Chapter 61: Post-Battle Settlement, Chaos magic Unboxed from the Super Mystery Box
Dark red ripples swept across the Hudson River estuary.
It was like a layer of cicada-wing-thin red gauze, gently brushing across the ruins of Manhattan.
The last lingering blue shadow of the wormhole on the horizon, under this red glow, was like a pencil Mark erased by an eraser, smoothly fading into the depths of the firmament.
On the terrace, Tony Stark's fingers resting on the titanium alloy faceplate froze.
The metal joints emitted a slight clicking sound.
Steve Rogers gripped his round shield, his calloused fingernails scraping a harsh sound against the leather strap.
A metallic scent of rust still lingered in the air, the residual warmth left after chaos energy forcibly ionized the atmosphere.
Hulk squatted at the edge of the terrace, his massive green toes pressing fine cracks into the tiles.
He tilted his head, the gradually fading red light reflecting in his turbid eyes.
Total silence filled the area.
Only the leftover fruitwood charcoal in the grill emitted a final crackling sound in the breeze.
Aaron stood at the center of the energy.
He didn't look at the dumbfounded superheroes.
He lowered his head, staring fixedly at the sauce stain on the hem of his white short-sleeved shirt.
The barbecue sauce stain just left by Nick Fury stood out glaringly under the dark red afterglow.
He extended his right hand, his index finger stopping one centimeter above the fabric.
Fine dark red threads poked out from his fingertips.
These threads were like living parasites, rapidly burrowing into the fibers of the white shirt.
Aaron felt that what flowed through his blood vessels was no longer blood.
Instead, it was a viscous, violent, yet pet-like obedient fluid.
The feeling was wonderful.
It was as if the entire city had turned into a giant graphics software, with his fingertips as the sole paintbrush.
The fabric fibers reorganized in that very second.
The time of the dark red sauce was forcibly reversed, degenerating from organic compounds into invisible atoms before finally dissipating into the air.
Spotless.
Not even a watermark was left behind.
Aaron flicked his finger, and those red threads, like awakened insects of early spring, instantly retracted into his pores.
[ Ding. ]
Deep in his mind, that cold mechanical voice slammed down once more.
[ Battle of New York officially settled. ]
[ Mission Evaluation: Cross-dimensional disruptor. ]
[ Because the host ended the war in an absurd manner and opened the supreme mystery box. ]
[ Reward: Chaos magic seed (fully fused). ]
[ Current reality-warping authority: 1.2% (local Manhattan area). ]
Aaron let out a long breath.
He licked his back molars, a dry metallic taste lingering in his mouth.
Reality-warping authority.
This meant that as long as he was within this small corner of New York, he was the god who dictated physical constants.
Even if he wanted to reverse gravity or make bourbon whiskey flow through the Hudson River, it was merely a matter of a thought.
"That's not energy..."
Tony Stark's voice came from beneath his mask.
Hoarse, carrying an unconcealable frustration.
He controlled the Mark VII to land on the terrace, a wisp of black smoke rising from the thrusters beneath his feet.
"Jarvis just told me he couldn't collect any wavelength data."
Tony lifted his mask, the whites of his eyes laced with fine red veins.
"Did you just directly alter light reflectance? Or did you change the underlying logic of matter?"
Steve Rogers stepped forward.
He hung his shield back onto his back.
The heavy round shield struck the strap with a muffled thud.
He looked at Aaron, his gaze revealing the trepidation one feels when facing an unknown deity.
"Parker, this kind of power... shouldn't exist on Earth."
His tone was heavy, like delivering a final battlefield ultimatum.
Aaron didn't respond.
He walked to the edge of the terrace, where a pile of rubble lay.
It was the stone decorations and guardrails shattered when the Leviathan charged down earlier.
The steel rebar was twisted like pretzels, with sharp jagged ends exposed.
He splayed his fingers, palm facing down.
Dark red specks of light, like fireflies, scattered down onto the rubble.
"Creak. Creak."
A harsh scraping sound rang out.
Under the watchful eyes of Tony and Captain, the fractured granite stones began to twitch.
They seemed drawn by a magnet, or kneaded by some invisible hand.
Dust rapidly condensed, and the cracks healed themselves within the red glow.
The previously twisted rebar moved like obedient snakes, tracing smooth arcs through the air as they welded themselves back into the load-bearing pillars.
It wasn't over yet.
At the very peak of the rubble pile, a fist-sized piece of gravel suddenly shattered.
Red light swirled within it.
A delicate red tulip burst forth from the stone.
Its green stem stretched in the wind, the petals still glistening with fresh dew.
The rich floral fragrance instantly overpowered the smell of grilled Wagyu beef.
Steve stepped back half a step.
His military boots stomped heavily against the anti-corrosive wooden planks with a harsh scrape.
"This isn't natural," he roared in a low voice, the blue veins bulging on the backs of his hands.
Aaron withdrew his hand, the tulip swaying gently in the breeze.
"Nature is defined by the strong, Captain."
