Chapter 8
"You are failing me!" the Red Skull shouted as he stood within the remains of one his many bases in Europe. It had only been a few months since Captain America and his team had started destroying his bases. Behind him, his personal guard wearing the HYDRA battle suits stood silently as a HYDRA solider was brought before the Red Skull. Standing off to the distance watching everything was Leatherback. He was still acting as a middle man between the Skull and Seth. He was not getting involved with what the Skull was doing as long as he was keeping to the plan, even though it was taking longer than it should.
The HYDRA soldier who wore a suit was forced to kneel on the ground before the Red Skull. His face was covered in grime and dirt from being in the collapsing building that the Howling Commandos made sure that there was no way that HYDRA could continue with making weapons and his suit was torn in a few places. "We fought to the last man!" he defended himself as he slowly rose to his feet. Two HYDRA troopers stood behind him aiming their rifles at his back.
Doctor Zola, HYDRAs top scientist looked away as the Red Skull whipped out one of his guns from his pocket and aimed it at the man. "Evidently not!" he simply said as he shot the man. The man disappeared in a flash of blue from the energy of the Tesseract that was being used to HYDRAs goals of a new world order. His screams didn't last long as he vanished. Dr Zola didn't look at the Red Skull as he and the HYDRA troopers that flanked him walked further into the ruins of the base. He had noticed a change in character in his leader when Captain America started to fight back. Movement caught his eye. Leatherback was walking after the Red Skull. The alien had been a great help so far, but recently he was getting more aggressive towards the Red Skull. Following the ape, he found him once again roaring at the Skull.
"You are a fool, Schmidt! You should be drawing this Captain America out rather than shooting your own men!" Leatherback screamed into the Red Skull's face. "We do not have time for you to keep playing this game with the American!" he continued to shout and rant.
The Skull took a step away from the angry scaly ape. Glaring at the creature who had been keeping him and Seth up to date he spoke with authority tone in his voice, "How dare you speak to me like that, Leatherback!". A smirk formed on his face when he saw Leatherback looking nervously at his guards who had raised their weapons at him. "Tell me, Leatherback! While you have been shouting at me what have you been doing?" he asked pointing a gloved finger at Leatherback's exposed scaly chest.
Leatherback took a step away from the Red Skull he stumbled on a piece of rubble from the building that had once been one of HYDRAs base in Eastern Europe. Looking at where his foot was he stumbled over more rubble before he looked back at the piercing look the Red Skull was given him. "I have been watching these Howling Commandos to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, Red Skull!" he replied. The questioning look that he got from the Red Skull pushed Leatherback to explain what he had found, "Captain America has a weakness! His best friend since his years in school, a young man that I have only heard to be called Bucky! The two of them are always together and they work well together! Red Skull, if Seth's plans are going to succeed you must cause pain to Captain America nothing like he has already faced in the months that he had been fighting against you!"
The Red Skull looked away from Leatherback. Rubbing his chin, he thought over what Leatherback had told him. "But how will this pain help in the plans of your master?" he asked not looking at Leatherback but at the gathered tanks that Zola had recently built to hunt the Howling Commandos down before HYDRA ran out of bases.
"Captain America relies on Bucky as not only his second in command but also one out of a few friends that he feels comfortable with, but I have seen him getting to know that agent Carter very well that they have started talking about dancing!" came Leatherback's reply very quickly as the two of them thought of what their next moves had to be in their losing battle with Captain America.
Looking back at Leatherback, Red Skull arched his eyebrow at the creature. "Why not strike this Agent Carter? Or do you not fight against women?" he asked the creature.
"Don't be ridiculous, Red Skull. I have fought against plenty of female warriors in my lifetime. And trust me, they are not as weak as you think them to be!" replied Leatherback very aggressively to Red Skull.
Walking away and surrounded by his troopers, Red Skull walked towards his massive black car. The car that had been allowing him to see the devastation that the Howling Commandos were doing to his weapon factories and bases all over Europe. "Skull listen to me! You believe that the world will soon have no flags in the future, but Seth sees on flag! A flag that shows your alliance with him and that will be enough to strike fear into the Allied Nations! All you have to do is take out Bucky, this will cause Captain America to make a mistake when he finally faces you! All you have to do is give him the right push that will get him out of the way for Seth to rise and claim the new world order that you have started to create! But you must find the Book of the Dead! It is the only thing that Seth really needs before he can actual make his move! You should remember how to use the Tesseract in such a way that it makes the allies think that you are dead!" said Leatherback preventing him from getting into the car.
The Skull looked at Leatherback. "Are you ordering me what to do, Leatherback?" he asked reaching for his pistol while his troopers aimed their rifles at Leatherback.
Shaking his head out of respect for the human leader he took a few steps away from him. "No, Red Skull! But if you remember at the beginning we promised that we would help each other! I helped you in finding the Tesseract, while in return you help me in using the Tesseract to go to 1920s Egypt to that dig sit to find the Book of the Dead before anyone! You will read the inscription on the back of the book that will bring you back to Seth for the two of you to plan your revenges!" Leatherback explained.
"Very well, Leatherback you have convinced me!" the Skull said walking to the door of his car.
Leatherback leaned in close to his ear and whispered so that only he could hear, "Give the Howling Commandos Dr Zola! That will act in all of our best interests!"
"Accepted! I will be looking forward to my meeting with Captain America!" the Skull said without questioning Leatherback's intentions or taking a moment to think of what he was giving to the allies. He watched with a look of victory etched onto his face as sat on the black leather clad chair of his car behind the massive steering wheel. With no other words between him and Leatherback he sped off back to his main base in the Alps. He was closing in on victory if Leatherback was right, but to the Howling Commandos it would appear that he was defeated. No matter what was going to happen in the next few weeks HYDRA would come back stronger than ever with the aid of Seth.