1547: New Game and “New” Teammates

New Game and “New” Teammates

To SHIELD's despair, the Joker succeeded once more.

Also, he had somehow taken 24 Strike members and 12 SHIELD agents with him.

Neither Rumlow, who had reached the Vermont border, nor the police officers who had charged into the cargo hold at the Maryland dock found anyone.

Even the guards who had been standing watch in the freighter had been taken.

This situation made everybody in SHIELD look at each other; they were under a lot of pressure.

Nick Fury, on the other hand, maintained a dark expression.

He didn't give too many orders, and nobody expected him to be able to do much either.

To solve the puzzle, finding the Joker was necessary.

The director wasn't psychic; he couldn't divine where the Joker was.

The rest of them could only do their best!

Feeling loathing for the Joker, and worried for their colleagues, the SHIELD staff got busy in the tense atmosphere.

Luke wasn't in a hurry to take action. Naturally, he wanted to squeeze out these people's remaining value.

The b*stards who had been sent to the afterlife the last two times had actually been caught and interrogated first – only after they became worthless did Luke start the live stream.

He had to find out who among the 30 people here was Hydra.

Secondly, it was important to know how many Hydra members they knew – even just suspected targets was important information.

This was especially the case with the two Strike force teams of 24 people. Luke and Nick Fury basically thought the same thing here: it definitely wasn't just a few people in the Strike force.

Luke also had the same regret as Nick Fury — he didn't have Rumlow.

He did think that Nick Fury would trick him into going over, but Luke hadn't expected him to be in the first group.

Although Rumlow had indeed been lured to the Vermont border, Luke had no plan to besiege him.

It wasn't that he wasn't prepared, but he absolutely couldn't take the risk in the face of SHIELD.

If he wasn't careful, the other party might steer the Helicarrier over to Vermont to ambush him.

It might be an exaggeration to say that, but even by lowered standards, it really wasn't hard for SHIELD to mobilize dozens of fighter jets and helicopters, and more than 500 ground vehicles.

No matter how confident Luke was, he wasn't stupid enough to clash head-on with a combined army like that.

After this live broadcast, Nick Fury might still have some plans to catch him alive. Hydra probably already wanted to blow up the Joker.

Garrett had been drawn into Hydra by an European branch, so he could be considered a relatively unique "snake head."

So, Garrett didn't know the Hydra member with the highest level of authority in SHIELD, and wasn't even sure if such a person existed.

But many people knew about the higher-level Hydra leader, Garrett.

Hydra tempting Garrett into turning traitor back then had been their customary behavior. Who would have thought that after more than ten years, this guy would really become a core member of Hydra and SHIELD.

Garrett was a very important part of Hydra's plan.

Even if he was thrown out in an emergency and Nick Fury killed him, he could delay SHIELD for a while.

Now, this useful and important pawn was gone.

Ward wasn't that important, but he could be considered a "seeded player" for Hydra in the future.

Including the dozen or so people who had died this time, Joker had already left a huge hole in Hydra's arrangements in SHIELD.

In addition, more than 50 low-ranking Hydra members had been lost in the previous attacks.

All these added up to Hydra losing a minimum of 30 to 40% of control in Triskelion.

Without this 30 to 40%, many operations that could be carried out without Nick Fury's knowledge would be unsafe.

That was the problem with special agencies.

With just a little less control, they would be easily detected.

So, after Luke's magical (indecipherable) operations, Nick Fury and Hydra both felt that the current situation was a little awkward.

Both parties were reluctant to take risks.

And if they didn't take action, the enemy's strength would recover.

…

Ignoring the internal conflict in SHIELD, Luke reaped another harvest.

More than half of Rumlow's subordinates were very dark red on the evil list, which meant that each of them was worth at least 500 points.

After that performance, the gift bags were all Luke's.

Luke balanced out the 12 agents and the 24 members of the Strike force. Four of the 12 agents, who were also red until they were almost black, were moved to the Strike force, and the eight Strike force members who were the least evil were moved to the agents' side.

This mix formed the two teams for the new judgment game.

After all, there were too many people this time, and Luke needed to save time and costs for the live stream, so dividing the group into two was the easiest.

Six of the 12 agents were a neutral yellow; if they were killed, Luke would lose points.

It would be too much of a coincidence if everyone who died this time were Hydra members, so he simply swapped people around to make up for it.

While Luke was busy, Selina lifted the hood on the control chair and sat up. "Okay, the two prototypes are in place."

Luke hummed in acknowledgement and asked, "How does it feel to work with Frank?"

Selina tilted her head. "It's not bad. It's quite simple. It's just that he doesn't chat, and it's not nice to force him."

Luke chuckled. "Think about it. What did he say during the Battle of New York?"

Some memories flashed through Selina's mind, and she nodded regretfully. "That's right. Apart from giving orders and responding, there was nothing else."

Luke said, "He's a professional. He won't mess around during an operation."

Selina was vexed. "Isn't this because you rubbed off on me?"

Luke absolutely conceded this point, but he still said, "That's to relax. Remember when you went out to beat up people in the very beginning; you gave the hoodlum just one kick in the middle, and he screamed so hard he scared you into retreating several meters."

Selina flew into a rage out of humiliation. "I was afraid of the sh*t he would throw up!"

"It was just saliva. What sh*t?" Luke said, "Hm, fine, maybe it was old phlegm. I indeed rubbed off on you. Why don't you do what Frank does on missions in the future?"

Selina asked, "Do you want me to suffocate to death?"1

Luke said, "Hehe, then we won't change."

Pleased, Selina nodded before she raised another question. "Is Frank's skull helmet an imitation of Big Dipper? Hm, it doesn't look like it."

Luke said, "He made it himself, but I told him to modify it slightly; it can't be the same as the skull head on the Punisher's new suit."

A strange expression on her face, Selina watched the video of Shadow Bear's fight on her screen. "This… bear – it can't have been Angel's idea, right?"

"She was the one who said that she couldn't think of anything, and asked me to come up with something for her that wasn't ugly and also wouldn't tie her back to Iron Cage King," Luke said matter-of-factly.

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