CHAPTER 6: STRUCKER'S PRIZE
The testing facility's main chamber had been cleared of equipment and personnel, leaving only Baron Strucker, Dr. List, and a handful of recording devices to witness Pietro's first official demonstration. Overhead lights cast harsh shadows across the polished concrete floor while hidden cameras tracked every angle, ready to document Hydra's greatest achievement in enhanced human development.
Pietro stood in the center of the space, his enhanced senses cataloging every detail of his surroundings with mechanical precision. Strucker's breathing pattern suggested anticipation mixed with underlying tension. List's elevated heart rate indicated scientific excitement barely held in check. The facility's security systems hummed with the quiet efficiency of lethal preparedness—automated defenses that could reduce him to ash if his demonstration went beyond acceptable parameters.
"They think they're observing their new weapon. They have no idea they're watching their future destroyer."
"Subject Twelve," Strucker announced, his voice carrying the authority of a man accustomed to absolute obedience. "You will demonstrate your enhanced capabilities for evaluation. Begin with basic mobility, then progress to combat applications as directed."
Pietro nodded with just the right mixture of eagerness and controlled aggression. "Where would you like me to start, Baron?"
"Cross the chamber. Show us this speed we've heard so much about."
Simple enough. Pietro let his enhanced muscles uncoil and moved from one wall to the other in a silver blur, covering thirty meters in less than half a second. To the recording equipment, it would look like instantaneous teleportation. To Strucker's naked eye, Pietro had simply vanished from one location and reappeared in another.
But Pietro was careful to limit himself to roughly Mach 1.5—fast enough to impress, controlled enough to suggest that this was his maximum velocity. His transmigrator knowledge told him that by the time of the Sokovia battle, Quicksilver should be capable of hypersonic speeds that made bullets seem stationary. If he revealed that level of capability now, Strucker might decide his weapon was too dangerous to control.
"Extraordinary," List murmured, checking readings on his tablet. "Velocity approaching fifteen hundred kilometers per hour with no apparent physical strain. Neural processing time reduced to near-instantaneous levels."
Pietro moved through a series of increasingly complex demonstrations—retrieving objects from around the chamber, dismantling and reassembling a Hydra assault rifle in seconds, dodging simulated projectiles fired from automated systems. Each task was completed with precision that bordered on the impossible, but always within carefully calculated limits.
The real test came when Strucker activated a series of motion sensors around the chamber's perimeter.
"Bypass the detection grid without triggering any alarms," Strucker commanded. "Show us how effective you'll be against enemy installations."
This was Pietro's opportunity to introduce his void powers without revealing their true nature. He moved toward the sensor grid at normal superhuman speed, then shadow-stepped through the electronic barriers when the cameras' angles were blocked by his own body. To any observer, it would look like he'd simply moved too fast for the sensors to track. But in reality, Pietro had briefly stepped outside normal space-time, phasing through the detection beams without triggering their proximity alerts.
"Impressive," Strucker said, genuine appreciation coloring his voice. "Your abilities exceed our projections, young Maximoff. Dr. List's enhancement process has created something truly remarkable."
"If only you knew what you're really dealing with. I'm not just fast—I'm dimensionally displaced. I can exist partially outside your reality whenever I choose."
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker observed the demonstration from his position behind reinforced glass, his weathered hands clasped behind his back as Subject Twelve performed feats that bordered on the supernatural. The boy—no, the weapon—moved with a precision that spoke of perfect neural integration with his enhanced capabilities.
"Finally. After seventy-three failed subjects, we have achieved perfection."
The Mind Stone had been in Hydra's possession for months, recovered from the ruins of SHIELD's collapse, but every attempt to harness its power had resulted in either death or madness. Until the Maximoff twins. Until now.
Pietro Maximoff represented everything Strucker had hoped to achieve through the enhancement program. Superior speed, enhanced reflexes, perfect tactical awareness—all wrapped in a package that could still be controlled through careful manipulation. The boy's hatred of Tony Stark provided excellent motivation, while his protective instincts toward his sister offered leverage that could be exploited if necessary.
"Dr. List," Strucker spoke into the intercom connecting him to the testing chamber, "initiate combat scenario seven. I want to see how he performs against multiple targets."
The chamber's walls shifted as hidden panels opened to reveal a dozen automated combat drones, each equipped with non-lethal weapons designed to test reaction times and tactical thinking. The machines activated simultaneously, surrounding Pietro with a coordinated attack pattern that would challenge even enhanced human capabilities.
But Pietro moved through the assault like water flowing around stones. He struck each drone with precisely calculated force, disabling their weapons systems and mobility without causing permanent damage. His enhanced speed made their coordinated attack seem sluggish and poorly planned.
"He's holding back. Those movements are too controlled, too careful. He could have destroyed every drone in the chamber, but he chose to disable them instead."
The realization was both promising and concerning. Subject Twelve possessed tactical restraint that suggested he could be deployed in sensitive situations without causing excessive collateral damage. But that same restraint indicated a level of independent thinking that might prove problematic if his loyalty wavered.
