Chapter Four; Changing the Game
Commandos Part Three
Private Kruger had heard tales about the Red Skull. He'd heard that he ignored all codes of war. He fought dirty, he fought hard, and he fought to win. He respected that in a man. So when Baron Zemo had asked for somebody to send for him, he'd jumped at the chance to meet him.
He knocked on the door. There was no answer. "Herr Skull!" He called. He weighed his options, and decided the Skull would probably like a man who took action. "Herr Skull?" He opened the door.
The first thing he saw, was that the door was soundproof. The second thing he saw, were the skulls hanging on the walls as trophies, dog tags burnt into the bones on their forehead. And then, he saw the tripwire he'd tripped.
Herr Kruger looked up and screamed, as a bucket of molten lead fell on his head. He felt his skin burn and his tears dry as he choked on the lead flowing down his throat.
The man on the bed shifted, and yawned amidst the screaming. He sat up in bed, his feet dangling off the edge and slipping into his real human leather slippers. He walked groggily past the screaming private and picked up his herbal tea. The private panicked and ran out the window, crashing through the glass and falling out of the tower and into the moat.
The Red Skull walked slowly to the window, sipping his tea. He took a deep breath of fresh air as he listened to the private's screams as he was devoured by any number of the various exotic flesh-eating creatures he'd stocked the moat with. "What a wonderful way to start the morning." He said, before shutting the shattered window and putting on his robe. He took his machine gun out from under his pillow. It was based off of one of Baron Zemo's early failed designs, modified by him to cause the maximum amount of damage. It used specially modified bullets, that cost seventy pounds each to be custom made by the Swiss. It used a magazine of sixty bullets. It cost fourty two hundred pounds to fire it until it was empty. He found it gloriously extravagant, and considered a few potshots at the man that just fell out of the window. He wasn't dead, he could still hear the screaming. He checked the clip, and was surprised to find it was empty. He frowned, and decided to get dressed.
Baron Zemo and Ambassador Zeng were waiting for him in the armory. "Can somebody get me some bullets from the stockroom?" He yelled.
Zemo signaled for somebody to do as the Skull ordered. "I hope you didn't spend them all on Private Kruger." He said with disapproval.
The Red Skull brushed past them both. "How is Project Ubermensch?" He asked.
"All proceeding according to plan." Zemo said. "Herr Skull, Ambassador Zeng is here on behalf of the Japanese to –"
"Can they be ready at a moment's notice?" He asked.
"Yes, Herr Skull." Zemo said, impatiently. "Ambassador Zeng is –"
"And the tanks?" Red Skull moved to Zemo's modified tanks. "Are they ready?"
"Yes, Herr Skull, all outfitted with laser weapons like my pistol as you asked. Now –"
"Skull." Zeng said, interrupting Zemo. "Where are you going with this line of questioning?"
"Show me the power matrix." Skull ordered.
Zemo sighed, and went to open the side panel and reveal the reactive core to his laser design. He pulled back the panel and gestured for the Skull to see.
He growled and took out a knife, stabbing the nearest soldier and taking his radio. "Attention!" He yelled into it. "We have an intruder on the base. We have an intruder! I want him found! I want him brought to me alive! A promotion to the one who finds him, and the first one to remove one of his extremities! Be careful, he is carrying reactive materials, so be cautious with your bullets!"
Zemo looked into the chamber and almost fainted. It was empty.
Skull grabbed Zemo by the collar and lifted him off the floor with one hand. "After I deal with this intruder, you will be next unless you replace the matrix on these and get Project Ubermensch ready for a fight!"
All through the fortress, Nazi soldiers scrambled to the closest armory and grabbed their weapons. Private Brohnson was interrupted in the middle of his breakfast to yell the Red Skull's instructions through the comm. system.
Impossible Man heard the claxon and the shouting and grinned. "Showtime." He adjusted his Nazi uniform and picked up his loot bag. After his first heist, he thought it would be amusing to have a large expandable burlap sack made with a dollar sign on the side. He called it his loot bag.
He walked out into the open, strutting as calmly as he could to the East tower. About a third of the way there, somebody stopped and turned around and yelled at him to stop. He turned, smiled, waved, then kept on walking. The soldier barked something in German and ran towards him, followed by everybody else in the courtyard.
"Game on." He ducked inside the tower's door as bullets started flying, and locked the door behind him. He ran up the tower, pressing two fingers against his neck to check his breathing. The door was rammed open, and the soldiers started following him up the stairs. He looked down, and ducked back as they started shooting up. "Well, I may be a bit rusty on my German, but didn't it say alive? And maybe limbless?"
He reached the top of the tower and checked his watch. He'd made good time. He checked the doors on either side of the hallway and went into the one that was open. It was a kitchen and he picked up a knife and gestured for the cooks to get out. They ran, yelling, and he moved to a window.
