Ch: 206-215
Chapter 206 Memory Search
As a top-tier power, the Odin Force's effects were also immediate.
After the golden light entered Nick Fury's body, a faint sound of bones cracking could be heard within him.
The appearance of this sound indicated that under the influence of the Odin Force, Nick Fury's broken bones were self-connecting.
"What kind of miraculous power is this?" Nick Fury pondered to himself.
He could feel that not only were his broken bones reconnecting, but even his severe internal injuries were rapidly healing.
Within a few seconds, Nick Fury felt that his injuries were no longer a major concern.
He then stood up and, with one hand, tore off the cast and sling from his other arm.
"What kind of magical power is this? Are you a Hogwarts graduate?" Nick Fury, feeling his body restored to health, uncharacteristically made a sarcastic remark.
Meng Ran, upon hearing him, said in a hoarse voice, "Oh, God, I really should have recorded that on my phone. Who would have thought that the cold and ruthless Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., the King of Agents, Nick Fury, would also tell bad jokes, and not even funny ones at that."
Listening to the demon's teasing, Nick Fury did not retort. He just smiled, shook his head, and then corrected him, "After today, S.H.I.E.L.D. will become history. I've already had it bad enough, going from a high-ranking government official to unemployed. Don't mock me anymore."
Meng Ran smiled upon hearing Nick Fury's words and did not say anything further. He was currently reviewing Pierce's memories; other matters and arrangements could wait until he finished his search.
Seeing the demon focused on his own task, Nick Fury did not disturb him further. Instead, he walked over to the unconscious Natasha to check on her.
"Romanoff! Wake up!"
"Natasha! Are you alright?"
After being nourished by the Odin Force, Natasha was already mostly fine.
So, upon hearing Nick Fury's call, she slowly opened her beautiful large eyes and gradually regained consciousness.
"Oh ~ damn, that electric shock really hurt a bit." Seemingly recalling the sharp pain before losing consciousness, Natasha frowned and propped herself up from the ground with her arms.
She brushed her burgundy hair, tucking it behind her ears.
The anticipated pain did not seem to persist; Natasha felt very comfortable at the moment, as if she had just had a full body massage.
"Wasn't I just electrocuted? Why does my body feel much more comfortable instead?"
"Could it be that I have some unknown Hobbies of my own?"
Natasha thought, full of doubt, and unable to understand, her thoughts began to wander to strange places.
Seeing her puzzled expression, Nick Fury knew she was wondering about her current physical condition, so he explained, "Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with your body. The demon just gave us some treatment."
Because he didn't know how to explain the golden light orb from earlier, he simply referred to it as treatment.
Upon hearing Nick Fury's explanation, Natasha also noticed Nick Fury's current physical condition.
"Your injuries are all healed?" Natasha, seeing Nick Fury moving freely and looking radiant (or perhaps darkly radiant), immediately realized that the demon's treatment was probably not so simple.
She knew Nick Fury's physical condition back at the abandoned hydropower station; he had multiple bone fractures and severe internal organ damage.
Even when he came to the office today, he was enduring it, with his internal organs hurting even when he breathed.
To heal such severe injuries in such a short time, the demon's treatment could not possibly be simple.
Thinking of this, Natasha felt that her impression of the demon had become even more mysterious.
In fact, if one interacts with a person multiple times, one should get to know him better, but the demon, instead of becoming more understandable, makes people feel more mysterious the more they learn about him.
His extraordinary strength, elusive whereabouts, and endless methods made him seem as if there was nothing he wasn't good at, nothing he couldn't do.
Her thoughts only wandered for a moment. After understanding the situation, Natasha then stood up. "Then let's continue sending out all the data."
Nick Fury heard Natasha's words, first shook his head gently, then gestured towards Meng Ran and Pierce, saying, "Not yet. We might have to wait a bit until he's done with Pierce before we continue."
Natasha followed his gaze and looked over, only to see Pierce kneeling powerlessly on the ground in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window.
His body was tightly wrapped in black tentacles, and his face was held in place by countless thin black threads.
The tentacle formed by the demon's right hand reached into his mouth, and as the tentacle writhed, Pierce's body occasionally trembled slightly.
Seeing this scene, Natasha couldn't help but frown. It had to be said that the impact of this image was very strong, so much so that even she, a seasoned agent, felt a slight discomfort.
This continued for a few more minutes until the black tentacle finally withdrew from Pierce's mouth and transformed back into a right hand.
Because Meng Ran had unscrupulously searched his memories, Pierce's mind was now in a state of confusion.
As soon as the demon's tentacles fully retracted, Pierce immediately closed his eyes and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"Not bad. Although he didn't know the location of the monster's headquarters, the harvest was still very rich." After finishing his search of Pierce's memories, Meng Ran secretly mused.
Although Pierce did not know the exact location of the monster's headquarters, Meng Ran saw the specific procedures for HYDRA to remove and implant chips from his memory.
With this memory, Meng Ran and Liu Xiu would soon be able to crack the method for removing the chips, and then he could search the memories of the captives in Six-Point Star Base.
In addition to this memory, Meng Ran also learned many of HYDRA's secrets and the specifics of their internal conflicts, and even had a list of all HYDRA agents under Pierce.
Of course, this list only contained some of the slightly larger HYDRA agent leaders controlled by Pierce; as a leader, Pierce would not know every single remaining minion in detail.
However, as long as he knew who these leaders were, he could follow the clues and eliminate all HYDRA agents in Pierce's faction.
Meng Ran, of course, would not interfere with this work; he believed Nick Fury would be more interested and proactive than him.
He only needed to give this list to Nick Fury, and he wouldn't have to worry about the specific operations of the remaining screening and cleanup work.
Chapter 207 Secret Information and List
"Sorry, I was a bit too eager when searching his memories just now. His head probably couldn't take it, so he fainted."
Meng Ran said as he tossed Pierce in front of Nick Fury and Natasha.
Nick Fury chuckled after hearing Meng Ran's words: "We only need his iris to unlock it. It doesn't make a difference whether he's conscious or not."
After speaking, he grabbed Pierce by the collar and lifted him up.
Seeing this, Natasha also propped up Pierce, then dragged him towards the large screen in the office.
Nick Fury then removed his eye patch, revealing his injured eye.
Natasha and Nick Fury exchanged glances and then nodded. She then flipped Pierce's eyelid open, aligning his eye with the identification interface on the screen.
On the screen, Pierce and Nick Fury simultaneously underwent an iris scan, removing the previously set access restrictions.
"Prohibition lifted, access granted." As they performed their actions, an electronic broadcast announcing the removal of access restrictions echoed through the office.
Upon hearing the sound, Natasha threw Pierce, whom she had been supporting, aside and walked towards the computer console next to the large screen.
As she typed on the keyboard, images of various encrypted files being unlocked continuously appeared on the large screen in the office.
"You guys are practically exposing yourselves just to reveal HYDRA."
