Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin
Chapter 2: Infiltration
"You have one new message."
"Hey, Janice? Hi. Yeah, it's Phil. I was doing some systems analysis down here and I'm getting the same sort of readings as before. Some kind of weird shit is going on and I don't like it. The power units keep fluctuating in this strange kinda pulse pattern, like, they go up, they go down, and back up again, but never really turn off. I mean, these readings are usually just for show, the system's either on or it's off. It ain't random either; the pattern's steady. Might be some kinda mechanical failure, I don't know. Won't know anything until we do a full inspection, but half my crew won't be in til the morning shift. Look, it's probably nothing, but I just wanted to let you know what was going on down here in case one of the lights goes out or some shit. See you tomorrow."
"What is the first thing you remember?"
Whenever he spoke, his lips didn't move. His voice seemed to just hover in his aura. Suddenly, his face was drowned out by a blinding, white light. Another voice entered her mind.
"No! No, don't do it again. Please!"
"You can hear it, can't you? The pangs of your buried past clawing at the gates."
"Stay away from her!"
The presence of the other slowly faded as it got further away. The faint edges of a hallway took shape in her vision. She could feel herself moving down the hallway, the air flowing past her arms as she ran down it. It seemed to get longer with each step she took.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"
The light disappeared. All that was left was the bleeding man.
"You could feel it too. The sins of the father. The pains of the sister. Everything has to fall into place before it can fall apart. You used to know that."
11:17 PM
The team was sitting in the helicopter as it flew over the Portland skyline. Kaminsky was sitting next to Yelena. Sitting opposite him was Jin, who was next to the new agent. Kaminsky was chewing on his bubblegum as usual, a common tactic he used to reduce stress before starting a mission. Yelena seemed to be generally unimpressed with all of her surroundings, and Jin was staring out at the night lights of the city.
Feeling the taste of his gum slowly fade, Kaminsky looked over at the new agent again. He was used to the mannerisms of Yelena and Jin, having worked with them both on multiple occasions in the past. However, not only was this his first mission with the new agent, but apparently this was her first mission for SHIELD. Kaminsky had made a point in the past of taking a long time to trust, and the fact that he hadn't even learned the agent's name yet left him even more unsettled than usual.
He took a moment to look at Jin, who shrugged. He and Jin had seen enough action together to be able to communicate non-verbally in many situations. She knew exactly what he was thinking. Kaminsky narrowed his eyes before finally deciding to speak up.
"Hey."
The new agent didn't look at him.
"Eight."
She slowly turned her gaze. Yelena momentarily looked at Kaminsky before resuming her state of pseudo-meditation. Kaminsky chewed a few times before speaking again.
"Got a name?"
The new agent took a moment.
"Yes."
"Well, good to know. We privy to it?"
"If you wish. I am Natalia Alianovna Romanova."
Kaminsky chuckled.
"Got enough syllables in there?"
"It's Russian."
"I gathered."
Jin rolled her eyes.
"Kyle Kaminsky, if you wanted to know."
"I knew. Do you have any further interrogations to make, Mister Kaminsky? I would prefer to remain focused before we begin."
Natalia pulled two metallic wrist bands out of her pockets, latching them onto each wrist. They were painted a faded beige, and were composed of several cylinders that surrounded the entire wrist.
"Yeah, Kyle's like that," said Jin. "Always making friends."
"What?" asked Kaminsky. "Just wanted to know her damn name. She's the one who made it all difficult."
Suddenly, Rodney's voice came in over their com links.
"Team? This is Rodney. You're a minute from the drop. Agent Eight will move in first. Infiltrate from the ceiling at drop point one. Rest of you, drop point two. Clean and simple, got it?"
"Got it," said Kaminsky.
"Understood," said Yelena.
"Good," replied Rodney. "Let's try to keep this from turning into a complete disaster, okay? And Kaminsky! Keep the chatter to a minimum, alright?"
"Yeah," answered Kaminsky. "Sure."
"Good."
Kaminsky shook his head.
"Problem with working with spies. Everybody hears everything!"
"Drop point one," said the pilot.
The helicopter flew over the roof of one of the main buildings. Natalia stood up and grabbed the black rope attached to the side of the helicopter. Yelena turned her head towards her.
"Natalia."
Natalia looked at Yelena.
"Stay sharp."
Natalia gave Yelena a nod before leaping out the side of the helicopter, sliding down the rope. Letting go of the rope a few metres above the roof, she landed in a three point pose. Quickly surveying her surroundings, she then unlatched her custom-modified MP5 from her back and aimed it at the door to the stairs.
The helicopter moved away, flying to another part of the compound. Taking a moment to breathe, Natalia then approached the door and breached it, aiming her weapon into the stairwell. Noting that it was empty, she pressed her finger to her ear piece.
"This is Agent Eight. I'm going in."
Genevieve watched the flip clock on her desk, as each passing second ticked by. Her elbows were on top of her desk, and her hands were folded together. She was pressing her mouth against her hands as she stared at the clock. Her breathing was slow and methodical, seemingly regulated by the flipping of the numbers.
