16: hreat

  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 partisaance had ged. They had once been just a group of armed civilians fighting on their own to recim their home. Now? Now they were hailed as the heroes of Italy.

  Because of this, the gover had been in long talks with the resistance leaders. Likewise, the allied tries had gotten involved. Angelo didn't know nor was he ied in what they talked about. All he knew was that after several days, the partisaance had bee a new division of the Italian army with affiliations to other allied tries.

  Before he k, he had a new uniform in his hands, frontline ons, and the direct support of the ealian people.

  It was... discerting. Holy, he preferred simple things. He hoped to return to the frontline soon. Others might think they had won, but Angelo khat 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 khat now that Italy was free from German influehings had only intensified on the Austrian front. And although he had never been a warmonger, he khere would be no peatil this on, 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 bees. They say several German bases in Austria have beeroyed. The st 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 Fran his own."

  He tried to make a light joke with the st part, but her of them ughed, because they khat if the captain really wao, 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 o's all over."

  This time Carlo ughed a little, and Angelo smiled.

  He was about to say something else, but a otion 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 restru 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 otion.

  Soon, more soldiers and base personnel began to walk towards one of the entrances, a rge group of people approag from the distance.

  ost reached for his on. Why hadn't anyone souhe alert yet? What happeo the scouts? The guards? The sentries?

  Before he could run for his on, Angelo stopped him and pointed ahead.

  "Look!" His excited voiapped 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 tnize 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 iurn.

  To his left, Raven clicked her to James.

  Those two didn't seem to get along very well.

  John wao sigh but kept his expressioral. 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 el 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 el 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 el nodded and gave him a faint smile.

  "Very well."Theurned and began to leave. John paid him no more attention for now; the el was not important as long as he didn't get in his way.

  He stopped watg 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 pany, 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 fusion.

  "Diverse pany, 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 tral parts of Italy. No oiohat she had followed him. In fact, everyone had said that John had left alone.

  She k was her because the soldiers ofteioned how "beautiful" she was along with some of her physical characteristics, although mostly in hushed tones.

  John reached out and took Raven by the colr, pulliowards them. The fused girl blinked as she was suddenly dragged and looked at Carter with equal fusion.

  "This is Raven. She's a valuable member of my unit." Theended 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 vince him to joi's tough, but I think I'll soften him up." John tinued smiling even as he felt James try to dig his cws 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 pig up his parette from the ground.

  He was heard muttering curses under his breath, but no one paid him any attention.

  Peggy was more ied in Raven.

  "I thought you went to Austria alone," she asked in a monotone and low voice. John decided to ig 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 tanize many things now that our numbers have increased again," the el said. Logistics had always been a pain in the ass.

  "And I have maeological pieces waiting for me in my b. I'd prefer to tiudying them if possible," Howard said. The man looked very different from the st time John saw him—less elegant and less well-groomed.

  Peggy remained silent on the side, watg John, then Raven, and finally James, who was simply sitting and looking at his palms, g and ung his fists as if there was something iing in them.

  "Believe me, what I have to tell you is much more important than anything else," John said, catg Peggy's attention.

  "Then say it, the suspense is killing me," Howard urged. He was the most impatient of all, eager to tih 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 pce was silent for a moment.

  "What are you saying?!" The el stood up abruptly.

  "Are you sure that's—" Peggy didn't doubt John, but something like that was hard to believe.

  "Impossible! The formu 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. Expining this would be plicated sihere were many things he couldn't say directly.

  He began to recall his versation with James after their fight eo crify 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 o 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 pce wasn't an ordinary base; it was different."

  They expected ordinary soldiers with ordinary ons.

  More images came to his mind—his squadron dying, fshes of blue lights, he and his brhting, fighting until they killed them all. Only the two of them remaianding in the end.

  "We destroyed the pd began to follow the trail." ons like those, James knew, would kill thousands. They had to find out where they came from aroy them.

  ving his brother was more plicated than trag 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 entered that bastard.

  The images of their struggle came to mind, strohan any other man they had faced before, faster, mile, but they should not be uimated.

  Even if every blow he dealt broke their bohey could still keep fighting without stopping. Any wound, just a temporary invenience...

  Still, they lost...

  James then looked at John. Although only brief fshes, 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 stist, and his memories were still settling.

  John rubbed his 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 o know what Hydra had put in him to make him s.

  James frowned, remembering was hard enough, much less having to expin 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 Ameri ti, 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 bee even more heightened.

  Despite this, he couldn't track him. His brother wasn't there, aher was his st.

  Ign 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 fot people's sts.

  "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 poio 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 ge, and even her st started to ge slightly.

  James blinked when he saw a image of himself smiling back at him.

  "What the fuck?" If it weren't for the slight discrepancies in her st, traces of her previous smell, he would have truly thought he was looking at himself.

  "Let me expin, she's a metahuman, and so are you." John then gave him a quick but cise expnation, simir to the one he gave Raven but more summarized.

  James listened, genuinely ied. 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 o know what happened. If they ged something inside you, it could be dangerous." At his words, James ched his fists.

  He felt his muscles tract 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 sequences." 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 gsses, he would give him an even worse lesson.

  John sighed and decided to ge his approach.

  "If you enter them again, nothing guarahat 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 ge a "metahuman" so much, it could only be some kind of serum or additional geiha.

  After all, there was nothing meical in James's body, except for the trol devi his brain.

  With all that oable, he could only think of one logical option: a highly lethal, inplete serum, ohat couldn't be used ur soldiers or even super soldiers.

  Ohat 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 at that they had been drawing blood from James and his brother, John could ihat they were doing it with the iion of extrag 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 pns.

  With James' brother still in their hands, they would tinue experimenting, trying to figure out how to implement his healing ability in others. Ohey 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 simir reater power.

  Of course, these were all theories, but he didn't think he was wrong. Even so, he o know more.

  To uand the situatioer, if it was really as he thought, then he o prepare and take down Hydra before they mao develop a able 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 rength had given him a lot of fidence, but if he tinued 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 pronouhe 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 st thing I remember is how they opened my head and started putting something in there," he said the st part with a shiver down his spine.

  John stayed quiet, processing the information, and with some , he looked at James.

  "Repeat that word."

  "Vojelbum? Serum? You o 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 o start experimenting with radiation soohan expected.

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  John opened his eyes agaiurning to the present, took a deep breath, and prepared to begin his expnation.

  He had no iion of mentioning his suspis regarding the serum or its in; it was too risky and could destroy his entire image. Yet he had to mention the rest, or at least some things.

  "To uand this, I o expin something else first," he said.

  The el furrowed his brow.

  "What else is there to expin or uand? If what you're saying is true, we o act."

  "No, the information is more important. Jumping in without knowing everything will only plicate things," Howard intervened.

  "What did you find in Salzburg?" Peggy asked directly.

  John licked his lips and then poio James, who was still distracted.

  "Another super soldier," his words silehe room.

  John smiled, and James looked up at him sidelong in tacit uanding. Raven remained quietly silent, looking at the ground.

  They had reached an agreement. There was no guarahat the Uates or any other try wouldn't want to do the same thing Hydra had doo them. That's why, for James to agree to e 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 fotten.

  And for that to happen, he he Uates and allied tries to give him plete freedom to act.

  A hreat 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? John stop them before that happens? Will he carry out his threat and erase Germany from the map if necessary?

  Will James see his brain?

  Will Raven ever achieve the form of an eagle?

  All the ao these questions in the uping chapters!

  remember that you find the chapter of this story on Patreon (patreon.maCruzader). If you want to read the chapter in advand get some other bes, you go and check it out. All the support received helps me a lot ;D