Hydra's Hound Captured Alive, Spoils Dragged Back to the Abyss

Crossbones felt as if his lungs were a broken bellows, each breath accompanied by burning pain and thick, bloody foam.

He was pinned to the ground by an invisible force, unable to move, and could only watch helplessly as the red-haired devil walked towards him step by step.

The air around them was filled with the acrid smell of dust left behind by their comrades after they were vaporized.

The Gamma Bomb, on which he had placed his last hope, now lay quietly to the side, like a useless piece of scrap metal.

Its core detonation device had been completely twisted and locked from the inside by that terrifying psychic power.

Even mutual destruction has become a luxury.

"Nice toy."

Jean Grey's voice was soft, yet it pierced my Crossbones like an icicle.

She looked down at him, her eyes, burning with Dark Gold flames, held no anger, no murderous intent, only a cold curiosity... as if scrutinizing an interesting object.

"Too bad, it's too noisy."

The moment she finished speaking, Jean Grey's gaze fell on Crossbones ' right arm, which was still struggling.

She didn't move.

But Crossbones' eyes widened suddenly, his pupils contracting violently due to extreme pain!

"Snap--!"

A sharp, chilling crack of bone breaking rang out!

His right arm, from the elbow, was folded backward at a bizarre angle that completely defied human anatomy!

The stark white bone fragments pierced through the charred tactical uniform and flesh, exposed to the air.

Excruciating pain!

An indescribable, excruciating pain, like molten steel instantly filling every nerve in his body!

A suppressed, Beast- like growl escaped from Crossbones ' throat, veins bulged on his forehead, and cold sweat mixed with blood instantly soaked through his mask.

"Snap! Snap! Snap!"

Before he could recover from the first wave of excruciating pain, a series of increasingly frequent cracking sounds came from all four of his limbs at the same time!

Left arm, right leg, left leg...

Under Qin's domineering and unparalleled telekinetic control, the hardest bones in his body, like fragile withered branches, were cruelly and precisely broken one by one!

This is not a battle.

This was a cold, one-sided execution.

A brutal performance that completely annihilates a top Hydra agent, a battle-hardened, Coldblood tough guy, into a pile of mangled flesh!

Crossbones ' body lay limply on the ground like a sack from which all the bones had been removed, with only his chest rising and falling slightly from his heavy breathing.

His consciousness sank into boundless pain, but his eyes, peeking through the gaps in his mask, remained fixed on Jean Grey.

He saw it.

He saw the corner of Qin's mouth curl up in a... morbid, twisted satisfaction.

She wasn't enjoying the pleasure of torture.

She was... showing off.

She flaunts her power, her control, her... absolute loyalty to some unseen being.

This realization, more so than any physical pain, made the Crossbones feel a chilling despair.

He finally realized that he, along with the entire STRIKE Team, had been nothing more than a prop in a "compliance test" from beginning to end.

Now, the test is over.

The props should be recycled as well.

Jean Grey seemed quite pleased with her masterpiece. She stopped looking at the Crossbones on the ground and turned to walk towards the Spatial Rift.

But she did not leave.

"Whoosh--"

An invisible force, like a chain, bound the ankle of the Crossbones.

The next second, under Crossbones' humiliated and desperate gaze, he was dragged up from the ground like a dead dog, slid upside down towards Qin.

His head scraped against the rough asphalt, the tattered mask was ripped off, revealing a face contorted with pain and humiliation.

Warm blood left a long, shameful trail behind him.

As he was being dragged past the X-Men who had been reduced to puppets, he witnessed the most terrifying scene of his life.

Wolverine, the Logan, silently retracted his Adamantium Claws, his eyes, which should have been full of untamed wildness, now as empty as two deep wells.

Storm Ororo slowly descended from the sky, the lightning at her fingertips long since extinguished, her silver eyes filled with a deathly numbness.

