March 11, 2014
Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
“You shouldn’t have done this, Boris,” Coulson said fiercely. “Springing this on me, when my team and I are here to help?”
Coulson and the others had been escorted to the apparent headquarters for the Winter Guard, a location called the Tagansky Protected Command Point in the middle of Moscow. Coulson looked around the underground bunker they stood in. Boris’ office was designed like a big square, with bookshelves behind his wooden desk and a large map of Asia on the wall behind his chair.
“When the hell did the Russian government set all this up?! The Tagansky Protected Command Point was defunct!” Coulson crossed his arms.
“We call it the Winter Guard Hall now,” Boris said cheerily.
“Yeah, Winter Guard,” Coulson eyed Boris. “You’ve been at this for a while Boris. You know how insane this all is.”
“Is it?” Boris still had a cheery smile on his face. But his eyes had hardened. “Why shouldn’t we have our own heroes? Have people to help us without needing to call on the Avengers?”
Coulson shook a head. “I don’t care about that personally. What I care about is calling us over here as some pedantic way to show up the Avengers and BRIDGE and make your team look good.”
“Is that what happened?” Boris asked, doing his best to sound confused.
“You had press waiting as we landed. My team shivering in the cold, there to do a job instead of wasting time trying to look good, and your team arriving in full armor and gear. Image is everything, Boris.”
“We really do try to show up in our best attire,” Boris chuckled. His smile faded after a moment. “Coulson, I was told to do that for my country. That I wouldn't be allowed to ask for help unless I made it look like we didn't need it. To make our first superhero team look good. For my country,” he sighed. “I didn’t even have time to introduce Vanguard’s sister, she’s still in training. We saw an opportunity to be the first country in the world to have a team of superheroes. One independent of the Avengers or BRIDGE.”
“...Why are we here, Boris?” Coulson said slowly. “To make your sponsored supers look good?”
“No,” Boris rose to his feet. “Despite the introduction, my hope is that your team and mine can work together to solve a problem,” he walked around the desk, picking up a folder. “The day before my government approached your director, a military base was attacked. As of now, our team is young. Untested. And we do not want to take any chances.”
Coulson stared at the folder with his arms when Boris held it out making sure to take his time. Boris continued to hold the folder out. Finally, Coulson reached out and took the folder, opening it as Boris sat back against his desk.
“What are your team's capabilities?” Coulson asked while reading the papers. “I’ll need to know that if you want us to cooperate.”
“For that, I recommend reading our files and speaking with Mikhail,” Boris nodded behind him. Coulson turned to look at the man who entered.
The APC driver that had brought in the Winter Guard was as tall as Creel, with a blonde flat-top haircut and Russian uniform. He nodded politely when Coulson met his eyes, face neutral.
“Major Mikhail Uriokovitch is the one in charge of organizing the team, and is the one who speaks with them most often,” Boris explained as Mikhail strode in.
“Good afternoon,” Mikhail said, his accent far thicker than Boris’. He held his hand out to shake, which Phil took.
“Good to meet you,” Coulson said with a sigh before turning to Boris. “I need to speak to my superiors first.”
“Please do,” Boris said. “But remember, Russia’s press is very efficient. They likely already know.”
Coulson smiled just a bit. Boris smiled as well. Both smiles showed just a bit of falseness.
----
“I already know about it,” Maria said over the phone to Coulson as he paced the length of the hallway he’d ended up in. “Give me news I don’t have.”
“Gladly,” Coulson replied. “This team has been in the works for years. Super Soldier experiments, studies into exotic energies, the works from what I can find in these files. The only people who’ve done more so far is HYDRA.”
“I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming,” Maria noted.
“But,” Coulson said with another turn on the carpet to pace back. “This is clearly a sanitized version of the truth. So I’m taking the files with a grain of salt. Till then, here’s what I know about the ‘Winter Guard’.”
Coulson opened up the folder in his hands.
“In some ways, we’re actually the cause for this, unintentionally.”
