Marvel: Summoning Xandar.

~~~London, England~~~

~~~February 2, 1943~~~

With the defeat of Japan at the hands of Xandar appearing on the front pages of every major newspaper in the world, the landscape of the war changed. While the U.S. had refused to participate in the Pacific war, that did not mean that it would not keep much of its fleet on the West Coast in case of surprise attacks by Japan, since the word of Xandar, a country... No, a newly emerged kingdom that boasted a supposedly enormous military power, could not be fully trusted.

Nevertheless, months later, the result was set in stone and in the documents that would form modern history, and that is that Xandar had done what the U.S. had failed to do.

Bringing the Empire of the Rising Sun to its knees, put many American generals and secretaries in a bad mood, men with higher goals, and greedier aspirations, in the midst of a war, the only way to rise above others, was with the help of the ladder that chaos offered.

Not wanting to be left behind, they used all their contacts to accelerate US involvement in Europe and Africa, places where the Axis front was most prominent and which were still at war.

The Asian continent, for its part, found itself breathing for the first time in a long time, Xandar, now not as a bloody beast, but as a gentle calf, took it upon itself to deliver food, and clothing in massive quantities, necessary goods, and structural aid to the countries and places most affected by Japan.

However, the sleeping beast of Xandar had not stopped, and there were constant attacks and bombings by the Withers on Japanese bases or strongholds that refused to surrender.

As in the case of Thailand, which offered its favor to Japan and with which it was able to conquer great important places, for Thailand, Xandar fell like a hammer on an anvil, destroying military bases, industrial zones, and important governmental buildings, but without attacking places full of civilians or innocent people.

This caused Xandar to receive substantial support in almost all the Asian continent, including China, which undoubtedly suffered the most from the Japanese advance, and gave all its support and welcome to the Xandarian forces.

This was when the US and Great Britain asked for the support of the Asian nations to stop the Axis and Hydra forces once and for all and attack from all available points, no Asian nation responded.

China saw the US withdrawal from the Pacific front as a betrayal, since due to the US withdrawal, the other countries that had also allied against Japan withdrew, as was the case with the UK, India, New Zealand, and Australia.

Leaving a large part of the Asian continent without support undoubtedly helped to promote a feeling of resentment between those countries and those of the Oceanic and European continents. So much so that even China and those countries aided by Xandar decided to sever all connections with the US and UK, dividing the political landscape on three fronts.

On the one hand, Xandar has the support of the Asian continent. On the other, the US has European support. The third is the Axis forces, together with Italy, the recently defeated Japan, and Germany, with the support of Hydra.

This led even men like Senator Brandt, who at first was inclined to use Captain Rogers as a publicity stunt to obtain war bonds, and Colonel Bradley as a laboratory mouse with the idea of copying Dr. Erskine's serum, to be forced to send the two men to the European front to end the war.

And that is why the two supersoldiers had traveled to London with the idea of starting their campaign, which would begin tomorrow.

And now, at Camp Surchets, the U.S. military base in the U.K., the Howling Commandos were preparing to launch their first attack.

"All right, stand at attention everyone," Colonel Phillips signaled his arrival by having everyone fall silent, the six men and two women that made up the Howling Commandos stood silently, with Steve and Isaiah standing on either side of Colonel Phillips.

"Tomorrow you will fly first thing in the morning to Tunisia, North Africa, the idea is to advance amphibiously through the Mediterranean Sea to the Island of Sicily, with the purpose of landing in Palermo and taking control of the city, taking the city, once this is achieved, launching a full-scale invasion from the island will be simple, the idea is to prepare the ground to achieve having as secure a location as possible with which we can advance into mainland Italy," Colonel Phillips looked at the faces of each one, taking some time to wait for them all to understand what they were getting into.

"Italy is by far the weakest of the forces that make up the Axis, and now that Japan has been destroyed, Italy will be on the defensive in the event of an attack, North Africa has been cleared of Afrika Korps forces, so Italy will be more than ready for an attack from the South."