"I see many of these files are government-encrypted and classified from the public, aren't they?"
Meng Ran asked Nick Fury and Natasha as he watched the files continuously being unlocked on the screen.
Nick Fury sighed upon hearing this and then said, "We have no choice. If we want to expose HYDRA, this is the only way."
"Part of the reason is that there are too many files, making classification impossible."
"Another part of the reason is that HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. were intertwined too closely before, and some files simply can't be distinguished as belonging to one or the other."
Hearing Nick Fury's explanation, Meng Ran nodded in understanding and said, "So that's how it is."
"However, if it's due to the first reason, I think I might be able to help."
"Really?" Nick Fury asked, somewhat surprised, after hearing Meng Ran's words.
Natasha, who had been focused on decrypting files nearby, also stopped her actions and blinked her large, beautiful eyes at him.
"Of course." Meng Ran said, then snapped his fingers and continued, "Xiao Bai, take over the system here."
"Received!" Not long after Meng Ran's words fell, a completely different voice from the previous electronic one came from the office broadcast.
"System takeover complete!" Not long after Xiao Bai's electronic voice appeared, within 10 seconds, its voice was heard again over the broadcast.
Meng Ran nodded after hearing Xiao Bai's voice, then continued to order: "Filter all files, separate them into two parts: HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. If any cannot be defined, place them in the S.H.I.E.L.D. section and categorize them into a separate folder."
"Received! Filtering files!" As Meng Ran's command was issued, all the files on the large screen in the office began to unlock and categorize at high speed.
Watching Xiao Bai begin to work, Meng Ran then spoke to Nick Fury and Natasha: "OK, it should only take a few minutes for all the files to be categorized."
"As for those files that cannot be defined, you can filter them yourselves later and decide whether to release them or not."
Looking at the artificial intelligence rapidly categorizing on the screen, Nick Fury and Natasha were speechless.
After a brief silence, Natasha said to Meng Ran in a deep voice, "Thank you."
Meng Ran knew that Natasha was thanking him regarding her identity and past experiences.
Without Xiao Bai's operation, Natasha would have had no choice but to publicly release all her information along with HYDRA's files.
"I am also very grateful, Ghoul." Nick Fury also looked at Meng Ran and said solemnly.
Although S.H.I.E.L.D. was destined to become history and cease to exist from now on, it was, after all, a place he had dedicated most of his life to.
Moreover, if all the files were released, not only would information about HYDRA be disclosed.
Even the information of regular S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would be leaked, which would actually be unfair to them.
Natasha was surprised to hear Nick Fury thank Ghoul, but then she teased, "It's a real shame we didn't record this moment. Nick Fury actually said thank you; that's harder than getting Rogers to be less serious."
Hearing Natasha's words, Meng Ran also thought of the scene where Nick Fury told a cold joke earlier, and immediately started laughing.
Seeing Natasha and Meng Ran teasing him, Nick Fury couldn't help but roll his eyes, then said helplessly, "Oh, God, can you not? This is a rare occasion for me, and I'm already quite embarrassed."
Meng Ran smiled at this, then he remembered the list of HYDRA agents he found while searching memories earlier.
Thinking of this, he continued to say to Nick Fury, "By the way, through Pierce, I've learned of the list of HYDRA agents he controlled."
"I'll write down their names and give them to you. You can decide what to do with them; I won't interfere."
After speaking, Meng Ran found paper and a pen in the office, then wrote down all the names from Pierce's memory, including their current positions and identities.
After filling two full pages, Meng Ran finally stopped writing and handed the papers filled with names to Nick Fury.
Nick Fury took the papers and looked at them with Natasha.
Looking at the familiar names and their positions, Nick Fury's already dark face was now ashen, black as the bottom of a pot.
After reading the list, he took several deep breaths, trying to control his emotions.
Although he knew that HYDRA had been infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. and the American political sphere, he had never imagined it would be this serious.
Once these two lists are released, the American political arena will likely face a large-scale purge and a massive reshuffle.
Thinking of this, Nick Fury suddenly felt that the two light pieces of paper in his hand had become heavy.
What he held in his hand now was not just two pieces of paper, but crucial leverage that would influence the political situation of the United States and even the future direction of the country.
Chapter 208 Ideas for a New Organization
"Phew~" Nick Fury let out a long sigh, then said to Meng Ran, "I didn't expect the situation to be this serious."
"It seems S.H.I.E.L.D. truly no longer has a reason to exist; it's time for it to become history."
S.H.I.E.L.D. was originally established for national interests and strategic security.
But unexpectedly, after years of development, S.H.I.E.L.D., which was set up to protect national interests, became a nest for HYDRA to hide and develop.
They hid in the shadows of S.H.I.E.L.D., parasitizing its massive war machine, sucking the blood of the nation, harming national interests, and threatening world security.
A giant shield established for protection had actually turned into a sharp blade piercing its own heart—what a huge irony.
"You're right, but even without S.H.I.E.L.D., you can continue your old profession, can't you?" Meng Rannodded in agreement with Nick Fury's sentiment, then continued.
"There's no need to dwell on whether S.H.I.E.L.D. exists or not; losing the large framework of S.H.I.E.L.D. also has many benefits."
"At least you won't have to face those hypocritical politicians anymore, listening to their orders and serving their interests."
"You can hide deeper, silently observing human development in the dark or in the shadows, guarding the safety and peace of the world."
Nick Fury nodded upon hearing the devil's comfort, as it was indeed as the devil said.
Although he lost S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization he had managed for many years, he also got rid of many constraints.
In the days to come, he could still uphold the justice he believed in, in his own way.
Seeing this, Meng Ran patted his shoulder, then walked towards the large screen to check on the progress of his assistant's file classification, while continuing to speak to him.
"If you lack funds, I can also provide some assistance."
"And Tony Stark, I believe he will also be very interested in this."
"Since S.H.I.E.L.D. has become history, let's re-establish a more covert organization ourselves."
"Moreover, this organization will have a grander goal than S.H.I.E.L.D.; we will be guarding the safety of the world, not the interests of a particular country."
"How about it? Are you interested in my proposal?"
After Meng Ran finished speaking, he turned to look at Nick Fury and Natasha: "And Ms. Romanoff, I believe that guarding the safety of the entire world will be much simpler than serving a single country."
Natasha, hearing Meng Ran's words, ran her hand through her hair and smiled: "A very good proposal, but since we're guarding the safety of the entire world, shouldn't the salary be higher than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s?"
"Honestly, the only commendable thing about S.H.I.E.L.D. was its relatively high salary."
It must be said that Natasha's talent for enlivening the atmosphere and telling jokes should indeed be considered the highest among the Avengers, at least much stronger than Nick Fury's.
Meng Ran, hearing Natasha's opinion on salary, looked at Nick Fury and smiled: "Well, you might have to discuss that with him; I only need to be responsible for the funding."
His investment in funding was not a joke; after all, in recent years, the only thing that had grown more dramatically than his strength was his wealth.
