25 Yeah~~ It's Training in the USA
A/N: Just read for fun, mates.
---
March 1943:
It took us about 10 hours of sitting on a plane, to get from London, to New Jersey. Which meant that when we reached New Jersey, it was about 11 PM local time. Thank God, there were rations on the plane, along with a loo.
Meanwhile, I got to know the other guys who were coming with us. Most notable of them all was a man named Jimmy, who came from the Bedford Camp. He was a cool chap, nice enough, and would willingly jump in front of a bullet for any of his comrades. I liked him as soon as I got a read on him.
Jimmy was from Ireland, as you'd expect, and had the accent to prove it. Thankfully, I could understand it, and even the Scottish accent quite well, thanks to being in Hogwarts, and my language abilities that I got from Salazar.
He was big though. As compared to my 5'10, Jimmy was already 6'2. And if he goes through with he Project Rebirth, then he'll get even bigger.
Jack found company in a Scouse lad, called Sean. He was from the Scottish infantry Base.
When we landed in New Jersey, it took an hours drive to reach the Camp Lehigh, where we were going to go through some more training for a month, along with the Americans.
Camp Lehigh was similar to what I remember watching in the movies, but not exactly. It was bigger, for one thing, and had a lot more tents, and small buildings than shown in the movies.
They showed us to our sleeping quarters, with 10 beds lined up, and we took one each. I got one in the middle, by the process of elimination, as the rest of the beds got taken quickly.
Sighing, I simply laid down on my bed, after changing into looser clothes, and waited. An hour later, the last person was asleep, and I made sure they won't wake up anytime soon, by wandlessly casting, "Somnius."
That spell puts the target to sleep for 3 hours. If you increase the strength, the time increases.
Putting a simple ward around the small building, that will warn me if someone approaches the tent, I make a portal, and leave for England to my Manor.
As soon as I was inside, a missile in the form of Dorea crashed into me. Hugging her tightly, I breathe in her scent.
"God, I missed you." I mumble still hugging her.
Dorea nods, and separating herself, kisses my lips. I kiss her back, and let her lead me to the bedroom.
Once I'm inside, I see Helena still asleep, as it was 5 AM. I look at Dorea and whisper, "Why did you wake so early?"
She just shrugs, and says, "I couldn't sleep. I woke up an hour ago, and was reading."
Waking Helena up, as this talk was important, I leave them to freshen up, and go wait in the Dining room, so I can have a nice cup of Indian tea.
My country, that's still under Britain's rule. But, I won't have to worry much. They'll get free soon enough. Only the politicians will keep getting dumber and dumber.
Once Helena and Dorea come in the kitchen, to have their own cups of tea, I say, "Open your minds up to me, I want to show you guys something."
Once I feel their shields lifting, I send them everything I had taken from Agent Clarke, and General Crompton.
Helena has her lips pursed as she goes through everything quickly, while Dorea takes a while. Getting angry, she accidentally breaks a nearby lamp, with her magic, and whispers out, "What, is the plan?"
I shrug, and say, "The Plan is whatever you say it is. It's your brother they're keeping an eye on. If you want, we can kill everyone responsible and get rid of every memory, and references that contain the word Magic. My suggestion is that you two take over the organisation, and change it's aims. We can use it to make sure the Statute never breaks, or we can use it to take over the world. Anything. You. Want."
I'm leaving this decision for both Dorea and Helena to take. While Dorea is usually pretty calm, this one's a bit personal for her. She remembered her older brother being dropped to an orphanage, because he wasn't a wizard and didn't get the letter to Hogwarts. While she was just 9 when it happened, she still remembers it.
But, this might also cause her to overreact on everything. So, I'm having Helena make sure Dorea doesn't do that.
Helena, getting what I mean, says, "Don't worry about it. We will take care of everything before the war is over. Mind if I use the money from the Vault?"
Snorting, Dorea answers for me, "The Aves vault belongs to you too, Helena. Mason won't say no."
I nod, smiling at Helena, and turning to Dorea, I say, "Dorea.. I just want to say, don't let your father know about this. If this gets out, there will be a war between the Muggle and Wizarding Worlds."