“How so?” Maria asked.
“When the Hercules program kicked off and started revealing HYDRA operatives across the world, Russia was one of the ones who got the message. They went after HYDRA with a vengeance, killed dozens of operatives and raided almost as many bases. A few of them research facilities, others were similar to the Graveyard.”
Maria didn’t speak for a moment. “That is just… horrifying.”
“You should see the pictures,” Coulson said without a hint of humor. “But along with all that was research files. Lots of failures, but some promising avenues were opened up thanks to that. They burned what was useless, killed anyone unwilling to work for them, and started working on making their own heroes. And from the looks of it, they succeeded. Got enough from a combination of stolen research and good old ingenuity and hard work to make their own heroes.”
“And what did they get?” Maria asked.
“One by one, we’ve got Vanguard, real name Nikolai Krylenko,” Coulson opened to an image of Vanguard. The large red suited man was front flipping through the air, shield in mid-flight. “Former military, since birth. His dad was a nuclear physicist, and his twin sister, Laynia, is a prospect to one day join Winter Guard. He’s got a good military record, lots of medals to strap on his uniform. Their Captain America. Like Deathlok, he’s been enhanced with a combination of cybernetics and serums. They claim he’s even more powerful. I’m going to take that with a grain of salt.”
“Don’t,” Maria said through the phone. “While I agree he might be weaker, we can’t make assumptions.”
Coulson hesitated, then sighed and flipped to the next photo. “Okay, now we have… Sergei Kravinoff.”
“I know that name,” Maria sounded surprised.
“Kraven the Hunter, guy made a name for himself in Africa,” Coulson picked up an image of the man wrestling a hippo. Wrestling. A. Hippo. The most dangerous animal in Africa, and he had a smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around the giant gray animals neck. “We had some records of him, but nothing to intensive. Rumor goes he’s a hunter who prides himself on killing through stealth and his bare hands.”
“Maybe less of a rumor, now,” Maria said.
“I’m guessing you’re pulling up the files as I go?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
Coulson smirked. “No. Anyways, the next one is Crimson Dynamo. Technology they claim is based on Vanko’s old research.”
“As in Ivan Vanko? The guy who attacked Stark years back?”
“As well as Anton’s and some old Tesla designs apparently,” Coulson held up a photo of the giant armored suit lifting a tank. “They don’t say who the pilot is. But this thing looks like it has some impressive guns. Maybe even big enough to give Tony a run for his money.”
“Can’t help but notice you’re less defensive when it comes to Stark,” Maria said wryly.
Coulson chuckled. “Well, this is where it gets really weird. Fantasma, aka… nothing.”
“Her real name is ‘Fantasma’?”
“Like Cher, I guess,” Coulson shook his head. “Claims she’s a magic user.”
“You must be kidding,” Maria sighed.
“Nope. They say she learned it by instinct, and got some lessons afterward from… some place they redacted,” Coulson switched his phone to speaker, placing it on the ground. He was tired of holding it to his ear. “Okay, she’s sort of their Wanda, basically. It’s not a perfect comparison, obviously. But she can manipulate minds, block attacks with shields, and even fly.”
“So she’s weird,” Maria simplified. “And the last one?”
“Chernobog.”
“The Slavic God of Darkness?” Maria asked, surprised.
“Maybe? Weird thing is, there is almost too much info on this guy. If he even is a guy. He showed up at the same time as the Rio incident.”
“Russia did have some people on the groun-”
“No, he showed up in Russia,” Coulson interrupted. “Just, poof. In the middle of a village in the home of some guy. Then he started absorbing energy from all around him. Focused on the sick and dying. When the Russian government found out, they saw the chance to get a ‘god’ on their side. He’s superhumanly strong-”
“Feels like everyone is,” Maria grumbled.
“Fair. He’s also got the power to absorb energy. Sort of reminds me of Marcus Daniels. Not a great memory. He’s… well, he’s terrifying,” Coulson laid out the photos on the floor and started taking pictures, sending them to Maria. “The last one is Chernobog.”
