Undisclosed Location
Slovakia
May 2013

It had been built over seven hundred years ago and had served as a staging location for the crusades. Many gruesome battles and cringe worthy deaths had occurred there. Kings and Queens with their royal courts had played out their little games on the top of the mountain.

Its new occupants have been living there for fifteen years now. No one in town had the guts to talk about them. If you were caught being nosey, you weren’t seen again.

There was a variety of defenses against trespassers: armed guards with orders to kill; an electric fence which had enough power to kill; motion sensors which can calculate the size of the intruder.

On the inside, it was strict and orderly; the troops never smiled. At one of the desks, a soldier was finishing up a report. He stood up a few sentences later and made his way to his superior officer.

“Sir, latest intel reports,” the soldier said with the utmost respect.

The officer accepted the reports from him and dismissed him with a lazy wave. As he read over them, a small smile appeared on his face. He stood up from his desk quickly and turned around to walk over to a thick oak door. With a tight fist, he knocked three times.

“Come in,” came the sharp order from the other side. The officer took a breath and opened the door.

“Hail Hydra!” he greeted with a firm voice, before saluting the man behind the desk.

“Hail Hydra!” the man replied as he too, saluted.

“The latest reports from New Mexico, Baron” He handed the report to the very serious man.

Baron adjusted his monocle as he read through it, a little smirk growing on his face. ”So they actually made the bullet,” Baon said more than asked. “Excellent. I think it is time to contact them and arrange a meeting. We can settle on a price there. Prepare my jet, would you,” Baron commanded. “Oh, and contact the Winter Soldier. I believe it’s time.”

“Hail Hydra!” The officer, knowing what his orders were,

“Hail Hydra!” Baron Von Strucker answered

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Mexico, 24 Hours Later

After completing numerous tests, Matt and Frank decided that they should celebrate their good fortune. They went out to a local bar, a favorite of theirs. Frank was pleased when he realised that it wasn’t very busy before ordering a pitcher of beer and some simple bar appetizers; The food was okay, but it wasn’t like they expected a seven course meal and the finest wine, anyway.

Then both of their expressions changed as they glanced up at the television; they saw a commercial that had them both coughing as they choked on their food temporarily. They could not believe their eyes. Immediately Matt’s phone went off. Frank glanced at the call ID and saw that it was Cindy before Matt answered the call.

“Hello?... Yes, Cindy… We know... Yes I can’t believe it… What?... The Avengers...” Images of the team appeared on the screen: Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Loki. “Oh my god, the whole team of monsters, Hulk and Thor too… Okay, can you get a hold of them… No? What do you mean no? They’ll get in touch with us?... Are you sure? Well, you should call them... Of course I trust you… Okay… Goodbye.”

As Matt hung up the phone, Frank could tell he was pissed. He had that look in his eyes. “She said that they’ll contact us when they’re ready.”

“Who is they?” Frank asked.

“I don’t know! She won’t tell me the name; she said it would be better for our health.”

“The fuck! Our health? We can take of ourselves. Fuck this.” Frank exploded momentarily, he didn’t like the secrets and potential repercussions of working with whomever Cindy had found.

A man approached the table; he was tall with a blonde buzz-cut and no facial hair. He had on a black dress shirt and just stood there staring at them for a long time.

“What do you want? You got a problem?” Frank challenged angrily, already pissed off.

“What the hell do you want?” Matt questioned dismissively.

“If you were wise, you would listen to your cousin, Cindy. As for your problems, we are the ones that might solve them.” In his a heavy European accent, he almost sounded Russian.
“How many tests has the bullet passed?”

Matt and Frank were stunned. Matt looked nervous but Frank was the type that did not back down. He had a gun on him, and started to reach for it. His hand was almost on it, but he stopped as he felt a barrel on his back.

“Now, Mr. Williams, your deceased sister would be greatly upset if you were to be killed before you could avenge her death, so let’s not do anything rash.” Frank knew he had no chance, so he let his hands fall to his sides; he knew when to give it up. The man behind him removed
Frank’s gun and put it in his jacket.

“Now, please, if you don’t mind, let’s talk somewhere more private. There is business to discuss,” Frank and Matt looked nervously at each other. “Relax, let’s get going, We’re not in the business of losing contacts before we discuss details. Besides, Cindy will be here in three hours with my superior.”

The cousins looked shocked. Matt had spoken to Cindy less than fifteen minutes ago. She hadn’t said anything about coming out. The blond man saw their confusion and concern. “After she hung up the phone with you, we knocked on her door and told her. So let’s go. Oh…” he turned back and pointed to the food. “If you don’t mind, bring your leftovers. It’ll be a long wait.”

Frank and Matt paid their tab and got the leftovers. They got into Frank’s suv, and the blond man got into the back seat. “My partner will follow us. Please drive normally. Any attempt to hurt us or contact the police, and we will not hesitate to kill your cousin." They both nodded silently.

The drive to Frank’s place took twenty minutes. The blond man’s partner pulled in behind
Frank’s vehicle-blocking it in- as they got out of the trucks and walked to the house. Frank unlocked the door, and they all walked in as the lights came on. The two men looked around at the home; it was a mess and helplessly dirty. The Europeans looked at each other with a raised eyebrow.
__________________________________________________________________________

New York City, 30 minutes earlier
Cindy’s POV

Cindy was still shaking; she couldn’t believe her eyes. That motherfucker had just been on TV. How could her government be okay with this? The Avengers were harboring that psycho. She had just gotten off the phone with Matt and was pleased to hear that the bullet was ready.
Cindy smiled as she realised that the chance to avenge Mike was closer. As she closed her eyes, she could see it clear as day as it would happen.

