Talking
Thought
Location/Line break
I do not own any franchise included in my story.
The Power Stone was like a major cheat code, I had decided to get in some practice before I would face down the Dark Elves and had found an asteroid field. While my strength was enough alone to destroy asteroids with the Power Stone I could do it with even less strength and destroy massive ones in one hit, I had discovered that when I found one the size of Atlantis. The Power Stone also put a bit of strain on my body at first, I sat under some UV lamps just to heal faster, but eventually I adjusted to it and was ready for a fight. With plenty of time to kill I took a tour around the planets, curious about what could be out there that we never heard about but found nothing of great interest.
I had reached out to Asgard, traveling with the Space Stone just to check in and see how everything was going. Jane was getting along well, mostly spending her time in the different labs and scientific facilities, but the Asgardians seemed to like her. It seemed my reasoning was correct as well and she was making Thor focus more on learning and preparing to become King of Asgard, I also felt Odin may have used possibly banning her if Thor didn't focus. Jane's search for knowledge also got me answers on when exactly the Convergence was going to happen, and I made sure the Asuran's were keeping tabs on the calendar. Jane's presence though did lead to Heimdall reaching out to me saying Sif wanted to meet with me, knowing she had a crush on Thor I had an idea of what it could be so I quickly showed up on Atlantis.
Our time on Asgard had inspired a few Asuran's who wanted to focus on architecture once we settled down more and grew as an Empire. They decided I needed a throne room like Odin had not only on Novas but on Atlantis for when we meet with anyone, though we kept this one simpler and I promised to let them go a bit more upscale on Novas. We had rearranged some rooms and labs so we could remove the walls and create a throne room, we used a command chair as a throne, though this one did not recline, and was on a small four step dais. I was seated on the throne as we transported Sif into, the throne room. "Welcome to Atlantis Lady Sif."
She quickly knelt down and bowed her head. "Thank you, Emperor Magnus, not only for the welcome but for honoring my request to meet."
"It is my pleasure; you have been a good friend during my stay on Asgard." I replied to her. "Please stand." She quickly did so. "Now, how can I be of assistance to you?"
"I would like to ask permission to join you." She stated, which is exactly what I thought she wanted to see me for. "You have helped Asgard secure the Nine Realms and I wish to offer my sword to assist you in your goals."
"I see." I smiled at her. "You are a skilled and accomplished warrior; we would be lucky to have you with us. I am sure the Jaffa could learn much from you and would be happy to have you at their side, but have you spoken with Odin, Thor and the Warriors Three?" She frowned slightly at Thor's name. "I cannot say how long you will be gone for."
"I have, Odin has given me his blessing and agrees that my assisting you in return for your help is an excellent show of friendship." She answered. "My friends were not happy to hear I might leave Asgard, but they understand. And I am aware of how long a war might keep me away, this was not a rash decision."
I doubted it was that easy but nodded. "Very well, I shall transport you back to Asgard so you may gather everything you wish to bring." I tapped my comm. "77 please transport down a beacon, Lady Sif will be going back to Asgard and will need to contact us when she is ready to come back aboard."
"Right away." 77 replied and a second later a light appeared next to Sif, who looked down and saw a dull grey cylinder with a red button on top.
"Press the button and we will lock on to it and beam you and everything within ten feet." I informed her as she inspected it.
"Thank you, Emperor Magnus, I shall not be long in gathering my things." She bowed to me.
"There is no rush so take your time." I said to her. "While we are not leaving the galaxy any time soon, I do not know how often we will be back at Asgard or if we will come by before we leave." That was a lie as I was going to stop Hela, but she didn't need to know that.
"Very well." She replied with a nod.
"77 please transport Lady Sif back to Asgard." I said into my comm.
"Yes sir." He replied and a second later she was gone.
"77 please have someone prepare a communication device for Asgard." I couldn't always pop back to Asgard and needed a better way to stay in touch with them.
"At once sir." He answered.
"Well that was interesting." Morgan said as she appeared next to me. "And exactly what you thought she wanted to see you about."
"We make a good escape for her feelings." I said and stood up. "There loss is our gain, she will make an excellent commander and her Asgardian physique will catch many by surprise. Let's get someone on changing out her equipment with vibranium versions." That would make her extra deadly. "And have some nanites placed on her bed, when she sleeps, we will infect her." She would see and learn many things so I needed to be sure I had a hold of her mind so I could alter it to accept it all.
"Will do, I will transmit video of her and the Asuran's should be able to extrapolate her measurements." Morgan said before disappearing. I stood up and headed for the door, I had nothing else to do so I decided to relax until Sif was aboard.
XXXX
I held back a chuckle as I watched Sif look around, while she and the others had visited, she was now getting a full tour not just a look around. Knowing she would be infected with nanites I played off fully accepting her pledge of loyalty and said I would give her the full tour. "Atlantis truly is a wonder; your home world must be just as beautiful."