Dorea scowls at me, and says, "I know that, Mason. I won't tell anyone else. Only me and Helena will be on this. Well, I might bring in Ana and Darla, if we really need to. Darla might not react positively though."
That's an understatement. Darla has been getting thrown from one post to the next, simply for being a Muggleborn.
"I think you should bring in Darla as soon as possible. If they have their sights on other muggleborn students, then Darla is on their list. Better bring her in first." Turning to Helena I add, "Helena, show her everything I just showed you, if she is hard to convince. And stress, that I'm not trying to bring the worlds to war, but avoid it."
Helena nods, as we have our tea in silence, planning, and plotting.
Smirking, I say, "Well, I have a few minutes, why not make it a few hours and have some fun before I leave."
Helena immediately gets up, and lands on my lap, while Dorea takes her time to control her emotions.
Taking a portal express to my bedroom, I cast the time stop spell, and we get to work.
---
About 7 minutes later, I come out of the room, all fresh, and rested up, thanks to the time stop spell. Writing a goodbye letter, I make a portal back to Camp Lehigh, where everyone is still asleep.
I just lay there, awake, but resting my body, while my mind goes through the Memories of Agent Clarke, who is about a hundred yards north of me, for more information to send to Helena.
While I can't connect to their minds from here, a small portal opened from my pocket to England will allow me to expand my range. Seriously, I don't even need any sort of amplifier, as I have portals to do my work for me.
The next day, after I've sent the names and addresses of every MIS official that Clarke knew to Helena, we all gather at a training ground, forming two lines of 10. On one side, were the American soldiers, including tiny Steve. On the other side, were us UK soldiers, including Big Jimmy, and Not-that-tiny-yet-not-that-big Me.
"What's up with the Europeans?" an American cadet asks, rudely pointing at us.
Looking at him, Jack shrugs and answers for everyone, "We're here for the same reason you are mate, training."
"Mate? I'm no one's mate, buddy." A 6 foot tall American Cadet, whom I remember as being named Hodge, says, taking a step forward aggressively.
"Who you calling buddy, cunt?" Jack says, taking. Step forward too.
"Guys, we shouldn't fight. UK is our ally." Steve says, looking at the two jocks glaring at each other.
"ATTENTION!" A voice shouts, making everyone stand in attention, and Jack and Hodge go back in their places.
"Recruits." A female British voice says, greeting us, as Agents Carter and Clarke come from behind us. Standing in between the two lines, she says, "Gentlemen. My name is Agent Carter. I'm the supervisor for this Division."
"What's with the accent, Queen Victoria? Gonna have us drink tea and join the British Army? I thought I signed up for the American one. You know, with coffee." Gilmore Hodge says, laughing at his own joke.
Clarke simply looks at him in disgust, while Carter smiles at Hodge. She asks, "What's your name, Soldier?"
Smirking self confidently, he answers, "Gilmore Hodge, your Majesty."
"Step forward, Hodge." Peggy says, staying in the same spot, and looking at him impassively.
"Are we gonna wrassle? Cuz I got a few moves you might like." Hodge says, taking a step forward and winking at her.
I simply shake my head at the arse, while Carter knocks him down with one punch to the face.
Honestly, I'm impressed. That was one hell of a punch. His cheek looks caved in.
At that moment, Colonel Phillips joins Peggy, and says, "Don't embarrass us in front of the Brits, you idiot. Go and stand back up until someone tells you what to do."
He then begins his speech, about the US having better.. men. Well, he paused during men, when he sae Rogers in the middle. All 5'4 of him.
He continues, "The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an Allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history. But every army starts with one man. At the end of three months, we will choose two such men. One from UK, and one from the US. They will be the first in a new breed of super-soldiers."
We were left to mingle amongst ourselves for a couple minutes, with strict warning not to fight. Going towards the smallest person there, all of us UK citizens crowd around him, ignoring the US Jocks.
"What in the bloody hell did they pull your arse from, mate? You sure you want to do this?" Jimmy asks, bluntly, speaking up for everyone present.
"Um.. hi. Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you. Can you say it again? Only a bit slowly? I'm sorry to say but I did not understand your words." Steve says, pushing his arm forwards.
