{ " Domain Expansion: Mandatory Headcount " }
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"Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury is alive," Ethan spoke, looking toward Steve and Bucky.
As a look of realization crossed the Captain's face, he asked, "Did you... Did you bring him back?"
"What?" Bucky turned toward Steve, then toward Ethan, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oh... no, he faked his death," Ethan clarified, waving his right hand dismissively.
"They cut him open; I saw his heart stopped.," Natasha added, while Steve simply shook his head in weary disbelief.
Tora's hand emerged from the shadows, sparking a Sling Ring portal into existence right behind them.
"Then You should ask him how he did it," Ethan said, making his way through the glowing orange aperture.
Natasha and Steve eyed the Sling Ring portal with deep suspicion.
"You should have seen the Mirror Dimension," Bucky remarked as he followed Ethan through the gateway.
Lakeview Cemetery Dam, Cleveland, Ohio:
"Where are we, exactly?" Captain Rogers asked, looking around the forested area and then up at the looming dam.
"We are in Cleveland, Captain...A top-secret, underground S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, to be exact." Ethan replied as the portal hissed shut behind them.
"Even I didn't know about this place. How did you?" Natasha asked, her natural paranoia surfacing.
"Well, let's just say when our friendly neighborhood assassin over there was sent to cut Fury's life short..." Ethan said, glancing at Bucky, "I placed an extra set of precautions, just in case." He added this as he dropped to one knee and began petting something unseen.
Tora, sensing his intentions, already had his hands encased in shimmering, rotating Eldritch magic circles. The spell he cast created a distinct area of effect; anyone caught within its radius would be granted the temporary ability to perceive cursed energy.
Tora rotated his wrists, and everyone in the immediate vicinity suffered from distorted, foggy vision. As it cleared, they found Ethan hunched over a small doe that hadn't been there a moment before.
"Meet my Chimera, Samsara. She heals..." Ethan said. The Chimera walked toward the other three and offered her paw, one by one—a gesture they each reciprocated.
"Thank you for your service," the Captain added as he shook her paw. Samsara cooed in response.
"Huh... she likes you lot," Ethan noted with a genuine smile.
Just then, the front gate of the dam slammed open, and out stepped Fury, Coulson, and Maria Hill.
"Speaking of the devil," Fury said, looking at Ethan before shifting his gaze toward the others in the group: the Captain, Romanoff, and finally, Bucky. "Get inside," he commanded, looking around cautiously before walking back into the facility.
The Captain and the group made their way inside, with Ethan following closely behind.
He and Coulson came face to face. "You knew," Coulson said simply.
"Knew what, Agent?" Ethan fired back.
Coulson released a bitter laugh. "Don't play games with me, Park. You knew... You knew Hydra had been hiding inside S.H.I.E.L.D. since our very first meeting. You said you will save us from ourselves, You also knew Garrett was Hydra. What else? Did you shoot his jet out of the sky, too?"
"I did no such thing," Ethan said seriously, passing by Coulson. Then, from a short distance, he added, "I did give Garrett super-cancer, though. Hehe."
Coulson and Maria exchanged a resigned, weary look.
Maria walking beside Romanoff questioned,
" How did you guys find this location?"
To answer that, Natasha simply looked at Ethan and Hill nodded.
Inside the facility, all members of Coulson's team were present: May, Skye, Fitz, Simmons, and Ward.
Fury released a heavy breath. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver... and one hell of a headache," he listed off.
"Don't forget your collapsed lungs," Doctor Hans added.
"Yeah... let's not forget those. I am completely healed now. Thanks for that, I guess," Fury said, looking down at the doe standing by Ethan's legs.
Samsara took a step back, hiding behind Ethan. "She doesn't like you," Ethan declared bluntly.
"I don't blame her," the Captain added, looking at Fury with clear frustration.
"How did you pull it off?" Natasha questioned.
