Kidnapping part III

January 18th, 2014

Ava Starr/Ghost

At the same time, in a warehouse next to a harbor, an attack had gone very, very, wrong. A group of HYDRA soldiers wearing black tactical gear were roaming around the dark confines of the warehouse, spinning around as they kept their guns aimed and ready. Centipede soldiers stood among them, their eyes glowing red as they strode through the room.

"Where the hell is she now!?" one of the soldiers yelled.

"I don't know, damnit!" another replied, his eyes wide with fear. "She just-hkk!"

The men and women in the group spun to see a hand inside his chest, right where his heart lay.

The woman who had her hand in his chest was wearing an all-white outfit, armored over her chest, and with a hood that went over her head. The helmet beneath her hood was all white, with five eerie red lights that stared at them. She stood for a moment, watching the HYDRA soldiers around her. Then she squeezed her hand, and an oddly vicious, wet sounding snap came from the man.

"Open fire!" One of the soldiers yelled and they started shooting. The woman seemed to fade briefly from existence, allowing the man she had killed to fall to the ground riddled with bullets. Any shots that actually hit her, flew through her phantom-like form before she disappeared. When she appeared again, she kicked a HYDRA agent with polka-dot skin in the neck, collapsing his trachea. She disappeared again as assault rifle fire aimed at her and reappeared next to a Centipede soldier, who she punched in the face. The soldier took the blow without flinching, then grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up. He began to throw her at the ground, but she suddenly became intangible, moving through his form and flipping backward before pressing a hand in his head, squeezing his brain moments later, then going invisible again.

She flipped behind cover, using the enemies confusion to take a moment to breathe. "Any chance on that back up? Those Centipede guys are hard to kill."

"On its way, Miss Starr," Jarvis said. "They were in the midst of saving people from an apartment fire, so they were a bit held up."

Ava Starr, codename Ghost, nodded, then got up and stepped away from her cover. With a running start, she fazed through her cover, moved at high speed in between the quantum and real world, then kicked a Centipede soldier in the chest. Her kick, augmented by her phasing, sent the Centipede soldier flying. Ghost flipped in the air and went intangible to let bullets fly past her, spinning to kick a HYDRA agent in the face, then phasing through a Centipede soldier attempting to grab her before grabbing the back of his clothes and twisting so that a HYDRA agent shooting at her hit the Centipede soldier instead. Going invisible again, she dived into cover.

One of the HYDRA soldiers cursed. "Damn it, we're supposed to capture her!?"

"Just kill her already!" another one yelled. "Strucker can study her body!"

"We've been trying-hkk!" Ava blinked at the sound of the HYDRA soldier getting interrupted.

Last time she'd heard that it was because of her. But if she wasn't the reason... Leaning out of cover, she checked out the situation.

An arrow had slammed into HYDRA soldier's heart. An arrow that was blinking.

BOOM!

Ava dropped back into cover as the arrow exploded. More arrows fell into the din, forcing the soldiers to scatter. Over forty men had been sent, of which Ava had killed ten since they'd started chasing her. Now, thanks to the mysterious archer, only twenty or so remained.

"Aid has arrived," Jarvis said over Ava's comm unit. "Prepare for transportation."

"Wait, who-"

A blue blur came to a stop next to Ava. She looked up at the being that had come into existence. "Hi, I'm Dial," the being said, in the form Ava would later learn was called Fasttrack. "Wanna get out of here-"

"Look out!" Ava yelled when a Centipede soldier came from the smoke to grab at Fasttrack.

There was a blur. Then the Centipede soldier was flying back from Fasttrack, who had taken a boxing stance. He smirked, waving his fists, which were dripping odd colored blood. "Yeah, got to hit these guys a lot to cause any damage."

He turned back to Ava. "Come on!"

Ava nodded, rising to her feet, only to blink when the alien swept her bridal style into his arms. There was a blur of motion as the room moved around them, arrows falling from the sky to kill HYDRA and Centipede soldiers. Then they were outside in front of a waiting Quinjet. Ava, panicking, went intangible and dropped to the floor.

"What just happened!?" she asked, rolling to stare at Fasttrack. He blinked. "Did you just-"

"Ava!" she turned to see the Quinjet open in the back. Inside was Bill Foster, her adoptive father, an older black man who was a bit overweight. He waved towards her, yelling as the Quinjet started up. "Come on! Let's go!"

Ava, still confused, ran into the Quinjet, Bill hugging her tightly before guiding her into a seat. Fasttrack looked at Bill Foster for a moment. "Huh. Morpheus. That's cool."

With that, Dial ran into the warehouse as the Quinjet took off into the sky.

