Gravity Warrior

"My name is Daniel Whitehall. Welcome to Hydra!"

When Raina brought back the target he had been pursuing for over a decade, Whitehall hurried out to greet her. The moment they met, he extended an invitation to Skye.

Although Skye knew Raina would be taking her to a terrorist organization, she had not expected that organization to have such an impressive background. After all, thanks to the United States government’s relentless propaganda, every American child knew the name Hydra, even if only as Captain America’s backdrop.

The man before her had a refined, scholarly appearance and looked more like an academic than the leader of a terrorist organization. But how could the head of Hydra be an ordinary person?

Skye had grown up in an orphanage and had worked as a hacker. She had seen plenty of intelligence inaccessible to ordinary people, so she naturally would not treat the "resurrected" Hydra like a villain from some movie or comic book.

"I want to know how I can save my father." Skye watched the man across from her warily.

Since she was already here, she might as well make the best of it. Now that she had embarked on the path of opposing S.H.I.E.L.D., the stronger its enemies were, the more favorable it would be for her own plans.

"Come inside and talk."

Whitehall turned and walked into the base. Once they reached the conference room, he smiled at Raina, who had followed behind them, and said, "The Obelisk you want is in the room at the end of the corridor."

His meaning was clearly that she was not welcome to stay. Raina naturally had no intention of making a fool of herself, so she smiled and took her leave, turning toward the end of the corridor.

Only after Skye and Whitehall were the only ones left did Whitehall leisurely sit down on the sofa and smile at her.

"The times have changed. The future belongs to those who rule through force. Your power is too weak right now, but I can make you stronger. Then you can openly storm the gates, slaughter S.H.I.E.L.D. until the streets run red with blood, and rescue your father."

Skye frowned. "I have no interest in slaughtering innocents. Right now, I only want to rescue my father."

Whitehall raised an eyebrow. "The strong have the freedom to kill, and they also have the freedom to forgive. It’s entirely up to you. But the prerequisite is that you must be strong enough."

"What exactly do I have to do? Do you have Strong Magnetic Armor? Or something similar?"

"Heh…" Whitehall laughed. "Skye, your horizons are still too narrow. Magnetic Field Warriors have only existed for a few years. But Earth has existed for 4.6 billion years. Over such a long span of time, who knows how many world-destroying figures have appeared? There are too many to count."

He rose and walked to the window. Pulling up the blinds, he pointed outside and introduced it to Skye.

"Several decades ago, I began researching a strange element—Gravitonium."

"We spent twenty years crossing six continents and exploring countless massive mines before obtaining this tiny amount."

"With this element, I can create powerful warriors no weaker than Fifty Heavens. In fact, once the technology matures, if the host’s physical constitution is strong enough and their compatibility with Gravitonium is high enough, it will even be possible to create a Graviton Warrior comparable to Magneto."

Skye stood up and walked behind him, looking outside. In the laboratory opposite them, a mass of liquid shimmering with silver light floated inside a transparent glass tank, tumbling and flowing freely through the air.

Staring at this extraordinary sight, Skye murmured, "An antigravity effect… I heard that once the power of Magnetic Field Rotation reaches Fifty Heavens, antigravity phenomena will appear around it."

"Of course, Graviton Warriors are currently still somewhat inferior to Fifty Heavens Magnetic Field Warriors. The key difference lies in defense. Magnetic Field Warriors are martial artists whose physical strength far surpasses that of ordinary people. Graviton Warriors, however, focus more on supernatural abilities and rely on those abilities to fight." Whitehall sounded regretful.

"However, Graviton Warriors do have advantages. They’re simple and quick to create. Basically, anyone who survives being injected with Gravitonium can immediately become a Graviton Warrior."

He lowered the blinds again and returned to his seat. Skye followed and sat back down as well.

"In principle, injecting as little as five percent Gravitonium would be enough to crush Magnetic Field Warriors wearing Strong Magnetic Armor. As for Magnetic Field Warriors who have reached the higher stages through their own abilities, we still lack data and cannot make a judgment for now."

Skye did not let his words cloud her judgment. Instead, she asked calmly, "What about the side effects? Since you’ve never put this into mass production, I assume the side effects of Graviton Warriors must be severe. Or is the technology immature, with an extremely high mortality rate?"

Whitehall was silent for a while before speaking. "That is the worst part. Graviton Warriors suffer from both of the problems you mentioned."

"Or to put it another way, the threshold for becoming a Graviton Warrior is extremely high. Ordinary warriors cannot even meet the entry requirements. If they are forcibly injected, even with only one percent, they will ultimately suffer mental breakdowns and go insane. Some will even die when the experiment fails."

Skye sneered. "That makes more sense. Otherwise, Hydra would have replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. and unified the world long ago."

Whitehall paid no attention to Skye’s mockery. He merely smiled faintly and offered no rebuttal.

"You’re not planning to use this immature technology to trick me, are you? Are you simply treating me like a lab rat?" Skye sneered.

"Of course not." Whitehall flatly denied it. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "In fact, based on our research, we believe you should be the warrior most compatible with Gravitonium. You can withstand an injection of over fifty percent Gravitonium. You may even be able to absorb one hundred percent."

"Wow…" Skye let out an exaggerated cry of surprise. "Am I really that amazing? Why haven’t I noticed anything special about myself? Could you tell me how your scientists reached that conclusion? No, wait. I should ask how your scientists obtained my physical data?"

Whitehall clamped his mouth shut. He could hardly tell her that they had been studying her since her mother’s time.

"What? Can’t you explain it? Or is there no research at all, and you’re just trying to trick me into becoming your lab rat?" Skye hit the nail on the head.

"You misunderstand. I was considering how to explain a complicated biological research report to someone who never received a university education." Whitehall smiled as he stabbed Skye, the academic failure, with another barb. He successfully wiped the smile off her face.

"First, your body has been strengthened by the power of Magnetic Field Rotation, making you far superior to ordinary warriors." Whitehall began fabricating reasons that were half true and half false.

"Second, your body contains certain superhuman genes that differ from those of ordinary humans. They have not manifested yet, which is why you do not possess any superpowers. However, these genes are beneficial to the absorption of Gravitonium."

"Superhuman genes? Me?" Skye had learned from Raina that her mother was a superpowered individual, but Raina did not know much about Jiaying, so Skye’s knowledge was limited as well.

Still, the explanation involving superhuman genes did sound fairly reasonable.

"Finally, Gravitonium is not simply some kind of metallic element. It is more like…" Whitehall considered his wording for a moment before finally saying, "some kind of strange life-form. It can coexist with humans."