Back with Logan and the others a few moments before the Legends arrive…
[Boom]
The main door to the SS hospital which had been locked and chained shut was blown open curtesy of a grenade from Lucas. Another grenade was thrown in and blew up, killing the SS soldiers by a makeshift barricade before Logan, Lucas and Padmavati rushed in with teams from Fox company of the 92nd Infantry division. They had their guns on full-auto and Padma blew apart SS soldiers with her shotgun. SS Soldiers had set up makeshift defensive covers with chairs and desks pushed into doorframes or hallways. The SS were diehard loyalists in their devotion to the cause and under strict orders from Dr. Frederick Vought they would defend the hospital with all they had. Even the other doctors and scientists were diehard loyalists and fanatics to Dr. Vought and his research and were willing to die to protect it.
Several SS soldiers set up a small barricade behind some desks and laid down fire with an MG-34 while some scientists were quick to dispose and destroy the research kept in the files. Logan and Padma hid behind the corner of a wall with Lucas at the other end as the bullets from the MG-34 ripped down the hall and began to chip away at the walls. Logan removed a grenade clipped to his chest and signaled to Lucas who nodded and removed a grenade from his satchel. Logan held up his hands and when he got to zero they pulled the pins and chucked them down the hallway where they went off. One of the grenade blew up near a storeroom containing some nitrous tanks which then exploded, taking out said storeroom and the three adjacent rooms. The explosion was large enough that it killed the SS soldiers and the makeshift barricade along with knocking out any nearby scientists.
Once they saw it was clear, Logan led the way with Padma and Lucas by his side and the 92nd Infantry division soldiers following them. They approached the destroyed barrier and saw the bodies of the SS soldiers and scientists. The fire had burned some of the papers but there was plenty more scattered on the ground or in file cabinets which were likely important but their priority was Dr. Vought so Logan turned to the men to dilly out tasks. "Lieutenant, take your men and secure the other side of the building before moving up. Go floor to floor, room to room and secure all the scientists and have men secure all the documents you can. Corporal, police these bodies and the documents here. The rest of you, with us."
"Yes, sir!" They all shouted diligently went about their tasks. Logan led Lucas and Padma along with a contingent of soldiers further down the hall until they made it to the stairways and went up to the second floor of the four-floor hospital. The first and second floor of the hospital were marked as troop treatment meaning they were the floors dedicated to the treatment and care of the SS soldiers, guards, and police units on the camp. Floor three was marked as test lab and floor four was marked as Dr. Vought's private lab so he'd be there.
The second floor of the hospital seemed to be empty as Logan and the others walked down the hall. They moved in tight formations with their weapons at the ready and clearing every single room, doorway, and hallway their path took them through. As they kept moving, small groups of soldiers would begin securing rooms and any kind of contraband as well as any information that from the camp. Logan halted at a hallway intersection and had his team halt. Lucas and Padma signaled to the team and everyone hugged the walls before crouching low with a few slightly opening doors to act as makeshift cover. Logan took small sniffs in the air as he picked up something up ahead and he was right. Waiting for them down the hall in some rooms were SS soldiers hiding behind cover with their fingers on trippers and grenades ready to be thrown and strangely enough were some scientists who had managed to cook up some makeshift Molotov cocktails with some chemicals in the hospital.
Logan signaled the soldiers to hold back while he made separate signals to Lucas and Padma. They knew what he was saying and Lucas removed his satchel and handed it to another soldier to hold before he took out a hand grenade for Padma, Logan, and one for himself while he took out a smoke grenade and two stun grenades. He tossed the smoke grenade to Logan and waited for the countdown before throwing the stun grenades down the hall. Logan threw the smoke grenade and there was a loud concussive blast and huge flash of light before a huge bellow of smoke appeared down the hallway where the Germans were. Logan, Lucas, and Padma then threw their grenades into the smoke cloud which went off and they heard the accompanying shouts/sounds of pain before the trio charged in.
