If Schmidt was to have been completely honest with himself, he wasn't exactly sure whether or not this thing that HYDRA had ended up making would have even worked in terms of stablizing raw magic energy. The powers of the tesseract when used by HYDRA even when dubbed "safe" was still dangerous enough to the point that no one in the right mind would have as much as a tiny fragment of it would send anything that wasn't nailed down in at least a ten foot radius flying. So... when dealing with an alternate power source, the Red Skull wasn't exactly too keen on coming THIS FAR for things like safety, but he wasn't too interested in getting vaporized either. So... he obviously would have needed a safety net. In short... a little field test if you could call it that.
As every volatile compound would have it's own stablizer, his stabilizer was currently in a cage besides the machine. A rather large (in terms of the subject's size) operating chair was placed besides the device, where if one would look at the center, was a piece made for specifically containing the six elements of Harmony. As of now however, a mundane gem from a certain city made of crystal was placed in. Though it's magical abilties would be mere pittance compared to the power of some of the most powerful magical artifacts in existence, it would perhaps be good for a test.
Rumlow took a look at what would be the stabilizing agent of the raw power that HYDRA was about to harness. Or rather... it would be more accurate to say this was going to be their source of the means to allow them to use raw magic to power their means of conquest without having anything backfiring upon them. Like how a windmill refined wheat, this... thing would allow them to refine magical energies, granting them the ability to create a vaporizer rifle without blowing themselves up in the process.
Maybe... maybe... he felt somewhat bad for it. IT would have to be alive during the process of which they were harnessing the powers of magic... and mind you, this process was probably going to be very painful. Especially when it required the subject to be donating a portion of their blood flow every time to the device. He took another look at the subject, how Schmidt and Strucker referred to her as an "it".
It... was a her. A small girl, perhaps no more than 9 or 10. She was only semi-concious at the moment which was good when they strapped her in, unknowing what was going on. At her wrist was a patient wristband that read the name:
"Christiane Barkhorn"
Rumlow took a good look at the patient again as he made his way down... she looked familiar... only he had no clue to where to place her. He didn't remember too much about meeting anyone that looked like her or could have been any relation. Whatever...
He made his way down as the men finished strapping her in, though one could easily debate to whether or not that was neccessary since it hardly looked as though their specimen would make any resistance. Two large needles pierced her wrists as they sat her down, the red liquid began to flow.
"So... what's this all for?" The scarred man asked as Strucker grinned nastily at the procedure while Schmidt sat back, not really caring too much on all that was going on save for the fact they were getting their job done.
"Raw magic is quite unstable." Strucker began as the crystal was placed in. "So... we do need something to stablize it. Luckily for us... we found just the thing."
"A little girl?"
"Not just any kinder..." Strucker began. "She is... a vat do I call it... a fledging vitch... if I may... one who has not yet discovered her power... but still has the potential to be of use to us."
"So... she is a witch?" Rumblow asked with disbelief. "As in..."
"Ja." Strucker cut him off, knowing perfectly well what he was going to say. "You see... getting a vitch who has manifested her powers already vould be rather difficult. Ze kinder have a tendency of being several times stronger than most men... so... we picked one zat hadn't found it's powers yet. Right here."
"So... why did you have to go all the way to some alternate universe to get a witch?"
"Zey don't exist in our vorld Herr Rumlow. Only in a certain one under assualt by fierce aliens. It's a paticular vorld." Strucker said as Schmidt made his way over. "Mein Herr... Warum gehst du nicht zu erklären?"
"Imagine a place where ze Führer never made his place among Europe. Where foreign creatures try to take the earth as their own. The only defense against such a fierce threat are young girls with magical powers. Zeir are SOME... males, only a few. But zat doesn't matter. Vat matters is zat vith zis vitch... ve vill have ze power zat HYDRA needs to launch a campagin beyond mortal comprehension. I could expect however... zat not everyone vill be receiving HYDRA's advance poorly... suppose... a vorld zat is in need of some new advances could surely take us well? Like zis one? Or another vorld under assualt by vicious giants? Ve... have ze means to rule all now.... but of course, if zis verk. Doctor... begin ze test."
The test begun as the lever was pulled. The blood that had been drawn soon mixed with what could be described as an ether or energy contained with a special kind of transparent container. They would have plenty of blood left over for perhaps hundreds of more crystals, and as of now, they had only drawn perhaps... a few tea spoons worth of the liquid from their hapless victim.
The Red Skull grinned wickedly as he held up the finished product. A blue glow issued from the device he held, like the core of a vaporizer rifle. The scientists and doctors looked over at what they got. A large bag of crystals was soon brought in.
"Don't exhaust our patient just yet... save zat for ze elements." Schmidt ordered as held up the finished product. They could make more vaporizer weapons now... and with those weapons, they would weild the power of the gods themselves.
"Hail HYDRA."
