The sound of high heels stopped in front of the biology lab door.
A muffled thud came from inside.
The thick, explosion-proof glass bulged outwards and quickly cracked in the middle.
A thick arm reached through the broken glass and pressed against the broken door frame.
A figure over 2.2 meters tall crashed out.
The special operations uniform that was originally on him was torn apart from the inside out by his dark green muscles.
As soon as another soldier raised his gun, he was grabbed by that hand and dragged into a corner of the laboratory.
The wall shook.
When Stern looked up from under the lab table, all that remained was a mass of minced meat mixed with black cloth.
Ada Wong glanced at the figure rushing out of the laboratory.
The mutation rate was three times faster than predicted.
If something like this were to wander onto the streets of New York in the early hours of the morning, the news headlines the next day would be completely rewritten.
Kara's public appearance is already scheduled, Lynn won't allow an out-of-control mutant to cause trouble at this time!
Ada fired four shots, but only a few drops of blood splattered on that dark green, keratinized skin.
She felt more confident.
This guy isn't as powerful as the Hulk or the Abomination; weapons can hurt him.
"Back off, the gun won't work on him."
Nina Williams glanced at the wound and stepped forward to shield Ada.
The mutated soldier roared and threw a punch at Nina.
As the fist approached, Nina saw her opponent's center of gravity.
The skin on my chest, forearms, and back is hardening rapidly, but the skin under my armpits and on the inside of my elbows is not yet fully keratinized.
He spun on the slippery ground with his toes, cut into the opponent's armpit while keeping pace with the force of the punch, and grabbed the fascia on the inside of the mutant's elbow joint.
The next moment, Nina exerted force from her waist and abdomen.
Using the momentum of the mutated captain's forward charge, he pulled it diagonally downwards, and his arm flipped over in the process.
The body, weighing over 200 pounds, was pulled to the side, and the back slammed against the wall.
Stern caught up to the door and looked at the scene in surprise.
That's a berserk form enhanced with the Blonsky No. 2 Serum!
How could this woman, who weighs less than 120 pounds, manage to knock it over?
The mutated soldier pushed himself up from the ground, the pain causing his already clouded eyes to completely lose their reason.
He reached for Nina's shoulder with his right hand.
Nina, who hadn't retreated far, seized the opportunity, pivoted on her left foot, and pulled her right leg up from below.
The instep of my foot struck him precisely behind the ear.
"Got it."
Ada fired her grappling hook gun.
The cable grazed Nina's ear, wrapped around the mutated soldier's neck, and the grappling hook pierced through the main fire pipe above, violently lifting his head off the ground.
He took out two finger-sized metal cylinders from the tactical waist belt.
Ada flicked her wrist, and two high-frequency shock grenades landed in the mutant's open mouth.
"Walk!"
Ada grabbed Nina's wrist, and the two of them rolled over and retreated into the adjacent laboratory.
The impact burst from the mouth, traveling through the Eustachian tube and hard palate to the base of the skull. The mutated soldier's body convulsed violently, and green blood gushed from his mouth, nose, and sides of his neck. The cable then came loose.
The head, already damaged by the shockwave, drooped, and the body fell to the ground, motionless.
From the moment she appeared to the moment she collapsed, it took less than three minutes.
Before the smoke had even cleared, Ada raised her gun and aimed it at the torn-up door.
" Dr. Sterns, Dr. Horton and Dr. Sinclair from the Vought General Administration of Scientific Research would like to invite you for a late-night coffee."
Stern's hesitation in hiding didn't last long.
He climbed out with one hand above his head, still clutching a sealed metal box in his arms.
"Don't shoot, I'll cooperate!"
He raised the tin box higher and hurriedly spoke.
"I'm just a Scholar who does biological cell research! As long as you don't kill me, I'll do whatever Vought says!"
Ada gave Nina a look.
Nina walked towards the temperature-controlled biological refrigerator in the corner of the laboratory, the door still bearing the military's encryption lock.
She entered the highest key that Major Green had given her.
A short beep sounded, and the cabinet door slid open to the side.