Logan went through the smoke first and fired several quick bursts from his Thompson before kicking a door into a room and unloading the rest of his submachine gun. When it went dry he unsheathed his knife and proceeded to stab and slice his way through the SS soldiers and scientists who were still concussed by the stun and then explosive grenades. One SS soldier who was far away enough from the explosion so the concussive force wasn't as bad charged at Logan and drove the bayonet-tipped rifle into his side.
"ARGH! Fucker!" Logan unsheathed his bone claws from his right hand and stabbed the SS soldier in the chest, yanking out the bayonet before he roared in anger and tackled him through the wall into another occupied by soldiers and scientists. They tried to kill him but they were not at all equipped to deal with Logan and all that could be heard were Logan's shouts of adrenaline-fueled combat and the painful gasps from the soldiers and scientists who got to know what it felt like to be killed by bone.
Lucas killed some soldiers with his Owen gun when he was tackled from the side and knocked into a wall making him drop his submachine gun so he headbutted the SS soldier, kneed him in the gut and elbowed him in the back of the head. The soldier fell to the ground and Lucas used his pistol to shoot him in the head before taking out a few more soldiers while he was still covered by the smoke. When the pistol ran dry he saw an SS soldier raise his MP-40 up so he rushed forward, throwing the pistol in the soldiers face as a momentary distraction and push kicked him in the chest. The soldier hit the wall and Logan yanked the MP-40 away so the strap tugged on his neck. Lucas then wrapped it around his neck and pulled taught before pulling out his knife and stabbed the soldier in the side when he saw the smoke began to clear. Some SS soldiers saw him so he grabbed the handle of the MP-40 and unloaded the ammo clip into the soldiers. They were taken out and Lucas finished it off with a final knife stab to the soldier he was using as a shield.
Padma had rushed into a room and fired her shotgun in quick succession which took out several SS before a scientist grabbed the gun and pushed her against a cabinet. He tried to strangle her with the gun but she quickly kneed him in the groin and when he bent over she kneed him in the face before hitting him in the head with the butt of her shotgun. The other scientist in the room quickly picked up a gun from the ground and fired but Padma used the other scientist's body as a shield before she dove to the side. She quickly loaded a shotgun shell into the slide and shot the scientist in the chest and sending their body out the window. Padma quickly loaded more shells into her shotgun before rushing into the next room and took out some more soldiers with the last one getting hit in the leg. The soldier screamed bloody murder before she quickly loaded another shell and shot him in the face.
She walked out into the hallway and reloaded her shotgun to see Lucas gun down some SS soldiers using a meat shield soldier's MP-40 before taking out said meat shield with a knife stab to the back. The smoke began to dissipate so he tossed the man's body to the ground and picked up his Owen gun, reloading it with a new clip of ammunition.
[Thud]
Lucas and Padma aimed their guns down the hall and saw the body of a dead SS soldier was tossed out of a room. A second later out walked Logan who was looking a little bloody but perfectly fine. He strapped his Thompson over his shoulder and discreetly kept his right hand at his side so they couldn't see him retract his bone claws.
"You all right, Logan?" Padma asked and Logan nodded. She and Lucas walked over and peaked to their left to see the small aftermath of the fight Logan had. Basically, dead bodies, bullets, and Logan coming out with a few scratches.
"Bloody hell, Logan. You took them all on? Maybe we should call you Lucky Logan from now on. Ha-Ha." Lucas joked.
"Yeah, please don't do that." Logan reloaded his Thompson submachine gun. His nose picked up a weird scent when a red lightning blur raced by him and the others in the blink of an eye followed by a gust of wind.
"What the hell was that?" Lucas asked and Padma shrugged.
"Don't know but we've got a job to do. Let's keep moving." Logan told them.
