LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 12
A/N: The point of view of other characters beside Komand'r will be switched to 3rd pov.
Chapter 12
(TALI)
Her awareness spread over the spy network she had seeded all over the planet; nanites able to be digested and staying in the bodies of her target to record everything that they do or think. One hundred thousand humans infected with the spy-nanites immediately responded to her directives. The humans’ lives were catalogued and archived on the zettabyte of space on the servers housed in the stealth satellite that TALI had dispatched after her awakening in orbit around this world.
Two weeks of data had been gathered, and now her unfathomable computing power was put to the task as she divided her consciousness into multiple instances to parse the accumulated information. At the same time, she deployed several dozen harvester drones accompanied by a wing of combat drones that were charged to protect them while they worked in the asteroid belt near Mars. The goal was to build a space station at Lagrange point L3 to hold and interrogate the future prisoners.
A contingent of long range shuttles with minimal technology matching the local's was being fabricated. Tony Stark had accepted oversight of the future space station and vehicles at SHIELD's direction and Captain Komand'r’s demand to avoid any breach of the prime directive.
To TALI, the man was just eager to work with the technology involved; even though his own father had already come up with the anti-gravity system that those shuttles' avionics and power source would use. In the design TALI had thrown together, the only thing she had added was a kinetic shielding system and a basic artificial gravity system that Tony could have discovered by researching Howard Stark’s AG technology. It was laughable how these humans had the technology to already be in space but couldn't reach it because they were kept divided by a cabal of rich people who just wanted more riches and kept the population docile.
It should take about two days to finish everything, meanwhile, TALI's crew waited for the go ahead to teleport the enemy agents into the Stasis crypts pods, and transport them to start interrogation and memory extraction in the virtual space inside the ship. This was part of the black widow plan after TALI refined it by taking into account her resources and technology.
TALI turned her attention toward the world and inquired about how people reacted to Xenil's presentation. People in most of the civilized countries were angry… no angry was too soft a word to describe how furious all the greedy individuals around the world who wanted the technological uplift that the presence of Captain Komand’r and the crew brought to Earth.
Everyone was panicking because they were about to lose their generous patron who had seemed to like them at their first meeting. Then everything had fallen apart, coalitions of countries that had been created following the arrival of the Princess found their plans to send ambassadors to brown-nose and bribe her in any way possible to obtain the same level of friendship Anthony Stark was enjoying with their alien visitor were shattered... There’s a Terran saying that describes what was currently happening: You don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
TALI was aware now that all those powerful individuals wanted blood as those who attacked the Tamaraneans put the future of the planet in jeopardy. The fact that they had only one hundred and fifty years of life had started the countdown. Now they all hoped that Anthony Stark would keep contact with Princess Komand’r and that their salvation would come through him.
As a matter of fact, Lord Stark hadn’t been idle at all since the announcement and pretty much started to invest in green energy and ways to purify the atmosphere of organic emissions and prevent the Oceans acidification. Just in case, TALI transmitted data about technologies that would fix the problem to his PADD.
TALI followed her captain’s instructions to the letter, she only gave technology that Earth would have been able to discover with their own fledgling science; Technology fifty to one-hundred years in advance of what they currently have.
The ship’s intelligence turned her attention to the harvester drones, and she was satisfied to see that they had gathered sufficient material, she commanded them to start the refining process; then the chunks of asteroids began to basically melt in the drones’ nanites furnaces. The assembly/disassembly arrays were put online in TALI’s manufactory. TALI started to cycle through the design that she would use for the space station she was about to construct, she chose something futuristic and durable, customizable and built to last for a few centuries.
TALI would have loved to be able to allow the structure to be quantum locked but nothing was ever simple in life. She couldn’t fight Komand’r’s directives. The captain didn’t want the quantum locking to be done because each time she tried to do the right thing it came to bite her in the backside. She didn’t want to share the secret of such technology with the humans. TALI agreed that the Terran’s growth should be controlled, and to let them grow at their own pace.
Such a shame, she would have liked to be able to place some defensive weapons on the space station. Missiles launchers, some stationary and rotary mounted energy or mass drivers weapons and arrays. Fortunately, the kinetic barrier system was as strong as she could make it; the station was powered by advanced photovoltaic solar arrays and a cold fusion reactor that recycled its waste into another form of energy that fed into the auxiliary system of the space station.
TALI worked on the basics of the station's systems that consisted of the Environmental Control and Life Support System, Computers and Data Management; Guidance, Navigation, and Control; Communications; the Thermal Control System. She also made it so that the pressurised habitation modules were on par with what was inside her body for her crew with less advanced technology and material. She couldn't scrounge on the transparent smart metal though, radiation shielding was a priority in space.
When the harvesters and security drones returned with their bounty, TALI went directly to work. The docking ring was the outer ring of the station's structure, and was used primarily for moving and storing goods and for starship docking facilities. She first constructed a docking ring, six large docking ports, nine small docking ports, and six landing pads.
When she finished she started on the skyscraper sized structure that consisted of several terraced platforms containing various key facilities. At the extreme dorsal end of the core was the operations center and the subspace communications antennae, as well as the kinetic shielding generators. Below this assembly were the five-level Promenades, a public area for commerce and recreation that will surely be added by Lord Stark when he sees the marketing potential of this station. Inside the structure, the housing of most of the station's semi-permanent residents should be located under the promenade.
