19 Chapter 19 : Project Rebirth!!!

With the decision made that Rogers would be the one cadet selected to undergo Project Rebirth first, Rogers was sent back into his room to await the procedure in the morning.

The night before the treatment, Rogers was visited by Abraham Erskine who came with a drink, before Erskine explained how the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler had gained all its power in Germany and how Erskine himself had been selected by Hitler to produce the perfect soldier.

Erskine then revealed to Rogers that his first test subject, Johann Schmidt, underwent an imperfect version of the treatment, suffering negative side-effects due to his inner ambition for power and selfish obsession with becoming a superior man.

However, Erskine reassured Rogers that despite everything that had happened to Schmidt upon taking the Super Soldier Serum, he had chosen Rogers because he was inherently a good man and one that because he had been weak his whole life, would not lose respect for the strength he would gain.

Erskine offered Rogers a drink before he took it away as Rogers still had his procedure the next morning and therefore could not consume any liquids, although Erskine himself still insisted that he could have a drink himself. Amused, Rogers and Erskine promised to share this drink after the treatment.

On the day of the procedure, Rogers was escorted to a secret facility by Peggy Carter.

While they drove together, Rogers pointed out many of the locations in New York City where he was beaten up as he and Carter shared being picked on and ignored for something they could not change; Rogers for his size and Carter for her gender.

Despite Rogers' awkwardness while speaking with her, Carter was charmed by his sincerity and good moral values.

Once they had arrived, Rogers followed Carter into the Facility where the Strategic Scientific Reserve members were awaiting their arrival in order to begin the procedure as was planned.

Rogers then watched agent Carter as she greeted the elderly woman who was standing behind the shop desk, giving her their secret code which granted them access into the secret facility, which was being hidden behind a large bookcase to avoid suspicion from members of the general public.

As soon as they stepped inside the main room, Rogers witnessed all of the scientists turning and looking at him, awaiting the beginning of the experiment, before Abraham Erskine greeted Rogers and Carter while Howard Stark prepped the machinery.

While Rogers was instructed to remove his clothes and prepare for the experiment, Chester Phillips was watching from a safe distance with many other various Generals and Senators.

Seion who was there watched everything while E.D.I.T.H and Abyss taking forms of clothes watched the experiment and waited for anything as Seion knew that Erskine will die in the future...

Although he is an Overseer he has no intention of making things go through like Earth-199.999 and watched the Old man die...

While the same applies to Howard...

Once Rogers was strapped into the Vita-Ray Chamber, Erskine gave a short speech to Phillips and all the other people watching about exactly how Project Rebirth would work and what their procedure entailed, promising this would be the first step towards bringing them to peace during World War II.

Rogers was injected with a needle which made him wince, as he noted that the injection was not nearly as bad as he thought it was going to be, before Erskine then revealed that this injection had merely been penicillin, making Rogers slightly more nervous as he considered what could be coming up next.

"The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion." Erskine talked to Rogers and calmed him down as he prepared for the rest of the ride...

Before subjecting Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, Erskine gave a countdown and then placed a comforting hand on Rogers' shoulder before injecting him with the Super Soldier Serum which had caused Rogers considerable pain.

Erskine then ordered Stark to activate the machine which lifted Rogers up in the air.

The serum's general effect is to enhance and perfect the recipient physiology as well as emphasizing key personality traits, which can be a liability if a subject is immoral, suffer from unresolved trauma and mental disorders.

After a series of injections into the subject major muscle groups, it causes immediate change and increases cell division and cell density through synthetic proteins complex, enhance the subjects metabolic processes.

Augment the effects of the dopamine, testosterone, adrenaline, various other endorphins and hormones, to further amplify physical and mental performances, healing abilities in addition to greater resistance to toxins and pathogens.

Effectively granting an enhanced and perfected physiology with superhuman physical abilities and enhanced mental processes.

Dr. Erskine's original serum worked more effectively when the recipient's body was saturated with Vita Radiation, as it stimulates growth and accelerates the changes toward the body's final enhanced condition within a minute, although not without pain.

Before the final stages occurred, Erskine questioned how Rogers was doing, to which he simply joked if he still had time to go to the bathroom.

Erskine ordered Stark to proceed as they then began dosing Rogers with large amounts of Vita Radiation.

Although the treatment was extremely painful, causing Rogers to scream out in agony and almost force Erskine and Stark to shut off the reactor to save his life, Rogers demanded that the scientists keep going regardless of his pain.

Eventually, the experiment was complete and Rogers finally emerged from their experiment with a greatly enhanced physique.

After the light show ended Rogers went from being 5'4" tall and weighing 95 pounds to being 6'2" and weighing 240 lbs, with the serum also curing his previous medical afflictions.

Carter greeted Rogers as he stepped out of the Vita-Ray Chamber, asking how he felt, to which the awestruck Rogers could only comment that he felt taller.

While Carter gave Rogers a t-shirt to cover himself up, all the other scientists and generals then came down to congratulate the team, with Stark expressing his amazement.

Brandt then began commenting on how Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party were about to get very nervous following this extraordinary success as more of the scientists and generals had then gathered around Rogers.

