Chapter 142: Raiding Hydra Base.

New Rule - I will be taking a break on the first, 11th and 21st of every month. Otherwise non-stop typing will turn my brain mush.

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Hela was sitting at the stone throne while Dawn and Ulik were fighting. She closed her eyes to avoid seeing Dawn's face.

"This will not stop me!" Ulik broke off the roots with unimaginable strength and ran towards Dawn.

He slammed his hammer again, but the elf's figure disappeared from his sight as Dawn retreated a few steps.

Unlike Mjolnir that possessed the power of Thor, Ulik's Stormbreaker only carried the Unbreakable characteristic.

Dawn shot out a barrage of magic missiles, which Ulik destroyed with his new hammer.

Ulik was excited, but Dawn was bored. He had other things to do, and he didn't have time to play with the feral beast.

Teleporting behind Ulik's back, Dawn pointed his staff made of Uru metal and a Yggdrasil branch on the slow troll.

[Tier 6 Magic: White Nova]

An extremely hot condensed fire appeared at the top of the staff. The white flame orb shined brightly and caught Ulik's attention.

Chemical magic was extremely destructive, even towards a being with magical resistance.

Ulik saw the small light floating towards him. His furry face was illuminated as the light orb appeared right in front of his face.

*BOOM*

A tremendous explosion occurs, causing a deep ridge on the ground in the direction that Dawn was facing.

Ulik felt like he was thrown into the sun. His body laid flat on the cavern walls as he tried to move. His finger twitched, but that's it.

Hela saw that Ulik had fallen easily. Her pupil shook as Dawn was moving toward her next.

The troll's healing factor was kicking in, but…

"Release me!!!"

Ulik screamed and squirmed to get out of the restraints created by the roots. The strongest troll couldn't even manage to rip off one root before 10 more came out and added to his situation.

"No-nooo," he screamed in fear as the roots covered his entire body, and dragged him to the ground. His scream turned into silence as Dawn turned his back on the troll.

"Don't worry, I won't kill him…here," Dawn muttered as he walked to Hela.

If he did kill the beast here, then Ulik's soul will become trapped inside the Underworld for all eternity.

He would kill Ulik afterward as it would be a hassle to keep that guy alive. However, he would do it away from there so that Ulik won't be the one who will keep Hela company.

"So, you're not even going to look at me?" Dawn muttered as he stood in front of the stone throne. He waited for a while, but she kept being aloof.

"I see, I understand then," Dawn said in a low tone. He turned his back toward Hela and walked away.

There was silence for a few hours before Hela realized that Dawn was no longer there. She opened her eyes slowly and muttered in a low voice. "Goodbye, Dawn Everstar…"

"Goodbye? But I'm still here?"

Hela was shocked when someone replied to her muttering. She looked in front of her and saw that Dawn was sitting at a table he conjured, sipping some tea casually.

"W-What- why are you…?"

Hela couldn't find the right words for it. She didn't understand why Dawn was still there.

Dawn had hidden his magical energy and presence to trick Hela into opening her eyes.

"Of course, to stay with you until you tell me what was going on…" Dawn replied with a smile, stunning Hela as she saw his determination.

A week passed, and the deadlock between the two was still going. At the same time in the underworld soil, Ulik was trapped and didn't know when he was going to be released.

…

At Hydra's Siberia base.

"ZOVITE PODKREPLENIE!!" ("CALL FOR BACKUP!!!")

"IYA PYTAYUS', NO SIGNAL BLOKIRUETSA!!!" ("I'M TRYING, BUT THE SIGNAL IS BLOCKED!!!")

"Chert voz'mi, ubey etikh ublyudkov!" ("Damn it, kill these bastards!")

(E/N: I am not Russian and I do not speak of it, the original text was just (In Russia) and speaking english so I just tried to do something small like this, if there are any Russians around please help me point out these mistakes since they're google translated, I will not stall you any longer so please enjoy the story)

The random agents pointed their energy weapons towards the invading duo – Tarot and the missing Winter Soldier. However, a hole opened up on his forehead and he fell to the ground.

