4:30 a.m., outskirts of London.
The cold was bone-deep.
Levi pulled his military greatcoat tighter around himself, silently cursing Colonel Phillips ten thousand times over. Again with this hour. These old fossils had no concept of sleep.
At the end of the runway, a C-47 transport plane rumbled dully. Under the yellowish lights, the members of the Howling Commandos stood there like statues.
The atmosphere was oppressive. No farewells—only the cutting wind.
Levi curled his lip slightly, his gaze sweeping over this group of temporary comrades.
At the very front stood Steve Rogers—the future Captain America. He was carefully checking the clasps on his shield, his sharp-featured face calm and focused, eyes filled with nothing but the mission.
A single-minded idealist, Levi thought.
Not far away, a temperamental man sat on an ammo crate, using one bone claw to grind another.
Logan.
The screeching friction made teeth ache.
Levi's eyes lingered on Logan's hand for a second longer. Good thing he'd copied the healing factor back then.
That ability alone was the reason he'd survived in this hellhole.
As for the others—the demolition expert Dugan, the British gentleman Falsworth—in Levi's eyes, they were just firepower-providing background characters.
He slipped his hands into his pockets and touched the M1911 at his waist.
Under the barrel hung a palm-sized silver metal box, etched with circuitry drawn by Howard Stark himself. At its center was a small blue crystal.
"Portable Energy Condenser," Stark had named it.
"A piece of junk," Stark's final verdict.
According to him, the device's only function was to absorb a thousandth of a second of energy upon contact with a high-energy reaction—and then immediately burn out.
Junk?
Levi sneered inwardly. Howard's mind was fifty years ahead of his time, but he still didn't understand the nature of certain powers.
Levi knew better than anyone: this "junk" was his trump card for this operation.
He could feel the Tesseract's energy inside his body, like an unstable flame. Ever since he'd impulsively touched that thing, his body had become a bomb that could explode at any moment.
And Howard's "junk" was the fuse he'd prepared.
And also the detonator.
"Time's up! Board the plane!"
Colonel Phillips's shout shattered the silence.
The Howling Commandos turned and filed into the dark belly of the C-47.
Levi brought up the rear. A large hand landed heavily on his shoulder.
"Kid." Colonel Phillips stared at him, complicated emotions swirling in his one good eye. His voice was low. "Bring them all back alive."
Levi froze for a moment.
He knew there were the colonel's relatives in this unit—handpicked elites. That request carried real weight.
He nodded without speaking and stepped into the cabin.
The hatch slowly closed.
Red emergency lights flicked on, painting everyone's faces with a bloodlike hue. The plane taxied, accelerated, then lurched into the air, plunging into the night.
Two hours later, the aircraft reached the skies above the Alps.
The C-47 flew almost skimming the ridgelines. Outside the windows were knife-cut peaks and bottomless chasms.
Howard Stark's broken voice crackled over the radio.
"Steve! Listen to me! My scanners show a dead end thirty kilometers ahead—nothing there! Trust me, turn back now and I'll treat you to the best bar in London!"
Steve ignored him, walked straight to the cabin door, and yanked it open.
Whooo—!
Subzero wind howled in, ice pellets slicing into faces like knives.
Levi squinted and looked down.
Below was a bottomless rift, the cliffs on either side nearly vertical. At the center of the canyon, a glacial river churned violently.
The most overwhelming sight was at the far end of the gorge.
A colossal glacier waterfall, hundreds of meters wide, plunged straight down from the heavens. Ice blocks and meltwater smashed into a deep pool below, the roar penetrating the cabin and rattling eardrums.
"Prepare to move!"
Steve roared, the first to clip his hook onto the rail inside the aircraft.
Their plan was insane.
Not parachuting—but rappelling directly from the plane into a canyon hundreds of meters deep.
"Levi! You're first!" Steve turned to him.
"Why is it always me?" Levi protested.
"We need your judgment," Steve said simply. "Go down and scout."
Fine.
