Chapter 214: Nine Lives (Patreon)

Chapter 214: Nine Lives

19th March 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I watched as my little curse worked and Alexander Pierce die from a heart attack. He was so adamant of his privacy that they didn’t even notice something was wrong until he didn’t answer any phone calls and missed coming to work the following morning. I observed as the events unfolded, pushing the first domino in Hydra’s little collapse. Scrying can be very useful when there aren’t any wards about it.

The previous day, I had asked the former Winter Soldier to infiltrate the base in Russia with all of Hydra’s super soldiers that were made with Howard Stark’s imperfect serum that ended up getting him killed. It was a pretty close copy, if I was honest. But the man got stuck exactly where Dr. Erskine failed when he created the Red Skull. They didn’t realize that what they made was slowly becoming more than just science, and for men of logic, they just couldn’t grasp it. It was a ritual, which meant that something had to be given in return. It’s a principal law of magic, for something to be gained, something should be given in return. The equivalent exchange, but more conceptual than its physical counterpart.

The Red Skull had gained his strength but lost him humanity, his empathy. Captain America too paid that price, but this time, with me being involved, I was able to pick the price, which was pain, but Steve Rogers was always a broken boy, who was so self-sacrificial it was absurd. He truly didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. It was wrong, and even then, the ritual enhanced even his suicidal tendencies. I had to mess a lot with the ritual it for it to return something that resembles a human being. Steve Rogers became a man of true good, and it disgusted me. Humanity is principally flawed; negative emotions are fundamental to our existence. Someone this altruistic shouldn’t exist. It was an abomination. It was why I limited my contact with Rogers even after his return.

The sky is blue, the moon turns around the earth, the earth orbits the sun, and humanity is flawed. It was a fact, something undisputable. It was because of these flaws that they could live and grown. Without them, they would just be things. Men were creatures of conflicts that craved peace. War causes each side to desperately want it to end, the intellectuals try to think of new and creative ways of ending the wars, which are then implemented, and should they work and the conflict end, another will begin soon because of someone power hungry, or vengeful, or just greedy. It was human nature; the circle of conflict and peace and it has been like this for thousands of years.

Steve Rogers broke that cycle, a man without hate, without anger, without greed, without selfishness, was no man at all. He might look like one, but he’s still a broken boy whose goal is helping people until he inevitable dies. Perhaps one day, he might regain a shard of what he lost. Perhaps, he could start feeling once more, do something selfish for once, but it was a slim possibility, that I hope for his sake would be true.

Now, that’s what happened to a ritual I mitigated. Imagine a ritual where a price is not determined. The subject could pay with anything, and in this case, the Russians’ super soldiers paid with their minds. They were barely more than animal, wanting nothing more than to fight, with no concept of loyalty. They could easily be used to make cause mayhem, but you would have no control over them whatsoever, and thus non control over the chaos they would cause.

Their danger was too much for me to just let them stay in Hydra’s hands. I asked Bucky to kill them, ending their suffering. It was mercy, in a way. May they have peace in death that they would have never found in life.

With that done, I waited for Pierce’s death to release Alfred’s cyber attacks on Hydra’s finances. I spoke up, “Alfred, start operation Nine Lives.”

“Of course, Miss.”

The virtual intelligence had sounded a bit too gleeful at my order. He must have been a bit miffed that Hydra tried to kill their creators. Still, this was the biggest blow against Hydra they could receive, even with their biggest asset, SHIELD, being under review from the UN.

I needed for Pierce to be dead when I started the attack, because he was the only one who had access to Hydra’s entire financial web. Being the leader, he needed to know how every penny was being used. He was a bit of a control freak, but in an organization of cut throats like Hydra, it wasn’t surprising that he resorted to measures like this.

Still, the way Hydra was being divided was brilliant, in a way, and yet would be the cause of their downfalls. The organization was divided in cell. There was the SHIELD cell, who was divided into smaller cells for every department. Hydra agents didn’t know who else was member of the organization outside their own cell. But each cell had a leader of sorts who was only aware of the other leader of other cells and reported to the leader of the larger cell. It went on like this for every branch of the organization. It was this secrecy that allowed Hydra to spread like this and have almost no whistle blowers. The problem was, if someone were to get rid of Pierce and every member that was just below him at once, then no one would actually have a real grasp of the functionality of the organization. And with no money to pay for anything, the organization will be crippled. The infighting will start because of the lack of orders and money. Most will leave, and the rest will try to take over a defunct organization, with almost no connections since they would have almost no idea what the other cells contained.

After that, it would only be a matter of time before the entire organization dies with a whimper.

I gleefully watched as every Hydra account got corrupted and erased from existence. There was no sign of its existence, and no one will be able to notice any different.

