In the underground bunker, the ventilation ducts gave off a dull hum. The air carried a pungent mixture of medical alcohol and old engine oil.
Over three full hours, the silent footage on the large screen had been replayed forty-seven times.
It was low-resolution footage captured by a military satellite. Twenty thousand feet in the air, three Helicarriers representing the pinnacle of human military might were brutally entangled and crushed by countless scarlet energy tentacles. Thick specialized armor cracked and warped like waterlogged cardboard, finally crumpling into two masses of scrap metal that plummeted with a thunderous crash.
There were no explosions, no flames. Only the laws of physics being forcibly rewritten in their purest form.
Nick Fury sat on a metal folding chair. His one remaining eye was bloodshot, and the muscles at its corner twitched uncontrollably. A bead of cold sweat slid down his dark forehead and struck his tactical vest, leaving a dark ring of moisture.
"Stop it." Fury finally spoke, his voice as hoarse as if he had swallowed a handful of gravel.
The agent operating the computer looked as though he had been granted a pardon and immediately hit enter. The screen froze on the scarlet figure hovering in midair, her entire body wreathed in Chaos Magic.
"This is what we're facing." Fury stood, walked to the screen, and pointed at the tiny, barely distinguishable figure at the edge of the image-Lynn. "And this is the leash holding that monster."
In the corner, Natasha was applying medicine to the bruises on her neck. The alcohol-soaked cotton swab brushed her skin, and the sting made her suck in a sharp breath. Those purplish-black finger marks were frighteningly deep; they had nearly snapped her neck.
"Not a leash." Natasha tossed away the swab and raised her head, a rare trace of lingering fear in her eyes. "A collar. He holds that witch's collar firmly in his hand. He doesn't even need to speak. The slightest look can make the monster who tore the Helicarrier apart rein in her killing intent."
Steve Rogers leaned against the mottled concrete wall, the scratched Vibranium Shield in his hand feeling particularly heavy. He recalled their conversation in the Brooklyn café.
"He looked me in the eye and told me he was just a low-level agent with no say in his own life." Steve shook his head with a bitter smile. "He even factored in the rhythm of my breathing. We thought we were investigating Hydra. In reality, we were just his unpaid muscle for getting rid of Pierce."
"There's more." Natasha brought up a data report. "These are the physiological monitoring readings I intercepted when I infiltrated the Safe House. At the moment the witch went berserk and the Helicarrier's Main Cannon locked onto them... his heart rate held steady at sixty-five beats per minute."
An oppressive, deathly silence fell over the basement.
Sixty-five.
That meant that, faced with a world-ending crisis of such devastating force, the man had not only felt no fear whatsoever, but had actually been in an extremely relaxed state. He had been watching with cold detachment, enjoying Hydra's destruction.
Fury felt the cold sweat on his back soak his undershirt through. In his thirty years on the job, he had seen alien fleets and mutant monsters, but never a madman like this, who toyed with everyone in the palm of his hand while keeping his true capabilities hidden.
"He's devoured every last one of Hydra's trump cards and seen through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets." Fury walked to the console, pulled out the keyboard, and rapidly entered a thirty-six-character dynamic password with the highest clearance.
A blood-red file window appeared on the screen.
Fury dragged Lynn's and Wanda's photographs into it and slammed the enter key.
[File encryption level: above Omega Level] [Codename: Zero Number Taboo]
"Listen up. This order is absolute." Fury turned, his lone eye sweeping over everyone present, his tone icy. "From now on, withdraw all means of tracking Lynn. Shut down satellite scans and destroy every paper file. Until we find a way to counter that scarlet energy, if anyone dares test him..."
Fury drew the pistol at his waist and slapped it onto the iron table.
"I'll send them to hell myself. This planet cannot bear the consequences of angering that woman."
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, in a remote mountain region two hundred kilometers from the city.
