Of Course. Hail Hydra!

Strucker turned one last time to face List. His face was set this time, no trace of his earlier concern remained.

“You’ll proceed full-steam ahead with your research, herr Doctor. Devote your full attention to this project, and let me know if you’re lacking any resources I can provide. I expect to be kept apprised of your progress,” Strucker belted out. He raised his eyebrows to see if List had any follow-up questions.

List heard the orders. So Baron Strucker had no problem combining Pietro and Wanda’s gametes despite their.. Close.. relationship. ‘So long as he’s willing to give the order, I can live with following it,’ List rationalised to himself. On some level, he’d practically been waiting for this exact order since sending the summons.

“Of course! At once, Herr Strucker! And the Twins themselves?”

“Until your cloning vats can replicate young Ms. Maximoff’s unique contribution, both of the twins are quite invaluable. Make sure they’re happy; continue your work with them. They mustn’t get any wind of this project, however, so you’ll need to enforce the strictest caution with what is said around them!” Strucker commanded, comfortable to be in command of a promising situation once again.

“Aber natürlich, my leader— Hail Hydra!” List rattled off.

“Hail Hydra!” Strucker returned, striking the salute before turning to trek the many corridors and stairwells leading back to his quarters.

List knew precisely what steps to take— all his plans had ground to a halt earlier… Until now, because Strucker had given the order. That halt hadn’t stopped his mind from preparing the next steps. And now progress could proceed. Not only that, but List was glad that Strucker saw the value of continuing to cultivate the Twins. Whatever else they were, irreplaceable would be an absolutely apt descriptor for those two test subjects. ‘And besides,’ List thought to himself as he continued preparing his equipment, ‘if Plan A fails, it’s always best to have a backup option…’

Though the hour was late, List was driven, and he knew how imperative it was to achieve Proof of Concept on the first try here. While in-vitro fertilization wasn’t as tricky as it had been a mere decade earlier, even now it had its potential for failure— even for a mad scientist of List’s caliber. He knew as much, and compensated for as many variables as possible, but understood that luck would be one of the unpredictables.

The fact that he was potentially going to give life to a mutant embryo, an enhanced; that he was crossing a sister’s DNA with her own brother’s; that this was the only egg of Wanda’s that they had at the moment— all the factors came together to actually make List nervous once again. Nonetheless, his equipment was vigilantly prepared for the procedure and any number of contingencies.

‘Am I really going to do this?… Of course. The order was given, and besides, Science demands Sacrifice!’ List concluded with a smirk.

He approached the surgical interface console, and input the commands to ready the twins’ gamete samples. The automated surgeon had little trouble preparing Pietro’s semen for the procedure: in fact, the little buggers were so fast & squirmy that they were cleared through the sperm cycler in half the expected time. Wanda’s oocyte on the other hand was a bit more resistant when the computerised surgeon attempted to begin the incubation process. List was prepared, and his hunch paid off— sure enough, co-incubating Pietro’s sperm with her egg enabled the process to move forward. Once the co-incubation began, it too finished faster than should normally be the case: it was almost like the Twins’ cells were eager to get the experiment going now that they sensed what was coming. In no time, there was only one computer command left for List to execute: commence fertilisation?

‘It’s time,’ he decided to himself. ‘Fortune favours the bold; Hail Hydra!’ he declared internally, giving the computer the voice-command to proceed.

As the computer-driven fertilisaton took place, List tried to resolve the last aspect of this research project that was bothering him: what should the code name be?? He knew that his working name “Project Maximoffspring” would have to change… Much as he enjoyed getting under Strucker’s skin with his puns, it was a bit of a mouthful.