It was already afternoon by the time they had reached an abandoned building.And Valerie wasn't particularly happy with the image of it.With her backpack on she followed after Steve and Natasha who were making small talk about the place.
By the time they had entered the building the sun was already set and barely the light from the moon on the sky helped.They moved slowly as Natasha held her phone high,a beeping sound coming out of it ever so often."This camp is where I was trained."Steve said as he looked around.He was holding his shield on his arm just in case anything bad happened.
"Changed much?"Natasha asked a little louder than necessary as she kept her phone high.Valerie followed behind her looking around the place.It almost seemed haunted in this hour.Steve had stayed a bit behind,probably feeling nostalgic of this place,since he was looking at a spot very fondly.
"This is a dead end.Zero heat signature,zero waves,not even radio."Natasha said as she placed her phone back inside her pocket."Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."Steve turned his head to the building ahead of them."What is it?"
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks.This building is in the wrong place."Steve replied as the trio headed for the door.With his shield Steve broke the lock and opened the door.They lowered themselves into a staircase before Natasha found a switch.
All the yellow lights turned on giving a vintage hue to the whole place.A logo stood in the far off wall along with many rows of empty offices.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D."Natasha stated as they walked down the big room.
"Maybe where it started."Steve said back as he looked around the dusty room.They walked slowly around the place,passing the logo that wrote S.S.R. instead of what Natasha said S.H.I.E.L.D.Maybe that was it's name during the war.It was extraordinary seeing something so old in front of her she almost stayed behind gawking at it.
The three entered a different room, being greeted with three portraits.Each image dusty and yellow from time.
"There's Stark's father."Natasha nodded ahead to the middle portrait.A man slightly smirking stood there with a thin mustache.His eyes being a copy of Tony's as she remembered him.
"Howard."Steve stated.
"And I thought my father's beard looked ridiculous."Valerie said quietly.Natasha throwing her an amused smirk.
"Who's the girl?"the redhead asked.A woman smiling back at them,was in the portrait next to Howard's.Her hair were dark and wavy,almost touching her shoulders.She was what they called in the 40s a natural beauty.Steve didn't reply at all to Natasha's question and turned to continue walking down the room.He seemed expressionsless.So this meant that she was someone for him.His old sweetheart perhaps?
"If you're already working in a secret office..."Steve started as he stood beside a massive empty bookshelf.He suddenly grabbed it and slid it open revealing a big elevator."Why do you need to hide the elevator?"the blond voiced her thoughts as they entered it and went down to a different room.
The smell of oldness welcomed her nostrils as they hesitantly stepped into the room.The lights around them suddenly switching on on their own as they walked further down the room.A few old computers sat there with a thick coat of dust surrounding them.
"This can't be the data-point,this technology is ancient."Natasha scoffed as she looked around the old computers.Her gaze found a flash drive port which seemed new all around the old technology.She took out the flash drive and placed it in.More lights opened as the computers started to work around them.
INITIATE SYSTEM?
The big computer in front of them flashed and Natasha stepped on the old keyboard.
YES
She typed."...spells yes."she mumbled as the computer started to make a weird noise."Shall we play a game?"she asked as her lips turned into a smirk.She turned to Steve."It's from a movie-"she started only to be interrupted by the male.
"Yeah,I saw it."he said not really impressed by the whole situation.Valerie had no idea what they were saying,thinking that she was too young to actually know.A beeping sound took their attention again as an accented voice spoke up.
"Rogers,Steven.Born,1918."spoke the voice as the computer turned into a face or almost like it."Romanoff,
Natalia Alianovna.Born,1984."he spoke again.Wow Natasha had a big name.Though her heart started to beat fast.If this computer knew them all then that meant that he had a hold of her personal information as well.
"Smith,Valerie.Unknown date of birth."she let out the breath she was holding in for the last few seconds.
"It's some kind of a recording."Natasha said with her eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"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."a picture of a chubby man with barely hair and a pair of round glasses flashed on a smaller screen.
Steve seemed to recognize the man since his eyebrows were furrowed and some sweat was starting to show."You know this thing?"Natasha asked as she turned to stare at the blond.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull."Steve started as he rounded the big old computer."He's been dead for years."
"First correction,I am Swiss."said the computer in a higher voice as to show his irritation that Steve didn't knew this information."Second,look around you.I have never been more alive.In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body,my mind,however,that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks.You are standing in my brain."he said more proudly his last words.As if saying that being alive after all those years was worth it for this meeting.
Steve came to stand inbetween the two females once more."How did you get here?"he asked.
"Invited."said the computer in a happy voice.
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II.S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value."Natasha said her red eyebrows still furrowed.
"They thought I could help their cause.I also helped my own."said Zola.
Steve was quick to reply."HYDRA died with the Red Skull."