“Holy…”
The image was the black skinned monster in the midst of devouring a deer. Blood dripped down black jaws and teeth, the monster leering at the camera.
“Yeah, apparently they really want to lean into the ‘God of Darkness’ thing,” Coulson mumbled.
“...We’ll have to deal with that, maybe ask Thor if he’s lost another enemy,” Maria said at last. “So the question follows. With all these people, why are you there? Why have us send you, insist on having Avengers along? For propaganda?”
“...I don’t think so,” Coulson said raising one last picture, unable to hold back his disgust.
----
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
Creel and I stood side by side in what looked like a lounge. At the least it had a pool table in the center. Across from us were the Winter Guard. And they were close enough that I could actually recognize the celebrities they looked like.
Kind of annoying, as powers go. I can tell the important people if they’re played by celebrities I recognize, but only if I actually recognized them. Should have spent more time on IMBD. I looked them over, taking in as much as I could.
In a rough and modulated voice, Crimson Dynamo spoke. He sounded like an evil Terminator. Yeah, an evil Terminator. He spoke in Russian, so that Creel and I couldn’t understand. Which meant my decision to keep the Omnitrix’s universal translator out of public knowledge had worked out.
“They are staring at us,” Crimson Dynamo growled. He was at the back of the room, standing unnaturally still while lightning arced across his metal arms.
“Let them,” Fantasma said in Russian as well. She crossed her legs and eyed me back. She looked like Kalinka Fox, a Russian cosplayer in my world. She was short, with long black hair, bright blue eyes, and a confident smirk. “These are Avengers? They’re big, aren’t they?”
“The shapeshifter,” the Hunter said. Kraven. Very clearly Kraven. As played by Manu Bennett, the actor I knew for his role as Deathstroke. Weird. Dude was still eyeing me like my ribs would make a good sheath. “He’s listening. Watching. And the bald one is ready for a fight.”
“Alloy and Dial,” Vanguard growled. “Both are shifters.”
"Delicious…” Everyone in the room except the darkness winced as a smooth voice drifted into our ears. Like a knife gently slicing through meat. “Can you taste it? Their souls are mutated. Exotic flavors are such a treat. And the pain on the bald one's soul, that taste of desperate hope is-"
“Chernobog, none of us can understand you,” Fantasma said with a wince. “Talk normally you oaf.”
A huffing noise beat in sync with my heart. My heartbeat seemed to slow and speed up to match it. Took a second to realize he was laughing.
“Apologies. I’m simply excited,” Chernobog chuckled. I didn’t like what that horrific knife on my earlobes made me feel and Creel growled. “Can I eat them?”
“Try it,” I snarled.
That got the whole group to stop and stare at me.
“You speak Russian?” Fantasma said, sounding surprised.
“I cheat,” I replied easily. “Any chance you guys want to talk to us, or just keep musing?”
Chernobog laughed again.
“Dude, stop, seriously,” I grumbled. “You damn, living edgelord emo deity.”
He stopped, grinning with black triangular teeth. “Oooh? That is interesting. Haven't been called that before. Is it a compliment?”
Creel cracked his neck, drawing the attention of the room. “Okay, in case it wasn’t clear, I don’t speak Russian. But if that thing talks again, I’m ripping its arms off.”
The tension in the room racketed upward. Vanguard’s hand tightened on his shield strap. “Speak again, yobany urod, and I will break your limbs.”
“Vanguard,” Crimson Dynamo’s robotic voice intoned as he rose up. Vanguard looked back him. Crimson Dynamo shook his head. “We have orders.”
“...Da,” Vanguard grumbled.
The tension slowly faded and I waved my hands playfully. “Yaaaaay, we’re all friends now…”
Fantasma surprised me by laughing. She covered her mouth quickly, but we’d all caught it. I grinned up at Creel, who smirked.
