Chapter 24: CHAPTER 22

“Let’s start small ok.” He looked at me and continued after I nodded. A good guy.

“What were you doing in that base?” Sheesh. What was that about starting small?

I gave him an unimpressed look, “I don’t think that is starting small.”

“I don’t think you understand what is at stake here now, do you?” Fury asked, “You were found in an explosion site that we found out to be a base of a global terrorist organization that started World War II, so either you cooperate willingly or I’ll make you. And believe me, you don’t want me to.”

At this point Coulson interjected, “Your files said you haven’t been seen since the first week of October, 2001-”

“Which was three weeks after the September 11th attack.” Fury stated. Now he’s purposely riling me up.

“So you think that I was what, part of the attack?” I asked.

“Yes, and also that you know something about it, so spill. I gave up cheese tacos to be here so you better make it worth it.” Was what he gave me and that made me wonder what his priorities were.

“Can they leave?” I asked as I gestured with my eyes to the agents still aiming their weapons at me.

“And leave me in the same room with a terrorist? Sorry but I like my blood inside my body, not outside.”

“I’m not a terrorist.” Now this was just getting ridiculous. Nick Fury was a paranoid man. A practical, pragmatic, paranoid and ‘fuck the rules’ kind of person. He was the type of guy you didn’t want to have his sights on you, or in this case his suspicion. He takes everything he sees and hears with a grain of salt and believes it all.

A truly complicated man.

But another thing I knew about him was that he was a hoarder of wild cards. He simply wants to have them all. And not just any wild card but the best of the best.

It would take either a truly optimistic or a truly crazy person to believe someone like Tony Stark could work together with the Hulk.

This fact however was what allowed or would allow me to play it safe with Fury. I didn’t trust Nick Fury hells no, Fury wasn’t someone you should trust but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be cooperated with. 

He was like Batman but without all the suit and Battyness. Just a cold, calculating, sarcastic, black, one-eyed, not as smart, not as strong, not as depressed, definitely not as rich, trench coated federal agent version of Bruce Wayne.

I let out a sigh as I looked at him one more time with a serious look.

We kept it until he relented and told the armed agents to clear the room.

“Spill. Now.”

First of all, “Do you work under someone?” This was the first question I needed to ask to set base for what I could tell them.

“Everybody works under someone or for someone.”

“True.” I knew that so I changed my approach. “The name of the organization was called HYDRA , they orchestrated the Manhattan bombing in ‘01.” They sucked in breaths as the atmosphere tensed more. “You sure you can trust them Mr. Fury.” I indicated to Coulson and Clint. 

He remained silent. I took that as admittance and continued. “They abducted me two weeks after the bombing occurred.”

“Why?” This time it was Barton. 

“Because I’m a mutant. Just because.”

“Experiments?”

“And weaponization.” I replied to Fury. 

“You still think you can trust them?” I asked for the third time. This time however he went and closed the doors and any source of external light. 

I was taking a gamble with Fury knowing fully well he could very well pull a Tony and Ultron but it was a chance I got to take. 

I couldn’t go anywhere else. Charles? He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t risk his teachers and students on what could very well be a wild goose chase. 

Erik? Never. 

Hellfire Club? Please. 

S.H.I.E.L.D was the only viable choice and also the highest chance to kill HYDRA. And given that I couldn’t escape either of them, I went for the less aggressive party. 

“What do you know?.” Fury inquired. 

“All I know is that they have some leading hierarchy that consists of people in high places of power in the outside world.”

Coulson called for an answer, “Do you have names?”

“A few. Got them from the scientist who ran experiments on me. Some Baron Strucker guy, Arnim Zola, Octavian Bloom, Alexander Pierce, and Gideon Malick. I only met two of these people though.” I enjoyed the frozen looks that flashed through their faces for a brief moment before they schooled a calm expression. 

“Which of them have you met?” Fury asked this time. Time to plant a seed. 

“The Pierce guy and Octavian Bloom. The Pierce guy seemed like some sort of big shot since Bloom deferred a lot to him.”

“You don’t look like you believe me.” I said as the look on their face said it all. 

“We don’t. For all we know you’re just spouting bulls.” Not that I expected they would. Not yet at least. 

“Until we find proof of your words, you’ll be in our custody.” Fury said. 

“I could give you proof if that’s what you want.” I told them. 

“And why would you be willing to do that?” It was Barton this time. 

“Other than wanting to see them burn? I don’t got any other choice apart from this now do I?” This was only what I could afford and I was beginning to hate it. The feeling of always having to pick between the lesser of two bad choices and not making one for myself. The annoyance crawled into my voice. 

“Well then..” They looked on. 

“Would you mind?” I signaled to my cuffs. 

“Do you take us for fools Mr. Cross? That is just precaution.”

I sighed and exerted force in my hands as I pulled making the edge of the bed creak and broke as I broke the cuffs on my hand and doing the same with my legs I broke free. For some reason it was easier than I thought it’d be. 

I looked up and saw them pointing their guns and an arrow at me. 

“You were saying?” I said smugly. I raised my hands to pacify them. They lowered their guns and looked at me with extreme caution. 

“Is that your proof?” Let’s just say Fury wasn’t amused. 

“No. I’ll need a knife for that.” At this Fury and Barton had a ‘fuck did you say?’ expression on their faces while Coulson looked genuinely confused. 

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“Oh come on, you have guns so you shouldn’t be ‘that’ cautious.” This was getting ridiculous. Here I was telling them who the enemy was free of charge and they didn’t want to believe me. It irked me. 

