Hello everyone. I'm really tired right now, so I'm just gonna skip the pleasantries and get right to the good stuff. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and all of its characters, terms and properties belong to Marvel. Legend of Korra and all of its characters, terms, and properties belong to Nickelodeon. So enough of the boring stuff, on with the show!
Chapter 24: Campfire Tales.
HYDRA…
Cut off one head, and two more will take its place.
For over seventy years this terrorist organization waged a relentless campaign against the free world. Utilizing the cutting-edge in genetic engineering, biochemical engineering, robotics, nano-robotics, and even black sorcery; these madmen sought the total and complete subjugation of the human race.
And although in recent years this organization had been all but permanently crippled by Earth's Mightiest Heroes, its legacy still seems to shape the destiny of this world.
Case in point, Korra had just received some rather interesting, and rather shocking, information regarding her former enemy's journey to Earth.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on just one second there fella." The young Avatar said rather fervently. "Are you telling me that Tarrlok got mixed up with HYDRA? As in the HYDRA; the HYDRA that's tried to take over the world like a billion times?" Thousands of unpleasant images raced through her mind when she thought about Tarrlok being captured by those butchers; she'd heard plenty of stories about them from Cap, and they made Weapon X look like boy scouts by comparison.
"Not exactly, my dear." replied the Latverian Lord. "Though they did play a large part in his… journey to this world."
"What do you mean?" asked Korra, her curiosity was starting to peak.
"Well… I suppose it all began in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War." Doom explained in scholarly tone. "In late July of that year, a German scientist by the name of Rudolph Heydrich finally finished his life's work; a two-dimensional viewing device that would allow him to see stars, moons, comets, and even planets anywhere in the universe."
"Not that this isn't fascinating, but what does any of that have to do with Tarrlok?" Korra interjected.
"Patience!" Doom responded rather harshly. He paused a moment to calm down before he continued. "Now as I was saying, Heydrich used his new invention to study the mysteries of the cosmos from the comfort of his own living room. Over the course of two months he witnessed things no man had ever seen before; the birth a star, the death of an entire galaxy, and even… a world of benders."
"He saw my home?" she asked, a hint of joy in her voice.
"Indeed he did child. In fact, of all the worlds he saw, yours was the one he cherished studying the most." The metal monarch couldn't help but smile at the look in the young Avatar's eyes; she clearly liked the idea of someone taking such an interest in her home, which made what he was going to say next all the more unpleasant.
"Unfortunately for Mr. Heydrich, word of his miraculous machine soon reached the ears of the Red Skull, and HYDRA High Command confiscated all of his research; they would later use it to lay the groundwork for a scheme to kidnap and subjugate beings from the realms of Asgard… but that is another story all together."
"Yeah… I'm still not getting it." Korra interrupted again. "All that happened a long time ago, what does any of that have to do with… well… anything?"
Doom said nothing this time, but the venomous glare her shot her told the young Avatar that he was not amused by her frequent interruptions; she whispered a brief apology and fell silent.
"Now… as I am sure you are aware, the threat of HYDRA was finally neutralized several months ago, after its resources were vastly diminished during its war with A.I.M. and nearly all of its leaders were incarcerated by S.H.I.E.L.D.; with no small thanks to your former teammates."
Korra nodded in response; she had often heard the senior Avengers recount the events of that historic night, so she didn't need any further details from Doom.
"Well what you are not aware of, is that several of the lower ranking lieutenants somehow managed to evade capture and are attempting to rebuild HYDRA from the ground up." Doom said that last part with a slight chuckle; apparently he found the notion quite amusing.
"Look, I know you don't like it when I interrupt," the young Avatar interjected in an unusually meek tone. "But how do you know all of this?"
Doom let out another chuckle. "You see child, I order for those fools to even attempt such a ridiculous endeavor, they require a substantial amount of capital; which I was more than willing to provide, in exchange for..."
"YOU GAVE MONEY TO HYDRA?" Korra cut him off before he could finish. "ARE YOU NUTS? Those guys are dangerous!" Her rant would've continued, if Doom had not shot her another glare.
"HYDRA is dead!" he growled, putting extra emphasis on the last word. "Its heart has been pierced; no new heads shall ever grow! All that remains is a handful of children desperate to play conqueror! So yes, Avatar, I gave those children some petty cash to spend on new toys, but what those fools gave me in exchange was worth more than they could have ever imagined!"