On the refrigerated shelf, thirty-six tubes of active blood, gleaming with a dark green luster, were neatly arranged.
The same line of text was printed on the metal label of each test tube:
Bruce Banner Zero Derivative.
Nina took out the portable liquid nitrogen storage box specially made by Vought and transferred the test tubes into it one by one.
General Ross invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this research, and now, all thirty-six tubes of samples are in Vought's box.
The screen of the surviving military computer next to the lab bench lit up automatically.
Stern glanced at the screen instinctively.
General Ross's face was grim in the picture.
" Stern! What's going on on your end? Why are all the communications down?"
Stern was not in front of the camera; instead, a hand reached into the frame and placed a military major's shoulder insignia in front of the camera.
Ada sat down on the lab chair, resting her chin on her hand.
" General Ross, why aren't you asleep so late?"
"The cardiovascular system of the elderly cannot withstand such late nights."
"Just to let you know, Vought has signed for all thirty-six packages you left here."
Seeing Thaddeus Ross's amused expression, she added another sentence.
"As for the military police on Capitol Hill, judging by the timeline, their armored vehicles should be parked at your doorstep by now."
" Ada Wong! Lynn Morris! You bandits, those are the United States military's..."
Nina raised her pistol, the bullet passed through the camera, the screen flickered twice, and then went completely black.
Ada got up from the lab chair and turned to Stern in the corner.
"Alright, Mr. Blue."
She gestured towards the door, then turned and left.
"Take your brain and come with us."
Three vans bearing license plates belonging to a municipal cleaning company drove into Culver University.
The cleanup team from the Vought International Internal Security Department quickly sealed off the third floor.
They removed the mutant corpses, collected the scattered weapons and experimental equipment, and set up a timed gas leak explosion device in the main laboratory.
Stern was fitted with a specially made hood and put on the vehicle along with the sealed metal box.
The thirty-six vials of gamma blood were then placed in another liquid nitrogen storage container and transported by vehicle to the underground research facility of the Vought Future Academy in upstate New York.
All that remains of Culver University are broken bulletproof glass, empty freezers, and a laboratory waiting to be destroyed.
The gamma research project established by Thaddeus Ross, along with the people and samples, all fell into Lynn's hands.
The car smoothly drove onto Fifth Avenue on its return journey.
Nina leaned back in the back seat, closing her eyes to rest.
Ada organized the intelligence in her hands, and only spoke after the car had driven two blocks.
" Nina, I found something while I was working on that tactical terminal."
" Hydra's moles?"
"If it's just Hydra, that's no fun."
Ada swiped the screen lightly, and a noisy graph of thermal energy and bioelectric waves appeared between the two of them.
"While investigating the aftermath of the Joker's bombing of the docks, S.H.I.E.L.D. used a Quake detector to scan 300 meters underground in Hell's Kitchen."
She zoomed in on the abnormal waveform and pointed to the screen.
"That place was originally an abandoned underground river that had been abandoned for over a hundred years. Three days ago, a high-density, dark red life magnetic field appeared beneath it."
Nina looked at the screen.
Ada continued, "The heart rate is decreasing at three times the rate per hour, while the waveform is constantly building up momentum as it presses downwards."
" The Hand?"
"That's right."
Ada closed the terminal. "That old hag, Madame Gao, is hiding underground, preparing a big move."
She turned her head to look out the car window and smiled.
"It seems our blind lawyer, Matthew Murdock, has had quite an exciting time down there these past few days."
At the same time, Vought.
In the Clock Tower Command Center, Motoko Kusanagi stood in front of the control panel, connecting the S.H.I.E.L.D.. anomaly monitoring data transmitted back by Ada to the mainframe.
The originally blurry underground structure was magnified, and a three-dimensional grid map gradually took shape.
Beside the blue line representing the underground river, a dark red life force is pulsating in a certain rhythm.
The countdown timer on the right side of the screen flickered.
Reset to zero.
A new line of data appears.
Seventy-two hours have passed since Madame Gao's coffin was sealed.