Bullet in Her Daddy's Gun

Chapter 7

Holy shit. Has it really been over a year since I updated this? Wow. This is not going to happen again. I started getting back into my fandom fanfictions and I'm ready for the next book in this series, so let's plow through the rest of this one, okay?

"It's some kind of recording", Natasha said.

"I am not a recording, Fraulein", the system snapped at her, "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am".

"You know this thing?" Natasha asked Steve.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years", Steve explained.

"Well clearly he's not", Madison said.

"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 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain".

Madison was about to come up with some clever quip about being thankful it wasn't his real brain because her boots were new, but chose not to.

"How exactly is that possible?" Madison asked.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked him.

"Invited".

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II", Natasha elaborated, "S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value".

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

It suddenly dawned on Madison what Zola was implying. There was no way. It wasn't possible.

"HYDRA died with Red Skull", Steve said.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place".

"Prove it".

"Accessing archive".

Videos started playing on various computer screens. "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".

"Yeah, people tend to react like that when some evil German dictator is trying to take over the world", Madison snapped.

Clips of Steve and the army played on the screens. "The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, and I was recruited". Pictures of Peggy Carter, the love of Steve's life, and Howard Stark were shown. "The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed".

"That's impossible. S.H.I.E.L.D. would have stopped you", Natasha said.

"Accidents will happen".

Madison never knew that Tony's parents were killed in a car accident. Was her mother's death planned too?

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once a purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise".

"More killing? How would that benefit the world?!" Madison yelled. This was getting to be too much for Madison. What would happen to the people who she cared about and loved? With HYDRA in charge of the world, they would no doubt be killed.

"We won, Captain. Your death amounts to same as your life. A zero sum".

Steve, anger boiling over, punched the computer screen only to have Zola's face appear on another. "As I was saying..."

"What's on this drive?" Steve demanded.

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

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha asked. Maybe if she knew what it was, she could override it.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it".

"Excuse me?" Madison asked.

The elevator doors started to shut and Steve threw his shield towards it to try and stop it, but he was too late. It bounced off the doors and came back to Steve's hand.

Natasha's phone started beeping. "Steve, Mads, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops", she said.

"Who fired it?" Madison asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D", Natasha answered.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain".

Natasha grabbed the thumb drive and Madison's arm.

"Admit it. It's better this way".

Steve looked around for places for them to take cover.

"We are, both of us, out of time", Zola said as Steve grabbed a metal grate off the floor.

Madison and Natasha barely made it to the hole before the explosive came crashing into the building.

Steve jumped on top of them and covered them with his body and his shield.

Madison screamed as debris piled on top of them. When she opened her eyes, it was dark except for a green light. She looked down and saw her hand was glowing green. It looked like it had green fire wrapped around it.

Steve looked at her and then her hand. "Well that's new", he said.

Madison blew on her hand, effectively blowing out the fire.

Steve managed to move some of the debris so they could climb out into the burning wreckage of the building. He lifted Natasha, whose ears were ringing badly, out of the hole.

Madison climbed out after them and sat on a piece of the ceiling. She stared down at her hands. How the hell did she do that? What else could she do?

Quinjets started to surround them and they quickly got out of there.

So what do we think? I've got another chapter pre-written that will be posted tomorrow night. This weekend I will be cranking out some chapters and maybe we can move onto Age of Ultron soon.