"Here we have a bulky energy core, equivalent to a high-end battery, at least ten years ahead of the technology outside. But for me, Tony Stark, this is just junk!"
Tony was crouching next to a jet engine on the sky base, having already dismantled its outer casing.
"What's this thing for? Backup energy?" Blake asked, assisting from the side.
"More or less! It's like the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) you have at home. It's used when the main energy is depleted or when there's a failure in the energy lines, ensuring you can land safely."
Tony said as he twisted a wrench with force, tightening screws.
"Once I replace it with mine, it'll guarantee that even if there's an energy problem, this thing can fly hundreds of kilometers and still land smoothly!"
"Damn it! These hex screws are completely stuck. Don't they ever replace parts regularly?"
After struggling for a long time, Tony still couldn't budge the screws. In frustration, he threw the wrench to the ground.
"I got it! I got it!" Blake hurried over, picking up the wrench. There was no other way—when it came to technology, especially mechanical engineering, Tony was undoubtedly one of the best on Earth.
Blake had been listening to him bragging for a while, and now he finally had a chance to show his worth. He quickly grabbed the wrench and went for it.
"A real man can't just rely on brains, Tony. You can't take off your suit and not even handle screws. Today, I'll show you what it means to be a real man! Here we go!"
With a little force, Blake snapped the head of the screw clean off. It flew up high, bounced several times on the distant ice, and finally turned into a glimmer in the sunlight.
"Hahaha!" Tony sat nearby, laughing heartily.
"Come on, Mr. Strongman. Just rip it off with brute force. Don't worry about damaging anything, I'll clean up afterward!"
"Alright then!" Blake gripped the metal box, about the size of two batteries, and yanked hard. The base, along with the wiring beneath, was violently torn off.
Whoosh~~~~!
A powerful jet of flame burst from the torn base, and the sudden thrust sent the unprepared Blake soaring more than ten meters into the air.
Unable to control the device by hand, Blake was helpless as it spun wildly like a runaway fire hose, flinging him hundreds of meters away from the base. Only after that did he think to let go, crashing hard onto the ice.
Meanwhile, Tony was laughing uncontrollably back at the base.
"Tony, you jerk! Did you know this would happen all along?" Blake shouted angrily at Tony.
Sometimes, the joy of men is just that simple. Regardless of profession, status, or social standing, there's often a childish side to it.
Tony Stark is like this, and so is Blake.
"Just wait, Tony! I'm going to burn a hole in this ice and toss you into the Arctic Ocean!"
Flames erupted from Blake's body.
"I suspect the gods of Asgard have a way of lowering intelligence. You're starting to look as dumb as that big oaf, Thor!" Tony ignored Blake's threat and muttered to himself before shouting back at him.
"This is Greenland. Burn a hundred meters down, and you won't reach the Arctic Ocean. But you might find a human frozen in ice for who knows how many years, maybe a beautiful woman with a nice butt or something."
"Tony, Tony! Come here, I'm not sure if she's a beauty, but she definitely has a nice butt!"
"Did you really find a frozen body?"
Tony muttered as he ran over to where Blake was.
Blake had burned a small pit about a few dozen centimeters deep into the ice around him. He was now standing inside it, with a round shield at his feet.
Tony Stark was very familiar with this shield because it had been made by his father.
"Oh my God! My father searched for this guy in the Arctic for half a year and couldn't find him, and we just stumbled upon him?" Tony said in disbelief.
"As we say in novels, maybe this guy has 'fate' with the two of us!" Blake said, spreading his hands.
"Forget it! I have no interest in him. My father used to bring him up as an example every day when I was a kid, making me feel like a failure in comparison. I'm not interested in him at all. At most, I'll dig him up and send him to the New York Museum. Maybe I'll get a patriotic banner or something."
Having found the shield, the person couldn't be far away.
Tony went back, suited up, and used his armor's scanning function to find the body five meters away from the shield, about ten meters beneath the ice.
"This guy should be thankful for global warming!" Tony remarked as Blake hauled the frozen Captain America out from the bottom of the ten-meter-deep ice layer.
"Do you think the New York Museum would give us a reward or something? I remember there's a Captain America museum in New York dedicated to this guy and his team's life stories. If we hand over the shield and the frozen body, their ticket sales could skyrocket!"
"Tony, have you ever thought that this guy might still be alive? I mean, you know about cryogenics, right? Isn't there some billionaire who paid to have himself frozen?"
"I love how clueless you are, Blake. First of all, freezing requires very specific environmental conditions. Second, even if you thaw them out, there's no guarantee that the body's functions, organs, or brain would recover. I'll bet you ten dollars this guy is just a fossil—just a fresher one."
Two hours later, in the sky base's medical bay, after thorough scans of vital signs, organs, and brain activity...
Tony pulled ten dollars out of his pocket and handed it to Blake.
"Let me be clear, this is an exception, and definitely not based on sound scientific principles or data!"
"Come on, Tony, sometimes you can't view the world purely through the lens of science, you know? I can breathe fire, and there's a guy who swings a hammer and flies. What's impossible anymore?"
...
The sky base eventually stopped a hundred kilometers above the New York coastline. It had taken two days from the time they dug out the Captain to returning here. Tony's new energy source had helped speed up the sky base's travel.
Perhaps it was because they were nearing home, but once the sky base came to a complete stop, Captain America suddenly opened his eyes.
At that moment, there weren't many people aboard the sky base. Blake, worried that the Captain might wake up and get into a conflict with someone, had left him alone on the lower level beneath the fan blades.
The poor Captain, upon waking, found himself completely alone. He walked outside only to find a futuristic corridor with strange lighting.
Running outside, he realized he was in the sky, above the clouds. After standing in the hallway and calling out for some time with no response...
"Do you think if I fly over in my suit, our dear Captain Rogers will think he's arrived in heaven?" Tony laughed as he watched the security footage.
The Captain wandered around for a while before finally spotting the elevator at the connection point between the fan blades and the metal pillar.
He had actually noticed it earlier, but the door and buttons were so different from what he remembered that it didn't even occur to him it was an elevator.
As he reached out to press the button, the door automatically opened with a ding.
A young man with black hair and black eyes stood there, smiling.
"Welcome, Steve Rogers. Welcome to heaven. I am your guide, code number 1918!"
---
In the movies, Captain America was found in the wreckage of the plane, but in earlier Marvel lore, he was separated from the plane.
This was because Banner had gone to the Arctic to attempt suicide by shooting himself. After transforming into the Hulk, he smashed the icebergs, and a satellite captured an image of the Hulk roaring on the ice, with Captain America buried in the ice next to him.
For some reason, they didn't use that storyline in the end.
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