Bucky was holding the rifle that shot the man. He glared at the corpse menacingly as he remembered his face as the one who had put him under the mind blender.

Another hydra agent was attacked by flying cards, cutting his throat without the agent seeing the card path.

Blood spurted out from the agent's neck as he fell to his knees. He stared blankly at the menace who had declared war on Hydra. Tarot moves closer to the dying man and hears the man's whisper.

(in English)

"Cut off one head..tw-"

"You'll die when your head's cut off,'' Tarot didn't allow the man to say his last word in peace before the hydra agent lost all consciousness forever.

"Couldn't you let him finish…" Barnes said playfully. He felt refreshed after seeing the hall of corpses he and Tarot had made.

"Why should I? He's a bad guy. A … willing … bad guy," Tarot replied as he and Bucky entered the main area of the base.

There were 5 cryo chambers inside the hidden Hydra base, however, only two of them have something inside of it. The chamber was only accessible for the Hydra agents that are under Alexander Pierce, and no other Hydra head knew about its location.

"Were they activated?" Tarot said his thoughts out loud. If they were, he would have some problems.

Bucky was solemn, but it was hard to know whether he was solemn because he was thinking about the matter, or because his face was built like that.

"Look around for some evidence. It's better if there are some conclusive ones about Hydra's existence," Tarot ordered the Winter Soldier.

He didn't need Bucky's help, but he wanted to seize some stuff secretly. Especially the VCR evidence of 19 December 1991.

'Not that I want to hide it from Tony, but Bucky wanted to tell him himself. And looking at the footage of your parent's murder is too much, even at his age.'

Ryan swiped the massive amount of evidence and stored it all in his storage ring. He will go through it later on, in which he would solve some mysterious assassination that has no leads for decades now.

"Now onto the duo."

He stands in front of the Hydra sleeper supersoldiers. Placing two cards between his fingers, he threw them into the cryo-chamber.

Instead of the cards killing them, the soldiers were absorbed inside them instead. The blank card displayed the pictures of the super soldiers which Ryan was going to dig deep inside their minds later on.

"Cryo-chamber person didn't count as alive, huh? No wonder clones can be sold in the trading site," Ryan muttered to himself as he placed several explosives onto the core structure of the base.

"White Wolf~ Where are you?"

Ryan returned to his Tarot persona and playfully yelled for Bucky. He walked for a while, and then he saw Bucky standing in front of a small metal bunker that was built inside the base.

Bucky was guarding some Hydra researchers inside the bunker from getting out, not that the researchers had any intention of doing so.

"They are the ones who had kept experimenting on me and the others," Bucky said while glaring at the researchers inside.

The researchers were shivering, their fear had overwhelmed them. They were invited there by Pierce to study the supersoldier serum, and they had been enjoying all the perks given by Hydra in public society.

They are loyal to the organisation without any hints of turning their back against it. Even if a tragedy befell on them and made them (in)famous on the news.

"Waaait, I know these guys!" Tarot said playfully. He had known about them a long time ago, even when the researchers were still working at some universities. Also, he was the one who got them fired and that they needed to stay in Siberia.

"How do you know them?" Bucky asked curiously.

"The baldie is arrested for spiking drinks among his students at the college he teaches, and the other fatso is a member of the KKK."

"NO! We were framed!" The researchers yelled after hearing the accusation against them.

They had been trying to contact anyone using the landline, morse code, and even their phones, but the base was cut off from the outside world because of Tarot. So they had to do their last option – to beg for their lives.

"We were force-"

"Lies."

Tarot cut the excuse instantly.

"Metal arm, let's go. The place is gonna explode," Tarot patted Bucky on his metal arm and notified him.

"...Why did you do that?" Bucky was puzzled by the man's choice. "Isn't it better if they didn't know about our destruction easily? We can hit a few more bases before they find out."

Tarot wiggled his finger in front of Bucky, obviously saying no.

"I want them to become more urgent. More anxious. I want them not to be able to sleep at night, fearing that I might come."