Taking a moment to move her pupils in the direction of the window, she looked out at the Portland skyline. She surveyed the numerous lights: static ones coming from buildings, moving ones coming from cars. She knew that millions of people lived in this city.
"They have no idea what's coming."
A knock was heard at her door at the precise moment that the clock flipped to 11:20. Genevieve looked down to the right hand side of the desk, which had an open drawer. A loaded revolver was inside.
"It's open."
The door opened, and a large man wearing an ArmaCham Security Force uniform walked into the room. His black hair was slightly greying at the sides of his head, and a thick moustache adorned his upper lip. He was extremely muscular, filling out his uniform in an intimidating manner. Both of his hands had thick, black, leather gloves on them. His left hip had a holster attached, with a large, desert eagle magnum inside of it. A red star was painted on the left side of the pistol's barrel.
He slowly approached her desk, his eyes glaring at her the entire time. Genevieve sighed as she looked up at the man.
"Vanek."
"Miss Aristide."
Genevieve sullenly looked at the clock before shifting her gaze back to Vanek.
"I suppose it's time."
Yelena landed on the ground first, followed by Jin and Kaminsky. Yelena was holding her submachine gun. Kaminsky had a sniper rifle and Jin had a pistol. They approached the chain-link fence marking the perimeter of the property. Yelena wordlessly vaulted over the fence and performed a somersault, landing on the other side. She continued onward without speaking to her teammates.
Kaminsky groaned.
"Typical."
He pulled a hand-held blast torch from his pocket and sliced open a hole in the fence, which he and Jin promptly entered through. They followed Yelena, who had taken cover at the edge of a small warehouse on the fringes of the compound. She gestured for her teammates to crouch behind her, and they obeyed.
Yelena then grabbed her customized night vision goggles and latched them around her head. Flicking them on, she squinted as she looked towards the main entrance to the compound, where several police squad cars were stationed. She could spot at least a half a dozen officers, but they all seemed to be just milling about.
She took the goggles off and turned to Jin and Kaminsky.
"Six officers at the entrance," she whispered. "Small presence. They probably sent a bunch of the force home after they got the hold order. Just a token group at this point. They won't give us any trouble."
"Good," replied Kaminsky. "Least that part will be easy. Doubt the rest will go as smoothly."
"Follow me."
Yelena walked around the back side of the warehouse, and peeked around the corner to see a relatively bare parking lot between them and the main office building. She threw her hand forward, and Kaminsky rushed across the lot, crouching as he went. He arrived at the building's wall, and surveyed the lot before nodding. Yelena and Jin followed his lead.
In a hallway deep inside the main ArmaCham office building, one of the overhead fluorescent lights flickered on and off repeatedly. The floor was tiled, with the squares alternating between green and blue. There was a body of a woman in a business outfit crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood, next to a vending machine.
Moving past her, bloodied footprints appeared, one after the other, without anything physical to make them. They were very small, as if belonging to a child.
Slinking along the inside of a ventilation shaft, Natalia contorted herself in a way so as to make as little noise as possible. Her absolute control of every muscle in her body, which she had honed over decades of rigorous physical and dance training, made her able to effortlessly slither through the vent as quietly as a ghost.
As she pressed onward, her thoughts, which were not nearly as controlled as her body, drifted back to a better time. A simpler time.
She was a ballerina in training at the Bolshoi Theatre. She had been working on her latest routine for weeks, for ten hours a day. The piano movement played over and over again her mind, keeping her focused on the task at hand. As she finished her latest turn, a man walked into the room. He was very well built, his muscles filling out his t-shirt and jeans quite nicely. One hand in his pocket, he watched her with a genuine smile.
Her eyes glowed upon seeing him. She ran up to him and shamelessly bounded into his arms. They pressed their lips against each other, embracing a moment that neither hoped would ever end. As she then lowered her head onto his shoulder, he leaned in close to her ear and whispered into it. What he said made her chest burn with passion.
The time shifted. She was with the same man, but this time they were in casual clothes. They were holding hands and walking along a trail that led into the woods near a large lake. The chill of the autumn air nipped at their skin. The breeze was accompanied by the slow, gorgeous dance of the falling deciduous leaves.
As the two of them stared out at the lake, they took note of a dense fog settling over the body of water. The faintest hint of the opposite shore could be made out. The lake itself seemed to stretch out as far as could be seen in all directions, but Natalia was unsure if that had to do with the fog or not. The man gently squeezed her hand, and she squeezed his in return.
They stood still, staring out at the beautiful portrait of the lake before them. Eventually, the man looked over at Natalia.
"You'll never forget me, will you?"
Natalia warmly smiled at the man.
"Never."
"Heh. To hear you say that, truly warms my heart, lapochka."
