Fierce winds poured through the torn opening in the cabin. Air at twenty degrees below zero, laden with ice and snow, slashed painfully across their faces like knives. The thick stench of blood mixed with the pungent smell of aviation fuel, churning violently through the cramped cabin.
"Let him go, Wanda. Trash like him doesn't deserve to stain you with his blood."
Lynn's voice was extremely weak, carrying a perfectly measured tremor, yet it reached Wanda's ears clearly through the deafening howl of the wind.
Those words were like an absolute command.
The savage scarlet in Wanda's eyes, powerful enough to warp space, instantly froze. The dark red energy boiling around her abruptly receded like an ebbing tide. Then the five fingers of her right hand relaxed.
Thud!
Crossbones, Brock, crashed heavily onto the metal floor like a heap of sludge. Clutching his neck, where five deep purple bruises had been squeezed into his skin, he gulped greedily at the freezing air. Hoarse, wheezing coughs rasped from his throat like broken bellows, bringing up great bloody chunks of internal organs.
Wanda did not spare the ace Hydra agent another glance. The murderous intent in her eyes was completely replaced by overwhelming panic and heartache, and she threw herself down beside Lynn as if she had teleported.
"Lynn..."
An intense red light erupted from her pale hands as she reached without hesitation for the specially made high-voltage insulating restraint suit. Under the corrosion of Chaos Magic, its thick insulating material was as fragile as dead leaves and instantly crumbled to dust.
Detecting the damage, the electric suppression collar around Lynn's neck was about to release a high-voltage current strong enough to stun an elephant. But before its blue light could come on, a mass of scarlet energy enveloped and crushed it, leaving not even a trace of metal debris.
The instant his restraints were removed, Lynn let himself fall into Wanda's arms. He adjusted his angle imperceptibly, pressing most of his body weight against her to create the appearance of someone so weak that he could survive only by relying on her.
"You're hurt... They hurt you, didn't they?" Wanda's voice was thick with tears as she cupped Lynn's pale cheeks in her trembling hands. Her cold fingertips were stained with blood splashed on them when she had killed earlier, and they smeared glaring red marks across the side of his face.
Lynn raised his hand and laid it over hers. Enduring the bitter cold inside the cabin, he soothed her softly in a voice tender enough to drown someone in it. "I'm fine. As long as I can see you when I open my eyes, I'm not afraid of anything."
Those words of love struck precisely at the yandere's most vulnerable spot.
Wanda's tears fell in large drops into the hollow of Lynn's neck. She buried her head deep against his chest like a stray cat that had finally found its owner, greedily drawing in his warmth and scent. At that moment, the oppressive aura that could destroy heaven and earth vanished without a trace.
In a corner nearby, Crossbones lay slumped in a pool of blood, his broken right leg folded backward at a grotesque angle. Splintered bone pierced through his flesh, and blood spread across the freezing floor.
Watching the scene through blurred vision, he felt a chill rise within him a hundred times more intense than the pain of his broken leg.
The monster who had just been like a world-destroying demon god, tearing apart a fighter jet with her bare hands and instantly killing two elite agents with a single look, was now curled in the arms of that bottom-rung S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, seeking comfort like a little girl who had done something wrong!
Just then, through Wanda's hanging hair, Lynn looked past her shoulder and fixed his cold gaze on Crossbones's face.
There was no warmth whatsoever in that gaze. No anger, no fear, not even reverence for life. There was only lofty indifference, like a chess player looking down at a damaged piece that still had some use.
Crossbones shuddered violently, even his breathing stopping.
As one of Hydra's elite, he had carried out countless assassinations and faced all sorts of desperate, life-or-death situations. But at that moment, he suddenly understood the unspoken message behind Lynn's gaze.
Lynn was not prey abducted by Hydra at all! This attack, the fighter's descent, even the witch's rampage-everything had been part of this man's calculations! He had deliberately dropped his defenses and allowed himself to be captured to drive the witch mad, using her to put Hydra in its place, then sparing his worthless life at the last moment so he could take a message back to Pierce!
This bottom-rung agent whom everyone regarded as useless was the true master holding that monster's leash!
"It's too windy, Wanda." Lynn patted Wanda's back, interrupting Crossbones's collapsing thoughts. "Take me down. It's cold here."
"All right. Let's go." Wanda nodded obediently and immediately tightened her arms, lifting Lynn into a bridal carry.
Hum-!
