." Alex said as he turned and walked away.


    For some reason no one tried to stop him or contradict him, a little voice was telling them all, not to get in his way at this moment. Jarvis stumbled out of the office almost like if he didn''t do it fast enough he would get punished by Grey.


    Alex was struggling from going into a song and dance routine, that would really push everyone over the edge. He found out something fascinating about the Marvel universe a few years ago. At first, he thought he discovered his mutant powers, but it ended up not being a power just something that anyone could access. It was odd since no one seemed to realize when they did it or it was done to them. He called it aura, yes the thing he saw in anime, comic or manga. The invisible bubble that would project emotion outside of a limited range. When he discovered it he thought that he was the only one, but it soon became apparent that it wasn''t the case. By trial and error, he figured that this aura anyone could have access to, as long as their emotion was strong enough. Since he became aware of it, he found that he had a better control of it. In the room with Dooley and the others, he used a mix of fear and coercion. It wasn''t a real mind control, if he pushes too far, like say tell them to kill themselves, the effect would stop. But if he influences their feeling of guilt and fear to call and confess, as long as the act had no permanent danger to them they would comply. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Of course, as more time passed the memory of it would weaken, so the next time he would meet them they wouldn''t fear him as much, but they would remain cautious. Also, something else he found out about it was that the more someone was exposed to it the more they built an immunity to it. So even if he uses different emotions, the result wouldn''t change every time it was used it would affect them less and less. It like dipping your toe into a hot bath, at first it feels too hot, but the more you dip it slowly but surely you become used to the temperature the more you can stand the heat, until your in with your whole body and you find it very conformable.


    So it was always best to use it only for special occasions, and the fact that you had no control over directing it, you could only choose to unleash it or not, there wasn''t (at least for now) a way for him to limit it to one person.


    Alex walked in the interrogation room. Peggy looked up and was surprised to see him, he could see no sign that they had started the ''beating the truth out of them'' tactic. So it would seem they had only tried talking so far.


    "Hey there Pegs, so how''s your day going so far?" Alex said as he sat down and smiled.


    Before she could answer Jarvis came in, you could see that already he had recovered a great deal from the aura blast. Alex felt a little guilty about it, but if you consider the fact about this weird thing then it might just save his life in the future.


    "Feeling better Jarvis?" Alex said.


    Jarvis still hadn''t found his voice but he nodded.


    "Good, now you young lady, have some explaining to do." Alex said as he turned back to Peggy.


    "How are you here? No before that why are you here." Peggy said in a confused tone.


    "I believe, I can answer that. When you didn''t rendezvous back with me, I knew something bad must have happened, so I came here with a badly made plan to get you out. Once I got here, I ran into Mr. Grey who also came to get you out, so we took his plan since he had one and now were are here." Jarvis said, obviously he wanted to avoid talking about what happened in the office.


    "That''s it in a nutshell, now it''s your turn to tell me how I can help. Oh and when this is over you owe me dinner and a movie for dragging me into all this." Alex said with a grin.


    "Fine, but first tell me what you found at the orphanage." Peggy said.


    "Well, you were right, the place was a Hydra base, it seems that they have manage to infiltrate the red room program. I have some documents that you or anyone in the SSR will find interesting. The place wasn''t one of their training facilities, it was a dump site for all their broken toys. Where they fix them as best they could, then they would be sent to any place that needed living breathing lab rats." Alex said, he had a sad smile as he explained what he saw and found. He also gave detail about the damage that some of the teens had to live with. Also his plan on taking them all in, and trying to give them better chances, that they would''ve had if they stayed back in the orphanage.


    Peggy and Jarvis were shocked and appalled, at the brutal treatment that all of these children we''re subjugated to. They both released a sigh of relief when he revealed that he was planning a massive adoption. Of course, the Russian government would no doubt make a great deal of noise about it. However, Alex was confident he had enough political capital to weather the shit storm that was coming.


    Peggy for the moment remained tight lip about answering any and all of their questions, only motioning toward the mirror.


    "So let me get this straight, you''re not going to really answer until your sure you can talk without putting yourself in a compromising position?" Alex said as he stared at Peggy.


    "Yes, I need to get out so I can stop Dottie. She got me right outside my apartment, in a way, I was lucky that Sousa and Thompson caught me when they did. Or else I wouldn''t be here now." Peggy said.


    Sousa came in the room looking much better, but he still looked at Alex with caution.


    "Chief Dooley wants you back in his office." Sousa said, his tone clear that it wasn''t a request.


    "Very well, Pegs give me a few minutes and I''ll get you out soon." Alex said as he got up.


    Sousa moved toward Peggy, unlocking her from the table.


    "The chief wants to talk to all of you." Sousa said, as he motioned for all of them to move.


    They all move back in the office of Dooley, who at the moment was speaking to an older man with a bald head. The man got up and excuse himself before leaving and waiting outside. Thompson walk in the office last and closed the door.


    "I had a chat, with the senator." Dooley said, he was much calmer now, but there was a grimace on his face as if he was forced to swallow something that didn''t agree with him.


    "He said, and I quote, give him anything he wants, short of committing treason. So I thought about it, and I''ve come to the conclusion, that if you''re here for her today. Then the only possible solution is either a hell of a coincidence or your in on it too. Dooley said.


    Alex just sighed as he rolled his eyes. He then turned to look at Peggy. "Now I see why you came to find me. I would also despair if this was the crack team I had to work with." Alex said, as he simply sat there in almost a bored tone.


    "What did you say." Thompson said as he jumped up, anger in his voice as he approached Alex.


    Alex ignored him, as he didn''t move his eyes away from Dooley.


    "Their no need for this circus, what is it do you want?" Alex said.


    "Well, for first, I want the files you got from your trip to Russia. As for Peggy, the best I will do for now, is uncuff her but she stays in a room until my agent has gone through those document with a fine-tooth comb." Dooley said, the stubborn look on his face said plenty on his stance.


    It was too bad that all of them had recently been exposed to aura, since it wouldn''t work again in such a short time, especially since right now their body would be able to fight it off easily.


    Alex turned to Peggy, gave a nod. "Sorry Pegs, this is the best deal I''m going to get for now. If you got another card to play, now would the time to use it." Alex said, there was some regret in his voice. The fact that this was all he could manage for now was frustrating.


    "It ok, just the fact that you''re here, is good for now. But chief Dooley, please at the very least send a team to bring Dottie in. She was a part of the red room so...." Peggy said.


    "Enough! Carter, you had your chances, I don''t want to hear you and your blame shifting." Dooley said, in anger as he slammed his hands on his desk and propelled himself up.


    After that, the room remained quiet. Finally, Dooley motioned to Sousa to take the cuffs from Peggy. Alex opened his case and handed over the document. Then the three were the escorted in an empty office to wait.


    "Well, that went rather well?" Jarvis said as he tried to alleviate the atmosphere.


    All three sat and looked around, they could see the whole room, most of the agent took a quick look up before avoiding eyes contact with them. As they waited Peggy started to explain more on her motives to Alex and as she came to the end she stopped.


    Getting up and moving closer to the window she watched in horror, as she realised that maybe they had been mistaken all this time. She quickly took a pen and paper.


    "What is it, Ms. Carter?" Jarvis said, as he approached, he also came to realise the same thing that Peggy had.


    "So, by the looked you two have, I''m going to take a wild guess and say there is a mole and you two just figured it out." Alex said, with a smirk in a joking tone.


