Deep in the Alps.
Hydra headquarters.
Johann Schmidt, Hydra's supreme commander, stared fixedly at a copy of the Stars and Stripes from the United States on his desk.
On the front page was a deeply insulting cartoon, printed in glaring bloodred ink.
A scrawny, shifty-looking dwarf wearing a comical red mask knelt on the ground.
He gazed jealously up at a radiant figure in the sky.
That figure was Soldier Boy, who had been given the title of God of War.
Beneath the kneeling clown, his name was written in German-Red Skull.
Bang!
Schmidt slammed his fist onto the desk.
The fearsome emblem he had created with his own hands, one that could strike terror into all of Europe!
The symbol of Hydra's spirit, his pride and joy!
And now, with a few laughable reports, a journalist he had never taken seriously had twisted it into a laughingstock despised by all!
A clown?
Jealous?
A pervert hiding in the gutter?
"Lynn Morris!"
Just then, the office door swung open.
Professor Pyg, Valentin, walked in with his newly completed "doll."
The doll had been stitched together from the limbs of several fallen elite Schutzstaffel soldiers, its exposed skin covered in gruesome seams.
Its strength and speed far surpassed those of an ordinary person, and it was Valentin's latest, most prized creation.
"Mein Führer, please look at my new work of art..."
Valentin's hoarse voice carried an unmistakable desire for praise.
But Red Skull merely glanced at it before waving a hand in disgust.
His eyes blazed with unconcealed fury.
"Not enough!"
He pointed at the newspaper on the floor, his voice a roar from the depths of hell.
"This crude patchwork will only prove the newspaper's mockery right! A heap of rotten flesh! Is this your art, Valentin?"
He pointed at the screen on the wall.
Footage of Soldier Boy cutting a swath through his enemies played on a loop.
"What I want is transcendence! Evolution! Not this pointless pile of rotting body parts!"
Professor Pyg was stunned by the sudden outburst.
He lowered his head and murmured in an almost dreamlike voice, "Perfect art requires perfect raw materials."
At those words, Red Skull's raging fury seemed to be doused with a bucket of cold water.
Raw materials...
Yes, he had no perfect raw materials.
The Americans had Erskine and the Super Soldier Serum.
He had only a half-finished laboratory destroyed by Erskine and a vial of serum that had nearly killed him.
Just as Red Skull was caught in this vicious cycle of humiliation and frustration, a communications officer rushed in, looking panicked, an urgent intelligence report in his hand.
"Mein Führer! The latest news from New York!"
A blurry but still astonishing video was projected onto the main screen.
On the outskirts of New York at night, a meteor fell from the sky and smashed a deep crater into the ground.
Immediately afterward, a humanoid creature wreathed in flames slowly rose from the bottom of the crater.
Bathed in fire, he looked like a god.
He smiled at the camera, his smile full of nothing but curiosity and friendliness.
But to Red Skull, that smile was more grating than the vilest curse!
Were they fucking mass-producing gods?
Were they dropping them like dumplings into a pot?
Why did the damn Allies always run into such good fortune?
Red Skull felt as though his lungs were about to burst with rage.
Beside him, however, Professor Pyg, Valentin, stared fixedly at the burning figure on the screen, his breathing growing increasingly rapid.
What he saw was neither a god nor an enemy.
It was a perfect piece of "raw material."
A perfect "energy source"!
The ultimate "catalyst" that could bring all his mad ideas to life!
"Flame... purification... rebirth..."
Valentin began muttering incessantly to himself.
An unprecedented fanatical light burst forth from the eyes hidden beneath his mask.
An utterly insane plan rapidly took shape in his mind.
Professor Pyg turned to Red Skull.
"I need the highest level of authorization! I need every resource in the laboratory!"
Red Skull came out of his rage and frowned at Valentin, who had suddenly gone mad.
"I want to research biological tissue that can absorb and convert energy!"
Valentin's voice grew shrill with excitement.
"This Human Torch is a gift from God! The key to opening the door to a new world!"
Red Skull looked at the madness in Valentin's eyes, a madness that could burn everything to ashes, and fell silent.
The Allies' repeated provocations had pushed him to his limit.
Conventional methods could no longer defeat the inescapable net that man had laid in the realms of public opinion and myth.
In that case...
He would fight madness with madness!
"Zola!"
Red Skull growled into the communicator.
A moment later, a short, stout man wearing thick glasses hurried into the office.
Arnim Zola, Hydra's chief scientist.
A genius with extraordinary accomplishments in genetics and data.
"Mein Führer."
Zola adjusted his glasses, glancing back and forth between Professor Pyg and Human Torch on the screen, looking somewhat confused.
"Zola, Valentin has a crazy idea."
Red Skull's voice had regained its composure.
Beneath that composure lurked a deeper savagery.
"He wants to capture Human Torch alive and use his energy to perfect his works of art."
Dr. Zola frowned deeply.
He pushed up his glasses, and disdain flashed in his eyes behind the lenses.
"Mein Führer, if I may speak frankly, Professor Valentin's art is a regression in biology. Using a pile of rotten flesh to fight an energy being? That's no different from poking a beehive with a stick."
"Who are you calling rotten flesh?!"
Professor Pyg was enraged, his hoarse voice turning shrill.
"Shut up!"
With that sharp command, Red Skull put a stop to the two mad scientists' argument.
He ignored Valentin and fixed his gaze on Zola.
"How far has research on the Tesseract progressed?"
At the mention of the Tesseract, confidence appeared on Dr. Zola's face.
"We've successfully extracted three percent of its energy. The production line for the new energy weapons is ready. At your command, we can give every Hydra soldier the power of a god!"
"Three percent... that's not enough."
Red Skull walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window of his office and looked down at the enormous underground base below.
He turned around.
His scarlet skull looked especially sinister in the light.
"Is there a way to inject the Tesseract's energy into these... dolls of Valentin's?"
Dr. Zola was stunned. He hadn't expected Red Skull to make such a far-fetched request.
"Mein Führer... that... that's theoretically possible. But the risks are extremely high!"
"The Tesseract's energy is far too overpowering. Professor Valentin's biological tissues simply can't withstand an infusion of it!"
"I don't need them to withstand it. I need them to serve as containers!"
Red Skull cut him off.
"A disposable bomb that can deliver the Tesseract's energy to the enemy!"
Dr. Zola understood Red Skull's intention.
Use biological bombs containing the Tesseract's energy against Human Torch, who was himself an energy being?
What a crazy plan!
"That... that would require a great deal of experimentation, and the success rate..."
"I don't care about the success rate!"
Red Skull pointed at the burning figure on the screen, jabbing his finger hard against Human Torch's flaming face.
"I want you to capture him alive!"