Seriously Evil

Chapter 3.

Tina watched as the technical team worked on the cryo tube. AIM technitions were competent, professional and knowing failure could mean death only increased their efficiency. Finally, the one in charge turned to her.

“She’ll be ok,” He said. Like all of them his face was hidden behind the mesh of his helmet but his name plate read ‘Ike’. “I don’t know what a modified SHEILD cryotube was doing in a hydra base though.”

“That is a good question,” Tina said. “But it is definitely SHEILD?”

“Designed by Reed Richards,” Ike said, not keeping the admiration out of his voice. “Originally it kept a person on ice, this one kept her on ice and somehow rebuilt damaged tissue. She’s healthy now and the unit even took a few years off of her age! Brilliant work!”

“Can she be safely revived?” Tina asked.

“Hydra couldn’t,” Ike said with more than touch of pride “AIM can. It’ll take a few days.”

“Why did you do this?” Modok asked, his face appearing on one of the monitors.

“Her name is Irene Adler,” Tina said. “Known to the world as Destiny. She’s a blind precog and I can’t imagine many scenarios where she wouldn’t come in handy.”

“She was with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,” Modok said. “But they no longer exist.”

“Mystique is dead,” Tina admitted. “Blob, Pyro and the rest are in prisonor missing. She’ll have no place to go and with what we are doing we can use her.”

“Very well,” Modok said.

His image vanished and Tina looked at the white haired woman.

I need an edge, she thought. I hope your it because without an edge sooner or later Modok or Shadow Web will eat me alive.

The hydra agents on personal flyers were bad enough. The woman or creature coming after them was even worse. She was short, no more than five feet tall and covered with short orange/yellow fur with black moth-like wings and hands and feet that were covered in black fur. She was more maneuverable than the agents and from the fierce look on her surprisingly beautiful face, more deadly.

“Dive,” Tania shouted as the woman came at them again.

Crimson put the car into a steep dive and the woman did a loop and followed them but fell a bit more behind.

“Any idea who she is?” Crimson asked.

“Yea,” Athena said. “She calls herself ‘Pussy the painful caterpillar’, if you can believe it.”

“You’re kidding,” Crimson said.

“Believe it or not there really is a species of catapillar with that name,” Athena said holding on with all her strength as Crimson drove. “And it is toxic.”

They swung close to a building and Crimson took the car low enough to go under and over a few streetlights. That took out a few of the agents but Pussy must have anticipated the move because she blindsided them, landing in the car. Athena launched herself up and tried to shove her off only to be enveloped in a bear hug. She screamed as the woman’s fur turned out to be sharp and dug into her skin. Pussy shifted her weight and they both fell into Crimson. Crimson screamed as Pussy used a free hand to rake her back and the car near crashed into a building. Tania grabbed her from behind and tore Pussy off of the car, throwing her into a marquee sign. There was a shower of sparks and Athena hoped that was the end of that part of the fight. Everywhere on her body the fur had stuck felt like someone was burning her with cigarettes.

A hydra agent appeared in front of them and his beam caught the side of the car. It started to smoke, and Crimson didn’t need to shout as the car swerved toward the ground. Crimson managed to guide it into an alley between two buildings and they skidded on the pavement, showering the walls and dumpsters with sparks before coming to a stop against a wall.

“Now what?” Crimson said.

“You hold out down here,” Tania said “I’ll handle the ones in the air.”

“White Owl down!” Crimson shouted and Athena dove to ground a trio of energy bolts scorched the wall above her. Her entire body was beginning to feel as if it were burning.

“Where the hell are the police?” Athena demanded as Crimson took another flyer down with a well placed shot.

“Busy I guess,” Crimson said.

Pushing the awareness of her pain to the back of her mind Athena launched herself into the air and then spun, catching a charging hydra agent in the chest and knocking him back. She wasn’t holding back and he slammed into a dumpster and then fell to the ground. Either out cold or seriously hurt, she couldn’t tell and didn’t care. Two more had taken his place.

“We’re facing a hydra hoard,” Athena shouted, “what the hell rates more than that?”

