The Wanderer - 272 (Patreon)

Chapter 272 – Survivor

[2009 – October – Saturday]

The Hellfire Club wasn't in the dark about the HYDRA, nor what had befallen them the night before.

As a secret organization that aimed at influence and power, how could the Club not be aware of HYDRA's existence given that their goals overlapped in many matters? It wouldn't even be wrong or far-fetched to call them natural rivals.

HYDRA had always covertly turned people to their cause with promises of wealth and power, even whole organizations had been swallowed up by them, and while the Club was more keen on manipulation than recruitment, it was inevitable that these two organizations could not get along.

It was impossible for the Hellfire Club to subordinate itself to HYDRA, which planned world domination since the Club's true goal was to be an invisible shadow that directed the various powers in the world like a puppet master.

Naturally, the same was true the other way around too.

Still, there had been very few direct clashes between the Hellfire Club and HYDRA, though Emma had always been mindful of this paramilitary organization as its power was tremendous.

Gathering intelligence on it had still been proven a challenging task, even for an organization such as the Club, though she imagined that they had fared much better than SHIELD in that department.

Still, the attention and resources that Emma had spent on HYDRA turned out very useful last night as she had been one of the first to be informed of the unilateral attack that HYDRA had been under.

Several large secret bases near larger cities all around the world had been turned into ruins by someone, which naturally could not be hidden that easily from advanced technology and specially trained operatives that the Club had employed anonymously as mercenaries.

The Hellfire Club might not have much in terms of their own elite forces compared to HYDRA but how could that be a problem when considering the Club's economic prowess?

In fact, Emma preferred it this way since those who had been hired did not know for whom they were working, so their loyalty wasn't of importance, only the mission goal. Their own people, whose loyalty she had personally put to a test through her telepathy, also did not have to face unnecessary risks or possible exposure.

And as expected, after she had passed down the order to a few mercenary teams near the suspected bases to investigate, most of them had not made it out alive since they had met SHIELD troops before they could successfully retreat.

Still, that had mattered little since most of the intel had already been sent over via high-tech long-distance transmissions by that point. What had been lost was mostly just physical evidence of differing value.

And what had been discovered had indeed been shocking, even if different than she had first imagined.

Broken recordings of Elijah's rampage had enlightened her to what had happened to those bases while well-placed spyware had given her a vague idea of the true extent of the damage that he had caused.

This also threw some new light on the fact that Elijah had sent her a message about a man that he had placed into one of the apartments under Frost International a short few minutes before the earliest attack that they had taken notice of.

She wasn't sure who that man was and hadn't had the time to go and see this person herself but her intuition told her that he was special since her younger brother would never waste his time and effort on the insignificant.

"They deserved it.", her younger brother replied calmly, his eyes serene with the faintest flickers of horrible violence sparking in their shadowy depths, "Alexander Pierce sent people to capture Laura last night. I slaughtered them but it didn't seem enough of a punishment."

“Alexander Pierce?”, Emma repeated, her expression turning rather grave.

She knew who that man was as would anyone else in her position – Alexander Pierce, Secretary of the World Security Council. Even the Hellfire Club had little knowledge about the true upper echelon of HYDRA, so Alexander Pierce's name came as a major surprise to her.

Putting away her shock for the moment, Emma asked: "How much damage did you cause HYDRA?"

It was a vital question given that the attacks that she had knowledge of were almost certainly not an accurate number.

“How much do you know about HYDRA's origins?”, Elijah asked back without answering her question while reaching out and pressing the button to halt the glass elevator, causing it to slow down and stop in between two floors.

"The Hellfire Club's normal records don't have much more than SHIELD does.", Emma stated before continuing, "But Selene's personal archives are different. She gave me access to a part of them in the past in exchange for my help to purge the Club."

"I am not sure how trustworthy her records are but on the off-chance they are, HYDRA is much more ancient than SHIELD knows, and a lot more dangerous.", she ended, recalling the vague mentions of some kind of divine figure that was said to have once been worshipped by those that truly had founded HYDRA, or more accurately a precursor of it that had later developed into HYDRA.

“They are not. Not anymore, at least.”, Elijah said, dismissing her concerns.

“Why?”, Emma asked, knowing that things weren't so simple since he had already asked her what she knew about HYDRA's origins.

"Because I devoured a whole planet to ensure that their 'god' won't be coming back for them before I started massacring them.", he replied lightly, his eyes turning into dark vortices momentarily.

…

"Because I devoured a whole planet to ensure that their 'god' won't be coming back for them before I started massacring them.", I told Emma calmly, and I could feel the pleased cries of the Darkforce in my ears as I remembered it.

Hive was a very special life form. He wasn't like most Inhumans who had awakened their talents since his abilities had changed the very nature of his being.

Having turned into a parasitic lifeform, he was almost impossible to kill using normal means since all his parasitic sub-bodies would have to be neutralized at the same time to truly end his life.

I had realized this when I had beheaded his host and observed the flow of life force on Maveth.

At some point in the past, Hive seemed to have split off countless parts of himself and spread them all over that barren world, keeping these parts inactive as if in hibernation while leaving himself with only a single host body.

I could only guess that he had done so to increase his survivability and massively reduce his need for sustenance. And while this had left him much weaker than necessary, it also turned him into a being that was close to unkillable.

His hibernating parasitic sub-bodies were microscopic in size and had long since infected Maveth to its core, and so I had simply chosen to destroy the planet and let my Darkforce devour it whole.

By chance, I had saved the only living human in that world, who was a survivor of past sacrifices. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered to do so since I had to purge him of the inactive vestiges of Hive to ensure that he would not turn out to be a risk factor.

Still, that man had something special about him, he was a rare breed amongst humans – a true survivor.

His stubborn will to live on for years on a planet that was nothing but a death trap all by himself, it had reminded me of those closest to me. Laura, Jean, Emma, and even Celeste - they all carried this same stubbornness and strength within themselves, so I had saved him.

Emma's eyes widened imperceptibly, which only proved how incredible her self-control was since I could sense her shock and a hint of terror at what I was capable of once I stopped restraining myself.