Hydra Mutant Division – Chapter One
The night was overcast and dark, a brief pause in the rain had left the air feeling damp and the streets covered in puddles. Daydream looked up at the sky, the clouds were thick and heavy, looking like they were pressing down on the city. She hoped that it would stay dry long enough for this little excursion, her current attire would not stand up to the rain at all, and she would be drenched and freezing in a matter of minutes. She turned left and slouched along the alleyway, arms wrapped around her torso, the partially torn hood of her jumper hiding most of her face. When she felt she was far enough down the hidden pathway she paused, standing up straight and working the kinks out of her aching muscles. She straightened out her clothing as much as possible before inhaling deeply and shaking off the downtrodden persona that she had adopted to fit in with her targets. Companions, she corrected herself, they were CNK, capture not kill. Maybe not companions, she thought, people of interest, potential assets. Definitely not companions.
She cracked her neck, fists clenching at her side and fighting the dislike rising inside of her. He might be good at what he did, but no one liked the leader of Einskader, a fact that he actively encouraged, revelling in his role and his powers. She brushed her pink hair into some form of neatness, psyching herself up to enter the darkest part of the alley, where he would be waiting. He was probably already watching, she thought, savouring her fear, that stupid smirk on his face. The thought was infuriating and spurred her forward until she was at the edge of the pitch-black darkness, then the fear started to seep back once more. She murmured a greeting through clenched teeth.
"Hail Hydra."
"Hail Hydra." The shadows lessened slightly, revealing a face that was all black eyes and hate. The utter darkness made the man in front of her look brutal, a feeling that only increased when he wrapped strong, pale fingers around her jaw, pulling her face up so he could look directly into her eyes. His mouth split open into a nasty grin, his tongue running across his upper lip. Daydream flinched, her eyes dropping as he gave a low chuckle. A finger tapped on her jaw, reminding her where her focus should be before he whispered. "Report, Stellvertreter Daydream. How goes your mission? I do so hope you have good news for me."
"I do, Gruppenleiter Shadow." She couldn't help the sigh of relief when Shadow slowly peeled his fingers from her, sinking back into the shadows behind him. His eyes remained on her as she continued. "It's been two days of rain and poor food, tomorrow looks to be just as bad." She glanced up at the rain-laden clouds. "The assets are having to stay inside, nothing to do, nowhere to go, supplies are running out, and everyone is frustrated. I plan on Hydra becoming the topic of conversation tomorrow, put the focus on food, beds, and hot water. They are almost within our grasp."
"Almost?" Shadow's voice was dangerously low, his hand snapping out of the darkness to grasp her jumper. "I did not ask for almost, what I expect from you, Stellvertreter Daydream is ready. As ordered" Daydream closed her eyes for a moment, fighting down the terror that he was purposefully inflicting upon her.
"They … they just need a little extra push." Daydream visibly sagged as he released her jumper "S-Spectrum is complicating things, but they just need a reminder of what is at stake, something to hammer home the need for a safe place."
"So, Die Mission Lenken then." Shadow purred, rubbing his hands together. Daydream blinked as his fingers seemed to elongate, she couldn't tell if it was a trick of the light or not. "My favourite!"
"I will need time to work on Nightshade, I could …" Daydream stopped, gritting her teeth, she couldn't do this on her own, but she wished with all her soul that she could. "I could use your help if you are willing Gruppenleiter Shadow. We have worked together before doing this, implanting fears into a sleeping mind, and bringing old nightmares to the surface. That way when she wakes up, she will have lost what little control she does have. It's my recommendation that we use the police in this situation." She shrugged carelessly, before adding with contempt. "Or Vierkader, either way no one important will be lost."
Shadow grinned, biting his lip with anticipation. Daydream's hatred for fourth squad, especially their mouthy leader, always pleased him. It amused him enough that he agreed to her request with a brief nod. It made sense, he thought as he turned the idea over in his head. He looked at his hand for a moment, her skin was as pale as his and, where he instilled terror, she brought death. He closed his hand into a fist, as if he were capturing the mutant in his palm. He had plans for her, plans that not even Hydra would stop, but first she had to be brought to heel.
