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Chapter 73: The Serum
🕑 Added 2024-12-08 13:36:18 +0000 UTCWith Captain America's intervention, the fight naturally came to an abrupt halt.
Although the brawl at the Rainbow Corner didn't cause much of a stir in the outside world, it sent significant ripples through the U.S. military's ranks.
While it's often said the U.S. military's discipline is lax, that's mostly in the context of their behavior abroad. Internally, their discipline remains quite strict.
Whether it was Colonel Kennedy's deliberate provocation of Josh—a patriot contributing to the war effort—or Aldo’s assault on a superior officer, both were considered serious violations with severe repercussions.
The timing of the incident, just before the Normandy landings, made it particularly sensitive. Adding fuel to the fire was the underlying tension between the Navy and the Army, which made resolving the matter even more delicate.
Ultimately, the dispute escalated to the highest levels, even drawing the attention of General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. Thankfully, his authority in the European theater was absolute, allowing for a resolution. In the Pacific, where figures like Nimitz and MacArthur often clashed, such disputes would have been far harder to manage.
Two days later, after internal court-martial hearings, the verdicts were handed down: Colonel Kennedy was demoted by two ranks but allowed to remain in service. Aldo was stripped of his officer rank and demoted to a non-commissioned officer.
At first glance, the penalties seemed balanced—Kennedy, being higher in rank, faced a seemingly harsher punishment. But those in the know, including Josh, understood Aldo bore the greater loss.
As a naval aviator and a member of the influential Kennedy family, Kennedy’s chances of regaining his rank were high. For Aldo, however, the path back from the enlisted ranks to becoming an officer again was virtually insurmountable.
Fortunately, Aldo’s commanding officer advocated for him, securing a lifeline: a special mission. If Aldo could successfully complete it, all charges against him would be dismissed.
But the mission was perilous. Some Jewish officials in Washington wanted revenge against certain SS officers for obvious reasons. The mission tasked Aldo and a unit composed of other disgraced soldiers with targeting these officers, many of whom were stationed in Paris.
At an Army Air Corps base, Josh saw Aldo off before his departure. Fully equipped and about to board the plane, Aldo greeted Josh with his usual humor.
"Spare me the formalities. Once you finish the mission, I'll throw you a grand celebration in Paris!" Josh said.
"Then you better have the good booze ready!" Aldo replied with a grin, punching Josh lightly on the arm.
Josh smiled and extended his hand. Aldo, surprised by the gesture given their familiarity, shook it anyway. To his surprise, Josh slipped a cold, cylindrical object into his hand during the handshake.
"For emergencies only. Just inject it," Josh whispered as he pulled Aldo into a brief hug. With that, they parted ways.
Once aboard the plane, Aldo examined the object Josh had given him—a sleek metal syringe with a clear window revealing a glistening green liquid inside.
“What is this?” Aldo wondered. Trusting Josh implicitly, he tucked the syringe away, reasoning it must be some kind of lifesaving tool for dire situations.
Josh’s gift was indeed a remarkable creation. The syringe contained a new type of super-soldier serum developed by Yuri, synthesized from the flawed blood of an experimental supersoldier named Vito. It combined elements from the Red Alert world’s beastification serum with dinosaur DNA to create an extraordinary formula.
When injected, the serum temporarily transformed the user into a "dinosaur warrior," akin to the Lizard from Spider-Man. The transformation greatly enhanced the user’s strength, speed, and reaction time, while rendering them invulnerable to small and medium-caliber bullets and providing rapid regeneration.
The downside? The effects lasted only 4–6 hours, and the user’s rationality could be partially impaired during this time. Thankfully, their mental state returned to normal after the serum wore off.
Extensive human trials, conducted on prisoners, confirmed no immediate side effects, though long-term effects remained unknown. That’s why Josh had advised Aldo to use it only in life-threatening situations.
Josh had grown to genuinely respect Aldo after the events at the Rainbow Club. Aldo’s willingness to risk his career for Josh’s sake demonstrated a level of loyalty that was hard to find. It would have been a tragedy for Aldo to perish needlessly on the battlefield.
As Josh watched Aldo’s plane disappear into the sky, he sighed.
“This isn’t over,” he muttered to himself.
Although Kennedy and Aldo had both been punished, the consequences of the Rainbow Corner incident went deeper. Kennedy’s demotion dealt a serious blow to his career, and the Kennedy family would inevitably harbor resentment against Josh.
The Kennedys wouldn’t care who had instigated the incident; they only cared about their own interests. Josh knew he had made powerful enemies. But what irked him even more was Kennedy’s blatant insult during the confrontation at the club.
Josh had initially dismissed the matter with Angela as trivial. However, Kennedy’s public provocation had crossed a line. Even though Josh suspected Kennedy wouldn’t survive the next few months due to the dangerous missions ahead, he was determined not to let the matter rest.
As Josh prepared to leave the airfield, he noticed Captain America and the Howling Commandos gearing up for deployment.
“Strange,” Josh thought. “The D-Day landings are just days away. What could Cap and his team be up to? Are they also heading behind enemy lines?”