Levi didn't argue. With help from several teammates, he was hung outside the cabin. Below him was the abyss, the gale swinging him violently side to side.
"Drop!"
At Steve's command, the winch spun.
Whoosh—!
Levi's body plunged straight into the darkness.
The sensation of free fall crushed his organs. Wind screamed past his ears. He forced himself to stay focused, pushing his enhanced perception to the limit.
Everything around him slowed in his mind.
Halfway down the gorge, a sharp spike stabbed his brain.
Danger!
He screamed into the throat mic with all his strength:
"Left! Watch the left! That protruding black rock—something's wrong with it!"
The instant the words left his mouth—
The black rock split open silently, a blue-glowing barrel extending outward.
Humm—!
A blue energy beam thicker than a thigh tore through the air, blasting toward Levi in midair.
"Watch out!" shouts erupted over the comms.
Too fast. No time to react.
At that moment, a red-and-blue figure leapt out of the aircraft.
Steve.
Clang—!
A thunderous crash echoed through the canyon. The vibranium shield slammed into place in front of Levi.
The energy beam struck the shield head-on.
The terrifying energy was absorbed, then dispersed outward, forming a ring of blue light. Wherever the ring swept, the cliff walls burned red-hot.
Steve was thrown into a violent spin by the impact, but he stabilized himself, gripping the shield with iron determination.
"Take it out!" he roared at the plane.
"Copy!"
Up above, Falsworth shouldered an energy-disruption rifle, locked onto the turret, and pulled the trigger.
An invisible ripple hit the emplacement.
The turret's blue glow faded rapidly. Black smoke poured out as it retracted back into the rock.
"You alright?" Steve swung over to Levi, his voice tight with lingering fear.
"I'm fine, Captain," Levi gasped. "Good thing you reacted fast."
"It was your intuition that saved us," Steve said, looking at him with even deeper trust. "Keep descending! Everyone, stay sharp!"
With that lesson learned, Levi became everyone's eyes for the rest of the descent.
"Fifty meters down—something under the ice on the right," his voice echoed over the channel.
Logan swung over, raked the ice with his claws. Beneath it, a red sensor light flashed—pressure mines.
"Twenty meters more—three thin lines ahead."
Dugan halted, raised a thermal scope, and scanned. Three nearly invisible laser tripwires stretched across their descent path.
"Fuck," Dugan muttered.
Thanks to Levi's repeated, precise warnings, the team avoided every trap with narrow margins to spare.
Minutes later, the entire team touched down on the icy riverbank at the canyon floor.
Above them, the C-47 circled once, then vanished into the clouds.
Their retreat was gone.
"Howard, can you hear us?" Steve asked into the comm.
"I can! Sweet Lord, you actually made it down!" Howard's voice was full of disbelief. "You lunatics! I saw you avoid at least twelve energy turrets! That's not scientific! Levi's judgment can't be that precise?!"
"Where's the entrance?" Steve cut him off.
"I don't know!" Howard was nearly hysterical. "I told you—there's no signal here at all! Unless… unless HYDRA built the base hundreds of meters underground and used some kind of black tech to block everything!"
Steve frowned and instinctively looked at Levi.
Everyone's eyes turned to him again.
Levi said nothing.
Under the pressure, he walked up to the massive glacier waterfall.
The thunderous roar nearly tore eardrums apart. Freezing mist slammed into his face.
He reached out and touched the seemingly indestructible ice wall.
Biting cold spread from his fingertips.
But in his perception, this wasn't ice at all.
It was a hologram.
Behind it lay an absurdly thick alloy gate. Defense rating? Indestructible.
It required higher-dimensional energy…
Levi took a deep breath and reached for the "junk" condenser beneath his pistol.
He turned around, looking at the shivering teammates behind him, and spoke calmly:
"Gentlemen—don't trust your eyes."
He raised a finger and pointed at the colossal glacier waterfall, a faint smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"Welcome to HYDRA's lair."
"This entire waterfall…"
"…is their front door."
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