This chapter is going to be a little bit shorter than the others. Any Bionicle fans recognize the reference last chapter?
Chapter 31: Cut Off One Head:
Lagos – Institute for Infectious Diseases:
It would take Iron Man and Thor an hour to reach the laboratory, so the Avengers did what they could to buy themselves time. Inside, Stitch was able to hijack the PA system and began playing a recording of Elvis Presley's Aloha Oe. Once the song started playing, the little alien's evil twins started dropping like flies. With them taken care of, the rest of the team was able to redirect their attention on the larger problem of the Dark Elves and the super soldier. Sora and Steve were able to hold off the elven warriors' attacks while Bucky and T'Challa dealt with the copycat Winter Soldier, but between the sheer numbers and the brutal power of the fake soldier, the team was quickly being overwhelmed.
"There's too many of them!" Sora called out as he knocked a Dark Elf across the battlefield with his Keyblade. "We need to figure out a way to contain them and regroup." Though nobody said as much out loud, most of the Avengers agreed that the twenty-three year old Keyblade Master had a point. For all the team's fighting skills and reputation, they were all very clearly outnumbered and outmatched. It would be better to regroup and fight another day than die in a suicidal last stand while HYDRA took what they wanted off the Avengers' cold, dead bodies. Unfortunately, there weren't many options for how to do what Sora was proposing.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Wanda retorted as she used her powers to telekinetically slam another one into the ground. "It's not like any of us can handle one of these things on our own." She was right, of course. Steve and Bucky could handle one Dark Elf each, while Sora could take two. T'Challa could hold the super soldier at bay but didn't appear to be capable of gaining the upper hand, while the rest of the Avengers who didn't have powers were stuck dodging and dealing with the remaining HYDRA agents to keep them unconscious and out of the fight.
"Well," Sora replied as he Reversed around a HYDRA soldier and knocked him unconscious with a smack to the back of the head with the hilt of the blade. "I'm open to suggestions."
"So," Bucky interjected as he blocked a punch from the other Winter Soldier. "Anybody got any ideas?" As if right on cue, Dark Elf warriors were incinerated across the courtyard as Thor slammed his hammer into the earth. The Hulk leaped down a moment later and swung the Winter Soldier wannabe around like a rag doll (or more accurately, like Loki during the Battle of New York back in 2012) while Iron man hovered above the battlefield, finishing off the remaining HYDRA agents with missiles. With the aid of three additional Avengers, the battle quickly began to swing back in the heroes' favor. Rumlow managed to escape with the knockoff Winter Soldier through a Corridor of Darkness, but since they didn't get away with the stolen chemicals, the Avengers considered the day a win.
"What the hell was that?" Sam demanded once the HYDRA agents had been cleared out. "When did HYDRA decide to try a repeat of what they did to Bucky? Who was that guy anyway? Some guy they grabbed off the street or something?" The original Winter Soldier shook his head as an answer. He had always believed that the inhabitants of the old Siberian HYDRA base had been killed off decades ago. Evidently, today proved that he had been misinformed.
"No," Bucky interjected. "I wasn't the only Winter Soldier. There were five others, created using a super soldier serum stolen from Howard Star, but they were too unstable. Last I heard they were supposed to have been euthanized back in the nineties. Obviously, that information was wrong." Sam and Tony were a little frustrated that Bucky had sat on that secret for so long, but as Sora pointed out, Bucky had no reason to believe that the other Winter Soldiers were even still alive.
Once the local authorities arrived to take the surviving HYDRA agents to prison, the Avengers loaded the remaining Dark Elves into the newly arrived S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet to be taken to The Raft, a prison constructed by Director Hill as a replacement to the now defunct S.H.I.E.L.D. penitentiary known only as the Fridge. Once the bad guys had all been carted off to various prisons, the Avengers got back into their Quinjet to regroup at the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house to cool down and wait for news on the location of HYDRA's remaining bases. It was time to hunt down the remaining HYDRA bases and finally destroy the international terrorist organization for good.