    "Yes, there is a mole, and I now have to play that hidden card you spoke of earlier." Peggy said, as she finished writing the decoded message, she got up ready to walk right back out into the same fire she had just been pulled out of.


    "Goddamn it." Alex said, as he looked up and wave his fist in the air.

 Chapter 33

    Alex sat around a table as Peggy confess to everything she had held back, from the day she agreed to help Howard, in proving his innocence.


    Peggy was in the far edge on the table, Jarvis was on her right and he was on her left. While Jarvis was sat by her side in support he had his arms crossed with a pissed look, all his work went down the drain. He would have to give a boost for free at this point, all because Peggy had to be a freaking hero just like Steve.


    The other people around were Dooley, Sousa and Thompson, who from time to time intervened in asking clarification from Peggy and Jarvis along her story. Like the finding of the volt and setting it up so that Sousa got all the credit, how leaving a certain agent there got him killed, and that she was still kicking herself about it. How she continued to help Stark, up until she found out the lie he had wanted her to cover up. Then she took a grey shape ball, with a flick of the wrist she opened the container. Inside, a vial of a red substance was kept frozen.


    "Is that toxic, what is that some kind of weapon?" Dooley said, in a frustrated voice. He just learned that everything he thought he knew about Peggy, was terribly wrong, she wasn''t just some damsel, she was perhaps the best damn agent he had. But he been too blind to see it.


    Peggy shook her head no, she made sure to look at all of them.


    "No this is even more precious and dangerous than a toxin or plague. This is the last of what remains of Captain Steve Roger Blood. Howard couldn''t let then squander the last of it like they did the rest." Peggy said, her voice filled with a sense of loss and love, as she carefully held the vial.


    "I get why, you would get angry after finding this out from Stark. But why didn''t you come forward with it, instead of keeping it in your room?" Sousa said, the hurt and anger had calmed down considerably once he learned of the truth about Peggy. Almost like he was relieved that she had a damn good reason to do what she did.


    Peggy looked over as sighed. "I don''t really know, I guess I wanted to have another chance at saving the last remaining part of Steve." Peggy said as she gently placed the vial back in its chamber and closed it up.


    After hearing about Steve blood, Alex did his very best poker face. He couldn''t just reveal that Steve wasn''t dead just frozen, somewhere up north. Hell Howard had paid out serious amounts ofcash on trying to find him. He was planning to do the same himself, even if he might fuck over canon, this was his friend, he couldn''t just ignore him for what was it, 70 or 80 years? Then just be like, ''oh no man, I like totally gave up on you, sorry man my bad''.


    Besides, he had the sinking feeling that the search wasn''t going to be so easy. Now that he was going to power up, he knew that he would gain a much longer lifespan. When he would meet Steve once again he wanted to look him in the eyes, and say that he''d never gave up on looking for him, and that he was happy to see him again.


    This, of course, brought to mind something else he had forgotten, the blood of Steve was used in some massive tests. And one of the survivors was... Aww fuck. Bradley. He couldn''t remember everything about the storyline cause he only past it briefly, but he remembered reading a few of the black Captain America Isaiah Bradley comics. And this being marvel there was a very high possibility of this being the missing husband of Faith Bradley. Hopefully he still had some time to plan in helping her get her husband back. He would have to find some peace and quiet later, in order to go over everything he remembers about that storyline.


    As for now, he shifted his focus back on Peggy and the SSR, he was finding this frustrating he only saw the show in passing. He never got into it, he only watched the first season. He had no idea what was going on in the second, he just knew that Peggy was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. And that she was going to go through a tough time. If he wasn''t mistaking the bad guys, to which he now only new as the doctor Ivchenko, who was sitting comfortably in the chief office. Was in something called Leviathan, oh yeah not to forget that he had some backup, a women name Dottie Underwood. He couldn''t remember if there were more bad guys around or not, it wasn''t that important, what was important is him getting to his private lab so he could finally power up.


    Peggy made a moving speech, and everyone was convinced of her not being a traitor anymore. It was a little frustrating to Alex cause he saw her use aura, of course, she was painfully oblivious to it. The real victim in all this was him, he could have sold boost a defect product for millions. Instead, he was going to give it away for peanuts to the government, and like they always do, someone would have a stupid idea about it, ignore common sense and create a freaking PR nightmare.


    Finally, Peggy and the gang quickly decided to divide and conquer. Peggy, Jarvis and Alex would stay in the office, while Dooley would go and keep the good doc company, and Thompson with Sousa and few men would go over and arrest Dottie.


    "That all nice, but I not staying in the office." Alex said?


    Everyone turned to him in surprise, they had all expected that their plan was the best option they had considering the time left.


    "Alex, you need to stay, or else it will become suspicious to Ivchenko." Peggy said, she frown in displeasure.


    "Well let me put it in another way, who here can tell or order me what to do?" Alex said as he smirked.


    Suddenly the room was silent, as everyone stared at each other, trying to find a counter at that.


    "Looked, I not saying that this plan wouldn''t work normally, but something all of you seem to forget. The women you''re all going against is a highly trained and tempered weapon, she is not a girl they simply pulled from the streets or a delusional tragic damsel in distress. No offense Dooley, but if your men couldn''t even catch Peggy, then they have no hope against Dottie." Alex said.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "Hey, that''s not true we caught Peggy, right in her hotel." Thompson said, as he got up from his chair.


    "Really, cause the way I heard it, Dottie is the one who surprised Peggy and was probably about to kill her when you walk in. So no, you didn''t catch Peggy, Dottie caught Peggy. You just happen to pick her up, and in a way save her as well." Alex said, as he turned to Peggy and grinned.


    Peggy opened her mouth to refute that claim, but slowly close it as she also came to realize the truth. Everyone else had an awkward expression as they also came to the same conclusion.


    "So in light of this, I''m joining the assault team, don''t get all your panties in a twist, I''ll play nice. Chief your men can go first and arrest Dottie to bring her in for questioning, I will stay downstairs just in case she manages to escape from all of your men." Alex said, he put his hand up to interrupt Dooley who was about to get into a screaming match with him, after he heard that he would let his agent go in first, and he would play second fiddle he calm down and nodded his consent.


    A few more minute discussion about the details and they all got up to their respective posts. Peggy and Jarvis were sent back to the office to wait, Dooley went to his office to distract Ivchenko.


    Alex, Sousa and Thompson along with a few more men went over the building across the street in order to politely invited Dottie to the party.


    Alex walked with the group as they arrive in the lobby, Thompson and Sousa took over. They sent men to cover all exits and they themselves went up to find Dottie. Alex looked around calmly made his way to the stairs and waited.


    A few minutes later, screaming and shouting was going on upstairs. Alex looked up and as he had expected, Dottie was kicking their ass. He wasn''t sure if she''d manage to kill any of them, but soon he saw something very familiar, a woman who he assumed was Dottie was jumping down from stair ledge to stair ledge, avoiding all the men as they either stop in their tracks or look on with their mouth''s wide open.


    The reason he found it familiar, was that he had used the same move a few years ago, but at the time he was pursuing a target that was running down the stairs, the guy had a head start and he used this move to close the distance.


    As Dottie landed on the floor, they were only a few feet from each other. Dottie had a smug confident smirk on her, she seemed to be completely sure of her escape. She had a pretty face, athletically built, Alex could see she was well train in hand to hand combat, quick on her feet as well. Oddly she didn''t appear armed, of course, she could have a hidden weapon stash on her.


