4 | SUCCESS

"I know this neighborhood," Steve commented. Amelia, Peggy and Steve were headed off to the lab; Steve was chosen, Dr. Erkinstine decided that it was obvious that Steve was perfect for this experiment. Surprisingly, when Amelia received the news, she was a bit happy for him.

"I got beat up in that alley," He said as they passed by, "and in that parking lot, and behind that diner." Steve fumbled his fingers together.

"Ever heard of running away?" Peggy joked.

"You start running, they'll never let you stop. You stand up, you push back, they can't say no forever, right?"

"They can say no forever." Amelia muttered.

"What do you mean?" Peggy asked.

"Like, women will always be degraded by men, always named as: weak, incapable, dumb. And that's only one topic; there's still bullies, racism, war, death..." Amelia chuckled lightly.

"No matter how hard we try, they keep going, because they're arrogant." Amelia concluded.

"I don't understand why you would want to join the army if you are such a beautiful and intelligent dame," Steve said, "beautiful and intelligent woman." He corrected.

"I see you've done this with other women before, huh?" Amelia smiled playfully.

"I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one. Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on." He admitted.

Peggy and Amelia look at each other with wide eyes. "You've had to have danced before." Peggy said.

"Well, asking a woman to dance always seemed so terrifying and the past few years, it just didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait."

"Well, wait for what?" Peggy looked at him deeply, cueing Amelia to float away from their conversation.

"The right partner." Steve told Peggy. Amelia noticed that they had pulled up in front of the very recognizable Antique Shop.

"What are we doing here?" Steve whispered.

Peggy nudged Steve to stay quiet. The three entered the tiny shop with a small bell ringing as the door swung open. An old woman slowly walked up to the counter and smiled sweetly. "Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?" She said with her weak voice.

"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella." Amelia nodded at her. She lead them to a small room filled with books, she pressed a button and it revealed a small corridor. The trio walked down into the secluded lab together.

"Amelia, darling! How do you like your involvement." Howard joked as Amelia came into view. Steve and Peggy immediately went to greet Dr. Erkinstine.

"Shut your mouth, Stark." She growled. He laughed and winked at her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Dr. Erskine," Amelia greeted as he neared her and Howard.

"Hello, Ms. Stinson," He smiled kindly.

Amelia shifted her weight while standing. "Well, good luck sir." Amelia said to end the awkward silence the three were standing in, before spinning on her heel.

"Wait, Amelia," he stopped her, "watch your surroundings." He warned strangely.

"Okay?" Amelia writhed her brows together, confused at the meaning of Erskine's encrypted message.

Peggy and Amelia sat up at the stands to watch the experiment. Dr. Erskine instructed Steve to take off his shirt and enter the chamber. Steve did so without hesitation, though he was very self conscious over his weak stature. As Dr. Erskine and Steve briefly spoke about the serum, Amelia caught a quick glimpse of Howard. He was sending annoying smoochy faces at her. Amelia wrinkled up her nose in disgust and giggled a bit at his child-like personality.

"I'm going to pray for his child not to have the same personality as him." Amelia whispered to herself as she rubbed her temples.

"Do you think this will work? Will it kill him?" Peggy asked, concernedly.

"I don't know of it will work exactly, but it won't kill him. I mean hell I'm still here aren't I?" Amelia assured. Peggy nodded rapidly back at her.

"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 of peace." Dr. Erskine spoke into the screeching microphone.

"We begin with a series of microinjections into the subjects' major muscle groups." Dr. Erskine explained.

"Which hurts like a bitch." Amelia commented. All of the men around her look at her, shocked at the vulgar language such a pretty woman used.

"The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then, to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with VitaRays." The liquid instantly began injecting themselves into Steve's arms, causing Amelia to cringe. She knew how much the initiation of the serums hurt.

Howard called out the percentage of power injecting into Steve's poor body. "...twenty, thirty, forty..."

Steve began yelling and grunting in pain. "Turn it off!" Peggy yelled out desperately. "Can't you see he's in pain, turn it off!" She continued to yell while Amelia stared at the chamber intently.

Peggy walked over to Howard. "Shut down the reactor, Mr. Stark. Turn it off, kill it. Kill the reactors." Peggy demanded.

"No! Don't! I can do this!" Steve pleaded from inside of the chamber.

Once Stark announced, "one hundred percent!" All of the electronics sparked up, all of the energy had been pushed into Steve's blood. Amelia went down to see Steve as soon as the chamber opened. She was too curious about how he would come out; she was jealous to see if it worked and eager to see if it was an actual success.

The chamber opened, revealing a very muscular and sweaty Steve. Everyone crowded around him and helped him out of the chamber. Amelia stared at him from behind the crowd in anger and frustration.

"You look..." Peggy began.

"Taller?" Steve asked as he gasped for air exasperatedly. Amelia clenched her jaw and stamped out of the room. Howard saw her do so out of the corner of his eye and followed her out.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Why the hell did it work on Steve?" Amelia asked, angrily. Hot tears flooded her eyes and threatened to spill over.

"Calm down-" He started. Amelia interrupted him with a tight hug. She bursted out into frustrated tears, that was supposed to be her. She wanted this, why did the experiment not want to work on her?

"You know what I need?" Amelia said, laughing lightly at herself.

"What?" Howard asked, caressing her hair warmly.

"A drink." She replied. Howard chuckled, breaking the hug to look deep into her eyes.

"I can get you that." He beamed, glad he could help. However, out of nowhere, gun shots rang out from inside the lab. A man in a suit had a tube of the secret serum in his hand and ran out of the building.

"Oh shit." Amelia said, and she began running out onto the street after the thief. Amelia pulled out her mandatory gun from her belt and began to shoot multiple rounds at the thief that was trying to escape. Amelia quickly came to a conclusion that the thief was a HYDRA spy as he hopped into his car and began to speed it in her direction. Amelia wasn't going to run in the opposite direction, she stood firmly where she was and continued to shoot at the car until the car was only a few feet away from her corpse. Suddenly, Steve's new figure charged at Amelia and tackled her out of the car's way.

"I had him!" Amelia whined, pushing Steve off of her with all of her strength.

"You would've died." He scolded before running off after the car.

Howard came after Amelia. "What happened?" He asked with worried eyes.

"I had him." Amelia shook her head angrily. Why was everything going south for her now?