"Somewhat." I replied. "Remember to hide from the Goa'uld we lived under the sea so it was not much to see other than the cities."
"Still, to live underwater must be beautiful." She replied.
"Ha, true." I said with a chuckle. "Sometimes we don't realize the beauty in front of us when we see it so often." It was a corny line but would resonate with her, I had looked away when I said it but a superspeed look showed the words had affected her because she was clenching her fist. "Now, the Asuran's have a surprise for you."
"A surprise?" Sif parroted back. "I could not accept a gift; I have done nothing to deserve one."
"You have seen and handled the weapons the Jaffa use yes?" I asked.
"Yes, they are made of vibranium I believe?" I nodded to her. "It was light yet so strong, it is an incredibly material."
"And as a warrior for the Nova Empire you must be armed with the best." I said and gestured to the side. "We have made armor and weapons in the same design as your own, we should go and see if it fits properly."
"Truly." She said excited before collecting herself. "I apologize for my outburst; I appreciate the gesture, but you have already given me so much." I chuckled and started walking away, I heard her follow quickly after me.
"While it is a gift it is also simply me equipping my soldiers with the best equipment possible." I responded over my shoulder.
She hummed but nodded. "Very well sire." I smirked; she was a warrior so of course she was happy about new equipment. It didn't take us long to reach a testing area where a few Asuran's were waiting with the new equipment, which looked just like her old armor but the leather underneath was changed to gold instead of red and the metal itself was given a white coloring, making it look like mithril from Lord of the Rings. "By the Norns." She whispered as she saw it, after a breath she stepped towards it and ran her hands across it. "It looks amazing."
"I will give you privacy to change and let's see how it all fits." I said and turned on my heels to give her privacy.
It only took her a minute to change and I was happy to find everything fit perfectly, of course with Asuran's and Morgan doing the extrapolations I had little doubt it would. She was swinging her new sword around when I returned and had her shield strapped to her arm. "It is so light; this will take time to adjust to."
"This room is also a training facility where you may train." An Asuran, 644 I think, informed her and walked over to a control panel on the wall. "I can show you how to operate this panel and you will be able to create opponents to fight against." She tapped on it and a solid hologram of a suit of armor with a sword and shield appeared. "While a hologram it is solid and will offer an excellent training partner."
Sif was surprised and walked towards it, which made the armored knight draw its sword and drop into a ready stance. She paused when it did but raised her sword and prepared herself, after a few beats the hologram attacked. She easily parred the attack and then struck with her own, while the hologram brought its sword up to block Sif's strength was so great it cleaved through the weapon and the armor. She frowned as it disintegrated in a flash of light. "Of course, we will reprogram the parameters to be able to handle your strength, but you could tell it had substance correct?"
"Yes." Sif answered, looking a bit more excited with the news. "Though I would not mind a real sparring partner." She turned to me and I couldn't help but smile.
"When time permits, I would be happy to." I answered her which made her smile as well. "For now though I have work to do, so my apologies."
"I understand." Sif replied with a head bow. "And appreciate any time you can make for a spar."
"Morgan will inform you when I have some time." I said and look to the A.I., who nodded to me. "And while they are not as strong I am sure the Jaffa will be happy to spar with you."
"I would welcome the challenge." Sif answered.
"Good, I have no doubt the will seek you out once the word of your joining us spreads." I said to her. "For now though please feel free to use this facility as much as you would like."
"Thank you, Emperor." Sif said with another bow.
XXXX
Sif did integrate well, while most still believed men were superior to women none of them could stand against her superior strength and skill, after all she has been a warrior longer then most have been alive. She of course had dealt with this on Asgard as well though and didn't miss a step in taking charge of drills and training, Atok was annoyed at first but realized she was more experienced so he watched, after a conversation with me. Even with sparring I was bored though and tried to think of what I could do before the Convergence happened, Sif had given me an idea though and it would not only be fun but also cause a bit of chaos.
"Report." I said as Sif and I walked into the training area, Atok and two squads of Jaffa were standing at the ready.
"Emperor we are ready to begin the mission." Atok replied and I nodded to him.
"Morgan do we have a destination?"
"Yes sir, ready to transport."
"Excellent, you all know the plan." I said and they all slammed their staves in answer. I grinned and moved to stand in front of the formation, Sif moved to my right and Atok was on my left. "Transport us."
As the light faded, I saw we were all in a large room with computers, screens and concrete walls. Around the room were several men and a few women all in camo uniforms. "Guards!" Someone yelled.