"Excellent work," Strucker announced as the demonstration concluded. "Your integration period is now complete. Tomorrow we begin advanced tactical training."
But as Pietro acknowledged the praise with appropriate enthusiasm, Strucker was already planning the next phase of his project. Subject Thirteen—the girl, Wanda—had shown even more dramatic enhancement results than her brother. Her chaos magic was raw, uncontrolled, and potentially devastating in its applications.
"Perhaps it's time to test her limits as well. Sibling rivalry has always been an excellent motivator."
Pietro sensed Strucker's shifting attention and immediately recognized the danger. His enhanced perception picked up micro-expressions that revealed the Baron's calculating mindset, and his transmigrator knowledge filled in the implications. Strucker was planning to use him and Wanda against each other, testing their limits through competitive scenarios that would push their abilities to dangerous extremes.
"I need to redirect his focus. Give him a reason to concentrate on me instead of experimenting with Wanda."
"Baron," Pietro said, letting calculated ambition creep into his voice, "I believe my abilities are still developing. The enhancement process may have triggered secondary mutations that haven't fully manifested yet."
Strucker's attention snapped back to him immediately. "Explain."
"During the demonstration, I felt... more. Like there are capabilities I haven't accessed yet, power sources the Mind Stone activated but didn't fully unlock." Pietro let his eyes light up with the fervor of a true believer. "I want to push further, test my limits, see what else I can become."
"And your sister?" List interjected. "Subject Thirteen showed even more dramatic enhancement than you did. Perhaps we should focus our attention—"
"Wanda is still recovering," Pietro cut him off smoothly. "Her powers are chaotic, unstable. She needs time to process what happened to her before she's ready for advanced testing. But I'm ready now. I want to see how far this gift can take me."
It was a calculated risk, volunteering for additional experimentation while Wanda regained her strength. But Pietro's transmigrator knowledge told him that chaos magic was inherently dangerous during its initial manifestation period. In the movies, Wanda had needed months to gain anything resembling control over her abilities. If Strucker pushed her too hard too fast, he might accidentally trigger a magical explosion that could level the facility.
"Better that I take the risk. I know what my powers can do, and I have void energy to buffer the worst effects of whatever tests they put me through."
"Very well," Strucker decided, his tactical mind already shifting toward new possibilities. "Dr. List will design advanced capability assessments for you. We'll explore the full extent of your enhancement over the coming weeks."
Pietro nodded enthusiastically, but his enhanced senses were already tracking the movements of every person in the facility. Guards, scientists, administrative personnel—all potential variables in the complex equation he was trying to balance. He needed to keep Hydra's attention focused on him while secretly preparing for the moment when the Avengers would arrive to destroy this place.
But first, he had a point to make about the changing power dynamics within Hydra's leadership structure.
That evening, during his scheduled "recovery period," Pietro tested the limits of his shadow-stepping abilities in ways that the monitoring equipment couldn't detect. He phased through the walls of his cell and moved through the facility like a ghost, cataloging security protocols, mapping guard rotations, and gathering intelligence about Hydra's broader operations.
It was during one of these reconnaissance missions that he encountered an opportunity too perfect to resist.
Baron Strucker's private office was a monument to Hydra's long history of conquest and control. Ancient artifacts shared space with cutting-edge technology, while portraits of Hydra leaders dating back to the Second World War gazed down from the walls with painted eyes that seemed to track movement. At the center of it all sat Strucker's massive oak desk, its surface polished to mirror brightness and adorned with the tools of absolute authority.
Including his prized monocle—a piece of antique German craftsmanship that had belonged to his grandfather, worn during three different world wars and polished with the blood of enemies who had underestimated Hydra's reach.
Pietro shadow-stepped directly to the desk and palmed the monocle with movements too quick for any camera to track. The void energy that powered his dimensional abilities left no electromagnetic signature that security systems could detect—to all observers, the office remained perfectly undisturbed.
Then Pietro made his way to Dr. List's laboratory, where he deposited the stolen monocle on the scientist's desk alongside a note written in his own handwriting:
"The future has many eyes. Some see more than others. - A friend who appreciates good vision."
By morning, when both men discovered the object's relocation, Pietro was back in his cell, apparently asleep and completely innocent of any wrongdoing. The resulting confrontation between Strucker and List—accusations of theft, demands for explanations, threats of disciplinary action—provided entertainment that Pietro enjoyed with the quiet satisfaction of someone who had just successfully planted the first seed of discord within Hydra's command structure.
"Let them wonder how a priceless artifact moved from one locked office to another with no trace of intrusion. Let them question each other's loyalty while they try to solve an impossible puzzle."
But beyond the simple pleasure of pranking his captors, Pietro's theft served a deeper purpose. He was establishing patterns that would become important later—demonstrating that he could bypass any security system, access any location, and manipulate events in ways that seemed almost supernatural.
When the time came to escape this facility and join the wider conflict against Hydra's ambitions, Pietro wanted Strucker to remember that his "perfect weapon" had always been something more complex and dangerous than anyone realized.
The monocle incident was just the beginning.
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