'Time really does fly when you're having fun. To think that it's been 15 years already since my arrival into this world. It almost feels like it's been created specifically for me. With all these superheroes around, it will be too easy to act like a regular mob and stay out of sight, which will make the eventual revelation of my true identity to those around me all the more dramatic.'
'They'll be thinking "I can't believe Cid was the true Eminence in Shadow all along! Oh, if only we'd picked up on all those subtle clues he had left to test us! How blind we were!" And then I'll-'
"Cid, here's Beta's report on the events that destroyed that town in New Mexico."
'...Wait, what town?'
As Cid looked at the frighteningly thick stack of papers Alpha had just put on his table, he couldn't help feeling like a mastermind of some secret operation in a spy flick. The fact that he had absolutely no idea what kind of operation they were supposedly running didn't matter all that much. If anything, it spoke volumes of his friends' willingness to play along with his game. For that he was immensely grateful.
"Thank you, Alpha."
The girl, dressed in casual wear, as she always was when visiting his apartment in daylight, merely nodded.
Looking at her, Cid once again realised how lucky he was to have such reliable friends.
'Even though they're probably living their lives normally, they still take time out of their day to play along.'
'Come to think of it, they've always been quite enthusiastic about all this. Ever since I picked them up from those underground criminal lairs and told them the story I made up on the spot about some evil organisation controlling the S.H.I.E.L.D. from the shadows and blaming it for their imprisonment they seemed quite passionate about it. They even went on their own missions to find out the 'truth' of why they were there in the first place. Their new story was that all seven of them were the results of some kind of secret experiments which combined the technology for creating superhumans and occult magic, all in order to do... something. I can't even remember. It's great that their imagination is so rich but they could have come up with something easier to remember. Though it does sound cool as hell to serve as a backstory so whatever.'
Meanwhile, Alpha continued with her report, most of it flying over Cid's head never to be brought up again. In the stream of all this indecipherable gibberish, Cid at last heard some familiar words.
"Epsilon reports that she and the numbers under her command have successfully infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility in Nevada. Right now we have no information on what kind of research they're conducting, but we can safely assume that it's of great importance to them. They really didn't want anyone to find out about it. Took us some effort to infiltrate it."
In response, Cid merely hummed to himself, deep in thought.
The sight of Cid in his thoughts always excited Alpha. His intellect was his most potent weapon, even more so than his formidable magical or physical strength. What she wouldn't give just to see the inner workings of his mind.
So Alpha thought, blissfully unaware that Cid was too busy gushing over the cool sounding name of the base 'Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility' to pay attention to anything else.
At last noticing that Alpha was silently standing before him as if waiting for something, Cid decided to play his part as an all knowing Eminence and have Alpha relay his new orders to the Seven shadows. Naturally, his orders were based on nothing but the 'rule of cool'. They didn't need to make sense, just sound badass or cryptic. He'd been doing this for years and the girls always played along, acting as if those were the commands written by Sun Tsu himself.
"Well then, Alpha, relay my orders to the rest of the shadows."
"As you command."
"Epsilon is to follow the plan but she must act on her own discretion if the situation calls for it. I can feel the storm brewing behind those walls. Gamma shall hire more workforce and bring them here. What she has now is insufficient if she hopes to persevere in the events to come. Beta..."
Suddenly out of ideas and platitudes to use, he casts a look outside his window.
There, on the other side of the city is the world renowned tower of the world renowned superhero and billionaire.
Bingo.
"Have her investigate Tony Stark. The Iron Man has far more secrets hidden within his tower than he lets on."
'Maybe she can learn where he keeps his money. Shadow Garden could use some extra cash, being a secret organisation is quite expensive. Besides, he's already got billions of dollars, I doubt he'll notice if a few hundred thousand disappear.'
...
'Wait hold on, now that I think about, where does most of our money come from? Ah! Don't tell me! Have the girls started hunting small criminals on the streets for cash too?! Ah, they grow so fast!'
Getting his thoughts back on track, Cid stood up, walked over to the window and leaned on the wall, making the best 'contemplative and determined' facial expression.
After a brief moment, meant to give an impression of being deep in thought, he continued with his new orders.
"Zeta and Eta are to continue following their plans. And so are you, as I believe you will be the one to take centre stage during the oncoming calamity."
"I'm eternally grateful for your confidence in me, lord Shadow." The girl bowed slightly. "And fear not, we have already located their helicarrier, you will not be disappointed."