"But… they'll hurt people." She argued pitifully.
"If they attempt to invade Latveria I will make them regret the day they were born, but the rest of the world is none of my concern." He took note of the Avatar's horrified expression before he continued. "I look after my own people child; I suggest you do the same."
As much as it hurt her to admit it, Doom had a point. As the Avatar, she had a duty to the people of her world, not this one. So in all honesty, it didn't really matter to her what happened to this world; so long as she was able to get back home. She had already severed all ties to the Avengers, and by now she was probably wanted for treason, so it's not any connection to this place anymore. Besides, once this quest was over she would be with Mako again, and then nothing else would matter.
"I… guess you have a point." She begrudgingly admitted, and then quickly changed the subject. "So I'm gonna take a wild guess here, and say you bought some of Heydrich's research. That's how you learned about my world isn't it?"
"Very astute Little Avatar." He replied with a hint of affection in his voice. "My original intention was to recreate Heydrich's machine and use it to spy on my enemies, but I abandoned such trivialities when I discovered the perfection that is the Bending Arts." Korra noticed a tone in his that she couldn't quite identify; it was like an odd mix of wonder and envy. "Oh… yes, but Heydrich's crude descriptions were not enough; I needed to learn more."
"What did you do?" the young Avatar asked, though she had already formed her own hypothesis.
"Using Heydrich's notes I was able to build an improved version of his cosmic viewing device, and after much trial and error I was able to locate his fabled world of benders." If it weren't for the iron mask, Korra would've seen a frown form across his lips. "Then… everything went wrong."
XXX
His storm continued to rage overhead as he approached the Cave of the Whispering Pool; a cruel smile spread across his face.
Very soon the wretched apes that had invaded his paradise would be dead, and order would finally be restored.
His plan was brilliant, naturally. Sooner or later the vile little monsters would need to come of their hole and when they did they would be flanked on all sides by a horde of Horn-Hunters. The nasty little vermin would either be torn apart then and there, or scurry back into their dead-end cave, only to become trapped and slowly starve to death.
Either way would work fine for him; so long as infestation was taken care of.
Their foul scent was growing stronger by the minute.
Oh yes… not much farther now.
XXX
"It seems the meteorite fragment I used to power the device was far more potent than I ever imagined." The metal monarch explained as he continued his story. "For when I attempted to shift focus toward an explosion off the coast of one of your world's major cities, the damned thing went haywire. Thankfully Castle Doom is equipped with its own generator; otherwise the resulting surge would have devastated the entire Latverian power grid." His voice quickly filled with shame. "I grew careless in my quest for knowledge, and it nearly crippled my homeland." He let out a pathetic sigh. "Sometimes I wonder if I am truly worthy of my people's praise."
Doom's words stirred something deep inside of Korra. Ever since she first arrived in Republic City, a heavy cloud of doubt had ensnared her usually confident mind, and every mistake she'd made since then has only intensified those negative feelings; being banished from the very world she was meant to protect didn't do much to boost her confidence either. So, in a rather strange way, she empathized with the tin-plated tyrant. Though she chose not to tell him this and instead remained silent as he continued his tale.
"But I digress." He said as his voice regained its usual air of superiority. "After the smoke cleared I saw that the machine had been completely destroyed. Needless to say, I was rather… upset by the apparent failure; so many sleepless nights… wasted. I was ready to order the damned thing be stripped and repurposed; that is until… I saw the bodies."
"Bodies?" Korra asked aloud; now the story was getting interesting.
XXX
Yes… the Cave of the Whispering Pool was at last in sight.
The apes were still inside; he could smell their filth all the way across the clearing.
He looked around and saw that the Horn-Hunters were already in position.
Excellent… now all they need do is wait for the nasty little things to come.
Then the apes would die!
XXX
"It was like the scene of some grizzly murder. They were just lying in front of the machine; charred, torn, and twisted beyond recognition." Doom explained with a hint of nausea in his voice. "At first I thought they were two of the technicians I assigned to help me on the project, but a quick headcount proved otherwise. It didn't take long for me to realize what had happened."
"The bodies…" the young Avatar interrupted. "They were…"
"Tarrlok and his… brother, yes." Doom finished, though he said the word brother as if it left a vile taste in his mouth. "I'm still not entirely sure how, but somehow the radiation from the meteorite shard, combined with the special modifications I made to the device, turned it from a simple image receiver to a matter transporter. I had lost the machine but I had gained so much more. Why waste time observing another culture, when I could get the information I desired straight from the horse's mouth."
