Edited last chapter to account for a continuity error with previous Acolytes of Chaos fics. The Avengers were in their post-Age of Ultron base, not the Tower.
Chapter 9: Head or Leg:
Earth – Schoonebeek Oil Field:
"Great," Captain America growled with a sigh as he slammed his shield into a HYDRA trooper as he drove past on his motorcycle. And here I was hoping the reports of HYDRA were just a bunch of would-be terrorists using HYDRA's logo to make people afraid of them, he thought as he drove across the oil field on the Dutch-German border that served as a cover for an underground HYDRA facility. According to the intelligence they received from S.H.I.E.L.D., former World Security Council member Gideon Malick was leading the newest incarnation of the terrorist organization, using this subterranean bunker as his base of operations.
While Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk fought off the base's perimeter defenses, the rest of the team fought their way through the bunker disabling henchmen and halting attempts to evacuate HYDRA's research as they made their way towards the base's command center, hoping to capture Malick before he could get away. Kim, Ron, Hawkeye, and Black Widow were handling most of the combat while Stitch downloaded the base's mainframe. Meanwhile, the tag team of Ant-Man and the Wasp used Hank Pym's shrinking technology to make their way through the base discreetly to handle the capture of Malick. War Machine, Falcon, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and the Winter Soldier were off dealing with HYDRA forces attempting to reuse Von Strucker's old castle in Sokovia.
Once the team had confirmed that this was indeed the resurgent HYDRA carrying out these terrorist attacks across Europe, the team unanimously decided that the best course of action would be a two pronged attack. The Avengers would go straight for the heart of the beast, while S.H.I.E.L.D. and the militaries of the various European nations would work their way in from the outside, cutting off a limb as they worked their way up HYDRA's chain of command one base at a time. The battle went by surprisingly quickly, and the team was nevertheless on their guard because fighting HYDRA was never this easy. On their guard in case of an ambush (and suspecting that Malick had sacrificed this particular base as part of a long-term stratagem), the Avengers continued to mop up as the battle wound down.
They were about to clean out the base and ship the captured HYDRA agents off to prison when they heard the distinctive sound of a video call. Unsure whether it was Malick (who hadn't even been on the base, it'd turned out) calling to gloat, or someone else trying to call HYDRA, Steve ordered Stitch to answer the call and patch it through to Romanov's comm unit so she could speak to whoever was on the other end of the line. Unfortunately, it seemed that every method Stitch tried to transfer the call to avoid tipping the caller off as to the status of the base was being remotely stymied, and the call went through. The monitor crackled, and as the image came into focus on screen, a voice boomed from the speakers that chilled the great Captain America to the bone.
"You never give up, do you, Captain?" Came the sarcastic greeting of the Red Skull as his frightening visage materialized on the computer screen.
For a moment, Captain America, the First Avenger, the world's first superhero, the "Star-Spangled Man With A Plan" was rendered speechless in shock and horror at the face of the Red Skull, his original nemesis, back from the dead. He was too shocked and confused to even stutter in fear and surprise, mentally trying to figure out how Johan Schmidt could possibly have survived for all these years. And it wasn't just him, all of the Avengers, even Stitch were staring dumbstruck at the mangled face of one of the most feared men in World War II. Like Steve, the Red Skull hadn't even aged a day. Unfortunately, he also had to break the silence before any of them could.
"Surprised to see me, I take it," Schmidt remarked with a triumphant smirk. "I expected as much. After all, it's not every day that your arch foe returns from the dead. Although if your Asgardian friend told you about the true nature of the Tesseract, you should have suspected that I hadn't died, Captain. But in any case, I figure that you deserve at least a partial explanation of how I survived. The Tesseract, or should I call it by it's true name as the Space Stone, transported me to another planet. I was found by a band of rogues who placed me in cryogenic preservation to keep me out of their way until they could find a potential use for my influence and abilities. Eventually, I was rescued by a rival faction that recognized my true genius, and in return for HYDRA's remaining resources, they have returned me to the Earth to reclaim what is rightfully mine." It was then, when Schmidt went into his predictable routine about how the world was his to rule, that the Captain finally found his voice again.
"And what makes you think we'll just roll over and let you take whatever you want?" he retorted, surprisingly calmly. Schmidt's actions as the leader of HYDRA had caused so much pain in Steve's life. The murder of Howard Stark, the brainwashing of Bucky, and other things. But Steve was just that much of a good person that he kept his head clear and his emotions in check until the Red Skull had finally been finished off for good.
"I don't expect you to simply give me what is mine by right," the Red Skull answered mockingly. "But with the aid of the Hellfire Club, you and your pathetic "Avengers" will easily fall." Face the facts, Captain. You failed to stop me all those decades ago, and with the powers of Darkness behind me, you will fail once again, as you always – " Whatever the madman was about to say next was cut off when Steve hurled his shield at the wall-mounted screen. He didn't say anything, but the Avengers could tell from his heavy breathing and the pained expression on his face what he was thinking right now.