"Jaffa kree!" While the humans were still readying their guns, the Jaffa brought up their spears and began firing, taking out the guards first. It was chaos, people without weapons were diving for cover while the few guards not killed were taking cover. Sif and Atok both went into motion, breaking off to their sides and engaging in close combat, both vibranium weapons easily cutting through the body armor. I stood still and watched as the Jaffa squads moved around the room, killing anyone who tried to fight back but knocking out those who were staying hidden or gave up, I wasn't completely heartless. I sighed as someone was lucky enough to get to the alarm, it could have been so much easier but this was a chance to let off some steam. "Lets move." I ordered and headed towards the doors. "Two men stay behind and destroy all the computers, as completely as possible." The door to the hall was large and made of metal with a keypad next to it, while I could have hacked it I resorted to spartan kicking it open, it flew off the hinges and into the hall.
"Break off into teams of two." I ordered. "If you find the target contact me."
"Yes Emperor." The Jaffa replied and moved down the halls, breaking off as they reached turns.
I turned to Sif and Atok. "Let's see if we can find our target first." They nodded, I looked down the halls and decided to go left. We came across a few people as we walked around, the lucky ones who got shots off were surprised as they did nothing to me for half a second before Sif or Atok took them down. The unlucky ones came around corners and were taken out before they could even register what was going on.
After around fifteen minutes I received a call. "Emperor we have him." I stopped and put my hand on my communicator. "He is attempting to fight us, though not with much success." I looked down at my wrist and a holomap popped up showing me the Jaffa's location.
"Hold tight." I ended the call and looked at Sif and Atok. "You to play nice while I'm gone." Before they could answer I speed down the halls to my target. I burst into a room, blowing the doors open as I entered, and saw it was a large lab like room with a chair in the middle that had several devices connected to it. I grinned as I saw two Jaffa facing off against my target, the Winter Solider aka Bucky Barnes. He was doing fine but against two Jaffa with the same if not better enhanced bodies he was not winning, I think he was surprised that his arm couldn't punch through the spears. "Jaffa kree!" I barked and the two immediately jumped back, Bucky quickly turned to look at me. "Hello Sergeant Barnes."
He didn't hesitate to come at me, I don't know why but I guess he assumed I was less of a threat, maybe because there was only one of me? I easily dodged his first punch and with super speed moved around his other punches and attempts to grab hold of me. "This will not go as you think." I grabbed hold of his metallic arm, willing nanites to attack it while slowly moving it outward. He punched me several times to try and free his arm but it felt like nothing to me, with my free hand I grabbed the side of his head. This time the nanites were going into his mind, they were first going to knock him out then begin to repair the damage done to his mind. It took a few seconds, he struggled the entire time, but eventually he passed out.
"Morgan, one to transport to sick bay." I radio in, carefully placing Bucky down on the ground. "Look for my nanite code." A second later and he was gone so I tapped my communicator. "Target has been acquired; we are leaving. Morgan exit please."
We appeared on the bridge, 77 was in the control chair while Morgan stood next to him. "Morgan please scrub their surveillance systems; eyewitness accounts are one thing but I don't want recordings."
"Already in process, though I am taking their data." The A.I. answered with a grin.
"Wonderful, let Hydra see what it's like to have no clue what's going on." I chuckled. "Alright, lets get our best medical team on Barnes, he's going to be a project."
"Yes Emperor." 77 replied. "I have sent the message and our best are on the way."
"Good." I said with a nod. "We have two months before the convergence, hopefully I can have his mind repaired and a new body made for him by then."
XXXX
It took a week, which at the Asuran's pace was longer than it seemed really, for all the damage done to Barnes mind to be fixed and most of his memory was erased. I didn't want everything gone as I would have to retrain him in technology, combat and weaponry so we just erased some of his memory, mostly the assassinations of good people and their families, along with all of the brainwashing Hydra had implanted in him. He was laying on a table in sick bay, I didn't see the need to strap him down as he wasn't going to be able to kill anyone here even if her wanted to. "Wake him." I said to the closest Asuran, who tapped on a datapad to deactivate the nanites keeping him under.
After a few second Bucky bolted upright and took in a deep breath, still breathing heavy he looked around. "Where am I?" Despite healing him his voice was a bit horse from unuse.
"Sergeant Barnes." I said to draw his attention. "How do you feel?"
He opened his mouth to speak but stopped, he looked down and saw only one hand. "No..no no no no no." He began to mutter and ran his hand over his left shoulder to feel the limb was actually missing. "Oh god."
"It was not a dream Sergeant." He looked at me. "Everything really happened."
He grabbed his head with his hand. "Oh god…..those fucking bastards." He began to breath heavy again, I looked and noticed his heart was racing on the datapad. "I'll kill them, I'll fucking kill them all." He jumped up. "Who are you!"
