Marvel's Venom, starting with a Hydra undercover agent.

Hearing what Holm said to Wanda, and noticing their apparent past acquaintance, Werner tensed up, his face tense, and shouted at Wanda, "Wanda! You should know that only we can help you!"

"Don't forget who your brother is only alive because of! If we die, your brother won't live either!"

Hearing Werner's shout, Wanda also looked up at Holm, her eyes full of struggle and apology as she bit her lip and said, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. If there's another chance in the future, I will definitely repay you for your help to us."

“But now… I can’t just watch my brother die like that, so they can’t die.”

Although their conversation consisted of only a few words, Holm still managed to glean some information.

So he stopped pretending to fight and instead relaxed and walked toward Wanda.

"So that's how it is. What exactly happened to you? Is your brother in danger?"

Seeing Holm approaching, Wanda took two steps back warily, but seeing that Holm seemed completely unguarded, she pursed her lips and said softly, "Don't come any closer. I... I have to protect them."

“I know, so I stopped. I want to know what happened,” Holm said, looking at Wanda.

Hearing Holm's question and hearing the concern in his words, and thinking about what they had been through, Wanda suddenly felt a lump in her throat. She blinked her large, slightly moist eyes and said in a trembling voice, "Pietro... he's dying. He's seriously injured. Only here can save his life."

"They told me that as long as I cooperated with their experiments and acted as their bodyguard, they could help me treat Pietro, keep him alive, and even possibly restore him to health."

"So for Pietro's sake, I can't let you kill them. I... he's my only family left..."

Wanda's eyes were red, but she still tried her best to hold back her tears, while raising her hands to maintain the strange red energy and protect Werner and Dr. Lister.

“That’s right! If we hadn’t done our best to keep him alive, he would have been dead long ago!” Werner quickly added, seizing the opportunity.

"So stop talking nonsense, Wanda! Just kill this arrogant guy. If you kill this arrogant guy, I'll arrange what I promised you right away."

"I will arrange the best doctors and researchers for him, do my best to save his life, and fit him with the most advanced prosthetics so that he can not only wake up but also resume a normal life."

"Isn't this what you've always wanted? I promise you now, as long as you kill this guy, all of this will come true!"

Chapter 205, Sokovia in Turmoil.

As Werner shouted out his terms, Wanda's lips tightened more and more, revealing her inner turmoil.

She didn't want to hurt Holm, but at the same time, she couldn't let Holm hurt Werner and the others.

"So you're protecting them now because you want them to treat your brother." Holm had roughly figured out what was going on.

He looked at Wanda, whose eyes were red-rimmed and whose lips were pursed in a conflicted expression, and said softly, "What if I said I could help you?"

“I can wake your brother up and restore him to his former state, or even make him healthier.”

“Really…really?” Wanda asked Holm incredulously.

Upon hearing this, Holm walked up to her, gently wiping away her tears as he softly said, "Of course it's true. Do you think I'm less trustworthy than that guy?"

"Impossible! How could you do such a thing! He's lying to you!" Werner shouted anxiously.

Wanda is now their last line of defense. If Wanda also betrays them, then they will truly become lambs to the slaughter, fish on a chopping board, at Home's mercy.

While Werner shouted, Holm remained silent, simply watching Wanda quietly, waiting for her to make a decision.

After a moment, Wanda gradually lowered her hands, blinked her tear-streaked eyes, looked at Holm firmly, and said, "I believe you, you won't lie to me."

Hearing her words, Holm pulled her into his arms and gently stroked her head, saying, "Of course I wouldn't lie to you. You'll see your brother recover soon."

"Mmm... Waaah..." Wanda nodded against his chest, then her lips trembled and she couldn't help but cry.

Hearing Wanda's uncontrollable sobs, Holm patted her back and stroked her hair to comfort her.

She must have suffered a lot during this time, and had countless grievances in her heart that she could not express.

