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"Why do i always get fucking stabbed with shit?"
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"This is it," Steve stated, looking around as memories flashed before his eyes, while Natasha and Jaime examined the tracker she was holding.
"The file came from these coordinates," Natasha replied, tucking the tracker into her back pocket.
"So did I," Steve said, staring at the sign on the fence.
"This camp is where I was trained," Steve spoke as they continued their search for the file's whereabouts.
"Changed much?" Jaime questioned, kicking a rock around out of boredom.
"A little," Steve answered as Natasha held up the tracker near one of the buildings.
"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio," Natasha stated glumly, standing next to Jaime who leaned her head on Natasha's shoulder, yawning. "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off," Steve said, looking at the two women before looking behind them, staring at a certain building.
"What is it? Is there a dog or something?" Jaime questioned, spinning around in the direction Steve was looking, prepared to run for her life.
Steve led the three over to a small bunker-like building. The urgency in his steps and his serious face made the two women realize that something was wrong with the it.
"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks," Steve explained as they approached the building.
"You really did your homework, huh, Steve?" Jaime mumbled. "Ow." she said with a chuckle when Natasha gave her a slap to the abdomen.
"This building is in the wrong place," Steve continued, ignoring his friend. Pulling back his arm, Steve hit his shield against the padlock, breaking it before pulling the door open and entering.
The three Avengers made their way down the steps into the bunker-like building. Natasha switched on the nearest light switch, revealing a S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the wall opposite them.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha stated as they walked further into the building.
"Maybe where it started." Steve replied, with furrowed eyebrows.
Steve pushed open a door into a room with pictures hanging on the wall. The three approached the wall, looking at the pictures with interest.
"And there's Stark's father." Natasha said, nodding at a photograph of him.
"Howard." Steve stated.
"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked, looking at the photograph hanging on the wall, but Steve didn't reply and just continued walking further inside the building.
Jaime walked ahead of the other two Avengers, eyeing some shelves. She put her hand between the two blocks and pulled one aside, revealing an elevator behind them.
"If you're already working in a secret office, why do you need to hide the elevator?" Jaime smirked, dusting her hands off on her pants as the other two joined her side.
Natasha scanned the elevator numbers with a device, revealing fingerprints on them and deducing the code. The redhead pressed the numbers, making the elevator doors open. The three got into the lift and went down all the way until it stopped with a 'Ding'.
The elevator doors opened, and the three stepped out into a dark room. "I swear, if we get killed today, I'ma kill both of y'all asses," Jaime said, pointing at the other two Avengers by her side. Panicked and a little scared, she walked after the other two, jumping when the lights suddenly switched on. "Jesus!" she exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest, her heart beating a million miles per hour.
"Don't be a baby," Steve said, rolling his eyes at her.
"Shut up, grandpa," Jaime replied, looking around at the old computer screens around them.
"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient," Natasha denied, looking around.
Jaime tapped Natasha on her shoulder, nodding at a USB port as she held out her hand. Natasha handed over the USB stick as they walked towards the port. Jaime slotted the stick into one of the ports.
More lights switched on as old files started spinning, and a security camera came to life. A green, old typing interface appeared on the largest computer in the middle.
INITIATE SYSTEM?
"Y-E-S spells yes." Natasha mumbled, typing the word on the dusty keyboard. "Shall we play a game? It's from a movie that was really-"
"I know, Jaime made me watch it." Steve cut her off.
"Oh, yeah. I completely forgot about that already." Jaime said with a chuckle. "He nearly cried." she added, pinching Steve's cheek, who slapped her hand away.
"Rogers, Steven, born 1918." the computer spoke with a heavy German accent.
"Damn! You're old as fuck." Jaime exclaimed, covering her mouth with her fist.
"Sorry, I'm sorry." Jaime apologized with her arms raised in the air as everyone, including the computer, turned towards her.
"Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984. Ivanova-Johnson, Jaime Tashiana, born 1988" The computer continued.
"Must be some kind of recording" Natasha said, staring at the computer as a disfigured face appeared.
"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man i was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But i am." It continued showing a picture on a smaller computer.
"You know this asshole?" Jaime asked, glancing towards Steve.
"Arnim Zola, a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve answered, circling around the computer.
"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I got a diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving on 200,000 feet of databanks." Zola said. "You are standing in my brain."
"That's disgusting," Jaime mumbled, scrunching her nose.
"How did you get here?" Steve questioned.
"Invited" Zola stated simply.
"It was Operation paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha spke, informing the other two Avengers.
"They tought i could help their cause. I also helped my own..." Zola sneered.
"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve denied firmly.
"Cut off one head, two more will take it's place." Zola replied.
"Prove it" Demanded.
"Am I not enough proof for you or some?" Jaime mumbled, raising her arms and letting them fall back down against her legs.
"Accessing archieve. HYDRA was founde in the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it's own freedom. What we did not realise was that if you try to take that freedowm, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender it's freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, and i was recruited." Zola explained. "The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war and when history didn't cooperat, history was changed." He continued.
"That's impossible S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you." Natasha stated.
"Accidents will happen. HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it' freedom to gain it's security. Once a purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. You're death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum." Zola responded.
Steve punched the computer screen out of pure anger, smashing the screen. Zola's face flickered onto a smaller screen beside the broken one.
"As i was saying..." Zola spoke.
"What's on the drive?" Steve demanded.
"Project insight requires insight. So i wrote an algorithm." Zola replied.
"What kind of algorithm?" Jaime asked, standng next to Steve.
"What does it do?" Natasha asked, standing behind the two.
"The answer to your question is facinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola finshed.
"What do you mean?" Jaime asked, confused, as the doors behind them closed.
Steve threw his shield at them, trying to jam it between them, but they closed too quickly, shooting the shield back to the blonde. Natasha and Jaime looked down at the red head's phone as it started beeping.
"Jaime, Steve we got a bogey. Short range balistics, 30 seconds tops" Natasha informed.
"Who fired it?" Jaime asked.
"S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha stated in disbelief.
"I am afraid i have been staling, Captain. Admit it." Zola spoke as Jaime pulled the USB from the port. "It's better this way. We are, both of us, out of time."
Steve pulled a grate off the floor, grabbing Natasha as he and Jaime jumped in just seconds before the bomb crashed into the building. Steve held up his shield as Jaime hugged Natasha, both trying their hardest to protect her as much as they could. But despite their efforts, the red head had passed out.
Rocks and parts of the building fell on top of them, covering them in dust. When the debris had settled, Steve started pushing rocks and parts of buildings away from them. Looking around, the tattooed woman saw Natasha passed out on the floor, her eyes going wide at the sight. "Fuck!" She yelled out in pain when she tried to move.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Steve asked, his voice filled with concern as he immediately dropped the piece of rock he had in his hand and rushed to check on his friend.
Panting, she looked down at her abdomen, noticing a piece of metal stuck in her side. "Why do I always get fucking stabbed with shit?" she said with a chuckle, trying to distract herself from the intense pain she felt.
She groaned and whined in pain as she removed the metal with shaky hands. "Ah, damn! That hurts," she exclaimed, chuckling through the tears running down her cheeks from the pain.
"I really can't have any sort of fucking peace, can I?" she mumbled, looking up and seeing lights from approaching helicopters.
Groaning in pain, she struggled to stand up, putting pressure on her wound. "Are you good to walk?" Steve asked, uncertain, as he looked at his friend's state. "Yeah." she nodded, looking at the passed-out ginger in the blonde's arms.
[1603]