23 Chapter 23 (1/2)
January 12th, 2014
Wolfgang von Strucker listened on a SHIELD channel with a neutral look on his face as Steve Rogers continued to give his speech.
”They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want with the help of the Insight Helicarriers: absolute control.”
”This is bad,” Doctor List, an older man with dark skin and white hair, hissed to von Strucker.
von Strucker sighed at the words of his second-in-command. ”Doctor, I hired you for your intelligence. Please, do not state the obvious.”
He looked towards the two cells in the back of the room. The Maximoff Twins were testing their powers again. The boy, Pietro, was rushing back and forth in his cell, a mere white blur whenever he wasn't simply staring out at them. The girl, Wanda, was calmer. She sat on the floor, constantly spinning the energy in her hands around until there seemed to be an orb of red light in her lap.
Frankly, both twins worried him. Their intensity, the strength of their powers, the clear instability of the children, was all a cause for concern.
”As of now, all loyal SHIELD agents should be getting a program on their phones,” Rogers said on the channel. List took out his phone, Strucker, and several others in the lab doing the same. That's when Strucker began to realize how bad things had truly gotten.
His cell phone was dead. Looking around, so were all the other ones. The computers had also been disconnected from any internet connection.
”What is happening?” Doctor List asked.
”Standard tactics, Doctor List. Remove your enemies communications, take their information, identify them to your allies,” Strucker clenched a fist. ”We need to move, now.”
”Where?” Doctor List asked. ”Where should we go?”
”Anywhere,” Strucker shook his head. ”This... Hercules app,” Strucker had to admire the name. ”It will be our downfall if we let it. We must stop using any bases that have ever been in a SHIELD database.”
Strucker looked around. ”Pack, now! I want the entire base empty of anything useful in one hour! Kill all SHIELD members, the ones we kept to stave off suspicion.”
The soldiers and technicians around him began moving immediately
”Do you really believe we are in any danger?” Doctor List asked.
”More danger than we have ever been in,” Strucker scowled. ”First, we must-”
”Sir!” A soldier came down a hall, running towards Strucker. He held a smartphone that was glowing green. ”Sir, we need to-”
A red beeping came from the phone. The soldier, a young man with dark black skin and well-cut hair, had time to stare at the phone in horror. Then Strucker shot him in the face.
”Damn,” Strucker watched the body fall, the Glock 19 in his hand lowering. ”He was a good soldier...”
Strucker kept walking. ”First, we must kill any other SHIELD members on base. Luckily we are mostly HYDRA, but we can't allow our enemies to know about the twins, the Chitauri armor, or the scepter. Then we destroy the base.”
List nodded sadly. ”Yes, I see what you're saying.”
”From there, we must establish communications with the other cells,” Strucker scowled. ”SHIELD was somehow able to hack my phone, a device of my own design, despite all of my defenses against hackers. This is despite all of our experimentation into AI. Which means that Stark's own must be involved. We need allies, we need resources, and we need information.”
Some of his soldiers ran around the pair as they walked, saluting briefly. They ran into a hall as Strucker continued, and soon the sound of gunshots echoed through the area as SHIELD personnel died.
”Understood,” List said.
Three hours later, flying over his base in a Quinjet, von Strucker stared down at the place that had once been his home, a large mansion in the middle of the German countryside, surrounded by beautiful grasslands. He stood in the back of the Quinjet with the door open, the wind rushing around him as he watched his people float nearby in their own aircraft, tanks and Humvees driving away. With some sadness in his heart, he raised the detonator in his hand.
”Pity, I'd just decorated my office to my specifications.”
Stucker flipped the switch.
BOOM
Explosions rocked throughout the mansion. As Strucker watched, the Quinjet rocked gently from the shockwaves of the controlled destruction. He turned away, looking at those in the Quinjet. ”We will not let this stop us. I refuse to let it. Fly to America, and let us start this war in earnest.”