I turned and pointed to a window looking out in space, his eyes shifted to see what I was pointing at but when he did see they widened, and he fully turned to it. Carefully he walked to the window and looked out, we had moved so Earth was visible from here. "As difficult as it is to believe we are currently orbiting Earth."
"What is going on?" Bucky muttered and turned back. "You're not Hydra, my mind is clear but I can't remember details of things I know I should have done." He looked at his hand again. "Just what is all of this?" He waved around the room.
"Introductions first I believe." I smield at him. "I am Emperor Magnus, Emperor of the Nova Empire and these are 417, 111 and 231." Each Asuran nodded as I said their names. "Atok, a soldier like yourself." The Jaffa saluted to him. "And the Lady Sif of Asgard."
"Sergeant Barnes." Sif said with a nod to him.
"And Morgan." I pointed to the A.I.
"Hello Sergeant." Morgan said with a smile.
"….Jesus I need whiskey." I grinned as he spoke and sped off to grab a bottle, as I appeared in front of him with a bottle he blinked and carefully took it. "Fucking hell." He grabbed the bottle, spinning the top off with his thumb and drank deeply from it. "Fuck…okay, so what the hell is this?"
"Perhaps we should sit and I can explain more." I said and he nodded, heading back towards the table he was on. "Now there is a lot to say so please try to keep your questions limited at least until I am done."
"I'll do my best." He answered before taking another swig of whiskey.
"Very well." I smiled and then spun the same tale I told the Asgardians, adding in that I was interested more in the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D after talking with Thor. While researching I discovered Hydra existed and when I saw the information on them, I dug deeper, eventually finding him and knew I had to pull him out asap. I explained how my technology fixed his mind and modified his memories, I knew modifying them was doing something similar to Hydra and if he wanted, I could give him everything, he tabled that for later.
I could tell he was happy to learn Steve survived everything and won against Red Skull, though not that Peggy and he never got together. Through the Mind Stone I could see he was tempted to reach out to Steve but felt worried over all the things he had done, even if he couldn't remember everything exactly. Morgan had wiped everything electronically about him from all Hydra files and we tracked down all the hard files we found mention of. Someone might tell Steve or S.H.I.E.L.D but without proof they wouldn't convince them fully. "So now we come to choices, I can take you back to Earth or you can join us, Atok and the Jaffa would welcome another warrior such as yourself."
"He has the heart of a Jaffa Emperor." Atok cut in. "I would be honored to fight beside you." Bucky smirked and raised his bottle in salute.
"Thanks, but I doubt you need a man with one arm." He said with a chuckle and gestured to his missing arm.
"Again, we have options." I said to him, surprising him. "I could rebuild your entire body back to it's prime, create a better prosthetic then Hydra gave you or leave you as is."
"There anything you can't do?" He joked.
"Not that I've found so far." I answered back with a grin. "But it's a big universe."
"Right….Look this is a lot to take in and I'm still not sure this." He tapped his head. "Is really working right."
"Were in no hurry." Semi true, he had a few days before I would want him training for the big fight. "Take some time, Morgan why don't you show him to a room?"
"Of course." Morgan replied with a smile. "Come Sergeant, let's get you comfortable."
"Take some time, think things over and if you have questions please ask." I said to him, already telling the nanites mentally to sway his mind towards staying.
"Thanks." He hopped onto the floor. "I'm keeping this." He held up the bottle and walked after Morgan.
"He does not seem like the warrior you described to me." Sif said quietly as we walked.
"The Jaffa know what it is like to suffer tortures of the mind." Atok said before I could respond. "It breaks a warrior, but the strong will overcome it, I believe he will."
"And why is that?" Sif asked.
"His eyes." Atok answered. "They are not broken, confused but not broken." He nodded. "He will recover and use this to grow stronger, should he wish to take his revenge he will not be alone."
"Huh, maybe I should let Barnes and the Jaffa go wild." I thought with a grin. "Time will tell Atok, but that's not a terrible idea."
XXXX
I let Bucky "think" for a few days before convincing him that he was better off with me, surprisingly though he did want all of the memories back. After doing that he needed time again to process everything, after which it was easy to manipulate him to join me on a road of redemption but where only a small few would actually know his past. He also went for both a new body but a prosthetic, wanting to keep it as a reminder of what he's been through. I could have made some amazingly high-tech arm that looked just like a real one but I wanted to keep the Winter Soldier, at least for now. His arm looked like the vibranium version he received in Wakanda but keeping with my theme I made it white and gold like Sif's armor, he had a few nanites inside it to take care of any damages that might happen.