“Okay, let’s start over,” I said, having expertly broken the ice. I gathered myself and breathed deeply. Steve would have tried to work with these guys. He wasn't here, so I had to be his poor replacement. “I’m Dial, of the Avengers, this is Alloy, same. We’re superheroes. And you areeeee…” I waved a hand to try and beckon them.
“You already know who we are?” Sergei said, finally showing an emotion other than ‘hunt and eat’.
“Right, yeah,” I chuckled. “Look, clearly, you all have some sort of issue with us. But we came because someone asked us to work with Russian authorities. So how about, we try and do that?”
The door to the room opened, Coulson and Boris walking in followed by… well, holy shit.
“Sentiments I agree with,” Coulson said with a look around. “Dial, Creel, this is Mikhail.”
Mikhail looked like Dolph Lundgren. Young Dolph Lundgren, playing Ivan Drago. Up until he gave us a wide and happy smile.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen!” he said in thickly accented English.
“...Sup,” I said hesitantly.
“Most welcome to meet you both!” Mikhail added.
“He’s the superhuman liaison officer for Russia’s government,” Coulson explained. “I thought it best you both speak with him when it comes to preparing for this mission.”
“What is the mission?” Creel asked, sounding agitated.
Coulson held up a finger and waited for a moment. Soon, Skye, Simmons, Fitz, and May strode in, moving to stand alongside us. I noted Skye’s backpack. “Good, you’re all here. Boris, do you mind if I lay all our cards on the table?”
“No no, please,” Boris waved politely for Coulson to speak.
“Thank you,” Coulson passed folders to us. “Two days ago, March 9th, a military base filled with Russian soldiers stopped checking in. When their people were sent out to investigate, they found a base of dead men and woman and a few others.”
“Others,” Creel asked, opening his folder.
“Something that had no gender,” Coulson clarified. Well, kinda clarified.
“Aw, that’s no fun,” Skye mumbled. Then she winced at the photos inside. “Oh, that is just-”
“Fascinating!” Simmons chirped while looked more closely at the picture.
“Fascinating, really?” Fitz asked her, horrified.
“Well, it depends on your perspective,” Simmons mumbled.
“They look like,” I raised the picture in my hand and pursed my lips thoughtfully. “Servitors. From Warhammer 40K.”
“I said the same,” Crimson Dynamo said, surprising the hell out of me.
I gave the armored suit a look, then looked back down at the picture. It was a mangled body with no clothes on. And they had cybernetic limbs that looked fused to their flesh. Rough looking bits of iron and steel, covered in wires and gears. The things head was half metal, with insanely nasty looking sections that looked infected where the metal sank into flesh.
“I’m going to be sick,” Fitz coughed, putting his folder down.
“Not a pretty sight, yes,” Boris agreed.
“Do you have one of these bodies?” Simmons asked. Bless her soul, always a scientist.
“Yes. And here’s the kicker,” Coulson pointed a section of the file out to her. “Once the DNA came in, we found out they weren’t human. They’re-”
“Monkeys!” Fitz said excitedly.
“What is it with you and monkeys?” Skye asked.
Fitz looked around at all of us and rubbed the back of his neck. “I-I just like monkeys.”
“...Okay,” I turned to everyone. “So some guy took robot parts and smashed them together with monkeys? Shaved monkeys? And these things took out a whole base?”
“Slaughtered,” Vanguard growled. “Slaughtered a base of our soldiers. These were not your American ‘weekend warriors’. These were men trained to kill. And still, they lost.”
“And we know who was responsible,” Boris stepped aside as some guy in a suit rolled in a big screen TV on a cart. “The day after the attack, we received a VHS tape.”
“VHS, really?” Skye cocked her head in confusion.
“I know. So primitive,” Boris said sadly. “It is in Russian, but the translation is in your files.” He pressed a button on the tv and it came alive. Another button started playing the video.
