He Came, and It Was Over

The United States border region, New Jersey.

Night had fallen. The desolate wilderness was pitch-black, with only a few faint rays of starlight falling from above.

Several abandoned old fortresses and military buildings lay across the land like enormous tombs. The surrounding high-voltage wire fences had been without power for who knew how many years.

Two figures, one large and one small, quietly appeared. With agile movements, they vaulted over the three-meter-high electric fence and entered the sealed-off old military base.

"The signal disappeared here. There should be routers and signal-blocking equipment set up inside."

Natasha held up a signal detector and spoke helplessly.

She turned around, only to see Steve standing at the entrance, looking dazedly at the modern-style building before him.

"What is it? Did you find something?" Natasha asked in surprise.

Steve gently shook his head and said with feeling, "This place… was where Kyle and I first began our military careers."

"The Patriarch…" Natasha was startled. As she looked again at the inconspicuous military base, her beautiful eyes shone with a strange light.

It was already remarkable enough that it had produced Captain America. She had never expected that even the Symbol of Peace had come from here. Calling this base the birthplace of legends would not have been an exaggeration.

During the war years of World War II, after those two soldiers left this place, they had become like two suns, piercing the darkness and shining brilliantly upon the world.

"Follow me. This building beside it didn’t exist before I left. It should have been added later."

Steve waved his hand and led Natasha toward the front entrance of a building.

He raised the Adamantium Shield and slammed it directly into the locked doors with straightforward brute force.

With a boom, the iron doors fell inward, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Natasha looked at the breach, shook her head to herself, and muttered, "As expected of someone who used to fight alongside the Patriarch…"

The two entered. After Steve fumbled around and switched on the main power, countless light bulbs flickered before the entire building was once again filled with dim yellow light.

The interior was clearly laid out like an underground workshop, with numerous bookcases storing files, office desks and chairs, and enormous portraits hanging on the walls on either side of the hall.

From left to right were Kyle, Fury, and Howard. At the end was the emblem of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current eagle, sword, and shield combination.

"These were the original founders of S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha thought for a moment, then said in realization, "So that’s how it is. This should have been where S.H.I.E.L.D. was first established. By the time the Patriarch recommended me to join, S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters had already been built in New York, so this old site was simply abandoned.

"It was abandoned on the surface, but someone was still using it in secret." As Steve spoke, he searched with his extensive reconnaissance experience and soon discovered a hidden underground chamber.

They continued deeper, searching for the secret hidden behind S.H.I.E.L.D.

Five minutes later.

The two faced off against a supercomputer in the basement.

That was right—the enemy was a supercomputer!

More precisely, it was an Artificial Intelligence within S.H.I.E.L.D., assembled from multi-unit storage machines crammed into the room, old-fashioned monitors, dust-covered cameras, and more.

Yet this Artificial Intelligence had not developed its own machine consciousness. It had been created when scientists from the former Hydra organization converted their brain memories and consciousness into coded data before their deaths, storing them within the supercomputer.

For decades, this intelligent mainframe had secretly guided Hydra’s complete infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. It had even deleted and altered Fury’s highest-level permissions.

This was the gravest mistake since S.H.I.E.L.D.’s founding. It should never have accepted former Hydra scientists for the sake of rapid development and completed their experiments to turn humans into machines.

"Captain Steve, I still remember very clearly how you boarded that train with that demon, intending to wipe us out completely."

A skull-shaped smiley face formed from digital pixels appeared on the monitor, while a cold mechanical voice emerged from the speakers.

"It was you." Steve’s brows furrowed tightly.

He remembered now. More than sixty years ago, on that speeding train, there had been a Hydra scientist whom the assault team had been tasked with capturing.

In that battle, Bucky had fallen into an icy valley to save him. If Kyle’s Blue Eagle had not arrived in time, all three of them might have died.

"So you finally remember me." The skull chuckled smugly. "But among the three of you, one soldier has fought for us these past ten years. You could say he has made up for some of his sins."

Steve’s entire body trembled. Veins bulged across his forehead as he barely contained his fury. "Was it Bucky? Where exactly is he now? Tell me!"

"He was the one who attacked Nick Fury this afternoon. He’s still in New York, perfectly safe. As for the two of you, you’re about to die!"

At that point, the skull could no longer restrain itself and revealed its hidden killing intent and claws.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The basement’s main doors abruptly shut automatically, completely sealing off the hall containing the supercomputer.

"Captain!" Natasha scanned their surroundings. A sense of foreboding rose within her, while years of combat instinct urged her to flee.

"What did you do?" Steve realized something was wrong and smashed the monitor displaying the skull with a single punch.

But immediately afterward, another monitor lit up. The skull that popped up on it laughed wildly. "From the moment you entered, missiles were launched toward this location. I’ve been stalling for time. In five seconds, everything here will be reduced to nothing! It’s too late to run!"

"Damn it!" Steve’s expression changed drastically. At top speed, he pulled Natasha beneath him and pinned her down with one hand, while raising the Adamantium Shield high above them with the other to block over their heads.

The skull continued laughing madly as it began the countdown in the role of the Grim Reaper. "Three, two, one!"

The next moment.

The expected missile bombardment did not come. Instead, every sound abruptly ceased, and the basement fell into an eerie dead silence.

"…?"

Steve looked up at the monitor in surprise. The skull’s digital face was frozen, as though even it had no idea what had happened.

The skull muttered in disbelief, "Where are the missiles? How could this happen? The missile signals… suddenly disappeared?"

Boom!

At the same time, the automatically closed underground doors seemed to suffer a violent impact from outside. The steel doors caved inward, forming an enormous hammer mark.

Steve lowered his shield and let out a long breath. "He’s here."

"It’s over." Natasha spread her hands as well.

"He?" The skull did not understand.

The next instant, the impact intensified severalfold. The entire building seemed to shake violently from a single blow, and the theoretically impenetrable steel doors finally collapsed under the pressure.

At the doorway, Kyle withdrew his left hand from its Heavy Hammer form. Holding a chunk of metal casing in his right hand, he walked inside with a calm expression.

One meter behind him, Yutong and Lorna entered the hall close behind, one on each side.