Chapter 157 0157: Meeting the Hydra Supreme
Hearing Alex's words, Laura smiled and looked at the one-way glass. She said, "I can see you guys scrambling over there."
"Do you think she can actually see us?" One of the station officers asked the leader of the squad that escorted Laura here.
"Of course, I can see you, Officer Thepedo. I can even see that weird balding that the center of your forehead is going through. What's the story behind that little rectangle of hairlessness in the center of your hairline?" She asked with amusement as the officer's face turned slightly red. Laura wasn't done, "Did your barber run the trimmer along your forehead and end up trimming off a section from your hairline?" She asked.
"That should've answered your question." The squad leader said to the officer with a voice that was laced with slight pity.
Before the officer was able to say anything, "It's like your face has an inverted notch, were you that inspired by the current phone designs?" She asked.
"I'll be outside." The officer couldn't take it and almost quit his job. The worst part was that he couldn't even do anything about Laura. Even though she was brought here as a 'criminal', her status was high enough that the Hydra Supreme, Steve Rogers himself was coming to interrogate her. Their job was only to keep her in the station.
"I'm not done. Why are you leaving…" Laura seemed to pout before gazing at her next victim, one of the members of the squad who brought her here, "You there." She pointed at the man, "What's your name?" Her voice had a natural compulsion that came from the organ bond. Level 6 was a threshold of a large number of sub-abilities unlocking since Alex got to work with many of the parts of her body in an extremely intimate manner. He gave her whatever he thought would work best.
Alex usually suppressed it, but he didn't need to do it right now.
"Hansel," The man answered instinctively before clasping his hands over his mouth.
"So, Mr. Hansel…" Laura's onslaught of insults and roasting began as she made sure to destroy each and every one of the people who were observing her. With her current abilities and Alex's mind-reading capabilities, she was able to ascertain a large number of insecurities and directly target them, making all of the recipients of her words want to cry to their mothers.
[We should do this more…] She laughed after making the twentieth person leave the observation room. This latest victim was also the first person whom she saw cry as they ran away.
[You're a menace…] Alex told her.
Laura merely gave him a proud smile as she enjoyed her time in the interrogation room. Even though she was supposed to be the one unnerved after being stuck in the room for hours, she'd done that for everyone but herself.
When Captain America was close, Alex told her and Laura finally stopped. She patiently waited for the man to enter the interrogation room.
'Oh damn…' When Captain America came within the range of Alex's senses, Alex instantly realized that it wasn't just Mjolnir that was special about this version of Captain America. He also had the Venom symbiote bonded to himself. And this one didn't have anything to do with Spider-Man. This version of the Venom Symbiote was originally bonded to Captain America and worked perfectly with him.
'Is it even right to call it Venom this time?' Alex thought. The name Venom came from the experiences of the symbiote, specifically the ones that related to Spider-Man. Considering that this one had no encounter with Spider-Man, it's possible that it named itself differently, 'Or even, this one might not have developed itself independently. With Hydra Cap's mindset, it's unlikely that he let his suit develop much in terms of critical thinking and solely focused on making it enhance its powers.' Alex thought, 'It's at times like this that connecting to the hive-mind would be very useful.' Alex was a little regretful, but not too much.
The door finally swung open and Steve Rogers walked in alongside the leader, who had been the only one to endure Laura's berating.
"Captain Rogers, greetings." Laura said, "I'd get up, but as you can see, I'm supposed to be captive." She raised her uncuffed hands with a sarcastic tone.
"You are in the presence of the Hydra Supreme. You are to show the necessary respect." The leader berated Laura.
"So this is what finally got to your nerves…" Laura nodded in understanding, "I should've been saying bad things about Hydra from the start in that case." She taunted.
The man was about to engage with Laura, but Steve raised his hand and made him instantly shut up. He calmly walked toward the table with Laura and took a seat, "Leave us."
"But sire…" The man hesitated, but one look from Steve had him nodding as left after saluting, "Hail Hydra."
lightsnοvεl.cοm Steve smiled at Laura and said, "I'm happy to see that you're doing well, Laura."
