The Hydra fortress, once a monument of technological arrogance, was ablaze.
Reinforced steel gates, prototype weapon systems, and cutting-edge surveillance none of it mattered. Against the invaders, it all fell apart like wet paper.
Not even their most advanced energy cannons could stand against Max Dillon.
Blue arcs of lightning lanced through the corridors. Every step he took short-circuited another layer of defense. Soldiers collapsed before they even had time to scream.
"Clear the base," Max ordered coldly. "Recover all research data. That’s what the boss wants."
"Understood!" barked James, the field leader of Oscorp’s Undead Unit-02.
He watched Max with reverence. Even with regenerative enhancements, James knew a single surge from Max would fry him in less than a second. That kind of power was terrifying.
Max enjoyed the respect. He’d earned it.
Under Nolan’s direct training, Max had pushed his control over electricity beyond raw attack. He’d turned it into a science refining every discharge, every frequency, every electromagnetic pulse into something useful: surveillance, shields, propulsion, neural disruption, even cloaking.
Nolan had said it best: "With your powers, you’re a one-man army. You need the discipline to back it up."
Once a repair technician mocked for dreaming of science, now he studied electrical engineering like an obsession. Oscorp gave him the resources, the purpose, and the respect he never had.
What researchers spent years simulating in labs, Max could recreate by instinct. Oscorp didn’t just train supers they empowered them to surpass human limitations.
Nolan often said: "Every enhanced human is a walking scientific breakthrough. If we had fifty Maxes applying their powers to research, Earth would already be interstellar."
But that wasn’t how things worked on this Earth.
People like Max saved the world over and over without fixing why it always needed saving.
If Earth had the status of the Kree Empire or Nova Corps, threats wouldn’t even try. But Earth was soft. Vulnerable. Everyone wanted a piece of it.
"Monsters! You’re not human!"
Screams echoed throughout the base. Even Hydra’s elite fell quickly. Oscorp’s forces were systematic extraction squads that loaded tech and documents into airships, all under Max’s lightning shield.
"Next target," he muttered.
Jets roared overhead. Hydra’s failure was only the beginning.
Oscorp wasn’t just retaliating.
They were sending a message:
Touch us, and we burn you to the ground.
Elsewhere: Malick Biotech Labs – Upstate New York
A thunderous crash shattered the main entrance.
Charging in was Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino Oscorp’s unstoppable tank.
Nothing could slow him. Walls crumbled. Armored barricades cracked. Rows of tanks arranged as blockades were launched like toys.
Behind him, Oscorp’s Steel Corps advanced in tight formation. Gunfire from rooftop helicopters rained down, but Aleksei didn’t flinch.
"You laid a hand on the boss," he growled. "That was your last mistake."
For Aleksei, this wasn’t business. It was personal.
Oscorp had given him something no one else had: dignity. A place to belong. Food, shelter, and even coworkers who didn’t look at him like a freak. Sometimes they even complimented his horn.
"Stop! This facility belongs to Gene Malick you have no right !"
Jonathan Cho, the lab director, was cut off as Aleksei smashed through the biotech wing like a rampaging rhino.
Aleksei turned toward him, his eyes glowing with intensity.
"Pack up all your data and hand it over. I don’t like killing—but waste my time, and you waste Oscorp’s money. And wasting our money?"
He cracked his knuckles.
"That makes you my enemy."
Jonathan blinked, stunned. Who taught this guy to talk like a Wall Street thug?
Across the country, similar scenes played out.
No matter how deep Hydra or Malik’s tendrils ran, they were ripped out by Oscorp’s elite units: Undead, Steel Corps, and Jessica’s team. Assault rifles were useless. Even advanced weaponry couldn’t slow them down short of military-grade warheads.
And Oscorp wasn’t giving them time to react.
Their strikes were coordinated, brutal, and unrelenting. In less than 24 hours, over a dozen Hydra facilities and subsidiaries were neutralized.
In New York, Tony Stark sat in a dim-lit conference room as Friday finished a tactical briefing.
"Oscorp’s... that powerful?"
He stared at the display icons of destroyed bases blinking out one by one.
And he knew one thing for certain.
The game had changed.
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