02; Drastic Changes

When Evelyn was told she would have to pick Steve up, she will admit, she didn't particularly want to. It was nothing against him, he was actually a nice guy, but she didn't want to deal with him having a panic attack over being injected with experimental drugs. She could deal with nervousness, not panic attacks.

Her mother had too many of them after her father died, panic attacks were a bad taste in her mouth.

Peggy had decided to meet her at the facility, giving the blonde the passcode to said facility so she could actually get in the door. Now, here she was, at Steve's house as he exited the estate. He entered the car, his uniform perfectly intact and sat uncomfortably next to her. Evelyn studied his body language as he fidgeted in his seat. "Sir, you look-"

"Small, weak, not prepared for this at all?"

"I was going to say agitated, but those work too." she chuckled a bit, to relief that unbearable awkwardness that settled in the moving car. So she took to looking out the window, admiring the view of the neighbourhood. There were many people in the streets enjoying the day, kids were even playing in the streets.

"I know this neighbourhood." Steve mentioned, looking out the window also. Evelyn dragged her eyes away from hers, watching as he fiddled with his fingers, reliving bad memories. "I got beat up in that alley." her expressionless face turned into a frown. "And that parking lot." it morphed into confusion. "And behind that diner." then it morphed into pity.

"Ever heard of running away?" she spoke softly, with a joking tone to it.

He chuckled, a slight exasperated tone to it. "You start running, they'll never let you stop. You stand up, you push back. They can't say no forever, right? "

Evelyn let the sides of her lips quirk up at that. "Words to live by, although I can't follow them." Steve looked at her, perplexed. "I'm a woman, I'm not pushed to begin with."

He nodded, seeming to understand her logic. "I guess I just don't know why you'd want to join the army if you were a beautiful dame." her eyes widened as did his, only she did a better job of concealing it. He, on the other hand, tried to recover. "A beautiful...a woman."

She pressed her lips into a line, to stop the little laugh that bubbled up in her throat. He was adorable. "An agent. Not a dame."

She giggled as Steve practically died on his own embarrassment. "Real smooth. It sounds like you've done this before." Evelyn laughed sarcastically and Steve joined in, despite his red face.

"I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one." again, she felt a pang in her chest. This guy had it rough. "Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on."

She stared at him, shocked at the confession. "You can't be serious." he nodded, proving he was. "You have to have danced."

"Well, asking a woman to dance always seemed so terrifying. And the past few years, it just didn't seem to matter that much." she could see where he was coming from, with the war, women were too busy waiting for their brother, friend, significant other or even fathers to return from the war. They didn't care for trivial things such as dancing. And throw Steve small stature and little to no muscle definition into the mix, it wasn't a good combination. "Figured I wait."

She looked out the window, spotting the area they were supposed to get off at. "For what?" she was slowly drifting out of their conversation, she was occupied with the mission at hand.

Steve noticed this and realised there was no point in saying it out loud. Instead he just whispered. "The right partner."

She didn't hear him, instead ordered him to get out of the car and follow her to a shop called 'Brooklyn Antiques'. "What are we doing here?" she heard him mumble. She pressed a finger to her lips, signalling he needed to keep silent.

When she opened the door, the bell jingled to life, prompting an old woman in her seventies to walk into the room. With a bright smile, she spoke. "Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?"

Evelyn nodded, knowing this was code for asking what the passcode was. She racked her brain for the answer. Peggy had only told it to her once and if she got it wrong she didn't want a tommy gun in her face. "Yes, but I always carry an umbrella." When there was a slight buzzing sound the Mason woman left out a little sigh of relief. A click was heard before she took Steve by the shoulder and lead him through a small corridor. He looked up at her, noticing the concentrated look on her face. It was only now that he started to believe that this was actual happening.

They entered through double doors, the whole room coming to a stand still once the man of the hour came into view. He stood there, hands on the railings as everyone stared at him. He gulped, the chamber where he was supposed to get in looked daunting, looking over at Evelyn he hoped for some help to get him out of this situation, but found her staring at him too. She gave him a comforting smile before she walked down the steps to meet Dr. Erskine.

"Good morning." he greeted Steve with a handshake which earned them a very bright flash of a camera in their faces. Both men shunned away from the blinding light. "Please, not now." Evelyn walked up to the camera man and escorted him to another guard who kicked him out.

"Ready?" Evelyn asked, glancing around the facility, there was a lot of machines and a lot of bells and whistles attached to things. It was a bit daunting, considering she had no idea how half of this stuff worked.

