In the highest office of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Trident Headquarters, Alexander Pierce was eavesdropping on Nick Fury's commands through an encrypted line.
"Codename 'Ghost Rider,'" Fury's voice was devoid of emotion. "Origin unknown, abilities unknown. Its modus operandi is to judge and execute those it deems sinners. Threat level... extremely dangerous. Just now, Consultant Lin Huai's advice came in; he believes the target will go on a rampage in Houston. Consultant Lin and his unofficial team were severely injured in their confrontation with Mephisto, so this time, we have to handle it ourselves."
"We must stop him." Fury's tone remained flat. "An uncontrolled, powerful individual roaming the homeland is absolutely intolerable. Immediately dispatch the STRIKE Team to intercept him. Live capture is preferred. Rumlow's team is the agency's most elite force, and the only one capable of restraining such a target in a direct confrontation. I'll have Stark assist."
Pierce's mind raced upon hearing this.
A new supernatural power? This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for HYDRA! If they could capture and analyze this power, its value would far exceed the Insight Project. Fury actively proposing to send the STRIKE Team was practically delivering a gift to their doorstep. As long as he sent another team for an inside-out cooperation, they could capture him and bring him to a HYDRA Base. He absolutely couldn't let Fury's people get involved now, or it would complicate matters.
The composure on Pierce's face quickly gave way to a hint of greedy excitement. He picked up another encrypted phone and dialed Rumlow's number.
"Rumlow, it's me."
"Officer!"
"Fury is sending you to intercept a target. I will prevent Fury from involving anyone else in this mission." Pierce's voice carried an irresistible allure. "The target is a stunt performer on a motorcycle, but he possesses... a tremendous energy that the organization is very interested in. Bring him back alive, Rumlow, that's an order. HYDRA needs this power. I'll have people coordinate with your movements; you know what to do."
"Mission accomplished!" Rumlow replied without hesitation. In his eyes, this was just another routine operation to plunder resources for the organization.
Pierce stood up from his seat and walked towards the Director's office... At Tony Stark's proud cliffside mansion on Malibu Beach.
When the portal opened by Sorcerer Russell spun open in the center of the living room, a strong... burnt smell wafted out.
As Lin Huai, Natasha, and Banner stepped out of the portal, they were greeted by a culinary scene that could only be described as disastrous.
Tony Stark, wearing a comical pink apron emblazoned with "Kiss the Cook," was fumbling to flip a clearly carbonized steak in a frying pan.
Pepper Potts, meanwhile, leaned nearby, elegantly holding a glass of red wine, her face full of helplessness mixed with a hint of doting amusement: "Tony, I told you I could order takeout. Are you sure this isn't some carbon-based armor material you salvaged from a bombed-out lab?"
"Hey! This is called Postmodern Culinary Art with Molecular Reconstruction Aesthetics!" Tony retorted, full of conviction.
On the sofa on the other side.
Betty Ross had clearly been waiting for a long time. Seeing Banner return safely, her eyes were filled with relief and joy.
"Bruce," Betty said softly, holding Banner's somewhat fidgeting hand, "Welcome home."
Dr. Banner adjusted his glasses, a hint of nervousness and shyness appearing on his usually composed face. He responded awkwardly, his gaze unable to leave Betty's face for even a moment.
Lin Huai stood in the center of the living room, looking at the two couples immersed in their respective happiness, feeling as if the air was filled with pink bubbles, sickeningly sweet.
He subconsciously touched the tarot cards in his pocket. He remembered the first and only time he had ever been given flowers in his life was on that eerie stage in Orlando, and the giver was a Puppet formed by spirits, full of madness and chaos.
Thinking of this, Lin Huai's mouth twitched involuntarily, his expression utterly miserable.
To prevent his resentment from polluting the beautiful atmosphere, Lin Huai decided to slip away. "I'm going back to my room to digest."
