5

Everything was going according to Hydra’s plan. Kruger had infiltrated the Strategic Scientific Reserve’s headquarters just as he’d been instructed. And he had at least partially destroyed their lab, just as he’d been told. Now he needed to get his hands on the last remaining vial of serum and make his escape.

Through the smoke, Kruger saw Erskine, who was still seen as a traitor by the Hydra organization.

Pulling out his pistol, Kruger aimed and fired. Erskine went down. Grabbing the vial, Kruger headed for the door.

Hearing the shot, Steve looked up. He was still shaky from the experiment—and the explosion—and his limbs felt out of sync with the rest of his body. But when Steve saw Erskine fall, he jumped to his feet and raced over to his friend. But it was too late. Erskine was mortally wounded. He locked eyes with Steve and tried to speak. One of his hands came up, like he was going to grab Steve’s shirt...but then he tapped Steve hard just to the left of his sternum. Right over his heart.

Steve nodded. He thought he understood.

Erskine’s eyes moved toward the door. He was having trouble focusing them, Steve could see that. Erskine managed to whisper the name “Kruger,” and then his eyes closed.

For a moment, Steve didn’t know what to do. Erskine was dead. The lab was in shambles. And a spy was racing off with the last vial of serum. How had everything gone from so good to so terribly bad in such a short amount of time? Shaking his head, Steve saw Kruger heading for the door. Kruger turned his gun on the old woman. She was reaching for her machine gun, but the Hydra agent was faster. He made his way out of the antiques shop.

But Steve wasn’t going to let him get away. Jumping to his feet, he took off after the agent. When Steve burst out onto the street, he was just in time to see Kruger pulling the driver out of a taxicab. He threw the poor man to the ground and jumped into the cab. Peggy, who had chased after Kruger, pulled out a gun and opened fire. Kruger returned fire, hitting a car behind Peggy, causing it to explode into flames. Then, with a squeal of tires, Kruger peeled out and raced away.

Peggy thought the Hydra spy would get away. Until she saw Steve.

Steve Rogers was now very fast. Superfast. He charged after Kruger, running as quickly as his new legs could carry him. Kruger drove down an alley, then turned and kept going, with Steve just a few feet behind. With a huge roar, Steve launched himself at the taxi, landing with a thud on the roof. Behind the glass, Kruger’s eyes narrowed and he raised his arm. He still held his pistol. With a smile, he fired, shattering the cab’s window. Steve ducked to the side. His grip loosened on the hood and he fell, clinging with all his might to the cab.

The buildings rushed by as Kruger drove on, heading toward the Brooklyn piers. Suddenly, up in front, Kruger saw a truck roaring toward him. He jerked the wheel, but it was too late. The truck sideswiped the cab, sending it—and Steve—into a roll. The world spun upside down as the cab flipped over and over again, finally coming to a stop, its hood smoking.

As Steve struggled to his feet, Kruger stumbled out of the wreckage, gun firing. Steve ducked, but the bullets were flying too fast. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a cab door that had been knocked loose and held it up in front of him like a shield. The bullets bounced off the metal, ricocheting harmlessly. Kruger kept firing.

Their high-speed ride had taken them right down to the piers, which, on the sunny day, were filled with civilians catching the sights and enjoying the afternoon. Seeing the commotion, some of them began snapping pictures of the gunfight, mistaking it for entertainment.

Then Kruger turned, shoving pedestrians aside as he ran.

Seeing a young boy among the gathering crowd, Kruger grabbed him and pulled him to his chest, holding the gun to the boy’s head. Steve slowed down as Kruger began moving backward toward the water. When he was close enough to jump, Kruger threw the boy into the water and pulled out a small device. He clicked a button and a small one-man submarine surfaced a few feet away. Kruger gave Steve an evil smile and then scrambled into the Hydra sub.

Steve looked down at the water. He couldn’t let Kruger get away, but he also couldn’t let the little boy drown.

“Go get him!” the boy shouted, interrupting Steve’s thoughts. “I can swim.”

“Great,” Steve muttered, more to himself than the kid. “I can’t.”

But he had no choice. The boy was okay and Kruger had to be stopped. Taking a deep breath, Steve ran to the edge of the pier and jumped, landing in the chilly water. The cold knocked the air out of Steve’s lungs, and for a moment he wondered if he was going to drown in spite of his newfound superpowers. But then his legs began to kick of their own accord, and before he knew it he was slicing through the water with long, powerful strokes. In no time, he had caught up to the sub. Reaching out, he grabbed its tail fin. Pulling himself forward hand over hand, he made it to the cockpit. Through the glass, he saw Kruger’s eyes widen at the sight of him. Then Steve pulled back his fist and punched the glass over and over again. With a mighty crack, it broke, allowing water to rush inside.

Reaching into the cockpit, Steve grabbed Kruger and yanked him free of the now-sinking sub. Then, with another mighty kick, he headed toward the surface.

Back on dry land, he threw Kruger to the ground. But the Hydra soldier wouldn’t give up. He pulled out a knife and tried to stab the American. Steve effortlessly kicked the knife aside. As he lunged at Kruger, the vial of blue serum broke, the fluid spilling onto the stones of the wharf.

“Who are you?” Steve yelled.

“The first of many,” he said cryptically. Then Kruger pressed his tongue against a false tooth, triggering a cyanide pill. “Cut off one head and two more shall rise.” His body began to shake and his mouth started to foam. Right before Kruger died, he said, “Hail Hydra.”

Steve sat there for a long time after Kruger died, his mind racing. What sort of organization would send someone like Kruger to kill Erskine and harm innocent people? And now that they had failed to get their hands on the serum, would they also come after Steve?

Later, back at the SSR HQ, Peggy sat down with Steve to brief him on the situation. He’d known it was bad because they’d lost Erskine, but after talking with Peggy for only a few minutes, Steve started to understand just how bad.

“All of Dr. Erskine’s research and equipment are gone. Any hope of reproducing the project is locked away in your genetic code.” She put her hand on Steve’s shoulder. “At the moment, you’re the only Super-Soldier there is,” she said.

It was a strange feeling, to go from the skinny kid nobody wanted to the only survivor of some kind of crazy science-fiction experiment. What would happen next?