Chapter 49 – The Realm of Lerna (2)

(Camp Lehigh, New Jersey- Mid-evening - January 11th, 2014)

Steve's grip on the steering wheel was tight as he looked out at the road head, despite his calm demeanour he was feeling a near uncontrollable level of rage building in him. SHIELD had betrayed them, after everything he had sacrificed, everything his friends had sacrificed, he had been stabbed in the back. Not only that but he was feeling like something deeper and more sinister was starting to rear its ugly head, he couldn't be sure but something in his gut told him it was only going to get worse.

The STRIKE team had quickly tracked them down after they had accessed the flash drive that Fury had given him, and they had only evaded detection because of the famous Black Widow's skills. He glanced at the woman next to him, Romanoff was proving to be a great help but he couldn't help the feeling she wasn't honest with him. The thought made him sigh a little, he wanted to trust her and did to a degree, but it was hard, the woman lived and breathed treachery. She had no compunction about spying on him when Fury had ordered it or going off-mission to tackle some ultra-secret objective.

"Where did Captain America learn to steal a car?" Nat suddenly asked after a few hours of silence as they passed into New Jersey.

"Occupied France, and Nazi Germany," Steve responded with a chuckle, briefly remembering the time he had spent freezing his butt off in hostile territory waiting to steal a truck. "Jacques Dernier of the French Resistance taught me, showed me how to blend into a crowd as well. You would have liked him."

"Oh yeah, tall dark Frenchman I take it, ready to sweep me off my feet." Nat smiled. She knew who Jacques Dernier was, and that the man had not been overtly handsome, but wanted to build a level of trust with Steve. Reminiscing about his glory days seemed like a good way.

Steve's face suddenly dropped at her words and smile, merely shaking his head and releasing a sigh. "Just quit it, okay?"

"Quit what?" Nat shifted slightly in her seat as she glanced at the man next to her.

"Putting on an act, I'm not an idiot." Steve moved one eye to the woman next to him while keeping another on the road. "I did spend years around spies and the like, so I know when somebody's trying to pull the wool over my eyes."

"Okay, then who do you want me to be?" Nat asked seriously, looking at the man next to her with more respect than before.

"You know it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know anything about them, or if anything they say is true." Steve chose to ignore her question, feeling like he was just going in circles.

"The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time." Nat's response all given in her usual carefree way it did attract a glance from Steve as Nat seemed to slump slightly and look aside. "And neither am I."

"Sounds like a rough way to live," Steve couldn't help the melancholy that creeped into voice as he looked at the lonely woman.

"Yeah…" Nat's whisper was almost so quiet that Steve missed it as she briefly recalled her Yelena and the life she had dreamed of once. "It's a good way not to die though."

"….I really do want to trust you, you know?" Steve glanced at Nat who had a pensive look on her face as she stared off ahead.

The question seemed to shatter her inner thoughts along with the thoughtful look. Her brief human moment disappeared as Natasha Romanoff was again consumed by the Black Widow.

"So I ask again who do you want me to be?" Nat asked, her smile now cold and devoid of true emotions, however, there was a glimmer in her eye that made Steve chuckle.

"How about a friend?" He really wanted to build something more than just professionalism.

His request just caused Nat to chuckle and shake her head before releasing an honest sigh. "Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."

Steve didn't reply, instead just looked at the woman briefly before moving his vision back to the road ahead. He was wondering if it wouldn't be better to call in for more help, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea, as he didn't exactly know what was going on. There was also the issue of if he did, who could he call in?

Tony and Bruce were working on some project of theirs to protect the world, he knew that Rhodes was also helping so they were all out for the moment. As for Kal, he and Thor were a big dead zone when it came to contact. Rogers actually liked both men very much but they weren't exactly the type you could just dial up. Barton, well, the guy just disappeared after missions, just where he had no idea, and while he suspected that Nat knew, the infamous spy would never tell if she did. So until this turned out to be something Avenger-level serious he was just stuck with the red-headed Russian and her strange sense of humour.

The journey then became mostly silent with the exception of the radio, which much to Steve's surprise was tuned to a folk-rock music station, her choice. He had never really thought about what a femme fatale listened to in her spare time, but this was certainly not it. Nor was he expecting her to suddenly start quietly singing along to American Pie by Don McLean, with her seemingly knowing every word and note. However, his brief view into the woman behind the mask ended as the music cut out and was replaced by the station's DJ.

