32: The Path Forward.

  "How much longer do you think he’ll be unscious?" A soft feminine voice reached his ears, her tone clearly expressing boredom. The nguage was one he didn’t uand but vaguely reized as the one Ameris used.

  There was a hum, as if someohinking about the answer for a moment before speaking.

  "Why don’t you tell me? Go ahead, take a look and tell me what you see." This time it was a man’s voice, familiar but only slightly, and once again in that inprehensible nguage to him.

  "Alright, let’s see. His breathing is getting a little faster and deeper, and at the same time, his muscles are starting to tense up, leaving behind the state of rexation that unsciousness grants to sleeping bodies, and well, that twitg under his eyes suggests that maybe he even hear me… I think he’s waking up."

  Irritated by the sounds and tired of listening blindly, Erik tried to open his eyes, only to winot because there was a blinding light, but because the simple effort of lifting his eyelids felt like trying to lift something very heavy without success.

  "Hey, easy now, take it slow." This time, the words that reached his ears were spoken in a nguage he could uand.

  "W-where...?" Erik tried to sit up, but his effort was cut short when a sharp pain shot through his body, f him to stop. It was as if every part of him had decided that any kind of movement was forbidden at that moment.

  "First, have some water." He felt the rim of a gss touch his lips, and without hesitation, he began to drink until he nearly choked. His dry throat burned, but the sweet taste of the water made up for any disfort.

  "T-thanks" with the st sip, he felt how his waning sciousness fully woke up, and although it was difficult, he finally opened his eyes. his blurry vision slowly clearing until he could see iail the person in front of him.

  "You're… that man, the… the oh the shield." Erik grabbed his head, a grimaing on his face as memories of the most ret events flooded ba in an instant, making him remember everything that had happened.

  "My Mother, she!-" he couldn't finish the words as he felt his throat close up, preventing him from saying them.

  His body threateo start trembling, but before it could, a firm haed on his shoulder in a reassuring way.

  "We recovered her body, many of the others have already been buried, but I thought you’d like to be there for her, so we kept her safeguarded."

  At aime, Erik would have wondered how they could have reized her, but right now he didn’t care. His body, which had previously felt like it weighed a thousand tons, began to move, ign any lingering pain, until he was fully standing.

  "Take me to her."

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  While Raven stayed behind, John and Erik arrived at the private room that had been used as a temporary funeral home for all the bodies that had been recovered after the battle, though right now only one corpse remained in the pce.

  Finding and identifying it wasn't difficult. Although John had never seen the woman before, the sense of smell he now possessed was strong enough to differentiate her st from the other bodies and know who she was and to whom she was reted. Thanks to that, he was able to give her differential treatment, which he believed would be appropriate.

  Erik looked at the cold, lifeless body that rested on a bed as if she were in a deep sleep. His hand slowly traveled to her faow and free of dirt, gently caressing her cheek with the tips of his fingers, trag her features.

  How did he let this happen? How did he fail so badly?

  "I told her everything would be fihat I’d find a way for both of us to get out… I promised I would save her." His hand moved away from her, g into a fist, and his desote tone quickly shifted to ohat was cold and sharp.

  "What was that thing?" Erik had many questions, and he didn’t know who else to ask for answers.

  "If I tell you, what will you do?"

  "I... I don’t know." He had no pns, no goals, he had nothi.

  "Well, maybe that ge. I have an offer for you, ohat will allow you to get all the answers you're looking for and much more."

  Get all the answers? With curiosity, Erik turo look at John, who moved to his side, giving a gesture of respect toward his mother’s corpse.

  "What if I say no? What if I just leave?"

  "Would you really?" The ter-question made his tense posture soften, a relut admission esg his lips.

  "No..."

  "The’s talk."

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  Erik remained silent as the winter wind whipped against his face. His hands, which had been csped together in prayer, parted, a out a long, weary sigh that formed a white mist before him. Then, he opened his eyes and looked at the freshly made grave beh his feet.

  It wasn’t what he wanted, it wasn’t what his mother would have wanted, but it was all he could give her at the moment. At least he took fort in the fact that he could bury her outside that damned prison, even if it was only a poor sotion.

