A Snake With Two Tongues

Natalya could smell the blood mixed with the gun powder. It filled her nose and her brain and for a moment the area and people around her vanished and was replaced by a scene she had long since tried to forget. Blood and bodies were everywhere around her. Her face held a neutral expression as if nothing she had just done affected her. She had learned to make herself numb to it. She had a job to do and no one could get in her way. As she looked down at her hands she could see blood dripping from them. It all seemed so real...but then faintly she heard her name being spoken. It was quiet at first and then got louder and louder. She jumped slightly and looked at her hands and then at Pharaoh. The blood was gone and she was back in the shed at the mansion. She looked over and saw Steve struggling and knew she needed to act quickly. She loaded the new magazines and readied her pistol and then aimed and started firing again.

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Kate was relieved that Peter was able to plant the devices so quickly. In the time it took him to plant the devices she had uploaded viruses into the computer systems. With that completed they knew they needed to retreat. They all quickly filed out of the lab and headed quickly, but carefully back towards the elevator. Tony would be waiting for them and they needed to go. Logan was at the rear, behind Isabella. They had nearly made it to the elevator when suddenly a strange sound caught her attention. She retracted her face mask to listen more closely and discovered it was the sound of crying. She quickly determined it was coming from the left in one of the rooms where the ceiling had collapsed into.

"Don't you hear that?" she asked Logan. Logan had sharp senses and she knew that he should hear it. "Someone's crying." She started to look inside the rooms, trying to locate the sound as quickly as possible. Her motherly instincts made it impossible for her not to react to the sound of crying.

As the walker’s bullets ran dry Steve lurched forward. He grabbed onto one of its arms and it twisted and bashed him into the wall. Natalya’s bullets glanced off of its armor. “Serena! Help him!” Pharaoh urged her as Steve took a beating.

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“Isabella, what are you doing? We have to go, now!” Tony shouted into his headset. Who knew what Hydra had in the works for any kind of retaliation and he didn’t want to find out. “Isabella, what did you find?” Peter asked.

Isabella had to climb over several pieces of rubble and cut through a piece of rybar to get into the next room. As she did, she noticed that there were several small beds in there and several cribs. To her horror several children, boys and girls had died when the ceiling fell. She brought up her medical suite but none of them were alive. As she listened again the crying began again behind a metal shelf that had fallen onto its side. As she used the strength of her suit to lift it the ceiling above her shifted but didn’t fall down upon her yet. Behind the shelf was a naked child. A boy and though he was covered in dust and dirt he looked otherwise unharmed. He had almost no hair, a baby with large blue eyes of about a 6 to 8 months old she imagined. When he saw her he began crying again but this time he held out his arms to her as if he sensed he was in danger.

Serena held up her hands and began to fire large energy orbs at the walker. She shot first at the gun and it flew off and landed about 50 yards away. Then she shot again at the body of the vehicle and it was flung up into the air and rolled before landing on its side.

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Isabella temporarily ignored her husband. She climbed over the rubble towards the sound of the crying. She came into a room and was horrified by what she saw. There were children lying dead under pieces of the ceiling that had come crashing down. She used her medical suite and hoped that some where alive, but there was no life indicated. She knew though that someone must be alive because she could still hear the crying. It was coming from behind a metal shelf that had fallen down. She lifted up the shelf and was shocked by what she saw. It was child...a boy...no older than 8 months old. He was naked but appeared unharmed, though he was quite terrified. She immediately secured the shelf in place so she could pick him up. She found a blanket and wrapped him in it and held him in her arms. "Shhhhh...it's alright. I've got you," she told him in a quiet, soothing voice.

She walked out carefully to join the others and saw the shocked looks on their faces. "Let's go."

“Is that...a baby?” Peter said as they got into the elevator. “What?” Tony asked. He knew he didn’t hear him right. As the elevator stopped onto the top floor. Tony was there above them near the skylight. He shot down 2 cables for Kate and Peter to use to climb up but saw Isabella fly up with something in her arms. “Is that..a baby?” he asked in surprise. As the others reached them it was a mad dash to get back to the Jet. Tony stayed behind and protected their rear by laying smoke grenades and missiles everywhere. Kate fired up the jet as she looked back to see Isabella checking over the baby. However none of her diagnostic tools detected that she held anything at all. He was sniffling and he put his right hand into his mouth as he looked nervously around to the others. When he saw Peter still in his suit he seemed to shy back and cling harder to Isabella.

