"What are you looking at?" Bayonetta's slender, fair arms wrapped around Solomon's neck. The magus could feel the witch's warm, moist breath brushing against his skin. The golden chains on her leather armbands connected to two sheer black veils on her nightwear, resembling black wings enveloping Solomon.
"Just a report." Solomon turned his head and kissed the witch's lips. The familiar fragrance completely relaxed him.
"Agent Hand has taken my wrath with her on the mission."
"That matter?" Bayonetta recalled the rare moment of emotional turbulence Solomon had experienced. It was an unusual occurrence. That day, after finishing his classes and returning home, Solomon had logged into his game only to find that his scheduled teammate was absent. He immediately made several phone calls, but none were answered. That day, he didn't play at all. Instead, he sulked on the bed, listlessly accepting the witch's caresses like a wounded puppy. He never imagined that he could fail—he was not omnipotent. He couldn't save everyone. He admitted his failure, then felt hatred, then reflection, and finally resignation and acceptance.
No matter how powerful he was, he could not save every mortal life. Since childhood, every magus at Kamar-Taj had warned him that any crack in the soul could lead to corruption. He constantly reminded himself, reflecting on his actions.
"Did she succeed?" Bayonetta wasn't really interested in the report; she only played along with his mood, sensing his frustration.
"Let's keep reading and find out."
————————————
"CyberTech." Agent Coulson wrote the name on a whiteboard. Surrounding it were all the problems the Coulson team had encountered so far.
Coulson connected CyberTech to the Death Warriors. "CyberTech created the Death Warriors and then handed something over to Quinn."
Skye nodded, remembering her first mission vividly. "Quinn worked for Clairvoyant. Clairvoyant is Garrett. Garrett planted Grant Ward on the Bus because he wanted to know how I was brought back to life."
Agent Hand rolled her eyes. "Our resurrections are not the same thing. The key issue is John Garrett."
"Garrett has always been leading the development of the Centipede Serum." Fitz was recovering quickly from the betrayal of Grant Ward. It wasn't easy—after all, Ward had genuinely saved him and Simmons. At first, he refused to believe it was true, but the one most deeply hurt by it was Skye. The rookie hacker, whom Victoria Hand had always looked down upon, had just entered a relationship with Ward, only to discover his betrayal. It was just as unlucky as when she became a full-fledged S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, only for S.H.I.E.L.D. to collapse immediately afterward.
She was the one who wanted to capture Grant Ward the most.
"So, he needed GH-352 as the final ingredient to stabilize the Centipede Soldiers and give them regenerative abilities."
"That's also why Ward needed the hard drive—it contained all the research on Coulson and Skye. So far, they are the only confirmed patients who have used GH-325." Melinda May glanced at Victoria Hand. She was the only one present who was no longer officially part of S.H.I.E.L.D. She had been, but now she had a different employer. That didn't stop her from continuing to fight for humanity's safety, which was precisely why Solomon had recruited her.
"It's more than that. Skye also left them a little surprise." Coulson was referring to when Ward had kidnapped Skye and forced her to crack the hard drive. Ward had taken her onto the Bus, and if it weren't for Coulson's intervention, she wouldn't have escaped—this was the incident Hand was talking about. Coulson's escape plan involved descending from the sky in a flying car. If not for Hand requesting AI assistance, Coulson's high-profile stunt would have been noticed and led to pursuit.
"A Trojan virus, highly contagious," Skye explained. "It's currently tracing every system they uploaded the hard drive data to."
"Nice!"
"A Trojan virus! You can activate it and seize their system!"
"Well done, Skye!"
The hacker proudly accepted the praise from the science team. "But there's a small problem." She pulled out a USB drive. "I didn't have time to make a complete virus, so we need to plug this into one of their computers to activate it. Spoiler alert: we don't know where their computers are."
"CyberTech," Melinda May said. "Garrett has been working with CyberTech for years. If the data was on Garrett's computer, then it must have been uploaded to CyberTech's system. So we need to infiltrate their office."
"We don't have the authority to launch such an operation," Coulson said.
"I do." Agent Hand, arms crossed, lazily waved a hand. "Why are you all so surprised?" she asked. "If Hydra can infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and rise from the ashes, then I can infiltrate the black ops teams in Congress. As long as there's evidence linking CyberTech to Hydra—or even just to S.H.I.E.L.D.—I can send in a strike team to storm CyberTech and take whatever we need."
This was a huge surprise. Coulson looked as if a massive pie had just fallen from the sky and hit him squarely in the face. "You didn't tell me about this?" Coulson stared at Hand. "How did you pull it off?"
"My new boss saved many loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They should have died in Hydra's uprising, but he rescued them. Now, I have a team of former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working for him. You don't need to worry about his motives—he has an agreement with Nick Fury, which is why Agent Hill contacted me." Hand's voice was firm. "He's shown me a bigger picture. S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past was stuck in a small loop, dealing with threats that could still be handled with regular bullets. The future is different. This world faces greater dangers, and Solomon Damonet has chosen to unite all available forces to fight the rising darkness in the universe."
"Is he…" Fitz hesitated, dragging out his words. He originally wanted to ask if Solomon was just high on his own fantasies, playing some kind of game where he thought he could save the world. But the cold look in Hand's eyes made him swallow his words. Remembering Solomon's past actions, he decided it was better to keep quiet. His scientific logic clashed entirely with Solomon's magic.
"I'll help you get the Bus back, Coulson," Hand said. "Let's wrap this up quickly—I have more Hydra agents to hunt down."
"I heard your new boss got hold of the three Insight helicarriers?"
"If a helicarrier showed up over Los Angeles, what do you think would happen, Agent May?" Hand rolled her eyes. "Any operation under my command follows my orders." She continued, "I don't care about casualties. My sole objective is to eliminate Hydra. Nothing else matters."
"I think we should assess your mental state, Agent Hand. Are you harboring resentment towards Grant Ward for shooting you?"
Hand shot Simmons a sharp look. The tension in the room became almost tangible, sending a chill down Fitz's spine.
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