Take On The World(An Marvel Fanfic)[Book 1]

Chapter 20

A few minutes later, they arrived at the training base. The three of them got out of the car and started walking.

"This camp is where I was trained." Steve said.

"I used to come here with Mom when I was younger." Claire said.

"Has it changed much?" Natasha asked.

"A little." Steve and Claire both said.

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio." Natasha said. "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." They noticed Steve looking at a building. "What is it?" Natasha asked.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks." Steve explained. "This building is in the wrong place." He used his shield to break the lock off.  They walked inside. They saw a SHIELD logo on the wall.

"This is." Natasha started, but then looked at Claire. "You know what."

Claire couldn't help but giggle. "It's where it started." She said. They saw framed pictures of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Col. Phillips.

"There's Stark's father." Natasha pointed out.

"Howard." Steve said.

"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked. Steve and Claire were quiet.

Natasha and Steve started walking again, but Claire just stood there. She was looking at her mother's picture. She felt guilty for what happened yesterday. She ran off while her mother was sick and she didn't even say goodbye before leaving. A couple tears rolled down Claire's cheek.

"Claire." She heard her father say. She looked up at him and Natasha. "Come on." He said. Claire followed behind him. They stopped at a book shelf.

"If you're already working in a secret office." Steve started. He pushed the book shelf and it slid open to reveal an elevator behind it. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" He finished. The three of them got on the elevator and it took them to a room with old looking computers.

"This can't be the data-point with this technology." Natasha spoke. "This is ancient." She noticed a port for a flash drive and popped the flash drive in.

"Initiate system?" They heard the computer say. Natasha typed on the keyboard. Natasha types using the keyboard. A different voice came from the computer.

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Rogers, Claire. Born, 1946." They saw a camera analyzing them. Claire recognized that voice. It was Dr. Zola.

"It's some kind of a recording." Natasha said.

"I am not a recording, Fräulein." Zola's voice came. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945." The computer then showed a picture of Dr. Zola.

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

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

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive." Zola said. "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."

"How did you get here?" Steve asked.

"Invited." Zola replied.

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II." Natasha added. "You know what recruited German scientists with strategic value."

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

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve said.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said.

Claire then realized something. "You're the reason I was taken, aren't you." Claire said.

"That is correct." Zola said.

Claire was quiet for a moment. She started to lift her hand, wanting to punch the computer screen. But Steve put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Prove it." Steve said to Zola.

"Accessing archive." Zola said. Something came up on the screen. "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." Zola explained. "After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD." Claire covered her ears when Zola started to say SHIELD. "For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war." He continued. "And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." Natasha said. Again, Claire covered her ears. She really hated that she had to do that.

"Accidents will happen." Zola said before showing something on the computer. It showed HYDRA killing Howard and Maria Stark.

Claire gasped at what she saw. Not only did they see The Winter Soldier, but she saw herself, as well. "No." She said.

"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." Zola continued. "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum. Just then, Steve smashed the computer screen, but Zola's face popped up again. "As I was saying." He said.

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

"Project Insight requires insight." Zola replied. "So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm?" Natasha asked. "What does it do?"

"The answer to your question is fascinating." Zola said. "Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

All of a sudden, the doors started close. Steve tried to stop them, but it didn't work.

"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Natasha said.

"Who fired it?" Steve asked.

"You know who." Natasha replied. Claire knew she was talking about SHIELD.

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

There was an explosion and Claire was knocked out and thrown to the ground. Steve grabbed both Claire and Natasha and went out through an opening on the ground.