The Unknown Enemy ∘ Marvel [3]

Chapter 37: Rome Is Burning

HYDRA facility
18 weeks after the video was released to SHIELD
9 days before Agent Firman was found

"You've kept her too sedated."

"And by doing so, I've kept this base secure."

Dr. Walter's resting expression deepened into a scowl at Strucker's thinly veiled excuse to keep their latest experiment's mind pliant. She walked briskly beside the Baron as the two stepped out of the elevator that was too small for either of their liking. The underground corridor wasn't much better space wise, the walls leading towards the detainment complex of the base lined with several security guards armed to the teeth with any weapon that could be spared. They ensured escape for anyone wouldn't be easy.

Minori's comfortability being surrounded by many people may have been hindered as it always was in a small crowd, but she didn't pay any mind to the brazen soldiers standing statuesque as the two higher ranking officials passed. She was too busy restating the same explanation for the patient's results, or lack thereof, to the man in charge for perhaps the fifth time in the last month. He never paid too much heed and by doing so tested her even more, "She's exerting more excess energy to stay breathing at this point than we could ever hope she'd put producing an actual manifestation. She's taking longer to build an immunity to the drug you have her on because of it."

"That's what we intended all along." Strucker's Soviet diction of his native tongue was flawless, and he chuckled slightly at the doctor's overbearing East Asian accent that bled into her pronunciation of the language as he did every day. At least, that was the conclusion Minori had come too eventually for why the man always cracked a slight smirk whenever they conversed, "The longer it takes, the more time she's less resistant to Whitehall's machines."

"But the conditioning hasn't reached her at a subconscious level yet. It won't unless you develop a better sedative." Walter combatted, stopping before the double locked doors the guard nearest to them had began to unlock, "That will negate her abilities, which in turn makes it harder for me to give you the results you want. You can't ask for another brainwashed assassin and an enhanced one at the same time. Not with the nature of her abilities."

"You promised me both. That's why someone else isn't in your place." Strucker folded his hands together behind his back as they spoke, taking a stance that resembled something of a scolding father rather than an authoritative figure. Minori didn't appreciate it.

"You didn't do it my way from the start. I needed to run more tests and understand her biology before we cut into her one week and stuffed her brain in a machine the next." The process had been hastened along much faster than she could've anticipated. HYDRA wanted a brand new super soldier ready in the six months after Firman had been apprehended, compliant to their orders and fully transformed into their latest weapon intended for shadow war. Another soldier polished and poised to do as much damage as possible to whoever would oppose their rising world order.

Walter knew the time table correlated directly with the launch of Project Insight. She knew they needed another super powered individual that could eliminate any enhanced threat that would stop their plans. Given Firman's Avenger status, they'd hoped emotional manipulation would factor in as well.

Yet when dealing with unstable power originating from somewhere else deep in the heart of a vastly universe, time tables weren't convenient. Of course complications had arose, not to mention the fact that no one figured the subject's obstinance would last this long.