Chapter 4: Cut Off All The Heads
The Lighthouse was a beehive of activity when Sean arrived. Agents were moving quickly in every direction, some arriving to receive orders and others rushing to carry them out. In the heart of the chaos stood Fury, with Hill at his side, issuing orders to every Agent he laid eyes on.
As Sean got within range, Fury turned to say something to Hill causing her to break off and approach him. She tilted her head in a 'this way' signal and left the room. Sean followed after her down a few floors until they reached one of the more secure conference rooms. Inside sat two people he recognized but hadn't met in person yet.
Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, was a woman who stood only a few inches over five feet. She had red hair a few shades lighter than his own and piercing green eyes that evaluated his every move from the moment he entered the room. The skin-tight black tactical suit she wore was adorned with two manacle looking devices on her wrists and a pistol holstered at her side.
With her was Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye. He was a man of average height, brown hair, and blue eyes. His weapon of choice, a collapsible bow, was strapped to his back along with the quiver that held his arrows. The tactical suit he wore wasn't quite as form fitting, but it didn't have any loose parts either and left his arms exposed.
They were both seated at a table and as Sean entered Agent Hill gestured for him to take a seat as well. She herself moved to the front of the room and stood before them.
"So, what's going on? I didn't think you would move on Hydra quite this fast." Sean commented after giving nods to the other two agents, now wasn't really a time for pleasantries or fanboying.
"The information you provided, as well as what we were able to find suggested that in order to properly root out Hydra we need to act fast and decisively." Hill laid three folders on the table and slid one to each of them.
Opening the folder Sean saw it contained three dossiers, all names that he recognized as Hydra higher ups. In each file was a list of addresses, schedules, known associates, the works.
"How are we doing this?" Was Barton's question.
"The three of you will form Strike Team Delta, your job is to eliminate every person in that folder. They are considered the most high risk elements, and once you have removed them we will launch the full assault. Fury has already moved more loyal agents to the at risk facilities, the hope is that once we start it will be over just as quickly."
The three in question glanced at each other for a moment before going back to studying their targets. The files in their folders were on Gideon Malick, Daniel Whitehall, and Alexander Pierce.
When no one had any further questions she continued, "Agent Barton has command of this mission, a team of six tactical agents and a quinjet are waiting in the hangar for you. The Director wants this done right, so take your time. That will allow us to move more agents into position. If you are blown, call it in immediately and the assault will start. Otherwise this mission is to be completely dark." With that said she strode out of the room, presumably off to rejoin Fury.
Sean decided now would be a good time to actually make introductions, "It's nice to finally put faces to the legends, I'm Sean O'Connor." He offered a handshake to Barton.
The man regarded him for a moment then smiled and took the hand, "We've heard, I'm Clint Barton and she's Natasha Romanoff. Probably."
Sean chuckled lightly and offered his hand to the Widow as well, "Pleasure to meet you both."
Romanoff stalked, for there was no other word for it, up to him and took his hand, "Likewise," she purred. Sean tried to ignore how that voice sent shivers down his spine. She really was very good at her job.
The three of them turned and left the room, heading for the nearest elevator that would take them down to the hangar. At the bottom they made their way to the large doors into the hangar. Waiting for them on the other side were eight people, six tactical agents and two pilots.
Barton gestured to the quinjet and everyone loaded up, with the three of them getting on last. As the pilots were preparing for take-off and getting clearance, the newly named Strike Team Delta discussed which target they should go after first.
It was decided that Daniel Whitehall would likely be the easiest target, and the one that could cause the most damage if he slipped through their fingers.
"Okay, first target: Daniel Whitehall." Barton gave the signal and the quinjet took off.
LINE BREAK
Werner Reinhardt, or as he was now known Daniel Whitehall, was the oldest living leader of Hydra. He had been a member of the SS and Hydra during WWII, but was captured by the Strategic Scientific Reserve towards the end of the war. They interrogated him and then dumped him in a prison called the Rat to serve a life sentence.
Unfortunately Hydra infiltrated Shield, which was born from the SSR, and released Reinhardt in the late '80s. He would go on to regain his youth through inhumane experiments and change his name to Daniel Whitehall. With his new identity Whitehall chose to become a fairly standard 'investor', setting himself up to live a nice lifestyle while being free to continue his experiments and helping Hydra to grow. His knowledge of stashed Nazi treasures and gold likely helped.