"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat per minute. Banner developed it for stress; didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it," Fury explained.
"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" the Captain asked.
"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Hill added.
"Besides, we weren't sure who to trust," Coulson added.
"About that, there is something you should know," Ethan said, glancing toward Bucky.
After explaining everything that had transpired with Zola and the full scope of Hydra's resurgence to Fury and the others, the room fell into a heavy silence. Captain Rogers, Bucky, Natasha, Park, Coulson's team, Fury, Hill, and Doctor Hans all stood around an old, battered metal table.
"So, let me get this straight. Park has been hunting Hydra since 2008—before any of us even knew they survived the war. Which, by the way, was before you were even an adult," Fury started, his single eye fixed on Ethan, still looking at him, Fury pointed towards Barnes.
"And to top it all off, the Winter Soldier—the assassin who has terrorized world governments for seventy years—is on our side now. Everything just starts falling into places whenever you are around, Why is that?"
"We all have questions, Nick," the Captain said firmly. "But... I think Park can be trusted."
"Me too, sir. His past actions speak for themselves. Besides, the fact that we weren't all dead the moment Ethan located us is proof enough that he isn't working with Pierce," Coulson added. Skye and Fitz nodded vehemently in agreement.
Fury released a heavy breath and walked toward a cabinet on the left wall, retrieving a weathered folder. From it, he pulled an old photograph of Alexander Pierce. He studied the image for a moment before looking back at the group.
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize," Fury said, waving the picture. "He said peace wasn't an achievement... it was a responsibility. See, stuff like this gives me trust issues. I don't think the Council is accepting my calls anymore," he added, before nodding toward Hill.
"We need to bring down those carriers before they reach three thousand feet," Hill clarified, stepping forward. "Once they hit that altitude, they will triangulate with the Insight satellites and become fully weaponized."
"How do we do that?" Ward asked, his expression unreadable.
Coulson, Fury, and Hill exchanged worried glances. "We received word from the team we sent to retrieve the targeting chips from the Hub," Hill admitted, looking toward Fury.
"Apparently, Pierce has activated the Isolation Protocol. Only Alpha-level operatives can now bypass the facility's automated security," Fury added.
The Isolation Protocol is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ultimate "scorched earth" security measure. Once triggered, the Hub's internal systems—including the automated point-defense turrets and the vacuum-sealed targeting vaults—ignore all standard commands. They default to a "Biometric Deadlock" that requires a physical presence to override.
"And only Director Fury and Secretary Pierce are Alpha-level authorized," Coulson clarified.
"Wouldn't locking you out be the first thing Pierce does?" Natasha asked, her arms crossed.
"He would certainly try... but I have backups in place for exactly such a scenario," Fury said, reaching up and slowly removing his eyepatch. "However, the moment I am spotted anywhere near Washington, Pierce will call in a drone strike."
"That's not all," Hill continued. "Presumably, Hydra cells from all over the U.S. have been converging on Washington over the last twelve hours."
"Pierce wants a stage," Steve realized, his expression darkening. "Once those Helicarriers are in the sky, he will make Washington his home base. He is going to seize the Capital."
"Shhh... how should I put it?" Ethan finally spoke aloud from beside Bucky, pressing a finger to his forehead in deep thought.
"What the hell... here goes nothing. The calling of All Hydra cells in Washington, Pierce was following my orders," he finally declared.
The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence until Fury broke it with a roar, leveling a Micro Uzi directly at Ethan's chest. "I KNEW IT! YOU NAZI MOTHERFUCKER!"
"Clearly, there was a better way to put that," Ethan muttered, looking around at the hostile faces in the group.
"Clarify. And do it fast," Steve said, his grip tightening on the edge of his shield.
Ethan simply pointed ahead. "To be precise, Pierce has been following his orders." From Ethan's shadow, Kitsuna manifested the towering, grotesque form of the War Curse behind the group.