Time of completion : 15 hours.
TALI decided at this moment to leave the construction to one of her instances and focus on the main goal; she finally finished collecting and consulting all the information that the spy drones and nanites had gathered, the result was startling. Once again she became astonished by the level of barbarity and moral bankruptcy the cult called HYDRA has visited on their fellow humans.
Human experimentation, crimes against humanity, terrorism, sedition, infiltration, coup d’etats, corporate theft, assassinations, nothing was too dirty for Hydra; they’ve worked from the shadows for decades, manipulated or instingated events to suit them and their agenda of world domination. HYDRA boasted about having stability and order within its ranks, but when the question of power is up for grabs it is time for true savagery to kick in. TALI could see that in the meetings of the Hydra council. To further their position, HYDRA agents would target their peers in an attempt to cement their power.
As time passed, TALI discovered that there was an object of untold power on Earth called the Tesseract. A crystalline cube-shaped containment vessel with some kind of power source giving off unlimited energy. TALI turned her scanners and instrument toward the planet and sought it out. She found it almost immediately and wondered why she didn’t when she first awoke, this much exotic energy and power was like a beacon. Earth was in danger and will be confronted to the horror of war with multiple space faring civilizations wanting the artifact generating so much energy.
From hacking into the historical database on the planet’s extranet, TALI discovered that Hydra was responsible for throwing the human race into global war by using the Tesseract to further their gains. The power gained from the artifact seemed to be more like a spatial singularity than anything, and from the files she found Hydra manipulated its energy into creating weapons that would disintegrate someone hit by a blast.
They really didn’t know what they were doing, what if they had created a blackhole that swallowed the planet? That’s how much energy they were playing with. You should never play with things that you don’t understand, but it seemed that those cultists didn’t know any limits. The Tesseract was in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D.
And as she knew now, HYDRA was active in making itself a parasite within S.H.I.E.L.D since the beginning of World War II. So, the Tesseract never really changed hands from Hydra, TALI realized. And now, from the information and her spy network, Hydra successfully turned a lot of formerly loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into HYDRA spies.
From all that compiled data, TALI came up with a plan that she called operation retrieval with ten main objectives and twenty sub-objectives to kill Hydra and any surviving groups forever. She sent the formal proposition of the plan to her Captain who was flying in space watching the space station being constructed and soaking up solar energy.
Captain Komand’r consulted the file on her HUD and said nothing as she parsed quickly through the proposal. Then after a moment of deliberation she said, “You have my permission to start operation retrieval, TALI. At least it’s not impeding the effort for Natalia’s kidnapping plan.”
The ship’s intelligence felt smug that her proposal was accepted, the strategic value of the three individuals she found made them really essential to their plan for this world. TALI needed her captain to go fetch the third individual herself though. Koldonn and his men would be enough for the secondary individual.
“Can I petition you to go look for the tertiary target, Captain?” TALI asked Komand’r who sighed internally. The ship’s intelligence would laugh at her if the situation was different, however she preferred to maintain a professional distance with the crew when they were on duty.
“It’s better than staying in bed all the time.” Komand’r answered as she changed orientation and began to fly toward Earth.
As she looked at the purple streak of light flash toward Earth, TALI then switched tasks and sought out the members of the Hydra high council. Five minutes, that's all it took to find them all.
TALI positioned herself to catch all of the members, timing was important in this case. Simultaneously, she activated the teleportarium and ten people simply disappeared from the face of the earth.
~/.\~
(Peggy Carter)
New York
May 11th, 2010
Lenox Hill Hospital
Private Room 202
As she laid on the hospital bed, Peggy Carter felt that things were going bad for her once again. It's been two months since her symptoms started, and she has felt her mind unraveling; it was hard for her to organize her thoughts and think logically sometimes and the thing that's been eating her the most is that she has started forgetting the faces of some of her friends who had started visiting her since she collapsed. Peggy didn't feel betrayed by her niece Sharon and her parents for placing her in this hospital's memory care unit, she understood…
It was a step they were taking before she needed to be in an assisted living community; Peggy had heard the diagnostics and remembered that she was in the first stages of Alzheimers. So this was going to be her fate? Childless, Steveless and… knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door and Peggy turned her head toward the entrance to her private hospital room. She thought that it was a nurse again, but to her great surprise an orange skinned woman with reddish black hair was at the door, with a predatory gait she entered through the room as if she owned it. She was tall, curvy, and beautiful in an indescribable way; though the purple and black leotard decorated with pink gems and silver patterned metal gloves and knee high boots she wore left nothing to the imagination, it was like they were painted on her. She looked rather familiar, but she couldn’t remember where she had seen her.
"What the bloody hell are you doing in my room!?" Peggy spat, angry.
*Can’t people leave me in peace?* She mournfully asked herself in her heart.
Then Peggy started to remember where she had seen the woman before; frowning, she looked at the woman who looked like she was out of a sci-fi movie with mistrust.
The orange skinned beauty slightly bowed with a fist on her right breast. "Matriarch of Carters, Greetings."
Ah, now Peggy remembered; a lot of young girls down in the pediatrics had been mimicking the alien princess who had shown up on the news saving Tony Stark, her godson. Now, a grown woman with an elaborated cosplay outfit has come to bother her; Peggy rolled her eyes at the woman. "Huh, are you one of those cosplayers? I see a lot of little girls on my smartphone costumed like that alien princess."
