Chapter 20: Superhero Pietro?
Late at night, another squad of Hydra soldiers once again appeared in the dark forest.
"Two squads, and all contact has been lost. What exactly is going on?"
A trace of worry appeared on Baron Strucker’s shadowed face.
Had his base been exposed?
If it truly had been exposed, he had to evacuate Sokovia immediately.
At that moment, a hint of regret rose in Baron Strucker’s heart.
The previous squad captain had said over comms that they had encountered "Godzilla," and Strucker had thought he was joking.
But now that two squads had gone missing, there was a high chance they had met with disaster.
If he had known this would happen, Baron Strucker would absolutely have ordered them to retreat at once.
Unlike the Hydra faction hidden inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Baron Strucker’s own convictions and ideals were somewhat different. In the future, he would even say something like, "I don’t care whether Hydra survives or not."
Perhaps in his eyes, Hydra’s forces were merely a convenient tool.
"Sir, bodies have been discovered ahead! And... a trench."
A scout soldier ran up to the worried Baron Strucker and reported the situation.
"Turn on the searchlights!"
"This... was this caused by a meteor strike?"
Escorted by the soldiers, Strucker arrived at the landing point of Grand Starfall. Under the illumination of the searchlights, he saw the long trench stretching through the night, and his heart trembled.
"Sir, several footprints have been discovered. Should we pursue?"
"Pursue, my ass! Withdraw!"
After examining the footprints, Strucker let out a huge sigh of relief.
Judging from the footprints, everyone who had been in the forest before had already left the city.
"Wait!"
Suddenly thinking of something, Strucker raised his right hand, glanced around, and said, "Leave one squad behind. Check whether any hair or blood was left behind."
Baron Strucker had an unusual attitude toward supernatural abilities. He feared them, yet yearned for them.
The experimental base he had here existed for the purpose of creating super soldiers like Captain America.
Unfortunately, Strucker had applied to Alexander Pierce several times for the right to study the Tesseract, only to be rejected by Pierce on the grounds that he was no longer the director.
...
Half a month passed. Everything remained quiet and peaceful, and nothing happened.
Only then did Strucker, who was inside the forest base outside Sokovia, finally relax and confirm that he had not been exposed. At the same time, his desire for supernatural abilities grew even stronger.
However, had Orion Cross and the others really left?
After escaping the seal, Orion Cross had two possible destinations. One was New York to find Nick Fury, and the other was the Himalayas to find the Ancient One.
Naturally, Orion Cross leaned more toward going to Kamar-Taj rather than going to Hydra-infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.
By now, the emergence of Iron Man was already not far away. Instead of going over first and clashing with Hydra-S.H.I.E.L.D., it would be better to go later and let them set their sights on Tony Stark first. That way, he could avoid a lot of trouble.
The problem was that whether it was Kamar-Taj or S.H.I.E.L.D., one was in Asia and the other was in America, while Sokovia was in Eastern Europe.
With money, one could do as one pleased. Without money, one could not take a single step.
Orion Cross’s group built a small wooden cabin beside a lake on the outskirts of Sokovia, using it as a temporary residence.
Inside the cabin, Wanda, who had woken up ten days ago, was doing rehabilitation exercises under Orion Cross’s guidance, while a radio beside them played Sokovian news.
"Emergency announcement, emergency announcement. The Sokovia Grand Bank in our city was attacked by terrorists at 2:31 this afternoon."
"But ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. We are about to be safe, because our newly emerged city guardian, the Silver Gunslinger, has appeared!"
"This is already the eleventh time the Silver Gunslinger has disrupted terrorist activity. Let us offer him our applause and cheers!"
Hearing the broadcast on the radio, Wanda stopped moving and looked worriedly at Orion Cross. "Pietro really won’t be in danger, right? Those people are fully armed."
"Don’t worry. Yuumi is with him. Even if you don’t trust him, you should trust Yuumi, right?"
"That’s true."
Wanda nodded seriously.
If Pietro knew that, in his sister’s eyes, he was less trustworthy than a cat, he would definitely be deeply depressed.
That was right. The "Silver Gunslinger" mentioned in the radio news was Pietro.
One day, while going into the city to buy groceries, Pietro, who possessed a spirit of adventure and courting death, used the Holy Gun to stop a crime. After that, things became impossible to control.
In order to prevent the boy from getting himself killed, Orion Cross reminded him that he could let Yuumi follow him, as long as he had enough fish.
After experiencing the feeling of Yuumi attaching to him once, greatly increasing his strength, speed, and recovery, Pietro took over Orion Cross’s title as Fishing Master.
"In a few days, you won’t have to worry anymore."
Orion Cross picked up a towel and helped Wanda wipe the sweat from her neck and face, smiling as he spoke.
"Hm? Why? Pietro won’t want to be a superhero anymore?"
Wanda tilted her little head and asked in confusion.
"That’s right. When the time comes, he won’t want to anymore."
Orion Cross looked outside at Pietro, who had returned with an excited expression, and could not help shaking his head.
Children really were naive. He had already fought those "terrorists" so many times, yet he still had not noticed anything strange?