Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Relics

Golden light tore through the thick darkness deep within the mine tunnel, and golden combat boots crushed the alloy gates blocking their path as easily as crushing cookies!

Logan, like an enraged golden wolf, rampaged through the narrow passage. A CIA agent blocking his way?

A fist encased in Cloth is the strongest pass!

All that remained along the way were metal doors cut into countless pieces and human-shaped dents embedded in the walls or ground, silently telling of the terrifying impact they had suffered.

The blood evaporated rapidly under the golden light of the Cloth, leaving not a trace.

Suddenly, the view opened up ahead! Blinding searchlight beams shone forth!

A massive underground take-off and landing platform!

A strong wind, carrying sand and the smell of engine oil, rushed towards us. The roar of the propellers was deafening. A black military transport helicopter hovered at the edge of the platform, and the powerful downwash made it almost impossible for anyone to stand.

Valentina's damned figure was being escorted by two agents as she bent over and rushed toward the open cabin door!

"Valentina!!" Logan's roar drowned out the engine's rumble!

He exerted force with his feet, and like an arrow released from a bow, he tore through the gale and rushed forward! At the edge of his right arm, the Holy Sword blade, powerful enough to cut through atoms, hummed and condensed once more!

The distance is closing rapidly! Three hundred meters! Two hundred meters! One hundred and fifty meters!

He could even see the glance Valentina gave him as she climbed the gangway—cold, arrogant, with a hint of the victor's mockery on her lips!

"Stop right there!" Logan raised his right arm high, the dazzling golden blade of light aimed at the massive fuselage!

In just a fraction of a second! In a fraction of a second, he could cleave that bitch and her iron bird in two!

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

A deadly whooshing sound erupted simultaneously from five different shadowy blind spots! The speed was extreme!

Not high-tech weapons! They were five incredibly thick, silver-gray round shields!

Each shield possessed power and speed far exceeding that of the previous soldiers! Spinning and whistling, it formed a deadly cutting net with no blind spots, instantly blocking all of Logan's pursuit and attack routes! The edges of the shields even tore through the air, emitting a high-frequency shriek!

The timing was outrageously tricky! It hit the nail on the head right when Logan's old power had just been unleashed and his new power had not yet been generated!

What's even more infuriating is that the flight trajectories of these five shields subtly form a kind of resonance matrix, attracting and amplifying each other, thus accumulating power!

"F**K!" Logan felt so frustrated he wanted to vomit blood, and had no choice but to forcibly turn around!

The incredible speed granted to him by the Gold Cloth was pushed to its limit at this moment! He danced on the edge of a knife, the Holy Sword's light blade transforming into a golden fan!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Five violent metallic clangs, powerful enough to shatter an ordinary person's eardrums, exploded almost simultaneously! Blinding sparks erupted around Logan like mini-explosions!

The immense impact even caused Logan, the golden war god, to momentarily freeze! Cracks appeared on the solid concrete platform beneath his feet!

Five burly, towering figures stood in formation, dressed in combat uniforms that were thicker, more streamlined, and gleamed with a distinctive metallic sheen than those worn by the previous soldiers.

In Logan's words, "That knock-off star on his chest looks even more damn annoying."

The five men burst out of their hiding place like five human tanks!

Their movements were perfectly synchronized, with an eerie sense of coordination; they were clearly an upgraded version of high-level cannon fodder!

Their faces were expressionless, their eyes empty and lifeless, with only one goal—to hold off the golden Beast at all costs! The leader even hurled another heavy shield, aiming straight for Logan's face!

"You persistent counterfeit!!" Logan roared, his anger materializing into power! The Holy Sword's blade suddenly swelled!

"Smash it for me!"

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Three incredibly fine, dazzling golden lines, each one so subtle it seemed to cleave through the Void, flashed by in an instant!

The piercing, shrill scream that tore through the air!

The three super soldiers at the forefront, along with their shields that had just formed an attack stance, all froze in place!