Two men leapt over the two who were coming at her and tackled Crimson. Athena dropped and charged, tripping both of her attackers and they fell to the street. Seeing that she was clear for the moment Athena looked back and saw that one of Crimson’s attackers had her arms held behind her while the other one was punching her in the face repeatedly. She flew and kicked the one holding her arms in the face and then turned in mid-air to slam her fist down on the head of the other one. He fell back but Athena grunted in pain as beams of energy hit her mid-section.

Hydra energy weapons came in three types; a stun bolt that felt like you were being hit by a sledge hammer, an electrical charge that felt like you were French kissing a light socket and a heat ray that felt like you had just been hit in the face with boiling water. So far Athena had gotten a taste of all three of them and combined with the venom in her system to drain her strength. She landed next to Crimson and they fell back further toward the car.

With shouts of “Hail Hydra!” ten more agents charged down the alley.

Athena threw her last remaining smoke bombs and she and Crimson charged into the green-suited men. Then it was a blur of hit, dodge and hit again, fighting back to back against some very strong, very skilled fighters. Someone slammed his fist into Athena’s stomach and then followed up with hits to the jaw. She and Crimson were literally punched back until they found that there was no place to fall back to. She fell to her knees as the pain at last overwhelmed her resolve. A few seconds later Crimson fell beside her.

“Hey crumbs!” A voice that sounded like sandpaper against rock shouted from the head of the alley. “You want some fightin time, I’ll give you some fightin time! Course for you it’s just gonna be clobberin time!”

The hydra men seemed to crumble as a massive creature made of orange rock attacked. With one swipe of his arm the Thing sent four of them against the wall and they didn’t get up again. At the same time Athena saw lines of fire streak across the sky.

“You ok?” A woman with blond hair said, appearing out of no-where beside her.

“Yea,” Athena said.

“Peachy,” Crimson said, but like Athena her voice was filled with pain and fatigue. Her face was turning as red as her hair.

“Sue, we need to get Wanda to the Baxter Building,” A voice said from behind them and Athena and Crimson turned to see Mr. Fantastic kneeling next to Wanda.

“Take her Stretch!” The Thing shouted. “Johnny and I can handle these creeps.”

“Sue take us both up!” Reed said.

She didn’t make a gesture but suddenly the car shot straight up and now Athena could see the outlines of another flying car hovering in the air.

“You need to come with us?” Sue asked.

Athena slumped against her and that was the last thing she was aware of.

The woman known as Destiny set her cup down and even though she couldn’t see Tina felt that the woman was looking her over. They were in one of the infirmary rooms. Destiny lay on the bed wearing a robe and someone had gotten a pair of dark glasses for her. She looked to be about forty-five now, with brown hair that was just starting to go white. Her face was slim, cultured and somehow… English? That was the impression Tina got. This was a woman who was at home in the upper crust of Victorian England. When she spoke it was with a slight accent.

“So you have no idea why I was in that hydra base?”

“None,” Tina said. “According to the official SHIELD records you died.”

“And Mystique? Rogue?”

“Rogue is with the X-men,” Tina said. “Mystique was reported killed by a mob.”

Destiny’s face tightened but that was all of the response she gave.

“You want me to work for you,” Destiny said.

“It is required,” Modok said from a monitor screen.

“You owe me, I pulled you out of the grave, and with what I’m doing I could use some help. Besides, where else do you have to go?”

Destiny nodded.

“How much help can she be,” Shadow Web sneered.

“I can help you and I will,” Destiny said. “If you wish to get Ultra Woman into the Avengers you’ll have to give her a reason. The time lines will be favorable to your plans if you introduce a reason for Ultra Woman to stay with the Avengers in New York.”

“That we could figure out for ourselves,” Modok said.

“Yes,” Destiny smiled, and Tina was certain there was something hidden behind that smile. “When it comes to the future you see through a glass darkly, I see through a glass dimly. You could introduce some reason for her to stay there, but I can see that you will be far more successful if you use a creature called the ‘Wraith Lord’. Not the real one, but one of your own creation.”

“Why?” Shadow Web demanded.

