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Bruce stepped forward, worry clear in his voice.
"So we do this quietly. If HYDRA finds out we know… they'll just hide deeper."
Natasha folded her arms. "We need evidence. Proof of who's who."
Steve looked around at the small group. "Until then… nobody outside this room can be trusted."
Alex cracked his neck.
"So what's the plan?"
Fury tapped the table, a hologram lighting up — S.H.I.E.L.D.'s HQ layout.
"We start from the inside. We search records, hidden transfers, suspicious projects. And if you find anyone acting strange…" Fury looked directly at Alex. "You shadow them."
Alex smirked. "So I become a stalker. Fun."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Creepy shadow powers are finally useful."
Alex shrugged. "Darkness is the best disguise."
Natasha nodded slightly. "You and I can handle surveillance. There are a few names already popping up."
Alex raised a brow. "Like who?"
Fury flicked the screen.
Name: John Garrett
Classification: Level 7 Agent
Status: Highly trusted — too trusted
Steve squinted at the data.
"He's been everywhere S.H.I.E.L.D. shouldn't allow just one man to be."
Bruce added, "He has access to secret files. Funding unknown."
Alex grinned. "Sounds like a good first target."
Fury pointed at him. "No direct confrontation yet. We gather intel. Quietly."
Alex stretched his hands.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll behave."
He paused. "Maybe."
Tony snorted. "That's the best we'll get."
Fury looked at all of them.
"This stays between us. HYDRA believes they're hidden. We'll use that."
Alex stepped into a shadow by the wall.
"Well… time to go snake-hunting."
The shadows swallowed him.
Natasha watched him disappear and muttered,
"He really loves doing that dramatic exit."
Tony nodded. "Jealous?"
She gave him a blank look.
"…No."
Fury took a breath and faced the others.
"We move carefully. We expose HYDRA piece by piece."
Steve tightened his fists.
"And when we do…"
Tony finished for him.
"We cut off every single head."
Steve nodded firmly. "Let's get to work."
Everyone split up to begin the investigation.
Later — Inside S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ
Alex slipped through the shadows, following Agent John Garrett from a distance.
Garrett walked through the halls like everything was normal. He smiled. Chatted with guards. Acted like a loyal agent.
But Alex could feel something was off.
Garrett scanned his ID at a locked elevator.
The scanner flashed red — denied.
Garrett didn't panic.
He looked around… then tapped a hidden button under the scanner.
The light turned green.
Elevator opened.
Alex narrowed his eyes.
"Unauthorized access. That's strike one."
He slipped inside the roof of the elevator, unseen.
The elevator descended… deep underground.
Far below the usual secure floors.
Alex whispered to himself,
"So this is where you hide."
The elevator stopped. Garrett stepped out into a dim corridor.
On the walls… HYDRA logos, faint but clear.
Alex clenched his fists.
"Gotcha."
Garrett entered a room with several agents seated at a long table.
One of them spoke with a distorted voice,
"The infiltration continues. S.H.I.E.L.D. will fall from within."
Alex stayed in the shadows of the ceiling, listening.
Garrett smirked.
"They still think we're loyal. Soon, we'll have control of every resource they own. And then—"
He lifted a glass.
"Hail HYDRA."
Everyone else repeated:
"Hail HYDRA."
Alex's eyes glowed faintly red in the dark.
"Alright… that's enough proof."
Instead of slipping away, Alex dropped from the ceiling and landed right in the middle of the room — dusting off his jacket casually.
He looked around at the stunned HYDRA agents.
"You guys really didn't invite me? I thought this was an octopus-themed party."
He tapped the HYDRA logo on the wall. "Very on-brand."
Garrett's expression twisted in anger.
"Kill him!"
Dozens of guns fired at once.
Bullets hammered Alex from every direction… clinking off his skin and falling to the floor like cheap metal.
Alex looked down at himself — not a single mark.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Bulletproof. Shocking, right? Please tell me you didn't think that was going to work."
One agent swallowed nervously and slowly raised his hands.
"M-Mr. Morrow… perhaps we can talk—"
Alex held up a hand.
"Nope. Fury dragged me out of bed this morning. I'm tired. I'm annoyed. And I was planning a very pleasant day with my demon girlfriends."
He rolled his neck, a dark grin forming.
"So now? I feel like taking some frustration out… starting with all of you."
Shadow energy crackled around his fingers.
Garrett backed up a step.
"What… are you?"
Alex snapped his fingers — the lights went out, plunging the room into darkness.
His voice echoed coldly:
"I'm the thing you should've stayed hidden from."
The screams began immediately.
Within seconds, the room was filled with chaos — screams, tearing metal, bones hitting the floor. Muzzles flashed blindly in the dark, but every shot missed. Shadows moved like living blades.
A minute later… silence.
The lights flickered back on.
Bodies were scattered everywhere — every HYDRA agent was down. Not a single one left breathing.
Except for one.
John Garrett lay pinned to the wall, wrapped tightly in chains of condensed shadow. He struggled, eyes wide with terror as Alex casually stepped over the corpse of one of his men.
Alex brushed dust off his jacket as if he'd just finished sweeping a room.
"Relax. If I wanted you dead, you'd be a stain already," he said as he grabbed Garrett by the collar and lifted him easily.
John gulped. "Wh-why keep me alive…?"
Alex smirked.
"You're top-level HYDRA. Fury will want a nice long chat with you. Preferably the kind that involves screaming and truth serum."
With a wave of his hand, the shadows around the floor formed a swirling portal.
Garrett thrashed in panic. "Nonono—!"
Alex threw him through the dark vortex like tossing trash into a bin.
"And that's one snake de-fanged," Alex muttered.
He stepped forward and let the shadows swallow him next.
Fury looked up sharply as a shadow portal opened in front of the group. Alex walked out casually — and dumped Garrett onto the ground like a delivery package.
Garrett groaned in pain, still bound in shadow chains.
Fury raised an eyebrow. "He is HYDRA?"