The wind tore noisily through the snow-capped mountain range under the pale sky, a large sturdy window in one of the rock faces.

On the interior, Schmidt strode across the space. "Are you ready, Dr. Zola?" He asked Dr. Zola.

Tables of equipment were arranged covered in wiring, intricate devices, and monitors as a round display showed an upturned nose and eyes behind round glasses. "My machine requires the most delicate calibration," he replied, the view that of the lens the scientist was examining with donned grey lab coat and gloves. "Forgive me if I seem overcautious."

"And are you certain that those conductors of yours can withstand the energy surge long enough for transference?" Johan interrogated, briefly glancing over with a gesture of the photograph he had picked up from the work surface in front of him. Sculptures of the Tesseract were displayed in the images he laid over a large tome, presenting another picture of the Cube.

"With this artifact... I am certain of nothing," Zola answered, turning towards him. "I fear it may not work at all."

Schmidt stepped deliberately over to the surface between them, the box between his hands showing the carving of a serpent. He set it down to Zola's rapt and wary stare, then lifted the lid with his gloved hands to a bright azure light shining into the dim space. Zola scrambled to remove his glasses and replace them with tinted protective lenses as Schmidt lifted a metal handle from which four long rods shot downward, sliding it into the container's confines.

The appliance lifted the blindingly bright Tesseract as Schmidt raised his arm and moved to the readied device, lowering the Cube into the central hub and twisting the handle to lock it in place beneath. The blue glowed through the spaces of the mechanism as it hummed.

"Twenty percent." Zola announced the energy captured as it read on the console before him.
"Forty," he amended as he twisted the knob so to increase managing input. "Sixty ... Stabilising at seventy percent."

Schmidt covered the few steps between them to Zola moving from the controls. "I have not come all this way for safety, Doctor," the man announced as he turned the regulators to maximum.

The gaps in the machine pulsed with azure as sparks of the energy darted over the thick wires before coalescing through and over the cables running along the floor with a snap. The table of controls was overwhelmed with the power to echoing whines and cracks, the Cube's force skirting over the floors, up the walls, across the windows, along the ceiling, vibrating in the air before shorting out to sparking equipment.

After a second of silence, Zola broke the silence. "What was that?" He questioned quietly.

Schmidt turned him by the shoulders. "I must congratulate you, Arnim," he said as he pointed. The energy of the Tesseract hummed in a rectangular prism that the man approached gingerly. "Your designs do not disappoint – though they may require some slight reinforcement."

"The exchange is stable," Zola stated in awe. "Amazing. The energy we have just collected could power my designs - all my designs." The inspiring apparatus containing the Cube flashed as he removed his glasses to gaze in its direction. "This will change the war."

"Dr. Zola, this will change the world."

_________________________________________________________________

On the grounds of the training camp, soldiers stood loosely in a line donning their green field uniforms with hard helmets strapped under their chins, an officer leading a group behind. "Ready, exercise!" The officer commanded.

As others looked at their surroundings and dithered, Steve gazed forward patiently as he waited. "Recruits, attention!" A sharp female voice called abruptly, the line of arrivals straightening their backs and lifting their chins. Scarlet smirked - finally another female was here!

"Gentlemen and lady, I am Agent Carter," she announced as she strode in front of them in her olive service uniform, short brown hair pinned back from her face as a man carried a crate of clipboards and papers behind her. "I supervise all operations for this division."

"What's with the accent, Queen Victoria?" One interrupted. She slowed to a stop before him. "I thought I was signing up for the US army." He jeered.

"What's your name, soldier?" Agent Carter asked.

"Gilmore Hodge, your Majesty," he quipped.

"Step forward, Hodge," she replied promptly. He obeyed to exaggerated looks at the others. "Put your right foot forward."

"Mm, we gonna wrestle?" He asked as he followed, sheets handed out along the line as Steve darted a disgruntled glance to him. "'Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like." He winked.

"How about you speak to your superior with respect?" Scarlet spoke up, glaring at him.

Peggy reeled back to punch him across the nose, the force of the hit spinning him to land on the ground on his front.

"Oh yeah?" Gilmore spat back. "What do you know about respect? You're a woman and a freak with no family."

