C H A P T E R   41 :   H A I L ,  H Y D R A

"Just run that race, little soldier
No one's gonna win any time soon
Just know your role, little soldier
Don't get left behind, right? Alright

Okay, how we gonna do this?
Someone's got a body, the sober can't manoeuvre
Yeah, I wanna stay, but I don't want to fight
Used to feel like we were doing alright
Then we got older, not good
Nobody does what they told you they would
Did what I should and what I was told
Kept my whole time, my eyes half closed"

Felicia's POV

After a heartfelt goodbye and leaving the kitten in a shelter, James and I packed everything and left the wooden house for our mission. HYDRA's headquarters were located in a giant underground facility within the woods and mountains of West Virginia. There were no signs of civilization within several miles, with the nearest highway being considerably far away.

We arrived at the forest early in the morning and after almost an hour of silent walking, I spotted the first security cameras hidden in the trees dozens of yards away, and I used an improved EMP to destabilize them at the same time James prepared our assault rifles and attached the silencers.

Some yards closer, I saw the first guards and James and I quickly laid out on the ground and adjusted our stances to maximize the accuracy of each shot, since we didn't want to give any of them the chance to warn the base. There were a number of factors to consider when calculating the bullet's trajectory, including wind, temperature, humidity, air pressure, altitude, the coriolis effect, or the shape and weight of the bullet, and James did all that in a matter of seconds, as if it was as easy as adding two plus two. It took me a little longer to calculate everything, but once I did, I nodded at him and he signaled to fire.

After framing our targets in the scopes and holding our breaths, our fingers moved in sync against the triggers, the vibranium bullets shattering the distance at an incredible speed and hitting each guard on the head with an instant death. James and I quickly got up and split to complete the rest of the first steps of our plan: while I cut off the communications and phone lines to prevent the base from reaching out to others, he used a second, even more powerful EMP that would reach the underground to disrupt the power grid, radios and any electronic devices within the base.

Gotta send Tony Stark a thank you letter after this. Or maybe just tell him he really should upgrade his own security because stealing his tech is easier than stealing a wallet from a guy in the subway and flirting with him at the same time. Not that I've ever done that.

"Let's go." James murmured as we ran across a seemingly normal, plain glade with tall trees and terrain wet from the rain. If it wasn't for the camouflaged HYDRA guards I had been able to spot, no one would suspect that underneath all that soil was the base of a terrorist organization.

But I guessed monsters always wore the most normal of faces.

James had chosen this entrance because out of the few existing ones it was the least guarded. After sweeping the foliage from the ground, we found a large, rectangular, rusty sewer grate that he easily opened with his metal arm, my nose instantly feeling attacked by the repulsive smell coming out of it. James was about to jump in when I grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"I'll go first." I muttered. "I can see in the dark, I'll guide us."

He nodded and handed me the rope, but I shook my head and jumped right in, landing softly on my feet. It was a big fall, but I had fallen more and worse in the past.

"It's clear, you can come down." I whispered, trying to minimize the echo. I vaguely heard James curse in Russian as he climbed down with the help of the rope, attaching it to his suit once he landed.

"Everything okay?" I asked, noticing his discomfort.

"Don't like heights." He mumbled. "Let's go."

We walked in silence for about fifteen minutes throughout the damp, stuffy corridors, with darkness as our only light, my ears picking up on distant, muffled noises, the sound of droplets, pieces of rocks crumbling, Earth itself moving. My senses were on high alert, my claws out to slash any possible danger that came our way.

After an abrupt turn to the left, the path stopped in front of a heavy metal door that could only be opened through DNA recognition. I could hear movement on the other side of the door, alarms going off and loud shouts demanding answers but only raising more questions as HYDRA tried to figure out what was happening with their devices. Once the noise subsided and the coast was clear, I grabbed the fingerprints James had taken from the agents we had killed outside (guess what, more Stark tech) and tried them one by one. My anxiety started rising when with each fingerprint access was still denied. But we knew one of them had to work, in case something like this happened and the guards needed quick access to the base, and finally the last one did.