    "Hello, I believe we haven''t been introduced, you must be Dottie. Am Alexander Grey, I would greatly appreciate if you would simply surrender." Alex said, as he took his hands out of his pockets, and took a basic boxing stance. "Or, you could take the hard way out." Alex said as he grinned.


    Dottie didn''t waste time talking, she rushed to him lowering her center of gravity. She was going to counter whatever her opponent was going to dish out.


    Alex threw a low side kick at her legs in order to slow her down or force a change in direction. Dottie changed her direction, by moving in the same direction as the kick, coming close to the wall, she jumped on it and used it as a springboard for a superman punch in the face. Alex blocked the punch using one arm, as he advanced closer he grabbed her and did a quick throw, since she was still in mid-air. She managed to twist in the air and landed on her feet, as she was about to sprint to the exit, she dodged back as a foot came crashing past her, she moved just quick enough to evade a nasty head smash between the wall and that foot.


    Alex didn''t stop after the kick, he followed up with a combination of punches and elbow jabs, adding knees as well. The two exchange several sets of moves, Dottie was on the run, during this dogfight she managed to land a few solid blows, but she received much more damage. Alex managed to pin her in the corner, cutting out any room to dodge, he was forcing her into a savage beat down, he still had room to dodge or sidestep some hits, but she had no room for anything but taking hit after hit. Her face had some bruise and cuts, one rib was cracked as Alex manage to exchange a hit to his face for it.


    The confident smirk on Dottie was gone, she suddenly felt like she was back in the red room all those years ago, getting the living shit beaten out of her by the instructor, as they polish their fighting skills. She tried all the trick they pounded in her to get out of the corner, no matter what she did, her opponent seemed to know exactly what to do in order to keep her in the corner and making her suffer every time for any attempt to get away.


    Alex finally got a solid hit on her jaw, as she lowered her guard after he managed to sneak a hit to her stomach for the ninth time. He would admit she was good, but he was better, sure he could have pulled out his gun and fired a bullet in her legs and ended this far earlier. He decided not to as she did that stair jumping, instead unfortunately for her he decides to use her in blowing off some steam from losing big on the whole boost fiasco.


    A loud crack sounded as his fist left her jaw, she swayed around losing her balance. Alex didn''t stop and show any pity toward her, he pressed on and continued to smack a few more powerful punches into her guts, chest and head. He only stopped once she hit the ground, hard. He backed off and waited to see if she would get up.


    Sounds of footsteps came running down the stairs behind him.


    "My God! What have you done! She just a woman, what is wrong with you!?" Sousa said as he limped over, anger in his eyes as he came right up to Alex.


    Alex finally let down his guard when he saw no movement in Dottie, he calmly looked around and found that all the agent were standing around, some were pointing their weapon at Dottie and some at him. He turned back to Sousa.


    "I gave her a chance to surrender and she declined, also don''t try to play the gentleman with me. She is a highly trained agent, if I was to go all soft on her just because she''s a girl, it would have been me down on the ground instead of her. She is one of the best fighters I''ve ever encountered, the only reason I won is that she was focused on running and not fighting and I caught her by surprise. She wasn''t expecting me to be that good." Alex said, in a little out of breath.


    "So what? That gives you the right to beat her to within an inch of her life!?" Sousa said, still angry at the outcome.


    "Sousa, we got her, let get back to the chief, and I think you should come with us as well Mr. Grey." Thompson said, as he tried to place a calming hand on Sousa.


    "Fine, let''s go." Alex said as he walked away, leaving Dottie to be arrested by the agents.


    Every agent followed him with their eyes, fear and discuss was on all of them. All of them had stood by and watch as Alex mercilessly rendered Dottie into her current unconscious state. They had done nothing to stop it until she was down and out. Even Sousa, who had charged down only did it after she was down. At any time any of them could have called out, but none did, the had silently watch as she was beaten. Their guilt on letting it go on as long as it did, was shifted to Alex for doing what they knew they couldn''t have done.

 Chapter 34

    Alex walked out of the building and took a slow, deep breath, the adrenaline from the fight was steadily withdrawing from his system. He began reviewing the fight in his mind, grimacing at the struggle he just had, he was lucky that she had grossly underestimated his skills as the fight began. If Dottie had started to attack him in a more focused form he wouldn''t have only come out of it with some scrapes and bruises. The few early, solid hits he landed had played a definitive role in their fight.


    "If we fight a second time, yeah, it''s going to be a lot harder to win. I just hope to have put enough mental blocks in her to affect her natural talent. Or else it''s going to be a real pain in the neck, if there is ever a next time..." Alex said with a sigh.


    He looked back at the door as he was standing in front of the building.


    "Ehhh, it''s taking them some time to get their shit together. There''s no doubt, they are saying some shit about me behind my back." Alex said as he shook his head.


    He turned back and looked around, he found a nice leaning spot and settled down for a long wait. He went over the next few steps he needed for the completion of the serum to power up, as he lazily looked around and silently observing people coming and going. That''s when he spotted someone he recognized.


    "Hey, isn''t that? ...Wait, why is he? ...no don''t tell ...oh for fucks sake." Alex said as he grumbled to himself, as he sneakily moved closer to the man that had just come out of the opposing building.


    Ivchenko was standing outside of the SSR office, he was looking around like he was expecting to be picked up soon. He also looked completely relax as if the everything was under his control, he was holding a briefcase that he hadn''t before coming in.


    "Fun fucking fantastic, are they all morons or what. First I take out Dottie, and now I''m going to have to take out Ivchenko. At this point, I''m starting to wonder if I''m their freaking nanny or maybe their janitor, with all the cleaning up after them I''m doing." Alex said as he was getting closer to his new target trying not to get noticed.


    Fortunately for him, Ivchenko started to walk away at a relaxed pace, like if he wasn''t worried about any pursuing from the SSR agents. Alex was able to sneak closer from behind without being spotted, he didn''t rush in, he followed in hopes that Ivchenko would go into a more secluded part of a street. The last thing he needed was for him to have to take him down in broad daylight, attracting way too much attention. He took a looked behind, and saw a few agents coming out of the building with Dottie in cuffs, and her head covered by a shirt.


    "That certainly took them a while, I see they are trying to cover up the damage I dished out on her. It seems that the SSR is a little bit more sensitive about their image to the public than I''d thought." Alex said, he had a complicated look on his face as he knew that he had a big part in that particular problem of what could''ve been a PR nightmare for them.


    "Catching Ivchenko should bring me in some leeway. Now if he could just move a little more, ah there we go, yes walk into the less travelled alleyway." Alex said, as he quickened his pace and shortened the distance between him and Ivchenko.


    Alex crept up on Ivchenko, who was now looking down at his watch, he was frowning since Dottie was late to their rendezvous point. Alex sneaked up on him until he was only but a few feet away, close enough so that he could rush him if he needed to, and far enough so that Ivchenko wouldn''t freak out right away.


    "Well, fancy meeting you here Doc." Alex said, as he straightened up to his full height, his hands to his side in a deceiving relax pose.


    Ivchenko turned around startled, he quickly focused on Alex. A frown, barely made his way on his face that it was replaced by a smile that generated a warm and soft personality.


    "I''m sorry, do I know you?" Ivchenko asked, he buried all of his alarm down trying to come out as a nice and approachable elderly man.


