Chapter 6: HYDRA Returned?

"Agent Romanoff, so what have we got so far?" Fury asked as he got close enough to not be easily overheard by others.

"Well from what we have gathered from within the base itself, it was mainly R&D and military supplies. Food, medicines, and various weapons and ammunition. This wasn't one of ours was it? They cleared the base pretty quickly after the attack and did the damage inside." Natasha answered as she studied the various bodies trying to get a mental picture of how events played out.

Fury too began studying the corpses, "What makes you so sure the attackers didn't trash the place looking for something?" He asked as he bent down to get a closer look at the wounds.

"The damage done by the attackers was precise and coordinated. They did maximum damage hitting key points in the structures to give the most direct route to what they wanted. After walking the scene we know they were after supplies, the attackers were after the food, medicine and weapons. That was where most of the fighting occurred, near the storage and armory all the way to the cold storage." Natasha narrated what she saw as she played out the battle in her head.

After a brief pause she continued with a vacant look in her eyes, "There was a typical fish in a barrel situation, after taking the Security Hub and locking down the elevators, it had forced all the defenders into a kill zone setup with multiple heavy machine guns. At least four." Natasha explained but stopped after Fury seemed to stop at a body.

Fury noticed a piece of a tattoo on one of the numerous bodies that was spread around, squatting down Furry pulled the clothing aside. What he saw shocked him to his core. Natasha too couldn't believe what she was seeing.

A Skull with six octopus arms, the emblem of HYDRA marked the lone arm on the body. Fury was filled with a mixed bag of emotions seeing the symbol of an organization he spent most of his career trying to dismantle, and for years he and his fellow Howling Commandos thought they had.

He had to know, is it a coincidence? Is it just some kid being rebellious and tattooing it just to put on an act? Or was this really HYDRA returned? Fury had to know now, not in a day or two, not even ten minutes would suffice for him. He needed answers now.

Fury shot up and in a flash he had pulled out a knife and began ripping up the clothes on the various bodies. Like a mad man on a mission he cut and slashed, not caring if he cut flesh too, they were already dead so what do they mind?

Seeing Fury in such a state, his eyes burned with manic anger, scared Natasha a bit causing her instincts to flare up. Warning her of the situation becoming dangerous, at first she thought it was due to Fury but then she noticed the bodies. Most of the bodies had the HYDRA logo tattooed on their upper arm, chest or back. This told them both one thing, HYDRA wasn't dead and this was their base.

"We need control of this site, and now.." Fury skillfully holstered his combat knife and swapped it for his phone. "Hill, I need you and Captain America in Russia yesterday. Operate under Crisis Protocols until further notice. Bring in everyone, and I don't care if you have to drag Tony in his birthday suit but get him here. I'm sending the coordinates to where we will meet."

"Natash..." Just as Fury was about to explain to Natasha a loud bang was heard feet away from them. "Did I just hear someone ordering someone else to bring me to you naked? I don't know whether to be excited or afraid, not like they could get past my guard dog but it could be interesting." The voice was followed by the sound of power armor moving. Then a tall slender red and gold metal armor walked up.

"Agent Romanoff, you miss me?" Tony asked as his visor opened and he gave her a wink.

"Not yet, I think we would need to part for a much longer period of time before that happens, Mr. Stark."

Natasha replied with a smirk, she enjoyed their little banter in small doses, it can get old real quick when it comes to Tony.

"Ouch, someones feeling feisty. Not sank your fangs into an unsuspecting victim lately." Tony responded, before he could continue Fury's booming voice stopped their conversation. "Enough!! Glad you're here Stark, there is something you need to see. How did you get here so quickly, I know the suits are fast, but she's not that fast."

Tony took on a more serious tone and expression before answering, "Jarvis had found an unknown energy signature when one of my satellites passed over the area. He then detected an extreme battle just 15 or 20 minutes ago. I went to investigate the areas, so I was already in the neighborhood."

Picking up key words in Tony's statement Fury asked further, "Other sites, just how many sites did you stop at?" Just as Tony was about to answer a young man in a SHIELD uniform walked hastily over to Fury.

"Sir, you need to see this." The man handed the tablet to Fury, who reviewed it for a moment as the agent left.

"Nevermind Stark, how much did you investigate at the other four locations?" Fury asked as he held the tablet behind his back as he looked at Tony.

Tony smirked and replied back confidently, "I had Jarvis take scans of each facility and store it. Even 10 years from now you will be able to walk through the crime scenes as we are now. Every bullet hole measured and even every blade of grass is numbered that falls within scan."

"Mmhmm.." Fury muttered aloud, after a brief pause Fury asked, "And what about the bodies? Can your scans also see thru clothing?"

Tony looked shocked and confused, "Look I don't know what that Firecracker over there told you about my hobbies but..." "Enough Stark. Can it check for tattoos on the body thru clothing." Fury couldn't care less if Tony did have such a hobby or not at this point, he was in detective mode.

