Winter & Summer: A Marvel Story in an Alternate Universe!

Chapter 14

Kirishima couldn't tell how long it had been. Months. Weeks. Days. None of it mattered. Not while he was fully immersed in his work. And even more so - enthralled by his progress.

With a little human manipulation, Kirishima was back underground. As in, under-underground - beneath the earth in yet one more makeshift lab, outfitted with nothing aside from what he needed. At this point, however, he hardly needed anything more.

Summer's blood worked like a charm. It took barely a drop to almost effortlessly latch onto the other half of his formula. Tests consistently confirmed Kirishima's hypothesis - fresh blood from the living source was the key to the Super Soldier serum's success.

And he tested the formula multiple times. Rats weren't hard to find in the place he was hiding.

Kirishima was confident. He was ready to call HYDRA. To let them know he had done it. To tell them the serum was ready for human testing.

So it came as a surprise, when the last three remaining HYDRA officials answered him with a resounding....

"No."

"Excuse me?!" Kirishima retorted.

"We're finished, Dr. Kirishima."

"Finished? What are you talking about?"

"HYDRA is finished. The organization is dead. It's over."

"How?!"

"Because of you, Doctor."

Kirishima's lips parted slightly as he sat frozen, taken aback by their words.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. knows all of HYDRA's secrets now," they went on. "There are hardly any of us left because of your obsession with the Summer Soldier. You, Doctor, have destroyed HYDRA for good."

At first, Kirishima was silent, burning within until he finally erupted. "How can I be to blame," he said in a whisper that soon crescendoed into an outburst of rage, "when all I did was dedicate my life to my work while the six people in leadership were continuously acting like cowards?!"

"I'm sorry, but we weren't the ones who let our unstable robotic weapon run away with information to tear the entire organization apart."

Kirishima swiftly snatched up the glass vial beside him and aimed it at the computer camera. "But I have the solution," he reiterated. "The Super Soldier serum is ready. Just give me humans, and we'll have an army with the power to fight back..."

"You don't get it, Dr. Kirishima. Again and again, HYDRA has tried and failed to achieve world domination through violent coercion. It just doesn't work. We came close using our new strategy. We had members elected into the U.S. government, and now those pieces are gone too. No thanks to you."

"Don't tell me you plan to surrender..."

"We are planning to save our own lives."

Kirishima gritted his teeth as fury raged within his chest. "You have always been cowards. All of you."

The lead councilman leaned forward and stared, as if right into Kirishima's eyes. "And you have always been blind. A disgrace to your grandfather. A disgrace to HYDRA."

For a beat, there was only silence, until Kirishima calmed his tone, smirked, and said, "I never worked for HYDRA."

And with that, he ended the call.

With a heavy exhale, Kirishima sat back in his chair, spinning in circles, fingering the glass vial that held superhuman power within. Then, suddenly, he stopped spinning, and slowly rolled sideways to the syringes nearby. Picking up a needle, he stared at it intently, thinking. Debating. Bargaining.

Deciding.

Swiftly, he transferred the serum into the syringe and jabbed the needle into his arm.