    "You are good, but the cat already out of the bag, the SSR agents that went after Dottie, are coming back with her in cuffs, and since you were supposed to still be in Dooley''s office but are now out here... I believe you either sneaked out or walked out, and by what I''ve been told about you, you no doubt manage to walk out, using your hypnosis trick. So I''ll give you two options, one you keep quiet, drop the case and we both walk back to the SSR. Or you open your mouth I shoot you, then knock you out and drag you back to the SSR. Your choice." Alex said with a grin.


    Ivchenko looked baffled, he opened his mouth a few times, but he didn''t make a sound. He was trying to figure if he could talk his way out of this, but the creepy grin that the man in front of him was giving him was sending a chilling feeling down his spine. He finally decided to ask him some questions, he figured that the threat of shooting him was a bluff. No agent would shoot an unarmed man, so this must be a warning or precaution towards his hypnosis skills.


    "I wa..." Ivchenko said.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Before Ivchenko could blink Alex shot him in the lower left leg, the man fell to the ground and scream in pain and surprise. Alex calmly walked closer and punched Ivchenko square in the jaw knocking him out.


    "Thank you, I really was hoping you would speak so I could shoot you, you just made my day!" Alex said as he smiled down to the unconscious Ivchenko.


    Alex tied him up, ruffly bandage his wound, pick up the case and walk back to the SSR. It took a few minutes to arrive at the building, he stepped back into the lobby.


    "There you are Mr. Grey, where were you?" An Agent said he was among the group that went and caught Dottie.


    "Cleaning up your mess." Alex said, as he motioned the case in his hand.


    The agent looked at it in surprise, just as he was about to ask about it. Alex informed him where to go to pick up Ivchenko and to bring someone else to help drag him back here. The agent was still trying to process all that he''d been told when a group of agents came down, they seem to be in a hurry and had all a look of fury on them. Alex raised his voice to attract their attention, and repeated what he told the first agent. As the agents stood around in surprise and confusion, for a few minutes until all of them ran out in a hurry chasing down the now tied up and gift wrap Ivchenko. Alex walked to the elevator still carrying the case, he then pressed the call button to go up to the head office floor.


    As the doors of the elevator open, Alex noticed that the place had an odd feeling to it like if something really bad had happened. Looking around he saw that there was a lot of people who seem to have left the floor. Fortunately, he spotted Peggy, Jarvis, Sousa, Thompson and Dooley who was now wearing a weird vest of some kind. As he approached no one turn to him, they all seem to focus on Dooley. The man was sweating and the vest he was wearing was glowing a faint red light around the middle.


    Everyone seemed to be listening to Dooley as he was speaking, he was telling Peggy that he was sorry that he didn''t listen to her sooner. He was also giving some orders to find Ivchenko and the case before he used whatever was in it, and stop him. Everyone around nodded their heads as if they were listening to a dying man last wish.


    "Sorry to interrupt, this is all very touching but could someone tell me what is going on?" Alex said.


    Everyone turn as one toward him, Sousa and Thompson were still a little angry at him for not being right where he was supposed to be when they came out.


    "Where have you been?" Thompson said.


    Sousa didn''t say anything but gritted his teeth as he stared at him with unbridled hostility.


    Alex brought the case up and pointed to it. "I was chasing Ivchenko, tied him up in an alley, and brought back this case that he had. What have you been doing?" Alex said with a smirk.


    Silence followed as all of them started to process what he had just told them. Dooley was the first to react, he jumped up and grabbed Alex by the shoulders.


    "What did you say? You caught Ivchenko, were is that little shit?" Dooley said, his voice was filled with rage and worry.


    "Calm down, Chief Dooley, as we''re speaking right now, a team of your men is no doubt dragging his bleeding ass down here. To explain it simply, as I was waiting outside after arresting Dottie, I spotted Ivchenko walking out the front door, so I figure something had gone wrong. I followed him until he came to a secluded alley, where I told him to come with me quietly or else. He resisted and I shot him, then I knock him out and tied him up, once I arrive in the lobby I instructed a team of some very motivated agents to bring Ivchenko from the alley to here." Alex said, as he told them his story, a look of pure amazement and disbelief was spread across all of his audience faces.


    "That is, quite a story." Peggy said, she gave her head a shake as she was told an unbelievable story, with all the proof to back it up.


    "I must say, this is an incredible coincidence, not only do you help in the capture of Ms. Dottie but you also do so with Mr. Ivchenko." Jarvis said, a faint tone of admiration on wrapping all this up so neatly.


    "Thank you, but I still don''t know what that is." Alex said as he pointed to the vest that Dooley was wearing.


    "The short story, I got suck into Ivchenko''s games, next thing I know is I''m strapped to a bomb that no one can take off." Dooley said, he had a sad smiled on him, on one side Ivchenko and Dottie would answer for what they''ve done, but on the other, he was still going to die.


    "Ah, I don''t suppose that you, Jarvis, would know how to remove it?" Alex said as he gave the vest a closer look.


    "That was one of the major problems with the designs, it was only after testing that it became apparent the many flaws of the vest." Jarvis said, he was doing his best to remain calm and trying to dig into his memory in how they could remove the vest.


    "If Dooley was to slip it off like a shirt would it come off?" Sousa said.


    "No that wouldn''t work in fact it might only activate to blow up in the attempt." Jarvis said as he shook his head sadly.


    "Any chances, Howard is close by to help and take this thing off?" Alex said.


    "I''m afraid not." Jarvis said.


    "What about the egg heads department?" Thompson said.


    "No, when I was under, I had them all leave, and the only one left had no idea of what to do. But I do." Dooley said, he whispered the last part. He got up, he was sweating and heating up. He turned to everyone, and shared a look with all of them, a mixed glint of determination and sorrow in his eyes.


    "Tell my wife, that I''m sorry, for missing dinner, and for everything else." Dooley said as stood in front of them all, he moved quickly, grabbed a gun and started running towards the windows, he opened fire breaking the window open, and jumped out.


    A few moments later a deafening explosion followed, luckily no one was hurt, some collateral damage to the building but no one was wounded or dead. The last act of Chief Dooley was to sacrifice his life in saving his coworker and friends.

 Chapter 35

    A week had passed after chief Dooley''s sacrifice, the SSR pried out a confession from Dottie and Ivchenko regarding their plans to destroy Howard Stark, who now after all this time, was finally cleared of all charges. Peggy returned to work for the SSR, Jarvis on Howard''s orders remained assigned to help her if ever she needed it. Sousa was promoted and receive his own office in California, Thompson replaced Dooley as the new chief, only Peggy got the short end of the stick.


    Alex returned to his company, but he soon turned all administrative powers over to Faith, he checked on the dozens of Russian teens he had now adopted as a new parent. When he went over and told all of them that from now on they could call him papa. He was greeted by a room full of laughter, not with him but at him. He had figured that all of them were still cautious about him and his hidden objectives. He even came and straight out told them that yes, he had a secret plan for them, but they would all have the choice in either taking him on his offer or not. If they opt to not, then he would do everything in his power to find whatever it was they wanted to do and help them achieve it.


    He also went for a long overdue dinner at his parent''s house. At which they introduced a new girl to him, again, who he seduced and never called back. This, of course, sent his mother in another one of her rants about never having any grand kids. To which he spent a few hours calming her down, by promising to meet a new girl, next month that his mother thought would make them into such a nice couple. To which he could only sigh, and in his mind, he screamed that he would much prefer having to fight in a pit surrounded by hungry vicious wolves, then meet the new candidate from his mother selection of future gold digging Mrs. Grey wannabes. His father took to this with amusement, ever since his son had gotten his company off the ground. The material his company presented to the world had attracted many interested parties. As well as open a whole new list of clients to his firm, at this point his father stood to make senior partner in a few months instead of years.