Aaron turned around, casually pulling over the wind-tilted velvet swivel chair and sitting down.
He looked at Tony, then at Steve.
"Stark, your five percent carried interest contract is already in effect. Remember to pay on time."
"As for Captain, if you want to find your frozen old pal, you'd better be polite to me."
Tony's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.
He glanced at the string of chaotic, flickering code on his armor's display screen.
It was the obituary of his scientific worldview being violently dismantled.
He didn't speak again, simply slamming his mask shut.
The thruster emitted unstable flames once more.
The gold-and-red figure leaped upward, carving a crooked arc across the night sky as he fled the apartment like he was running for his life.
Steve gave Aaron a long, deep look.
He silently walked to the edge of the terrace and vaulted over.
Catching a lower floor's billboard with one hand, he vanished into the shadows with a few agile leaps.
Hulk scratched his rear, let out a muffled roar at Aaron, and jumped down as well.
The heavy thud of his landing shook the entire building once more.
The terrace fell quiet.
Loki was still standing by the ventilation opening, tightly gripping his folding paper fan.
He stared at the tulip growing out of the stone crack, his eyes filled with humiliation and desire.
That was Chaos magic.
It was the power he had dreamed of, the very power he had been willing to unleash the Chitauri army to claim.
And now, it was being used by this Earth teenager to repair floor tiles.
Aaron leaned lazily against the velvet chair.
He looked at the mess strewn across the floor.
Shards of broken glass gleamed with a cold, hard light in the moonlight.
The rosewood coffee table had two broken legs and tilted crookedly in the corner.
The Persian rug was stained with black scorch Marks from the fireworks.
Gwen and Mary Jane stood at the living room entrance.
Gwen loosened her grip on the Ghost mask slightly, but still didn't dare approach that pile of dark red magic.
Mary Jane crushed her empty cola can flat.
She looked at Aaron, the wild streak in her eyes subdued somewhat by the scene that had just unfolded.
Felicia walked over carrying a broom.
Looking at the overturned sofa and the dust-covered walls, she let out a deep sigh.
As the nominal housekeeper, this workload made her want to quit on the spot.
"Master, I don't think a few brooms can fix this level of damage."
She pointed to the large gaping hole blasted into the terrace.
Aaron reached out his hand.
A spark of dark red flickered once more at his fingertips.
The spark danced between his fingers like a restless heart.
He looked at Felicia, then back at the broken-legged coffee table.
"It doesn't matter."
Aaron spoke calmly, without a hint of exhaustion in his voice.
"Besides, I was getting sick of this old-fashioned style anyway."
He turned his head, the dark red threads in his pupils swimming once more.
"Felicia, gather those expensive bills."
Aaron stood up and walked to the edge of the shattered floor-to-ceiling window.
The cold wind whipped his hair into a frenzy.
He gazed down at the city below—one he had unilaterally saved and thoroughly terrified.
"Looks like we need a brand-new interior design."
Chapter 62: The Combination of magic and Technology, Creating the Ultimate Harem Base
Shattered steel bars were exposed to the air.
The fractured spots were still emitting charred smoke.
Those were the traces of being bombarded by Chitaurienergy cannons.
Felicia was holding a broom she found in the kitchen.
She stepped on the fragments of the expensive Persian rug, staring worriedly at the basin-sized gap on the terrace.
"Aaron, this house can't be lived in anymore."
She leaned the broom against the wall, spread her hands, and said, "The property maintenance worker called just now, saying that with this extent of damage, the entire building will have to be closed for repairs."
Aaron sank into the still-intact leather sofa.
He was swirling half a glass of unfinished whiskey in his hand.
The ice sphere struck the rim of the glass, making a crisp sound.
"Maintenance workers are too slow."
Aaron tilted his head back and drank the last sip of wine.
He put down the cup and gently tapped his finger in the air.
A trace of scarlet mist jumped out from his fingertips.
Like living red filaments, it instantly wrapped around the fractured steel bars.
Felicia took half a step back, subconsciously tightening her grip on the broom handle.
That was Chaos Magic.
There were no spells, nor any cumbersome rituals.
Aaron just thought about "restoration" in his mind.
Creak——
A harsh metallic friction sound rang out.
Those twisted steel bars acted like living snakes, automatically straightening, stretching, and locking together.
The shattered concrete blocks flew back up from downstairs, seamlessly filling the gap.
A few seconds later, the terrace was as smooth as new.
Even the scratches on the ground disappeared.
"This... this is unscientific."
Felicia walked over and ground the floor with the toe of her shoe.
It was solid, with a cold touch.
"Here with me, science has already retired."
Aaron stood up and walked to the center of the living room.
He took out a fingernail-sized silver chip from his arms.
That was the top core "borrowed" from Stark Tower, containing Tony's unreleased nano-recombination technology.
"Felicia, lock the door well."
"Don't let that dish-washing Second Prince come in and make trouble."
In the kitchen, Loki was gritting his teeth at a pile of greasy plates.
