I Am Hydra

Room 402, Building 6, Ashwood Street.

Purple Man sat upright on the sofa, frowning without pause.

In front of him, beside the large television, were two smaller screens that should have displayed surveillance footage from seven key intersections nearby.

But now...

Every screen was black.

Purple Man went to the refrigerator, took out a bottle of liquor, and poured some down his throat to calm himself.

"So, who has set their sights on me?"

After thinking it over, he felt it might be Heisenberg. After all, that bastard had actually played with his little darling!

That was Jessica, the finest dinner Purple Man had saved for himself. He should have continued driving the girl into collapse until she could no longer bear her own existence.

The process might have taken two years, three years, or even five.

But Purple Man had been willing to wait, because once the dish was truly ready, her flavor would be earth-shattering!

But now it was all gone. Someone else had fucking eaten his meal. Damn it!

Purple Man instantly went berserk, his rage seeming to take tangible form above his head.

He gazed out the window with dark, unfathomable eyes. You people—whoever you are—harbor ill intent toward me, don't you?

Perfect. He would use them to vent this brief burst of fury!

BANG!!!

The door was kicked open, and Captain America charged into the room first with his shield raised.

He was about to pounce on Purple Man, who stood directly across from the entrance, but after taking only two steps, he eerily froze in place.

Barton, who had followed behind him, immediately sensed something was wrong. Without hesitation, he raised his bow and fired an arrow at Purple Man's right leg.

The instant the arrow flew, Captain America suddenly turned and raised his shield, easily blocking it.

And Barton no longer had the strength to fire a second shot.

Behind Barton, Grant Ward rushed forward with his special agents, but the moment they saw the situation inside, they were stunned.

Grant Ward was extremely alert. He rolled straight out of the room.

But his subordinates had already fallen under Purple Man's control.

Ward did not dare continue the attack and could only roar into his earpiece.

"Something's wrong. The Captain seems to be under control, and so is Barton!"

"What?!!"

John Garrett, the deputy commander of the operation downstairs, went blank. Hadn't the operation only just begun?

Was this Purple Man's control ability really that terrifying?

In just an instant, even the Captain could not resist?

"Breach the wall and give the snipers a line of sight. Watch your own safety!"

"Yes!"

Grant immediately accepted the order.

Not far from him, Agent Melinda May picked up the breaching device and began working. In barely a dozen seconds, miniature wall-breaching charges had been spread across the entire wall.

At the same time, inside the room.

Purple Man looked gloomily at the crowd and asked softly.

"Tell me who you are, what department you come from, and under whose orders you launched this attack on me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Captain America began to stutter. He did not say what Purple Man wanted him to say. Instead, relying on his superhuman willpower—the greatest in Marvel—he kept resisting Purple Man's control.

But while he struggled, the scattered agents began to speak.

"Hydra covert agent Henry Ford, acting under John Garrett's orders to capture Purple Man in response to Superman Heisenberg."

"Hydra covert agent Teddy Garnett, acting under..."

"Hydra covert agent..."

"Hydra covert agent..."

"Hydra..."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clinton Francis Barton, dispatched by Director Nick Fury at Heisenberg's request, here to capture Purple Man."

After the crowd delivered their introductions with expressionless faces, behind those blank expressions, their minds erupted with terror like volcanoes!!!

Hydra!!!

John Garrett!!!

Captain America, still struggling, widened his eyes. The veins in his forehead instantly bulged.

"How the fuck are there so many Hydra Agents?!"

Captain America blurted out. The intense shock Hydra brought him directly snapped him out of Purple Man's control.

Having broken free, Captain America did not deal with Hydra first. Instead, he turned and hurled his shield at Purple Man.

Startled by Captain America breaking free, Purple Man hurriedly rolled sideways off his chair, narrowly avoiding the shield.

Even sprawled on the floor in a sorry state, Purple Man did not forget to issue a new command.

"Protect me as I leave New York!"

As soon as he spoke, the lone Barton and a group of Hydra Agents launched a frenzied assault on Captain America.

Two fists could not beat four hands—especially when one of those hands belonged to Hawkeye.

Captain America might have been known for always fighting to a draw in Marvel, but no one should forget that Hawkeye was also famous for being able to shoot anyone.

What famous villain had not been shot in the face with one of Hawkeye's arrows?

So how could Hawkeye possibly be an ordinary person?

For a time, the agents in the room were locked in a chaotic brawl. Captain America struggled to fend off attacks from every direction.

As for Purple Man—

He slipped past the chaotic crowd, picked up Captain America's shield, and strapped it onto his arm.

Holding the shield, he glanced outside the door. Those people outside had to be tampering with the walls around his room.

He had to jump out the window!

It was only the fourth floor. He had a little confidence, after all—he was a Mutant too. Even if only his brain had mutated, his body had still been strengthened to some extent.

Besides, he had a shield that could block bullets for him.

So he rushed toward the window.

Before he could even open it, Purple Man was completely stunned.

