The flagpole incident turned Steve Rogers into an outlier among the candidates.
A freak who couldn't be judged by conventional logic.
Colonel Davis had a gloomy expression.
He felt his authority had been played for a fool by a frail kid and a guy of unknown origin working together.
Losing the cross-country run could be attributed to poor stamina.
But the flagpole incident was a slap in the face to him, the head instructor!
It was mocking the "elites" he was so proud of as nothing but a bunch of simple-minded idiots!
"An opportunistic coward!"
Colonel Davis ranted in his office at Lynn and the other two.
"War needs lions that can tear through enemy lines, not monkeys that play cheap tricks!"
Dr. Erskine flushed red.
Just as he was about to argue, Lynn stepped in first.
"Colonel, I understand your concerns."
Lynn's tone was calm, even carrying a hint of agreement.
"The battlefield changes in an instant; physical fitness and strength are the foundation of survival."
Colonel Davis looked at him suspiciously.
"But we also cannot ignore the most essential quality of a soldier."
Lynn turned his gaze to Peggy Carter.
"I have been studying Soldier Boy, and I have found that the more powerful an individual is, the more their first reaction to a sudden crisis reveals their true character."
Peggy Carter's gaze sharpened.
She caught the keyword.
"Those soldiers who perform perfectly on the training ground have all sorts of reactions when a shell actually lands in their foxhole."
"Some will subconsciously throw themselves over their comrades, while others will push their comrades out to use as shields."
"Strength amplifies everything but does not change the core; I suggest adding a simulation component to the test."
"One with no preparation time, enough to make everyone believe they will die in the next second."
Colonel Davis snorted coldly.
"How do you simulate that? A real gunfight?"
"For example..."
Lynn swept his gaze over the map on the table, and finally mentioned it as if it were unintentional.
"A live grenade with the pin pulled."
Carter's eyes lit up.
She also didn't believe in Colonel Davis's pure muscle theory.
But she was equally skeptical about whether Steve Rogers's frail body could handle the responsibility.
This test was undoubtedly the best way to see through everyone's disguise.
"I agree."
Carter looked at Colonel Davis.
"This is the most important test; we need to see their truest side."
Colonel Davis looked at the resolute Carter, then glanced at Lynn, who was still wearing a smile, and finally compromised.
"Fine! Then we'll do it your way! I want to see if that little runt will be scared into wetting his pants!"
The day of the final test.
Colonel Davis stood in front of the formation.
He was toying with a pineapple grenade with the safety pin removed.
Of course, it was fake.
"Listen up, you losers! This is your last chance! The United States doesn't need the weak, and the army certainly doesn't keep idlers!"
Colonel Davis's gaze swept over Steve Rogers like a knife.
"War is not a dinner party; the enemy won't give you any time to react!"
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly threw the grenade into the center of the formation!
The crowd immediately exploded into chaos!
The soldiers who had been standing straight and full of elite superiority a second ago let out terrified screams.
They scrambled and crawled in all directions.
Wishing their parents had given them an extra pair of legs.
Some even pushed their comrades to the ground in the panic.
The training ground was in a mess.
Only one figure moved against the crowd.
Steve Rogers.
Without any hesitation, he threw himself onto the smoking grenade.
"Get down!"
He used his ridiculously frail body to pin the grenade underneath him.
The expected explosion did not happen.
The fleeing soldiers stopped and stared dumbfoundedly at the frail figure lying on the ground, ready to meet death.
The whole field was silent.
Colonel Davis's face was now a complex mix of absurdity, shock, and shame.
Dr. Erskine's eyes were moist.
He grabbed Lynn's arm, unable to say a word.
Peggy Carter watched Steve Rogers, who was slowly climbing up from the ground with a confused look on his face, a brilliance bursting in her eyes like never before.
At that moment, she did not see a frail soldier; it was a true giant.
Lynn smiled as he watched this classic scene.
A perfect script, a perfect actor.
...
Bavaria.
Deep inside an ancient castle shrouded in eerie mist.
The former wine cellar had been converted into a nauseating laboratory.
Professor Pyg was wearing his perpetually stained white lab coat, focusing on cutting with a bone saw.
He was humming an off-key opera.
His movements were skillful, as if he were sculpting a rare work of art.
A scientist wearing a HYDRA officer uniform was standing not far away, observing everything through the glass.
His face was filled with undisguised disgust.
"ProfessorValentine, your dolls are truly masterpieces ahead of their time!"
Professor Pyg stopped his hand, turned his head.
The two hollow eye sockets on the pig mask were aimed at the scientist.
"No..."
He spoke hoarsely.
"These are just semi-finished products."
He pointed to the "finished" creations in the corner of the laboratory.
They were monsters that had been stitched together haphazardly.
Their bodies were pieced together from different limbs.
The skin was stretched out of shape, and coarse stitches crawled all over their bodies like centipedes.
Some had their arms replaced with sharp bone saws, while others had exposed machine gun parts implanted in their chests.
"They have no sense of pain, are infinitely strong, and are absolutely obedient."
The HYDRA scientist rubbed his hands excitedly.
"I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of those idiots in the Allied Forces when they see them!"
Professor Pyg ignored his excitement.
He walked up to a "doll" and, with his filthy gloved fingertips, obsessively stroked the coarse stitches.
"Art... needs an audience."
He whispered.
...
The Western Front, a deadlocked confrontation position.
Late at night in the trenches, several exhausted Allied Forces soldiers were dozing off against the mud walls.
Rainwater dripped down the edges of their helmets.
No one noticed that in the no-man's-land behind them, which had been plowed countless times by artillery fire.
Over a dozen figures were silently approaching with strange, reverse-jointed gaits.
In the silent rainy night, they were like nightmares crawling out of hell.
A soldier on sentry duty heard an unusual sound; he vigilantly raised his rifle and poked his head out.
"Who's there..."
Before he could finish, a dark shadow pounced down from above the trench!
"Pfft!"
Blood gushed out.
The soldier was dragged into the darkness before he could even scream.
Immediately after, a silent slaughter began.
There was no gunfire.
Only the sound of breaking bones and desperate, stifled sobs.
The entire outpost turned into a bloody slaughterhouse in just a few minutes.
The next morning.
Colonel Phillips's command tent was extremely oppressive.
He was gripping an urgent telegram that had just been sent back from the front line, his knuckles white from the force.
A young communications officer stood in front of him, his body trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.
"Colonel... we... the troops we sent to relieve the guard... found them..."
The communication officer's voice was tearful.
"They were... they were taken apart... taken apart like children's toys, and then stitched back together haphazardly..."
Phillips slammed the telegram on the table.
Those sharp hawk eyes were filled with unprecedented horror and rage.
It wasn't that he hadn't seen dead people; he had seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
But the description on the telegram had already exceeded the scope of war.
That was the horror of desecrating life, aimed at destroying human sanity!
He subconsciously shifted his gaze to the huge military map on the wall.
On that map, a red arrow marked the latest combat achievements of "Soldier Boy" yesterday.
Phillips's breathing became heavy.
He realized with absolute clarity that to deal with one monster, one really needed another, fiercer, and more evil monster!
plz support me if you can
readfictional.com
patreon.com/AZFANFICTION
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AZofficial
All the novel and fanfiction are 30 chapter ahead there.