And that was when a James Bond villain appeared on the screen. I wasn’t super familiar with James Bond, but I did remember the guy on the TV looked like a general from the movie that had a really dumb name. Octo-something. A Russian general, of course.
This guy looked different in a couple of ways, like the long strands of white hair falling about his shoulders despite the baldness on the top of his head, and the thick red coat he wore. He had a very pinched face and a grim expression.
He began to speak in Russian. “My name is Ivan Kragoff. I was a scientist for the Soviet Union, in an era when my country was strong and united,” he clenched a leather-gloved fist. “And now? We have been weakened!’ Forced to live in a world where capitalism has replaced our pure strength!" Ivan eyed the camera as though it had offended him. “No more. I am offering the people of Russia to rise above. To show the world who. We. Are!”
He rose from his chair, eyes hard. “I believe i-in my people. But I must supply them weapons, to allow them to survive the monstrosities of the modern world. As such, I had to sacrifice. To prove that my weapons were worthy. And so I have!”
This crazy bastard actually had the gall to look proud. “When you are ready, I will send you my weapons, and allow you to use them for the war. The War that will end all wars at last, to leave a world of Russian greatness!” he scowled. “But. If you choose to refuse. Then I will do what I must. I will force the issue. Force my beloved nation to accept their greatness.”
A raised and shaking fist rose up, the man actually having the gall to shed some tears. “I am Ivan Kragoff! And what I do, I do for my country!”
The video shut off.
“...Monster,” Vanguard hissed.
“You said it,” Coulson mumbled.
“Okay,” I looked down at the folder in my hand. Filled with images of the dead. Men and women, dressed in military uniform. There was a man with… did you know that when the human body gets hit with enough all at once, the liquids in your body flash boil and explode outward? Yeah. Another one, a woman, had her chest cavity opened up by something ripping it apart with pure force.
“Alright,” Coulson crossed his arms and swayed slightly as he spoke. “We’ll fight over the politics later. Right now, we need to get to work. First, Boris, you have information on Kragoff?
“What do we need to do?” I asked Coulson and Boris.
The two shared a look. Boris sighed. “I told you Coulson. Our nation needs BRIDGE and the Avengers. We have attempted to find this madman on our own, but we must not waste time. I have sacrificed my reputation and did that PR stunt, in return for the request,” Vanguard and Fantasma didn’t look pleased. “And now, those idiots will not allow me to request more support, as they wish to resolve this with as little aid as possible. I will follow your lead, as long as you respect my country. You are a good man. So I know you will.”
Coulson had a very neutral look on his face. Finally, he looked over everyone in the room. “Avengers, Winter Guard,” Creel and I, all two Avengers in the room, straightened along with the others. “You’ll stay here with Mikhail and May, try to figure out how to work together in combat. These things took out a base, I want to make sure we know the other's capabilities before we head out,” he looked at Crimson Dynamo. “Except you. I imagine you’ve got some skill in engineering?”
“I am the one who built and maintains my suit,” Crimson Dynamo confirmed in that weird robotic way of his.
“Perfect. I’d like to ask you to help the other team,” Coulson nodded to each one as he spoke. “Skye, Fitz, Simmons. These things are flesh and machine. I’m going to need you to find out how they were made, where they came from, the works.”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll hack a… corpse, monkey, robot,” Skye frowned.
“Servitors,” I said, lifting a picture. “They look like them. Except for way nastier.”
“Worrying concept,” Crimson Dynamo said.
“Boris and I will speak to the government and see what we can pour on this. I’d like to get more BRIDGE resources on this, maybe some Russian military support. The rest of you have your assignments,” Coulson looked around at us. “Go.”
Everyone else left, leaving Winter Guard, Mikhail the world best Ivan Drago impersonator, and May. Creel and I shared a look.
“This should be fun,” he said with absolutely no enthusiasm.
“Eh, maybe,” I grabbed a chair nearby and shoved it closer to the Winter Guard, sitting down as casually as I could. “So. How do we do this?”