Aaron closed his eyes.
The red light of Chaos Magic suddenly burst open.
This time, it wasn't a simple repair.
The red light covered the walls of the entire apartment.
The walls began to move and flip like building blocks.
Under the stretching of magic, the original two-hundred-square-meter space began to blur in visual perception.
This was a variant application of spatial warp.
Aaron created a stable spatial wrinkle inside the apartment.
From the outside, it still looked like the original size.
But inside, it was expanding crazily.
"Red Queen, take over permissions."
Aaron casually flicked the silver chip into the void.
The red light wrapped around the chip, forcibly integrating it into the apartment's structural system.
A low hum came from within the walls.
That was nanobots operating at high speed.
A light blue holographic projection emerged in the center of the living room.
The phantom of a little girl slowly condensed.
"Command confirmed, Master."
Red Queen's voice was cold and emotionless, "Integrating Stark Industries nanomaterials, establishing dimensional stability anchors."
Felicia was stunned.
She watched as the corridor in front of her continued to extend.
Doors radiating a cold metallic light automatically generated one after another.
At the end of the corridor, what used to be a dead wall now featured a huge constant-temperature wine cellar.
"What are you doing?"
Gwen and MJ pushed open their bedroom doors and rushed out.
They had just changed into pajamas, and their hair was still somewhat messy.
"Renovating."
Aaron pointed around, "The previous place was too cramped and inconvenient."
Gwen rubbed her eyes.
She found that the door to her room had changed its appearance.
The original wooden door had turned into a silver-white alloy, with a pink-white spider logo embedded in the middle.
She pushed the door open and went in.
Inside was a composite space as large as a basketball court.
The ceiling was made of transparent reinforced glass, providing a direct view of New York's night sky.
Rows of automatic retractable climbing frames descended from the ceiling.
In the very corner, there was even a complete set of drum kits and recording equipment.
"This is... my dream room?"
Gwen touched the customized electronic drums, her fingertips trembling slightly.
When she practiced at home before, she was always afraid that Sheriff George next door would have a heart attack.
The current room even came with a perfect soundproofing barrier.
MJ next door also let out an exclamation.
Her room had turned into a private top-tier small theater.
Red Queen's projection appeared in front of her: "Miss Mary Jane, this room integrates the World's most advanced rehearsal simulation system, capable of simulating any stage lighting and shadow."
Felicia held the broom, looked at the two excited girls, and curled her lips.
"What about mine?"
She turned her head to stare at Aaron.
Aaron snapped his fingers.
At the deepest part of the corridor, a door glowing with purple light quietly slid open.
Inside, there were no flashy decorations.
Walls full of trophy display cabinets, each equipped with infrared defense and top-tier fingerprint locks.
In the center of the floor was a huge circular bathtub, the water steaming and emitting the scent of lavender.
"That's your housekeeper room."
Aaron sat back on the sofa, closing his eyes to rest.
"By the way, Red Queen has already taken over the building's defense system."
"With the current apartment, even if Hulk crashes outside the door for a year, he won't shake a single speck of dust inside."
Nanomaterials reinforced every inch of the wall panels.
Coupled with the reality modification of Chaos Magic.
This place had already broken away from the common sense of the three-dimensional World.
The air was filled with a faint scent of vanilla.
That was the result of automatic adjustments by the circulation system.
The thickness of the glass in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows had been increased to fifty centimeters, with liquid energy flowing through the internal interlayer, capable of absorbing any Impact.
"Master."
Red Queen's voice sounded in the living room.
"The defense system is closed-loop, and identity recognition has been updated."
"Miss Gwen, Miss Mary Jane, and Miss Felicia have level-two management permissions."
Aaron closed his eyes, his fingers gently tapping on the sofa armrest.
"What about Loki?"
"Level-three permissions."
Red Queen replied calmly, "His permissions are limited to entering the kitchen, bathroom, and utility room."
"If he tries to approach the bedroom area, the defensive electric arc will instantly pierce his kidneys."
The sound of a plate shattering came from the kitchen.
Obviously, Loki heard this bad news.
The living room quieted down.
Gwen ran out wearing a loose sweatshirt and threw herself onto the carpet beside Aaron.
"Aaron, just how many secrets do you still have?"
She tilted her head up, her sparkling eyes full of incomprehension and admiration.
Aaron didn't speak.
He simply reached out and ruffled Gwen's blonde hair.
He didn't like explaining.
Explaining was too tiring.
Right at this moment.
Red Queen's phantom suddenly flickered.
The originally gentle indoor lighting instantly turned into a chilling red glow.
"Warning."
"Alarm triggered."
"A violent explosion has been detected within a three-kilometer radius."
Red Queen waved her little hand.
A high-definition real-time satellite surveillance image was projected into the void.
That was an old auto repair shop a few streets away.
The soaring flames tore apart the night.
Thick smoke rolled upwards.
"That is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s backup safehouse."
Felicia's expression sank; she knew this intelligence like the back of her hand.
"The highest-spec listening devices were deployed inside."
