Liam forced himself to answer quickly. He cleared his throat and said, "Yeah. We understand."
The man nodded once and walked back to his group without another word. The Black Ridge men kept moving toward the warehouse district, barely looking at the three of them.
Liam watched them go, a small frown forming on his face.
Something wasn't right.
These Back Ridge weren't watching him, Steve, or Natasha. They weren't keeping them close and they didn't even look careful.
They showed their targets openly. Gave the plan. And then just walked ahead like nothing mattered.
'Too calm,' Liam thought. 'Too sure of themselves.'
Did they trust Liam and the group not to betray them?
Or did they simply not care?
Natasha stepped closer and whispered, "They're not worried about us at all."
"Yeah," Liam muttered.
Then he noticed something else.
None of the twelve Black Ridge men wore masks. No scarves. Nothing hiding their faces.
It's like they wanted the Dawn watch group to recognise them.
Maybe he and Natasha had given Black Ridge too much credit.
Maybe they weren't smart or careful at all.
Maybe they were just violent thugs who solved everything with bullets.
And maybe this mission of killing four Dawn Watch leaders was nothing special and not the one where they were going to dispose Liam and the group.
It felt more like their usual "prove yourself" task. Something they threw at new recruits to test how far they would go.
And since Liam, Steve, and Natasha were pretending to be the children of an ex–Black Ridge leader, the test was harsher than what normal recruits would face.
They kept walking, blending in with the Black Ridge group. Liam stayed quiet, his mind racing.
He wondered if anything like this had happened in the real MCU timeline. Was this part of the movies? Did Wanda and Pietro ever get caught up in something like this?
And if they did… how did they make it out alive?
Soon, the old warehouse came into view. The metal walls were rusted, the windows cracked, and a weak light shone through the gaps. It looked exactly like the kind of place a small group would use for a secret meeting.
Two Dawn Watch members stood outside as lookouts. They had almost no weapons, one holding a wooden bat and the other gripping a kitchen knife. Both looked tired and stressed, the kind of tired that came from living in fear for too long.
Liam expected them to panic when they saw a dozen Black Ridge men approaching.
But something else happened instead.
The lookouts stiffened the moment they recognized the group. They exchanged a quick, tense glance with each other. But no one raised an alarm or alerted the people inside. This made Liam realise that those two were not just scared civilians. They were the ones who sold the meeting out.
Just then the group slowed as they got closer to the warehouse. Their leader suddenly lifted his hand, stopping everyone.
He turned around and motioned to the men behind him.
"Give them the pistols."
Three of the Black Ridge men stepped forward. Each handed a small, worn-out handgun to Liam, Natasha, and Steve.
The leader watched them take the weapons with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Each gun has one bullet," he said calmly. Then he pointed at Liam. "Except yours. You get two."
Liam looked down at the pistol in his hand. Two bullets. Barely anything.
The leader continued, still smiling. "Enough to kill the four Dawn Watch leaders. They're the only ones inside with pistols. The rest of the group only has knives and sticks."
Steve's expression didn't change, but Liam saw his fingers tighten slightly on the gun.
"This is your test," the leader said, spreading his arms like he was announcing a game. "You three go in first. Kill the four leaders. Stay alive in that warehouse for ten minutes. That's it. Use your brains, your fists, whatever you want. Just survive."
He paused, letting the words sink in.
"If you pass," he added, "you won't get your father's position right away… but you'll climb fast. Faster than anyone else in the group. And the whole organization will back you. You'll truly become one of us."
Liam, Steve, and Natasha all frowned.
Was this really a test?
Or was he planning something else behind their backs.?
The leader watched their faces and chuckled.
"What? No questions?"
No one answered.
His smile widened. "Good. And don't even think about turning those guns on us. Four bullets won't kill all of us. You'll be dead before you even pull the trigger a second time."
A few Black Ridge men laughed under their breath, but they were fully alert in case the three tried to pull any shit.
The leader stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Now go. Walk inside like you belong there. Kill the leaders. Survive ten minutes. Don't disappoint me."
He stepped back and gestured to the warehouse.
The message was clear:
If they walked in, they were stepping into a cage. If they didn't… Black Ridge would shoot them right here.
---
Meanwhile, inside a HYDRA base somewhere in Sokovia…
Deep underground, hidden behind thick walls and metal doors, Baron Strucker stood alone in his private lab. Machines hummed quietly around him. Cold mist drifted from several large metal pods lined against the far wall.
Strucker was writing in a thick notebook on a metal desk. Every few seconds, he looked up at the five cryo-pods, then back down at his notes.
The pods were bigger than before. More wires. More tubes. Extra locks to hold everything in place.
Inside each pod floated a figure.
Strucker finally closed the notebook with a small sigh and walked toward the pods. As he got closer, the cold air made him shiver.
If Liam had been here, he would have recognized them immediately, because the five figures inside the tanks now looked disturbingly similar to Vecna from Stranger Things. Their bodies were twisted and long, their limbs stretched unnaturally, dark veins pulsing faintly under their pale skin. Their eyes were covered with growths that looked like cracked stone.
These were HYDRA's unstable Winter Soldiers...the failed ones, the ones who couldn't be controlled.
And now, because of the Mind Stone experiments, they had been pushed even further into something not fully human anymore.
Strucker stared at them and felt a chill down his spine.
He had approved every test. He had watched every change.
But even he did not know what these five creatures truly were now, how strong they had become.
One of the pods twitched slightly, and Strucker flinched before he could stop himself.
The lights on the side of the pod blinked red, then went back to normal.
Strucker muttered, "Unstable… but powerful. Maybe too powerful."
He held onto the railing for support.
If these creatures ever got out by mistake, they could destroy the entire HYDRA base.
Maybe even the whole city.
That's why he had installed a kill switch... a device that could shut down their brains instantly if needed.
But he wasn't ready to use it.
Not yet.
Not until the Avengers were wiped out.
Not until Liam, the man who kept ruining HYDRA operations, was captured and locked inside HYDRA hands.
***
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