The Underworld – Entrance:
Loz couldn't help but shed a few tears in defeat as he and his brothers turned away from the River Styx and started to trudge up the stairs back into the land of the living. Their mission so far was a failure. They had come to the Underworld hoping that by freeing their father's soul from the Underworld, they could bring him back to life. They had gotten the chance to speak to him, but he told them that such a plan was doomed to failure without a body for his spirit to go back to. The only way for him to form a new body was with the use of the remaining DNA samples of the Inhuman entity known as Jenova, last seen hidden away by Xehanort and his followers deep beneath the bowels of Radiant Garden's castle.
Getting in wasn't going to be a problem. Maleficent's impending invasion was the ideal time for them to sneak in, look for Jenova's cryogenically preserved remains, then get out. What worried the children of Sephiorth so much wasn't how to obtain the entity's corpse. It was the possibility that Xehanort or someone from either the Coalition or the Legion had gotten a hold of their grandmother's body and destroyed it. If that turned out to be the case, they'd have no other way to resurrect their father. No! Kadaj thought to himself as he and his brothers climbed out of the land of the dead in sullen silence. If someone has destroyed our grandmother's remains and prevented us from restoring father to life, then we will avenge him and destroy those who would dare oppose our reunion! We will find our lost brother and sister and take revenge on those who seek to keep our family apart!
While sifting through their father's files back in the fortress on Maveth, Yazoo had discovered a letter addressed to their father indicating that they had a sister whose mother had died giving birth to her. Like their lost brother Peter, she had been taken from father and hidden. The mighty Sephiroth had never been able to track down his only daughter. But after some research, Loki had apparently gotten a lead to her location. Apparently, she'd been taken by a group known as that Chaste that was apparently a front for the Legion to operate on Earth. The three brothers could only hope that they could get to her before the Legion could brainwash her towards their juvenile beliefs that everything that used darkness was evil. Then they would be a family again, and the rest of the universe would burn.
Lagos, Nigeria – S.H.I.E.L.D. Safe House:
It was quiet in the large apartment as the Avengers continued to sleep as the sun began peeking through the curtains. Bucky and Natasha were curled up together in the master bed, while Sora and Steve were passed out atop air mattresses on the floor of the room. Kim and Ron got a bed to themselves with Tony and Sam passed out at the foot of the bed in sleeping bags. Wanda got her own bed while T'Challa and Pietro got air mattresses of their own. Bruce and Thor took the couches. It had been a restful evening, as S.H.I.E.L.D. took over the legwork of finding HYDRA's newest base so that the Avengers could recover from yesterday's battle.
After the fight, the team had grown a little closer to their newest member. While there was still some lingering distrust towards the young Keyblade Master, most of it had been replaced by friendly camaraderie after yesterday's battle. It was the same as every time someone new was inducted into the team, Steve reflected as he threw on some clean clothes before walking out into the living room. Each time the Avengers recruited a new member, there was always the brief period of wariness as they waited to see if the newbie could be trusted. Over time, the wariness faded to be completely replaced with friendship and acceptance.
From what Steve could tell, Sora was pretty much one of them already, joking around and sharing stories at dinner like he'd been with the team for years. The super soldier emerged into the kitchen to find the Keyblade Master in question sitting at the table staring longingly at a set of photographs he'd pulled out of his wallet, along with the star-shaped charm he'd been carrying around with him. The glint of the light off his cheeks revealed the stain of fresh tears.
"Don't worry," Captain America reassured the newest Avenger as he took a seat next to the brunette Key Bearer. "We'll get you home, kid. You'll be walking down the aisle .on your wedding day in no time" Sora almost jumped, so focused on his photos and the Thalasa shell charm that Kairi had him carry every time he went off into battle that he hadn't noticed the Avenger come into the room.
"I hope so," Sora admitted with a sigh. "I know Thor's heading back to Asgard tomorrow to see if they can find a way to track his brother and use him as an anchor to find Coalition space, but that could take years. I know Kairi can defend herself but I don't want her to wake up every day worrying if I'll come home or not." Steve nodded. He knew how that felt. While coming out of the ice after being asleep for seventy years had felt instantaneous for him, he imagined that Kairi's situation was much the same as how Peggy had felt looking for him after his disappearance. If she hadn't been recruited by the S.A.C.K., she'd probably have presumed him dead and moved on.