"That was their core point for monitoring here."
In the image.
Several figures wearing tactical vests flashed through the flames.
Their movements were extremely fast.
Completely unlike ordinary human soldiers.
Amidst the exploded ruins.
A burly man slowly walked out.
He wore a ferocious skull mask, holding a modified assault rifle in each hand.
At his feet, the bodies of several S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents lay sprawled horizontally and vertically.
The man looked up at the sky.
Seeming to sense the satellite's overlooking gaze.
He slowly made a throat-slitting gesture toward the lens.
"Crossbones?"
Gwen recognized that iconic mask.
"HYDRA's people?"
Aaron slowly opened his eyes.
He looked at that arrogant skull mask in the image.
The good mood brought by the recent renovation instantly vanished by half.
"I don't like smelling such a disgusting smell of gunpowder on the first day after finishing the renovation."
Aaron stood up.
The red light at his fingertips danced once again.
Chapter 63: HYDRA is targeting Aaron, which is simply courting death.
The holographic screen floated in mid-air in the living room, its blue light shimmering slightly.
In the image, flames soared into the sky, blasting half of the sign of the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house away.
At the edge of the ruins, a burly man wearing a tactical vest flashed past.
He carried a modified M4 rifle on his back, his face covered by a signature skull-painted mask.
"Stop, zoom in."
Aaron leaned against the velvet sofa cushion and casually ordered.
Red Queen immediately froze the image.
The pixels rapidly reorganized, revealing the bloodshot eyes beneath the mask.
"Identity confirmed: Brock Rumlow, codename 'Crossbones'."
Red Queen's voice echoed in the spacious living room, "Affiliated with the S.H.I.E.L.D. Strike Team, true background: HYDRA."
Aaron didn't speak, merely staring at the burning flames in the image.
The flames were mixed with a certain green fluorescence.
That was HYDRA's unique energy source, more aggressive than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s conventional explosives.
Three kilometers away, at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, the Triskelion.
Alexander Pierce stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
In his hand, he held an old enamel mug filled with warm lemonade.
The water vapor fogged up his reading glasses.
"Nick Fury's weak 'appeasement policy' has already failed."
Pierce didn't even turn his head, his voice hoarse.
In the shadows behind him, a field-grade officer straightened his spine.
"The Avengers' performance in the Battle of New Yorkproved that they are just a group of uncontrolled street performers."
Pierce put down the enamel mug, his knuckles turning white from exertion.
"We need true power; the technology and magic mastered by that young man named Aaron must belong to 'HYDRA'."
In his view, Tony Stark was an arrogant genius, and Captain America was an outdated antique.
And Aaron was a "raw material" with infinite possibilities.
HYDRA never feared strength; they only feared that such strength was not in their own hands.
"Has Crossbones already set out?"
"Yes. He brought the latest 'gravity anchor' jammer."
The officer reported with his head lowered, "That artificial intelligence in Stark Tower will be instantly blocked."
Pierce sneered and picked up the enamel mug again.
"Go, bring that child back. If he cannot be brought back, turn him and his entire building into ashes."
At this moment, inside Aaron's penthouse apartment.
A faint citrus scent drifted in the air.
Natasha sat on the single sofa to the side, her fingernails trimmed round and clean.
She held an orange in her hand, lowering her head to peel off the white pith on it.
That was what she had just dug out from the refrigerator.
As the World's top spy, her current job was peeling fruit for Aaron.
She peeled it very meticulously, with a focused expression, as if handling a time bomb.
"Want some?"
Natasha handed over the peeled orange segments, her fingertips brushing against Aaron's palm.
She didn't quickly pull back like before; her breathing rate was just half a beat faster.
Aaron took the orange, the juice bursting on the tip of his tongue.
"HYDRA's people are very polite."
He spat the orange seeds into the trash can, "Knowing that I just finished renovating, they specially brought a demolition team over."
"Red Queen says the interference source is approaching."
Natasha put down the fruit peels, her hand already reaching for the stun baton at her waist, "Range two hundred meters, the building's signal is attenuating."
"Don't be nervous."
Aaron took another orange segment from her hand, "If someone wants to send a stepping stone for the new house, how impolite would it be to refuse?"
He turned his head slightly, looking at the floor-to-ceiling window glass.
The glass reflected his shadow—calm, lazy, and even a bit drowsy.
Just a moment ago, he felt a faint vibration.
Not coming from the ground, but some kind of magnetic field distortion.
That was HYDRA's proud "black technology", capable of blocking all electronic signals.
Indeed, Red Queen's holographic projection began to flicker.
Like an old television with poor signal, the image was covered with snow dots.
"Master, peripheral sensors... disconnected..."
Red Queen's voice was intermittent, and finally disappeared completely into the air.
The entire building fell into an eerie silence.
The lights did not go out, but under the coverage of nanomaterials, the originally warm light appeared somewhat cold.
In the hallway.
Crossbones pushed up his infrared night vision goggles with deft movements.
