A particle beam shot down from the sky, slamming Pierce across the pavement like a ragdoll.
Then came a loud crash—Tony Stark landed in full Iron Man armor, the repulsors in his palms glowing hot and ready. He immediately aimed at Pierce, standing firm between him and Nick Fury.
"I tweaked the settings on the repulsor," Tony said coolly. "This blast could vaporize half your body. So, unless you want to test that, I'd stay very still."
After taking a hit in the last major battle, Tony had buried himself in the lab, working day and night. Every weapon system in the suit was now upgraded to the next level.
"Stark?" Fury's voice was hoarse, filled with disbelief. He hadn't expected Tony to show up.
"Jarvis picked up an emergency signal from your ride's AI," Tony replied with a smirk. "Also, I'm the engineer you cursed out last week. Not my best work, huh?"
He was half-joking.
In reality, Tony had only guided the build.
But he was here now, and that mattered more.
Just then, a quiet sigh drifted from the shadows.
A new figure emerged—Luke, stepping out like he'd been there the whole time.
"Luke?!" Fury's one good eye widened in surprise.
Tony turned, caught off guard. "When did you get here? Jarvis didn't pick you up."
Luke gave a casual shrug. "Been here for a while. I was waiting to see if the walking pirate baldy over there was gonna kick the bucket. I was supposed to save him and then he's gonna owe me one... Tough luck."
Fury blinked.
'Motherfucker's stealing my modus operandi.'
"He's the Hydra mole," Fury quickly added, nodding toward the barely-standing Pierce. "I'm still the good guy here."
Luke wasn't interested in Fury's defense.
He didn't show up to play detective for S.H.I.E.L.D. He had his own reason.
"So," Luke said, stepping closer to Pierce, "you mentioned something earlier... The Shadow God told you to kill someone, right?"
Luke's sharp gaze locked onto Pierce.
He could sense the corrupted energy swimming through the man.
It was the same foul power used by other fanatics before—twisted and unstable. Garbage, really.
"Is there a chance that... the target is me?"
Pierce didn't reply. He didn't need to. The silence confirmed it all.
The Shadow God had commanded it.
Every Hydra cell had received the kill order: eliminate the blasphemer at all costs.
"Even if you stop me now," Pierce growled, "Hydra will still rise! Cut off one head, two more shall grow!"
He was bloodied, but his voice remained cold, full of old pride.
"And you—" Pierce glared at Luke. "The Shadow God has spoken! You'll be hunted forever. Wherever you go, Hydra will find you. You can't run."
Despite the threat, Luke just gave him a blank stare—like he was watching a delusional man ramble.
"Are you dumb or just a really confident idiot?" Luke scoffed. "If your so-called god's that strong, why doesn't it come kill me itself?"
He stepped in closer, mocking tone rising.
"Seriously, Shaco gave you a taste of power, and look at you becoming loyal like a fool, did he mess with your brain too? Want me to knight you or something?"
"Heh, stupid motherfucker~"
Without warning, Luke's fist flew forward—slamming straight into Pierce's skull.
Pierce didn't even have time to react. One second he was standing there, and the next—his head burst like a watermelon.
Blood, brain matter, and shards of skull sprayed in all directions like some gruesome firework display.
Luke stood over the body, shaking off his fist with a small flick. "Was that really the guy giving you so much trouble?" he said, glancing at Nick Fury with a smirk.
Fury winced at the sight. Luke's power was unsettling, even for someone who'd seen gods and monsters.
While they were talking, a black mist began to rise from Pierce's corpse.
It swirled in the air like a lost spirit, hesitant and twitching, as if searching for someone to cling to.
"Hmm?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
He reached out casually, and the black energy was sucked into his palm.
[Ding!]
[Abnormal demonic energy detected!]
[Purification complete. Compatible energy absorbed into host.]
The Supreme Exorcist System's voice echoed in Luke's head.
The corrupted power twisted for a second, then melted into his own demonic energy.
It was now clean, stable, and completely his.
"Huh... I didn't know I could do that," Luke muttered, watching his hands glow faintly. "So I can just take powers from people like that? Like a buffet?"
He chuckled to himself. "Big fish eats small fish, huh?"
Thinking back, Luke sighed. "If I knew this earlier, I wouldn't have handed those Shadow Demon cultists over to Coulson. What a waste."
Still, Pierce's energy wasn't much.
To Luke, it was like tossing a few drops of water into a massive ocean.
But hey, scraps still make a meal, right?
"Wait a second..." he suddenly froze.
