The man's nose was narrow, and his brow bone cast deep shadows over his eyes, making them appear inscrutable.
He wore a tight black outfit, and on the chest of his bulletproof vest were two stark white brushstrokes, resembling crossed bones.
He stared at Soren for a long time, his penetrating gaze scrutinizing Soren's face.
Soren instinctively lowered his eyelids, avoiding eye contact.
—His intuition told him that this man could take his life at any moment.
The man turned his head and gave an order to several armed men standing nearby: "Call Zemo, tell him to come and take a look at this one..."
His gaze, sharp like that of a vigilant predator, quickly returned to Soren's face.
"Let him see if this person looks like that dead idiot."
...
Three years after Metropolis was leveled by a nuclear strike, the authoritarian government led by Superman and a core group of Justice League members had established control over most of the world.
The Avengers, on the other hand, had gone underground after Superman imprisoned the U.S. president.
They had formed a resistance movement, joining forces with other groups around the world who refused to submit to Superman's dictatorship, with the aim of overthrowing his tyrannical regime.
This was a prolonged war.
The military confrontation between two superhero teams was a conflict belonging to the gods, a battle that mere mortals could only look up to in awe.
Their flames of war spread to every corner of the world.
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was severed in half by Superman's heat vision.
In Cape Town, the city of Atlantis, excavated from the depths of the ocean, flooded half of the city.
In Agra, the pristine white Taj Mahal had been reduced to a pile of ruins.
Of course, there were also some entities that existed outside the Avengers and the Justice League.
Most of them were criminals who had been globally wanted by the Justice League, yet could not find acceptance with the Avengers.
These outcasts secretly formed small underground alliances, hidden within the world above.
However, HYDRA belonged to neither side,
"Cut off one head, and two shall take its place."
This was HYDRA's most well-known slogan.
Even though Superman had destroyed countless HYDRA underground bases over the years, its hidden forces remained scattered across the globe.
HYDRA had dug deep into the soil of this planet, like a venomous snake in hibernation within a cave, waiting for the temperature to rise and for the right moment to emerge.
At this moment, a HYDRA base in Eastern Europe was transferring a batch of its "assets."
These "assets" were civilian specimens that HYDRA had collected for human experimentation during World War I and World War II.
They had been frozen in an underground ice cavern by HYDRA, sealed away for a hundred years.
Recently, during an inventory of their assets, HYDRA rediscovered them during a transfer.
Dr. Manhattan had reassembled Soren's body, which was one of the "assets" in this group.
Soren sat calmly in the chair, saying nothing and avoiding eye contact with the man in front of him.
He had yet to grasp his current situation.
In order to avoid alerting these people prematurely, he chose to remain silent and observe the situation first.
Soon, another group of people entered the room, where the walls were lined with exposed wires.
A man wearing a fur-collared coat walked up to Soren, grabbed his chin, and lifted his face, his brown eyes reflecting Soren's features.
"He doesn't look like number 587," the man in the coat smirked as he released Soren, "but perhaps he could serve as an experiment."
Soren's gaze skimmed over the man's face, barely lingering, before he lowered his eyes again.
…He had already figured out where he was.
During his time with the Avengers, Soren had participated in several operations against HYDRA, and had seen photos of these two HYDRA high-ranking figures.
Crossbones and Baron Zemo.
So, they were still alive after all.
"Take them for 'cleaning'," Baron Zemo turned around and said to Crossbones.
The man in black tactical gear stood nearby, his muscular arms resting on the chair Soren sat in.
He raised an eyebrow, "We just tested his IQ. It's only 76."
Soren: ?
Who are you saying has an IQ of 76?
Baron Zemo clasped his hands behind his back and slowly walked toward the left wall of the room.
A large black light-blocking cloth covered the wall.
As Baron Zemo walked over, two soldiers pulled it down, revealing a massive transparent cube-like cage hidden behind it.
"It's not enough. I need them completely devoid of self-awareness—every action they take must follow my commands," Zemo said slowly, his gaze fixed on the boy inside the cube.
The sudden flood of light startled the boy.
He flinched, immediately hugging his knees, looking up at Zemo in fear.
—He had tousled golden curls, a small, upturned nose, baby-blue eyes that were bright and dewy, and his lower lip was slightly fuller than the upper one.
His plump lips, like lush petals, always seemed poised for a kiss.
Out of the corner of his eye, Soren caught sight of the boy, and his eyes trembled in shock.
A storm of disbelief surged through his mind.
This boy... looked almost exactly like his own former face.
"It seems the surgery was a success," Zemo said, bending down to scrutinize the boy in the cage.
His eyes, like those of a venomous snake sizing up its prey, pressed close to the transparent barrier.
"No visible scars on his face."
On the other side, Crossbones turned his head to look at Soren.
Pondering aloud, he said, "Will the other one be able to tell the difference?"
"Do you think he'd raise his hand against this face?" Zemo responded coolly.
Straightening up, a subtle smile flickered across Zemo's face as he gazed unblinkingly at the boy in the transparent cage.
He then ordered the soldiers nearby, "Take them to the brainwashing machine."
"Yes, sir!"