Chapitre 91: Baron Strucker
After climbing the stairs, Liam encountered Natasha and Clint. Behind them were the technicians and other agents. Some agents carried the injured, while others held the bodies of the dead.
During the time Natasha and Clint had held the stairs, remarkably few agents on their side had been killed. Only 18 agents had died while they defended the stairs for roughly thirty to forty-five minutes, which Liam found impressive.
'Especially with the limited ammo they had and the fact that most of them were still in their office clothes,' Liam thought. 'Most of the deaths came from brainwashed Hydra agents rushing in large groups without fear of pain or death.'
If it hadn't been for the walls Liam had created for cover and the narrow size of the staircase, it was very unlikely that any of them had survived with Hydra's suicide attacks.
"How's everything downstairs?" Clint asked.
"All dead," Liam replied, as he observed all the people struggling while going down to this floor.
'It's going to take a while to get all the technicians and injured people down the stairs, especially with all the holes everywhere,' Liam thought. 'It would use a lot less energy if I just portaled them down instead of waiting for them to go down themselves for the remaining nine floors.'
"Get everyone over here," Liam said. "I'll open a portal to the ground floor."
Clint looked surprised but nodded.
With that, Liam created a portal with his slingring, leading to the ground floor. Clint, Natasha, and Sharon began guiding the agents through one by one, while Liam used his domain to create a door at the ground floor which he had completely sealed off to prevent people from escaping.
Stepping through the portal, Liam looked around the withered grass surrounding the building. He saw several bodies spread out everywhere with blood pooling around their heads. What he found weird, though, was the absence of additional agents waiting outside—neither Hydra nor SHIELD reinforcements.
Liam's domain hadn't covered areas outside of the main building. He had expected some agents from either Hydra or SHIELD from those area's to come towards the main building.
As Liam walked across the grass, he noticed something strange: a woman's body lying just outside his domain. A small pool of blood had formed around her head, with bits of pink brain matter inside of it.
Kneeling beside her, Liam examined the body more closely. As he reached her head, he turned it around slightly. On the back, he found a large bullet wound at the back of her skull. Letting her head drop back, Liam stood and walked outside of his domain.
The sight that greeted him was something he hadn't imagined would happen: dozens of bodies all over the parking garages and hangars. Judging by their uniforms, most of them were maintenance workers.
'And this is just the outside,' Liam thought. 'Fury sent a message to everyone, so a couple of deaths because of Hydra agents would be logical. But this many?'
All the bodies had fallen in the same direction, suggesting they had been running away when they were gunned down. There were trails of blood behind some of the corpses, as if they had tried to pull themselves to safety.
'This looks like a mass shooting. Some of them weren't even finished off,' Liam thought. 'No immediate danger for now. I need to get to Clint and make sure the've all left the building, so I don't waste more energy incase something happens.'
Liam returned to the others and informed them it was safe to move outside. Then, he gestured for Clint and Natasha to follow him.
"What's up?" Natasha asked.
"Something happened outside," Liam replied. "There are dozens of dead bodies everywhere, all with bullet wounds."
Natasha raised an eyebrow, while Clint opened his mouth.
"Was it a fight between agents?" Clint asked.
"No," Liam said, shaking his head. "All the bodies fell in the same direction. It looks like they were running away when they got sprayed down."
"We'll evacuate all non-combat personnel first," Natasha decided. "After that, we can search for any survivors."
Liam and Clint nodded.
Once everyone had left the main building, Liam deactivated his domain, allowing the building to slowly go back to its original form. While Natasha led the technicians to the broken front gate, Liam and Clint headed into the parking garages.
They passed a crashed car riddled with bullet holes. The roof of the car had been caved in, as if something heavy had rammed into it to clear a path. Liam checked the interior and found the driver slumped lifelessly, already dead.
Continuing their search, they eventually heard faint whimpering coming from a nearby janitor's closet. Liam opened the door to find a young man clutching a broom, trembling violently.
As soon as the door opened, the man swung the broom at Liam, but the handle snapped on impact. He retreated into the corner of the room, begging for his life.
"Relax. We're here to help," Liam said, unsummoning his armor as he approached to calm the man down while remaining vigilant. Clint followed closely behind him.
Once they managed to calm the young man and check for injuries, Liam began asking questions.
"What happened here?"
"I was cleaning the floors when the building outside started changing," the man began, his voice shaky. "A man with a few others escorting him walked over the pathway. He looked at the building, turned to his men, said something, and then raised one arm up. After that, they just… started shooting everywhere."
'An important Hydra figure, most likely,' Liam thought, nodding.
"While I ran and hid in here," the man continued.
"How did the man look?" Liam asked.
"I don't remember… I don't remember!" the man repeated frantically. "He just seemed like an ordinary person to me."
"It's alright. Take your time," Liam said. He gestured for Clint to stay with the young man while he continued searching.
In the parking garages, Liam found more bodies but nothing important. Eventually, he returned to Clint, who now stood outside the janitor's room.
"Anything?" Liam asked.
"The guy had a monocle," Clint said. "The janitor also mentioned hearing him say 'Hail Hydra' before raising his arm."
'Only one Hydra figure with a monocle comes to mind,' Liam thought. 'Baron Strucker.'
"Fury's already radioed in," Clint added. "A lot of SHIELD agents are returning to base to help sort out this mess. The ones involved in the fight are being treated and resting, and Fury is on his way here now."
"Alright," Liam replied, nodding while in thought.
They helped the janitor out of the room and accompanied him to the front gate.
'Looks like I need to ask Alexander some questions.' Liam thought. 'And Fury....'
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Donnuuu
Donnuuu Can't just erase Wanda and Pietro by letting Strucker die (yet) :).
Probably only one more chapter of this before finishing this up, then we get to the even more fun plots. After that, a lot of fun stuff is coming up since we are in the peak plot activity years now :D.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone