|
|
Post by hydra on Oct 13, 2006 22:23:22 GMT -4
The data scrolling across the screen suddenly disappeared.
It was replaced by a picture of a thin bald man, wearing thick glasses and a white lab coat straight out of a 1950's mad scientist movie.
The image leered at her, and spoke in a high pitched voice with a thick German accent.
"Guten abend, fraulein. You stroke my mouse so masterfully, ja? And Oberst Fury! It has been so long!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Panthera on Oct 13, 2006 23:02:53 GMT -4
She watched the screen intently as the status bar was at 31% and climbing slowly. There must have been a lot of data because it was taking a while, plus she could here the drive working below. 58%. "Come on, half way there", she mumbled looking through another file when she came across something interesting. A serum. She read about the file and nearly lost her balance as she felt the blood rushing down to her feet.
"It can't be" she said as her now shaking hands clicked on more of the file. She saw the initials and then it hit her. "Oh god" she said feeling even more faint as she glanced at the status bar again. 81%.
It was then the screen blinked and the lines of data turned into a blur, then white. Frantically, Samantha tried to bring it back when an image of a man appeared from the other side peering in at her. He looked like a mad scientist from hell. She jumped back wide eyed as the man spoke.
"Guten abend, fraulein. You stroke my mouse so masterfully, ja? And Oberst Fury! It has been so long!"
Taking a step back, she glanced around nervously.
"This can't be good."
|
|
|
|
Post by Nick Fury on Oct 13, 2006 23:16:09 GMT -4
Sapphire was handling the computer end of the deal, apparently that was part of her training package as well. Fury half expected her to plug a wire into her neck and download the computer's contents straight to her brain.
He busied himself with setting the explosive charges that would destroy the command center once they left, when a high-pitched German voice reached his ears. Whirling around, he saw a face that he had thought buried for sixty years grinning insanely on Sapphire's computer screen.
Fury's silenced Heckler & Koch made only a soft thp-thp-thp as Fury unloaded a three-shot burst straight into the image's simulated forehead. The monitor exploded in a shower of sparks.
|
|
|
|
Post by hydra on Oct 13, 2006 23:22:32 GMT -4
The high-pitched voice made a childish giggle as it came from another set of hidden speakers.
"Temper, mein Oberst. This is expensive equipment."
Another monitor across the room popped into life, and the ghoulish face appeared again.
"Still shooting first and not bothering with questions, I see. And who is your lovely companion? Your little dirne? I always knew Amerikanisch were soft."
The image cocked its virtual head at Sapphire, who was still clutching the vial of serum. "Ah! And do you enjoy my concoction, mein leibschen?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Panthera on Oct 13, 2006 23:33:32 GMT -4
Throwing her arm over her eyes to avoid any glass, Samantha stepped back even further as the gun blasted the screen into a million pieces.
"A friend of yours?" she coiled as the voice came across loud speakers somewhere else in the room.
"Temper, mein Oberst. This is expensive equipment."
That face again appeared on another computer screen that sat at the aligned table to the right of the ones Fury and Sapphire currently stood in front of.
She stared at the man with cold eyes wanting to put her hands through the screen and break is infintile neck with the ease of her bare hands.
"Ah! And do you enjoy my concoction, mein leibschen?"
Not realizing it was even in her hand, she looked at it. Her hands began to tremble as she realized she had picked it up without even consciously being aware of it. Dropping it like it was a poisonous spider. It's metal body hit the floor with a ting while Sapphire tried to get her composure back. But fear was entering her mind, something that could compromise the mission and their lives.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nick Fury on Oct 13, 2006 23:42:16 GMT -4
"Friend of yours?"
Fury cursed himself for his knee-jerk reaction. He was dead. He saw him die. At the hands of Captain America, no less. This was just a trick.
"An old war buddy, ya might say. A crazy and dead war buddy. Ya haven't aged a day, Arnim Zola. I imagine AI programs keep ya lookin' good as new, huh?"
|
|
|
|
Post by hydra on Oct 13, 2006 23:52:09 GMT -4
Zola's bald head bobbed on his spindly neck.
"Ja, it is true. Tot und verrückt. But then, mein body was such a frail and fragile thing. I have preserved the essence of Arnim Zola! The mind! The intellect!"
He gestured towards the floating bodies in the vats. "My amusements, ja? As you have met outside, mein siegsoldats are in full production. Yes, the good Baron is most pleased. As I'm certain Herr Schädel will be..." He stopped, and glanced slyly at Fury. "But that would be telling, ja?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Panthera on Oct 14, 2006 0:14:03 GMT -4
With this little squeaky varmant speaking, it gave Sam enough time to regain her cold hard composure and begin to focus on getting the both of them out of there.....alive.
She didn't have time to reminisce about the burning sensation she felt every time one of the serum doses entered her blood stream. It was torture to relieve torture as it made her body feel like a microwave burning from the inside out.
But enough of that, there was a mission to accomplish.
She looked over to Fury who was concentrating on the conversation at hand, probably getting the information or intel he came here for. Samantha, however was scanning the room looking for any means to get out. The door was probably locked and the only way was....the way the got in, UP.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nick Fury on Oct 19, 2006 17:59:51 GMT -4
Fury's blood ran cold at Zola's taunt. Zola was a mad genius, no doubt, but if he'd found a way to bring back...
Mission at hand. If tha best he can do is make faces at us from a computer screen, he's not even gonna be able ta do that in a few minutes. Keep him talkin'. That nutcase never could resist braggin' on himself.
Fury casually nudged a satchel charge under the desk with his foot. "Looks like you've kept busy, at least. This stuff looks like it cost a bundle. Didn't know there was a Mad Scientist Depot outlet around here."
|
|
|
|
Post by hydra on Oct 19, 2006 18:12:26 GMT -4
Zola sighed in contentment as he gazed around the room.
