"Good evening, Peter."
"Good evening, Captain." Looking at the Captain, who had changed into his stealth suit from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Logan, who was wearing a grayish-black X-Men uniform, Peter felt a tangible atmosphere of Hydra closing in. "I heard you've already met with the Winter Soldier?"
"Yes, I can confirm that it was Bucky..."
The Captain's emotions were complex. On one hand, it was a genuine reunion with an old friend; among his comrades from back then, besides Logan and the reconstructed Jim Hammond, Bucky was actually still alive. On the other hand, as the Winter Soldier, Bucky had committed a staggering amount of killing over the years. Even if it wasn't Bucky's intent, this issue could not be avoided.
"I will ensure this ends in a just manner, son. If necessary, after he regains his sanity, I will persuade him to face a court," the Captain said to Peter after a moment of silence. "I believe if Bucky truly regains his mind, he will choose to bear this burden, perhaps even far more than the portion he is responsible for."
In fact, another Winter Soldier existed in the Wasteland Universe. Currently undergoing secondary modification by the Red Skull, he was becoming one of the key combat forces for the Red Skull's resistance against the New Avengers of the Wasteland. It was precisely from the Wasteland Universe that the Captain first learned the Winter Soldier might be his brother-in-arms, Bucky.
And now, that fact was simply confirmed.
"Let's skip this topic for now, Captain. We have more important matters to attend to."
Peter decided to move on: "I've had the portal open for a while now. The underground Pantheon shouldn't have an oxygen deficiency problem anymore. Let's go."
After Peter led the Captain and Logan into the portal, Silver Sable, waiting behind, asked Black Cat: "Now what? Do you have a way in?"
"No, now I'm even more certain about what they are looking for. Some things don't require a personal look; you just need to understand what they are doing." Felicia smiled and pulled back. "Alright, whatever you want to know, I can tell you now, so you know exactly what you're up against."
Meanwhile, as Peter led the Captain and Logan into the Roman underground, Peter asked the Captain a question: "Have you ever been to Rome before, Captain?"
"Once, during the liberation of Rome. It was June 4, 1944. I fought Hydra's special forces here and helped the Allied forces enter the city."
The Captain looked around with a touch of nostalgia. "I had no idea there was a place like this beneath Rome."
"This is the Pantheon of the ancient Romans—not the fake one up there. This is the real Pantheon. Cindy and I checked it out; it's arranged with statues of almost every legendary deity on Earth."
It wasn't just the Roman-absorbed Greek pantheon, the Egyptian pantheon, and other small Mediterranean faiths. There were even more striking inclusions: Sumerian mythology, African mythology—regions the Romans hadn't even ruled yet. Peter and Cindy had even seen a statue of Thor, as well as statues of Eastern deities, Japanese Shinto gods, and deities from Central and South American mythologies like the Aztecs and Incas.
It could be said that a true universal Pantheon existed here.
The Captain looked around. Cindy had laid out many light strips inside, so by the time they entered, there was ample illumination. At that moment, the Captain pointed to the very center, surrounded by the various divine pantheons: "What about here? What was originally in the middle?"
Undoubtedly, something else had stood in the center of the gods, but Hydra had taken it away.
"The Elder Gods who existed before these deities. It should have been Gaea, Oshtur, Chthon, and Set. They are far older than the gods of Earth; in fact, some of those gods are their offspring."
Peter introduced the status of the gods, then added: "But Hydra took their statues, and it seems they took a few other things as well."
In the Spider Temple dedicated to Neith and Anansi, Peter and Cindy had seen statues capable of conveying meaning directly, bypassing written language. But there were none here. Combined with the fact that his Spider-Sense was significantly weaker than it had been in Taranto, Peter was certain that Hydra had taken the statues of the four primordial gods.
But why? What was the necessity? That remained unknown.
The Captain nodded; he didn't find it particularly strange. Hitler himself was a believer in supernatural powers and superhumans; otherwise, Hydra wouldn't have been established so easily within the Third Reich. And Hydra's direct leader, the Red Skull, was someone truly investigating these powers. The Tesseract was related to Norse mythology; given that, it wasn't surprising that Hydra would explore other related entities.
"I suspect Hydra's secret is related to these statues. From Thor, we know that the gods of Earth truly exist. Among the four Elder Gods, Oshtur represents white magic, and Gaea is the Mother Goddess who protects the order of Earth. But the other two... Chthon is the god of black magic, and Set was the first being to kill and devour other Elder Gods. He fell because of it and is known as a demon."
If Hydra was truly backed by the agent of an evil Elder God, then the war against Hydra would be far more than just eliminating an extremist terrorist organization. It could eventually trigger a massive catastrophe.
What was Hydra's ultimate goal? To release their master?
"You seem to know a lot about these things, kid." Logan looked at Peter with curiosity. "Where did you learn all this?"
"Part of it from Strange; I studied some magic with him. The other part is from one of my enemies." Peter pointed to Anansi among the gods. "That is Anansi, the West African god of stories and lies, the Spider God. I encountered him while on a mission in the Multiverse."
The Captain and Logan exchanged a look, then seemed to reach a conclusion.
"As it stands, all intelligence points to Budapest. If we can find a similar temple in Budapest, then everything will become clear." The Captain nodded and then said, "We'll head to Budapest first, Spider-Man. You just continue following the plan. We'll regroup in Budapest then."
"You don't need me to go along and help?"
"No need. Fury seems very confident that the Elementals will come looking for trouble with you again."