Laura didn't know how to respond, "Thanks?"
"Will you please tell me why you aren't in school?" He asked her, "According to Logan's report, you were supposed to be in school today."
Laura narrowed her eyes and asked, "And that warrants the leader of the country coming to meet me personally?"
"No," Steve shook his head, "Under normal circumstances, we would merely have you written up and penalize your homeroom teacher for negligent management. But these aren't normal circumstances, are they?"
"What do you mean?" She asked, feigning ignorance.
"I have a comprehensive set of documentation on Wolverine's daughter, her mannerisms, speech, even the tiniest nuances when it comes to her, and while similar, you are wildly different from what is described in any file." He told her.
She shrugged, "A file can't define a person. I just never showed anything." She was curious about how he would counter her words.
"Understandable," He nodded, "But we have multiple psychologists who regularly analyze the files of our high-profile individuals. Your current state can't come without going through a drastic event or experience."
"Of course, I went through a drastic experience, I was almost strangled to death by a tree." She said. She knew what was fishing for, but didn't want to give it to him directly.
"That doesn't line up with the report either. Wolverine gave a completely different report." At this point, Steve was just gaslighting Laura, wanting to form a rift between her and Wolverine. They had already matched their stories and Alex had confirmed that Wolverine wasn't lying. If this was anyone other than Wolverine's original Laura, she would start doubting the man.
"Oh?" Laura tilted her head curiously, "Would you like to know what happened during the week of my disappearance, Captain America?" She asked, wanting to see his reaction to being called his superhero name.
He didn't show any outward reaction to her address and told her, "Yes, just so we can make a comprehensive analysis of your mental state." He said, "And it's Hydra Supreme." He corrected her.
Laura shrugged, seemingly deciding to give him an answer, "I don't know what you got from the report from my dad, but I was initially strangled by the vines in that forest along with Ms. Marvel. We were both essentially devoured. The next thing I know, I wake up and it's already been a week. Ms. Marvel's gone and I'm all alone. I called my dad and he picked me up and brought me back." She gave him her story.
"Is that so." He said with a scrutinizing look.
Laura didn't flinch under his gaze and calmly met his eyes with an almost curious look. She wanted to know what he would be doing.
After a few seconds, he raised his hand up in the air and Laura instantly stood up with her claws drawn, ready for a fight. Mjolnir broke through the ceiling in conjunction with a lightning bolt as he grasped the handle.
"The truth this time." He said. Just as Laura was about to summon her own lightning state and go all out, Wolverine jumped down from the newly formed hole in the ceiling and looked between Laura and Steve who were looking ready for a fight.
"We talked about this, Steve." He growled at the hammer-wielding man.
"And I said I'll think about it. She's too much of a variable in our plans and I need either the truth from her, or she must be subdued." Steve confronted Logan.
"You will not lay a hand on my daughter," Wolverine growled, even against impossible odds, he was willing to fight the Hydra Supreme.
"Daaaad~" Laura cooed from the side and instantly hugged Wolverine tightly. She didn't care about the tension in the room and defenselessly hugged Logan.
"Damnit kid, this isn't the time for this!" Logan was equal parts embarrassed and alert, he was sure that Steve would attack him or Laura at this time.
Unlike what he expected to happen, Steve asked Laura with a much more defensive stance than he had previously, "What do you have, Laura? What do you have on you that makes me feel such a feeling of danger?" His words made Wolverine's eyes widen as he looked at Laura.
She gave him a smug smile and said, "I'm much stronger than you think, Dad." She then turned to Captain America and taunted, "You'll know if you attack me, won't you?"
The man's intuition of danger came from his symbiote. Just as Alex could sense it, it could also sense Alex.
Previously, Alex had suppressed his presence so that Venom wouldn't be able to sense him. But now that Laura was about to fall out with Hydra, he stopped suppressing his presence and Venom could now feel that it was in front of someone from the same race. And its instincts were screaming at it that Alex was extremely dangerous, one of the reasons being that there was no presence of this unknown Symbiote in the hive mind.
The feelings being conveyed by his suit made Captain America extremely wary.
***
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