Renzo lay on the bed, bored. It was a double room in a small hotel, with two shabby old beds pushed into the space. They creaked whenever someone sat on them.
The hotel had clearly been around for a while, and its décor looked outdated. It was probably an old house built sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. The surrounding walls showed signs of later additions, meaning the place had likely been renovated after the fact.
Renzo thought the hotel was acceptable, but the owner was a little too considerate.
The moment he entered the room, Renzo scanned and found three hidden cameras inside. They were small, but the footage they captured was very clear. The owner must have spent quite a bit of money on them.
Renzo destroyed them easily, and he was not afraid of paying for something like that. The owner was probably bleeding in his heart, but he did not dare come to Renzo's door.
"You talk about plans all day long. What exactly is your plan?" Renzo stared at the ceiling, where a medium-sized spider was diligently weaving its web. Dust drifted down sparsely toward Renzo's face, only to be bounced away by the golden light.
He was quite confused. This woman had claimed to have a plan, but even now, he still did not know what that plan was.
"There is no plan. I lied to Fury." Hill lay on her side with her back to Renzo. No one could see her expression, but Renzo's expression was not good.
"What do you mean?"
"There are bugs in the room," Hill said coldly.
Renzo caught the falling Space Stone, his pupils shrinking. "You mean... Wanda has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Hill did not reply. Her silence said everything.
The two remained speechless for the rest of the night...
San Francisco.
The Illuminati headquarters had been moved here, and a large number of residents had been placed in temporary residential tents. After receiving supplies, they retreated into the tents. Their homes were gone, and some of their relatives, family members, and children had even died in that red mist.
Some people had witnessed murder with their own eyes. Some had seen parents who had lived together for decades kill each other. Some had even dropped the infant babies in their arms just to escape faster...
The ugliness of human nature was vividly displayed against the backdrop of the red mist.
"Reed, how long can the barrier you developed block the red mist?"
"I don't know. I've never tested the barrier's durability. It was put into use as soon as research and development were completed. All I have is a pile of theoretical data. As for its actual performance..." Reed opened the panel, which displayed incoming satellite data. The red mist that covered the entire sky over New York had been blocked by an invisible wall of light, preventing it from advancing any farther.
Gray dust shrouded the sky, making it difficult to tell whether the darkness overhead came from clouds or from the despair of the survivors. The entire city was plunged into gloom, like a flock of overwhelming crows with black wings folded tight, whispering the last love words of the dead.
"It stopped!" Reed stretched out his arm and took a reagent from behind him. The purple-red liquid shone brilliantly under the reflection of the light screen.
Nick Fury frowned.
"I need to find some samples to test my antidote. If it succeeds, we have a chance to reverse everything and rescue all the infected."
Reed turned to Nick Fury for help. He urgently needed infected people as experimental subjects. The red mist inside Sam and Wong's isolated bodies had already been exhausted, and he was now severely lacking experimental samples.
Reed was extremely intelligent and could be called the smartest person in the world in almost any universe. He had developed weapons capable of fighting Celestials and even surpassing gods, and he had turned the tide in many major events.
He had also once opened Tony Stark's skull because of the seventh Infinity Stone. He had believed zombies were the final evolution of humanity and forced his partners to become zombies, even eating his own children...
But in many cases, he was also a terrible teammate, sometimes even worse than Star-Lord.
Star-Lord had caused the destruction of half of all life because of his impulsiveness.
Reed had also caused Black Bolt to blow his own head apart because of one careless sentence.
"How many samples do you need?" Fury stared with his one eye, an obscure light flashing within it.
"The more, the better. I need data, accurate data. The red mist spread by Wanda is closer to magic. Trying to solve it with science is as difficult as climbing to the heavens." Reed stretched out his arm and tapped the screen a few times. A three-dimensional data model of the red mist appeared in front of the one-eyed old man.
"I can't find some of these elements on Earth, so I can only replace them with others. You know science is an extremely rigorous field. There's no room for sloppiness. We must have real samples if we want to create a real antidote!"