The door made a click, smoothly sliding to the right, and the sudden burst of light made me look away and blink several times. The hallway in front of us was nothing like the path we had come from, but rather clean and metallic, resembling a hospital. Due to the power outage, only the red lights used in emergencies were on and I could hear the generators working in a room far away.

There was still no one in sight, but I knew soon enough someone would notice us, so James and I both instantly assumed our roles as trained, ready-to-comply soldiers, which was not difficult due to what HYDRA had instilled on us. As a matter of fact, as soon as I was thinking that, we ran into two other soldiers on a corner, one of them eyeing us up and down quickly.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Did you not hear the alarms? Everyone is required on Sector C, we might have had a breach."

I tilted my head to the side, evaluating him behind my mask. "If you think it's us, you're wrong. We know that's not the sector said on the alarms."

The soldier seemed pleased with my answer, but still wasn't entirely convinced, and I was just mentally thanking whoever was listening for allowing me to hear the alarms correctly.

"Which one is it, then?"

"That's what an intruder would want to know." I answered. "We won't tell you, just like you won't tell us. For security reasons. But I think we can assume if any of us were the intruders, the other ones would be dead by now."

The soldier hesitated for a moment, and I could sense he was going to ask us to remove our masks, so without thinking I used my power to manipulate the odds inside his mind. After a moment of internal struggle, he nodded to the other one. "They're clear." He looked at us. "Move."

I swallowed over the lump in my throat, knowing what followed next. But just thinking about it made me sick.

"Hail, Hydra." I heard James salute right before I did too. We walked away quickly, and I let out a sigh of relief once we were far enough.

"Good job out there." James said, nodding approvingly at me as he quickly checked the blueprint we had brought to select the best way towards the storage where we hoped our files were in.

"I hate this." I confessed. "Being a tin soldier."

"I know." He agreed. "But you get used to it."

"But that's my fear. I don't want to."

***

Logan's POV

At the same time

The first place Charles had led us into was empty by the time we got there. It was a small room in a decrepit motel by the road, and even though it had been washed with bleach, clearly to eliminate any traces, I had recognized Felicia's unmistakable scent, and worse, the smell of her blood. I tried to recreate the scene that had unfolded there, but I couldn't picture it, more out of fear than out of capability. My only console was it didn't smell like death to me, and death had a very distinctive odor, and besides, Charles would warn me if something had happened.

Though he probably knew the room would be empty and he led you here anyway. Probably for you to cool off, which you should, I told myself. But I can't.

Felicia's fragrance faded outside, and we continued our drive following Charles' instructions, but in the evening the kids were considerably tired and despite not wanting to stop, I still did, allowing them to rest but waking them early in the morning when Charles gave me a new direction. The worst.

HYDRA's headquarters. The rage building up inside me when he told me that couldn't be described or measured. I didn't know what was going on, if she had been abducted again and brought in or if she had decided to go there on her own. Both options seemed too bad to even consider, but if anything, it just made me all the more determined to find her, because if she hadn't been in danger before, she was now. No one was safe in the belly of the beast.

But if HYDRA was hell, I'd give them Satan.

Now we were on the mountains of West Virginia, walking through the dense forest for a while with nothing but silence as the only sound. Charles had instructed me with the exact location of the base, but it was up to me to scan the area and find the best entrance, which was exactly what I was doing when an unusual noise broke the quietness.

"Shh," I muttered to Bobby and Lewis, who had either been arguing or bantering, I couldn't tell the difference when it came to them. My head snapped in every direction, and only then did I recognize the sound: vague shouts and movement coming from the base underneath the ground, many feet below, and my heart jumped with the thought some of them could be hers. That she could literally be there and I couldn't see her or reach her.

Just like I couldn't even when she was standing right in front of me.

"Stay alert." I told the others. "There's movement underneath us, I think they're sending soldiers outside to scan the perimeter. So either something warned them of our presence here, or someone else has already made a mess and they're trying to find them."

"If that mess is Felicia, it's our responsibility not to let them clean it." Lewis stated and I nodded. The noise got louder as we went deeper inside the woods, and I could now clearly hear rushed steps climbing stairs and unlocking doors beneath our feet. My heart was beating like crazy, not fearing for my life, but for hers. I just hoped she wasn't hurt or worse. I had to cling onto the hope she had come here out of her free will, because even if that possibility sounded crazy, it gave her a chance to save herself.