'What in the hell is a helicarrier? I don't know but god damn I want it now! With the name like that it's bound to be something awesome!'
But he couldn't just ask her about this 'helicarrier'. A true Eminence would already know all about it and so he kept silence. He would look into it himself. Maybe. If he felt like it.
As he was ready to dismiss Alpha, she spoke up.
"But what of Delta? What are her orders?"
At the mention of the definitely-not-sane girl Cid tried his best to remember what were her usual activities to give her something similar to do in order to distract her. He didn't really want to involve her too much. It's hard being a secret organisation when you have a weapon of mass destruction running around in the form of a human causing havoc and hunting down everything that moves.
Wait.
'If memory serves, this loose cannon is really keen on hunting and the last time I saw her she said something about going to hunt game in a forest. So let her hunt wolves or deer or whatever, fine by me. It'll be preferable for now if she's preoccupied with some poor forest animals.'
"Her orders are simple. She is to hunt freely."
At hearing that, Alpha paled visibly.
"Are you sure, my lord?"
'Of course I am, what's there to be afraid of? Even if she hunts down every single deer in the vicinity, so what? It's no skin off my back. Alpha is probably worried she'll have to clean the animal blood off of Delta again. That's something I can sympathize with.'
"Are you questioning my orders?"
"N-no, I would never! It will be done as you command."
As his friend bowed hastily, he couldn't help mentally applauding her dedication to the role. It felt like she was really flustered about having accidentally angered her superior. Her acting skills were on point.
'Wait, could she be an actress in her normal day-to-day life? If so, I just have to find out the movies she starred in. I think I'll ask Beta about it, she seems like a movie nerd.'
In that moment Cid's eyes fell upon his wrist watch and it dawned on him.
He was going to be late for school.
'This is bad! If I'm late, I'll have to enter the class during the lesson. If I do that all eyes in the class will immediately turn to me! But a mob isn't allowed to be in such a situation, only main characters are! I'll have to run now if I don't want to ruin my perfect mob impression!'
"Alright, Alpha, that'll be all. Take care and keep me updated." Cid stood up and stretched.
"Of cour-"
Before she could even finish her sentence, Cid took his backpack and disappeared behind the door.
Alpha wasn't surprised by Cid's sudden departure, but she was somewhat disappointed. Even though she knew he had to keep up the act of a regular school student, she really wished she they could spend more time together.
Ever since Cid had saved Alpha and the others from those nightmarish test labs and given them a new life, they swore their undying loyalty to him. Of course, over the long years simple loyalty eventually became something more. Alpha, as well as the rest of the Seven Shadows she presumed, eventually fell in love with their saviour.
What Alpha wouldn't give to lead a peaceful life with Cid. At times, she even allowed herself to make up such scenarios in her mind, of herself and Cid living normal day-to-day life without any concerns, not having to oppose a global secret organisation bent on conquering the world.
Nevertheless, all of them had the duty to oppose Hydra. As the results of their experiments, it felt only right that they would be Hydra's undoing. So far it seemed only the Shadow Garden was aware of the Hydra's controlling the S.H.I.E.L.D, so it was up to them to stop it.
Even if it meant going up against a globally backed transnational organisation and being seen as terrorists by the world, even if it meant foregoing the chance at peaceful life with Cid.
Cid dedicated his entire life to fighting Hydra, and so Alpha promised herself, whatever happened, she would not rest until Cid's lifelong goal was achieved.
Even if she had no idea what was going through Cid's mind most of the time, she would always be there to support him.
A sudden chime interrupted her thoughts. Looking down at her phone she saw a message from one of the Numbers.
Giving a heavy sigh, Alpha steered her thoughts away from Cid, instead focusing on her work.
There was still a lot to be done.
Some time later at Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility
As the emergency sirens blared and a voice announced an evacuation for all personnel over the PA system, Epsilon, wearing a scientist uniform, made her way deeper into the complex.
Normally going against the flow of the crowd was a surefire way to stand out. Fortunately, when everyone else is too busy looking out for their own hides, they pay little mind to anyone else.
The alarm had come from nowhere, as it always does, and woke everyone up in the middle of the night, which only added to the confusion and a veiled sense of panic.
All of it played straight into Epsilon's hands. As she descended to the level where the Tesseract was held, everyone was too preoccupied to stop her in order to check her clearance level.
Considering her mission was to learn as much as possible about the secret project and then report back, perhaps the wisest course of action would be to use the confusion to make her escape instead of going to the epicentre of the danger. She had already got her hands on some interesting documents with almost everything they needed to know about the project.