It was a darkened room, Loki was chained to a steel table. He could wiggle a little, but that was about it. Cindy walked into the room with a long knife in hand, wearing dark blue scrubs.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, you fucking bastard.” Loki had the look of pure fear in his eyes as the sweat poured down from his forehead. He was begging for his life, pleading for mercy. Cindy would have none of that. She felt her blood run cold, her heart actually slowing down a little. Her eyes focused on her target, the source of her hated, and she walked closer to him.

When she was in front of him, she raised the knife, slowly moving closer to him. She was loving the moment, the pure terror in his eyes. Loki was still begging, crying, but she would have none of that. “You killed him, you led those monsters to him. I want you to feel my pain, the pain of him being ripped from my life. I want you to feel the sorrow of all the children whose parents you killed.”

Loki kept saying that he was sorry, that it wasn’t his fault. Cindy didn’t care, she lifted the cold blade and gently touched his face, and in one motion, she chopped off his right ear. He howled in pain, the blood spraying out over the floor in a fine mist. Cindy grabbed a wad of gauze and taped it to his head. Cindy’s smile grew larger. “Can’t have you bleeding out and dying too quickly now.”

She was pulled out of her thoughts when there was a loud series of banging at her door. With a shake of her head, she stood up and glanced out of the window; there were three men standing on her porch. She recognized one of them from the restaurant and opened the door.

“I guess it’s time,” she said, really hoping that they weren’t here to kill her.

The imposing man in front of her nodded. “Yes. You have ten minutes to gather your things. It is time to talk business.”
____________________________________________________________________________

New Mexico One Hour later
.
“Make yourself comfortable.” Frank walked to the couch and sat down as Matt sat down in the recliner. “What do you want to know? Or are you just going to wait till everyone gets here?”

The two agents looked at each other. ”Why do you want these people dead?”

"What do you mean why? They killed our family members and nobody is willing to do anything, so, we decided to take action ourselves. Many more people will die if they aren’t stopped!" Frank replied forcefully, almost at shouting point.

"Do you know what it's like to lose a brother?” Matt asked rhetorically, a lot calmer than Frank. “What makes it even worse is when it happens right in front of you and there's not a goddamn thing you can do. Well we decided we're going to do something,” Matt stated.

The blonde man looked at him for a long time, eyes cold. “I do know what it's like to lose a brother. My brother and my father were killed in front of me because of the American forces doing the right thing.” He said, making quotation marks with his fingers. “And they did nothing to help me and my mother. They were killed by troops in a raid.”

Matt looked at the man with sorrow. ”I'm sorry, I didn't know that. I was out of line.”

The blonde man look at Matt. “It’s fine, we have a common goal now, by the way I am Drake.”

The other man introduced himself as Nickolas.

For the next few hours, they talked to each other told about the family members they had lost. The pain they felt helped them actually bond.

The blond man's phone went off and he answered it. The conversation was brief and he hung up after a few sentences before informing everybody that they had landed at the airport and they will be here in a half hour.

Thirty minutes later, Cindy showed up with the others. As they came in, Matt and Frank could see the tall man with an eyeglass on one eye. He definitely had a ‘don't-fuck-with-me’ attitude.

The other two men saluted the man. "Hail Hydra!"

“Hail Hydra,” the man said back

“Oh shit,” Matt said, “When you said your were going to get the right people, you weren't kidding!”

“Yes, that is correct, Dr. Jenkins. Now, let us talk about the deal. You would like to hire us to kill these three people, is that correct?” He waited for them to nod. “Let’s sit and we can discuss the terms.”

Everyone took as seat as requested and Frank handed out some beer to everyone. After a few minutes of silence, the bald man stood up.

“I am going to ask one more time. Are you sure you’d like to do this? And remember, if you want this done, there is no turning back.”

He looked at his cousins and they were nodding, so Frank decided to answer for all of them.
“Yes. These bastards took our loved ones, They should pay,” Frank answered affirmatively.

“How much?” Cindy asked.

“Six million. Two million per life, and one other condition.”

“What is the other condition?”

“That you swear the rest of your life to Hydra.”

“Wait, what?!” Matt burst out in a shock-filled daze, no longer completely calm.

“I don’t understand, why?” Frank asked, confused.

“I do, and yes,” Cindy agreed without question.

“What?!” the two remaining cousins exclaimed.

She looked at her two cousins. “Are you two really that stupid? We’re going to be involved in the assassination of three superheros. We will have every single law enforcement agency on the planet after us. We’re going to need protection, new identities, new lives, and they are probably the only ones that can do it.”

The bald man looked at her with a little smirk. ”I can see that you are the smart one, and you are correct. The United States, Canadian, and Mexican Governments are planning to make trade agreements with Prince Thor and Loki’s home planet of Asgard. With the cooperation of the United Nations, they want Loki to be the first Ambassador. When we kill them, you will have the whole world after you, and because you might start a war between the two planets, you will have nowhere safe to go.”

“Holy fuck, princes?” Matt could not believe his ears. He just wanted revenge, not a war, not to possibly kill more people. Terrorist organizations? He loved his work; he didn't hate America, and needless to say he did not have a poker face.

“Matt, what the fuck? You’d better not be getting cold feet over this. Remember we said all of us are together, there’s no going back.” Frank angrily eyed him.

“It does not matter!” the bald man said loudly. “If you quit now, you will be executed.”

Notes