Castle Zemo

Baron Zemo stood before a large monitor with his arms crossed. The Fixer sat at the round table in the center of the room, his legs propped on its top as he sipped coffee. Seated across from the Fixer was the Swordsman, his helmet resting on the table as he polished one of his blades, his eyes fixed on the monitor. Also at the table, a few seats down from both those two was the Radioactive Man. And the final man in the room was the Abomination, standing near the door, hand resting on his chin in thought.

“You’ve done fine work, Fixer,” said the Baron. “Because of you, we now see exactly what Nuke sees.

“My pleasure, Baron,” said the Fixer.

“How did you do it?” asked the Swordsman.

“Nano-machines implanted in his body during Wyngarde’s mind tricks. Some of you may or may not know, but Nuke is almost completely machine on the inside. Many of his major organs are synthetic and he’s got bionic implants in all the major muscle areas. But even more importantly…” Ebersol tapped the cybernetic device over his left eye, “…those aren’t his real eyes. They’re ocular implants. Nuke’s handlers wanted to be able to monitor him and thanks to my little friends, now we have that right.”

“How do we know he isn’t still broadcasting to his former masters?” asked the Swordsman.

“If he is, then consider it an added benefit.” The deep, baritone voice came from the hulking form of the Abomination. Despite his name and grotesque appearance, Emil Blonsky had an extremely keen tactical mind, a result of years of service in the KGB. He turned his massive head towards Zemo. “You wanted to send a message to Control? No better way to do just that than to allow them to witness their weapon used against them.”

“Why use him in this fashion, though?” asked the Radioactive Man. “Nuke is their prized creation. Throwing him directly into a Hydra facility is almost assured to get him captured. And then we lose our leverage over our enemies.”

“Nuke is simply a means to an end,” said Zemo. “Controlling him in the long-term would prove far too difficult and far too troublesome. We use him to strike a blow at our enemies as well as to learn as much about them as we can.”

Andreas von Strucker nodded in understanding. “In other words…you want Nuke to be captured.”

“I’m actually fairly indifferent on that front,” said Zemo. “Nuke is a single bullet. Once it’s fired, it can’t be fired again. He is one hundred per cent expendable.”

“Is that how you feel about all of us?”

Zemo turned his gaze to the son of his enemy and Andreas could see the purple mask crease slightly as Zemo smiled beneath it. “My dear Swordsman, would I have you here in my inner circle learning all my secrets if I believed you were expendable?”

The Swordsman smiled back. “Most assuredly, Baron. Most assuredly.”

MASTERS AND SLAVES

Part II

By Steve Seinberg and Dino Pollard

Donnie Gill sat in his quarters, holding the small mouthpiece in his hands. Wrapping his lips around it, he breathed in deeply, sucking in the nano-machines that made up the drug the Fixer had called neuroin.

The machines went to work, altering and increasing Donnie’s brain electricity. He fell back on the bed, the entire world seeming to melt away and his body feeling completely weightless.

“U-un….un-fucking-believable…” he muttered to himself as he began laughing. “This is better than Ebersol’s shit.”

He rolled off the bed, continuing to laugh as he slowly and groggily got to his feet. His vision blurred but he could make out the battlesuit that allowed him to control sub-zero temperatures and he pointed at it as the laughter grew louder.

“Blizzard…fuckin’ Blizzard…” he muttered, taking the mask in his hand. “You’re a fucking loser, why’d she want a loser like you?”

Donnie moved to the window of his room and looked out. On the beach he saw Melissa Gold and Abe Jenkins walking along the shore. He clenched his fist at the scene, gripping the white mask tightly. Donnie threw it against the wall with all the strength he could muster.

“What’s this world coming to when even the fuckin’ Beetle gets respect?”

Nuke ran towards the gate blocking his entrance and once he reached it, tore an opening as if it were paper. Now with the first obstacle gone, he ran towards the Hydra facility. Guards clad in green and yellow uniforms stood between him and his goal, opening fire on him with automatic rifles.

The bullets seemed to have no effect on him. He ran towards one of the guards and grabbed the barrel of the rifle, swinging it like a bat and then holding it in his own hands. Nuke laughed as he pulled the trigger, unloading round after round into the perimeter guards.

He took the rifle by its strap and slung it over his shoulder. Walking up to the facility, he put his hands through the metal door and tore it from his hinges. Once inside, he found himself facing off against more armed guards. Nuke grinned as he took his rifle in hand once more and pulled the trigger.

CLICK

“He seems stronger than I thought,” said the Radioactive Man.

“Partially my doing, partially Wyngarde’s.” The Fixer sipped his coffee. “She pushed his emotions to the point where he’s pretty much locked in perpetual rage. And me, my little friends are supplying him with the means to triple his adrenaline production.”

“Couldn’t that kill him?” asked the Radioactive Man.

The Fixer shrugged. “Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.”

