Chapter Six; Confidence

Commandos Part 5

The Titan, Le Patriot and Ares fought back to back. The three of them had years of combat experience between them, and each was able to anticipate the other's moves, forming a perfect defense and offense. The plowed a straight line through the courtyard, Titan deflecting the lasers with his armor's shields, Ares knocking cannonballs out of the sky with one hand and mowing down troops with his other, and Le Patriot darting between them, stabbing at the enemy soldiers.

"Hey, their cannonfire just turned into smoke." Ares said, pointing out the inky fog coming out of the cannons.

"Must have been something to do with those Exiles." The Titan said. "To bad the lasers are still up and running."

Professor McCoy bounded across the rubble of the castle's entrance like a kangaroo, dodging grenades and pounding the Nazis who came at him with knifes. He had a natural physical brilliance to go with his mental brilliance. His fiancée covered him from the sky, where she flew like an angel.

"This is too easy." Nick fury said, running up to the Avengers. "We're creaming them. They're not even shooting at us, and now some of their cannons are shooting smoke."

"I'm not sure how Fury…" The Titan said. "But I think that those Exiles have something to do with it."

He looked over at them. They were gathered in a corner of the courtyard, not even fighting. The Impossible Man was passing them pieces of paper. "I don't know. They strike me as edgy."

Suddenly, a loud boom echoed through the castle. Two plates under the ground rose up on either side. An elevator rose up to fill the space, with the Red Skull on it along with several other colorful people. Fury swore as the Red Skull stepped forward. "Greetings Avengers!" He called. "Congratulations on managing to make it into my castle! But now you fall!" He gestured to the six people behind him. "Allow me to introduce to you, the Invaders! Allow me, to introduce to you, your doom!"

The Red Skull could see the fear in his opponent's eyes. And why shouldn't they? He had something for each of them. Le Patriot… how he dreamed of killing him himself. But first he would let the leader of the Invaders soften him. Break him. His name was Kurt Wagner, the son of a baron. He was a mutant, but before he'd read McCoy's work, when he'd just discovered the lad, he had assumed he was a demon. A demon sent to him to bring about the Nazi dream. The Skull dared to say he was a better swordsman than even Le Patriot, capable of wielding three swords at once and teleporting.

Ares… when he had first heard that a god had taken to the field, the Red Skull had been terrified. Ha, no he hadn't. He had been as close to being terrified as a sociopath could be, but he never felt true fear in his life. How do you kill a god? He did a little research. Ares had been wounded before on the plains of Troy with the aid of the goddess Athena. After the Red Skull began his own worship of Athena (when he had finished conquering this earth, he planned on conquering Olympus and making her his… heh… bride) he had his master stroke. How do you kill a god? Why, with a proven weapon of course. One of the Skull's favored mercenaries Crossbones had recently lost a hand to Le Patriot. After a raid on Hitler's occult collection (blamed on the Allies of course) Crossbones had a new hand. It was called Longinus. The spear of destiny.

Then the Titan. Easy enough to replicate with Zemo's work. A simple man in an iron suit. Codename; Goliath. But how do the suits measure up? The only way a field test could be arranged is if the two were to meet, and by the time the results got back the Titan could improve his own suit. So how does the one ensure victory over the other? Make it whole robot, not a human. Just give it the brain of one of the top soldiers of the army, and protect that brain. Less squishy bits inside. Goliath feels no pain, needs no food, and will not stop. He will keep coming. And he will win.

The Hulk. The Red Skull's one failure. As he was trying to discover the monster's upper limit of the creature's strength he found out too late that it had none. The resulting escape cost a lot of men, but hey, at least the Hulk got some Allies. Now he had perfected the monster. His new Hulk was capable of absorbing the kinetic energy of any attack, storing it up for his own attacks. The stronger their Hulk got, the stronger his Hulk got. And thus was his Hulk was unbeatable.

The last two. The Human Torch and the Snow Queen. Fire and Ice. Together, a nigh unbeatable combination. How did the brilliant Red Skull find a way to trump them? Simplicity in itself. When going against a human torch, you use a fireproof man. Preferably a man who'd been fire-proof via a blood transfusion with a lesser demon, also granting the man in question the power to create weapons out of nothing. Oh yes, the Human Torch would be extinguished. As for the Snow Queen, she was powerful. But not as intelligent as her husband. Her opponent was one of Zemo's most successful experiments yet. A telekinetic that could throw mountains around like dice. Of course, there was still the risk… the chance of failure with her. It was nigh impossible to stop the Snow Queen… if she had any brains at all. His opposite for her had been training for months for this encounter. He had… not faith… confidence. Yes, he had confidence in his warrior.

"We're ready for you Skull." Le Patriot said.

"You'll never defeat the Avengers." Nick Fury growled.

"I think that we will." The Red Skull sneered. "Each and every one of my Invaders has been designed to beat you Avengers into the ground."

"But you didn't count on me!" Nova said, to the Avenger's side. "You are going to lose this fight, and you are going to lose this war. Badly."

"Where's the rest of your team?" Fury asked under his breath.

"Impossible Man said he had a plan." Nova said. "I'm doing my part."