I had no idea how she thought she could defeat an entire organization by herself, or with her partner in crime who clearly couldn't be trusted, but that was a discussion for another time. All I knew was anything was better than the idea of her locked up, trapped, bruised, alone.

I couldn't stand the thought that he might have forced her to go back to HYDRA's base, just so she could be tortured again.

"They're coming." I muttered. "You can still back down now. But there's no way we can enter that base without a fight."

Bobby and Lewis showed me their fists, ice and fire soaring above them.

"We're ready." They said.

"And we know we're fighting for a good cause." Bianca completed, and so we hid behind some trees and waited for their arrival. The first few dozens of soldiers came out from the base through manhole covers and trapdoors scattered on the ground, giving me a good idea of the points of entrance and exit we could use.

"Sighted four heat signatures." I heard one of them say into his comm as they got closer, pointing his gun towards our direction. Lewis made a motion to move, but I signaled him to stay still, since I wanted them to get closer. Humans had developed guns, but a natural hunter always prefered to kill their prey at close range.

"Shoot to kill." I heard someone reply in his ear, but before he could I had thrown myself onto him, my claws ripping his throat out like it was made of paper. The sudden attack startled the other agents for a fraction of second before bullets came flying towards me, and Bobby quickly stepped out of the shadows, freezing them midair. Turning his body into ice to become bulletproof, he started aiming at the guns next, while Lewis and Bianca used their powers on the soldiers I wasn't getting my claws on.

I could feel the fuel burning inside my veins, the mix of adrenaline and rage that made me not even see who I was killing, and the metallic scent of blood infiltrated my nostrils as bodies fell to the ground.

I noticed the Three Musketeers stopping for a second, watching me drop a corpse that was more flesh than man carelessly.

"I warned you." I told them, and they swallowed but went back to their fighting, Bobby occupied protecting our backs by freezing their firepower, Lewis throwing spheres of fire to the soil to make them retreat or sending rags of smoke up their uniforms to make them pass out, Bianca using her sound waves to neutralize agents and leave them unconscious.

Letting my anger guide me, I slashed man after man to the point where they all felt one and the same, one single entity I had to destroy, HYDRA itself, because they had her, they hurt her, and I could never let them do it again.

Even though I had nothing on the other's powers, I caused the most damage, because my claws only spoke the language of blood even though Felicia had tried to teach them the language of love; I knew death and I knew its taste and I served it around like it was a round of free drinks.

Soon enough we had reduced the number of enemies to a minimum, though I could hear more soldiers coming out of the base, but that was a good thing. If they were up here, they wouldn't be down there, chasing her.

Lewis drew a circle of fire to surround the remaining soldiers before the next wave came in, and Bobby created a shield of ice around me to block the bullets and allow me to trespass the flames.

"I knew we shouldn't have messed with the mutants!" One of the assholes shouted, his voice cracking from panic. It was ironic, seeing how a man only truly showed himself, only truly lived, when he was about to die.

"You really shouldn't." I agreed, before burying my claws deep into his skin, feeling his heartbeat fade on the adamantium as the metal pierced his heart. I took my claws out with a sticky sound and turned to the other ones, sinking them into two other guys, the metal drilling all the way to the bone with a chilling sound. I let out a primitive growl and shook them to the floor, before noticing three others were tempted to cross the fire to escape my hell. "No, you're not going anywhere."

Breathing harshly between heavy grunts due to the heat and smoke around me, the muffled air starting to get to me after having already knocked out some soldiers, I hurled myself to them and chopped their lives out, my claws stabbing their chests and necks.

After the last of the soldiers was bleeding on the ground, Lewis took the fire out and we prepared ourselves for another round as more HYDRA bastards came out of their lair. Seeing me struggle with the smoke on my lungs, Bianca focused all of her and used the frequencies and waves inside the soldiers' brains to make them stop, giving Bobby time to freeze their guns and me time to catch my breath and run towards them.

I knew the effort it took Bianca to do something like that, so I told her to stop, especially because I didn't like a prey that didn't move. Every man deserved a last chance to fight for their life. Or their death.

