Room 402, Building 6, Ashwood Street.
The Purple Man sat upright on the couch, frowning nonstop.
In front of him, beside the huge TV, were two smaller screens. They should have been showing surveillance feeds from seven key intersections nearby.
But now…
Every screen was black.
So the Purple Man went to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of liquor, and took a swig to steady himself.
"So… who's got their eye on me?"
He thought about it, and Heisenberg seemed the most likely. That bastard had actually played with his little sweetheart!
That was Jessica, the Purple Man's best meal saved for himself. He should have kept pushing that girl deeper and deeper into collapse, until she could no longer bear the fact of her own existence.
That process could have lasted two years, three years, maybe even five.
But the Purple Man was willing to wait, because once the dish truly ripened, its flavor would be earth-shattering!
But now it was all gone. The damn dish had been eaten by someone else. Damn it!
Old Purple went completely berserk. His rage almost seemed to take physical form above his head.
He stared out the window with a bottomless gaze. You people, whoever you are, aren't you here with malice toward me?
Perfect.
I'll use you to vent my anger for a while.
Bang!!!
The door was kicked open in one violent strike. Captain America charged in first, shield raised.
He was about to pounce on the Purple Man, who sat directly opposite the doorway, but after only two steps, he stopped in place like something had jammed him.
Behind him, Barton immediately sensed something was wrong. Without hesitation, he raised his bow and fired an arrow at the Purple Man's right leg.
The instant the arrow flew, Captain America whipped around and lifted his shield. The arrow was easily deflected.
And Barton… lost the strength to fire a second shot.
Behind Barton, Grant Ward led his team of special agents in a rush, but the moment they saw what was happening inside, they were stunned.
Grant Ward was sharp. He immediately rolled, tumbling out of the room.
But his men were already under the Purple Man's control.
Ward didn't dare push in again. He could only roar into his earpiece.
"Something's wrong! The Captain's been controlled, and Barton too!"
"What?!!"
Downstairs, John Garrett, the deputy commander of the operation, felt his mind go blank. The operation had just begun, hadn't it?
Was this Purple Man's control really that terrifying?
In just an instant, even the Captain couldn't resist?
"Breach the wall and give the sniper a line of sight. Watch your own safety!"
"Yes!"
Grant acknowledged immediately.
Not far from him, Agent Melinda May picked up the breaching device and got to work. In barely over ten seconds, miniature breaching explosives had been spread across the entire wall.
At the same time, inside the room.
The Purple Man looked at them gloomily and asked softly, "Tell me who you are. Which department are you from, and whose orders are you following to attack me?"
As his words fell, Captain America visibly stuttered. He didn't say what the Purple Man wanted him to say. Instead, with that Marvel number-one willpower that bordered on inhuman, he kept slamming back against the Purple Man's control.
But while he struggled to resist, the scattered agents spoke.
"HYDRA covert agent Henry Ford, under John Garrett's orders, here to capture the Purple Man to deal with the Superman Heisenberg."
"HYDRA covert agent Teddy Garnett, under…"
"HYDRA covert agent…"
"HYDRA covert agent…"
"HYDRA…"
"S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clinton Francis Barton, commissioned by Heisenberg, deployed by Director Nick Fury, here to capture the Purple Man."
After everyone introduced themselves with expressionless faces…
Behind those blank expressions, their minds were erupting with volcanic terror!!!
HYDRA!!!
John Garrett!!!
Captain America, still struggling, suddenly widened his eyes. The veins on his forehead practically exploded.
"How the hell are there so many HYDRA agents!!!"
He blurted it out. The sheer shock HYDRA gave him yanked him straight out of the Purple Man's control.
The moment he broke free, Captain America didn't deal with the HYDRA problem first.
He spun and hurled his shield at the Purple Man.
Startled by Captain America breaking free, the Purple Man hurriedly rolled sideways off his chair, barely dodging the shield by a hair.
Even sprawled on the floor in a mess, the Purple Man didn't forget to issue a new command.
"Protect me and get me out of New York!"
As soon as he spoke, the lone Barton, along with a pack of HYDRA agents, launched a frenzied assault on Captain America.
Two fists couldn't beat four hands, and among those hands was Hawkeye.
Don't be fooled by Captain America's reputation for always being "evenly matched" in Marvel, because Hawkeye is also famous for one thing.
Anyone can get an arrow.
Which big-name villain hasn't gotten a close-up from Hawkeye's arrows?
So how could Hawkeye be an ordinary guy?
In an instant, the agents inside the room were brawling in a chaotic knot. Captain America blocked left and right, fending off attacks from every direction.
And the Purple Man…
He slipped through the turmoil, picked up Captain America's shield, and strapped it onto his own arm.
Shield in hand, he glanced toward the door. Those people outside were definitely messing with the wall of his room.
He had to jump.
It was only the fourth floor. He still had a little confidence. He was a mutant too, even if the mutation was in his brain, his body had still been strengthened to some degree.
And he had a shield that could block bullets.
So he rushed toward the window.
