Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Raid! Latveria! (BONUS)
Bonus for 200 PS
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Time snapped back to the present.
After enduring a baptism-by-fire from a tsundere rebel brat, a good-kid chatterbox brat, and a shota-obsessed female teacher, Dante was emotionally and physically wrecked. Any lingering shred of love for the profession had been burned away.
No matter how much Professor X tried to talk him down, after transforming into Green Lantern and giving those brats a cosmic spanking, Dante submitted his resignation with zero hesitation.
Teaching? Yeah, that job wasn't made for regular humans.
On top of that, Nick Fury had been busy these past couple of days dealing with New S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy business, so Dante just took a breather and spent two whole days in full corpse-mode at home.
Ada Wong, playing the part of a virtuous housewife, stayed home with him…
As if.
With a devil like Ada around, all sultry and seductive but physically untouchable, the temptation was unbearable.
It was psychological warfare. Pure torture.
All he could do was make some green tea and try to calm the internal flames.
And to top it off, Harley still clinically insane kept butting heads with him nonstop.
Only reason Dante and Ada had a moment of peace today was because Harley had a scheduled follow-up check-up.
"I always feel like I've slowly become a background character in whatever weird cosplay thing you and Harley are doing."
"Don't be ridiculous. You're our Captain."
"Then can you wear white stockings?"
"Captain, would you like me to read you the Federal Bureau of Investigation's entire HR code on workplace harassment?"
"Okay, fine. Leather pants then? It's been getting colder lately. I'm just thinking of your health. What kind of normal person wears a high-slit cheongsam every single day?"
"Hmm… that could be arranged."
Ada actually paused to consider, then turned and disappeared into the bedroom. Sounds of rustling followed.
Not long after, she walked out wearing a fitted red shirt, black leather pants, and black leather boots.
Resident Evil 4 Ada Wong had just evolved into Resident Evil 6 Ada Wong.
Dante's Adam's apple bobbed. His mouth was dry.
Time for more tea.
Just then, Ada's personal terminal chimed.
She answered, and on the screen popped up none other than Nick Fury.
"Ada, tell Dante to get to FBI Headquarters immediately. We've got new intel on HYDRA."
His voice was clipped, heavy with the kind of seriousness that never boded well.
"Yes, Director."
Ada put away her teasing attitude and turned to Dante with an exaggerated shrug.
"Time to move, Captain. Looks like our staycation's officially over."
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After getting the call, the two didn't head straight to FBI HQ.
First stop: pick up Harley Quinn, still getting poked and prodded at her follow-up appointment.
"Ohhh, my little pudding~! What's with this sudden romantic pick-up? You miss me that much already?"
Even with toned-down makeup, the occasional psychotic glint in her eyes and that permanent red-and-blue dye job made it pretty damn obvious who she was.
"Fury ordered Star Team to assemble. Most likely a new mission."
"A new mission?!" Harley squealed with glee, pounced on Dante, and chomped his neck hard enough to leave a very visible lipstick mark. "Fantastic! Is it zombies again? I didn't get enough last time!"
"Can you please find some normal hobbies...?"
"Look, now that I'm a legit FBI Agent, I can't just snatch some random guy off the street and bash his head in. And if you're saying I can't fight zombies either, then what's even the point of living!"
"Okay, okay, fine. From now on, all biohazard stuff goes directly to you, alright?"
Dante rolled his eyes and peeled her off.
Why were all the women around him absolute chaos incarnate?
After collecting Harley, the trio went straight to FBI HQ.
Once inside the Strategic Analysis Room, it was clear the party had already started.
Fury, Professor X, and a bunch of high-profile Mutants were already there.
Dante gave a casual nod to Fury and Xavier, then led Ada and Harley to the seats beside Wolverine.
Wolverine looked around, leaned in, and elbowed Dante in the ribs.
"Yo, Professor Dante, been living the good life lately, huh?"
"Logan, I swear, call me 'Professor' one more time and I'll develop PTSD."
"Tsk. Don't dodge the question. You've got some damn good luck with the ladies, kid. I noticed even your logistics crew is stacked with beautiful girls. Pretty consistent taste, huh?"
"That's called meaningful companionship, alright?"
Wolverine gave a low chuckle and dropped it.
On the stage, Fury noticed Dante's arrival and gave a nod to Ingrid.
She stepped forward and tapped into the terminal.
Immediately, streams of intel flooded the big screen behind her.
"As you can see," Fury said, "after our warning to the FBI branches of other nations, several countries uncovered and purged a number of HYDRA cells operating within their borders."
"Not surprising. HYDRA's strategy has mostly been covert intel work — they rarely cause trouble directly."
"So we shifted our focus to smaller, less stable Third World countries. The result? We found a long-established HYDRA research base in Eastern Europe."
"In Latveria."
"And what they're researching is... Mutants."
The moment Fury said that, every mutant in the room, including even the usually nonchalant Wolverine, went dead serious.
Except Professor X, whose expression remained as unreadable as ever.
For years, Mutants had chosen to stay in hiding precisely to avoid this kind of thing.
But HYDRA still managed to capture and experiment on their own kind.
This only reinforced one conclusion: joining the FBI had been the right call.
No underground group could compete with the official resources and intel of a national agency.
Professor X stepped forward to take over.
"Our next mission: infiltrate and destroy that research facility. Since they're working on Mutants, they're definitely not operating in isolation. They're tied to the larger HYDRA network."
"This mission requires speed and precision. The top priority is to rescue the captured Mutants. Do not give HYDRA any chance to erase evidence or terminate test subjects."
"According to intel, the lead researcher is Baron Strucker. We want him alive."
"This op will be led by the X-Men and Star Team. Clean-up will be handled by standard Bureau agents afterward."
By the end, even Professor X's normally smooth, measured voice had a slight edge to it.
"Everyone clear on mission parameters? Dismissed! Move out to Latveria!"
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[Mission: Raid on Latveria]
[Mission Brief: Young Agent, HYDRA's research base in Latveria is experimenting on the Mutant race. Eliminate the facility completely. But... is HYDRA really the only one behind all this?]
(To be continued.)
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