Sharon and Trip

Sergei Kravinoff/The Hunter

Sergei thought quietly to himself as he prowled the hallways of the Winter Guard base, nostrils flaring. He continued to flip his bowie knife in his hand.

Dial and Alloy. How wonderful that they had arrived.

When the squalid mess that was now the remains of the formerly powerful Russian government came to him with an offer, he'd been ready to refuse immediately. The country his mother and father had once loved had changed.

No dignity, no honor. Like all civilization. Only in the jungles and forests had he been able to find that.

Men would eat when they were full, kill with explosives and disease. Animals killed. But only for things that made sense. And they didn't waste time on fruitless things, like the internet or television. All actions had a reason. Animals and plants didn't do things just to 'have fun', they did them to survive. Even play was training and exercise for animals.

In many ways, he'd been proven right. A country of fear, of pompous and overblown displays like the one at the airport. Disgusting.

But all that time ago, when he'd been approached, they showed him things. Beings of incredible power. Beings they wanted his help in learning how to kill. How fun.

Since then, he'd been training again. The thought process had been fascinating.

He'd devoured hours of research on the Avengers and their allies, watching video clips carefully. The footage of their enemies was just as fascinating.

One of the best ways to hunt a predator is to watch it during its own hunts. To follow the same trails its prey uses.

And now, he had two of them where he could watch. Now was not the time to hunt them, of course. That was the fun, of course. Patience was the most important part. Patience made all things so much sweeter.

Kraven stopped walking. Melinda May stood there. He hadn't noticed her.

...hehadn't. In all his time back in civilization, no one had evaded his senses. Until this woman.

How intriguing.

"Did you need something?" Sergei asked politely. He kept his hands open, his stance wide. She noticed.

"Mikhail and Vanguard are looking for you," she said simply. "I'm on my way to talk to Coulson."

Sergei let out a grunt of acknowledgment, then moved to walk around her. She was still. Oh so still. As he stepped around her, he could feel it. The same as hunting panthers in the jungle. That tense moment when you couldn't tell just who was the true prey. He almost sighed in happiness. To think, in this pile of civilized rot, he would be reminded so much of the thrill of the jungle.

Civilization was still a waste. But less so than it might have been once.

"Mrs. May," Sergei said with an honest smile as he passed. "Thank you for this. Truly."

With that, he left, all the while feeling eyes like blades digging into his back.

Exquisite.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

March 12, 2014

The morning after though, my favorite geeks had come upon a solution. They gathered us in a room together and started explaining what they'd found. With a torn apart body lying down in front of us.

"They're clones?" I asked.

"Yes!" Simmons sounded absolutely fascinated. "And no. They are technically genetically engineered from the same DNA. They could almost be seen as being related, but they're clones, without a doubt. However further research shows they were grown in pieces in vats. There's no sign of cuts where they are joined to cybernetics. Instead, they were specifically grown to be melded to robotics."

"And the technology in their limbs is from Cybertek, at least the main crux of it, using Chitauri derived energy cells to power the weaponry," Fitz continued.

"What sort of weapons?" May asked.

"Plasma energy weapons, razor-sharp claws, and a hell of a left hook," Skye said, rubbing her arms with a grimace. She was still in full armor. In fact, all of us were ready to fight, if need be. I had my sword resting in my right hand and my gun on my back with my full armor on, Creel had switched to his vibranium form, and even May looked more serious than usual.

"Of course, we aren't sure if these are just foot soldiers or not," Fitz rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Soooo, this could be the elite, the standard, or-"

"Or Kragoff has more powerful creatures ready to attack with," Vanguard snarled. Seriously, ninety percent of his dialogue seemed to be snarling.

"At the least, we know they can be killed by us," Dynamo said. "But there are also markers of early Russian experimentation into cybernetics, as well as some engineering similar to that found in records from HYDRA we found when we purged them from our nation."

"What is with bad guys making lego sets out of superpowers?" I grumbled.

"Can't blame them for taking the easy way to superpowers," Creel mumbled.

"You would know," the two of us looked over at Vanguard. He was glaring at Creel.

Creel had just enough time to get angry before Skye spoke up.

"Anyways, we managed to find out why they woke up when I hacked them," Skye raised an arm and her hologram emitter created a map. "They were all programmed with a way to head back home. GPS coordinates, in a way?" Skye smirked. "But, once I got through their defenses, we were able to track them here," the map blinked and a dot appeared in a spot northeast of Moscow. Waaaaay northeast.