The woman stopped moving at Peggy's slight mocking tone, but a slow and beautiful smile spread on her face, then she struck a pose by putting her fists on her hips and her eyes glowed in a more vibrant shade of green. "Oh? People do the costuming of me? I'm flattered."
Peggy was having doubts here, this costumed woman almost made her think she was the real deal. "You are really in character…"
The princess' lookalike feet left the ground and she... floated toward Peggy's bed. The previous director of SHIELD's eyes opened wide like saucers as she now saw that she was talking to the real Tamaranean royal. Peggy was going to apologize when the princess stopped at her bedside and stared at her. "I came here for you matriarch of Carters, your help is sorely needed. You are one of the heroes of this world."
The old woman didn't know what to say… she was eighty-nine years old and she had had her time, she wanted to rest. Her body had become frail and her health could deteriorate at any moment, she was done playing hero. Somehow, the princess was doing something else, and Peggy hadn't noticed her moving at all. She had paper and a pen in her hand.
"What are you doing?" Peggy asked as she saw the alien write something.
Princess Komand’r made an indulgent smile and said, "Leaving a note." She put the paper on Peggy's nightstand.
Peggy felt herself being lifted, she was being princess carried by the alien woman. "Now come, Matriarch of Carters, we must heal you first."
She was being kidnapped! *Oh no! Am I going to be probed? Oh God, when I leave this world I would prefer my back door to remain unsullied" Peggy tried to struggle, but it was for naught as she was firmly embraced by the alien who kept her in a vice-like hold. The old woman understood that Komand’r was vastly stronger than her.
"Please don't do this…" Peggy implored Komand’r with her eyes.
Komand'r simply smiled and intoned aloud, "Two to teleport."
Blue light surrounded the two women and they suddenly were not in Peggy's private hospital room anymore. The dark grey walls and the white light of machinery was prevalent in the new room that looked just like the transporter room in a star trek episode. "Welcome to the Tempest, matriarch of Carters."
Komand'r made her feel welcome, yes… and she acted as if she was already used to her somehow. Though, Peggy hated being manhandled, so that's why she asked, "Could you let go of me?"
Komand'r shook her head and descended the stairs to the pedestal she stood on. "No. You are comfy."
She felt as if she was talking to a cat, a whimsical one. "Please?" Peggy tried and gave her the stern look she reserved for her niece when she did something bad.
Komand'r looked at Peggy and stopped at the transporter room's door and they entered into a battle of wills, the princess lost. "Xhal, fine."
She put Peggy on the ground delicately, as she was in her bedclothes and her feet were naked, the old woman felt cold. Peggy felt rather lost and she needed answers. "Why did you take me?"
Komand'r instantly replied, "SHIELD and I are in a partnership for a certain covert joint-project, I will do the informing with you about it... but we are needing you at 100% health first."
An alien came to meet her, kidnapped her and just told her that the American branch of SHIELD was working with her; she couldn't help but be curious about the situation, but she felt so tired..."I don't have a choice?"
The smile on Komand’r’s face thinned a bit, she put a hand on the old woman's shoulder and said with a playful tone, "If you listen to me, you'll be able to do the meeting with your mate, Captain Steve Rogers."
Peggy's heart skipped, she was now face to face with Komand’r and said with a serious face, "Nice bait… now tell me more."
Komand'r chuckled and seemed happy that she made a new ally.
~/.\~
(Amora)
Librarium Vault
Amora was in heaven, she had access to a library that had an excellent selection. It encompassed historical information of several star nations, repositories of rare, and unique information. There was blackmail material there on several governments! The things that Amora could request of them if she wanted… Amora found that there were several data archives, personal papers, early printed books, or other rare materials, researchers such as her can access and analyze resources that were previously nearly inaccessible to her.
She even discovered that High Queen Frigga had bequeathed a magic library to her spouse for her magical development. Magical tomes that spoke volume of Komand’r’s chosen areas of speciality; Summoning, illusions, healing and alchemy with some basic battle magic. What struck Amora the most was the Wizard Philosophy books that she had found in the lot and been reading here. There is a set of rules or guidelines called Wizard's Rules; fourteen rules in total. In each of the books, a new rule is introduced.
Amora liked the first rule in particular, the book showed examples of why the rule was important; it boiled down to: People are stupid. They believe things mainly because they either want them to be true or fear them to be true.
The book explained that the mind is ruled by psychological biases. Such biases twist the mind into believing some things are true, when they are not. Two of the most powerful biases are hope (or, described differently, optimistic belief that something may be true) and fear. When someone hopes something may or may not be true, such as that a friend did not betray him, then he may actually believe in a lie told to him by another, or told to himself, that the friend did not betray him, when in actuality the friend did. Similarly, when someone fears something may or may not be true, such as that one is not competent enough to fill one's job responsibilities, then he may actually believe that such is true. Instead of allowing biases to twist one's brief, one must try to escape the effect of the biases and determine the actual truth of a situation.
This was important to Amora as she had been confronted with such things early in her life. As a result, the Enchantress has spent most of her time in the vault and eaten there just to be able to read the books written by Wizard Zeddicus. Amora closed the green book with the lightning bolt logo she had in her hand and put it on the tray with all the other books that she read today.
Amora was so deep in thoughts that she hadn't sensed someone coming upon her in her private booth.