Scarlet's eyes met with Agent Carter's eyes. She was silently given permission to step out of line.

She stepped out of line and made her way over to Gilmore Hodge. She knelt down in front of him and yanked him up by the scruff of his uniform forcing him to look in her eyes. "Don't talk about my family." She hissed. "Yes, I'm a woman. But I gave my life defending my country but in doing so I lost someone very close to my heart." She looked down briefly. "But now, I'm back." Her lips started to pull up in that wicked, devilish smirk, that always made a chill run down the back of Steve's spine. To some people it might have looked like she was trying to do a sexy crooked smile, but Steve knew better. The way her mouth slowly moved upward, making lines where is mouth and cheek connected.

"How do you think I got this new body?" With a flash of burnt orange, black oozed out of her pupils and coated the entirety of her eyes until they shone with darkness.

With an ominous whoosh, Scarlet's wings flared out, arching high over her head in an impressive display of anger sending out a wave of emerald green energy. Steve couldn't look away. They were magnificent.

"You will refer to me as Captain Silverthorne-Blake-Barnes. After this conversation I don't want to hear another single word come out of your mouth or you will suffer. Do I make myself clear?"

Gilmore Hodge nodded.

Scarlet's hand found it's way around his neck this time. "Words." She growled, above in the sky, there was an explosion like a sonic boom.

"Y-yes, Captain Silverthorne-Blake-Barnes." He stammered.

A ripple of flames cut through the darkness in Scarlet's eyes and brought them back to their original state, a sign that she was no longer using magic.

Scarlet stood up. She could hear some of the others talking about her.

"Captain Silverthorne-Blake-Barnes? I thought she was killed years ago."

"So did I..."

Scarlet chuckled. "Oh it's great to be back."

Steve contained a laugh as he smirked, a vehicle pulling up and an older man in a tan field uniform with stiff leather jacket overtop.

"Agent Carter."

Agent Carter spun to address. "Colonel Phillips."

"I can see that you are breaking in the candidates – that's good," Colonel Phillips said as he approached, Erskine behind in a brown suit.

Scarlet nodded in approval of his support of Peggy's place. The cyborg's wings folded and pressed themselves against her back.

Colonel Phillips looked down at the man getting to his feet. "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line at attention until somebody comes tells you what to do." He reprimanded.

"Yes, sir!" Gilmore answered gruffly, tilting his chin up and sniffing at the blood dripping from his nose.

"Hope that one has more coming to him," Scarlet muttered.

Colonel Phillips paused for a moment before directing at the lineup as he walked. "General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons but they are won by men. We are going to win this war because we have the best men."

His gaze fell on Steve and he cast a disbelieving look at Erskine who merely returned his attention to the group. Instead of staying composed, Scarlet met Colonel Phillips' gaze evenly, her head raising ever so slightly. "And because they are going to get better. Much better." He continued long-sufferingly, Steve's eyes flit after Phillips as he turned away and he quirked an eyebrow.

Scarlet snorted a laugh. At the end of the colonel's speech, Dr. Erskine pulled her out of the line. Scarlet looked back at Steve nervously before she moved towards the older man. "Yes, sir?" She asked, standing straight.

"You have nothing to worry about, my dear. Relax." He told her with a friendly smile. She nodded and let herself relax a bit even though she still stood straight. "That little speech doesn't really apply to you that much. You have already been chosen but not for the same thing your friend Steven may be chosen for. It is similar, true, but not the same. You will be spending a lot of time with Agent Carter." He informed her and Scarlet nodded as the agent in question came over to them.

"Agent Peggy Carter." She said, introducing herself and holding out her hand.

"Captain Scarlet Blake-Barnes." Scarlet replied, shaking her hand firmly. She nodded as Peggy gave her a friendly smile. She was absolutely gorgeous. "Also known as Captain Silverthorne-Blake-Barnes of the 107th Infantry during the Great War."

"It's a pleasure." Peggy told her and Scarlet nodded.

"Pleasure's all mine, ma'am." Scarlet replied with a smile of her own.

"Please, call me Peggy." Scarlet nodded and felt like Peggy and herself might end up becoming good friends. "I'd like to thank you for your service and contribution to our country."

Scarlet smiled and nodded.