“I can’t say, but I can say that off all of the timelines I can see, that one holds the best chance of success. But you must do it quickly, she must not be allowed to leave New York and come back, she must have a reason as soon as possible.”

“Then we do it,” Tina said. “If it doesn’t work…”

“Then you will have failed me Destiny,” Modok said. “It is not a good idea to fail me.”

Destiny didn’t seem worried about the threat. Tina hoped that it was because the idea would work. She’d been the one to bring Destiny in, if Destiny failed that failure would be blamed on her.

Thin ice, Tina thought. We’re both on thin ice.

Tania woke up stiff, but that wasn’t un-usual. But she didn’t wake up bound and gagged and that was a relief.

“How are you feeling?” Sue asked.

Tania looked around. She was in a lab, a very advanced one from the looks of the equipment. But it wasn’t a cold hospital room. The walls were a light blue and the pictures on them were hand painted landscapes of mountain lakes. Beside her bed were three others. Tiffany lay in one, Athena another and Wanda the third. All of them had IV’s in their arms and Wanda was covered in bandages.

“Stiff,” Tania said, sitting up. “But I’ve felt far worse.”

“We should have T-shirts printed up with that,” Sue said. “I hear it from so many.”

Tania smiled with her. The last thing she remembered was being group grabbed by ten hydra men all armed with electrified brass knuckles. Sue stood up and went over to Athena, pulling the IV out of her arm.

“Where does hydra get those men,” Tania said. “Nearly all of the were stronger than normal men and some were almost as strong as I am.”

“Part of the indoctrination to being a hydra agent is a series of super steroids,” Sue said. “It leads to a lot of health problems later on, but hydra recruits young out of street gangs. What 18 year old is going to worry about potential health problems in their 40’s?”

“And the hydra base?” Tania asked.

“Lifted out of the garbage by Thor and She-Hulk,” Sue said. “It may take Tony Stark a few years of legal battling but he should get the ship back. Cleaning it up will take longer. It wasn’t easy, they’d dug into sewer and subway tunnels. It’s no wonder no one knew they were there.”

“What about the hydra agents,” Athena said. Her eyes were open, but she was still clearly uncomfortable. “Whiplash and Pussy?”

“Whiplash is in custody,” Sue said a look of distaste came over her face, “But his lawyer is screaming about abuse of power. Pussy was almost in custody, but Zola’s robots got her away. You’re lucky Reed was able to synthesize an anti-toxin. Even Tiffany’s blood was being overwhelmed.”

“How many days have we been out?” Tania asked.

“Only a night,” Sue said.

“He came up with an anti-toxin in a few hours?” Athena asked.

“He does that sort of thing,” Sue said, not keeping the pride out of her voice. “He did say to compliment you on the adhesive you use for your mask, but we couldn’t leave it on you if the treatment was going to work.”

“I’ve been stripped by worse,” Athena said.

“We all have,” Tiffany said.

“How is Wanda?” Tania asked.

“It’ll be a few more days,” Sue said. “Those bandages are laced with micro-tissue regenerators.”

“That’d be handy to have sometimes,” Tania said.

“Still needs approval from the FDA,” Sue said. “Have to warn you, there’s a SHIELD agent waiting to debrief the three of you. He’ll be back this afternoon.”

“I really should get back,” Tiffany said.

“So should I,” Athena said.

“I think it’d be better if you were debriefed here,” Sue said. SHIELD agents can be… Well pushy and this one looks to be worse than usual.”

For a moment Tiffany looked like she was going to object, then she changed her mind.

“Well as long as we are here,” she said “can your husband give us a tour? You’ve got tech in here that makes some of the stuff I use look like stone tools.”

“It’s not that advanced…” Sue started and then stopped and smiled. “I’ll get Reed and we’ll give you a tour, he’ll enjoy it.” She added.

