Street Magic

Dr. Zola

Steve pulled up in front of an abandoned army base where Natasha said the signal had come from. You all got out of the truck and carefully walked to the gate as it started to get dark. The place looked run down and had not seen action in years, it was weird to think it was once filled with soldiers all over the place. Now the only living things here besides you three were the vegetation that was slowly taking back the land.
 
"This is it," Steve said looking at the old gate.
 
"The file came from these coordinates," Natasha told him, putting away her phone.
 
"So did I." With the gate being so old it was easy for Steve to bust the locks with his shield. You walked towards different signals as Natasha tried to pinpoint a source. Steve was busy taking in his surroundings. "This camp is where I was trained."
 
"Changed much?"
 
"A little." You notice Steve look at an old flagpole with a nostalgic look in his eyes. It must have been trippy for him coming back to this place after so many years, yet he hasn't aged much since.
 
Natasha huffed annoyed next to you, "Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."
 
"So dead end?" you asked.
 
"Looks like it..." She turns to Steve who was staring at a building ahead of you, "What is it?"
 
You all walked over to it and Steve notices the chains keeping it closed. "Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place."
 
Steve opens the lock with his shield, and you enter inside. When Natasha turns on the lights an old office is revealed. Dusty desks and chairs everywhere and on the wall in the back there is a familiar symbol, an eagle just like the one in the Shield building. 
 
"This is Shield," Natasha commented looking around.
 
"Maybe where it started."
 
You all entered a room where you found old framed portraits of two men and a woman. You recognized one of the men immediately having seen pictures of him all over the house you had grown up in. "Hey, it's Colonel Phillips!"
 
Steve looked at you surprised, "You know him?"
 
"Well not personally. He worked with my grandfather, never really got to meet him myself but it sure did feel like he was there growing up." Colonel Phillips died years before you were born but he had mentored your grandfather after he enlisted. Growing up your grandpa would tell you how much he admired the man even if they butted heads sometimes. He would share with you little bits of wisdom he had learned from the Colonel as well as stories.
 
Steve nodded in understanding and gave you a reassuring smile. "He was a good man."
 
Natasha gestured to another portrait, "There's Stark's father too."
 
"Howard," Steve called him.
 
"Who's the girl?" Steve didn't answer, instead turned away to walk further down the room stopping by a massive bookshelf. 
 
"If you're already working in a secret office..." he pushed the bookshelf and it slid open to reveal an elevator behind it, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"
 
There was a keypad to enter which Natasha said she had an app for. Anxious to see what was down there, you grabbed on to them and teleported inside before Natasha could even grab her phone. Steve pushed the down button and the elevator took you to a dark room. You all slowly walked forward activating the lights. All over the room, there were old looking computers and servers that did not look like they should be running.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient," Natasha walks up to the console and notices a small flash drive port, she places the flash drive in it which then activates the ancient computer in the room.
 
"This isn't creepy," you comment, watching all the machines whir to life. In movies when technology turns on by itself, it is a sign to get the hell out of there.
 
The main computer turns on, a message appearing on it, "Initiate System?"
 
"Y-E-S spells yes," Natasha smiles as the old computer starts to crank up, "Shall we play a game?" 
 
She turned to Steve, "It's from a movie that..."
 
"Yeah, I saw it," he cut her off making you chuckle.
 
The old camera on top of the computer turned to each of you as a green and glitchy face appeared on the screen. An accented voice could be heard coming from it. "Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. (L/N), (Y/N). Born, (B/Y)."
 
"Talking computer, definitely not a good sign," You told them. If Terminator taught you anything it was to never trust technology, and this computer just screamed bad.
 
Shocked at hearing her full real name Natasha stared at the screen, "It's some kind of a recording."
 
"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me, prisoner, in 1945, but I am." On a smaller screen on the side, an old picture of a man with glasses popped up.
 
"You know this thing?" Natasha asked Steve.
 
Steve walked behind the computer checking if it was some sort of trick. "Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."
 
"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 two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."
 
"How did you get here?"
 
"Invited."
 
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II," Natasha explained, "SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."
 
"They thought I could help their cause," Zola continued, "I also helped my own."
 