"I shall return tomorrow then. Two am on the dot Stellvertreter Daydream, at three am we will be having guests!" Shadow stepped back, fading into the darkness before the blue skinned mutant's eyes. She shivered for a moment, the alley feeling empty and her fear slowly ebbing away. Almost as if it had been waiting for the meeting to be over, the first few drops of rain started to fall and Daydream hunched over, striding back down the alley and towards the squat.
Mass looked down at her almost empty can of spaghetti and sighed. They had one can of food each, and after this meal there wouldn't be anything left. She was still hungry, hell she was always hungry and had always been. Spectrum wouldn't let them steal, all food had to be obtained legally which, in her opinion was ridiculous. She'd change her mind tomorrow, Mass thought as she watched the serpentine mutant. She didn't look like someone who had had to go without for long and she'd found the rationing harder than the other girls, Daydream being a close second.
"Know what I miss?" She asked the group, sitting in the office's little reception area. Now might be a good time to start pushing the idea of raiding the bins behind the restaurants in town, maybe she could argue some sense into Spectrum by the time it became necessary. Daydream swiped a finger along the inside of her can, trying to get every last bit of food from it.
"This better not be food related Mass, because I am still starving and not in the mood for it." Daydream's yellow eyes moved from Mass to the window as she quietly placed the empty can on the floor next to her. Rain tracked down the glass, this was day three of non-stop rain and tempers were fraying rapidly. Rain meant no begging, no begging meant no food, well no food that she or Spectrum would eat, and apparently that was the rule. No food from bins, which she had been grateful for, however no stealing was a rule that she wasn't as enthusiastic about. They were stuck in here, hungry, cold, drained, and getting on each other's nerves. The situation couldn't have been better if she had orchestrated it herself.
"If we could only…" Spectrum cut off Mass before she could continue.
"No. I understand that you have a steel stomach and Shade can't get poisoned, but we aren't so lucky." Her scales changed to pink as she gestured to herself and Daydream, a sure sign that she was getting annoyed. Mass opened her mouth to argue, however it was Nightshade that spoke.
"I … I heard that…" Nightshade's already quiet voice faded to nothing as three pairs of eyes turned to look at her. Her green eyes flicked from one face to another before she looked down at the floor, her hair falling down over her face like a protective blanket. Her fingers picked at her gloves, a necessity as she was barely able to control her own abilities, she was less likely to poison someone or something while wearing them and no one had questioned it, at least to her face. It wasn't the gloves that prevented her abilities, it was her belief that they did, and they let her keep that idea. She continued in a whisper. "There's a group, feeds people like us…"
"The food banks? We tried them Shade, when they found out we were mutants they got hostile, remember?" Mass rubbed her cheek at the memory, they'd had cans of food thrown at them, and threats of police. It would have been some consolation if they could have grabbed some of the cans, but things had gotten nasty, and they had fled.
"No, I meant…" Nightshade whispered, her fingers curling through her hair, twisting it anxiously. Daydream played with her can idly, gazing out of the window as though she were lost in thought. She had expected to have to bring up the topic herself, but the girls were doing a wonderful job of getting themselves there.
"Where did you hear this, Shade?" Spectrum stood up, her eyes never leaving the visibly shrinking girl. Nightshade peered through her hair at the other mutant's reddening scales and looked back down at the floor, wishing she hadn't said anything. Mass was more than happy to take over the conversation though.
"I heard about this too, I was begging a couple of weeks ago, and some house got raided a few streets down from where I was. I heard a few people talking about it, some sort of mutant refuge or something. They said the GSG 9 busted in and ripped the place apart, but they couldn't find anyone." Mass ran a hand through her braids as Spectrum snorted derisively, her scales a vivid red.