    But as of now despite all the distraction in his life, he was at his home. A building that he had remodelled to his specification. It had five floors, the top floor was for all form him his personal place, the floors below carried all that a top hotel would need to function. He hired six people to take care of cleaning and cooking, they also had the option of living there. He had set up a rotation so that, at any given time there was at least one person awake to attend him if ever he needed it. There were also rooms for all types of occasions, all the way from a small party to an intimate night for two. There was but one golden rule for the staff, under no circumstance would they enter the basement without his very explicit approval.


    Under all that glamor, Alex had built the most advanced lab he could in this period of time. This was the place where he would conduct all his tests for the formula, and assembles piece by piece his own version of the chamber that had contained the very same ray that had given birth to Captain America. Of course, his device was the improved version from the diary of Abraham Erskine and Lawrence Van Helsing. In fact, most if not all of his current products were inspired by the diary he had copied. Sadly, some, if not most were downgraded versions from their original design.


    Alex was finishing some of the final stages of assembling his chamber coffin that would be the centre and core for his power up. There was only one problem, he didn''t have the ability to automate anything, so he needed a second pair of hands in activating and deactivating all the switches. Of course, this meant one of either of two things. One, he hoodwinks someone to help him and then kills them to keep it a secret. Or two, he turns to someone he trusts, and offer them the same thing he would get or at least a lesser version to it, in exchange for helping him. Of course, the question remains who? And which he should choose.


    While he was placing the finishing touches on the chamber, a phone that was connected to the house upper floors rang.


    "It probably Henry, asking me if I want another cup of coffee, or asking me if I''m going to stay up all night again." Alex said as he mumbled to himself as he made his way to the phone.


    "Hello, what is it now Henry? I''m right in the middle of a breakthrough." Alex said as he held back a yawn.


    "Sir you have a visitor." Henry said, his gruff voice came from the other side of the phone.


    "Oh? Did they leave a name?" Alex said, he was trying who would come and find him at home at, he checked the time, 2 AM. He was surprised at the time, that meant he''d been down here from 4 PM from yesterday.


    "She did sir, said her name was Peggy Carter, should I invited her in? Or turn her away." Henry said.


    Alex was lost in thought, he was trying to make his tired mind work in providing a reason for this impromptu visit. He shook his head and figured he could no doubt use a break by this point.


    "No, Invite her in, oh and Henry escort her to the reading room. Bring a bottle of my best scotch and two glass to use please." Alex said.


    "Right away sir." Henry said, as he hung up the phone.


    Alex clean up the lab a little, making sure that he didn''t leave any dangerous substance just laying around, thus creating the classic of an accidental mutation of some sort. He did not need a monster running around because he was negligent.


    He then walked to the only entrance to the lab, an elevator. He had customised it so that a ring he had would act as the only key, to the basement. He knew it wasn''t foolproof but it was the best he could do for now. He figured that once he started learning magic he could create a better system, but for now, it would do.


    Alex walked into the reading room, Peggy was sitting in one of two pairs of chairs that was close to a fireplace. Henry was there keeping her company and asking if he could get her anything.


    "Thank you, Henry, that would be all for tonight. Get some sleep I''ll attend to Pegs myself." Alex said as he approached the other chair.


    "Are you sure sir? I could stay up just in case you needed anything, sir." Henry said.


    "No, it fine, thank you and good night." Alex said as he motioned him to leave, he sat down in the chair and turn to give a tired smile to Peggy.


    He motioned to the scotch, with a raised eyebrow. As Henry left the room and close the door behind him. Peggy nodded, she eyed the drink with an appreciation, on her salary she hardly could afford such a pricey bottle. Alex poured each a glass and past one over to her, they sat in silence as they watch the fire for a few minutes, quietly sipping their drink.


    "Sorry for coming so late." Peggy said.


    "It''s fine." Alex said.


    "I''m to be sent to California, apparently Sousa asked for me in helping to shape up the office down there. But I''m more inclined to believe that Thompson wants me out of his way." Peggy said.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "My offer still stands you know, coming to work with me." Alex said.


    Peggy smiled. "And just like every time you''ve asked, my place is there."


    Alex was shaking his head. "I still don''t get how you can stay in that world, I myself was chased out pretty bad. But like every time if ever you change your mind, the offer is always on the table."


    "So, will you tell me the real reason your here? Not that I mind, it good to see you and all, but you coming in the middle of the night seem like a lot of cloak and dagger spy stuff." Alex said.


    "Need you to tell me the truth, about Russia. What is it that you didn''t give to the SSR." Peggy said, there was tension in her voice.


    Alex remained silent for a moment, he looked in the fire for a time.


    "Is that from the SSR or just you asking?" Alex said, his tone neutral.


    Peggy took a deep breath, and down her glass. "Just me." Peggy said, her voice a whisper.


    Alex gave nod, then a sigh, finally he also drained his own drink. Grabbing the bottle he refilled both his and her glass.


    "Good, officially I gave everything but one thing over to the SSR. And as you''ve no doubt figure out, they had samples of Steve blood, they haven''t figured all of the formula out yet. But what they do have is worrying, they have created a minor version of the formula, giving a minor boost to strength, speed and a bigger one on reflexes. A faster nervous system, so a boost to the mind, calculation and on spot decision making, better memory holding and learning. Self-recovery is also boosted and a by-product would no doubt be a longer lifespan." Alex said.


    "The files?" Peggy said, as she gripped her glass until her knuckle turned white.


    "Destroyed and burned, I made sure of it. They also had a few samples of the drug, also destroyed. But Pegs that was just a small base, not a big one, they lost was almost nothing but a few lab rats. This was a hit but the research is already out there, by the looks of it, the American government sold the samples to the Russians for a quite a sum." Alex said, anger in his voice.


    "One last thing, Hydra was behind it." Alex said in a sad tone.


    "What?..nnnnn..no that''s impossible, we destroyed all the bases, there''s no way they could still be around." Peggy said, she jumped up from her seat as she looked down at Alex.


    Alex looked up at her and held eye contact. "Who said that Hydra was only in Germany?"


    Peggy froze and sat back down. "What do I do Steve." She mumbled as she stared out into space.


    "Peggy, you''re trying to fight a massive organisation alone. It''s not going to work, you need a giant to fight a giant." Alex said.


    Peggy remained silent as she went over what he just said.


    "You''re talking about starting a whole new agency, from scratch, built up into something that would oppose Hydra in all shapes and forms." Peggy said.


    "Yeah, and for that, you need a few things. One, lots of money, lucky for us we happen to know someone who has more of it then he knows what to do with it. Next, you need a few core members that will create the foundation that the future will be built on. And last you need the political backing to make this happen." Alex said.


    "Will you be in this core?" Peggy said.


    "No, I left for a reason Peggy." Alex said, there was sadness and regret in his voice.


    "You never really told anyone the reason you left, oh I know the official one the one were you use a letter to regain your freedom. But I always suspected that there was more to it." Peggy said.


