Soul-searching technique, pinpointing Stryker's rat hole

Cold rain dripped from the hem of Lynn's black trench coat, splashing into the muddy ruins.

Through his leather gloves, he placed his palm firmly on the Sabretooth's flattened skull. The touch was slippery and warm. Beneath the gloves, the mass of grayish-white brain tissue was pounding wildly in extreme pain, like a giant, skinned heart.

Wanda stood beside Lynn, her fair hands outstretched. Scarlet Chaos Particles transformed into countless thin, invisible red threads, like a swarm of bloodthirsty nematodes, mercilessly piercing the Sabretooth's cerebral cortex through the gaps between Lynn's fingers.

"Behave yourself, you beast!" Wanda shouted angrily.

The red light in her eyes intensified, and her magical output instantly reached its maximum.

The Sabretooth's massive body convulsed violently in the mud, its dark yellow fur standing on end. Its vocal cords were locked in place by Susan's Invisible Force Field, and it could only squeeze out a series of gasping "hoarse" sounds from deep within its throat.

The Mutants beast's prized healing factor now became its cruelest death warrant. Damaged brain cells healed instantly, only to be forcibly torn apart by the raging Chaos Magic. Heal, tear, and heal again. The pain was amplified exponentially, directly affecting the depths of the soul.

The burnt smell of proteins being scorched by Higher-Dimensional Energy, mixed with the fishy odor of rainwater, assaulted the nostrils.

"Master, this guy's mental defenses are like a rock." Wanda turned to Lynn, a smug smile playing on her lips, "But in the face of my magic, he's just a slightly brittle rock."

Lynn didn't look at her. His gaze was coldly fixed on the Sabretooth's rolling eyes.

"Hurry up." Lynn's voice was cold and emotionless, revealing neither joy nor anger. "I don't like getting soaked in the rain."

Upon hearing this, Susan, standing on the other side, let out a short, cold laugh.

"Did you hear what Master said?" Susan held up Natasha's Force Field operating table with both hands, while simultaneously sending out a Force Field to press down hard on the Sabretooth's cervical spine, the grinding sound of bones rubbing together clearly audible. "Moving so slowly, are you giving this Beast a brain massage? If that doesn't work, move aside. I can just squeeze his brains out and extract the memory protein."

"Shut your mouth, you blonde bitch!" Wanda snapped, her fingers clenching sharply inward.

The Scarlet magical threads instantly pierced through the entire brain hemisphere of the Sabretooth.

"Ah--"

A bloodcurdling scream finally broke through the Force Field's blockade, exploding amidst the torrential rain.

Fragmented images began to flicker on Lynn's retina. These were fragments of memory that Wanda had projected directly into his mind through a magical link.

The perspective is that of Sabretooth.

The footage was violently shaky, with an undertone of brutality and bloodshed.

Lynn saw a dark underground facility. The pungent smell of disinfectant seemed to waft from the scene. In huge glass Culture Dish, mutilated Mutants limbs were submerged. Several ten-meter-tall Metal Robots gleamed red in the shadows.

Then, a face covered in age spots and with a sinister look appeared in the center of the screen.

Stryker.

"Go to New York. Tear that agent named Lynn, and all the Mutants around him, to shreds." Stryker's voice echoed through the fragments of memory, laced with barely suppressed madness. "I'll use their Genes to perfect my Sentry!"

Lynn's lips curled into a cold smile.

Sentry?

With those junk, he thinks he can touch the woman beside him? Stryker's ignorance is downright laughable.

"Coordinates," Lynn uttered.

Wanda immediately manipulated magic, frantically searching through the ocean of Sabretooth's Subconscious. Scarlet Particles sliced through those useless memories of killing like sharp blades, heading straight for the deepest Logic Center.

Black blood began to seep from the Sabretooth's seven orifices; its brain could no longer withstand this violent plundering and was on the verge of collapse.

