16: New Threat
Angelo looked at himself in the mirror, straightening the new and freshly delivered Italian army uniform. It was a bit loose on him.
"Does it look good?" he couldn't help but ask, and Carlo, not far from him, looked at him before casually nodding.
"You need more muscles, but it definitely fits."
The partisan resistance had changed. They had once been just a group of armed civilians fighting on their own to reclaim their home. Now? Now they were hailed as the heroes of Italy.
Because of this, the government had been in long talks with the resistance leaders. Likewise, the allied countries had gotten involved. Angelo didn't know nor was he interested in what they talked about. All he knew was that after several days, the partisan resistance had become a new division of the Italian army with affiliations to other allied countries.
Before he knew it, he had a new uniform in his hands, frontline weapons, and the direct support of the entire Italian people.
It was... disconcerting. Honestly, he preferred simple things. He hoped to return to the frontline soon. Others might think they had won, but Angelo knew that wasn't the case. Captain John said it all the time, this war was just beginning.
He didn't know why the man thought that, but he definitely believed his words. Angelo knew that now that Italy was free from German influence, things had only intensified on the Austrian front. And although he had never been a warmonger, he knew there would be no peace until this war was won, until Germany fell.
"When do you think he'll be back?" At his question, Carlo stopped what he was doing and thought about it before responding.
"There have been reports. They say several German bases in Austria have been destroyed. The last time I heard, two of them were extremely close to Salzburg. With that in mind, I think he'll be back soon, unless he decides he wants to liberate France on his own."
He tried to make a light joke with the last part, but neither of them laughed, because they knew that if the captain really wanted to, he would certainly do it.
"Well, if he decides to do that, we'll have to get transportation. God knows if we go on foot, we'll only get there to sweep up once it's all over."
This time Carlo laughed a little, and Angelo smiled.
He was about to say something else, but a commotion began to be heard. Angelo stopped looking at himself in the mirror and, along with Carlo, approached the door of the military tent they were living in.
The reconstruction of the base in Taufers was going well, but it would still take at least a few more months to be what it once was.
So for now, most soldiers lived in military tents, making the noise easy to hear, especially when it was a major commotion.
Soon, more soldiers and base personnel began to walk towards one of the entrances, observing a large group of people approaching from the distance.
Carlo almost reached for his weapon. Why hadn't anyone sounded the alert yet? What happened to the scouts? The guards? The sentries?
Before he could run for his weapon, Angelo stopped him and pointed ahead.
"Look!" His excited voice snapped Carlo out of his alert state. He looked and had to squint hard, but he could see it—a familiar, imposing figure walking at the front. His suit was much more damaged than before, but it was hard not to recognize him.
"It's the Captain!" he couldn't help but shout, and fortunately, he wasn't the only one who did.
Excitement soon began to envelop the entire camp. It was normal; Captain America was now more than just a soldier; he was a living legend.
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"You seem famous," James said as he walked alongside John at the front, a lit cigarette in his lips.
John smiled and waved at the crowd of people not far from them, causing them to cheer his name even louder.
"Well, I have a bit of charm," he responded, receiving only a low grunt and something resembling a snort in return.
To his left, Raven clicked her tongue at James.
Those two didn't seem to get along very well.
John wanted to sigh but kept his expression neutral. Now wasn't the time for that.
Soon, they found themselves face to face with the members of the base, and John took a step forward, looking directly at Colonel Phillips and giving a perfect military salute.
"We're back, sir. There are wounded men, but they're stable. I request that a medical unit treat them as soon as possible." He lowered his hand, and they looked at each other for a few moments before the colonel broke the silence.
"Is that all?" Did he expect him to say more?
"Yes, sir." Well, there was more, but it would be better discussed in private. The colonel nodded and gave him a faint smile.
"Very well."Then he turned and began to leave. John paid him no more attention for now; the colonel was not important as long as he didn't get in his way.
He stopped watching his retreating figure and instead found his gaze meeting a familiar woman with almost reddish brown hair.
"I'm back," he said, gesturing to all the men behind him.
"I hope you don't mind the company, Agent." Peggy smiled, looking at the men—the hundreds of men who had returned alive—and couldn't help but smile even more broadly.
Then she saw Raven and blinked in confusion.
"Diverse company, I see," she said. She had heard from the Italian soldiers that John had recruited a woman while fighting in Italy. She hadn't thought much of it, believing the woman had returned with the civilians to the more central parts of Italy. No one mentioned that she had followed him. In fact, everyone had said that John had left alone.
She knew it was her because the soldiers often mentioned how "beautiful" she was along with some of her physical characteristics, although mostly in hushed tones.
John reached out and took Raven by the collar, pulling her towards them. The confused girl blinked as she was suddenly dragged and looked at Carter with equal confusion.
"This is Raven. She's a valuable member of my unit." Then he extended his other hand, and James, who was calmly smoking beside them, suddenly found himself in the same situation as Raven, his cigarette falling to the ground.
"And this is James. He was a soldier captured by Hydra. I'm trying to convince him to join me. It's tough, but I think I'll soften him up." John continued smiling even as he felt James try to dig his claws into his back.
