"Gao is your enemy too," Daisy said, laying out their shared position first. "We have a basis for working together."
Twenty-four hours ago, Viper would have refused. Her preference had always been to watch others fight from a distance — even when one side was her enemy and she could tip the balance by joining, she'd still choose to stay out. There was a particular satisfaction in watching men tear each other apart over trivialities, in holding all the threads while staying off the stage herself.
But something had shifted subtly overnight. She found herself genuinely considering the proposal.
Even with the goodwill the resonance had seeded between them, Viper still hesitated. "Going up against the Hand means casualties. A lot of them."
"Since when do you care about your subordinates?" Daisy said flatly.
She had a point. With Viper's ability to enchant and manipulate, recruiting new muscle was trivial. If a mercenary survived, lucky them. If they died, it saved her the payout.
Viper shook her head again. "Even if I take out Gao, the other four Fingers will come for me."
"They'd be coming for you regardless. Japan isn't big enough for two competing power structures."
"How certain are you that we can actually kill her?"
"Between my power and your toxins, she goes down." Daisy lobbed back the same line Viper had used on her during their recruitment pitch.
Both women laughed at the same time.
"This whole thing feels like you get all the upside," Viper said, stubbing out the cigarette. She hadn't committed yet — she seemed to be waiting for Daisy to sweeten the pot, though she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted. A promise? A tangible benefit? She didn't quite know herself.
Daisy had no real personal assets to offer. But she could borrow someone else's — which was more or less what Fury did all the time.
"Everything the Yashida clan owns goes to you." The initial goal had only ever been tracking where the missing Yashida resources had gone. Now that the Nazi thread had given her something concrete to bring to her superiors, S.H.I.E.L.D. had no real stake in the Yashida corporate holdings anyway.
"Can you actually guarantee that on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s behalf?"
"I can guarantee S.H.I.E.L.D. won't officially participate in carving up the Yashida assets." She was careful with the wording. She couldn't actually promise more than that, and Viper was smart enough to read the distinction.
The Yashida Group was enormous. Once it collapsed, the carcass would draw every opportunist within reach. People willing to die for money weren't hard to find — and if they weren't afraid to die, they certainly weren't afraid of HYDRA.
HYDRA itself wouldn't exactly rush to avenge a fallen branch. That was the organization's open secret. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place — fierce words, impressive optics. In practice, each faction barely tolerated the others. When a branch went down, the rest applauded, absorbed its assets, claimed to be carrying on the fallen comrade's mission, and moved on. Even the Red Skull, with all his dominance, had only barely kept the other faction heads in line — and the moment he disappeared, the whole structure shattered. That was HYDRA.
Swallowing the Yashida Group whole would be enormously difficult for Viper — harder than poisoning a symbiote. But Viper thought in terms of maneuvering through complicated webs of powerful men. That was her natural environment. Working the angles, extracting the largest slice from a room full of competitors who all underestimated her — she'd been doing that for years.
Her natural predators were women like Daisy. And monsters like Madame Gao.
"Fine," she said. "Walk me through the plan."
"The old woman sent me a trap invitation. We show up, gas her people out, then close in and finish her. Simple." Daisy's plan was exactly as straightforward as it sounded, and carried minimal risk on their end.
Viper gave her a measured look.
"You're overestimating what toxins can do, and underestimating what Gao is. I can't bring her down with poison. Even if she takes a hit, the Hand has a form of internal energy that can purge physical damage. She'll walk it off."
Daisy scratched her head. Toxins weren't the silver bullet she'd hoped for — she'd half-expected this, but hearing it confirmed still stung.
"Then we take out her people with the gas, and we surround the old woman ourselves."
Her mental image was a multi-person pile-on. Ideally several hundred people.
Four hundred years of cultivation or not — you couldn't fight a mob indefinitely.
They worked through the tactical problem for a while. Madame Gao was genuinely dangerous — which was exactly why Viper had spent years sparring with her without ever landing a decisive blow. Ultimately, this world came down to individual strength. Even if you had the numbers, she could always retreat.
By the end, they'd folded Wolverine and Shingen Yashida's combat potential into the equation. Optimistically, it could work.
"Forget the details — bring your people, we move together. And if everything goes sideways, I can pull us out." It wasn't the kind of thing you said to a room full of idealistic heroes. Viper, however, took it as exactly what it was: measured pragmatism.
Shikoku Island, Kochi Prefecture, Japan. The Yashida clan's ancient fortress.
The structure was seven hundred years old, buried in mountains on every side. The family had risen and fallen more than once across the centuries — but the remote stronghold had always kept them alive, outlasting every wrong bet they'd placed on history.
The moon climbed quietly above the treetops. Lights blazed throughout the castle as servants in traditional dress moved through the halls, preparing for a formal evening banquet.
There was no clinking of glasses. No crowd.
The main hall held only four people.
At the head of the table sat Madame Gao — plainly dressed as always, face a map of deep wrinkles, the same cold triangular eyes, that same clouded, unreadable gaze.
Where the castle's rightful owner should have sat, Shingen Yashida and his daughter Mariko occupied the lower seats, father and daughter facing each other in silence. Shingen was pale, the fabric of his clothing darkened with seeping blood beneath it. Mariko had no serious injuries — only a bruise spreading across her forehead.
The fourth guest was Wolverine, bolted to a metal chair.
His healing factor had kept his body pristine, not a mark on him. But the heavy metal restraints around his wrists were another matter.
"Augh! — Hrgh! —"
The hall echoed with his efforts. He threw everything into it. The chains didn't move.
"Mr. Logan." Madame Gao switched from Chinese to English; she knew he wouldn't understand it. "I have tremendous respect for your regenerative ability. But you were never particularly known for brute strength. Save your energy."
She'd had to think carefully about how to draw Daisy out.
The teleportation ability made her feel genuinely cornered. After considerable deliberation, this had been the best option available — set the bait, wait at the snare. Surely a young hero with a powerful ability wouldn't be able to resist jumping in to save her allies.