Marvelous Mutations

Deep within Hydra's hidden base.

The cold, dimly lit control room buzzed with quiet urgency. Rows of monitors blinked with live feeds, data streams, and encrypted messages. The air was tense, humming with the scent of metal and ozone.

Alexander Pierce sat alone in his private office, a luxurious yet secretive chamber nestled within the base's heart. His sharp eyes, always calculating, were now locked onto the central screen. It displayed a grainy satellite feed, an aerial view of Manhattan's 58th Avenue.

He had just given the final order: launch the missile and level the entire block.

All for one reason, Nick Fury.

With Hydra's years of silent expansion, building this secret satellite network had been a relatively easy feat. Using dummy corporations and front tech companies, they had launched at least a dozen satellites into orbit, all of them loyal to Hydra and invisible to the world's governments.

"Soon," Pierce murmured to himself, reclining slightly into the leather-backed sofa. "Soon, nothing will stand in our way."

The feed displayed the aircraft in motion. The missile had already dropped.

A slow, cruel smile crept onto his face.

Forging Fury's authority was a risk. Once the missile hit, his exposure was inevitable. But if it meant eliminating Fury, the one person standing between Hydra and Project Insight, then it was all worth it.

He sighed with satisfaction, relaxing for the first time in days. "Let the world tremble. Hydra will rise from the ashes."

Just then, something caught his eye.

A flash of bright yellow appeared on the street outside the grocery store.

Pierce narrowed his eyes, leaning forward slightly. "What is that?"

He squinted at the monitor. The image was fuzzy, but he could make out the shape, it was a car.

A sports car, by the look of it.

He chuckled dryly. "They're trying to run? Too late."

He scoffed aloud. "Even if S.H.I.E.L.D loyalists managed to leak the missile warning, there's no escaping now. That street's already a grave."

But the car didn't flee.

Instead, it stopped directly in front of the grocery store.

And then something strange began to happen.

The vehicle… changed.

Pierce sat upright, the smile vanishing from his face.

"That's no ordinary car…"

He stared intently as the yellow machine began to shift. It wasn't transforming into the humanoid robot form he'd seen in reports, this was different.

The machine began morphing into a massive turret. Its body shifted, folded, and reshaped until a long, gleaming cannon extended from its front like a siege weapon from some futuristic battlefield.

Pierce's expression darkened. "No… they wouldn't dare…"

He knew about the robot. Luke's Autobot companion had already been seen in action on the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. The staff had whispered about it, half in awe, half in fear.

And many of those staff were secretly Hydra.

Still, Pierce had scoffed at the idea that a car, no matter how advanced, could intercept a missile.

But now…

He leaned forward, hands clasped tightly as his knuckles turned white.

In the image, the cannon of the newly formed turret began to glow, gathering an unnatural energy.

A beam of light shimmered along the barrel, charging.

"No…" Pierce whispered.

The missile was already visible in the distance. A bright flame trailed behind it, cutting through the sky like a lance of death. It was nearing the target at supersonic speed.

But the turret fired first.

The shot tore through the sky like a blinding comet.

It was fast.

Far too fast.

Pierce's jaw dropped slightly. "That's… at least six Mach…"

His voice trembled with disbelief. "Impossible."

He had spent a lifetime dealing with weapons. He knew the mathematics behind missiles and intercept systems. A typical air-to-ground missile flew near Mach 2. This shot was easily three times faster.

He swallowed hard.

The camera feed crackled, then flared with a brilliant light as a distant explosion rippled through the screen.

Pierce shielded his eyes momentarily.

When the image cleared, the missile was gone.

But so was the threat.

The explosion had occurred high in the sky, far from the grocery store. Not even a single window on the street had been cracked.

The store still stood. Silent, untouched.

Pierce stared at the screen.

His breath was shallow. "No…"

This was his last play. His final move.

And it had failed.

He slumped back into the sofa, face pale.

Hydra's best chance to eliminate Fury was gone.

And he knew what that meant.

If Fury survived, if he figured out what Hydra was attempting, then the entire operation would collapse. Worse yet, every embedded agent, every secret plan, every ounce of preparation would be burned to ash.

He sat in silence for several long seconds, staring at the quiet street on the screen.

Then, like a man possessed, he sprang to his feet.

"No. I will not lose!"

His eyes blazed with desperation.

"If I fail now, Fury will destroy everything we've built…"

His hands trembled as he grabbed the encrypted communicator from the desk. Without hesitation, he dialed a secure line.

A voice answered: "Yes, sir?"

Pierce's voice was grim, furious.

"Pass my order. All Hydra agents return to active duty. Execute Plan C in one hour!"

There was a beat of stunned silence on the other end.

Then: "Understood, sir. Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra…" Pierce slowly put down the communicator.

His next move was already clear.

He didn't linger in the office. There was no time to lose. He grabbed his coat and stormed out, heading for the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters.

Plan C was Hydra's final contingency, a desperate, all-out blitz to ensure the launch of Project Insight.

It meant exposing every last undercover agent inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

It meant igniting a war within their own ranks.

It meant sacrificing everything.

But it had to be done.

No matter what.

Even if the helicarriers were still incomplete, their flight and weapons systems were both already operational. Combined with the targeting algorithm created by Dr. Arnim Zola, they could still seize global dominance.

And so, the Hydra network came alive.

Across the city, undercover agents dropped everything. Some abandoned families. Others vanished from missions. They converged on S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters like a swarm, answering the urgent summons.

Inside HQ, Maria Hill stood in her office, watching the parking lots fill with cars, the building swarmed by agents, more than she had ever seen reporting at once.

"What in the world…?"

She picked up her phone immediately, calling Sharon.

"Sharon, something's wrong. People are flooding in like it's an emergency. Did Director Fury order this?"

On the other end, Sharon paused. "One second."

She turned to Fury, who was quietly sipping a cup of almost cold coffee, still processing the failed missile strike.

"Director, Hill's asking if you told everyone to return to headquarters."

Fury's eye twitched. The mug froze in his hand.

"…What?"

Sharon blinked. "I take that as a no?"

Fury stood up so fast his chair nearly toppled over.

He felt it in his gut.

They weren't just regrouping.

They were initiating something.

"Son of a…"

He threw the coffee aside.

"If they get those helicarriers in the air now… it's game over."

His fists clenched, jaw tight with rage.

…