Initially, Meng Ran's main source of income was basically "ill-gotten gains" from fighting crime.
The amount of this money was considerable, but half of it was exchanged for supplies and given to orphanages around the world, or invested in impoverished areas that needed economic revitalization.
For these impoverished areas, directly giving money would not only result in little actually reaching them but also wouldn't have a long-term effective impact.
Therefore, compared to direct monetary gifts, investing to revitalize the local economy was a more efficient and lasting method.
These "ill-gotten gains" and investment returns could be called Meng Ran's "primitive accumulation of capital."
Once wealth accumulated to a certain extent, no matter what you did, you could make money, especially since he also had a top-tier artificial intelligence like his assistant as a helper.
Thus, Meng Ran's wealth experienced an exponential explosive growth in these past few years; although it still couldn't compare to Tony Stark's, the difference wasn't that far off.
This was also Meng Ran's confidence in saying he could provide funds to Nick Fury, because he truly had money.
Nick Fury couldn't help but roll his eyes in exasperation as he watched Natasha and the devil already discussing salary and benefits.
He hadn't even said anything, and these two were already chatting away enthusiastically. "Please, I haven't even decided to do this yet, OK?"
"Hmm? So you won't agree? Or rather, you won't adopt this suggestion?" Meng Ran asked upon hearing this.
"Emmmm, no, I agree with what you said," Nick Fury mused.
"Then it's settled, a happy decision," Meng Ran clapped his hands and declared after getting Nick Fury's affirmative answer.
"Once today's matters are mostly handled, you can go talk to Tony Stark about this."
"Tell him it was my suggestion; he should seriously consider it. If there are any problems later, you can contact me then."
And so, with a few words between them, a covert organization that transcended national borders, truly global in scale, for intelligence gathering and safeguarding Earth's security, was thus established.
His assistant had also finished classifying all the files by this time.
"Files classified. Please review!"
Upon hearing the broadcast, the group returned to the large screen, looking at the two folders that had been neatly categorized.
One folder contained S.H.I.E.L.D. and unclassifiable information and secrets, while the other contained all publishable intelligence and secrets about HYDRA.
Seeing the classified files, Nick Fury said to Meng Ran, "Since it's all done, let's release the information about HYDRA. It's time for the public to know about these dirty parasites."
Hearing Nick Fury's words, Meng Ran also suggested to him, "There's no need to rush; it's all ready, you can release it anytime."
"My suggestion is that you identify all the spies and get them under control before releasing the news; otherwise, it might alert the enemy, making it impossible to root them out. If you're going to clean up, do it thoroughly, all at once."
Nick Fury nodded upon hearing Meng Ran's suggestion, then pulled out his phone and began to plan the subsequent handling and wrap-up work.
Seeing this, Meng Ran gave Natasha a few instructions and then left.
He told Natasha to send someone to bring Steve back for treatment, as he sensed that the battle between the two friends had ended.
At this moment, Steve was lying unconscious downstairs, while Bucky, whose memory was somewhat confused, had quickly left after knocking Steve out.
Chapter 209 Intelligence Analysis
As for Pierce, who was still unconscious in the office, Meng Ran left him for Nick Fury to handle.
Pierce's memories had been completely plundered by Meng Ran, and his usefulness had been entirely squeezed out, so taking him along would just be a waste of time and an extra burden.
Thus, Meng Ran, in a cheerful mood, drove his single-person aircraft and quickly returned from Washington to the Six-pointed Star Alliance Base in New York.
His gains this time were indeed significant; not only did he acquire Dr. Zola, the world's first "true Artificial Intelligence," but he also obtained a lot of useful intelligence.
This intelligence not only gave him a deeper understanding of the relationship between HYDRA and the monsters but also provided him with some basic information about the monsters, moving from complete ignorance to a general understanding.
Moreover, with Pierce's memories, Meng Ran and Liu Xiu would have breakthrough progress in chip stripping.
It's estimated that after some more research and a few more experiments on some unlucky individuals, they would successfully master chip stripping technology.
At that time, they could first strip the chips from the hostages held in the base, and then, through Meng Ran's memory search, gain a more specific understanding of the monsters' situation and pinpoint the current location of their base.
Because Meng Ran had already notified the others when he took off from Washington, all the members had gradually arrived by the time he returned to the Six-Point Star Base.
"Clang!" Meng Ran placed the black box containing Dr. Zola's core data on the table.
Everyone sitting at the table followed his movement, their gazes fixed on the box.
Seeing their curious eyes, Meng Ran explained, "This contains the Artificial Intelligence of the HYDRAorganization."
"He and the monster's Artificial Intelligence share the same origin; initially, they were the same Artificial Intelligence, then they were split into two parts due to the monsters' needs."
"One part is responsible for the monsters' data analysis and information defense, while the other part is responsible for HYDRA's data processing and defense."
"The one on the table now is the HYDRA part."
After introducing Dr. Zola, Meng Ran then shared with the members of the Six-pointed Star Alliancethe information he had learned about HYDRA and the monsters from both Dr. Zola and Pierce.
After explaining all the details, Meng Ran was already a bit parched.
He picked up the cup of water Gwen handed him, drinking while waiting for everyone to digest the information they had just received.
After listening to Meng Ran's account, Gwen softly said, "It seems it's just as we thought before; there are many contradictions within HYDRA."
Harry then continued Gwen's words, meticulously analyzing the situation.
"HYDRA and the monsters infiltrate and clash with each other. Moreover, their respective internal structures are not monolithic; they both have dissenting voices."
"On the monster side, Pierce's infiltrators are supporting a faction to stir up trouble. On the HYDRAside, it seems to be an internal division, seemingly unrelated to the monsters."
Meng Ran listened to their analysis and added, "That's right, Pierce is dead now, and his faction of HYDRA members will face Nick Fury's purge."
"So, going forward, HYDRA will not only suffer a significant loss of strength, but their internal divisions will likely become even more severe."
"Although there were different voices before, Pierce was at least the nominal leader and could coordinate them to a certain extent."
"Now that Pierce is dead, the remaining leaders are basically similar in skill and strength, with only Strucker seeming to stand out among them."
At this point, Meng Ran recalled that when he first saw the name Strucker in Pierce's memories, he hadn't thought of anything specific.
However, after learning that the area he was responsible for was the HYDRA branch in Sokovia, Meng Ran remembered.
Sokovia was the place in his previous life's movie where experiments were conducted with Loki's scepter, and where the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver siblings were modified.
Because the world Meng Ran was currently in was not entirely like the movie in his memory, he didn't know if the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were still there.
After all, in the world Meng Ran was in, due to his suggestion, Loki's scepter and the Tesseract had both been taken back to Asgard by Thor after the Battle of New York.
Therefore, Sokovia at this time should not have the conditions to continue the experiments conducted in the movie of his previous life, as Loki's scepter was not present, leaving them with nothing to research.
