Electrify - Volume 1 Chapter 19

The past few day, I had literally scoured all the existing shield data bases or at least those that were connected to the internet. If I were to push any further than this, it could legally be called an act of terrorism. What that turned up was nothing, not a single mention of Peter’s parents. However, there were many labs trying to decode the formula for decades. Some of which were still active. I visited the one in Atlanta where Peter’s parents were last seen before the place crash. Well, there was no evidence of them being at the lab but they were in the vicinity. I found a rather sophisticated set up and the research here was ground breaking in many areas, especially in Replacement Organ programs. They had basically found a way to do it properly, at least in theory but they could not move to live testing on the grounds of ethics. I did them all a favor and allowed them to conduct the experiments but the Material was to come from the lead scientist. There were sub levels to this facility but no indication of the serum ever being replicated. However, I did find a few notes on spider venom. Hmm, so there is a slight chance that Peter’s theory was viable.

I felt the place soon with empty hands but there were only 2 other facilities in the world which had ever dabbled in the serum, and only 7 other places even remotely capable of running the operation necessary to produce it. I asked TACT to keep my presence on these sites low and scrub all chatter and recordings of me. The next week I spent roaming around the world, looking for signs. I finally got something in the form of a reagent at Switzerland. It was capable of awakening dormant X-gene but only worked under in human levels of stress. It was not hidden in any way at the lab itself but there was no record of it in the system. There were express orders that it was never to be tested or used. I did however, find a trace of money leading to a company called Roxxon. It trail was well hidden as it had been done through 700 shell corporations around the globe.

I had traced one of the lead researchers of this company to a person called Doctor Herbert Wyndham. One of the turnover scientists from German extremists group, aka Hydra. I looked up for other turnovers but only found a single name significant, Armin Zola but that guy was dead before Wyndham. However, there was more than overwhelming evidence or lack there of, indicating that there is no more Hydra. I calmed down and imagined for a moment that there was Hydra still out there trying to take over the world. However, there is now also a shadow organization that blankets the world, trying to stop exactly what Hydra was planning. The best move would be to infiltrate and use the oppositions resources for your own purposes. X-gene serum, super soldier serum, and near endless supply of personnel and cash, sounds like a plan to take over the world alright. I sighed and headed back to New York and texted Peter to come meet me in private.

“Did you open the drive?” I asked him as soon as he arrived at he location.

“Yep, and I was a mind blowing surprise alright.” He said with a nervous chuckle.

“Damn, I had a few conclusions but nothing too concrete. You go first.” I said and waited.

“Well, turns out my parent were genuinely trying help the world by reinventing the serum, but their employers were not exactly good guys. They had me and soon after, they cracked it but at the same time they also found out that bad guys are well bad and in a desperate attempt to hide to serum they gave it to me. However, the serum didn’t work due to lack of what Erskine called Vita rays. Later, spider radiation caused this.” Peter said pointing to himself and sighed. “The strange thing is that when I tried to load the data, the Hydra symbol showed up and a program tried to send out a signal. Tried being the key word here.”

“F.u.c.k, I followed a money trail to a guy named Wyndham, a former Hydra scientist.” Peter’s eyes widened. “The company named Roxxon has a serum that activates X-genes under lethal stress and this company has covert ties with Shield.”

“Hmm, let me get this straight, we are working for an spy organization that has been infiltrated by a another secret Nazi spy organization.” He said and I nodded.

“F.u.c.k.i.n.g Nazis.” I said and chuckled along with Peter.

“Were f.u.c.k.i.e.d aren’t we?” Peter said as he looked at me and I nodded.

“Now, we need to figure out who exactly works for Hydra and follow the trail to the top.” I said.

“We need to keep this quiet and be very selective of the missions we do.” Peter added. “Do you thing Fury is Hydra?”

“Could be.” I began to fly but Peter stopped me and pulled out a few papers and handed them to me.

I liked through them and was mesmerized by the Biology and Chemistry involved to even begin to write something like this. There were equations upon equations and finally a single page consisting of a single formula. My eyes widened as the weight of this information dawned on me. The f.u.c.k.i.n.g Super soldier serum formula, was now in my memory. I looked at Peter who was looking at me nervously. I activated my powers and evaporated the papers.

“Before you say anything, I did this so I would not be the only one with this knowledge and burden.” Peter looked ashamed. “I am sorry man.”

