"Hold the line. As soon as that door opens, open fire and don't let up until your clip is empty. Whoever this monster is... he doesn't make it past us."Luca tightened the grip on his rifle, his arthritis kicking in for the first time in weeks. Was it his own subconscious attempt to draw away from the fear of whatever was coming? Or was he squeezing so tightly on the barrel of the gun that his knuckles were white? It was hard to tell with the blinking red emergency lights... and the gloves. The goggles and mask certainly didn't help either. But none of that mattered right now... because right now, he had a facility to protect and a world to save. A new world that would be perfect for his wife and son. A world where they could reign supreme.
The only thing in his way was the-
Location: Berlin - GermanyReflections #1.02: Wind of Change
Interaction(s): NonePreviously: None
A loud thud pierced the stiff silence as the Hydra soldiers all flinched. They watched as the metal door shuddered slightly as something impacted against it. Everyone tightened their grips and settled into their positions, holding their volley of bullets until the door opened. And so they waited for a few precious moments, everyone holding their breaths. Luca saw what this white-clad demon was capable of. He had seen from the security cameras as he had mowed down his friends and co-workers. Watched them get picked apart as if this were nothing more than some dance. And now... Luca prayed that he could make the devil bleed.
The silence was broken as a loud bang ripped through the air, and a flash of light from behind the door signaled things were popping off. The door itself was launched from its hinges as an explosion shot it out into the line of Hydra soldiers, steamrolling over a few in the middle of the line. Luca watched Finn's neck snap at the impact of the door. But he didn't have time to grieve as the order was given, and he began opening fire on the empty doorway like everyone else. For what felt like an eternity, lead was pumped into the smoking maw their enemy must have been hiding in. That is, until the roar of gunfire began to die down one by one. And soon, all the soldiers were left in hopeful agony as they realized they had spent their magazines. And their combined thoughts were only to the fact that no man could have survived.
And yet, a shadowy figure moved into the doorframe, blue and orange suit striking against the white smoke. The Hydra soldiers stared in disbelief for a moment as they reached towards the ejected their spent cartridges to reload their weapons. But it was too late. In the blink of an eye, the figure knocked back three arrows and let them loose into their targets. Taskmaster then quickly flicked a switch on the bow and the metal frame straightened and the drawstring's tension was released. The newly formed javelin was hurled directly to Luca's right, impaling two of his friends to the wall behind them through their shoulder and stomach respectively. The soldiers were only just about finished reloading when the Taskmaster pulled a large circular shaped gun, firing some projectile past the group of soldiers on the opposite side of the room as Luca. The masked intruder was yanked through the air as he drew his sword in the other hand, slicing through the entire group with a singular swing. Before the Hydra soldiers had even finished reloading, two thirds of their rank had been slaughtered. Luca watched in horror as the skeletal mask turned it's gold gaze in his direction.
Luca let go of his rifle as he slowly backed up, his fellow soldiers lifting their reloaded weapons to fire towards their target. But it was no use. Taskmaster had already unhooked his shield and was charging forward, blocking their hail of bullets as he closed the distance in a moment. Two slices decapitated two of the five who remained, and a singular thrust of the sword gutted two more. Luca only noticed that the large blast doors the Hydra soldiers were guarding was sliding closed when the Taskmaster turned his gaze towards it and launched his shield at just the right time to get it wedged between them. Luca heard the futile grinding of gears that could not crumple Vibranium and let out a soft whimper, for the Taskmaster had turned his gaze back towards the remaining guard.
"Please... don't. I have a family. I just want to leave..."Tony Masters slowly stepped towards the crying guard, his breath slow and steady as his eyes carefully scanned over his features. He was no threat, and completely defenseless. To be frank, Taskmaster was willing to let this one go. Time was of the essence, and he had more important matters to attend to. But as he turned to leave, his eyes caught scrolling text in his HUD.
<Interior data vault 40 meters north: retinal scan required.>Taskmaster nodded upon reading the text, his left hand reaching out and grapping Luca by the throat to pin him against the wall next to his comrades. Luca's eyes were pleading, before they were sparked by recognition.
"You... you trained us. Boot camp... you're the Taskmaster. You're like us... so... why?"The unchanging mask gave no comfort and showed no signs of remorse or contemplation, not like that would have been evident if the mask was off. For Taskmaster did not hesitate to respond.
"Because I have a job to do."The Taskmaster pulled out his sidearm and shoved it firm into Luca's gut, nodding his head towards the squealing vault doors. Without another word, the two began making their way into the Hydra base's data vault.
Tony Masters leaned forward in his chair, quickly tapping the pause button on his playlist. He turned his gaze towards Dr. Pernell Solomon, the psychiatrist staring contently down the bridge of his nose through glasses that were certainly too small for his face. Dr. Solomon tapped his notebook with the back of his pen.
"Breakthrough, Mr. Masters?"Tony nodded, swinging his legs over the side of the reclining couch and beginning to readjust his suit jacket.
"Of course. Music therapy seems to be helping for now, but it's not fast enough. Maybe another one of your clones will have a better idea next time."Dr. Solomon's expression twisted from pleased to baffled, struggling to find words as Tony ripped the notepad from the psychiatrist's hands to toss it onto the desk.
"What are you talking about? I run this fac-"Before Pernell could finish his statement, a palm was already striking into the tip of his nose upwards to drive bone into his frontal cortex. Within a blink of an eye, Tony rounded out the assault by gripping the doctor's face and driving his head backwards against the chair until a loud crack filled the room. The corpse slid out of the chair, and Tony sighed as he scrolled over to his phone app and clicked on the only contact listed as a "favorite" on his phone. He lifted it up to his ear, quickly speaking as soon as he heard the line connected.
"Why didn't you tell me about Berlin? Why send me here?"The line was quiet for a moment, before a familiar feminine voice responded.
"There is specific information in that memory that we need, and Doctor Solomon is an excellent psychiatrist."Tony breathed heavily as he felt his blood pressure rising, his eyes only briefly scanning the shocked and partially mangled visage of the doctor in the chair.
"You mean the clone?"A sigh could be heard on the other end.
"He is a valuable asset, but the Organization requires absolute secrecy. He serves his purpose. And now we need you to serve yours."Tony moved over to the desk, sitting in the vacant office chair as he set the phone on the table and switched to speaker mode.
"What do you need?"The phone screen lit up bright, and a holographic 2d image appeared in the air above the phone. It showed a large documents folder, and someone was scrolling about through it. One of the folders clearly had a small lock icon over it, and the remote desktop attempted to open it. A password screen popped up with German text all over it.
"We need the admin code you used while recovering these documents. Half the files didn't finish decrypting before extraction.""Yes, the admin code was..."
Tony finished typing the code into the Hydra terminal, and nodded as the login screen gave way to a rather large file database system. In front of him, under where the keyboard had been before Luca lifted it, was a bright yellow sticky note with an admin code listed. Luca himself was quivering about a foot away, snot pooling down his upper lip and down his chin.
"It was there, just like I said... so please... just let me-"The gunshot pierced through the roaring industrial fans that were trying to keep this server room cool. Luca's body reflexively gasped out, but he was already dead before he even hit the floor. The shell casing clattered against the metal grating on the floor, but Tony didn't even notice. He was already busy at work going through the motions of copying the data over to the ghost drive on his utility belt. He didn't have time to worry about the corpse bleeding down onto the coolant pipes running below the servers.
After all, he'd forget about all of this in the morning.
PapaOso
Skai
Crimson Flame
washcloth
PatientBean
Izurich
Melissa
5341Ace
Fading Memory
Achronum
