“One of the top-secret research bases, codenamed ‘Witch Project,’ has been completely destroyed.” Natasha’s voice stayed steady, but she spoke slightly faster, betraying just how serious this was.
“Officially, it’s being called a series of gas pipeline explosions.
But our retrospective satellite analysis shows that before the base went dark, its internal defense systems recorded a high-intensity, short-duration energy discharge.
The damage pattern…” She paused, as if searching for the most precise description.
“…Satellites recorded multiple paired high-heat energy signatures at the scene.
They are highly anomalous and do not match any known explosive or laser weapon.” Natasha swiped again, bringing up the next image, which had been massively magnified and algorithmically restored.
It was a top-down view from an exterior surveillance camera that had barely survived the destruction.
The image was extremely blurry and noisy, full of static and tearing artifacts caused by electronic interference.
The focus was on the edge of a relatively intact area near the base’s main entrance.
A figure in a long, dark trench coat moved quickly through thick smoke and scattered debris, heading out of frame.
The hood was pulled low, almost completely hiding his face except for a sharp, well-defined jawline.
“But we pulled this from what was left of the severely damaged exterior surveillance feed.” Natasha tapped the blurry figure’s head lightly with her fingertip.
“We can’t make out his facial features, but aside from gait analysis and body contour comparison, our main basis for identification is the faint reflective signature of the extremely rare custom Patek Philippe Celestial on his wrist…” She paused to make sure Fury’s attention was fully on the screen: “…Cross-verification gives us over 97.8% confidence.
Target identity confirmed: Hawk.
He appeared at the edge of the blast core during the post-attack evacuation window.” Fury leaned forward slightly, his single eye locked on the blurry but purposeful figure on the screen, his pupil seeming to contract almost imperceptibly.
The air in the office felt heavy as lead, with an invisible pressure bearing down from above.
“That’s not all, Director.” Natasha’s voice dropped, like a cold current moving beneath ice.
She brought up the final holo screen, a highly encrypted biometric tracking summary, with a flashing red “Target Lost” indicator glaring at the top.
“The core assets of the ‘Witch Project’ base, or rather, its ‘products,’ were ‘Koo Ziyun,’ a first-generation individual, and ‘Shin Si-ah,’ a second-generation individual in the final calibration stage.” Next to the report, two photographs of young women were displayed side by side.
Koo Ziyun’s face was slightly pale, her eyes hollow with an inhuman detachment, like dust-covered glass beads; Shin Si-ah was even younger, her face still retaining a trace of childish innocence that had not fully faded, but her eyes were just as deep and bottomless.
Natasha slowly stated her conclusion.
“All the fragmented evacuation route analyses, the port and airport surveillance reviews, and even all the abnormal energy fluctuation records in the surrounding areas…
every active tracking lead converged on Hawk without exception.
We have reason to believe that he took them away.” Silence.
Absolute silence enveloped the entire office.
The dark curtain wall outside the window seemed to stop rippling and harden into a thick panel of lead.
Fury’s hand, resting on his knee, curled slightly.
“Does Pierce know?
After all, this was a project he backed while he was in charge.” At that, Natasha shook her head.
“I haven’t reported to him, but he can see what happened in South Korea, so he can probably guess most of it.” Fury’s good eye narrowed slightly.
After a long silence, he said quietly, “But he hasn’t come to me, which means he still wants to operate in secret and has no intention of sharing anything about the Witch Project.” “Back then, though, no one in our organization really imagined this project could develop this far.” “That such a small place could develop this kind of superweapon.
Pierce refused to let us participate before, but now this is actually an opportunity.” After muttering to himself for a moment, his gaze returned to Hawk.
*A twenty-year-old college student with a record as clean as a blank slate.* *The sole heir to one of the world’s top tycoons, whose life should have revolved around elite universities, luxury parties, family charity galas, and the beds of various actresses and supermodels.* *How could he possibly show up at a supernatural weapons research base halfway around the world, secretly funded and heavily guarded by former S.H.I.E.L.D.
leader Alexander Pierce?* *How could he have walked away unscathed from that devastating explosion and the chaos that followed?* *More importantly, how could he have taken those two “witches” hailed as “weapons,” whose danger level S.H.I.E.L.D.
had privately rated as “walking natural disasters”?* The questions coiled around Fury’s taut nerves like cold vipers.
He stared at Hawk’s sunny, seemingly unguarded smile on the holo screen, the kind of smile that looked completely oblivious to all the dangers in the world.
That face, his blurred figure at the edge of the blast ruins, and the two missing girls formed a deeply unsettling puzzle full of jarring contradictions.
Behind that smile lay either utter innocence or…
a fathomless mask?
A soft beep from the heavy alloy lock on the office door suddenly broke the nearly suffocating silence.
The door slid silently open and Phil Coulson hurried in.
Even his always immaculate, perfectly pressed dark suit could not hide the urgency on his face.
He clutched a wafer-thin transparent datapad, his fingertips white from gripping it so hard.
“Director!” Coulson’s voice had lost its usual composure, sharp with urgency.
“Emergency intercept!
It’s from the NSA deep surveillance network!” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS larsen051 Creation is hard, cheer me up!