_________________________________________________________________

"The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an Allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world." Steve sat on his bed in the dormitories with dog tags hanging from his neck, unpacking his suitcase and lifting books on strategy and warfare out into his hands as the other males in the room noisily conversed and jostled each other.

Scarlet was in the same room as Agent Carter. She was in the bath.

"Our goal is to create the best army in history-" A whistle blew to the recruits climbing up a rope netting that was vertically anchored, Steve gasping as his elbows and knees jerked in their struggle to support him.

"-but, every army starts with one man." His legs became tangled and he fell back, clambering to regain his grip before losing his hold and hanging upside down only for the officer to start yelling orders at him.

Scarlet, on the other hand, would trip and lose her balance. But she managed to get over the net.

"What's wrong, Duke of Limbs?! Can't handle a simple net?!" one soldier jeered at Scarlet, making his friends laugh.

Scarlet just glared at them, and as much as she wanted to kill him, she ignored him and walked off.

_________________________________________________________________

"At the end of this week, we will choose that man." Steve crawled under beams wrapped in coils of barbed wire with his rifle held between his hands.

"Let's go!" Sergeant Duffy bellowed.

"He will be the first, in a new breed of, super soldier." Hodge turned to look back before kicking at one of the supports, the structure partially falling to collapse on top of Steve.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes. She made sure she gave that soldier a piece of her mind once he got out and kicked him right in the nuts without a second thought, earning a smirk from Agent Carter.

Laughter mocked his position as Steve winced, Sergeant Duffy moved from his conversation with Peggy to aid amidst scolding him. "Rogers! Get that rifle out of the mud!"

"She's not supposed to hit the others soldiers!" Gilmore Hodge whined later on.

"And you're not supposed to be acting like a blockhead, now get back to work!" Agent Carter snapped back. Scarlet had given her a thankful look, and she had returned it with a smile.

"And they will personally escort Adoft Hitler to the gates of Hell," Phillips finished.

_________________________________________________________________

"Pick up the pace, ladies!" Sergeant Duffy compelled as the recruits jogged along a worn dirt path, the shade of the trees intermittently covering the road. A flag flapped overhead declaring, 'NULLI SECUNDUS, 1914-1942, CAMP LEHIGH,' around a laurel wreath encircling a star.

Scarlet was a fast runner - she had long legs, so she was running near the front of the group - but Steve ... he was trailing in the back. "Let's go, let's go – double time!" Peggy placed the pencil in hand between her teeth as she flipped back the covering of a clipboard and browsed through the pages, twisting to observe the advance just as the man beside her, the two seated in a parked vehicle. "Come on! Faster! Faster! Move! Move! Squad, halt!" The troop skid to a stop beside the car, Steve a few meters behind the ranks bending over to brace his hands on his knees as he panted.

"That flag means we're only at the halfway point. First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Carter." Steve adjusted the brim of his helmet as he looked up to the flag. "Move, move!" The men rushed en-mass with encouraging shouts.

"Let's get it!" They scrambled to push one another up and yank him back down, the officer shouting, "Come on, get up there! If that's all you got, this army's in trouble!" Hodge latched onto the pole and began to tug himself skyward, "Get up there, Hodge! Come on, get up there!" Sergeant Duffy shouted before Hodge came sliding back to the ground with his grip squealing.

The group surged to replace him. "Let me try!"

Steve was about to move when Scarlet stopped him. "Not yet - I've got a plan," She told him with a wink. She then turned her attention back to the pole and began scanning it, her eyesight focusing on the pin that holding the pole upright.

"Nobody's got that flag in seventeen years!" Sergeant Duffy proclaimed with arms crossed over his chest. "Now fall back into line! Come on, fall in! Let's go – get back into formation!" They abandoned the flag pole with groans and trot to arrange themselves as Steve and Scarlet walked to the base of the pole, looking at the base and then up in consideration. "Rogers! Silverthorne-Blake-Barnes! I said fall in!" the instructor bellowed.

Steve bent to lift the pin from the end of the strut securing the pole upright, then worked it out from the other side to it swinging to land heavily on the ground with a wail of metal. He tossed the implements aside and marched to remove the flag from the top, Peggy licking her lips with a smirk as her companion turned on the engine. "Thank you, sir," Steve said breathlessly as he handed the material into his hands, then he climbed into the back of the vehicle to Peggy's smile and others' indignant huffing. He smiled at her amused turn towards him.

