Above the Hydra base, Steve Rogers secured his shield to his back and leaped from the Quinjet without hesitation.
Seeing this, Peter was so horrified he covered his face with his hands and shouted, "Captain, you don't have a parachute!"
Without a moment's hesitation, he dove after him.
Crossbones turned his head toward the other tactical operatives beside him and said with complete indifference, "I don't recall him bringing one, do you?"
Everyone shook their heads simultaneously.
Crossbones craned his neck like a curious giraffe and peered down through the aircraft's bay door, but the cloud cover obscured his view of the falling figures.
"Hope he doesn't fall to his death," he said without any genuine concern.
The truth was, Crossbones wasn't worried about either of those two at all.
Fighting against Hydra? It would be better if they died! Especially Captain America—Hydra's greatest enemy.
Crossbones, who had witnessed the hammer incident firsthand, understood better than anyone what an enormous threat Captain America posed to Hydra's current operations.
Although Steve wasn't carrying Mjolnir on this mission, he remained a significant danger.
It would be ideal if Captain America could be eliminated here.
But Crossbones knew that scenario was highly unlikely.
Right now, the Hydra base below had no idea what was about to descend upon them. They believed their concealment was perfect and had no clue that Captain America was literally falling from the sky toward their doorstep.
As a fellow Hydra operative, Crossbones made no effort to warn them.
In reality, there were numerous factions within Hydra. Different heads had different leadership structures, and conflicts between various branches were common. Serpents biting each other was standard operating procedure.
Besides, even his direct superiors hadn't taken any preventive action, so why should he be concerned?
It wasn't that Alexander Pierce didn't want to warn the base commander in advance—he simply couldn't risk it.
Since the base's location had been compromised, under Nick Fury's surveillance, all network communications and radio signals could potentially be intercepted.
If he wasn't careful, he might fail to contact the base and expose himself instead.
Another complicating factor was that Pierce still couldn't understand how this particular Hydra cell had dared to attack SHIELD's systems.
Yes, SHIELD was indeed becoming Hydra's largest operational base, but the current director is not a Hydra operative!
You didn't inform me before attacking SHIELD. At minimum, you should have given me advance warning so I could have arranged for our embedded agents to manipulate Nick Fury.
Now everything's compromised!
Pierce was absolutely furious.
As soon as the stronghold was discovered, he'd decided to implement drastic measures and abandon it completely.
Sacrifices were acceptable—cut off one head and two more would grow.
But those enemies who hindered Hydra's development had to be eliminated swiftly!
He exhaled slowly, his resolve hardening.
Pierce deeply regretted his past decision to transfer the SHIELD directorship to Nick Fury.
Regardless of what kind of person Nick was privately, he remained firmly opposed to Hydra's agenda.
If Pierce had known he would eventually join Hydra, he never would have given SHIELD's leadership to Fury.
The irony was that Alexander Pierce hadn't originally been a Hydra operative. It was only after stepping down as director that he'd gradually aligned himself with their organization.
But now, the correct decisions he'd made as SHIELD's director had become obstacles to his effectiveness as a Hydra leader.
If it was a mistake, it needed to be corrected.
High in the air, Peter folded his arms like a diving raptor to reduce wind resistance.
But this approach wasn't working—he still couldn't catch up to Captain America, who had jumped first.
Peter felt desperately anxious. He tried shooting webbing to reach Steve, but because of their rapid descent and the powerful wind currents, the web-lines were immediately blown behind him.
At that moment, an electronic female voice spoke in his mind: "Peter, should I activate the propulsion system?"
"Eunice?"
"I'm not Eunice. You can call me Karen. I'm the artificial intelligence that Mr. Ben designed specifically for you."
Peter gestured excitedly in midair. He'd never expected Ben to provide him with a dedicated AI assistant.
"I detect you're descending rapidly. Would you like to activate the propulsion system to decelerate?"
Peter immediately responded, "Don't slow down yet—catch up with the Captain first!"
Instantly, two jet nozzles emerged from the Iron Spider armor's back, and the next moment, they released powerful thrust!
Peter shot forward like a guided missile.
"I've activated the energy shield to deflect incoming wind resistance," Karen informed him.
In seconds, Peter crossed the distance like a falling star and intercepted the plummeting Steve Rogers.
Only then did Peter remember that Steve's shield could absorb kinetic impact, meaning he would probably survive the fall even without a parachute.
"I'm sorry, Captain. I was overthinking this. You didn't bring a parachute to reduce unnecessary weight, right?"
"Actually, I just forgot," Steve admitted with slight embarrassment.
His shield was indeed powerful, but it wasn't pure vibranium, so its impact absorption capabilities weren't as comprehensive as one might assume.
In previous battles, if he took a direct missile hit, he'd still be seriously injured.