The two nodded and headed upstairs with Logan with more men following behind him up to the third floor. They were one step closer as the third floor was the primary testing floor while the fourth floor was private for Dr. Frederick Vought and had been turned into one floor-wide lab/office. With a pair of thick rimmed glasses on his face and looking more comfortable in a lab, the man had a cold-apathetic expression on his face as he moved through the lab to gather various pieces of documents and placed them into a briefcase. All of the research on his work was being organized. Hours spent on genetic theory, days taken by advancing possible outcomes and months/years on human testing finally bore fruit proving that he was right and he was as smart as he claimed to be. Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels now owed him a fortune as he proved them wrong with just how right he was, not that they'd be alive to actually pay him. Vought was preparing everything to go according to his perfect plan. The Allies had showed up to take him into custody, Klara would escape and scurry herself away into obscurity and get their daughter Chloe before the three would then meet up. As for Klaus, Vought didn't care as he never really cared for him but was curious to see if he would go with Klara's lead. Either he did and then he'd have another super soldier to control or he wouldn't and he'd be dead so either way it was a win-win.
"Nina! Where are those mitochondrial analysis reports?! They are imperative to the manufacturing of the serum?!" Dr. Vought shouted in annoyance. "Gods, of all the idiotic nurses I had to get stuck with it had to be her. Well, at least she's nice to look at—[Bang]
Dr. Vought fell the ground revealing his black haired Nurse Nina holding up a metal tray she had just hit him on the head with and she hit him hard since there was a sizeable dent in the metal.
"Невыносимый кусок дерьма (Nevynosimyy kusok der'ma)/(Insufferable piece of sh!t)"
Nina spat at Vought in Russian before literally spitting at him and took a key from around his neck. She headed to the wall safe and inserted the key into one lock before using a stethoscope to listen for and dial the combination. A key and a combination made it an extra secure safe but she got it. With a satisfying click, she opened the safe and carefully removed six vials of a blue-colored liquid. The serum that Dr. Vought was so hard at work for the last several years on and finally managed to make a reality after so much trial and error.
Compound V
Nina had to put up with years of working for the chauvinistic, egotistical, and annoying Dr. Vought but it was worth it as her organization would be using the serum from now on. Her look of glee though soon gave way to confusion as she saw six vials of the serum when the tray holding them had slots for eight. Two were missing and it wasn't Dr. Vought who took them because she remembered seeing him put all the vials in the safe yesterday and he didn't touch it since. Someone must have taken them.
[Explosion]
A powerful explosion further in the camp caused the building to shake a bit so Nina had no time to waste in figuring out what happened to the two missing vials. Six was still more than enough. She carefully wrapped them in a towel and placed them and the last of the papers into the briefcase before closing the safe, tossing the key to Dr. Vought's body and walking away. She walked into the hall and heard gunfire from two floors down so she ran in the other direction where an escape route she already had planned was waiting.
While Nina made her escape, Logan and the others headed up from the second floor onto the third. When they took a few steps onto the floor to clear it they were immediately with a powerful, pungent smell that was incredibly overbearing. Everyone winced immediately upon first smell with many thinking it was some kind of chemical or gas leak.
"Ugh, what the hell is that smell?" One of the soldiers asked before they continued on.
"Chlorine dioxide." Lucas answered as he pulled his scarf up around his nose.
"It's used as a cleaning agent. If this is a hospital and lab then they had it in spade." Padma added.
"But not like this." Logan said, feeling something else going on.
"What's wrong, Logan?" Padma asked.
"I'm not sure. Let's keep moving." Logan continued leading the assault team through the floor which was surprisingly empty. No rooms and just one singular hallway which was stark white and disturbingly clean but considering it was a hospital and Dr. Vought's lab then wanting it kept clean was natural. As they continued walking Logan began to feel more unease by the second when they kept seeing nothing until they finally arrived at what they thought was a dead end but wasn't, just a pair of heavy metal doors like a safe. The reason they thought it was a dead end was because of the heavy metal doors were installed with large thick sturdy walls that closed off the hallway completely, separate the part Logan and the assault team were in from the other side. Clearly it wasn't standard architecture or building design so Dr. Vought put this in to keep his lab highly secure. Clearly, he was taking all security measures to protect his serum.