“Why would they endangered those children like this?” Peter asked and he took off his mask. “Still no reading on him?” Tony asked. When she shook her head he frowned in puzzlement. The jet took off and Kate got them the hell out of there.

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Steve was hurt but Serena was able to get him back onto his feet. She had to use her medical suite though and she saw that he had cracked ribs. She gave him a shot for the pain. But they had to press on.

More guards came at them and Natalya quickly dispatched them. Serena helped Steve forward and Pharaoh kept behind Natalya. The lab was huge but it was clear they had several things going on here. There was a gas chamber here as well as a bank of computers, chemistry instruments and diagnostic machines. Obviously their scientists had fled and the room appeared empty for now. “Give me some of those,” Pharaoh asked and took half of the cubes from Natalya. As they began to place them around the room. A woman with long, red hair shifted just slighting from a suspended platform that hung down from the ceiling. It had crates and boxes on it which had hidden her until now. She shot and struck Pharaoh in the chest then ducked back out of sight. The bullet went right through him and out until it impaled itself into the wall behind him. Pharaoh groaned then fell back unmoving.

“I never thought I’d see you again...Natalaya Sokolova. How is Logan? Not doing so well I hear. How is his memory? I suppose he might as well be dead if he lost that,” Shecalmly taunted from her perch high above them. Natalya heard her eject the shell and the long, casing dropped down then rolled to a stop by Natalya’s foot. It was the same as the bullets that shot Logan. Exactly the same.

“Was that Pharaoh I shot? I” She began but Pharaoh groaned and sat up. “Did anyone tell you that shooting an unarmed man is very unsportsmanlike?” He said. “I really liked that shirt,” he said as if he was more upset about that than being shot. Ofcourse, Pharaoh was practically immortal. Impossible to kill by any conventional means.

Isabella was still in shock that those children had been down there. They were dead because of what they had done. But they never could have known that they were keeping children down there. But why were they keeping children? Were they experimenting on them? Were they...? No, she didn't even want to think it...but she knew it was probably the truth. After all, the Super Soldier Serum was injected into the embryo that created Natalya. She and Tony had talked to dozens of scientists on how this could be possible, but no one was able to give them an answer. She held the boy close to her and looked at Tony.

"Do you think they were using those children to test the Super Soldier Serum?"

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They finally made it into the lab and Pharaoh took some of the incendiary devices from Natalya to help her disperse them throughout the room. Suddenly, some movement caught Natalya's attention from up above and Natalya's eyes narrowed when she saw who it was. The red hair gave her away almost immediately. Valentina Fontaine. She was a former SHIELD agent who had also worked for the SSB, but now worked for Hydra. Valentina and Natalya were about as far from being friends as people could get. They were competitors and Natalya found it ironic that Valentina now worked for Hydra while she worked for the Avengers. It was funny how life worked out.

Natalya barely blinked as Valentina shot Pharaoh in the chest. Pharaoh fell backwards onto the floor, but Natalya's expression never changed. "Actually Logan is completely better. His memory returned and we're now together. Things are better than ever actually."

She glanced down at the ejected shell and saw that it was the exact same one that was used on Logan. Clearly, they had made more than just one of those bullets. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Pharaoh sit up and then stand up, much to Valentina's surprise.

“Unless they were doing other experiments on them as well,” Tony said as he removed his gauntlet them reached over and touched the child’s knee. The child didn’t jerk away he just looked at him as if he was trying to figure him out. “And he’s not hurt at all?” Tony asked. Logan looked at the child and wondered about that to.

“He looks healthy at least, and we have no idea if he has parents or who his parents even were or are,” Peter said. Kate kept looking back toward them from the cockpit.

“They’re the ones that killed those children, not us!” Kite said angrily. Just hearing this seemed to upset her a great deal.

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“What are you doing with these people Natalya?” Valentina asked in her arrogant dry voice. As if nothing in the world could shake her. “You do so much better alone, if memory serves,” she said. “Hydra could use you you know. Unless getting blood on your hands no longer suits you,” she said. Serena and Steve moved up and into the room.

“Ah, Serena Stark and Captain America,” she said. “Ohhhh, he looks hurt,” she said in mock sympathy. Without warning she shifted and shot at Captain America. Before Serena knew what she was doing she raised up her arm and her energy shield pulsed to deflect the bullet that would have struck him in between his eyes. Steve had almost gotten his shield up in time but hadn’t. The bullet ricocheted and struck one of the steel beams in the ceiling. “She’s stalling,” Pharaoh said softly to Natalya.