After thinking about this, Meng Ran withdrew his thoughts and continued discussing and analyzing with everyone.
"So, among the remaining HYDRA forces, Strucker should be the strongest of these leaders, and he is the most likely person to become the next HYDRA leader."
"HYDRA is probably in disarray right now, with severe internal strife, so we won't bother with them for now. We'll wait until their internal conflicts are over, then we'll swoop in to reap the benefits, saving time and effort while also eradicating them completely."
"Therefore, our opponent at this stage is still the monsters. This time, with Dr. Zola and the chip removal technology, I believe we will have a major breakthrough in our intelligence on the monsters."
"If we can directly ascertain the location of their headquarters, that would be best, allowing us to launch a direct surprise attack."
After listening to Meng Ran's analysis and arrangements, everyone nodded.
Mary Jane picked up the black box containing Dr. Zola's core consciousness, weighed it in her hand, and then said to Meng Ran, "Then Xiaobai and I will primarily be responsible for analyzing and deciphering this Artificial Intelligence."
Meng Ran nodded in response, saying, "Exactly. After all, he and the monster's Artificial Intelligence share the same origin. If we can figure out his original code and operating principles, then breaking through the monster's Artificial Intelligence's defenses will become much easier."
After speaking, he turned to Harry and Peter, then pulled out a black armor and said to them, "This is the armor I took from Pierce's personal bodyguard."
"Based on my observations at the scene, this armor's defensive capabilities are very good. It can withstand handgun bullets at close range with virtually no damage."
"Although its defensive limit hasn't been tested yet, I estimate it won't be low."
Chapter 210: Torture of the Spy
Hearing this, Harry and Peter also reached out and touched the black armor.
Peter observed the armor's design up close and said, "I've never seen this material before. It can maintain such high hardness and strength while being so thin."
The black armor was indeed very thin, basically not much thicker than the close-fitting bulletproof vests on the market.
And although the material was thin, its defensive capabilities were not affected at all.
If they could analyze this material and manufacturing method, and then combine it with the Six-pointed Star Alliance's existing manufacturing technology, their equipment could undergo an upgrade and replacement.
After handing the items over to Harry and Peter, Meng Ran took Liu Xiu to another laboratory to research chip stripping technology.
Since everyone had urgent matters to attend to, Gwen had to shoulder the daily night patrols alone.
Although New York City had truly become more law-abiding due to the Six-pointed Star Alliance's presence, there were still some audacious or desperate individuals who would take risks and turn to crime.
When such situations arose, people from the Six-pointed Star Alliance were needed to help them "reform" and return to the right path.
So, daily night patrols were still very necessary.
A few days later, in the abandoned hydropower station, Nick Fury stood outside the two-way glass of an interrogation room, watching the interrogation inside.
This abandoned hydropower station had now become their temporary headquarters, used to carry out the screening and investigation of HYDRA spies and agents.
Inside the dimly lit interrogation room, the bald agent Sitwell was suspended by iron chains binding his hands, his toes barely touching the ground.
Natasha sat behind a table, her long legs propped up on it, her eyes coldly fixed on Sitwell.
"Zzz~ zzz~ zzz~"
As her finger pressed a button on a small remote control, tiny blue electric arcs were directly transmitted through the metal chains to Sitwell's body.
"Ah!!!"
With the tiny electric arcs hitting his body, Sitwell felt as if countless ants were constantly gnawing at his bone marrow, causing unbearable stinging and itching.
Watching his tormented expression, Natasha simply picked up the coffee on the table, took a sip, and then said coldly, "Tell me all the information you know, Agent Sitwell."
"Don't think being stubborn is cool. I believe you won't last much longer, and I have plenty of time to play with you slowly."
"That was electrocution. Next, it should be waterboarding. With the experience of the past few days, I believe you should know the process, shouldn't you?"
"Ho~ ho~" Sitwell's chapped lips trembled slightly. Since he was suddenly captured here the day before yesterday, such torture had lasted for two days.
During this period, not only were various torture methods endless, but he also wasn't given any time to rest in between. At this point, his mind was on the verge of collapse.
Sitwell's stubbled face was filled with exhaustion, and his slowly blinking eyes were bloodshot.
He struggled to lift his head, his voice hoarse as he pleaded, "Please, let me sleep. When I wake up, I'll tell you everything you want to know."
Hearing Sitwell's plea, Natasha turned her palm over, looking at her beautiful nails, and then said in a clear, cold voice, "Don't say useless things, Agent Sitwell."
"I've said it many times: as long as you tell me everything you know, I will let you rest."
Sitwell did not answer Natasha's words. He simply slowly closed his eyes, wanting to doze off while hanging there, to relax his mind.
The moment he closed his eyes, tiny blue electric arcs instantly transmitted down the chains, all entering his body.
"Ah!!!"
The intense pain and unspeakable itching instantly jolted Sitwell awake. The prolonged torture and exhaustion had severely ravaged his body and mind.
"Next time, if you dare to close your eyes again, I will double the intensity of the 'alarm clock' and let you enjoy it thoroughly," Natasha warned coldly, looking at the hanging Sitwell.
Then she clapped her hands, calling in two black-suited agents from outside.
"It's time for waterboarding. Let him enjoy it thoroughly and wake him up."
The black-suited agents nodded upon hearing Natasha's instructions, then filled the large bucket in the confinement room with water and moved it in front of Sitwell.
The chain holding Sitwell was also lowered significantly, allowing his face to be easily submerged in the large bucket.
Once the chain was lowered, the black-suited man standing behind Sitwell grabbed his neck and roughly pushed him into the bucket.
"Plop~ plop~" Sitwell, suddenly submerged in the water, struggled violently, but the large hand gripping his neck was rough and strong, leaving him no room to resist.
Just as he was reaching the limit of suffocation, the black-suited agent pulled Sitwell out by his neck.
"Ha~ plop plop~" Before Sitwell could even take a full breath, he was pushed back into the bucket by the black-suited agent.
Such sudden pressing and rough actions caused Sitwell to swallow a lot of cold tap water.
And because the large hand on his neck prevented him from breathing, the feeling of suffocation made him feel as if he was dying.
A series of tortures finally caused his already collapsing mind to completely break down. His persistent beliefs and faith in HYDRA ultimately could not withstand the endless physical and mental torment.
Finally, when he was once again pulled out of the bucket by the black-suited agent, Sitwell urgently shouted, "I-I'll tell you plop plop~"
Hearing Sitwell's shouts, Natasha raised her hand, signaling the black-suited agent to stop.
The black-suited agent, seeing this, pulled Sitwell out of the bucket, ending the waterboarding.
"Speak. Tell me everything you know about the HYDRA agents and all the missions you've carried out," Natasha said coldly to Sitwell, who was lying on the ground, gasping for air.
Sitwell lay sprawled on the ground, gulping air, moisturizing his nearly dry lungs.
He had initially wanted to rest a bit longer, but seeing Natasha's cold gaze, he quickly dismissed the thought.
