New York Suburbs.
Boom!
On a remote road at night, a dozen cars formed a long line, driving into the forest, shattering the stillness of the night.
In the leading SUV, Nick Fury stared at the red dots on the computer display.
"Are you sure this is where those strange things are heading?"
Natasha nodded. "Of course. These things didn't just appear at S.H.I.E.L.D.; traces of them have been spotted all over the world. But the satellite surveillance could only continuously track a few targets that appeared in New York."
Nick Fury was puzzled. "Their speed doesn't seem that fast. How could the other targets evade capture?"
Natasha tapped on the computer and answered, "Though they're not fast, they occasionally vanish from satellite surveillance. They disappear out of nowhere, only to reappear on the other side of the Earth the next second. It's bizarre."
"And just now, we found many similar targets in this area, so we traced their movement patterns and confirmed that this is their destination," Coulson explained.
Staring at the blurry image locked by satellite surveillance, Nick Fury furrowed his brows.
"Disappearing limbs... What's the principle behind their movement? Could they be flying at light speed? No, that can't be right. If that were the case, the satellite wouldn't have captured them at all in the first place."
"Hey, Commander, I think it could be space travel."
Above the car, a flash of green light passed through the air as Harry, now suited up in combat gear, patrolled the surroundings on his flying board.
He lightly tapped the communicator in his ear. "Aside from that explanation, I can't think of any other conclusions."
Nick Fury thought for a moment. "It's not impossible. They almost all appeared here at the same time, which suggests a level of precise calculation."
"Got it."
Just then, Harry exclaimed in surprise, and the cars immediately screeched to a halt.
Soon after, a large group of agents swarmed into the forest, surrounding a hole that Harry had discovered.
"This is where they last appeared."
The ground before them was riddled with holes, from which thick white smoke slowly emanated, quickly enveloping the surrounding trees in a dense fog.
Harry landed on the ground and took a slight sniff.
"It smells like something burnt."
"It's gunpowder," Natasha bluntly pointed out.
Nick Fury frowned. "Natasha's right. There might be an armory underground."
"You all, search around and see if there's another entrance," he waved his hand, and the agents immediately spread out.
"Wait a minute."
Suddenly, Harry seemed to sense something. He lay on the ground, listening intently, his expression gradually growing serious.
"There's a sound below. It's getting louder, like..."
The next moment, his face changed drastically.
"Move back!"
With a shout, Harry jumped onto his flying board and shot into the night sky without hesitation.
Nick Fury and the others, seeing this, immediately turned and sprinted away.
Boom!
In an instant, flames spewed wildly from the holes, followed by a terrifying explosion that devastated the surrounding forest.
A surge of flames shot skyward, engulfing a large swath of trees. The clouds above gradually took on an eerie blood-red hue.
"That was close."
"What's going on down there?"
Half-buried in the dirt, Nick Fury flipped himself over, gasping for breath, his forehead drenched in sweat, clearly shaken.
Then, he stood up, shaking off the dirt and rocks clinging to him, and looked up at the strange night sky.
"An explosion of this magnitude shouldn't have affected the clouds," he muttered, frowning.
Natasha climbed up the hill of dirt. "It's not just red; it's more like the color of blood."
Covered in dust, Coulson found them. "Commander, we've got something. We found a Hydra symbol in the wreckage of the explosion."
"Hydra... just as I thought."
Nick Fury gritted his teeth. "Harry, you and Barton, go down and check it out—"
Before he could finish, Harry cut him off.
"Sorry, it's too dangerous down there. I'm afraid of dying."
Nick Fury: "..."
Before he could try to convince Harry, another disturbance came from the center of the explosion.
Bang!
With a heavy metallic clang, a violent shockwave erupted from the center of the explosion.
Boom!
A wave of searing heat, mixed with dirt and debris, swept through the wrecked forest. The thick smoke dispersed, and the flames were briefly suppressed.
At that moment, whether it was Nick Fury and the others or Harry, who was high in the sky, they gasped in shock when they recognized the familiar figure at the center of the explosion.
"Steve!"
"Captain!"
"How can it be him..."
Amid the charred ground, Steve Rogers knelt in the dirt, propping up his shield with both hands. His face, covered in black soot, was filled with strain.
In front of him stood a massive, menacing figure—purple, towering, and radiating an aura of absolute power. His iron-like muscles and black veins beneath the purple skin gave off a suffocating sense of dread.
The next second, as the purple fist slowly moved away from the shield, Steve finally let out a breath of relief.
But before he could catch his breath, the purple fist once again came at him with a fierce wind.
"What?"
Steve only had time to raise his shield before the large purple hand grabbed the edge, hurling both him and the shield into a scorched tree trunk.
Crack, crack, crack!
Bang!
Steve crashed through several large trees before finally coming to a stop.
"Steve, are you alright?"
Nick Fury and the others rushed toward Steve.
Under the broken tree trunks, Steve wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, took a deep breath, and stood up.
"I'm fine. Be careful, though. This guy is dangerous."
"Why are you here?" Nick Fury asked.
Steve's expression didn't change. "Someone led me here."
"What is this place?" Coulson asked as he quickly gathered the nearby agents.
Steve's eyes were heavy. "It's a secret Hydra base."
Nick Fury looked at the hulking purple figure with a grim expression. "So this guy is Hydra's secret weapon?"
In his Titan form, Charlie's face had completely changed, leaving no trace of his human appearance.
Steve shook his aching right hand. "Yes, he's Hydra's leader."
"What?"
"Leader?"
Nick Fury and the others were shocked, and even Charlie's face twitched slightly.
No wonder Captain Hydra was so good at deception—there wasn't a trace of a lie in his expression.
Plus, his handsome face constantly radiated a reassuring sense of justice.
So righteous.
But Charlie was different.
Now, he looked like a pure evil alien. No matter how you looked at him, he seemed like the villain.
However, in the next moment, as the Titan form merged deeper with his Spider-Man physiology, Charlie's purple body began to shrink back to a normal human size, and his purple skin rapidly faded away.
Noticing the change, Charlie raised his hand and tapped his chest. Red-and-blue nanometal swiftly covered his entire body, preventing anyone from seeing his face.
"What?"
"It's Spider-Man!"
In an instant, everyone was astonished, and Steve silently cursed in his heart.
His lie was about to be exposed.