”Hail, HYDRA!” the men in the Quinjet said in unison.
With that, Strucker's fleet took to the skies as his vehicles headed to the coast.
Upon reaching the United States, Strucker found only frustration.
”All communications are still shut down,” List told him as they flew over the country. They were staring at a screen in the Quinjet, trying to find help. ”Fuel will become an issue soon as well. We need to land. We need to find our people.”
”Doctor List, you've gained a habit of saying the obvious that I can't seem to appreciate,” Strucker said with a growl. ”Show them to me again.”
List tapped at the screen. ”Luckily we can still watch the news, even if we can't talk to anyone. According to what I've managed to compile, they're called 'Dial' and 'Falcon', as far as can be told. A human who can turn into aliens, and a soldier who flies with an experimental jetpack,” on the screen, Falcon was diving out of a crystal mountain to fly past enemy Quinjets. The video changed to show him outmaneuvering gunships with acrobatic ease, twisting and flipping through the air with more maneuverability than any aircraft could match, his wings letting him change direction in ways even the Iron Men could not. Then a series of photos showing several alien creatures, the most prominent being the image of a helicarrier glowing black with green circuitry.
Strucker shook his head. ”Fascinating, both of them. The skill of that flier gives me several ideas for our own forces. That alien, however... the fact the Avengers are now chasing us is bad enough without the addition of other heroes coming out of the shadows and aiding them.”
If anything, these revelations helped Strucker with any doubts over his current course of action. They needed muscle. And he knew just where to get it. Strucker turned towards the pilot. ”Are we almost there?”
”Yes sir,” the pilot said. ”We're twenty minutes out.”
”Are you sure about this, von Strucker?” List asked. ”They were captured for a reason.”
”I am grasping at straws, Dr. List. The entire world is chasing us, and I must gather tools to fight against them. I thought this to be an age of miracles... but I was wrong. This is an age of monsters. I should have realized that,” Strucker sighed. ”Prepare the twins.”
List and the HYDRA soldiers around them stared at him. ”Sir,” List said, shocked. ”Are you-”
”No, I am not,” Strucker spat out, his eyes flashing. ”But I will survive this. No matter the cost.”
In a military base in Alaska, a US Army soldier stood to watch at his station. Things had been routine that day. Get up, eat, guard, eat, guard. He stood inside his guard tower in his uniform, watching the icy tundra around him as he worked at the computers around him, checking radar, sensors, and listening to his headset. For a moment, he enjoyed the calm monotony of the work.
Then he saw the aircraft on his radar. The soldier reached for his headset and sent a signal. ”Unidentified aircraft, identify yourselves.”
The soldier listened to static for a moment. When no response came, he switched channels to contact the base commander. ”Sir, this is Guard Tower 2, we have incoming unidentified aircraft, Quinjets.”
”One second!” an unfamiliar voice responded in a strange accent. ”I'll be right with you!” Russian, maybe? Some sort of Eastern European.
”This is a secure line, who is this?” the soldier said, now immensely worried.
A sudden explosion drew his attention. He spun in his chair and got up, quickly crossing to the other side of the guard tower to see where the commotion was coming from. The explosion had been from one of the hangers blowing up within the confines of the base. The soldier, now understanding they were under attack, took a moment to watch in horror as a woman in a red dress threw waves of some sort of scarlet energy at an incoming Humvee, tearing the vehicle to pieces.
”Shit!” the soldier cried, running back to his station. He picked up his headset to contact to the mainland, only for the back of his jacket to get snatched in between rough hands. He was pulled back and tossed through the window ”Aaagh!”
The last things he saw as he fell was a blue blur running to join the woman in red as a fleet of Quinjet's flew over the fences to head towards the base in the distance. Just before he landed, the blue blur ran back to him, kicking him in the chest, breaking his ribs but ironically also saving his life, words on a sign flashed before him.
Barrow, Alaska. The Vault.