Crossboned (Expanded) (Patreon)

This 2,068 word story was requested by Luke DeAn, who wanted to see an extension of the photo caption "Crossboned". I hope you all enjoy this superhero bodyswap tale with one of my all-time favourite TF subjects!

Brock Rumlow had always hated uptight liberals like Steve Rogers. They were holding the world back from everything it could truly be. Everything Hydra was going to make it. Pretending to be one of Rogers’ closest advisors as part of the STRIKE team had been completely laborious, but getting to trade blows with the super soldier himself had been an adrenaline rush like no other. Unfortunately that whole situation hadn’t ended up how Hydra had wanted, with Cap prevailing and Brock ending up heavily burned, but their motto rang true: Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hydra - and Brock Rumlow - wouldn’t be defeated so easily.

In the two years that followed the Triskellion disaster and the death of Alexander Pierce, Hydra toiled away in secrecy. Sure, those pesky Avengers had taken down a number of their labs across Europe and the States, but they had never once even caught whispers of what Hydra was planning. It was a top secret plan, one that not even Brock was privy to, and he himself was due to play a major role in it. All he was told was to be ready to do his duty and help usher in a new era of peace and order for the world. To Brock, that was what Hydra was all about: eliminating the chaos and returning structure to a world that was struggling without it.

The key to restoring order was of course Captain America; the patriotic hero and Hydra’s destinies were forever intertwined. Nobody was foolish enough to believe that they would be able to make Rogers see the light and join Hydra’s ranks, so alternative methods had to be pursued. When Baron von Strucker summoned him into a classified meeting and explained what was expected of him, Brock had at first just laughed. The plan, to put it simply, seemed both insane and impossible, and he wasn’t shy about expressing as such.

“Open your eyes, Rumlow,” Strucker remarked sternly, “We had aliens coming out of the sky above New York. Nothing is impossible anymore.” He removed a small black box from the top drawer of his desk and placed it in front of the former STRIKE operative. With his curiosity on the rise Brock took the box and opened it. Inside was a silver ring featuring a sky blue gem that seemed to hum with power and commanded such attention that Brock could hardly bring himself to stop looking at it. “It’s an extract from the stone in Loki’s scepter. Through careful refinement from the finest minds in Hydra, we believe it’ll be sufficient to do the job.”

“Why this route?” Brock asked, finally snapping the ring box shut and overcoming the gem’s control over him. “Surely you could use this stone to corrupt Cap’s mind? Have him be a faithful servant for Hydra. Why involve me at all?”

Strucker’s thin lips spread into a cheshire cat smile. “Oh, I thought that would have been quite clear. That ring provides us - both yourself and Hydra as a whole - a rather unique opportunity for revenge. Rogers had thwarted our plans for too long now, and his actions have obviously had a toll on you too.” Brock winced, none too happy with the reminder that his body was now ravaged by burns. “Why not seize this opportunity to punish him both physically and mentally?”

That was more than enough to earn a solid commitment to the task from Brock. Strucker was spot on in his assessment - he did want revenge - but he also wanted more. He wanted the glory that would surely come with being part of the great Captain America’s ultimate downfall, and in the process becoming a symbol for all of Hydra. It was about damn time he received some recognition for all of his hard work and all that he had given up in the name of restoring order to a world that seemed determined to sabotage itself.

Hydra had never been the type to rush into things, so they remained patient and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. All of the pieces needed to fall into place and slowly but surely they did: Thor was off-world, Stark was vacationing in Japan, Romanoff was reportedly undercover in Russia and both Barton and Banner had gone off the grid as they were wont to do. Only Rogers and his band of junior Avengers remained as the first response to any immediate threats and the absence of the veteran heroes meant it was time for things to kick into high gear. Brock, decked out in his full armor and operating under his codename Crossbones, led a task force not too dissimilar to his old STRIKE team, and began terrorising New York’s business district. They easily overwhelmed the NYPD and within minutes received reports from their eyes in the sky that Rogers was leading his team towards their location.

Brock’s team performed admirably, ensuring that all of Captain America’s allies were suitably distracted and leaving him to go one-on-one with the man who had become something of a persistent rival. There was an obvious change in Rogers’ expression when he caught sight of Crossbones, grim determination fixing itself across his features, and Brock could hardly stop himself from smirking beneath his mind. The uptight hero had absolutely no clue what he was in for, he was a deer blindly walking right into the headlights of oncoming traffic and Brock was about to push down on the accelerator!

“Are you sure you want to do this, Rumlow?” Captain America asked, readying his shield in one hand and clenching his other hand into a fist. Such motions might have intimidated lesser men but this wasn’t Brock’s first rodeo.

“You know me, Cap. I’m a stubborn son of a bitch.” Even before his loyalty to Hydra had been exposed Brock had sparred with Rogers regularly and as such knew all of his enemy’s moves and fighting habits. Unlike their previous encounters though, he wasn’t looking to out-power Rogers or beat him into submission but rather just get him into a position that would make him the most vulnerable.

