Night raids are the best

… Maria Hill

The wind blew in from the east, carrying the oily smell of the polluted river that cut through Jersey's industrial zone — the kind of place where time looked like it had given up. The warehouse in front of them was a forgotten blot of concrete and rust, surrounded by a crooked fence and dying vegetation. No signs of life, no lights, no people… in theory.

Hill stood on cracked asphalt, watching the building. In one hand, a tablet displaying drone and scanner readings — all inconclusive, as usual. In the other, a travel mug of coffee that was already getting cold.

"No compatible energy signatures", she said, going over the data again. "No active security cameras, but thermal sensors picked up movement less than an hour ago."

"Could just be some homeless guy looking for a place to sleep", Natasha muttered beside her, dressed in full tactical black, red hair falling loose over her shoulders. "Or it could be another experimental mess waiting for us to open the door."

Hill didn't reply right away. Her attention shifted when a flash of gold shimmered in the air.

Literally.

In the middle of the secured perimeter, reality split open in a golden tear, vibrating like a plucked wire. The air trembled around the rift. Agents nearby instantly raised their weapons — but stepped back when they saw who came through.

Aidan stepped out of the portal like he'd just brushed his teeth. Dark coat, black T-shirt, expression like he'd already caused trouble before breakfast.

Hill didn't move a muscle, but her eyes scanned every inch of him.

That portal wasn't in any file.

And nothing on his record mentioned interdimensional travel with a signature like that.

Natasha picked up on it too.

"That's new", she said, eyes still on the space where the portal dissolved into floating embers.

"New and unauthorized", Hill added, dryly. "He didn't even bother to warn us before tearing a hole in reality."

Aidan walked over, a half-smile on his face, hands in his pockets.

"Evening, ladies. What a lovely secret military op vibe we've got going tonight."

"We had to reschedule the whole mission because of you", Natasha said, getting straight to the point with her usual bored tone. "Because you had a date. Now we're all working on a Saturday night."

Aidan blinked.

"Seriously? You guys have shifts? I always thought spies just did spy stuff. Any hour of the day. Like undercover robots."

"Robots go on dates too", Natasha replied with a crooked smile.

He turned to her, still smiling.

"Oh? Then when are we having one? Just the two of us. No weapons, no explosions, no paramilitary goons crashing the place. Just wine, conversation… and a verbal no-violence pact."

Hill raised an eyebrow. Her coffee was officially cold now.

"When you learn how to fill out a report without sarcasm in the 'special skills' section."

"So… never?" he replied, smile unshaken.

Hill sighed and turned her focus back to the map on her tablet.

"Let's stay on task. We don't know who or what's using this place, but it's not a coincidence this area had four anomaly alerts in the past five days. We'll infiltrate in three teams. Quinn, you're with me and Romanoff. I want to see if your new golden trick is actually useful or just flashy."

"I promise— no flashy portals", he said. "Unless someone invites me to dinner in another dimension."

"Only if you promise not to blow the place up", Natasha said, already walking ahead with silent steps.

"No promises."

Hill walked alongside them, the tablet now projecting a detailed hologram of the warehouse's underground layout.

The mission had begun.

...

The side entrance was just as neglected as the rest of the warehouse. Three rusted chains held a steel door shut — or tried to, at least. A gentle nudge — or rather, a precise, silent push from Natasha — was all it took to get it open.

Hill stepped inside next, posture upright, eyes scanning every corner. The air was thick with old dust, dried grease, and something subtler… like ozone mixed with industrial mold. There were footprints on the floor. Three distinct sets — two with military patterns, one dragging.

"Someone's playing house with an abandoned base", Natasha muttered, crouching to inspect the freshest trail. "This was made in the last twenty-four hours."

Hill was already activating her wrist-mounted thermal scanner. "Temperature's still slightly above ambient. We've got live bodies in here."

Aidan strolled in behind them like he was on a casual museum tour.

"Honestly, this place smells like my high school locker room. If the school had been nuked and left to rot for thirty years."

"Irrelevant comments to the left, please", Hill said, not even glancing at him.

"Hey, it's Saturday. I'm on my premium sarcasm plan."

"Save it. You'll need it later", Natasha whispered, nodding toward a narrow hallway ahead.

The walls were thick concrete, partially lined with metal panels that… were out of place. Some had been cut clean, like someone had been customizing the interior.

Hill noticed the grooves in the structure.

"This isn't original. It's been modified."

"Not by anyone trying to list the place on Zillow", Natasha added.

They moved in formation: Natasha up front, Hill in the middle, Aidan in the back — though his posture was far too relaxed for either woman's taste.

"Did you feel that?" he asked suddenly, stopping.

Hill turned. "What?"