"Halt!" The soldiers piled into the room and pointed their guns at him. He held his loot bag in front of him like a shield.
"Put, down the bag!" One of the soldiers yelled.
"Oh, you can speak English?" The Impossible man opened the window behind him. "Well, tell your men I'm not afraid of them, so they can put their guns down."
"Drop the reactors!" He yelled.
"What?" The Impossible Man raised a sly eyebrow. "These aren't the reactors."
He turned the bag upside down and poured out its contents. Every, single, bullet, that he could find during the night he'd spent there, poured out onto the floor. The soldier paled and pressed the trigger of his gun, only to find that the man in front of him didn't drop dead. The soldiers on all sides of him checked their ammunition clips, only to find out they were empty. The Impossible Man, on the other hand, checked his watch.
"Now the reactors… they are in the tower's basement." He said. "Wired to plastique. Set to go off. In two… one…"
The soldier who understood English took out his knife and threw it in a blind panic. Impossible Man didn't flinch as the tower shook and the knife buried itself in the wall next to him. He ducked out of the window and onto the ledge as the tower slowly collapsed. He laughed like a madman as the tower tilted and he hung on by his fingertips. He felt the wind fly through his hair and looked to his left. One of the soldiers was trying to climb out after him. He gave him a wink, and pushed off of the tower. He grabbed a phone wire, and as the tower landed on it the end snapped off. Impossible man rode the wire like Tarzan on a vine, crashing through a window. Private Brohnson's eyes widened as he watched the tower fall and Impossible man swing toward him. He tried to duck out of the way, but Impossible Man came crashing through the window, knocking him out the other side and into the moat.
"Exactly as planned." Impossible Man said, brushing himself off and taking off the Nazi disguise. He looked to his side. "Oh, better than planned. Breakfast." He slid off the rest of the disguise and sat down at the comm. station, picking up an apple. He pressed the 'on' button. "Hello and Hiel Hitler from the Impossible Man to all you Nazi slime. That's right. This is the Amerikaner. I'm in ur base, lol. Why don't you make this a little challenging and come and get me?" He turned the comm. off and laughed. "Biggest rush I've had since I stole the Ultimate Nullifier."
Sergeant Howlett burst into the cellar. "Rise and shine ladies! Something's going down!"
The Avengers and the Exiles scrambled. When they reached the hillside, they heard the claxons. "Where's that guy… the Impossible Man?" Nick Fury asked.
The Exiles exchanged looks. "Must have left during the night." Black Archer said.
"So you are Nazi spies." Fury growled, pulling his knife on them. "And they're mustering their troops for a fight as we speak. Well, we may have lost the element of surprise, but we can still –" Suddenly, they heard an explosion. They turned, and saw the East tower collapse. "What the…"
"He's on the tower!" Black Archer said. "No way! He's riding the tower down and… and…" The tower collapsed on the fortress's drawbridge, filling the front of the moat with rocks and rubble.
They were silent for a moment. "No… nobody could survive that." Nova said quietly.
"He must have tried to weaken their defenses." Pete said. "Before we went in."
"Man…" Hank said, as Janet buried her face in his chest. "That's…"
"Oh, don't worry. He's alive." Howlett said.
"You're sure?" Fury asked.
Just then, Impossible Man came out on the wall with a megaphone. "Hey!" He yelled. "Over here! Come on guys, I opened the door for you! Why don't you crash the party already?" He ducked down, and disappeared as a cannonball obliterated the spot on the wall where he was standing.
"Yeah." Nova said, relieved. "He's alive."
Fury's grin slowly widened. "Well… you heard the man!" As Pete watched, the ghosts surrounding Fury all gathered inside of him, until they were a single luminous being. "Let's crash this party!" Fury let out a fearsome howl, and ran towards the castle at breakneck speed. Sergeant Howlett let out a similar battle-cry, and ran after him loyally. The Avengers looked at each other and gather in a circle.
"France." Le Patriot put his hand in.
"America." The Titan.
"Canada." The Human Torch.
"Britain." Snowflake.
"Austria." The Hulk.
"Switzerland, not that they need it." Ares hefted his axe.
"TAG!" All five of them hit Robert at the same time, then ran towards the castle (Titan and Snowqueen flew). Robert lied on the ground in pain, when suddenly his muscles began to swell.
"Hulk's It!" Pete ran for the castle with the Avengers.
"Let's go kick some Swastika!" Nova grabbed Rachel and flew to the castle.
The Mask turned to a tree. "Are you going to join us?" She asked with disgust in her voice.
The Black Archer looked out from behind the tree, his legs shaking. "I'm good here, thanks." He ducked back behind the tree. The Mask sighed and disappeared. The Hulk got to his feat, a golden mass of muscle. He roared and leaped after the heroes.
The heroes all raced down to the castle, ready to save the world or die trying.