Chapter 2: Break-in at TCRI
Inside the Foot Clan's palace, Shredder, Dr. Doom, and Loki—who, along with Doctor Octopus, Red Skull, and Magneto, were now calling themselves the Masters of Evil—made plans on how to re-invade New York City. "Your mistake in attempting to take over the city was that you chose a substandard species to do your work," Loki said. "The Kraang are perhaps the most looked down upon species in the galaxy, even more so than humans. They are a technologically advanced race, and yet they require thousands of years to terraform the Earth. And why terraform? Why not just total destruction? And their suits of armor are pathetic, no match at all for Asgardian metal."
"Then who do you propose we use for our plan?" asked Shredder.
"The Frost Giants of Jotunheim," answered Loki. "This race was once a war-faring race that led numerous attacks on the people of Earth until the Asgardians opposed them. They were eventually forced back to Jotunheim and defeated there. Odin, the King of Asgardians, granted them mercy however, and confiscated the source of their power, the Casket of Ancient Winters. He also found me there, an abandoned Jotun baby, and took me with him, and I grew up in Odin's house as his son. In the centuries that followed, I found out the truth of my parentage and tricked the Frost Giants' leader into assassinating Odin. I double-crossed and killed him as part of my plan to curry favor with Odin, whereupon I attempted to annihilate the Frost Giants by destroying their realm. This plan was foiled by the intervention of my brother, Thor, and while many Frost Giants were killed in the incident, the race as a whole were spared. They still recognize me as one of their own, and would be more than glad to ally themselves with me in the destruction of this planet so that they may finish what they started years ago."
"We only need a suitable power source to help us open the portal to Jotunheim," Dr. Doom said. "I would suggest the Cosmic Cube, but that has been lost and its whereabouts are unknown."
They were silent for a moment, sitting in thought. Then Shredder remembered something.
"The Kraang used a special crystal to power their trans-dimensional portal," Shredder said. "That power cell is still inside their building.
"Then we must retrieve it," said Doom. "I'll send the Red Skull and Octavius to T.C.R.I."
Shredder shook his head. "I made an alliance with the Kraang, and I will not break that agreement. You will have to secure the power cell without any help from the Foot Clan."
TCRI looked like an ordinary building from the outside, but it had a secret. The top five floors were actually the secret hideout for the Kraang. These squishy brain blobs used the building as a means to hide their actions from the outside world. After the invasion of New York had failed, the Kraang retreated to their base to plan a counterattack. Now all was quiet at TCRI. Two Kraang blobs were stationed in the building's security room, monitoring the computer screens.
A call came in from the front gates, and the robotic head of a Kraangdroid appeared on one of the screens. "Kraang, a vehicle that has not been identified by Kraang has entered the entrance point known as the front gate." One of the screens switched images to show a large tank parked in the front of TCRI's chain-link fence. The driver side of the tank was in front of the camera, and one of the Kraang peered closely into the tank's interior. It was unable to identify the figure in the driver's seat.
"Kraang is unable to give the vehicle that has not been identified by Kraang authorization to enter until the vehicle that has not been identified by Kraang is identified by Kraang."
"Identification won't be necessary," said a deep voice. "We're coming in."
"That response is not the correct response that Kraang requires for authorization," said the Kraangdroid. On the video screen, Kraang watched closely as the tank activated its weapons systems.
The Kraangdroids at the gate raised their blasters. "All Kraang are authorized to fire the weapons designated as -" The screens went to static.
Inside the security room, Kraang turned to its fellow alien. "Kraang, activate the alarm that is known as Code Red. The location that is known as Kraang's secret base is in the state of under attack."
As alarms sounded through TCRI's hallways, Kraangdroids poured into the courtyard. Three large tanks barreled into the courtyard, each with the same icon on their fronts: a large red skull with dozens of red tentacles coming out from underneath it. It was the icon of the criminal organization known as Hydra.