“Hey.”Amora’s head whipped to the right at the entrance of the booth, there was a Midgardian girl with brown hair and one of those weird prosthetics they used to fix their eyesight, she wore a grey bodysuit that showed that she was part of the crew.
“By Odin's sagging balls you startled me, who are you?” The sorceress put a hand on her heart and glared at the brunette.
"Aww, sorry. I just saw you there and you looked like you were really having fun." The brunette chuckled as her eyes didn't leave Amora for an instant.
To Amora the girl didn't look repentant when she said 'sorry' and then she held her hand before her and said, “Name’s Darcy, what about you?”
Amora looked at the hand held before her, she remembered that it was how the Midgardian greeted themselves nowadays. But the handshake originated in prehistory as a gesture of peace by demonstrating that the hand holds no weapon. On an alternative view, it also symbolizes sincerity when making an oath or promise: the gesture of clasping hands represents sealing a sacred bond.
Komand'r wouldn't want her to be rude to the crew so Amora shook Darcy’s hand. “They call me the Enchantress, but my name is Amora. The Captain’s wife.” She highlighted her status to the young Midgardian, telling her who she was.
Darcy raised an eyebrow and chuckled, dismissing Amora’s statement. “I see why they call you that!” The brunette waggled her eyebrows. “You are quite… smexy.”
Amora frowned, she did understand that she was being flattered but a strange word was present in the brunette's sentence. “Smexy? I don’t understand that word, explain what it means to me, mortal.”
The sorceress pushed the book’s tray on the side of her table and took the PADD that belonged to her into her belt pouch.
As she watched her, Darcy explained, “It’s a blend of smart and sexy, referring to someone who has both brains and beauty. It can also just be a fun way of calling someone sexy.”
Amora raised her chin and made an haughty expression as she stood up from her seat. She swaggered toward Darcy and made a pin up pose with her hands on her hips and suddenly on her face, the haughty expression switched to an impish smile. “Ah, that is good that someone recognizes my intelligence and my beauty. Admire me, mortal.”
Darcy laughed nervously, it was getting awkward there. “Well, your gorgeousness, your smarts are only equaled by your beauty…” The brunette joked, but it seemed that her flattery worked on Amora as she smiled at Darcy with a joyful smile.
The brunette walked to the table and took a book from the tray and leafed through it. “Huh, those are some pretty funky books, your Sublimeness. Magic, does it really exist?”
Amora glanded at the book in Darcy’s hand and then strode to her and took it from her hand. She had a taunting smile on her face. “Oh I see that we have a lot of scepticism in this room! Sit down and let me show you real magic.”
The enchantress snapped her fingers and Darcy was made to sit at the booth, then Amora started to chant an incantation in Asgardian, held out her hand as it became shrouded in golden light and she began tracing runes in the air. The lines of runes swirled around her hand then she clapped. All of a sudden seven clones of Amora seemed to step out of her body, each time they did her body glowed golden light. Darcy looked at her with amazed eyes.
From the hands of the main Amora a sphere of fire appeared and hovered, her eyes never left Darcy’s surprised face. The ball of fire separated into multiple fantasy creatures, unicorns, dragons, griffins and giants. Amora found it easier to cast magic on the ship; she had noticed how the energy inside seemed to facilitate the manipulation of energy. It was like being in a magical realm like Asgard or Alfheim. She dismissed the elemental construct floating and weezing around, though she kept her clones around her; then looked expectantly at Darcy.
Amora wasn’t disappointed as Darcy animatedly stood up and raised a fist in the air. “Okay that’s amazing! Can you teach me magic?!”
“It’s easy to do party tricks, but delving into magic as deep as I did? It asks for a lot of motivation.” Amora said as she showed more tricks, a floating flame in her left palm and a little twister of wind in her right palm.
“Oh, I am motivated.” Darcy said.
“Then we shall see about that.” Amora promised.
~/.\~
(???)
???
???
He felt himself being woken up. How many times has it been? Twenty? Fifty? Didn't they get tired of stealing more from him? They took his friends, his freedom, his time. What more did they want? Who will he kill today? Or did they want him to train another bunch of agents? He felt warmth flooding his body and it caused him to open his eyes. He remembered flashes of life, he had fought in some huge conflict and had some friends, but he couldn't remember their faces. He had become a soldier, then an assassin. His memories were all about training, torture, conditioning and becoming a killing machine. Just… a machine.
Instead of men in lab coats, what he saw was a black man in a black body suit and trench coat, he only had one eye; he had around him three men in black bodysuit with an eagle logo on their left arm patch. A logo he recognized but didn't remember the name, though he had it on the tip of his tongue. Was this black man his new master? What will he ask him to do?
As he waited for the one-eyed black man to pronounce the command words that would shackle his will anew to this new man, he was surprised to hear the black man say to his subordinates, “Hold him down.”
The black man simply looked at him, assessing him. Two of the men behind the black man held onto his lone arm.
“Restrain him.” The black man said.
The third goon took out some special manacles, they looked rather technological, there seemed to be circuitry inside as there was a screen glowing on the central piece. The manacles beeped as they closed around his wrist and ankles.
Behind the blackman, a hovering chair was pushed in by another duo of goons.
“Place him in the medical chair.”
The three men from before obeyed and lifted the soldier; at least they were more delicate than the scientists from before the man thought. When he was made to sit, a blue field of light covered him; he felt numb down his neck. It’s as if he couldn’t control his body anymore. Then they began to pull him out of the room where he had been held up.