From my scrying, I was able to see that they Hydra higher ups started to realize what happened to Pierce and were meeting later in the day in a hotel to decide on a new leader. It was a security risk, but it was one they needed to take. It was tradition for the higher ups to swear servitude to the new leader. Now, every high-level member of the organization from every country would be in a giant conference, in a location that I already knew about. It was almost too easy. I created a small portal and added a small decorative vase in the meeting room that was there. The vase was enchanted with a sleeping spell and an explosive spell, that would vaporize anything in the entire floor; I didn’t care about collateral damage, since Hydra booked the entire floor to avoid anyone accidentally stumbling to their meeting.

It was almost too easy. With that in place, the only major asset Hydra had left was SHIELD, and I grinned as I read the article I engineered.

SHIELD, PROTECTORS OF THE WORLD OR ITS INVADORS

By Ben Urich

‘A few days ago, occurred one of the most significant events in human history, one that people will speak of for centuries to come. We now have confirmation that there is life in the universe, and it isn’t benevolent. The details are still uncertain, and no public statement has been made from anyone with information about the invasion, but we know for certain that the Norse god Loki attempted to invade our planet using an alien army that he transported here using a giant portal on top of New York City. Thankfully, with the help of a new team of superheroes that are now dubbed as the Avengers which also included Loki’s brother Thor, who wanted to stop his brother’s invasion, Loki being a rogue from Asgard, were able to repel the invasion with a surprisingly low amount of causalities and property damage for the scale of the conflict.

It was without a doubt a victory for humanity, but it also had some very dangerous implications, especially in regard to the peace keeping organization known as the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short.

The organization in question is supposed to be a global one, under the UN’s supervision, and was created to avoid large scale conflicts especially after World War two. It was surprisingly effective during the cold war and was able to diffuse many situations that could have escalated into nuclear weaponry being launched, which makes their mistake even more ironic. For some reason, while the situation seemed to be contained by the Avengers, the World Security Council, or the council that decides SHIELD’s actions, had judged the situation to be too hostile and sent a nuclear weapon to New York city, to the current director’s objections.

This was, of course, leaked on the internet, probably by some outraged hacker who found out what happened. People were outraged, demanding accountability for a mistake of this scale that could have caused the deaths of millions of American citizens, and probably caused the death of the Morrigan, a member of the Avengers, who was able to contain the blast. We are still unclear on whether or not she survived, and no member of the Avengers was available to comment on our speculation.

But outside of firing a nuclear weapon into a populated city, a weapon that they shouldn’t even have access to in the first place, SHIELD’s mistakes could be seen as somewhat understandable. We waited for the current UN investigation to finish to make our conclusions, but alas, a few of SHIELD’s projects were leaked yesterday which could have some disturbing implications. One of the main ones what a project labeled as INSIGHT, which consists of satellites orbiting the earths that were capable of firing weapons with extreme measures. I wasn’t the only one who felt how disturbing this is. SHIELD planned on pretty much having a gun constantly pointed on every man, woman and child on that planet. What would happen if one SHIELD director decided that they wanted to kill someone, or take over a country, or even what if someone infiltrates SHIELD, or even worse, what if there was a bug in the program? I don’t even want to think about something like this falling into the wrong hands. Was this the peace SHIELD pretends to serve? Because with that weapon in the sky, SHIELD would have conquered the world. No one could oppose them.

That’s not mentioning that the invasion itself happened because SHIELD had been experimenting on some sort of energy source which activated an teleported Loki to our planet in the first place. The evidence could be seen in a security video or Loki’s arrival that was leaked as well.

People have been trying to deny some of these plans, but so far SHIELD didn’t comment on the supposed leak and the truthfulness of their documents, which is very telling.

With that said and done, we have to wonder. Is SHIELD really worth the risk they pose? At the end, the decision is in the UN’s hand, and we can only hope that they make the right choice.’

I have to admit, this little article was a masterpiece, a seed of doubt couple by facts. In a few hours, everyone would have searched for the information leaked on the internet. In a week, SHIELD’s budget would be slashed while it’s under investigation, which will inevitably cause the dissolution of the organization in a few months, under the public’s pressure. This was the power of the media, the power of a company I made because I was bored.

I looked at the time and found that the Hydra higher ups were in the middle of the meeting. I scried the hotel they were staying at and found them arguing about how to proceed. I mentally activated the enchantments on the vase I put there earlier, knocking them out. The cameras were disabled because of their paranoia, and I grinned at this. I observed as over five hundred Hydra officials, the true backbone of the organization slump to sleep. People from all around the globe had flown in just to attend this meeting. With that done, I activated the second enchantment on the vase, and it caused an explosion powerful enough to level the entire floor. Luckily, their meeting was in the top floor, which means that the building wouldn’t be in danger of collapsing.

I grinned to myself, an entire worldly organization. I killed them with barely a few spells without me even actively fighting them. I barely even left my mansion. And thus, Hydra was no more, going out not with a bang, but with a whimper.