So, if the complex really was in danger it would be unwise to stay here and be blown sky high with all the info she had collected. That's why her first course of action was to inform the numbers and have them prepare a helicopter for exfil.
That was when she caught a glimpse of Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director, heading into the complex, accompanied by several agents.
That was also when Epsilon reconsidered her plans. Being the organisation's director, it was safe to assume he was one of Hydra's men controlling it from within. It was too influential a position to give it to someone not involved in the conspiracy.
So, him being one of the puppet masters, Epsilon was sure he had a great deal of information they would not get anywhere else. That is why she decided to follow him down instead of getting out despite the risks. But she reasoned that if the man of such high rank was there, he must have known that the risks were at the very least at an acceptable level.
In short time, the director led her to the test chambers that contained the Tesseract, which she had been unable to get close to.
As the director entered the chambers Epsilon found herself alone in front of the entrance, the last of the guards had left with another agent. At first she wanted to follow him in but quickly discarded the idea. Even though everyone was too busy dealing with whatever was happening, they wouldn't be blind enough to not notice an unknown scientist entering the chambers through the only door right after the director.
So she decided to find an alternate way to enter.
With but a simple thought, her scientist uniform morphed into the Shadow Garden's typical slime bodysuit. The multi-purpose material they used for their clothing and weaponry was something Hydra had cooked up in their labs but never realised the potential of. Of course, Hydra's scientists would have never been able to create something as impressive. It had been in primitive state when Shadow found it. After that he worked on and improved it. Now individuals proficient in magic could easily control it and use it for a wide variety of tasks.
Epsilon, with her impressive amount of magic control, effortlessly scaled the wall of the chamber to reach a catwalk situated high above the ground. High enough, she hoped, that no one would notice her once she cut her way through it into the chamber.
The walls were thick, thick enough to withstand an explosion. It would have taken some heavy equipment and a load of time to cut through it.
All Epsilon needed to do was concentrate her magic as a sort of a laser to slowly cut the metal. She had to be careful as she didn't want the cut away piece to fall all the way down to the floor of the chamber, announcing her presence.
Needless to say, the constant shaking and miniature earthquakes caused be the Tesseract were not making her job easier. At last she had cut enough metal to carefully take out the cut out piece and gently put it down on the catwalk without making a sound.
Luckily it seemed no one noticed her little intrusion as everyone's attention was focused on a bright blue energy beam emitted by the Tesseract, that seemed to form some kind of portal.
Epsilon quickly surveyed the chamber, noting how many armed guards were present. Among them, standing beside Fury, was one of the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top operatives Hawkeye. As was the case with almost all of the organisation's operatives it was unknown if he was a part of the Hydra conspiracy or just another unwitting puppet. But whatever the case, Epsilon was prepared to fight him all the same. Knowingly or not, he was an enemy of the Shadow Garden, which meant he was to be killed without hesitation if he stood in their way.
That said, Epsilon knew she'd have to exercise caution when fighting him. Despite not having any magic or superpowers, he was an extremely skilled agent all the same. Not to say that she didn't think she would win if they were to come to blows, she felt pretty good about her chances, but a bit of caution never hurt.
All of a sudden her attention was stolen by the portal exploding, sending waves of blue energy through the room.
To her shock, as well as everyone else's for that matter, in the place where the portal had been mere moments ago a man was kneeling. He wore strange clothes and held some kind of spear in his hand.
Hesitantly, the soldiers raised their rifles, surrounded the man and started to approach him.
Epsilon tried to assess the man, but from that distance his appearance and weapon were the only things she could make out.
"Sir," breaking the tense silence, the director addressed the intruder. "Please put down the spear!"
For a moment the man seemed confused, as if not sure where the weapon in his hand had come from. Then, without warning, he raised it, pointed at the director and fired some kind of energy projectile.
If it hadn't been for Hawkeye pushing him out of the way, Nick Fury would likely have died then and there.
Without wasting a second, the soldiers opened fire, but the intruder was faster. In one leap he reached one of the soldiers and ran him through with his spear. Two thrown knives ended the lives of two other soldiers a second later. Most of the bullets missed him, but the ones that did hit failed to penetrate his armor.
As the rest of the agents present engaged the sudden threat, Epsilon was quickly planning her next move.
Whatever the Hydra had meant to do with the Tesseract, things had clearly gone awry for them. And while it was good news for the Shadow Garden, Epsilon doubted this sudden newcomer would make a good ally for the Shadow Garden. All things considered, he was the one that initiated the aggression, attacking and killing people on sight.