Behind him followed twelve fully armed Agent, each wearing a special electrostatic shielding bracelet.
"The target is right behind this door."
Crossbones made a gesture, his voice in the walkie-talkie laced with static.
"The jammer is operating normally, Stark's artificial intelligence is just a blind man now."
He touched the anesthetic rounds in his bosom.
That was a serum specially developed for superhumans; even an elephant couldn't last two seconds.
Pierce's order was to "capture alive if possible", but he preferred slaughter.
"Boss, this door isn't locked."
An Agent lowered his voice, pointing to a half-hidden secret door.
That wasn't the main door leading to the main hall, but the side corridor that Aaron had expanded with magic just now.
Crossbones gripped the tactical folding knife in his hand.
He felt an inexplicable sense of discordance.
Too quiet.
This building, claimed to be the safest in the World, didn't even trigger an alarm.
"Maybe he is hugging a woman and sleeping."
The Agent sneered and pulled the bolt.
Crossbones kicked open that door with one kick.
The heavy alloy door crashed against the wall, making a muffled, loud thud.
A smoke grenade rolled in a step ahead.
Thick white smoke quickly filled the entire hallway entrance.
HYDRA Agent held their rifles and cut in with standard combat footwork.
However, the white smoke did not disperse as expected.
A fierce wind pressure rose from the flat ground.
As if there was an invisible fan, it instantly tore the smoke into fragments.
Before Crossbones could clearly see the layout inside the room, he first locked eyes with a pair of green eyes.
Cold.
That was the icy coldness of looking at a dead person.
Felicia leaned against the pillar in the hallway, her black tight suit outlining a graceful yet explosive curve.
She toyed with a bright silver steel claw in her hand, her fingertips brushing across the metal surface.
"Aaron said that whoever ruins the floor is responsible for wiping it clean."
Felicia's lips curled up slightly, the arc of a hunter seeing its prey.
At her side and rear.
Gwen was crouching in the shadows of the ceiling, her pink-and-white spider suit gleaming with a cold light in the dim light.
She landed lightly at the doorway, blocking the only retreat for the HYDRA Agent.
"Hey, guys."
Gwen flicked out a web strand, precisely sticking to the hallway chandelier.
"Private territory, entry prohibited, didn't you read the doorplate?"
Crossbones' muscles tightened instantly.
He abruptly pulled the trigger.
Da da da!
Tongues of fire spat wildly in the dim hallway.
Gwen's figure traced a graceful arc in the air, easily dodging the trajectory.
And Felicia was like a black lightning bolt, instantly closing in on the foremost Agent.
"Is this so-called HYDRA?"
Aaron's lazy voice came from deep within the living room.
Crossbones pushed forward against the pressure.
He finally saw the scene in the living room clearly.
Aaron was still sitting on the sofa.
He crossed his legs, toying with the last orange segment in his hand.
And that globally renowned Russian Agent — Black Widow Natasha.
At this moment, she was kneeling by his leg, holding a wet wipe and gently wiping the orange juice off Aaron's fingers.
This scene was as absurd as a nightmare.
"Are you here to kill me?"
Aaron raised his head, his gaze passing over Felicia and Gwen to look straight at Crossbones.
"Or are you here to... teach me how to decorate?"
Cold sweat seeped from the hand holding the gun by Crossbones.
The "gravity anchor" jammer on his chest emitted a frantic red light.
The artificial intelligence that should have been paralyzed was now recondensing Red Queen's figure on the ceiling.
Red Queen's red phantom looked down at them.
"Interference program parsed, back-tracing signal source..."
"Damn it, the intelligence is wrong!"
Crossbones roared and discarded his rifle.
He backhanded out two specially made magnetic energy daggers, exerted force with both legs, and rushed toward Aaron like a black leopard.
He knew that the only way to survive was to take the young man sitting on the sofa hostage.
However, he only rushed out three steps.
The trace of red light remaining on Aaron's fingertips suddenly surged.
The space of the entire living room seemed to turn into viscous glue.
Crossbones' speed became slower and slower, and finally the whole person maintained the posture of rushing forward, freezing in mid-air.
His toes were only a few centimeters off the ground.
But no matter how he roared or struggled, he couldn't move a single inch.
Aaron patted the debris on his hands and slowly stood up.
He walked in front of Crossbones, looking at the other party's terrified skull mask.
"Since you've come, leave something behind before you go."
Aaron stretched out his hand, his fingertips gently tapping on Crossbones' chest.
Bang!
The jammer instantly blew into fine pieces of parts.
Several muffled sounds came from the hallway.
That was Gwen and Felicia dealing with the remaining Agent.
Those elite HYDRA soldiers didn't even last a minute under the siege of the two superpowered individuals.
"Natasha."
Aaron turned around.
"Give Pierce a call and tell him..."
"I don't like his lemonade."
Rapid footsteps of tactical combat boots came from the hallway.
The second echelon of HYDRA Agent had already rushed to the door.
Crossbones widened his eyes.
