Demigods Assemble (PJO/MCU)

Chapter 23

Annabeth

"What are you still doing here while the boys are off at your Camp Half-Blood?" Carol asked as she joined Annabeth in the interrogation room.

Annabeth huffed, putting down her yellow legal pad. She had tried working in the conference room earlier, but all the Avengers that had stayed behind either kept whining about not seeing Camp Half-Blood or blowing things up, which made it difficult for Annabeth to concentrate. She was trying to make a list of everyone that would be fighting on their side so she could begin to strategize, as well as consolidate everything they knew about the other side.

"Someone's got to get down to business while they go sightseeing," Annabeth said.

The former pilot chuckled, sitting on the edge of the table. "Can I help?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Some company would be nice. As long as you won't blow anything up."

Carol raised her glowing fists. "These babies are under lock and key."

"Then, by all means." Annabeth grinned. "I'm putting together a list of our allies and enemies, and trying to find out whatever else I can about this HYDRA organization."

Suddenly interested, Carol leaned forward. "I can help with that. Now that my memories are back, I remember learning a bit about HYDRA. What do you want to know?"

Annabeth flipped to a new page on her notepad. "What's the deal with them? Steve said he destroyed them back in nineteen-forty-five. Who were they?"

"They were a part of Hitler's Nazis, the special weapons division." Carol began. "Their leader was Johann Schmidt, but most people know him as Red Skull. The reason for the name was because he had once worked with Dr. Erskine, the man who created the serum that turned Steve into a supersoldier. Because of Schmidt's ambition, he tested an early version of the serum on himself. It did give him powers like Steve, but also disfigured his face into—"

"A red skull," Annabeth guessed.

Carol nodded. "He was obsessed with power and wanted to control the world. He found the Tesseract and used it to create very dangerous weapons. Once Steve became Captain America, he destroyed HYDRA facilities all over Europe and eventually faced Red Skull himself. They fought on a ship carrying bombs towards New York and Steve defeated him, but no one knows exactly how. Because their leader was gone, the Allies were able to take down HYDRA after that.

"Apparently, they didn't do as good a job as they thought." Carol sighed. "I wasn't on Earth when it happened, so I don't know exactly—"

"I do." Came Natasha's voice from the doorway, where she was leaning nonchalantly. Wanda accompanied her. "Mind if we join you?"

"As long as the boys aren't with you," Annabeth said.

Natasha's upper lip twitched as she and Wanda sat across from Annabeth. Natasha folded her arms as she explained, "HYDRA kept growing after Steve went into the ice. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, they rooted into the organization like a parasite. For years, they hid inside S.H.I.E.L.D., influencing history and feeding war. A few years ago, Fury got suspicious. We found out the truth, HYDRA tried to kill millions of people, and we stopped them but lost S.H.I.E.L.D. in the process. No one could know for sure who was S.H.I.E.L.D. and who was HYDRA, so they both had to go. But they really like their little saying, 'Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.' No matter what we do, we've never been able to completely wipe them out."

"And now they know about my world," Annabeth added, shaking her head. "I don't like the sound of these guys."

"You shouldn't," Natasha agreed.