    Sigh "I suppose it won''t hurt to tell you, as you know my boss was less than happy after the war. My official job was to make sure that Steve stayed alive and in the event of his death, to bring back his body. Failing in both objectives put me on the shit list, so they sent me to the archive to rot for my remaining years. While I was there, I stumble on an old file that had my training regiment. In it was a group of volunteer, that had followed the brief report I had sent about the type of training I was using back in the academy, the files contained the training but they had neglected several safety measures I had underlined. The results were mixed, on one hand, they had highly trained people who had reached their physical peak. And on the other hand, they had a mentally unstable split personality disorder. At first, the mental instability wasn''t too bad, but as they receive more mission their mental issue got more problematic. Ending in either them taking their own lives, or going nuts and killing anything and anyone in sight. That was when it hit me, anything I came up with, was going to be taken by the agency. And just like this files on my training regiment, they would ignore any warning and test it right away for a quick power-up, and not give a damn about the cost. So I came to realise, that whatever I figure out next, if I wasn''t in control of the decision, then a lot of lives would be put in danger until I got there. I figure I wasn''t going to wait until someone else put me there." Alex said.


    "But if you join in the core you would have a seat at the table." Peggy said.


    "Yeah, I would, at first. Look, you know me well enough that some of my more adventurous opinions already have had one or two issues that have been ignored in the past, in light of progress." Alex said.


    "You mean the whole thing about Zola?" Peggy said.


    "Yeah, I didn''t exactly make any friends that day." Alex said.


    Peggy snorted. "You, punching the general, after learning the deal he made with the only living member of hydra that agreed to talk to us didn''t make friends? Steve and I had to step in and save you, from being court-martialed." Peggy said, with a small grin on her face.


    "Thank you for that, and it wasn''t my finest hour either, but I still think we should kill the little fucker. But bringing up Zola does show the demerit of me being in the hot seat. My stance won''t budge, I would create more complications than needed." Peggy looked at Alex with a raised eyebrow. "Look, it not like I''m blind to what information Zola has already given up, but you have to admit that he''s hiding a lot more then he''s been telling us, different branches of hydra in other countries for instance." Alex said.


    "Perhaps, but we need him more now than ever. He''s the most important piece of information he has ever had on hydra with him, we will be able to hunt and destroy this organisation no matter where they are in the world." Peggy said.


    "I hope your right, OK, we''ve gotten off track, tell me what you really came here for." Alex said, by hearing her he knew that nothing he did or said would stop the formation of SHIELD, and the inevitable parasitic rise of Hydra. Keeping Zola had always been the first rotten apple in the barrel, from there the infection would spread and grow into something monstrous. If he stayed outside he would have the freedom and secrecy to create his own troops to fight Hydra later. But if he sat at the table, he would only delay the outcome.


    Peggy took a deep breath, she had thought this through for days. She had questioned the wisdom of keeping it or hiding it in some vault, but when she looked at the past outcome of those results she felt that she had found the solution to the problem. She reached into her purse and took out a lipstick. And she then passed it to a confused Alex.


    "Take it." Peggy said.


    "Its really not my colour." Alex said with a straight face.


    Peggy rolled her eyes, and motion for him to take it and open it.


    Alex still confused, open the lipstick. Only what came out was a glass vial, with blood in it. Alex stared at it for a long time. Then he closed it up once more.


    "Steve''s blood." Alex said.


    Peggy just nodded.


    "What do you hope to achieve from giving it to me?" Alex asked.


    "Destroy it. I couldn''t do it alone." Peggy said, her voice almost failing her as she said it. Tears were falling as she asked him to destroy the final remains of the man she loved.


    Alex didn''t say anything, he simply opened the lipstick case once more, took out the vial and threw it into the fire. They both watched as the last of Steve''s blood burned to ash, tears were in both their eyes as they had flashes of their time with Steve pass by in their memory. They would not stand by and watch as his legacy was ruined by the greed of others.

 Chapter 36

    Alex was sitting in the chair in his private room, he looked out the window at the sky, then he looked back to his bed. In it was the silhouette of a person sleeping.


    "Its weird, if this were some typical novel and I was a reader, I would no doubt be cursing the author right now about not having sex with Peggy Carter. Guest this is the difference when you get to spend time with your heroes. You get to know them, and that changes everything." Alex said quietly to himself.


    He knew he wasn''t a nice person, hell there was a shit load of things he could''ve done to make it easier or place himself in a better position. But at every turn, he made his choice, like not sleeping with his friend Peggy, especially if she was in an emotionally vulnerable place. The loss of Steve had hit everyone hard, even him and he knew that he was still alive! Peggy got it worst, not only did she and Steve become lovers, she was drowning in guilt in losing her one true love.


    It wasn''t like she couldn''t find someone else, But the connection they had was unique and damn near impossible to replace. In a way, he found himself jealous of the bond they shared. He had contemplated moving in on Peggy after Steve was KIA, but every time he just came back to the memory of the night, that Steve told him that he found his soul mate, the right partner, as he liked to say about Peggy.


    When Steve eventually returned, it would be a dick move in telling him he nailed Peggy, not because he truly loved her, but to satisfy his own lust and envy. Besides, with time he''d come to see her as Steve''s woman, the one he was honor-bound to protect and look after. Not that she needed it, since for most problems she was more than qualified in taking care of it herself.


    No, his thoughts turned more toward changing the fate of these two star-crossed lovers that never had a chance. He wondered if he should reveal something about the serum Steve was injected with, the fact that the cold temperature in the north had a very good chance of preserving Steve. Keeping him alive in suspended animation, frozen in time waiting to be found and thawed out.


    Or maybe giving her the serum, but a more tame version of it. Of course, then this would change everything, her presence was a focal point in time, any change could have surprising and unexpected consequences. Giving her powers could make her a target, to be either killed off sooner or captured and use as a lab rat for anyone that wanted to create the serum.


    The lure of having, your own private super soldier army, was something that had always been sought after in the marvel universe. Many had tried and failed to produce the same serum that Steve Roger receive, but some had succeeded with mix result. Like for example, one of the more successful was Spider-Man, in essence, it had worked, it just had certain added mutations to its core structure. Or the one that was injected in Bucky Barnes, which didn''t give as much power as Steves version, but it came close, and the fact that it was stable was also a plus.


    After that, the trend of using DNA from animal to supplement the incomplete formulas was repeated over time, until it became one of the most used versions of the formula. And on the other side of the spectrum came the more risky products, like the Extremis serum or the green goblin serum. One was a ticking time bomb, and the other would drive its user into a rage induced psychotic killing spree to all and any grievances imaginary or not.


    Alex in his possession had the answer for all the instability in the formula. It had been designed in by Abraham, it was so cleverly hidden that no one had ever questioned the serum''s structure from the very beginning. Everyone took one look at it and they became blind to its trap. since no one but Lawrence, Abraham and now Alexander had seen the true and complete formula. If one was to place them both side by side it would become obvious to anyone.


    "But I''m pretty certain that there must be some who have figured it out. Like the high evolutionary, or maybe sinister." Alex said quietly to himself.


    He left those thoughts aside. He needed to figure if he was going to interfere in Peggy''s life or let her live her life as normal, with the lingering regret of losing Steve. He brought to mind the different scenes in and out of comics, tv show or movies, the reunion of Steve and Peggy, Steve meeting other women in the comics, or his romantic interest in the tv shows or movie-verse. In the comic, Steve wasn''t exactly a ladies man, sure in some universes he got the girl. Hell in a few of the more hidden fanfiction he got it on with Tony, or the female version of another character oddly enough.


