116. Howard Maxim Universe Stark

One by one the soldiers came in and looked at the floor covered in bullet shells. All of them gasped seeing Alexander's body, still clutching Hitler in one arm and a revolver in another.

Many photographs were taken. Dobby had already seen the invisible Alexander. Alexander was in return annoying Dobby by tickling him.

Many soldiers took down their helmets and prayed for him. They would remember the sacrifice. He had a record of zero deaths and finally when the record was broken, it was his own death.

Quickly, the news was radioed. That Hitler died from a bullet from General Alexander. But the General couldn't make it under the heavy fire of 20 weird Gatling guns (mini-guns were not known to the world at that point. Hitler had it because of Schmidt).

The news shocked many around the world. The next day's morning newspaper was filled with grieving articles. Alexander didn't know he was this famous. It turned out that Dobby had been giving his badass moments recordings to Howard, who was in return heavily spreading it around the world. It was even being shown in big theaters.

...

Hydra base, Swiss Alps.

A big black airplane left the mountain. Captain America was somehow able to board it. Colonel Phillips and Peggy quickly went to the base's command center and kept an eye on the plane.

Suddenly a soldier came running to Colonel Phillips and gave him a letter. His face fell the moment he read it. But he didn't reveal it yet as it would have brought down the productivity of Peggy and Howard.

After a while, a voice came from the radio. "Agent Carter, come in..."

Peggy quickly goes and grabs the responder. "Steve, is that you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine"

"Where's Schmidt?" She asked.

"Schmidt's dead. Any news from Berlin?" Steve inquired. He knew he wasn't coming out of this alive so he hoped to hear good news. News that Hitler's dead.

"No w..." Peggy was about to answer but Colonel Phillips intervened.

"Yes, Captain. Hitler's dead. Died from general's bullet" he said.

Steve took a long breath and relaxed, but then Colonel added.

"But, he didn't make it. They had him surrounded with weird portable Gatling guns." His words fell like bombs on their hearts.

"I guess I'll meet him soon, then" Steven mumbled.

"What do you mean, Steve? Is the plane okay?" Peggy managed to hold herself together.

"Schmidt locked the navigation system and there's enough power to reach the east coast." He bluntly answered.

"Let me get Howard on the line. He'll have a way" she spoke.

"That's not an option, I've got to put it in the water. I might not be able to steer it but I can surely crash it," he said. It broke Peggy's heart knowing what was to come.

She pleaded a bit more and Steve told her that he was in the middle of nowhere and it was the right place to crash with so many explosives.

"Peggy"

"Yes, I'm here"

"I'm going to need a raincheck on that dance."

She held back her tears, "All right. A week, Saturday. The Stork Club."

"Okay, you got it"

"8:00 on the dot. If you're three minutes late I'm leaving, do you understand?" She tried to act tough.

"I still don't know how to dance," Steve replied.

"I'll show you. I'll show you everything. Just be there." She sounded like pleading.

"Maybe the band could play something slow, I'd hate to step on your toes. Peggy, I love y..." Those were the last words. Peggy put down the microphone and looked out of the hanger, at the blue sky. Tears slowly falling from her eyes.

While all this was happening, Alexander was also in the Arctic Ocean. He had caught the tesseract when it fell from the plane. He wasn't going to keep it, just take a look. He destroyed the cube and took out the infinite stone. He was a higher being than even the Elder gods of that universe so he wasn't harmed by holding it. He checked it out, even licked it. He could feel the crazy amount of power in the stone.

The power which could be used as an energy source or as a real space stone. He studied it for a while and deduced that the stone was something that was created by the big bang. Hence it has a connection with every particle of the universe. Which is exactly how it helps teleport. The space stone is like a telephone with its wire going anywhere you can imagine.

"Too bad I can't use the same method without this stone being in my hand or probably in my stomach. Not like I need it. Anywhere door can take me anywhere I want in the universe." He loudly thought and used the Doraemon's Time Clothes to reverse the stone and put it back into the tesseract, then he let it fall back into the ice. Hw would come for it again in the future.

...

Some day later,

Allied Headquarters, briefing room.

Colonel Phillips signed an official report. "CLASSIFIED-CAPTAIN AMERICA." He stamps it: "INACTIVE." and slides it into a red box, marked "TO BE DESTROYED." He looked up as Peggy walked in. Still looking a bit sad but he knew she was hiding it behind that strong face.