When Athena had been a young girl she’d gone to her first museum. She’d never forgotten how the place made her feel. The art, the architecture; the feeling of restrained beauty gave the place an aura of positivism. Good things happened in that building. After a breakfast and a quick tour of the Baxture Building she had the same feeling. Sue had been modest, the stuff that Reed Richards worked on was the stuff of legend, Tiffany had been awed and she lived for this sort of tech. As they walked Athena found herself admiring Reed and Sue more and more. She didn’t doubt that the Human Torch and the Thing would make her feel the same way. They were still in Queen City helping out against HYDRA. These four people had been given gifts and they shared them without reservation. They were superheroes like her, but Athena’s main goal was to stop evil; they did that but explored as well. They didn’t go looking for evil to stop, it came looking for them. All combined the tour and breakfast took about four hours. At the end of it Sue had given Athena and Tiffany back their costumes -that had been repaired and cleaned- and led them to the briefing room to meet with SHIELD.

Things stopped being pleasant after that.

SHEILD senior agent Montgomery Glass was a tall, silver haired man in his late fifties with a stocky build, large nose and cold gray eyes. He was writing notes on a data pad when they came into the room. Disapproval radiated from him.

“Sit down please ladies,” He said without standing. “We’re still putting everything together, but what you seem to have stumbled on was a major hydra operation.”

“There were a lot of agents,” Tania said, taking the center chair. Athena and Tiffany sat on either side of her. “I was surprised that SHIELD had no idea the base was there.”
“What makes you think we didn’t know?” Agent Glass asked.

“There was no hint of SHIELD surveillance,” Tania said. “I understand that once a hydra base is identified surveillance is the first step that SHIELD takes. If there had been surveillance, then you would have been notified when we freed the Scarlet Witch. As it was the Fantastic Four arrived before SHEILD did.”

“I’m not going to comment on SHIELD procedure,” Glass said stiffly. “But I do want to know how you found out about the base and how you managed to infiltrate it.”

“We have our sources,” Athena said.

“And those sources are…”

“Confidential,” Tiffany said. “Once we located the base Iron Man supplied us with the ship layout.”

“But you had to find it first,” Agent Glass said. “We spend a lot of time and effort finding hydra bases, this one wasn’t even on the radar. Once you found it, you should have told us and identified your source.”

“How?” Athena asked. “None of us have SHIELD connections, besides we found out about the base and the fact that Arnim Zola was going to buy the Scarlet Witch at about the same time. There was barely time to study the ship blueprints before we had to go in.”

“Your source was very informative,” Agent Glass said, writing on the pad. “Normally that sort of information takes us months to assemble, yet he knew that much?”

“He did,” Tania said. “And he is generally reliable.”

“But you won’t tell me who he is? We could use that sort of insight into hydra operations.”

“He is our source,” Tania said, and Athena didn’t miss how she was deliberately misleading the agent.

Trust a man to think it would be a man, she thought.

“From what I’ve been told White Owl got into the base and into the main security room,” Agent Glass said. “You located the Witch on the monitors.”

“That’s right,” Athena said. “They were leading her to the docking bay.”

“Did you see any other prisoners?”

“I saw a few,” Athena said. “No one I recognized.”

“You didn’t try to help them?”

It was more of an accusation than a question and Athena stamped down on her anger.

“It was going to be work just getting the Scarlet Witch out,” Athena said. “I figured that after we were clear the Avengers and SHIELD would be going after the base. That was the plan.”

“Some of them were missing when we got there,” He said. “We don’t know who they were or where they were taken. We think there were some SHIELD agents there.”

“I’m sorry,” Athena said.

“We barely managed to get away,” Tiffany said. “We didn’t know that there was anyone but the Scarlet Witch in there.”

“Which is why you should have coordinated with us,” Agent Glass said. “Your source…”

“Is still confidential,” Tania said. “If you have questions about the operation Agent Glass then we will answer them. Our source is off limits.”

Her tone of voice had lowered the temperature in the room and had obviously raised Agent Glass’s temperature a bit. For a moment he looked like he was going to keep pushing the issue, but then he nodded.

“Fine,” he said “for now. “Can we talk about your battle with Whiplash? He may never be able to use that hand again and SHIELD frowns on that sort of force.”

“Man what a creep,” Tiffany said as sat in Sue’s living room.