As the Kraangdroids opened fire on the intruders, a score of Hydra henchmen exited each tank. Each Hydra soldier was dressed in yellow and green, and carried a rapid-fire energy rifle. The Hydra forces took out the Kraangdroids with relative ease, and moved to set explosive charges on the main doors.
One of the Kraang inside a destroyed Kraangdroid disengaged from its robot suit. It turned towards the tanks to see a red-headed man dressed in a Nazi uniform coming towards it. It hardly had time to squeal before the man's boot came down on its head, crushing it.
Red Skull looked down to see a pale pink goo sticking to the bottom of his boot. Wiping it off on the pavement, he moved towards the doors as they exploded inwards. The Hydra henchmen readied their weapons as he strode forward, looking down the dark hallway in front of him. Behind him, Doctor Octopus walked up, suspended on his four robotic arms. Red Skull smiled as he loaded his high-powered energy pistol. "Gentlemen," he said, "let's find that power cell."
The Hydra soldiers spread out into the main lobby, where a scattered group of Kraangdroids stood. The ensuing fight was quick and nearly effortless. A group of four Hydra stayed behind to hold the main entrance as the rest of them piled into the elevator. There were too many of them to fit them all in the elevator at once, so they would be taking several trips. Red Skull would go first with five troops, the Doc Ock would bring the next five, then the last six would come up.
Red Skull looked at the buttons on the elevator panel. The top five floors were locked, and required some sort of retinal scan to activate them. The Skull stepped out into the lobby and tore the head off one of the destroyed Kraangdroids, taking it back with him. As he held it against the scanner, it beeped and a green light filled the elevator. "Access to the levels known as restricted has been given to Kraang," a computer-generated voice said.
The elevator started going up. The Skull turned to his men. "Air filters," he said, and the soldiers began strapping gas masks to their faces. They had done some prior research on TCRI, and it turned out that the Kraang had duplicated the air on the top five levels to be identical to the atmosphere on Dimension X. Normal humans couldn't breathe in those conditions, so Skull's troops had brought gas masks as a precaution.
Skull's suspicions proved correct as the elevator doors opened and a greenish-brownish gas poured in. The troops took up positions outside the elevator and opened fire on the surprised Kraangdroids. Skull ducked behind a computer monitor to radio the troops on the ground floor.
"Intel was correct," he said. "Gas masks will be required. The elevator's on its way down."
Three fresh squads of Kraangdroids arrived, keeping the Hydra forces occupied. "Kraang cannot allow the intruders known as Hydra to interfere with the plan which is a plan that will benefit Kraang," said one. It activated the saw weapon on its blaster and moved to the open elevator doors. Reaching out, it sliced through the elevator cables, disabling the machine.
Below, Doctor Octopus was riding up in the elevator with five more Hydra henchmen when he suddenly felt the air pressure in the metal box shift considerably. Five seconds later they crashed in a terrible heap at the bottom of the elevator shaft. No one was badly hurt. "The elevator's down," said the Skull over the radio. "Looks like you're taking the stairs."
The Hydra henchmen rushed towards the stairs, but Doc Ock smiled. "On the contrary," he said. "I'm on my way up now." Climbing through the rubble of the elevator, he latched onto the sides of the elevator shaft with his tentacles, and began his ascent.
The Skull's forces fought back against the Kraang troops with spirit. But for every Kraangdroid that fell two more took its place. Just when the Hydra troops were nearly ready to accept defeat, something tore the elevator doors open with a loud shriek of metal on metal. Doctor Octopus came through then, swinging his metal arms and toppling the Kraangdroids left and right. He grabbed the one that had sliced through the elevator cables and held him up, punching the brain twice with his two normal arms. Then he dropped the robot and drove two of his tentacled arms through its body. Skull drew his blaster in time to take out a Kraangdroid that was aiming its weapon at him. The Kraangdroid was no match for Skull's weapon; a single shot knocked off its arms and legs. The torso and head flew through the nearest wall, propelled by the force of the shot.
With the room clear, the Hydra forces moved forward through the top floor. "The portal room should be just up ahead," said Doc Ock. "Take the next left." Two Hydra soldiers took up positions outside the door as the rest of the group went in.
