The Superhero Association was currently holding a fan meet-and-greet when a truck slowly approached.
"Sir, this is a restricted area. Please turn around."
The Superhero Association's security guards immediately moved to stop the "Optimus Prime" truck from getting any closer. They were all wearing War Machine armor, so they naturally had a lot more courage than ordinary security guards.
This was Blade Technology Industries' War Machine armor. Compared to the military's War Machine units, it was even better. It was not just made of steel-alloy plating, but also had a coating of secondary Kryptonite. Even armor-piercing weapons like depleted uranium rounds would have a hard time punching through it.
Unexpectedly, the truck suddenly seemed to go out of control. The driver slammed the accelerator to the floor, and the truck instantly crashed into the two War Machines, grinding them straight under its wheels. After the heavy crushing passed over them, the ground burst apart, yet the two War Machines stood back up completely unharmed.
"Something's wrong!"
"Stop that truck now!"
The two War Machines hurriedly deployed their weapons, a whole arsenal locking onto "Optimus Prime."
But it was already too late.
Amid the terrified screams of the fans, "Optimus Prime" rammed straight into the Superhero Association headquarters.
Boom!!!
In what felt like slow motion, the truck swelled and split apart, tongues of flame surging wildly out from within.
Then came the massive explosion.
The blast directly swallowed the entire Superhero Association building and even spread to the nearby streets, causing hundreds of casualties!
A lot of people even thought it was a terrorist nuclear attack. After all, that deafening boom, the towering fireball, and the rising mushroom cloud looked far too much like the propaganda footage of a nuclear bomb.
All the glass within several kilometers shattered at once. People in the area first felt the ground shake beneath their feet, then heard the sound of glass exploding, followed by the thunderous blast, while the shockwave shoved everyone several steps back!
Trees were blown down, secondary explosions were triggered, and countless cars parked along the streets started blaring ear-splitting alarms after the shockwave swept through.
It was only a few moments later that people finally reacted. Looking at the mushroom cloud rising into the sky, they gasped in shock while desperately trying to flee.
They thought nuclear radiation would come next.
The explosion quickly drew massive attention. The American military dispatched drones to survey the scene, but the radiation detectors showed everything was normal, meaning this was not a nuclear blast.
In truth, Zod Heath had already received word from the Black Queen the instant the explosion occurred, but even if he rushed back immediately, he was still too late. Fortunately, the outer surface of the Superhero Association building was coated with secondary Kryptonite. It had originally been meant to guard against damage from the Chitauri, but unexpectedly, during this incident it ended up protecting the staff and superheroes inside the building instead.
When the masterminds behind the attack saw that, after the explosion, the Superhero Association headquarters was only blackened on the outside while otherwise remaining completely intact, they were dumbfounded.
Holy shit, a bomb that powerful only managed to scorch the surface a little?
By the time the American military prepared to seal off the scene, Blade Technology Industries' War Machines had already completed the lockdown. They were now searching the area for traces and clues.
Of course, after an explosion of that magnitude, how much evidence could still be found was anyone's guess.
"A suicide truck bombing, huh. No idea who did it."
Tony Stark was furious. This incident had directly caused hundreds of casualties, and those hundreds were the fans who had been gathered outside the building at the time. When the explosion happened, they had not even had time to run before they were caught in it.
"Who do you think did it?" Zod asked calmly as he stood nearby.
"Probably someone we pissed off." Tony Stark shook his head. There were simply too many possible targets. Superheroes were always bound to make enemies, and with so many of them gathered together in one place, they had become the perfect target.
Tony Stark had no clear answer, but Zod quickly settled on a prime suspect.
Hydra!
An attack this frenzied required a huge amount of coordination. A single super-criminal could not pull off something on this scale unless the one inside the truck had been Nitro. But Nitro was a mutant, and in this world there were no naturally awakened mutants, only dormant X-Genes, so it could not possibly have been Nitro.
"Looks like I need to speed up the takeover of Hydra in North America."
Zod's expression darkened. It just so happened that, because of the symbiote battle suits, World Serpent had recently absorbed a large number of mercenaries. At present, World Serpent already had more than ten thousand people in America alone.
Over a thousand of them were the Zoanoids that Zod had originally asked Dr. Connors to create.
America tried to interfere in the aftermath of the bombing, but once Zod Heath and Tony Stark, two massive capitalist forces, joined hands, the official side simply was not their opponent. As a result, Zod Heath also tightened security around the Superhero Association headquarters.
"Blonsky, take Bucky and bring every Hydra branch in the Americas under control as quickly as possible."
Zod was furious, so he directly contacted Blonsky and Bucky through his mind-wave.
The Hydra leader in the Americas was Alexander Pierce. There was no need to deal with him for now. All they needed was to take control of the Hydra branches, then have them pretend they were still obeying Alexander Pierce's orders.
At that point, whenever Zod Heath wished, he could replace Alexander Pierce without making a sound.
Blonsky naturally heard the anger in his boss's voice. Even though he did not know exactly why Zod was this angry, that was not a bad thing.
If World Serpent stayed still any longer, it was probably going to rust.
Bucky, meanwhile, was still mostly operating in deep cover. Whenever he returned to Hydra, he spent most of his time frozen, so his active hours were limited.
But that had been the old situation.
Now that most of Hydra had already been brainwashed, even if Bucky wandered all over the base, no one would dare say a word.
The moment World Serpent suddenly accelerated its advance, many Hydra cells switched sides overnight. In truth, World Serpent had already grasped the locations of many Hydra strongholds and bases from the beginning. It had only advanced slowly because Zod had insisted they move steadily and securely. Now that Zod had ordered them to speed things up, Hydra's rate of collapse naturally became absurdly fast.
More importantly, Hydra itself could not even detect that it was collapsing.
Not long after, Zod Heath found out exactly who had ordered the attack on the Superhero Association headquarters.
The order had been given by the commander of Hydra's Boston base. As for why it had come from Boston rather than San Francisco or Chicago, that was probably because the Hydra branches in those places had already fallen.
That commander also confessed that he had acted under orders from Hydra's higher leadership.
Even so, Zod still stuffed him full of steel alloy, turned him into a steel-alloy pillar, and sank him off the West Coast.
/-\
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