"Sorry to interrupt a classic, folks, but I've just been given a hit of breaking news. Billionaire philanthropist, tech mogul and candidate for the New York Governor's Office Lex Luthor has apparently been killed in a plane crash earlier today." Steve suddenly leaned over and turned up the report, his eyes narrowing at the news. "The CEO of LuthorCorp and Governor hopeful was travelling by air to a campaign event when his single-engine aircraft veered off course and crashed into the sea about 20 miles from New York Harbour. Lex Luthor is presumed deceased along with his CFO and campaign Manager Mercy Graves. Mr Luthor is not survived by any children or a wife and his newly-founded Tomorrow Party has yet to release a statement. We will give you more when we have it, but until then, back to the music."

Steve's eyes immediately went to Nat both sharing a look that conveyed the same message. Whoever killed Fury was likely behind Lex's apparent murder as well. Although he found he hadn't enjoyed the billionaire's company, Lex had helped them and SHIELD during New York and had been the Avenger's most vocal supporter. Although Tony had said that was only because Lex had sold the world on the image that he was part of the team, and the public saw the bald tycoon as an 'honorary' member. However, despite what either of them thought about the man, Lex's murder was a sign that whatever was happening was a lot bigger than Steve had initially thought.

It wasn't much longer until they arrived at the destination, however Steve knew where they were long before they pulled up to the gate. Camp Leigh, it was a place that he knew intimately, every path, building, every yard was seared into his brain. It was where he had gone from the skinny sick fragile kid from Brooklyn to star-spangled red, white and blue Avenger of American Liberty.

"The file came from this location," Nat said as she held out her phone to track the IP address of the Project Insight file, getting out of the 'borrowed' car.

"So did I," Steve replied briefly, looking at the camp sign before pushing in, his shield strapped to his arm in case he needed it.

The camp brought back so many memories for Steve that there were times that he found himself just staring off into the distance and forgetting why they were here. However, whenever that happened Nat would appear and he would snap out of his nostalgia and refocus on the task of searching where the file was sent from. Shenever said a word to him, and he suspected, in fact he was certain, she knew what this place meant to him and, although focused on the mission, didn't want to infringe into his private moments or thoughts more than she needed to.

Hours passed by, with the sun setting and night falling casting the abandoned base in a dark eerie glow of the moon. Although it was clear from marks in the earth and a few cigarette butts that Nat found the place was not as abandoned as it appeared, there was nothing there. She wasn't detecting any heat signatures nor electrical impulses, and had barely picked up a phone signal. Releasing a sigh, she turned back to Steve and gave a shrug of her shoulders.

"I think we've hit a dead end, Cap. Zero heat signatures, no EM waves of any kind, not even radio." Nat sighed hating when she hit a wall in her work and leaned over the railing on the raised platform she was on to talk to Steve. "Whoever wrote the file either must have used a router to throw people off or cleared out the moment it was written."

However, her words seemingly never reached Steve who was suddenly staring intensely at the building behind her. He had passed it a few times when they had been searching the area, and it had irked him every time but he wasn't sure why. It wasn't a building from his time at the camp so he had initially thought little of it but focusing on it now as Nat talked about people throwing off others caused his brain to click into place.

"What is it?" Nat asked. Before she knew it they were heading straight for the building.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve moved quickly to the building lifting his shield up to strike the padlock locking the door, with Nat close behind him.

However, as Steve raised his shield two things stayed his hand. The first was that now that he was closer to the door, he could see the padlock was mere show and that door had what at one time been a very advanced locking system that would require more than his shield. The second and more alarming was the audible sound of a firearm clicking right behind Nat's head, causing both of them to tense.

"Don't even think about it," The figure pushed their gun briefly into the back of the woman's head, indicating their willingness to use the tool and their keen sense having known what both were thinking about

The voice sounded familiar but given the past 2 days, familiar did little to asway their tension towards the shrouded figure. Anyone else would have surrendered, but Nat was a survivor of the Red Room. In a move so fast that even Steve had trouble following them, she whipped around and grabbed the gun from her target.

The figure was clearly trained as well, and deftly moved their hand to the gun's slide and managed to strip it off rendering the gun useless. The assailant leapt backwards, their hand moving to their side for a backup piece. Nat struck again whilst Steve dashed to the side with his shield raised and ready whilst his partner lashed out with a kick. Her foot never made contact as a second much taller much broader figure appeared next to the first grabbing her foot in mid-air.

Nat was only shocked for a second and then twisted her body around in an impressive feat of acrobatics. She brought her other foot up to strike the new figure in a move that almost defied gravity, her body becoming a blur of movement. Her second blow much like her first never reached its target, as the tall imposing figure's other hand snapped up grabbing her again. She was suspended in the air for a moment before the figure slammed her downwards causing pain to explode along her back.

The move however allowed Steve to react without risk of hitting Nat, he swung his arm forward with all the strength he could muster, releasing his shield at the apex of his throw. The disc rocketed through the air, and should have either impeded itself in the figure attacking them or at least knocked them down with a new set of shattered bones. However, it was Steve's turn to be shocked as the tall figure's hand snapped out to its side and without even looking grabbed the shield in mid-flight.

