Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 557 Family Power Struggle (Second Update)

"I'm sorry, Father." Stephanie closed the master bedroom door, pressed the keypad lock on the outside, and locked her father inside. Her eyes were full of exhaustion, and she didn't even have time to say anything more before hurrying towards the assault transport ship parked in the manor garden. This coup within the family had proceeded extremely quickly. Stephanie first summoned the Malik family's vassals under the guise of a conservative Hydra gathering, and then, under other pretexts, transferred her father's private guards and dispatched them to the manor gate.

No one doubted her motives in gathering the vassals, as power within the Malik family was steadily converging on Stephanie, who was becoming the new leader of the conservative Hydra. She then used a Wakanda-made micro-communicator to request the Sorority to take control of her father, who was giving a speech, and the assembled vassals. She addressed all the vassals, formally establishing her position within Hydra and granting her the ability to mobilize all the resources of the conservative Hydra. With Gideon Malik's cooperation, all the vassals formally acknowledged her authority.

Not every smuggler has such a wise and intelligent heir. Baron Strucker's son was a complete wastrel, a good-for-nothing. Gideon Malik decisively rejected Baron Strucker's marriage proposal because that fool was unworthy of his daughter.

Now it seems he really doesn't deserve it; that good-for-nothing isn't even as good as a petty thug!

Gideon Malik was secretly delighted.

He wasn't angry at his daughter's power grab; in fact, he was pleased. Since his wife's death, Stephanie had been his everything. He wanted her to be able to protect him and possess the decisiveness expected of a Hydra heir. Now, it seemed his daughter had done a good job. And for someone living in such an ambitious organization as Hydra, his current fate was the perfect ending. It was time for him to retire, and with the life-extending surgery his daughter had provided, he could live a long life.

He was only worried about one thing: whether his daughter would become so engrossed in her career that she would forget about having an heir to continue the Malik family line. This was a common concern for parents, but Stephanie didn't seem to want to hear even that.

She declined her father's offer to have dinner with her.

She was incredibly busy, so busy she didn't have time for a proper meal. For several days in a row, she only ate protein bars from the Immortal City to save time for work, and even her administrative staff did the same. Fortunately, the bars tasted pretty good and were very nutritious. Plus, as the head of the Immortal City's administrative office, Stephanie's health was closely monitored, which prevented her from getting sick from overwork. If it weren't for this power grab, which wasn't exactly a coup, she might have stayed in her office until she rotted away.

The overly heavy gown clasped Stephanie's movements. So she tore open the hem, tossing the cumbersome layers of white tulle aside into a cluster of newly blooming roses. Having quickly resolved the power issue, Stephanie left some androids behind and boarded a transport ship to the teleportation point. She needed to change, get leave from the State Department for her father, and then continue Salomon's surveillance program—that damned Whitehall had been obstructing the Malik family's efforts to subdue the scattered Nazi factions of Hydra. Furthermore, the military had already established contact with Coulson's team (though they constantly threatened to kill the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D., saying one thing doesn't mean doing another), and Coulson's team had made contact with their target, Lena. Now she also had to deal with Agent Victoria Hand's protests; this woman consistently refused to lay a hand on her former colleagues.

Although Agent Hand helped Agent Coulson eliminate John Gartler, Grant Ward disappeared during the chaos. Stephanie believes Coulson's team may have secretly imprisoned Grant Ward to prevent Agent Hand from executing him. However, after that operation, Coulson's team changed bases again, and Agent Hand had to continue their mission until they were authorized to use artificial intelligence to assist in the investigation.

The task was to hunt down the remnants of Hydra's faction led by Alexander Pierce, and to track down an object called the "O-84." Salomon's mission wasn't to seize the "Obelisk," but to find the group that needed it; he wanted to assess their safety. He had specifically stored a regularly sent data file on the server, and now Victoria Hand knew what the "Obelisk" was for—Stephanie thought it was a darkly humorous joke. The gods worshipped by Hydra were merely Kree slave warriors, their special superpowers derived from the corrupted Celestial bloodline. The Kree simply used their own genes and genetic engineering to replicate and activate this process. Most of the slave warriors' mutations were undirected; even a meticulously designed hive couldn't change their enslaved nature.

Locate the group that has gone into hiding and assess their safety.

This is Agent Hand's primary mission: to track down Coulson's team and capture Whitehall before they can act. This way, she can both eliminate Hydra and complete the mission assigned to her by Salomon—there couldn't be a better task. Agent Hand is currently aboard an aircraft carrier, using it as her command center to direct the operations of her various special operations teams. Beneath the surface of the sea near the carrier, a nuclear submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles is ready to deliver a devastating blow to a key target—if the sought-after group resists fiercely, Agent Hand has the authority to completely annihilate them.

According to the information, this group seems to have close ties with a city on the moon. The moon is Salomon's next target, and he absolutely will not tolerate those genetically mutated individuals who don't consider themselves human looking down on humanity as if we were their livestock. According to Agent Hand's information, the Immortal City seems to be preparing for an attack on the moon. Three sky carriers are undergoing massive modifications, solely for the purpose of space travel. She, as a special operations squad commander, has already been equipped with previously unstable plasma weapons, force field swords, and force feedback armor; she can even smell the machine oil on that thin armor.

With factories becoming increasingly automated and external industries being acquired to alleviate pressure, the Immortal City's production capacity has increased dramatically. Every few months, combat teams receive testing missions for new weapons and vehicles. The special operations teams' Kevlar body armor and ceramic bulletproof plates have begun to be gradually replaced with a black bulletproof shell. It is said that the Immortal City's master obtained the technology from somewhere, and after being modified by the research and development department, it is a one-piece molded compound that is mass-produced. It has the characteristics of being stab-proof, bulletproof, and heat-resistant. Some elites can even wear force-feedback fully enclosed bulletproof armor and are equipped with the same bolt-action rifles as the Sisterhood.

Regardless of the type of equipment, the factory will engrave a soaring eagle on it.

Silver-plated, silver-plated, or inlaid with brass, it looks as if it were not a weapon but some kind of work of art.

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)