"Don't shoot." Schmidt said as he looked at the pandemonium that ensued on the lower levels of the factory. Just moments ago, a babbling scientist had told them that they had created an army of "mutants" that would be used as super-soldiers for HYDRA when the time came. The reason that Schmidt, having not been informed of ANYTHING along the lines of what these men were doing, was that it was meant to be a "surprise." Said scientist could be found down in the lower levels now, flung down evidently by someone who did not appreciate this "surprise." Behind the Red Skull, Rumlow could be seen with a sniper rifle, aiming it straight down. Behind him, was a dead body. A crazy man that had been babbling about "voices". The Red Skull decided to euthanize this poor fellow by wringing his neck.
"Sir?" Rumlow asked as his marred face turned to his boss, who's real features were hidden under a mask. "Are... you sure about that?"
"Do not question me..." Schmidt said as his sharp eyesight focused around the young woman in the SS uniform. In her hand was a Kampfmesser 42 , a weapon that the Skull would easily recognize. He raised an eyebrow as he watched the mystery woman stand along with an old friend of his, as the pair began to take care of the rampaging mutants downstairs. He was hardly surprised at things like Captain America beating some eight foot monster of a man in hand to hand combat... but it was rather awing when a mundane looking pistol blew holes in it's target as though it was a weapon of much higher caliber. He listened to the two converse over the din, realizing who it was that was down there as they continued to fight.
"Gerhard Barkhorn..." Skull smiled as he said the name. True... true... her name was GERTRUD BARKHORN but did it really matter? Those names were similar... so was the uniform, and the ethnicity judging from her minor accent. It seemed as though what he had suspected was right... that there were hundreds, maybe thousands of parallel worlds to be discovered. He recalled Gerhard's death. A man of high standards, but boldly refusing HYDRA's offer to be apart of their organization and foolishly attempting to expose them as still being functional after the apparent death of the Red Skull. Strucker had him killed in a "car accident". The Red Skull continued to ponder for a moment at the prospect the second best pilot in the second world was had somehow been turned into a young woman with canine ears and superhuman strength. Her sister's name was Chris... yes... the very girl HYDRA had been using to produce vaporizer rifles. What a good thing to mention...
"I'll be damned..." Rumlow commented as he sat Trude size her up against another TITAN injected specimen. It was surprising to see the young woman lunge at the much larger creature, tackle it the ground before driving her knife into it's skull. Trude, while being of above average height for her time period, was by standards of today to be pretty physically unimpressive.
"Ze powers of magic are real after all." Skull commented as he turned away. "I'd do wish to meet Captain America again though..."
"How are we going to get him to get back up here?"
"Simple. His friends are up here." The Skull commented as he saw Bucky approach in the distance on one side with Medic, while on the other, Slade and Erica walked into view. The soldiers around them were told not to shoot. A single bridge would lead to their side... just like old times. From his own end of the level, Skull had a good view of Strucker approaching them with his new toy. The Satan Claw.
"We ought to meet the others now." The Captain said as he sent two bullets into the skull of the last TITAN specimen. "That ladder!"
"Let's move." Trude said as she climbed the ladder, gingerly looking back at the dead bodies down below. Her eyes began to lock around an awfully familiar aircraft.... it looked familiar... being all black... it seemed dormant...
She just didn't know where to place it... her transponder would give her indication that Erica had already made it up to the top floor. Slade was just finishing some... thing... that apparently had had to do himself.
If she was to be frank, she never imagined she would actually test her magic on a human being. The sturm had cleaned off the entire catwalk, sending everyone falling down bellow. Armed with her MP40 that she carried, she walked across to meet up with Trude before something, or rather, someone caught her eye.
"Ah... Erich Hartmann! I alvays vanted to meet you again!" Scmidt said with a grin as he at Erica, who only grinned cheekily back, not worried in the slightest despite the fact she had about more than a dozen firearms pointed at her general direction.
"Who are you again?" Erica asked with confusion. "Nice uniform by the way."
"I am Johann Schmidt... or Ze Red Skull depending on who you ask... but answer me Erica, why do you fight with... with... zese ponies? Why do you possibly gain from doing so?"
"Nothing I guess... what is there to? I've never asked for much... never needed much." Erica continued. "Okay... what do you want?"
"I would ask you to join me... join HYDRA... you see... we've known each other in the past before... granted... you weren't exactly... like this..." Scmidt began. "But I see you don't lack any of ze skill you had when we first met... imagine Frau... to have everything you would ever want... everything... anything..."
Erica paused for a moment... as thought to contemplate his offer.
Nah.
"Nah." Erica replied impudently. "I think I got a better idea..."
She pointed her weapon, the SMG spewing bullets at the Red Skull who to Erica's surprise, managed to avoid every single bullet though the same wouldn't be said for the men behind him, all of them being torn apart by what seemed like grenade launcher blasts.
"Nice try..." Skull taunted. "I see you aren't as sharp on the ground as you were in the skies."
"You haven't got a clue..." Erica smirked before rushing forward and hitting him right in the face.
