Hail Hydra

Night fell, and the lights blazed brightly.

Outside Los Angeles Prison.

Old Wang turned into an empty spot and dialed his phone. "Skye, is it done?"

A pleasant voice came through. "In one minute, the surveillance and communications systems will be down. You'll have half an hour at most. If it takes too long, they'll reverse-track the MAC access point address. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hackers and the police hackers are both watching the surveillance system."

"They're not called hackers, Skye. You are."

Old Wang hung up and chuckled. "Lucy, it's up to you."

Lucy nodded.

The four new ghosts drifted into Los Angeles Prison and quickly found the main power switch.

They took physical form and pulled the switch.

Then they cut every main line.

Next, the four new ghosts scattered, drifting toward different parts of the prison.

A few seconds later, Lucy spotted a prison guard.

Remembering her boss's instructions, Lucy floated over and passed through him.

In the surveillance room.

Coulson ate his dinner while still remembering to glance at the screens from time to time. He was practically S.H.I.E.L.D.'s model worker.

Suddenly, every screen switched to the same image.

A skull, with six curved serpent limbs beneath it.

The entire image was blood-red against a pitch-black background, representing darkness and bloodshed.

Beneath the image were three lines of scarlet text:

Hail Hydra

Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place.

At the same time, a gloomy, icy voice rang out:

"We're back!"

The moment Coulson saw the image and heard that voice, he sprayed out a mouthful of spaghetti.

It nearly hit Natasha square in the chest.

"Hydra!"

Across from him, Natasha had been standing with her arms folded, her body relaxed. In an instant, she tensed all over, scarcely believing her eyes. "Wasn't Hydra wiped out long ago? I read the files. They were destroyed by the Howling Commandos!"

"The Howling Commandos were personally led by Peggy Carter, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders. Heroes who carried on Captain America's legacy."

Coulson put down his knife and fork and stood up. "I hope this is a prank. Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D. is in serious trouble. Agent Romanoff, they came to rescue Eli. Notify our people. Close the net and catch the fish."

Natasha nodded and flexed her hands a few times. "I hope they're worthy opponents."

She picked up her communicator and dialed.

There was no response.

When she checked the signal, there was nothing at all.

The image on the screens vanished as well, replaced by static.

"The network's down? They're more capable than we thought. Something happened in the power distribution room. They have people inside the prison."

Coulson said, "Good thing we have a backup plan. Get ready. My experience tells me the power will go out next."

The moment he finished speaking, the entire prison plunged into darkness.

A beam of light came on.

Coulson shook his flashlight. "The prison has generators and backup power. They'll come online soon, and the internal network will activate at the same time. The cybersecurity personnel will restore the network and communications systems shortly, but it'll take time. Let's find Eli... Agent Ward and his field team are outside the prison. There won't be a problem."

The two of them headed toward Eli's cell with flashlights in hand.

Suddenly, they saw several prison guards.

Having been notified beforehand, the guards quickly recognized Coulson and Natasha as S.H.I.E.L.D. officials and immediately moved to report the situation.

But before they could speak, the guards' faces filled with terror, as though they had seen ghosts. They backed away while raising their guns.

Coulson's expression changed.

He saw that the guards' eye sockets were darkened, as though they had stayed awake for ten days or half a month straight. They looked even more like vicious ghosts from movies and television, radiating an eerie presence.

Something was wrong with these people!

Coulson quickly drew his gun.

He wasn't afraid of accidentally hurting them, because it was a Freeze Gun invented by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Science and Technology Division. It wasn't lethal.

Director Fury had ordered them to take them alive.

He just didn't know whether it would work against these strange people.

But before he could even draw his weapon, he saw a phantom-like figure flash past.

Natasha bent low, crouched, and kicked off with both legs.

She leaped into the air.

Scissor kick!

Elbow strike!

Heavy punch!

Throat lock!

Disarm!

Kick to the groin!

Several muffled groans rang out in succession, and every prison guard collapsed.

Natasha rose with a frown, dusted off her hands, and turned around.

She was about to say something when she saw that Coulson had become just like those guards—like a ghost, like a living corpse that had crawled out of hell.

She shuddered, realizing something was wrong.

Across from her, Coulson aimed his gun at Natasha.

In his eyes, Natasha had also turned into a vicious ghost.

But they both held back and did not attack.

"Agent Romanoff?" Coulson asked cautiously.

"Coulson."

Natasha lowered her voice. "I got hit too?"

Coulson gave a bitter smile. "So did I."

Seeing Coulson's smile, which was more terrifying than a ghost's, Natasha shuddered. "You should stop smiling. It's creepy."

Coulson's smile froze instantly.

After two seconds, he sighed. "Have you ever encountered something like this?"

Natasha shook her head. "I've encountered things more terrifying than this: Inhumans who controlled fire, freaks that couldn't be killed, enhanced cyborgs, the Winter Soldier, whose existence many intelligence agencies refused to believe... but never this."

Coulson fell silent.

If everyone in the prison had turned into these ghostly things, it was over. The whole place would descend into complete chaos!

What the hell was happening?

Could it be related to Ghost Rider?

Or the Darkhold?

The two stared at each other.

Unseen by anyone, the ghostly Lucy passed through their bodies, deep in thought.

"Ghost Infection... The boss really came up with an interesting name."

These people had been tainted by the energy on her body, energy from another dimension. That was why they looked like this, and why everyone else looked like ghosts in their eyes—as though their vision had been covered by a transparent ghostly veil, a thin mist formed from energy from another dimension.

Remembering the slightly chubby Chinese youth who always wore a warm smile, Lucy's body trembled. She was both afraid and curious.

"How does the boss know everything?"

"Who exactly is he..."

On the other side of the prison.

"It's time."

Old Wang covered his face with a piece of black cloth, then leaped over the four- or five-meter-high wire fence. Using the darkness as cover, he rushed into the prison with wind beneath his legs and silent steps.

Lights kept flashing throughout the prison, but not a single beam found Old Wang.

The prison guards did their best to hold every passageway and lock every cell door.

But it was useless.

Darkness could not block Old Wang's eyes, and the guards could not detect a figure more agile than a cheetah.

No matter how sturdy the cell doors were, they could not withstand Old Wang's True Qi and fists.

Occasionally, he encountered guards blocking his way.

Old Wang struck with incredible speed.

Throat lock, knifehand strike, elbow strike.

He barely needed to use the Pandaren's True Qi skills. Ordinary people like these were already easy enough to deal with.

Having memorized the entire prison layout in advance, Old Wang did not take a single unnecessary step.

In less than three minutes, he found Eli's cell and saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. field team guarding it closely.