LIGHTNING STORM |b. barnes| [2]

CHAPTER 14

ANANYA FELL ASLEEP AND wasn't woken up until hours later when they arrived at the military camp in New Jersey, "This is it."

"The file came from these coordinates." Natasha stated,

"So did I." Steve replied, "This camp is where I was trained."

"Changed much?" Ana asked, putting her hands in her back pockets,

"A little." He answered, zoning out as he stared off into space as they looked for where the signal came from,

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio." Natasha sighed, "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." The women noticed that Steve was looking at a building ahead of them, "What is it?"

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards from the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." He said before opening the lock with his shield and they entered the building. When the lights turned on, they noticed that it was a SHIELD office.

"This is SHIELD." Ana commented,

"Maybe where it started." Steve suggested,

The trio entered a room where they found old framed portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Colonel Chester Phillips.

"There's Stark's father." Natasha said and Ana looked over at where Steve was staring at Peggy Carter's photo

"Who's the girl?" Nat asked and Steve didn't answer, turning away and walked further down the room before stopping by a bookshelf.

"If you already working in a secret office..." He trailed off and pushed the shelf, revealing an elevator behind it, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

"SHIELD having secrets? Surprise, surprise." Ana sighed as they stepped into the elevator.

They went down the elevator which took them to a room with old looking computers, "This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." Nat said before noticing a flash drive port and put the flash drive that they got fro Fury in it, activating the computer in the room,

"Initiate system?" The computer asked,

"Y-E-S, spells yes." Natasha smiled, typing on the computer "Shall we play a game?" She quoted and looked over at Steve, "It's from a movie that..."

"Yeah, I saw it." he interrupted before they heard a voice,

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Khatri, Ananya. Born 1988."

"It's some kind of a recording." Natasha stated as they gathered around the computer,

"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." the computer screen showed an old photo of Dr. Arnim Zola,

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha asked Steve,

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve stated,

"First correction, I am Swiss. 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." Zola told them,

"How did you get here?" Steve asked,

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic values." Ana informed them,

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola smirked,

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve told the computer,

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said as an image of a Hydra monster showed up, one head was taken off and two grew,

"Prove it." Steve demanded,

"Accessing archive." The computer screen showed them old footage of Johann Schmidt aka Red Skull then of the original SHIELD founders, "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 SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed." Zola said,

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." Natasha replied,

"Accidents will happen." The screen showed them that HYDRA had killed Howard and Maria Stark, making it look like a car accident along with the recent death of Fury, "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. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum." In anger, Steve smashed the screen and Zola appeared on the one next to them, "As I was saying..."

"What's on this drive?" Steve asked,

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Zola told them,

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Ana questioned,

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly the doors started to close and Steve tried to stop it by throwing his shield in between it but he was too late,

Natasha took out her phone, "Ana, Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

"Who fired it?" Ana asked,

"SHIELD." She answered,

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both...out of time."

Steve noticed a small opening on the ground and threw the metal door aside.  Just as the building explodes he threw himself, Ana, and Natasha into the hole and protects them with his shield.

Natasha was unconscious as Ana and Steve dug themselves out of the rubble just as STRIKE agents arrived.

"What do we do now?" Ana asked,

"I think I know somewhere we can go."