  "I'll be back," he whispered. His parents deserved to rest together, in their vilge, in their home. But as long as the war raged on, that wish couldn't be fulfilled. It was frustrating and irritating, but it was fi was only temporary.

  With o look at the tombstone made of gleamial, Erik turned and began to walk toward John, who stood the se a few meters away.

  "Ready?"

  Erik licked his somewhat dry lips. It had been a day since he woke up, a day since John—as he now knew him—had expined everything to him. Learning so much had been hard to process, as it was a lot of information to receive all at once, but once he absorbed it all, he gained some perspective.

  He Obtained an objective.

  Hydra, Monsters, Super-soldiers, Metahumans.

  He still didn’t know what would bee of him in the distant future, or if he would even have one, but he knew what he had to do in the near future. It wasn’t a difficult decision to make. After all, when there's nothio lose, the choices you make bee easy.

  And Erik had chosen a path, a goal, because no one kills his family, destroys his home, and robs him of his life without fag the sequences. Not while his heart still beats and blood runs through his veins.

  With that cold resolve deeply rooted in his spirit, Erik John without a hint of hesitation.

  “I’ve never been more ready.”

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  Temporarily, John and his team had statiohemselves at what had once been the Auschwitz tration camp, or at least what remained of it. For such a rge pce, with so many prisoners, it would take time before they could move fain. After all, they couldn’t leave the civilians alone.

  Normally, the AK (Armia Krajowa) would hahis part, but right now most of their forces were in Warsaw, attending to the other prisoners and civilians who had arrived iy thanks to all the attacks John and his team had carried out before liberating Auschwitz.

  Due to this ck of personnel, so to speak, John decided to pause his adva least until the AK was ready to escort the willing civilians with them. Of course, many others had their own pns and would set off on their own to unknowinations. John didn’t stop them; not everyone could be kept in one pce. They were free now, and if their choice was to follow their own paths, then so be it. He had already done his part by giving them back the ability to choose.

  Now, their lives would depend on themselves.

  “Soohing will fall into pce” John looking at the massive map id out in his temporary office with a critical eye. Having a mind reader on your side could make things a lot easier, especially when your enemy had no idea su asset existed.

  Red Skull and Doctor Zo had been doing an excellent job keeping a low profile, making sure to cover their tracks quite well, even from their own men. But all it took was one mistake, one small misstep, and everything would colpse like a house of cards in the wind.

  Of course, this didn’t meahing would be easy—no, far from it. After all, the more ered a beast is, the fiercer it fights and the harder it bites. John knew Johann Schmidt wasn’t the type to accept defeat willingly. The man would fight tooth and nail until the end, and John was ting on that. After all, it would be the climax, the final closing of Hydra. It couldn’t be like it had been with Shaw; he his frontation to be spectacur, even unfettable.

  It was everything he had wished for, everything he had been w toward. Seeing it materialize before his eyes in this way brought him immense euphoria and satisfa.

  But that joy only sted for a brief moment, and then it faded. He should have been happy, but he wasn’t, and he khe reason why.

  It would be dangerous—very dangerous.

  But it wasn’t himself that he was worried about—no, what really ed him were the people he had promised to protect: Raven, Cassandra, Charles, and even James.

  A battle like the ohat was ing wasn’t something he could fully trol. There were no guarantees, at least not if he followed his pns as he wao.

  Sure, he could do it just like he had doh Shaw, ending everything directly with no ce of escation. But did he really want that? Would he really ruiire sario, everything he had worked so hard for, just like that?

  ‘I promised to keep them safe.’

  ‘And so what? Have you fotten the real objective here? Remember why you came—you ’t waver now!’

  It was as if two voices were arguing inside him, and to his dismay, he couldn’t sileher of them.

  ‘Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way,’ he thought. It was as if he had to choose, but why did he o? Why couldn’t he simply have both? The situation reminded him of something an old colleague of his used to say.

  "Only children choose—a man takes everything!"

  He wanted his "perfect" sario, and at the same time, he wao keep his promise and protect the people he had grown to care for, even if only minimally.

  And to achieve both, he o stop wavering, to take a step forward and risk it all as he should have done from the beginning.

