Chapter 80: Hive
"Alright, guys, just a little more…"
Within the Hydra Base, in the laboratory connected to a ventilation shaft.
"Just a bit more effort!"
Through the holes in the ventilation shaft, Scott controlled the ants to form a rope, pulling himself into a heavily guarded room.
"Okay, Anthony, let's fly."
He lay on the flying Anthony's back, landing lightly on the table. He looked around the room; the laboratory seemed inactive. Besides some experimental data of unknown purpose, there were no researchers inside.
"Well done, buddy."
Seeing no one in the laboratory, Scott's courage grew a little. He reached out and patted the Artisan Ant's head, rolled off, and then immediately leaned against the wall of a massive beaker, steadying himself.
"I'm sure that dead rat earlier definitely had a problem; it smelled terrible!"
"Whew~"
"I knew it, I shouldn't have eaten dinner when I came."
Rubbing his slightly upset stomach, Scott took a deep breath, refocused on the mission, stood firm, and began to search the laboratory.
After shrinking his body, everything around him seemed as gigantic as Brobdingnag from Gulliver's Travels. He controlled Anthony to fly a circle around the entire laboratory.
"What's this?"
Passing an experiment chamber, Scott's gaze was drawn to it. He directed the Artisan Ant beneath him to land on the chamber's glass cover.
Standing at the edge of the observation slit of the experiment chamber, Scott peered inside through the special glass.
Inside, a man lay motionless, covered in tubes.
He reached out and placed his hand on the glass cover of the experiment chamber, gazing at the man. Suddenly, the Artisan Ant Anthony beside Scott touched his shoulder with an antenna. Scott then noticed the mark on the side of the chamber and silently read the letters printed on it.
"Hive."
Frowning, Scott withdrew his gaze from the letters and looked at the motionless man inside the experiment chamber with a puzzled expression.
Hiss—
However, the moment he turned his head.
The man in the experiment chamber suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of pitch-black eyes devoid of whites. Countless tentacles wriggled out from his gaping mouth, wildly slamming against the glass in front of Scott.
*Slap, slap, slap!*
"Oh shit!"
Faced with this sudden scene, Scott let out a curse. He was so startled that he stumbled back a step, falling directly from the edge of the glass cover.
At the last moment, Scott reacted and suddenly grabbed the edge of the experiment chamber with his hand.
He barely managed to prevent his dangerous fall.
"Anthony, help me out."
With both hands tightly clinging to the gap in the experiment chamber, Scott controlled the Artisan Ant standing beside him to catch his precariously swaying body.
Sitting on the flying Artisan Ant, Scott finally felt a sense of safety.
He looked up at the experiment chamber. The sound of tentacles striking continued to echo, but they never managed to get out of the chamber.
He shook his head, sweeping away the terrifying scene he had just witnessed.
"Let's get out of here, Anthony."
Scott controlled his Ant Army, quickly leaving the laboratory.
…
"This is trouble."
Colin narrowed his eyes slightly, having heard everything happening inside the entire Base using Super Hearing.
"Something's wrong."
A second later, Tony's voice sounded.
Frowning, Hawkeye observed the unusual personnel changes outside the distant Base through his night vision goggles and then spoke.
"The patrol personnel are starting to gather."
"Did Scott's operation fail?!"
Hearing Tony and Hawkeye's warnings, Nick turned his head to glance at the still blank screen.
"Prepare for a forced assault!"
In the darkness, a faint blue light flashed in Howard's Mechanical Eye.
Silently watching the crowd gathering outside the Hydra Base, he spoke in a deep voice to The Resistants members behind him, "Frank, you and I will handle the frontal assault…"
"Alright."
Nodding, The Punisher said nothing more.
He took a rocket launcher from the off-road vehicle, aimed at the distant Base, and was about to pull the trigger.
"Wait…"
However, at this critical moment.
Colin, who was beside him, suddenly reached out and pressed down on the rocket launcher.
"Perhaps, I can give it a try."
Colin's words caused Howard and the others, who were in a ready-to-fight stance, to pause slightly.
Releasing his fingers from the bowstring, Hawkeye Clint turned his head, casting a questioning look at Howard.
"How confident are you?"
If possible, they were unwilling to easily initiate combat.
This wasn't because The Resistants feared Hydra and their forces, but because they worried that such an action would alert Hydra inside the Base, leading them to destroy the experimental data left behind by Professor Phineas Horton.
"Sixty to seventy percent."
Not making absolute claims, Colin spoke contemplatively, based on what he had discovered with his Super Hearing.
"From the situation outside, Hydra might have sensed some abnormality, but they probably haven't truly discovered Scott's whereabouts. But once we launch an attack, it will directly expose everything to Hydra, not only putting Scott inside the Base directly in peril but also posing a danger or even an obstruction to his mission…"
Howard silently met Colin's gaze for a moment, then lowly called out to Tony through the signal receiver.
"Tony, report the situation."
"Perhaps he's right. Hydra probably hasn't discovered Scott's whereabouts."
During the time communication with Scott was lost, Tony hadn't been idle. He bypassed the Base's internal firewall system, implanted a Trojan program, and took over a surveillance feed.
He projected it in front of Howard and the others.
"Aside from some personnel acting somewhat unusually, the vast majority of personnel inside the Base are still maintaining their original movements."
Looking at the situation on the surveillance screen, Howard then turned and gently shook his head at Frank.
The latter pursed his lips and clicked his tongue, but still cooperated by lowering the rocket launcher in his hand.
Pressing a button on the side of his left Mechanical Arm, Howard handed Colin a silver device and said in a hoarse voice, "Once you encounter danger, immediately press this switch. We will remain on alert outside the Base."
Reaching out and taking the button device from Howard's hand, Colin nodded and replied with a smile, "Don't worry, I won't put myself in danger."
With the Powers Colin had currently unlocked, ordinary dangers simply couldn't cause him much harm.
This was also why he had voluntarily taken on this mission.
While ensuring his own safety, he wanted to interact as much as possible with Howard and the others to obtain more Time Shards.
At the same time, the Hydra Base also held his target for acquiring Time Shards.
(end of chapter)