Under any other circumstances Korra would've laughed at the idea of Tarrlok being compared to a horse, but at the moment she thought it best to remain silent.
"Of course one cannot question the dead, so… drastic measures had to be taken."
The words 'drastic measures' sent shivers down Korra's spine, but again she said nothing and let the monarch continue.
"After taking some blood samples, I was able to analyze their DNA and create perfect blueprints for both of their bodies. After that it was up to my surgeons to reconstruct them; replace any damaged or missing organs, refit them with new skeletal systems, graft on artificial tissue, ensure that there is no rejection, that sort of thing."
A lightning bolt struck the ground just outside the cave and for a brief moment Korra thought she saw something moving near the entrance. She was about to ask Doom about it, but the old tyrant cut her off before she could even utter a syllable.
"Of course cybernetics could only do so much; in order for them to be truly whole again, I needed to retrieve their souls from the other side." Doom noticed her alarm at his statement and quickly explained. "In addition to my father's brilliant mind, I also inherited my mother's gift for the arcane arts; so summoning souls back to this world and reviving the dead, though difficult, is not impossible for one such as myself."
The young Avatar would've rolled her eyes at his bragging, if his statement hadn't made her so unnerved. The idea of bringing people back from the dead just seemed so… unnatural.
"Tarrlok was the first to be revived. Needless to he was very surprised to suddenly find himself… well, alive." He said with a slight chuckle. "He had to be retrained by two of my Doombots to keep him from hurting himself, but after he calmed down we began to talk."
Korra heard something coming from the entrance; it sounded a lot like breathing.
"I did most of the talking at first, naturally. I spent the better part of nine hours explaining who I was, where he was, how he had gotten there, and how and why I'd saved his life. It took considerably longer before he actually started to trust me, but once he let down his defenses he began to tell me about his home." Doom let out a sigh of nostalgia. "We became fast friends Tarrlok and I. So when I learned that the other body was that of his brother, I admit I was rather anxious to meet him. So not long afterward I decided to reunite the two siblings." His voice suddenly grew very serious. "That proved to be a… disastrous mistake."
"What… what happened?" she asked, already dreading the answer.
"I… I still don't know what went wrong." The young Avatar noticed a strange look in his eye as he spoke. It was a look she had seen before, many months ago at the dinner she shared with Doctor Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum. This was the look of someone remembering something very unpleasant. "He… came back… broken." He finished, his left eye twitching slightly.
Another bolt of lightning stuck just outside the cave. Doom paused from his story and looked toward the entrance with a stern look in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Korra asked worriedly.
"I'm going outside." He replied bluntly as he began to move toward the exit. "No matter what you see or hear do not move from that stop." With that said he went out into the raging monsoon.
XXX
The storm outside their cozy little cave was growing more violent by the minute; the rain was coming down in sheets, lightning flashed every few seconds, and the hail was the size of golf balls. It was like watching a scene from a disaster film.
Despite this however, Doom still managed to remain calm as he strolled out from his safe shelter and into dangerous primeval jungle.
A small pack of carnotaurus' had surrounded him on all sides, effectively cutting off any chance of escape. Yet for some reason they did not attack. Instead they just stood at attention like well-trained soldiers; occasionally eyeing him like a starving dog eyes a steak and licking their chops in anticipation. Suddenly two of the beasts in front of him stepped aside, allowing a much larger creature to step forward.
This new creature resembled a large tyrannosaur, only it was twice the size of any of the other tyrannosaurs he had seen since arriving in the Savage Land. Its scales were the as red as blood and its tail was sporting a rather nasty looking set of long, black spikes. On the back of its head sat a pair of massive horns that curved to resemble that of a ram. Under its chin, a much smaller horn just barely stuck out, humorously resembling a goatee. Thick black circle surrounded it tiny yellow eyes, which at the moment were glaring at the metal monarch hatefully.
Doom however was unimpressed. He just glared back at the great animal and mockingly asked, "The Devil Dinosaur, I presume?"
The gigantic beast snorted at him and, much to the surprise of the Latverian Lord, replied.
"Kill it!"
End Notes: Well that's the end of another one folks. Hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review before you leave. Goodnight.