Daydream tuned out the sound of Mass and Spectrum arguing, eyes still on the window. She hadn't had to do anything; they were doing it to themselves which was so much easier on her. Well, she had done a little over the past few weeks, the odd flight of fancy here and there, a half-imagined conversation, little teasing snippets which they had put together out of desperation to form a perfect picture. At least that's how it had worked for Mass and Nightshade, Spectrum had been a different story because she wasn't able to leave the squat due to her obvious mutant status. She had taken a more delicate, and strenuous, touch. Unlike the other three mutants, she was well trained in her abilities and, while not her preferred way to use her powers, she was able to slip into a sleeping Spectrum's mind, carefully winding her way through the woman's dreams, down past the conscious mind and into her subconscious. She admitted to herself that it was the amount of effort taken to plant the little hidden ideas that she disliked. Daydreams were easy to manipulate without the dreamer noticing, they floated across the mind like puffy white clouds skidding across the sky. Dreams were deeper, darker, coming from a place that the sleeper wasn't aware of and so it was more like digging down through the earth's crust to get to the core of them. It was exhausting work, especially as any unbidden thought that she had could take root in the sleeper's mind, and anything she did leave had to be so subtle and undetected that the conscious brain wouldn't pick up on it. Once or twice a week she would creep up on the sleeping mutant and insert little thoughts into her subconscious, Hydra is good, Hydra equals food, warmth, a family, things that she knew Spectrum craved. She spent the morning after each session paying for it with headaches, but she felt it was well worth the effort. Her focus was drawn back to the conversation just as Mass snapped. "Yeah? Well, it sounds good to me. I need a good meal, a hot bath, and a good sleep. Not necessarily in that order."
"If I could roll my eyes I would be doing it right now." Spectrum snapped. "You want me to believe in some magical safehouse? After all we've been through? After all this time of fending for ourselves, of being on the run? Of being illegal just because we exist? How about being one phone call away from a Mutant Detention Centre? Are you for real?" She drew in a breath, trying to contain her anger over their situation. She had never stolen anything, she'd never vandalised something, she had been a model student, a model daughter, her future should have been so much brighter but no, she was public enemy number one because she was a mutant. She savoured the bitter feeling that this fostered within her for a moment before turning it on Mass. "You honestly think these people give a crap about us? You really think they are offering us food? Safety? Protection? And for free? You wonder what the cost of these fantastical gifts are? No one hands out anything for nothing, especially not to criminals like us." Mass' skin rippled, changing from flesh to brick, Spectrum's hostility triggering her own.
"I appreciate that you've always lived here Spectrum, but Nightshade and I are from Sokovia, we had nothing even before we mutated, then we had even less." Mass sighed angrily; her eyes unfocused as she got lost in old memories. She picked up her empty can, her hands rotating the can as she squashed it, working it slowly and surely into a tiny ball. "I'm not stupid enough to think it's a something for nothing deal, that's not how life works, but honestly? I'm tired of running, tired of hiding, and tired of being afraid all the damn time. I'm at the point that I don't much care what I have to do to get a good night's sleep and a chance to unwind. Even join this …"
"Hydra." Nightshade whispered when Mass paused, her wide eyes on the two arguing mutants. Once again she found herself the unhappy recipient of three stares.
"Hydra is dead." Spectrum stated bluntly, glancing back to the remnants of the can in Mass' palm. "And if they aren't, rumours say they are the worst of the worst."
"Just like us." Mass murmured, turning away. But the words safety and protection were stamped into their minds, a golden promise calling them home.
It was midnight when Shadow sauntered into the rec room of the floor reserved for mutants, looking around the room for a target. He found three of them, at this time of night they must have just come off of duty, although two of them were still in their uniforms. The lights were on and his form shrank, becoming thin and frail looking. His fear-based powers worked better in the dark, but he enjoyed his abilities and each time he used them he became that much stronger, to the point that bright lights were barely an issue anymore.
"Look everyone, it's Sammy No-Squad!" Aeolian quipped. The leader of Vierkader turned to face the mutant, a smug look on his tanned, very freckled face, his arms crossing over his chest. He was wearing a light shirt and casual trousers, the only thing he was missing, Einskader's leader mused, was a jumper tied around his shoulders. Shadow didn't slow down, merely changing direction until he was almost nose to nose with the somewhat shorter mutant.
"Exactly what do you bring to Hydra, vermin? I prefer my air conditioning to be silent." Shadow loomed over the man, mocking his ability to channel the wind. Their eyes locked for a moment in a struggle that they both knew only one of them would win. "I suggest you move aside so I can speak to someone who is actually useful." Aeolian's light blue eyes glazed for a moment, before a haunted look passed over them. He gripped his biceps tightly, body shaking as he slowly sank to the floor.