*Who are they? They are not Hydra.* The soldier realized.
The recognizable staccato of weapon fire rang in the air and the smell of ozone was prevalent as well. The white walls of the corridor they were in were charred with burn marks and there were bodies strewn on the grounds. The soldier couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the place where he was held was always guarded more than fort knox.
He could hear explosions in the background that shook the walls and made the lights of the bunker flicker.
"Damn those guys aren't playing around." The black man's voice rang at the soldier's side.
They finally reached one of the lifts leading to the surface. It was heavily guarded by five other heavily armed goons in black bodysuits and with a lot of weapons on them that looked futuristic. The apparent leader seemed to be an athletic 5"7 woman of Latin descent. Her eyes were brown and her brown hair was wavy and styled in a bun.
Running toward them were three men wearing vests loaded with explosives; the man in the lead shouted, "Hail Hydra!!" They triggered the explosives by pulling a latch on their vest.
"Use the shield!" The Latina woman commanded.
"Yes ma'am!" One of the goons pointed a long silver rifle with a bulbous muzzle at the three Hydra kamikaze and they pulled on the trigger. A screen of energy deployed from the device with a beam of green light, it expanded and partitioned this part of the lobby room they were in.
BOOM! White hot plasma seemed to engulf the other side of the room, the kinetic energy didn’t knock them out but they weren’t spared from the temperature reaching them. The latin woman swore and made everyone step back from the energy shield. "I hate suicide bombers, it's Afghanistan all over again."
After this they were quickly ushered inside the lift, the soldier could barely look around him but he listened to what the men and women were saying.
"Who the fuck put elevator music in a bunker lift?" The black man from earlier complained as the slow and boring music in the lift played as it climbed up the shaft.
"Those Hydra fucks, sir." One of the agents joked with a straight face.
"Those fucking philistines..." The black man cursed hydra once more.
The soldier understood that he had fallen into the hands of Hydra’s enemies; he asked himself if they were out for his blood or if he had killed people they cared for. Were they going to give him the gift of death? He desired it oh so much, he was so tired.
"Do you have a status of what's happening on the surface?" The black man asked.
The Soldier became interested as well and waited for the answer; it was the latin woman who spoke this time. "A-Team is still pacifying it sir, the enemy had more advanced weapons than we thought."
The black man was silent for a moment, meanwhile they finally reached their destination. The lift stopped and two of the agents opened the cage, they used mirrors to check the side of the opened doors of the lift. The building shook as an explosion shattered the silence. The black man laughed as it happened, they exited and walked through the corridor leading out of the building.
Opening the door that was already ajar, the heavily armed agents exited through the entrance and spread out, letting the black man and the soldier seated on the strange chair out.
Destruction, this is what could only be construed by the view that the soldier could see. Men in some kind of modern blue and silver armor were checking the dead, and sought out for anything in the debris of tanks, buildings, vehicles and felled watchtowers. There were bodies everywhere. Weapon fire could still be heard ringing in the air, there seemed to be resistance somewhere.
"Ah, finally fresh air." The black man breathed in the smoke and the strong coppery smell wafting from the destroyed defensive emplacements. From the Ammunition Storage Facilities to Communications Center.
Even the Air field and warehouses seemed to have been destroyed by a vigorous bombardment. The soldier thought that this shouldn’t have been possible, unless they surprise attacked the base. However, the superior technology they demonstrated told him that Hydra was outmatched. If he could the soldier would be smiling right now, *Serves them right.*
The soldier’s attention was attracted by something that was in the sky, it was an airplane? It was a silver and black sleek vehicle that was floating in the air; it was thirty meters long and ten meters wide.
“The shuttle is here, sir.” One of the goons said.
Nodding with a smile on his face, the black man in a trenchcoat said, “Clear the air field to allow it to land.”
However, something was bound to go wrong despite how well their operation was going. Sounds of combat were quickly approaching. Bang! Boom! Crash! A vehicle was attempting to break free from the encirclement, obstacles and ruined bodies around the base. Someone was running after them.
SOMEONE WAS RUNNING AFTER THEM. *How was this possible?*The soldier’s eyes were wide. They were catching up to a vehicle going more than 90 mph.
The black hummer ran over one of the goons in black and was about to reach the base’s entrance. The figure who was running after the hummer took a pistol from its thigh holster and… fired. Three streaks of blue light hit the back of the armored vehicle and in an instant it was simply gone. Only leaving the forward section of the hummer intact. Two power armored figures ran after the hummer and reached the driver side and pulled out a woman in an air force uniform, she seemed to be heavily decorated. She was struggling in the arm of the armored operator, the second one shot her with some kind of weapon that discharged an electric shock, the woman seized and then her body slackened, she stopped moving.
The black man looked as the previous armored figure walked toward them; the soldier saw the sleek and feminine silhouette power armor approaching, it was a black and red in color. The helmet reminded the soldier of those that the knights in the medieval era wore. When the armored woman arrived before them, her helmet retracted onto itself. She was tall and beautiful, and had shoulder length red hair.
When she looked at the Soldier, she made a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and said, “Hello Soldier, remember me? You shot me at Odessa.”
He did, and he knew that he wouldn't get the death he wished to have.