Nuke flipped the gun around, once more using it as a bat as he charged at the Hydra guards. He slammed it against one of them so hard, the poor man’s head turned all the way around with a crack.

The super soldier reached behind his back and drew a pair of hunting knives. He lunged at one of the Hydra soldiers, jamming the dagger between his eyes. Nuke turned and threw the second at one who charged at him, this one embedded in the man’s throat.

Nuke yanked his first dagger out of the man’s head and ducked down as a Hydra guard opened fire. He moved closer with uncanny speed, staying close to the ground and once he was close enough, he opened the guard’s stomach with the knife. The guard fell to the ground in shock, trying to keep his insides from falling out.

When Nuke looked up again, he saw another guard firing on him. Nuke charged forward and once he reached the target, put his hand through the guard’s head, completely obliterating it.

Nuke continued to move through the facility, taking in all the sights he could.

“Wow…”

Baron Zemo glanced at the Fixer. “Shocked at how well your conditioning worked?”

“Nah, the violence I expected. What I’m wowed by is how Strucker’s got this place so tricked out. I’m seeing security panels and computer terminals that are still in the early prototype stages. Hell, he’s got power sources that I don’t even recognize. How does that happen?”

“My father has great resources at his disposal,” said the Swordsman.

“Yeah, but all this stuff?” asked the Fixer. “And look at that security force he had. The fact that we can still broadcast out of there is pretty much the only telltale sign that this facility’s not fully operational yet.”

“We need to know more,” said Zemo. “I want to know who else is working with Strucker, I want to know how much information he has on Control.”

Nuke continued moving through the facility when he heard a sound behind him. As he turned, a metal fist slammed into his body, throwing him against the wall. Nuke shook his head and got back to his feet and there he saw a ten-foot-tall Sentinel facing off against him.

“C’mon then,” said Nuke with a grin, beckoning the robot with a finger. The Sentinel lunged forward and Nuke jumped over its head. He landed behind and jumped on the Sentinel’s back, digging his fingers into its metal hide.

Nuke retracted his fist and slammed it against the Sentinel’s back. He repeated the motion several more times before the Sentinel jumped back, crushing Nuke beneath its weight. The Sentinel stood up once more and aimed its palm, firing a repulsor burst at the super soldier.

The Sentinel cornered Nuke and towered over him. Then, Nuke lunged upwards, gripping the Sentinel’s chest and tearing open the cavity to reveal a Hydra soldier harnessed inside the Sentinel. Nuke tore him free—literally—by ripping his head from his shoulders.

“He’s using Sentinels now…” muttered Andreas.

“Not quite,” said the Fixer. “Some sort of battle armor, it looks like. Didn’t even know anything like that was in development.”

“Control is obviously very good at covering their tracks,” said the Abomination.

“What did you know about this, Fixer?” asked Baron Zemo.

“Nothing,” said the Fixer. “I mean, there were some advocates of a piloted Sentinel program who believed it’d be more cost-effective than the traditional models, but it was never implemented so far as I know. Not only that, but Shaw Industries is the company responsible for the traditional Sentinels, so if some other company was trying to get in on the action, Shaw probably saw to it that they weren’t a threat any more.”

Nuke took another step and his entire body began to convulse with electricity. He fell to the ground as a slender man in a red and purple jumpsuit approached him from behind, the electricity arcing from his fingertips.

“Well, look what we’ve got here,” said the Eel. “A bona-fide celebrity!”

Nuke lunged for the Eel, wrapping his arms around him. The Eel’s bodysuit, however, was coated with a greasy silicon substance, allowing him to easily slip through Nuke’s grip, just like his namesake.

The super soldier was then struck by something fast and hard, strong enough to send him reeling. The Speed Demon stopped, allowing his foe to get a look at him. “That’s what happens when you get hit by a fist traveling at superhuman speed. Wanna see what else I can do with super speed?”

The Speed Demon’s body began vibrating and he drove his fist inside Nuke’s chest, gripping his heart. He pulled it out and it continued to vibrate in his hand before it exploded. “Oops.”

Nuke collapsed for a moment and Speed Demon and the Eel stood over him in satisfaction. Both his hands reached out and grabbed the legs of the Speed Demon and he swung the villain into the Eel.

“He’s still running?” asked the Abomination.

“Oh yeah, forgot to mention that,” said the Fixer. “Nuke’s got two synthetic hearts.”

Nuke was hit behind by an energy blast and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw the Unicorn standing there, the horn on the brow of his mask glowing brightly. Milos Masaryk emitted another blast, although this one caused Nuke to levitate in the air as the Eel overloaded his body with electricity. The Unicorn then hurled him against the wall.

The Unicorn flew towards Nuke via the twin turbines on his belt, the horn generating a forcefield around his body. He crashed down towards Nuke, driving his fists against the super soldier’s face. The Unicorn lifted Nuke over his head and threw him, following up the strike with another burst from his horn.