The other mystery man rushed towards Steve, ready to fight the super soldier but was suddenly stopped by his companion who twisted around and used the shield to halt his attack.

"Steve?" Kal's voice cut through the dark cold air, the tall Asgardian stepped forward, his features becoming clear now that he was out of the shadow of the building.

"Kal?" Steve replied equally surprised by his fellow avenger's appearance, he turned to the other and now that the figure wasn't moving could clearly make out that it was James Olsen.

"Ow, did you have to slam me so hard? I think you broke something," Nat's dry wit sounded out as she pushed herself off of the ground before stretching.

"You are fine, you have slight bruising on your back but nothing your enhanced physiology cannot handle." Superhuman eyes flicked over her and his tone was surprisingly blunt, Nat also noted that the Asgardian had not seemed to have relaxed either.

"Kal, why are you here?" Steve asked. He exchanged a look with Nat having picked up on Kal's tension and the fact that Olsen was on edge too.

"I could ask the same of you, my friends," Kal replied, his eyes shifting between the two Avengers most associated with SHIELD. "We were tracking any unusual SHIELD activity, of which there seems to be much as of late. When we discovered a file for a Project Insight being accessed in a marketplace, a file which led here, and to you"

"That shouldn't be possible, no one should have been able to remotely access that file," Nat spoke out in shock, the file did broadcast their location but remotely accessing it and gaining the information on it wasn't possible.

"You are mistaking me for a mortal man, Natasha Romanoff, I possess technology and powers beyond the dreams of greatest scientists." Kal coldly replied his face still like stone as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why were you tracking SHIELD?" Steve butted in, curious but more conciliatory than Nat.

"Because SHIELD tried to kill us," Olsen answered Steve the man was on edge as he glanced between the Black Widow and the living legend. "Sent Patriot and Binary to do it along with the last Phase 2 warhead. So you can understand if we are a teeny bit on the cautious side."

"SHIELD did what?!" Nat asked in alarm as her calm demeanour cracked and her blood froze. Whatever was going on with SHIELD was a lot worse than she had been fearing.

"We had nothing to do with that," Steve replied looking from the clearly shocked Nat to Kal trying to put every fibre of honesty he had into his words. "SHIELD's betrayed us too, they've sent men to kill us and….Fury is dead,"

Kal made no visible sign of a reaction, and his face remained passive as he studied his fellow Avenger. Steve felt himself tense and resisted the urge to look away from the deep piercing gaze he was under, instead meeting Kal's eyes unflinchingly. Kal then gave Steve a small nod and lifted his left arm up offering the shield back to his friend.

"I am sorry about Fury, he was a good man despite some of the choices he made. But we will have to mourn him later." Kal's response immediately caused Olsen to relax and the tension in the air to evaporate. "For now, we must understand what is occurring before we strike. What is this place and why have you come here?"

"It's the location that the Project Insight file was created, a file Jasper Sitwell was secretly uploading to SHIELD's servers and the satellites aboard the Lemurian Star, a file I took and gave to Fury the day before he was killed." Nat replied her demeanour calm and controlled again with her voice having a twinge of her natural accent playing up, a sign she was stressed or at least very uncomfortable. "So, we thought that finding out what's on it was a good first step to finding out who wants us dead and why."

"Very well," Kal replied after a moment of silence and studying Nat's face before turning his attention to the building in front of him. "I take it that this building holds the key to the information we seek,"

"Yeah, but the locks are going to take some to bre-"

*CRUNCH! SCREEEEEECH!*

"Apologies. You were saying?" Kal offered Steve a friendly smile as he walked past the super soldier and into the building after shoving his fist through the door like it was made of tissue paper.

As everyone walked into the building everything was pitched black and a fine layer of dust was hanging in the air. Before anyone could say anything, Nat had moved over to a pillar and turned a series of switches causing the area to become illuminated in a slightly orange glow of decaying lights. What was revealed was hardly impressive, it was mainly old-fashioned desks, telephones and chairs that had been left behind when the building had been abandoned. The only aspect of the room that drew attention was the massive eagle crest emblazoned on the wall.

"This is SHIELD?" Nat whispered looking around the room, which had clearly been stripped bare years ago.

"Maybe where it started…" Steve replied his right arm went tense as something in his gut told him things were about to go wrong but he didn't know how or why.

"Over there," Kal's voice caused everyone to look at the tall Asgardian who had raised a hand and was pointing to a set of doors. "There is an elevator behind a hidden door, in the area beyond those doors appears to be an office of some sort."