The next instant, it silently split and slid along the smooth, mirror-like cut! Not even a scream was heard!

But that fraction of a second of delay is enough!

Rumble rumble rumble--!

The helicopter's engines roared loudly, and the heavy fuselage suddenly pulled up!

The gale whipped up huge vortexes of gravel and dust from the ground! The hatch was closing rapidly!

Logan looked up abruptly and saw Valentina's Abomination face pressed against the closing porthole, her red lips moving as she silently uttered three words:

"Goodbye... Beast."

That face held a naked, pure, and maddening mockery!

"Bitch!!!" Logan's reason completely evaporated! His furious roar seemed to tear his vocal cords apart!

The two remaining super soldiers fearlessly lunged forward again, trying to grab his legs!

"Get out of my way!!!" Logan didn't even bother with the Holy Sword; his legs, covered in golden armor, suddenly jerked!

Click! Click!

A sickeningly loud cracking sound of bones shattering! The lower bodies of the two soldiers, along with their sturdy combat uniforms, instantly twisted into a bizarre mass of metallic flesh!

The scream was barely audible before it was crushed by an immense force!

Logan soared into the sky with a ferocious killing intent! His Gold Cloth erupted with a dazzling golden light!

Ignoring altitude and distance, he tore through the air with the light blade on his right arm and unleashed a Holy Sword strike at the tail engine of the helicopter, which had already risen dozens of meters into the air and was accelerating away!

"Excalibur--!!!"

A colossal, golden, crescent-shaped blade of light, seemingly capable of cleaving the sky in two, shot forth, instantly traversing space!

Just as the slash was about to hit the helicopter, a figure jumped off the plane, curled up into a ball, and crashed straight into the slash.

Another super soldier! He actually charged into the slash while being shielded by three shields. Although he couldn't possibly block the slash, it was delayed by a second.

In that split second, the helicopter swerved, escaping the point of attack and flying away into the distance.

Logan crashed back to the ground, his golden boots creating two deep craters on the platform.

He stared intently in the direction the helicopter had disappeared, his breathing heavy and labored, his chest heaving violently.

The light of the Cloth slowly receded, but the overwhelming killing intent and resentment almost solidified into a tangible form.

The distant roar of a helicopter signaled that the bastard had escaped.

"F**k! F**k! F**k!" Logan stomped his foot hard, causing a large section of the concrete platform to collapse! He angrily flung off his golden helmet, revealing a stubble-covered, sweat-drenched, and furious face, and roared at the night sky, "Valentina! You just wait! I'll tear that pretty skin off you inch by inch!!"

Just then, Psylocke's cool voice came through the earpiece, tinged with seriousness. "Wolverine, come back immediately. You'd better check... what's left here."

Logan forced down his rage, narrowed his eyes, and sniffed the complex lingering smells in the air—blood, gunpowder, and substandard serum.

"Tsk, what a nuisance." He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, irritably fastening his helmet back on. "Fine! Coming! Hopefully, this wretched place will at least give me something to vent my frustrations on!"

The golden light shone again, and Logan's figure transformed into an arrow, shooting towards the depths of the mine he had come from.

When Logan arrived at the location provided by Psylocke, he saw Psylocke standing in the middle of a mess of equipment wreckage. In front of her, a military mainframe, half-embedded in the rock wall and with its charred and deformed casing, was hissing and smoking.

An inconspicuous black USB flash drive was plugged into the only intact port on the host computer. A faint blue holographic screen was projected from the top of the flash drive, with dense streams of data flowing like a waterfall.

"Tsk," Logan said with a whoosh, removing his Gold Cloth. The dazzling golden armor transformed into streams of light and scattered, flying into the golden box carried by the drone.

He strode over to Psylocke, glanced at the dazzling stream of data, and frowned deeply. He pulled a half-crushed cigar and a badly worn military windproof lighter from his tactical pouch.

Click!

A flame shot up and lit the cigar.

