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Marvel: King of The Swarm Chapter 81: Masks Off (V)
🕑 Added 2025-07-29 19:08:04 +0000 UTC"M-mercy...I beg of you...mercy, please."
Harry blinked as he turned his attention back to Viper as her barely audible pleas tickled his ears. Pulling back his bioenergy, Harry stopped his assault on Viper's cells, and the villainess visibly relaxed even though she was still held aloft by Harry's psionic grasp.
"You lasted longer than I thought you would," Harry mused as he reached out and tenderly brushed back the loose green strands of Viper's hair that had fallen over her face. The previously proud and cruel visage of the madame was nowhere to be seen; instead, her eyes were lost and unfocused with unshed tears welling up in the corners.
A broad, satisfied smile spread across Harry's face as he lifted Viper's chin, forcing her to meet his gaze, "Transformative isn't it...to feel every fiber of your body tear itself apart only for it to be reborn again, over and over and over in a never-ending cycle."
Viper's only response was a soft groan, her eyes remaining unfocused as her brain and body were occupied with processing what had just been done to them.
"Time seems to stretch on forever, but I'll ruin the surprise that was only an hour," Harry muttered as he ran his thumb along Viper's cheek and watched as an involuntary tremor passed through her body, "Only an hour, but forever changed, not that it's over, everything else feels muted, every sensation is only half as good as you remember it. Your mind and body are craving something to satisfy the agony you suffered, to find an equal but opposite sensation to bring everything back into balance. And while you may find a moment or experience here or there, that lets your mind slip free of memory, it is always temporary and fleeting. But the real torture is after a certain point, there is nothing so pleasurable that it can erase the marks left behind. Then your only solution is to feel nothing at all...but if you can feel nothing, what's the point of life...and when you aren't living, you seek death...Fortunately, I have a way to evolve beyond bot, to cease feeling in the mortal sense, and become something more. But you, my dear...you will be confined to your limited means."
As Harry ran his finger along Viper's jawline, a golden light surged to life beneath her skin and another tremor passed through her body, but this wasn't one of fear or pain, and Harry's smile turned sadistic as he watched her eyes focus on his, "That is a taste of what you'll need to feel whole again, and there are only three beings including myself on this planet that can provide you with with such a feeling. The question is, what will you do to obtain it?"
Viper stared at him for a long moment before her lips moved, barely making a sound, but Harry managed to hear her words, "Anything, I would do anything."
Harry smiled and, with a wave of his hand, ripped the submachine guns from the guards ' hands who were still pinned against the wall and put them into Viper's hands, "Good, you can start by killing everyone on this ship."
With a thought, Harry let Viper drop from his psionic hold and, without a moment's loss, the trained assassin fell to the floor and raised both guns towards her bodyguards and held down the triggers.
A bloody mist blossomed into the air as both men were riddled with countless bullet holes in the blink of an eye, tearing their flesh and muscles apart.
Watching the viscera spray, Harry smiled, 'Nyx, please tell Scourge that his newest apostle is ready for divine guidance.'
---
Turning around the bend in the road, Silvija's eyes fell on the familiar but equally impressive walls of Ascend Headquarters. The compound had been steadily built out in secret from Harry's old lab, after all, they didn't want Shield to receive reports on everything they did, and thus a majority of their operations and projects had been moved off-site from Ollivander's towers.
'And just in time as well, seeing as it's currently in the process of burning to the ground,' Silvija thought sourly as she eased up on the gas and rolled up the road.
After buying up all the land through several shell companies and NPOs with promises to restore wetland habitats, Harry and Silvija used their combined expertise to design a fortress, thanks to Harry's engineering and logistics and Silvija's many experiences breaking into places where she was not wanted. However, Silvija had to admit that Harry's influence was far more impactful, especially given the HQ's most notable feature.
