Chapter 21: 21. Fine, I'll Do It Myself
"This is not very nice..." Alan cried in panic.
Logan, meanwhile, realised it was not nice to sleep in this man's home... without a shirt... many questions will be asked now. "Argh... Not very nice indeed. You got any secret exits?"
"Please, Mr... I don't even know your name! And no, I got no exits, I'm not a spy." Alan replied anxiously.
"Scientists. Always paranoid but never for the right reason." Logan scowled and looked for a way out.
"You stay here, I will go and deal with them," he ordered him. Quickly he clothed himself and took out his Secret Service Identity card.
"What can I do for you, officers? Here, I'm from the gove..." *CLACK* Before Logan could finish speaking, a handcuff was placed on his wrist.
"You need a licence to be here, chum. You are under arrest, come with us to the station." the two coppers took him away, much to the annoyance of Logan.
~Calm down, calm down... I do not want to kill these men... they are beneath me... they are rabbits, I'm a wolf... yes...~ Logan took long breaths and said the meditation words that Hector had taught him while in the police car.
Alan was left there alone, scaredly watching Logan being taken away, wondering if he would see the man again.
...
12 AM, London,
*BAM*
"WAKE UP! WE'RE LEAVING!" Logan shouted at Alan, who was sleeping on his bed.
Alan nearly had a heart attack because of this, "W-wa-what? How did you get in here? Police let you go? WAIT! WHAT ARE THESE CLAWS?"
Logan grunted, "Those bastards, they kept offering me tea but refused to see my ID. I broke out of the cell... and broke into your house. QUICK! We're leaving."
"WHAT ARE THOSE CLAWS?" Alan was stuck on that question.
Logan grabbed his collar and made him stand up, "They are decorations, kid. Now, do you want to stay in this raining hellhole or come with me?"
"LET'S GO! I got everything packed." Alan jumped into action and brought Logan to the room where he had put his packed stuff.
But when Logan saw all that, he felt like stabbing this rabbit. "What's your IQ? WE'RE LEAVING IN A CAR! How will we fit your computer into it? And you've got ten more bags. Just grab one and follow me, all your other stuff will come later, My boss will handle it."
*WEEE WOOO WEEE WOOO*
"SHIT! THOSE TEA-FETISH BASTARDS ARE HERE! We're leaving." Logan handled Alan like he was a toddler, picked him up and shoved him into the car.
...
Hector's new bills were facing the scrutiny of Congress currently before being put for voting. At the same time, he didn't sit silently. He constantly talked to people through radio, Smart America programme was a hit, and people listened to it in record numbers.
He also openly used his power to enforce the Executive Order. The first executive order abolished discrimination based on race, colour, religion or national origin in the United States Armed Forces. The second made it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. Other than that, he put forward another law in congress for creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair employment practices.
Hector was facing a lot of heat from the Southern States, but the overall majority was supporting him, the reason was his constant touch with the public. Before each executive order or law, he tried to explain to the people why he's doing it and what it will do for the country.
Slowly, weeks passed, the Sicily Campaign began without him, as he was too busy. Hector made sure Operation Husky didn't start on a bad note this time. At the start of this operation, they aimed to drop a lot of troopers from the sky and capture a few key bridges before the full invasion. But, in the original world, due to a storm, a lot of aircraft crashed or had to drop soldiers far away from the drop zone. This in the end stressed the land invasion.
This time, Hector warned them to keep an eye on the weather and if there is any doubt then abort. This they did and attacked the next day. This time the troopers landed in the right place.
Another thing that happened was that his uniform was ready. It was much different from normal army dress, as he wanted this to be his superhero uniform. It had a long red coat, with six stars on each shoulder. There were some other insignia on the dress to signify his win. Then there was a normal brownish-red shirt, dark grey pants and matching big gloves. All of it was made to fit his big body. And man oh man, it looked awesome... and sexy.
*Woof* Moony also complimented, ~Dad, human bitches are going to get horny on you.~
No, Moony was not cursing women, he was just using the terms he knew, human bitches were the equivalent of dog bitches for him.
"Bwahaha... thanks, my son." He played with him.
After his photo in the new dress was published in the papers, the War Propaganda department asked him to pose for a recruitment poster. Only later did Hector realise that this was the Uncle Sam Poster, this time it was with his face.