He frowned slightly, and a faint glow lit up in his blue eyes — the telltale sign of the Six Eyes, scanning something neither woman could see.

"There are metal compartments under the floor. Spaced exactly every seven meters. Three are empty. One has a minimal energy source… and two still show signs of something organic."

Hill narrowed her eyes.

"You're seeing through concrete?"

"Not exactly", he replied with a smile.

Natasha turned toward him, eyes sharp. "That trick's not in your Shield file either."

Aidan shrugged.

"I can't help my boundless brilliance."

"Add that to the list", Hill muttered.

"I'm already halfway down the page", Natasha replied, drawing her pistols.

At the end of the hallway, a reinforced door blocked access to what looked like the base's core. There was a busted fingerprint reader on the side, but the lock itself… had been recently tampered with. Scraped from the outside.

Hill raised her hand.

"Careful. Someone forced this open— and it wasn't us. Could still be someone in there."

Aidan was already analyzing, eyes glowing brighter.

"No traps that I can see, but there's something off."

"Define 'off'", Hill said.

"Like… energy resonance. Not standard tech."

Natasha moved to one side of the door. "We go in together?"

Hill nodded and counted to three with her fingers.

When the door opened, what lay inside was more than just dust and outdated machinery.

There were broken pipes, containment units, and restraint marks.

And something written on the far concrete wall — faded, but still visible under the flashlight.

Hail Hydra.

Hill froze.

"Fuck. This isn't just a warehouse."

"It's a nest", Natasha added, her voice low.

Aidan stepped forward and read the words. For once he went quiet.

Then raised an eyebrow and muttered, "Hydra, huh?"

Hill nodded slightly. "Now we know what we're dealing with."

She turned her wrist, activating her communicator.

"This is Agent Hill. We have direct signs of an active Hydra cell operating in this facility. Requesting immediate reinforcements for quarantine, sweep, and containment."

Natasha's flashlight caught a symbol marked on a metal crate to the left. Faded, worn by time… but still visible.

A skull with tentacles.

Hydra.

And finally, Hill said under her breath, face set like concrete: "And no one gets to say my instincts were wrong again."

...

The floor creaked under their boots as the group stepped into the facility's main room.

The space ahead was much bigger than the building's outside suggested. The warehouse was really just a shell — hiding a full underground lab beneath it. Improvised, sure… but not sloppy.

Aidan gave a low whistle as he spotted the shattered containment pods, some still filled with a dark green liquid, thick as tar.

"This looks straight out of Resident Evil. All we're missing is the zombies and some German-accented scientist yelling about 'superior evolution.'"

"Focus", Hill said firmly, rolling her eyes.

"Super focused. But if something moves, I'm blowing it up."

"Do that, and you blow the mission too", Natasha shot back, already armed.

Then came the sound.

Faint, but unmistakable.

Footsteps.

Not behind them. Ahead — deeper into the lab, where the red emergency lights still flickered weakly.

"Hold position", Hill ordered.

Natasha moved silently toward the sound. And Aidan… just vanished.

Literally.

Hill sighed under her breath.

"He's gonna pull something."

And as if the universe was listening, a voice echoed from somewhere in the lab.

"You're in the wrong place."

It came through an old speaker mounted on the ceiling.

"But of course… we didn't expect anything less from Shield."

A nearby terminal screen lit up. A face appeared — obscured in shadow, all hard outlines and no clear ID.

"I don't like repeating protocols, Agent Hill. But this place doesn't belong to you."

Hill stepped forward.

"Identify yourself. Now."

"You already know who we are."

"Hydra is dead."

The figure chuckled.

"It's died many times. We always come back. Like good dormant cells."

Before Hill could respond, Aidan suddenly appeared on top of the console desk, holding a loose wire he'd yanked from the wall.

"Hello? Hello?" he said, like testing a karaoke mic. "I.T guy here. Your system sucks, by the way. I'm pulling all your files now, just FYI."

The screen flickered and cut off — right as the footsteps turned into running.

Hill and Natasha spun around.

Three figures emerged from the dark corridors.

Masks, black suits with the old Hydra symbol on the left shoulder. Rifles rigged with shock attachments.

"Contact!" Natasha called out.

She fired first — three clean shots. Two hit the enemy's shoulders, making them stumble. The third missed when one activated a low-power kinetic shield.

Hill ducked behind cover and fired back. One agent dropped — hit clean in the neck.

The second charged straight at Aidan.

But Aidan had already stepped off the table. Bullets bounced midair like they'd hit invisible glass.

He raised a hand.

"Seriously, dude? You brought a machine gun to fight the Limitless? That's just rude."

The agent came again.

Big mistake.

"Red."