Wolfgang Von Strucker

January 19th, 2014

"An entire goddamn platoon!" Strucker slammed his fist onto his desk, rage in his eyes. "Fifteen Centipede soldiers, 25 of our best, all dead or captured! And we didn't even get our objective!"

"Calm down, Wolfie," Garrett said casually, pouring a glass of scotch. Malick and List were in the room as well, watching as Strucker cursed in anger. "We still got the others."

"The others are just future experiments," Strucker said, spinning the scepter in his clawed hand. "Ava Starr was a fully fledged Enhanced! Her abilities make her one of the best assassins and thieves in the world. With more like her, there could have been nothing we could not accomplish!" Strucker's scepter glowed with his agitation.

"Hey, we can still make more super-soldiers and gamma-enhanced," Garrett said, sipping his drink.

"It is not enough to simply have brute strength," Malick said. "Ava was among the best assassins in SHIELD for a reason. Only Romanov has a better record. And well, she is..."

All the men in the room thought about Black Widow for a moment, then looked around the room, focusing on the shadows. After knowing for certain they were alone, Strucker spoke.

"The fact our men were also captured is worse. They were all equipped with cyanide tablets in their cheekbones, but we can't take any risks. We need to leave," he said in a voice that tolerated no argument.

"Damn, really?" Garrett asked, sounding honestly disappointed. "I was getting used to the place."

"It's our only move right now. SHIELD will track us down. If their captives don't tell them where we are, then whatever damned AI that's helping them will. Sterns is failing to keep it at bay. We head to the secondary location, now," Strucker glared at him.

"Ah well, I guess I'll go get my stuff then," Garrett turned and left, uncaring of any other issues that might be brought up.

Malick, on the other hand, sat still in his chair. List looked at the older man, then at Strucker. Strucker nodded for List to leave, and the scientist rose from his seat, leaving Strucker and Malick alone. Malick spoke as soon as List had left.

"Sterns tells me you refused to go forward with my proposed project."

"Yes, I did. You are asking me to believe in a fairy tale, a religious leader for us to follow. It's not practical."

"Can you say that, in a world where Thor and Loki battled in New York City?" Malick asked.

"Thor and Loki are real, tangible people," Strucker answered. "I have never seen or heard of your god before this."

"And I've worked hard to make sure of that," Malick said. "But he is a power who could make the Avengers and SHIELD fear us."

"...I'm not going to stop the project, if you wish to go ahead with it but it will be on your own time and resources, with Sterns helping you when he isn't working for me. The pieces of the monolith passed down by my family are in the vault in Germany. They are at your disposal, Malick, but know this. You won't be bringing some destined leader to rule over us all. HYDRA has outgrown the idea. Whatever you bring from that portal of yours, it can only be an asset or an enemy," Strucker stated.

Malick rose from his chair, his eyes hard. "You dare to attack him, and I swear. The pain that I will bring upon you will-"

"You are not," Strucker's voice, still and hard as stone, brought Malick to a stop. The scepter in Strucker's clawed hand glowed ominously. "The leader of HYDRA. And no one fears you anymore. I show you respect because you are due it. I allow you this project because I know what it means to you and I will not spend resources stopping you. But I will not allow us to follow a false god due to your obsessions. It. Isn't. Practical." Strucker growled out the last word.

"...Strucker. What do you know about the Inhumans?" Stucker eyed Malick, who took that as his cue to continue. "It's the name that they gave themselves, thousands of years ago. You know as well as I do that when the Confederacy starts to ask questions, they'll want more than cookie-cutter soldiers. You want your superhuman army, but you'll need something special as well. I can give it to you. But you need to understand, Strucker. Bringing our leader back could save us."

Several moments passed before Strucker visibly calmed and spoke once more.

"...Tell me about these Inhumans."

Author's Note: HYDRA is now officially assembled, WOA. I know people were worried about how many people were showing up, but that's the last named character for a while. We'll go one more chapter to dig into some of the other characters, namely Helen, Rana, Wanda, and Raina, and how they're each dealing with the current situation of needing to run. After that, we go into what Dial and Tony have been making. Ask my beta reader, I think it's pretty cool.

But yeah. Trip, who is important to Team Coulson. Sharon, important to Peggy, and therefore all of SHIELD. Jennifer, important to the Avengers. All kidnapped. Almost like someone wants to piss someone off at this point.

Ava got away though, and got away hard, killing ten men and leaving Hawkeye and Dial to capture or kill others. Can't wait to show the consequences of that.

Overall, I'm proud of this chapter, but I can't wait to get to the action I've been setting up all this time. SO MUCH TALKING!