To avoid being punished again for resting too long, Sitwell, still panting heavily, immediately began his confession.
Chapter 211 An unexpected discovery
Sitwell didn't dare to omit a single detail, confessing everything from the moment he joined HYDRA to his most recent mission.
This included all the HYDRA agents he had interacted with, as well as all the HYDRA members under his management, which he meticulously recorded on paper.
Natasha listened and took notes, and her gaze suddenly sharpened when he mentioned a particular mission.
Although she already realized the importance of this mission, she decided to wait until Sitwell had finished confessing everything before asking questions.
Behind the one-way mirror, Nick Fury's eyes also grew sharp when he heard about this mission.
He raised his hand to touch the earpiece in his ear, then spoke to Natasha, who was on the same channel: "You must have also noticed the mission he just mentioned. Once he's finished, question him about it in detail."
Hearing Nick Fury's voice in her earpiece, Natasha in the interrogation room nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
Finally, Sitwell finished confessing all the missions he had undertaken and the names of all the HYDRAagents he knew.
The long narration made Sitwell feel a bit parched, but even so, he didn't dare to make any demands.
He was afraid that if he asked for water, the black-suited agents behind him would immediately rush forward and push him back into the large bucket.
After estimating the likelihood of such an event, Sitwell decided to keep quiet and avoid taking such risks.
After hearing Sitwell's narration, Natasha pondered for a moment before asking, "You just said you received a mission right after the Battle of New York, and it was given to you by Strucker."
"Tell me about this mission in detail, don't miss a single detail."
It turned out that while Sitwell outwardly appeared to be a HYDRA agent of Pierce's faction, he actually belonged to Strucker's faction and was a HYDRA-Sokovia branch agent sent to infiltrate Pierce's ranks.
Upon hearing Natasha's instruction, Sitwell quickly recounted the details of his mission after the Battle of New York.
"I received the mission notification temporarily that day. Sokovia gave me a S.H.I.E.L.D. box and told me to swap it with the box containing loki's scepter after the battle ended."
"Although I didn't see what was in the box, since it was to be swapped with loki's scepter, I assume it also contained a scepter, but it must have been a replica."
"After I finished, I handed it over to the other personnel who came to meet me, and I don't know what happened after that."
After listening to Sitwell's account, Natasha and Nick Fury simultaneously fell silent.
If what Sitwell said was true, then after the battle, the fake loki's scepter that had been swapped was what was ultimately handed to Thor.
If the fake one was taken by Thor, where did the real one go? Was it transported to Sokovia? So much time had passed, what had Strucker done with it?
All sorts of questions swirled in their minds. Natasha gave instructions to the black-suited agents, telling them to keep an eye on Sitwell, and then she walked out of the interrogation room.
Outside, Nick Fury was also waiting for her.
"Is this good news or bad news?" Natasha said to Nick Fury with a hint of helplessness.
To say it was good news, so much time had already passed, and they didn't know what Strucker had done with the scepter.
But to say it was bad news, at least they had discovered the situation now. If they had remained in the dark, the problems that would have arisen in the end would have been even more serious.
Nick Fury also understood Natasha's meaning. He frowned and pondered for a moment before saying in a deep voice, "We need to find Rogers, and the other Avengers. The scepter has been missing for so long, and we can't be sure how serious the situation is right now."
"We need to quickly find the location of the scepter and retrieve it. We can't let the scepter remain with HYDRA."
Natasha nodded at his words, then continued to ask Nick Fury, "What about Meng Ran? Do we need to notify him?"
Nick Fury thought for a moment after hearing Natasha's question, then said in a deep voice, "I'll go find Meng Ran and explain this matter to him. You go gather Rogers and Tony Stark."
"Remember to emphasize the seriousness of the problem. Don't let them take it lightly, especially Tony Stark."
Natasha nodded at Nick Fury's arrangements, then immediately went out to take action.
"Damn HYDRA, how cunning they are! How did they manage to do it?" Nick Fury was full of frustration. He couldn't understand how HYDRA had managed it.
The battle hadn't even ended, and they already knew the Avengers would win.
And in such a short time, they had swapped loki's scepter. This speed was truly incredible.
Nick Fury frowned, racking his brain, but he could only conclude that the spies within S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time must have leaked the intelligence early on.
He guessed that after Loki first appeared, HYDRA had already set their sights on his scepter, and only then could they have created a replica of the scepter in a short amount of time and carried out the swap plan.
This was the only plausible explanation for this swap, but even this explanation still left one thing unclear: how did HYDRA create this replica?
loki's scepter had energy fluctuations similar to the Tesseract. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been studying this energy for decades without much success, so how did HYDRA manage to replicate these energy fluctuations?
Nick Fury thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a reasonable answer. Finally, he shook his head as if giving up, then took out the communicator Meng Ran had given him and made contact.
Although the two had known each other for several years and had dealt with each other so many times, he still knew nothing about Meng Ran's whereabouts.
Every time he wanted to contact Meng Ran, he could only do so through the communicator Meng Ranhad given him before.
Nick Fury looked at the communicator, which had finished sending the message, then pulled out something from his pocket that looked like an old-fashioned pager.
Although this pager looked old, it was a specially modified tool, and it was one of Nick Fury's trump cards.
"Why do all these people like to mess with these things? I don't understand."
Nick Fury pondered silently, then shook his head gently again, putting both the old-fashioned pager and Meng Ran's communicator into his pocket.
Chapter 212 Return to the Hydropower Station
At Six-Point Star Base, Meng Ran and Liu Xiu were busy in the laboratory, tinkering with a method to remove the chip.
After two days of research, they had identified a clear direction, and by continuing along this path, they should soon have corresponding results.
Meng Ran also believed that the technology to remove the chip was about to be conquered by them.
Just as the two were engrossed in their research in the laboratory, a voice from Xiaobai suddenly came from the overhead broadcast.
"Sir, Nick Fury has sent you a message, wanting to meet with you."
"Hmm? What's going on? Shouldn't he be busy cleaning up HYDRA and spies right now?"
Upon hearing Xiaobai's voice, Meng Ran also looked up and took off his experimental glasses.
"It must be some emergency," Liu Xiu also heard Xiaobai's voice, and he took off his glasses and said to Meng Ran.
Meng Ran nodded at his words, then frowned and said, "It really must be an emergency. Otherwise, given Nick Fury's personality, he wouldn't easily come to find me."
"I hope it's nothing too troublesome."
Meng Ran placed his glasses on the table, then, while speaking, tidied up the half-finished experiment.
After he was done, he turned to Liu Xiu and instructed him, "Xiuer, I'll go see what's happening first. You continue with the experiment. I feel that with the current progress, we should be close to success."
Liu Xiu nodded at his instruction, then gave an OK gesture and said, "Don't worry, maybe by the time you get back, I'll have already succeeded."
Meng Ran smiled at his words, "Then I'll be looking forward to it."