"You better let go of me, bub," he growled almost like an animal. John didn't push his luck further and loosened his grip, causing the man to take a few steps back, but not before picking up his poor cigarette from the ground.
He was heard muttering curses under his breath, but no one paid him any attention.
Peggy was more interested in Raven.
"I thought you went to Austria alone," she asked in a monotone and low voice. John decided to ignore it for now and, setting aside his joviality, spoke in a more serious tone.
"There is much to discuss, but not here." Peggy blinked and grew serious upon hearing the gravity in John's voice; it seemed there was something truly important.
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"Well, what is it? There's still a lot to deal with. I have to reorganize many things now that our numbers have increased again," the colonel said. Logistics had always been a pain in the ass.
"And I have many new technological pieces waiting for me in my lab. I'd prefer to continue studying them if possible," Howard said. The man looked very different from the last time John saw him—less elegant and less well-groomed.
Peggy remained silent on the side, watching John, then Raven, and finally James, who was simply sitting and looking at his palms, clenching and unclenching his fists as if there was something interesting in them.
"Believe me, what I have to tell you is much more important than anything else," John said, catching Peggy's attention.
"Then say it, the suspense is killing me," Howard urged. He was the most impatient of all, eager to continue with his research.
It was night, and John had gathered them all, saying it was an urgent matter.
"Hydra might have an army of super soldiers soon." His words fell, and the place was silent for a moment.
"What are you saying?!" The colonel stood up abruptly.
"Are you sure that's—" Peggy didn't doubt John, but something like that was hard to believe.
"Impossible! The formula was destroyed, nothing was left," Howard was now paying real attention. After all, he knew very well the state of the research regarding the serum.
John waited for them to calm down a bit before speaking. Explaining this would be complicated since there were many things he couldn't say directly.
He began to recall his conversation with James after their fight ended to clarify things in his mind.
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"How is it?" John asked, looking at the man now dressed in one of the uniforms taken from a dead captured soldier.
"Better than being naked." James walked to his side and looked at the Hydra base burning in the distance.
Fragments, unclear images of memories, came to his mind, causing him to grimace.
"It might be a bit abrupt, but I need to know, what happened?" At John's question, James closed his eyes for a moment.
Trying to recall things more for himself than for John.
"We were fighting in Austria, near Italy. My team and I were deployed to..." To what? He shook his head. No, that wasn't important.
"That's where we found it. The place wasn't an ordinary base; it was different."
They expected ordinary soldiers with ordinary weapons.
More images came to his mind—his squadron dying, flashes of blue lights, he and his brother fighting, fighting until they killed them all. Only the two of them remained standing in the end.
"We destroyed the place and began to follow the trail." Weapons like those, James knew, would kill thousands. They had to find out where they came from and destroy them.
Convincing his brother was more complicated than tracking the source of it all. With his olfactory senses, it was only a matter of time.
They thought it would be easy. Nothing had ever stopped them before; they had never lost.
Then they encountered that bastard.
The images of their struggle came to mind, stronger than any other man they had faced before, faster, more agile, but they should not be underestimated.
Even if every blow he dealt broke their bones, they could still keep fighting without stopping. Any wound, just a temporary inconvenience...
Still, they lost...
James then looked at John. Although only brief flashes, he remembered his fight with this man. He wasn't an ordinary man, and if what he feared was true, he might need his help. So he decided to keep talking.
"We lost, they captured us, and they experimented on us." He couldn't say more, he wasn't a scientist, and his memories were still settling.
John rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Although James hadn't said much directly, it was easy for him to deduce things thanks to his knowledge.
"What did they do, what kind of things did they do to you?" he asked directly. He needed to know what Hydra had put in him to make him so strong.
James frowned, remembering was hard enough, much less having to explain it.
"I don't know German, so I don't know what they discussed. What I do know is that it had something to do with our blood. They took a lot of it." Despite having lived for so many years, he and Victor had never really strayed far from the American continent, not until the war started and they were deployed to Europe.
"You keep saying 'we.' Was there someone else with you?" John frowned, already having an idea of who it might be.
James looked at the base and sniffed once more. His already extraordinary sense of smell had somehow become even more heightened.
Despite this, he couldn't track him. His brother wasn't there, and neither was his scent.
Ignoring John's question, he spoke again.
"Tell me, what do you know about me?" he couldn't help but ask. John didn't seem very surprised by his existence or his abilities.
"Well, you could say I know what you were before, but I don't know what you are now." That response made James raise an eyebrow.
"You say you know me?" That shouldn't be possible. Even if he didn't remember faces, he rarely forgot people's scents.
"No, in fact, this is the first time we're meeting, but it's not the first time I've seen someone 'special,' so to speak."
Then he pointed to the side, and James remembered there was someone else with them. He looked at the girl who had been silent until now, who smiled at him and waved her hand.
Then, suddenly, her figure began to change, and even her scent started to change slightly.
James blinked when he saw an exact image of himself smiling back at him.
"What the fuck?" If it weren't for the slight discrepancies in her scent, traces of her previous smell, he would have truly thought he was looking at himself.