And judging by the one-sided fight below her, he was no slouch when it came to killing.
Epsilon was unsure if she should intervene. She had no desire to help Hydra fight off something they had brought upon themselves, but what if the spear-wielder was even a bigger threat to the world? In that case would the age-old adage "Enemy of my enemy is my friend" apply, even though Hydra's destruction is the main goal of the Shadow Garden? There were too many uncertainties to make a decision on the spot.
' Even though I was told to act on my own discretion, I doubt I can make the right choice here. The best course of action would be to inform lord Shadow. He will know what we need to do. Before I leave though, I should probably take the Tesseract with me.'
As it had just been proven, the Tesseract is more than just a power source like Hydra had initially believed. And whatever else it was capable of, Epsilon was sure the humanity would suffer if it fell into wrong hands. And from what Epsilon was witnessing, there were no right hands in the chamber below her.
So, Epsilon decided to act while everyone was too busy tearing each other apart. From what she could see, the agents wouldn't last long which meant she had to act now.
Epsilon dropped all the way from her hiding spot down to the ground right beside the Tesseract, her suit and magic softening the impact.
Crouching, she picked up a case lying right beside her, took the Tesseract and put it inside the case and was about to leave when she saw Nick Fury crawling towards her. Apparently he had the same idea of taking the Tesseract while the intruder was busy slaughtering his men.
For a moment she entertained the thought of cutting him down then and there, cutting one the Hydra's heads, but was interrupted by the spear-wielder speaking up for the first time.
"Leave it there, I still need that."
Turning to face him, Epsilon was surprised to see Hawkeye and several other men standing beside the man who had just killed their colleagues. Looking carefully, she noticed their eyes were glazed over. Not an emotion was present on their face.
'Some sort of mind-control' Epsilon concluded.
At first the girl meant to take off with the Tesseract without a word, but thought against it. Instead she could try to get as much information out of him as possible.
Still keeping her eye on director Fury, she addressed the man.
"Do you not know it's rude not to introduce yourself?"
The man smiled, menacingly polite.
"My mistake, I am Loki of Asgard and I am-"
"Loki? Brother of Thor?" asked Selvig, the scientist.
Loki rolled his eyes, either out of frustration of being interrupted or being called a brother of some 'Thor', Epsilon could not tell.
"So, you were saying?"
Loki started walking slowly towards Selvig and turned his head to face her.
"Yes, I am your saviour, here to free you from your freedom."
"Free us, you say?" Fury finally spoke up, addressing Loki but still casting a wary glance towards Epsilon every now and then. "I've got a feeling we've got differing definitions of the word 'free'."
The young man chuckled. "Well, I'd love to have a philosophical discussion with you about freedom," he turned towards Selvig, touched his chest with his spear, causing the scientist's eyes to turn white and glassy. "But I'm a busy man, so just order the girl to hand me over the Tesseract and I'll let you both live."
"She's not one of ours." This time it was Hawkeye who spoke up. "She must be an intruder, here to steal the Tesseract."
Loki looked mildly amused. "Oh? How interesting. In that case..."
Epsilon acted faster than anyone expected. Before Loki could raise his spear she manifested her magic in the form of several blades and sent them towards Loki and his new underlings.
Loki and Hawkeye managed to evade them easily. The other agent was less lucky and got bisected at the waist.
Using the momentary distraction both Epsilon and Fury turned and ran. She ran towards the exit she had seen Fury enter through earlier while the director himself ran to the opposite end of the chamber. Apparently there was another door after all.
As she ran towards the entrance she heard Loki bark orders to his men and heard someone, presumably Hawkeye, give chase to her.
Unfortunately for him, he was outclassed here, Epsilon's suit giving her a considerable advantage not only in physical strength but in speed as well. As she put more and more distance between herself and her pursuer she contacted the numbers at the helipad and ordered them to prepare the helicopter for escape.
Eventually she could no longer hear anyone pursuing her, Hawkeye evidently figuring it was futile.
As she made her way through the deserted complex she encountered no resistance at all, which was good news as the increasingly intense earthquakes began shaking the facility.
By the time she reached the helicopter and it took off, the facility had already started falling apart. Soon after, the only thing left in place of the facility was a crater of truly gigantic proportions.
Leaning back she addressed one of the numbers piloting the helicopter.
"Take us back to the base. The sooner the better. I have something Alpha will want to hear."