~/.\~
(Komand’r/Blackfire)
Hovering over the frozen Labrador Sea on the western coast of Greenland, I became somewhat excited by what I was about to do. I was about to recover one of my childhood's heroes when I was human. I decided to take an active role after TALI showed me her plan, she was coordinating everything currently, Fury was taking care of the trash with Natalia and some of my Space marines; me, I went to bring Peggy to the main ship and gave her the regeneration treatment similar to Natalia with similar enhancements but in a more controlled. Natalia was beyond human, now and I didn't want to force this on anyone else.
Peggy and I spoke a lot about the future and she had agreed to undergo the operation to meet Steve and eventually protect this world when I would be away on Asgard. As I was taking Natalia with me on my adventures, Earth needed a replacement for her, and Peggy was my choice. The old woman was already being prepped by Healer Talonn to enter the regeneration tank when I left the ship.
Smiling, I used the instruments of the ship in orbit to see beyond the sheet of ice covering that particular spot of the coast of greenland. Ocean life and reefs could be seen and… was that an Atlantean down there farming? Yes it was a man with a fish tail instead of legs; I ignored him, I didn’t want any trouble with Atlantis, even more so if I didn’t know if it was the DC or Marvel Atlantis, I hoped it was the one from DC, I don’t want to have Namor after me.
My eyes finally fell on the half exposed cockpit of the airplane’s carcass that Hydra had built near the shore and under the ice, it was a really big airplane… the design looked inefficient to me. Though, I could acquiesce to the fact that Johann Schmidt had been a genius only impaired by the level of technology of his time, but he should have known better than to depend solely on the Tesseract to power the technology.
As I moved through the air over the spot where the derelict airplane was, I built up enough energy in my starbolt and shot it where my target was supposed to be. I didn’t want to destroy the plane, but melt the ice over it. That is why my sustained beam was as scorching as ten summers; I carefully regulated the temperature as much as I could.
The ice melted visibly and broke little by little. Until the hole was in the ice sheet was big enough to let the wreck surface, I channeled my starbolt this way. It was a draining exercise, however I needed the practice as my abilities grew the more I exposed myself to the sun in space. I needed control, and you can only learn it by doing.
Finally, the hole was big enough and I dived into the frigid water, but the cold didn't affect me. I swam toward the back of the wreck and charged my starbolt again and formed a construct with it in the form of a scoop and dragged the ground under the airplane’s carcass to slowly bring it to the surface.
The plane wasn't heavy to me, in terms a human could understand, it was like a really fit woman lifting a twenty kilograms weight. The wreck must be loaded with ice as well, so my estimate was that it weighed less than a C-130 Hercules and those things weighed at take off over 69 000 kilograms. I was happy that I was this strong when I applied myself, I saw more sun dips into my future to augment my power and abilities.
It wasn't long before the wreck and I emerged from the hole I made in the ice sheet. I continued pulling the wreck to shore and left it on the basalt beach. Floating toward the cockpit, I saw a lot of people on the shore, mainly people living in the surroundings who had fishing boats or houses. I heard them from afar talking about me, they were also pointing their fingers at me. I don't understand what they are saying as they are speaking Danish or some form of Scandinavian language; I shrugged and returned to work.
I used my starbolt like a plasma cutter around the cockpit's window and lifted the remnants of the windshield out of the way on the wreck's side.
As I entered the cockpit, I immediately saw where the cap was sleeping because of the shield decorated in US flag color. Just like before, I scooped the ice containing the man's body, bent over and picked up the shield and slowly flew out from the plane. When I reached the beach, I spoke aloud while mentally activating my uplink with the Hyperdimension, "Target secured, ready for transport to the medical bay."
Blue light wrapped itself around the block of ice on the starbolt construct and it immediately disappeared in a flash of light. I chuckled and was happy to have fulfilled part of my mission.
"Now it's time to destroy the plane, littering is forbidden." I said as I charged my starbolt more than before.
With one shot, I completely disintegrated the entire plane wreck. It took me five seconds, I nodded satisfied that I wasn't going to be fired. I looked behind me and saw a lot of people, mainly middle school aged or high school kids with their phones out and recording me. Some of them seemed really animated and pointing their fingers at me or shouting questions I didn't understand. I waved at them with an indulgent smile, then gained altitude while glowing purple like a strolling light and started to fly at super speed toward the US, I had some people to kill. A purple man in particular.
At this point, I had completely forgotten that I was still wearing the vibranium shield of Captain America on my arm while those people had recorded me and it was going to be another media circus that I will need to handle later.
~/.\~
(General Hale)
Location: ???
Clarisse Hale woke up from her slumber to a white metallic ceiling. She slowly sat up and realized that she was on a cot on a bed attached to the wall that was similarly white. Clarisse stood up with difficulty, she felt a high level of discomfort at the same time, then she remembered that she had been trying to escape from someone with her subordinate. She had been speeding with her hummer out of the base that was being attacked by aliens in power armor and bombarded from above.
They had appeared so suddenly, when the base’s defenses had activated and targeted all the installations from what she thought was orbit. It was simply a massacre. The defense troops were cut down due to the technologically superior enemy that even tanked Hydra’s experimental weapons. It was at this point that Clarisse understood that she had been arrogant and a fool to think that they wouldn’t be implicated. Hydra was found out and that damn alien Princess was taking no quarters.