“Ok do you have anything small, like a scalpel. That’ll do.” I asked again, getting a little impatient. I was paranoid and on edge because HYDRA would have known of my survival by now and the three people who would most likely help me were making it harder. 

“You do realize that I’m in the middle of what is essentially your base, likely surrounded. I wouldn’t try something funny not if I wanted to live here alive.” They seem to slightly lower their guns at that. 

“Ok. But try anything funny and I’ll stick one of these in your skull.” Clint said as he brought out a small knife strapped to his knees. 

The blade of the knife was less than 10cm, likely used for cutting, mostly incision cuts.

I took the knife slowly and walked backwards a bit. 

Not waiting for their questions I stabbed it into my stomach. Immediately Barton wanted to shoot at me to stop me but I stopped him with my outstretched arm. 

They watched as I cut open a small 10cm line on my stomach and stuck my fingers inside it, fiddled in it for a bit before I brought out a small metal box. 

The outer part of the box was already melting. 

I opened the box and brought out the flash drive. 

“Motherfucker.” They all looked stunned at that. I looked at my stomach and found that it was already healing. Huh?

I inserted the drive into a monitor in the room and opened some of their project files. 

They all sucked in cold breaths as they read files through files. 

“Is this proof enough?” I asked as I scrolled through documents. 

They were silent for a while as they digested some of the things they saw. I could understand because there were some S.H.I.E.L.D files in there. 

I removed the drive as I waited for their answer. 

Fury didn’t look good. None of them did. Barton stood in a corner and ran his hand through his hair. Coulson sat on a chair and covered his face with his hands while Fury paced around. 

He stopped after a while and asked me, “How did you get these files?”

“I tortured the doctor who oversaw my experiments.” I told them casually. 

“What did they do to you?” Barton asked me. 

“Apart from trying to brainwash me? They threw me into a furnace and watched me burn as I screamed, drilled into my spine while they had me awake, shot at me just to see if I’d heal from it to help them further their research. They did that to me for the past year.” They all fell silent at that. Barton looked shocked, Coulson showed sympathy in his gaze, while Fury was unreadable. 

“You said you met two of them. Could you identify them?” Fury asked with a serious expression this time. 

“Yes,” I lied, “I met the guy called Pierce before my experiments started, he greenlighted it. I saw Baron Strucker once during a digital transmission.” I remembered how these guys looked from the movies and I was hoping they looked the same here. 

“Sir!” Coulson exclaimed. 

“We have to find out if we’ve been compromised.” Fury answered. 

“You believe what he’s saying?” Coulson asked in disbelief. 

“I don’t. But this isn’t something we can disregard. Pierce made me director, if it turns out you're lying I’ll put a bullet through your skull.” He told me in a no-nonsense tone. 

“Fair.” I accepted. 

He tapped on his phone before he handed it to me. I looked at it and it had over 50 pictures of different people. Smart. 

I scrolled through it and looked for my targets. Given the time period Strucker would be younger, likely a new recruit of S.H.I.E.L.D while Pierce shouldn’t be that different. 

I searched all the pictures with extreme scrutiny with my mind helping me find the similarities. It took me less than twenty seconds to identify them and deciding to throw a freebie, I highlighted one guy I remembered from the Winter Soldier movie from the elevator scene and gave it back to Fury. 

He looked at the pictures for a few seconds before he said anything. “You marked three.”

“The last guy wasn’t a leader but I saw him a few times. He trained some of the soldiers.”

“Hmm,” was all he said. 

“One question though, how did the base blow up and how did you survive?” He asked. 

“That’s two questions though.” The words just escaped my mouth. 

“Did I ask twice?”

“I blew it up,” they looked at me with clear disbelief, “Captain America won us World War II, I was made to be better. How? Super soldier physique and regeneration.” I finished while pointing to my stomach that had closed long ago. 

They looked at it and had different expressions on their faces. Barton was just pure disbelief, Coulson was intrigued, while Fury had a thinking expression. 

“Why then were you absorbing the radiation around the entire site? How is that related to your mutation? ‘Cause as far as I’m concerned you could very well be a walking bomb.” Fury as the ever paranoid man he was, said. 

“Wait! I was absorbing radiations?” This was new. I didn’t know I could do that. 

“You were. The doctors believed it was the only way you could recover.” 

Now this is confusing. Why would I need radiation to recover. 

“Wait how long was I out?” I asked. 

“From the day of the explosion, 10 days.” Coulson said. 

“So what now?” I directed my question at Fury. I wanted to know his decision. I couldn’t hope to destroy HYDRA on my own at least not anytime soon. 

“For now? We’ll put you under the radar till we check out everything you said.” Fury said. 

“Listen man, I just escaped a hell hole and I’m not keen on going back to another. You’ll have to give me something more than just parsley words. For what I know, at least a quarter of America’s military might and technological advances are under their control.” I wanted to pressure him to see what he’d do. 

“Unfortunately that’s all you’ll get for now. Barton will transport you out tomorrow. Let’s go.” He walked out of the tent without waiting for them with an ugly expression on his face. Barton and Coulson looked at each other for a second before they followed behind. 

I sat on the bed and just gazed at the ceiling of the tent. I squeezed my hands and felt power flow through it. 

First on the chopping tray was HYDRA. They were the only ones occupying most of my mind. If I didn’t wipe them out or turn them to a local thug gang I wouldn’t be able to settle down with always being on the run and watching my back. 

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