Arnim Zola

January 1945:

It's been two years since the Howling Commandos were formed, and my Uniform was made. Stark worked fast and gave me my uniform like I wanted it, within 2 days.

It consisted of black military pants, and shirt, which were lined with the Carbon polymer. He had made a hood of the same stuff, that covered my head, and could be pulled back. The hood would cover my shoulders too.

On my back, were the two scabbards for my two swords, Cothris, and Gulthris, with my daggers on my thighs, for easy access. Then, there were 4 holsters for M1911 Pistols, or any other automatical pistol I had access to, along with their rounds.

Then, there were 5 grenades, that I would use whenever I see a group of Hydra soldiers together. And lastly, there was the Tommy machine gun on my back, that I would seldom use. I just preferred my Pistols, and my swords.

The Howling Commandos, meanwhile consisted of only 8 of us. Steve 'Captain America' Rogers, was the tactical leader, while I, Mason 'Paladin' Aves, was the second in command, and the Team Medic. I didn't mind, as the Serum gave Steve an amazing mind for tactics, which it didn't give me.

I did copy the way his mind works, and gained a similar thinking ability, but I was still letting him lead. This is a good experience for him.

Next came James 'Bucky' Barnes, our sniper, and Jacques 'Frenchie' Dernier, our Explosions expert. He is really enthusiastic about explosives. Gabriel 'Gabe' Jones, was our ammunitions guy. He always had some gun or the other on him, and he always carried 2 magazines extra. He was also our translator, along with me. As us two are the only ones that knew how to speak, read, and write German.

Next was James 'Jim' Morita. He was our hacker. Well, as much as they can be in the 40s. He can hack radio signals, allowing us to know whatever the Hydra is talking about.

Then there was Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan. He was special. While I was the second in command, solely due to my strength, and stealth abilities, Dugan was just as important because of his experience. He'd been fighting in the war since day one, and had a lot of experience in how the Germans work.

And lastly, James 'Monty' Falsworth was an all rounder. While he was a jack of all trades, he was not the best at anything. But, he was brave, and so are all of the commandos.

The 8 of us carried out many missions, for the SSR. We mostly specialized in destroying Hydra bases. Dernier and I would spread out to plant bombs, while I would also silently take out anyone that I find.

Meanwhile, Captain America led the 6 of the remaining Commandos through the front door, simply firing at them and creating chaos.

While I would cut through the Hydra soldiers from the inside, Steve would move in from the outside. In an odd, creepy sort of way, it was enjoyable. Cutting through people, and watching them fall in two or more pieces, depending on the position of the limbs.

And boy, did the sword cut. Mostly I used Cothris alone in my right hand, with a M1911 in my left hand. Meanwhile, 2 other pistols would be on my body, one on my hips, and the other on my chest, along with my GS Daggers. I would use the daggers by flinging them from one enemy to the other using telekinesis, and make everyone ignore it using telepathy.

I know, I shouldn't do it, but I can't let anyone else know about it either. So, I only used them when we were either away from cameras, or I'd planted bombs in the data rooms, or when we were in the forests.

I did use my telepathy a lot too. Mostly, I was the scout, as they thought my senses were just better. I would scout out enemies, and point them out to either Bucky, our sniper, or Steve, who would just throw his shield, followed by me throwing my dagger.

I could now sense the minds of everyone over a few hundred miles around me, in any direction, without any amplification. But, it was no use having telepathy that far ahead when you can't even do anything.

I was in Poland, in 1944, along with the Commandos, when I'd heard something on the border of my telepathic range. It was a cry, of pain, anger, and desperation. But, I couldn't hear anything clearly.

Creating a portal in my pocket to the sky a mile above the last point, I listened for what the voice was, and immediately clenched my fists. Erik Lehnsherr, a 9 year old boy, had just seen his mother die in front of him, because the man in front of him, Klaus Schmidt, did not like the fact that he'd failed to use his powers on demand.

I see Erik losing control, and immediately went in my Astral form, through the portal, while slowing down time as much as possible.