Things went downhill when a cloaked Assassin directly went for her and killed her subordinates at the same time. No level of armor seemed to work, Clarisse had fled to the nearest parking area and taken one of her remaining subordinates with her and tried to flee; only to be pursued by a relentless enemy. The black armored woman followed the hummer by running on foot and simply vaporized the back of the military vehicle.
Her subordinate in the back of the hummer had been disintegrated too, she knew it. Clarisse looked around her, she was in a cell, between four white walls. She found that there was a cubicle near her cot, with a metallic white form reminding her of a toilet. At least she seemed to have decent amenities…
One of the white walls of the cell became transparent and showed outside. It was a corridor where she could see into another cell, and in it was… Allegra de Fontaine. Was she in the cell block reserved to female inmates? She heard someone coming, the distinct sounds of steps could be heard; there were multiple people from what she guessed.
"As you can see, sir. We have caught the ring leaders." Clarisse heard a familiar voice say.
It was the voice of Nick Fury, she was sure of it.
"Indeed, and they are all known to me, Nick. Some of them are still unconscious." Another familiar voice that she had heard before answered.This was the… POTUS? It couldn’t be!
"Fury?" This time Clarisse recognized the voice of Donald Pierce, one of her peers.
*Did they get him too?* Clarisse started to understand that they may have gotten all of them from the High-council and that there might not be any rescue in sight for her.
"Pierce, my boy, you've been naughty." Fury’s voice became harsh.
Thump! Clarisse heard someone smacking against something metallic. She touched the transparent wall and knocked on it. Yes it was some kind of transparent metal.
Thump, thump! "Fury! What is the meaning of this!?" Pierce shouted with anger in his voice.
Clarisse noticed that Allegra de Fontaine was stirring on her cot. Fury chuckled at Pierce’s actions and said, "Could you lower your voice? The other inmates are still asleep."
Fury had smugness filling his tone when he continued to speak. "We caught all of your Hydra friends, the high council? That is such an arrogant name."
There was a long stretch of silence, Clarisse Hale knew at that point that being in those cells meant that they were all doomed; but it seemed that Pierce didn’t want to see reality. "I am SHIELD's director and I want…"
Fury cut him off. "It doesn't matter what you want, you stupid fucks have been running about for 60 years and fucked up things for everyone on the planet. It stops now, as we speak we are dismantling your little organization."
*There was nothing to say to that.* Hale thought. They’ve got everyone, she was sure of it. Clarisse watched as Allegra stood up and looked around her. She finally saw her from the other side of her cell and tried to pass through the transparent wall, only to smack into it.
The fallen general chuckled a bit at the woman’s stupidity. Allegra glared at Hale for laughing at her; but she stopped when she heard the 44th president of the US declare, "Donald Pierce, you and everyone from your organization committed treason, you know what that means? You'll be put on trial on this space station after we get members of the UN up there. We can't keep you on Earth, you might have people to get you out."
The only sentence for treason was death. The law was clear; whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
Some other countries where Hydra had been active in had more or less the same law concerning treason. The conclusion was that none of the high council was going to live past this week.
"Yeah, tell him, Barack." Fury laughed.
Clarisse tried to see past the transparent wall, but the two men were farther from her cell that she anticipated.
"I got this, Fury." The president told Fury to calm himself. Then the POTUS said with frost lacing his voice, "The US government will push for maximum punishment, and that is execution."
Hale and Allegra gasped, followed by Pierce beating on his cell's transparent wall. "W-what?! No this can't happen, we won't fall like this!"
Hale understood that if the US pushed for it the other countries would follow suit with the sentence. President Obama continued his tirade. "What did you expect? You killed an awesome opportunity we had with our guests from the stars, everyone in the UN is pissed at You. They want you all dead after we revealed all the nefarious deeds you perpetrated in their respective countries as well."
Pierce shouted, "This isn't the end! I will get out of here and-"
But he was suddenly silenced. Hale didn't like this, it meant that the visitors had control over the cells. She continued to listen in, trying to get more information about her situation.
"The fucker always thought he was untouchable, look at him now." She heard Fury mock his previous boss.
Their footsteps got closer and closer until they stopped between Hale and De Fontaine’s cells. They looked rather smugly at the two women. The president wore a white astronaut suit with a helmet under his arm, Fury wore the same but it seemed more compact than the one the president possessed.
They looked at the dishevelled state of the two women with a savage satisfaction that rattled Hale. Fury waved at her, "Barack, look, General Hale and Miss De Fontaine are awake."
"They are. And they must have heard us talking to their pal, Pierce." The president guessed.
Hale simply glared at the man. The general started to curse the moment she met Jasper Sitwell and Wolfgang von Strucker at HYDRA's secret school. President Obama looked at her and simply shook his head in disgust. “Brigadier General Clarisse Hale, you're fired, your court martial starts in two days.”
The woman in question closed her eyes and fell on her knees, she knew that it was going to happen. Her career and her dreams were dead; but what about her daughter? She was at the Organization’s academy, did Fury find it as well?
The current director of SHIELD turned to the raven haired woman in a trendy grey pantsuit. “Allegra, my girl, as for you, we froze all your assets and you'll be put on trial as well."
Hale had the disgrace of looking at Allegra beat on her cell’s wall and lying to save her skin. "This is a mistake! I am not a Hydra agent!"
Hale couldn’t handle such betrayal and stood up. "Allegra you traitor! You would lie and betray the cause?!"