...
Operation Rebirth was scheduled to be carried out. Hector was informed about this, he was pretty excited as he was also going to take a shot. And that's why he decided to have a look at Steve, he wondered if anything had changed.
Stark Expo was scheduled, that was the best place to find the boy. So he simply planned a motivational fan-meet at the recruitment centre.
...
"You brat, flying cars are impossible without a good enough power source." Hector scolded Howard Stark.
"Huh, stop doubting my capabilities, Mr President, I am a rich, smart and ladies man. If I can't, no one can do it. Now, just watch from the backstage," Full of confidence, Howard smugly entered the stage.
Hector sighed and waited behind the stage. Soon enough, *BOOM*
A dejected Howard returned. Hector chuckled and patted his shoulder, "Failure is the key to success."
"I'm limited by the technology of my time. I wish I was born maybe a thousand years from now." Howard said.
"Who knows, at that point, everyone would have been as smart as you. You would have been a simple fish in the pond then. Here, you are smart, rich and... Ugh... lady's man." He sighed when the girls who were on stage with Howard tried to come their way and flirt. Hector knew it was time to move.
He entered the recruitment office and waited in a room just outside the "I Want You" poster and the soldier mirror to see if Steve Enters. Soon enough, a young little skinny boy walked there, with a man in uniform behind him.
They started bickering, "I know you don't think I can do it."
"This isn't a back-alley fight, this is war...."
"What do you want me to do? Collect scraps for the rest of my life?... Bucky... Come on, there are men laying their lives. I got no right to do any less than them. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. I want to do something..." Steve pleaded to his friend, to make him believe in his cause.
Bucky shook his head, "Yeah, like you've got nothing to prove. All that fantasising about walking down the President's path... that bullshit. Nobody can walk his path, he's not normal. I mean... It's war... look at yourse... Fine, try if you want."
Soon his dates came and Bucky decided to leave, he hugged Steve strongly, "Don't do anything stupid until I get back."
Steve didn't reply, he just stared down at his own feet. Hector had already noticed that there were some changes in how Steve was behaving, he looked tired, lost and defeated. On top of that, it seemed he was a fan.
"Ah... he's going in." Hector cheered. But to his horror, Steve stopped in front of the recruitment poster and looked at his image. He could hear everything.
Steve sighed standing there, "Can I walk down your path? Bucky was not wrong, look at me, I am one of those guys you probably don't even notice on an empty street."
Hector now had doubts that Steve was not going to enter. He had lost all the motivation after watching his crazy achievements it seemed. ~Go on, little one, you can do it. Trust yourself.~
But, Steve stayed standing there alone. His feet were slowly stepping back. "I will try to serve the nation as a civilian I guess." He turned around towards the exit.
Hector looked around and cursed, "NO! Where is that Erskine? I didn't save his ungrateful ass to ditch the mission I gave him."
Knowing that future America's ass only needed some motivation to juice him up, he wrote a quote on paper and threw it at Steve's face without being found out. "A man who refuses to even try can never achieve greatness. - An Old Man"
Steve looked left and right to see who threw it. But as soon as he read the contents, nothing mattered. He was fired up once again, "There is no harm in trying."
He quickly entered the recruitment room to fill in the details. Just then, Hector saw Erskine dumbly arriving.
"Psst..." Hector called him to the room first.
Erskine corrected his glasses first, "Where is the person you mentioned?"
"Where were you?" Hector angrily questioned him.
"I went to the bathroom for a minute. Why?" Erskine wondered if he made a big mistake. That seemed to be the case by the look on Hector's face.
"How could you, Erskine, you made a pinky promise to do this." Hector scolded him like he was a kid.
"Well, I had to loosen my other pinky, I had been holding it for too long," Erskine argued.
"Gah... It's pointless now." Now, Erskine had not heard Steve so he had no reason to intervene in recruitment. Hector sighed, "Fine, I will do it myself."
He got out of the room. Ignoring all the gaping mouths of soldiers and civilians alike, he walked straight towards the recruitment room.
[A/N: You might be a little overwhelmed by all the political things. But this is temporary, as this is 1945 and Hector is just trying to fix the country much earlier. Later, such things won't appear. After WW2, there will be some other wars with a few time skips.]