Enemy of Silence

17 - Red Skull

Standing behind Steve and staring ahead at the map of Hydra bases hammers home how far we've come. From the scrawny kid from Brooklyn and ex-assassin from Russia we stand now as Captain America and the affectionately nicknamed Nightingale. Phillips began calling me it once he learnt my real name and everyone copies that man. Speaking of the devil, his booming voice cuts through my thoughts, "Johann Schmidt belongs in a bug house. He thinks he's a God." His hands move across the map, over various possible targets and known Hydra bases. "He's willing to blow up half the world to prove it, starting with the USA." He finishes, punctuating his sentence with a hit to the USA on the board.

Howard takes his seat at the table, nodding at me as he passes, "Schmidt's working with powers beyond our capabilities. He gets across the Atlantic, he will wipe out the entire eastern sea board in an hour." A collective sigh is heard across the room, the cogs in everyone's minds turning. "How much time we got?" asks Gabe. Phillips leans over the table on his fists, "According to my new best friend, under twenty four hours." My eyebrows rise in surprise at Zola's cooperation although I suppose he had very little choice. Dernier asks the next question, "Where is he now?" I reach over and slide a photo to Phillips, "Hydra's last base is here." He says, pointing to the photo of the snowy mountain. "In the Alps." My chest tightens along with my fist as I feel the cold winds of the Alps from our last visit, I didn't know about this base, must be new, I thought. "Five hundred feet below the surface." Says Phillips.

A silence falls in the room before Morita asks, "So, what are we supposed to do? I mean it's not like we can just knock on the front door." Steve and I have a silent conversation with our eyes and I nod my pensive agreement with his plan. "Why not?" Steve says with a smirk, "That's exactly what we're gonna do." Everyone looks at us like we're crazy, and I mean we probably look it, standing here like smirking idiots, but this will work. "I've been working on something new." I test. Eyebrows raise collectively in curiosity. I feel the energy in the room circulating in my palms, drawing in a deep breath I focus on projecting the particles in the form of light energy, concealing myself in the process. A few jaws drop and Peggy and Howard sit there with smug grins on their faces. I reappear and say, "Schmidt won't know what hit him."

Sooner than I expected I'm clad in a skin-tight suit like Steve's. Except mine is form fitting, with no helmet, and all black with a nightingale insignia embellished on the front. I walk behind Steve as he's escorted into the lab by Hydra soldiers. Focusing on converting the energy in the room, especially the sound energy of my shoes and my breathing, into light I make my way into the room. I sit myself down gently on the edge of a desk, crossing my arms and my ankles, waiting for an opportunity. "Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait, but I must say you do it better than anyone." Schmidt says, stalking towards Steve. "But there are limits to what even you can do, Captain. Or did Erskine tell you otherwise?" My fist clenches at the mention of the late doctor. How Steve is keeping a straight face whilst he's so close to a man who's literally bright red, bald and smooth like a baby, with no nose is beyond me.

Steve maintains eye contact with Schmidt as he says, "He told me you were insane." Schmidt's smirk barely falters. "Ahh. He resented my genius and tried to deny me what was rightfully mine. But he gave you everything. So, what made you so special?" Sensing Schmidt's growing anger I make myself known. "Nothing," I say, they all turn to face me, "He's just a kid from Brooklyn." I smirk and wave sarcastically, "You don't look like you missed me JoJo." Schmidt practically growls at the nickname, "Viktoriya. And here I'd hoped you'd come to your senses already." I scoff, "My senses? I have all five, how about you noseless?" The two of us stare at each other in silence until Schmidt suddenly turns and punches Steve multiple times in the face. I wince and say, "Couldn't have hit me instead? Surely you have more reason to hit someone who stole your precious top spot from you than a man in," I gesture to Steve's suit, "whatever that is." Schmidt simply glares at me and I hold my hands up in surrender.

He punches Steve in the gut and he drops to his knees. Raising his head and looking at Schmidt he says, "I can do this all day." Schmidt sneers, "Oh, of course you can. Of course." He sighs sarcastically, "But unfortunately I'm on a tight schedule." Schmidt takes out a pistol, the barrel glowing blue. It suddenly hits me, Schmidt's found what that man's father hid, he found the Tesseract. A few years ago I met a strange blonde who said he was stuck on 'Midgard' for a few hours until he could get back home. I brushed off his crazy and we talked the whole time. He told me of a glowing blue cube, stashed away by his father in Tønsberg years ago, for safety. I was skeptical that he was lying, but the moment he disappeared because of a beam of light I considered that perhaps he was telling the truth, and I researched every book on mythology in existence until I found him. Thor, God of Thunder, got stuck on Earth from Asgard and trusted me, a complete stranger with the location of a stone that holds unlimited power.

I snap back to the moment to focus on stopping Schmidt from unleashing it's true power. Just as I do so the team crashes through the window. "Rogers! You might need this." Falsworth yells as he throws Steve his shield. I speak through our communication devices, "We're in. Assault team go!" I run back through the base, following Steve. The next few minutes are an amalgamation of gunshots, punches, slashes, and pain. There's blood on me, that's definitely not mine, I think. I lost sight of Steve and I'm starting to feel lightheaded. I feel an arm around me as I'm pushed in the direction of a car. Peggy is next to me, Phillips is here too and Steve. I black out for a few seconds and the next thing I know Steve is gone. "Are you okay Vik?" Peggy asks worriedly.

I push through the bleariness and realise there's a stinging pain in my right side. I touch my fingertips to my waist and they come back stained red. "I should've healed from this Peg." I say in a whisper. She's applying pressure to my side now, "I think the bullet's still in there." I roll my eyes and sigh, "Get it out then." I spit out, a metallic taste starting to fill my mouth before everything goes black.