“I actually not a big problem. I already have three world ending items, what’s another?” I said with a sigh.

“Three?” Peter raised an eye brow at me.

“Yeah, remember that Extremis Virus that made people explode. A reality destroying space thingy and a weapon of the gods.” I said with a smirk.

“Wow, and a weapon of the gods?” He looked a bit confused, so I raised both my hands and summoned Abyss.

With a thunderclap, the 2meter long stick appeared in my hands. Peter looked surprised and tried to touch it but I stopped him immediately.

“Yeah, you touch these baby and you feel my full power lightning blast.” I said with a smirk.

“Dude, I just want to touch it.” Peter said.

“I would allow you to touch it but it can only be held by me. If any on else touches them, they get shocked literally.” I said and kept it back I to my pouch. “It is like Thor’s hammer.”

“Oh. I would love to take that to the lab for testing.” Peter said with a sigh and handed me a pen drive. “The rest of the research data is in there. I cleaned it of any weird programs but still only open it in a safe space.” Peter warned me.

“OK. Peter, you can still come with me to learn magic. We have tons of stuff like this over there.” I offered him but he shook his head and sighed.

“I can’t. I have my hands full, with Shield, Felecia and the team. I am barely juggling everything I have. Appreciate the offer though.” Peter said and we both went out separate ways.

I headed to the HQ and put in an appointment see Fury. I also asked TACT to get in touch with Jarvis and find all the information regarding the hero Identities and clean them off the system. I went to the hangar area and immediately found something very interesting. Three huge Helicarriers were being constructed and by the looks of it, Tony had a made a few of his improvements to it. What shocked me was the sheer amount of gun turrets being fitted into the damn thing. Are the hoping to take down a few nations with this? Oh, right. Hydra, they were planning exactly that aren’t they. I went closer to the construction and downloaded all the specs and plans for this, a few engineers tried to stop me but one look from me was all it took for them to look away. There was a few minor key differences in all the tree carriers, probably a contingency for stopping the same area being targeted. By the time, I reached the third carrier, an entire team of armed guards had surrounded the terminals to keep me away from them. The S.T.R.I.K.E teams, and its captain, all of them to keep me from one terminal.

I simply sped up and appeared in front of the terminal and began downloading. It was over before all of them could even turn around. I removed my phone from the terminal and turned around to see all of them looking at me with wide eyes.

“Agents, you have exactly 5 minutes to convince me why you were trying to stop me from accessing key strategic information. If you fail to convince me, you will be charged with assault on a superior officer. Any resistance will be considered an attack on personnel and will be dealt with extreme prejudice.” I said.

“We don’t answer to you.” A soldier said and many other nodded.

“Sir, we were only trying to lessen the exposure to the key programming, just in case a problem occurs due to tampering.” The captain said with a smile but I could see the hatred in his eyes.

“nice save, Agent.” I said and walked away.

I immediately flew to home and set up harsher restrictions on the wards around this place. I went back to the cave and made Two bracelets, with shields and a beacon to alert me if anything happens to mom and also her boyfriend. The bracelet also had a charms to make it very durable. I got into civilian clothes and headed home.

“Maxwell, how are you sweetheart. I missed you.” She said as she pulled me into a hug.

“I am good, mom. How have you been?” I asked.

Like that we spent the entire evening talking about random stuff. Well, actually she did all the talking and I listened with a smile. We had a nice supper when Frank came along and I finally offered them a present. They both were shocked because it looked super expensive and frankly it was a bit expensive, when I considered it as a college student. However, I told them that once they put it on, they could not take it off without breaking it. Mom, put it on with any hesitation while Frank took a but of convincing to put it on. I smiled and hugged them both before leaving.

Their safety meant a lot and with them secured I was at peace. I made one for Peter’s aunt as well and told him what it did and he was grateful. With that out of the way, I began to looking into Brock Rumlow, the strike team captain. He held a few military tours and medal of honors, was a part of FBI assault team before Shield hired him. His record was spotless, no errors, no investigations, no internal complaints and finally no love affairs. The f.u.c.k? If they wanted to make it look real, at least they could have added in some sort of mistakes and complains here and there. The f.u.c.k is this? I sighed and began to make notes about promotions and hires with such spotless records. Much to my disappointment, there were only a handful of such cases, the rest had some sort of fines and other things making them seem normal. However, if there were other patterns, such as forcefully grouping and nonsensical denials of entry into some other groups. As TACT went through the data, the numbers began to stack up to 5000 and this was just the lower shield agents. I then looked at FBI, CIA, Homeland and State police. The numbers finally crossed 10,000. Then came the illegal bribes wired through the off shore accounts and shell corporations. The numbers were just climbing and this was just the USA there more and more countries which have such hires and record that’s were too clean to even exist. I pulled up the records of Shield agents and all know shield workers. The number went straight through the roof. Around a Million people working for the Shield. Around 50,000 agents.