Erik was moving all the magnetic substance within a hundred meters around him, and that was also killing the Nazi soldiers around him. A few pens, coins, and chains had come in and attacked Klaus Schmidt, but to no effect. He simply absorbed the kinetic energy, and negated the damage.

I immediately use my telepathy and knocked Schmidt out, while Erik blew up the whole base in his anger. I then made a portal under the unconscious Erik, and dropped him near an allied base, for them to find him.

I then used my telepathy to copy the powers of Erik, and the memories of Schmidt, so I can know what his limits are, and got back to my body.

(A/N: I'll explain more in later chapters, don't worry.)

Steve just thought that I'd fallen asleep for a while, and simply chuckled. It was then, that I'd promised myself to make sure Schmidt, or as he'll be known in the future, Sebastian Shaw, does not cause much harm.

Back to the now, we were on our latest mission. Capture Arnim Zola. Jim had found out, that Arnim Zola was going to go from Austria, to somewhere we did not know of, by train. And the train was going to pass by the mountain we were currently standing on.

Dugan had set up a zip line, so we can raid the train from the top. The plan was, Steve, Gabe, Bucky, and I, were going to mount the train using the zip line. Gabe was going from the top, directly towards the Engine room, while us three would enter the train compartments and deal with the Hydra goons.

Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be as easy as 2 years ago. As their losses kept getting stacked up, Hydra began building more advanced stuff. There were guns that fired energy blasts, the size of my head. Those immediately disintegrate people as soon as touched.

"We were right. Zola is coming from here. Wherever he's going, they must really need him, as the Hydra Command just asked them to push it." Gabe says, listening to the radio chatter.

Falsworth was keeping an eye on the other end of the track, and says, "It's here, people. Remember. You have a 10 second window."

"Got it. 10 seconds, or we're bugs." Steve says, and fixes his zip line, Bucky right behind him.

As soon as Falsworth gives the signal, Steve jumps off the mountain, and goes towards the direction the train was going in, so we don't have too fast of a crash.

A second after Steve, Bucky fixes his line, and jumps, me right after him, and Jones after me. Using my hands to support myself, I gently use Telekinesis to make sure none of us fall off, and fall only on to the train.

As soon as the train is under us, about one feet below, we drop down, using the train's surface to hold on to ourselves. As one, we begin walking on the top of the train, towards the compartments on the front.

Steve was at the front, so he's the first to drop down the stairs, and open the door to a compartment, while Jones and I prepare our Tommy guns in case of a surprise.

Nothing happens, so Bucky and I follow him inside, while Jones continues towards the front. Using telepathy, I take a scan on everyone here, and immediately see an anomaly, and telepathically knock her out immediately.

Creating a portal in my pocket, I tell Helena, 'I'm sending someone to the London house. Take care of her please. And I found her in Austria.'

'Fine. Send whoever it is to the living room.' Helena replies. Immediately, using the Astral Plane, I move towards the witch I just captured, and send her through a portal to the living room of my London house. Helena will take care of that issue for me.

It's the same as has been going on for a long time. Whenever I encounter a witch or wizard, who worked for Grindelwald and were keeping an invisible eye on Hydra, I would knock them out, and send them to a random place, but never my Manor, after taking care of every tracking charm on them.

Helena, or Cassiopeia, depending on who's available, would take those captured Wizards, and go to Ministry of Magic, along with a letter by me, saying where I found the person. This time I just told her the location.

Helena was known by the Ministry officials as my secretary, and some suspected her of being my mistress, which, while true, was really funny for me.

Coming back to my body, as only a few seconds had passed, I say, "Be careful. I have a bad feeling about this mission."

Steve nods, and moves forward, while bucky stays in the middle, and I guard the back. As soon as Steve crosses a door, the door closes, and I spin around, deflecting a bullet with my sword, and firing a few bullets back at the Hydra goon that attacked me.

Seeing Steve just look at us, concerned, I say, "Go forward, we got this."

Bucky, who was pointing his gun at the opposite side nods, and says, "Heads up. 3 small fries, one big."

