When the massive gate—like the mouth of hell itself—slowly opened, revealing the suffocatingly vast underground military kingdom behind it, even Steve Rogers, a super soldier with a will of steel, felt his heart miss a beat.
What lay before them had long surpassed the scope of war.
This was an industrial empire.
Cold steel frameworks, like the skeletal remains of titanic beasts, supported the cavernous ceiling. Countless searchlights crisscrossed the colossal hangar below, bathing rows upon rows of ferocious-looking aircraft in icy light.
The air was thick with engine oil, gunpowder, and an indescribable fanaticism. Thousands of HYDRA soldiers moved like an ant colony at their stations. The entire base functioned like a precision heart, each pulse pumping out the threat of death.
"All units, stick to the shadows."
Steve's voice was pressed low, sharp as a dagger dipped in ice, cutting straight through the slight disorientation in his men's minds. His gaze was frighteningly calm, as if the steel hellscape before him were just another ordinary fortress to be conquered.
"Our objective is that aircraft." He nodded toward the enormous black bomber deep in the hangar—the Valkyrie, the core of HYDRA's doomsday plan. "Remember—do not expose yourselves before we succeed."
Before his words fully settled, he was already moving. Steve bent low, every muscle in his body taut, and slipped forward like a panther melting into darkness, silently stepping into HYDRA's underground kingdom.
The Howling Commandos lived up to their reputation as battle-hardened elites. After a brief moment of shock, they snapped back into professional focus.
No wasted words. Just exchanged glances filled with resolve as they followed Steve, using massive aircraft and machinery as cover, silently infiltrating deeper into the hangar.
Their movements were fluid and synchronized, like a single organism advancing through darkness, each step perfectly timed between the roar of engines and the footsteps of guards.
Steve guided them with simple hand signals—an upraised palm, a clenched fist, a pointed finger—each gesture carrying instructions precise down to the second.
They slipped through long shadows, bypassed patrols, avoided rotating cameras. The entire operation flowed flawlessly.
"Falsworth, those small aircraft are yours," Steve murmured, gesturing toward the bat-like single-soldier flight wings parked on the tarmac.
"Understood."
James Montgomery Falsworth, the gentleman soldier from Britain, had a glint of excitement in his eyes.
He immediately pulled out adhesive explosives from his pack, his hands moving with a watchmaker's precision as he silently attached charges to the engines and fuel tanks of the aircraft.
The plan was simple—and brutal.
Create chaos. Set off the biggest, brightest fireworks this underground kingdom had ever seen, draw all of HYDRA's attention away. Then, Steve and Levi, the two sharpest blades in the team, would strike straight for the ultimate targets—Red Skull and the Valkyrie.
A few minutes later, when Falsworth flashed an "OK" from the shadows, Steve took a deep breath.
His gaze cut across the noisy hangar, past countless moving figures, locking onto a distant elevated platform. There, a man in a black leather trench coat was addressing a group of HYDRA officers.
Red Skull. Johann Schmidt.
Even from afar, the aura of arrogance and cruelty rolling off him was unmistakable.
"Execute," Steve whispered.
Falsworth pressed the detonator.
BOOM—BOOM BOOM BOOM!
A chain of violent explosions erupted across the hangar without warning. Dozens of freshly fueled flight wings instantly became towering fireballs. Orange-red flames devoured everything, triggering secondary explosions as nearby ammunition crates and fuel reserves ignited in succession.
Firestorm. Smoke. Chaos.
Shrill alarms screamed through the base, sharp enough to pierce eardrums.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"Fire in Sector A! Repeat, fire in Sector A! Requesting support!"
"Medics! We need medics!"
The orderly underground kingdom collapsed into boiling steel-and-fire hell within seconds.
Panic spread like a plague. HYDRA soldiers ran in every direction—some charging toward the explosions, others desperately searching for unseen enemies.
At the peak of the chaos, two figures moved against the fleeing tide like phantoms.
Steve led the charge, vibranium shield raised before him like a human battering ram. Any soldier, machine, or even small vehicle in his path was sent flying by sheer speed and brute force. The shield's edge cut the air with a terrifying howl.