How do I even begin to solve this? May be TACT can bug all the devices and sift through all the data remotely? Seems, plausible. I sighed and let TACT gather the required data. He claimed that he could technically using the local resources but to this without arising suspicion will take time, about 2 weeks to do this for USA and around 6 months for the rest of the world. With that settled, Peter and I got together and designed a ridiculously OP virus, with the help of TACT. I even used Toths eye for added benefits. At the end of it, we got a super virus, that could self replicate itself into all known computers on the planet, while detecting key information regarding Hydra. It was efficient and accurate, we even used another algorithm to confirm Hydra agents based on their social media or daily routines. Feeling proud of ourselves, we hit the button and the virus began to infect. Within half an hour, 30% of the US devices were already affected.

It took us a week to do all this and as the data parsed, we got another dreadful information. Fury had an assassination attempt and had passed away in the OR. Peter, left for the hospital while I had to stay put and manage Shield. Agent Hill was absent from the duty and so was Natasha, the morale was low and people were scared. If the badass Director could be killed off, what was the life of a low level employees. Some questioned my ability to lead, while others simply followed the chain of command. I used my super speed and burned through the paper work at break neck speed. After assigning the cases and missions, I was finally free to look into Fury’s death. Peter had stated that Fury’s heart had stopped and he confirmed it, but he had only seen the body for a mere minute before Maria had kicked everyone out.

Fury was apparently shot in Steve’s apartment and according to Steve it was an assassin, with either a metal arm or a metal armor like Tony but only on the hand sort of deal and he was also enhanced like Steve. This opened more questions that it answered. I opened up the Fury’s first assassination attempt, and saw a man using rocket launcher without any visible recoil. Definitely enhanced but still, no sign of a metal arm. Then a squad entered the scene and tried to finish off Fury, by using a battering ram to destroy the glass. Fury open fired and killed many of them, escaping soon after. I went through the footage a few time and detected a pattern of movement, this formation was a classic shield agent move. Also, the symbols and gestures used by them is Shield. I sighed and called Peter.

I examined to him everything and he sighed. Fury despite being an asshole, was a good man and didn’t deserved to gunned down in a friend’s home. I went to base and took a seat in the cafeteria, I was playing with my food because I didn’t really have an appetite at the moment. I detected a person walking from behind me.

“Maxwell, I am going to a concert with my friends. They said that you could come with us.” Fiore said and took a seat opposite to me.

Fiore was about to continue about this concert but I felt the spell activate from her side and she looked at me with wide eyes. Guess, she must has felt that I was a bit sad.

“Maxwell, Is everything fine.” She asked.

“Not really. A friend just died.” I said and looked at her.

“My condolences.” She said and touched my hand for a moment before pulling away in shock.

She must have not realized that she was inadvertently trying to console me and that was not how she wanted to present herself to me. Despite the embarrassing moment she stayed with me for a while. I had enjoyed the little gesture as well and I brought a smile to my face. Seeing me smile, caused her to blush a bit and she started to look at her phone instead of me.

“That was very nice of you.” I said and she blushed.

“Tell me, about this friend.” She said never looking away from the phone.

“He was a raging asshole, very scary, I never knew much about him and a few times, I even wished that he was dead. Yet, he was nice in his own way.” I said with a chuckle and Fiore looked at me.

“Doesn’t sound like much of a friend.” She said.

“He wasn’t, but the circ.u.mstances of his death are making me sad.” I said and imagined a similar fate for me.

“He was lucky to have you as one.” She said and finally made eye contact.

I don’t know what is going on, but suddenly Fiore looks even better than before. Her pink cheeks and bright green eyes seemed more inviting. We closer to each other and soon we were mere inches away from each other and I could almost feel her breath. My phone rang and that pulled us out of what ever was happening. I could feel my heart beating a million miles an hour while Fiore simply looked at me and walked away. Who ever it was, someone better be dying.

