Chapter 47: Lynn: I Want to Play a Game
Two days later. Deep in the night, within the meeting room of an ancient European castle.
A squad of heavily armed Hydra soldiers stood posted in every corner, guarding the council of Hydra elders within.
"Our assets in New York have been completely wiped out."
One of the elders, a man in his sixties, removed his glasses and polished them. "It seems that NYPD detective who's shacking up with the Avengers is far stronger than we anticipated."
"So what?"
The elder sitting across from him just chuckled. "In all our years, what kind of enemies haven't we faced?"
"Vampires, werewolves, sorcerers... we've seen them all, and worse."
"He's just one cop. Is he really more dangerous than that... thing... we dealt with back in the day? The one that could burst into flames?"
"You can't just dismiss it like that."
Another elder frowned. "We expended immense resources to install Colin as New York's Deputy Mayor. We even endured pressure from Alexander Pierce's own Hydra faction to get it done."
"And now, he's just... been eliminated."
A shadow crossed the elder's face. "That entire investment is gone. We will make that goddamn New York cop pay for it."
"Then it's time to deploy the androids."
The head elder slapped the table, silencing the room. "AIM developed a new line of androids, didn't they? Based on Stark's designs."
"Perfect. We'll use them as a field test against Lynn. It's a shame this bastard has no family... otherwise..."
Even as the Council members spoke, the sound of shattering glass tore through the room. A smoke grenade bounced across the floor and rolled to a stop at their feet.
"Contact!"
The second the canister started spewing gas, the Hydra soldiers moved, aiming their rifles at the windows while trying to evacuate the elders.
But it was too late. The lights died, plunging the room into darkness. A shadow blurred through the broken window, a combat knife sinking deep into a soldier's throat.
A choked scream echoed as the Hydra elders scrambled under the heavy conference table.
Gunfire erupted. The pitch-black room exploded in a chaotic storm of muzzle flashes.
The wooden table splintered. Glass and liquor sprayed across the room.
Screams cut through the gunfire, one after another, as the muzzle flashes lit the room in strobing, violent bursts of light.
Two searing beams of heat vision lanced through the darkness, punching through a soldier's chest. Thrown knives, moving too fast to be seen, reaped lives like the grim reaper's scythe.
It was over in seconds. The gunfire stopped, replaced by a ringing silence. Under the table, the elders trembled, too terrified to move a muscle.
Tap…tap…
The measured sound of footsteps approached. With every step, the elders' hearts hammered against their ribs.
Each footfall felt like a heavy blow against their own chests.
The acrid smell of cordite and the suffocating silence made them shake uncontrollably.
Then, the footsteps stopped. The silence was absolute.
One of the elders, unable to bear the terror, slowly peeked his head out from under the table.
The next second, he was staring directly into a pair of glowing eyes, and he flinched back.
He let out a strangled "Ah!" and tried to scramble back under the table.
But before he could, the glowing eyes unleashed two beams of pure heat.
His head exploded like a goddamn watermelon. The headless corpse slumped to the floor.
Seeing this, the other elders panicked, scrambling to get away.
But the man with the heat-vision eyes was already at the doorway, a phantom blocking their only exit.
"The Hydra Council? Heh. I want to play a game."
As he spoke, his heat vision flared again, punching a hole straight through another elder's chest.
"Where's that arrogance now? That look you all have when you decide who lives and who dies? I'd really like to see it again."
He finished speaking, and amid their terrified, hopeless whimpers, Lynn walked toward them.
***
A few minutes later.
Lynn stood in the castle garden, surveying the field of dead guards. He looked out past the glittering city, toward the dark suburbs.
'No wonder this damn Council controls half of Europe.'
Their partnership with AIM had given them technology decades ahead of the curve.
'Tsk. A real shame.'
Even with the truth serum, he hadn't been able to get the location of AIM's main base out of them.
Otherwise, he would have loved to go check out their high-tech toys.
He rolled his shoulders, found a car in the castle's garage, started it, and drove off.
'It's a pain in the ass he couldn't fly.'
'It would have been so much easier to just fly to the next base in this city.'
***
At the same time.
"How many is that now?"
Tony Stark's faceplate retracted as he watched another Hydra base go up in flames.
The roaring fire cast a grim light on his face.
Steve let out a long breath. "According to the intel, that's the third Hydra base in Europe we've cleared."
"Guys," Natasha said, "something about this feels wrong."
She handed a prepared jacket to Bruce Banner as he shrank back down from the Hulk.
Then she turned to Tony and Steve. "Doesn't this seem... too easy?"
"Think about it. We go after the vampires, the vampires lead us to the Hydra Council, and then we just... knock down three of their bases in a row."
"It feels... orchestrated. Like some invisible hand is leading us right to them."
"And seriously, if Hydra's bases were this easy to find, how the hell did they stay hidden for seventy years?"
Steve thought for a moment. "Whatever is going on, we confirmed these are Hydra bases."
"Let's just clear the board. We'll destroy every base on this list and figure out the 'why' when we get back to New York."
He looked at Tony. "Tony, how far to the next one?"
"Not far, actually. It's close to the main Council HQ we found. They probably set up two bases nearby to act as a perimeter."
"Yeah... about an hour's drive from here."
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Thanks for the 400 power stones, here's your extra chapter...
If we reach 500 Power Stones, I'll drop an extra chapter; if we reach 600, I'll release one more extra chapter!! You'll be supporting the story and getting bonus chapters on the same day, so GIVE ME YOUR GODDAMN INFINITY STONES!! 💎💎