The group wasted no time heading over to the large thick doors, there was a glass pane set in both doors with faded lettering written on them. Command Staff – No Unauthorised Entry. The sign had the shield logo emblazoned beneath it and given the thickness of the door and the fact that all with glass was opaque meant that when this place was in use whoever used this area wanted privacy. Kal entered first followed by Steve, then Nat and with Olsen taking up the rear.

As Steve fully entered the room and his eyes adjusted to the even dimmer decaying lights in the area he found himself almost freezing. Peggy's face greeted him, her slight smile and piercing eyes filled his world for a moment, the trance was only broken when Nat spoke next to him admiring the other images on the wall.

"Stark's father," Nat chuckled slightly, pointing at the middle picture, the elder Stark youthful portrait remained Nat a little of Tony but the father seemed more refined and reserved than the son. Her attention then turned to the picture to Howard's right, the woman looked familiar, but Nat couldn't quite place it. "Who's the woman?"

Steve just stared at the image of Peggy for a few moments longer, not answering Nat's question. His shoulders slumped briefly before he turned and carried on. Nat looked from Steve to the image of the woman, her mind racing as she tried to put a name on it.

"Her name is Peggy Carter," Kal's voice surprised Nat who half turned seeing the taller man appear next to her, his eyes fixed on the image that had so entranced Steve. "You and she would have been good friends."

"You knew her?" Nat's eyes narrowed, she was finding it suspicious that Kal had never mentioned that he knew someone from Steve's past.

"….In a way," Kal replied looking down at Nat, his mind briefly flashing back to the crisis that had threatened the multiverse and brought him into contact with some extraordinary people.

"Kal" Steve's call cut off Nat before she could continue to press the issue causing both of them to look over at the super soldier who was standing in front of a large bookshelf. "Is this it?"

Steve gestured to the bookcase in front of him, it appeared to be bolted to the wall but the years of neglect to the area had led to a fine layer of dust existing on everything. A layer of dust that was being disturbed by a slight breeze that Steve could feel and see coming from behind the piece of furniture.

"Yes, I believe if you push the bookcase forward then you should be able to slide it to your right." Kal moved over to stand next to Steve, his eyes scanning the area in case he had missed anything on his initial sweep.

Steve gave Kal a nod then proceeded to push the bookcase forward, for a second nothing happened then he heard an almost inaudible click as case shunted backwards, allowing him to slide it to its right. The mechanism was old and stiff but proved resilient enough that Steve had little trouble in sliding the secret doorway open. What greeted them was a slightly more powerful brighter light as the bulb before the hidden elevator blinked into existence.

"If you're already working in a secret office for a top secret spy agency, why do you need to hide the elevator?" Steve observed, as his feeling something was about to go wrong intensified again.

"Well let's find out" Nat remarked, moving past Steve and Kal into the small corridor removing her phone from her pocket and activating its decryption program to break the simple keypad lock on the elevator.

It took less than a minute for the gadget to crack the antiquated security system and get the elevator to open up for them. As the four of them enteredit, it became apparent to them that some one had been using the elevator more recently than the rest of the facility. There was no dust on any of the surfaces, and the elevator controls were too well-maintained. There was a tense atmosphere as the four of them descended down, no one said anything but Kal and Steve positioned themselves so that they would first out the doors when they opened up.

The ride took several minutes as they descended deep beneath the earth, no one spoke and the only sound that could be heard was everyone's steady breathing and the slight hum of the elevator's motors. As the elevator finally stopped and doors slid silently open, the four heroes were greeted by darkness, causing everyone to tense up. Steve looked at Kal whose eyes narrowed piercing the black veil before them, the large Asgardian gave Steve a nod whilst keeping his eyes in front of him.

As they entered the darkness, they were greeted by the faint flickering of lights and the low humming of machinery starting up. The room suddenly sparked to life as rows and rows of lights were turned on above their head revealing hundreds if not thousands of computer banks and a raised platform. The platform was surrounded on three sides by a series of control consoles on top of which were large old fashioned cameras.

"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient," Nat spoke out, casting her eyes around the room and shaking her head at the antiquated computers.

Her disbelief suddenly halted when she saw a very modern, very advanced USB port on one of the command consoles. She eyed it suspiciously for a moment before moving over and taking the USB drive that contained the Project Insight file. As she placed the drive into the port a screen adjacent to her flared to life whilst the main camera above the console also started to move, the computer banks that surrounded them also started up in earnest causing the air to become filled with the steady hum of machinery.

"INITIATE SYSTEM?" The words appeared on the main console screen that had flared to life next to Nat and was accompanied by a distorted electronic voice.