Since he believed no one could connect him to Werner Reinhardt he didn't bother to live in hiding. He was smart enough to vary his schedule, but he still acted as a normal everyday man. It was almost insultingly easy to arrange for a fatal car accident. He may have found eternal youth, but the man wasn't immortal. Of course, Strike Team Delta remained on alert with the body (posing as coroners) until the autopsy began and they were sure he was dead (and if Sean maybe took a few vials of blood no one noticed).
LINE BREAK
Their next target was a bit more complicated. Alexander Pierce was a member of the World Security Council and former Director of Shield. As such he took his personal security very seriously, with a large contingent of guards that barely ever let him out of their sight. One of these times was when he held meetings with politicians, ambassadors, and other movers and shakers of the world.
It was such a shame then that a botched terrorist attack in Washington D.C. managed to kill him. As the news would faithfully report, a man suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda planted a bomb next to the wall of a restaurant that several high ranking politicians were known to frequent. Fortunately the wall he chose led to the bathroom and not the main dining area as he had planned. Pierce was the only one in the restroom at the time of the explosion.
Since they weren't as worried about him having miraculous powers of recovery they stayed long enough to ID the body and moved on to the last name on their list.
LINE BREAK
They actually took a further two weeks before they made their move on Gideon Malick. It would be obvious to Hydra that they were under attack if too many of their leaders died within mere days of each other. Strike Team Delta also decided to take a slightly different approach for this target.
They watched as he began taking more and more calls, the stress of having to fill in for two dead leaders started to get to him. One night he took to drinking, scotch as he was known to do, and eventually went to sleep. Under cover of night, Romanoff and Sean slipped in and staged a suicide.
They dumped the full bottle of alcohol into him and held his mouth shut to force him to swallow. It took both of them to hold him in place while lining up his father's old revolver to his head. After pulling the trigger, they both disappeared into the shadows of the room. They watched as his daughter found him and called for an ambulance.
Once again they stayed long enough to ensure the job was done and moved on.
LINE BREAK
With their primary targets eliminated Barton called in to learn what their next move was. They were directed to assault the Bloom Estate Winery, where a half dozen remaining leaders of Hydra were gathering. Meanwhile Shield would be rooting out Hydra agents all over the world. Several would likely slip through the cracks, but with their leadership all but gone it would be years before they were a threat again.
Barton, Romanoff, and Sean were dropped at the North, East, and South ends of the property respectively. The main entrance was from the West and would come under fire from the six man team they brought with them. Once the shooting started they would make their way inside and take out anyone they found.
As soon as the first report of a rifle reached his ears Sean was moving. He used a touch of fire to jump over the fence and ran straight for the main building. If he was these guys he would have all of the VIPs holed up in the basement and covered by as many guards as possible.
He only encountered two guards on his way in, though he heard gunfire to the North of the building so assumed Barton had encountered more trouble. Reaching the south wall he began looking for a way into the winery.
Before he could find one a voice spoke up behind him, "Give me a boost."
Without thinking about it, Sean spun and brought his gun to bear on the voice. Just as he was going to pull the trigger he recognized Romanoff. After he calmed his breathing he asked, "Give a guy a warning next time, yeah?" He also knew they were on a mission, so braced his back against the wall and laced his fingers together.
"Oh I don't know," She backed up a few steps before shooting him a smirk, "It was kinda fun." Without letting him respond she ran forwards and placed her foot in his hands. He lifted his arms and she was catapulted to the roof.
Getting back to work Sean moved around to the west side and peeked around the corner, seeing no one in the immediate vicinity he dashed to the front door and slipped in. The front room was lit by a chandelier overhead, but the only sound was coming from further inside.
Making his way carefully through the rooms Sean eventually found his way to the armory. There were a couple of problems with this. The walls of weapons were almost empty with only a handful of things left on them, and also there were half a dozen guys standing in the room gearing up.
After a tense stare down the nearest man leapt at him with a knife in hand. It seemed as if he had been in the process of sheathing it. Sean dodged to the side and stepped forward to the next guy. He saw a pair of grenades strapped to the man's chest and had a very bad idea. A quick pull removed the pins and a kick sent the man further into the room. Sean spun back and grabbed the knife wielder, pulling the man in between himself and the now live grenades.