"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Steve told him. Hydra, you heard the name from your grandpa's old army friends. It was a nasty 'science' division of the Nazis in WW2. They didn't talk much about it in school either besides that Captain America had sabotaged most of their plans.
 
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."
 
"Prove it."
 
"Accessing archive." The computer screen played old footage of soldiers, the founders of Shield you had seen earlier, and of Zola with other scientists. Then various historical moments in history popped up showing influential leaders. You then saw quick blurry pictures of a familiar soldier with a metal arm. "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. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, Shield was founded, and I was recruited. The new Hydra grew. A beautiful parasite inside Shield. For seventy years Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
 
Natasha got closer to the screen, "That's impossible, Shield would have stopped you."
 
"Accidents will happen." The computer screen shows a newspaper announcing the death of Howard and Maria Stark, parents of the famed Tony Stark. Then there were various more images that heavily implied it was not a car accident that killed them. There were also photos of a man with an eyepatch the word deceased boldly stamped on top. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; zero-sum."
 
In anger, Steve suddenly smashed the computer screen, but that didn't seem to stop Zola who just appeared in another. "As I was saying..."
 
"What's on the drive?" Steve demanded.
 
"Project Insight requires insight. So, I wrote an algorithm."
 
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha asked.
 
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." The doors behind you started to close, Steve quickly tried to stop it by throwing his shield in between it but it was too late. 
 
Natasha looked down at her phone, "Guys, we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."
 
"A missile?!" you started to panic all rational thought seeming to leave you at that moment.
 
"Who fired it?" Steve asked.
 
"Shield."
 
Zola laughed in the background, "I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time."
 
"(Y/N) get us out!" Natasha shouts, knocking you out of your panic state. 
 
You wrapped one arm around Natasha's waist and another on Steve's shoulder. Snapping your fingers, you teleported them a safe distance from the building. But even from there, the strong explosion pushed you all to the ground debris flying everywhere covering you in soot. You weren't close enough to get any severe damage but there was a painful ringing in your ears. Exhausted and dazed you could only hear the muffled sounds of vehicles getting close. Finally, as the ringing started to go away a bit you could hear Steve mention a place you guys could go to lay low.
 
"Where?" you asked panting, adrenaline the only thing keeping you standing at the moment. 
 
"D.C." 
 
Taking in a deep breath you reached for them once more this time Natasha grabbing onto you with a look of concern on her face even though she wasn't looking so fresh either. "You don't look like you're up for it."
 
"We can't stay here and wait." You snapped our fingers once again. 
 
In an instant, all three of you are standing in a park in Washington D.C. It was dark so there weren't many pedestrians to question where you came from and why you all looked like you've been through hell.

Using your powers for long-distance and with that many people had taken up the rest of your energy. Your muscles were burning like if you just ran a marathon without stopping and you were close to dropping on the spot. Steve noticed you swaying and quickly put his arm around you to keep you steady. He walked you to a parked car that Natasha was already hotwiring and laid you down in the backseat.
 
You took advantage of the long car ride and passed out. You don't remember dreaming about anything, just everything going black and then the next thing you knew Natasha was nudging you from the front seat. You groan sitting up as your whole body feels sore. Looking out the window you see a nice-looking calm neighborhood. 
 
"Where are we?" you asked, your voice still groggy.
 
"At a friend's place," Steve told you, "Can you walk?"
 
"Ugh yeah."
 
You climbed out of the backseat and followed them both to the front door of an average looking house. Steve knocked and a man who liked as he had just finished a workout answered. He looked at the state of your odd trio before greeting Steve. "Hey, man."
 
"I'm sorry about this," Steve told him, "We need a place to lay low."
 
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Natasha explained.
 
Sam paused for a second as if contemplating what he was getting himself into, "Not everyone."
 
He lets you all in, letting you sit at his dining table so you could catch your breath. You smile at him, "Thanks for the help. I'm (Y/N) (L/N), nice to meet you."
 
Sam shook your hand and smiled back, "Sam Wilson. And don't mention it, a friend of Steve's is a friend of mine."
 
"In that case, mind if I use your bathroom?"