Soon Jarvis could be heard thru Tony's suit, "Should be possible if I run various scans and look for the various iodine signatures used in this area to make the ink, it may be possible to see it thru clothing given it doesn't have heavy armor or equipment blocking it."

Fury perked up since this could save a lot of time, "What if you had something to go off of, like a template, if they used the same ink would that make it easier?" As he asked the question he pointed down to a torso with his shirt ripped open.

As soon as Tony saw the tattoo of a skull with six octopus arms, his expression hardened and his visor immediately shut. "Jarvis, do a full scan of this facility. I want everything documented and scanned. As soon as you have what you need here, run the check at the other locations and check for that tattoo on everybody, send over a few armors to check manually if you have too." Tony no longer was in the mood for snarky comments or verbal jabs.

He was dealing with the organization that killed his parents. He had done his own digging and everything always led back to this organization. But he had thought they were wiped out not much longer after his parents were assassinated.

"I have a probe on its way that will fully scan this whole facility in 30 minutes. Let's see what we can find, shall we.. Jarvis search for any network signals or data sources, any connectable tech that we can use?" Tony asked as he used his scanners to begin his own investigation, he wasn't about to leave this one to others to complete.

Natasha released a sigh, "You're wasting your time. They removed every computer, server, lab equipment, hell they even took the damn fax machines. All that was left was the security camera digital recorder but it was set to record to the server which is gone so it's no use to us without the hard drive it was saved to."

Tony couldn't help but remark, "Who told you that? If it was a fellow Agent I do hereby swear you need to fire that guy. Immediately. Best and brightest my ass. Well lead the way." Tony gave a slight bow playfully, he was in a better mood now that he had something to work with.

When they approached the Security room, which stood apart from the main building, Tony came across the 30 or so severed body parts which should be a bloodbath. "Well that's highly unscientific. Jarvis, talk to me."

"Sir, the wounds were cauterized immediately upon being inflicted."

Tony shook his head, "Ok so where is whatever caused this, not even my laser cutter can do this in a short amount of time and there would still be blood. What kind of weapon was used?" Tony pondered for a bit on this issue.

"A Light Saber.." Natasha commented with a serious face.

"Star Wars? Really? Ok sure in theory, again let me reiterate in theory. If a light saber truly existed sure it could do this if you cut fast enough. Sure. But light sabers aren't real. You know how I know this? Cause I haven't made one. Though I've tried... A few times... Maybe I should take another crack at it... Jarvis put on my to-do list 3rd Attempt Light Saber."

"Sir, you currently already have an existing file by that name. Would you still like to use that file?"

"Na just move it to the next one up buddy, always moving forward right?" Tony said as they walked to the security office where the recorder was located.

"As you wish sir. A new file was created and named, 16th attempt light saber." Tony almost tripped over his own feet at hearing Jarvis, Natasha could hardly contain her laughter. These were the little moments she enjoyed.

"See.. told ya, don't exist. Yet.. But one day." Tony gave a thumbs up. "You just moved up a peg in my books Romanoff, I haven't had a good Star Wars reference in a while. Good choice. Agent Romanoff."

Fury impatient for answers cut in, "Since you both are done with the cute back and forth. Tell me, can we get the last 6 hours of footage?"

Tony walked over to the digital recorder and turned it around, "Alright Jarvis, use infrared to connect to the onboard computer and pull everything from the ROM."

A light red laser shot from the finger of the suit giving Jarvis access.

Tony then turned to Fury and explained, "Although the recorder is set up to save directly to the server, in the case of loss of power or immediate loss of connection to the primary external hard drive, the recorder saves the last 24 hours onboard the internal hard drive. It's to avoid corruption of data since connection loss came from the server rather than the recorder."

At this time Phil Coulson, Captain America in his red, white and blues with a round shield on his back, Maria Hill, Agent 13 and Bruce Banner followed in the rear and all walked into the Security office.

"Ah just in time. Stark here was about to show us the security footage of exactly what happened here. Then we will discuss what we know."

"Jarvis, bring up the video and play it from the beginning of the attack."

Jarvis activated the video using Tony's suit to project a holographic display for all to view, the yet to officially form Avengers watched the attack. Upon seeing the attackers vehicles followed by the soldiers, everyone in the room became much more solemn and serious.

"Did you see that? The guard office was taken out and they are clear across the way from the others. Sniper?" Natasha questioned no one in particular.

Agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye spoke up, "That's one hell of a sniper. They shot thru the walls."

Then Tony's eyes sharpened when a large man wearing a black and gold power suit carrying a gun stepped up to the door and made a gesture towards the camera then strolled in. Tony couldn't help but ask aloud, "Did he just do to me what I did to that idiot Justin Hammer?"

They watched as the man did something to the computer. Then wait patiently.

When it showed what happened after the office was surrounded, Natasha couldn't help but say aloud triumphantly, "Light Saber!! I called it." While the others just starred in shock, especially Tony and Bruce Banner.

Then they heard Fury groan after the video ended, "Not another Wade Fucking Wilson. One merc with a mouth is enough. Obviously not one of your suits Tony and from the sounds of it he has a chip on his shoulder for you?"