We get out of the car and Steve says "This is it." "The file came from these coordinates," says Nat. "So did I." said Steve as he looks at a sign that says:
CAMP LEHIGH U.S. ARMY RESTRICTED AREA
with a lot of writing underneath. Nat uses a special feature on her Shield phone to scan for the source. Then after looking around for a few minutes the sky gets dark as night falls. "This camp is where I was trained." "Change much?" asks Nat. "A little." says Steve as he looks at a flag pole. I am assuming something happened at that flag pole during Steve's time here.
"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." says Nat.
Steve looks around stares at a building with a weird look on his face. "What is it?" says Nat. Then Steve says "Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." "Now we're talking!" I say as Steve uses his shield to open the door and we walk in and down a flight of stairs. I find it a bit spooky.
Once we are downstairs Nat turns the lights on reveling an office looking space with the Shield logo on the back wall.
"This is Shield." says Nat. "Maybe where it started." adds Steve. Steve opens a door and Nat and I follow him through it into a room with lots of empty shelves.
On the wall in front of us we see a bunch of pictures of who I am assuming are the founders of Shield. "And there's Stark's father." "Howard." says Steve. "Who's the girl?" Nat asks. Steve looks at her picture for a moment before turning away. I am guessing he knew her.
We walk farther left and Steve stops in front of a certain area of the shelves he looks around. "If you're already working in a secret office, why do you need to hide the elevator?" says Steve as he pulls the two shelves apart revealing an elevator.
Nat scans the pin pad with her Shield phone which tells her the code, she enters it and we get in the elevator and descend down to a very deep basement level. As we go down, I get chills down my spine as though something bad is about to happen.
The elevator stops and we see a dark room. As though she sensed my nervous energy, Nat grabs my hand and holds it as we walk out of the elevator. While we walk forward, the elevator doors shut with a clang. We walk farther and the lights finally turn on, making me feel a little better once I see that the only thing down here is very old technology from Steve's era.
I let go of Nat's hand and she says "This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient." as she looks around.
Then Nat spots a piece of tech that we might be able to put the flash drive in. Nat looks at the flash drive before inserting it, it makes a ding once it's inserted and all of the technology around us starts whirring to life. We look around watching as everything starts to work.
Then I notice a camera attached to the computer in front of us move as an electronic voice says "Initiate System?" the curser blinks below it waiting for someone to type the answer. Nat says "Y-E-S, yes." as she types yes in.
The tech makes some whirring noises and Nat says "Shall we play a game." It's a reference from what I call an adult movie, so I don't understand the reference.
"It's from a movie that was really-" "I know I saw it." says Steve to my surprise. He hasn't seen a lot of movies from today's times yet.
Then scaring the life out of me, a face appears on the computer screen in front of us and the camera attached to the computer turns towards Steve.
A somewhat electronic voice says "Rogers, Steven, born 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984. Maximoff, Hadley, born 2007." I jump when I hear my name.
"It's some kind of recording." says Nat. "I am not a recording Fraeulein." says the recording, offended. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me, prisoner, in 1945. But I am."
As he says this, a mini-computer next to this one shows a picture of what this guy used to look like.
"You know this thing?" asks Nat. "Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." "First correction, I am Swish, second, look around you. I have never been more alive." says Zola. He's weird to say the least.
"In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving, on 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain." said Zola. His last sentence made me cringe.
"How did you get here?" asks Steve. "Invited." says Zola. "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value." says Nat. "They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." said Zola. "Hydra died with the Red Skull." says Steve in response. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." says Zola as the screen shows the Hydra logo before splitting in two and then going back to one.
"Prove it." says Steve. "So basically we are on a Shield history field trip." I say. "Yeah, basically." says Nat. Then the screens start to flicker as images appear.
"Accessing archive. Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, Shield was founded, and I was recruited. The new Hydra grew. A beautiful parasite inside Sheild. For 70 years, Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
As Zola says his speech images relating to the part of the story appear on the screens on the desk next to him.