Steve nodded, which prompted Erskine to ask, "Good. Take off your shirt, your tie and your hat." he hesitated for a moment, fully aware to the fact that Evelyn was in the room and was going to see him half naked. He did it anyway even as he became very self conscious to his lanky and thin frame. Steve slipped into the chamber with ease and Erskine came to join him.

While they discussed the serum, a voice tore Evelyn from the job at hand. "Evie!" she rolled her eyes but a ghost of a smile danced upon her lips.

"Howie, what have I told you about messing around with the electricity?" she pretended to chastise, a mock stern look on her face.

Honestly, it was a surprise to see the one and only Howard Stark at this. It was a surprise he was working with the army in the first place, considering his billionaire status and player nature. Though, surprise was Howard's forte. He used to do it all the time when they were in school, constantly coming up with ideas for inventions and prototypes for weapons and gadgets that Evelyn knew would never get made. It was a surprise to everyone in the base(Colonel Phillips and Peggy included) that Evelyn knew Stark. They were school friends and lost contact but it was a nice sight to see him again.

"You told me to do it and that you are very proud of me." he quipped, fixing the goggles on his forehead. "What are you doing here anyway, I didn't peg you for a SSR girl."

"Fella done me wrong, wanted something to take my mind off of it. Supervising things I sometimes can't even pronounce was the best way." she teased, leaning against the rail with arms crossed.

Howard chuckled, flicking switches on the machines. "Point him out to me and I'll take care of him, Evie." she smiled, Howard was like her brother, and a protective one at that. At school they had an unspoken 'I got your back, you've got mine.' about things such as breakups and hitting on people.

"My hero." she said sarcastically, taking his goggles and smacking them against his forehead. He swatted her hands away.

"Agent?" she stood up straight, realising the doctor was addressing her. "Don't you think you'll be more comfortable with your friend in the booth?"

She left the railing and bobbed her head up and down. "Sure, yeah." she quickly scurried to the booth and sat beside Peggy. "So, you think this is going to work."

Peggy sighed, shrugging. "If it does, this could win the war. But if it doesn't-"

"We will've just killed an innocent man."

"I rather not dwell on that point."

"Me too."

She'd like to think Steve could handle it, that he will persevere, but things like this don't happen all the time. This could go very sour very quickly.

There was a thudding echo from the microphone, the feedback whining in the speakers causing the men nearest to cover their ears. Evelyn merely winced. "Do you hear me? Is this on? Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation,
but the first step on the path to peace." Evelyn watched intently as the nurses began to prep Steve.

"We begin with a series of microinjections into the subject's major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then, to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita-Rays." Something was injected into Steve's arm and before she knew it, the chamber was active, sending all the serum into his bloodstream.

No going back now.

Evelyn practically ate the inside of her lip as Howard called out the percentage. Twenty, thirty, forty. Everything seemed to be normal, but she still couldn't stop the worry creeping up on her and latching onto her like a parasite. The chamber began to light up, a blinding white light that most in the booth had to shy away from. Evelyn glanced at Peggy, who was trying to keep a composed face but truly, she knew her best friend, she was freaking out too. Fifty, sixty.

Then she felt her heart drop as Steve's screams pierced through the mechanical screech of the chamber. Evelyn abandoned her seat and the people in there and ran into the room. Dr. Erskine was trying to get Steve's attention but that didn't matter, he was pain and she would be damn sure that would be stopped. "Turn it off!" she shouted over the clammer. "Can't you see he's in pain, turn the damn thing off!"

Peggy had followed her and stood beside her, watching in horror as Steve cried out in pain. "Shut down the reactor, Mr. Stark." relief flooded both agents as Howard did as he was told. "Turn it off, kill it. Kill the reactors."

"No!" the voice of a frantic Steve burst through the commotion. "Don't! I can do this!"

Howard looked to Dr. Erskine before turning the dial up more. "Eighty. Ninety." The arrow in the dial went into the red area. "That's one hundred percent."

The whole place sparked at that, the reactors giving in and shutting down of their own accord. Peggy and Evelyn watched in anticipation as Dr. Erskine called Steve's name. The chamber opened a minute later.

Steven Rogers was no longer the small, pathetically built man anymore. He had grown in height and strength, muscle definition had increased to the point where he barely even fit into the chamber anymore. Evelyn's jaw was on the floor as he was carried out of the chamber. The whole place crowded around him including Peggy and Evelyn.

Evelyn ran to Steve who was still being held by Erskine and Howard. "You look..." she said in awe, struggling to find the words, for fear of spewing them out and embarrassing herself.

"Taller?" Steve panted, still coming to grips with the fact that he was a super-soldier now.

