"What were the children for?"
Natasha asked coldly as she stared at Baron Strucker. Strucker's face was bloody and beaten; his right eye was swollen and a dark purple. The man was suspended in the air by his wrists; steel chains were wrapped tightly around them. His legs were spread apart as they were also chained.
The room Natasha and Strucker were in was dark and dirty; They were in one of her scattered safe houses. A single lamp hung over them; the light was small and yellow. The room's walls were impossible to see due to the darkness, which made it hard to tell the room's size.
"..." Strucker remained silent, just as he had been the last thirty minutes.
Natasha felt herself lose her composure as the man refused to talk. Strucker just wouldn't break under her methods of interrogation.
"Why did you need them?" Natasha asked.
"...You think you can break me?" Strucker finally spoke. "You can't."
"Everyone breaks." Natasha stated.
Strucker heard the sound of a door opening and closing behind him. The echo of slow, steady footsteps filled the room until it stopped behind him.
Natasha saw Wanda and Harvey stand behind the man. The young woman had an angry expression; she turned to her and waited. Natasha nodded and looked back to Strucker.
"You just have to know where to look."
Wanda raised her hands and held them at the side of Strucker's head. Red energy emerged and surrounded Strucker's head; suddenly, the man's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth in a silent scream.
Natasha watched as Wanda focused her powers to comb through Strucker's mind. Giving the agent time to reflect on the mission.
The black widow was apprehensive at first to accompany Harvey on his mission. Fury ordered her to be the quinjet's pilot and help Harvey achieve his objective. It was a way to show Harvey that working with them could be very beneficial. Natasha wanted to use this mission to gauge Harvey's skills and mindset. Is he truly capable of handling this line of work? He was so young.
All of Harvey's teammates and friends were enhanced individuals with unique skills and abilities of their own. This would have been an excellent opportunity to add powerful individuals to the agency, but it didn't sit well with her that they were also young kids.
But as soon as they left the air base, Harvey took charge of the mission and set up a quick initial plan to find Strucker's compound. The plan was a little hard around the edges, but it was a solid plan. After a day, he and Amy found the compound, which greatly impressed her.
From there, they devised a plan to infiltrate the base without setting off any alarms. It worked perfectly, thanks to the group's ability to work well together and Harvey's great leadership. Natasha felt a proud smile grow on her face as she watched him work.
It wasn't until Amy and Pietro found the horrible sight of all the imprisoned children that their original plan changed. Harvey divided the team's objectives into search and rescue and finding Strucker. They only managed to find him with little issue due to Harvey, who created a huge distraction by taking on Strucker's main forces.
After they secured Strucker, Natasha panicked when she heard Harvey say that the Abomination was at their location. Why was such a powerful being here and not in the RAFT? Natasha grew more impressed by Harvey after he defeated the Abomination after a hard-fought battle.
This only solidified SHEILD's beliefs that Harvey belonged on the level of power to that of the Hulk and Thor. Natasha even wondered if he could be stronger than them both.
After the battle, they all flew to the nearest hospital to get the surviving children the medical help they needed. Hopefully, the children's parents could find them and be reunited.
After a day's rest, Amy and Pietro said they would get the deceased children's remaining bodies to the authorities. Their parents and loved ones needed closure and to properly bury their bodies.
Harvey, Wanda, and herself decided to take over the interrogation of Strucker. So far, they've had no luck with physical torture. Not even Harvey's personal methods worked. Finally, they decided to let Wanda try and get inside his mind to find all the information he didn't want to part with willingly.
They would have done this first if it wasn't for the fact that Wanda's skills with this particular ability of hers only ranged from seeing the memories of a week ago from the person. Any further, and she could risk accidentally turning the man into a vegetable, ruining any chances at getting the answers they sought.
"I-It's working." Wanda said with a grimace. Her face was covered in sweat.
"Good, take it easy." Harvey whispered as he laid a comforting hand on Wanda's shoulder. "Pace yourself."
Natasha looked at Strucker's face, contorting in agony as his eyes were glazed white. Blood started to flow from his nostrils.
"He's bleeding." Natasha informed them both.
"Almost done!" Wanda said as her own nose started to bleed. Natasha watched anxiously as she watched the young woman begin to shake.
"Wanda, enough!" Natasha exclaimed as she walked around the man to look at the auburn-haired woman.
"She's right, Wanda." Harvey said as he grabbed her shoulders. "It's not worth hurting yourself over this!"
"No! I have to get it all!" Wanda said with gritted teeth. "This is why we came here!"
After a few more seconds, Wanda gasped as she fell back into Harvey's arms. Natasha rushed to her side and steadied her. Wanda slowly gained control of her breathing and looked up.
"I got it all."
•••
"Wanda, are you ready?"
Harvey asked his friend as she sat on a small chair. Around them were the rest of his teammates; they were ready to hear everything Wanda had seen inside Strucker's mind. Wanda's face was one of defeat and fear.
"I am." Wanda whispered.
"Who was behind the bombings, sister?" Pietro asked in a small voice.
"...It was Strucker himself. He used the bombings as a cover to capture all the orphaned children in the aftermath." Wanda told them with her eyes closed. "Just like the reports said."
"But why? Why did he need the children?" Amy asked as she leaned on a wall near the main door. "...why did they all die?"
"Strucker was trying to create superhuman abilities by experimenting on them. He was trying to recreate Captain America." Wanda said. "They all kept dying from the stress of his injections; their bodies rejected the formulas he created."
"...Has he been doing this all this time?" Natasha asked.
