Proofread by: PervySageChuck
[Unknown Date – Amazon Jungle]
The jungles of the Amazon hold many secrets. Secrets that remain hidden thanks to the verdant green sea of rainforest and jungles that cover the mighty rover area. Many of these secrets remain stubbornly hidden, even with encroachment of human kind in the forest.
There are reasons for secrets to be kept hidden after all. Sometimes, these secrets are hidden so they may be protected from those who seek them and stop them from being abused. Others however... are kept hidden to protect those who seek them from the dangers these secrets may bring upon them.
Some secrets are just meant to be kept secret... but there are some who stubbornly try and find them.
"Stupid fucking jungle!" shouted a lone man as he waded through the thick underbrush of the forest floor, hacking and cutting at the vegetation as he went deeper inside the forest.
His sharp machete cut through the thick untouched vegetation without care of how long those plants needed to grow to those size while his steel toed boots crushed whomever or whatever was unfortunate enough to be on the man's path.
Here we see an example of human kind. He is a thick headed, uncaring and brutish individual that has little to no regard for his environment. The man currently in the underbrush... is unfortunately what the majority of human kind is like, much to the distaste of the living consciousness of the jungle that was desperately trying to warn the human and ward him off from danger.
Yes, much to the distaste of the living consciousness of the forest. The jungle was very much alive unlike what the contemporary scientists of the hairless, two legged apes say. It is alive and well, thank you very much, and it doesn't need any "sapient" animal to prove that it was alive. Yes, it was a strong and independent jungle after all.
The thought process of a forest would be an utterly alien concept for any humans as how could they, a young species, know how a forest communicates thru its flora with the help of a fungi, the fungi that helps in the nutrient cycle of a plant and practically covers the whole forest, as a sort of brain for it.
So if the jungle was conscious, then one might wonder why it was trying to help the human?
The answer would be simple.
What lies ahead, just a few dozen meters ahead, is something horrible. A place filled with all sorts of evil that no mortal being should ever face.
As horrible as humans are, especially this particular specimen, it still doesn't deserve to experience the evils and danger just ahead.
"Stupid fucking plants and stupid fucking ants! God damn you, Strucker! I thought we were friends!" The big man-child of a soldier whined. Equipped with full body armor, the small time Hydra mook was well protected but he was under extreme stress from how stuffy his armor was.
"We went to high school together! You were my drinking buddy, Strucker, but when someone needs to scout someplace unknown, I have to be the one to do it! Can't Kevin do it?" The man asked, as he stopped for a while, panting from the exertion of swinging his machete.
Now, let's pause for a moment. Now, before we judge the poor unfortunate disposable sap as a loser, let's get to know him before he meets his inevitable death.
His name is Hans Gideon, patsy/muscle head/personal assistant/errand boy of Wolfgang Von Strucker. 5th best harmonica player in the whole Hydra organization, brown belter in Taekwondo and best hip hop dancer in the Brazilian base of HYDRA. He also attended the school which Strucker attended.
Compared to Kevin, the guy that nobody knows who hired, extremely incompetent but has more lives than a cat and a sense of danger stronger than that of a rabbit, Hans isn't much of a loser.
Hans is pretty much an OK guy. He doesn't excel much. He's a nice guy actually. He always helps that old lady in the nearby village and helps that kid's cat who always gets stuck up a tree.
Nobody appreciates him though.
That was why he was sent to the place in the jungle that suddenly grew to fairy tale proportions. It was now practically a redwood forest in size with trees that shouldn't grew to those sizes. The best part was that it practically happened overnight when nobody was looking at that direction.
One moment, it was normal trees, then the next time they looked at the area, the area practically grew to epic proportions.
Yes, Strucker basically sent him to his death by sending him alone to the area.
If death or rather an archetypical personification of death were to appear and hold an hourglass, containing enough grains of sand to represent the minutes Gideon has to live, the upper half would only have two grains of sand and one of the two remaining grains is already half way down the hourglass.
Poor Gideon, the last one and half minutes of his life would be something that would haunt a particular Red Head a few miles away.
Now, on the topic of that Red Head...
Her name was Natasha Romanoff, or as she was better known to the general populous, the Black Widow.
On a tree a mile away, she sat on a branch of one supersized tree holding onto an electronic telescope, (Courtesy of Stark Technology), that sees in normal color, night vision, thermal imaging and even a setting where the scope can be set to see Ultraviolet light.
Right now, Poor Gideon was in an area where Agent Romanoff could see him thru the telescope in its normal setting.
"Clint, seeing what I'm seeing?" she asked as she pressed on the small earpiece she had in her ears.
"Yeah, I see him." "Clint", better known as Hawkeye, replied as he stood on the branch of another skyscraper sized tree just a few dozen meters away from Gideon, hidden in the dense canopy. In his arms was a small hunting rifle.
Contrary to popular belief, he can use other weapons. In this case, he's using a rifle.
"Got the sleeping dart ready?" Romanoff asked.
"Eyup," replied Clint.
Now, one would wonder why the poor guy has only about a minute left to live if all that was pointed at him was a gun loaded with tranquilizer darts?
"My Little Pony? Really, Clint?" asked Romanoff, half amused from the vague reference that Clint made.
"What? The kids love it and its not half bad either," replied Clint as he lined up the sight of his rifle at the man's relatively unarmored nape.
"Yeah, about that, it's made fo-! Wait a second, Clint... I'm picking up something strange... 500 met-No! 300 ah! Multiple contacts, coming in fast towards our target's position." Romanoff said after she noticed the large cold "spot" heading fast towards Gideon. It was far colder than the surrounding area and whatever it was, it was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
"Umm, Romanoff... ever heard of the term... Gothic Lolita?" Clint whispered back thru the headset sounding all confused and scared?
"Yeah..." Romanoff replied as she was treated to the most peculiar site. A pale girl with the most inappropriate garb a person could wear in a jungle, a soft black evening gown with a big heavy dress.
That was not all that was strange about the strange girl. The girl was corpse pale and her eyes were blood red. Definitely doesn't look like a vampire, right? And she definitely didn't look at Romanoff thru the telescope.
Now Poor Gideon only has 5 seconds more left to live.
It was now only five seconds because he decided to pull out his pistol and shoot the girl in the head.
Who could blame him for his stupidity? It was standard operating procedure after all.
Time seemed to slow down as the girl reeled back, only to clutch at her forehead as she shouted obscenities.
It was at this moment, Gideon knew he fucked up.
AaaAAaRrrrRRrrrRRrRGGGgGGggHHHHH!
It took 5 seconds for the above mentioned event to happen.
2 seconds for the woman to scream obscenities.
2 seconds to scream and transform into a creature of nightmare. A freaking lamprey in the body of a shriveled-up hag.
1 second for Gideon to piss his pants and murmur "Mommy" as he was promptly shredded to pieces.
If only he hadn't pulled out his gun, then Shalltear might have offered him the option that her Master, Momonga would have given him but it was not to be.
...
...
...
Shalltear heaved as she stood upon the corpse of the shredded human corpse, head hanging low with her silver hair hiding her face, as she slowly returned back to normal.
"You can come out now," she asked as she wiped away the remaining bits of the man she had just killed from her mouth.
-End of Chapter-