Taking his hand, I say, "The name's Mason Aves. This here's Jimmy, and that's Jack. Jimmy here asked if you're sure you want to be here, and he wants to know if you're a volunteer or drafted?"
Well, he meant all that in one sentence.
Steve widens his eyes, and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a volunteer. They would not accept me, but I was persistent."
He laughs a bit, at that. Steve's a good guy. Sure, he almost offended the entirety of Ireland by saying he didn't understand the accent, but he apologized. I'm just thankful it was not the Scouse, Sean that spoke first.
Boy, would it have been violent.
We spoke for a few minutes, with me, Jimmy, Sean and Jack immediately getting along with Steve, while a few others found friends in other Americans. After that, Agent Carter came back, this time, with Drill Sargent Duffy, who was going to be supervising our group.
And thus, begins our training. We did everything we did at the UK camps, only.. less. It was sort of underwhelming, to be honest. While we do run with 20kgs weight here too, we do it for far less time.
There were mudwalks, rope climbing, and combat training too, of course. But it was all nothing, compared to what we had to go through in the UK.
Where before, we trained from 6 AM, to 10 PM, with only bathroom, and food breaks in between, now, we trained for only 8 hours every day. It was a good break, but since we were used to it, the UK guys did everything better than the US guys.
It became a competition, over who does this task first. Most of the times, it was either Jimmy, Jack, or me. But, some times, the bully Hodge would come first at something.
But, this was something unexpected, for others, and completely expected for me.
"No one's gotten that flag in 17 years!" a drill sergeant shouts, looking at the squabbling group of 17 army cadets, trying to climb the slippery pole, to get the flag, while Steve was catching his breath from all the running, and Jimmy and I watch the show.
"One Cigarette says no one gets it." Jimmy says, still looking at the failing cadets.
"You're on." I say, accepting the bet, as I know Steve will.
And sure enough, just when Jimmy starts to boast about him winning the bet, and a free cigarette, Steve Rogers goes towards the pole, and simply drops it down by pulling the pin holding it up.
Laughing at Jimmy's face, I begin running back to the base, while Rogers goes with Carter, in the jeep.
This went on for over 3 months or so, with Rogers slowly improving in his fighting ability. While he still loses to everyone there, it takes more and more time for him to lose. Just like that, his running improved too. While nowhere at the top, which was reserved for Jimmy and I, he was now not too far behind the 2nd last person.
He was right about one thing, he's persistent. No matter how many times he got dropped to the ground, he always got back up.
17th June, 1943:
It's been about 3 months since our training began, and we've all been training diligently. Hodge still likes to bully Steve whenever he gets the chance, but no one did anything.
First of all, he's going to fight the biggest bullies currently on the planet. If he can't handle one small bully, he's not going to stay alive for long. At least, that's what most of the Brits think. While the Americans, even the Officers, think that he's a disgrace to the American Army.
It was while we were doing push ups, well into a hundred, that it happened. In front of me, but closer to the line where the Americans were doing push ups, I see something drop down on the ground.
"GRENADE!" I hear a shout, and without even thinking, I get up, and run forward.
Before I can, though, Steve jumps and lands on the grenade, and covers it with his body, as he was the closest to it. Cursing his stupidity, I don't stop, and before I even know what I'm doing, I pull the Grenade from under Steve's body, and throw it high into the air, using my Telekinesis to supplement it, so it goes even higher.
It was then that I realized that I'd been duped.
A standard American Grenade used to go off in 7 seconds. But, during the Great War, they realized that 7 seconds is too much of a time for the enemy to throw it back at them. So, they managed to decrease it by two more seconds.
Steve had landed on top of the grenade on the 2nd second itself, while I took it and threw it up on the 4th second. The Grenade should have blown up once it was only about 10 meters above me, but it didn't. It simply dropped down.
"It was a test?" Steve asks, as everyone comes out of their Hiding spots.
I look around, and see that Jimmy and Carter were already there in the ground, and judging by their current thoughts, they too wanted to do the same as me, but I was simply closer than them.
"For fucks sake, could've killed me, ya Bastards!" I shout, leaving courtesy behind, and glaring at the smiling Dr Erskine, and the scowling Colonel Phillips.