May and Mikhail shared a look. Finally, everyone started grabbing chairs. Except for Chernobog, who just watched everyone with those unsettling eyes.
“Let us start simply,” Mikhail looked between Creel and I. “Um, my English not good, do you mind if I speak Russian?”
May and I nodded. Creel was about to say something before I spoke up. “I’ll translate for you.”
Creel sighed in relief, then nodded.
Mikhail looked just as relieved. “Thank you. So, I already know of some of your capabilities. The heroes Dial and Alloy are well known to us. And the Cavalry is a respected combatant.”
Creel and I looked at May when Mikhail said that. She scowled. “Don’t call me that.”
Mikhail blinked. “Oh. My apologies if I offended, I-”
“Don’t worry about it,” May cut him off, clearly still annoyed. “So you know about us. And we have files on you,” she lifted one of the folders we’d been given. “How best can we work together in a combat scenario?”
“Well, clearly Dial will be good for any role,” Mikhail waved at me. “While Alloy would be best on the front-lines of any conflict. I must ask, do any of you have any conflicts in working with us? I would have wished for my people meeting and working with the Avengers to have a less… rough, introduction.”
“Nah,” I rested my head on my cheek. “It’s not a great first impression, but a very smart lady recently warned me about making assumptions.”
May smirked.
“I’m not here for politics,” Creel added. “Just tell us who to punch.”
Mikhail didn’t seem to know how to take that. He coughed, then continued to speak. “Very well. Then this is what I suggest. Vanguard is our most skilled field tactician, so I’d like him to take the lead. Now, when it comes to power, Chernobog is our most powerful member in close quarters…”
----
Dr. Leopold Fitz
“This is so exciting,” Simmons said happily as Crimson Dynamo led them through the halls. “More superheroes, a mission in Russia…”
“And monkeys,” Fitz reminded her. “Can’t forget that.”
“I think the superheroes are the best part,” Skye noted. “I mean seriously, is every superhero just built as the ultimate fantasy? Did you see the muscles on Vanguard?”
Fitz gulped. He hadn’t. He’d been more distracted by Fantasma. She’d been dressed so skimpily! How did she do that in Russia, with the cold?
“But that giant monster, the one called Chernobog,” Skye shuddered. “What is that thing?”
“A dark god,” Crimson Dynamo said. “In the old legends, he is, how you say… the opposite of all that is good in this world. He absorbs the energy of all things, but life is his preferred food.”
Fitz gulped. Well, that was terrifying. Seriously, he was on their superhero team? Granted, the Avengers had Hulk, but Hulk was so friendly! They’d had a food fight and everything! In comparison…
“Here we are,” Crimson Dynamo stepped under a doorway and slowly stepped in, careful not to damage the door.
Fitz followed inside and immediately held his nose. “O-Oh good god!”
Four corpses rested on tables. One was human, a poor man who had been ripped and burned to shreds. The other three were those monkey-robots that were the cause of all the hullaballo. And god help him, he really hated the smell of infection.
“God, this is so amazing,” Simmons whispered, making a beeline toward the cyborgs. “And so…”
“Disgusting?” Skye asked, holding her nose as well.
“Well, yes,” Simmons admitted. “But it’s also a rush job.”
“I thought the same,” Crimson Dynamo said. “If you excuse me, I will be back momentarily.”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Skye said. The giant armored figure stepped out of the room with some loud clanking noises. “Man, that is one crazy giant piece of armor.”
Fitz finally stepped up the ‘servitors’, as Dial had called them, and held his nose. Then he took a closer look, trying to block out the smell. “These look like… Cybertek enhancements? But not really. There’s modifications, genius ones. If there was more time put into them, they could have been integrated properly… these look almost like power cells, here. Not powerful, but enough for weapons and limb movement.”
“Here,” Crimson Dynamo walked back and held out a gas mask, the kind all labs that might have if dealing with dangerous chemicals and diseases would have. “I have armor, but you might need this, da?”
