What kind of secret base qualifies as "massive"?
Peter Parker previously had no concept of the scale involved. He had been to the Triskelion once—the headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D.—which featured an office tower over two hundred meters tall.
So, what would you think if you saw a giant statue that was clearly a parody of the Statue of Liberty, standing atop a "Mount Rushmore" featuring the faces of the Red Skull, Zemo, and Baron Strucker? What if the entire structure was nearly as tall as the Triskelion, yet still didn't touch the ceiling of the cavern it occupied?
Hydra clearly didn't care about space efficiency. Seven hundred meters beneath Budapest, they had hollowed out a gargantuan space nearly three hundred meters high and dozens of kilometers in diameter. One could almost say they had excavated the entire underworld beneath the city of Budapest. Hydra soldiers patrolled everywhere, and everything was in perfect order.
It looked as though they were preparing for an apocalypse—like a villainous organization planning to let the world perish so they could emerge from here to establish a New Order.
Perhaps it wasn't just a resemblance.
Peter took a deep breath. This place was no longer something he could investigate thoroughly on his own in a short amount of time. What baffled him was how S.H.I.E.L.D. and other organizations' detection equipment had failed to find such a massive underground void.
No... wait. There was a place where underground space also remained undetected—the hidden Spider Temple!
"If the statues of the four ancient gods in the Roman Pantheon disappeared, does that mean Hydra took them to create a similar barrier? Doesn't that mean there are at least four of these super-bases globally?"
Peter felt a headache coming on from this underground space that defied the laws of physics. With a helpless sigh and a shrug, he simply walked toward the most prominent facility in the "city." The layout of the entire Hydra underground base followed a Neo-Third Reich classical style, favoring Roman architectural aesthetics and the "big is good, bigger is better" philosophy. He only needed to find the largest structure located on the central axis of symmetry.
"Come on, let's see what you're hiding... Wait, isn't this the Pantheon? It's almost identical."
Peter muttered as he approached the Pantheon. The great doors here were open. Several divine statues stood inside, surrounded by statues of various historical Hydra leaders. They seemed to be imitating ancient Roman emperors, attempting to deify themselves. After whispering to himself for a moment, Peter looked at the central statue.
He finally found an answer to one of his many questions.
Its name is Set, also known as Tiamat, the Beast of Revelation, and Leviathan. His existence was erased by Gaia and replaced by gods of various lands, substituting the image of the Hydra with a seven-headed sea serpent.
This sentence, which one didn't need to read the text beneath the statue to understand, surfaced in Peter's mind. In an instant, Peter grasped everything: the image and origin of Hydra stemmed from the demon-god Set, a being of the same caliber as Chthon. This terrifying deity was right here.
But...
A sudden force slammed toward Peter almost instantly. The force was so abrupt that even his Spider-Sense couldn't react in time. The statue of Set before him seemed to come alive for a split second, erupting with a powerful energy attack. Peter barely managed to dodge.
Of course, it wasn't without a price—he was exposed.
"Spider-Man, I was wondering if Captain America would be the first to arrive here, but you've given me a surprise."
A raspy voice drifted over. Peter turned to see a bald, elderly man leaning on a cane appearing at the temple's entrance. He looked at Spider-Man with a jovial smile. "We haven't had a guest here since Richard Parker. I suppose this is fate."
A full squad of Hydra soldiers rushed to the temple entrance, raising their weapons and aiming them at Peter. Just then, one Sling Ring portal after another opened. Whether it was Captain America and Logan in Budapest or Tony and the others in New York, they all arrived at the scene.
Tony looked at his screen and couldn't help but complain: "My data shows we are over seven hundred meters underground. Well, that explains slightly why we've never found Hydra's secret bases."
"Wolfgang von Strucker." The Captain raised his shield and looked at the senile man before him. Spanning seventy years of time, he still recognized his enemy. "I didn't expect you to be alive. You must be nearly a hundred years old. How did you escape the post-war trials?"
"It is a pleasure to be reunited with you, Captain. I didn't expect to see an old friend either." Baron Strucker smiled and gestured for the Hydra soldiers to stand before him. At that moment, a soldier knelt voluntarily. Strucker pressed his bionic prosthetic hand onto the man's head; within seconds, the soldier turned into a shriveled corpse.
Strucker, meanwhile, transformed into a middle-aged man in the prime of his life.
"To welcome you, Captain, I specifically chose an elite Hydra warrior to sacrifice his life for our reunion." Strucker laughed with satisfaction. "Come, Captain. Let me use the destruction of the Avengers to bring about the rebirth of Hydra!"
"Your plan won't work. I witnessed the destruction of the Red Skull back then, and today will be the same for you," the Captain shouted. "Avengers! Assemble!"
"Actually, we're all already here, and one Wolverine doesn't count as an Avenger," Tony couldn't help but quip. "We need to find the main control center first, guys. We have to ensure Hydra hasn't set any self-destruct protocols. If this place blows, Budapest will effectively suffer a magnitude seven earthquake—or worse, the ground will sink seven hundred meters in an instant."
[Self-destruct sequence initiated. Countdown: 10 minutes.]
The loud electronic prompt caused a brief silence among the group. Then, with the Captain's command of "Avengers, attack!", both sides immediately engaged in battle. Tony, along with Pym and the accompanying Ultron robots, immediately broke through the encirclement; they needed to stop the self-destruct sequence.
"And we need to wait for reinforcements!"
The Captain slung his shield at Baron Strucker, who threw a Hydra soldier in the way to block it before making his own escape. Peter was surprised to hear this: "Reinforcements? Who did you call, Captain?"
"Not a person, but an army. You've been fighting alongside them these past few days."
"The Wild Pack is arriving on the battlefield."