_________________________________________________________________

Whilst the men were doing pushups with both hands, Scarlet was doing them with one hand resting on her back. She would then switch to the other hand and continue.

"Faster, ladies – come on," Peggy cajoled as the squad determinedly worked push-ups from the ground, stripped of their jackets and sweating through their white t-shirts underneath the sun. "My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul." Steve grit his teeth in exertion as he lifted his shoulders and chest slower, without the rest of the form of the movement. "Move it!"

Scarlet looked over at Steve. "Steve." She hissed. "Let me use you as a weight."

"What? No!" Steve shot back. "I'm not letting you bench press me again!"

_________________________________________________________________

"You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you?" Phillips interrogated as he approached with Erskine at his side.

"I am more than just thinking about it – he is a clear choice," Erskine answered as he adjusted his glasses.

"When you brought a ninety-pound asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide – I thought, 'What the hell?' Maybe he'd be useful to you, like a gerbil – I never thought you'd pick him."

Scarlet couldn't help herself but overhear their conversation. She pressed her lips together.

"Scarlet, she'd be a great candidate for it. She's passed all the tests so far with flying colours." Chester Phillips added.

"I know." Erskine replied. "That's why she has already been chosen for it."

_________________________________________________________________

"Up," Peggy ordered as they slowed. "Jumping jacks."

"You stick a needle in that kid's arm, it's gonna go right through him." Philips detailed.

"Come on, girls." Peggy called.

"Look at that," Colonel Phillips uttered as he stared, Steve's arms limp as he threw them through the air while he panted. "He's making me cry."

Scarlet sniggered before half-heartedly apologizing.

"I am looking for qualities beyond the physical," Erskine insisted.

"Do you know how long it took to set up this project?" Colonel Phillips questioned the man.

"Yeah, I know." Erskine replied.

"All the groveling I had to do in front of Senator What's-his-name's committees?" Phillips added.

"Brandt." Erskine corrected. "Yes, I know. I am well aware of your efforts."

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

"He is a bully." Erskine pointed out.

"You don't win wars with niceness, Doctor," Colonel Phillips countered, glancing behind him before moving around. "You win wars-" he began, lifting a grenade from one of the boxes of supplies stacked in the back of the truck and removing the pin, "-with guts." He flicked the release from the top and lobbed it towards the men and Scarlet. "Grenade!" He screamed.

Scarlet jerked and then jolted forward at the situation.

The group whipped their heads to the object bouncing along the ground and ran from the scene to find cover. "Move, move, move!" Someone ordered.

Steve rushed headlong and threw himself on top of it as Peggy dashed forward as well.

"Get away!" He shouted as he curled into the fetal position around it. "Get back!"

Hodge peered over the shelter he had found as Steve lay tense with his eyes squeezed shut, the minute passing before he uncurled in disbelief and looked around. "It was a dummy grenade," an officer informed. "All clear, back in formation."

Phillips sighed as Peggy stared at him. "Is this a test?" Steve asked as he breathed heavily.

Scarlet sighed in relief and shook her head as she moved over to Steve. "You idiot. You heroic idiot." She told him with a weak smile as she offered her hand to help him up.

He just laughed but took it none the less. "Not a bad combination, right?" he asked her and Scarlet nodded.

"Not a bad combination at all." She replied with a smile.

Phillips turned to Erskine, who shrugged self-assuredly, then abandoned his opposition. "He's still skinny," he replied feebly before striding away. Erskine smiled.

_________________________________________________________________

Steve sat on his assigned bed with shut case beyond the footboard, books laid on top and in his hands as he read. A knock sounded to him turning, the door to the room opened with Erskine stepping in.

"May I?"

"Yeah," Steve responded.

"Can't sleep?" Erskine asked.

"I got the jitters, I guess."

Erskine laughed as he set a couple of glasses by the books. "Me too." He said.

As he folded the bedding from the adjacent bed and Steve put his book aside. "Can I ask you a question?" Steve asked.

"Just one?" Erskine replied as he sat with bottle in hand.

"Why me?" Steve questioned.

