Raft escapee Samuel Sterns, adopting the moniker of "Leader," builds an army of enhanced individuals to challenge the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D., Helix, and whoever else stands in the way of his quest for global domination. Ciciley Livingston is brought...
Sterns had been given the keys to the proverbial Promised Land.
Once after the Skrull Queen left him to his work, he reestablished the HYDRA base of operations on Côn Sơn Island as his own.
It was the beginning of his oncoming conquest of humanity.
Deep inside the base, he discovered row-upon-row of test subjects submerged in liquid-filled tanks, all of them very much alive. HYDRA had done quite the number on them, every single one deformed beyond recognition.
Forgotten souls left to wallow underground for decades.
To Sterns, their imprisonment was as unjustified as his own under S.H.I.E.L.D.
They weren't locked away because they were a danger to society; they were locked away because society could never stomach their gross abnormalities. He was a man whose cranium had enlarged due to gamma-radiated blood introduced to a gaping wound – one he still had near his left temple.
Of course, there was one exception: Bruce Banner.
The man who he blamed and blessed for this new life he lived.
At great reluctance had society accepted the Hulk, following his heroic efforts in the Battle of New York; they lauded him as much as they feared him.
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'Tis the world we live in where the real heroes are monsters and the real monsters are saviors.
Not anymore.
Sterns freed dozens of contained test subjects in the base.
Some of them had extra limbs, some had tails, some were quadrupedal, some had more than one pair of eyes, some were pale white, some were dark blue...
The list went on and on.
Any normal human being would be revolted by such figures; but Sterns no longer fell in such a category.
"You are in our gratitude, Мой освободитель!"
Sterns turned to hear the Russian-accented voice speak near him, but he saw no one. Then he looked down, finding a diminutive, heavily malformed man with a limp. His head was as oddly-shaped as his but manageable without a halo. His left arm was slightly smaller than his other; the same went for his eyes.
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