    "In the end, what I really need to look at is, what do they want." Alex said, as he turned and looked at Peggy sleeping in his bed.


    "Shit, if I want to pull this off, I won''t be able to do it now. Not with the tools I have. I mean, sure I could inject her with the serum then put her on ice for the next 70 years. But that just a really fucked up idea. No, I need more resources, maybe magic could help me figure something out." Alex said, but soon a grimace made its way onto his face. He remembered his attempts at magic back in Poland, from that time he had repeated the exercise numerous times. Only to arrive at the sad conclusion, he had no talent for magic.


    It was true that magic in the Marvel world could be done by anyone, even by those that had the worst talent, they would need at the longest a year for their first spell. But for someone like him, well in the Journal it had a few pages dedicates to that very subject.


    Knowing if you have the talent for magic, it was a simple ritual one could do, it was usually performed by parents that wanted to know if their children had potential in magic.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.It was very user-friendly, all you needed was to carve some ruins on a piece of 100-year-old wood, you didn''t even need magic to activate the ritual.


    So after the runes were carved in, you needed the skull of a bird any would do, the leg bone of a dog again very flexible. You could use a wolf, fox or coyote leg bone, you didn''t even have to be picky on which leg to use. Next was an egg, again it was very flexible, it could be a reptile, a bird or even fish eggs. The last item, one needed was the blood of an older family member, usually, this was done by a parent. If not then a drop of blood from an elder in the family, hell you could go for a second cousin if they were older than the one the ritual was being used on.


    After all that, you called out the spell, which in a way, was the hardest part, and then drop a little bit of your blood in the middle of the carving in the wood, surrounded by all the other material.


    Then if you had any magic potential, well let''s rate it by numbers to make it easier. On a scale of 1 to 10, one being where it would just be simpler if you did something else, anything really instead of magic. And ten being, oh my god, you are magic. Alex was a 1, and the average person on the street usually had a 3 or 4. So let compare the two in a more practical setting, if someone with 3 or 4 were to practice magic, like the kind Dr. Strange does, it would take them a year for their first spell at the longest. The higher the number the faster the results. On the other hand, someone with 1 would need 10 years just to begin to feel magic, and that was with a lot of meditation and focus, and another 10 years to cast their first spell.


    In the past, there had been some stubborn mages who had 1 as a talent potential but decided to continue their study in magic. But here is the thing, magic can take years to master, and once you begin to manipulate those energies, the caster can prolong their lifespan so that they can have more time to study. In no way does that make them immortal, just longer living, like a two hundred years longer life span. Of course, that was if one didn''t do anything to manipulate one''s life, like say make a pact with a demon or feed off of a powerful dimensional being in order to grant yourself immortality.


    The point was, for someone with a power of one, by the time they would finally get enough magical energy to do anything to prolong their life, they would already be in their 80s, and that was if they had begun when they were 10 years old. If you started at 20 or even 30, then chances are you would have died of old age before you could even begin to enjoy the fruits of all those years spent slowly edging your way up, from novice to expert, not even able to reach the master rank of magic mastery.


    "To interfere or not, is going to have to wait. Right now, even if I wanted to, I have no real viable way of doing anything." Alex said, as he released a sigh. He kept looking out the window and he watched as the night passed by, and the sun came out to greet the new day.


    Peggy woke up later that day, she expressed her embarrassment in falling asleep in his house and using his bed to rest in. Alex just waved it off as an impromptu sleepover. After a good breakfast, he sent her off on her way to California, for her new journey in her quest to fight all the bad guys in the world.


    Peggy found it funny, as she left in a much better mood then she had arrived in. The burning of Steve''s blood was a way to make peace with a part of herself that she knew would never really heal. After that night she had a feeling that no matter the man she met, Steve would always be the one she compared them to, it wasn''t fair to others, or even healthy for herself. It just was the only way she could function, no matter what she did, short of losing her memory, she would never forget her Captain America, her dear beloved Steve Rogers.


    Alex drained his tenth cup of coffee, earlier Henry and all the other staff had voiced their disproval of him forgoing sleep in order to return down to his lab. But he couldn''t help it, he just needed a little more and all the prep work would finally be done. The years of struggle was finally nearly done, the end in sight, he couldn''t just stop now because he was sleepy, besides, sleep was for the weak. And a whole bunch of other stuff that was for the weak. Ok, maybe he should sleep after the last assembly was done.


    As he walked into his lab, he checked out the chamber that was the focal point of this ritual slash science experiment. The chamber greatly resembled what Abraham use on Steve, but theirs was ten tube attached to the chamber all connected to a different container.


    Six of those tubes were connected to some reservoir, the size of a car battery, but inside were six different potions, that took him several trial and error to make. He had spent a great deal of resources on perfecting the potion, he''d wanted to have the best he could get for the ritual.


    The other four tubes were connected to miniature generators that he''d convinced (blackmailed) Howard to make for him. Of course, after Howard had no problem stealing its designs, and selling it as his own. He got a little pissed off about that, but ultimately it didn''t matter. The generators would pump enough juice out, to power a small city for three months.


    On the floor under the chamber, was black ebony stone, place in a patterned to form a giant circle with different geometric shape inside. On each stone, Alex had carved runes of power. All the stones were connected by silver wires that he had placed in himself. He''d commissioned the shape of the stone to be octagons. Carving all those runes had taken a great deal of time, any mistakes and he had to start all over again.


    As for the chanting of the spell, yes there was a spell to chant with all this. He had recorded his voice chanting the spell on a loop. But like earlier, he needed a second pair of hands outside, since he would be inside the chamber getting pumped full of potions and radiation. So he needed someone to turn everything on and then turn everything off, oh and also open the chamber for him when it was done.


    "If I think about it, my only real option is using either Osyen or Raiza, there the only one who actually fit in both options. If they prove to be untrustworthy, I can kill them with minimal backlash. And if they choose to accept my offer then they have much to gain from it." Alex said as he left his lab.


    He had just finished. The last pieces were attached, but now he needed to sleep, then make the arrangement for the final step. And he would finally gain the power he needed to better live in this world.

 Chapter 37

    It was cold, the metal chamber was much colder then Alex expected. He looked down and tested the straps again. He was laying down naked inside the chamber, he gave a silent prayer to the power that be that he wasn''t going to die in a most horrifying way.


    Was is it wise do use himself as the first, and possible last test subject. Hell no, was he willing to risk using some random person, and once they got power up, escape and then come back and kill him, of course not. Use one the kids, sure if he wanted to plant the seeds of betrayal, by himself in the future and create his very own brutus. Use rats or small critters as guine pigs, are you insane, what if he unleash a plague of doop up magical mind controlling pests. No thank you, so he was left with double checking and triple checking everything, sending a hail Marie and jump right in, and hope that it doesn''t outright kill him.


    "Ok, pull the switch." Alex said.


    "Are you sure? Cause this all looks like it could go, all so very wrong very fast." Raiza said.


    "Yeah, this kinds of reminds me of a movie I saw last night." Oysen said.


    "Oh, so are two volunteering in my place?" Alex said, his voice snap at the two teens.


    "Hey now, we never said that, we are just not willing to let die such a good cash cow." Osyen said, as he smirked.


    Raiza, just nodded her agreement at this statment, for the past weeks they''ve never been happier. They could talk to each other and make friends, without finding themselves in a battle to the death the next day, as a consequence of just trying to be normal.


