AVENGERS EVOLUTION

in

"The Chessboard Is Set - Avengers Assemble Part One"

Note: All characters and locations mentioned here are property of Marvel Comics Inc, I claim no ownership to them whatsoever.

PART FIVE

Castle stronghold, German Occupied France

April 1942

After the Red Skull and HYDRA decided to part ways from their alliance from the Nazi Third Reich, most of the German soldiers who were assigned to work with their counterparts were quickly rounded up. Most of them renounced their loyalty to Hitler and converted into HYDRA soldiers while those not easily willing to give up their loyalty were either imprisoned or killed.

Captain America immediately figured out what was going on, and decided to go with the original plan accordingly. The Whizzer, Miss America, Thin Man, Logan, and himself were dressed up as HYDRA operatives, while Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, and Red Raven were in shackles - pretending to have been taken prisoner. Torch, Toro, and Bucky stayed behind, waiting for the signal to go into action.

Cap and the othersmarched towardsthe main gate where a HYDRA agent manned the guard post. He stepped out and stood in their way. "Halt and be identified!"

Cap took the lead by approaching the man, and giving the HYDRA salute. "Hail HYDRA!" He said with a strong German accent."We have returned from our battle with Kaptain Amerika."

"Two of your men reported failure."

"Those men are cowards, they ran with their tails between their legs - the traitors deserved to be shot for their cowardice."

The Whizzer was amazed by Cap's portrayal. 'Wow!' he thought to himself. 'There's an oscar performance if I ever saw one.'

"We did manage to capture these rebels," Cap motioned to his shackled comrades. "We have been instructed to take it to fearless leader for questioning."

The sentry looked over the prisoners, then back to Cap. "Very well, you may proceed."

He watched as they marched the prisoners towards the castle, when suddenly he noticed that one of the HYDRA soldiers had a feminine walk about him - something that just seemed suspicious.

"Halt!" He shouted, as he grabbed for the curvaceous officer - only to end up pulling off the mask. Looking at the mask he had in his hands, he looked up to see that the soldier was actually a woman. He stared in shock, "There are no female officers here! Where did this freulein come from."

Without saying a word, the Blue Diamond changed into his solid diamond form, and charged at the sentry, hitting him square in the ribs with his shoulder. The man flew into the guardpost wall with a sickening thud, he then slumped to the floor in unconsciousness.

"Time for the distraction," Blue Diamond announced, as he broke his shackles with ease. Jack Frost made his shackles cold and brittle, causing them to shatter easily, he did the same to Red Raven's. Red Raven leapt into the sky, with his wings spread out, followed by the charge of Jack Frost and Blue Diamond.

A couple of HYDRA sentries walking along the outer hallway in the front of the castle, noticed Blue Diamond smashing the hell out of some abandoned jeeps. "Intruders! Sound the alarm!"

One sentry ran to the end of the hallway and hit a button along the wall. A loud klaxon blared from the castle, both sentries drew out their rifles and opened fire on them. With Blue Diamond in his invulnerable diamond form, the bulllets bounced harmlessly off his body. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a grenade.

"Raven!" He shouted. "Catch!" He tossed the grenade up to his winged companion.

Red Raven caught the grenade with ease. "Bomb's away!" He exclaimed as he pulled the pin and then tossed it towards the sentries direction. The grenade skittered harmlessly across the floor before exploding - sending the sentries flying.

The large metal doors slowly swung open in the front of the castle, as more HYDRA sentries charged at the costumed crimefighters - with guns at the ready. Jack Frost managed to freeze most of the sentries in their tracks, those who managed to avoid him only met with a crushing defeat by Diamond's rock-hard fists. Cap and others took this opportunity to run into the castle undetected, while HYDRA was busy fighting Diamond and the others.

Red Skull was in the R & D lab overlooking the construction of the Sleepers' high powered cannons when he heard the klaxon alarm go off. He grabbed one of the technicians who quickly ran by.

"What the devil is going on!" He demanded.

"Intruders, mein leader!" exclaimed the technician. "They have been identified as the Americans Jack Frost, Red Raven, Blue Diamond."

Red Skull pushed the technician aside and rushed to the internal comm-system on the wall.

Outside one of the soldiers noticed the red light blinking from a nearby communications hub, the sound of the signal could barely be heard over the rifle fire and the screeching klaxon.

He pressed the call button on the console. "Hail HYDRA!" He shouted.

"This is the Red Skull!" shouted Skull. "I want them alive!"

The soldier couldnt believe what he was hearing. "I cannot hear you, mein leader! What did you say!"

"ALIVE! I want them ALIVE!" screamed Red Skull. "The first person to shoot one of them will be put in front of a firing squad - do I make myself clear!"

He snapped to attention. "I will distribute the order amongst the men right now, mein leader. Hail HYDRA!" Upon shutting off the communcation, he turned and ran back to pass the order among the men.

Red Raven began to notice that the action was becoming lackluster from the evil HYDRA side. "Is it my imagination," he asked aloud. "Or has these soldiers gotten a little bad with their aim."

Blue Diamond shook his head. "It doesnt matter! Cap and the others have gotten in, our mission is complete. We pull back and regroup at the selected location - meet up with Torch and the others."

With that, the three retreated back into the forest, the HYDRA soldiers ceased firing and cheered in triumph - but to some the victory seemed hollow.

Upon arrival at the selected rendezvous point, Diamond, Frost, and Raven finally met up with Toro, Torch, and Bucky.

"They're in," replied Raven. "Now we proceed to phase two."

"I'll go shut down HYDRA's power source," admitted Diamond, returning to his human form. "The rest of you will wait for the signal to destroy their communications array."

Bucky found this to be a bit suspicious. "That's not what the Captain told us," he retorted. "Who put you in charge?"

Blue Diamond glared at him right in the eye. "I'm the senior member of this team - what I say goes!"

"Captain America explicitly instructed us to do this as a team - no one is to go off on their own!"

This angered Blue Diamond a great deal. "I dont like your tone, boy!" He menacingly stepped towards Bucky, causing him to back off a bit - but he stood his ground. Jack Frost grabbed Diamond by the arm, pulling him back to him, where he whispered something into his ear - something the others could not hear. After hearing it, a smile appeared on Diamond's face as he started to back off.

"Alright then," he said to Bucky. "You can accompany me, the rest of you - wait for the signal. Is that understood?"

They all nodded. Both Blue Diamond and Bucky ran for the castle, to destroy HYDRA's power supply - or was it to be that easy? Something in the back of Bucky's mind made him wonder .. especially about Blue Diamond and his gung-ho attitude.

Will they succeed? Or is something sinister going to happen instead? To be continued...