Robert Callaghan to many of his students was a warm, kind and encouraging man. He always had his office open for those who wished for a professional opinion on their assignments or to clear up any questions they had. However, the day his daughter died (or so he thought), Robert Callaghan died with her. In the former shell of himself stood a shadow now fueled by a father's grief, anger and vengeance. He kept it well hidden of course, making sure to not let his mask slip in front of his students but at times the darkness within him surfaced whether it was a student talking about how they wanted to intern at Krei Tech Industries or if a student reminded him of his deceased daughter.
Even though Alistar Krei offered to pay for Abigail's funeral, sent condolences etc. Callaghan refused all of his charity. For it only reminded him further that the reason why his baby girl was gone was because of this man. And so after three months of the incident on a cold and rainy winter evening Callaghan drove out to a near by bar to get away from the smothering confines of his once happy home filled now with only painful memories of his deceased wife and child.
It had been a long time since he went to a bar by himself and yet the stuffy cigarette smoke filled air and dim atmosphere was far more welcoming than sitting at his kitchen table with a few bottles of beer and dead silence. So now at nearly ten at night he sat at the bar, nursing his bottle deep in thought.
"You certainly don't look like the type to be sitting at a bar drinking a beer.." Commented a male voice to his right. Callaghan turned his head to face the man who spoke to him. The man was a few years younger than the professor with a touch of grey in his short brown hair. The younger one eyed the older man before taking a sip of his scotch on ice. "But then again from how much you're staring off into space you seem to have a lot on your mind."
Callaghan raised an eyebrow; taking in the crisp black suit, red tie, the piercing blue eyes and the tell tale sign of a scar on his left cheek. He didn't look like your typical salary man or average office worker.
"I'm sorry but do I know you?" He asked hoping the guy would get the hint and leave him alone. The younger man perked up and quickly extended a large hand towards the professor.
"How rude of me I'm Schmit. Adam Schmit. And it doesn't take a genius to know that you are Robert Callaghan. Head professor of the robotics department of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and brilliant mind behind Callaghan's Laws of Robotics!"
With some hesitation Callaghan took Adam's hand and half heartedly shook it. He cleared his throat and shifted the beer bottle in his other hand.
"Listen…I'm really not in the mood to make conversation so I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave me alone." Adam only smiled, taking another sip of his drink as if he didn't hear a word the professor said.
" It must be lonely. With your wife, Sarah was it? And now your daughter Abigail no longer among the living." Callaghan stiffened at the comment and with his already thin patience snapping he grabbed Adam by the collar of his shirt, hand crushing the fabric in a tight fist. His beer now tipped over on the bar soaking the wood in it's contents while while the scotch glass laid in shattered pieces on the floor.
" I don't know what the hell you're playing at but I've asked you nicely to leave me alone. How you got that information doesn't concern me but if you so much as bring either of them up again I promise you you'll wish you had kept your mouth shut! " Snarled Callaghan, grip tightening on Adam's shirt collar. Adam let out a small chuckle and patted the other man's right upper arm. Something about Adam's calmness put Callaghan on edge.
"Easier there professor…..I didn't mean any disrespect." He flashed his million watt grin. "In fact the reason I came to you is to make an offer you can't refuse. " Callaghan let go of Adam and glared at him with an expression of complete annoyance. Without a word he returned to his barstool and picking up the fallen beer bottle.
"Whatever it is you're selling I'm not interested!"
"What if I told you we have a common interest?" Replied Adam, his smile now a sly grin. Callaghan scoffed and took a swig of whatever was left in bottle.
"And what pray tell is exactly that?!" Adam's smile grew and his eyes seemed to hold a far more sinister gleam. Callaghan was beginning to wonder if this guy was somewhat touched in the head.
"Alistar Krei." The older man's expression darkened at the name.
"You want revenge on Krei and we have a bit of a bone to pick with him. Despite the man being one of the leads of the technology business world he owes us a hefty sum of money and he has something of ours that my boss wants back. "
Adam straightened up in his seat as he felt Callaghan's questionable eyes on him.
""Now you're probably wondering why we can't do this ourselves….But unfortunately Krei is also a very paranoid man. He will be expecting someone like us knocking at his door to collect."
"So what you need is a scapegoat. Someone to do your dirty work for you?" Commented Callaghan, tone completely deadpan. Adam laughed.
"No of course not. i'm proposing that you work for us as a side job. We could use a brilliant mind such as yours on our team. You'll have a all access pass to technology far advanced than what the university could ever afford. Revenge on Krei will only be the icing on the cake."
Without missing a beat Adam slid a business card towards Callaghan.
"In case you decide to take me up on my offer." With another smile Adam stood up from his seat and placed some money onto the table and finally left Callaghan alone.
A year later later Callaghan walked into the university's showcase hall to see the new inventions created by the potential future students. Out of all of them he was looking forward to Hiro Hamada's work the most. For someone of his age to show that much talent in robotics the boy was certain to amount to great things.
And as predicted Hiro's project passed with flying colors. Callaghan like many of the people attending the convention were struck with awe at the microbots. However, shortly after the young prodigy's presentation was over Callaghan felt the familiar grip of anger clench his heart in it's icy grip at the sight of Krei talking to Hiro with the offer of an unknown yet large sum of money for the boy's invention.
After his confrontation with Krei and once very few people remained inside the main exhibit hall that Callaghan eyed the transmitter to Hiro's invention that laid forgotten on the stage, took out his cellphone and the business card he received on that cold winter's night. Dialing the number it rang three times before someone picked up.
"Yes?"
"This is Robert Callaghan….I accept your offer. I'm in." Replied the professor in a cold tone.
Adam smiled and looked towards his boss.
"Wonderful. Welcome to HYDRA Mr. Callaghan."
Well hello there….I haven't really written a fanfic in a long time so my writing skills are going to be a bit rusty. This story in particular I have noticed someone else on has done something very similar on what I was planning…So I feel kind of nervous in continuing. But if you guys want me to than cool.
Anyway…I kind of have a theory, (which is a bit far fetched) that even though Krei is very rich and a high profile figure in technology I would think that a project like Silent Sparrow aka the portal would be really ambitious if not extremely expensive. I also like to think that perhaps HYDRA made a deal with Krei that in exchange for money to fund and back the project and the credit of it being distributed by Kreitech the organization would get a certain percentage back and the first finished product.
Not to mention that because the failure of the project was extremely personal for Callaghan, HYDRA would exploit the man's need for revenge in order to get their hands on the portal by lying it was theirs in the first place.