"Hahaha, Heaven helps me!"
"This time, fate is on my side! This time, I hold the lokis scepter! Such a powerful ability user!"
From the moment the blonde man appeared, Strucker, who had been suppressing the excitement in his heart, finally shouted out loud.
However...
"Pfft~"
A crisp metallic clashing sound rang out, and the wild laughter on Baron Strucker's face stopped abruptly.
He looked at the spot where the tip of the scepter had tapped, his head full of confusion.
Why did it seem different from before?
Since the blonde man had remained silent ever since he appeared and his expression hadn't changed at all, Strucker was a bit unsure if he had actually controlled him.
He tapped the scepter down again, and another crisp "Clang" sounded.
This time, Strucker spoke with some hesitation.
"I command you..."
But before he could finish his sentence, the blonde man in front of him moved directly.
He snatched the lokis scepter from Strucker's hand and backhanded it against his chest.
Blue radiance flowed over the scepter and instantly invaded Baron Strucker's body. Following that, his eyes were dyed black before turning blue again. Strucker, who had originally wanted to make a counterattack, now slowly lowered his hands and stood quietly in place.
"That's right, this is what it should look like after being controlled."
Uh, this sentence was spoken by Baron Strucker.
The blonde man remained silent, simply walking up to the two terrified pilots and tapping the scepter down repeatedly.
"Fly the plane well, and continue to the original destination."
At this moment, the man finally'spoke', but the sound did not come from his mouth. One couldn't even see the movement of his lips; it was as if a speaker had been installed inside his chest.
However, for those who had already been controlled by the lokis scepter, these things did not make them want to investigate. They simply followed their inner instincts and obediently executed the orders of the person in front of them.
Well, okay, it couldn't really be considered a person.
The blonde man cosplaying as Homelander in front of them was naturally the 'Erha Mecha' sent by Luca.
Just for the sake of caution, Luca had let it wear the 'Transformation Watch' to temporarily disguise itself in the image of Homelander.
In fact, it wasn't just 'Homelander'; Luca had also relied on data modeling to upload a whole bunch of random character images into the 'Transformation Watch' database. It was just that, thinking about the head laser recently added to the Erha Mecha, he had mischievously chosen Homelander to face the enemy.
It was just a pity that, because the Erha Mecha itself didn't have a useless feature like a mouth, the transformed Homelander couldn't even manage facial expressions, and his lips remained tightly closed even when speaking.
Of course, none of this affected the fact that the lokis scepter had already fallen into Luca's hands.
After ordering the Erha Mecha to control the HYDRA soldiers who had been knocked unconscious, he randomly picked out an unlucky guy and threw him off the plane.
The Erha Mecha then transformed again, taking the place of this voluntarily sacrificed HYDRA soldier.
The HYDRA airliner continued to fly steadily toward the original destination, the Sokovia Base.
"Hakimi, you take over the situation on Erha's side."
"By the way, don't forget to record Strucker's behavioral patterns, and make him confess all his hidden secrets. Report to me immediately if there are any new developments."
After briefly browsing the intelligence sent back from the Erha Mecha, Luca took off the remote control device, leaned back, and rested comfortably in his seat.
"Phew~ It seems like it was quite simple~"
Of course, the so-called'simple' was just talk.
If he hadn't accurately located the position of the lokis scepter, Luca wouldn't have been able to take the risk of a HYDRA counterattack to do this.
"However, the control from the lokis scepter is ultimately just a stopgap measure. Later, I should get a robot that can talk and just replace Strucker entirely."
In Luca's impression, although the mind-control ability of the lokis scepter was powerful, it was very easy to break. As long as the controlled person's head suffered a severe injury, after a short period of unconsciousness, they would break free from the scepter's control.
Relying solely on the scepter to control the entire European branch of HYDRA, if one of the controlled guys accidentally tripped and fell, Luca's control here might be directly exposed.
It was more reliable to use mind control to extract all of Strucker's intelligence and then replace him.
Moreover, the lokis scepter was definitely a core component, and this thing would sooner or later need to be taken back and synthesized. It's just that he didn't know if the scepter and the gem were two separate core components, or if they counted as one combined?
If such a good thing wasn't truly in his own hands, Luca would always be a bit uneasy. It seemed he needed to find time to go to Sokovia during this period; well, it would also be a good time to handle the branch company's affairs.
Yes, although he had successfully controlled Strucker, Luca was not prepared to immediately tear up the previous cooperation.
Testing Project Insight in Sokovia was not originally just Baron Strucker's affair; it was a core plan jointly promoted by multiple factions within HYDRA, relating to the future of HYDRA controlling the entire World.
Although Luca felt that the idea of wanting to eliminate everyone who posed a threat to HYDRA with just three Sky Carriers was not very reliable in itself, he couldn't openly let the European faction led by Strucker hinder the progress of the plan.
Even from the intelligence Strucker sent back just now, Luca also knew that this so-called test was not just to ensure the plan ran smoothly. Those guys in HYDRA were more about using this method to maintain so-called "stable order" for a long time after they took over the entire World.
Hmm... anyway, it was... quite arrogant.
In fact, over the past two days, Strucker had already started contacting politicians controlled by various HYDRA factions to lobby for the promotion of the 'Orderer Pistol', and even the intended cooperation proposal for the new company in Sokovia had been delivered to Luca.
The execution was undeniably strong; although it was mixed with some dark little intentions, for Luca right now, it didn't matter anymore.
It's just a pity that Wanda and Pietro hadn't been recruited by Strucker yet, otherwise he could have had two more capable subordinates~
Just as Luca was thinking about how to mediate within HYDRA in the future, so as not to get too deeply involved and end up sinking with this broken ship, and whether he could lean the company's development direction more towards Europe in the future...
A somewhat cold voice from Shirley came through the laboratory's communicator.
"Luca, Samira is calling you up for dinner."
"Oh, alright, coming right now!"
"Samira said school starts tomorrow, so she specifically had the chef prepare a nutritious meal for you. Hurry up, you need to sleep early tonight."