Inside a secret HYDRA base, Allens sat in the command chamber reserved for Daniel Whitehall, the organization's cold and calculating leader. At his side stood Raina and Calvin Zabo, better known as Mr. Hyde.
Calvin's state was unsettling. His entire body trembled as he glared at Allens, who was cloaked in a shimmering illusion. His instincts screamed to tear into Whitehall, rip him apart piece by piece, drink his blood, and devour his flesh. The desire was overwhelming, but Calvin's muscles shook violently as he tried to restrain himself.
Allens watched him with quiet fascination. The infamous Mr. Hyde. In the comics, Hyde was said to fight Thor to a standstill. Even in the more restrained MCU, Calvin's drug-altered body carried monstrous power.
But Allens wasn't interested in Hyde's unstable serum. What intrigued him was what the perfected formula could become—the project that would later be codenamed "Patriot". After all, even a S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Jeffrey Mace, had once been its beneficiary.
"Mr. Zabo," Allens said casually, "your wife Jiaying isn't truly dead, is she? Pieced back together and still clinging to life. Perhaps I was too merciful back then."
The words were deliberate, a dagger meant to provoke.
"You're the one who deserves to be shredded into pieces," Calvin snarled, fists tightening, veins bulging across his arms.
Allens smiled thinly and pressed harder. "And your daughter… Skye, isn't it? An agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Perhaps I should capture her myself. I wonder if her blood carries the same immortality as her mother's."
The moment Skye's name left his lips, Calvin snapped. His reason collapsed into rage. With a guttural roar, he yanked a vial from his pocket and drank the serum in a single swallow.
Crack—click—pop.
Bones shifted violently beneath his skin. His veins turned dark, muscles swelling as his frame ballooned. His face distorted, veins crawling upward until brown lines etched across his forehead. His eyes became feral, almost ghostly.
"Whitehall!" Calvin thundered. "I'll kill you!"
He stomped the ground, leaving pits in the reinforced steel floor. Even HYDRA's specially engineered alloys couldn't withstand his monstrous strength.
With a roar, Calvin gripped the alloy conference table bolted to the floor. With impossible strength, he ripped it free and hurled it at Allens like a battering ram.
"Boom!"
The air howled with the force of the throw.
But Allens didn't even rise. He lifted a single hand, and an invisible wave of psychokinesis rippled outward. The massive table—and Calvin himself—were flung backward even faster than they came, crashing into the wall and leaving it spiderwebbed with cracks.
"Mr. Hyde," Allens said coldly. "With your current strength, you can't kill me."
He flicked his wrist, and Calvin's body slammed against the opposite wall. Again and again, Allens lashed him back and forth like a rag doll, each impact rattling the chamber.
Peng. Peng. Peng.
Finally, Calvin collapsed in a heap, bloodied and gasping.
"Ahem—impossible…" he wheezed. "Whitehall… how could you have powers?!"
As Jiaying's husband, Calvin knew all too well the abilities of Inhumans. But Whitehall—a man he had long sworn to destroy—possessing such terrifying strength? It shattered his world.
Allens extended his hand. Calvin's body rose into the air as if plucked by invisible fingers. His throat was caught in a steel grip—Allens' hand had transformed into metallic alloy, squeezing his neck with brutal force.
"Rage. Hate. That's what I need from you," Allens hissed, his eyes sharp and merciless. "But right now, you're too weak. To me, you're nothing but an insect."
With contemptuous ease, he hurled Calvin to the floor.
"You bastard… underestimating me?!" Calvin coughed blood, his twisted face trembling with fury and humiliation.
Allens ignored him. He touched the comm-link in his ear. "Dr. Monroe, report to my command room."
Moments later, an elderly scientist entered. Grey-haired, sharp-eyed—Dr. Monroe, a HYDRA specialist in genetics and Inhuman research.
Allens gestured at Calvin without even looking. "He's yours. Work with him. Perfect his serum."
A cruel smile touched his lips as he looked down on the battered Hyde. "You'll have a state-of-the-art lab. Skilled assistants. If you want to kill me, Zabo… then refine your formula. Only then will you have a chance."
Calvin's fists clenched until his nails cut into his palms. He knew the truth—he was too weak now. To defeat Whitehall, he needed more power.
"Sooner or later," he rasped, staggering to his feet, "I'll tear you apart with my own hands… you bastard."
His furious vow echoed through the chamber as he stormed out.
Allens watched him go, the faintest smile playing on his lips. "Excellent. The fish is hooked."
He turned to Raina, who stood silent and tense beside him.
"You must be wondering why I provoked him," Allens said smoothly. With a gesture, the alloy table floated back into place before him. "It's simple. Hyde's formula is crude, turning men into beasts. But with HYDRA's resources, with my vision, it will become something greater—Patriot. A perfected serum."
His eyes glimmered with ambition. "Better than anything the military could make. Better than S.H.I.E.L.D."
Then his gaze sharpened. "Raina, I have a task for you. Find the place they call Afterlife. Find the Inhumans."
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