Barnes realised that Tarot not only wanted Hydra's destruction, but to break Hydra completely. He thought that he was the one who had the justification to do that, but he couldn't move as Tarot did. He even wondered if Tarot was a manifestation of his 70 years long grudge against the snake organisation.

Barnes muttered in a low voice, "You had a screw loose in your head…"

"Where?" Tarot was startled and started to check his head, making Barnes chuckle.

*BOOM*

An immense explosion occurred on Siberia's deserted land, causing the satellites to pick up the images from the hidden area.

The K.G.B, the C.I.A, S.H.I.E.L.D, and S.H.I.E.L.D again – but this time it was the Hydra within S.H.I.E.L.D, all of their focus was dragged to the incident. The explosion was stronger than an intercontinental missile, making the world restless as to who was the party responsible for that.

"Who did this!" Alexander Pierce yelled in anger. He was in Washington before he got the notification from his Hydra sleeper agent across the globe. He recognized the place instantly as many of his assassination order was completed by that particular base.

Built during World War 2, the hidden base had survived the Hydra culling at that time. Pierce was certain that no one had known the location other than his faction members.

'So who had betrayed me? Or is it…'

While thinking, Pierce's mind flashes a figure of the man with the metal arm and the card user that declared war with him.

"It can't be…" Pierce muttered in a low voice as he waited for the updates. He currently has an important job to do. The base that was in Siberia and Russia wasn't part of SHIELD or the world security council, making it difficult for him to cover it up.

No matter what, he needed to cooperate with the other Hydra heads to ensure that Hydra remained hidden at the critical time of his plan for Hydra to rule the world.

Pierce connected to the Hydra secure line that was created by Zola. He planned multiple strategies to tackle the issues, but he didn't know that Zola was feeding his entire plan to someone else.

"HOLY SHIT!" The world's top secret organisation exclaimed after seeing the destruction from the satellite images. They won't be able to read the message if they went to the site as the message could only be observed from above.

From the satellite images, the 1-kilometer destruction exploded architecturally, making the debris spell out the name… <TAROT>

…

Three days after the destruction of the base.

"Tarot had destroyed multiple S.H.I.E.L.D bases and murdered countless agents. Do you really think he is a hero?"

Natasha asked Tony as the Avengers were assembled to contain the threat.

They were gathered in the Avenger tower, with only a few members missing. Bruce and Tony were standing on one side, while Natasha, Barton, and Rogers were on the other side of the argument.

"Why only SHIELD though? He didn't attack anyone else… Also, there was the curious fact that Fury's base was built in several sensitive areas around the world that may be the cause of international conflict."

Tony revised every action that Tarot had made. Purging the agents and invading a base, but not stealing anything. There must be a reason for the attacks.

"Seriously Tony?" Barton asked with annoyance. He knew some of the agents who were killed by the attacks. He even worked together with a few. And now Tony dared to defend the perpetrators.

"I am not defending him, I was just thinking. What is his reason for doing this?" Tony replied casually despite Barton's turmoil.

"Whatever it was, he needed to be stopped before he went any further," Steve intervened in the argument.

"Did Knight get any leads?" Natasha asked. She wondered if the Oracle already knew the guy. Some parties had a suspicion about Ryan about the matter, but after some observation, they concluded that it was unlikely that he is Tarot.

"No, and he didn't care about this matter. To be honest… I don't either," Bruce replied.

"Bruce!" Tony widened his eyes while the rest of the group were shocked.

"What? Tell me what Fury did there first, then I will help," Bruce said and exited the floor as the agent's faction was silent.

"Let him be. He was still mad that you guys had detained the Rhino from the Avenger base," Tony explained the matter.

Kai and Bruce had worked together to help the Rhino, but S.H.I.E.L.D had orders from the country this time to bring Rhino into their custody before they could inject the cure.

They used the excuse that Rhino had come in contact with Tarot, the number one supervillain in the world at the moment, and forcefully brought Rhino away.

Pierce had been restless for a few days and decided to create a defence line between Tarot and the escaped Winter Soldier. Rhino was going to be part of his defensive line. An explosive collar was enough to do the job.

He had also pulled every fund he can get on his hands, and threw it all into the insight helicarriers. The construction of the helicarriers will be pulled forward 2 months from the actual completion date – that was already dragged forward before.