The Red Skull took in the situation. The newcomer had the ability to fly, and was wearing some sort of armor. He stood in a stance reminiscent of a boxer, yet loose, and leaning. He was used to fighting with his fists, but he was a smart one too. He could have handled the Avengers, but three others? He could pull it off, but it would be better if he found a way to rectify the odds. And then he saw it, climbing up the east wall.

The Red Skull signaled to Wagner. The mutant teleported over to the Impossible Man, bringing him back to the Skull. "Do you still think you have the upper hand?" He asked Nova.

Impossible Man grinned. "I never have the lower hand." He said. "Probably because I hide cards up my sleeve." Suddenly, the Red Skull couldn't see; something exploded and his eyes began to itch and he started coughing. When the smoke cleared the Impossible Man wasn't in his grip and the Avengers and the invaders were going at it.

The Impossible Man was leaning against the wall. "You really tried to threaten me with an empty gun?" He asked. "I know you have no ammo. I was the one who stole it, right from under your nose. You heard Nova. This fight is already over, you just don't know it."

"I think not." The Red Skull said. But he found himself curious and… yes, afraid. The same fear he felt when he had heard a god of war fought for his enemies, or that the Hulk he had turned on his foes had turned on him, or when he saw the cleanness and the precision of what the Patriot had done to Corssbone's arm. He wasn't afraid in any traditional sense, he was… doubtful of his ability to win. To overcome any obstacle presented to him. To be Aryan.

"You are their leader." The Skull said. There was no question in his voice. "As the Avengers look to Le Patriot, your comrades look to you."

"Nah." Impossible Man shrugged. "I mean… well… I'm the brains of the operation sure, but I can't help being the smartest man in the room."

The Red Skull realized something then; the Impossible Man had given him information about himself. Valuable information. Impossible Man's eyes were… like his own. He hadn't been studying him; they'd been studying each other. And the Impossible Man had already gathered enough information to know that revealing his intellect to the him wasn't a significant risk. Well, the Red Skull knew something about him too; he was not a fighter.

He drew his ornamental sword. He kept it sharp for Le Patriot, but this occasion was more pressing. "Attack."

The Avengers and the Invaders clashed together, and the Red Skull advanced on the Impossible Man. The Red Skull knew exactly how the fight behind him was going; he'd played it in his mind like a game of chess. All just a group of pawns. He was a king. And so was the man in front of him.

"You're wrong you know." The Impossible Man said as they circled.

"Wrong about what?" The Red Skull asked. He already knew. Asking was just a formality. A bit of banter to recognize the opponent.

"You're not going to win this."

The Skull lunged, and the Impossible Man and he swerved out of the way with more dexterity the Red Skull had thought possible from his foe. He took a device out of his jacket and launched a grappling hook and rope, pulling himself up and away.

The Red Skull grinned. This war would end today, one way or the other. But either way, he would have such fun. He pulled a communicator out of his belt. "Herr Zemo." The Skull said. "Have you done as I instructed?"

"Yes Herr Skull." Zemo said. "They are on their way as we speak."

"Very good. Now, activate contingency plan number twenty one."

When Nova fell into a supernova star, he was sure he was going to die. Instead, he'd been given a bigger responsibility than before. He was worried at first. When he first became Nove, he used it to fight crime in New York. Then, he'd escalated to saving the universe. And now he was supposed to save the multiverse? He'd give it his best shot, but could he handle this?

As he read the instructions the Impossible Man had given him, which simply told him to do what he would normally do and help the Avengers survive, he realized the answer was yes. Yes he could handle this.

According to the Impossible Man, the Red Skull had the Invaders roster perfectly filled to defeat the Avengers. His job was to not let that happen. But Impossible Man had other plans for what looked like this alternate universe's version of Nightcrawler fighting Le Patriot, so he wasn't allowed to interfere with that. But anybody else was free game. Also, if possible, he had to steer the fight into a section of the castle courtyard. He didn't know why, but he could guess.

The Avengers clashed against the Invaders, and almost immediately the Invaders seemed to get the upper hand. Nova help the Hulk by holding down his foe so he could beat him, but that only seemed to make him stronger, and he threw Nova off. Suddenly, a blast came from behind him. He turned and a squad of five men in black space suits ran up to him firing lasers.

The Mask crept down the lower corridors of the base. She shuddered at how eerily this fit her M.O. Could the Impossible Man really have guessed that this would be the perfect assignment for her, or did he have to give it to her because everybody else already had their jobs? And if the former is true… could there really be somebody smarter than her?

She glanced the slip of paper in her hand the Impossible Man had given her. It was a detailed map of the castle's lower levels, with notes on how to perfectly position the C4 he'd given her. Now that she was down here for herself, she could see what he had planned. It unnerved her a little that somebody could come up with a plan like this.

She turned invisible as Baron Zemo rushed past her and opened some containment tubes. Five men in black suits stepped out. Zemo yelled at them to go attack… something. She wasn't up to par on her German studies. As he left, she looked at the labels on the control panel. Those men were a black ops squad for… alien invasion?

"Well, this is quite the set up you have here." Said a voice behind her. She stiffened as she realized it was talking to her, and that it wasn't a German accent, but Russian. "I'm impressed Ms. Stark. You've opened up whole new worlds of possibilities for me. Thank you."

She turned around. "You." She said with a chill.