"That's impossible. Shield would have stopped you." says Nat. "Accidents will happen. Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once a purification process is complete, Hydra's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero-sum." as Zola said the last few sentences Steve punched the main screen and Zola reappeared on a mini screen next door.
"As I was saying," says Zola. "What's on this drive?" asks Steve. "Project Insight requires insight. So, I wrote an algorithm." "What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" asks Nat.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." states Zola. I tilt my head in confusion. Too dead to hear it? How is a computer going to kill us? Clearly I'm missing something.
Then we turn around and the doors in front of the elevator close as Steve throws his shield at them to try to stop them from closing, trapping us down there. His shield gets there seconds too late and boomerangs back to him.
"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." "Who fired it?" asks Steve with a hint of worry in his voice. "Shield." responds Nat. "I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain." Nat grabs the flash drive and Zola continues saying "It's better this way. We are, both of us, out of time." finishes Zola.
By the time Zola finished Steve already ripped open a vent grate and Nat and I ran over to him and just as the ballistic hits the three of us jump in it. Steve holds his shield over our heads as I put a telekinetic shield around us as well. The building starts collapsing on top of us.
I get deja vu from the apartment bombing two years ago. This is what happened to my parents, now I know what it felt like. My breathing becomes shaky with this realization. The bombing has always been, and always will be a shaky subject for me.
After a few moments, the debris settles and Steve takes some concrete slabs off of us. I compose myself and I look over at Nat who is unconscious. Steve and I start coughing from the dust and smoke from the fire around us. Steve picks up Nat and I stand up.
We walk a little before seeing a horrible sight. Lots of Shield planes start pulling up with their searchlights on.
We run as fast as we can. As we run, I say, "Steve! I can teleport us out of here! Just tell me a location!"
We stop running once we are behind a concrete slab that will cover us from the searchlight view.
"Okay!" Steve describes his friend Sam's apartment, I guess Sam is the man he was talking to when Nat and picked him up the other day.
I hold Steve's hand and I close my eyes and think of where Steve just described. I open my eyes and we are there! I did it!
We wait for a little while for Nat to wake up and then I fill her in on how Shield came and was looking for us and how we got away.
We spot Sam coming back from his run and we wait for a few minutes so he can get in the door.
Then we walk up to his door and Steve knocks. Sam opens his blinds to see us there looking disheveled since we just survived a building explosion.
"Hey man." says Sam. "I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." says Steve. "Everyone we know is trying to kill us." adds Nat. Sam looks at me and says "Not everyone."
He steps aside so we can come in. Sam looks around before closing the door and the blinds again.
"Thank you, Sam!" I say. "No problem." he says. Sam starts to make breakfast for all of us. "Sam, is there anything I can do to help you?" I ask. "If you want you can set the table!" says Sam. "Ok!" I say.
Sam walks over to the cabinets and gets silverware, plates, and glasses out. Then I set the table by carrying things rather than doing it with my powers. I think it's best that Sam doesn't know about those just yet.
After I finish I walk over to the guest room where Nat and Steve are and I stop at the door when I hear them talking.
I walk back to the kitchen because I know I shouldn't listen. Then Sam and I walk into the room together and he says "I made breakfast. If you guys eat that sort of thing."
Sam leaves and I stay in the room with Steve and Nat who says "So, the question is, who at Shield could launch a domestic missile strike?" We walk to the kitchen and as we eat breakfast Steve says "Pierce." "Of course!" I say realizing that he is an Alpha-Level member.
"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." "But he's not working alone. Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star. "So was Jaspar Sitwell." says Nat. "So the real question is how do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a Shield officer in broad daylight?"
To me, it's almost laughable that a seven-year-old such as myself is one of the most wanted people in Washington.
"The answer is you don't." says Sam dropping a file on the table. "What's this?" "Call it a resume." Steve stands up and Nat grabs the file. I look over her shoulder and seeing what Sam did I say "That's so cool!"