His new body was also special, using the Asgardian samples I decided Bucky deserved another upgrade himself. I mentioned it to Sif and she was a bit put off by it but when I promised I wouldn't do it for everyone she relented, I think the idea of someone with her level of strength excited her. Bucky also brought in the idea of firearms, something I had on the sideline but would need to cook something up for him. While he was skilled in hand to hand combat and some weapons training it wasn't at a high level and he relied more on firearms. Using the Ma'Tok schematics, some nanite technology and downloaded weapon schematics from Earth we were able to convert a SAW into a plamsa version, with a slower rate of fire but nothing to laugh about. The weapon looked mostly the same except the muzzle was gone and the barrel was widened to fire the bolts.
Sif got a lot of enjoyment out of training Bucky and helping adjust to his new body, we had to make him vibranium cutlery, plates, glass and furniture until he was finally able to control his strength. Bucky also drew in a few fans from the Jaffa when practicing with his new gun, Atok sent me some requests for more SAW's after one afternoon training session. It was a good idea, after all the Dark Elves were stronger so fighting them up closer would not be easy for the Jaffa so I had the Asuran's make a large supply for the upcoming battle.
Atok was also correct in assuming Bucky would want to take revenge on Hydra, both for himself and Steve, despite the man being able to himself. Morgan was keeping watch and Hydra was in a frenzy, they had no idea who hit them or how, Pierce had almost sent S.T.R.I.K.E in but stopped when he realized it would alert Fury. "Once he calmed down Pierce remembered the report on the Emperor from the Battle for New York." Morgan informed us; we were sitting in a meeting room deciding our next move. "So, he now believes we are an outside entity like the Asgardians, Fury already suspected and reached out to another extraterrestrial group he has secret contact with." I nodded, knowing full well she meant the Skrulls but we had talked about them before this and she knew not to mention all the information about them.
"What is this other group?" Sif asked. "Perhaps we might speak with them as well?"
"Unknown at this time." Morgan replied. "We are working on full decryption; we only know a general location, but it would be unwise to investigate until we have more information."
"Don't think we really need any help though." Bucky said from his seat. "You guys took down one of the most guarded facilities without any help."
"True but were going to be doing things differently." I said and nodded to Morgan, with a swipe several holoscreens popped up with profiles and pictures of people. "These are all Hydra agents undercover at S.H.I.E.L.D, we will take them out one by one or in groups if possible."
"Good." Bucky sat up as he looked around. "About time I start taking them out for a change."
"Will this not alert S.H.I.E.L.D if we attack their men?" Sif asked.
"We want to alert them." I replied. "We want only these agents to die or go missing, even if they are mixed in with real Agents, we just render them unconscious or capture them."
"We should drop clues to, say things like target eliminated and such." Bucky said with a nod of my plan. "The ones who survive will report that and S.H.I.E.L.D will look for connections."
"Pierce and the other Hydra operatives will know and work to keep it hidden but it will be difficult." I chuckled; Fury would turn over every stone in his search.
"But we will attack their other facilities as well yes?" Atok asked.
"Of course, while you are attacking them on the S.H.E.I.L.D front I will be dealing with certain Hydra facilities and personal." I informed them. "Morgan will also begin slowly draining their finances."
"I've gained most of their passwords and account numbers, it will be easy." She replied. "Even if they try to change them, I will be there to stop them."
"So who do we start with?" Bucky asked. "Because I am itching to try my new toy out on someone."
Using my nanites I took control of the screens and brought up a picture of Brock Rumlow and several other agents. "These men are Hydra agents working in the S.T.R.I.K.E unit of S.H.I.E.L.D and will be the easiest to lure out." I opened another screen and brought up a plan looking warehouse with several bay doors for loading trucks. "This is a S.H.I.E.L.D munitions and supply depo in California, there are enough supplies that you could sell off and make millions. It also is guarded by mostly Hydra agents; we will cut communications and take it over thus ensuring they send in S.T.R.I.K.E. As there is nothing Top Secret located here, I doubt they would ask the Avengers to join them."
"If they do?" Bucky asked with a frown.
"Now that' you've cut your hair I'll give you a helmet so no one will recognize your face." I said to him. "And everyone will know not to kill them, or gravely hurt."
"I will try to plan this on a day they are on another mission as well." Morgan chimed in. "I am keeping up with their communications." Bucky nodded to her.
"Atok will lead with Barnes as Second in Command." I ordered. "Make sure not to use his name, call him Winter, Soldier or Winter Soldier but never Barnes, Bucky or Sergeant." Those kinds of slips would cause problems with Steve there or not.
"Understood Emperor." Atok replied with a firm nod. "I shall pass your order on."
"Thank you." I turned to Sif. "You and I shall be taking down senior members of Hydra, starting with this man Werner Reinhardt." I brought up the man's profile. "Now known as Daniel Whitehall, an original leader of Hydra who de-aged himself through experimentation and has vast knowledge on their entire operation."
"Do you wish for his knowledge?" Sif asked while frowning, Barnes to seemed annoyed at the man's picture.