The fight itself was short and sweet. Cap got in a good number of hits that had Brock gritting his teeth and pushing through the pain, but he was never able to bring Crossbones down to his knees. Hydra had pumped Brock full of a chemical that majorly enhanced his strength, endurance and stamina, but would ultimately jeopardize his long term health. That wasn’t of much concern to Brock though - his body was a crispy husk thanks to his previous injuries, and very soon he’d have even less reason to care about it! All he needed was a split-second opening and after five minutes of intensive brawling that had caused them to crash through several walls, Brock saw his opportunity.

Ripping the glove free from his right hand and exposing the ring on his finger, Hydra’s tainted super-soldier connected his clenched fist with Captain America’s jaw and felt the gem smash as a result of the hard contact. A sudden explosion of infinity stone energy pushed the two men apart with violent force, sending them sailing through the air before crashing down against the hard ground, where they would remain for several long seconds.

Brock was in the most amount of pain he had experienced since getting caught in the collapse of the SHIELD headquarters and the destruction of the Triskellion. It was a remarkably different type of pain than the burning he had endured during that time, but it still made him writhe in absolute discomfort nonetheless. His muscles clenched and unclenched in rapid rotation while his skin prickled as if there was an entire hive of ants using his body as a playground.

In actuality, the magic that had been contained within the sliver of the Mine Stone attached to the ring was facilitating a most remarkable event: the exchanging of two consciences and their physical residences. Simply put: the minds of Steve Rogers and Brock Rumlow had been ripped from their bodies and deposited into the nearest available host body. Just as Hydra had planned, their top agent had been switched into the body of the most trusted man in the whole nation - hell, perhaps the whole world. Brock Rumlow was Captain America!

With a heavy grunt of exertion, Brock pushed himself up to his feet and looked across at where his former body lay amongst the rubble. Its new occupant was only just beginning to stir, so Brock had plenty of time to take advantage. Approaching his comrade-turned-enemy with something of a swagger in his step, Brock merely chuckled as the other man desperately tried to get back to his feet. All that stopped when the two men locked eyes and even though the mask Brock could see the cocktail of confusion and terror in the other’s eyes.

A swift boot to the other’s chest had Rogers back down on the ground with Brock towering over him. He reached down and pulled the other’s mask off, exposing the heavily burned features of a face that Brock had previously only ever seen in the mirror. There was one main difference though: he never would have been caught dead looking as pathetically vulnerable as Rogers looked right then!

“You still sure you want to do this, Crossbones?” Brock challenged, only slightly perturbed by hearing Rogers’ voice speaking the words. It would be something he’d have to get used to, although it was hardly the worst thing in the world. Rogers would have a far more difficult time getting used to his new normal than Brock would. “You’re going to be spending the rest of your days rotting behind bars like you deserve.” He followed up with a hard slap to the other’s face before leaning in close enough to whisper a simple victorious phrase in his defeated rival’s ear: “Hail Hydra.”

The energies from the infinity stone piece and the resulting explosion had escalated the negative side effects of all the chemicals Hydra had pumped into Brock’s body, and Steve was the one suffering the consequences. His strength had been completely drained to the extent that even trying to speak caused him intense discomfort: “I… I’m not…” Further words failed to produce themselves as Steve was hit by another fresh wave of pain. His insides felt as if they were bubbling and burning!

Putting the other out of his misery with a swift blow from the shield right to the temple, Brock stood triumphantly over the real Captain America as the rest of Rogers’ junior Avengers began to arrive. “Couple guys got away but we’ve rounded up the rest,” Sam Wilson advised, his eyes travelling down to the unconscious body of the vicious Crossbones, “Looks like you took care of business here though.”

“He didn’t stand a chance,” the new Captain America bragged. The bravado in his statement caught Sam by surprise, and he raised an eyebrow in response, but ultimately he thought very little more about it. There were more pressing things at hand, particularly getting the Hydra agents properly restrained and then into the SHIELD people carrier that had arrived on the scene. Sam of course wasn’t to know that the agents who took ‘Crossbones’ and his agents off of their hands were undercover Hydra agents themselves. The only prisoner they’d taken that would actually end up behind bars was the real Steve Rogers, and Brock couldn’t possibly think of a more fitting fate for him.

Placing the shield on the magnetic clip on his back, Brock shrugged his broad shoulders and shook out his arms. It would take a little while to get used to being in a body with such muscular proportions, but now that he had safely eliminated the only threat to exposing his true identity, he had all the time in the world. Once he was back at the Avengers compound he would report to Baron von Strucker and inform him of the plan’s success, then begin the important work of reshaping the world in Hydra’s image. Eventually people would learn to accept the order and stability that only Hydra could provide them with, but until then they would blindly follow Captain America into the brave new world.

After all, there was no way the good trustworthy Cap would ever lead them astray, was there?