Era and Catnip's Playground

HYDRA is selling people, at auction, off to the highest bidder.

This is not really of any particular surprise to Erik, but it is of some concern to him. HYDRA is little more than Nazis Redux, evolving from bad ideas and into worse ones. He hates them, almost as much as he hates the man who killed his father, but there's a specific kind of hating that goes along with family.

He knows there's some sort of ploy going on to buy the people their freedoms and he's all for that. But he also knows that they're being outbid on for the blonde man in elaborate restraints that keep him from doing more than shuffling forward a few inches at a time.

He's only here to keep the peace, presumptively. Mostly he's here to make sure that the people who have orchestrated this little bid for freedom make it out of the building alive. But he has his own money, and the bidding gets out of hand until he raises his, flashing his fronts at the Nazi auctioneer.

Yep. The scary (and one of like, five others in the room) Black man just bought the highest priced soul in the room.