"What role do we have in that?" Gina, one of the two women and one of the most senior, asked intrigued, "intelligence," Colonel Phillips replied.

"Intelligence, support, and guidance, Private Alexander is a native of the Island, so his knowledge of the area will be critical, knowledge of the language is also important, establishing connection with the Palermitans is of crucial importance, gathering information and securing as many ports in the city is critical."

"To that end, Captain Rogers, and Colonel Bradley, will be the tip of the spear tasked with accomplishing that, in turn, your purpose is to assist them as much as you can, they will be your guide, eyes in the back of your head and contact with the allied forces in Tunisia that will advance once Palermo falls."

"Any questions?" Colonel Phillips finished his speech, and seeing that no one was asking anymore, he nodded; "then follow Captain Rogers, he will take you to Mr. Stark, he will take care of your equipment, good luck, and make this old man proud." He said for one last, then left to go off and take care of other things.

The Howling Commandos soon followed Steve through the SSR base, who already knew where Howard was, arriving within minutes at the location.

The place Howard had occupied for him was a huge hangar, which had been modified to be used as a makeshift laboratory, the place was full of scientists and engineers working on plans for weapons, or testing some.

"Howard," Steve greeted the handsome man amicably the moment he saw him, Howard was wearing thick pants, a soft shirt, and a leather apron over his body, plus an open welding mask over his head.

Howard had returned somewhat changed since his visit to Xandar, with his perception of reality completely changed. After having seen up close such sci-fi things as being able to become invisible, dimension entrances (the Nether), and the power of super-advanced but at the same time ancient armor and weapons, it made Howard even more interested in the arms race.

And now, that was influenced in his work, since on a mannequin, there was a medieval style armor, which provoked Steve's interest in it; "and this? It looks like the ones from..."

"Xandar, yes," Howard finished for him, "while I was unable to decipher the source of how they managed to make their precious metal extremely tough, light, and prone to absorb some energies, I was able to decipher their construction methods, or at least the layering of plates, and this is the result, it is a carbon and titanium polymer alloy, flexible and tough, while it is heavy, for you, that will not be inconvenient."

"While I know its molecular hardness is far superior to these small plates, we don't know what weapons Hydra has under their arsenal, so it's best to be safe, but my best creation, is this one," Howard said, leading Steve and Isaiah to a table, where there were two large machine guns, looking unique and menacing.

"This is the T24, the army created two prototypes based on reverse engineering of the German MG-42, but they scrapped the prototypes because of fire problems in the gas cylinder, apparently several soldiers died while testing them. However, I improved the cylinder, it was an equational problem in terms of gas transmission, the whole weapon is made of stainless steel, the magazine is a drum type, and it will allow you to fire one hundred rounds of 5.56 x 45 mm caliber, the only problem is the weight, which ranges between fifteen and seventeen kilos, but you can lift a Jeep without problems, so there will not impede with this".

Once Howard finished his cheerful explanation, he moved on to a more serious topic, "There is one other thing I want to give you, it was given to me by the witches of Xandar, though I wanted to keep them for research, since in case I could figure out how they worked, then we would be fifty years into the future as far as transportation technology was concerned."

Howard then reached down and pulled out a tungsten steel-reinforced box. Opening the box by means of a code revealed the inside, where two greenish-colored spheres glowed faintly when the light touched them. " These are Ender pearls. They have the characteristic of making the one who throws them teleport to the place where they fall."

This made Steve and Isaiah marvel at the spheres, they even looked at them with more attention; "yes, it produces some damage to the user at the moment of teleportation, due to the fall with the ground, but their bodies will be able to resist it, or at least I hope so, this will be your way out in case there is no way out of an attack, use them with caution". Howard finished, looking very reluctant to hand over the pearls, but in the end, giving one to each, who placed them in a case attached to their vests.

"Now get some rest, we leave at 5:00 tomorrow."