Chapter 214: Nine Lives

19th March 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I watched as my little curse worked and Alexander Pierce died from a heart attack. He was so adamant of his privacy that they didn’t even notice that something was wrong until he stopped answering any phone calls and missed coming to work the following morning. I observed as the events unfolded, pushing the first domino in Hydra’s little collapse. Scrying can be very useful when there aren’t any wards against it.

The previous day, I had asked the former Winter Soldier to infiltrate the base in Russia that had all of Hydra’s super soldiers that were made with Howard Stark’s imperfect serum that ended up getting him killed. It was a pretty close copy, if I was honest. But the man got stuck exactly where Dr. Erskine failed when he created the Red Skull. They didn’t realize that what they made was slowly becoming more than just science, and for men of logic, they just couldn’t grasp it. It was a ritual, which meant that something had to be given in return. It’s a principal law of magic, for something to be gained, something should be given in return. The equivalent exchange, but more conceptual than its physical counterpart.

The Red Skull had gained his strength but lost his humanity, his empathy. Captain America too paid that price, but this time, with me being involved, I was able to pick the price, which was pain, but Steve Rogers was always a broken boy, who was so self-sacrificial that it was absurd. He truly didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. It was wrong, and even then, the ritual enhanced even his suicidal tendencies. I had to mess a lot with the ritual for it to return something that resembles a human being. Steve Rogers became a man of true good, and it disgusted me. Humanity is principally flawed; negative emotions are fundamental to our existence. Someone this altruistic shouldn’t exist. It was an abomination. It was why I limited my contact with Rogers even after his return.

The sky is blue, the moon orbits the Earth, the Earth orbits the sun, and humanity is flawed. It was a fact, something undisputable. It was because of these flaws that they could live and grow. Without them, they would just be things. Men were creatures of conflicts that craved peace. War causes each side to desperately want it to end, the intellectuals try to think of new and creative ways of ending the wars, which are then implemented, and should they work and the conflict end, another will begin soon because of someone power hungry, or vengeful, or just greedy. It was human nature; the circle of conflict and peace and it has been like this for thousands of years.

Steve Rogers broke that cycle, a man without hate, without anger, without greed, without selfishness, was no man at all. He might look like one, but he’s still a broken boy whose goal is helping people until he inevitably dies. Perhaps one day, he might regain a shard of what he lost. Perhaps, he could start feeling once more, do something selfish for once, but it was a slim possibility, that I hope for his sake would come true.

Now, that’s what happened to a ritual I mitigated. Imagine a ritual where a price is not determined. The subject could pay with anything, and in this case, the Russians’ super soldiers paid with their minds. They were barely more than animals, wanting nothing more than to fight, with no concept of loyalty. They could easily be used to cause mayhem, but you would have no control over them whatsoever, and thus no control over the chaos that they would cause.

Their danger was too much for me to just let them stay in Hydra’s hands. I asked Bucky to kill them, ending their suffering. It was mercy, in a way. May they have the peace in death that they would never have found in life.

With that done, I waited for Pierce’s death to release Alfred’s cyber attacks on Hydra’s finances. I spoke up, “Alfred, start operation Nine Lives.”

“Of course, Miss.”

The virtual intelligence had sounded a bit too gleeful at my order. He must have been a bit miffed that Hydra tried to kill his creator. Still, this was the biggest blow against Hydra that they could receive, even with their biggest asset, SHIELD, being under review from the UN.

I needed for Pierce to be dead when I started the attack, because he was the only one who had access to Hydra’s entire financial web. Being the leader, he needed to know how every penny was being used. He was a bit of a control freak, but in an organization of cut throats like Hydra, it wasn’t surprising that he resorted to measures like this.

Still, the way Hydra was being divided was brilliant, in a way, and yet would be the cause of their downfall. The organization was divided into cells. There was the SHIELD cell, which was divided into smaller cells for every department. Hydra agents didn’t know who else was a member of the organization outside their own cell. But each cell had a leader of sorts who was only aware of the leaders of the other cells and reported to the leader of the larger cell. It went on like this for every branch of the organization. It was this secrecy that allowed Hydra to spread like this and have almost no whistle blowers. The problem was, that if someone were to get rid of Pierce and every member that was just below him, all at once, then no one would actually have a real grasp of the functionality of the organization. And with no money to pay for anything, the organization would be crippled. The infighting would start because of the lack of orders and money. Most would leave, and the rest would try to take over a defunct organization, with almost no connections since they would have almost no idea what the other cells contained.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After that, it would only be a matter of time before the entire organization dies with a whimper.

I gleefully watched as every Hydra account got corrupted and erased from existence. There was no sign of their existence, and no one will be able to notice anything different.

