Panic at the Triskelion, Pierce's desperate gamble

Dust was still falling from the Vibranium dome overhead.

The energy shockwaves from the three Skyfather-level women bursting out of the ground caused the Alloy Wall of the Negative Zone Prison to hum with a dull hum. The stench of burnt flesh still lingered in the air as Lynn leaned back against the back of the Bone Throne, his slender fingers tapping absently on the pale bone armrests.

"Da, da, da."

The pace is gentle, carrying a sense of lofty leisure.

He didn't get up to go to Washington, D.C. to watch the action. As the true mastermind, there was no need for him to personally step onto the field and compete with the common folk for a piece of the pie. He could simply sit here and enjoy the bloody spectacle of the vicious dogs tearing apart their prey.

Lynn slightly raised his eyelids, and a Scarlet Chaos Magic twisted and intertwined in mid-air, quickly stretching out a three-meter square Holographic Projection screen.

This was a "backdoor" that Wanda thoughtfully left in the S.H.I.E.L.D.. internal network before she left.

The footage shows the Triskelion in Washington, D.C. in complete chaos.

A piercing, highest-level red alert blared through the audio, making eardrums ache. Red lights flashed wildly in the corridor as countless agents in black uniforms ran back and forth like headless flies, guns clutched in their hands, completely unaware of who or where the enemy was.

Lynn's gaze swept past the worthless cannon fodder and landed directly on the Director's Office on the top floor of the building.

The camera zooms in.

Alexander Pierce, the Hydra leader who once always sipped Bourbon Whiskey and controlled the global dark side of order, was now slumped unceremoniously in his large mahogany office chair.

His usually meticulously combed silver hair was now a mess, with strands of it damp and clinging to his forehead. His expensive handmade suit jacket was thrown on the floor, and his tie had been roughly ripped off, revealing his neck, which was purplish-red from holding his breath.

"Huff... huff..."

Pierce's chest heaved violently like a broken bellows. He stared intently at the blacked-out computer monitor in front of him, his cloudy eyes filled with overwhelming fear.

"Zola Algorithm..." Pierce's chapped lips trembled as he muttered nervously, "How could he know... He even knew the list..."

Lynn sat on his Throne, looking at the terrified old man on the screen, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

This is what mortals are like.

When they wear the cloak of power, they think they are gods who rule the world; but once they discover that their prized trump cards are nothing in the face of true power, they collapse more miserably than homeless people on the street.

In the video, Pierce suddenly jolted awake. As if he had just remembered something, he scrambled to his desk and frantically typed on the keyboard with trembling hands.

Because his hands were shaking so badly, he entered the wrong password three times in a row.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Pierce hysterically pounded on the keyboard, his knuckles scraping and bleeding.

He finally managed to log into the underlying control system. A wireframe diagram of three Helicarriers appeared on the screen, with the message "System self-check completion: 87%" displayed next to it.

"I can't worry about that anymore..." Pierce gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot and contorted in a menacing manner. He bypassed the standard security screening process and reached for the physical key slot under the table.

Only heavy firepower, only those three steel Beast flying in the sky, could bring a sliver of security to his body, which was nearly frozen with fear. He wanted to launch the Helicarrier, even if the self-check wasn't finished, even if the weapon systems weren't calibrated. He wanted to use overwhelming artillery fire to wash over the entire Manhattan!

"Bang!"

Just as Pierce's fingers were about to touch the key, the heavy solid wood office door was violently kicked open.

The loud crash of the door hinge breaking startled Pierce so much that he nearly fell off his chair.

Nick Fury strode into the office, wearing his signature black leather trench coat. A sharp, cold wind swept up from the hem of the coat. The king of secret agents' only remaining eye was bloodshot, and his face was so dark it seemed to drip water.

"Pierce! What are you doing?!" Fury's voice was low, but it carried the oppressive feeling of an impending volcanic eruption.

He strode to the desk, slammed his hands on the surface, and stared down at Pierce with a fierce look. "What was that signal hijacking all about? Why was that logistics agent named Lynn sitting on the Throne? And what about that ' Project Insight ' and ' Zola Algorithm ' he was talking about... What the hell have you been up to behind my back?!"

Fury's barrage of questions came like a machine gun.

Normally, Pierce would have used his impeccable political rhetoric to brush off Fury. But now, Pierce wasn't listening to a word Fury was saying.

His mind was filled with the look Lynn gave him through the screen, the look of someone staring at a dead man.

"Get out of my way, Nick." Pierce shoved Fury's hand off the table, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping against the surface. "You have no idea what we're dealing with. He's a monster! He's an all-knowing, all-powerful demon!"

"Then explain yourself clearly!" Fury grabbed Pierce by the collar and half-lifted him up.