Holm had just noticed that there were many needle marks on her originally fair and slender wrist, and there were still lingering bruises next to the needle marks.

Based on the conversations he had just overheard, he could easily understand that these were all injuries Wanda had suffered because of her cooperation with the experiments.

Holm held Wanda and gently comforted him, while William Baker, without needing any prompting, had already taken control of Dr. Lister and Werner the instant the red energy dissipated.

"Damn it! You actually believed his nonsense! You bastard! Ugh!" Werner couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't accept that Wanda had betrayed him so easily with just a few words from Holm.

But William Baker didn't give him much of a chance to vent; he simply stuffed sand into his mouth, preventing him from making a sound.

"Once you've determined that you can perfectly fake it, get rid of him. He's too noisy," Holm whispered to William Baker, holding Wanda in his arms.

"Let's keep that old guy for now and see if he knows what's good for him. If he does, he might be useful in the future. If he doesn't, then we'll kill him too."

William Baker nodded in response to Holm's instructions.

Then he manipulated the sand and, to Werner's horrified gaze, crushed him into a pile of minced meat.

As the crackling sound of bones breaking rang out, Dr. Lister, who was also firmly trapped by the sandstorm, couldn't help but shiver.

He looked at William Baker with some fear, only to see William Baker gradually transform into Werner right before his eyes.

They are exactly the same in appearance, height, expression, and temperament.

"Uncle Lister, don't you recognize me?" Seeing "Warner" smiling and speaking to him, Dr. Lister's eyelids rolled back and he fainted.

"Hahaha, this old guy is really too easily frightened!" Venom laughed loudly in Holm's mind.

"Why did you just crush that person to pieces? You could have let me eat him. What a waste."

Hearing Venom's complaints, Holm scoffed and replied, "Can't you see there are still people around? If you were really allowed to come out and eat Werner, this old guy probably wouldn't just faint, he'd be scared to death."

"No matter what, this old guy's research ability is indeed very strong, so it's best to keep him around if possible."

After dealing with Venom's complaints, Holm looked down at Wanda in his arms and asked her softly, "Now can you tell me what has happened between you two during this time?"

"Unless there are special circumstances, the money I've left for you should be enough for you to live on for a very long time."

Hearing Holm's question, Wanda slowly raised her head, blinked her tearful eyes, and began to tell the story in a soft sob.

Actually, everything was fine at first. With the money left by Holm, Wanda's illness was quickly cured.

They could also buy food and drink hot soup with money, instead of wandering around picking up leftovers or stealing bread from others.

They hadn't had such happy days in a long time. Whenever they ate bread and drank hot soup, they felt extremely grateful to Holm for giving them money and enabling them to have everything they had now.

Although Pietro still harbored resentment over the time when Holm held a gun to his head, he was only putting on a brave face; in reality, he was very grateful to Holm.

They originally thought that this happy life would continue indefinitely, and even considered whether to take over a small shop and do some business to bring their lives back to normal.

But just as they were envisioning a future full of hope, harsh reality soon taught them a lesson.

First, they accidentally lost money while preparing to take over the shop, and almost half of their money was stolen by thugs. Even Pietro was beaten black and blue. If Wanda hadn't gone out to take care of other things that day and hadn't run into those people, who knows what kind of tragedy would have happened.

Not long after, the situation in Sokovia became chaotic again, and the place where they were hiding became a war zone once more.

Fate is always unpredictable. Just like the turmoil that took their parents' lives a long time ago, this time another missile landed near their hiding place.

Although Wanda suddenly awakened her abilities in the face of danger and used her red energy to resist part of the explosion, Pietro still had both legs blown off by the violent explosion and was seriously injured and on the verge of death.

It was because of this incident that Hydra noticed Wanda's special abilities, brought them back here, and began to use them for research.

Chapter 206, Perfect Disguise

The bruises on Wanda's hands are from the blood that was constantly being drawn for experiments.

She cooperated with the experiments and provided protection for Werner in exchange for their treatment of Pietro.