Logan took a big drag, and pungent smoke billowed from his nostrils, enveloping his face, which was etched with "I don't understand, but it's so annoying."

"What's the meaning of this bunch of scribbles? Is it a bill left by that bitch Valentina?" His voice was hoarse, still carrying the lingering anger of not having torn the target to shreds.

Psylocke didn't turn around, but quickly tapped a few times on the holographic screen.

Several highly encrypted archive photos were enlarged and highlighted: a yellowed lab report with the Hydra logo and the words "Winter Soldier Program" printed on its cover; several blurry lab photos showing rows of culture tanks containing muscular, expressionless bodies.

Then she tapped the arm armor again, and Valentina's information popped up on it. With a flick of the Psylocke, it was projected into the holographic screen.

"Katyusha," Psylocke's cool voice rang out, giving the order to the light screen, "Unlock the core data link and briefly describe the connection between Valentina Allegra de Fontaine's operation codename 'Arms Dealer Queen' and this project."

The data stream on the screen instantly reassembled, and an elegant, cold, synthesized female voice with a Slavic accent rang out:

"Access confirmed, Ms. Psylocke. Analysis in progress..."

Valentina's S.H.I.E.L.D.. file was magnified on the screen.

"Target: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Former S.H.I.E.L.D.. Level 9 Agent, with a security clearance second only to Nick Fury and former Director Alexander Pierce. Her true identity and activity patterns are deeply hidden. Known intelligence indicates she is In-Betweener multiple secret transactions, codenamed 'The Arms Dealer Queen.'"

The scene shifts to the Winter Soldier report.

"Key Operational Milestone: After the X-Men destroyed Baron Strucker's secret base in the Arctic, they seized crucial data: 'Winter Soldier Modification Program and Enhancement Serum Samples.' The data revealed that this serum was an unknown modification to the Strucker version, significantly Power Augmentation, but also causing irreversible nerve suppression and deep mind manipulation side effects. It was later collected by Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. team."

Several laboratory photos are shown side by side.

"Valentina, using her privileges and the 'Arms Dealer Queen' network, secretly obtained the aforementioned samples and partial data from Erskine's original Super-Soldier Serum. She integrated the two."

Complex molecular formula comparisons and energy spectrum analyses appeared on the light screen.

"Result: A novel 'Compensated Super-Soldier Serum (CSSS)'. Its theoretical peak power surpasses that of the original Erskine serum and known Winter Soldier modified forms."

"Core flaw: The injector will permanently lose their autonomy, becoming an absolutely obedient biological weapon, with a greater lack of humanity than the original 'Winter Soldier Serum'."

"Inference: Valentina used this serum as a core component to mass-produce super soldiers codenamed 'Silver Shield Soldiers.' Data shows that participants in 'Silver Shield Program' received support from the United States government. Further, deeper inferences lack supporting data and cannot be confirmed at this time."

The holographic image switched to a diagram of the mine's structure, highlighting a hidden passage that led directly to the take-off and landing platform where Logan had been pursuing them.

" --Valentina has evacuated with the original serum samples and core data. Location signal... lost."

"Holy shit..." Logan almost dropped the cigar in his mouth. He stared at Valentina's cold yet ambitious face on the screen, and at the serum effect image next to her that was flashing with an eerie blue light. A surge of evil fire mixed with a sense of absurdity rushed straight to the top of his head.

"Holy crap! Valentina's got some serious digging skills! She actually managed to unearth 20-year-old files from S.H.I.E.L.D..'s graveyard?! Has Fury lost his mind?! Why the hell is he keeping those files if he's not going to destroy them?!"

He took a deep drag on his cigar, letting the pungent smoke swirl in his lungs before exhaling, then irritably ran his hand through his unkempt hair.

"Damn it! I knew that knock-off star shield looked unlucky! It's a hundred times worse than Rogers' original shield! What good is its strength? A bunch of brainless undead!"

