With the Tesseract secured, Rowan Mercer followed the conveyor line, sweeping every container of blue energy into his storage box. Hydra troops poured in from every corridor, but none of them ever fired a shot. Their energy rifles tore free from their hands, twisted in midair, and cut their owners down before they could react. Rowan collected the weapons too. Arms powered by the Tesseract were valuable. If he didn't need them, someone else would.
Deep in the control wing, Arnim Zola watched the feeds dissolve into static. The half-machine scientist froze, processors overheating as he replayed the footage again and again. Rowan moved through the base like it wasn't there at all.
"Who is he?" Zola muttered, frantically accessing Hydra's archives.
The answer loaded fast. Too fast.
Headmaster of the Superhuman Academy. Magnetic control on par with Magneto. Psychic abilities comparable to Xavier. Lightning manipulation. Field command presence.
"So that's why Pierce pulled my sentinels away," Zola hissed. "The Tesseract cannot be lost."
Years of planning. Decades of work. All of it hinged on that cube.
Zola opened a private channel. "Carl Creel. Intercept the intruder. Do not assume metallic form."
Carl Creel had once been a Hell's Kitchen boxer, brutal and desperate enough to take any deal that kept him alive. His power was simple and terrifying. Whatever he touched, he became. Flesh rewritten at the molecular level. Hydra experiments had sharpened it further. More importantly, when Creel transformed, his mind became unreadable. Psychic blind spots followed him like a shadow.
Against someone who controlled metal, Creel was the perfect counter. As long as he didn't become metal.
Rowan finished stowing the last energy vial and activated a tracking spell.
"Time to erase the brain behind this mess."
Zola couldn't hide forever. Even fused to machinery, his presence left a trail. Golden sigils flared in the air, pointing deeper into the facility.
Before Rowan could take more than a few steps, a wall of Hydra soldiers surged forward. This time, they carried no metal shields. Plastic composites. Wood. Even reinforced doors torn from their hinges.
Creative. Desperate.
Rowan lifted a hand. The hovering rifles behind him opened fire. Improvised shields shattered under concentrated energy, and the charge collapsed before it reached him.
Those who survived the barrage rushed in.
Two hundred million volts erupted outward.
The corridor filled with the smell of ozone and scorched fabric as bodies hit the floor, twitching once before going still.
Rowan stepped forward and felt it. A displacement in the air behind him. Too late for warning. Too clean to be random.
He twisted aside as a heavy fist tore through the space his head had occupied.
Rowan turned.
The man standing there wore Hydra armor, but his skin looked wrong. Elastic. Almost rubberized. He came in fast, punches chained together with trained precision.
Rowan evaded calmly, eyes sharp with interest.
"You tanked that discharge," Rowan said. "And I didn't feel you coming. Psychic insulation. Not bad."
The man snarled and pressed harder.
Rowan stepped back and flicked a coin into the air.
"Railgun."
The coin vanished in a flash of light.
It struck Creel at supersonic speed, blasting a fist-sized hole through his chest and slamming him into the far wall. For a moment, the corridor was silent.
Then the wound closed.
Creel staggered upright, rage burning through the pain. "I'm going to crush you."
He pulled a chunk of granite from a shattered wall and activated his power. His body hardened instantly, skin transforming into solid stone as he launched himself forward like a living missile.
Rowan nodded in recognition. "So it's you."
The wand came up smoothly.
A single green beam crossed the space between them.
Creel's transformation collapsed mid-leap. Stone reverted to flesh. His body hit the ground hard and did not move again.
Silence returned to the corridor.
Rowan lowered his wand and followed the glowing trail onward, unhurried.
Zola was next.