"Tap, tap, tap, tap…"
A series of footsteps sounded out as a man in a custom black suit slowly walked forward. He had a head of silver hair, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and an air of cold precision.
He wasn't particularly tall—medium height, lean build—but there was something unmistakably dangerous in the way he carried himself.
He stopped in front of the crowd of green monsters, lifted his chin slightly, and let a look of barely concealed disdain and contempt hang on his face as his eyes swept over the superheroes before him.
Then his thin lips parted, and he said flatly, "So you're the so-called superheroes?"
Harry sized the man up for a moment, then asked, "You're Baron Strucker?"
Baron Strucker met Harry's gaze and looked him up and down, like he was examining some rare curiosity.
After a brief pause, he nodded as if he'd reached a conclusion, and replied with a trace of mockery, "That's right. I was curious what the Sorcerer Supreme would look like. Turns out you're exactly like the files said—nothing more than a snot-nosed little brat who hasn't even finished growing up.
"I know why you're here. You wave the banner of punishing evil and promoting good, decide HYDRA is an 'evil organization,' and claim we want to rule the world.
"But have you ever considered this: what difference does it make who rules the world? Those ignorant masses were born to be ruled. Being ruled by nations today, or being ruled by HYDRA tomorrow—it's just swapping one ruler for another. The essence doesn't change."
Steve's expression stayed rock-solid, not shaken in the slightest. He snapped back, voice sharp with conviction, "The world is peaceful and stable right now. It doesn't need people like you trying to tear down order!
"Your 'rule' is nothing but personal greed—stoking wars, dragging countless people into suffering and disaster!"
Even under Steve's condemnation, Baron Strucker remained calm, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Maybe to him, Steve's outrage was nothing more than children playing pretend.
He knew exactly who Captain America was. In the last century, Captain America had dealt HYDRA a crushing blow—nearly wiping them out.
That kind of will was unbreakable. A man who devoted his entire life to destroying HYDRA would never be persuaded with a few words.
Thinking that, Baron Strucker gave a slight shake of his head, moved his gaze off Steve, and looked to the others instead—lingering the longest on the younger trio: Harry, Wanda, and Pietro, as if calculating something.
In his eyes, these three were powerful yet inexperienced—the most likely to be swayed.
He turned first to the Maximoff siblings, face drawn with performative grief. "Wanda. Pietro. I was the one who pulled you out of the chaos of war. I gave you a place to live, kept you away from danger, let you live in peace. And this is how you repay me?"
Pietro, already hot-tempered by nature, exploded immediately. "You old bastard, cut the fake sympathy! Don't think we don't know you 'saved' us because you wanted to use us as lab rats!"
Wanda was quieter. She pressed her lips together without a word, but scarlet magic gathered in her palm—ready to strike at any moment.
Baron Strucker's eyes flashed when he saw the power in Wanda's hand. Then he shifted his focus to Harry and asked, "You're the one who helped Wanda unlock the power inside her? We watched her for a long time. We knew her potential was enormous. We poured endless effort into it, and still couldn't make her awaken. And you did it so easily."
He stepped forward, spreading his hands as if welcoming Harry into open arms, voice oiled with temptation.
"Come, Sorcerer Supreme. Join HYDRA. What can S.H.I.E.L.D. possibly offer you?
"To live better in this world, you need strength and you need backing. Anything S.H.I.E.L.D. can give you, HYDRA can also give you. And what S.H.I.E.L.D. can't give you, HYDRA can give you even more!
"You have extraordinary talent. You shouldn't be buried. The ruling class of this world should have a place for you."
At first, Strucker was only testing the waters—tossing out the offer without truly believing he could convince Harry.
But what he didn't expect was Harry looking genuinely interested, asking, "Oh? And what can you give me?"
Steve's face went tight with alarm. He shouted, "Harry, don't fall for it! It's an empty promise—he'll never honor it!"
Unlike Steve, Baron Strucker's expression slowly brightened with excitement. If he could pull the Sorcerer Supreme into HYDRA, then the dream of ruling the world would be that much closer.
Maybe, once Captain America and the other stubborn holdouts were dealt with, they could declare war on the nations outright and ignite a world war.
Strucker coaxed, "Endless wealth. A long life. Beautiful women. A bright future. Overwhelming power. Anything you can think of—you'll have it all!"
After he said it, Strucker swallowed secretly, thinking, That brat's completely intimidated now, right?
As long as the Sorcerer Supreme agreed to join HYDRA, Strucker had plenty of ways to control him.
Why would he ever actually fulfill those promises?
But what he didn't expect was that after hearing it, it wasn't just Harry—every other superhero also wore a strange expression. Pietro even laughed out loud.
They all looked at him like he was a clown.
A clown drunk on his own worldview, convinced he possessed the greatest treasures—while in everyone else's eyes, it was all worthless.
Harry studied the well-dressed, glossy show-off in front of him—like a proud rooster strutting around—and asked in baffled disbelief, "Huh? That's it? That's HYDRA's benefits?"