"Whatcha needin'?" A gigantic person was leaning against the wall behind Vierkader's cowering leader. Shadow looked over the huge monster, he couldn't tell if it was part man or part cat or what he had started out as, but he was built for violence, all muscle and feral rage.
"What are you?" Shadow couldn't conceal his fascination with the beast. Ginger fur covered every visible part of his body, massive, scarred ears sat on top of his head and baleful yellow eyes stared out of a face that had seen many fights.
"Cat, alley cat. Name's 42nd and 5th, cos dat's my turf. Or it was." His voice sounded bitter. "Got into a fight with a demon, I din't like him in my alley, he din't like me shredding his leg. Next thing I know, I'm standin' on two legs and I gots real tall. Long story short, people starts screamin', Hydra comes and picks me up, flies me here. Told I gets food, bed, and the chance to fight people. It's warmer than an alley." He grinned toothily.
"And you were assigned to Vierkader, I see. Who did you replace?" 42nd shrugged at Shadow's question, he clearly didn't care. "Well, I need someone to make a quick phone call for me in about an hour's time. A simple task really but more than some can manage it would seem." The cat's yellow eyes looked down at Aeolian for a moment, cracking his neck before pushing himself off of the wall. He pointed a massive claw tipped finger at the mutant next to him, another member of Vierkader. "I can do dat. Gonna need Splash to punch da numbers in, gots a big problem with dat."
Shadow looked at Splash, she was an odd one. Rumours were that she was a water elemental that just walked out of the sea one day and started causing trouble, smashing up shops, wrecking cars, drowning people. The ghost of a smile touched his lips at that, he did like an unrepentant killer. Hydra had offered her a supply of chaos to cause, and she had accepted as their goals had aligned for the time being. Why the elemental had chosen a female form was something he didn't know and didn't care enough to ask about. She wore a device that allowed her to hear and speak out of water, but she sounded robotic, the process was unpleasant for her. She preferred to communicate using sign language, which she had absorbed in a matter of days. She also wore a visor, though she didn't seem to need it, but it seemed to make the humans in Hydra feel better. She touched two fingers to her forehead in a polite salute to him before signing that she would be willing to help 42nd.
"Excellent, let's go and discuss this somewhere more private, it is vitally important that this is done properly." He beckoned for the two mutants to follow him, smirking as they both stepped over their fallen leader as if he weren't there.
It was two am when three quiet taps on the window woke Daydream up. She hadn't planned on falling asleep, she hadn't thought she'd be able to sleep but the darkness that greeted her eyes as she opened them proved otherwise. She checked on the three girls, making sure that they hadn't been woken by the slight noise before sitting up slowly, stifling a yawn and stretching as much as she could. Shadow slowly appears just in front of her, being careful, for once, to not to startle his second-in-command. He did so love the taste of fear but there was a time and a place, and this wasn't it. Not yet anyway. He crouched in front of Daydream and raised his hands, pale fingers easy to see in the darkness as he signed to her.
Ready? He asked, his excitement was palpable, and Daydream nodded, pointing across the room to the sleeping form of Nightshade, the tip of her nose the only thing peeking out of her ragged blankets. He bit his lip in anticipation, something that made Daydream look away uncomfortably, easing her way across the floor. She didn't like how interested he was with this girl, the only time he was like this was when he had an end goal in sight. And that didn't bode well for anyone in his way. She knelt next to the bundle covering Nightshade's head and waiting, skin crawling as her Gruppenleiter placed his hands on her head, his fingertips pressed roughly against her temples. Daydream slowed her breathing, falling into the light trance she needed to work with the subconscious, moving her hands to hover lightly over the young woman's head. Touching her was not advisable at the best of times, and this was definitely not going to be the best of times.
It took half an hour for Daydream to navigate the sleeping mutant's dreams, they were broken and shattered, fading and changing, impossible to grasp. So she didn't, she slipped down the darkness between each one, opening a pathway for the mind behind her. Once inside it didn't take long for them to combine their efforts, tipping dreams into nightmares, past failures turned to future horrors. A history of threats, hate, scorn, fear, anger, and death fuelling the despair that they pushed into her mind. Daydream pulled back out of her mind slowly, noticing that the woman had barely moved, seemingly paralysed by the images they had fed her.
