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The Red Skull walked through the metallic halls of his base noting how hurriedly his soldiers were moving preparing for the war to come, his plans to conquer the world needed this plan to work. He needed to devastate his enemies quickly before they could react and he could fully mobilize his current troops and get more followers, Captain America and his friends had forced him to move his plans faster than he had originally intended. He had hoped to hold off until all the combatants in the war knocked each other out and then simply wipe out whoever was left, but Captain America has certainly learned where their base was and were even more certainly on their way to try and stop him. He turned to look into Zola's laboratory where he had been working around the clock since Manfredi was taken down, "Zola" he said prompting the small man to jump.
"Good afternoon sir" Zola replied stopping his work to look at the Red Skull who started walking around his lab. He touched a few things but stopping to look at more of the Tesseract research.
"So good doctor how goes the research into the Tesseract?" Red Skull asked looking over the contraption that Zola was working on.
Zola moved to his desk and pulled out some papers and files "Only prospects for possible uses but while we are preparing for the war it is near impossible to put any of these to the test."
"I see. Our army is nearly prepared for the attack."
"Yes, the planes and bombs are ready as well, the plan will work as long as we can pull this off without interruption" explained Zola trying to hide his fear of Captain America coming for them.
The Red Skull scoffed "The Captain is certainly coming, but the village should delay him long enough to where he won't be able to stop us from executing the attack." He turned and started walking back towards the door, "How long until your little experiment is ready?" asked the Skull noticing how hard that Zola was working.
Zola looked back at his work and smiled "It should be ready by the end of the day, no more running and hiding for Arnim Zola."
"Good to hear" said Skull walking out of the lab and making his way to the hanger where the attack will be launched. He was beginning to realize that perhaps he could use the rushed timetable to his advantage, the attack could confuse everyone and they would go after each other even harder while Hydra could sit back and watch the dominos fall around the globe. He got to the hanger and called over one of the soldiers who was arming the planes "Gather everyone I need to speak with them" he ordered making his way towards the main hanger door where the planes would be taking off from.
The troops all lined up in front of the Red Skull, all with their black uniforms and the red Hydra insignia standing out amongst the black. "We are close to taking the world and morphing it into our vision of the world. A new world, the next step of evolution will come with it. First the world will be ours and there is nobody on this planet that can stop us, not Berlin, not Moscow, and not America. Hydra will bring peace and order to the globe whether the world wants it or not." The lines of soldiers clapped after he finished "Always remember cut off one head and two more will take its place…..Hail Hydra!"
Howard woke up before everyone else, he always did if he didn't pass out from drinking too much the night before. He pulled out the next journal in the series and opened it up to where he had left off earlier in the night. The journal was about Manfredi's meeting with Zola and apparently Zola had a heck of a mouth on him when he drank. Stark read through the journal several times almost wanting to laugh but understanding that Hydra hasn't been too far off since he started digging into their research. Everyone started waking up a few hours after him and Bucky came by to see him. "Did you get the rifle scope figured out?" he asked pulling Stark out of his work.
"Oh yeah, I improved your scope should get you another couple hundred yards out of it" Stark replied handing him the scope without looking at him.
"So those journals are that interesting huh?"
Stark looked up at him "Yeah, Red Skull has some pretty crazy theories about the Tesseract. He seems to believe that if he had enough time with it he could create some kind of pathway to another world."
Bucky chuckled "Another world?"
Stark shook his head "I know, it sounds crazy but…they haven't been wrong about the weapons they designed. A piece of the German military is striking out on their own to not only fight its own people but the whole world and based on what we have seen it is actually possible. So a path to another world how farfetched could it be?" Stark's mind began to turn "If I could get my hands on the Tesseract, maybe I could do things I never thought possible."
Bucky stood up "Trust me, you don't want to go down the Hydra rabbit hole. There aren't rabbits down there…..only monsters."
Bucky walked away as Stark looked over the notes that Manfredi had written during his time with Zola and the Red Skull. Zola filled Bucky's thoughts, all the pain that he went through in that tower while Zola worked on him. He went outside to get some air while they approached Norway. The fog was rolling on the waves as the Norwegian coast came into view, "You ready for this?" came Steve's voice behind him.
Bucky chuckled "As ready as I'll ever be. It's time for the Red Skull and Zola to pay for everything that they've done."
"Philips mentioned a town where we can set up a base of operations. No doubt Hydra has something waiting for us there. You, me and the rest of the Howling Commandos will go ashore and clear the town before Philips arrives with the rest of the division" explained Steve stepping up next to Bucky who was looking off into space.
"Sounds like a plan when we head out?"
"As soon as we make landfall" informed Steve tapping Bucky on the shoulder. Bucky nodded and turned to get his gear.