While my claws ruptured skin and muscle, more soldiers came out from the opposite direction, making Lewis throw flames around like they were dollar bills, though he needed to be careful if he didn't want a fire to spread throughout the woods. His reluctance to kill allowed his enemies to shoot back at him with a different type of fire, making Bobby, who had been protecting me, instantly turn his attention to him instead, creating a dome made of ice around Lewis while freezing the water inside the bodies of the agents quickly, paralyzing them and making them fall to the ground.

In between my blows and strikes, my eyebrows moved up. I didn't know Lewis mattered that much to him. I was always seeing them bickering, but then again, that's how some people pronounced love. I knew it was definitely how Felicia and I did.

I roared once I felt the first bullets hit my torso, now that Bobby had gone to help Lewis, but didn't stop fighting, because it would require a missile or a nuclear bomb to prevent me from getting to her.

"I got you!" Bianca shouted at me, using her sound beams to dislocate the bullets in the air and I gave her a firm nod in appreciation, though I was growing considerably concerned because we were seriously outnumbered now. It was a dumb move of HYDRA, sending all of their assets outside, or maybe they had way more than we thought.

When I heard a rocket launcher rapidly being assembled some yards away, I started seriously doubting my odds, and fearing for the the kids' lives.

"Logan, they have a bazooka!" Bianca yelled, and I tried to spot Bobby but amidst Lewis' flames and so much HYDRA, there was no way I'd be able to warn him and ask him to freeze it in time. If he hadn't done it yet it was either because he hadn't noticed it or he couldn't. I tried not to think about what this last option could mean and hurriedly finished off the guys around me, aligning myself with the launcher to try and absorb the impact of the rocket by myself.

This close, I had no idea if I'd survive, or if I did, in what state, but at least it would give the others a chance to save themselves.

The soldiers behind the launcher seemed satisfied to have me in their line of fire and didn't move it, deciding that going after the leader first would weaken the kids. But I had trained them for things like this, I trusted them.

"Logan, what are you doing?" Bianca bellowed, trying to get to me. I made a motion for her to stop.

"Focus on your fighting!" I replied and with the most angered snarl coming out of me, I ran in the direction of the weapon, the rocket being launched at me immediately, but I never got to see it up close, to feel it in me, because suddenly there were webs falling from the sky, wrapping themselves around the rocket sturdily and lifting it up, making it spin in the air above us several times before it was thrown as high as the person could, exploding in the atmosphere far above our heads.

I almost stumbled forward and stopped dead on my tracks with the impact, the soil beneath our feet trembling dangerously and the heat falling upon our faces, a scorched smell getting glued to my pores.

"Whoa, that was fun! A little bit tough, gotta admit, but fun!" A voice said from the sky, and I wondered if that's how God sounded like, like a kid having the time of his life. I looked up to see a red dot somersaulting and backflipping in the air, his wrists shooting a discharge of webs at the rocket launcher to put it out of use, then doing the same at the soldiers, tying their hands and feet together and making them trip and fall like clumsy clowns.

"Are you insane?" I yelled when he finally landed on the ground, watching him kick a soldier on his chest and punch another on his chin. The kid's got might, gotta give him that. "You could have killed us all!"

Which in reality meant I can't believe Spider-Man just saved my ass.

"Sorry, all I can hear is 'thank you for saving my life'!" He said, and even though I couldn't see his face due to the ridiculous mask, I knew he was chuckling. I could see right away why he and Felicia got along, she and that sharp humor that always cut through me. "Seems like you still need help."

"Just stay out of my way." I muttered, but with this newcomer, the tables turned in our favor and the fight became more even. I quickly looked around and spotted Bianca, Bobby and Lewis, and they all looked okay except for a silly expression of awe as they watched Spidey doing acrobatics in the air like he was training for the Olympics. "Don't just stand there! Fight!"

And truth be told, they did.

***

Felicia's POV

"What was that?" I whispered, though in reality I wanted to shout as I felt the ground above our heads shake. I thought I had vaguely been hearing sounds of fighting, but I couldn't allow myself to have any hopes, but now even James had heard the loud blast, almost sounding like a missile.

