Baron Strucker had never cared about immortality.
Since his resurrection, aging had largely stopped being his concern. What truly interested him was what lay behind Mara Vale. The hidden settlement she protected. The place known as Afterlife.
Threats worked where curiosity failed.
With the lives of her husband Calvin and her daughter Daisy held over her head, Mara eventually broke. She gave Strucker the location.
He led the assault personally.
Hydra forces descended on Afterlife with overwhelming speed, taking Mara with them as leverage. The resistance was brief and futile. Like mutants, most Inhumans possessed abilities that were strange rather than lethal. A handful could fight. Most could not. And many living there were ordinary family members, entirely defenseless.
Faced with Hydra soldiers and their captured leader, the settlement surrendered.
Strucker's disappointment came later.
Experiments revealed that Inhuman abilities could not be replicated at scale. Powers required a specific genetic trigger and exposure to crystalline agents. There was no reliable way to mass-produce soldiers with chosen abilities.
The dream died quickly.
Instead, Strucker took hostages.
Every family member of every Inhuman was removed from Afterlife and scattered across unknown locations. Chains didn't have to be visible to be effective. From that day on, Mara and her people served Hydra under silent coercion.
"Gordon," Mara said quietly into a secured line. "Take me back."
A blind man appeared in her room without sound.
Gordon possessed two gifts. He could sense other Inhumans. And he could fold space.
He took Mara's hand, and the world vanished.
They reappeared in Afterlife.
Mara gathered the few Inhumans whose abilities could be used in combat. She spoke plainly, without ceremony.
"The mission itself doesn't matter," she said. "Survival does. If the situation turns bad, Gordon takes you out immediately."
She turned to Daisy. "Your power is strong, but unstable. Don't force it."
To Gordon, she added quietly, "If things collapse, leave. I'll deal with Strucker."
Moments later, Gordon returned her to Sokovia. Then, one by one, he transported the selected Inhumans, Daisy among them, to Washington and the Triskelion.
Elsewhere, the X-Jet lifted into the sky.
After a brief word with Professor Xavier, Rowan Mercer vanished from the academy in a ripple of displaced air.
He had his own destination.
Hydra's energy-weapon facility was located on a small island off the coast, close enough to Washington to matter, far enough to be overlooked. Rowan appeared on the shoreline, unfurled his wings, and launched himself toward the island.
Flight magic alone wasn't enough.
He layered it with magnetism, gravity manipulation, and directional thrust, accelerating along Earth's magnetic field until the air screamed around him. The result was brutal efficiency. Supersonic speed.
His body endured it without complaint. Long ago, it had stopped being ordinary.
"Tony's suit is still faster," Rowan muttered, thinking of Stark's latest upgrades. Four Mach, if the bragging was accurate.
He smiled faintly. "I'll build my own eventually."
The island appeared ahead, Hydra insignias stark against concrete and steel. At the docks, soldiers loaded freshly produced energy weapons onto transport ships.
Rowan cast a concealment spell and walked straight in.
No alarms. No resistance.
He frowned.
According to Sitwell's memories, this facility should have been crawling with Hydra combat androids.
None appeared.
It didn't concern him much. Machines were the worst possible opponents for someone who controlled metal.
Deep inside the facility, Rowan unlocked a series of reinforced doors and found the Tesseract suspended within an extraction array. Blue energy poured from it, stabilized and siphoned into sealed containers that rolled along a conveyor belt.
The alarm finally screamed.
"Thermal sensors," Rowan noted calmly. "Thorough."
He shut off his concealment spell and examined the machinery. Taking one of the glowing containers, he opened it and began to meditate.
The energy responded.
Clean. Potent. Absorbable.
Rowan opened his eyes and smiled. "Perfect."
Hydra soldiers burst into the chamber, weapons raised.
They never fired.
Their guns tore free from their hands, twisted in midair, and discharged point-blank into their owners. Metal obeyed Rowan. It always had.
When the room fell silent again, he shut down the extractor and retrieved a small storage box from his spatial inventory. The machine and the Tesseract folded neatly inside.
The island base continued to blare alarms.
Rowan was already gone.