A string of fluctuating latitude and longitude coordinates, along with Three-Dimensional Structure Diagram of the Pentagon's underground depths, clearly appeared in Lynn's mind.

Found it.

Lynn withdrew his hand, disgustedly shaking off the water stains and bloodstains from his leather gloves.

From the moment the S.H.I.E.L.D. Building was destroyed, he was constantly on the defensive. Hydra's purge, Fury's schemes, Stryker's probing attacks came one after another.

But now, the roles have reversed.

He obtained the exact location of the rat's Rat Hole. With the combat power he currently possessed, he could easily overrun that underground base in less than ten minutes.

"Master, have you found it?" Susan leaned closer, her blue eyes gleaming with ingratiating light. "Should I open Negative Zone portal immediately? I can teleport that Stryker's head directly to your dining table."

"No rush." Lynn slowly removed his blood-stained gloves and threw them at the Sabretooth's face.

Just as Wanda was about to withdraw her magic and completely crush the Sabretooth's brain, Lynn's Spider-Sense nerves suddenly throbbed violently.

Something's not right.

Deep within Sabretooth's memory lies a deliberately concealed shadow. That wasn't Stryker's doing; Stryker didn't have the technology to implant such a deep Mental Lock in Mutants's mind.

"Wait." Lynn raised his hand to stop Wanda. "Dig any deeper. Smash that shell inside his brainstem."

Wanda was taken aback, then her eyes hardened.

"Yes, Master."

Without hesitation, she transformed all her remaining Chaos Magic into a heavy hammer and slammed it down on the mental barrier deep within the Sabretooth's memory.

"Bang!"

An invisible explosion resounded in the Mental Dimension. The Sabretooth's body suddenly stiffened, completely losing its life force, leaving only an empty shell.

But the barrier shattered.

The images in Lynn's mind distorted again, turning into an eerie black and white hue.

This is a very brief memory.

The Sabretooth was locked in a specially made Alloy Cell. Two people stood outside the cell.

One is Stryker.

The other, dressed in a signature black leather trench coat, had his single eye gleaming with a cold, calculating light in the dim light.

Nick Fury.

Lynn's eyes narrowed slightly.

In the memory, Fury looked at the Sabretooth in the cell, his voice low and menacing, like sandpaper being rubbed in Hell: "Stryker, how long can these toys of yours hold off that monster?"

"Long enough, Director," Stryker sneered. "As long as they're in New York, the Blind Spot Program can proceed smoothly."

Fury turned around, his back to the cell. He raised his wrist and pressed the Communicator.

"This is the first phase of Fury's Blind Spot Program; the decoy has been deployed."

He paused for a moment, then looked up at the Surveillance Camera above his head with his one eye, as if across time and space, directly meeting Lynn's gaze.

"Initiate the second phase. Release that thing..."

The scene abruptly ends there.

The rain is still falling.

Only the sound of the wind and the high-frequency hum of the Force Field remained in the ruins.

Lynn stood in the mud, his dark eyes terrifyingly deep.

He had initially thought that Stryker released Sabretooth and his Mutants simply to test them and steal their Genes. But now it seemed that these Mutants assassins, and even Stryker himself, were just bait thrown out by Nick Fury.

An old coin is still an old coin. Even after losing control of S.H.I.E.L.D.., Fury is still secretly weaving a deadly web.

The second phase of the Blind Spot Program? What's that?

Lynn licked his lips, a long-lost sense of excitement, like meeting a worthy opponent, welled up from his very bones.

"Master?" Wanda, noticing the cold smile on Lynn's lips, leaned closer uneasily. "What did you see? Should I twist that Bald Black Man's head off?"

"No." Lynn turned around, his gaze sweeping over Wanda, who was on high alert, Susan, who was all smiles, and Gwen Stacy, who was hiding in the shadows, before finally settling on Natasha, who was staring at him fervently from the Force Field operating table.

"The game has only just begun." Lynn's voice echoed through the rainy night, carrying a ruthless control over life and death. "Back to the building. Prepare for the hunt."