Infiltrating Hydra

Noisy shouts, clattering footsteps, and bursts of blinding muzzle flash.

"Where is this?"

Sean dazedly opened his eyes, his consciousness resurfacing as though he had just awakened from a dream.

He saw a dense barrage of bullets striking his body. The metal rounds, carrying immense kinetic force, seemed to crash into an impenetrable wall of steel; their tips were crushed flat as if squeezed by an overwhelming force.

His vision wavered a few times. Perhaps stimulated by the outside world, his muddled thoughts gradually cleared. He slightly turned his head and surveyed his surroundings.

The air was thick with murky dust. Blazing white bulbs overhead illuminated the dim environment, while intricate cables and pipes lined the walls. It looked like an underground fortification or secret base.

"What happened?" The second question surfaced in Sean’s mind.

He had never experienced anything like this before—his mind was hazy, his consciousness confused, as though he were a pathetic drunk waking up the morning after a wild binge with a splitting headache, fractured memories, and no recollection of anything that had happened before.

Since arriving in this world, Sean had never relaxed his guard. With his physical constitution, he was completely immune to alcohol; it was impossible for him to lose control and get falling-down drunk.

Even if he drank an entire cellar of vodka, he might not even feel "drunk," let alone forget what had happened earlier.

"Sentry…"

He lowered his head. He was inside golden armor. The metal torrent capable of tearing everything apart could not harm him in the slightest. Even without raising the Energy Field, the sharp bullets that could pierce bodies and rip apart flesh merely made him feel a faint itch when they struck him.

"Hydra."

Sean saw squads of soldiers in black uniforms, Hydra insignias pinned to their chests. He seemed to remember something and raised his right hand, which was holding a briefcase.

His gaze pierced through its casing, where a massive blue glow radiated outward. That was… the Tesseract?

His consciousness continued retracing itself, and the groggy sensation receded like the tide. Sean finally regained a clear mind. His rapid thoughts flashed like lightning, instantly piercing the fog in his head.

Loki had led the Hydra Squad in an attempt to obtain reactor-building materials from Umbrella, only for the Umbrella Squad to wipe them out. Then Sean had changed his mind, intending to seize the Infinity Stones first and welcome Thanos’s arrival ahead of time…

So this was Hydra’s secret base?

Through Skynet’s surveillance, he had found Hydra’s hidden base, forced his way in, and taken the Tesseract from Dr. Selvig?

Before Sean could answer that series of questions, he heard the faint whir of spinning barrels. Squads of Hydra agents carrying heavy weapons surged madly from underground passages in every direction. Amid thunderous roars, dazzling tongues of flame flashed like the breath of a dragon, and the blazing torrent of metal swallowed the motionless golden figure.

Like a raging downpour! Like rumbling storm clouds! Like an exploding sun!

The barrels spun like clockwork flywheels as bullets poured from them, spraying forth at unimaginable speed. Thunderous roars shook the eardrums, as though one stood within a violent thunderstorm.

Even steel plates two fingers thick would be pulverized beneath such ferocious firepower!

The first command center of the underground base was under the authority of Hydra commander John Garrett. As a senior spy embedded within S.H.I.E.L.D., he was responsible for helping Loki carry out his plan, stirring up greater chaos, and gathering intelligence on Asgard and alien technology along the way.

Hydra knew more about the Tesseract than S.H.I.E.L.D. did. During World War II, their leader, Red Skull, had developed infinite energy and created cutting-edge weapons, nearly winning that vast war that had swept across the world in one stroke.

Therefore, Garrett had kept his attention fixed on Dr. Selvig. The instant the intruder appeared, he sent people to protect him. Yet in less than ten seconds, those elite soldiers had all become cold corpses.

"Sentry?" Garrett asked in a low voice.

Dozens of surveillance personnel were working tensely. Miniature cameras spread throughout the underground base formed clear images, while hundreds of screens made up an entire wall. They were not only used to guard against intruders and monitor every disturbance, but also to watch Loki’s every move and even directly control the internal weapons systems for precise strikes at any time and place.

"Confirmed. It’s the Sentry who previously appeared in New York," a Hydra agent replied.

"Activate the active defense system! Mobilize everyone to seal the passages! Personnel in all other sectors, evacuate immediately! If necessary, use cruise missiles for carpet bombing!"

Garrett’s heart sank. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files on the Sentry required extremely high clearance and listed him as a high-risk threat, on the same level as the newly added Hulk. Faced with such a terrifying existence, Garrett could only do everything possible to stop him.

But after taking the Metal Storm head-on, no matter how formidable a creature was, it should have suffered severe injuries, right?

"He’s still alive! He moved…"

The voice abruptly stopped. The surveillance room fell deathly silent, as though everyone had been seized by the throat.

If time slowed into frame-by-frame slow motion, Garrett would have seen the blazing metal torrent erupt from the spinning barrels. The air along its path seemed scorched, giving off a burnt smell. Crimson-gold light formed a razor-sharp blade that pulverized every obstacle in its path!

Then the motionless golden figure took a step forward. A tidal roar of thunder echoed through the underground passage, rolling like furious waves as the earth trembled!

Countless motes of dust scattered. The unstoppable blazing metal torrent suddenly froze, as if space itself had solidified. Then, in the next instant—

Overwhelming power erupted like a volcano. A violent force tore through the reinforced passage, and amid a deafening roar, thousands upon thousands of metal bullets, wrapped in fierce flames, surged back like a reversing ocean tide!

The passage ahead instantly collapsed. Crimson-gold fire exploded, and the Hydra agents were crushed directly into mangled pulp, their human shapes no longer recognizable.

The Sentry took another step. Countless fine particles spread outward in rippling waves, enormous cracks burst across the ground, and violent energy swept forth as compressed air exploded like shell after shell!

This underground fortification, located forty meters below the surface, was said to withstand the impact of 125 tons of munitions. Its surrounding walls had been reinforced with hundreds of meters of granite, specialized concrete, and steel plates, capable of absorbing the shockwaves produced by missile bombardments. Even a high-yield hydrogen bomb would not be enough to bring it down. It was supposedly impregnable.

Yet under the Sentry’s energy assault, the air seemed filled with countless exploding powder kegs. The entire underground base shook violently. Even Garrett, far away in the surveillance room, could feel it. The hundreds of screens on the walls went dark one after another, flickering with dense static.

"Retreat! Abandon the base!" Garrett hurriedly ordered.

He did not know why the Sentry wanted to seize the Tesseract, but given the current situation, Hydra could not possibly stop him. Rather than waste their strength, they might as well evacuate immediately.

"Activate the self-destruct system!"

Before leaving, the seasoned agent, as rough and bold as a cowboy, had not given up on the idea of killing the Sentry.

Once this underground base was destroyed from within, its stored missile launch systems would automatically detonate, burying everything beneath hundreds of tons of earth. Even a monster like Hulk would likely have a very low chance of survival.