Greeting these people were Black Cat and Gwen's even colder gazes.
Chapter 64: Crossbones Just Broke In, Only to Be Tag-Team Beaten by Black Cat and Gwen
Crossbones's magnetic dagger was still humming.
Deep blue electric arcs danced along the blade, carrying a faint, burnt scent.
Because the space was forcibly solidified, he was pinned three meters away from Aaron like a comical sculpture.
"Snap."
Aaron snapped his fingers lightly.
The air, which had originally been as thick as cement, instantly lost its pressure.
Crossbones lost his balance, his whole body pitching forward from inertia.
He was a top-tier mercenary after all; his waist and abdomen suddenly exerted force, twisting his body in mid-air as his leather boots scraped two charred dark marks on the floor.
"Open fire!"
He squeezed out a roar from his throat.
The subsequent incoming HYDRA Agents did not hesitate anymore.
The fire of the special assault rifles spewed out, and bullets covered the entire living room in a fan shape.
The bullet casings fell onto the floor, making crisp clattering sounds like a string of hurried notes.
"Aaron, don't dirty your newly replaced leather sofa."
Gwen's voice came from the ceiling.
She had been hanging upside down in the shadows just now.
At this moment, her fingertips exerted force, and her entire body swooped down like an enraged leopard.
She was not wearing that traditional tight suit, but a new combat armor specially made by Aaron.
The nano-Materials flowed with a pearlescent sheen under the lights.
A streak of white web sliced through the air.
Snap!
The two rifles in the front row were stuck together.
Gwen kicked off the wall with both legs, and the huge pulling force directly dragged the two soldiers toward the ceiling.
Afterward, her heel slammed heavily into the back of one soldier's neck with a spinning kick.
The sound of bone cracking was crisp.
That person didn't even manage a muffled groan before plunging headfirst into the carpet and passing out cold.
"Gwen, your movements are too slow."
From the shadows on the side came Felicia's teasing voice laden with a smile.
That was a mass of pitch-blackness that did not belong to the common sense of light and shadow.
The shadow ability bestowed upon her by Aaroncompletely turned this Black Cat into a reaper wandering at the edge of dimensions.
She had no physical form, or rather, she only had one when she wanted to.
An Agent was frantically changing his magazine.
He suddenly discovered that his shadow had moved.
The shadow stood up on the floor, transforming into a pitch-black hand that tightly choked his throat.
"Gack... gack..."
The Agent dropped his rifle, his hands desperately scratching at his own neck.
But all he grabbed was illusory smoke.
Felicia crawled out from the shadow behind him, the alloy steel claws at her fingertips flashing with a cold glint under the light.
She slashed backhandedly.
The nano-ceramic armor on the Agent's shoulder was neatly severed like a hot knife cutting through butter.
"What kind of monster is this..."
Crossbones retreated to the corner.
He felt a chill shoot straight from his tailbone to his crown.
The scene before him had exceeded his professional cognition.
In S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence, Gwen Stacy was just a spider-girl with maxed-out agility.
But now, every movement of that girl carried a certain... sense of foreknowledge.
For every predictive shot he made, Gwen could always dodge it one centimeter in advance.
That was not agility.
That was absolute domination over space.
And that woman in black was even more bizarre.
She walked through a hail of bullets, the bullets passing through her body, stirring up only a wisp of black smoke.
Then, she would appear in any blind spot that you thought was absolutely safe.
"Is this your 'black technology'?"
Gwen landed lightly on the coffee table in front of Crossbones.
She tilted her head, her pink-and-white mask exuding a maidenly slyness.
"Aaron said your jammers are quite expensive, and the feel of taking them apart is indeed not bad."
In her hand, she was pinching that core component that had been shattered by Aaron just a moment ago.
The parts were crushed into a ball of scrap metal in her palm.
"Go to hell!"
Crossbones roared and pressed the exoskeleton enhancement switch on his arm.
The hydraulic drive shaft emitted a piercing howl.
He threw a punch toward Gwen's head.
The power of this punch was enough to Pierce the front armor of a tank.
Gwen didn't even move.
She simply raised her left hand with her five fingers spread open.
Bang!
The wave of air ruffled her golden side-hair.
That heavy punch was firmly blocked outside a layer of transparent red ripples.
"magic Protection?"
Crossbones's heart skipped a beat.
"No, it's love."
Gwen blinked playfully; in reality, that was a vector barrier blessed upon them by Aaron.
Her right leg swept horizontally with a sudden force.
With a snap.
Crossbones's multi-million-dollar mechanical arm was forcefully kicked into a ninety-degree bend.
Electric sparks flew in all directions.
"Ah——!"
Crossbones retreated while clutching his severed limb.
Before he could even steady himself, the floor beneath his feet suddenly turned into a pitch-blackness resembling quicksand.
Felicia poked half her body out from the shadows, grabbed his ankle, and fiercely slammed him toward the ceiling.
Snap!
Dozens of thick webs shot over from different directions.
