Chapter Text
The Super-Soldier Program was Hydra’s goldpot.
For centuries, they tried to recreate and perfect the original serum developed by Dr. Abraham Erskine. Their goal was to create enhanced individuals — stronger, faster, more resilient — who could be controlled and used to serve Hydra’s interests.
In cooperation with the KGB, they developed a diluted version of the serum. It didn’t produce results on the level of a true Super-Soldier, but it was effective enough. The Black Widows were the result — highly trained operatives, physically enhanced beyond normal human limits, yet still manageable.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of the Black Widows either died or disappeared. A few went into hiding, and the program was abandoned.
Under the direction of Arnim Zola, Hydra launched the Winter Soldier Program. These operatives were more than just enhanced. Through brainwashing, memory suppression, and psychological control, they were turned into living weapons with no will of their own.
Their only function was to follow orders — to assassinate, sabotage, and eliminate threats to Hydra without question.
The Winter Soldiers represented the limits of human performance. Their strength, endurance, and healing capabilities were pushed to the maximum levels the body could sustain.
For many years, they helped Hydra operate from the shadows. Rivals were removed. Key institutions were undermined. Global events were influenced without anyone knowing who was behind it.
But that changed with the emergence of superheroes.
When a Winter Soldier failed a mission for the first time, it was considered an outlier. The operative was punished and retrained.
When it happened again, stricter measures were put in place. All Winter Soldiers were re-evaluated and pushed harder in training to ensure future success.
Then one of them was killed.
Hydra, once confident in the stability of their assets, began to question everything. The Winter Soldiers — previously seen as unstoppable — had not just failed. One had been eliminated.
So what do you do if the pinnacle of humankind is not enough?
You transcend humankind!
In a secret, undocumented base, new projects were born. Scientists attempted to fuse human test subjects with electronics, making them more machine than flesh. They embedded crystals into their skin and encased their skeletons in metal to create indestructible bodies.
All of these projects failed. The subjects went insane from the pain, their bodies rejecting the enhancements, often leading to a slow death. The few who survived didn’t meet the performance requirements and were disposed of.
But one project delivered results.
It wasn’t a major initiative—few resources were allocated to it.
Despite this, Projekt Spider succeeded.
It produced an asset.
An asset capable of defeating enhanced enemies.
An asset that represents the future of Hydra.
Spider marched down a long hallway. His steps were inaudible, in contrast to the loud boots of the two guards trailing him.
Spider was in his normal state of bored professionalism, the kind he experienced most days. But deep inside him was a spark of excitement. Today, he would get his first enhanced target. He could finally fulfill the goal his superiors had set for him.
He was the Spider—Hydra’s project with the most potential and the greatest future. Or so, at least, his handlers called him.
Spider didn’t care about that. To be honest, ever since He left, Spider didn’t care about much anymore these days. Sure, he did all his training and fieldwork—but only because his handlers told him to. He just followed orders.
With a quiet hiss, the doors to the command room of the base opened and let Spider in. His handlers were already there, chatting over something. One of them had been responsible for him since Spider’s first mission. The second was His old handler, who now co-managed Spider. The last one was unknown to Spider—probably an overseer from Hydra.
Spider stood still and waited until they finished talking and turned toward him. His old handler sneered and stepped into Spider’s space.
“Ahh, Spider, how nice of you to finally join us. How is our precocious asset doing?”
“I am at full functionality and ready to assist,” replied Spider in his monotone voice.
“So formal. I remember how you would talk and talk all day when you were young. You couldn’t hold your sarcastic tongue for one moment. Where has that little tyke disappeared to, I wonder?”
Spider didn’t respond to the blatant taunt and remained still, his eyes unfocused, staring at the wall behind his handlers. He felt a small sting of pain. Of course he knew what had happened—everyone knew. He lost his former self when he was left alone. Abandoned by Him.
The unknown handler stepped closer, clearly trying to get the task over with. Spider examined him. He was nervous around Spider, but not afraid. Spider didn’t encounter that often.
“Asset, your target this time is a superpowered human. He displays enhanced strength, reflexes, and speed. Additional powers are either nonexistent or irrelevant to the mission. The target will be alone for approximately 18 minutes in an airport in Thailand tomorrow morning. You must eliminate him during this time in close combat and exit the location.”
Spider listened to the mission parameters with half an ear while opening the mission folder that was handed to him.
“Your flight will leave—”
Rage surged through Spider as he saw the photo of his target. A face he never wanted to see again. A face he hated with every fiber of his being. A face he missed every morning.
Spider sat in his room, fist clenching and unclenching. He didn’t know what to do—something he wasn’t used to. Normally, he just did what he was told.
But this… this he couldn’t do.
As much as he hated this target, he owed him a debt. A debt bigger than anything he had ever received.
He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t loyal to Hydra—they never managed to get a functioning brainwashing method to work on him. But he had followed their orders nonetheless. Because he had no motivation to defect. He hadn’t wanted to be hunted by Hydra for nothing.
Spider knew what he had to do.
He would repay his debt and make sure that his target could live on. He knew that even if he refused the mission, someone else would be sent.
Spider stretched his joints.
He knew what he had to do.
Spider stood in the command room, his ex-handlers lying at his feet, a loud alarm blaring to ears that would never hear again.
He typed at one of the computers, not caring about the blood dripping from his hair. His eyes flicked over the screen as more and more data was transferred. Login information for Hydra’s secret bank accounts was safely stored away. The template virus they used to generate new identities was copied onto a flash drive.
Spider’s fingers trembled when he found one folder— his folder. The one where every piece of information Hydra had on him was written down. The cursor hovered over the delete button. Spider took a deep breath before changing his decision and quickly downloading the folder instead.
He would look through it when he was safe.
He started the timer for the base’s self-destruction and ran to the plane that had been prepared for his mission to Thailand.
But instead, it would take Spider to the one place nobody would expect. Not that many people who had known of him—let alone who could search for him—were still alive.
New York
The home base of the Avengers—Hydra’s greatest enemy.
A city so heavily surveilled that no Hydra cell dared to operate there permanently. It was nearly perfect.
Leaving behind an exploding bunker full of bloodied corpses, Spider flew toward a new city, a new future.
Toward his older brother—the traitor.