"I have no need for it, I want him to gain access to the parts of Hydra kept off computers." I replied, after all I could just make a knew body if I wanted to. "He will provide more information then we currently have." Both seemed happy with this. "We will attack the supply depo and Whitehall at the same time, to ensure he does not go into hiding after he receives the news. Atok make sure the Jaffa are ready for a sudden departure."
"Yes Emperor." Atok answered with a salute.
"Any more questions?" Everyone shook their heads. "Excellent, dismissed."
"A month and two weeks until the Convergence." Morgan said after the others had left. "You could clear Hydra completely in that amount of time."
"I think Barnes needs this, a healthier fix then me just wiping his mind." I said to her. "Plus, Fury will never stop looking unless he personal shuts them down."
"A valid point." Morgan replied. "I suppose the Jaffa could use the exercise as well."
XXXX
Bucky looked over his new weapon a final time as the Jaffa assembled in the cargo area they were leaving from, he still sometimes found it hard to believe what he had been woken up to. His time as the Winter Soldier was like a bad dream that haunted him even when he was awake, he had asked for all the memories back and was already regretting it as some were more painful then others.
"The Jaffa are ready." Bucky looked up to see Atok a few feet away. "Are you prepared?"
"Yeah." Bucky said as secured his weapon and activated his suits nanites to cover his head. While Magnus had made a helm that would hide him he decided he wanted to make sure Hydra knew it was him attacking them. The nanites created a half mask like he used to wear and acted as fibers to recreate his longer hair, while he was now in a black body suit the face and prosthetic arm would make him recognizable, even if the arm looked different. "Lets go."
Atok grinned at him. "Jaffa." Turning both looked as two squads stood to attention. "Today we strike against an enemy who attempts to oppress this world. We who know what that is like shall not allow this to happen shall we?"
"No!"
"No we shall not, the light of the Empire shall reveal these men to the world." Atok willed his nanites to cover his face. "Remember, not all are our enemies, the computer will tell you if they are to die or not." He tapped his comm. "We are prepared for transportation."
They appeared on a hill not to far from the facility. "Winter Soldier lead the way." Bucky nodded and ran up the hill, dropping to the ground as he reached the top. The depo was below them and a few yards from the base of the hill, with a chain link fence around it, overall it looked like a basic warehouse for some shipping company.
"There." Atok dropped down next to Bucky and pointed to a smaller chain link fenced area near the building. "That is the power source, the second is on the other side of the building."
"Are they ready to deploy the jammer?" Barnes asked and Atok nodded.
"When I call for it." The Prime answered. "I shall take one squad and destroy the second power supply while you command this squad and destroy this one." Barnes nodded. "I shall message you when we are ready to attack."
"Alright." Bucky answered, Atok patted his shoulder and crawled back before standing and giving his orders. The other Jaffa crawled down next to him and waited for a few minutes until Atok finally radioed they were ready to attack. "On me boys." Bucky said and stood up, running down the hill. "Hope the communications have been knocked out." Bucky thought as they raced, one of the Jaffa sped past him to the fence.
Once he arrived he quickly slashed the fence and cut them an opening, moving through Bucky raised his SAW and opened fire on the transformers. Yellow bolts of energy flew from the weapon and tore through the metal chain-link fence and metal of the transformers, they exploded and sparks flew everywhere. "Transformers down." Bucky said before he heard gunshots, turning he saw security guards arriving. The Jaffa quickly moved in front of him and began firing back at them, his nanites covered one eye so he could see that all of them were Hydra agents. Bringing up his gun he opened fire, even thought some agents tried to take cover behind some cars the advanced weapons blew the cars away along with the people. "You two." Bucky tapped two Jaffa. "You check to make sure their all dead, the rest follow me."
Alarms were already going off as they entered the building, security doors tried closing them off, but the Jaffa cut through the metal easily. Bucky entered first, and was immediately pelted with bullets, his knew armor and Asgardian physiology though kept him from falling backwards. Scanning the people firing they all came up Hydra but instead of firing back he slung his weapon behind him on its strap, wanting to tryout his new strength, running forward he grabbed used his vibranium arm to grab the muzzle of one of the guns and crushed it before punching the man holding it. He didn't hold back his strength and heard the crunching of bones before he spun and blocked another gun, kicking out the knee of the man holding it. When he dropped Bucky punched him and turned to fight another when a spear flew past him and impaled his target, looking back he saw a Jaffa walk forward and reclaim his weapon, giving him a nod as he passed. "Fan out, teams of two." Bucky ordered and swung his Saw back around.
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Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, looked up as his office door opened to see Maria Hill, Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, coming in with a grim look on her face. "What is it?"