“Kid.” I heard his voice and immediately began tracing the call.

“If it isn’t a dead man. What fire and brimstone also has a cell service now?” I said and I heard him chuckle weakly.

“The news about my death was greatly exaggerated.” He said and I could almost feel h grin.

“Where are you?” I asked and he did reply.

“There are a few things I need and I have sent you a list. Come as soon as possible.” He said and waited for a while before cutting the line.

The list was a bunch of pharmaceutical drugs for treating a wide variety of infections and pain. While, the other things included guns, bombs and armors. I gathered up the stuff and headed to the location, which was in New Jersey. It was a abandoned construction site, I made a few rounds around it and found out a dummy wall. I pushed against it and it revealed a set of stairs going down. I headed inside and followed the dimly lit corridor to a large room. It was an ambush but it was done by the people I thought I could trust. Steve, Natasha and Hill, all of them pointing guns at me along with another black guy.

“You too, Steve. I thought that you had to be one of the good guys since, you fought them before any of us.” I said and they all looked confused.

“Kid, come here.” Fury said from the door behind them.

“Boss, the kid knows.” Maria yelled and waited for instructions.

“Send him in.” Fury said and they all moved away from me.

I entered the room and saw a very injured Nick Fury. I went closer to him and took a seat.

“Why do you know about this?” Fury said and looked at me.

“Peter and I knew from about almost 10 months. Remember, the first case. Since, then.” I said and he sighed.

“Why didn’t you approach me?” He asked and chuckled. “The meds are turning my brain to mush. What do you know about the moles?”

“They are hydra, definitely related to Herbert Wyndham and may be Armin Zola. They have more than 6000 in Shield, 5000 in other agencies, no idea about the political scene. However, in two days, I will have a list about exactly how many there are in the states.” I said and Fury looked surprised.

“Damn, the Insight carriers will take off in 3 days. I don’t know if we have enough time.” He said with a sigh. “We have to do some thing.” He said and tried to sit.

“Fury, you should lay down.” Stave said and Hill immediately propped Fury up.

“No, what I need is a plan. How do we stop hydra?” He asked.

“There is no stopping it. We will destroy it.” Steve said as he shook in rage.

“But Shield is Hydra, how do we go about that?” Natasha added.

“It goes, it all goes. No more secrets, no more lies.” Steve said and Fury sighed.

“Destroy Shield? Are you insane? How are you going to do that?” I said and Steve looked at me.

“I my bare hands if I have to.” He said and I shook my head.

“Yeah, right. Crazy talk aside. Me and Peter actually have a plan. The new Carrier are the most sophisticated of their kind. They have enough power and to make them a make shift command centers while we gather up the Shield members and do a combined verdict in front of the U.N.” I said and Hill pulled up her tablet and began to check the viability of my plan.

“It can be done. However, there will be a communication problems.” She said and I shrugged.

“TACT and Jarvis will take care of that.” I said and she nodded.

“Steve, what do you think?” Natasha asked.

“I think that it is doable, however the problem remains. Shield is no longer what it was meant to be.” He said. “It stood for justice and protection. Now, it is a abomination.”

“Try telling that to the children I saved from the prostitution ring. Or try telling that to the literal tons of drugs I pulled from the streets. Also, why don’t you try telling that to the lab assistants, or the computer guys who are just toiling away with a belief that they are making a difference.” I said and Steve looked shocked.

“Yeah, why don’t you justify my son’s death and Peggy’s torture.” Steve said and came up to me.

“What happened to your son was unjust, and cruel. Yet, it still doesn’t wash away the good. Hydra did that, Shield was used.” I said and Steve walked away.

“That was a d.i.c.k move.” The black guy said. “He had been through a lot.”

“And you are?” I asked and he huffed.

“This is Sam Wilson, a pararescue airman from military.” Hill introduced him.

“Maxwell Dillon, college student and super spy hero.” I said and pulled off my helmet.

“You should be in school.” He said visibly uncomfortable with my age.

“Tell that to my powers.” I said and began to pull out he meds and the guns from my pouch.

Everyone looked at me as I broke common sense and physics at the same time, but no one commented. Once all the stuff was out I handed Maria a secure phone and walked away.

“I must be High as a kite.” I heard fury say and I was out of earshot by then.