Damn...
Truly despicable!
How can this guy be so shameless?
Alexander Pierce watched Uehara Naraku vanish before him, his face darkening, his lips trembling slightly, and he fully grasped the entire situation now...
Uehara Naraku, this bastard...
Completely exposed Hydra within S.H.I.E.L.D...
Then used S.H.I.E.L.D. to cleanse other factions of Hydra for him...
Followed by orchestrating Hydra agents to kill Nick Fury, finally utilizing Hydra's connections within the military and upper echelons to push him to become the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D...
Up until now, ordering the Avengers to eliminate Hydra's high command, rendering both organizations, once arch-enemies, completely under his control.
Now, neither Hydra nor S.H.I.E.L.D. can constrain Uehara Naraku; they were all played!
Truly...
Played skillfully.
Even Alexander Pierce, who prides himself on being a spy among spies, once a Hydra leader sitting as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., has to admit Uehara Naraku played it skillfully...
Originally thought Uehara Naraku was his subordinate...
Unexpectedly, Uehara Naraku turned around and toppled the whole setup!
"Roar!"
Hulk's roar echoed within the cavern as he stepped towards Alexander Pierce, his eyes gradually turning blood-red.
In the next moment...
Alexander Pierce on the ground became a corpse!
After Hulk eliminated Alexander Pierce, his figure slowly shrank down, reverting back to Dr. Bruce Banner.
This good man's face still bore a trace of cowardice and unease.
"Sorry..."
Bruce Banner rubbed his palms awkwardly, glancing at the scattered dead bodies, his eyes flashed with complexity.
Even a bunch of thugs like Hydra, under Uehara Naraku's manipulation, seemed somewhat pitiful in their end...
Clearly, these guys were the terrorists manipulating the world from behind; yet they were played to death by Uehara Naraku...
"Hope God blesses you."
Bruce Banner squatted down slowly, closed Alexander Pierce's still-open eyes, and muttered to himself, "I really envy you...being able to die...to be completely free of that man called Uehara Naraku."
Death is a cruel thing.
Yet for Bruce Banner, it's somewhat of a luxury.
Due to having Hulk within him, he can't die even by committing suicide, and recently a creature named Black Zetsu has emerged inside him, making dying even harder...
Although Uehara Naraku hasn't instructed Bruce Banner to do anything bad now, Dr. Banner truly dislikes being an undercover...
Who knows how Uehara Naraku will use him in the future?
Dr. Banner isn't sure about Uehara Naraku's true intentions, but he is quite certain Uehara Naraku isn't a good person...
Who among the good people places spies inside Superhero organizations?
Even pretending to be a Superhero themselves!
Unfortunately, Dr. Banner can't escape Black Zetsu within him, unable to free himself from Uehara Naraku's control.
"Heh heh heh heh..."
Just as Dr. Banner was lamenting Alexander Pierce's death as fortunate, Black Zetsu's figure quietly emerged, agreeing with Dr. Banner with a cold laugh: "Fate has been kind enough to this fellow, daring to yell at Hogoromo..."
These days...
Being Uehara Naraku's boss is a high-risk job!
If this boss can't prove their worth, there's usually no good ending unless their name is Nagato or Konan...
"..."
Dr. Banner couldn't help his eyes twitching.
Although he never quite understands why Black Zetsu inside him likes addressing Uehara Naraku as Hogoromo, he knows Black Zetsu might understand Uehara Naraku best.
Actually...
That Uehara Naraku is just a spiteful guy, isn't he?
Bruce Banner dared not voice his speculation of the truth.
Moreover, the likes of Alexander Pierce certainly aren't innocent either. As Hydra leaders, conducting evil human experiments and inciting global terror is commonplace.
"Let's go..."
Black Zetsu revealed a sinister grin: "Once we're back at the Avengers' base, don't forget this intel came from Hogoromo... hehehe... this is for avenging Nick Fury, assassinated by that bunch of Hydra terrorists..."
"...Yeah."
Dr. Banner nodded, somewhat speechlessly.
Meanwhile.
Strategic Science Corps' old site.
This was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s predecessor's base.
After handling the Hydra faction heads, Uehara Naraku hurried here to meet Dr. Arnim Zola, a relic in Hydra.
Coming here now is to create an alibi.
To ensure safety, Uehara Naraku also generated electromagnetic waves, cutting off the network signal here, destroying satellites that can connect to the network; this old base building houses only machines containing Dr. Arnim Zola's consciousness units.
At the moment of disconnection, Arnim Zola realized it; only when disconnected does one appreciate the network's value.
Yet Dr. Zola isn't clear about what happened, being in a semi-network ghost state he can only hope that when Hydra folks come for help, they could fix the network...
Uehara Naraku pushed aside the heavy iron door, hurried into the base, scrutinized the dense array of machines with just the right amount of panic on his face.
"Dr. Zola!"
"It's you, little guy... What's the matter?"
Dr. Arnim Zola's voice mingled with electrical sounds, as his consciousness unit could only vocalize through machines, and these outdated machines lacked precision.
As a relic behind-the-scenes of Hydra and its most genius scientist, Dr. Arnim Zola naturally knows all Hydra's intel and recognizes Uehara Naraku, the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s branch.
Of course.
Dr. Zola also contributed to Uehara Naraku becoming Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., determined via computational calculations that Uehara Naraku as Director was likely the most agreeable choice for those at the top.
Similarly, it was certainly the optimal choice for Hydra.
After a burst of electrical noise, Dr. Zola's image appeared on an old CRT monitor: "Arrived just in time, quickly check the satellite and network cables, there's a network connection issue over here..."
"I preemptively cut the network!"
Uehara Naraku moved towards the mainframe area, first throwing blame: "News of Nick Fury's death got out, Tony Stark suddenly breached S.H.I.E.L.D. information and has found out about your existence..."
"Director Pierce is worried Tony Stark might use his AI to steal your data via the network and sent me to notify you of the new orders."
"Sorry, Dr. Zola..."
Uehara Naraku observed the array of outdated servers present, his face slowly showing a touch of guilt: "Director Pierce's orders, for our safety, Hydra cannot communicate via the network anymore..."