Turning my back to Steve, who had his own goon to fight, I fire my gun at one of the Hydra small fries, who has normal energy weapons, and kill him immediately. The bigger fry targets us both, and fires a big energy beam at us. Bucky dodges to the left, while I step to the right, letting the beam harmlessly crash on the door separating me and Bucky.

Deciding to deal with this once and for all, I nod at Bucky, who nods back, and drop my gun. Getting both Cothris and Gulthris out, I run towards the 3 remaining Hydra agents, dodging between bullets, and cut the head of one of the small fries immediately, while Bucky kills the other two with a gunshot to the head.

The bigger one ducks down, and fires his energy weapon at me. Smirking at him, I cross my swords in front of me, showing him the flat sides.

Surprising both him, and Bucky, who had taken the opportunity to fire at the big fry, the swords absorb the Energy completely. Knowing that he's in shock, I stab one of the swords in his chest, which immediately disintegrates him.

Turning back, I throw the second sword towards the opening door, where another big fry was coming from, and disintegrate him too. Going towards the spot where my sword was lying, I pick it up, noticing that the Tesseract energy is gone completely now.

"Okay, that.. was impressive. That's what you meant by they absorb energy and give it back." Bucky says, looking at the spot the bigger fry was supposed to be.

"Yeah. But.. don't mention this to anyone, please. I don't want to lose my swords." I say, grimacing a bit, at the thought of Hydra coming after my swords.

We hear an explosion from the engine side, and immediately run towards it after sharing one look. Steve hadn't come back, probably leaving us to handle it.

We run through 2 compartments, and enter the Engine room, and stop. The engine rooms roof had it's hatch open, Zola was lying unconscious, along with the dead body of another Hydra soldier, 6 bullet holes in his chest, and Steve was seated on the ground, looking defeated, a gun still in his hand.

In front of Steve, was the body of Gabe Jones, with a hole in his head. Gabe Jones had died.

I immediately pull the lever, that slows the train down to a stop, and turn on my radio. "Jim, can you hear me? The train is ours, over?" I ask, with a quiver in my voice.

"Good job Paladin. A bird is coming to pick you up." I hear Jim Morita say, through the radio. He pauses a bit and asks, "Everything alright Paladin?" his tone already signifying he suspects something's happened.

Sighing, I answer back, "We have Zola in our custody, but at a cost. We lost Gabe, Jim. We lost Gabe."

"Hold the fort, Paladin. We're coming to bring him home." Jim says, his voice shaking a bit.

Each and every one of us Howling Commandos were close to one another. Not at the same degree as everyone else obviously. Some were closer friends, like Jim and Gabe, or Steve and Bucky, or Dugan, Monty and Frenchie, or even Dugan and I, as he always has amazing tales for us.

But Gabe was always special in my mind. He was the first person I healed with my powers, and he was also the first person that accepted me despite finding out I was different. While he wasn't closest friend, as that spot went to Dum Dum Dugan, we were plenty close.

And now he's gone. And it's kind of my fault. My presence caused it. I made sure Bucky never dropped down the train, and it cost Gabe his life. He did not fall down and get found out by Soviet Russia, no. He simply.. died.

And I can't even heal him this time, as he was shot in the head. He was dead before I even got here.

Getting angry at myself, for letting it happen, I turn around, and punch at the door to my left, with my right hand, sending it crashing 10 feet away from me, and I sit down in the open doorway, with my head in my hands.

I feel Bucky place his hand on my shoulder, as Steve was in the same situation as I was. But no matter how much he might curse himself, I know in my mind, that Gabe's death... is my fault.

---

A/N: And now we see the first actual casualty in the Howling Commandos. I had no problems with Gabe, but I just re-watched the scene, and there was a very big window, during which Zola or the train driver could have killed Gabe.

Plus, actions<= consequences. He prevented Bucky from becoming the Winter soldier, so one of the Howling Commandos had to die. Gabe was simply at the wrong place in the wrong time.

And no, I did not kill him because he was black. He was one of Mason's closest friends.

Tata!