"I don't know, but we can't worry about that now. We need to find the files." James whispered back as we walked down yet another hallway. We had crossed paths with several soldiers by now, but none of us paid us any attention as they were all more worried on getting to their designed spots. "We're almost on the storage."

"This annoying alarm is getting under my skin." I mumbled. "It's so loud."

James moved his head to me slightly, but still looking ahead of him.

"Now you know how I feel when you speak."

"You're so funny man, you should be a comedian, god damn." I half murmured, half sang as we dodged a hallway with too many soldiers.

"Smells like yet another reference I don't understand."

"Eminem." I enlightened him. "I'll play it to you once we get out of here. But wait, was that a reference to Nirvana's most iconic song?"

"Maybe. It did play on the radio on our way here."

"I'm proud of you, Winnie."

When we cut another corner, we were intercepted by a group of scientists and my insides churned dangerously, my mind about to snap at so many triggers. It was hard enough going back to the place of my nightmares - because even if it wasn't the same base, it gave me the same feeling - and having to face the soldiers, wondering if I had met or been trained by any of them, but for me the doctors were the worst. Their white coats, clinical smell and glassy eyes were the fuse to all my bombs. And if being here was triggering for me, I could imagine how much more it must be for James.

"Soldiers." One of them said, a reminiscence of a russian accent making James tense and scaring the shit out of me. I could handle my chaos as long as James was calm, but when he got nervous, I got protective, and when I got protective of someone, I sent everything to hell and did everything but stick to the plan. And sticking to the plan was crucial if we wanted any chance on getting out of here with life. "Report on the current state."

I had to bite down my tongue harshly to prevent me from generously telling him where exactly he could shove up his report and let James take control of the situation. While he made up some pretty inventive, clever explanations in seconds, I observed the scientists with my heart on my mouth, fearing I could run into the faces that inhabited my nightmares.

But none of them were recognizable, and when James finished talking, the lead scientist nodded, looking pleased.

"Very well, you're dismissed."

"Hail, Hydra." We all said at the same time, like it served as a full stop to every single one of these douchebags' phrases.

"I swear that if I have to say those words one more time, I'm going to Hulk out."

"Please don't." James said, turning to an empty hallway with a single door down the hall. The heavy, imponent door was guarded by four soldiers whose bulky frames were intimidating, to say the least. "Time for you to do your... thing."

As James stood hidden in the corner, I made my way across the hall, stopping midway when the soldiers immediately brought their hands to their holsters.

"What are you doing here? No one is allowed in this section." One of them said, the red lights dancing on his forehead making him look like a living traffic light or neon sign. Taking another step towards them, I took out my helmet and mask and let their eyes wander over my face before speaking.

"I know, I just... I've been transferred to this base only a week ago and I'm still not very familiar with it, I got lost." I said, trying out my most seductive and fragile voice, sure to hit them right in their alpha male bullshit. I knew the trained soldier in them could see me as a target, but their macho part would undoubtedly see me as a damsel in distress they'd want to help. "I was wondering if you could help me out?"

From the corner of my eyes I saw one of the soldiers lick his lips, but none of them seemed to have recognized me.

"We've never seen you around." The same soldier continued, a wrinkle of suspicion between his eyes unable to mask the lust in them.

"I told you, I'm new here. Never been assigned to this section, but with the breach today, I..." I let the rest of the sentence hang in the air, looking down and biting my bottom lip in thought before looking up at them again and batting my eyelashes. This small movement of submission made their pheromones start dancing like Zac Efron in High School Musical.

"But still, I'm sure we would have remembered you." The soldier said, though his willpower was faltering. No matter how much technology mankind could invent, people still always fell for the same old tricks.

"Come on, dude, let's help her." The lips licker intervened, staring at me like I usually stared at an appetizing ice cream. "Or at least let me."

Clenching his jaw slightly, the leader nodded once towards him and another soldier and they walked towards me, asking me where I was supposed to be heading. When they were near enough, I sneakily took out the tasers from their holsters and pressed them against them, making their bodies jolt and fall to the ground. Before the two other agents could react, I had thrown myself at them and tased them in their necks, hearing James' heavy steps echoing on the metal floor behind me.