"Let me explain, she's a metahuman, and so are you." John then gave him a quick but concise explanation, similar to the one he gave Raven but more summarized.
James listened, genuinely interested. He had never known what was different about him, about his brother. He always thought they were some kind of anomaly, maybe even a curse.
Sometimes even a monster.
"Evolution, huh…" It sounded better than any other reason he had thought of over the years.
"That's why I need to know what happened. If they changed something inside you, it could be dangerous." At his words, James clenched his fists.
He felt his muscles contract with more force than he ever thought possible. No, it wasn't just his muscles; every part of him felt different, stronger.
"Oh, it's definitely dangerous, but not for me. Those bastards made a mistake if they thought I could be their guinea pig without consequences." This time he could feel it, if he met that son of a bitch again, he could undoubtedly crush him with one hand.
And that stupid little guy with glasses, he would give him an even worse lesson.
John sighed and decided to change his approach.
"If you encounter them again, nothing guarantees that there aren't others like you, that what they did to you and the blood they took from you won't be used to create more."
For John, it was easy to theorize this. If something could change a "metahuman" so much, it could only be some kind of serum or additional genetic enhancement.
After all, there was nothing mechanical in James's body, except for the control device in his brain.
With all that on the table, he could only think of one logical option: a highly lethal, incomplete serum, one that couldn't be used on regular soldiers or even super soldiers.
One that required immense self-healing ability, strong enough to withstand side effects that would be deadly for others. Otherwise, it wouldn't be James he fought this time but the Red Skull itself.
Taking into account that they had been drawing blood from James and his brother, John could infer that they were doing it with the intention of extracting their healing factor or a version of it.
In addition to what he knew about Red Skull, if it were a viable option, the man would undoubtedly have enhanced himself before anyone else. The fact that he hadn't done so made it clear to John that they still couldn't use this serum on others, while also revealing his possible plans.
With James' brother still in their hands, they would continue experimenting, trying to figure out how to implement his healing ability in others. Once they succeeded, Red Skull would undoubtedly gain that power for himself.
And if possible, he would undergo the same process they subjected James to, using this possible "new serum" to obtain similar or greater power.
Of course, these were all theories, but he didn't think he was wrong. Even so, he needed to know more.
To understand the situation better, if it was really as he thought, then he needed to prepare and take down Hydra before they managed to develop a new stable super soldier serum.
No matter what, John wouldn't let Hydra cultivate an army of super soldiers.
He would do everything in his power to prevent it, even if he had to destroy all of Germany in the process.
James thought about John's words and realized they might be true. His new strength had given him a lot of confidence, but if he continued blindly rushing toward the enemy, he would end up the same way as before, defeated and captured at the mercy of others.
He clicked his tongue. He didn't like it, but it was clear this situation was beyond something he could resolve on his own.
"I don't remember everything, but I'll tell you what I do." He then began to narrate what happened while they were experimenting on him and his brother.
From time to time, John would ask him to try to pronounce the German words he had heard. James might not know German, but John did, and even if the words weren't pronounced perfectly, it still helped him figure things out.
"They talked a lot about someone named Vojelbum or something like that and a serum. The last thing I remember is how they opened my head and started putting something in there," he said the last part with a shiver down his spine.
John stayed quiet, processing the information, and with some concern, he looked at James.
"Repeat that word."
"Vojelbum? Serum? You need to be more specific," even if it was mispronounced, even if it barely sounded as it should...
For John, that word couldn't be mistaken.
His stomach twisted, and a very bad feeling began to creep over him.
He hoped it wasn't true, but if it was, then he would need to start experimenting with radiation sooner than expected.
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John opened his eyes again, returning to the present, took a deep breath, and prepared to begin his explanation.
He had no intention of mentioning his suspicions regarding the serum or its origin; it was too risky and could destroy his entire image. Yet he had to mention the rest, or at least some things.
"To understand this, I need to explain something else first," he said.
The Colonel furrowed his brow.
"What else is there to explain or understand? If what you're saying is true, we need to act."
"No, the information is more important. Jumping in without knowing everything will only complicate things," Howard intervened.
"What did you find in Salzburg?" Peggy asked directly.
John licked his lips and then pointed to James, who was still distracted.
"Another super soldier," his words silenced the room.
John smiled, and James looked up at him sidelong in tacit understanding. Raven remained quietly silent, looking at the ground.
They had reached an agreement. There was no guarantee that the United States or any other country wouldn't want to do the same thing Hydra had done to them. That's why, for James to agree to come with them, John had made a promise.
Not say that his blood could be the source of a new serum.
If John had his way, Hydra and any information about James and his brother would be buried together until forgotten.
And for that to happen, he needed the United States and allied countries to give him complete freedom to act.
A new threat that would make them tremble and trust him without hesitation...
Well, a possible army of Nazi super soldiers surely met all the requirements.
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Note:
Will Hydra get their army of super soldiers? Can John stop them before that happens? Will he carry out his threat and erase Germany from the map if necessary?
Will James see his brother again?
Will Raven ever achieve the form of an eagle?
All the answers to these questions in the upcoming chapters!
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