Shadow cut contact with her as she moved her hands back, a breath escaping him as he looked at the doorway, vanishing into the shadows as if he had never been there.
The scuff of a shoe was the only warning that Daydream had before the door was kicked open by a booted foot.
"Police, do not move." A heavily armed, and armoured, man strode into the office, gun raised. The panic on Daydream's face was genuine, this wasn't what she had expected. It was supposed to be police, normal police, not the GSG 9. This wasn't the plan. This wasn't the plan!
A second man in what was clearly tactical gear strode into the room, pushing Daydream against the wall, his weapon aimed at her. She froze against the wall, her wide eyes closing in pain as he shone a light at her face. "Mutanten! The tip was correct."
Three more men entered the room, dragging the mutants out of bed, their eyes blurred with the remnants of sleep, and confusion on their faces.
"No … don't touch me .." Nightshade whimpered; her eyes were unfocused, terrible images still dancing over them. Her skin burned with power for a moment as the officer shook her roughly. "Be silent."
"Mein Gott!" The uniformed men looked over to their colleague, his torch light shining directly into Spectrum's eyes. Gasps of horror broke out as they looked at her with revulsion, the officer gripping her raising his baton as if he were about to attack. The sound of cartilage breaking drew the GCG 9's eyes to Mass, who was now completely brick, a bleeding, semiconscious officer on the floor beside her.
"Yeah, see this ain't happening." She stated angrily as she strode towards Spectrum, grabbing the baton and snapping it in half. Daydream used the distraction to her advantage, her eyes flicking from officer to officer, her mind frantically trying to come up with strategies. Nightshade's officer was sweating profusely, which seemed odd to her, one was struggling to his feet with at least a broken nose, Mass was trying to grapple with the officer in front of her, which just left the man in front of her, and the one by the door. She ducked below the gun's barrel and aimed a kick at the man's knee, hearing the crack as he staggered back, nearly knocking over Nightshade before he fell over the now vomiting man beside her.
The officer by the door turned to face her, starting to realise that they had lost control of the situation. She narrowed her yellow eyes before ducking to the side, the crack of gunfire following her. Mass heaved the officer she was struggling with, hurling him at the sound of bullets and knocking both of them to the floor. She stalked over, a look of fury on her face, driving her fist firmly into the man's forehead. Turning, she ripped the gun from the horrified looking officer before roughly shoving him in Nightshade's direction.
Nightshade backed up too slowly, the man slamming straight into her, her power blazing up again as she fell back against the wall. Spectrum moved towards Daydream; her voice full of disbelief as she asked. "What is this?"
"We need to get out of here now!" Daydream replied, moving to the bloody nosed officer, his voice low and urgent as he spoke into his radio. The heel of her foot found his nose once more, ending the frantic pleas for backup. "Before we all end up in a Mutant Detention Facility. You don't want to do that." She pulled Spectrum's hand away from Nightshade before she could touch her arm, pointing to the lifeless corpse of the officer who had grabbed the poisonous mutant.
"This way, we don't have long." She let Mass lead the way, Nightshade stumbling behind her, and Daydream bringing up the rear, urging Spectrum to move faster.
"Move that" She called out as they got to the end of the corridor. She pointed at a filing cabinet. Mass nodded and flung the cabinet down the corridor behind her, her rage making her oblivious to her friends' safety. Spectrum pulled herself up from the floor as Daydream spat out. "Bit of warning next time, Mass. We aren't the enemy."
Mass grunted before punching the fire exit, neatly hidden behind the cabinet, causing it to burst open outside. She bit back a sarcastic comment after looking at Nightshade's horrified face and led the way outside, into a small parking lot. Daydream stepped forward, beckoning them to follow her to a pitch-black alleyway.
Shaking with fear, adrenaline, and shock, they staggered down the alley and into the darkest corner they could find. Nightshade slid to the floor, staring at her hands with wild eyed horror, one thought dominating her mind, she had killed again. Mass punched a wall, adrenaline still flowing through her. She didn't know if she wanted to run away or kill someone. Spectrum's laboured breathing changed to a gasp, her eyes falling on a slender looking pale man, hair as black as the night seemed to drip from his head. He smirked and bowed politely.
"Hello ladies, may I offer my assistance?"