"For a second there I thought it wouldn't work." James teased me as he grabbed the main soldier easily and made him stand right in front of the eye scanner, opening his eyelids for the device to recognize his iris. Sure, we could have used an EMP to destroy the scanner, but that didn't guarantee the door would open.

"Seduction and distraction take time, Winnie." I said, putting on the mask and helmet again. "And talent. Not that you would happen to know, though, considering you have the flirtation range of a teaspoon."

Much to my chagrin, he didn't understand the reference.

"For your information, I was quite the flirty type back in the day." He protested, dropping the lead soldier to the floor and trying with the next one. "Well, at least until Captain America started getting all the ladies."

"I'm sure they were just going after him to get to you." I chuckled but grew worried as the second one didn't work either.

"Third time's the charm." He stated once the door finally opened with the third guy and we entered a large room, dimly lit, being welcomed with the always delightful sight of gun barrels pointed at us.

"No one was expected to open this door today." One of them said, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

"There's been a breach." James said in an authoritative voice that made me think that while Bucky was most likely a sub, the Winter Soldier was definitely a dom. I'm sorry, okay? This is what my mind thinks about when it feels in danger! Better to joke than to choke. "We were instructed to come here and make sure everything's okay, but the guards outside are down. Did you happen to see or hear anything?"

"This division is soundproof." The soldier responded. "A real agent would know that."

Before any of us could comprehend the implications of what he was saying, bullets were being shot in our direction in a raging burst, and I only had time to feel James' arm around my waist before he dragged us down to the floor and covered my body with his, using his metal arm to block the bullets. That didn't stop them from continuing shooting, so with James' heavy body on top of me (not that I was complaining), I focused as much as I could given my circumstances and made the guns jam and the bullets swerve from us.

That gave my partner in crime time to get up and yank out the rifle from the nearest guy, kicking him brusquely on the chest before pistol whipping another on the head. With my power working behind the scenes, I hooked a soldier around the neck with the inside of my arm and jumped forward with my feet together, hitting a wall for momentum and climbing it quickly before backflipping and throwing the soldier across the room.

At the same time, James was choking another agent and I momentarily got distracted by the sight, allowing someone to place a powerful punch to my ribs, making all the air suddenly vanish from inside me.

"Motherfucker..." I grumbled, before jumping back to the wall and sticking my claws on it for support, throwing a large brick of stucco to his face and knocking him out. When he fell to the floor, I jumped in the air and kneed another one harshly on his chest midair, sending him flying backwards and clash against the wall. When I took a peek at Winnie to see if he was alright, I found him already checking on me and nodding approvingly.

"9 o'clock!" I shouted again and he moved swiftly to his left, taking a knife out of his holster and flipping it in the air graciously before switching it from hand to hand several times and faking some stabs to confuse his opponent, finally landing a fatal one to his jugular vein.

"My God, you must be great at knife play!" I let out, impressed, using the tasers to take out two more soldiers who fell against a table, making a computer shatter on the floor. If this room was so heavily guarded, it had to be the right one.

"If you mean I can kill with knives, that's kinda the point!" He retorted, immersing himself in an intense fight with another agent, real stabs and jabs being thrown between the two.

"Sure, that's what I meant!" I said between punches, using my claws to find the carotid artery in my opponents' necks. Amidst the fight my own mask and helmet had flew off, making some eyes widen, but I didn't know if it was because they knew me or because they weren't expecting such a sight.

"You're too hot to fight like a beast." My new adversary said as we walked in circles around each other, evaluating the other.

"And you're too stupid to think like a person." I replied with a sweet, sickening smile, considering jumping to his shoulders but knowing my heavy uniform would only slow me down. Dammit, I really miss my suit.

When I took a swing at him, he dodged. When I tried going for his legs, he jumped. When I threw a second punch at him, he stopped my fist midair.

"You're feisty. Good. I like them better that way."

I let out a groan and increased my strength, but my fist just scraped his hair when he deflected, and then he striked me on my lower back with his foot, making me stumble forward and crash against a locker. Before I could straighten myself, he landed another kick to my stomach, making my insides kneel and bow to the pain.

"Get up, sweetheart. This is just the foreplay."