Dark red Chaos Magic instantly expanded, enveloping the entire battered Quinjet. The steel behemoth, weighing dozens of tons, stopped eerily in midair for an instant, utterly defying the laws of physics. Then it descended as steadily as a feather onto the deserted interstate below.
Thump.
The moment the aircraft's landing gear touched the ground, dazzling high beams tore through the night like sharp swords from the darkness nearby.
Engines roaring, six black S.H.I.E.L.D. armored SUVs braked hard around the wrecked aircraft. Their doors opened in succession, and Phil Coulson rushed out with a fully armed team of rapid-response agents.
They raised their assault rifles, aiming at the torn opening in the cabin. But on closer inspection, every agent's fingers were trembling uncontrollably around his weapon.
From inside their vehicles, they had just witnessed the horrifying sight of the aircraft being forcibly stopped in midair by an invisible giant hand. It was divine power utterly beyond humanity's understanding of technology.
Tap, tap, tap.
Slow, heavy footsteps sounded from the shadows inside the cabin.
Holding Lynn's hand, Wanda walked slowly down from the wrecked aircraft. A scarlet halo that had yet to fade completely still lingered around her. As her deep green eyes swept over the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, cold, intensely aggressive killing intent surfaced in them again.
With just one look, Coulson felt as though a heavy hammer had struck his chest, making even breathing extremely difficult.
"Lower your weapons, Agent Coulson."
Lynn spoke at just the right moment. His voice was not loud, but it carried the calm assurance of someone in control of the entire situation.
Coulson swallowed, forcibly suppressing the trembling in his heart, and immediately gave a tactical hand signal. As though granted a reprieve, every agent lowered his muzzle in perfect unison.
"Agent... Lynn." Coulson's gaze moved back and forth between Lynn and Wanda, his tone more cautious than ever. "The director sent us to pick you up. We're relieved to see you safe."
Lynn nodded slightly without wasting another word. He simply tightened his hold on Wanda's hand, gently stroking her palm with the pad of his finger to soothe emotions that could spiral out of control at any moment.
Meanwhile, far away at the Triskelion in Washington, D.C.
Inside the director's office on the top floor, Nick Fury's remaining eye was fixed on the live satellite surveillance screen covering an entire wall. The black coffee beside his hand had long since gone cold, but Fury was completely unaware.
That self-important fool Pierce! Fury cursed inwardly through gritted teeth.
Hydra's greed had nearly turned the entire East Coast into ruins. If Lynn had not spoken up to stop her, that rampaging witch would absolutely have crushed the aircraft and everyone inside into pulp. She might even have gone straight to Washington, D.C., on a killing spree!
But what chilled Fury to the marrow even more was the terrifying power of deterrence Lynn had demonstrated.
One sentence. Just one sentence could make a Skyfather-level combatant on the verge of losing control, capable of dismantling a Helicarrier with her bare hands, instantly retract her fangs and become as docile as a pet.
This young man, whom S.H.I.E.L.D. had always classified as a "Level Three Logistics Agent," with an utterly unremarkable record, was not holding any mere weapon. He held a detonator capable of destroying the world at any moment!
Fury drew a deep breath of cold air and pressed the encrypted communications button on his desk. "Coulson, invite Agent Lynn and the lady back to headquarters. Remember, extend them the highest courtesy. Don't do anything they could misunderstand."
After ending the transmission, Fury wearily pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew that the confrontation to come would determine S.H.I.E.L.D.'s survival.
Just as he was about to rise and arrange the meeting, his gaze happened to sweep across a secondary screen beside his desk.
It displayed real-time data transmitted by the built-in vital signs monitor in the standard-issue S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical watch Lynn wore. Fury had intended to examine Lynn's physiological stress responses to being knocked unconscious by poison gas, abducted by Hydra, and confronted with the witch's rampage.
But when he clearly saw the unbelievably steady line graph on the screen, Fury's lone eye abruptly contracted to a pinprick.
The titanium-alloy pen between his fingers fell onto the desk with a clack, then rolled off onto the carpet.
From the gas attack on the cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, to Crossbones holding a gun to his head, to the aircraft being torn open and blood and flesh flying through its cabin...
Through a full half hour of mortal danger.
Lynn's heart rate had remained steady at sixty-five beats per minute from beginning to end.
Not once had it accelerated. Not once had it faltered.
He had never been knocked unconscious, nor had he felt the slightest trace of fear! He had watched all of it with cold detachment!
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