"Gas Station 84 went dark two hours ago and we can't make contact." She reported and he frowned, Gas Station, that was the codename S.H.I.E.L.D gave the various supply depo's across the globe where their teams could stop in and refuel vehicles, get supplies or check in with the main HQ on secure lines. 84 was built near Malibu after Tony Stark built his Iron Man suit, just in case they needed to quickly take him down or stop someone from taking the technology.
"Any assets in the area?" Fury asked as he sat up.
"None close unless you want to call in Stark." Maria replied but knew he did not. "I already put S.T.R.I.K.E on alert."
Fury took a breath but nodded, nothing Top Secret was at 84 but they had a few heavy weapons not normally found in a depo. Gas Stations were also available to Level 3 agents and above, meaning someone could have gotten the info out of one of them through any means. Several arms dealers would kill for that kind of info and make a play for the depos if they thought they weren't heavily guarded. "Alright, send S.T.R.I.K.E in but move our closest filed agents in as well."
"Yes sir." Hill replied with a salute and turned to carry out the orders.
Fury drummed his fingers on his desk, something felt off about this but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly. "Hill!" The woman turned around. "If they knocked out communications they could have knocked out the cameras, I want S.T.R.I.K.E wired."
"Yes sir." Maria replied and headed out quicker.
XXXX
Brock Rumlow was the head of S.T.R.I.K.E and current lead on the team heading out, secretly he was also a Hydra agent and knew this particular Gas Station was under Hydra control. He didn't know all the details but something had happened recently to put the Hydra higher ups on alert, so he and his Hydar infiltrated S.T.R.I.K.E team were tasked with finding out what happened not just for Fury but Hydra as well.
"Gas Station one minute out." The Quinjet pilot yelled back to him, he could already see smoke rising in front of them.
"Roger that." He stood from his seat and walked to the cockpit. "Anything on the radar?"
"No sir." The pilot replied. "But we should have a visual now."
Unclipping his scope Brock looked out at the facility, frowning at what he saw. "Main and backup transformers are hit, explains the power loss."
"We just lost comms." The copilot informed him. "Someone setup a powerful jammer."
"Alright, once we disembark get back in communication range and report in." Rumlow ordered. "Comeback around in thirty minutes, if were not outside get out and report back to Fury."
"Roger that sir." The pilot replied, Rumlow reclipped his scope and headed back to his team.
"Looks like the powers out so bring night gear." He said as he grabbed his equipment. "Weapons hot as we touch down, pick your targets carefully as own might still be alive and comms will be down. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" The team answered back and gathered their gear.
"Bringing it down, no hostiles spotted."
"Let's move." Rumlow yelled and slung his pack on before heading to the opening ramp. "On me!" He brought his weapon up and scanned as he made his way towards the main doors, he spotted two semi's in the bay area and a few cars in the parking lot. "Rollins, take White and check those trucks."
"Roger." Rollins said and broke off with another man to the semi's.
The remaining four members moved to the main entrance and saw the security doors had been dropped but then cut through. The lights were out inside so he flipped his goggles down and then signaled for the team to enter, he took the rear. They came upon some bodies quickly, all dead but from different wounds, one man looked like his face was crushed by a punch, he aimed his camera down to get the visual and moved on. He was alright with having to use cameras, Pierce would want to see everything as they found it and not after they had picked through the building. Making there way into the warehouse he was surprised by the mess, fork lifts were on their sides, most of the twenty foot racks holding equipment were either destroyed or knocked over and weapons lay scattered about. "This wasn't a heist then." Rumlow thought.
"Freeze, S.H.I.E.L.D!" Jackson yelled, causing all of them to aim left where he was pointing.
Rumlow's eyes widened slightly as the flashlights lite up a man in a black body suit, his face was half covered, and he had long dark hair but what stood out the most was his shining white left arm. "Fuck, open fire!" He had seen enough pictures to know this was the Winter Soldier and while he didn't know why he was here it couldn't be under Pierces order or he would have not been sent out. Pulling the trigger, he watched as instead of dodging or running for cover the man stood there, his suit lighting up as the bullets hit and he didn't even take a step back. "What the hell." He muttered as his clip emptied.
The Winter Soldier raised his gun and Rumlow moved to cover while reloading, only to jump as yellow bolts of energy flew around and blew up everything they hit. "What the hell is she shooting with?" He thought it was a SAW but now he didn't know what it was. "Cover!" Rumlow yelled but heard no reply, taking a quick peek he saw Jackson and Williams were down. "Shit, Smith you there!" He waited a few seconds. "Smith!"
"Your all that's left." Rumlow heard as the firing stopped.