Besides, the shield had limited surface area and couldn't protect his entire body. Fortunately, Peter had reached him in time—otherwise, Captain America estimated that falling from this altitude would have resulted in some very unpleasant internal injuries.
After catching Steve, the propulsion system on Peter's suit retracted, and repulsors in his palms and boot soles began generating thrust to slow their descent.
The two heroes landed in the mountainous forest surrounding the base.
"Activating adaptive camouflage," Karen announced immediately.
The next moment, the red and blue spider suit shifted to dark green, allowing Peter to blend seamlessly with the forest environment.
This is incredible! Peter crouched behind the trees, thoroughly impressed with his new battle suit.
Apart from some minor movement restrictions at the joints, there were absolutely no disadvantages!
Peter shot webbing and swung up into the tree canopy. He observed the Hydra base, which was integrated into the mountainside, and asked, "Captain, what's our approach?"
Captain America answered without hesitation: "Infiltration."
Peter was about to ask about specific infiltration tactics when he saw Steve secure his shield to his left wrist and charge directly toward the base!
Peter: ???
You call that infiltration?
Peter started to follow by web-swinging, but before he could launch himself, the branch broke under the combined weight of the armor and his body, causing him to fall face-first.
"Well, there is one disadvantage," he muttered, shaking his head.
"Looks like I'm limited to ground movement today."
Peter ran after Steve, shouting, "Captain, do you have some misunderstanding about the definition of 'infiltration'?"
He wondered if perhaps Steve's era had limited educational opportunities, and since Steve had gone to war at a young age, it was understandable that his tactical vocabulary might be somewhat unconventional.
But this definitely wasn't infiltration!
"I'm about to teach you something important, Peter," Steve called back as he sprinted through the forest.
The mountain scenery blurred past them as the Hydra base loomed directly ahead.
Two guards stationed at the facility's entrance hadn't yet realized that enemies were approaching, standing motionless like statues at their posts.
Peter shouted his question, but before he could hear an answer, he watched Steve burst from the treeline.
The two guards had no time to react as a blue and tan blur launched itself toward them.
In an instant, Steve struck one guard in the head, sending him spinning twice like a windmill blade before crashing to the ground.
Just as the second guard raised his weapon to fire, CLANG, the shield struck him squarely in the face and knocked him unconscious.
After completing this efficient takedown, Captain America calmly retrieved his shield and turned to face Peter.
"As long as you eliminate all the enemies who discover you, your infiltration mission is successful!"
Peter looked down at the two unconscious Hydra soldiers and nodded numbly. "Okay, you make a valid point."
"Then let's proceed with a direct assault!"
Since things had reached this point, Peter decided not to overthink the strategy. He raised both arms, clenched his fists, and aimed them at the massive steel entrance gate.
"Stand clear, Captain."
"You're not planning to blow the door down with webbing, are you?" Captain America asked with curiosity.
"No, I'm using sonic amplification."
As Peter spoke, the web-shooters on his wrists suddenly expanded and reconfigured into a sonic amplification device similar to alien technology.
"Karen says Ben enhanced the sonic output significantly, and it should be capable of destroying this steel barrier..."
BOOM!!!
In an instant, it was as if a missile had detonated on the spot!
The vibrating sound waves distorted the air itself, and the heavy steel gate exploded outward in twisted fragments. Even Peter was knocked backward several meters by the powerful recoil.
Captain America stood stunned, watching the devastation.
He felt as if his hearing had been temporarily damaged, with constant ringing in his ears, and the ground beneath his feet shook like an earthquake.
At that moment, the entire Hydra base seemed to have suffered flying bombardment. The mountain trembled, and internal systems throughout the facility began malfunctioning.
Inside the base, electrical systems sparked and flickered as the power grid destabilized. Lights strobed for several seconds before stabilizing.
Every Hydra operative had been knocked to the ground, and fine debris rained down from the mountain ceiling above their heads.
"What the hell is happening?" demanded the Hydra officer, struggling to his feet.
The commander of this particular Hydra base still had no idea that his facility had suffered an unexpected attack. He'd been caught completely off-guard by Steve and Peter's unconventional approach.
He assumed they'd experienced a seismic event.
This wasn't entirely unreasonable—in his assessment, they'd been operating covertly for years without incident. Even communication with the outside world was minimal, so discovery should have been impossible.
"Unknown, sir. There appears to be a problem with our network systems..." reported a Hydra technician, scratching his head in confusion.
"I assume there was some kind of system failure during the tremor."
The commander shouted, "Contact the perimeter guards immediately and get a status report!"
"Negative, sir. Communications are down."
Hearing this, the base commander frowned and demanded angrily, "The network is offline, communications are down, monitoring systems are malfunctioning—what systems are still operational?"
"The climate control system is functioning normally, sir."
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