Chapter 40 – Howard and Barnes
787 1 22
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

"This is quite a makeover," Tony walked into a large hall, with tables and chairs on the right side of the room.

A sofa-set at the center of the hall, a gym on the left side. And a few doors connected to other rooms. Two LED and gaming systems, among other things.

Jay looked over, "yeah, I had to do the refurbishing."

Tony looked over at the others, "let me guess who is who." He pointed towards Felicia, "that hair, you must be the Black Cat."

Felicia put her bag on the table, sitting beside Jay, "in the flesh."

"Wait, you are Black Cat!" Gwen slammed her hands down the table, glaring at Felicia.

Felicia rolled her eyes, "I don't usually hide much of my face or hair. I was surprised when you didn't recognize me."

Tony pointed at Gwen, "you must be the Spider-Woman. Why? Spider though? Because you swing? Or crawl on the walls?"

Natasha crossed their side, sitting in front of Steve, "welcome back to the living, Captain."

Steve nodded towards her, "Natasha. I read about you."

Natasha smiled, "I hope it was all good."

Ava appeared from another portal, "So? What is this about? I thought my part was over?"

Jay tapped on the table, and a hologram appeared, "I need help. The mission is to either kill or capture, depending on what you think is better and suits your taste."

"What?"

"You are joking, right?"

Tony looked at Steve, turning towards Jay, "you are serious?"

Gwen shook her head, "I am not killing anybody or capturing. Um...are they criminals? Wait, isn't that the sign of SHIELD?"

Jay moved his body hands, taking them apart, and the hologram separated into two, SHIELDs and Hydras, "On May 19, 1945. There was an operation. Operation Paperclip. About 1500 german scientists, technicians, and engineers were brought over to America. One of them was Armin Zola. Once he joined SHIELD, he started rebuilding Hydra from the inside."

"Stop, you are saying Hydra is still there?" Steve stared at him, not believing.

Natasha crossed her legs, "Hydra is an old organization. Red Skull's Hydra was just a single part of it."

Jay tapped his finger on the table, bring the attention to him, "let's keep that for some other time. I will include that information in the Database. Anyway, ever since then, Hydra has grown inside SHIELD like a parasite. Now, how is this related to you? Why should you care? Because Hydra is interested in Enhanced individuals. Even now, one of their cells is experimenting on them."

He pointed towards Gwen, and Felicia, "you two, being so active, are vulnerable. They might come to you as SHIELD or directly go for the capture."

Jay looked at Gwen, "in your case, taking your father hostage might be a better strategy." He turned towards Ava, "and you know whom they'd go after."

Before they could say something, a face of a woman appeared in the hologram, "Meet Akela Amador. She was trained by Coulson (Coulson's face appeared). Four years ago, she was presumed dead, but she was kept in a cell under the coal mines. I found out yesterday when a Hydra team took her out. And tomorrow, they are going to plant X-Ray Eye Implants, meant to control and see her every action."

Steve furrowed his brows, "even after all these years, Hydra hasn't changed."

Gwen sat down, "we are going to save her?"

"Just one of the few," Jay smiled at her, hesitating, "but now, this part is something...that I recently found...the reason why Tony is here."

Tony pointed at Akela's hologram, "No, you sold me at that."

Jay shook his head, "Watch." He started a video, a holographic recreation of the video, with color and everything. It was like they were there.

Tony looked around the road, at night, the date in white block letters, "I know this road." He had been to this road, a place that he could never forget.

He was standing in the middle of the road when a car passed through him, his mother and father sitting in the front seat. Someone on a motorcycle came, slashing through the tire, causing it to swerve off the path, crashing into the tree.

Tony clenched his fist when Jay walked over, patting his shoulder, "I'll skip this part."

"NO! I want to see..." Tony's chest heaved as he looked at the man on his motorbike return.

Since the video was clear, the face of the man was glitched.

Tony pointed at it, saying in a low voice, "make it clear."