"Fuck." He thought, with the cameras on he couldn't reveal himself and if he turned it off that would be suspicious to Fury and Hill, along with how he survived. He pulled a grenade and tossed it over the boxes he was behind then ran for the door, the shockwave from the explosion caused him to stumble a bit but he didn't fall. He was going to meet up with Rollins and White, the three of them might be able to hold off and escape together, once he was outside he skidded to a stop. Rollins and White were on their knees, spears at their throats by men in strange armor. "What the fuck." He started to bring up his gun but it was stopped, looking down he saw a white arm before being hit in the stomach by a powerful blow. He doubled over and his gun was ripped out of his hand before he was hit again and fell back, he rolled a bit but got his feet under him and looked up. The Winter Soldier was looking at him and holding his gun in his white arm, which he used to crush the weapon and toss it away.
Rumlow went for his knife but as he grabbed the handle the Winter Soldier brought up his gun and fired.
XXXX
Alexander Pierce was worried, first the had lost the Tesseract and scepter Loki had used to turn the agents, then the same man in a white bodysuit had taken the Winter Soldier form them. Now said asset was taking out Hydra agents hidden in S.H.I.E.L.D, the loss of the depo and men at it wasn't terrible but losing Rumlow and his best S.T.R.I.K.E agents was a serious setback.
"This is the best image we have ever received but piecing together what else we have leads us to believe this is the Winter Soldier." Fury said as Pierce looked over the still taken from Rumlow's camera.
"Dear god." Pierce muttered. "Any idea what kind of tech he was using? The bullets didn't seem to even phase him." Nothing Hydra had was that good, he also made not that the assets arm was different.
"Nothing we have seen before." Fury replied. "I've got people looking into the armor of those men that were holding Rollins and White."
"Asgaridan?" Pierce asked. "Armor and weapons that look primitive but aren't sounds like Thor to me."
"I considered it but none of the markings match any Nordic artifacts we've seen." Fury answered. "Were checking other cultures though, if Asgardians are real why not other mythological races." Pierce nodded to that. "I have no reason to believe Thor would move against S.H.I.E.L.D, at least not without declaring us his enemy face to face first."
"So were thinking the man in white?" Pierce asked.
"Possibly, though I don't know how he found out about the Winter Soldier." Fury said with a sigh. "But theirs something bothering me, one of the survivors said something interesting." Fury opened a file. "Andrew Perkins, retired Marnie, sixty years old and ran the check-in station at the Gas Station." He showed Pierce the man's picture. "He grabbed a gun just like the others and fought back but when the hostiles found him and the two, he was with they knocked him out while killing the others. Before he blacked out, they said, "He's not a target." and he was the only one left alive." Pierce frowned, that man was the only non-Hydra agent there.
"They must have gained intel from the computers when they freed the Winter Soldier." Pierce thought and did everything he could to suppress his anger. He needed to wipe all info of S.H.I.E.L.D in the other Hydra facilities just to be safe. "So, everyone but Perkins was a target, why?"
"I don't know but Hill and Stillwell are on it." Fury answered.
Pierce nodded; Stillwell would do what he could to cover the trail but he would need people working overtime on it. "Seems you've got everything in hand, at least as much as you can. Keep me informed and I will tell the World Security Council."
"Understood." Fury answered and stood to leave. "I'm locking everything down to at least level eight."
"Agreed."
Fury nodded and left, leaving Pierce to think on everything that had happened. Project Insight was on schedule, but these were unforeseen problems, ones he couldn't just sweep under the rug or take out, he didn't even know who they were facing after all. "I need to call a meeting; I can't let this all fall on my head."
XXXX
I watched as Daniel Whitehall slowly gained consciousness, Sif and I had intercepted his car on the way back to his home from dinner. I hit it off the road and allowed her to take out the guards, since I didn't let her go with Atok and Bucky it was the least I could do. He was strapped down to a examination table but I had blacked out the surrounding area so he saw nothing. "Welcome Mr. Whitehall or do you prefer Reinhardt?"
It took him a second to get his bearings. "So..you know who I am." He chuckled. "Interesting." He looked me over. "You are the man in white, the man who took the scepter and Tesseract." I nodded. "As you know who I am it would be polite to introduce yourself." He smiled at me but I chuckled.
"Why would I care to be polite to you?" He frowned at my words.
"You wouldn't take me for no reason." He replied. "You want something from me, and I can promise you torture is not going to work." He smirked. "Perhaps with a bit of kindness though, I might give you what you seek."
I chuckled again and turned, waving into the darkness. "Torture? That is so medieval and primitive." He frowned as a petite blonde haired Asuran woman came into the light. "I don't need to torture you, or have your cooperation, my assistant here will get everything we need." I looked at her. "And remember, don't nullify the pain."
"Understood." She replied, Whitehall watched as her hand moved to his forehead and then let out a scream as her hand went into his skull.
"As I said, we don't need your cooperation and frankly I didn't want it to begin with."
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Invictus Veritas: Thanks for catching that, I have updated the chapter.