章 536: Internal Strife within the S.W.O.R.D.
Wanda was astonished by her brother who felt both strange and familiar. Seizing an opportunity, she inquired about Pietro's background and origins. It seemed that Pietro wasn't a creation of her powers after all. However, Pietro, knowing nothing, even counter-asked Wanda how she managed to craft such an extensive illusionary world before them.
This was also a curiosity for many outside the video. Wanda's abilities, as revealed in future videos during a quiz game, were indeed shown to be potent, but not to the exaggerated extent seen in the current video—controlling thousands of people's consciousness and even altering reality.
In the video, facing her twin brother, Wanda didn't hold back and shared her experiences of constructing the Westview illusion. She shook her head with a blank expression: "Actually, I don't know how I did it either. I just remember feeling so lonely, empty, an endless void…"
Outside the light-screen video, Pietro aka Quicksilver, took a deep breath, feeling a sharp pain in his heart. In the future, after his death, his sister would be utterly alone. She had finally found a lover, who, in the end, also left her. The greatest loneliness is not the absence from the beginning but having had and then lost.
He clenched his fist, silently swearing to protect his sister at all costs this time, not allowing her to suffer any harm. Beside him, Barry, seeing this, patted his shoulder, consoling, "The future will get better."
Pietro nodded and thanked him. Since both were speedsters and of similar age, they naturally became good friends after joining the Multiverse Defenders.
Meanwhile, Bruce, Stephen, and others were discussing Wanda's abilities, concerned about the risk of her reality-altering power going out of control.
If there was, they must prepare in advance.
At the same time, Vision, in the video, took the opportunity to leave Wanda, wandering alone through the bustling town. He realized that as long as he stayed by Wanda's side, he would never have the capability to discover the truth. Heading towards the outskirts of the town, he found it increasingly desolate—the fewer the people, the sparser the lights.
Moreover, the people at the town's edge were like emotionless robots, endlessly repeating tasks without their own consciousness or rationale. Vision felt he was getting closer to the truth.
He finally encountered his neighbour, Agnes, and after awakening her with his ability, learned the shocking truth that he was dead and had been for some time. This made Vision even more curious about what lay beyond Westview. He attempted to cross the energy barrier to the outside.
Outside Westview, following a failed assassination attempt, Director Hayward of the S.W.O.R.D. became utterly furious, deciding to double down on his resolve to kill Wanda, believing that was the only way to end this farce.
Monica and her two companions immediately expressed their refusal, reminding him that their power was nowhere near enough to confront Wanda. Moreover, even if they could kill Wanda, they couldn't be sure of the fate of the controlled Westview and the thousands of innocent people living there after her death. So, killing Wanda seemed an unwise choice from any perspective.
Viewers outside the video also criticized Director Hayward for his foolishness, having not learned from his recent significant setback.
"Seriously, I think a pig would do a better job as director than him. How can someone be so stupid? He's spending our tax money and yet completely disregards us as if we were nothing?"
"Haha, I'm not surprised at all. Remember, they even planned to launch a nuclear bomb at New York City! Imagine, that's New York. How many would die if that bomb exploded? Compared to that, what's a few thousand people in Westview?"
"I seriously suspect Hayward is a Hydra spy, just like Alexander Pierce. His goal isn't to peacefully resolve the situation but to escalate it further!"
"Come on, is it that hard to admit that those big shots above are dumber than pigs? No, I think they're not just dumb; they're evil. Mark my words, Hayward has some sinister plot!"
Audiences furiously condemned the S.W.O.R.D.'s foolish actions. Yet, considering the precedent set by Hydra's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D.'s actions didn't seem so surprising. These two organizations were, after all, branches of the same tree.
In the video, Hayward, having been directly confronted by Monica and her companions, was naturally extremely angry, accusing Monica of not sitting straight, calling her an official dog of the S.W.O.R.D. for speaking in favour of those unruly superpowered individuals.
Then he justified himself, saying how these superpowered individuals, like Captain Marvel, simply walked away and left their responsibilities, and how he, along with the S.W.O.R.D. struggled to maintain peace and security on Earth under immense pressure and difficulty.
This only made people laugh even harder. Where were they when Thanos came storming in?
Now they speak so righteously, truly shameless!
Monica directly confronted them, calling them cowards and inconsequential in the past few years. Hayward couldn't argue with her, so he resorted to personal attacks, bringing up Monica's mother, who was a comrade of Captain Marvel, and without giving her a chance to respond, he simply waved his hand and ordered her to be expelled.
Tony scoffed, "Now it's certain, this guy is definitely up to no good!"
Bruce nodded, "I guess he's after Wanda's abilities, and of course, Vision's valuable body."
From a third-person perspective, they both realized something was off with the director of S.W.O.R.D. and the people in the video, including Monica, realized this too. As they were being escorted out of the camp, Monica and her two companions suddenly fought back, knocked out the agents escorting them, and stealthily returned. After some covert investigation, they indeed uncovered damning evidence.
After breaking through S.W.O.R.D.'s computer firewall, they discovered that S.W.O.R.D. not only knew how to monitor every move in Westview but also used the decay signal of Vibranium to specifically mark Vision's location!
It turns out that S.W.O.R.D., or rather Hayward's, ignorance about Westview was all an act. Of course, what was even more astonishing was how weak S.W.O.R.D.'s internal firewall was, practically as ineffective as paper. For an organization involved in global and highly confidential operations, couldn't they spend a little more effort on security?
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