Crossbones was firmly pinned next to the chandelier bracket on top of the living room like an oversized silkworm cocoon.
Because his posture was so twisted, his face was engorged with blood, making him look exceptionally ferocious.
The battle ended too quickly.
From breaking the door down to total annihilation, it took less than two minutes in total.
Twelve elite Agents lay scattered across the corridor.
Their equipment was scattered all over the ground, and those rifles representing HYDRA's highest technology looked like a pile of scrap metal at the moment.
Aaron had been sitting there all along.
He didn't even get up.
Natasha handed over a glass of iced club soda.
He took it, took a sip, and the feeling of bubbles bursting in his throat made him narrow his eyes slightly.
"Done fighting?"
Aaron put down the cup, his tone as calm as if he were asking what was for dinner.
"Aaron, my combat suit got a little dirty."
Gwen jumped onto the back of the sofa, pointing at a smudge of dust on her knee.
She looked a bit aggrieved, like a girl-next-door who had ruined her new clothes.
"That's the blood he spewed out, none of my business."
Felicia revealed her figure.
Holding the magnetic dagger dropped by Crossbones in her hand, she tossed it into the corner like trash.
Aaron stood up from the sofa.
He stepped over the Agent on the ground, the sound of his leather shoe heels stepping on the floor having a very rhythmic beat.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
He stopped in front of the hanging Crossbones.
At this moment, this top assassin of HYDRA no longer had his previous arrogance.
His eyes beneath the mask stared fixedly at Aaron, the bottoms of his eyes full of despairing bloodshot veins.
"HYDRA's vitality has always been very tenacious."
Aaron reached out his hand.
On his fingertips, a touch of dark red Chaos Magic flickered and reorganized constantly like a living flame.
The coercion emitted by that small cluster of red light made it feel as if the oxygen in the entire room had been evacuated.
Crossbones felt a piercing pain coming from the depths of his Soul.
That feeling was not flesh and skin being torn apart.
Rather, the atoms within his body were being forcibly disassembled by a will that did not belong to this World.
"Pierce sending you here to die is because he has grown senile."
Aaron's voice was very soft, yet it carried an undeniable weightiness.
"But I guess there should be someone else behind him."
He brought his fingers close to the center of Crossbones's brows.
The red light illuminated the other party's pupils.
"Tell me."
Aaron's tone took on a rare touch of seriousness.
"Which crevice is Baron Strucker hiding in right now?"
Chapter 65: Without Aaron Having to Lift a Finger, the Confidantes Are Already Invincible
Aaron's fingertips gently pressed against the edge of Crossbones's helmet.
That trace of crimson Chaos Magic mist, like a living red maggot, drilled through the gaps of the helmet.
There were no screams.
Due to high-frequency trembling, Crossbones's body shook out a string of afterimages in the spiderweb.
His eyeballs rolled upward, which was a physiological reaction to his cerebral cortex being violently browsed by a foreign will.
Click.
As if snapping a dead branch, Aaron casually tore off the opponent's tactical helmet.
Sweat and blood mixed together, dripping down Crossbones's pale cheeks.
His consciousness had become an old book under Aaron's fingertips, being rapidly flipped to the last few pages.
"Red Queen, take over image output."
Aaron instructed in a low voice, his fingers pulling back slightly.
Several wisps of red light were forcibly pulled out from Crossbones's temples.
The red light plunged into the air in the center of the living room and dispersed.
The originally clear holographic projection was instantly replaced by dim, fragmented images.
That was the HYDRA World within Crossbones's memory.
A cold and damp Underground Room, with wooden arms crates printed with a red skull logo.
Several people in white lab coats surrounded a huge centrifuge.
A World map densely circled with a red marker flashed across the center of the screen.
"New York, London, Sokovia, Siberia."
Red Queen calmly called out the place names one by one.
"Comparing the energy characteristics of global HYDRABases through the optic nerve afterimages of Crossbones."
The red dots on the living room wall became more and more numerous, like skin covered in red rashes.
Pierce's tentacles hidden deep within S.H.I.E.L.D. were even more numerous than Natasha anticipated.
"So many?"
Gwen leaned closer, staring at the red dots on the map with her brows knitted together.
She instinctively clenched her fists, her knuckles making a creaking sound.
As the Guardian of New York, this scale of evil organization made her feel physically uncomfortable.
"The more, the more fun it is."
Aaron sat back down on the sofa.
Natasha handed over a wrung-out warm towel again.
He took the towel and carefully wiped away the sweat stains belonging to Crossbones smeared between his fingers.
"Gwen, Felicia."
Aaron casually threw away the towel.
"These red dots will be your 'after-school homework' from now on."
Gwen was stunned for a moment, pointing at herself: "Us?"
"Otherwise?"
Aaron changed into a more comfortable posture and lay down, "Could it be that you want me to personally crawl into those moldy sewers?"
"That would be a desecration of this custom-made sofa."
Felicia leaned against the bar counter, spinning a pitch-black scalpel in her hand.
