The President stood next to hospital bed.
“I didn’t think this was something for you to be doing?”
Johanna spoke up.
“Well you are suppose to be my girlfriend,” the president
smiled, “Besides word about your fight has gotten out, but not the
details. So we must keep up appearances…”
“Oh,” Sin sighed, “I will be outside.”
Sin walked out as the two women kissed.
“Every decade, she manages to find another young woman to
seduce,” Sin rolled her eyes.
*
Lithuanian German Boarder
The German Boarder Guard flagged the limo to go to the
side for an extra layer of screening. The
blonde woman in the back of the limo got out her ID card.
“Welcome to Germany,” the uniformed Boarder Guard smiled
as the window opened, “Identification please.”
“Of course,” the woman smiled handing the fake passport
over.
“What brings you to Germany tonight?” the Boarder Guard
asked.
“I came to Lithuanian as part of a business trip,” the
woman smiled, “I am expected to have a dinner with my company’s partners in
Germany to night.”
“Just dinner?” the Guard asked.
“Maybe more if I find a nice enough man to spend some
time with,” the blonde smiled.
The Guard looked at the passport.
“Of course,” the Guard smiled, “As you say Madame Storm,
be sure to give my regards to Baron Zemo Madame Hydra, Hail Hydra!”
“Hail Hydra” Sue “Madame Hydra” Storm smiled.
*
Sin had waited for her mother and the president to finish
being romantic. The president and her
security detail had already left. And
Sin made her way back to her mother’s room.
There were four police officers outside the hospital room. Sin stopped and looked at them. She took a sharp breath and smelled something… She remained calm and didn’t show her
panic. Instictually she knew she smelled
something evil and unnatural… Sin didn’t know what it was, but she knew there
was something very wrong here.
“When was the last time you four reported in to
headquarters?” Sin asked the police guarding her mother’s room.
“Five minutes ago,” the man to Sin’s left said, “Every
half hour like we were ordered.”
Sin kept her eyes on the man as she opened up her coat
and reached in. Rather than pulling out
a phone Sin grabbed her police issue pistol and shot the woman to her right
repeatedly!
“You aren’t the Mutant assassin Mystique,” Sin snapped at
the felled woman, “Who are you?”
The three other police officers drew their pistols and
pointed them at both women.
“She isn’t a police officer,” Sin said before she kicked
the woman.
“Director!” the lead officer shouted, “And if she is a
mutant? You still shot her!”
“Mutant Rise!” the woman shouted before kicking Sin.
The woman sprang up and ran off and out a window into the
night.
“Mutant rise?” one of the police officers asked.
*
“Ah… Madame welcome,” Helmat A Zemo said as he stood up.
Sue regarded the man as she approached, Helmat was much
more handsome than his father, Helmat J Zemo, but still had the family’s blonde
hair and blue eyes.
“The fourteenth Baron of the House Zemo. It is my pleasure,”
Susan Storm smiled.
“I have some news from our red eyed friends,” Helmat
frowned, “The power players have taken an interest in our old pain.”
“What?” Susan asked.
“Seems someone aside from the usual players have decided
to try and kill Captain Germany,” Helmat frowned, “And then there is this
nonsense about an Atlantian on the loose in Europe…”
Susan sat across the small table from the Baron, he slid
her a thumb drive.
“What else is happening,” Susan asked.
“Your brother and your fake friends are on the hunt for
you in Russia, they seem to have the idea that you are there working with
Russia’s Winter Widow.”
“Isn’t she the Republic’s assassin?” Susan asked.
“Yes, she tried to kill me once,” Helmat said, “I haven’t
been much of a dancer since then.”
Susan smiled. Her
incident had given her superpowers while Helmat’s had cost him his leg.
“You use to be such a good dancer too,” Susan smiled like
a predatory shark.
“I have the feeling that had I asked you to marry me,”
Helmat smiled in kind, “I would have had to make sure I got you pregnant with
multiple boys and girls on our wedding night, right before you killed me, just
to make sure the family line carried on.”