And while the young man didn't say as much, Steve knew that was what Sora was really scared of. Even though he and Kairi had been together for six years, the Keyblade wielder was afraid that if it took him longer than a few months his fiancé would be convinced that he was dead and give up looking for him. But from what Steve could tell, that was about as likely to happen as hell freezing over.
"I doubt she'd move on that easily, Sora," he countered reassuringly. "From what you've told me, Kairi sounds like the kind of girl who would never give up on you no matter how long it takes. You always come back to her. You said she waited on that island for a year before she came to look for you on her own, after all. Heck, she'd probably just grab a Gummi Ship and start flying all over the universe looking for you herself." That managed to brighten the young man's mood as he looked down at the prom photos his parents had taken of him and Kairi with a laugh.
"You're right," the Keyblade Master admitted as he put the photos back in his wallet. He smiled as he glanced down at his fiance's old lucky charm and thought of the promise it represented. "When Kairi sets her mind to something, she never gives up. Every time we head into a battle, she always gives me her homemade lucky charm she's had since we were fourteen and makes me promise to give it back to her when we were done. She'll probably turn every planet in the galaxy upside down until she finds me." That got both men laughing at the mental image that comment brought up before Steve got up and walked over to the stove to make coffee and breakfast.
An hour later, the rest of the Avengers all dragged themselves out of bed at various hours. Thor promised to talk to Heimdall and Odin about finding a route towards Coalition territory over s few quickly made Pop Tarts before heading up to the roof to return to Asgard. T'Challa and Sora got into a discussion on Wakanda's knowledge of the Keyblade War while Wanda and Pietro headed up to the roof for a morning workout. Rhodey held Tony back from "upgrading" the toaster while Sam poured himself a bowl of cereal. Bucky and Natasha simply sat on the now vacant couches with raised eyebrows as everyone's morning rituals spilled out of the kitchen into the rest of the safe house.
An hour later, the team was finally cleaning up from their assorted morning messes when J.A.R.V.I.S.'s British-accented voice announced an incoming phone call from Director Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hill informed the team that HYDRA had been tracked back to a hidden compound in Vienna, Italy. To make matters worse, there was a U.N. conference scheduled to take place later that day. With time running out and a bunch of potential assassinations to prevent, everyone scrambled for the showers and struggled into their gear. Within half an hour, the Avengers were on their way northward to Italy. With any luck, they could catch HYDRA by surprise and prevent them from taking advantage of the summit to cause their trademarked chaos.
As many of you probably already figure out, having the battle with HYDRA and the presence of the other Winter Soldiers was all inspired by Captain America: Civil War. While the movie does not take place in this universe (not because I don't like it. Far from it, it's my absolute favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to date. I just wanted to keep the Marvel side of the story relatively simple, and including Civil War would over complicate the backstory too much for my taste, so I just decided to leave it out), a lot of the elements they introduced gave me inspiration for Sora and the Avengers' plot-line on Earth, and so I've incorporated these elements into the rest of this story.
That means that yes, there will be future chapter set in Vienna, and the team will eventually battle the Winter Soldiers at the Siberian HYDRA base. But there will be more twists and turns in this story. As these last few chapters indicate, the fight against all five Winter Soldiers isn't going to be so easy for the Avengers. Thor will have to head up to Asgard soon and even Iron Man and the Hulk can be overwhelmed by too many opponents. And there will be a surprise Big Damn Heroes moment when that battle nears its end and dovetails with the Siege of Radiant Garden.
Sora's pretty much one of the Avengers now. I figured that since Tony got a bonding scene with Sora, then Captain America should have one two. Both of them have similar experiences to what Sora's feeling at the moment, and so they can each provide him with encouragement as they work on finding a way to get him home. Forgot to mention this last chapter, but as you can tell, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz' subplot will have a great deal of parallels with the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, only take away the Geostigma, the mass kidnapping, etc, substitute Maleficent's invasion of Radiant Garden for the Bahamut SIN attack in FF7AC, etc.
I think you all have a pretty good idea of who Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz' lost brother is now, don't you? The same goes for their sister. Daredevil fans, now you all know what a Black Sky is in this universe. ;)