Nuke emerged with a cry of rage and lunged at the Unicorn. He dodged the energy blasts and grabbed his enemy by the horn, pulling him down to jam his knee into the Unicorn’s face. Nuke followed it up by several kicks to the chest and then drove his elbow against the Unicorn’s head.

“Not bad, buddy.”

Nuke turned and saw he now had another enemy to contend with. This one wore a purple ski mask and a green jumpsuit, with a glowing crowbar in his hand. He smiled as he tapped the crowbar against the open palm of his free hand.

“Too bad it’s game over for you now,” said the Wrecker.

He swung the crowbar and Nuke ducked, avoiding it from taking off his head. Nuke sprang, driving his head into the Wrecker’s chest and toppling them both to the ground. Nuke brought his fists down on the Wrecker in rapid succession, pummeling the magic-empowered villain. The Wrecker just laughed as Nuke continued his assault.

“That the best you got? Well I got news for you—”

The Wrecker vanished suddenly and Nuke ended up punching the ground. He stood and looked around in confusion and then he heard the Wrecker’s voice coming from behind him.

“—you ain’t shit!”

Nuke turned as the Wrecker swung the crowbar towards him and he grabbed it. The super soldier tore it free from the Wrecker’s grasp and brought it down on his enemy’s head, swinging it with savage ferocity, causing such damage that it actually began to cause the Wrecker to bleed.

“Enough games,” muttered the Wrecker. He raised his hand and the crowbar flew from Nuke’s grip back to its rightful owner. It then began to crackle with energy and the Wrecker drove it against the ground, generating an earthquake.

Nuke attempted to keep himself on solid footing, but as he tried that, he was unprepared for the Wrecker’s next attack, appearing behind Nuke once more and slamming the crowbar against the back of his skull. The Wrecker struck once more, hitting Nuke in the spine and causing him to fall.

The Wrecker raised the crowbar above his head, prepared to deliver the killing blow. He laughed and then brought the crowbar down hard on the neck of Frank Simpson, severing the super soldier’s head from his body.

Baron Zemo watched as the crowbar came down and the head rolled away. The eyes were still broadcasting for a few more minutes and that’s when they witnessed another man step onto the scene—tall and slender and clad in sophisticated armor himself.

Then, the feed died.

“Wait, did you see that?” asked the Fixer. He rewound the feed, going back to the new arrival just before Nuke’s systems shut down and then paused it on the figure. “Look,that’s how Strucker’s getting his tech.”

“Who is it?” asked the Swordsman.

“Bentley Wittman,” said the Fixer. “The Wingless Wizard himself. By the way, does anyone know what the hell that name actually means?”

“The Eel, Speed Demon, the Unicorn, the Wrecker and the Wizard,” said Zemo. “What is the connection between all of them?”

“They’re all guns for hire,” said the Fixer.

“No, there’s something more,” said Zemo.

“The Masters of Evil.”

All eyes in the room turned to Chen Lu, who sat with his arms crossed, still focused on the screen. “If Blizzard or Tiger Shark were here, they would tell you that all those men—with the exception of the Wizard—worked with the Crimson Cowl’s recent Masters of Evil.”

“Who’ve all but vanished since reality was restored,” said the Abomination. “Or so we were led to believe. Now it seems that, aside from those of us who were plucked by Moonstone, the Masters have remained in hiding, waiting for an opportunity and a force to align themselves with.”

“And with the Cowl missing, they chose my father,” said the Swordsman.

“Then we must move quickly, so we can use this pattern of recognition to our advantage,” said Baron Zemo. “You’re all dismissed for now.”

The Thunderbolts who comprised Zemo’s inner circle left the room. All of them, however, except for P. Norbert Ebersol, who remained seated and watched as the door closed behind the last of the departing teammates.

“Is there something else?” asked Zemo.

“Did it occur to you why these guys might have sided with Strucker?”

“I have my theories, as I’m sure you do.”

“I do, and I don’t think it’s because they needed a new leader. You know how these guys operate,” said the Fixer. “What if someone told them about your little ruse when you had Karla posing as the Cowl?”

“The thought had crossed my mind, but how would Strucker be aware of that?” asked Zemo.

The Fixer shrugged. “Who says he knows for sure? Maybe he’s just making the whole thing up.”

Or maybe someone talked.

Zemo and the Fixer kept their gazes locked.

“Indeed,” said Zemo. “It seems like just the sort of tactic Wolfgang would employ.”

“So what’s our next move?”

“I want to be sure that this is indeed what Strucker is doing. So first, I will review the roster of all we employed as the Masters of Evil. And I want you to assemble a four-man team.”

“For what purpose?” asked the Fixer.

Zemo stared at the frozen still of the five villains who stood over the fallen form of Nuke. “For a test.”