Logan took a quick glance at the door and naturally it was locked from the inside and a pair of wire cutters weren't going to get them in. "Lucas, think you can get this open?" Logan asked and Lucas took a quick look.
"Lucky for us the boss had me pack extra." Lucas took out two sticks of dynamite and placed one on the door handle and used his knife to slice the other into smaller pieces to slip into the keyhole before taking out his lighter. Everyone took several back for safety before Lucas lit the dynamite and took cover.
[Boom]
The team waited as the smoke cleared before they peaked their heads out from behind cover and saw the bellowing smoke from a smoldering and cracked door handle/lock. Logan, Lucas, and Padma rushed over and thankfully Lucas's skill with demolitions was right as he managed to break the lock holding the door closed so the trio pushed open the heavy door into the lab though with what they saw a part of them wished that didn't enter.
"Oh my god…" Padma muttered in shock while Logan and Lucas were so shocked that they didn't have the words to form in the mouths.
What they saw was a clash of two different and combating themes. First being the clean, organized, and methodical setting one would expect from a hospital or medical lab. Things were set up in a manner for testing and producing a serum with medical/hospital equipment that the trio recognized and some items and machines they didn't. Refrigerated cabinets containing various colored liquids and chemicals were set up against a far wall alongside pinned research data and information related to the chemicals being used. It was a sight of pure scientific research and advancement but all of that belied the second theme of unimaginable torment, savagery, and pure evil. The reason for that was the reason why the first theme existed: Dr. Vought was using the camp's prisoners as human test subjects. Granted human may not be the best word because Dr. Vought sure didn't treat them differently from other lab rats.
There were ten gurneys set up in this lab and each one had a body strapped down that was difficult to see. Some had limbs amputated, others were missing vital organs and splayed out like a gutted fish, and one man had the top of his skull removed so his brain could be inspected. And unfortunately, it wasn't all men as it seemed that Dr. Vought didn't discriminate. Men, women, even children were strapped to the gurneys and had to endure horrendous torture for his super soldier serum.
[Blegh]
A few of the soldiers with weak stomachs loss their lunch at the ghastly sight and no one could blame them. Logan, Lucas, and Padma steadied their nerves despite the deep pits they felt in their stomachs and moved in. There were no soldiers or nurses in the area and the team quickly moved in with the medic seeing if anyone on the gurneys could be helped but sadly no. Logan walked over to a file cabinet and ripped open the top drawer to see it was filled with files with a feeling that the other four drawers would be just as filled. He opened one file and saw it was records of the experiments done an elderly man complete with a black and white photo of his deceased body. Stamped on the papers was Subject Failure. He looked at another and the same thing. Men, women, children, the elderly of different ethnicities and races were all subjected to his experiments with cold, calculating efficiency. The more Logan read through the more his anger rose as it seemed as though Dr. Vought paid special attention to certain groups of people with unique genetic conditions like pairs of twins, those with biological abnormalities, and even those with medical conditions. Like a scientist, Dr. Vought was testing his serum on all kinds of people to figure out what worked the best.
Padma and Lucas joined him and took a quick sort through the files before checking out the lab. There they saw that some of the vials were samples taken from subjects during his experiments. Some unfortunate highlights included cerebral spinal fluid from a woman he subjected to radiation, adrenal extract from a man subjected to freezing temperatures, and brain matter from a set of twins that were burned alive.
"This guy is a fucking monster…and we're here to extract him?!" Lucas kicked over the cabinet in a fit of anger that no one could blame him for. After seeing the other files, Padma's stomach had enough and she threw up into a waste bin. Logan was keeping it together but only because he had been around a lot longer and been through more. Possibly that his own healing factor was helping him suppress the urge to gag. Whatever the case though even to him this was a whole new level of evil that couldn't even be called inhuman. Enough that he was seriously contemplating the parameters of the mission Clark had given them for this.