Susan wrinkled her nose for a moment and thought, then
chuckled lightly.
“You would have because I would have,” Susan agreed.
A pair of waiters came out with covered dishes of food.
“As much fun as murder would be on the menu,” Helmat
looked back, “The Stuckers have missions for us and a deadly dinner would
greatly upset them. I have to go give
some guidance to the self proclaimed anti-racist activists in North American
and you are to go and formant resentment among the Afrikaners about the new apartheid
in South Africa.”
Helmat looked back and Susan frowned before pouring his
glass of wine into the flower vase on the table.
“Upset Stuckers send Ophelia and her snakes after you,”
Susan noted.
“So true…”
*
“I don’t know what is worse,” Johanna muttered to
herself, “This disguise or how giddy you are about pushing me in a wheel chair.”
“This might be the only time I ever get to treat you as
an old woman mother,” Sin snickered as she whispered in her mother’s ear, “Now let’s
get you home Grandma.”
Nina and a man from Sin’s office had arrived to check
Johanna out of the hospital. Sin was conveniently
nearby and “Offered to help them to their car out of kindness.”
“The doctor said you would be fine in a few days Nanna,”
the man from Sin’s Office plaid the part of a grandson, “You just need a few
days bed rest after your fall.”
“You were lucky I was visiting Nanna,” Nina said in
English, “And cousin Ernst lives right in town.”
“I need a bottle of schnapps,” Johanna muttered to
herself.
Sin and an officer in hospital uniform pushed Johanna in
the wheel chair out to a waiting van.
The four lifted Johanna into the van and while Nina and the man from the
office got in the van, Sin and costumed police officer went back into the
hospital.
“Won’t they notice I am gone?” Johanna asked.
“Present from Fury,” Nina guessed what Johanna was
saying, “Life model decoy.”
Nina handed Johanna a tablet with a video live stream
from her hospital room as one of the nurses went to check on what looked like
Johanna. The Nurse said somethings to
the police guard in the room. The
Johanna snapped back about being stuck in a hospital. It was something Johanna would say, but not something
she had actually said since waking up.
“So,” Johanna asked in English, “Any progress on that
Mutant that tried to kill me?”
“No Hauptmann,” the member of Sin’s staff said in mostly
English, “We don’t think she was a mutant.
It is believed that she only said that ‘Mutants will rise’ because S…
The Director mentioned a Mutant assassin and her name.”
Both Nina and Johanna looked at the man driving with
interested looks.
“You are right and wrong,” Nina said looking at video
footage of the fight on a tablet, “She isn’t a mutant, but she isn’t an
assassin. She is a body guard.”
“A body guard?” Johanna asked.
“She is the body guard for a person we have named ‘Crown
Prince of the Crown.’ Rather interesting that she was standing outside your
hospital room…” Nina mused.
“Who is the Crown Prince of the Crown?” Johanna asked.
“Are you familiar with the organized crime cartels?” Nina
asked, “The group she works for is a group of power brokers working the
underworld for their profit. These are
the bosses over the bosses of the bosses.
One of the rings is known as the Crown since they use it as their
symbol. This woman is the body guard for
the boss of the ring.”
“These power brokers,” the man asked, “How powerful are
they?”
“They keep stables of national politicians in their pockets,”
Nina rolled her eyes.
“Could they be the ones that sent the assassin?” Johanna
asked.
“Yes, but why then send the assassin and then the body
guard?” Nina rubbed her chin.
“Captain,” the man smiled, “I think you have an
admirer. If these are crime bosses above
crime bosses and that crown prince is at the top, then one of the bosses under
him sent the assassin and he sent his body guard to protect you.”
“That actually makes sense,” Nina said, “not that admirer
nonsense. The rest of it.”
“Then what does he want with me?” Johanna asked.
“Why does everyone want your blood… aside from revenge,” Nina
snickered.
“Supersoldiers,” the man said, “What country or group isn’t
trying to get the perfect super soldier?”
“Not many,” Johanna agreed, “Check if the body guard or
an accomplice stole samples of my blood while on guard.”