Levi followed closely behind, far more relaxed in demeanor. He moved like a ghost drifting through the battlefield, steps light, body elusive.
Bullets and shockwaves veered away from him at the last instant, sliding aside as though repelled by an invisible, warped force field—like he existed in a separate layer of space.
"Schmidt!" Steve roared, his voice booming over the explosions.
Red Skull spun around at the command platform, instantly locking eyes with the man he hated most in the world—the star-spangled soldier. Hatred twisted his skull-like face.
"Rogers!" he snarled, then turned and sprinted toward the Valkyrie's boarding ramp without hesitation.
The base was lost. But he still had his final trump card—the flying fortress of annihilation.
"Not so fast!"
Steve kicked off the ground. The floor cracked as he launched forward like a fired shell, crossing dozens of meters in an instant.
But several bat-like fighters suddenly activated, their unmanned systems engaging as they blocked his path. Machine guns spun up, unleashing a dense curtain of fire.
"I've got this," Levi said calmly.
He appeared in front of Steve, thrusting both hands forward.
"Spatial Curvature Barrier."
The bullets struck invisible resistance, their trajectories bending grotesquely as if plunging into thick liquid. Their speed dropped to nothing, clattering harmlessly to the ground.
"Go!" Levi shouted without looking back. "I'll handle this!"
Steve didn't hesitate. Trust forged through countless battles guided him as he sprinted past, charging into the boarding corridor after Red Skull.
Watching Steve vanish inside, Levi smiled coldly.
"All right, trash mobs. Game over."
He clapped his hands together.
"Spatial Collapse."
The space around the attacking fighters crumpled inward as if seized by an invisible fist. Alloy hulls shrieked and twisted, crushed into sparking wreckage in under a second.
With the path clear, Levi didn't spare the battlefield another glance. He turned and ran into the Valkyrie.
Inside, Steve and Red Skull were already locked in brutal combat. The massive cabin echoed with the thunder of fists and shattered metal. Each collision dented the walls, leaving horrifying impressions.
Levi didn't interfere.
This was Steve's fight—the ultimate clash of ideals. Hope versus fascism.
Instead, Levi's eyes locked onto the center of the cockpit.
There, suspended in an energy apparatus, glowed a cube of pure blue light.
The Tesseract.
This was his true objective.
"You can't win, Rogers!" Red Skull laughed maniacally after forcing Steve back. "I wield the power of the gods! Of the universe itself! You're nothing but a clown in a costume, selling cheap hope!"
He lunged for the Tesseract.
"Don't touch it!" Steve shouted, charging forward.
Too late.
Red Skull grasped the cube.
Unimaginable energy erupted. Space itself trembled.
"AAAAAH—!"
His scream was no longer human. His body disintegrated into light, torn apart by cosmic force, drawn into a blinding beam that punched through the aircraft's hull and into the heavens.
When the light faded, the Tesseract fell, unstable, burning through the metal floor before plunging into the frigid Arctic Ocean below.
The Valkyrie spiraled out of control. Systems failed. Bombs capable of destroying cities lay armed.
Steve fought the controls in vain.
Levi barely noticed.
His attention was fixed on the hole left behind—residual spatial energy lingering like a forbidden nectar.
His system screamed with desire.
One chance.
"System—now! Copy it!" Levi roared internally.
[…Command confirmed. Copying… Tesseract origin energy…]
An ocean of cosmic power flooded into him.
"Ghh—!"
His body felt like a glass vessel under crushing pressure. Every cell screamed. Every power he had was overwhelmed.
Darkness took him.
The last thing he heard was Steve's voice over the radio, gentle and full of regret.
"Peggy… I think… I'm going to miss our dance."
"Steve…?" Peggy's voice trembled through the static.
Steve glanced at Levi—unconscious, bleeding—and then at the endless ice below.
He smiled softly.
"Goodbye, Peggy."
The Valkyrie plunged into the ice like a falling star.
A final, silent explosion of frost.
And then—
Nothing.
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