"How very kind of you, mein Oberst. Ja, in mein line of work I require a great deal of...specialized...equipment. Baron Strucker pays many of the bills, as you know, but I keep mein hand in several side businesses, ja?"
He leered again at Sapphire. "As the lovely fraulein has already discovered, my AZ-14 serum is a great success. It was even funded by an American military cabal! Ja! The very entity that tried to wipe Arnim Zola from the face of the earth realized his true genius!"
He cackled an inhuman cackle.
"And you knew nothing of this, mein Oberst. Nothing at all. The great Nicholas Fury, knows all and sees all. Except me."
|
|
|
|
Post by Panthera on Oct 19, 2006 20:12:16 GMT -4
Sapphire continued to look around the room finding nothing to render her escape. Damn!, she thought to herself looking around for a second time. Fury was keeping this bald headed freak of a human busy with his small talk, which was giving her more time to intensely scan the room better. There! she said not wanting to draw attention to herself. She had found a suitable means of escape although she was sure Fury wouldn't like it very much, but it would have to do when the time came.
"As the lovely fraulein has already discovered, my AZ-14 serum is a great success. It was even funded by an American military cabal! Ja! The very entity that tried to wipe Arnim Zola from the face of the earth realized his true genius!"
Her gaze stopped and returned to the computer screen more agitated than before. Even with its enhanced healing capabilities, it sure was pure torture when administered. Each intense workout, each training, required her to be tip top shape. If she was out of line, or learn a skill on the first try, or if she looked the wrong way, she was beaten up considerably usually with broken ribs and bruises all over her body. In order for her body to heal adequately enough at the pace they wanted her to, those freaks injected her with the serum to speed up the healing. What took days and weeks to heal, took only hours with the syringe. However, one drawback. When it was administered, it burned. It burned throughout her body like an erupting volcano emitting extreme amounts of pain lasting until the tissues and bones were healed. So she wasn't very fond of her weekly injections to say the least and whatever side effects it may have caused.
"Yeah, if you like becoming a human microwave", she snarled at the screen.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nick Fury on Oct 27, 2006 18:23:56 GMT -4
Not that it wasn't disturbing in its own right, but Fury's hackles weren't being raised by Arnim Zola being preserved in an artificial intelligence program. Even if the mainframe wasn't located in this room, Fury and the other teams had placed enough Semtex by now to reduce this fortress to a parking lot.
There was something else. Fury had no "danger sense" as such, but he had instincts. They were in a great deal of danger, and it wasn't from a Max Headroom knockoff.
"I'd love ta hang around and shoot tha $#!+ some more, but me an' tha fraulein here got plans after this little caper. Ya know how ladies get if ya keep 'em waitin.' No, ya probably don't."
He started to edge towards the skylight, glancing at Sapphire and readying his grappler.
|
|
|
|
Post by hydra on Oct 27, 2006 18:35:06 GMT -4
"Nein, not today, mein Oberst."
Steel bars slid across the skylight, as well as across the windows. Thick blast doors dropped down over the exits. At the far end of the room, another set of doors began opening to the tune of Arnim Zola's insane laughter.
"I have you at last! Entscheidender soldat! Töten sie!"
A ghastly green mist was rolling out from the space beyond the thick door, accompanied by the sickening smell of rotting flesh. With heavy footsteps that shook the floor, a nightmare stepped out.
Fully twenty feet tall, it may have once been human. Now, it only resembled one in the vaguest sense. A grotesque, misshapen mass of flesh and muscle, it stood on two legs as thick as tree trunks. Three long, powerful arms that reached nearly to its knees. Most horribly, there was no head, only a small lump between the massive shoulders. In the center of the monster, there was a flexible visual monitor containing Arnim Zola's grinning face.
|
|
|
|
Post by Panthera on Oct 27, 2006 23:32:36 GMT -4
As Fury glanced over to Sapphire, she noticed him looking up to the skylight and took her own steps towards him, trying to be suttle.
"Nein, not today, mein Oberst."
She could hear the metal against metal sound of bars quickly locking every available exit. She closed her eyes thinking obscenities, but reminded herself to remain calm and focused for something was about to happen. Her senses went awry at strange odors coming from another set of steel doors that were almost flush with the wall. They slowly began to open.
"I have you at last! Entscheidender soldat! Töten sie!"
As the doors made their agape, green smoke emitted from the bottom like a bad sci-fi film and she looked on knowing something very large, very strong, and very smelly was coming. As the thing made its way through, it took her back a step as a horrified glaze set over her blue orbs. She had never really experienced anything this large in the simulations, or anything this grotesque. She almost pitied the human remains for it must have been put through more torture than it could bare. Her soft feelings were but a flash as the monster continued to walk towards the center of the room edging closer to her and Fury.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nick Fury on Nov 3, 2006 18:38:19 GMT -4
Fury kicked himself for the umpteenth time. This had to be a record. He couldn't remember the last time he had made so many stupid mistakes. This one looked like it might be the last.
Fury had one more ace up his sleeve, though.
He tapped the whisper mic on his throught. "All units. Paydirt. I say again, Paydirt. Acknowledge."
Sharon's voice crackled on the earpiece. "Nicholas, you're..."
"I said, Paydirt, dammit!"
Several clicks were heard over the earpiece. The other teams had armed their charges, and were falling back to the rally point. They had about ten minutes before things started to get lively.
Of course, things were looking mighty lively as it was.
Zola's creation was slow and poderous, but looked immensely strong. Its oversized arms gave it tremendous reach, and even in the large laboratory it left few places to hide.
Fury darted to the left, firing his submachine gun and shouting at Sapphire. "Flank it to the right!"
|
|