"It's clean near the end of the video," Jay whispered.

Tony looked towards his father, crawling out of the car, "Help...my wife...help my wife."

Howard looked up, seeing the face of their attacker, "Sergent Barnes?"

Steve's muscles tensed, hearing the name come out from Howard's mouth. But the man didn't even hesitate, punching Howard Stark in the face, again and again. And again, until Howard was down.

He walked to the other side of the car, squeezing the neck of Tony's mother, as his face became a bit clearer.

He walked towards them while their bodies got pushed back, appearing behind a camera, when Barnes's face became clear. He raised his right hand, shooting the camera.

The video closed, and everyone found themselves around the table. Tony sat down, punching the table with all his might.

Steve wanted to ask about Barnes, but even he knew that this wasn't the right time.

"That assassination was the doing of Hydra. Your father was taking five doses of Super Soldier Serum to Pentagon; only a few in SHIELD knew of that. Someone high-level in SHIELD has control over brainwashed Sergent Barnes. I want to draw him out. At least, clean Hydra out of SHIELD."

Tony glared at him, "Who? Tell me!"

Jay shook his head, "I can't. I won't. Your jumping in there and killing someone so high-up is no different than becoming a fugitive. And you Tech, it would be a good incentive too. Don't think Hydra hasn't come after you before. Senator Stern? Works for Hydra. And this goes high-up. Two members of World Security Council are members of Hydra."

Bruce nearly dropped his laptop, "you have got to be kidding me. World Security Council?"

Jay stood up, walking towards Tony, patting his back, "I have a list. Of Hydra members. Natasha was able to identify that inside SHIELD, and I kept an eye on them for the past year, following their every move, watching every person they met. These members of Hydra think they are hidden, controlling everything. Once their members start disappearing, and they don't even know who the enemy is. Their resources getting destroyed, their facilities were raided. And when SHIELD - that gave them shelter, can't stand on their feet. They will come out."

Tony stood up, staring at Jay, "send me back. I need to work on my armor."

Jay opened the portal, "Ok."

Tony walked inside the portal without saying anything, and the portal closed beside him.

Gwen let out a breath, "I didn't even dare to breathe just now." She felt the eyes of everyone in the room shifting towards her, staring at her.

Gwen tried to retract her neck like a turtle, "Too soon?"

Natasha worriedly looked at Jay, crossed her arm, "was that a good idea? In the state of mind, Tony is...he might spoil the whole plan."

"I have taken precautions," Jay looked towards Captain, "I know this is your first day, being out after 70 years. But I thought you'd get mad at me if you learned I had news of your friends, and I waited to tell you."

Steve sat down, worried, nodding, "I probably would have. But even though I saw that...I am not sure how to trust you. How will we know that the targets you are giving us to kill are Hydra?"

Bruce looked at Captain, "I doubt you would have to worry about that. I believe him."

Felicia supported her face on her palm, "I trust him too. He's not like that." Jay leaned his head back, thinking, turning his eyes towards Gwen and Ava, "aren't you two going to say something nice?"

"Nope."

"Nah."

He chuckled, looking at Rogers, "trust...that's a tough one, Captain. I can remove mind control from Barnes. That should be enough incentive for your services, right? If you leave now, then no one will stop Tony from killing your friend."

Natasha covered her face, "can you not do that? The manipulating part like a third-class villain? Captain, what he means to say is. That other than us, there are not many you can trust. You don't even know who you can trust in this new world."

Gwen raised her hand, "it might be just me, but that sentence seemed to be filled with manipulation too."

Natasha tilted her head, "Was it? I was trying to be nice."

Banner nodded, "Yeah, it was pretty glaring."

Felicia lightly laughed, pointing towards Natasha, "I want her."

Natasha turned, watching Felicia, "all right. You can be in a team with me."

Steve closed his eyes, "when do we attack?" 

"Tomorrow." 

22