"...yes." Wanda answered with a pained expression. "I-I saw it all. I saw how they all begged him that they wanted to go home. That they missed their parents!"
Pietro rushed in and hugged his sister as she started crying into his shoulder. Harvey looked down in anger; Wanda must have witnessed it all through Strucker's point of view. Depending on how far back she went, she must have seen years of horrible, disgusting events.
Harvey wished he could have just used the penance stare to see what Strucker had done, but that ability only showed him an individual's crimes and evil acts. It didn't show him the information he needed. But after Wanda was done, Harvey stepped in to finish off Strucker.
Harvey used the Ghost Riders penance stare to damn Strucker into eternal suffering for his actions. He deserved all that and more.
"It wasn't until the appearance of the Hulk that he started to try to recreate what happened to him as well." Wanda said after she lifted her head from her brother's chest. "The children that went through that... they..."
"That's enough." Harvey spoke. "You don't have to say anymore."
"That must be why the Abomination was here; Strucker must have gotten him transferred here to better study what happened to him." Natasha concluded as she looked to the side. "But how did he arrange it so he could be transferred to Sokovia from the United States without alerting anyone?"
"Strucker has people in the U.S. Senate." Wanda told Natasha, causing the woman's eyes to widen. "...and in SHEILD."
"...what?" Harvey asked in shock and anger. "Do you know their names?"
Wanda nodded and gained a focused look on her face. She seemed to be combing through all of Strucker's memories to find them. "Senator Stern, Jasper Sitwell, and Alexander Pierce. They are all in a group called... HYDRA?"
"...it can't be." Natasha whispered as she gained a horrified look.
"Natasha." Harvey rushed to the red-headed woman and grabbed her shoulders. "What's HYDRA?! Who are those people?"
Natasha turned to look at Harvey, her usual composed demeanor was gone. The situation must be a lot worse than Harvey imagined if that information shook the woman to her core.
"Harvey. This is worse than we could possibly imagine."
•••
"We can't just sit on this information!"
Wanda said in frustration as she walked around the room, arms folded over her chest. "We have to tell the world!"
"We can't." Natasha said calmly. "We would be putting us all on HYDRA's radar. They'd eliminate us quickly."
"We have to take the risk!" Pietro said in frustration. "There's crazy nazis in the government for crying out loud!"
Wanda nodded alongside her brother; if they moved fast enough, they could put a stop to HYDRA before they could hurt anyone else. It didn't make sense why Natasha was so hesitant to do what was right.
"That's exactly why, Pietro." Harvey spoke from his spot next to Amy.
Wanda looked at him in surprise. She was sure he would have agreed with them on the subject.
"You two, listen to me. If HYDRA infiltrated the government and SHEILD, then we can't know who we can or can't trust." Harvey spoke calmly to them. "If we tell the wrong people, then we will be found and eliminated; no one will ever know the truth if we mess this up."
"Harvey is right. We have to be careful." Natasha said as she placed a hand on Wanda and Pietro's shoulders. "One wrong move, and it's over."
Wanda wanted to argue but thought about it deeply. She found what they were saying to be correct; they all held very dangerous information. Information that could get them or maybe other people killed. Wanda may have found the ones behind her parent's deaths but at the cost of gaining new life-threatening information.
"What do we do now?" Amy asked as she stood up from her chair.
"Now." Harvey spoke as he stood up beside the blonde angel. "We go home."
•••
"Natasha."
Harvey called out to his teammate. The red-haired agent turned to him. Harvey walked up to her and looked to his right. Wanda, Pietro, and Amy were all loading their luggage into the black SUV parked off the runway of the airfield they were on. They landed back in California just a few minutes ago.
"Harvey." Natasha smiled and nodded.
"...Thank you. For helping us, I'm glad you came along." Harvey said in appreciation. "I'm not sure we could have done this without you."
The older woman's eyes widened, and she looked down, a small smile on her face. "You're giving me too much credit. Your team succeeded because of you; be proud of that."
"Thank you, truly." Harvey held his hand out and smiled. "I made a great new friend over these past couple of days. If you ever need me, I'll be there."
Natasha looked at him in surprise, and she reached out and shook his hand. She then let him go and nodded. "Thank you, you can count on me as well."
Harvey smiled and turned to look at his friends. They were now inside the SUV, waiting for him to join them. Natasha said they could keep the SUV, a small gift from her.
"...What will you do now?"
The red haired agent hummed and closed her eyes. "I'll tread carefully. See who I can trust and who I can't. From there, I'll work on a plan for us to take out HYDRA once and for all."
Harvey nodded and thought it was a good plan. They couldn't take down HYDRA quickly; this could take years for them to accomplish successfully. HYDRA's numbers could be significant, and their members could be worldwide. This mission needed to be handled with extreme caution.
"I received news that we found Steve Rogers frozen in ice two days ago." Natasha told him with a small smile. "Somehow, he is still alive even after being frozen for seventy years. I'm sure Captain America would be glad to help us take down his old Enemy."
"Sounds like a good ally to have in our fight." Harvey said as he heard the SUV's horn spammed repeatedly, likely due to Amy. "It seems that my presence is being summoned."
"Go on." Natasha patted Harvey's back in a friendly manner. "You have my number; call me if anything pops up."
Harvey nodded and started walking forward. Stopping, he turned around and smiled at his new friend. Harvey enjoyed the older woman's company; she grew on him. He was happy to call her his friend. How could he not after they fought alongside one another as teammates and allies.
"See you around, Natasha."