Fury's single eye was fixed on the three Helicarrier forcibly warming up on Pierce's screen, his pupils suddenly contracting. "Are you crazy? The Helicarrier ' self-checks aren't finished yet, and the World Security Council hasn't authorized it! If you forcefully start the launch procedure now, the engines will overload and destroy the entire underground dock!"

"Authorization? To hell with the World Security Council!"

Pierce suddenly burst into maniacal laughter. He forcefully pried Fury's fingers apart, spitting all over Fury's leather jacket.

"They're here... Nick, didn't you see those three women standing next to him in the live stream? They're gods! Monsters that can crush an entire building into dust! They're on their way!"

Pierce's eyes darted around anxiously, like a mouse cornered in a dead end. "Only by taking off... only by getting the Helicarrier into suborbital space and blasting everything to smithereens with ten thousand heavy cannons can we survive!"

Lynn watched this scene from within the Negative Zone and couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle.

The struggle of prey before death is always so captivating. Pierce thought that escaping into the sky would save his life, but little did he know that by doing so, he was only providing Hela, Wanda, and Jean with a larger and more conspicuous target.

In the scene, Fury watches Pierce descend into utter madness, and his keen intuition senses an extremely dangerous atmosphere.

"Cease operations, Alexander." Fury took a half step back, his right hand already reaching for his sidearm at his waist. "As the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I order you to immediately shut down the engine warm-up. This matter must be investigated thoroughly."

"The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.." Pierce sneered, his smile twisted and terrifying.

He didn't stop; instead, he ripped off the Highest Access Privileges access badge from around his neck and slammed it onto the scanner. At the same time, his right hand gripped the physical key under the table and twisted it forcefully.

"Beep -- Unauthorized command confirmed. Project Insight, forcibly activated."

A cold, mechanical female voice echoed in the office.

Click.

Without hesitation, Fury drew his Glock pistol, the dark muzzle pressed directly against Pierce's forehead. "Cancel it. Now."

Pierce didn't raise his hands in surrender; he simply leaned back in his chair, looking at Fury with a mixture of pity and madness in his eyes.

"You're always so self-righteous, Nick. You think you're in control, but this building you're standing in isn't yours anymore."

No sooner had Pierce finished speaking than the sound of rapid tactical footsteps echoed down the hallway outside the office.

Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen fully armed STRIKE Rapid Response Special Forces members rushed in, carrying assault rifles.

Fury glanced at them out of the corner of his eye, and his heart sank. These were S.H.I.E.L.D..'s most elite agents, but at this moment, their dark gun barrels were not aimed at Pierce for his violation of the rules, but were all locked onto Fury's head.

The lead agent, expressionless, pulled back the bolt. "Put down your weapon, sir."

Fury's single eye trembled violently.

Looking at the familiar faces around him, and at the smug smirk on Pierce's face, a chilling truth finally exploded in his mind.

S.H.I.E.L.D.. has been infiltrated.

No, it wasn't infiltration. Looking at this group of elites who had defected without even a moment's hesitation, Fury realized that the Bastion he had built up his entire life was, at its core, a den of thieves!

Lynn sat on the Throne, looking at Fury's dark face, which couldn't hide his shock and frustration, and felt great.

"Look, the moment when the King of Spies' faith crumbles is more exciting than any movie," Lynn murmured.

Pierce pushed the gun barrel away from his forehead, stood up, and straightened his disheveled collar. He looked at Fury, who was surrounded by gun barrels, his eyes flashing with a desperate ruthlessness.

"Take him down. If he resists, shoot him on the spot," Pierce coldly ordered.

Rumble--

Just as Agent STRIKE was about to pull the trigger, an extremely muffled tremor traveled up from deep underground. Even through hundreds of meters of earth, the roar of the massive Antigravity Engine still caused the glass water glasses in the office to shatter with a "bang".

Under Pierce's forceful orders, three unfinished heavy Helicarrier tore open the roof of the underground dock and began to ascend into the Washington, D.C. night sky, spraying water and mud everywhere.

Pierce listened to the deafening roar and let out a long breath. He thought he had finally grasped the trump card to turn the tide, and that the range of the cannons could stop those three monsters.

Lynn stared at the massive ship slowly rising into the air on the Holographic Screens, a chillingly cruel glint flashing in his dark eyes.

"The trump card has been revealed."

Lynn flicked his finger across the armrest, severing the Holographic Projection. He didn't need to watch anymore.

Because he could already sense that the clouds above Washington, D.C. were being torn apart by death, Chaos, and the wrath of the Phoenix.

With over a dozen assault rifles pointed at his head, Nick Fury listened to the rumbling below and stared intently out the window with his one eye. He didn't know if he would leave this office alive, but he knew that Pierce hadn't unleashed a weapon to save his life.

Rather, it was the death knell tolling for S.H.I.E.L.D..