Never underestimate others. Blake had forgotten where he first heard this phrase, but it felt quite fitting for the present situation.
When he woke up and saw the futuristic surroundings, then stepped outside to realize he was high up in the sky, this relic from over sixty years ago wasn't bewildered by what he saw.
After Blake said, "Welcome to paradise," Captain America just glanced at him calmly.
"Before I received the super serum, I had already seen a floating car at the Stark Expo, invented by my friend Howard. Though it eventually failed, he told me that with science, as long as you can imagine it, you're not far from achieving it. So, where exactly is this?"
Blake was impressed.
So calm—truly worthy of being Captain America! With admiration on his face, Blake nodded and smiled.
"That's right! Maybe your friend was right about everything. He was a great scientist who envisioned many possibilities for the future. But did he ever tell you about this?"
As he finished speaking, a burst of roaring flames suddenly flared up from Blake's body.
Captain America: ...
In fact, you couldn't fool Captain America by treating him like an ordinary farmer from the 1940s. He had fought Hydra decades ago, and they were already using weapons powered by the Tesseract, far more advanced than most firearms today.
Blake didn't know how to explain everything slowly to Captain America, so he simply handed him over to Yelena. After all, once the girl started talking, she was quite chatty.
Along with some videos found online that covered the advancements of Earth and humanity over the past few decades, Captain America should slowly adjust after watching them.
A little over an hour later, the Captain came out of the room looking dejected.
"So, how was it? Captain, didn't Yelena explain everything well?"
Blake leaned in and asked.
"She did. She explained everything very well, even showed me many fascinating things—phones, the internet, landing on the moon, and so on… It's just…"
Captain America's voice sounded a bit downcast.
"It's just… I had a date."
Blake suggested that Captain America stay at the sky base for a while to slowly get acquainted with this world, which had changed so much over the decades.
Once he understood things better, he could go out and explore, then decide what he wanted to do next.
He also suggested that Natasha and the others tell him more about the outside world, especially about S.H.I.E.L.D., the Red Room they destroyed, and so on.
There was, of course, a bit of a personal agenda here—the core message being that organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. were too entangled with political factors and the personal ambitions of politicians.
If you really wanted to do something right and make the world a better place, you'd need more independent organizations like Blake's.
Of course, this kind of thing is subjective. There's no definite answer as to what's better in a world of superheroes—it's all interdependent.
But subtly, Blake believed that Captain America would definitely side with them eventually.
Even if he went to S.H.I.E.L.D., it didn't matter. Once Hydra was exposed, Blake was confident that the Captain would make the same choices as in the movies.
As for Hydra, Blake actually had his own personal agenda there. He planned to wait until after the Battle of New York, in anticipation of Scarlet Witch's arrival.
But all of that was for later. For now, the issue in front of Blake was Nick Fury.
Nick Fury had lost count of how many times Blake had infuriated him to the point of throwing things.
Taking down the Red Room and killing Dreykov was one thing, but taking over Dreykov's entire operation—now that had stirred up a lot of unease.
Especially this bastard—he actually had the nerve to brazenly park that damned sky base right outside New York.
What are the politicians in the White House supposed to think? This isn't chaotic Eastern Europe!
And yet, they claim that being 100 kilometers away from the New York coastline means they're in international waters, with no country having jurisdiction over the airspace above.
Damn it!
Nick Fury's headache worsened as he looked at Natasha's resignation letter on his desk.
To be honest, he understood his trusted subordinate well enough to know she wouldn't make this decision based on personal feelings.
It was more likely because of the thousands of Widows scattered around the world from the Red Room. Natasha was definitely doing this to protect them.
"Sigh."
With a helpless sigh, Fury picked up the phone on his desk.
"Get me a plane ready, Agent Hill. I'm going to check out the sky base Blake brought back."
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjet slowly landed on the sky base.
"Welcome, Director Fury!"
J.A.R.V.I.S., already integrated into the sky base, connected to the jet's communication system.
"Oh, J.A.R.V.I.S., it's you. Looks like Stark really invested in this base, using his personal AI butler to manage it. Compared to this, the Avengers' base in New York looks downright shabby!"
Fury made a sarcastic remark before stepping off the plane and walking into the base.
Truth be told, the fact that Blake and his team went straight to dismantle the Red Room and even took over the base only solidified Fury's belief in his Avengers Initiative.
In today's world, large-scale wars are too costly and involve too many complications.
Take the Red Room, for example. It's a notorious international spy organization. It's not that no one has ever thought of wiping them out entirely. But how?
Leaving aside the fact that the Red Room controlled numerous politicians and billionaires through the Widows, influencing both the global economy and politics behind the scenes, their sheer combat power alone would make an all-out military assault impractical, creating more problems than solutions.
Sending in a small elite team wouldn't be enough to take down such a powerful organization.
But Blake and his crew—strong, flexible, and unencumbered by too many constraints—had an advantage.
However, from another perspective, an uncontrollable team like that was understandably concerning.
And that was exactly why Fury was here today—to bring them into the fold.
As he stood in a waiting room with a Widow who had led him there, gazing out the window at the sky beyond, Fury pondered.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had recently developed a new type of helicarrier that could take to the skies. It was great as a temporary base or mobile task force, but for a permanent base, something like this seemed more suitable.
"Oh, Nick! Why is it that every time you're waiting for someone, you strike this pose? It reminds me of those damn brain-dead soap operas—tilting your head up at a forty-five-degree angle, as if that's the only way to stop your tears from falling, right?"
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