"Y-E-S spells yes. Shall we play a game?" Nat spoke out as she typed in the command into the antiquated system, trying to inject humour into the otherwise tense situation, turning to face Steve and Kal. "It's from a movie that was really-"

"I know, I saw it." Steve responded giving Nat a slight smile as he recalled the movie he had come across during his research on what he had missed, it had thoroughly alarmed him about the cold war he had slept through.

"As have I, Matthew Broderick was very good," Kal's statement caused all the humans to look at him in surprise. "What? I enjoy good theatre and I have a friend who is an actor on your world that suggests things I should watch."

"You do?" Olsen couldn't help but ask, failing to recall Kal even remotely mentioning anything to do with the film industries and was now worried SHIELD had missed an alien in Hollywood.

Kal was about to try to explain the difficult topic which was the eternal Kingo and his cover as the one-man Bollywood dynasty. However, he was spared that awkward conversation as the screen before them flickered to life showing the outline of a face with wide brimmed glasses in a sickly green colour.

"Roger, Steven, born 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984. Olsen, James Bartholomew, born 1990." The voice caused the image to fluctuate as the small camera panned to each person in the room before it paused on Kal which was accompanied by an audible increase in the volume of the whirring computer banks. "…..Subject unknown, accessing wider records…file not found…expanding search…..subject not found…."

"It must be a recording or something?" Nat eyed the screen with suspicion like she wasn't convinced of her own statement.

"I am not a recording, Fräulein," The voice seemingly glared at Nat as the camera wheeled around to face her again. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me, prisoner, in 1945. But I AM,"

A secondary screen next to the green fluctuating face turned on displaying an old SSR file of a small frail looking man with wide-brimmed glasses. The image caused Steve to visibly tense an action that no one in the room missed.

"Captain, you know this thing?" Olsen asked, looking between Steve and the large computer screen.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull," Steve replied while moving away from the screen depicting Zola's green face and started to move around the platform looking for evidence that this was just a large deception. "He's been dead for years."

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive," Zola's voice oozed with pride and confidence as the computer banks around them grew louder as if to support his statement. "In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. But my mind, that was worth saving… on more than 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain."

"How did you get here?" Steve had returned to the platform. His voice was terse, as if he was ready to demolish the place already.

"I was invited, my dear captain," Zola responded. Although no longer human he seemed to be relishing the captain's distress. "Invited by the very people, that you laid your life down for,"

"It was Operation Paperclip, after World War 2. SHIELD and the US government recruited German scientists with strategic value." Nat explained to Steve who just looked from the machine in front of him to the woman next to him.

"They thought I could help their cause," Zola responded. A ghost of a grin could be heard in the electronic voice. "I also helped my own,"

"HYRDA died with the Red Skull." Steve shot back at the computer his grip on his shield going even tighter remembering everything he and his friends had sacrificed to ensure it.

"Oh my dear captain, cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola seemed unfazed by Steve's statement, as if the death of HYRDA's leader had been of little consequence.

"Prove it," Steve's voice was almost a snarl as he glared at the machine, his ultimatum caused the screens in front of him to flicker.

"Accessing archives." The whirl of the computer banks increased as the screens around them flared to life with images across SHIELD's and the world's history. "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we failed to anticipate was humanity's reaction to our intention. When you try to take their freedom, they react with violence. They resist. The war taught us much, it taught us that humanity had to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew beautifully, a parasite inside of SHIELD. For 70 years we have been secretly feeding crises, reaping wars and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." Nat spoke up moving forward as if to confront the unfeeling machine, her usual stoic demeanour was cracking again as her blood drained from her face.

"Acc-i-dents will happen," Zola coldly replied, displaying an image of Howard Stark that soon flickered to the report on the accident that killed him and his wife. It then flashed once more showing Nick Fury's file with the word DECEASED stamped across it causing Nat to go still. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic, so violent and mistrusting, that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is completed, HYRDA's new world order will arise. So you see Captain, we won. Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero-sum."

Steve's rage finally got the better of him and before anyone could react his arm with his shield on it slammed forward. The vibranium weapon sliced through the screen momentarily cutting off Zola as sparks flew from the gouge Steve had just cut into the pompous machine. However, his surge of rage ended quickly, as did the silence when another screen to his right flared to life again depicting Zola's green face.

"As I was say-ing, the future belongs to HYRDA," Zola carried on unfazed.

"What's on this drive?" Steve quickly demanded pushing past Nat to confront the restored image of Zola, his fist slamming into the table next to the data port.

"Project Insight required insight. So, I wrote an algorithm." Zola explained calmly, causing Steve's irritation to flare up at the former man, and Nat to push forward desperate to piece together the problem that was tearing her world apart.

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Nat pressed, wanting all the information she could get her hands on.

However, before Zola could respond Kal's voice cut in causing everyone to look at him. "We are being deceived. This contraption has no reason to tell us anything unless it is trying to delay us."