Sergei smiled. "Ahhh. The forests. He's hidden away."

"And probably has a base to do it," Coulson crossed his arms. "I don't like going in not knowing what we can face, but we have to start early. Boris?"

"Yes, Coulson," the overweight politician said politely.

"Can you let high command know what's happening? If we can get military forces to organize while we head in, we can keep this contained."

"Agreed," Boris walked out, presumably to go do that.

"He probably knows we might try to attack him. Vanguard, Mikhail, I'd like to invite the Winter Guard to fly on the Bus with us," Coulson said, crossing his arms and swaying in place. "Probably best if we have our strongest assets together, moving as fast as possible."

Vanguard and Mikhail shared a look. They seemed to communicate non-verbally as we watched before Mikhail nodded.

"Agreed," Vanguard looked around. "I assume we leave now?"

"As soon as I get the Bus ready," May answered in the affirmative.

"Wheels up in five, then," Coulson turned and headed out.

Later, on the Bus, I walked down the stairs to join Crimson Dynamo and Fitz just as they were about to enter the lab. "Hey. May is about to lift off. You guys all good to go?"

"Yes," Fitz smiled, then looked up at Dynamo. "Oh, um… I don't know how comfortable you'd be about this, but my lab isn't really… I mean-"

"It's too small, da?" To his credit, the armored man sounded more amused than offended.

"Uh," Fitz chuckled self-consciously. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about your tech," I tried to say in a reassuring voice. "We aren't going to hack it or something."

"I was not worried about that until you said it."

Fitz and I shared a surprised look and I quickly tried to save face. "I-I didn't mean it, I was just trying to-"

A low rumbling chuckle erupted from the suit. "Joking. Only joking. Here, it is best we begin our work as soon as possible."

Some surprisingly quiet noises filled the room. Fitz and I watched with bated breath as the back of the armor opened up. Faster than I would have guessed, the figure exited the suit to crawl over it and drop on the floor with a hop. The figure was shorter than Fitz, almost rail-thin, wearing workman's boots and a blue jumpsuit that seemed built for both mechanics and pilots. Brown hair streaked with blonde flipped in the air, green-flecked brown eyes gazing on us.

Fitz and I shared a surprised look, then looked back.

"What?" Dynamo's pilot blinked up at us.

"I-I-I-I, nothing nothing whatsoever, what could-" Fitz stuttered nervously.

"I assumed you were a guy," I said bluntly.

Crimson Dynamo, a near dead ringer for Mila Kunis, scoffed at me, waving an uncaring hand. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. Come on, we have work to do."

She spun on her heel, ponytail spinning in the air, and strode into the lab, somehow still stomping with the same amount of force as when she'd been in the suit. "I think if we work together, we can come up with some ways to take advantage of enemy weaknesses, maybe a hacking program of some sort? What do you think, Dr. Fitz?"

Fitz gave me a hesitant look. I shrugged. "Hey dude, she's cool as shit. Didn't really have personal skin in the gender thing anyway."

My fellow nerd opened and closed his mouth. "I-I just don't," he spun to look at Dynamo. "Do you have a real name?"

I laughed, honestly surprised by that. Dynamo turned to look at him, then chuckled. "Galina Nemirovsky," it was kinda funny how husky her voice sounded. Very deep for such a petite person.

Fitz looked at me, then at her. He seemed rather nonplussed for a moment.

Then he breathed deeply and strode into the lab. "Okay, you uh, you said something about weaknesses? If we can isolate the main power for the machines, it's possible we can disrupt them."

"I think you're right," Galina (cool name) grabbed a tablet and started tapping at it. "I think we should focus on somehow making them a keystone army."

"A what?" Fitz asked, confused.

"A keystone army, an army that dies once one thing is activated, destroyed, or removed. These are all connected, da? If we can force that connection, maybe we can find some way to shut them down all at once."

I walked up the stairs, figuring I wasn't as useful right now.

As I entered the halls, I ended up walking past an image of the world map. I stopped to stare at Russia, panning my eyes across it as the Bus hummed around me. I turned away and headed away, wondering how my friends were doing.

Antoine 'Trip' Triplett/A Friend

In a small laboratory in the middle of China, a scared scientist rushed through his lab, trying not to scream. Behind him, screams filled the air. The sound of blades slicing through flesh was followed by one of the screams going silent.

