Black Star: HYDRA War

รเ︎Ⓧ︎𝐓︎𝓔︎𝓔︎𝓷

LACERATED spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache," Fury lists his injuries dryly.

    "Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor reminds him, looking up from where he's bandaging Natasha's gunshot wound.

    "Oh, let's not forget that," Fury agrees sarcastically. "But otherwise, I'm good."

    "'Good'?" you repeat. "Are you also forgetting about when your heart stopped?"

    "Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so well for him, but we found a use for it."

    "Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve interrogates.

    "Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Hill explains.

    "Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury sighs unhappily. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

★★★★★★

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace isn't an achievement, it's a responsibility." Fury drops the photo of Pierce onto the table in disgust. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

    "We have to stop the launch," Natasha says.

    Fury snorts. "I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore."

    He opens up a briefcase next to him, revealing three small, blue microchips inside. The office you're all in is not only the sole clean room in this place, but is surprisingly sleek and modern, with comfortable couches, bright lighting, and carpeted floors.

    "What are those for?" Peter asks, eyeing the microchips with interest.

    "Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet" — Hill turns her laptop around so the rest of you can see the screen — "they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized."

    "We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Fury tells you.

    "One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three helicarriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remain operational, a whole lot of people are going to die."

    "We have to assume everyone aboard those satellites is HYDRA. We have to get past them, insert these server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left–"

    "We're not salvaging anything!" Steve interrupts loudly. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D.''

    "S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this," Fury snaps.

    "You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

    "Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."

    "How many paid the price before you did?"

    Fury sighs, looking at the table rather than Steve. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

    "Even if you did, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, it all goes."

    "He's right," Hill agrees.

    Fury looks at her. She nods. He then looks at each of you, but none of you argue with Steve.

    "Don't look at me," Sam says when Fury has turned to him. "I do what he does, just slower."

    Fury's gaze finally returns to Steve. "Well..." he leans back in his chair, sighing as he considers Steve, who's staring resolutely back at him. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

★★★★★★

You spent the rest of the night planning, and it's now a little more than two hours until Project Insight launches. You, Peter, Steve, Sam, and Hill have to walk on foot from the new S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to the old one. It's not as long a walk as you thought it would be, but you had to go through a small forest to get there. By the time you arrive on the other side of the Potomac River from the Triskelion, you're sweating — although that may be because Hill gave you S.H.I.E.L.D. armor to wear, and it's a lot heavier than you expected. Peter also got some armor, but his super strength allows him to wear it with ease. Sam is wearing his t-shirt and pants from before; Rumlow took the Falcon pack when he captured you, but Fury had a copy of the blueprints, so you and Peter were easily able to build Sam a new one. And Steve is wearing his uniform, stolen straight out of the Captain America Smithsonian exhibit. Natasha isn't with you because she's undercover, impersonating Pamela Hawley in order to gain entry into Pierce's office, where he and the World Security Council will be celebrating the launch of Project Insight.

    You've snuck in through a side door, and now you just need to wait for someone to open it with a keycard to give you access into the Triskelion. Thankfully, Peter has that covered.

    "One high-pitched frequency, coming right up," he announces through comms.

    He's climbed up the side of the building and is now with the satellite dish on the roof. You hear sounds of him playing with the wires for a few moments, then he says, "Okay everybody, brace your eardrums!"

    You stick your fingers in your ears. A second later, a high-pitched frequency rings through the building, just as Peter said it would. After a moment, there's a beep as a tech inserts their keycard into the scanner. The door swings open. You, Sam, and Hill all aim guns at the tech, and Steve stands in the middle of you, shield securely in his grip.

    "Excuse us," he says.

    The tech raises his hands in surrender and steps aside. The other techs watch you nervously, but none of them make a move to stop you. Steve seizes a microphone for the PA system.

    "Ready?" you ask.

    He nods. You lean over, turning the microphone on, and he begins to talk into it.

    "Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crews are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more there are, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. And they almost have what they want — absolute control.

    "They shot Nick Fury." He glances at you before adding, "They killed Howard and Maria Stark. And it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone else that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot. The price of freedom is high. It always has been. But it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not. The choice is yours."

    He nods at you, and you turn off the microphone. Sam steps forward, grinning.

    "Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?"

    "I think overdramatic monologues just come naturally to him," you say, shrugging.

    For a couple minutes, nothing happens (with the exception of Peter rejoining you). Complete silence falls over the techs' room. Then, the computers begin to beep angrily. Hill rushes to the one closest to her, her face blanching as she reads the words on the screen.

    "They're initiating launch."