"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission that was you? You didn't say he was a Pararescue." says Nat. "Is this Riley?" asks Steve. "Yeah." says Sam. "I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use? A stealth chute?"
"No. These." says Sam handing Steve another picture. "Sam if it were up to me I would hire you immediately." I say with a smile. "Thanks, Hadley." says Sam. "I thought you said you were a pilot." "I never said pilot."
Steve shakes his head and says "I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason." "Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in."
Steve nods and says "Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" "The last one is at Fort Meade. Behind three guarded gates and a 12-inch steel wall." Nat shrugs her shoulders and Steve says "Shouldn't be a problem." "Welcome to the team, Sam!" I say.
Then Steve takes off his light brown jacket and Nat takes off her striped hoodie and I take off my purple jacket.
I offer "I could teleport us there since time is of the essence right now." "Works for me!" says Nat. Yes! I get to use my powers!
After Sam grabs whatever he needs before we leave I hold Nat and Steve's hands and Steve holds Sam's shoulder. I close my eyes and visualize Fort Meade and then I open my eyes and there we are.
"Wow!" says Sam. "There's a few more powers than that up my sleeve Sam." I say. "Alright, here's what we're gonna do, Hadley use your telepathy to distract the guards, Nat, take down as many guards as you need to, to buy Sam and I some time. Sam, you and I are gonna get the falcon suit. We will meet back here. Let's go." directs Steve.
We split up. Nat decides to stay close to me so she can take down any extra guards so I don't break my concentration while I keep the rest of the front gate guards busy.
I use my telepathy to make the guards let Sam and Steve in, then I make them get lost in a good memory so they won't bother us. 20 minutes later I see Sam and Steve and I make the guards forget all about us coming here.
Then I teleport Sam to a restaurant called Occidental, I think, I paid more attention to the description of the place. I teleported Sam there because that's where Jaspar Sitwell is currently. Then I teleport Nat, Steve, and I to the top of a nearby building and we wait there for Sam to arrive with Sitwell.
The plan is for Sam to call Sitwell's phone, but the catch is that we hacked Sitwell's phone to make Sam's caller ID say, Alexander Pierce. On cue, Nat aims a laser from her Sheild phone on Sitwell's tie.
Sam arrives on top of the building and Steve throws Sitwell. "Tell me about Zola's algorithm." "Never heard of it." says Sitwell. Although we all know that he is lying. Nat and I follow Steve as we walk Jaspar who is walking backwards to the edge of the building's roof.
"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" I was throwing up. I get seasick." "Stop lying, Sitwell!" I say. We reach the edge and Sitwell stumbles and Steve grabs his suit preventing him from falling.
"Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers" says Sitwell. Steve lets go of Sitwell. "You're right. It's not. It's hers." then Steve steps aside as Nat kicks Sitwell with a lot of force sending him off of the roof.
"You know, it was worth having a building collapse on us just for that." I say smiling. "Oh, wait what about that girl from Accounting, Laura... Lisa?" "Lillian. Lip piercing, right?" "Yeah, she's cute." "Yeah. I'm not ready for that."
Then Sam arrives wearing his Falcon suit with his wings extended holding a screaming Sitwell by his work suit. Sam drops Sitwell who hits the ground and Sam lands and his wings retract, Nat, Steve, and I walk towards Sitwell who is down on all fours with his hand in front of his face.
"Zola's algorithm is a program for choosing Insight's targets." "What targets?" asks Steve. "You three." he says gesturing towards Nat, Steve, and I. "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to Hydra."
I flinch and become a little worried when he says us and Bruce. I don't think any of us want a Hulk episode any time soon.
"Now, or in the future." finishes Sitwell. "In the future? How could it know?" asks Steve. Sitwell laughs before saying "How could it not?" Sitwell stands up and says "The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught Hydra how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future." "When then?" "Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me." "What then?" "Then the Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time."