Tales of the Kudoverse #2

Now this one I really like. It picks up from the first story, but it's clear here that I took more time with this one and fleshed it out a lot more. Even so, it will need to be rewritten when I get back to these. The hardest part of that, seeing as I'm taking all the Marvel Comics out of these stories, will be replacing the Red Skull, because he's pretty much perfect for my needs here. I guess I'm going to have to create-a-villain.

*****

June 14, 1985. London, England.

One hour to rendezvous. SHIELD agents are everywhere, in London on the intel that the three Zemo children are there to meet with the Red Skull. Their orders are clear. Take down the Skull's men dead or alive. Take out the Red Skull dead or alive...preferably dead. Take Greta Von Zemo dead or alive. Take the younger two sisters alive. Word from on high is there will be severe reprecussions if either Elspeth or Jillyana are harmed. The orders on Greta have changed since the raid on the Zemo household. And all of the agents know she will kill them before she allows her sisters to be captured. The agents have combed London for three days, but there has been no sign of the sisters.

Deep in the suburbs there is a white house with a fence and a small yard. There is nothing special about it. It is just a house between a long row of houses. The house is the residence of Richard and Mary Wollencraft and their four children. Until 24 hours ago they were all alive and happy. 25 hours ago they made the mistake of inviting three young American girls into their home. Richard died first, just so Greta could show the others who was in charge. Mary was next when she wouldn't keep quiet. The children died just because Greta was in a bad mood. It wasn't personal. The Wollencrafts had no connection to SHIELD or the Zemos. This was simply the address Greta was given for the meeting.

The bodies were piled in the corner. Greta kept watch, both for SHIELD agents and for the Skull's men. Elspeth took turns as well, her sister's machine gun clenched tightly in hand. When she wasn't watching out the windows, she studied the bodies. This was neither the first nor the last dead bodies she would see up close. They always fascinated her. Jillyana kept close to her sisters, and tried to stay out of their way. She watched the blood pool on the floor and leak out from underneath the bodies. She liked the pretty color.

Thirty minutes. Greta spotted the dark figures outside right away. There were at least six out by the bushes and the fence that she could detect. The enemy. The Skull's men would never be so sloppy. Greta checks her machine gun, and summons Elspeth to the window. A smaller handgun is handed to Elspeth.

"Kill any son of a bitch that comes in here. Anything that moves. Don't let any of them touch your sister."

Outside the shadowy men approach. Greta determines to hold them off until help arrives, or die trying. They will not lay hands on her sisters. They will enter this house and die. She will defend her family until the Red Skull can take them away. Finally, a destiny of her own.

How many? She doesn't know. It doesn't matter. However many there are, she is outnumbered and outgunned. They approach. She waits, finger on the trigger. Not yet. Not yet. Next to her, Elspeth is wide-eyed, pointing her gun towards the door. They'll come soon. The first move is theirs.

Three of them are in the house. They came in through the kitchen in the back of the house. Slowly they move towards the living room, guns drawn. The oldest sister is by the window. Take her out first, then collect the others. In the corner, the small blond sister sees them and gasps. Greta turns and cuts a trail of bullets through all three before they can even squeeze the trigger.

Then it begins. The other shadowy men are busting the door open and trying to come in through the windows. Greta kills four others before anyone can get their bearings. Two others come through the broken front door. Elspeth aims and fires, putting a bullet through the throat of one. He falls, choking on his own blood. She aims at the second one, who raises his gun barrel towards her. Orders be damned, he thinks. But Elspeth is first. The bullet explodes out the back of the shadowy man's skull. Another agent, behind her, kicks her to the floor and she loses the gun. He is also ready to disregard his orders, but he never gets the chance. His chest ruptures in a hail of machine gun fire.

There are too many. Greta says a silent prayer to something old and unspeakable. The Skull's men have to be close. They have to know what is happening. They have to hurry.

A bullet rips through her shoulder. Greta keeps firing. She kills two more. A bullet cuts through her stomach, and a second grazes her arm. Through nothing but willpower, she continues to stand and fire. Another agent falls. A bullet hits her in the chest, and she falls to her knees. Her gun falls to the floor. Elspeth tries to reach her lost gun, but the shadowy men are grabbing at her, pulling her away. Another bullet hits Greta in the skull, splashing her blood on Jillyana, who watches her sister die in open faced horror. Greta's eyes are staring and empty as they look into Jillyana's. Three agents are trying to contain a flailing Elspeth Von Zemo, who is screaming that she'll kill them all. Another agent comes to pick up Jillyana, and there is now something dead in her eyes. The agent tries to reassure her that everything is all right now. She sees them hurting her other sister. Jillyana picks up a jagged piece of the window glass that exploded all around her when the agents attacked. The agent is still smiling at her when she cuts his throat with it.

Then the wall behind her is torn away. The agents shout orders, and raise their guns. An enormous man enters the house. He has blond hair, in a crew cut. He is all muscle. He wears a blue uniform with a large symbol on the front, which Jillyana finds very familiar. The man is fast, strong. The agent's bullets don't seem to hurt him at all. He says something loud in German as his fist strikes the nearest agent, whose head snaps around backwards. Another agent attacks the man, and is quickly broken in half. Behind the man, a tall dark haired woman, dressed in black leather, enters the house. The whip in her hand moves like a living thing. It wraps around an agent's neck, breaks it, and then moves to the next. They are just the first. Bullets from unseen guns outside start to cut the shadowy men to pieces. The agents trying to drag Elspeth away are pulled off by the woman. Their heads are cracked together with a sickening thud, and they fall lifeless to the floor. No mercy is shown. Every agent is killed in brutal fashion.

The woman says something to Elspeth in German, and even though she understand the language, she cannot hear. All she can see is her sister, Greta, who died for her and Jillyana, killed by the shadowy men. The shadowy men who are all now dead themselves. Through her haze, she can see another man stride into the house. He is also tall, dressed in a black coat, but there is something....something wrong. He looks like death himself. The color of death is red.

She knows him then. The man they were to meet. The man they were sent to by their mother.

The Red Skull kneels by the fallen Greta Von Zemo, and gently touches her face. She will have a hero's burial. The Skull picks up Jillyana and holds her close to him. She is not afraid of him.

He approaches Elspeth, and extends a hand to her. The Red Skull helps her from the floor.

"I regret that I was not in time to save your sister," he says. "Her death, your parent's death--all will be avenged. That I swear."

Inside Elspeth Von Zemo the small seed of hate grows.

"For now, we should be on our way."

"Where are we going?" Elspeth asks.

"It is time to take you home."

The SHIELD response time is fast. Agents from all over London descend on the former home of the Wollencrafts within minutes of the call. But when they arrive, the Red Skull, his soldiers, Master Man, Warrior Woman, Elspeth and Jillyana Von Zemo, and the body of Greta Von Zemo are all gone without a trace. The search perimeter for the three sisters is widened, made global, but they are never found.

The next time SHIELD sees either of the surviving Zemo children, they will be the hunted.