"So, our little experiment has decided to play superhero, Madame?"
Dr. Koyama pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose. He handed the biometric report to Ophelia Sarkissian. Viper. Madame Hydra.
Koyama was a high-ranking loyalist to the Hand. His ninja clan had merged their shadow-war with Hydra's global apparatus during the Second World War. Because of that ancient alliance, he understood the sheer, terrifying scale of the beast he served.
Ophelia barely glanced at the datapad. She stared out the reinforced window. She had looked exactly like this since 1945. Koyama's own father had taken orders from a woman who hadn't aged a single day. Her immortality wasn't the point. Her absolute, lethal authority within Hydra was.
"He is throwing a tantrum," Ophelia said smoothly. "He hopes to scream loud enough to attract the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. Let him scream. How is the sequencing progress?"
"We had setbacks," Koyama admitted, bowing his head slightly. "But we have two stable baseline survivors. A young white woman named Tandy Bowen, and a black teenager named Tyrone Johnson. Their cellular structures will withstand the Erskine catalyst."
Ophelia turned. Her brow pinched. "Do not take unnecessary risks."
"How much longer do you need to finalize the formula?" she asked.
"A week, Madame. Assuming Hydra can keep the Avengers occupied in Southeast Asia." Koyama smiled. He clearly didn't comprehend the logistical nightmare of successfully pinning down Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Ophelia stepped closer. "And if I bring the fugitive back to your lab?"
Koyama's smile widened. He tapped the screen, pausing a live news feed of Luke Cage hurling a thug into a dumpster. "Three days. Four at the outside."
"I will retrieve him," Ophelia said.
Luke Cage breathed heavily. He stood in the center of a wrecked alleyway. Unconscious gang members littered the asphalt. He had spent the entire day busting heads under the name 'Power Man.' The local news choppers had already caught him on tape. He was making noise. He just hoped Hydra was listening.
He grabbed the last conscious gangster by the collar and hurled him into a brick wall. He let out a deep, booming roar to vent the lingering adrenaline.
"Target Carl Lucas acquired."
Luke froze. He knew that voice. He hated that voice.
He turned slowly. Willis Stryker stood at the mouth of the alley. The man who had framed him. The man who had put him in Rikers.
Willis wasn't wearing street clothes. He wore a sleek, high-grade tactical riot suit. A holographic serpent coiled across his chest plating. Six heavily armed mercenaries flanked him, all wearing matching armor with different snake insignias. Willis spun a custom, high-tech dagger between his fingers.
"Game's over, Carl," Willis sneered. "You're no hero. You're just a convict who crawled out of a test tube. Tomorrow morning, all of New York is going to know it."
Willis took a slow step forward. He spread his arms in mock innocence. "You should have followed my lead, brother. I went legit. I'm on the payroll at Viper Security Group now. Codename: Diamondback. I have a 401k. You should have just served your time."
Rage blinded Luke. He planted his boots and charged. He weighed three hundred pounds and his skin could stop an anti-tank round. Willis was just a man.
Willis didn't run. He leveled his dagger. He pressed a thumb switch on the hilt.
The blade emitted a violent, high-frequency ultrasonic pulse.
The sound wave hit Luke like a physical wall. His eardrums ruptured. Blood vessels popped in the whites of his eyes. The pain was absolute agony.
Luke hit his knees. He gritted his teeth. He forced himself upright and threw a massive, sweeping punch at Willis 's head.
Willis easily stepped out of the way. He triggered a second switch on the hilt.
A pressurized cloud of gray-green neurotoxin blasted directly into Luke's face.
Luke gasped. He inhaled the gas. His lungs seized instantly. He collapsed onto his back, coughing violently, his muscles locking up in sudden paralysis.
Willis stood over him. He casually sheathed the dagger. "Weaponized nerve gas, brother. That dose would melt a normal man's respiratory system into soup. For you, it just buys me a few minutes of naptime. I knew I couldn't break your skin. So I went through your lungs."
Luke stared up at the sky. His brain felt like it was boiling in battery acid. "How..." he choked out. "How did you know... what I can do?"
Willis grinned. "We're government contractors, Cage. Who do you think hired us?"
Stryker turned to his squad. "Alright, bag the guest. Throw him in the transport van. Sweep him for trackers first."
A shadow detached from the fire escape above.
A red figure dropped twenty feet and landed silently on the pavement between Willis and Luke's paralyzed body.
Willis flinched. His hand went straight to his combat knife. He stared at the horned cowl. "Daredevil? You're actually real?"
"I get that a lot." Daredevil stood up straight. "Viper Security Group, right?"
"We have a federal contract," Willis said defensively. "We are executing a legal warrant for a dangerous, powered fugitive."
"I know," Daredevil said. "That's why I didn't break your arms on the way down. In fact, I did you a favor. I called the police for you."
Red and blue lights washed over the brick walls. Police sirens wailed at the end of the block.
Willis glared at him. "What did you do?"
Daredevil tilted his head. "Does your federal apprehension contract legally grant your private security firm the right to indefinitely detain and interrogate an escaped prisoner? Or do you have to hand him over to the NYPD for processing?"
Willis's jaw tightened. He had no counterargument. He tapped his earpiece and made a furious, hushed call to his boss.
The sirens grew deafening. Two armored police cruisers blocked the alley exit.
Willis ripped his earpiece out. He signaled his men to stand down. They backed away, watching in frustrated silence as a dozen heavily armed NYPD officers swarmed the alley and loaded Luke Cage into the back of a secure transport vehicle.
Willis turned back around to threaten the vigilante.
The alley was empty. Daredevil was already gone.
PS: In the comics, the Serpent Society is a classic, unionized supervillain team! I've adapted them here into a "legitimate" corporate security force called Viper Security Group—similar to when they rebranded themselves as Serpent Solutions in Captain America comics. Also, their tactical gear and snake-hologram designs here take heavy inspiration from their appearances in the Earth's Mightiest Heroes (EMH) animated series!