Before he could even open it, the Purple Man froze in total confusion.
Because he heard unbelievably intense gunfire from downstairs!
…
Half a minute earlier.
…
"Who are you…?"
"HYDRA…!"
"HYDRA…!"
…
After the agents inside answered like that, everyone outside who was preparing to attack went numb.
These agents, who should have been working together, stared at each other, one looking at the other, the other looking back.
Then, including Coulson and the rest, every agent turned their gaze toward John Garrett.
The atmosphere completely congealed.
And right then, more than ten modified off-road vehicles rolled in from all directions.
Elektra stepped out first and walked straight toward John's position.
She knew that handsome guy was the overall commander of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Of course, she didn't know it was Captain America.
But the handsome guy wasn't downstairs. Aside from the overall commander, she also knew John Garrett was the deputy commander.
So of course she walked toward Garrett.
But the moment Coulson saw Garrett gain reinforcements, his nerves reacted like a reflex. He raised his pistol at Garrett.
That single motion poked a hornet's nest. In seconds, over seventy percent of the agents aimed at Coulson.
The remaining twenty-something percent finally belatedly raised their guns in alarm.
But what were they even guarding against? Guard against what?
The formation was scattered. Before this, nobody knew who was HYDRA.
Look around. The legitimate S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were isolated and helpless. Almost every one of them had at least two HYDRA agents beside them!
At that moment, even Elektra was startled by how twisted the situation had become.
"F*ck, is this black-on-black?"
So she simply raised the sai in her hand and rushed to the front of John Garrett, planning to take this helpless-looking old man hostage.
Garrett wasn't about to let her have her way. And with almost everyone exposed now, he decided to smash the jar since it was already cracked.
He shouted, "Do it. Leave none alive!"
Gunfire erupted instantly. In just a blink, more than twenty agents were dead, and the number kept climbing.
Even Coulson took a bullet. Luckily, he wore a bulletproof vest, and he barely managed to dodge and scramble behind his car.
Elektra reacted fast too. She shouted at her people.
"Protect Crossbones. He's one of ours!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Crossbones, you!!!"
That last line came from John Garrett. He truly hadn't expected that Crossbones, someone almost equal to him in status inside HYDRA, was actually a damn traitor!
And Crossbones…
The old buddy was completely stunned.
How did he betray anyone? When did he become Elektra's man? Why didn't he know?
How was this even a thing, not knowing when you defected?
I defected?!!
But he couldn't even explain. The gangsters hauling assault rifles and grenade launchers didn't give him the chance.
In just seven or eight seconds, he was shoved behind a wall of countless gang members.
After failing to grab Garrett, Elektra also quickly retreated into her own crowd.
She slipped into the mass, took a weapon handed over by one of her men, then leaned right up next to Crossbones like she belonged there.
"Hey, I'm Elektra. I just started running with Boss Heisenberg. You've definitely heard of me!"
"I… I f*cking…"
Listening to Elektra introduce herself, Crossbones was so confused he was practically growing confusion fruit on a confusion tree.
Seeing Crossbones so "tense," Elektra nodded in understanding. She even bumped his upper arm with her gunstock in a friendly gesture.
"Don't be nervous. We'll cover you. The boss appreciates your brains. He seems to want you managing all his people.
Once we get through today, maybe I'll even have to call you big brother. Keep it up!"
After saying that, she didn't care that Crossbones never answered. She charged out of the crowd first and began a massacre among the S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA agents alike.
In an instant, the scene became chaos beyond chaos, to the point that nobody even cared about the original target, the Purple Man, anymore.
The Purple Man walked out through the crowd, swaggered straight to his Chevrolet, and got in.
Ignition, gas, the car slowly moved forward, and inside, the Purple Man felt nothing but bewilderment.
Why were the people trying to capture him fighting each other?
Because of HYDRA?
Wait.
HYDRA!
Didn't that thing disappear after World War II?
How…
He froze.
Not because he was shocked to discover HYDRA.
But because…
His car was flying.
That old car, with no flight function installed and no flight magic cast on it, was now floating up into the clouds.
Still, he didn't panic. He'd seen big scenes before.
So he quickly rolled down the window and looked below the car.
Sure enough!
He could see two hairy legs, half-covered by pajama pants.
"Heisenberg!!!"
He roared, and at the same time activated his control ability with everything he had.
His scent, his gaze, his voice, every last thing was pushed to maximum control.
But unfortunately, Heisenberg wasn't controlled at all.
The wind howled loudly in his ears. The Purple Man faintly heard Heisenberg talking on the phone.
When he strained to listen, Heisenberg's voice became a little clearer.
So he heard Heisenberg saying to the person on the other end, "Jessica, it's me. Your boss.
"I'm giving you a task. Wait for me on my rooftop.
"I'm going to throw a car down at you from the sky. You have to destroy it with everything you've got, and you're not allowed to let the car damage even a single floor tile on my roof.
"If you succeed, I'll give you the Purple Man, barely alive. How about it?"
/-\
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