"Just.. call Clarke, Agent Carter. We have our candidates." Phillips says, not answering my shout, but not punishing me either.
Wait a minute. Holy shit! This was it! Either I, or Jimmy were going to be selected! Jimmy was simply farther away than me, or he would have reached the Grenade first. I know that.
"GET YOUR ASSES BACK TO WORK! THE DAY ISN'T OVER YET!" Sargent Duffy shouts, bringing us all back to our spots, and restart our Push ups, from the top.
All the while, Carter stares at Steve's struggling form. He might be improving, but he still has Asthama. I know what that feels like, as I had it in my previous life.
Trust me, you do not want to look at breathing, as a privilege. There were days when I could play 45 minutes of basketball without any serious issue. But sometimes, there were days when 5 minutes of running meant I'm fighting for my life.
And mine wasn't even that serious, as compared to what Steve has!
The rest of our training day passes normally. Once we've had our dinner, and everyone's roaming around until lights out, I get called to Colonel Phillips's office.
"Sir!" I say, saluting him once I'm inside.
"At ease, soldier. Sit down." Phillips says, pointing at the chair in front of him.
I sit down, and look around the room I'm in. Agent Carter was standing behind the Colonel, as they looked at some file, while Dr Erskine was sitting on a couch, reading another file.
Phillips keeps the file on the table, which I now see is my file, and asks, "You went to Medical College for 5 years. Your file says so. Why'd you join the army then, son?"
I simply state, "I got my conscription letter, sir."
Snorting, Agent Carter says, "Aves, you had 6 months of Medical College left. You could have mentioned that to anyone in the recruitment centres and get excused for 6 more months, after which you would have been drafted as an Army Doctor. Why didn't you?"
Sighing, as I knew this was going to come up some day, I answer, "I went to Medical College because my mother was a nurse in the last war. I joined the Army, because I wasn't going to sit down twiddling my thumbs, failing to heal patients because I had zero experience in healing anyone, while I could be fighting on the front lines and making sure they don't get hurt in the first place."
"Your marks are quite good though. You could have learned with time." Erskine points out.
Knowing what they're trying to do, but still getting frustrated at being questioned about my own life's decision, I say, "No offense to you, Doctor, but I am not confident that I could have kept my calm being a war zone medic. I made my decision, and I stand by it."
Phillips speaks up next, "Do you think you can stay calm during war then? Being in the infantry means you'll witness more action than being a battle medic."
I nod, and say, "Judging by how I performed during my training, I would say yes. I can stay calm now. If you'd have asked me 9 months ago, then no. I wouldn't have managed to stay calm."
Phillips nods, and turns to Carter, who nods at him. Erskine sighs, and says, "Very well, Mr Aves. Wake up and be ready in your clean Uniform at 7 AM sharp. You'll be getting enhanced."
"Sir?" I ask, acting confused. I was not supposed to know about the Project, after all.
"Project Rebirth, Mr Aves. Or should I say, Private Aves. Read this file, you'll know everything. Rest up, for tomorrow will be the worst day of your life." Dr Erskine says, handing me a file about Project Rebirth, and walks out.
I salute to the Colonel, and Agent Carter, and say, "Sir! Ma'am! By your leave?"
"Just.. go." Phillips says, sighing, and waving his hand.
I walk out of the room, and go towards my bed, intent on reading this file. Project Rebirth. Captain.. Nope, I'm a Private still. Private Britain!
Nah, doesn't have much ring to it. I'll think something up. Well, at least I got promoted to Private, from Cadet.
---
A/N: Ignore the logic behind the acceptance of Erskine, and believe it to be him selecting the best candidate out of the ones present.
The Grenade scene, just go with it.
Also, I've changed the timeline a bit. In the movie, it looked as if the training took at most a month, while a timeline I'm viewing says it took a couple weeks. I extended it to 3 months, meaning 12 weeks. Don't mind if it's wrong, just read for fun.
As for the name. I'm still thinking on it. You may offer suggestions. BUT, NO CAPTAIN BRITAIN!
That's a copyright lawsuit right there.
Anyway, Tata! I won't be uploading any new chapter after this one today. I'm too upset to write. I'll try tomorrow. Sorry Baldur fans!