"What?" Steve's eyes flickering to the image of Zola that suddenly seemed less smug than before.

"I grew up with one of the greatest liesmiths alive, I know a trick when I hear one. The machine is trying to keep us here, feeding on your anger and your desire to know more. I suspect it means to eliminate us. We should leave, now." Kal clarified as his eyes never left the glowing green screen.

"Ah, it appears you are the intelligent one, but you do not appear in my records, how fascinating. Though I wish we could continue to spar intellectually, you are now all out of time." Zola's word's were accompanied by nearly all the lights going out and blast doors sealing off the exit.

Steve reacted first, twisting his body and throwing his shield trying to wedge the doors open but they closed before the flying disk could reach them causing it to ricochet off and land back on his arm. Nat's phone pulsated in her pocket causing her to remove it and look at the screen. Her eyes went wide at what she saw.

"We've got a bogey coming in. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops" Nat twisted her phone to show the image of an incoming missile heading towards them.

"Who fired it?" Olsen asked, death squads and rogue agents were one thing but a domestic missile strike was something else entirely.

"SHIELD," Nat responded, lowering her phone and immediately twisting her head to look for a way out.

"I am afraid, your friend is right, Captain. I have been stalling." Zola's voice sounded almost sombre as he spoke. "Admit it, Captain. It is be-"

Kal's heat vision slashed through the console, silencing the machine halfway through his speech to the Captain. "Thank the Norns. That was getting annoying. Captain, over here."

Kal twisted around and pointed to the floor where a large grate had been placed. Realising what Kal intended he rushed to the grate and tore it off whilst at the same time grabbing Olsen and all but throwing the young man into the makeshift hole. Kal moved to picking up Nat and diving into the hole just after Steve, whilst he and the captain shielded the other two heroes with their bodies. The missile struck a split second later causing the area above them to be consumed in light and fire.

The blast however merely rolled off of Kal's back causing little more than a sensation of warmth and tingling whilst Steve's arm strained slightly holding up his shield from the brutal barrage of flaming debris raining down on him. For a few moments, the world became little more than noise, shaking and terror for the three mortals in their makeshift bunker. However, just as quickly as the explosion and raining of fire occurred it was over, the world simply became darkness as the shattered remains of the secret SHIELD base collapsed on top of them.

Steve was straining, his arm felt numb and his legs trembled slightly as he prepared to push with all his might to liberate them from their makeshift tomb. However, he was spared the effort as Kal seemingly without effort pushed the debris off of his back, rising slowly from the ground. His ascent caused the world around them to become visible revealing a scene of smoke and destruction, for the building was completely destroyed and what remained was a large crater.

"Cap, she's bleeding" Olsen's voice caused Kal's attention to snap back down below, the younger agent was crouching over Nat who had a large bruise on her head surrounding a deep cut. "She should be fine, but I can't lift her."

"I've got her," Steve bent down and scooped up the red-haired agent in his arms, taking great care not to exacerbate the injury.

Kal floated down towards them but halted in mid-air his head snapping to the side and his eyes narrowing. The action caused his friends below him to freeze, Olsen began holding his breath as if it would somehow help, whilst Steve readjusted his grip on Nat ready to run at the first chance. What had caused Kal to freeze became evident to all as lights started appearing in the sky along with the sound of aircraft and men running toward them.

Before Steve could react, Kal had blinked out of existence and reappeared before them, his eyes scanning around the area until they stopped on a seemingly random piece of air. Without warning Kal's's grip tightened and he suddenly found himself in the clearing of a light forest. He felt his stomach suddenly do a somersault and it took all of his strength and discipline not to empty it in front of them. A rush of wind hit his face and as he blinked Kal and Olsen appeared before them, the former having his eyes on the direction they came and the latter failing to copy Steve's restraint.

"BLARGH! ….. I really, really - BLARGH! ... hate when you do that." Olsen managed to eke out his words whilst heaving the contents of his stomach on the forest ground.

"I am sorry for the discomfort, but we needed to leave." Kal apologised giving Olsen a remorseful smile as he patted the young man's back. "However, we are in need of a place to regroup"

"I know someone," Steve stated quickly earning him a look from Kal, the two locked eyes for a moment before Kal gave him a subtle nod.

"Very well Captain, lead the way," Kal stated whilst giving Olsen two quick pats on the back before following the super soldier.

"Oh god," Olsen finally finished emptying his stomach and stood up straight before following the trio of Earth's greatest protectors. "….I'm so going to die."

