Just as Russell and Hathaway fell into a tacit silence, unsure of what to say, the reception room door was violently smashed open, and a miniature green giant over two meters tall burst inside like a beast.
Allen, having just barged into the room, was about to say something when he immediately spotted Hathaway sitting on the sofa, her face bright red, and Russell standing not far away, blanket still in hand.
“I…
I didn’t see anything!
I don’t know anything!”
With that, Allen bolted out of the reception room even faster than he had burst in.
Before fleeing, Allen tried to pull the door shut behind him, but the door he had just smashed wasn’t cooperating at all.
Left with no choice, Allen beat a quiet, tiptoeing retreat like a thief under Russell’s watchful gaze.
“What is even happening?”
Watching Allen run off, Russell knew the misunderstanding was getting worse by the second.
“If you’re still tired, get some more rest.
I’ll go find the doctor to discuss our departure.”
Looking down at the blanket in his hands, Russell hesitated for a few seconds before walking up to Hathaway and handing it back to her.
With that done, he turned and left without looking back.
*Stay calm.
I’m a transmigrator.
I can’t embarrass the long line of transmigrator predecessors before me.*
*That’s right, can’t lose face!*
*Transmigrators have seen it all.
A scene like this won’t shake me.*
Russell didn’t know why these strange thoughts kept popping into his head, nor did he notice Hathaway behind him watching his departing figure with a soft, gentle smile.
*One smile to overturn a city; another to overturn a realm.*
If Russell could see Hathaway’s face right now, that ancient line passed down for millennia would undoubtedly come to mind.
Transmigration isn’t so bad sometimes, is it?
***
On his way to find Dr.
Wilson, Russell crossed paths once again with the somewhat unreliable Allen.
By now, Allen had already reverted from his transformed state back to his normal human form.
When he saw Russell approach, he gave a knowing smirk and started saying something every man would understand.
Before he could finish, Russell whacked him on the head, cutting him off mid-sentence.
How was I supposed to know Hathaway was sleeping with you?”
The moment the words left his mouth, Allen saw Russell raise his fist again and frantically corrected himself.
“No, wait!
I meant I didn’t expect you guys to be sleeping in the same room!”
“Wait, no, I mean…” Allen realized his wording was still terribly off and tried to fix it again.
Russell cut him off immediately.
“It’s not what you think.
She just saw I was asleep and put a blanket over me.”
“Really?
But as far as I know, she’s never done that for anyone else.”
Hearing this, Russell remembered that Allen and Hathaway seemed to come from the same place.
After his body was enhanced, Russell’s memory had significantly improved.
He immediately recalled the files he had read before.
According to their records, Allen and Hathaway came from the same city, both held the surname Brown, and seemed to be distantly related.
“Are you two related?”
“Kind of, but distant.
Our great-grandfathers were brothers, so I guess she’s my cousin.” Allen thought back carefully, though he didn’t sound entirely certain.
“Don’t you two want to go back home and visit?
Following me isn’t a safe choice—it could cost you your lives.”
“Go back for what?
Our families are all dead.
There’s no one left to go back to,” Allen replied with a nonchalant shrug.
Russell froze.
The Hydra personnel files hadn’t mentioned that.
“I’m sorry.
I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s fine.
It’s been years, and Hathaway and I are used to it.” Allen then began sharing their past with Russell.
Allen’s parents had died in a car accident, while Hathaway’s parents had succumbed to illness. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
Both families, bound by distant bloodlines, suffered tragic losses.
So Allen and Hathaway ended up moving in together, supporting each other.
Neither expected that they’d eventually both be captured and turned into lab test subjects.
“She acts tough on the outside, but she really needs someone to protect her,” Allen said, adopting a rare look of gravity.
“Too bad her cousin isn’t up to the task,” Russell remarked deadpan, instantly deflating Allen’s rare dramatic pose.
…
After working through the night, Dr.
Wilson and his assistants finally finished packing everything they needed into five full trucks.
If not for the limited number of trucks at the base, Dr.
Wilson might have packed up the entire laboratory.
In the end, he had no choice but to abandon that tempting idea, settling for taking only the most valuable and relatively compact equipment and instruments.
When Russell and Allen found Dr.
Wilson, he was in the base’s main control room performing a final data purge.
Noticing their arrival, the doctor handed Russell a list of personnel who had agreed to leave with them.
Out of 59 researchers, only 16 were willing to come along—less than a third.
On the other hand, over half of the soldiers chose to leave with them: 21 out of 32.
Knowing Russell would want background information on them, the doctor had attached detailed profiles for every individual on the back of the list.
As Russell had anticipated, the 37 people willing to leave with them were mostly those without family ties holding them back.
Some, like Allen and Hathaway, had lost all their family members already.
Out of 91 people, 37 agreed to leave.
Russell was actually quite satisfied with this ratio.
If Hydra’s foundation were so easy to poach, Hydra wouldn’t be worthy of being SHIELD’s arch-nemesis.
“The sedatives will be distributed when we depart, but there’s one thing you need to handle right now.”
After destroying all the remaining data, Dr.
Wilson walked over to Russell and pointed at the mainframe in the main control room.
“Use your heat vision to completely destroy the main control room.”
“Then how do we leave the base?” Allen asked curiously.
“I’ve set the main blast doors to manual override.
And even if the manual mechanism fails, we have you guys.
A mere door won’t stop you.”
While the doctor was still explaining, scorching thermal beams shot from Russell’s eyes, completely melting the mainframe and surrounding equipment in the control room.