Coming to the end of the road, what greeted Silvija was a seemingly empty stretch of thick reed-covered wetlands riddled with quagmires and deep pockets of mud. Exactly what Harry's NPO's promised to various donors that of course didn't exist, and was most likely an unnecessary addition, but as Silvija had come to learn, the teenager was a stickler for details.
Without hesitation, Silvija continued her steady coast off the road and into the marsh, even as her car slowed and sank into the mud before slowly coming to a forceful stop as the terrain clamped down on her tires in an iron-like grip.
Taking her hands off the wheel, Silvija turned off her car before pushing on the dashboard, revealing a hidden button with the Asend logo imprinted on the front. Pushing on the metal disc, a low-pitched frequency rang through the air that at first seemed to do nothing, but then the world around Silvija rippled as the illusion faded away.
In an impressive visual effect, the marsh was replaced by the first visible deterrent of the forest, a massive metal wall with a curved exterior and hexagonal panels comprising the armored fortification. And at the intersection of each panel, a singular black dot shone; there were over a million, and collectively, they were responsible for projecting the adaptive optical camouflage onto the panels that could change their texture based on specific electrical signals.
The display never failed to impress Silvija. She had asked Harry how he had come up with the technology, but when he started talking about the optical lenses of octopus pupils and their chromatic dermal biology, she quickly lost interest.
With a gentle lurch, Silvija's car began to move, revealing that it was an automated track rather than the mud that had locked up her tires. The track rolled her forward at a steady pace towards the front gate, a massive bulkhead of foot-thick metal that soundlessly swung open, revealing what could be described as both a security checkpoint and a kill box.
Metal bands formed a cage around Silvija, and the track stopped in the very center before two blockades rose up from the ground, preventing Silvija from driving off.
"You have entered a restricted area. Present identification or be prepared to be forcefully detained."
An automated voice rang out as four scanners dropped from each corner of the killbox and began to scan every inch of Silvija's car. Meanwhile, she reached into her jacket and retrieved a sleek metal card that she placed on the dashboard as well, "Silvija Sablinova, identification code ATGCA-TACGT."
The scanners passed over Silvija's car one last time before flashing green and retracting back into their ports.
"Identification confirmed, welcome, Commander."
---
"COMMANDER ON DECK!"
A shout rang through the room as Silvija walked in, and in an instant, every right hand snapped into a crisp salute.
"At ease," Silvija replied, and her loyal soldiers moved to resting position as she began to speak, "As you all no doubt know, there is a developing situation at Tower Site that is going to upset our pace and rhythm. Additionally, our General is currently disposed and facing an unknown threat, making this the perfect time to test how quickly we can respond in a time of need. Operators, deploy rescue and paramedic suits to Tower Site and assist first responders. I also want a white ops team to clear the entire building for threats and recovery."
With practiced precision, Silvija's orders were carried out, and she watched them for a second before giving a singular nod of satisfaction, "And someone get me in contact with Agent Squirrel, I need her on standby yesterday."
---
'Well, if I ain't a motherfucking prophet,' Fury cursed in his mind as he rushed over to a monitor with the sound of gunfire and bullets shattering against the reinforced glass of the observatory desk threatening to deafen him.
Sure enough, he was in the middle of a hostile takeover, which he had seen progress through the extensive surveillance system. The infestation had gone far deeper than Fury ever thought possible as he watched people he had personally reviewed pick up weapons and slaughter their fellows without so much as a twitch in their eyes.
"When one head is cut off, another one fucking rises," Fury muttered angrily under his breath just as he quickly accessed Shield's Database and entered his master passkey. Even if Hydra had been a part of the shield since the very beginning, there were still things Fury had made sure that no one but he could access, secrets that could start countless wars across the globe. Information that Hydra would no doubt use to plunge the world into chaos and take the reins of power.
But just as Fury was about to authorize the universal delete, a brown streak flashed across one of the monitors connected to a camera observing the outside deck. Fury's glance then turned into a wide-eyed stare as he tried to comprehend what he was looking at.
"Is that a fucking squirrel?"