"Aaron, are you sure you want two girls to deal with these fully armed lunatics?"
Although she possessed Shadow powers, subconsciously she still regarded herself as a solo thief.
This scale of military operation exceeded her comfort zone.
"You are not ordinary girls."
Aaron raised his hand.
The red light at his fingertips danced again, but this time it was not violent destruction.
Those were a few translucent red runes, slowly rotating in the air, emitting a warm fluctuation.
"Come here."
Aaron beckoned.
Gwen and Felicia looked at each other and obediently walked in front of him.
Aaron's fingers tapped gently on the foreheads of the two girls respectively.
The red runes instantly sank into their skin.
Gwen felt her temples suddenly throb.
Her vision became unprecedentedly clear.
She could see the trajectory of dust floating in the air.
She could even feel the heartbeat frequency of that stray cat on the street downstairs.
That was fully opened senses under the blessing of Chaos Magic, coupled with a nearly god-like defense closed-loop.
"This is a passively triggered reality-modification barrier."
Aaron put down his hand, his tone lazy.
"As long as the opponent's attack intensity does not exceed the nuclear bomb magnitude, even your hairstyles won't get messed up."
Felicia looked down at her own hands.
She found that she was no longer simply "disappearing into the shadows".
Now she felt she was the Shadow itself.
As long as she was willing, she could cross directly from the shadow of a cigarette butt one kilometer away.
"The magic buff has already been cast on you."
Aaron pointed at Natasha beside him, "As for how to efficiently clean up the trash, listen to her."
Natasha stood up, the hem of her silk bathrobe swaying gently with her movement.
She walked to the holographic map, picked up an electronic pen, and drew a circle on one of the red dots.
"Aaron is right, your power is already enough to suppress them."
"But you lack experience in killing... or rather, maximizing efficiency."
Natasha's voice returned to its coldness.
She pointed to a ventilation duct in the projection.
"Gwen, don't always swagger and rush in from the front."
"Your spider-sense combined with this expanded perception can find the vulnerable points of the opponent's oxygen supply System within three seconds."
"Felicia, don't use your Shadow jump for evasion."
"You should appear in the Commander's shadow and cut his carotid artery before he sounds the alarm."
Gwen felt a bit chilled down her spine listening to this, but she had to admit that this tactic was more useful.
She turned her head and looked at Aaron.
The latter had already closed his eyes, seeming almost asleep.
"He is cultivating us."
This thought suddenly popped into Gwen's mind.
Behind Aaron's ultimate laziness was an extreme self-confidence in his power.
He disdained to make a move himself, because he was personally building a "harem" strong enough to sweep across Earth.
Even a maid who peeled oranges had to be a top global spy.
Even a helper butler had to be a God of Death capable of sneaking into shadows.
As for himself?
He only needed to sit on that expensive sofa and watch this World rotate according to his will.
"There is another question."
Felicia interrupted Natasha's explanation.
She pointed to the center of the map, the brightest large red dot.
"In Crossbones's memory, this place is the most heavily guarded, and it seems to hide some important treasure."
That red dot was located in the center of Europe, a snow-covered mountain range.
Red Queen immediately conducted data docking.
Through the encrypted device carried by Crossbones.
This kind of device usually came with self-destruct logic, but under the violent interference of Chaos Magic, it had no chance to explode at all.
Like a criminal stripped down to nothing, it spat out all its secrets.
Electronic signals leapt rapidly across the big screen.
Skipping through layers of firewalls and bypassing densely packed camouflage jumpboards.
Finally, a high-definition aerial photo was fixed in front of everyone.
That was an ancient fortress built upon a cliff.
The outer perimeter of the fortress was densely covered with radar arrays and anti-aircraft artillery.
Countless soldiers in uniforms patrolled in the snow, each wearing a silver skull badge on their chest.
"Tracked down."
Red Queen's voice carried a rare hint of solemn killing intent.
"HYDRA core experimental Base, serial number 001."
"Coordinates: Sokovia."
Aaron slowly opened his eyes, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
"Sokovia..."
He thought of the red-haired girl in his memory, as well as the boy who ran extremely fast.
Not only were there remnants of HYDRA there.
There was also a glowing blue stone embedded in a scepter.
"Aaron, are we going to set off?"
Gwen was somewhat eager to try.
Aaron didn't speak.
He simply turned his head to look out the window.
The night in New York was very deep.
But in his vision, the outline of that fortress in Sokovia was already as clear as if it were right across the street.
"No rush."
Aaron lay back down and closed his eyes.
"Let that bunch of rats bounce around for two more days."
"Wait until they prepare that 'new toy', and then we'll go harvest."
The interrogation was over.
Crossbones hung on the ceiling like a lump of rotten meat, having completely lost his spiritual intelligence as a human.
And the signal source reverse-tracked by Red Queenthrough his device was continuously transmitting the most core data back from Sokovia.
There, not only were there HYDRA's conspiracies.
There was also the bait that Aaron had his eyes on, the next one that could greatly increase his percentage of "reality modification".