The helicopter roared down from the night sky and settled steadily onto the helipad marked with a large "H." A uniformed aide pulled open the cabin door from inside, and Wolfgang von Strucker descended with his hands clasped behind his back, the monocle over his right eye gleaming coldly beneath the fluorescent lights.
A few hours earlier, news that several key Hydra strongholds had fallen had spread throughout the organization. Nearly everyone realized that this supposedly indestructible organization might finally be approaching its destined end. But Baron Strucker had recognized it before most. That was why, before Fury's final all-out offensive erupted, he had already slipped across the ocean without anyone noticing, taking every valuable asset from the branch under his command.
To be honest, Strucker had never cared what would become of the leaders of Hydra's other branches. He was one of Hydra's highest-ranking officers, but he was also an ambitious man. Even now, he had never abandoned his dream of seizing absolute power and ultimately leading Hydra to fulfill its founder's grand ambition—conquering the world.
So when he foresaw that the organization was about to be crushed, he did not hesitate to cut off contact with every other branch and flee on his own.
What was more, Strucker was even considering which Hydra-affiliated institutions and departments he could push out as shields. Hydra's exposure was now inevitable, and the organization's core forces had already been all but destroyed. S.H.I.E.L.D. would certainly carry out a series of cleanup operations to purge the remnants next. Under such circumstances, throwing out a few scapegoats might divert everyone's attention, giving him enough room to rebuild his strength.
The base Strucker now occupied lay deep within a remote forest. This facility was entirely his personal secret, and even the leaders of the organization's other branches knew nothing of its existence.
He had long suspected that this place would come in handy one day. He simply had not expected that day to come now, or in this manner.
Baron Strucker strode into the base with his trusted aides and personal guards following behind him. Ignoring every subordinate who respectfully greeted him along the way, he hurried to the door of a laboratory.
"Sir." The guard at the door snapped into a standard salute, then turned and tapped several commands onto the control panel to open it. The instant the metal door slid apart, the piercing screech of welding burst through the gap. A broad-shouldered brute stood with his back to them, welding some complex metal device.
Noticing someone enter, the brute stopped working and turned around. He removed his black protective goggles, revealing the rough, fleshy face of a Russian man. He wore a tacky jacket that looked as though it had come from a street stall, making him seem distinctly out of place in this militarized facility.
Ivan Vanko was a Russian scientist. His father, Anton Vanko, had once researched the Ark Reactor alongside Howard Stark. But Howard later discovered that Anton Vanko had ulterior motives and expelled him from the United States. Anton Vanko spent his later years in poverty and died bitterly, consumed by hatred for the Stark family.
Although Anton Vanko was dead, Ivan Vanko inherited his hatred. Unfortunately, Ivan Vanko was also a super genius in mechanical engineering. With nothing but a sketch of the Ark Reactor left behind by his father, he had built a prototype reactor and used it to create whip-like energy weapons for revenge against Tony Stark.
Of course, as everyone knew, Anton Vanko's revenge ultimately failed. But the Iron Man-style armor and Arc Reactor he designed during the process proved his talent and caught Hydra's attention. Hydra quickly recruited him, and he was now under Baron Strucker's command.
Baron Strucker waved a hand, signaling for his confidants to remain outside, then entered alone. He stepped around the cluttered equipment and half-finished components scattered throughout the lab, casually picked up the object Ivan Vanko had just been working on, and examined it.
"What is this?"
"An energy emitter," Ivan answered in English with a pronounced Russian accent. "As requested, it was designed in the shape of a sword hilt. Once connected to the reactor, pressing the switch releases a stable plasma blade."
Strucker weighed it in his hand twice, seemingly pleased. "It looks like you've been speeding up lately."
"I do my best not to disappoint," Ivan said stiffly.
This unruly brute clearly understood that his new boss was a very dangerous man. If Ivan Vanko was a vicious, deadly beast, then Strucker was a first-rate beast tamer. He had taught the beast when to bare its fangs and when to restrain itself.
Baron Strucker put the sword hilt back where it belonged.
"What about the other thing?" he asked. "The thing I told you to make when I came last time."
"This way, sir."
Ivan kicked aside the messy failed products scattered across the floor and led Strucker through the disorderly room to the far end of the laboratory. He brushed aside a tableful of circuit boards, found a remote control, and pressed a switch at the wall.
Receiving the signal, the laboratory wall slowly retracted and rose into the ceiling. A three-meter-tall iron-silver cabinet slowly emerged from beneath the floor tiles, revealing a suit of gray-black armor standing upright within it. Its shell was streaked with red paint, its lines wild and aggressive, radiating a fierce, manic industrial beauty.
From the elbow down, the armor's right arm had been replaced with a blood-red mechanical limb, its five fingers sharp as blades. That was Satan's Claw, Baron Strucker's signature weapon and the culmination of the work of countless Hydra scientists. Its fingers could slice through iron as if it were mud, provide astonishing power, unleash high-voltage currents, and even be fitted with firearms such as Gatling guns.
Looking at this suit of armor made exclusively for him, Baron Strucker could not help curling his lips into a sinister smile.
Though Hydra was nearing destruction, the strength of the branch under his command had been preserved. Not only did he now possess top-tier individual combat armor comparable to Iron Man's, he also controlled a pair of exceptionally capable superpowered twins. All he needed to do was retreat into the shadows once more and patiently gather strength. When the time was right, he would lead Hydra to rise again from the wreckage! He would make a comeback in a form surpassing anything before it, achieving what even their founder, Red Skull, had failed to accomplish—
Before Baron Strucker could finish imagining his grand blueprint, a shrill, piercing alarm rang throughout the entire base.
The Baron's expression froze instantly. His face darkened as he left the laboratory and rushed to the base's control center at top speed.
"What's happening?" he demanded sharply.
A communications officer wearing a headset shouted back from in front of a computer, "We're under attack!"
"Attacked by whom?" Strucker frowned. "Don't tell me S.H.I.E.L.D. is pursuing us all the way here without letting up?"
"No, it isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. The enemy seems to be... just one person??"
(Thanks to reader Zi Yu Mo for the 2,000 Qidian Coin reward, reader Prodigal Little Diao for the 500 Qidian Coin reward, and reader Flying Bird Crazy Fish for the 100 Qidian Coin reward!)
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