[2009 – October]
Swinging along the underside of the Williamsburg Bridge to cross the East River, Peter was mentally readying himself for his 'patrol' that night, the cold breeze blowing over the river making him feel awake and at peace.
Suddenly though, the world before him seemed to lose colour for a single instant, his instincts and perception condensing into a sharp sensation at the back of his mind as his mind focused towards a certain direction, an overwhelming sense of apprehension and dread erupting in his heart.
A cold chill running down his spine, Peter recovered his senses almost immediately, though he nearly fell into the river as he had difficulty controlling his limbs for a moment.
Panting a bit while his heart rate nearly doubled, he gritted his teeth and followed where his intuition had just pointed towards, despite every fiber of his being telling him to do the exact opposite.
Being unreasonably and irresponsibly bold, his determination to protect those that could not protect themselves pushed past his fears as he rapidly approached the place that he had sensed from afar.
Landing on a rooftop, Peter's breath got quiet as his muscles started to stiffen involuntarily, his gaze drawn to an empty plot of land between two buildings, which was covered in a blanket of ash.
His pupils dilated near instantly as the sharp sensation in the back of his head became almost omnipresent, a sense of unspeakable dread gripping his heart as he looked at the drifting ashes.
Peter didn't understand it himself but some part of him knew that 'something' had happened here – 'something' had been here.
And whatever this 'something' was, meeting it was like meeting the reaper itself, death being the only outcome.
Sweat ran down his back under the suit and his hair was wet under the face mask, the seriousness of what he had just walked into dampening his emboldened spirit.
Spiders were supposed to be predators and hunters but at this moment Peter felt not a shred of safety or confidence despite the bodily enhancement given to him through the bite of a certain spider.
He didn't see, hear, or smell anything suspicious at all but from somewhere deep within him, an extraordinary instinct that went beyond normal physical perception warned him of death and darkness, fear spreading as his limbs shook.
Slowly backing off, Peter didn't dare to act stubbornly as he realized that this was not a matter that he could involve himself in and expect to live through.
Leaving as quickly as possible while making stealth his priority, he eventually stopped at a rooftop a few miles away and just collapsed, his mind and body exhausted beyond belief under the strain of tension. Ripping off his mask, he took a few long minutes to calm down, taking deep breaths as the fear in his heart slowly subsided.
His confidence took a severe blow as he suddenly realized that his newly-gained abilities were nothing in front of the entity that had caused the warehouse to just disintegrate, which made him understand that he couldn't allow himself to be careless or overconfident or he might very well lose his life during his nightly 'patrols'.
Though he was still determined to at least try and find out what had happened at that place, his sense of responsibility towards the city and its people making it impossible to just ignore a threat that made Dr. Connors feel like a tame house pet in comparison.
…
"Sir, there are some unforeseen circumstances at location #437.", a somewhat stoic HYDRA agent, who acted as one of his bodyguards, reported quietly while he was leaving his office at the Triskelion.
The report sounded rather inconspicuous for everyone who might listen, which was how it should be considering that Alexander Pierce valued secrecy above all else as a traitor and operative of the highest order.
In his ears though, these words had a different meaning as Pierce knew exactly what was happening at location #437.
It was one of the projects that he had initiated to bolster the ranks beneath him with more enhanced individuals. For that purpose, he had provided plenty of resources to Marshall, so that he could create a drug that worked as intended, his expectations for results rather great.
Thinking about this, he just nodded and gestured for his guard to wait with his full report until they had left the Triskelion.
A few minutes later, when he sat in the back of the limousine that was taking him back to his residence, a deep frown drew his brows closer, his expression grave.
The whole laboratory had been turned to dust and ash, leaving behind nothing but unanswered questions and lost investments.
No clues had been left behind about who had done this but from his understanding, Pierce knew that it was either some kind of advanced weaponry or an extraordinary individual who was responsible for the destruction of the secret base.
Pondering about this, he gave orders to investigate using all means available, though he didn't really expect this to bear any results.
Sighing, he knew that he most likely had to silently suffer this loss.
It naturally gnawed on him since the results of those experiments were supposed to help him consolidate his position in HYDRA and maybe even open up the possibility of rising from a branch leader to the unoccupied position of HYDRA's leader.
HYDRA was a very complex organization, its internal structure quite obscure.
Through serving faithfully and producing results, it was comparatively easy to be promoted to a high-ranking member of the organization by the different branch leaders after a few years of loyal service.
Naturally, one could also be directly recruited as a high-ranking operative depending on one's identity and position, which had been the case for him.
And yet, there was no way to be 'promoted' to a branch leader as one could either inherit such a position from a family member, or one could reach such a position by building up one's influence and network, eventually establishing a completely new branch in the organization through one's own capabilities.
Pierce had done exactly that through decades of hard work and effort.
Obviously, this was one of the reasons why it was so difficult to destroy HYDRA since there existed several almost independent branches with their own operational directives.
On the other hand though, this also meant that while the organization was united in its goal to establish itself as the leader of the world, there existed no leader that had absolute authority over all the branches.
The last person under which HYDRA had been united to the greatest degree had been Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. Red Skull.
The laboratory was one of the chess pieces that Pierce had hoped to use to increase his own branch's strength significantly as only then could he hope to exert control over the other branches and become the leader of HYDRA, which was a goal that he was working tirelessly for.
Having suddenly been robbed of this comparatively important chess piece, Pierce was naturally irritated and angered. Though more than that he feared how the laboratory was exposed in the first place, and how much intel had been leaked.
Compared to losing the warehouse and Marshall, the leak of intel was a much graver matter and it worried him since he could not afford to expose his identity as one of HYDRA's branch leaders in his position as Undersecretary of the World Security Council that made him responsible for overseeing SHIELD's operations.
Pierce knew about his old friend's excellence, so he was naturally keen on erasing even the tiniest flaws to avoid drawing Nick's attention.