"Do I now?" Skull asked as he rubbed his "nose" for a minute before swinging a heavy blow at Erica who had raised her shield. Though his fist would not penetrate the ether protection, it would cause it to crack and split much to Erica's surprise. And that was simply on his first try. The flurry of blows afterwards would shatter the protection, and a heavy kick would send Erica flying backwards, hitting a wall.
It would be Skull's turn to be surprised to see Erica would get up from that. He mused for a moment, considering planting a bullet or two between her eyes before someone else caught his attention. A good friend of his had decided to come along, and with him, another man of the past trapped in a woman's body. From the other side came the Winter Soldier, and a man dressed in a doctor's garb. Quickly, the Red Skull stomped down upon the cat-walk with all of his superhuman might, causing it to break and fall down in the level below.
"Captain America!" Red Skull called out as he was joined by Strucker and Rumlow. "I see we meet again!"
"Schmidt..." Steve growled as he readied his shield. "Or should I say... the Red Skull?"
"The red sku....?" Erica was cut off by Schmidt reaching for his face... only to realize it wasn't a face. It was a mask... and with that realization, she saw him tear off the false face off, revealing his true face... or rather, his skull. A literal red skull that glared back at them.
"So... tell me Gerhard... and you too Erich... why do you fight for ze Americans? Are you not true Germans? Why not rejoin your true comrades, and with us, we will build HYDRA into something greater... some that not even ze Führer could hope to achieve! We could build ze fourth reich! And with zat... anything... power, vealth... it could be yours... think about it..."
"I think I made up my mind already..." Barkhorn said as he glared at Schmidt and crew. "You don't care for your country... and besides... I am not German. I am Karlslandian. If Gerhard was a true man of his country, than I know he refused your offer... and for that, you had him killed. Isn't that right? You are just monsters..."
"HYDRA has a tendency to create monsters as vell Gerhard... or should I say Gertrud? For example... vat if I told you a man amongst you... nearly killed Chris?"
"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME?!" Trude snarled viciously.
"It's simple... we kidnapped your sister..." Strucker grinned wickedly. "Don't worry Gertrud... she's still alive... but just moments ago, she vouldn't have been... not from fault of HYDRA of course, but from one of HYDRA's creations... isn't zat right Herr Barnes? You seem to love killing people with fire... would you like to see ze world burn?"
"The hell you talking about?" Bucky asked. "Unless your name is Chris, WOLFGANG... then I don't think there was anyone called Chris around here. If you aren't going to burn here, I guess you'll just have to burn in hell later then..."
"Quite devious wasn't it? You locked me in a room and set it on fire..." Strucker began, a slow smile spreading on his lips as he watched Trude's face of anger turn into one of horror and shock. "I'm certain you are a gut man Herr Barnes... you wouldn't have reserved such a sadistic fate for anyone... sweet and innocent... surely you wouldn't dream about burning kinder to death now?"
"The hell you talking about?" Bucky asked as he raised his gun. "Listen... I am sick of listening to you. Come over here and fight like a man..."
"In due time Herr Barnes!" Schmidt said, the red skull most unnerving to Erica and strangely fascinating to Medic. "I have a reckoning as vell... but for later... after all, don't you plan on destroying zis facility?"
The trio disappeared behind the door, leaving the five alone. Not a word was said...
"Is... is this true?" The sob of Barkhorn's voice asked, she turned to Bucky, her eyes watering with grief.
"Is what true kid?" Bucky asked curtly. "You okay there?"
He jumped back at her reaction, as did just about everyone.
"NO I AM NOT OKAY... THEY HAVE MY SISTER YOU DUMBASS!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as she held onto the railings, holding them on tight as though she was going to lose control of her body. "THOSE MADMEN HAVE MY SISTER!"
"Yeah... yeah... don't worry... we kill them and get your sister back... no worries..." Bucky said dismissively at Trude's obvious distress. Great... a kraut with a temper tantrum. He looked over to Cap, silently asking for support only to realize that his friend's face was a mask of shock as well.
"Bucky... HYDRA had Trude's sister here..." The captain said silently.
"Here? As in..."
"In this facility..." The captain continued, watching as Barkhorn's grief spilled onto the catwalk forming two small pools of salt water. "And... they were... um... holding her in one of the medical facilities... I notice that there was a fire in that section... did you..."
Realization slapped Bucky harder than Hulk when pissed off as his former expressions of annoyance and ire were replaced by shock.
"No... you... you're not saying..."
"You almost killed Chris..." Barkhorn spat venomously... "YOU ALMOST KILLED BY SISTER YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Her familiar manifested, with the magic-amplifying gloves that Twilight had given her, a single blow from her could probably go through tank armor, and it was directed straight at Bucky... the fist never made it's mark as she slumped over. A sleeping dart lodged right into her neck. A man in an orange and black outfit standing right over her.
"We got bigger problems..." Slade began. Man... if you looked at him, you would have wondered if whether or not he just had been hit by a car or something... "We need to get out of here... now..."
"Why?"
"The bombs had begun their timer." He said. "And I know just the reason. There is a monster that has been here."
Owlman.. The mercenary whispered to himself in his mind.