When the word "Hydra" came up in the live broadcast
Nick Fury froze.
Everyone else might not know what Hydra meant,
but as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he certainly did.
Hydra was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s greatest enemy.
Back in the days of their war against Hydra,
S.H.I.E.L.D. had suffered heavy losses.
Of course, they'd also gained quite a lot in return
Hydra's weapons, their scientists, and classified technology.
But Hydra was supposed to have been destroyed.
So why was it resurfacing now?
Was the footage shown on these news streams… real?
Nick Fury stared at the monitor, frowning deeply.
And then—an unsettling thought flashed through his mind.
『Nick Fury』: "Could Hydra… be connected to Alexander Pierce?"
Carl had warned him before
told him to be careful of Alexander Pierce.
But Carl hadn't given specifics.
And honestly, Nick had brushed it off.
After all, Pierce had been his mentor
the man who'd promoted him, guided him.
Pierce was the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,
a man whose integrity Nick had never once doubted.
If he had been compromised… then S.H.I.E.L.D.
might have fallen long ago.
So no—Nick didn't truly believe Pierce was a threat.
Still, out of caution,
he'd ordered Agent Coulson to look into it quietly.
At first, Coulson didn't find much of anything.
He didn't directly investigate Pierce himself
instead, he started with the people around him.
Agents who had once worked under Pierce
or frequently interacted with him.
And that's when he began noticing strange irregularities.
Many familiar agents suddenly had new faces among their teams
people with mid-level clearance but unfamiliar backgrounds.
Some mission records showed "success" despite having no reports.
The more Coulson looked,
the more inconsistencies he found.
A few days later, when he checked those same records again
they had changed.
Quietly, seamlessly, rewritten.
He didn't make a sound about it.
Instead, he contacted Nick Fury directly.
Nick listened in silence,
and when he went to verify the information himself
his expression hardened.
Everything Coulson said was true.
Agents with ties to Alexander Pierce
showed traces of irregular activity everywhere.
Each one connected to others,
weaving an enormous internal network around Pierce.
Its scale was staggering
so vast that even Nick Fury was left speechless.
But he didn't dare act rashly.
There were simply too many people involved.
The number of implicated agents alone
already exceeded one-third of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s total personnel.
And Nick couldn't even be sure that was all of them.
The only small comfort was this
so far, Pierce hadn't used these agents
to do anything overtly dangerous.
After all, Pierce was a former Director
and now held an even higher political office.
Building connections inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
could be considered… normal.
But the scale was unnerving.
And certain things simply didn't add up.
From that moment on,
Nick had kept his guard up within his own agency.
But he still didn't understand Pierce's purpose
not until just now.
The moment he saw the word "Hydra" on his screen,
everything clicked.
『Nick Fury』: "…Pierce. You son of a"
If Pierce truly was Hydra…
Then this wasn't just infiltration—
it was a rebirth of Hydra inside S.H.I.E.L.D. itself.
After all, when Hydra was crushed decades ago,
S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't just seized their tech and weapons
they'd absorbed many of their people.
And now, it seemed… those seeds were sprouting again.
Nick felt a chill creep up his spine.
『Nick Fury』: "Calm down, Nick. Stay sharp."
He steadied his breath and refocused on the broadcast.
If Hydra really was behind this incident targeting Superman,
then maybe—just maybe—he could glean more information
from this livestream before making his move.
Council Headquarters
In a spacious, sleek office,
Alexander Pierce sat before his computer
watching the same live feed of the chaos at Stark Tower.
When the middle-aged man on screen blurted out "Hydra,"
Pierce's expression darkened instantly.
『Alexander Pierce』: "That idiot...!"
A surge of murderous fury flashed across his face.
『Alexander Pierce』: "How could someone be this stupid?
Decades of secrecy—and he ruins it with one sentence?!"
If he had known that fool would expose them so easily,
he'd never have sent him in the first place.
Yes
the entire operation at Stark Tower
had been his plan.
Alexander Pierce,
the highest-ranking Hydra operative inside S.H.I.E.L.D.,
still carried the same ambition as his predecessors—
To rule the world.
Though he already held great power within the Council,
it was never enough.
Not for him.
And when it came to Carl—Superman
Pierce had long been intrigued.
He'd wanted something from him for years:
his blood.
If Hydra could obtain Superman's blood,
they could create a new generation of super-soldiers
beyond anything the Winter Soldier program had ever achieved.
『Alexander Pierce』: "Imagine it…
an army infused with Kryptonian strength…"
If successful, Hydra would rise again—unstoppable.
He even considered using the serum himself.
But Pierce wasn't reckless.
He knew Superman's power was not easily obtained.
So he'd prepared a second plan.
If he couldn't extract Superman's blood
then he would recruit him instead.
Make Superman one of Hydra's weapons.
Of course, that goal was equally difficult.
Superman's power made him untouchable.
Pierce had waited for years,
unable to find the right opportunity.
Until this afternoon.
One of his subordinates had noticed
the viral news spreading online
a scandal about Superman beating a few high schoolers.
At first, Pierce dismissed it.
『Alexander Pierce』: "A few kids got roughed up? Hardly worth my time."
But as the story gained traction,
the public outrage exploded
thousands of comments, countless discussions.
Then he saw it.
A perfect chance.
He quietly dispatched a few Hydra members
with funds to contact the students' parents,
and arranged for the reporters to appear.
All of it
the crowd, the confrontation, the cameras
was orchestrated by Hydra.
It was supposed to be a simple manipulation
a way to stir public pressure
and test Superman's response.
But instead…
『Alexander Pierce』: "…one of them went and outed us on live television."
His eyes narrowed, the fury cold and silent now.
『Alexander Pierce』: "Unforgivable."
End of chapter...
WORLDWIDE SUPERMAN STRENGTH
🔹 Dimension Walker – 15 chapters ahead
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