Caught in One Sweep

Another day passed in the blink of an eye. The blood-red sun slowly sank into the sea, and the sky changed into a blanket of black. Wild winds howled, carrying the faint fishy scent of the ocean.

On a lonely island in the Arctic Ocean stood Alex, Steve, and the current members of the Howling Commandos. Even Howard, the head of logistics, was there, bundled up like a polar bear.

Alex glanced at the fully armed crowd beside him, then at the iron cages nested together in the distance. Turning to Erik, he said, "Erik, send them the signal!"

Erik nodded, pulled a whistle from his clothes, put it in his mouth, and blew until his face turned red. Strangely, the whistle made no sound at all.

Less than a minute later, Erik hurriedly pulled out the whistle and began gasping for breath, the color slowly returning to his face.

"That’s it?" Quicksilver remained true to his troublesome-boy nature, staring at Erik in astonishment. Most of his attention was focused on the soundless whistle in Erik’s hand.

"This should be a special device capable of emitting ultrasonic or infrasonic waves." As if he had found a treasure, Howard practically snatched the whistle from Erik’s hand and examined it closely. "They should have a receiving device over there. Once they receive the message, it means the plan has succeeded."

Alex was somewhat speechless as he looked at Howard. He reached out, took the whistle back, handed it to Erik again, and said solemnly, "Forget the whistle. We need to get ready!"

The moment Alex finished speaking, everyone present sprang into action. In the blink of an eye, they had all vanished without a trace, leaving Erik alone on the desolate island.

A moment later, a cloud of red smoke drifted past, and Red Devil appeared. Seven people stood beside him: Sebastian Shaw, Riptide, Tin Man, and Firefist, along with three unfamiliar people—two men and a woman. They were likely the Level Four mutants mentioned in the intelligence, though no one knew what their abilities were.

Through his binoculars, Alex saw Shaw eagerly stride over to Erik, pull him into an embrace, and say excitedly, "Good boy, I knew you could do it!" Then he stretched out his hand anxiously. "Quick, give it to me! Give it to me!"

Erik secretly turned his head and saw everyone who had arrived with Red Devil moving closer. A flicker of satisfaction flashed through his eyes. With a thought, the devices that had long been buried beneath the snow to prevent teleportation immediately closed in around them.

The instant Erik made his move, Alex acted as well. He appeared with the others in an instant, then immediately ducked into the device. Before Shaw and the rest could react, he took Erik and escaped again.

The entire process was incredibly fast, taking less than a second. Shaw had not even come back to his senses, his mind still immersed in the wonderful fantasy of obtaining the Tesseract. By the time he reacted, it was already too late.

"You little bastard, you dared to set me up?!" Shaw’s expression changed drastically as he pointed at Erik, who stood beside Alex, and screamed in rage.

Alex stepped forward and shielded Erik behind him, looking mockingly at the utterly undignified Shaw. "Sebastian, you’re a grown man, yet you’re picking a fight with a child. Aren’t you ashamed?"

"Alex, I won’t let you get away with this!" Shaw stared darkly at Alex, speaking word by word.

"Take a good look. You’re the one in my hands now." Alex chuckled and shrugged casually. "That’s what I should be saying to you, Sebastian Shaw."

At that moment, Red Devil leaned close and whispered a few words into Shaw’s ear, apparently explaining the situation: his teleportation had been restricted.

Shaw was extremely surprised upon hearing the news. His eyes shifted slightly as he furtively surveyed his surroundings, seemingly unable to believe it.

Alex had been watching Red Devil and Sebastian Shaw’s expressions the entire time. Seeing their reactions, he knew the device had taken effect. He immediately turned to Erik and said, "Erik, restrain them."

Erik moved at once. In an instant, several strips of metal appeared and bound Shaw and the others one by one, leaving them utterly unable to move. The three newcomers received special attention from Erik; several metal strips crisscrossed their bodies, making it impossible for even their fingers to twitch. Some strips had even pierced into their flesh.

As for Red Devil, under Alex’s control, he was stuffed into a Tin Man suit of armor. This special armor was composed of several layers of teleportation-blocking devices, ensuring that Red Devil could not escape.

"That did it?" Howard looked incredulous, as though he could not believe the mission had been so easy. "The two of you could have handled this alone. We didn’t need to come at all!"

Howard’s words were echoed by Steve and the others, who nodded in agreement. There was helplessness in their eyes, along with the feeling that they were useless.

Alex did not take credit for himself. Hearing that, he quickly explained, "You can’t put it that way. We’ll need your help next."

As he spoke, Alex dismantled the large outer device. Red Devil was already trapped, so they did not have to worry about anyone else. Next, they needed to capture the others one by one. These people definitely had to be held separately; they could not be locked in the same cell, or there would be serious trouble.

"Why not just kill them and be done with it?" Namor pulled Firefist from the device and gave him a hard shake. He looked at Steve beside him in confusion, though his tone was much calmer than before and no longer as abrasive.

Steve gently set the mutant he had been carrying on his shoulder onto the ground. Looking at Namor seriously, he said, "Killing is not the only way to solve a problem, nor is it the best way…"

Before Steve could finish, disaster struck without warning. An explosion suddenly rang out beside them. Caught off guard, Steve was blasted away, blood pouring from his waist in a horrifying sight.

Alex’s expression changed drastically when he saw Steve injured. He immediately threw aside the Tin Man armor containing Red Devil, flashed to Steve’s side, scooped him up, and swiftly retreated, landing more than ten meters away.

The others reacted a little more slowly, but they still rushed toward the site of the explosion in an instant. Just as they approached, several more explosions rang out in succession, forcing them to retreat quickly.

When they surrounded the area again, the mutant Steve had just carried out had already broken free of the iron restraints. Yet the young man was in an extremely miserable state. Seven or eight of his ten fingers had been severed, and blood covered the ground. There was not a single uninjured spot on his body, as if he had just crawled through a minefield.

What was strange, however, was that the young man seemed not to care about his injuries at all. An eerie smile rested on his face.

"Surrender immediately, or else…" Nick raised his heavy machine gun and aimed it at the young man. Before he could say more than a few words, the young man reached out and touched Firefist beside him. Another explosion erupted. This time, everyone finally saw how the explosions were happening.

The young man’s finger suddenly broke off, then burst like a balloon, blowing apart the iron restraint around Firefist’s right hand!

"Don’t come any closer, or I’ll self-destruct." The young man turned to look at the people approaching again, his smile becoming even more sinister. "I’ve never tried it, but I once self-destructed one of my legs. Everything within a hundred meters was blown away."

That single sentence stunned everyone, and they looked at the young man with greater wariness. The weak feared the strong, the strong feared the reckless, the reckless feared the crazed, and the crazed feared those who did not value their lives. This man did not value his life, which made him the most dangerous of all.

P.S. Has the potential reached its limit? Why have the favorites stopped increasing? What’s going on?

Scorpion begs for favorites, recommendations, and support!!!