"Don't worry, with me here, your brother will recover soon," Holm said, patting Wanda's head.

Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out outside.

"Oh no, someone else must have heard the commotion and came to check it out," Wanda said anxiously, lifting her head from Holm's arms.

"It's alright, I expected this to happen." Holm showed no sign of nervousness.

“The rest is up to you. Don’t let them notice anything unusual,” Holm said, turning to William Baker.

William Baker, who bore Werner's face, nodded upon hearing this, then pointed at Wanda and said, "May I ask this lady to cooperate with me?"

Wanda, who had been staring blankly at the face that looked exactly like "Warner's," nodded after William Baker pointed at her and said, "Me? Of course, how do I do it?"

Watching the two of them discuss how to handle the act, Holm took a few steps back, dragged Werner's now mangled corpse, and hid back inside the secret door.

A few minutes later, as the noise grew closer, a large group of armed men followed several middle-aged men as they opened the door and entered.

"What's going on here?" Looking at the mess in the office, the bald, middle-aged man in the lead frowned and stared at Werner, asking.

Werner sat on the sofa, glanced at the balding middle-aged man, and said coldly, "What's it to you? This is my office. Who gave you permission to come in like this!"

Hearing Werner's blunt retort, the balding middle-aged man's face darkened even further.

A middle-aged man wearing glasses next to him chuckled and said, "We thought some foolish assassin had infiltrated again, so we rushed over to bring people to protect you. After all, you are Baron Strucker, the most important person in our Sokovia Hydra division."

"Ha! Stop with the nice talk. If that's what you really think, then hand over your power to me. After all, I am Baron Strucker!" Werner said with a mocking smile.

Hearing Werner's words, the middle-aged man with glasses laughed and said, "Didn't we talk about this before? You're still young and don't understand many things clearly. We're just helping you stabilize the situation so that other factions can't take advantage of you."

"This is what your father told us before he died. He had been fighting against other factions to prevent them from overshadowing us, so even though he is no longer here, we must carry on his ideas."

“You should learn and observe from us first. Once you have truly matured, we will naturally return all these things to you. Just like we said, you are the rightful Baron Strucker.”

The middle-aged man with glasses spoke with a serious expression, seemingly genuine, but the bald middle-aged man lacked his composure, merely looking at Werner with a cold smile, as if they had already clashed several times.

"Alright, I don't have time to beat around the bush with you. You all have your reasons. Now please leave. I need to rest." Werner took off his monocle, wiped it, and leaned back on the sofa.

As soon as he finished speaking, no one in the room made a move. The bald, middle-aged man sneered and said, "You still haven't explained what just happened, why Dr. Lister fainted."

At this moment, Dr. Lister was settled on the sofa next to Werner to rest, while Wanda stood between the two sofas.

“We were just conducting an experiment when a small accident happened. It’s nothing serious, and he’ll wake up in a bit,” Werner said, staring at the bald, middle-aged man.

"Now that I've explained everything, can you leave?"

Upon hearing Werner's explanation, the bald, middle-aged man exchanged glances with the others beside him.

Seeing their actions, Werner said impatiently, "Wanda, since they don't want to go out, then help them."

“Yes.” Wanda nodded, then waved her hands to activate the strange red energy.

A large ball of red energy floated in the air and was pushed in front of them.

Immediately afterwards, with a muffled hum, the red energy ball exploded, and a huge impact shoved the bald middle-aged man and his men, as well as the armed forces behind them, out of the door.

“This is the experiment we just had. Now that you’ve experienced it firsthand, you can leave.” Werner said as he watched them stagger to their feet.

The bald, middle-aged man gritted his teeth and stared at Werner, then glanced at Wanda, who stood expressionless beside him.

Just as he was about to burst into a tirade, the middle-aged man wearing glasses grabbed his shoulder and preemptively laughed, "So that's what the experiment was like. Now we understand, it's truly an unbelievable power."