The Hydra agents who had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. were completely wiped out.
In the face of an attack that cleaved an entire space battleship in half, survival was impossible.
The Hydra operatives aboard never even had the chance to deploy escape pods before being engulfed in the fiery explosion that consumed the entire ship.
Alexander Pierce would not be coming back this time.
He had once commanded a battleship that soared high above, far beyond the stars, wielding technology from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in the palm of his hand.
How could mere humans possibly stand against Hydra when they possessed interstellar warships?
Even Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. would have found themselves powerless against such an opponent.
However, Pierce had overlooked one crucial factor, on this seemingly insignificant blue planet within the vast cosmos, there existed a young girl who refused to bow to the heavens.
With unwavering determination, she had already taken her first steps toward the boundless sea of stars.
Of course, victory did not come without a price…
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"Fire suppression! Quickly, put out the fire!"
"Main engine emergency shutdown! Power grid overload! Automatic damage control is offline—someone, pull the manual switch!"
"Explosion detected in storage bay A17! Main capacitor overheating! Cooling system failure!"
"Where's the damage control team? Move it! If the ship's keel is compromised, we're all done for!"
"Does anyone know the repair drone bay's access code?!"
"'Kagura is the greatest!' That's the universal password! Deploy all drones immediately!"
"Where's the young miss?"
"She's still in the 'Queen'!"
"Damn it! Get her out of there now! If anything happens to her, you're all dead!"
"Relax, Frank. Even if I die, the young miss will be just fine."
The reckless firing of the main cannon had caused a capacitor overload, triggering a massive short circuit in the ship's electrical systems and resulting in a fire.
Kagura had managed to shut down the main engine just one second before control systems failed, had she been a moment too late, an explosion could have erased an entire island from the Aegean Sea.
The great fire of Rhodes burned for three days and three nights…
Fortunately, most of the damage control operations relied on remotely controlled drones, so there were no human casualties.
However, the underground base, the shipyard where the spacecraft was being built, and even the massive interstellar ship that hadn't yet been named…
Well…
Out with the old, in with the new, right?
That was the only way Kagura could console herself.
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—Avengers Headquarters, New York
Kagura, Tony Stark, and Nick Fury sat around the conference table. Across from them were Steve Rogers, the legendary Captain America, and James "Rhodey" Rhodes, the War Machine pilot.
"Well, looks like the mind control has been completely lifted," Kagura clapped her hands together.
"Now, let's go over what happened. The mastermind is dead, sure, but I still want to know, how exactly did you two end up as Hydra operatives?"
Both Rhodey and Steve Rogers had been brainwashed by Hydra, but during the battle, they had each received a dose of the 'Physical Mind Control Correction Method', in other words, they got their heads smacked really hard.
By the time Kagura used her 'Stealth Electromagnetic Mind Disruption' technique to completely erase the brainwashing effects, they had already mostly regained their senses.
It also helped that Bucky had delivered a well-timed 'Friendship Facebreaker Punch' otherwise, the world's first super-soldier, Captain America himself, might have caused even more trouble at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
But that was all in the past.
Now, Kagura needed to uncover the truth behind this entire mind-control scheme.
She had a bad feeling about this—Hydra's operations were far from over.
This was just the tip of the iceberg.
"How were you controlled?" Steve Rogers rubbed his temples.
"Honestly… I have no idea. I don't remember being brainwashed at all. One morning, I just woke up, and I was suddenly a Hydra commander."
"No strange rooms? No weird machines?" Kagura pressed. "It's important to figure out how you were controlled."
"I have no memory of any machine interference," Steve confirmed. "Maybe Hydra erased that part of my memory too."
"Or maybe… he was never subjected to Hydra's brainwashing devices at all," Tony Stark interjected. "Barton would know more about this kind of thing, but unfortunately, he's not here. You Griffin folks are always busy, huh?"
"Mr. Stark, are you suggesting Captain Rogers was controlled by the Mind Stone?" Kagura frowned before turning to Rhodey. "What about you? What do you remember?"
"Well…" Rhodey sighed, shrugging. "I remember everything about my brainwashing."
He recalled, "The military had me participate in some so-called 'Super Soldier Enhancement Program', kind of like Captain America. They took me to a strange room. I thought it was just a dentist's chair, but then… well, you can guess the rest."
"Oh? So you were brainwashed by Hydra agents embedded within the military?" Kagura asked. "When did this happen?"
Rhodey thought for a moment. "Around 2011."
"2011… That's a big problem." Kagura's expression grew serious. "That means you were already brainwashed when you retrieved the Mind Stone, correct?"
"Yeah," Rhodey nodded. "And that's the issue, because the Mind Stone was never actually placed in the vault."
After the Battle of New York, in an effort to secure Loki's Mind Stone, Kagura and Tony Stark had devised a three-way security measure.
Rhodes Island provided security equipment and surveillance, Stark Industries supplied monitoring devices and storage, and the military offered a location with 24/7 automated monitoring.
But the flaw in the plan was War Machine himself.
By then, Rhodey had already fallen under Hydra's control. The Mind Stone never made it into the vault. Hydra had possessed it all along.
With that revelation, Captain America's mind control became clear.
It would have been easy for Hydra to wait for an opportunity, perhaps while Steve Rogers was asleep and use the Mind Stone to claim the greatest super-soldier in history as their own.
"Case closed!" Kagura crossed her arms. "That settles it, Hydra's not finished yet. We need to find the Mind Stone and take it back!"
"With S.H.I.E.L.D. gone, our intelligence network is severely crippled," Nick Fury pointed out. "Finding the Mind Stone, now hidden by Hydra's remaining forces, won't be easy. Do you have a plan, Kagura?"
"Of course."
The girl smiled.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. may be gone, but Rhodes Island Industries is still standing.My 'Argos' Project and CTOS are fully operational. Sure, we lost a bunch of orbital stations, which hurts, but at least our intelligence network is still functional."
"You're building the next S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Fury raised an eyebrow. "That's a dark, difficult road."
"No. Unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., I have no interest in prying into people's secrets," Kagura replied.
"As I've said before, whether it's Rhodes Island Industries or Griffin Security, we are merely the 'watchful eyes' of this world. We remain apart from it… and we guard it."
"That's a bit cryptic," Fury remarked.
"You'll understand in time, Mr. Fury."
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Somewhere Else on Earth
'BOOM—!'
An explosion rocked a hidden laboratory.
Scarlet energy erupted, sending panicked researchers flying as reality itself twisted and burned.
A surge of overwhelming power rippled outward, making the entire facility tremble.
In the chaos, a figure flickered through space, accelerating to impossible speeds—so fast that even Kagura's own rapid-movement abilities paled in comparison…
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