"No one said we have to forget the man, Agent." Colonel Phillips advised.

She merely nods. She put the classified box away but then suddenly noticed a picture of Steven and Alexander. It was from the time when Steve was still a frail skinny boy. In the picture, Alexander was grinning, showing all his teeth while ruffling Steve's hair. She took the photo and put it in her breast pocket. Then another photo of Steve, from before rebirth. Yes, it wasn't Captain America she fell in love with. It was Steve Rogers, who got beaten up in most of the Brooklyn alleys.

She came out of the stupor when Colonel spoke again, stamping another file named "CLASSIFIED-GENERAL UNIVERSE". He stamped it "INACTIVE" and "TO BE DESTROYED".

"Who's going to remember this man? There's no known family of his. No one to visit his grave." He said while thinking about Alexander. Peggy felt bad for the kind old man.

Suddenly Howard entered the room.

"Who said he doesn't have a family? I have decided to officially take his surname. From today, I'll be Howard Maxim Universe Stark. Though most people would still call me Mr. Stark. My children will decide on their own to take this surname or not." He spoke and looked at various photos of Alexander in the file. One by one he took them all. In many of them were Him, Alexander, Steve, and Peggy. In one of them, he was sitting on the shoulder of the old man. He smiled and remembered that day he had gotten so drunk that he asked for a piggyback ride that he never got from his real father. To his surprise, Alexander gave it.

"People like him shouldn't be forgotten. But immortalized." He spoke. Peggy nodded at his words. Howard was slightly teary-eyed by then.

"Anyways, I'll see you at the funeral and also congratulations on creating your new department. Though the war is still ongoing, it will soon be over with a big boom," he said, signaling that they were going to use the atomic bomb.

...

A big funeral was scheduled for Alexander and Steve. They had a body for Alexander but none for Steve.

President Roosevelt was also present there to mourn for his friend. He was also going to address the nation from there. But first, it was the ceremony.

The people who knew him came to put things in his casket first. Howard put the Enigma letter in the casket. Peggy put a hairpin gifted to her by Alexander. Then Dobby came and put sunglasses on his body.

"Hey, put the cigar in too. That's my style" Alexander pocked at him while being invisible.

"Come on boss. They'll think I'm a weirdo," Dobby refuted.

"They already think we were weirdos, my friend" Alexander seriously replied.

"Alright," Dobby compromised and put a cigar in Alexander's pocket. Putting a fat cylindrical object in a dead body's mouth was just weird.

Alexander wasn't sad looking at all the sad faces. He'd give Peggy her dance in the future. Howard needed to grow too. This would shape the future Marvel world he knew about.

Then the president went to give his speech. "People of this great country, many lives were lost in this war. 2 of them were General Alexander Maxim Universe and Captain Steven Grant Rogers aka Captain America. They both sacrificed their lives to protect the world. One killed Hitler while the other destroyed a weapon Hitler had launched to create havoc. We will remember their sacrifices for the rest of our lives. So, Congress has decided to register Captain Steve Rogers's name under General's category. We are giving him a promotion to the rank of Major General but the name of 'Captain America' will be retained as it sounds better.

Then there's my friend, General Alexander. The congress was confused about how to reward his bravery. In the end, we came up with a new post. We are promoting General Alexander Maxim Universe to the rank of General of the Armies. He will be the only 6-star general and no one will ever outrank him as his deeds have outranked what any normal human could ever achieve.

Also, I am declaring that from now on, 30th April will be celebrated as the Warrior's day, each year. Let's pray to God that this war soon ends and our soldiers can come back home. Thank you, may God bless America." He stepped away from the mic and left.

After the crowd had gone. Howard went to Dobby. "What are you going to do now, uncle?"

"Well, they promoted me to a full general now. I think I'll retire and run my bar after this war ends." He said. He had already told Alexander that he wanted to do some house-elf stuff for a while. It was not like he was leaving Alexander, he'd still go to Phixheim every day to play with little Amy.

"Sweet, now I don't have to look for a replacement drink for that Butterbeer and Firewhiskey." Howard happily replied.

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30 Advance chapters are available on - patr-eon.com/misterimmortal

Special thanks to *GOD, MATTERS!* and *Joakim Jönsson*.

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