"Okay... okay..." Trude huffed as she wiped sweat from her brow and took a greedy gulp of water. With a scowl, she said the words. "You win. You win."
"Beaten by an old man huh?" Steve chuckled as he sat down by the grass, not a single bead of sweat coming off his head. "You're not bad kid. Better than that guy I run with every morning."
"You lapped me like eighteen times."
"Well... I lap him like thirty times." Steve chuckled. "Again kid you're not bad... but can I ask a question."
"Sure." Barkhorn replied.
"Why don't you wear any pants?" Steve asked. Granted... it's not like he was getting distracted or anything... though someone one of these days is going to get the wrong idea.
"Remember that device that Erica was wearing when we all first met?"
"Yeah. A striker unit..."
"Witches have to go pantless to operate it, or it doesn't work properly. To keep everyone at least SOMEWHAT prepared, everyone tends to wear shorter pants. Though... I suppose where you are from, the women wear longer pants?"
"Yes... and that when we first met, Sanya also wore a skirt... and stockings... so you and Erica both running around without anything... well... down there was a bit... odd..." Steve said. Don't get him wrong... he wasn't in the least bit interested in women who were at least 80 years younger than he was and neither was anyone he knew of... though Bucky had taken it a bit of the wrong way. Something about "prancing showgirls" he had described them. Speaking of Bucky... guess who was coming right here?
You can tell by Barkhorn's reaction that she wasn't liking it too much. Though Bucky's expression would never say it, the sight of a young woman in a SS uniform AND being pantless was enough for the normally calm guy to want to go break something. This usually would have been said person that had incured his wrath had it not been the fact that said person by default would put up one hell of a fight.
Tough witch. Bucky thought to himself as he looked at Trude, the canine ears hanging out from the top of her head would make this statement take on a whole new meaning.
"Hey Bucky." Steve smiled at his friend who smiled back, doing his best not to look at Barkhorn, Barkhorn's uniform, or the fact she was pretty much in her underpants.
"Whatcha up to."
"Just had a footrace." Steve said as he looked around at the multi-colored horses on the track which were intently gazing at the strange new creatures in town. (Well... not really new... but the strange creatures that are back now!). A few were snapping photos, few others had hushed conversations and a certain mint colored unicorn was busy drooling any muttering something about hands.
"What's running gonna do to help?" Bucky began. "Shouldn't we begin practicing on how we're going to knock Skull and his goose steppers into tooth paste?"
"Of course..." Steve began. "You using that arm of yours?"
"What... you expect me to fight with one arm?"
"Okay... I'll grab my shield." Steve said as he gingerly walked away, before throwing a good hard stare at Trude and Bucky's back. Bucky however, was too busy looking at Trude.
She was rather beautiful that one... from the way she hung her hair, to the way her face was...
Why was he thinking this now?
Turning those thoughts out of his head, the man looked at Barkhorn who stared back. His cold blue eyes met her brownish ones, two hazel gems set within the mask of a goddess.
That damn uniform made him want to break something...
The two made eye contact each other once again as Bucky mentally imagined himself strangling the young woman while Barkhorn to had similar thoughts. Though he stood over a full foot taller than her, it would hardly be disuading in the slightest as she recalled their encounter in the forest, and his little comment that he thought she hadn't heard.
"Prancing showgirl." Barkhorn muttered underneath her breath.
"What was that now?!" Bucky asked, he wanted nothing more than to punch her. She deserved it. The goddamn uniform, the way she spoke. Some young girl playing soldier? What? Did Germany or whatever they call it run out of MEN to fight with? Or was she one of those overly fanatical types.
Didn't matter. He just wanted to...
"Prancing showgirl." She spat out. "You think I didn't hear you?"
"Right... right..." Bucky began. "What... you some kind of comfort battatlion for the men? Or did your country run out of ACTUAL soldiers?!"
"I am a soldier." Barkhorn replied, her voice dripping with pride. "And I don't think any man or woman can say otherwise. What are you then? Your country ran out of able-men so they sent a man in with one arm?"
"The US has endured. Endured against everhy threat imaginable as well as goose steppers like yourself." Bucky replied. "You're a soldier kid? That's a joke. You know what you are? You're just a tool that the goverment uses. You think you are a soldier? You know what being a soldier means? You have a thankless job. No one knows who you are, but yet you must fight, fight for freedom, fight for what is right, and fight oppression. Do you do that kid? No... I know that you sit back at home, pampered with your friends and hiding behind the gifts of magic. Have you ever seen a friend die in your arms? Have you ever received a de-stabalizing injury? Have you had to hold a dear one in your arms, comforting them as they slowly whitered away while you did your best to try and let them at peace? You're not a soldier. Just a pretender with an outfit and a bad attitude."
Funny... Barkhorn received all of these at one point... her family... Chris... getting shot at one point by a LASER... it pissed her off.
Enough for her to throw a punch right at Bucky's face.