Ethan then proceeded to explain the twisted relationship between the War Curse and Pierce—and how he had manipulated that connection to force every active Hydra cell to assemble in Washington.
"Wait, I don't understand... Why give Hydra such an advantage? They have the superior numbers in the capital now," Fitz asked immediately; Simmons nodded in frantic agreement.
May looked toward Fitz and simply shook her head as a look of realization finally passed over his face. "Oh... it's a culling," he whispered, looking at Simmons as he added the last part. "Park means to kill every Hydra agent. So he gathered them in one place: Washington D.C."
Simmons gulped involuntarily. "And they are coming... like sheep to the slaughter."
A heavy silence followed the proclamation in the underground facility. Nobody openly disagreed with the method; after all, it was the most effective way to excise the cancer that was Hydra. No moral dilemmas were raised about taking lives—everyone in the room had taken a life, whether directly or indirectly.
In fact, some were even impressed by the sheer scale of the planning. Fury looked at Ethan, thinking, *'What did they do to you that made you hate them this much?'* Then he looked at the photograph of Alexander Pierce in his hand. *'Whatever you did, Pierce, you fucked up in the worst possible way.'*
"Ethan, I'll admit your plan is effective, but—" Steve began, but Ethan interrupted him.
"As Machiavelli wrote, Therefore, all injuries ought to be done together, so that, being tasted less, they will offend less," Ethan quoted.
"The Prince," Skye added, recognizing the line.
Ethan looked at Skye, shook his head, and spoke solemnly. "What I'm doing... it's probably not the 'right' way to do it. But when I started down this path, this was always how it was going to end. Besides, Captain, These are not simply people making bad desicions, these people intent on killing 20 million innocent civilians by the end of today."
Ethan then turned toward Steve, his wide, neutral gaze breaking into a genuine smile. "Though, I might need some help."
"You'll have it," Steve said, a look of grim determination settling over his face.
"So, here's the plan..." Ethan began.
Twenty Minutes Later:
Outside Lakeview Cemetery Dam:
Ethan could be seen standing infront of a sturdy tree, whistling as he relieved himself. Once finished, he washed his hands using water summoned from Max Elephant and dried them with the searing heat of Suzaku's flames.
As he emerged from the woods, In the distance, he spotted Captain America's shield resting on a rock beside the open dam.
He continued whistling as he approached. Rogers looked back, then returned his gaze to the water. A comfortable silence stretched between them as Rogers watched the rushing current.
"There are no fishes in this water," Rogers said, breaking the quiet.
"Yeah... though the lake nearby is contaminated by industrial waste. The canal has become hazardous as a result," Ethan remarked. *It would take me days just to clear the surface waste,* he thought immediately.
Steve sighed heavily.
"Your friend seems to be adapting well," Ethan added, nodding toward the front entrance where Bucky could be seen talking to Skye.
"He was always better with female company than I was," Steve remarked with a small smile. "I almost didn't miss that part of him."
Ethan reached out and touched the Vibranium surface of the shield. Then, he turned away and began heading back into the dam.
"We leave in ten minutes, Captain. You should practice a few shield throws," Ethan said, his back turned to Rogers. "Trust me. You're going to need the practice." He looked over his shoulder at Rogers as he added that last part.
*What?* Steve thought, looking down at his weapon. The shield had changed its original red, white, and blue color scheme to completly black and white, the tones were noticeably darker and more intense.
He picked it up, aimed at the dense forest ahead, and flicked the shield toward the swamp, expecting it to bounce back as usual.
*Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.*
It didn't bounce. The shield tore through three thick trees, bisecting them as cleanly as a laser, before embedding itself deep into a fourth. A beat later, the first three trees groaned and toppled over simultaneously.
"Holy shit," Steve breathed.
Ethan had imbued the Shield with Max Elephant, similar to the playful cloud, any physical strike by the Shield is amplified according to users own strength.
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A/N: So how was the chapter?