"Hmm..."
Nick Fury pondered for a long time. He was unwilling to send his men into such a dangerous place. New York had already changed owners. Those superhumans could not even hold on without seeing Wanda's face, let alone break straight into enemy territory. That would be no different from walking to their deaths.
"Control Pietro. Don't let him leave the room, and put a collar on him that limits mutant abilities. He is an important means for us to restrain Wanda." Nick Fury's mind was dark. He had been the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. for nearly two decades, and words like insidious, cunning, cruel, and vicious were not enough to describe him.
He was even more ruthless than the Nick Fury Renzo knew. In order to achieve his goals, he would do whatever it took. He believed in sacrificing the few to protect the many, and he would not hesitate to give up the lives of his comrades if it meant protecting Earth.
Precisely because he was so cold-blooded, none of the mainstream superheroes wanted to get along with this old viper. They were afraid he would stab them in the back, leaving them dead without ever knowing why.
General Ross truly admired this one-eyed man, but Fury looked down on him. Ross was a greedy politician with no sense of the bigger picture. He had trapped his own vision inside a narrow frame. Like many officials who treated money as their master, he was unworthy of the responsibilities he carried.
Nick Fury turned and left. The red mist was a very important matter, but it was not the only important matter.
"Then my samples..." Reed still wanted to argue, but Fury waved his hand and said,
"We'll wait until Badr arrives with the Asgardians. The Aesir are physically stronger than humans. Maybe they can enter the red mist for a longer time and help you capture a few infected people."
"Oh, right!" Fury seemed to remember something. He pointed at Reed and said, "Inform Professor X. I want him to gather the remaining X-Men and go to Chicago to capture Hill and that mysterious man... Charge them with treason and transfer them to the underwater prison."
After saying that, Fury left without looking back.
Reed was left alone, trembling with anger...
"You mean... Nick Fury will definitely send someone to hunt us down?" Renzo carried Hill as they soared through the air. The Mind Stone's barrier protected the woman in his arms, preventing her from being attacked by the violent wind.
"Yes. There is a mole within the group. Fury must be able to sense it. I deliberately didn't return to S.H.I.E.L.D., which also gave him a reason to send his forces outside and deliberately reduce the mole's influence."
Renzo pondered. Since a mole had appeared inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Wanda must have a way to invade other people's minds. She might even be able to spread the red mist silently and infect more superheroes in crowded places.
"Once part of the superhuman force is isolated, the number of infected among the moles will decrease. Although I don't know exactly how many people Wanda has infected now, you can save them."
Hill shouted loudly. In the thin air high in the sky, she could only raise her voice to make herself heard.
"The gem on your forehead can clear the red mist. As sane infected people, the amount of red mist they inhaled is bound to be limited, but it is still deadly!"
"Your mission is to cleanse all the superhumans who come after us, filter them one by one, narrow the range, and finally join forces with Fury to eliminate all the infected in one strike."
"In that case, Wanda will at least lose one of her arms!"
Hill spoke calmly. Her thinking was very clear, and very ruthless. Against an enemy they could not defeat head-on, of course she had to use unpleasant methods to break the enemy's heart bit by bit.
It was like playing a game. If you were in a one-versus-two situation, you could still hold on while placing your hopes on your teammates. But if your teammates lost a four-versus-three fight, then your mentality would definitely collapse, even more thoroughly than a landslide.
Hill waited for a long time without hearing a reply and raised her head in confusion.
Renzo's serious face came into view, very close to hers. Hill only had to lift her head slightly, and their foreheads would touch, like lovers.
Their flight speed grew faster and faster. Hill also realized that something was wrong with Renzo's current state, and their flight direction was different from the planned route. She did not believe the super-brain of this biochemical man could make a calculation error.
Then there was only one possibility. Someone was chasing them!
Hill stopped talking and struggled to look behind them.
The sky was clear, and there was no one around.
No... the wind speed was wrong...
Hill took out her pistol. It contained three ordinary bullets, and she fired behind them.
