Chapter 207: Is That a Shell? No, That’s a Person [BONUS CHAPTER]
Outside the fortress base, the sentries on duty were carrying out their posts with diligence. Even as heavy snow fell over them, they ignored it completely.
They had thought tonight would be no different from any other night.
Then a piercing whistle tore through the air.
Even the wind and snow could not drown it out. The sentries immediately raised their heads and looked toward the source of the sound, but all they saw was pitch-black darkness. Yet the sound kept growing louder, and closer.
A meteor? A shell?
That is… a person?
Terror suddenly appeared on the sentries' faces. In the next instant, one figure after another fell from the sky, tearing through the snowy curtain of the night before crashing straight down onto the fortress walls, the streets, the defensive positions outside the castle, and even the bunkers.
They landed right beside them.
Terrifying shockwaves and explosions erupted one after another outside the fortress. Shrill, desperate screams rang out without end, only to vanish again just as quickly.
The sentries did not know what was happening. All their attention was fixed on the figures before them.
These people who had descended from the sky were all tall and powerful, nearly two meters in height. They wore deep-blue power armor the sentries had never seen before, and beneath their helmets, crimson eyes glowed like the gaze of demons.
No, they had seen them before.
In the chaos, the HYDRA soldiers finally remembered. They had seen these figures before, but only on television.
Unfortunately, recognizing them now was already too late.
The HYDRA sentries tried to raise their guns and fight back, but the moment their hands lifted, their necks were seized and their bodies were lifted into the air. The sharp sound of bones breaking rang beside their ears, followed by a surge of pain that shot into their nerves. Then they completely lost consciousness.
After dealing with them, streaks of deep-blue and red flashed through the fortress like lightning, appearing everywhere inside the fortress.
A lightning-fast assault and slaughter began.
Many of the soldiers who had fallen from the sky even smashed through floor after floor of the fortress and plunged directly into the underground laboratory below.
Among them was a female soldier clad in simple yet refined, form-fitting black armor. The moment she landed, her hands moved swiftly through a series of hand seals.
Instantly, every HYDRA member inside the fortress heard the sound of glass shattering.
Their vision blurred.
At first glance, nothing in their surroundings seemed to have changed. Everyone froze for a brief moment before instinctively springing into action. Some scrambled for their weapons, while others remained on high alert.
Yet they couldn't see a single enemy.
Not only were there no attackers, but even the experimental subjects who had been imprisoned throughout the laboratory had disappeared.
None of them had any idea what had just happened.
Baron Strucker was no exception.
The HYDRA commanders gathered their teams, trying to find the enemy and locate the experimental subjects, but they found nothing. All they managed to find was Baron Strucker and the supervisor of the experimental base.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the HYDRA soldiers and researchers inside the fortress had already vanished.
Astartes, Raven soldiers, and the troops and logistics personnel arriving afterward entered the fortress one after another and took control of it.
Inside one of the underground rooms, a young boy with short gray-gold hair shouted nervously, "Wanda! Wanda, are you all right?"
After Wanda's abnormal reaction tonight had drawn many people over, Pietro had woken up. What he hadn't expected was that, soon after, the entire base would begin shaking violently. Then, before long, all the noise suddenly disappeared.
The silence was so strange it made his skin crawl.
He was very worried about his twin sister.
Fortunately, Wanda's voice came from the room next door. "I'm fine, Pietro."
"Thank God," Pietro breathed in relief.
But in the very next instant, his body tensed again.
He heard a set of heavy footsteps approaching.
They were completely different from the footsteps he was used to hearing. Each step was heavy, like metal boots striking the floor, slow and weighty.
His heart immediately tightened.
Pietro pressed himself against the iron door, trying to hear what was happening outside. But to his surprise, the heavy footsteps stopped right outside his room.
He couldn't help taking two steps back, his thin face full of nervousness.
The footsteps stopped.
Pietro felt as though someone was standing on the other side of the iron door, and he could almost hear their heavy breathing.
Who is it? Will he kill me and Wanda?
His thoughts began to run wild.
The next moment, with a bang, a metal gauntlet punched straight through the iron door. Pietro's pupils widened. Before he could say anything, that hand suddenly clenched around the door and pulled with force.
Another bang followed.
The iron door was ripped open by brute strength.
Pietro stared blankly as a monster in heavy deep-blue power armor he had never seen before walked in. The figure was nearly two meters tall and stopped right in front of him, looking down at him from above.
At the center of the helmet's brow was an embedded silver skull, and beneath it was a pair of crimson eyes.
Pietro would never forget this moment. He would never forget the man raising a hand to remove his helmet, revealing a resolute Caucasian face. When he spoke, it was fluent English.
"Kid, you're Pietro Django Maximoff?"
"Yes… yes, sir." " Fortunately, Pietro understood English. His father, Oleg, used to sell DVDs of American sitcoms, and the whole family would watch them together to learn the language, aiming to eventually immigrate to America.
"Come out. My Leader wishes to see you, as well as your sister."
"Leader?" Pietro was full of confusion.
…
"Fuck, where the hell is this? Is anyone going to tell me what the hell happened here?"
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!"
Strucker was about to go mad.
It was not just him. His supervisor and the HYDRA soldiers under him were the same. Everyone stood together on a flat plain, confused and desperate.
This was no longer the fortress base they knew.
They did not even understand why the corridors, buildings, walls, and floors inside the original fortress base had inexplicably contracted and folded. In the end, through some method they could not comprehend, everything had turned into a flat plain.
The endless ground stretched so far that no edge could be seen. The sky was bright, but there was no sun, no clouds, and no wind.
There was nothing.
Only themselves.
Even the weapons in their hands had suddenly disappeared.
This absurd, inexplicable chain of events was driving everyone insane.
Fortunately, they did not have to wait long.
In the air before them, countless crystal-clear surfaces suddenly appeared, folded and arranged layer upon layer. Then a figure walked out from within them.
Visually, it looked more like she had squeezed her way inside.
It created a strange, almost unnatural visual effect.
The appearance of this person immediately put everyone, including Baron Strucker, on alert.
Looking closely, they saw a woman wearing extremely fitted black armor. She had black hair cut short to her jawline, and her skin was somewhat dark. She should have been Black.
Her features were attractive, and her figure was excellent.
But Strucker and the others did not care about any of that.
They cared about only one question.
"Who the hell are you?" Baron Strucker asked coldly through gritted teeth.
"Someone wants to see you, Strucker." The woman reached out and made a slashing motion. Beside her, a sparking circular portal abruptly manifested, revealing a familiar scene on the other side.
There were a lot of people there.
Baron Strucker's eyes instantly cleared as he took in the sight.
...
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