(Secure HYDRA Location – Midnight - January 11th, 2014)

The room was quiet as the current leadership of Hydra's primary cells were gathered for an unprecedented real-world meeting. Although not everyone was present, as everyone eyed each other with suspicion there were notable absences from their ranks. Gideon Mallick was still in Washington advising the president, although no one really cared for their most suspicious leader anyway. Brigadier General Hale was absent but she never attended any meetings with anyone except Pierce, so her absence was barely registered by the people in the room. John Garrett was also not present, but everyone assumed he was on a SHIELD assignment he couldn't get out of.

"Would anyone care to tell me why I should not just snap my fingers and have my very large, very scary friend kill everyone in this room for their gross incompetence" Pierce's voice sounded out causing half the members of the table to jump and everyone to straighten up.

The secret leader of HYRDA marched into the meeting he called, with several guards flanking behind him most notably was the deathly silent Winter Soldier that was always in his shadow. The room felt chilling as Pierce reached the table, ignoring the seat he merely placed his hands flat on the dark metal surface and leaned forward.

"Well? Anyone?" Pierce asked scanning the room to see who would meet his eyes.

"Project Insight is on schedule sir and we have contained the threats," Mitchell Carson spoke up, earning him the honour of Pierce's cold and penetrating gaze.

"Really Mitch, you don't say." Pierce sighed standing up and crossing his arms as he slowly walked around the circular table to SHIELD's Head of Defence, as each person at the table winced slightly at his footsteps behind them. "Because you and I must have a different definition of the word 'contained.' "

Pierce was standing next to Carson now, the HYDRA head's face was completely blank as he looked down at the now squirming man.

"I, I, I, I….." Mitchell started to try to respond but looking into Pierce's eyes caused him to trail off.

"We killed Fury, congratulations, however, that only caused us to have Steve Rogers, Captain America, turn right around and find his sweet way all the way to Arnim Zola." Pierce started walking again now that Carson was cowed, his eyes raking over the so-called Council of HYDRA "Forcing us, or should I say me, to launch a missile and costing us one of our most valuable assets. Now I have already tasked strong-and-silent here with the task of eliminating Rogers and Romanoff in the next 10 hours. However, you are all here for one question. Is there anything else we missed?"

The room again fell silent, no one seemed to want to be the first person to break the cold silence of the room as if some spell lingered that promised instant death to the first to utter a word. Carson fidgeted in his seat looking around hoping someone else would speak and alleviate the pressure that was on him. His saviour turned out to be none other than von Strucker, HYRDA's chief scientist and leader of their European cells.

"Ve are currently in ze process of moving all locations of our bases vhich can be moved, und securing ze ones that can't. Ve have our contingency plans for ze remaining Avengers in place und ready to be activated vhen Project Insight goes live." Strucker's thick German accent sounded clear across the silent room, and he managed to impress Pierce by holding his gaze whilst everyone just glanced between the two. "Although ze Donnergott will be costly to remove, and containing ze Hulk vill require a few sacrifices, ve are ready sir."

"I don't see why we couldn't just have eliminated Thor and the rest of the Avengers along with Kal. The Cadmus assets and the Phase 2 rockets snuffed the bastard out, the others would have been short work." The statement belonged to the Four-Star General who was HYRDA's man inside the joint chiefs and one of their more militant members.

"Because we need to keep up appearances, and compartmentalisation is part of that, Fisher," Octavian Bloom responded back. The elder grey-haired man adjusted his glasses as he looked at the red-faced General. "And also deliberately gathering the world's greatest team of heroes into one spot and then trying to kill is just a recipe for disaster."

"This is war, and we should take decisive ac-" Fisher leaned forward and slammed his hand onto the table as he glared across, but cut himself off as Pierce raised a hand for silence.

"We are getting off-topic," Although Pierce's voice was calm, the look he gave the two men made no room for argument. "However, since Cadmus has been brought up, Corben, where do we stand?"

"The site has been cleaned and scrubbed with no trace we were there. The non-essential equipment has been destroyed, the vital components have been transferred to Von Stucker's cell as per the contingency plan." The emotionless voice cut through the air like a knife, and Corben gave a polite nod to Von Strucker who returned the gesture.

However, it was clear everyone else at the table was eying the man with a little disgust. He was Pierce's man and although highly-ranked in SHIELD and HYRDA, the agent had few allies and even fewer admirers. Corben had gained his seat at the table via his primary job, which was being the Supreme Hydra's resident one-man secret police, a job that did not exactly endear one to others. He was ruthless and efficient, qualities they all admired but not when it was directed at them to keep HYRDA pure, and Corben had proven himself more than willing to expunge members when he saw fit.

"However, there has been a slight issue with one of the LuthorCorp employees we took for the Project." Corben continued on ignoring the glares and hard stares he was receiving from the other members of the inner circle.

"Who, and what issue?" Pierce pressed, surprise seeping into his voice, Corben never even remotely had a hiccup in his missions so such an admission of an issue was unprecedented.