A large explosion launched Sean and his impromptu shield from the room, slamming them into the opposite wall. He pushed the body aside and stood back up, shaking his head to try and dispel the ringing in his ears. Before he could fully get his bearings Barton swept around the corner and approached him, saying something.
Knowing he would likely only yell if he tried to speak Sean gestured to his ears and shook his head. Barton seemed to get the message, he signaled Sean to stay put and moved into the room the explosion had gone off in. After a bit he reappeared.
"It's clear, you good?" He asked.
"Remind me to never be that close to a grenade again," Was Sean's reply.
"Will do," Hawkeye said with a laugh. "Let's head downstairs and end this."
The two men made their way through the winery finding it clear of any hostiles. When they finally made their way into the basement it was to find Black Widow standing alone in a room with ten dead guards and all six of their targets, also dead. She was calmly reloading her pistol.
"Took you boys long enough," She smirked at them.
"Damn that's hot," Sean said honestly before he really thought about it.
The two professional spies laughed and the three of them headed back upstairs. It didn't take long after that to clean up the rest of the guards on site and make it back to the quinjet.
"What's next? Do any of the bases need backup?" Sean could feel the fatigue starting to seep into his bones.
"No, Fury is recalling us to the Lighthouse. He says there's still fighting but that for the most part Shield has won. The Hub, Triskelion, Helicarrier, Fridge, Academies and Sandbox are all in Shield hands. Only the Treehouse and Shangri-La fell to Hydra, but they were destroyed immediately after." Barton came back from the cockpit and relayed the message he had just received.
"Yay, go team. Wake me when we get there." Sean sagged in his seat and closed his eyes, drifting into a dreamless sleep.
LINE BREAK
When they arrived at the Lighthouse they found it mostly empty, save for a small skeleton crew. The tactical guys and pilots went off to store their gear and hit the sack. Sean didn't have that choice as he followed Barton and Romanov back to the conference room they had received their mission in.
As soon as the door closed the large screen on the wall came to life, showing Fury's somewhat pleased face.
"Good job team, the deaths of Whitehall, Pierce, and Malick are being reported as unfortunate tragedies. Thanks to O'Connor's early warning we were able to apprehend most of Hydra's people without making a big fuss. The world is none the wiser, as far as they know Shield merely held unscheduled training exercises that caused some noise and minor damage."
The two agents and one consultant exchanged smiles on a job well done. Fury let them soak in it for a moment before he continued.
"Barton, Romanoff you have two weeks leave. After that I'll have missions for you both. O'Connor, at the moment we have nothing for you. Keep your phone close." With that he disconnected.
"Not one for goodbyes is he?" Sean asked.
"You'll get used to it." Barton spoke as he moved to the exit, Romanoff following behind him.
"Oh hey, are you guys flying out? And if so can I get a ride? Just down to Boston." Sean knew they were probably off to see Barton's family but made no mention of it. It was cool that they had people like that to 'go home' to as it were.
"Sure, wheels up in twenty." The three broke off to take care of anything they needed to do, and met back up at the quinjet.
The flight to Boston only took a half hour, at a leisurely pace, and they just traded spy stories and small talk on the way. In no way were they more than friendly coworkers at the moment, but there was a certain ease in their interactions that Sean enjoyed.
With a wave he walked off the ramp of the quinjet and onto the soft ground of a park on the outskirts of the city. Maybe now he could actually relax for a while. Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk should all take place in around six months.
In fact, unless he was mistaken all of their climaxes took place over the period of a single week. Fury was going to be busy then. Until then though he should have time to check out all the tech he picked up over the last little while. He still wasn't sure about going after some artifacts, but it really couldn't hurt, and if he crossed paths with some bad guys along the way who knows what might happen.
Laughing to himself, Sean waved down a cab and told the driver his address. Time to get back home and catch up on things. His bank account should have begun to see a nice return from his purchase of Stark stock, not to mention the mission pay he was due. It might just be time to start loading up his Fortress...well with things that aren't weapons anyway.