After speaking, he walked out of the laboratory, then, while listening to Xiaobai report the location Nick Fury had set, he walked towards the base gate.
"The agreed location is still that abandoned hydropower station where he recovered last time. It seems I'll have to fly there," Meng Ran said softly, looking at the location Xiaobai had marked.
He then informed Gwen and the others before heading to the hangar again, then flying his plane towards the agreed-upon abandoned hydropower station.
At this moment, outside the abandoned hydropower station, Nick Fury stood on a dilapidated base station, watching the sun slowly set below the horizon.
"Did something else happen for you to suddenly look for me?" The Ghost's hoarse voice suddenly sounded from behind Nick Fury.
Nick Fury had long grown accustomed to such situations.
He slowly turned around, then looked at the Ghost in front of him and said in a deep voice, "There is indeed some bad news."
"Do you still remember Loki's scepter?"
Hearing Nick Fury's question, Meng Ran quickly replied, "Of course I remember it. Wasn't it taken back to Asgard by Thor?"
After Meng Ran finished speaking, he quickly realized something. If the scepter was still in Asgard, why would Nick Fury ask him such a question?
Thinking of this, he asked Nick Fury in a deep voice, "Do you mean Loki's scepter is lost? Is it no longer in Asgard?"
"Did Loki get the scepter again and want to launch another attack on Earth?"
"If that's really the case, I don't mind truly pulverizing him, after all, I already had an agreement with Thor before."
Meng Ran told Nick Fury several possibilities he could think of.
Nick Fury heard Meng Ran's words and said somewhat strangely, "Why would you think of Loki? According to the news I got from Thor, wasn't Loki already killed by the Dark Elves?"
Hearing Nick Fury's question, Meng Ran suddenly remembered the loophole in his previous words.
His brain was a bit numb from doing experiments. Just now, he was only thinking about the scepter and completely forgot that Nick Fury and the others didn't know that Loki had faked his death.
"Oh, sorry, forgive me. I've been doing an experiment these past few days and kept working without rest until just now, so my mind might be a bit unclear."
Meng Ran knew he had misspoken, but he still calmly gave himself a suitable reason.
Nick Fury didn't doubt Meng Ran's explanation much. He knew that the Ghost had always been focused on finding a way to deal with the monsters.
He also guessed that the Ghost had made significant progress this time and had been busy dealing with the monsters, so his memory was indeed a bit muddled.
"So what's the situation now? What's the bad news you mentioned?" Meng Ran also appropriately changed the subject at this point, beginning to ask about the main reason for his visit.
Hearing Meng Ran's question, Nick Fury frowned and said in a deep voice, "Yesterday, while interrogating a HYDRA agent, we accidentally learned a piece of information."
"It turns out that right after the Battle of New York ended, HYDRA had already swapped Loki's scepterwith a replica."
"So, what Thor ultimately took away was not the real Loki's scepter, but just a replica with no significant use."
Hearing this news from Nick Fury, Meng Ran was instantly stunned.
He never expected that the scepter taken away by Thor after the Battle of New York was actually fake.
He had originally suggested giving Loki's scepter to Thor to take back to Asgard for safekeeping, just in case.
He had thought that this would prevent the Sokovia incident from happening, but he didn't expect that even so, it couldn't change the fact that the scepter was used by HYDRA.
"Hoo~"
Meng Ran took a deep breath, calmed himself, and then asked Nick Fury, "Do you know how they managed to do it?"
After hearing his question, Nick Fury also organized his thoughts and then stated his conjecture.
"Regarding the scepter's creation, I estimate they started planning as soon as Loki appeared, which is why they were able to produce a replica for the swap as soon as the battle ended."
"But as for replicating the gem on the scepter, I truly still haven't figured it out."
Meng Ran also fell into deep thought after hearing Nick Fury's conjecture.
Indeed, as he said, replicating the scepter itself wasn't difficult; it just required some time. What was truly difficult to replicate was the gem on it.
Nick Fury and the others might not know, but Meng Ran clearly knew that the gem on the scepter was actually the Mind Stone.
The reason it didn't emit a yellow light was because the Mind Stone was encased in an outer shell made of the Space Stone.
"Space Stone."
Meng Ran pondered to himself, his mind rapidly searching for relevant memories.
Chapter 213 Avengers Meeting
"The first time the Space Stone was studied and utilized on Earth was by HYDRA."
"And when Captain America fought them, they had already used the Space Stone to create some era-defining weapons and equipment."
"Does HYDRA still possess this technology, or do they still have such weapons? Otherwise, how could they have produced fluctuations similar to the Space Stone and managed to fool all of us?"
After a moment of thought, Meng Ran shared his ideas with Nick Fury.
Nick Fury nodded thoughtfully after hearing his thoughts and analysis.
This was the only explanation currently available for how the imitations were made.
"Forget it, let's not think about these things for now. Our main problem is to find the loki's scepter and retrieve it as soon as possible."
"Otherwise, those HYDRAs might do something else with loki's scepter," Meng Ran said to Nick Fury, shaking his head gently and collecting his scattered thoughts.
According to his memories of Sokovia, Strucker used the Mind Stone's energy to transform the twin siblings, Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff.
Their superpowers were enhanced, turning them into the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
However, based on Meng Ran's observations over the years, the world he was currently in had many deviations from the movie he remembered.
For example, the world he was in now had the existence of Inhumanss, and this Inhumans organization—Monsters—had an inseparable connection with HYDRA.
If, in this world, Strucker used the power of the Mind Stone to enhance more Inhumanss, making the test subjects more than just one Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, then how would they face that situation?
Furthermore, Meng Ran was also concerned about whether Monsters would use the Mind Stone to significantly enhance the abilities of all the Inhumanss under its command.
Looking at the somewhat dazed Meng Ran, Nick Fury said in a deep voice, "I've already called Natashato gather the other Avengers. Once they are all assembled, we will formulate a battle plan for Sokovia."
"We will strive to wipe them out completely this time, leaving HYDRA no power to retaliate."
Meng Ran nodded at the words, and then the two of them looked at the sun, which had already set below the horizon, and pondered in silence.
After watching the scenery for a while and sorting out the jumbled thoughts in his head, Meng Ran and Nick Fury returned to the abandoned hydropower station.
Natasha had also returned to the abandoned hydropower station by this time; she had already notified everyone about today's gathering.
"Well, it seems I'm still the earliest to arrive." Meng Ran said somewhat helplessly, looking at the meeting room which, including him, only had three people.
Natasha shrugged at his words, showing the same helpless expression as Meng Ran.
Although she had notified everyone of the gathering time, every Avenger was a busy person, and no one knew when they would all arrive.
After a moment, Rogers became the first person to arrive in the meeting room besides the three of them.
"The expected person," Natasha said calmly after seeing Rogers walk in.
After all, among that unreliable bunch of Avengers, Rogers was the most honest and reliable member.