As he said this, Evelyn had involuntarily blurted out, "Handsome.". Steve looked at her dead in the eye and now she was the one with the red face and the incomprehensible rambling to try and recover from her little slip up. "Well, I mean you were always handsome but I don't...I'm not...You look taller, that's why you're handsome. Wait!" she mentally face palmed, she was acting like a thirteen year old girl.

Howard looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she huffed. "Oh shut up," she stormed off, walking back to Peggy who was observing her from afar.

"Wow, that was just..." Peggy smiled, unable to keep her laughter in. "Wow."

Evelyn's face was burning, there was no question about it. She wanted to crawl into a hole and never return because she is sure she'll never live that down. "I'm an idiot. I mean who says to a person who has just gone through a whole molecular restructure that they're handsome?"

Peggy laughed, bringing an arm around her friend and hugging her. "Apparently, people like you." Evelyn's face had hopefully gone to it's normal colour but if Steve even so much as glanced at her, she was going to find it hard to suppress the embarrassment once again.

Steve had been given a t-shirt the next time she saw him(thank god, she didn't need anymore distractions) and was talking with Dr. Erskine. She was about to apologise for her stupid behaviour when the booth above them exploded. Glass was everywhere and the blonde was thrown to the floor(or more importantly, Steve's chest, you could practically hear her face sizzling), her ears were ringing so much she missed the protests of the doctor to stop some man taking off with the last remain vial of serum.

Gunshots were heard, and Erskine wasn't standing anymore. The nurses screamed, Steve gently lifted her off of him and ran to the elder man's side. Peggy had already begun shooting at the German spy and had followed him out of the facility. Evelyn, on the other hand, had picked herself off of the floor and had rushed to Steve who was on his feet, looking quite angry. Her green eyes descended upon Erskine who was dead, the bullet wounds must've hit his heart. She exhaled, lips pressed in a line. Erskine was the only one who knew how to recreate the serum. Without him, they were back to square one.

Steve didn't care about that though, he wanted revenge. Without warning, he bolted out of the facility. "No, Steve, don't!" she groaned, he was already out of earshot. She took her gun out of it's holster and took off after him. She ignored anything that wasn't related to getting this German spy.

-

It took her awhile to get out of the facility, but she finally achieved it and when she did, she was met by her best friend face first on the road. "Peggy!" she called, going to her friends aid. "What happened?"

"Steve tackled me, I had him!" she yelled angrily. Evelyn grabbed her hand and she was standing once more. She had to go after him, god knows what he would do to himself or others. His body was probably still reacting to the serum, she had to find him.

Then something caught her eye, a person running through the streets. It had to be Steve. She left Peggy to her own devices and pushed through the crowd that was slowly forming. She pushed her way through until she spotted a free car. Now she knows stealing is wrong but this was very important. "Excuse me!" she called to a man. "Do you own this car?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to need it."

He handed her the keys because she told him of her status in the army and she scrambled into the car, starting the engine and zooming off into the streets. The roads were relatively empty for the most part and she was able to drive to the scene where she followed the super-soldier. A woman was screaming bloody murder and Evelyn went to investigate. "What happened?"

The man holding the woman back answered. "Some guy snatched her boy. You gotta help her." Evelyn agreed determinedly and sprinted to the docks.

"Kid?" she called, looking around for the boy. "Hey, boy, where are you?"

"Down here!" her heels clicked against the concrete as she jogged to the edge of the dock. A little redhead boy was trying to keep afloat. "Can you see any place I can get up."

Evelyn scanned the area, then saw a step ladder not too far away. "Here, climb up, quickly!"

As the boy climbed up, he was buzzing with excitement. "Did you see the guy that went after him, he was like a superhero." Evelyn's small smile dropped. Maybe Steve was a superhero.

The boy thanked her and rushed back to his mom. Evelyn stood up but jumped in surprise when the man Steve was chasing was thrown onto the concrete, Steve following suit. The man tried to get up but Steve kicked him, knocking him down again. Evelyn's gun was pointed at his head this time, the man was caught.

"Who the hell are you?" Steve demanded, taking his shirt into his fists. Evelyn kept her eyes trained on the man, in case he tried to do a disappearing act.

"The first of many. Cut off one head," the man flicked his tongue at his tooth, crunching down on something. "Two more shall take it's place." he began to foam at the mouth. "Hail Hydra." by now, the foam was increasing and he collapsed from poison he had eaten.

Evelyn was in disbelief. She lowered her gun, ready to deal with an angry Steve but instead he looked up at her, tears pooling in his eyes. Her eyebrows knitted together for a moment before she realised, he never got the chance to mourn the doctor. They were close from what she knew and so he had he right to be sad.

The only true friend he had on that base was dead.