Deciding to discuss Captain America's little outburst later, the team finished cleaning out the command center before loading everything onto S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjets to be taken back to The Playground for study. Once that was done, the Avengers all boarded their own quinjet and flew back to their headquarters. Upon their return, everyone went off to do their own thing. Scott, Hope, Kim, and Ron left for a double-date night. Clint dashed off to catch a bus home to his family. Tony flew off to visit Pepper back at Stark Industries headquarters in California. Thor went to go see Jane and bring her up to speed on recent events. Bucky and Sam talked to Steve about his frustration at the Skull's survival.
Rhodes went to report on the World War II-era supervillain's sudden reappearance to the U.S. government. Pietro and Wanda were staying in Sokovia for a few days to visit their friends and family. Stitch had joined the Avengers to keep himself busy while Lilo was in college, and once she'd graduated and became Earth's representative in the Galactic Federation, he divided his time between Avengers HQ and visiting his cousins back in Hawaii. The experiments were exposed to the rest of the world following the Chitauri invasion in 2012, and although most of the world was reticent about the idea of powerful extraterrestrials living among humanity, the governments of the world were satisfied with the experiments' desire to remain in the Hawaiian islands, and were therefore left alone. Anyway, Bruce was heading home to his wife, Betty, while the one member of the Avengers who was off on their own tonight was the one with the most red in her ledger.
Earth – Avengers Headquarters; Black Widow's bedroom:
"I checked with my contacts," Natasha said to the person on the other end of the phone call. As soon as the team had arrived back at their compound in upstate New York, she'd gone back to her private quarters and put them in lock-down mode. She didn't want anyone overhearing her. "They're getting ready for Endgame." She spoke in a hushed whisper, even though the cameras She had given the other Avengers bits and pieces of her blood-soaked past over the years, but this was one secret even they didn't know, and she preferred to keep it that way.
"Don't joke about that, Natalia," came the voice from the other line.
"I'm dead serious," the Avenger replied. "They've spent the last six years gearing up for Phase One. Now they're going after the Gauntlet. You know what that means."
"They've left us alone for decades," the other woman protested. "Why come after us now?"
"Don't fool yourself, V," Natasha answered. "You know how it works with them. The only reason we've been left alone is because we're too high profile to target openly, but now that they're gathering up the Stones, they don't want any loose ends. We know too much." The former assassin allowed her lips to twitch into a small, satisfied smirk as the voice on the other end of the call sighed in defeated.
"You're right," the woman, "V" admitted. "I just need to figure out how to explain to my co-workers why I'll be going off the grid until we can figure out a way to get them off our backs."
"That makes two of us," the secret agent replied. "But with things the way they are, we need distance in order to fight them. The lower the chances of us exposing their secrets to the world, the less effort they'll put into dragging us back. I've got to go. We're debriefing on our latest HYDRA battle. Stay safe, V. Call if anything changes."
"You too," V responded. "Good luck, R." With that, the call ended and Natasha hung up the phone before walking back to the conference room in Avengers HQ. She suspected that They would go after V first, but as soon as this post-battle team meeting was over, she was going to head to her room and pack a travel bag and get ready to take off at a moment's notice. Not that she didn't trust her teammates, but this was one aspect of her past that she had no desire to share with anyone, ever, under any circumstances. Not even Clint, her closest friend and long-time combat partner, or Bucky, her husband, knew. Once They came after her, Natasha knew that she would need to disappear. As much as she had come to care for her teammates, she couldn't drag them into this conflict.
And the mystery deepens… It seems Black Widow has a pretty good idea of everything that's going on. But whose side is she on? In all seriousness, Natasha and "V"'s little subplot will be a major element of the story, and more details will be dripped out over the course of the Acolytes of Chaos Saga. Until V's identity is revealed, lease refrain from posting guesses in reviews to avoid accidentally spoiling anything for anyone reading through the reviews before they actually read the story.
So yeah, Captain America has discovered that the Red Skull is still alive. I figured that since the audience knew already from my previous Acolytes of Chaos stories, I should avoid dragging out the reveal. So now Steve has to deal with the fact that even the Red Skull managed to escape death. Steve's handling it calmly for now, but as the story drags on and Schmidt continues to escape justice, Cap's going to get more and more agitated about it.
And yep, Black Widow is paired with Winter Soldier in this universe. I decided that having the two former assassins with dark and troubled pasts paired up made sense, and ran with it since Bruce is with Betty in this storyline.
Regarding the experiments being known to the public, I figured that after the Chitauri invasion they would have come out of hiding eventually. But since they're all happy living on Kauai in Leroy & Stitch, S.H.I.E.L.D. (which has known about them since before the Avengers in this 'verse) worked out a deal with the rest of the world to leave them alone.
The title of this chapter is a reference to a conversation from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. regarding HYDRA's motto, where one agent questions whether it was the head or the leg of the mythological Hydra that was supposed to grow back.