An image of a bleeding man with a crushed face then flashed in her mind for a brief second. Snapping back to the present, Natalia took a deep breath before letting her memories fall back out of her focus. Arriving at a grate, she carefully undid the bolts, before slipping out and landing on the floor. She was inside of a hallway, with several open concept offices on either side.
Stealthily moving from office to office, she found no activity on the entire floor, until she reached the last office near the elevators. Keeping a pistol in her right hand, she pressed her body against the wall next to the opening. Closing her eyes and focusing all of her attention on the auditory plane, she could hear the breathing of someone under the desk.
Natalia stepped into the doorway, aiming her pistol at the desk.
"Get up."
"Uh . . . . okay, okay, I'm comin' out! Just don't shoot, please, please!"
A man stood up from behind the desk. He had fairly unkempt shoulder length hair, and was wearing a t-shirt with a logo for The Terminator. He also had jeans and running shoes. Holding his hands up in the air, the man started to hyperventilate as he looked at the gun pointing directly at him.
"Hey, hey . . . . I did what you said. You gotta let me go now, please? Ya gotta."
Natalia took a step toward him, narrowing her eyes as she did so. She did not waver her aim.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Name's Marshall. M-Marshall Disler. Work here. I, I'm . . . . I'm just a computer tech. Systems analysis. I swear, it's all I do. Ya gotta believe me."
"What are you doing up here by yourself?"
"Late hours. Crunch time, ya understand? I was workin' on some data sheets, pickin' up slack for some members of my crew. Told them it had to be done by Thursday, but they don't listen to me. Lazy pricks. Then, all a sudden, I hear shots. Lots of shots. Must be automatic weapons, ya know? Came from downstairs. Heard screams and shit. Was horrible. Got scared, so, I hid up here. Haven't heard anything for a while, but, ya understand, I'm just, I'm just, you know, a tech guy. I'm not exactly expecting to show up to work and have the place overrun by goddamn commandos."
Natalia took a moment to consider Marshall's words before replying.
"Are you armed, Mister Disler?"
"Me? Nah. Nah! Never held a gun in my life! Well, a Nerf gun back in college, but never anything real! Mean, look at you, army! Got weapons pourin' outta every pocket! Just . . . . will you please stop aiming that thing at me?"
Natalia lowered her gun, relaxing her stance. Marshall sighed and let his hands fall to his side.
"So, you're not with the guys who took this place over, I take it?"
"No."
"Well, good. Don't think I can take another hit to my ulcer. I just hope most of the people I work with are still alive. Heard so many screams. Don't know if anyone else made it."
Natalia took the clip out of her pistol and checked it before stuffing it back in.
"How long have you worked here?"
"Me? Uh, four years? Yeah. Four years, and uh, c-couple months more than that. Mean, nice job, sure. Cushy, good benefits, but it ain't worth dyin' over."
"What guarantee do I have that if I leave, you won't alert anyone to my presence?"
Marshall widened his eyes at the question, and took a step back.
"Hey, hey, hey, thought w-we were good," stammered Marshall. "I ain't working w-with those guys. Hell, don't wanna work 'ere anymore anyway! Just wanna go home, ya know? Ya gotta believe me. Hell, I'd help ya if I could. Mean, you are here to save the place, right? One of Genevieve's friends?"
"Genevieve?"
"Genevieve Aristide. She's the boss 'round here. Still in the building, far as I know. Don't work for her?"
"No. But I am here to help."
Marshall smiled in relief.
"Ah. Good. Genevieve's a bitch, so, any friends of hers are probably jerks too."
"And you have no idea who are the people who have taken over the building? Anything about hostages?"
"Nah, nah. Don't know nothing 'bout them. Don't know who would wanna attack this place, anyway."
Natalia sighed at Marshall's words.
"But, bet I could find out. If anyone wants to hit ArmaCham, it's probably cause of Genevieve. Runs this place like a goddamn death camp. Tellin' ya, whoever did this wants her miserable ass dead, or worse. You let me go, and I'll do some diggin'. Since the place went down, the auxiliary generator finally kicked in, turned on some of the lights. Should be able to get at least one of these damn computers working, and I'll see if I can crack into Genevieve's files, look for any clues. I find anything good, and I'll let you know. Sound square to you?"
Natalia breathed in and again took a moment to consider. She then nodded at Marshall.
"Good. Thanks. Ya won't regret it."
Natalia opened one of her pockets and pulled out an ear piece. She tossed it to Marshall, who awkwardly caught it.
"Use that to contact me if you find anything."
"Alright. You got it."
Natalia started walking out of the office.
"Good luck," said Marshall. "And uh, will you please not mention me to uh, you know, mission control, or whatever ya got? Kinda don't want anyone else comin' after me. Ya understand?"
"I understand."
"See you around, Natalia."
Natalia nodded before walking down the hall and towards the stairs.
"Can you hear her? Can you?"
The bleeding man stepped out of the darkness, slowly walking into view.
"She's the same as you, you know. Clawing at the walls. Begging to see the light. Hoping beyond hope to finally find the answers."