[Weak gasp]
Logan turned around and to his surprise and horror saw that one of the people on the gurneys was still alive. He rushed over to their side and saw it was a woman but her state was what shocked him even more. She had multiple incisions throughout her body that had been stitched up like someone cut her open and then sewn her shut, there were several bleeding scars on her forehead and the skin from her left hand and legs had been peeled back in pieces.
"…ple…die…"
"MEDIC!" Logan shouted so the medic rushed over though he froze when he saw her state. "HEY! DO YOUR JOB!"
Logan's shout jogged the medic back so he did what he could. He gave the woman a shot of morphine and treated her wounds as best she could but she needed serious medical attention. "We need to get her out of here."
"Ok…" Logan turned to the woman. "Don't worry. We're gonna get you out of here." The woman didn't seem to register his words as she was more focused on the pistol strapped to his thigh. Logan turned to the officer with them. "Move this woman to safety downstairs and secure all the documents and evidence we can."
"Yes, sir." The officer replied when Padma went wide-eyed.
"Logan!"
He turned and saw the woman had grabbed his pistol from his holster. Everyone went on alert thinking she was going to shoot Logan and raised their guns but instead she put it to the side of her head. "Wait, no! NO—[Gunshot]
One gunshot to the head ended the woman's misery allowing her to rest in peace. Everyone was shocked by what just happened, none more so than Logan. There was a moment of silence as they everything slink in. Logan grabbed his pistol and put it back in its holster as he stared down at the woman. This poor gal didn't even hesitate to end her life. It seemed that she left no life was worth living after everything she had no doubt endured and possibly seen as well. There was just no longer any hope in her eyes even when help finally came to her. He couldn't blame her for seeing an end to the pain and misery she must've carried all that time. He gently brought his hand up and closed her eyes before he pulled a tarp over the woman's head. "Padma, Lucas…with me." The two nodded and followed Logan through the lab and went upstairs to the final floor where Dr. Vought was.
[Explosion]
Another distant explosion jostled the building which shook Dr. Vought awake. He grabbed his head in pain and managed to sit up when he saw his briefcase was gone and his key on the floor next to him. He quickly scampered up and unlocked his safe only to discover that his serum was gone.
"No! NO!" Dr. Vought shouted before he kicked over a chair in anger when he saw Logan, Lucas, and Padma slowly walk into the room. "Finally! What has taken you Americans so long?! It doesn't matter! My serum is gone! We need to find it! Send men out in search around the camp! Look for my assistant Nina. She has to be the one who stole it. I always knew there was something about her I didn't like and if only I had listened to my gut and kept her on clerical work where she belonged than we wouldn't be in this mess. It's my fault but still, if we can find my serum then I'll deal with her myself. She couldn't have gotten far in this chaos."
Dr. Vought scampered around his office and grabbed his jacket and his suitcase like he was leaving for a trip when he saw Logan, Lucas, and Padma firm in place. "Hello? I am speaking to you in the plain English am I not? Get to work and find my serum!"
"Your serum…is that important?" Logan asked him.
"Of course it is, you idiot. My serum is the greatest revolution in medical scientist. It's why your government sent you to get me because only I know its secrets and if it's truly lost then only I can replicate it." Dr. Vought's voice dripped with his ego as the man thought of himself as a god. He looked out the window of his office at the chaos of the attack with a calm aloofness. "My serum is pure genius and it will have what that idiot Erskine created look like nothing but a cheap, inferior product. Luckily for me, your Allied countries will make sure I'm well compensated and taken care of for my services."
"And that…is worth everything you did?" Padma asked in contempt and Dr. Vought just looked at her in bewilderment.
