"Well, Mr. Trent," Strucker said when we saw each other again for the first time after I had killed the Maximoffs. I felt that in my stomach, a pit that wouldn't quite go away, that couldn't be banished by pure logic.
It had been a disaster for him, of course. The bodies of the twins were found immediately, we had risked no agents in their disposal. Video tape from the Wizard phone I had monitored had released to the internet, the masked Winter Soldier still unrecognizable as Bucky Barnes, the riots had returned to Sokovia, the military - many of whom had children at the Christmas Protest - refused to march on Novi Grad. That taught me an important lesson about using the body control gas on anyone I left alive. The local police force let them into the halls of government. It was over for that quaint little oligarchy and a new election would be held. Pietro and Wanda were national martyrs, murdered by a repressive state. They had, in death, gotten what they wanted.
I had warned Strucker he had to choose between the regime or the twins.
"Congratulations as your new station, sir." Strucker said, raising both fists to me in salute. "Hail Hydra!"
"Hail Hydra!" I said in reply. It was a relief.
The rest of the group came in slowly, sitting down around the table. Stern had been promoted to a new head and he was sitting just as smarmy as ever. How that man had ever been elected to public office was beyond me. Besides, the electoral successes that had won him a seat were mostly my work anyway. Strucker took his seat. after the Seikh. Pierce stood up next to me as Whitehall took his seat.
"I believe in you, Michael," Pierce said. "With you at the helm, Hydra will achieve its destiny. I can feel it in my bones."
"Thank you, Alexander," I said. I couldn't call him sir now.
The bankers came and took their seats, the Swiss one and the American one, the Baroness got there fashionably late, and Gideon Malick filled out the last chair. I took a drink of the grape juice I had for this meeting. It wouldn't due to be drinking a Dr. Pepper. I was getting anxious about what was coming next. I had done so much to reach this moment and now it was here and I had to make sure that all that work, all that blood, wasn't for nothing.
"Brothers and sister," I said, motioning to my audience. Only one woman, a sign of how meritocracy often worked in practice here. And almost all white, excepting the Seikh. Talent that we could be using was missing, I was going to have to fix that. "Today, Hydra enters the 21st not as strangers but as citizens. Our cause, which is the cause of mankind, has never been stronger. SWORD is the most popular organization on the globe and even now, Hydra agents are recruiting from the best and brightest of a hundred countries. Our environment is healing from years of short sighted rapacity. Human illness is being routed from the embattled position it took up in the aftermath of penicillin. Our research has wounded death and the labor from within the tomb makes us daily richer. Our soldiers are stronger and braver and more prepared for any difficulty. International warfare is at an all time low as nations put aside their differences and work together against their common foes. Resources are being deliver, by Hydra, and the wealth of space is now ours to command.
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But I do not want you to believe that I intend to rest on my laurels. My intentions with Hydra for the next five years are straightforward. We must ensure, above all else, that the earth is secure. Even above the necessary reputation maintenance of our most important organization, nothing we possess will be of any value if Thanos destroys half the human race. I intend to continue to advance this interest.
Next, Hydra has long intended to achieve world domination. It has sought to do so by seizing the centers of administrative, enforcement, and financial power in the West. This strategy has been successful in many respects, but it leads broad vulnerabilities. My SWORD Academies have begun to recruit many talented and ambitious figures from the developing world. We must facilitate their growth and ambition, even as we contribute to the development and industrialization of their countries. Once we have united these new elites together in our service, it will become easier for us to replaced failed regimes with sympathetic ones, forming a long term base of political power in the developing world.
Finally, I know that we have all made various sacrifices. The body of Remus is on the floor. Much death, much chaos, has been paid to consecrate our founding stones. These sacrifices have not availed us yet of the everlasting dominion of peace and security that we all envision. I want you to know that your vision, your sacrifice, has not gone unnoticed. We have begun to establish an everlasting order which will enwrap the globe. That order shall be Hydra and all our works. Hail Hydra!" I said, holding aloft my glass.
"Hail Hydra!"
——
Natasha and Bruce had been working this angle for ages and when the rumors of Sokovia using illicit mind control had leaked, she knew it couldn't be kept to herself any longer. She had to tell Fury, try to get a new perspective, and a way to actually find hard proof.
"The disappearance of Hank Pym as his own shrink particles were taking off, the mind control gas in Sokovia after he departed from there to his wife's pregnancy, the twins ability and his spontaneous ownership of the Super Soldier Serum?" Natasha said, sliding the files over to Fury, "It all points in one direction. Michael Gideon Trent, the world's golden boy."
"Pointing isn't proving," Fury said, opening the file and thumbing through the pages. It was a thin stack of papers. Trent was a paranoid bastard. "But it's a start."