Everything followed was a normal procedure to Steve Rogers about medical exams and how well the Serum worked and while many showed dissatisfaction that they didn't get rid of him...

They at least find solace in the fact that he is loyal and innocent to his country and could be manipulated however they want...

Shortly following the Project Rebirth experiment, however, the alarm got sounded as someone had infiltrated the facility, shot and killed Abraham Erskine.

As the intruder fought through the soldiers in his way, he then stole the last vial of Super Soldier Serum and escaped.

Rogers, Howard and Seion ran onto Erskine's aid, but there was nothing they could do.

Erskine pointed to Rogers' heart, reminding him of their earlier conversation, and died but not before he managed to say the name of the assailant.

"It was... Heinz Kruger..." Erskine said breathing his last...

Determined to bring Kruger to justice, Rogers left leaving the two of them alone to clean up while he pursued him on foot.

"Damn it!!! Only one soldier came out of this and now the formula is forever gone!!" Howard growled while Seion chuckled...

He snapped his fingers and his jacket deformed and reformed into E.D.I.T.H much to Howard shock while Seion orders her to aid in secret Steve and retrieve the vial...

"Damn it!! What was that!!!" Howard glared and started asking questions to Seion who simply smiled and pointed at Erskine...

He then snapped his finger and from it, a green glow came out which then surrounded Erskine and Howard noticed something weird happening to his body...

The blood spilt started tracing itself backwards and reentering his body before his clothes became white again and then his wound closed completely...

When it finished re-tracing, Doctor Erskine screamed startling Howard and almost jumping from his position seeing Erskine alive...

"What??? How??" Erskine asked and Howard had the same question but Seion simply gave them a smile on his face...

"Abyss, cover him up and change his appearance just to be safe..." Seion order and then his military shirt became a black mass that engulfed Erskine...

"Wah-what the hell is this!!" Erskine screamed while Howard looked dumbfounded...

Soon, the black mass returned back to Seion while Erskine now completely had a different appearance...

"Both of you don't ask questions... There are things you must know and things you must never know..."

"Doctor, I respect the work you do, thus I saved you and hope for the future..."

"Since Hydra infiltrated this place, I changed your appearance forcefully but not permanent it will last at least a few weeks before reverting back..."

Hearing the grave words of Seion both of them shut their mouths and understood the situation they were in...

HYDRA wanted to recreate the SERUM and needed the original thus they managed to extend their claws and take both his life and his work...

"Altering your appearance will help you hide and while that traitor that took your life has reported your death and has the SERUM they will not bother you again... To them you are dead..."

"So now you have to pull resources into the excuse of recreating the Serum and show fake results that we can't without the original while..." Seion kept talking about the next phase while Howard completed his sentence...

"While the doc perfectly creates it..." Howard said while Seion nodded...

"Also, add Carter to the program as she is interested in Steve's qualities and they must have been enlarged now..." Seion finished his plans while telling a joke which made both men stump for words...

As Seion was resurrecting Erskine, Steve saved Peggy Carter when she was almost run over by Kruger.

While Kruger drove away in a stolen taxi, Rogers ran after him through the streets of New York City and, due to his enhanced physicality, Rogers was able to catch up with Kruger, despite still struggling to handle all of his newly found abilities and inadvertently crashing through a shop window which Rogers apologized for.

Finally, Rogers leapt from car roofs and launched himself onto the roof of Kruger's Lucky Star Taxi and tried to pull him out while they continued charging through the city.

However, Kruger began firing into the roof of the taxi, mildly wounding Rogers who managed to avoid most of the gunshots before Kruger took his eyes off the road to get yet another shot at Rogers and caused the taxi to crash, while Rogers was thrown off but came out of the wreck uninjured.

Getting back onto his feet, Rogers continued running after Kruger, only to be shot at, forcing Rogers to pick up the Taxi's broken car door which he used to defend himself.

As the crowds attempted to run for their lives, Kruger then grabbed a child from the street, taking him to the docks with the gun to his head while still firing at Rogers.

Unwilling to allow the boy to come to harm, Rogers continued after Kruger while the boy's mother still cried out in utter horror.

When Rogers caught up with Kruger on the docks, he witnessed the assassin holding his Walther P38 at the boy's head, forcing Rogers to step out to try and stop Kruger from harming the boy. Kruger responded by trying to shoot Rogers, only to realize that he was out of ammunition.

Frustrated, Kruger threw the boy over the docks and ran, but when Rogers went to save the boy, he discovered the boy could swim and continued chasing after Kruger.

When Kruger made his final desperate effort to escape by getting in the submarine, Rogers still refused to allow him to escape justice and dove into the water after Kruger.

Swimming through the water with all of his newfound might, Rogers managed to catch up with the submarine and punched through the glass of the cockpit, forcing Kruger outside and dragging him all the way back to the surface for interrogation.

Rogers dragged Kruger back to the surface and threw him onto the docks where he proceeded to smash the serum to ensure that the Strategic Scientific Reserve could not use it again.

Rogers then demanded to know who he was while Kruger insisted he was merely the first of many, giving the HYDRA salute before he then committed suicide via Cyanide Pill before he could be interrogated any further, dropping dead in front of Rogers.