"Dr Pamela Isley, Luthor had placed her in charge after she made great progress with the assets. Nevertheless, she was marked for termination at the conclusion, but it appears that Doctor Isley was experimenting on herself." Corben flicked open a file in front of him to ensure he was getting all the details correct. "I'm not sure of the particulars but she seemed to have used the foreign technical assets of the project to splice her DNA with that of modified flora. We lost 15 men confronting her, but we do have her contained and she is proving difficult to eliminate in her current state."

"Shame we axed Luthor, could have used the eggheaded prick to undo that mess there before punching his ticket." Fisher joked, and although the room was tense, the dry gallows humour earned a few chuckles.

"We didn't." Corben's cold voice caused the laughter to stop and brought a confused look from Fisher.

"Didn't what?" The general asked, his eyes narrowing at the younger and more arrogant agent.

"We didn't eliminate Luthor, we had an accident arranged when he arrived to speak at his Tomorrow Party event in New York, not in transit." Corben explained, earning a murmur from the room except from Pierce who was already aware of the situation.

"So, who took him out?" Carson decided to step back in now that the pressure was off.

"Luthor is not a concern for the moment," Peirce's voice cut in, his calm demeanour hiding the fact he had been scrambling for the last day to find where Luthor had slipped off to, the man had a nasty habit of causing other people problems. "I want everyone focused on either securing their assets ready for launch day or else actively furthering Project Insight, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." The entire room responded in unison causing Pierce to gaze at everyone one last time, seeing who would blink first, leaning over the table again ready to pounce on the first sign of weakness.

"Good then, meeting over. You will all find further instructions waiting in your rides back. Everyone is dismissed." Pierce stood up again, watching the inner circle and top echelon of Hydra's leadership scatter, he managed to catch Corben's eye before the man could disappear, he addressed the man quickly before turning to the Winter Soldier behind him. "Corben, a moment. You know what to do, get to work."

The silent figure of death merely gave a single nod before turning around and walking to the exit. His mind single focused on the elimination of his targets. Peirce watched the man leave before turning back to Corben who had remained in his seat.

"What is the status of Project Sunset?" Pierce asked bluntly, not moving from his position at the head of the table.

"Inconclusive sir. We have recovered the remains of the alien's cape. It and the sword are being sent to separate locations. However, we have yet to recover any evidence or biological trace from anyone at the scene." Corben reported not flinching or wavering under the intense gaze Pierce had him under.

"What does your gut tell you? You think Kal's alive?" Pierce pressed, an unwelcome lump of worry was forming in his stomach.

"High probability of it sir. The assets faltered when it came time and only did 32% of the damage we required of them." Corben recited from memory the report, the only sign of his anger at his failure was a small twitch in his right eye. "We should anticipate potentially intervening, sir."

"Shame we used all of the supply of Kryptonite in the opening move." Pierce made a rare admission of failure, his shoulder slumping slightly as he tried to think of a plan.

"We still have some, sir." Corben's statement caused Pierce's eyes to snap back to the man.

"How? Project Sunset was supposed to use the whole batch." Pierce asked, his eyes narrowing at his most reliable asset.

"Discovered it when clearing out Cadmus, sir. Turns out LuthorCorp employees are just as duplicitous as their boss." Corben clarified meeting his leader's suspicious gaze with his usual blank expression.

"How much do we have?" Pierce's mind started working this new piece of information into the plans he was trying to come up with to deal with the potential issue of Kal reappearing.

"About 320 grams sir, in a single solid block. About the same weight and size of the male human heart." Corben immediately responded not even having to look at his notes to recall the vital piece of information. "I have it with me in a secure box if you need it now.

"…. No, I want you to keep hold of it. Project Sunset is still yours, but as of right now you are to report to the Triskelion, take over STRIKE from Sitwell, secure the area and keep Insight secure and on schedule." Pierce ordered leaning forward over the table to push the issue home to Corben that can't fail this task. "And eliminate anyone that gets in your way, understand?"

"Yes, sir," Corben nodded and stood up. His hand closed around the square lead-lined box that he had been stashing next to him.

Pierce watched the man leave; his stiff almost robotic walk meant that Pierce was soon alone staring at an empty doorway. His mind was still racing over the unknown variables which were piling up. Luthor had escaped the net, Steve Rogers was gallivanting around with HYRDA secrets piecing things together and to top it all off Kal was likely still alive. However, despite the growing doubts in his mind he pushed them to one side, the time for doubt had passed long ago, he had already crossed his Rubicon when he had ordered Fury's death there was no turning back now.

It was either Insight's success, and HYRDA's new order, or their failure would unleash a world more chaotic and dangerous than had ever been seen.