"Not that it's any of your concern or you would even begin to understand but that is the course of innovation and advancement. For the future of science, tests are needed to advance the natural order. The Superman…Captain America…" Dr. Vought spat out in contempt. "I've heard the prisoners speak of them as I ripped out their organs and drained their blood. They held them up as gods…as perfection not knowing true perfection when it stared them in the eyes. Hitler and his final solution…pfft…idiocy. Their lives were worthless to begin with, just waiting in those cramped pens to be worked to death or killed. Hitler is as shortsighted as the idiotic men working for him but he gave me exactly what I needed. Him and this place has served its purpose."
"And that's it? We saw what you did! All those experiments, the torture to those innocent people. You treated them like cattle!" Lucas shouted and was ready to throttle him then and there but Logan held him back for now.
"Oh, please don't give me your sanctimonious prattle. Your governments can think themselves the heroes in this war but their histories are just as bloody as Germany's. The only difference being that people are willing to forget it now because there is someone else to turn their anger against. The Americans? A nation of playboys and dilatants who governmentally subjugated half their population even to this day and treat them like second glass citizens and don't get me started on the British as your nations were victims of their hubris and colonization. Canadian, Australian, Indian. All for the glory of the King and Queen. Idiots." Dr. Vought searched a draw to get one last minute item before he proceeded to dump every last remaining document in the office into a trash bin which he doused with some kind of alcohol and lit with a lighter. "Now that I am done with this, I don't plan on making the same mistakes."
"So, that's it? After everything you've done you're just gonna start over with a new life?" Logan questioned, barely hiding the contempt in his voice.
"Yes. Now, if there are no more questions from you three, let us get out of here quickly. I've had enough of this place as it is. The smell is getting to me." Dr. Vought said as he took his bags and strolled past them like a rich passenger trying to catch his train. He walked out of the room and down the hall but waited as Logan, Lucas, and Padma lagged behind. "Hurry up! I want to get this over with."
Logan, Lucas, and Padma slowly walked out of the professor's office all with the same unreadable stoic expression on their faces. "So do we." They said together before raising their guns up.
"What do you think you're doing?" Dr. Vought asked, trying to stay confident but the tremble in his voice indicated that he wasn't matching what he wanted to portray. "I bargained with your governments for my safety! You'll be shot for this!"
"Maybe but our captain always leads by example and told us to do the right thing." Logan pulled the cocking hammer back on his Thompson. "And this is one of them."
"Night-Night, doc." Lucas told him.
"This is for them." Padma added.
"NO!" Dr. Vought turned tail and ran like a coward out of desperation but never had a chance.
[Gunfire]
Flashes of gunfire could be seen from the fourth-floor windows of the hospital and heard from the floor below but ended just as quickly as it started. Bullet shells were scattered on the floor while the barrels of the Logan, Lucas, and Padma's guns were smoking from their rapid firing.
"…guh…ar…ah…" Those barely comprehensible words and other utterances of pain and gasps for air were all that Dr. Vought was reduced to as he fell to his knees. His body was littered with bullet holes from the Thompson and Owen submachine guns and he even had a huge chunk of his side and his right arm blown off from Padma's shotgun. Despite all the bullets he was shot with he was still miraculously alive or clinging to life at the very least.
Logan pulled out his pistol and walked over to Dr. Vought before lining up the barrel to the man's forehead. "Enjoy the trip the hell."
Logan pulled the trigger eight times, emptying his Colt pistol and its .45 caliber bullets into Dr. Vought's head turning it into mush. The body crumpled to the ground and there was a collective release of tense air from the trio. Despite the viciousness of the execution, they all felt justified and like some sort of karmic justice was served for the horrors that Dr. Vought had committed. While they disobeyed director orders…they had to do it. "Lucas, start laying down explosives around this place. Find a gas line or something. Let's bring this building down. Padma, let's go get some chemicals and make sure this piece of shit burns to a crisp."
The two nodded and got to work, saying nothing because nothing needed to be said. The horrors of the hospital would soon be burnt and the victims had achieved justice while outside the battle was reaching a fevered pitch.
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