Psylocke turned to Logan, her purple pupils reflecting the cold blue light of the holographic screen. "The serum, the data, the samples—she took all the core bargaining chips. These 'silver shields' are just consumables. The real trouble is that she holds the key to mass-producing superweapons."

Logan irritably exhaled a smoke ring, threw the cigar butt hard on the ground, and crushed it with his toe.

"Tell that brat Chen Tian to abandon his vacation and come back to Sky City."

Psylocke nodded, a flash of neon light from her fingertip touching her arm armor. "Katyusha, highest priority, calling the commander. Send coordinates and preliminary action report in a package."

"Command issued, Psylocke. Encrypted link expected to be established in 3 minutes." Katyusha's synthesized voice remained cold and elegant.

The two quickly dropped several infrared beacons in the core area of the mine. The scarlet lights flickered silently. They turned around and boarded the small transport plane that they had hidden in the rock crevice when they came.

The engine roared, and it took off vertically.

Almost the instant they burst out of the mine exit—

Buzz--!

A piercing shriek tore through the night sky!

A long, thick bunker-buster missile, trailing a pale plume of flame, plummeted vertically from the sky like the Grim Reaper's javelin, precisely penetrating the mine shaft!

Boom--!!!!!!!

The ground trembled violently, like a drumhead! A violent shockwave swept across the ground, giving the plane a severe jolt!

Below, a blinding white light suddenly expanded, engulfing the entire mountain! This was followed by a muffled, suffocating roar! Smoke and dust, mixed with gravel and twisted metal fragments, shot into the sky, forming a massive mushroom cloud!

Logan stood by the porthole, the box Gold Cloth at his feet.

He stared expressionlessly at the devastating scene below, where the hill where the mine was located had been completely leveled, leaving only a huge crater belching thick smoke and high-temperature steam.

"Let's go," he said in a low voice, tinged with the smell of gunpowder and a hint of pent-up frustration, "Back to Sky City."

The fighter jet's engines roared to life, tearing through the clouds as it sped off into the distance.

A misty haze hung in the air, and the hot spring water was smooth and silky. Chen Tian leaned against the smooth stone wall of the open-air hot spring pool, his eyes closed, a look of contentment on his face. Water droplets rolled down his lean, muscular physique.

A soft splashing sound filled the air.

2B, wrapped in a white bath towel, approached. Her short, silver-white hair clung wetly to her smooth neck and shoulders. Her bare feet trod on the damp stone slabs, and she held a thin, flat object in her hands, almost the same color as the bath towel.

"Master," 2B's voice was calm and even as she handed the tablet to Chen Tian. The screen displayed a "Red Room Highest Level Encrypted Communication Access Request," followed by "Wolverine and Psylocke Emergency Operation Report, Level: Burning. Valentina Defontaine, codenamed 'Arms Dealer Queen,' has appeared. The target escaped carrying the 'Silver Shield Program' core serum and data. The mine has been completely wiped out by our bunker-buster missiles."

Chen Tian opened one eye and glanced at the troublesome name "Valentina" and the glaring word "Escape" on the screen. He then looked at the spectacular scene of the mine explosion in the thumbnail at the bottom of the tablet.

He pursed his lips, closed his eyes again, and sank deeper into the water, leaving only his nose and above above the surface. His voice sounded muffled through the water.

"Tsk... Got it. Tell home I'm 'rolling' back right now." He paused, then added, "Also, have the logistics department prepare some stomach medicine... I bet Old Wolf is so angry he could eat Adamantium right now."

2B nodded slightly. "The instructions have been conveyed, Master. Also, your bath towel... seems to be sticking up." Her gaze calmly fell on Chen Tian's bath towel, which was clearly stretched out.

Chen Tian: "... It seems I need to heal my injuries properly."

He suddenly stood up from the water, splashing water everywhere!

Water droplets rolled down his firm muscles, glistening in the moonlight. The wet towel clung to his body, outlining the angular contours of his abdominal muscles and clearly highlighting the undeniable bulge below.