"I just figured out how to exploit this. If I get blacklisted by these demon-worshipping weirdos, they'll keep sending people after me. I kill them, steal their power, and repeat?"
A slow, wicked grin spread across his face.
"Well done, Hydra. You're basically handing me free upgrades."
The demonic aura around him shimmered.
"Hey, Baldy!" Luke called out, turning to Nick Fury. "Got any more Hydra bases for me to raid?"
Nick raised an eyebrow. "You know I'm the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., right? Why would I know—"
He paused.
Actually, he did know a few.
He reached into the pocket of Pierce's jacket, grabbed the man's phone, and opened a secure app.
A map popped up with several red-marked locations.
"These were all black-site bases Pierce built when he was running S.H.I.E.L.D. Very hush-hush. Not even I had full clearance."
Luke scrolled through them and nodded.
They matched the vague locations listed in his temple core—except now, he had precise coordinates.
"Luke," Tony said, stepping up beside him, "you ever think about joining us? Hydra's on our hit list too."
Luke gave him a look, then casually pointed a thumb at Nick Fury. "The last guy who tried to recruit me ended up like that."
Without another word, Luke opened a glowing red portal with a wave of his hand.
He stepped through and vanished.
Tony and Fury were left in silence.
"..."
"..."
That left Tony Stark and Nick Fury standing there, staring at each other in silence.
"So... what did you use to recruit him? Bribery? Blackmail? Some kind of beauty trap?" Tony finally asked, raising an eyebrow.
Fury shook his head calmly. "Just... sincerity."
Tony blinked. That answer clearly wasn't what he expected.
"Sincerity," he repeated, almost tasting the word. Then he let out a long sigh. "I can't believe Nick Fury, a master spy and director of S.H.I.E.L.D., is capable of hiring someone with just sincerity. Remember when I found you in the dark, like some offshoot of Batman? Where's that man now?"
"Shut up, Stark."
Tony smirked as he helped Fury stand up....
...
Sokovia.
Hydra Division - Underground Base.
Deep beneath the earth, inside one of Hydra's hidden facilities, an entire floor was lined with tiny, windowless rooms—each one no bigger than a closet.
Inside these rooms, teenagers sat or lay quietly, most of them exhausted, some terrified.
A few rooms were already empty.
Among the remaining were Wanda and Pietro Maximoff—siblings, and the oldest of the group.
But even they were barely adults.
"They took little Wick this morning. He hasn't come back..." Pietro whispered, leaning against the bulletproof glass, his face pale with worry.
Over the past two days, more and more kids had been taken.
None had returned.
Before, the experiments were cruel—blood extractions, nerve tests, pain thresholds—but no one had died.
Now? Now it felt like no one was coming back at all.
"Wanda... what are we gonna do?"
From the next room over, Wanda met her brother's eyes.
Though Pietro had been born first, Wanda always insisted she was the older one.
"...I don't know," she said, her voice soft, but unsure.
They had joined Hydra seeking revenge—angry at Tony Stark, whose weapons had destroyed their home.
Hydra had promised them power.
But all they'd gotten was suffering.
"No. We can't just wait to die in here," Wanda said, standing up, defiance growing in her eyes. "We have to—"
Before she could finish, a heavy metal door clanged open at the end of the hall.
A man in a long coat and a monocle stepped into view.
Baron Strucker.
He began reading names from a clipboard, his voice cold and clinical. "Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, Charlie Wells, Anthony Shelliger..."
Wanda and Pietro froze.
They were on the list.
"No! Let me go! I want to go home—I want my mom!" a younger child screamed as soldiers unlocked doors and dragged the chosen ones out.
Wanda and Pietro didn't resist. There was no point.
They followed the guards quietly, glancing at each other with worry.
But this time, they weren't taken to the lab.
There were no doctors, no scanners, no machinery.
Just one strange room.
Blood covered everything—walls, floors, even the ceiling—painted in bizarre, twisting patterns.
The smell was thick, metallic. And unmistakable.
This wasn't paint.
It was human blood.
"Begin," Strucker said flatly.
Hydra soldiers shoved the kids to their knees. Daggers were drawn. Buckets were prepared.
This wasn't a blood test.
It was a ritual.
A sacrifice.
"PIETRO!!!" Wanda screamed, watching her brother pinned down, a knife pressed to his throat like he was an animal about to be slaughtered.
Her panic surged.
And with it, something inside her snapped.
Her eyes began to glow—bright red, wild, and furious.
==============
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