Arachnophobia

2.6

                                     Alex
We pulled up to the old army base, it was empty. Completely empty other than the obvious things in a base.

"This is it." Steve said.

"The file came from these coordinates." Nat said, confused.

"So did I."

An hour Later

We decided to go later in the night. I watched as they walked around the base trying to pinpoint where the signal came from.

"This camp is where I was trained." Steve said as Nat basically dragged me along.

"Changed much?

"A little."

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." Nat sighed in defeat. I walked over to some building, noticing the lock on it. I bent down, trying out the rusty lock.

"Alex, what is that?" Nat said, watching as I was fumbling with the lock.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place, nice job, Alex." Steve opened the lock with his shield, watching it clatter to the ground. The three of us enter inside, when Steve turned on the lights I noticed it's a SHIELD office.

"This is SHIELD."

"Maybe where it started." We entered a room where I found old framed portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy and Colonel Chester Phillips.

"There's Stark's father." Nat said.

"Howard." Steve smirked.

"Who's the girl?" Nat said. Steve didn't reply and turned away to walk further down the room and stopped by a massive book shelf.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." He pushes the books shelf and slides open to reveal an elevator behind it.

"Why do you need to hide the elevator?" We go down the elevator which takes us to a room with old looking computers. I immediately got excited. How many could I steal? Better yet, how much money could I bag for SHIELD computers?

"Don't you even think about it." Nat said, knowing what I was thinking.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." I groaned to Nat's remark. She was slow to notice the obvious. I grabbed her and steered her to a small flash drive port, in which she places the flash drive in it which then activates the ancient computer in the room.

"Initiate system?" I started typing in "Yes" when I saw Nat almost smiling.

"Y-E-S, spells yes." Nat smiled as the old computer started to crank up.

"Shall we play a game?" Nat looked over at Steve as I backed away from the computer some.

"It's from a movie that..."

"Yeah, I saw it." Suddenly an accented voice started speaking.

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Parker, Alex. Born 1999." An old camera moved above us as it analyzed us.

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

"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 shows an old photo of Dr. Arnim Zola, they were a member of HYDRA back in the day. What can I say? I know History.

"Do you know this thing?" Nat said to Steve.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Correction, he's Swiss. Get your facts right Steven.

"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."

"How did you get here?" Steve said to the robot.

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value." Nat said.

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

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

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." The voice spat back.

"Prove it." Steve barked back.

"Accessing archive." The computer screen shows old footage of Johann Schmidt/Red Skull.

"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." Bull shit.

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." Nat said, confused.

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen reveals 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 suddenly smashes the computer screen.

"As I was saying..." Another computer shows the things face.

"What's on this drive?" Steve barked at the screen.

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

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Nat said. My phone buzzed, and my heart dropped. A missle was heading straight for us.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly the doors starts to close, Steve tries to stop it by throwing his shield in between it but he's too late. The shield just bounced off the doors and back to his arm.

"Alex?" Nat said as my whole face lost color. I handed Nat the phone.

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

"Who fired it?"

"SHIELD.."

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time." Steve ran to a small opening on the ground, he throws the metal door aside and just as the place explodes he throws himself and Natasha into the hole.

"Shit!" I threw myself into the hole, immediately blacking out the second I hit the ground.

Lmaoao Nice one Steve