The scientist went around a corner and found himself bumping into someone. The man screamed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The person he'd bumped into backed off with a worried look on his face. In English, the man spoke. "It's okay, it's okay! I'm BRIDGE man, you're okay!"

The scientist breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the man. He was tall, with dark black skin, and very well built. He was wearing a strange armored suit similar to the ones BRIDGE soldiers wore on the TV.

"T-They're behind me!" the scientist stammered fearfully.

The man frowned, looking behind him then nodding. "Okay, come on," putting a hand on his back, he led the scientist away. When the man smiled, the scientist relaxed even more. The man had a very confident demeanor and a charming smile.

"What are they looking for?" the man asked with some concern.

In hesitant and accented English, the scientist spoke. "W-We've been experimenting with a new form of computer chip. Using new materials. I-I'm just a scientist, I-I-I-"

"Hey, hey," the man, with concern, patted the scientists back as he led him along the hallway. The smile the man gave him calmed the scientists. "It's okay. Look, if it's just an experiment, we don't have to worry. As long as you don't have an actual chip, I can get you out. We don't have to worry about HYDRA getting their hands on it, right?"

The scientist stopped. The man looked at him in surprise.

"...There is a prototype."

The man's face fell.

"W-What could they want with it?" the scientist asked.

"...Don't think about it," the man said hesitantly.

"N-No, tell me!" the scientist shouted.

The man shook his head. "It's HYDRA."

That was enough for the scientist. "We have to get it out, to stop them!"

"It's too dangerous!" the man shouted.

"Please!"

Hesitantly, the man stared in the direction of the exit. Then he sighed sadly.

"Okay. Lead the way," the man took out his pistol.

The scientist nodded, still scared but determined. "This way!"

The pair went running down the hallways. The scientist let out a shout when bullets flew past them. The man fired back, pushing the scientist along. "Go, go, go!"

"Ahhh!" the scientist screamed.

They entered a small room at the end of the hallway. The scientist stopped in front of a keypad to a door. "Give me a minute!"

"I'll do my best," the man said, worried. They stood for a tense moment as the scientist tapped at the keypad.

"Okay got-" the scientist turned, only for his eyes to widen in horror. A round shield was spinning towards his head.

"Down!" the man from BRIDGE pulled him out of the way. The shield flew past where his head had been, bounced off two walls, then flew back.

"I-Is that Captain America's shield!?" the scientist stammered as the man pulled him into the room.

"I wish," the man said, pulling the door closed.

Still terrified, the scientist gulp. "Over here," he guided the man deeper into the room. The place was cold, extremely so. Dozens of monitors were set up everywhere. The scientist ran to a set of lockers. "They were going to do some more test on it, but it's pretty much good to go already."

"Then we stopped HYDRA in time," the man said. He sighed sadly for some reason as the scientist began to press numbers on another keypad. "By the way man… my name's Trip. What's yours?"

"My name? Oh, it's Li Jei," the scientist, back turned, opened the locker and let out a little sound at the sight of the device behind all the trouble. He smiled with some hope.

"Li Jei… I'll remember it."

A single shot rang out in the room. Trip's face was neutral as he watched the scientist fall to the floor, a hole in the back of his head. He stepped up the body and turned it face up, closing the man's eyes. Then he reached into the locker and plucked out the chip, putting it in his pocket. Without a look back, he left for the door.

When it slid open, two women were waiting for him. One was tall, with long curly blonde hair. She wore a white skin tight combat suit, carrying a pistol in one hand and a dented round metal shield in the other.

The other woman was barely out of her teens, rail thin, with pale skin and long straight black hair. She carried no weapons and wore only a black tank-top and blue jeans. However, a pair of long crystal blades could be seen stabbing out of each of her hands, two from each hand, with another pair of blades from her feet and another from her shoulders. As Trip walked up to them, the blade retracted into her skin, the cuts they'd created healing.

"Sharon, Laura," Trip said with no emotion. "Are you done?"

The two women shared a look, then looked back at Trip. "Yes. Everyone is dead. Are you okay?" Sharon asked.

Trip scowled. "Yes. I have the chip. Laura," the young woman cocked her head to the side. "You have someone's blood on your cheek," she let out a little 'ah' of surprise, quickly scrubbing at her face.

"Let's go," Trip turned and led them to the exit. "We have work to do.