“I got the feeling he didn’t like us,” Athena agreed.

“They can come off like that,” Sue said. “A lot of SHIELD agents don’t like superheroes.”

“Well he didn’t like us at all,” Tania said. “I got the distinct feeling that he was fishing for something.”

“Our source,” Tiffany said.

“Well he’s not getting it,” Athena said. Le Joueur had taken enough of a risk even with Fiorelli’s protection.

“He doesn’t need to,” Tania agreed. “But I think you should stay away from the source for a while. I don’t know about the rest of SHIELD but I do not trust Agent Glass.”

“There are good men and women in SHIELD,” Sue said. “But they can be hard to find. Well ladies how about some lunch? New York’s finest restaurant is waiting for us.”

“That would be great,” Tiffany said standing up. “But I really need to get back home.”

“So do I,” Athena said. “Thanks for everything Sue and tell everyone else thanks too.”

“We should be thanking you,” Sue said. “There’s a quinjet waiting on the roof, the autopilot will take you back to Queen city and drop you off wherever you say.”

“Coming Tania?” Athena asked.

“No,” Tania said. She had been glancing at a newspaper on the coffee table and now picked it up. “I think I should stay and investigate this.”

She held up the paper and Athena saw a blurry photo of a skeleton in a red cloak.

“Wraith Lord?” Athena asked.

“Maybe,” Tania said.

“It could also be the Ghost Rider,” Sue said. “I’ll give you a hand.”

“Thank you,” Tania said.

Tina walked down the corridor toward Destiny’s room and her face was a mask. Another go around with Shadow Web, another demand for vengeance. Modok was clearly playing the two of them off each other, but Shadow Web didn’t seem to see it.

How did she ever lead a pirate crew, Tina wondered.

It had been a good month since the hydra base was revealed. With Destiny’s help AIM’s investigators had discovered a lot of useful information. She couldn’t tell them who to look for, but she could say that the time-lines were favorable if they followed this lead or that lead. So far they’d discovered that Le Joueur was White Owl’s source for the base location and that hydra suspected that, but wasn’t going to provoke a gang war if it could be avoided. They’d also learned that Destiny was in the hydra base courtesy of a crooked SHIELD agent named Montgomery Glass. He was also the reason SHIELD had no idea that hydra had a base in Queen city. From what they knew of his secret bank accounts the man was making a very good living.Supervilains that were reported dead or captured had been sold to HYDRA and other organizations that were curious about how their powers worked. That would be useful later on. The shadow tech was steadily making progress in White Owl’s brain. They were keeping Ultra Woman in New York and now that the Scarlet Witch had recovered, she had joined the search for the Wraith Lord. They had been keeping him hopping from museum to museum, robbing un-related mystical objects. Thanks to Ultra Woman’s reports they knew that trying to find a pattern was frustrating the heroes.

For all that it had been a good month, it had also been a stressful month. Tina daily had to fend off Shadow Web’s calls for more vengeance on the Scarlet Witch and Modok’s demands to accelerate the plan and get Tania into the Avengers as soon as possible. That was a mistake and Tina knew it. She wondered if he knew it too but couldn’t overcome his own nature.

Why am I the only one who learns from failure, Tina wondered. She knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Destiny called.

“Good morning,” Tina said, “I…”

Her voice died away as she saw the tall blue skinned, yellow eyed woman sitting on the bed.

“Good morning,” Mystique said.

‘This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.’

Tina didn’t remember where she heard the quote, but it seemed appropriate, even if this was Saturday. She sat at the conference table with Modok, Shadow Web, Mystique and Destiny and listened as her plans were shredded by their egos and desires. Tina had hated a few people in her life, but not like these people. Her first bid for power had been thwarted by Power Man and Iron Fist. She didn’t like them, but she’d never held it against them personally. She was breaking the law after all and someone was going to try and stop her.

But these people… They took every defeat as a personal insult, as if life owed them success.

“Enough!” She shouted, breaking into the argument. They all looked at her.

“Mystique most not leave this base alive,” Modok said.