  “I o proceed with Project Assion.” He had left it as a safeguard, something he didn’t want to use uhings took a plete turn in the wrong dire. But now he realized that had been a mistake. His hesitation might have put everyo risk, and he wasn’t going to let that tinue.

  After all, the best safeguard to achieving all his goals was unmatched power. He was already strong, but once he absorbed the Vita radiation along with the radiation from the Tesseract, he would beore than just a man, much more than a super-soldier. Maybe even close to a god.

  John thought about this for several minutes, refleg oions he would take, until he was interrupted by a familiar crackle. Absentmindedly, he pulled out the brick-sized radio that Howard had created, extes antenna, and answered the call.

  “John here.”

  “I’m gd to hear you, it seems everythi well,” Peggy’s voice came from the other side, a clear note of relief ione.

  “Did you doubt it?” John joked, hearing a snort through the radio’s speaker in response.

  But his amusement faded quickly; there were important things to do. Now that he had made his decision, he o start prepariain things.

  “You know I love talking to you, but I need you to ect me with Hank. There's something I o discuss with him,” Peggy raised an eyebrow at the request but nodded, uanding that this had to be serious by the tone of his voice.

  “Uood, give me a moment.”

  .

  In Hank’s boratory, temporary base of SWORD, northern Italy.

  “Alright, beginni number 34 in three, two, one!”

  As the st number in the tdown dropped, Ja focused deeply, letting her power flow, sending a faint fsh of yellow light across her body. Her size began to ge rapidly until her figure shrank to less than a timeter i.

  “Miss Van Dyne, you hear me? How are you feeling?” Hank's voice came through the speakers in the special where she stood. Ja breathed slowly, opening her eyes and cautiously looking around. Good—she wasn’t buried in a mountain of fabric, which was a good sign.

  With some nervousness, she raised both hands in front of her, admiring the dark gloves with yellow lines on them.

  "I think it's a success!" Once she saw that her hands were still covered by the gloves, she began iing her entire body, making sure the suit she was wearing was plete and that no piece was missing or of a different size than it should be.

  "Good, good! Size-redu test successful. Now let's see if the suit return to its inal size."

  Ja nodded, even though he couldn’t see her, and began to use her powers once more. Her shrunken body started growing in size until she returo her normal height.

  There was no fabric tearing or unfortable stretg; as before, the suit remained perfectly fitted to her body.

  “How does it feel?”

  “Everything’s still i seems like it’s really a success.”

  “Yes!” Hank excimed triumphantly. Thirty-four attempts, thirty-three failures, but he had finally do. The man had to admit it was a bit more challenging than he had initially thought it would be. At first, he sidered it a waste of time and was eager to finish it so he could return to his primary research as soon as possible.

  But reality had proven to him that nothing is unnecessary. Although he hadn't progressed in his main research, he had still mao study ier depth some of the properties of the Pym particles that he hadn’t prrasped before.

  At least now he had a stronger foundation to work on for his future projects.

  With a meical sound, the door of the personal where Ja had beeing the suit opened, allowio step out with a smile on her face. After all, she now had a way to use her powers without ending up naked—a huge step toward her goal.

  Speaking of her goal, a familiar voice came through the radio system in the b, making Ja unsciously stand a little straighter.

  “Professor Pym, I hope I’m not interrupting. I’d like to discuss a few things with you if possible.”

  “el, actually, this is perfect timing. I’m happy to inform you that the task regarding Miss Van Dyne’s suit has been successfully pleted.”

  “Oh? That was faster than I expected. It seems you’ve made goress. In fact, this is great news because there’s something else I need you to focus on,” hearing this, hank blinked in fusion.

  “I’ll be returning to the base soon to take care of some matters before tinuing my campaign in Pond. When I do, I want to see if it’s possible to use the Pym particles to increase the quantity of a certain material so that it be mass-produced, so to speak.”

  Mass-produg a material? At that, Hank couldn’t help but get excited. After all, one of the main areas of his research was focused on increasih's natural resources using Pym particles and their properties.

  Of course, for now, he only knew with certainty that objects could be shrunk auro their inal state, but many of his theories suggested that enrging them should also be possible—he just didn’t know how to achieve it yet.