And then there was Scott Summers Summers, who had been pinned to the ground. He stood up again, the gruesome wounds on his limbs healing rapidly under the power of the Phoenix Force, but his eyes were emptier and more... inhuman than Logan's and Ororo's.

They, these former superheroes, these Mutants leaders who fought to protect the world, followed Jean Grey quietly and mechanically.

They strode forward, stepping over the corpses of their comrades, over fragments of the S.H.I.E.L.D.. badge, without the slightest pause, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

It was as if everything beneath their feet had nothing to do with them.

They were just... a pack of hunting dogs being led back to their hounds by their master.

The Crossbones were the only living trophy they brought back from this hunt.

"Buzz..."

Above the street corner in Manhattan, space was torn apart once again.

That wasn't the Bifrost's seven-colored radiance, nor was it the mage's spark portal.

It was a hideous, irregular wound, as if the universe itself had been ripped open.

On the other side of the wound was a bottomless abyss of darkness, exuding an oppressive and ominous aura.

Negative Zone.

Jean Grey stepped in first, expressionless. The invisible force still dragged Crossbones, throwing him into the dark Abyss like trash.

Then, Scott Summers, Logan, Ororo... one by one, the former X-Men, like zombies, lined up and walked into the crevice, their figures completely swallowed by the darkness.

Only when the last Mutants disappeared did the wound in that space slowly and reluctantly close.

The street corner in Manhattan returned to a deathly silence.

All that remained were wreckage, charred corpses, and a shocking trail of blood that stretched from the street all the way to where the Spatial Rift disappeared.

It silently tells the story of S.H.I.E.L.D..'s disastrous failure in this attempt, and that a new and terrifying era has begun.

Negative Zone Prison.

Cold, oppressive, and boundless.

Lynn sat upright on the Throne constructed from the wreckage of the Destroyer Armor and Chaos Magic, resting his chin on one hand and gazing calmly ahead.

Not far from him, Hela and Wanda stood silently, their two completely different yet equally terrifying auras colliding and rubbing against each other in the air.

They all "saw" everything that happened on the surface of the earth.

They also "saw" Jean Grey's near-perfect, Coldblood suppression.

The flames of jealousy burned fiercely in their hearts.

Just then...

The space ahead was like a canvas torn by a sharp blade, with a crack appearing out of nowhere.

Jean Grey slowly walked out from there.

Behind her was Crossbones, bound tightly by the Phoenix Force, his limbs severed, and on the verge of death.

"Bang."

With a flick of her wrist, Qin sent Crossbones' broken body crashing heavily beneath the Throne with a dull thud.

He struggled to lift his head, and when he saw the familiar yet unfamiliar figure on the Throne, his last remaining will finally collapsed completely in the face of extreme fear.

Lynn...

That Level Three Logistics Agent from S.H.I.E.L.D....

It turns out that the mastermind behind all of this, the "master" of all these monsters, was actually him!

Jean Grey ignored the collapse of the ant beneath her feet.

She walked to the Throne and slowly, reverently knelt on one knee.

The Dark Gold Phoenix Force around her subsided, and the coldness and domineering aura on her exquisite face vanished, replaced by an extreme submissiveness—the humility and fervor of someone offering up their spoils, yearning for their master's praise.

"Owner."

Her voice trembled slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Your script has been cleaned up.

"I brought back this noisy mouse."

Please... enjoy your meal.

In the empty prison, you could hear a pin drop.

Qin knelt humbly on the ground, awaiting her reward.

Meanwhile, Hela and Wanda watched this scene unfold, seeing the credit that Jyn had monopolized, and seeing her servile, self-serving manner. The murderous intent and jealousy in their eyes were almost tangible!

Lynn's gaze did not linger on Qin.

Ignoring the tense atmosphere among the women, he slowly and with interest turned his gaze to the dying Hydra hound at his feet.

A decent chess piece.

Perhaps it can be used to... catch something more interesting.