Baron Strucker immediately realized something was wrong. He frantically searched his memory for anything about the Sorcerer Supreme.
But Nick Fury had locked down all information related to him, and there was no way Tony Stark would leak anything useful. So HYDRA had some understanding of the Sorcerer Supreme—but not nearly enough.
So what was wrong with what he'd just said? Why were they reacting like this?
He locked eyes with Steve—who looked just as confused. They were supposed to be mortal enemies, yet in that moment their expressions mirrored each other perfectly.
So he doesn't know either.
Seeing Strucker's blank, stunned face, Harry sneered.
"I thought you were going to impress me. This is it? Money? Did you forget I'm the second-largest shareholder of Stark Industries?
"Life span? For sorcerers, life span was never a shackle. Eternity is absurdly easy.
"Beautiful women—cough, cough…
"A bright future? Overwhelming power? On Earth, who has a more exalted status or a brighter future than the Sorcerer Supreme?
"You said anything I can think of would be mine. So what, this is all your brain can come up with?
"At least give me a shot at being a dimensional lord, or toss me a few planets to play with. Even if you're limited, short-sighted, and unwilling to give up HYDRA's leader seat, you could at least offer me the vice-leader position, right?
"But what happened? You didn't even show that much sincerity. Where do you get the audacity to promise all that?"
"You—! You don't know what's good for you! I'll kill you!" Baron Strucker's face twisted with rage. Ever since he'd taken over as the branch's top leader, when had anyone dared humiliate him like this?
But his threat carried no weight at all. Instead, Harry burst out laughing. "Hahaha! Even your threats are weak. Kid, go home and play your little pretend games!"
Then Harry's expression turned cold. Magic surged through him, killing intent bleeding into his voice.
"Let me teach you how to threaten someone. Once I find you, I'll pour your soul into a maggot and leave you squirming in a latrine until its life runs out.
"Then I'll sell that hatred-filled soul of yours to the most vicious abyss demon, so you'll be scorched by hellfire for eternity—until the very last shred of you dissolves into miserable, screaming nothingness!"
Baron Strucker roared in humiliation and fury, "In your dreams! With your strength, how could you possibly defeat the Green Legion?
"And you've reminded me—whether hell exists or not, I'll deal with you in an even more brutal way!"
Harry scoffed again. "Ignorant Muggle. Where do you get the confidence that you can win? Because of these crude, defective knockoffs you cobbled together from the Hulk's blood?
"Or do you think you're safe because you're only standing here through an android duplicate, while your real body hides in the shadows?
"Or are you naïve enough to believe I'm just bored—so I'm wasting time arguing with you?"
While Harry was talking, Hedwig was running calculations at high speed—and finally confirmed Baron Strucker's location.
Harry's gaze seemed to pierce through building after building, rising higher and higher, until it fixed on the peak of a distant low mountain.
On that mountaintop, a seemingly ordinary structure was hidden—plain on the outside, full of secrets within. In a high-tech room inside it, Baron Strucker stood beneath cold lights, wearing a helmet, his expression dark.
Harry grinned. "Found you."
He raised his wand. Electric currents coiled around it like serpents, weaving and interlocking, building a powerful electromagnetic field.
At the center of that field, energy gathered and compressed again and again, until it condensed into an incomparably sharp lightning sword.
Under Strucker's horrified stare, under Steve's astonished gaze, and under the knowing looks of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Harry swung his wand hard—
The lightning sword shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow!
Boom!
A deafening blast shook the air, as if the world itself might crack apart.
Harry had launched the lightning sword like an electromagnetic cannon. Its speed was beyond belief—instantly breaking past ten times the speed of sound!
It became a blinding streak of electricity, dragging a long tail of light behind it, and struck the android body Strucker was controlling with absolute precision.
The terrifying impact punched straight through the machine body. And the lightning sword didn't stop—still tearing forward with unstoppable force, it pierced through one green monster after another behind it!
Each time it passed through a creature, a burst of lightning exploded from the wound, shredding the body into pieces.
Even the stray arcs spilling off that lightning sword carried frightening power. A mere graze was enough to leave the green monsters heavily injured and collapsing on the spot.
These monsters were mutated with the Hulk's blood, granting them physiques far beyond normal humans. To ordinary people they were terrifying—strong and vicious.
But in front of Railgun 2.0, they were fragile—so fragile they weren't even tougher than a sheet of paper.
That single strike wiped out nearly half of the green monsters.
Even for Harry, unleashing an attack of that magnitude took an enormous toll. It required a long charge-up, heavy preparation, and the mobilization of every bit of magic he could control.
Harry breathed a little harder, steadied himself, then turned to the others behind him and said, "Go finish off the rest of the green monsters. I'm going to capture Baron Strucker. I'm not letting him slip away!"
With that, he flicked his wand.
A portal formed instantly.
Harry stepped through without hesitation—
And in the next second, he appeared inside the high-tech room Hedwig had just identified.
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