LINE BREAK
Instead of just hanging around his condo in Boston, Sean decided to be a bit of a nomad. Traveling around would give him the freedom and ability to pick up any dangerous items that were laying around if he wanted, but he could avoid anything he didn't want to deal with.
Succumbing to a personal fantasy Sean decided to buy a motorcycle. Not knowing a ton about them himself, he went to a dealer and asked about what would be best for an extended road trip. They directed him to the touring and sport-touring bikes, and he picked out a 2009 Kawasaki Concours 14 in black. It was a nice combination of sleek and strong, he figured it would get the job done.
After a stop to pick up a few pairs of riding leathers and a helmet (safety first kids), Sean pointed himself West and took off. He had a map in one of his saddle bags, but wasn't planning on pulling it out for a while. Several hours later he stopped in a small town for dinner and a night at a motel.
For the next few weeks he meandered across the country, staying mostly on the northern side. He stopped at every crappy tourist trap, bought pointless souvenirs, and generally played the role of tourist. Whenever he stopped he picked up books, movies, games, and anything else he could think may have a use later in the Jump Chain.
He even set up a small server room in his storage compartments made up of an array of the largest capacity hard drives he could find, they weren't as big as he was used to but quantity would have to make up the difference for now. He set his laptop in there and abused the networks of any hotel he stayed at to download as many things as he could get his hands on, this time focused more on things he couldn't get a physical copy of. He used a program of his own design to sort things as they came in.
Fortunately he was right about Stark, starting right after he announced 'I am Iron Man' stock in his company skyrocketed and showed no signs of stopping. Sean's broker had managed to snag almost exactly 1% of the company for him. This meant that he was already making a good bit of money, but he intentionally redirected about half of all his earnings back into investing and pointed his broker at some of the companies he knew would do well in future.
When he made it all the way to Seattle he decided to take a break to finally sort the large collection of things sitting in his Fortress, so he booked a hotel for a week and settled in to organise things. It took him a full day's work, but he finally tallied everything up.
In total he now had several hundred small arms of all kinds, more ammo than he could use in several years, a dozen missiles with their respective launchers, another two dozen missiles without launchers, five older model Humvees, well over a thousand books from fiction to nonfiction, a pallet of raw gold, another of raw diamonds, hundreds of games and the systems to play them, and so many hand held explosives that he could level an entire city.
Since his Vibranium refilled its box every month he made it a point to pull the few ounces it generated out, it had only done so twice now netting him about 10 ounces. On the more technical side he had a chance to sit down and sort through Tony's notes and the scrap of the Mark I, but he ran into the same problem that Stane would have. Without an arc reactor there really wasn't a power source available that was small and strong enough for it to matter.
That being the case, Sean had no problems dismantling all of the scrap Stark tech that he had gotten his hands on. By itself it really wasn't worth all that much, but the parts it was made of used some of the highest grade materials available and allowed him to build a small network relay/scrambler so he didn't have to keep connecting to the hotel internet. The extra bits and pieces were put aside for the moment. Those activities used up another couple of days, so Sean decided that was enough lollygagging. It was time to move on.
He headed South, making his way down the coast. Another week enjoying the coastal drive brought him into San Francisco and the first of the places he actually planned to stop in. Quickly booking a room, Sean took a short ride out to Berkeley University. It only took a few minutes to locate the office he was looking for.
Taking a deep breath Sean knocked on the door labelled: Dr. Foster.
LINE BREAK
"So are you a student of mine?" The older black man asked of Sean. This was Dr. William Foster, biochemist and old partner of Hank Pym. He was in the process of trying to help his pseudo-daughter Ava Starr try to manage a quantum imbalance. Though this was only known to three people, well Fury probably knew but it was really hard to tell sometimes.
"No Dr. Foster, my name is Sean O'Connor. I'm a consultant with Shield and during my time with them I came across a couple of interesting files." Sean could tell he was making Foster nervous, his breathing picked up and his eyes went wide.
"Oh," Foster's voice was an octave higher now, though he did a decent job of schooling his face back into a neutral curiosity.
"Yes, I saw some of your work on Goliath, brilliant stuff. I also found a file on your work with Agent Ghost. That made me curious, why was a biochemist helping with one of the most effective field operatives Shield has ever had?" Sean knew he had Foster now, the man's eyes were darting around looking for an exit.
