"Damn it!" General Thaddeus Ross slammed his fist on the control panel, fury written all over his face.
He kept jabbing at the controls, but nothing worked.
The super-prison had been designed with "humanitarian fail-safes." If anything compromised its integrity on the ocean floor, it would automatically surface—prioritizing the survival of guards and inmates.
That was fine in theory until someone exploited it.
Hydrostatic pressure at those depths was staggering—nearly one hundred times atmospheric pressure. The entire facility had to withstand the weight of a million kilograms pressing down per square meter.
Without the high-strength hull around it, everyone inside would be crushed flat.
Pierce knew this. He had clearance to the super-prison's design files—one of the few people who did. Only someone with that knowledge could have staged such a precise attack.
Ross gritted his teeth. "Prepare to fight!"
He didn't need to explain. Every guard knew that a prison break was their worst-case scenario—and this wasn't just any prison. This was the supermax, holding the world's most dangerous enhanced individuals.
Alarms blared as soldiers rushed to their stations.
"Prepare to deploy surface charges!"
From small launch bays, several spherical mines floated free. Their buoyant frames carried them rapidly toward the surface before detonating.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Columns of water erupted skyward, tossing one of Pierce's warships into disarray. But there were too few charges to do lasting damage, and the rest of the fleet spread out, staying well clear of the blast radius.
Ross switched tactics. "Torpedoes—fire!"
White trails cut through the dark water, hammering one of the Hydra warships until it listed and sank beneath the waves. But the victory came at a cost—the super-prison had been forced to the surface, exposed to Pierce's entire strike force.
Ross grabbed the comm and called Fury.
"Fury, we've been forced up. Send backup—now!"
He transmitted coordinates.
Fury's voice came back, sharp and urgent:
"Forget about escape risks. Hydra is the priority—wipe them out if you can. I'm on my way."
Ross gritted his teeth. Of course you'd say that, he thought bitterly. Hydra was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s obsession, not his.
If any of the inmates escaped, Ross would be the one facing the Joint Chiefs. And more importantly, Apocalypse had personally captured some of those inmates. Losing them would be a political disaster.
But Fury's words were clear. If Hydra survived this, they'd just regroup and come back worse.
Outside, Pierce saw the prison surface and gave a sharp gesture.
"Full attack. Sink her!"
The air filled with smoke and fire as Hydra's fleet unleashed everything—rockets, torpedoes, and heavy artillery.
The prison's defense grid intercepted some, but not all. Explosions raked its outer hull, throwing up walls of spray.
The guards fought back with every weapon they had, but their ammunition was finite. One by one, the turrets fell silent.
Shells punched through the external sections of the prison, shredding sensors and external modules.
Inside, Ross gave the final order.
"All personnel—fall back to the core cell block!"
One by one, the outer sectors were abandoned. Guards packed into the central prison block, filling the narrow corridors and open quadrants.
The cell block was a circular honeycomb of reinforced glass and steel. Each super-criminal was locked in an individual cell, visible from the control walkways.
Some of them laughed and jeered as they realized what was happening. Others pounded on the glass, eager to exploit the chaos.
Instantly, their shock collars discharged with a harsh snap, dropping them twitching to the floor.
Others were gassed unconscious by the prison's automatic suppression systems.
The last bulkheads sealed shut with a hiss—and then with a shower of sparks as high-voltage welders fused them permanently closed.
Ross stood in the center of the block, voice carrying over the intercom.
"Guard your prisoners. No one gets out."
The dozen or so super-criminals were each assigned entire squads of soldiers.
Ross personally stationed himself in front of the smuggler's cell—Snakehead.
The man sat shackled in several hundred pounds of alloy restraints, staring blankly ahead, as if none of this mattered.
Ross narrowed his eyes. He didn't trust that calm. The loud, raging prisoners were predictable. It was the quiet ones who struck like predators when the opportunity came.
But Ross couldn't know what was really going on in the man's head.
For months, Snakehead had worn those restraints—eating, sleeping, existing in them until he could barely tell if he was alive or dead. He was numb. Motionless.
He wasn't plotting escape. He wasn't even thinking.
He just wanted to move.
Outside, Pierce saw that the bombardment had stopped yielding results.
As the smoke cleared, the prison's true heart was revealed: a massive, gleaming sphere of silver-white metal.
The core cell block—made of vibranium-alloy.
Pierce's expression darkened.
He knew the history. In the 1990s, Ulysses Klaue and Prince N'Jobu had stolen a quarter-ton of vibranium from Wakanda—an event later alluded to in Black Panther. Most of that contraband had eventually been confiscated by global agencies, and Ross had spent years consolidating what remained, using his Pentagon pull.
The result was this—the strongest prison on Earth, designed to hold even a Hulk if necessary.
Pierce's fleet hammered it with artillery, then sent boarding teams with cutting torches.
Nothing.
The surface was barely scratched.
Pierce's jaw tightened. Ross just trapped himself—but he's trapped us, too.
Finally, he gave a cold order.
"Bring her out. Have her open the prison."
One of his lieutenants hesitated.
"Sir… she's unstable. She could kill us all—"
BANG!
Pierce put a bullet in the man's chest without a word.
"Do I need to repeat myself?"
No one else hesitated.
A massive containment pod was wheeled out. Inside, a young woman floated in suspension, her crimson bodysuit hugging her frame.
As the pod depressurized, her eyes opened—and glowed with faint, ominous red light.
---
A/N: Advanced Chapters Have Been Uploaded On My Patreon
Support: patreon.com/Narrator_San