    "Just do it." Alex said. In a tired voice he didn''t want to get into an argument with them, just so they would leave him tied up, as they left in huff of teen angst.


    The nodded and keep their mouth shut this time. Thank you for small miracles, Alex thought as the chamber close it self up. The first thing that started was the spell on loop that Raiza turned on. Once that was donne she move to the next controller, Osyen and her pulled the next switch on, at the same time. This pump the first batch of potion in the chamber. They then move to the next phase of the process, they turn on the power for the floors magic pentagram. A low buzz started, it could be heard as the air was saturated with magic, by a combine effort of the loop tape and electric power. The last part was to turn on the radiation, once this was done, they couldn''t turn it off, not until the time expired on the timer. If they did, it would waste months, or years of work.


    The first potion was injected directly inside, Alex could feel it burn in his body as it spread. The next potion was flush in the chamber surrounding him in it, his skin started to iche. Their was a little space behind his head and above it so that, if he needed he could raise his head up to breath, or bring it down so that he would be submerge in the potion. The first phase of the radiation and magic surge hit him, pain was all he knew, it felt like every cell in his body was burning and being ripe apart at the same time. He even scream while his head was submerge in the potion, to which he swallowed some.


    As the pain continued, he felt that he had finally adapted a little, then the second injection was made and the pain return. This time it felt like thousant of needles stabing all at different time in each and every cell in his body. His bones were melting and exploding inside of his body. He wasn''t abel to past out, since the potion, on the outside was design to keep him aware for the whole process. Just when he thought thing couldn''t get any worse. The last phase begun, the radiation and magic increase, as the remaining potion were all injected at the same time. This time his body was in so much pain he was losing his mind, then he felt the pain in his mind and soul. His whole being was pulled apart, and then it was healing, it twisted and reshape his body into something new, no longer human, but a force evolution that nature had no say in.


    His throat had gone raw with the amount of screaming he''d done, his instinct were yelling at him to get out, to escape. Fortunately he built the chamber so that it would containe him inside until the end. A small part of him was now questioning his sanity in allowing himself to go througth this. But despite the pain a new and weird feeling was surfacing, a fealing of completion, a rebirth and ascension to something far more then he could''ve ever imagine. He felt like he was in the middle of something far more powerful then anything, he also felt like just on the edge, other were sensing him. It was faint but he felt emotion like fear, joy, surprise, excitement, rage, disgust and indifference.


    Just when he was about to start to share his own fealing, the sensation was cut off, he return to a world of pain. Until finally the pain stop, the potion that surounded him was gone the spell loop was still going on, he started to hear the outside. The chamber open up, and the restraint release him.


    "Unm,you ok?" Raiza said worrie in her voice.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Alex was panting like if he had just exhausted himself from the most intense workout ever. He slowly sat up, he could feel that his body was different, but his mind was catching his attention, it seem that everything was clearer more focus but at the same time he was aware of his surrounding at all time, he could think at a speed that he never could before. Their was more he could almost grasp a new limb like feeling, except it was invisible, no not invisible, this was his mind. He then knew almost by instinct that he had telekineses, telepathy, emphatic power and no doubt he had more. Granted it wasn''t nearly on the level of Jean Grey or professor X, but he was certain that with time and training this power would grow.


    He also felt so much more powerful with his body, like if he could fight anything and anyone, and come out the victor. He stood in the middle of the room naked, his body more muscular then before. He looked like one of those movie action heros all muscle and no fat, a greek god physical body or perfect would be the word. But it wasn''t only his body he could also feel something else, a power he never before had, an energy flowing in his blood. He close his eyes and focus on it, suddenly he open his eyes and he started laughting as sparks burst from him in short intervals. Magic this was no doubt magic, he had done it he had broken trought his human limit.


    He turn to the two teens. "I have never been better, what I''ve become is the next step in the human evolution. What I have offer still stand, I can give you the same treatment that Ive gone throught or a less violent process." Alex said a big smile on his face as he stood proudly infront of them.


    "That great and all, but could you but on some pants." Raiza said as she had her hand blocking her view, but still peak between her fingers.


    "Yesh, talk about creepy, first you invite us down in your dungeon, next you have use play some weird kinky games, and now your dancing but naked infront of us, your a real piece of work." Oysen said as he was looking down his hand his hip, shaking his head.


    "The two of you are a bunch of assholes. This is suppose to be a grand moment but you ruin it, meany, not fair." Alex said as his high was gone, as he crumbled down in the foetus position and started to rock back and fort in a gloomy depression.


    "There, there don''t be like that, ok it was kind of cool." Raiza said, in a very neutral tone.


    Alex looked back he had snot coming out of his noses, tears in his eyes. "Really?" He said his voice was frail and weak.


    "Sure, you the great and powerfull mashosime boss." Oysen said, also in a neutral tone.


    "You liar, no good kids, i take you in, feed you, cloth you and this is the thanks I get." Alex said he then went on a tirad for a few minute about how much he suffered for them.


    The two just roled their eyes, but they also shared a looked that was filled with relief. The fact that Alex didn''t change into a power hungry monster, but remain the same joking actor as before. Calm them down in knowing that they hadn''t jump ship with the same kind of jerks that had destroyed their chance of a normal life. They all finally stop dicking around, both ask for the more tame version of the ritual slash serum. They didn''t want to go trought the same bone melting pain, as they had express they weren''t looking to expose themselves to more pain if they could avoid it.


    Alex then explain that it would take some time, since he had to go over the whole thing, and figure out a less invasive process for them. One were they could get all the benefit, with less pain in the process. They also agreed to keep all this quiet, with hardly any hassle.Once Alex was alone he went to a different room with all kind of weights, he wanted to test his limits.


    "Ok let start small." Alex said as he took some barbels with 100lbs on them, he did it easily, in fact he hardly felt it.


    "Note to self, I may need to train control of my strength, I don''t want to squish anyone by accident." Alex said as he was a little sunt by the easy, it felt like if he was lifting an apple or something.


    He then went to 200lbs, then 300lbs he continued to test his strenght alway going up by a hundred. He started to feel a strains, once he hit 1500lbs, but he felt he could still keep on going. Finally he reach his limit at 2500lbs, his personal best before the serum, was at 975lbs. This wasn''t bench pressing, this was him lifting an object up with his whole body.


    Next he tested his speed, he ran from one side to the other, he had design a sensor at the beginning so that if he wanted to test alone his speed, all he needed was to run from one end to the other, the time would start and stop when he reach the other end. His personal best without the serum was 19,52mph, and with the serum he found himself at 32,21mph. This was beyond anything human possible.


    He continued testing all his best in all area, reflexes, endurence even his mind was helping him make better and faster decision. And to think that this was only his base attribute, cause from what he understood with enought training he would be abel to push high and high limits.


    He then tested his psionic powers lifting weight with his mind, sadly the power was not as impressive, the most he could do was 50lbs, anything more and he was powerless. He wasn''t sure for the rest he would need to test it on other over time. The last test was on the simple speels he had memorized, he could now do magic, he retested his potential, it was at 1 before but now it was at 5. This means that he wasn''t the chosen one, but now he was in the a little above average in magic line.


    "This is awesome, but i don''t think that i should dabble to much in magic, without proper guidance. Hum, Il wait a bit before going to meet with the ancient one, I wonder if its going to be the movie vers, or the comic vers, for the ancient one." Alex said with a grin, he new that his life as a background character was officially over, and his chances of survival had gone up, but the danger he would incounter would no doubt also rise.