Steve sighs. He knew what Bruce is feeling right now. He too felt the same way. Not to mention he couldn't find the whereabouts of the Rhino after he was brought in.

But now, he needed to focus on the new threat.

"Tony, this may not be your fight. But will you help us?"

Tony was silent after Steve asked that. Then, he sighed out loud.

"Okay Cap, but you'll owe me one."

Right at that moment, JARVIS notified them of an ongoing attack. They saw Tarot waving at the camera feed before he destroyed it.

"Let's go," Captain America ordered the rest of the team.

"Wait, I'm going to check something," Tony said as he tapped on the keyboard. 'Okay, Ryan is currently in a meeting at his company…'

After confirming it, Tony equipped his Mark 7 armour and assembled with the rest of the group.

"Want me to call Kai?"

"He's here?" Natasha is a bit surprised to hear that.

"Yeah, he's doing a checkup on Pepper. "

"We will call him if we need him," Steve said. Not that he was overconfident, but Kai and S.H.I.E.L.D's relationship was not great at the moment. Natasha nodded as she agreed with Steve.

"Okay Cap, your call," Tony boarded the Avenger Jets and they flew to Maine, where the attack is ongoing.

…

In Maine, Tarot was alone at the moment as he and Barnes were splitting up to attack two bases at the same time.

"Hmm, when will the Avengers be here? "

Tarot walked around the dim hallway inside the base, leaving a trail of corpses behind his path. The undercover agents there try to call for backup and even run away, but none of them succeed.

"Wait, you're not Hydra…" Tarot said playfully as he grabbed the neck of a female agent in front of him.

"Hmm…what should I do…what should I do?" He said in a fake nervousness as he watched the glasses-wearing woman in front of him piece the clues together.

"Hydra…is inside S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"DING DING DING DING!!! WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!" Tarot showed a celebratory emoji on his LED face. The woman was startled and in disbelief.

"What nonsense!"

She jerked her body and kicked Tarot's head, but the only thing her action brought was a broken toe.

"Don't worry Victoria Hand, now that you know, I have plans for you…"

Victoria's hair was rising up when she heard him say that. His eerie demeanour and mysterious capabilities had struck fear inside the level-8 agent's heart. Her chin quivered as she imagined her demise.

"How do you know my…name?"

She thought that someone inside S.H.I.E.L.D had betrayed them and sent out the agent's information towards the enemy. Tarot was branded the most notorious enemy on S.H.I.E.L.D's list as not even a full corpse will be left behind in his actions.

"Is that really what you want to ask now?"

A magical door opened underneath the female agent. Then, Tarot dropped her inside the gate, causing her to fall somewhere unknown with her scream slowly being muffled.

"Now I have completed my mission here, wonder what happened to Bucky?" He muttered in a low voice as he waited patiently there for the Avengers to come. If he wanted to, no one could track what he was doing until after he was done. He schemed this meeting to ensure that his plan will go well.

Bucky was dropped onto a full Hydra base, with no S.H.I.E.L.D agent inside so he didn't have to be careful about who he had killed. With some additional combat gear from Ryan, the Winter Soldier was unstoppable.

"Let's hope that the Avengers didn't take a detour," Ryan smiles insidiously underneath the mask.

A few minutes later, the Avengers arrived at the hidden base location where they were welcomed by a smiling Tarot.

"Hello there, we meet again," Tony flew to confront Tarot. At the same time, he scanned inside the base for survivors.

"Ahh! Are you a fan? Want my autograph?" Tarot pretends to be a celebrity and shows an embarrassed smile on his face. He covered his red-face emoji displayed on his face with his armoured hand.

"I know you want to be famous, but this is not the way," Tony said with a stern tone as his scans showed no survivors inside the base.

Steve Rogers disembarks from the Avenger Jet using his Jetpack and landed next to Tony with his shield up. "Why are you doing this?"

"OOH…It's Captain America!" Tarot behaved like a child…before Steve's looks on his face caused him to answer the question.

"Because…It needs to be done."

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