An incredibly fierce burst of gunfire rang out from below!

Half a minute earlier.

"Who are you...?"

"Hydra...!"

"Hydra...!"

After the agents inside answered like that, everyone outside who had been preparing to attack was dumbfounded.

The agents, who should have been working together, looked at one another.

Then, all the agents—including Coulson and the others—turned their eyes toward John Garrett.

The atmosphere completely froze.

Just then, more than ten Modified Off-road Vehicles of various types suddenly drove in from all directions.

Eliza was the first to step out of a vehicle, walking straight toward John.

She knew that handsome man was the overall commander of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Of course, she did not know he was Captain America.

But since the handsome man was not downstairs, she also knew that aside from the commander, John Garrett was the deputy commander.

So naturally, she headed toward Garrett.

But the moment Coulson saw Garrett's side gain reinforcements, he raised his pistol at Garrett almost on reflex.

That stirred up a hornet's nest. In an instant, over seventy percent of the agents aimed their weapons at Coulson.

The remaining twenty-odd percent of agents finally belatedly raised their guns in caution.

But what good was being cautious now? Cautious, my ass!

The teams had all been mixed together. No one had known who was Hydra before.

Just look around. The genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were practically isolated and helpless. Nearly every one of them had at least two Hydra Agents beside them!

At that moment, Eliza was also frightened by the bizarre situation.

"Fuck, is this a double cross?!"

So she simply raised the Short Fork in her hand and charged in front of John Garrett, intending to take the helpless-looking old man hostage.

How could Garrett let her have her way? Besides, nearly everyone present had already been exposed.

He might as well go all in and shouted, "Attack! Leave none alive!"

Gunfire erupted instantly. In just a moment, more than twenty agents were dead, and the number kept rising.

Even Coulson took a bullet. Luckily, he was wearing a bulletproof vest, and he barely managed to dodge his way behind his car.

Eliza reacted quickly as well, shouting at her people.

"Protect Crossbones! He's one of us!"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Crossbones, you!!!"

The last line came from John Garrett. He truly hadn't expected Crossbones, whose status within Hydra was practically equal to his own, to fucking be a traitor!

And Crossbones...

The old pal was completely dumbfounded now!

How had he betrayed anyone? When had he become Eliza's man? How come he didn't know about it himself?

What the fuck was this? How could someone not know when they'd defected?

I defected?!!

But he didn't even get a chance to explain. The gangsters carrying all sorts of rifles and grenade launchers gave him no such opportunity.

In just seven or eight seconds, he was surrounded and shielded by countless gang members.

After failing to rush Garrett, Eliza swiftly plunged into her own people's ranks as well.

She slipped into the crowd, took the weapon handed to her by one of her subordinates, then casually leaned against Crossbones's side.

"Hey, I'm Eliza. I just started working for Boss Heisenberg. You've definitely heard of me!"

"I... I fucking..."

Listening to Eliza introduce herself, Crossbones looked utterly bewildered, practically becoming the bewildered fruit beneath the bewildered tree.

Seeing how "nervous" Crossbones was, Eliza nodded understandingly and bumped his upper arm with her gunstock in a friendly gesture.

"Don't be nervous. We'll protect you. The boss appreciates your brains. It seems like he wants you to manage all his people.

Once we get through today, I might even have to call you big brother. Keep it up!"

With that, without caring that Crossbones had not answered, she charged out of the crowd and began slaughtering the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra.

For a moment, the scene became utter chaos, to the point that no one paid any more attention to Purple Man, who had originally been the target.

Purple Man simply walked out of the crowd and swaggered into his Chevrolet.

He started the engine, hit the gas, and the car slowly began moving forward. Inside, Purple Man was utterly confused.

Why were the people trying to catch him fighting each other?

Because of Hydra?

Wait!

Hydra!

Hadn't that organization disappeared after World War II?

How...

He froze.

Not because he was shocked to discover Hydra.

But because... his car was flying through the air.

His old car, which had absolutely no flight function installed and no flying magic cast on it, had somehow already floated into the clouds.

Still, he did not panic. He had seen plenty in his life.

So he quickly rolled down the window and looked beneath the car.

Sure enough!

He could see two hairy legs, half-covered by pajama pants.

"HEISENBERG!!!"

He roared and activated his control ability with every ounce of strength he had.

His scent, his gaze, his voice—everything he had was pushed to the maximum level of control.

But unfortunately, Heisenberg was completely unaffected by him.

The wind roared in his ears, and Purple Man vaguely heard Heisenberg talking on the phone.

As he strained to listen, Heisenberg's voice seemed to become a little clearer.

Then he heard Heisenberg saying to the person on the other end of the line—

"Jessica, it's me, your boss.

I have a mission for you. Wait for me on the roof of my building.

I'm going to throw a car down at you from the sky. You need to destroy that car with all your strength, and you're not allowed to let it damage a single floorboard on my roof.

If you succeed, I'll give you Purple Man when he's barely clinging to life. How about it?"