  “Well, I do have some ideas about that. Although they’re still just theories, I believe I start w on something if I have enough resources…” The implicit request in Hank’s words was clear, and oher end of the line, John smiled but didn’t argue with Hank about it. After all, great achievements required great iments, and he was not oo overlook such a fact.

  “I have already spoken with Vice Director Carter about it. Your research is very important to Sword, Professor, so don’t hesitate to ask for anything you think you might need.”

  Hank smiled with satisfa upon hearing this.

  “I assure you that you won’t regret this, el.”

  “I’ll make sure you live up to those words, Professor. On another note, I don’t know how long it will take me to return to the base. If you achieve as before I get back, you go to Howard and ask for the leftover vibranium samples in his possession and see if you start increasing its quantity.”

  Vibranium? Was that the material the el was referring to? Although it wasn’t very well known, Hank had heard of it. It was said that Howard Stark obtained every st gram of the metal in the world and used it te Captain America’s invincible shield. Its properties were undoubtedly revolutionary, but its scarcity made such a valuable material something of a fantasy that most stists ignored without giving it a sed thought.

  But… if he could use Pym particles to create more of the mythical metal and mass-produce it… the possibilities would be endless! Just the thought made his body tremble with excitement!

  "Very well, I still have some matters to attend to. For now, I'll take my leave and wish you lu your research. I will be eagerly awaiting the results."

  With that, the radio went silent, causing Jao frown. She had wao say a few words to him, to share the thoughts she’d been having, but she couldn’t. Well, not everything was bad. He said he would return soon, so she could tell him in person, which might be better. That way, he would see that she was serious.

  As for Hank, he hurriedly began pulling out his notes and theories, ready to start the researd bring satisfactory results as soon as possible.

  .

  .

  .

  John looked at the now silent radio with deep thoughts. The decision to mass-produce vibranium at this moment had been made for three reasons. The first was to provide better prote and security for his team. After all, not everyone was bulletproof like him and James.

  The sed reason was Erik. The boy was strong, and against a ventional army, he had nothing to fear. But Hydra's monsters were not a ventional army. Unless Erik used something as strong as vibranium, he wouldn’t be able to face them on his own, which would be a waste sidering his potential. Therefore, the logical option was to give him a metal that would e any disadvantage he might have against them.

  At the same time, Cassandra could also be from this. The girl would undoubtedly be overjoyed if she got a dozen iructible ko throw at her enemies.

  The third and final reason, and also the most important, was to give the world a trump card in case things went wrong. If Hydra succeeded in pleting the serum and created a true army of super soldiers, and he wasn’t there to stop them, the only ons that could stand against them would be those made of vibranium. No matter how many super soldiers Hydra created, if the entire Allied army had bullets made from the hardest metal on the p in their guns, then the world would still have a fighting ce against them.

  Of course, this was only in case Project Assion failed and he died from being uo withstand the radiation in his body.

  An insurahat wouldn’t o be used as long as he succeeded.

  And without a doubt, he would succeed.

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  Note: Important to read!

  Well, this chapter took some time to e out, but it’s finally here, and I hope you all e. I’ve been thinking a lot about the things to e and what I o do. After all, world-building is plicated when there’s so much to take into at—so many butterfly effects, so many ges. Sometimes it feels quite overwhelming, you know?

  Although pining about it now seems a bit silly, after all, I got myself into this.

  Soon, ill e to an end. I don’t kly how many chapters are left in this part of the story, but I do know that the end of an era is approag. I’ll probably take a small break from Supersoldier when that happens, to settle some ideas and clear my mind.

  Of course, my other stories will tinue since I don’t feel like I need a break from them at all. But it’s still too early to talk about that. As I said, I don’t know how many chapters are left until WWII ends—it could be 5, it could be 10, or maybe 20, depending on how much I feel I o add before ing everything up.

  Leave me your ents about it. What do you think is missing? What do you think I should explore before ending this arc? What do you want to see?

  I’ll be reading your thoughts! :D

  If you want to support me you do it through my Patreon ( patreon.maCruzader ) ;D