Inside were several dozen Kraangdroids, along with several gorilla-like automaton suits with Kraang pilots. These were known as Biodroids. All of the Kraang in the room turned at once to look at the newcomers. "Kraang was wrong," said one of them. "The crashing noises detected by Kraang were not made by the ones called the turtles."
The Hydra henchmen opened fire, taking down many of the Kraangdroids in seconds. Doctor Octopus used his tentacles to swing himself up to the next level. He charged towards the control panel and grabbed the Biodroid who stood there with one of his metal arms. Shaking it vigorously, he threw it across the room. The Biodroid crashed into the wall and fell to the ground.
Doc Ock bent down to the Kraang control panel and deactivated the protective shield around the power cell. Grabbing it carefully with a robotic appendage, he called to Skull. "I've retrieved the power cell. Let's get out of here."
"Not yet," said Red Skull, pulling a small plastic explosive out of his belt. "We have one last task to accomplish. Octavius, give me a layout of the building's ventilation systems."
Doc Ock obeyed, his fingers running over the control panel. A large holographic image of TCRI appeared, which soon changed to a cross-section of the building. "The main ventilation room is located here," he said, pointing to a large red dot inside the building.
Skull pointed to his men. "Men, head down the stairs to the lobby. Squad 3 will be up soon."
The Hydra forces retreated, pursued by Kraangdroids. "Octavius, with me," said Skull, turning down a separate hallway and reaching the ventilation room within a matter of minutes. A gantry hung on the edges of the room, with a humongous fan several feet beneath it. The fan was at high speed, sucking air from the room and pumping it out into several air ducts beneath it. The ducts ferried the air through the rest of the building.
Red Skull pointed to the ceiling above the fan. "We need to get the package up there!" he shouted. The roar of the fan drowned out much of the white noise in the room.
But Doctor Octopus had moved to the fan's control system. He quickly deactivated the Dimension X atmosphere simulator, and soon the fan was blowing normal air through the building. Then he grabbed the Skull's bomb, and gave Skull the power cell to hold on to. Using his metal arms, he climbed up to the ceiling and placed the bomb directly over the fan. "Let's go!" he yelled, climbing back down.
Red Skull was already out of the room. With Doc Ock behind him, he reached the stairs to see a full-scale battle going on between the Kraang forces and the Hydra forces. The Hydra were badly outnumbered, and defeat seemed imminent. But then the rest of the Hydra forces, who had been climbing the stairs this whole time, arrived with guns blazing. With this new force, they bolted down the stairs, Red Skull leading the way with the power cell in his hands.
It took them nearly fifteen minutes to reach the ground floor. The remaining four Hydra soldiers greeted them as they entered the lobby. With Kraangdroids on their heels, they got to the tanks and drove away. As they left the main gates, several Kraang stealth ships flew out of the building to try and stop them. The stealth ships fired energy beams out of an "eye" in the center of their ships. The Hydra tank gunners swung their turrets around and returned fire.
Inside the lead tank, Red Skull set the power cell down and picked up a small remote detonator. As he pushed down the button, he began humming Chopin's funeral march, a song which he had played many times before when doing this sort of thing. Inside TCRI's ventilator room, the package attached to the ceiling released its payload. A fine red dust was dispersed, then sucked in by the fan and blown through the network of air ducts leading to every room in the building.
The dust was Skull's most infamous personal weapon: "dust of death." It killed victims by making contact with their skin, causing the skin on the victim's head to tighten, shrivel, and take on a red coloration, while at the same time causing all hair on their head to fall out. As a result, the dead body appeared to have a red skull for a head.
Inside the portal room, about a dozen Kraangdroids were surveying the mess. "Kraang has failed to stop the ones that need to be stopped," said one of them.
They all looked up as the air vent above them started spewing out red dust. It filled the room quickly, and soon the Kraang began coughing and choking violently. They popped out of their robot suits and lay dead on the floor, their faces the spitting images of Red Skull.
Red Skull laughed menacingly as the tanks sped away.