"...I suppose that is the only question that matters." They sat in silence for a minute before he leant the bottle back and displayed the label. "This is from Augsburg – my city. So many people forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own. You know, after the last war, my people struggled- They felt weak, they felt small – and then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags, and the..." Erskine gestured in continuation before adjusting his glasses. "And he- he hears of me, my work, and he finds me and he says, 'You.' He says, 'You will make us strong.' Well, I am not interested." He placed the bottle on the floor.

Scarlet's eyebrows rose.

"So, he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division – a brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt." Erskine corrects his lenses again. "Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle, and he is ambitious."

"He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth." Schmidt walked with posture firm and lips pursed before the Nazi flag, visor shadowing his brow, before researching ancient legends on papyrus manuscripts.

"Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers," Erskine described, "but for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real."

"He has become convinced that there is a great power hidden in the earth," carvings encircled with Norse runes were before Schmidt's gaze, "left here by the gods – waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula, and what it can do, he cannot resist." Schmidt moved around Erskine, demanding, gesturing to himself, as the doctor shook his head. Continued refusing when Schmidt held a gun pointed from his hip. "Schmidt must become that superior man." He lay in a chair and injected a serum into his arm, clenching his fist and bending it towards himself as he breathed.

"Did it make him stronger?" Steve questioned.

"Yeah," he responded with an open-mouthed smirk, "but, there were other effects." Agonizing fire spread as Schmidt trembled and screamed, thrashing.

"The serum was not ready, but more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside, so good, becomes great. Bad becomes worse."

Scarlet recoiled.

"This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power. But a weak man, knows the value of strength, and knows compassion."

"Thanks, I think," Steve said with furrowed brow before smirking.

Erskine gestured beckoningly to the glasses as he picked up the bottle, Steve separating the two and holding them between them. "Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing," he started as he poured the alcohol. "That you will stay who you are-" he took one glass to cradle in his hand, then pointed at Steve's heart, "-not a perfect soldier, but a good man."

Steve smiled before inhaling. "To the little guys." He toasted.

Erskine laughed before they raised their drinks to their lips, then suddenly Erskine faltered.

"No no- Wait, wait – what I am doing?" He removed the glass from Steve's hand. "You have procedure tomorrow, no fluids."

"Oh, alright, we'll drink it after," Steve agreed as Erskine poured the alcohol into one glass.

"No, I don't have procedure tomorrow," Erskine countered, gesticulating to himself. "Drink it after? I drink it now." Steve smiled.

"Doing shots without me, Steven?" Scarlet teased, making her presence known as she moved towards the duo.

"Sorry," Steve replied as Scarlet sat down beside him and struck Steve's shoulder in camaraderie with a smile.

"Nice," Scarlet expressed in amusement.

_________________________________________________________________

The needle sat as the record spun, the player emitting Richard Wagner's composition of Die Walküre as Zola entered the space filled with his scientific instruments. He slowed with furrowed brow and eyes casting uncertainly around before a gloved hand switched off the lights. The darkened figure standing behind the desk spoke. "Is there something in particular you need?" Schmidt asked.

Zola lowered his gaze before looking at the scarlet and crimson palate to the right of a jacketed painter nearby, brush posed above the canvas. "I, uh, I understand you found him," he stated, newspaper telling of the 'Hydra-Abteilung'.

"See for yourself," Schmidt responded, gesturing to the desk's surface. Zola stepped warily closer and shifted the black and white photographs laid over top each other, the subject within the white borders Erskine. He lifted one for closer inspection. "You disapprove." Schmidt stated.

"I just don't see why you need concern yourself – I can't imagine he'll succeed-" Zola's entertained smile fell at the other's inhalation. "...again." he added awkwardly.

"His serum is the Allies' only defense against this power we now possess – if we take it away from them, then our victory is assured." Schmidt assured.

Zola remained quiet before deciding on agreement. "Shall I give the order?" He suggested.

"It has been given." Schmidt replied.

"Good," Zola answered, turning and moving to exit.

"Dr. Zola!" Zola stopped and looked back, Schmidt flicking on the bright spotlights. "What do you think?"

Zola stared at him before walking to examine the painting while composing himself. "A masterpiece." He concluded.