“Why the hell not?” Tina demanded. “She got in because Destiny is here. She could have broken her out, could have led an assault, could have tipped SHIELD off… She didn’t do any of that so obviously she’s here for something besides Destiny.”

“What could that be?” Shadow Web said.

“An alliance,” Mystique said. “We have common enemies.”

“Your record is one of failure,” Modok said.

“We’re all failures!” Tina shouted. “Don’t deny it Modok!” She snapped when he opened his mouth. “Shadow Web came to this world with a ship full of pirates and the Avengers took her down, Modok you failed against Captain America and were thrown out of AIM, they sent assassins to kill you. Mystique, your brotherhood of evil mutants was defeated, became Freedom Force and fell apart. I was using robots to try to build a crime empire and I failed!” She looked at all of them. “We have all failed, at least once.”

“So why should this group of failures do anything together?” Mystique asked. If she was upset over Tina’s words she didn’t show it. “Because of you?”

“No,” Tina said. “Look there’s no point in pretending we like each other, or that we have some sort of common bond. Someday we’ll probably end up turning on each other. But until then, until we go our separate ways or cut each other’s throats, let’s for now establish that we can all get something out of this if we can work together.”

They were silent, even Modok and Tina pressed on, desperately hoping that she could get through to them.

“Shadow Web wants the Scarlet Witch to burn in hell. Mystique what do you want?”

“Ms. Marvel burning in hell,” Mystique said. “And Destiny and I want our daughter returned to us free of this mental pollution the X-men have inflicted on her.”

“We can do that,” Tina said. “Modok? What do you want?”

“Power and the destruction of the Avengers and SHIELD.”

“Right, we can do that too.”

“What do you want Tina, or should I call you Nightshade?” Mystique asked.

“Me?” Tina paused and then realized she was too far in to stop.

“Call me Tina. I want the last three years of my life not to go down the toilet because all of you can’t put your egos on the shelf and think! Look you want Ms. Marvel in hell, we can do that.” She turned to Modok. “You want the Avengers gone? Hell we’ve already got a plan to do that, you just gotta have the patience to wait it out!” She looked at Shadow Web. “More suffering for the witch? Ok, we can do that too.”

“How?” Mystique asked.

“By thinking,” Tina said. “Ok, the shadow-tech can get us into the Avengers. Ultra Woman will be the perfect mole, we can spy on them, lead them into traps; Ultra Woman doesn’t know it but right now she’s a slave, a Swiss Army Knife we can use in a dozen ways. The teleport is about as undetectable as you can get, that can get us almost anywhere when ever we want to go there. Think of how to use them. Mystique, when you say you want Ms. Marvel burning in hell what do you really mean? What do you want to have happen to her?”

Mystique considered for a moment. Then she leaned forward and spoke.

“I want her to lose everything she has and spend all her time locked in a cell. I want every part of her life to fall apart and… And I want everyone to see it.”

“Ok, so how about we frame her for murder? She’s out of the Avengers and into prison.”

“The frame would have to be perfect,” Mystique said.

“It will be if we put a shadow-tech unit inside her,” Tina said. “She won’t even know that she did it, but all the evidence will point toward her.”

Mystique nodded.

“What of the Scarlet Witch?” Shadow Web demanded.

“I know of way we can put her through more pain than you can imagine,” Mystique said. “Deep in the woods near Wundagore mountain is an old potion selling gypsy. The potion I have in mind will turn her world inside out and that will only be the start of her degradation.”

“That still leaves Rogue, the X-men and SHIELD,” Destiny said.

“And I have a way to tie it all together,” Tina said. “I think I have a plan that will make the US government either end SHIELD or cripple it.”

“And the X-men?” Mystique demanded. “Rogue?”

“One step at a time,” Tina said. “We start small, we get some more slave units going and then we either make or adapt plans as we go. We start with Ms. Marvel and the Scarlet Witch.”

“And we end?” Mystique asked.

“Either we’re on top or we turn against each other and are either dead or in prison.”

For a moment they all looked at each other and none of them so much as nodded. Then Shadow Web spoke.

“Tell me about this potion.”

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