The air ruptured — like something had imploded.

The agent slammed into the ceiling with a sickening crack, then dropped like a ragdoll.

"That's two", Aidan muttered, adjusting his coat. "Where's the third?"

The third was behind Hill — a blur.

But she was already spinning, slamming the rifle's butt into his face before dropping him with a shot to the knee.

Silence returned for a few seconds.

Then…

"I like this kid", Natasha said, breathing hard, still alert.

"Don't encourage him", Hill muttered.

Aidan smirked, already checking the bodies.

"These guys are weak, but not rookies. Two have implants in their necks— self-termination type."

Hill moved in to examine them.

"That confirms this place was still active."

Aidan scanned the data he'd accessed.

"And not just active… They were transferring files. Genetic tests. Cross-referencing old records and…"

He paused.

"… a mutation database."

Natasha turned to him. "Mutants?"

"Powers. Even psychological profiles."

Hill's brow furrowed.

"They were studying mutants as weapons?"

Aidan nodded, his eyes still glowing faintly with the Six Eyes.

"Or trying to copy them. Maybe even recreate them."

Hill looked at the bodies on the floor.

"Hydra never sleeps. It just sheds its skin."

And in that moment, she understood: this wasn't an abandoned facility.

It was an outpost. A field lab.

And someone… was still pulling the strings behind it.

… Aidan Quinn

Evacuating the facility was way easier than getting in — if you can even call my glorious multiversal-level golden portal entrance "getting in." I'd bet Natasha and Hill were still debating whether to add me to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s list of potentially problematic entities.

With the bodies neutralized, the data extracted, and the area mapped, we left everything ready for the containment team. Hill did what Hill does best — kept control until the end, even with that look that said, "we're not done, Quinn." Natasha swapped her magazine like someone who could take me down before I blinked… but she already knew she wouldn't.

We stopped near their car. Jersey's sky looked as ever — gray, smelling like burnt oil, with the promise of rain that never actually came.

"So, that's it?" I asked, rolling my shoulders like I'd just wrapped up a walk in the park. "You two stormed a warehouse with machine guns, I nuked Hydra's entire digital infrastructure… and no one lost an eye. Success?"

Hill stared. So did Natasha. There was a mix of irritation and… something like respect in their eyes.

"Gonna disappear through your magic portal and leave us with the report?"

"Exactly", I said, shamelessly. "I handle the fun. You handle the paperwork. Perfect balance."

She didn't respond — just gave me that look that could make a war criminal confess to someone else's crimes.

"Catch you later, ladies. Hill, still waiting on that date~"

Hill didn't flinch.

"Get out of my sight, Quinn."

"With pleasure~"

I raised my hand. The space around me warped like liquid mercury. The golden portal opened with the softness of silk being sliced.

But before stepping through, I dropped one last card.

"Oh, Hill? Check those mutant database files. Smells like killer robot plots or some bootleg mutant clone situation. And if someone starts playing Frankenstein, Xavier's gonna want to know."

Hydra.

The old snake, always slithering under the radar. But now that Shield was onto it?

Maybe the Winter Soldier arc would arrive early.

She gave a small nod.

And I stepped through.

…

The world shifted — from dark warehouses and bodies on the floor to the warm comfort of my room.

Familiar wood under my feet. Soft glow from the bedside lamp.

And Rogue.

In pajamas.

If that tiny black thing even counted.

Sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed, one bare foot swinging, expression calm — totally unfazed by the time or my dramatic arrival.

She raised an eyebrow. Hair messy, white streak falling across one eye. The thin shirt clung to her from the night's heat, and her underwear barely showed… which made it even more noticeable.

She arched a brow again.

"Workin' late, Sugah?"

"Something like that", I tossed my coat on the chair and collapsed onto the couch. "Turns out Hydra's still kicking. Hidden bases, upgraded agents, and terrible taste in interior design."

She smirked.

"You don't sound as worried as you should."

"Too tired to worry. Plus… I've got a date with a dangerous girl right now."

Rogue slid off the bed like a cat and straddled me with that wicked smile of hers, settling into my lap like she owned it.

"Turn my power off again, Sugah", she whispered, eyes locked onto mine with that intensity only she could pull off. "I promise this time… it'll be even better."

I touched her face and used All for One like lighting a candle.

One thing we'd figured out — there's a difference between her power just not working on me because of my defenses… and her actually feeling it turned off inside her.

And the second one?

Was her favorite kind of drug.

Her gift vanished.

She shivered from the sensation — skin buzzing with freedom.

"Off", I whispered, and before I could say anything else…

She was already kissing me.

Hungry.

And I didn't even try to resist.

Because that pajama was a problem no words could ever solve.