Closing the door, cutting off the sweet talk outside, Lin Huai sat cross-legged on the bed.
He remembered the Sequence 7 Werewolf characteristic still quietly lying there. How to deal with this dangerous item had become his recent dilemma. He needed a more systematic, efficient, and even more scientific method for creating Beyonder items.
"I seek revelation from the Fool, eager to find more complete knowledge and methods for creating Beyonder items."
He closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into that familiar mysterious space Above the Gray Fog.
"The Fool who does not belong to this era;"
"You are the mysterious ruler Above the Gray Fog;"
"You are the king of yellow and black who controls good fortune."
Softly chanting the prayer, his entire consciousness seemed to be instantly elevated, and the scene before his eyes rapidly changed. When his vision cleared again, he saw a frozen World.
A giant bomber, two super soldiers modified by serum, engaged in the most primitive and savage close combat within the narrow cockpit.
The scene rapidly jumped. Lin Huai saw Red Skull holding up the Tesseract, engulfed by a blinding light. An extremely unstable spatial Door appeared out of thin air, sucking him in. The Tesseract's energy also caused the plane to explode and crash in the North Pole. Steve and the Tesseract were thrown out and fell into the glacier, while the plane glided further, smashing into a crevice in a more distant iceberg.
However, that spatial Door did not disappear immediately as expected. Like a bleeding wound, it stubbornly hovered inside the plane's wreckage, constantly twisting and pulsating. In his divinatory vision, Lin Huai could clearly feel the passage of time; this spatial Door actually persisted for decades.
The scene accelerated again, until about three months ago. That spatial Door began to flicker violently, on the verge of complete collapse.
But just a second before it completely vanished, a black, metallic box was violently thrown out from the other side of the Door!
Lin Huai's vision zoomed in instantly. He clearly saw a large, intricate emblem engraved on the surface of the box—a huge gear pattern. And next to it was HYDRA's massive apparatus for extracting Tesseract energy.
...On a desolate highway on the outskirts of Houston, a chase was unfolding.
Rumlow's face was livid. He now only wanted to shatter Pierce's head with armor-piercing rounds. "Stunt performer"? Those incompetent Fools in intelligence should all be court-martialed!!! In less than 20 minutes, out of over 30 elite Agents, only he remained.
In the rearview mirror, that burning Hellfire clung to his car's tail like a persistent plaster. His proud special operations bulletproof SUV was as fragile as a soda can in front of it.
"Damn it!"
Rumlow cursed, yanking the steering wheel. The SUV screeched, tires burning, as it swerved sideways across the road. Simultaneously, he pressed a red button on the center console.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Three automatic turrets mounted with Gatling guns rapidly rose.
"Da! Da! Da! Da! Da!"
Flames erupted, yet that ball of fire moved in an eerie Z-pattern, directly rushing into the blind spot of the firepower. Rumlow only felt a blur before his eyes; a burning Skull had already shattered the bulletproof glass next to the driver's seat, and a skeletal hand engulfed in flames gripped his throat.
"Sin..."
From the hollow eye sockets, the burning Hellfire was inches away.
An irresistible force instantly surged into Rumlow's brain. All the sins he had committed in his life—the betrayals, assassinations, interrogations, and every oath of allegiance to HYDRA—flashed through his mind like a fast-forwarded movie.
He saw himself, under Pierce's orders, leading the STRIKE Team to carry out HYDRA's purge missions in the name of S.H.I.E.L.D.; he saw himself secretly clearing obstacles for the Insight Project; he saw himself sowing chaos and death across the World... All memories, no matter how minor, were instantly stripped and copied.
Finally, his soul, filled with sin, was burned clean in the inferno of this hellish Judgement.
"Ah—!"
After a short, piercing scream, Rumlow's body went limp.
Ghost Rider released his hand, letting the soulless husk slump into the driver's seat. His burning mandible slightly opened and closed, as if digesting the massive amount of information he had just acquired.