2B tilted her head slightly, water droplets dripping from the ends of her silver hair. Her face flushed, whether from seeing Chen Tian's muscular body or from the steam of the hot spring, it was hard to tell, "Master, I don't recommend you engage in breeding activities here. According to the time, Miss Kiana will be coming in with sake to find you in about two minutes."

"Never mind!" Chen Tian roared, grabbed 2B's wrist, and roughly pulled her off the edge of the pool!

Splash! Water splashed high again! Ignoring that 2B was still wrapped in a bath towel, he easily secured her in his arms as if carrying a bag of precious tactical equipment, took long strides, rushed out of the hot spring pool, leaving a trail of water in his wake, and dashed towards his room!

Mist swirled around the hot spring pool, a warm breeze blew, leaving only ripples on the surface and a lonely tablet.

Chen Tian kicked open the exquisite Japanese sliding door and stumbled inside, practically carrying 2B!

"Darling, aren't you being a little too hasty?" a languid, sexy voice rang out.

Inside the room, on the tatami mat, Bayonetta leaned casually against the cushions, her posture as elegant as a stretched-out black cat. She wore only a very simple black lace nightgown, the straps hanging loosely on her rounded shoulders, her abyss faintly visible beneath the thin fabric.

Her long, dark purple curly hair was loose, with a few strands playfully falling onto her full breasts.

Her long, straight legs were crossed, gleaming like ivory in the dim, ambiguous light. The hem of her thin gauze skirt dangerously slipped down to her thighs, sparking endless fantasies.

She propped her head up with one hand lazily, while holding a small bone china cup in the other, filled with amber liquid.

Seeing Chen Tian burst in, soaking wet and steaming, with a similarly drenched 2B tucked under his arm, her alluring purple eyes first flashed with just the right amount of surprise, then her gaze moved down and settled on Chen Tian's "injury," and a charming smile slowly curved her lips, as if she had seen the most interesting toy in the world.

Seeing Bayonetta's almost burningly sexy appearance, coupled with the alcohol (the hot spring and the sake earlier?) and the pent-up anger from the emergency communication, Chen Tian felt a "boom" in his head!

"Awoo--!" A wild wolf howl, completely unlike a human voice, escaped his throat!

Bang!

He slammed his heel into the door behind him with such force that the entire door frame shook!

The moment the door closed, it shut out the sounds of wind and water from the courtyard outside, leaving only a warm and inviting atmosphere inside the room.

Immediately afterwards, several giggles were clearly heard from inside—some were Bayonetta's languid, charming, and seemingly hooked chuckles, while others were mixed with 2B's short, slightly shy gasp, which seemed to be caused by her master's rough handling (more like a system notification sound?).

There were also faint, muffled sounds of clothes being torn on the tatami mats.

Outside the hot spring pool.

With a soft rustling sound, Kiana, dressed in an adorable yukata and with her hair tied in a bun, carefully carried a tray containing an exquisite sake pot and two sake cups, and pushed open the bamboo fence gate leading to the open-air hot spring.

With an expectant smile on her face, she prepared to have a drink with the commander.

"Commander? 2B? Bayonetta? Sake's here!"

However, all that was in front of him was a pool of steaming hot water and empty stone steps along the edge. Moonlight spilled onto the gently rippling water, and the mist swirled around it. It was so quiet that you could hear the rustling of the wind through the bamboo leaves.

Kiana's smile froze. Holding the tray, she stood barefoot on the damp stone slab, her large, round blue eyes filled with utter bewilderment and confusion, as if countless enormous, materialized golden question marks were appearing above her head.

"Where is everyone? Weren't they just saying they were all soaking in the hot springs here???"

She listened intently, and besides the sounds of water and wind, there seemed to be some strange, embarrassing noises coming from behind the closed sliding door not far away...

Kiana tilted her head, her little face filled with a huge, innocent question mark, "Huh? Why are we locked in a room while soaking in the hot spring? And... and the door is closed so tightly?"