Not long after Rogers arrived, Hawkeye Barton also came into the meeting room, followed by Dr. Banner, Tony Stark, and Thor.
Tony Stark was somewhat surprised to see that he was not the last one to arrive at the meeting room.
"I thought I'd be the last one, but I didn't expect someone to be even later than me."
"Let me count, 1, 2, 3… Oh, it turns out our Point Break hasn't arrived yet."
As soon as Tony Stark entered the meeting room, the entire atmosphere became completely unable to be serious.
Looking at the unrestrained Tony Stark, Rogers frowned and said to him, "Can't you be a little more serious? The matter we are going to discuss today is very serious."
"HYDRA actually swapped out the scepter that Thor was supposed to take to Asgard. Doesn't such a serious situation warrant you to be serious?"
Upon hearing Rogers' words, Tony Stark took off his sunglasses and retorted, "I also know the seriousness of the matter, but I don't think that just by frowning like you, the problem can be solved."
"The bad situation has already happened, and no matter what my attitude is, it will not affect the subsequent actions."
Rogers did not continue to respond after hearing Tony Stark's retort; he simply closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair to rest.
He had never won an argument with Tony; no matter what he said, Tony Stark could always come up with his own set of reasons to refute him.
Rogers had become numb to this and had even accepted the situation; his way of dealing with it was to ignore it.
If it weren't for the importance of the matter to be discussed today, he wouldn't bother with Tony Stark's attitude.
Seeing their bickering come to an end, Meng Ran, who was sitting in the corner, asked Dr. Banner, "Doctor, how are you doing now?"
Dr. Banner understood his meaning upon hearing Meng Ran's question. He smiled and replied, "Much better. He and I have both accepted each other's existence now."
"So sometimes we can discuss things together now."
Upon hearing Dr. Banner's words, Meng Ran nodded with relief. It seemed that the little trick he had left behind when he possessed Banner back then still had an effect.
Banner's situation now was much, much better than he remembered, and they seemed to have embarked on a path of reconciliation different from what he remembered.
Meng Ran could not predict the future outcome, but he felt that it would not be worse than the final Professor Hulk in his memory.
While everyone was chatting idly, Thor finally pushed open the door of the meeting room and walked in.
"Sorry, everyone, I got a little lost just now."
"I really can't quite understand the map on this phone, so I just walked and walked and didn't know where I went."
Tony Stark couldn't help but retort when he heard Thor's words, "Have you never used a phone during your time living on Earth?"
Thor pondered before answering Tony's question, "Pretty much, because I don't really need this thing."
"Jane insisted on buying this one for me a while ago."
"I said it was inconvenient and useless, and sure enough, I got lost using it to find my way today."
Upon hearing Thor's complaints, everyone in the meeting room was speechless and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Chapter 214 Meeting Resolution
With Thor's arrival, everyone who needed to be there had gathered.
Everyone sat in the conference room, waiting for Nick Fury to brief them on the situation.
Except for Meng Ran and Natasha, the others only knew some basic information and didn't know the specifics of what was happening.
So, before the discussion, Nick Fury needed to give them a detailed introduction to the problems they were facing.
Nick Fury also took this opportunity to explain to them the existence of the monsters and the relationship between HYDRA and the monsters.
After listening to Nick Fury's introduction, Tony Stark was the first to express his views.
"This is really bad news. It's been so long since the Battle of New York, and we just found out Loki's scepter was swapped."
"Point Break, didn't you take the scepter out to look at or use it after you brought it back to Asgard?"
"After such a long time, you didn't even notice anything unusual about the scepter?" Tony Stark asked Thor, somewhat puzzled.
It was understandable that the others hadn't noticed anything unusual since they had only briefly touched it.
But the scepter had been taken back to Asgard by Thor for so long; how could he not have noticed any abnormality?
As Tony questioned Thor, everyone in the conference room turned their gaze to Thor.
Although Tony asked the question, they were indeed very curious about it.
Seeing everyone's eyes on him, Thor rubbed his head and said somewhat awkwardly, "Although you might not believe it, Loki's scepter truly hasn't been touched by anyone since it was taken back."
"The Tesseract, however, was used once to repair the Bifrost Bridge."
"After I brought Loki back to Asgard, he was locked in the dungeon."
"His scepter was also placed in Odin's treasury and hasn't been touched since."
"Many things happened in Asgard afterward, including the invasion of the Dark Elves, and the deaths of my mother and Loki."
At this point, Thor's expression became a little somber; the deaths of those two had indeed hit him hard.
"So, to be honest, if it weren't for this incident, I would have almost forgotten about the scepter."
After hearing Thor's explanation, everyone fell silent.
After a moment of quiet, Meng Ran spoke again, "It's useless to dwell on these things now. What we need to do is find the scepter and bring it back."
"We can't let it remain in HYDRA's hands, otherwise, who knows what else they'll come up with."
Hearing Meng Ran speak, Rogers echoed, "That's right, now is not the time to dwell on those things."
"Since it has already happened, there's no way to undo it. What we need to do now is find the scepteras soon as possible and cut our losses."
The silent Banner, hearing what the two said, also asked, "Are there any clues about the scepter's location?"
Meng Ran immediately replied to Banner's question, "According to the intelligence obtained from Pierce, Strucker's main stronghold is in Sokovia."
"So the scepter's location should also be Sokovia."
After answering Banner's question, Meng Ran continued.
"Actually, we still have an advantage: Strucker and Mil, the leader of the monsters, don't yet know that we've obtained intelligence from Pierce."
"Because we sealed off the news in a timely manner and were very quick in clearing out and screening HYDRA spies."
"So they should only know that Pierce's identity might have been exposed, and that the faction of HYDRA he was responsible for is in crisis."
"They probably don't know the specific details very clearly."
At this point, Meng Ran looked around at everyone and then continued.
"Our operation this time is a surprise attack. If we can seize this opportunity, then the other HYDRAfactions, besides Pierce's, will also face a devastating blow."
"This operation is also an opportunity for us to potentially truly erase HYDRA from this world, so we must seize it."
After Meng Ran finished speaking, Nick Fury said in a deep voice, "Then, everyone should understand the importance of this mission."
"This is our surgery to eliminate a tumor from Earth, and we are the doctors with the scalpel."
"The success of the treatment depends entirely on our actions, so I hope everyone can complete this mission smoothly, just like during the Battle of New York."
"Okay, okay, that's enough with the speeches. Is it time for the next stage?"
Tony Stark felt a headache coming on whenever he heard Nick Fury's lecturing, so he quickly urged them to finish the pep talk and move on to the next stage.
Tony's urging was clearly aimed at Nick Fury, which made Natasha and Barton, who saw Nick Furybeing put on the spot, secretly chuckle.
"Ahem, let's talk about the specific arrangements," Steve said, clearing his throat.
Nick Fury had no choice but to let Meng Ran continue with the briefing, his face dark.