The cold wind before dawn passed through the dense pine forest, carrying the cool scent of pine resin. An expansive luxury estate, its exterior disguised as an abandoned logging site, lay quietly in the darkness.
This was Hydra's highest-level Safe House-"Eden."
Boom!
Air currents surged overhead as a dark-red energy shield tore through the night wind and landed steadily before the estate's closed alloy gates.
The scarlet particles dispersed. Wanda stood barefoot on the icy paving stones, her arms still locked tightly around Lynn's waist. Her cheek pressed against his chest as she greedily breathed in his distinctive scent. The madness in her eyes finally began to subside, replaced by a morbid satisfaction.
"This is it." Lynn patted Wanda's back and pulled himself out of her embrace.
He walked up to the half-meter-thick alloy gates, took the Level Seven Access Black Card Pierce had given him from his pocket, and swiped it over the concealed card reader.
"Beep-"
Red light scanned Lynn's iris.
The silent estate instantly awakened. Six fully automated Gatling gun turrets hidden in the shadows quietly retracted underground, and the gates slowly slid apart with the hiss of hydraulic cylinders.
"Identity confirmed. Welcome, Director Alexander Pierce." A cold synthesized voice rang through the night.
A mocking smile curved Lynn's lips. He took out a miniature terminal, rapidly typed several lines of code, and directly rewrote the underlying logic.
"A correction." Lynn looked into the luxurious hall as its warm lights came on. "Pierce is already meat paste in concrete. From now on, this estate belongs to Lynn."
"Instructions updated. Welcome home, Mr. Lynn."
Lynn strode into the hall. Premium calfskin sofas, temperature-controlled wine cabinets, a complete smart ecosystem-even the basement was fitted with a layer of vibranium armor capable of withstanding a nuclear strike. The wealth Hydra had squeezed from ordinary people over decades had now all become his spoils.
Wanda followed close behind him. She surveyed the spacious villa, a thread of scarlet magical energy spilling from her fingertips. As though alive, it rapidly spread into every corner of the estate, instantly pulverizing any surveillance cameras and listening devices that might be there.
"It's quiet here." Wanda walked up to Lynn and helped him out of his dusty coat. Her movements were as gentle as a newlywed wife's, but her eyes remained fixed on his lips. "No S.H.I.E.L.D., no Hydra, and none of those... disgusting bugs."
She rose slightly onto her toes, her warm breath brushing Lynn's chin.
"Just us. No one gets to disturb us."
Lynn slipped an arm around Wanda's slender waist, enjoying the tenderness laced with extreme danger. He had just acquired a top-tier base without paying a cent and held Hydra's entire legacy in his hands. He was preparing to take proper stock of the assets he could use next.
Yet, just as he was about to lower his head and kiss those red lips.
"Buzz-"
Deep in his brain, the newly integrated Top-tier Spider-Sense let out a piercing buzz without warning!
This was not a warning of killing intent. It was an intensely clinging, chilling sensation of being watched, steeped in pathological obsession! As though a pair of eyes were fixed on his spine from far away.
Lynn abruptly froze, the hairs on his back standing on end.
Without betraying anything, he turned his head, his gaze passing over Wanda's shoulder toward the crown of a towering tree two kilometers beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The night wind stirred the leaves.
In a dark blind spot no surveillance equipment could capture.
Gwen Stacy crouched on a thick branch. Her white Ghost-Spider suit almost blended into the night. She held a high-precision Thermal Imager she had picked up from the ruins of S.H.I.E.L.D., its onscreen crosshairs locked firmly onto Lynn's chest.
Beneath her mask, Gwen Stacy's eyes were red-rimmed. As she watched the two figures pressed tightly together in the thermal image, her nails dug deep into the tree's bark, and wood splinters pierced her fingertips.
"You can't get away." Gwen Stacy obsessively chewed over the words, the corners of her mouth pulling into a hair-raising curve. "I'll dig you out of that old woman's hands... little by little."
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