CHAPTER 5 -Now Wondering

Erskine gave a powerful, simple speech, with the people watching, and

Peggy watched patiently, side-glancing at Steve with secret twinkles in her eyes, and in one of those glances,

she caught something else which is instantly turning her senses on high, narrowing her eyes as one of the floor audiences is acting strangely.

She was certain one of those men was not someone she recognized, and she knew everyone who in attendance was,

it was easily possible he might be here on behalf of someone but that still didn't put her at ease.

Then she saw something familiar in his hands. Peggy shouted, "GRENADE!", pulling out her gun, and everybody ducked as

Peggy shot at the man who was about to pull the pin while holding a gun.

The man shouted in pain as Peggy shot him in the shoulder, and he narrowed his eyes, shooting at Steve, and

Peggy shot him again as Steve was hit in the leg, screaming out in pain as it hit an artery narrowly, creating a deep scar cut.

Erskine shouted, "Steve!", and Peggy looked his way as the enemy was dead,

and widened her eyes in horror,

and ran up the corridor down to the machine enclosure, seeing Steve clenching his leg as he struggled to get up from his spot, "Steve!".

Phillips commanded, "Time's running out! Get in there!", and Erskine shouted,

"But Steve is injured!". Steve panted, shouting, "Don't pull me out!

I can do this!", looking at Peggy with desperation and determination in his eyes.

"He can do it...", Peggy said before the sound of a pin being pulled rang out when

Peggy realized that apparently the infiltrator's grenade had a dead man's switch to it.

"Shit, it's primed!", she screamed.

Peggy quickly went to pick up Steve with her arms, running into the enclosure,

and put him down, and was about to head back out when the explosion came,

causing Peggy to shout and trip back in, the force of the explosion closing the door.

Howard Stark was pushed by the force of the explosion as well,

accidently starting the machine by kicking up the levers and such, and the glass containers of the

Super Soldier serum and the Quantonium sparked brightly.

The explosion was so loud that it rattled the ears of everyone, and Erskine, when he came to,

saw the machine on, and looked around, widening his eyes as he couldn't see

Peggy or Steve, realizing that they were inside, together!

"Mr. Stark! Stark! Can you stop it?!", Erskine shouted, and Howard shouted,

"The levers are jammed! I can't stop it!", hearing muffled screams of pain, and both of them looked at the enclosure with horror and prayers of hope,

wondering what is going through Peggy and Steve's minds as of now.

"I guess we say a few prayers and hope it works with the both of them...", Stark admitted. "And I'm not even that religious of a man..."

Erskine spoke, "You and me both, Mr. Stark.", never leaving the sight of the enclosure in his eyes.

Steve was in pain from the deep cut, but when he saw Peggy falling back in from the force of the explosion,

he ignored the pain, catching her before she could hit her head on the floor, seeing the door close.

"Peggy! Are you okay?", Steve asked in concern, looking at her as

Peggy refocused, blinking, and nodded, "Yeah, I'm okay...", before widening her eyes and saw that she was inside with Steve.

"Oh, shit!", Peggy cursed as she tried to turn around to knock open the door.

"Don't think that's going to work... I think we're trapped in here... for better or worse...",

Steve said as Peggy took a deep breath.

"Right... calm...", Peggy whispered to herself. "Are you alright, Steve?",

looking back at Steve with concern. "I don't know... can't tell if I'm still bleeding... I still feel awake,

so I don't know if he got anything vital...", Steve replied.

Peggy sighed as she nodded, kneeling down to help him sit up when she saw green and gold gas coming down from vents, and widened her eyes, "It's starting.".

Steve grabbed her hand, "Hey, you can do it too, Peggy.", with a smile as Peggy nodded, and removed her jacket and flats,

leaving her in her tank top and skirt, and Steve blushed, "What are you doing?".

Peggy smiled, "Better for skin to get impacted, remember?", before starting to feel something encase her body, hearing

Steve groan, "Pain's getting bad.".

"Hey, hey, I'm with you.", Peggy squeezed his hand, focusing on him as she feels the pain too, and

Steve looked at her, and nodded with a smile as he kissed her hand, and suddenly, the pain became even more torturous as tears came to

Peggy's eyes as she screamed, and

Steve flinched so much as he screamed out in pain, barely seeing Peggy and grabbing her in a teddy bear hug, trying to comfort her at the same time.

The gas became lightning bolts and thunderstorms of green and gold as they became absorbed in the pain, their eyes tight, their hands clenched into each other, barely feeling the first changes as

Steve became stronger and thicker, and Peggy became stronger and curvy, alliterating their features better than ever, yet they remained normal size,

well, as much as normal for Steve gained a couple of inches over

Peggy, and Peggy somehow fits within Steve's arms easier than before.

The two of them were so overwhelmed with pain that it was hard to register but both of them were now wondering if something

had gone wrong for brief moments of clarity and that they were both about to die, the experiment a total failure.

Steve struggled the most, but somehow, with Peggy in his arms, he felt like he could do anything, and then

Erskine's words came to his mind. 'People always do crazy things when they're in love.'

Not wanting to have Peggy suffer through the pain, he managed despite not seeing due to so much bright lights and everything, to kiss Peggy with his hands helping him,