~ Sokovia ~
Few regions in the world held as much significance for HYDRA. Sokovia: a forgotten country nestled among mountains, marked by decades of corrupt governments, silent occupations, and false promises from the West.
But the truth... HYDRA.
From the shadows of conflict, they sowed disinformation, funded nationalist movements, and orchestrated economic crises that ensured one thing: despair.
In 2011, Sokovia was, de facto, a failed state. Civil infrastructure barely held together. International aid disappeared into bureaucratic pockets. Protesters were silenced.
Everyone thought Sokovia had fallen. But the truth was different.
Sokovia didn't fall. Sokovia was pushed.
And one of the culprits, at that moment, was hiding in a fortress on the outskirts. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was executing his plan: to turn Sokovia into the cradle for the next step in human evolution. Human experiments, genetic engineering, psychic manipulation... All of this, underpinned by the political instability they had created.
The best part was, even if they kidnapped people, no one would notice. Why? Because people were desperate. They needed a change so badly that they clung to any hope, despite all past disappointments.
When a group appeared claiming to need volunteers, promising to help, they immediately offered themselves. The experiments hadn't yielded significant results yet, but Strucker was hopeful. The path of science had always been slow. He wasn't in a hurry.
But today, something had changed. An alarm sounded. An intruder had managed to infiltrate. Strucker quickly called for the guards. The perimeter of the base was heavily watched. Outside, there were disguised turrets, hidden snipers, and numerous HYDRA agents, trained and ready to attack. However, now... no one was responding. They had all been neutralized.
"Intruders"
Strucker said in a firm voice.
"Use everything we have. We cannot let them reach the labs."
"Understood"
Came a voice over the communicator.
The base trembled as explosions rocked it while agents prepared to engage. Strucker, from the security cameras, watched: more than 300 armed men, all trained in combat and divided into teams of 10.
'It doesn't matter who they are. They'll die today'
Thought Strucker.
But suddenly, the base's power went out. He received multiple communications. Everyone was reporting having located the intruder, but none had been able to capture him. Power was restored five minutes later, but by then, it was too late: the backup power had kicked in.
What Strucker saw next was unsettling. Nearly 50 of his men had been immobilized, tied up, knocked out, or killed. It didn't matter how—someone had made sure they couldn't move.
"How?"
Strucker asked in shock. They had taken down 50 men in five minutes. That was impossible for anyone.
Then, explosions rang through the base. The teams, confused, split up to investigate. Strucker, from his camera room, understood what they were trying to do: split them up. He quickly spoke into the intercom:
"Don't split up. Repeat, don't split up. That's an order!"
But no one responded. They had been compromised. The communicators no longer worked. They were now completely cut off.
The teams, now more scattered, began falling one by one in the cameras. As they arrived, someone attacked them all. Whoever it was, they were fast and efficient.
Strucker began to panic. But the worst was yet to come. At that moment, another alarm sounded: all the cells had opened. The subjects were escaping.
They were still normal humans, but that was enough. The agents didn't know whether to shoot or not. Some, upon being reached by the crowd, began firing. Others were slower and were taken down. Their weapons were stolen. Chaos erupted.
Strucker decided to abandon everything and headed for the emergency escape room. He entered the secret tunnels that only he knew about. These tunnels allowed quick access to any part of the base and were efficient.
Of course, it wasn't as safe as it seemed. If Strucker hadn't been consumed by panic, if he had been the same cold, calculating man he used to be, he would have realized that those same quick and efficient tunnels were the only way the intruders could have gotten in so quickly and unnoticed.
But he didn't have time to think about that.
Before him appeared a man. Strucker recognized him immediately. But before he could speak, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. It wasn't a normal arrow. It seemed like high-tech, and it adhered to his chest. When he tried to remove it, the arrow emitted an electric pulse that electrocuted him, rendering him unconscious instantly.
"I've got Strucker"
Clint Barton reported through his earpiece.
"Understood. I've got the kids as well. Meet us at the rendezvous point in an hour"
Came the voice.
"Confirmed"
Clint said before tying up Strucker and taking him through the same exit Strucker had planned to use.
---
Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were two normal teenagers. They had grown up in a country completely ravaged by war. Just surviving there was a luxury. Their parents had been part of rebel groups aiming to free Sokovia from tyranny, but they never succeeded in changing anything.
Despite the harshness of their life, they found joy in the little things. That's how they had grown up—learning to enjoy what little they had. But everything changed when they were ten.
One night, while having dinner with their parents, a missile struck their building. Their parents died instantly. They, injured, were trapped under the rubble of what had once been their home.
But the nightmare didn't end there. A second missile fell. This one didn't explode right away, so Wanda, courageously, tried to protect her brother with her own body. The missile, fortunately, didn't explode. For two whole days, they were trapped beneath debris, with their parents' bodies beside them. During those two days, the physical pain wasn't as bad as the psychological torment: knowing they could die at any moment if the missile went off, seeing their parents' bodies nearby.
When they were finally rescued, they were no longer the same. They had changed. Now, they had one purpose: revenge.
Their target: Stark Industries.
So when they were promised vengeance, they accepted without hesitation. The risk didn't matter. What awaited them was even worse than the life they had lived as orphans.
They were taken to a hidden base on the outskirts of Sokovia. There, they were strapped to a table, and experiments were done on them. The pain was unbearable. They didn't know what they were being injected with, but the suffering made them wish for death. Inside that base, the truth was clear: they would never have the power to take down Stark, and they would probably die uselessly as lab rats.
A month later, something changed. While they were in their cell, everything turned red, and an alarm began to sound. The guards left. Power was cut for five minutes. Explosions everywhere. No one knew what was happening. Everyone looked toward the entrance in fear.
After a while, a woman entered. Calmly, she connected a device to the computers and opened all the cells. No one moved. Everyone was terrified. They had been there so long. They knew what happened in these places. If someone managed to enter, it wasn't a simple person.
"You can leave. I'm not here for you"
The woman said.
Upon hearing her, everyone began to leave, cautiously. When they saw it wasn't a trap, they ran for the exit.
But Wanda and Pietro stayed still. She was watching them.
"Come with me"
The woman said without hesitation.
Pietro wanted to move forward, but Wanda stopped him.
"Who are you? Why should we trust you?"
Natasha smiled, calm.
"Who I am, I'll tell you later, but you can trust me. Someone assigned me to take care of you for six months. After that, you'll be free, and I'll be rewarded. We all win."
Wanda thought for a moment. Another person might have been offended by Natasha's motives. But she wasn't.
"Will your reward be big?"
Wanda asked.
Natasha smiled at the question.
"Bigger than anything you can imagine."
"Let's go, Pietro"
Wanda said to her brother, and both began following Natasha without hesitation.
Wanda didn't trust anyone. But she knew, from the life she had lived, that for most people, the most important thing was their own interest. She knew someone would pay Natasha for helping them. And that she, in her search for her reward, wasn't dangerous. But the one they really had to be wary of was the one who had asked Natasha to free them.
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