From my scrying, I was able to see that the Hydra higher ups started to realize what happened to Pierce and were meeting later in the day in a hotel to decide on a new leader. It was a security risk, but it was one that they needed to take. It was tradition for the higher ups to swear servitude to the new leader. Now, every high-level member of the organization from every country would be in a giant conference, in a location that I already knew about. It was almost too easy. I created a small portal and added a small decorative vase in the meeting room. The vase was enchanted with a sleeping spell and an explosive spell, that would vaporize anything in the entire floor; I didn’t care about collateral damage, since Hydra booked the entire floor to avoid anyone accidentally stumbling into their meeting.

It was almost too easy. With that in place, the only major asset Hydra had left was SHIELD, and I grinned as I read the article I engineered.

SHIELD, PROTECTORS OF THE WORLD OR ITS INVADERS?

By Ben Urich

‘A few days ago, one of the most significant events in human history occurred, one that people will speak of for centuries to come. We now have confirmation that there is other sentient life in the universe, and it isn’t benevolent. The details are still uncertain, and no public statement has been made by anyone with information about the invasion, but we know for certain that the Norse god Loki attempted to invade our planet using an alien army that he transported here by opening a giant portal over New York City. Thankfully, with the help of a new team of superheroes that are now dubbed as the Avengers, which also included Loki’s brother Thor, who wanted to stop his brother’s invasion, Loki being a rogue from Asgard, were able to repel the invasion with a surprisingly low amount of casualties and property damage for the scale of the conflict.

It was without a doubt a victory for humanity, but it also had some very dangerous implications, especially in regards to the peace keeping organization known as the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short.

The organization in question is supposed to be a global one, under the UN’s supervision, and was created to avoid large scale conflicts especially after World War Two. It was surprisingly effective during the cold war and was able to diffuse many situations that could have escalated into nuclear weaponry being launched, which makes their mistake even more ironic. For some reason, while the situation seemed to be contained by the Avengers, the World Security Council, the council that decides SHIELD’s actions, had judged the situation to be too hostile and sent a nuclear weapon to New York city, despite the current director’s objections.

This was, of course, leaked on the internet, probably by some outraged hacker who found out what happened. People were outraged and demanding accountability, as a mistake of this scale could have caused the deaths of millions of American citizens, and probably caused the death of the Morrigan, a member of the Avengers, who was able to contain the blast. We are still unclear on whether or not she survived, and no member of the Avengers was available to comment on our speculation.

But outside of firing a nuclear weapon into a populated city, a weapon that they shouldn’t even have access to in the first place, SHIELD’s mistakes could be seen as somewhat understandable. We waited for the current UN investigation to finish to make our conclusions, but alas, a few of SHIELD’s projects were leaked yesterday which could have some disturbing implications. One of the main ones was a project labeled as INSIGHT, which consists of satellites orbiting the Earth that would be capable of firing weapons with extreme measures. I wasn’t the only one who felt how disturbing this is. SHIELD planned on pretty much having a gun constantly pointed at every man, woman and child on this planet. What would happen if one SHIELD director decided that they wanted to kill someone, or take over a country? What if someone infiltrates SHIELD, or even worse, what if there was a bug in the program? I don’t even want to think about something like this falling into the wrong hands. Was this the peace that SHIELD pretends to serve? Because with that weapon in the sky, SHIELD would have conquered the world. No one could oppose them.

That’s not mentioning that the invasion itself happened because SHIELD had been experimenting on some sort of energy source which activated and teleported Loki to our planet in the first place. The evidence could be seen in a security video of Loki’s arrival that was leaked as well.

People have been trying to deny some of these plans, but so far SHIELD hasn’t commented on the supposed leaks and the truthfulness of their documents, which is very telling.

With that said and done, we have to wonder. Is SHIELD really worth the risk they pose? In the end, the decision is in the UN’s hands, and we can only hope that they make the right choice.’

I have to admit, this little article was a masterpiece, a seed of doubt coupled by facts. In a few hours, everyone would have searched for the information leaked on the internet. In a week, SHIELD’s budget would be slashed while it’s under investigation, which will inevitably cause the dissolution of the organization in a few months, under the public’s pressure. This was the power of the media, the power of a company I made because I was bored.

I looked at the time and found that the Hydra higher ups were in the middle of the meeting. I scried the hotel they were staying at and found them arguing about how to proceed. I mentally activated the enchantments on the vase that I put in there earlier, knocking them out. The cameras were disabled because of their paranoia, and I grinned at this. I observed as over five hundred Hydra officials, the true backbone of the organization, slumped and fell asleep. People from all around the globe had flown in, just to attend this meeting. With that done, I activated the second enchantment on the vase, and it caused an explosion powerful enough to level the entire floor. Luckily, their meeting was in the top floor, which means that the building wouldn’t be in danger of collapsing.

I grinned to myself, an entire global organization. I killed them with barely a few spells, without me even actively fighting them. I barely even left my mansion. And thus, Hydra was no more, going out not with a bang, but with a whimper.