Chapter Forty-Eight: When It Comes to Defeating Bosses, Leave It to Us Hydra! [New Book—Please Add to Favorites and Recommend]
“Hill, deploy the drone and zoom in on that figure.”
At the command, Nick Fury ordered Hill to use the surveillance equipment to display the live footage from Broadway, projecting all relevant images onto the screens.
After watching, aside from Tony Stark and Wiccan, who remained indifferent, the expressions of everyone else present turned exceedingly strange.
Especially Nick Fury...
Although there were now two extra arms and arcane energy surged through his body, making the web-like violet veins shimmer, as Zazara lost control of her powers, the original disguise had fallen away.
Natasha’s face appeared on the screen.
“Is that Natasha?”
Someone among the staff instinctively blurted out the question.
At once, the atmosphere in the office grew tense.
“No, that’s not Natasha,” Nick Fury declared immediately.
“Tsk, tsk.” Tony Stark wore a look of regret. “Director, she was your most trusted agent, and yet you say this?”
“She is not Natasha.” Fury’s tone grew heavier.
Rogers studied Fury’s face, searching for truth.
He wondered if perhaps he needed to reassess the man before him.
Hill alone stayed focused, adjusting the footage while she turned to Wiccan and inquired,
“Sir, can you tell us more about these monsters? What exactly is going on?”
“Of course, beautiful lady, it would be my honor to assist you.”
“What I mean is, these monsters are a kind of biological weapon, creatures from another dimension. As strange as that sounds, it is not a lie. There are countless mysteries in this world that ordinary people cannot even comprehend or recognize. In fact, not long ago, I told Tony about a similar situation.”
“What situation?” Rogers asked reflexively.
“Some idiot decided to study the Cosmic Cube, and recently I sensed fluctuations from it. The massive energy leak must have awakened something lurking in other realms. Once the energy coordinates here were set, certain beings inevitably found their way. These spiders are merely the vanguard.”
“The Cosmic Cube? What happened to it?” Rogers pressed, frowning in confusion.
“Its anomaly is like a smart doorbell shouting ‘I’m right here, come visit me!’—and it always attracts eager guests. When Wiccan first met us, he described it exactly that way...”
Tony gazed at the screen. “If this is true, then someone’s been meddling with things they don’t understand. I suspect they’re up to no good.”
---
Standing nearby, Hill watched Nick Fury’s already dark face grow even darker. She alone knew the full story behind some of these events.
It was Fury who had ordered the research on the Cosmic Cube; the main culprit behind its theft was his own operative. There was no room for rebuttal.
Recently, the Cube had been stolen. Natasha might not have been a Hydra agent, but she could have belonged to a similar faction. From stealing the Cube to awakening an army, today’s events were undeniable proof.
“So, how do we fix this?” Rogers looked between Tony Stark and Wiccan. “We can’t let this spiral out of control again. What do you two think?”
Tony shrugged and tapped Wiccan’s armor. “That’s one of the reasons we’re here, isn’t it, buddy?”
“Of course, my friend.” Wiccan nodded with a warm smile.
Broadway was in chaos; vast soul energy began to gather around Zazara. Her body, once cracked, was now rejuvenated and strengthened, her new form tall and statuesque. Flames of energy danced in her hair, and her eyes turned completely black.
Purified, she was weaker; corrupted, she was many times stronger. Natasha’s reincarnation had taken this darker path.
The Broodmother of the Catacombs had arrived.
Watching Zazara stride through the void, alarms blared both at the scene and in the S.H.I.E.L.D. energy monitoring lab.
“Alert! Alert! Energy radiation levels are spiking!”
“Alert! Alert! All agents on site, evacuate immediately!”
Coulson glanced at his device, holding a spider’s leg as the radiation meter’s lights flickered wildly. Not far away, swarms of spiders surged, and the staggering plague soldiers raised their weapons toward his team.
He had just received Hill’s relayed order: evacuate his squad at once, prepare for a bombardment.
After repeatedly confirming the command, Coulson initiated the retreat at maximum speed. There were precious few left to save, and against such a horde of monsters, his small squad could do nothing.
Yet as they withdrew, Coulson glanced up—and saw a face he knew all too well.
“Natasha?”
He couldn’t believe it: that Natasha, his old partner, could be behind all this.
Quickly, he saw an odd expression flicker across Natasha’s face and heard her call out to him.
“Coulson, get me out of here, please! None of this is real, it’s all a setup! I have vital intel for the Director!”
Doubt flickered in Coulson’s mind.
But that moment’s hesitation allowed Zazara to draw near. She staggered toward him, and in Coulson’s eyes, the surrounding monsters grew agitated, shrieking shrilly, some even recoiling.
He looked up again; Zazara was almost upon him.
“Thank you, thank you, Coulson! There’s no time—I have crucial information!”
Zazara repeated her gratitude, while the monsters steadily closed in, Natasha’s face appearing more and more lifelike.
---
Just as he was about to speak—
“I will thank you... thank you for your foolishness.”
Zazara’s lips moved slowly, then she suddenly raised all three pairs of arms, each wielding a weapon, and strode forward.
“I was just wondering how I’d find you!” The fast-approaching “Natasha” suddenly spoke, her alluring voice making Coulson dizzy.
He immediately realized something was wrong.
“Open fire! A-1 Squad, shoot! B-2, cover! Melinda, fall back with the intel—now!”
Coulson now understood the sense of dissonance. As sad as it sounded, Natasha had never been this warm to him.
Bullets sprayed from their barrels, but Coulson and his agents had overestimated themselves. Zazara simply flicked her right hand and countless bullets froze midair, as if smashing into an invisible wall.
Clutching the spider leg, Coulson heard the desperate shouts of his agents:
“Hail Hydra!”
Against overwhelming odds, a fanatic from A-1 Squad raised his submachine gun and charged forward, shouting the slogan.
Soon, the ruined buildings echoed with the cry:
“Hail Hydra!”
“Hail Hydra!”
“Hail Hydra!”
...
They charged at Zazara without hesitation.
As he reflected on such loyalty, Coulson’s instincts kicked in.
Other than himself and Melinda, everyone else on site was Hydra.
“Hail Hydra!”
Without hesitation, he swung the spider leg and knocked Melinda out, then, under the approving gazes of the charging agents, raised it high and shouted the slogan himself.
There was no time to worry about preserving evidence.
As the rest of the squad rushed forward, Coulson quickly hefted Melinda onto his shoulder and dialed Nick Fury’s secure line.
“Director, I have something to report...”