"I-I was helping with a p-problem Ghost had," Was all he managed to say.
"Yes, a quantum imbalance right? Unless I'm mistaken Miss Starr was infused with quantum energy when her father's quantum tunnel collapsed, giving her the unique abilities that Shield has been abusing. What if I said I might be able to help?"
Now Foster was in shock, "You can fix her?" His genuine concern for her over-rode his initial caution, "Please, it's killing her."
Sean held his hands out placatingly, "I know, I know. I can't guarantee that it will work, but I have a piece of technology that may be able to sever the connection her body has with quantum energy. Now there are risks, but this is the only thing I think can help."
The older man seemed to remember himself, "And what would be the cost of this help?"
"Just your discretion, I can't let everyone know I have this. I don't need money, or favors. I know that this has to be painful for her, and I want to help." Sean put every ounce of honesty as he could into his voice and eyes.
The Doctor thought very hard for several minutes, Sean kept quiet and let him. "Ok, anything has to be better than what she's suffering now. I'm afraid she may turn to unsavory actions in desperation if it goes on too much longer." The man seemed so tired, it wasn't hard to see how much he loved this girl as if she were his own daughter.
Foster asked Sean to give him a few minutes to lock up and then they would go back to his apartment where Ava was. When he was finished the two men left, with Sean following behind the Doctor's car. It was a fairly short drive.
Making their way up the stairs in Foster's building, the man asked Sean to wait outside the apartment while he talked to Ava. He went inside and soon there was the sound of raised voices that went back and forth for a while. Eventually the door re-opened and he was shown inside.
Standing on the other side of a large living room was a woman a few years younger than Sean. She had dark hair and eyes, standing like she was ready for him to attack. Frankly speaking she was a gorgeous woman, though it was marred by the scowl on her face.
"Hello Miss Starr, my name is Sean O'Connor you might know me as Dragon." He smiled as disarmingly as he could.
"I've heard the name. You can help me?" She tried to come across intimidating, but she winced mid-sentence so sounded more desperate.
"I don't know, I have an option that might work. I can't promise anything, but if you're willing to try I'll do what I can." Sean decided to make a show of it and moved to the nearest wall, opening a portal directly to his medbay. He stepped through and gestured at the bed in the middle of the room, "All you have to do is lay down."
Both occupants of the apartment were in awe of the doorway that appeared from nowhere. Foster was the first to approach it and after examining it for a full minute he stepped through. Seeing her father-figure was fine, Ava was quick to follow. It took a reassuring nod from the older man, but she slowly lowered herself onto the bed.
Lights and sounds spread out on the bed and a readout appeared on the wall next to it. Sean could tell that the screen was little more than a garbled mess of letters, numbers, and shapes but he found he could read it perfectly.
"Is it broken?" Was the question from Ava as she looked at the screen. The look in Foster's eyes showed he agreed.
Sean chuckled, "No, it's just in a very old language. Now let's see," He read the information available. "Huh, well I was right that I can fix it. Your body mutated when it came in contact with the quantum energy, and is now reliant on it. Every time you channel it to use your powers you lose some of that energy.
"Your absorption rate is miniscule. So basically you are using more energy than you can recover." Both of his guests nodded their understanding. "I can eliminate the mutation, you would essentially lose your connection to quantum energy. No energy, no powers, no imbalance."
Before she could tell him to do it, Sean held up a hand. "However, with a little time I may be able to modify the mutation factor to allow you to absorb more quantum energy from the environment. At the very least you should stabilize pretty easily, and may even be able to keep using your powers. The choice is yours, but it could take a couple years."
"Why?" Ava's voice was quiet and she gave him a piercing look. "Why are you helping me?"
Sean sighed and took a seat, "You got a raw deal in all of this. The accident robbed you of your family and Shield just snatched you up and tried to turn you into a weapon. No care for your well being. I can't say I'm very fond of that."
As she seemed to sink into thought, he turned back to the readout to give her time to decide.
AN: Now I know some people will probably think that Hydra went down too easy. I'd ask you to keep in mind that of all their leaders and main players none of them were personally powerful. The whole reason they were a threat was being anonymous and they kept cropping up when it wasn't expected. A prepared and focused Shield wouldn't have a hard time with them in my opinion.
Anyway, as always, let me know what you think!