Gwen's cruelty, bioelectric paralysis
Lynn squinted. The White Light emanating from Sentry 03's chest on the screen was too dazzling, forcing his pupils to contract slightly. A layer of condensation clung to the outside of the wine glass, icy cold, pressing against his fingertips.
"Seven seconds left." Natasha's voice came through the Communicator, tinged with barely perceptible tension. "The fusion reactor temperature has exceeded the critical value. Boss, should I cut off the building's backup power and activate the underground explosion-proof layer?"
"No need." Lynn swallowed the slightly sour red wine, his Adam's apple bobbing. "The play isn't over yet."
He didn't even have Wanda in mid-air try to suppress him.
Because the white afterimage on the screen had already moved.
Gwen Stacy Stacy.
Lynn watched the slender figure, his fingers tapping a steady rhythm on the table. He knew Gwen Stacy's mind well. In this Shura Field, Gwen Stacy didn't Wanda's world-destroying magical power, nor Susan's technological foundation in controlling infinite energy. She was extremely insecure, yet also extremely obsessive.
So she took the most extreme path. She didn't want any grand gestures; she just wanted to be as close to Lynn as possible, to be the most obedient and sharpest knife in his hand.
She didn't use magic to tear open space, nor did she use a massive Force Field to clash head-on. She was like a drop of Venom dissolved into the night, silently hanging upside down on Sentry 03's broad nape armor.
"Beep--beep--"
The Sentry's alarm blared more and more urgently, and White Light almost engulfed the Surveillance Camera.
Gwen Stacy's eyes, hidden beneath her mask, held a morbid focus. She gripped the dagger, made of compressed high-density Silk, its blade gleaming with a ghostly blue Bioelectric Charge. It was a high-voltage current she had extracted by pushing her Variant to its limits for Lynn's sake.
"Click."
Without any unnecessary movements, the dagger precisely pierced the most vulnerable seam of the neck armor.
This directly severed the Sentry's external physical defenses.
Immediately afterwards, Gwen Stacy twisted her wrist sharply.
Blue and white arcs of electricity followed the dagger, like countless crazed venomous snakes, frantically drilling into the Sentry's core.
"Sizzle--!"
A piercing crackling sound of electricity ripped through the speakers, scraping against Lynn's eardrums. The image on the screen began to flicker violently.
Lynn saw the massive steel Beast, which was about to self-destruct, suddenly stiffen. The White Light nuclear fusion about to erupt from its chest seemed to be gripped by a hand, abruptly halting in mid-air.
Gwen Stacy didn't draw her sword. Instead, she pressed herself against it, unleashing her Bioelectric Charge without reservation.
She was enjoying the process.
It wasn't about enjoying the killing, but about enjoying the process of demonstrating one's value to Lynn.
The current traveled down the Motherboard, Carbonization the delicate circuitry inch by inch. Lynn could clearly see thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the seams of the Sentry Armor, and the air was filled with the acrid smell of burnt insulating rubber.
"Warning... Core logic... destroyed..."
The dark red light in the Sentry's mechanical eyes flickered violently a few times before going out completely.
The miniature nuclear reactor, under the forceful intervention of the electric charge, didn't even have a chance to explode and turned directly into a lifeless lump of scrap metal.
The entire process was quiet, cruel, and extremely efficient.
Gwen Stacy drew her dagger. The massive mechanical wreckage lost power and crashed straight to the ground like a piece of rotten wood.
Boom!
Dozens of tons of scrap metal crashed onto the plaza in front of the Stark Tower, shattering large sections of paving stones.
Gwen Stacy didn't look at the crashing wreckage; instead, she turned her head and, across the night sky hundreds of meters away, precisely spotted the Surveillance Camera hovering in mid-air.
The mask came off, revealing her aloof face. Her eyes were still slightly red from the over-exposed electrical charge, but her gaze was fixed on the camera with an almost suffocating obsession and a desire to please.
"Lynn." She spoke, her voice coming through the communication band to Lynn's ear, tinged with a hint of triumphant panting, "It didn't explode. I handled it in the cleanest way possible. I protected your building."
She deliberately emphasized the words "your building," and then gave Susan and Wanda a provocative glance in mid-air.
"Sneaky tricks." Susan sneered, her Invisible Force Field rippling with murderous intent in front of her. "They're only good for dealing with this piece of junk that's completely broken."
Wanda was even more direct, the Scarlet Particles at her fingertips erupting wildly, almost tearing the surrounding air apart. She stared intently at Gwen Stacy, wishing she could wipe this attention-grabbing woman along with that pile of scrap metal.
"Shut up." Lynn's voice instantly turned cold, devoid of any warmth. "Whoever kills the most gets the points. My rules, if you don't want to abide by them, get out."
One sentence instantly extinguished the two women's anger.
Wanda bit her lower lip, the Scarlet Particles shrinking back into her palm in a wronged manner. Susan also immediately withdrew her Force Field, lowering her head and not daring to refute.
They knew Lynn's temper all too well. The price of disobeying him was the complete loss of the right to stand by his side.
Lynn leaned back in his chair, a slight smile playing on his lips.
This knife is indeed very useful.
"Well done, Gwen Stacy." Lynn took a sip of her drink. "Thirty points. You got the highest score."
Upon hearing this, the bloodshot in Gwen Stacy's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a morbid sense of satisfaction. She had won. Under Lynn's gaze, she had proven herself more useful than those high and mighty women.
On the screen, the time it took for all three Sentry to be wiped out was frozen at 27 seconds.
Less than half a minute.
The military's multi-billion dollar, cutting-edge killing machine from Trask Industries, has been reduced to three piles of black smoke and scrap metal.
The scene changes.
"Boss, the signal source has been reverse-locked," Natasha's voice rang out again, tinged with a hint of smug satisfaction. "The coordinates are 600 meters underground. I've cut off all their external communications."
"Switch to the next screen," Lynn commanded.
The screen flickered, switching to the monitoring of the Main Control Room in the Pentagon's underground bunker.
Lynn looked at the old man in military uniform on the screen.
Stryker slumped into his chair. The entire wall of surveillance cameras in front of him had turned into a blindingly static screen.
The air conditioning in the basement was blasting. But large beads of cold sweat were streaming down Stryker's forehead, cascading down his wrinkled face and onto the collar of his uniform.
His trump card, which he was very proud of.
He spent half his life developing this ultimate weapon, draining the Genes of countless Mutants.
Just like that, it was gone. Not even a ripple was made.
"Monsters... they're all fucking monsters..." Stryker trembled, his fingers digging into the armrests of the seat, his nails bleeding from the force.
He lunged at the control panel, frantically pounding on the communication buttons.
"Connect Fury! Connect me to that one-eyed bastard right now! He lied to me! This is no match for us!"
There was only a static tone from the Communicator. Natasha had already unplugged his network cable long ago.
Lynn looked at Stryker's pathetic breakdown without a trace of pity in his eyes.
"The real show has only just begun." Lynn spoke casually into the microphone, his tone carrying a chilling undertone of bloodlust. "Go, follow the signal. I want to see that underground base, not a single intact brick left."
In the night sky, the eyes of the three women lit up simultaneously.
If they can't get the first kill, they'll just destroy the enemy's base. They'll do anything for a compliment from Lynn, or for that "bedroom ticket" tonight.
Meanwhile, Stryker, deep in his underground bunker, stared at the completely blacked-out surveillance camera screen, his hands and feet turning ice-cold.
He trembled as he lifted the red glass cover on the control panel, his finger hovering over the button that signaled the base's ultimate self-destruction.