"Cut off one head,two more shall take its place."replied the man,his heavy accent showing,as the image changed into something like an evil octopus and then into two of him and one again.
Valerie knew this from somewhere,it was from Greek Mythology when Hercules cut off one of Hydra's head two popped in its place.This meant this organization was much more dangerous than she had anticipated.
"Prove it."Steve spoke up.The computers around him making weird sounds.She noted as his knuckles had turned white when he held his shield.A bad feeling had started to sit on her stomach as she looked around on all the old technology.
"Accessing archive."spoke the computer."HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom."started Zola again as various videos flashed on a smaller computer to her left."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, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded and I was recruited.The new HYDRA grew.A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis,reaping war.And when history did not cooperate,history was changed."
An image caught her eye.A metal object with a big red star and then a man with a gun.It flashed too quickly but she definitely saw it.He looked awfully familiar.If his words were true then that meant that Nick was right and someone had betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D. from inside its own home.That's why Nick had said that something wasn't right.
"That's impossible,S.H.I.E.L.D. would have stopped you."Natasha said in an unbelieving tone.She was shocked as well.
"Accidents will happen."images flashed again as a newspaper popped up showing that Howard and Maria Stark were dead from a car accident.Her eyes started to glare as a picture of Nick flashed against the screen with the title diseased on top."HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security.Once the purification process is complete,HYDRA's new world order will arise.We won,Captain."
Steve had started to breath heavily beside her,his lips turning into a straight line as if to contain himself.More images showed up with a newspaper saying that Steve Rogers disappeared."Your death amounts to the same as your life;a zero sum."Steve let out an angry sound as his fist connected with the screen in front of them.
Valerie gaped at him.This man was dangerous if he lost his temper.But in his shoes she would've done the same.This machine was trying to poison his mind and make him angry.Zola was taunting him in order to tell him that he was useless,died for his country for nothing.
"As I was saying..."continued the computer,Zola's face appearing in a different screen.
"The hell?"Valerie muttered as she looked around."He's everywhere."
"What's on this drive?"Asked Steve as he leant close to the smaller screen.
"Project Insight requires insight.So I wrote an algorithm."he said his voice speaking more slowly than before.Valerie frowned.
"What kind of algorithm?What does it do?"Natasha asked rather quickly as she stood beside Steve.
"The answer to your question is fascinating.Unfortunately,you shall be too dead to hear it."he answered once more too slow for her own liking.Suddenly behind the doors of the elevator closed.Steve threw his shield in order to keep one open but it was already too late.His shield came quickly back to his hand.
"He's been stalling us!"Valerie exclaimed as she turned to the machine.
"Indeed I have Miss Smith."said Zola.Valerie went close to the screen as well.
"How do you know who I am?S.H.I.E.L.D. herself doesn't know."she gritted her teeth as she glared at it.
"We got a bogey.Short range ballistic.30 seconds tops."Natasha said behind her.
"Everybody knows who you are Valerie Barton."her eyes widened.She almost lunged for the computer,her fists clenching at her sides.She was at least thankful that no one payed him attention as the two people behind him were panicking.
"S.H.I.E.L.D."Natasha said in disbelief.
"I am afraid I have been stalling,
Captain."Natasha got a hold of the flash drive along with Valerie's arm and turned to Steve.The man lunged forward to an opening on the ground, pulling the metal door open."Admit it,it's better this way.We're both of us...out of time."the three of them barely had time to jump in the opening as the wall behind the computers exploded.
Natasha had Valerie under her arm as Steve held his shield above their heads to protect them from the huge chunks of wall coming their way.She was hit by one on the back,yelping loudly in pain.And then blackness followed.
For a few painful minutes everything was silent until Steve grunted in pain.He raised a huge piece of wall that was crushing them all and threw it off while getting up and couching from the dust that had entered his lungs.Valerie coughed as well as she looked around her.This whole place was a mess.Everything was destroyed and there was even a fire going.
"Steve."Valerie said in a raspy voice as she tried to get up and steady herself.She turned to look at Natasha.She was knocked out cold.She quickly placed a hand on the side of her throat immediately finding a pulse.The blond man turned quickly,drinking in the situation.
"We have to get out of here."he said in his raspy voice as well as he quickly took Natasha on his arms.They moved quickly and carefully across the ruins just as jets had arrived.They run their way back to the front of this place.There were no lights and even the fires from the building behind them weren't helping them at all.
"Where are we supposed to go?"asked Valerie as they rested for a minute to a faraway building,breathing heavily.
"I know a place.But we have to hurry."said the man as he readjusted Natasha on his arms.Right now the only thing she could do was trust him and follow blindly.She had way too many things on her head and way too many bruises on her arms.Get to know mission he said,it would be great he said.