“Oh, thank you,” Fitz said, surprised but pleased. He quickly put it on and smiled at the taller figure. “How do I look?” he asked, voice muffled.
“Less grossed out,” Skye joked. “Anyway, guess I got to start the work too. Moon Prism Power, Make Up!”
Fitz watched as the backpack Skye had put on snapped open. She held out her arms with a smile. Pieces started moving outward, ‘rolling’ to cover her chest, back, legs, and arms, until a helmet snapped over her head. She stood there covered in her dark blue armor. The armor design had been changed on her request. Now, instead of another hard shell Iron Man suit, it looked like it was made up of segmented plates over an undersuit, with larger plates over vital areas, giving the user maximum mobility. The undersuit beneath looked like striations of dark muscle. Fitz could see her partially blurred face through the flat triangular piece of blue polymer that was her viewscreen. She lifted her arm and a holographic screen floated over her wrist.
“That is interesting,” Crimson Dynamo sounded surprised. “I have yet to crack the trick for doing that as carborundum alloy is far too dense for such a transformation, despite the increased durability and electrical absorption properties.”
“Electrical absorption?” Fitz turned to look at her. “That sounds fascinating! Did you make that alloy yourself?”
“Fitz,” he turned to look at Simmons, who had also put on a gas mask and was in the midst of slicing into a servitors chest. “Focus.”
“O-Oh, right,” he felt some embarrassment. “Well, the engineering is clearly upgraded from Cybertek.”
“It is sloppy, however,” Crimson Dynamo sounded almost offended. “The svolach who made them was more worried about speed. Look, here,” he pointed at where screws had been dug deep into flesh and steel. “The way the metal was ground down, the cuts were the debil seemed to lose patience and just slammed everything together.”
“And the organic parts are… strange,” Simmons frowned. “Look here, this doesn’t look right. Almost as though this was pieced together.”
“These power cells are the same way,” Fitz leaned down and shook his head. “They’re almost like weaker versions of Chitauri energy cells. There was a lot of efficiency sacrificed here. But… these limbs are still very powerful. And this seems to be an energy weapon?”
“Well, I’m going to see if there’s something I can hack here,” Skye circled the bodies with her arm held high, typing at her screen. Crimson Dynamo seemed amazed at the sight. “There’s got to be something… Okay, hold on. This looks-”
Suddenly all three bodies shook. Everyone froze. Not for long. Crimson Dynamo lifted his arms, lightning cracking to focus on the palms of his armored hands. “Ru-!”
The bodies erupted off the tables. Fitz shrieked, diving aside while Simmons screamed and stepped back. One body, the one whose body Simmons had been cutting into, rushed Crimson Dynamo with unsettling quietness, reaching out with a long steel arm tipped with long metallic fingers ending in blades. The blades slammed into Crimson Dynamo’s chest.
And bounced off.
“Мудак!” with that shout, Crimson Dynamo unleashed a blast. Pure lightning flew out from his arms and slammed into the creature, sending it flying back into a wall. A second creature landed on Crimson Dynamo and started clawing at him, the armored warrior snarling out more Russian as he made to grab the thing.
Fitz yelled again when the last of the three corpses jumped at him. He ducked, the monster flying over him to end up scratching at the wall instead. The creature spun and raised an arm that ended in a tube. A tube that glowed purple at the end.
“Oh, bloody hell!” Fitz leaped out of the way again, and a purple ball flew at where he’d been, melting the steel table he’d ducked near into molten slag. The logical part of Fitz’s mind noted it was a plasma bolt, and immediately worked on figuring out how it managed to be so precise, figuring out how the circuitry and coming up with improvements. The rest of him went to his mouth and screamed out the least logical thing it could. “Why monkey, why?!”
The creature ignored his screaming to aim at Fitz again. Its arm glowed.