"You're really asking for it." I said, staying low to tackle him and pushing him to the floor, my claws inches away from his neck before he flipped us over and straddled me.

"With me, they're never on top." He said, before pulling out a gun from his holster and resting the barrel against my forehead. Gritting my teeth, I pushed my knee up and kneed him in the place he was most proud of.

"That's because you can't take them there." I snapped, getting up and slashing his throat in one movement. Before I could take another step, though, I saw a hand coming in my direction and wrapping around my neck, a firm grip tightening around it and making my lungs cry out for air.

But before his fingers could press harder against my skin, I kicked him in his chest and then in his chin, backflipping in the air and landing on my feet, trapping him against the floor with my foot. "No safe word, no party."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" James shouted, a confused expression on his face as he dodged a potentially fatal stab and finished off his last opponent by slamming him onto the wall only with his metal arm.

"You've never seen the George Clooney ad?" I asked. "No martini, no party?" He shook his head. "Jeez, I really need to fill you in on what you've been missing."

"I know George Clooney, though." He said proudly. "I've seen some movies, he's a good actor."

"Greatest discovery of the century." I replied amusingly, examining the room while shaking off my members to dissipate the tension. I could feel the effort from using my power while fighting weighting on me, but I just wished it wouldn't run out of batteries before time. If things went wrong, I needed to be able to count on it to get us out of here.

Some of the closest material had been affected by the fight, but most of the computers and other technological gadgets were safe. James stopped for a while to gawk at the science fiction scenario in wonder before pointing to an adjacent door on the back of the room.

"If I'm right, that door leads to the room where they keep the old files. I'm going in there to destroy them. You handle things here?"

I nodded. "I'm not a computer genius, but I remember everything HYDRA taught me, including how to hack. I just wonder if it ever crossed their minds, that by teaching me they were offering me their cause of death."

"Try to hurry up." James asked. "Even if it doesn't seem like it, HYDRA might already know we're here."

I nodded and plugged in another device from Stark Industries on a computer, making it turn on instantly, and James shook his head, astonished.

"Starks always did have an uncanny knack for astounding me." He shook his head, his voice distant and nostalgic.

"So you're amazed by them, but not by my ability to steal them on our way here?"

"That too." James made a small smile. "See you in a bit."

While he left to go to the other room, I started working my way around HYDRA's system. I knew how to read codes, encrypt and decrypt, and make my way through softwares. What I wasn't expecting was my power to back me up almost naturally, instinctively, but when I gave it a thought, it made sense. Computers were logic, algorithms, odds. I could manipulate them too.

Fishing a pen drive from my pocket, I inserted it on the computer and quickly copied as much as I could before starting to delete every file and program I could get my hands on, trying to cause as much permanent damage to their systems and servers as possible. Virtual injuries could be just as bad as physical ones, when inflicted right.

I was currently uploading a virus that would spread online and possibly delete as much HYDRA files on James and other prisoners as possible, but I couldn't do anything about the files people had already copied and downloaded. Most of them were encrypted, but an expert would be able to decode them, and a single shiver ran up and down my spine at the possibility someone could use them against James in the future.

Seeing how I had finished my part and he hadn't come out of the storeroom yet, I shut down the computer and headed towards the door, entering an enormous space with shelves and shelves of boxes and archives.

"Fucking hell, how are we supposed to find my files in the midst of all this?"

"We aren't." James answered, peeking at me from the other side of a shelf and showing me plastic explosives and detonators. "That's why we are going to blow everything up."

I guessed HYDRA's little soldiers were about to riot. And revolutions always worked better when they started from within.

If cutting off one head made two more take its place, we just had to make sure we cut off all of their heads and bodies at once.

"They've got control of you, soldier
Put you in the field with a gun to shoot and kill 'em all
Just play your part, little soldier
Marchin' left, right, left, right

I wanna walk like me, I wanna talk like me
I don't wanna, I don't wanna be another, no
I wanna walk like me, I wanna talk like me
No, I don't wanna be another, no"

A/N: Gif is Winter Soldier flipping a knife because I just find it so satisfying xD

Song is "Roll Call" by The Neighbourhood, which is a band I love ♥