Meng Ran cleared his throat and continued, "Ahem, according to all current intelligence, besides Pierce's faction, there are still about three existing HYDRA forces in the world."
"Apart from these three, the remaining smaller forces have all been absorbed and integrated."
"Among these three, the most powerful is the HYDRA led by Strucker, with Sokovia as its base."
"So our main target for this operation is Sokovia, and at the same time, we must eliminate the remaining two HYDRA forces."
"So we're going to split into three teams?" Thor, who hadn't spoken for a while, asked at this point.
"That's right, you and Barton are one team. Natasha, Banner, and Rogers are another team. The remaining Tony and Ghost are one team," Nick Fury replied after hearing Thor's question.
These were the teams he had thoughtfully divided to maximize the efficiency of the mission.
With Ghost watching Tony, Tony, that unstable and erratic factor, would finally be stable for once.
Tony guessed Nick Fury's thoughts after hearing the team assignments, and he could only shrug helplessly.
After the teams were assigned, Nick Fury distributed the strongholds and strength status of the three HYDRA forces to each person.
The main Sokovia base was handled by Ghost and Tony, while the remaining two forces were handled by Rogers' and Barton's teams respectively.
After the combat teams and plans were finalized, the three teams began their preparations.
Although the three teams were not in the same location, their actions were all scheduled to start at around 9 AM tomorrow.
So these teams all began their preparations beforehand, selecting planes to travel to the vicinity of their respective mission locations in advance.
Chapter 215 Cooperation and Cradle
While the Avengers and Meng Ran were discussing how to deal with HYDRA and the Monsters, Strucker and Mil were also busy with their own affairs.
Their busyness began a few days ago with the defeat of Pierce's faction of HYDRA.
Although the intelligence they had was not clear or detailed, from their perspective, Pierce's planned operation had failed, and his strength had suffered significant damage as a result.
Pierce's weakened strength was excellent news for both Strucker and Mil.
This nominal leader had been oppressing them for many years, preventing them from achieving their goals.
Now that they finally had an opportunity, Strucker and Mil naturally wouldn't let it slip away.
Strucker had been busy expanding his influence over the past few days.
Because of Pierce's defeat, many HYDRA groups disintegrated and became small, fragmented forces.
During this time, Strucker was absorbing these collapsing forces to strengthen his own power, aiming to become the new leader of HYDRA.
Unlike Strucker, who absorbed external forces, Mil was consolidating his internal Monster forces during this period.
As mentioned before, although Mil was the leader of the Monsters, known as the tyrannical ruler,
He still had some disobedient voices among his subordinates, and the main reason these voices persisted was due to Pierce's covert support from behind.
Pierce wanted to use this method to prevent the Monsters from fully coalescing into a single entity and to divide Mil's power, thereby reducing the pressure that this massive violent department put on HYDRA.
Therefore, the defeat of Pierce's faction of HYDRA provided Mil with an opportunity to clear out dissenting voices within the Monsters.
Without Pierce's support, those opposing voices and personnel within the Monster group were like fish on a chopping block, at Mil's mercy.
After a few days of purging, the Monsters gradually came completely under Mil's control.
Because they were both under Pierce's shadow, Strucker and Mil actually maintained a good cooperative relationship.
The loki's scepter swap discovered by the Avengers and Meng Ran in the past few days was the beginning of their cooperation.
When Loki appeared, Strucker and Mil both set their sights on the scepter in his hand.
Thus, after several rounds of negotiation and communication, the two sides reached an agreement to cooperate.
The content of their cooperation mainly involved the following points.
The first point concerned loki's scepter; both parties agreed to jointly research the scepter after it was swapped back.
Strucker would provide researchers and research technology, while Mil would provide Inhumanss as experimental raw materials, and the final research results would be shared by both parties.
The second point concerned specific actions: after discussion, the two parties decided that Mil would be responsible for creating the replica for the swap, and Strucker would be responsible for executing the swap plan.
Mil was responsible for making the replica because creating a fake loki's scepter required a machine only available to the Monsters – the Cradle device.
This device was the fundamental reason for the Monster group's existence and the origin of all Inhumanss in this world.
The origin of this device was also full of surprises.
At that time, Professor Erskine, who developed the Super Soldier Serum, brought the serum to America and used it to create the first Super Soldier on Earth – Captain America, Steve Rogers.
Upon seeing the success of the Super Soldier serum, a HYDRA spy hidden among the spectators shot and killed Professor Erskine.
After Professor Erskine's death, the perfect formula for the Super Soldier Serum also became an unsolvable mystery.
The single remaining Super Soldier Serum thus became the only copy.
HYDRA later also wanted to create its own Super Soldier army, but due to the loss of the formula, they were at a loss.
Finally, through the efforts of Dr. Zola and a group of scientists, they accidentally created an alternative energy body using the energy of the Tesseract.
They named this energy body the Blue Sea, and after research, discovered that this alternative energy body could emit a light that caused genetic changes in humans.
Because HYDRA's leader at the time, Red Skull, was actually a product of the Super Soldier serum, Zola and his team used Red Skull's blood to reverse-engineer an incomplete Super Soldier serum formula.
This Super Soldier serum formula, when combined with the light emitted by the Blue Sea, could cause people to mutate, and those who successfully mutated could possess strange abilities.
After reaching this conclusion, Dr. Zola and other scientists used the Blue Sea energy and this incomplete Super Soldier formula to create a complete device that could induce human mutation; this device was the Cradle system.
The first people to acquire strange abilities through this device were also called Inhumanss.
Although this system had powerful capabilities, allowing an ordinary person to become a Inhumans, its drawback was equally obvious: the success rate was too low.
This was also why HYDRA had only a few Inhumanss until the war's defeat, let alone forming a Inhumans army.
After HYDRA was reborn through America's Operation Paperclip, the Cradle device was placed within the Monster group, which was established as their violent department.
It was precisely because the Blue Sea energy was accidentally created through the Tesseract that the Blue Sea's energy could also simulate the Tesseract's fluctuations and radiation.
This is why the replica was successfully swapped without any abnormalities being detected.
Aside from not containing the Mind Stone, the replica was essentially no different from the original loki's scepter.
After the Monsters completed the replica, they handed it over to Strucker's faction of HYDRA.
Then, Strucker successfully executed the swap plan through Agent Sitwell, who had infiltrated Pierce's faction of HYDRA.
After agreeing on the division of labor for the implementation plan, the third point of their agreement concerned changing the status quo.
Strucker wanted to replace Pierce and become the new leader of HYDRA. Mil, on the other hand, wanted to break away from HYDRA, leading the Monsters to become a truly independent group, free from all constraints.
Both parties got what they needed, achieving a win-win cooperation, steadily developing their respective interests in an atmosphere of peace and harmony.
Therefore, after the defeat of Pierce's faction of HYDRA, both parties immediately began rapid expansion and cleanup operations as soon as they received the news.
They both wanted to seize this opportunity to achieve their goals as quickly as possible.