Skye kicked it’s arm upward, sending the bolt flying into the ceiling and exploding to send stone raining down on them. The creature staggered back, then lifted both hands, swinging its arms at her. Skye blocked a punch and was sent skidding back several feet from the force of it. At the same time, the first corpse Crimson Dynamo had shot at leaped up and tried to land on Crimson Dynamo. The giant armored man caught the creature out of the air and ripped the one still clawing at him off of his back. “Ебать you!”
Skye fired the plasma casters in her suits gauntlets, two basketball-sized green balls flying forward, burning into her opponent's chest and setting the creature's flesh alight. Without a sound, it tried to rise up once more.
“Seriously?!” Skye shouted, shooting it again and sending it flying back where it shuddered on the floor.
Crimson Dynamo, at the same time, hugged the two creatures close. The sound of something charging filled the air. “Fall you yubani urody!” two metal arms crushed the creatures close with bone breaking force, and lightning suddenly erupted all around the armored man. It crackled loudly in a focused bubble, blinding Fitz. He slid back slowly in amazement, looking over at where Skye had killed one of the creatures, then back at the bubble of focused lightning. The lightning stopped moments later. Crimson Dynamo lifted and slammed the creatures onto the ground, growling. Fitz stared at the corpses. They were fried and charred, backs shattered by the immense strength of the armored man. Crimson Dynamo rose tall and looked over at Skye.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Skye winced and waved the arm she’d blocked the punch from the creature with. “Damn, those things hit hard.”
“T-There must have been some sort of sub-system, inside it?” Fitz shook his head. “Something that reacted when we tried to hack it?”
“Well, that wasn’t enough,” Skye said determinedly, walking up to the one she’d killed whose torso was a charred wreck. “I’m hacking what's left in this things head, and I’m damn well not letting some zombie monkey keep me from finding that asshole.”
Fitz struggled to his feet. “Y-Yeah, I’ll just-”
A man in a lab coat rushed into the room, shouting in surprise at the sight of three bodies turned to near ash, a table melted, and a hole in the ceiling. More people came in, shouting in Russian.
“I’ll speak with them,” Dynamo said. “Then we will find out where these came from.”
Fitz nodded, staring at the charred bodies thoughtfully.
----
Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
Coulson watched a frustrated Boris slam his phone down on his desk with a shout of, “Блять!”
“Oh wow,” Phil said in honest surprise. “I didn’t expect the language.”
Boris looked surprised, then chuckled. “Yes, well. Dynamo is a bad influence on me.”
“I know the feeling,” Coulson shook his head. “So, no chance they’re letting us call in more support?”
“Not without proof that the forces we already have cannot handle it,” Boris said sadly. “I am glad you brought your team and the Avengers. But I had to promise to do that little propaganda stunt to put that request through.”
“Well, our people should be enough,” Coulson walked up to the desk. “I’m not going to lie, knowing we’d have more superhumans on call is smart. But my team is made up of the best.”
“...As is mine,” Boris chuckled. “But I can’t help but worry. Thank you for putting politics aside to help us, Coulson.”
“...Do you remember Camilla Reyes?” Coulson said.
“The Peruvian woman?” Boris smirked. “I remember you took quite a shine to her, from what I heard.”
“I did,” Coulson was less amused. “I met her again, recently. Took a bit less of a shine to her this time. But, during our little scrap, I told her something I stick by. That the borders and colors we use to divide up the Earth matter a lot less when the world is threatened. This guy, Ivan. He’s a good example that we need to fight together, not against each other.”
Boris hesitated. “...Coulson-”
He was interrupted by an alarm that began to ring out across the base. Boris and Coulson shared a look before the phone rang. Boris picked it up.
“Yes, what is happening? ...Shut down the alarm then. If Dynamo says they handled it, then they handled it. Go ahead and get them everything they need,” Boris waited a moment, then hung up the phone.
“They have something?” Coulson asked.
“Yes and no,” Boris narrowed his eyes. “Things have gotten very strange, Coulson.”
“...Boris, you really have no idea.”