"Shut up, you Hydra cheerleader!" Allegra spat, her expression was venomous; then returned to pleading to Fury. "Fury! You can't do this to me! I funded your fucking organization! You owe me!"
Fury just moved his hands on the transparent metal wall and it became more opaque and white in color. Hale noticed how the bracelet at the Director’s left wrist beeped and glowed when he waved at Allegra’s cell. Things changed when Fury turned as he heard the woosh sound of a door; he turned and straightened himself; the president did the same, almost letting go of his helmet.
Komand’r came floating next to the two humans and landed between them, looking at Hale, then she turned to Allegra’s cell as if she could see her. This was confusing to Hale and implied a lot of things she didn’t like. Princess Blackfire is a tall young woman with glowing green eyes, orange skin adorned by a black and purple leotard with silver decorations. Her long mane of reddish black hair shone under the lighting.
"Are those them?" The alien princess asked Fury.
Blackfire looked at Hale, her expression devoid of emotion. The general knew that she’d be killed instantly if she acted up, facing this alien princess was like being in front of a large and hungry tiger. Clarisse had seen the alien’s abilities and the sheer firepower that she had at her disposal made anything Hydra or people like Tony Stark came up with look like toys.
"Yes Princess." Fury said in a serious tone, all trace of mirth to Hale’s situation gone.
The green glowing eyes refocused on Hale. "They are lucky that you did the talking me out of doing the spacing of them through the airlock."
Hale shivered, Princess Blackfire talked about killing all of them as if she spoke about the weather. She pointed a finger at the General and asked, "This is the one called Hale?"
“It’s her.” Fury nodded.
The alien princess walked closer and… passed through the transparent cell’s wall. The president, Fury and Hale looked completely shocked by this. Then they realized that they shouldn’t be, technically this space station belonged to her. The princess stood before the dishevelled woman in uniform and asked her, "I heard it was you who organized the operation against my people. Do you like how I crushed your insignificant organization in barely two days?"
Hale’s training and indoctrination kicked in, she said nothing and looked stubbornly between the alien’s eyebrows. She looked just like what a pulp fiction comic princess would look like, right down to her skintight suit, Hale loathed her to have put her in this position.
"No words for me?" The princess cocked her head. Then she began to smile and slowly approached the military woman.
Clarisse prepared herself for violence, but nothing happened, just the alien princess looking intensely at her. “Your mind isn't your own, you only think of doing the furthering of the goals of your organization despite doing the dreaming to reach the stars; you gave up everything for something… no, someone.”
This got through Hale and her mask of indifference, the alien was treading on personal memories and what she considered more precious than her own life. She looked back at the princess with hatred in her eyes.
Princess Blackfire’s smile became more radiant, as if she had won a prize. “Oh. Yes, you have a daughter. This is the someone."
“Okay, I call bullshit, she’s a psychic now?” Fury commented in the background.
Hale threw herself at the princess who sidestepped her assault and the woman smacked into the wall behind her. But like a crazy banshee, the general bounced back and turned to face the alien. "Don't you dare speak about her!"
Hale charged Komand’r yet again; only to be caught by the neck; the alien gripped her tightly and lifted Hale from the ground. Blackfire looked into the woman’s eyes as she was being strangled. "You aren't worthy of being a parent."
The princess threw the woman on her cot against the wall. Hale held onto her neck, finally free to get precious oxygen into her airways. Blackfire simply exited the cell with a skip in her steps, when she turned her head toward Fury she declared, "Fury, I will be taking Ruby Hale into my custody."
Clarisse was suddenly on her feet and ran into the transparent wall and beat her fist against it. "No!"
Thump! Thump! Thump! Fury looked at how demented the poised general was now acting.
He rolled his lone eye at the princess' antics. "What for, your Highness?"
Blackfire grinned, showing her perfect teeth; Hale wanted to kill that damn alien, she dared to threaten her daughter!
"Remember what we spoke about, the Avengers? I will do the joining if you allow me the guardianship of Ruby Hale." Blackfire said like a little girl wanting a toy at the mall.
This was the kind of behavior that baffled the humans, one moment she was a dangerous killing machine, another she could be childish or act like one of those valley girls that you see in the movies. Fury looked at Hale pleading eyes, he didn’t care; the girl would be better with the princess anyway.
"This could be arranged." Fury agreed.
Full of rage, Hale beat against the wall again. "You monsters, leave my daughter alone!"
Princess Blackfire turned to the general and shrugged, "You are going to be executed in two days, Hale. There’s nothing for your daughter on this planet anymore, your organization is gone too, she might as well become one of my new handmaidens. See the silver lining in this, your daughter will succeed in making your dream of walking amongst the stars true." Blackfire said in clear English for the first time since she arrived.
As if her strings were cut, Hale fell on the ground; she began to sob. Fury and president Obama looked warily at the princess and saw how she dealt with her enemies; she got under the woman’s skin in record time and demolished her resistance and proceeded to take everything from her. They prayed to god to never become her enemy.
Blackfire looked at the president of the USA and said, "President of the Baracks, Greetings. I wanted to do the meeting of you."
The wall gained in opacity and became white, cutting the sound from outside from reaching Hale’s cell. She didn’t even notice as she was wallowing in her failure and continued to cry for her daughter’s future.
A/N: Hydra was quickly dealt with, the UN and people will be made aware of what they did and everyone will call for their blood. What do you think?
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