Loyalty

Half an hour later, Strucker could no longer help but beg for mercy. Falling from high altitude over and over again, never knowing when he would be caught until the very last moment, was simply too much of a strain on his heart.

"Beg for mercy?" Alex snorted coldly, clearly displeased. "I haven't had enough fun yet!" As he spoke, Alex carried Strucker into the sky once more, then tossed him down without hesitation before disappearing again.

Strucker truly wanted to cry. Because of this "fun," one of his arms was already ruined. During an earlier fall, he had tried to brace himself with his hand the moment he hit the ground, and his entire arm had shattered. Aside from his completely ruined arm, both his legs were broken, and his neck had suffered severe trauma. If this continued, Strucker doubted whether he would even have an intact corpse left.

With the ground right before his eyes, Strucker was genuinely terrified, because he had no idea when that demon would appear! Would he be taken back into the sky before hitting the ground? Or would the demon wait until some part of his body had an intimate encounter with the earth before showing up?

Hope and fear lingered in Strucker's heart, gradually wearing down his will. Sometimes, Strucker even thought it would be better to smash his head into the ground and be done with it. Death itself was not frightening; what was frightening was the endless torment of fear, enough to drive a person mad!

Unfortunately, Alex appeared at the last moment, when Strucker's head had crushed a small patch of snow and he could even feel the hard stone beneath it against the top of his head.

"Demon, what exactly do you want?" Strucker showed none of the relief of escaping death. He looked coldly at Alex and said weakly, "Whatever you want, I can give it to you!"

"All of Hydra's information—personnel records, research data, everything!" Ever since Bucky's accident, Alex had resolved to uproot Hydra completely. Simply eliminating a few leaders was obviously not enough.

Strucker was a smart man and quickly understood what Alex intended to do. With a cold laugh, he actually began chanting a slogan: "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail Hydra!"

Alex sneered, grabbed Strucker, and returned to the sky once more. Calmly, he said, "Then I'll cut off those two heads as well!"

Seeing Alex prepare to throw him down again, Strucker chose to yield. In a voice full of **, he slowly said, "Rather than exhausting yourself to destroy Hydra, why not control it and become its master? Wouldn't that be better?"

Alex gave Strucker a sidelong glance. "You want me to help you deal with Red Skull?" Alex still remembered something Natasha had mentioned: Hydra had once belonged to Strucker, but Red Skull had later seized power from him.

Strucker did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately began pledging his loyalty. "As long as you help me kill Red Skull, I will serve you as my master for the rest of my life, and Hydra will be at your command whenever you wish!"

"If I told you to kill Hitler, would you do it?"

Strucker paused slightly, then spat out a single word with a resolute expression. "Kill."

"Then I won't believe you either!" Alex chuckled and released his hands. Strucker plummeted rapidly, and his curses could still be heard from afar.

On the train, Steve waited for a long time without seeing Alex return. He could only watch black dots continuously fall from the sky, and finally could not help contacting Alex. "Alex, the mission is over. We should head back!"

"Alright, I'll be right back!" Alex suddenly appeared beside the rapidly falling Strucker and quietly warned him, "Remember what you said!"

Naturally, Strucker did not dare object. He hurriedly nodded. "I swear loyalty to you until death, my master!"

"Remember those words, or you'll die an ugly death!" Alex snorted, grabbed Strucker, and returned to the ground. "Go. I'll contact you if there's anything."

Strucker hesitated for a moment, then endured the pain of his broken legs and limped away as quickly as he could.

Watching Strucker gradually vanish into the wind and snow, Alex fell into thought as well.

In truth, Alex had been tempted the moment Strucker said those words. Just as Strucker had said, rather than destroy Hydra, it would be better to control it, turn it into his own force, and have it serve him. After all, the Marvel Universe was not a safe world. Having a powerful force at his back would make things much safer.

Moreover, with Mind Mark, Alex could find Strucker anytime. He did not need to worry about Strucker escaping his control.

A Mind Mark allowed Alex to mark a person or object, then use Teleportation to arrive near that person or object anytime, anywhere. It was an ability Alex had not possessed in his previous life, and he suspected the Tesseract had granted it when it enhanced his Teleportation.

After returning to the train and seeing that everyone was there, Alex did not say a word. He scooped everyone up and took them straight back to camp.

Watching Carter leave the camp with Zola, Steve finally could not contain his curiosity. He turned to Alex and asked, "Alex, where's Strucker?"

Alex shrugged with an indifferent expression. "Dead. Just like Zemo, smashed to pieces in a fall. Dead beyond dead!"

Steve opened his mouth slightly, hesitated for a while, then said, "Dead is dead, then. He was supposed to be dead anyway." Under Alex's influence, Steve had changed a great deal. He was no longer so "rigidly" determined to be a good person.

"I think we should get some rest. There's still a tough battle ahead of us!" Seeing that no one seemed inclined to leave, Alex stood up and spoke with a somewhat serious expression.

If his guess was correct, Zola would soon confess and reveal Red Skull's plan to bomb the entire world. To stop Red Skull's madness, the Howling Commandos would inevitably take the lead in the assault. Furthermore, Steve would fall into the Arctic and be frozen in ice during this operation, something Alex had to prevent no matter what.

The others exchanged glances without commenting, then turned and left one after another. Alex vanished in an instant as well. They thought he had returned to his room, but in truth, Alex had gone to find Strucker.

At that moment, Strucker was leaning behind a wind-sheltered rock, taking refuge from the increasingly fierce snowstorm. When Alex suddenly appeared beside him, Strucker jolted in alarm. He quickly regained his composure and respectfully called out, "Master!"

Alex kept watching Strucker and was very satisfied with his reaction. He nodded and said, "I told you I would find you, no matter where you were." This was exactly the effect Alex wanted: mysterious and powerful, leaving Strucker without the slightest thought of rebellion.

Strucker was truly afraid now. He felt that the master before him really was a demon, a demon that clung to the bone like gangrene!

"Red Skull will die within the next few days. Once he's dead, you need to take over Hydra as quickly as possible." Ignoring Strucker's astonished expression, Alex continued, "After taking over Hydra, immediately break away from **, go into hiding, and do not let anyone discover you."

After thinking it over more carefully, Alex turned to Strucker and asked, "Does Hydra have people in China and Japan? If not, send some there as soon as possible. I'll have use for them later." After dealing with Red Skull, Alex planned to make a trip to China. In both his past and present lives, he was descended from China. With China in trouble, he could not simply stand by.

Strucker lowered his head and answered in a deep voice, "Hydra's influence spans the globe. We have people in both China and Japan."

"Good!" Leaving behind that single word, Alex vanished immediately.

Back in his room, Alex lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, thinking smugly, If I bring the entire Howling Commandos along and add Hydra's people to the mix, wiping out those Japanese bastards will be a matter of minutes!

PS: Scorpion has never asked for anything before, but today I'm begging while rolling around for bookmarks and recommendations. There are really so few recommendations!