At high altitude, the bullets drifted quite far off course. The first two shots were swallowed by the wind, but the third shot...
Boom!
It made a dull sound, like metal striking steel.
A stealth fighter!
Hill could not help widening her eyes. Fury really was thorough. He had even brought out strategic weapons, as if afraid he would not be able to catch them otherwise.
"I'm going to dive." Renzo's deep voice sounded. He had already noticed the fighter jet following them, and the Mind Stone was more useful than radar.
Before he finished speaking, Renzo's body suddenly dropped. The fighter behind him was caught so off guard that before it could react, a golden beam of light pierced through its right wing. The pilot had no choice but to eject.
"Raven?" Renzo caught a glimpse of a blue phantom flashing past. She felt different from the Raven he knew. Maybe it was because she was older now.
When he had entered the world of mutants, it had been the 1960s. Mutants like Raven and Logan had far stronger self-healing abilities than ordinary people, and their lifespans were much longer as well. It was not strange that they could still be on the battlefield at seventy years old.
Renzo carried Hill down to the ground. Since she and Fury had put on a grand performance that no one else knew about, she could not be so timid as to hide in the sky. She was very good at checking bodies...
"Hey, there are quite a few people here. Did they move the entire X-Men base here?"
Renzo carefully sensed the spiritual power around them and found that at least seven or eight people had surrounded them, each with high spiritual power.
The moment Hill landed, a chill pierced into her bones. Not far away, a crystalline ice mirror suddenly spread out from beneath a man's feet, winding like a snake as it rushed toward the two of them.
Zzzzz—
A golden beam of light carved a line across the ground, blocking the clear ice.
Under Renzo's solemn gaze, several figures appeared in his sight one after another.
"Hill, Fury wants us to take you back, and I hope you won't make this difficult for us." Iceman, Bobby, glanced at Renzo. This man should be the multiversal warrior Professor X had mentioned, the one with the Infinity Stones visible on him.
"Sir, I hope you won't resist. Although you have three Infinity Stones, we won't be defeated so casually. I hope you understand."
"And what if I insist on fighting you?" Renzo smiled. It was his first time seeing such a brave boy.
"Then I'll have to offend you..." Bobby's hands suddenly became transparent, and cold air surged up to his forehead. His entire body transformed into a magnificent ice sculpture, crystal clear and overflowing with cold.
The other X-Men also displayed their abilities, including Cyclops Scott, Mystique, Bishop, Rogue, Shadowcat... The man in front of them was said to have completely defeated the Red Hulk. A monster like that could not be taken lightly.
"Get away first..." Renzo shielded Hill behind him and stood in front of her.
"Attack!" Scott ordered, and high-temperature optic blasts shot from his eyes first, carrying unstoppable force.
His eyes were connected to another dimension. The energy released through them continuously drew power from that dimension, using his eyes as a portal to release it without restraint.
As the leader of the X-Men, Scott's strength could not be underestimated. In the comics, he had once served as a host of the Phoenix Force, fighting the entire world with his own power. Even Wanda had been no match for him then.
However, comic-book strength had no effect here. Renzo did not even try to dodge. He took the high-temperature optic blast head-on, and it did not even scratch his vibranium shell.
Golden light bloomed, and a beam shot straight toward Scott, who looked at the extremely fast attack in horror.
His body was no different from that of an ordinary person. If that beam of light struck him, he would definitely die.
A bright ice wall rose in front of Scott. Bobby waved both hands, and the surrounding hundred meters instantly transformed into a field of ice, freezing Hill in place as she tried to escape.
As a future Omega-level mutant, Iceman could freeze half the universe with a single thought. His current strength was also among the top ranks of the X-Men. Even among all superheroes, he did not need to shrink back from anyone.
"I don't want to use force. You forced me." Iceman exhaled cold air, and even the water vapor in the air froze into ice crystals and fell to the ground.
"What a coincidence. I didn't want to use force either, but you were the ones who forced me." Renzo smiled harmlessly, and the purple light on his chest grew more and more intense...
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