In Siberia, it was a cold place, with snowflakes drifting in the sky. A man in a heavy coat walked into a building.
Click.
He walked up to the wall, where a retinal scanner emerged. The man placed his eye against the device. When the red light turned green, the wall in front of him suddenly opened, revealing an elevator.
"Welcome back, Winter Soldier Bucky."
A mechanical voice spoke. The man tossed his coat aside, revealing a well-built body and a silver mechanical arm on his left side.
Boom.
The elevator descended rapidly, revealing a massive underground base. Scientists were working everywhere, and agents were constantly moving in and out.
"Bucky, you're finally back." "One-nine-three."
When the elevator stopped, an expressionless bald Black man in a black trench coat and an eyepatch walked over. It was the former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, Nick Fury.
After HYDRA completely took control of S.H.I.E.L.D., the fugitive Nick Fury went underground. Using his own methods, he obtained a former Soviet secret base—the Siberian base—and transformed it into the current S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
Over the years, Nick Fury had been dealing with HYDRA's pursuit while trying everything he could to rescue the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents imprisoned by HYDRA.
However, despite all his efforts, the results were disappointing. Within HYDRA's heavily guarded facilities, Nick Fury had only managed to rescue Maria Hill and Phil Coulson.
Still, although S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed crippled, several key agents—Hawkeye Clint Barton, Black Widow Natasha Romanoff, and Romanoff's contacts—escaped HYDRA's hunt, found Nick Fury, and returned to serve S.H.I.E.L.D.
In addition, at the Siberian secret base, Nick Fury also reactivated the Soviet-era weapon: the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes.
Aside from these few, S.H.I.E.L.D. was down to a mere handful—just a few dozen agents left. Some were new recruits, others young scientists from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. S.H.I.E.L.D. had suffered unprecedented damage.
"Nick Fury, I'm still not used to this world. Everything moves too fast."
Bucky gave Fury a glance, helplessness on his otherwise cold face. Like Captain America Rogers when he was first defrosted, Bucky hadn't yet adjusted to the modern world.
"The world changes fast. Anyway, report everything you found to Phil Coulson. Oh, and—this is for you."
Nick Fury placed his hands behind his back, then pulled out Captain America Rogers' Vibranium shield and tossed it to Bucky.
"This is… Rogers' Vibranium shield."
Bucky raised his metal arm and caught the shield easily.
A sad expression appeared on his face.
For certain reasons, Nick Fury hadn't told Bucky that Rogers had already been unfrozen and sacrificed his life for the world.
Bucky still believed Rogers had died in World War II alongside Red Skull.
"I hope you'll keep it safe. It's the Captain's relic—and a symbol of his spirit."
Nick Fury stepped forward and patted Bucky on the shoulder, then headed toward the core of the base.
Inside the core, the scientist who once studied Mjolnir in the New Mexico town where Thor fell—
Dr. Erik Selvig, a fanatic of Norse mythology—was busy adjusting equipment. In the center of the lab, a cube glowing with blue light shined brightly.
"Dr. Selvig, how is the research progressing?"
Nick Fury waited until Dr. Selvig finished adjusting a device before speaking.
"Sir, the power of the Tesseract is too strong. Even with our World War II research data, we still can't mass-produce energy weapons."
"Also, the experimental readings show the Tesseract is undergoing irregular spatial fluctuations. It seems… something unusual has happened."
Dr. Erik Selvig stared excitedly at the Tesseract, an Asgardian artifact from Norse myth said to contain endless power.
"The progress is still too slow. Our people have discovered that the future Avengers have arrived. We're running out of time…"
Nick Fury's expression grew heavy. After all the trouble he had gone through to locate the Tesseract again, he had hoped to use it against HYDRA and the Intelligent Brain Allens. But now it seemed the Tesseract was beyond his control.
Even worse, Fury had once made an interstellar emergency call—but Captain Marvel, on the other end, was trapped in a cosmic war.
Meaning that if the Earth were destroyed this time, Nick Fury had no one left to turn to.
He could only pray.
"No matter what, we must overthrow Sentry Allens' rule. Those Sentries will bring catastrophic disaster to the entire planet."
Although the world seemed peaceful now, it was only because of Sentry's military suppression. HYDRA was also using the Sentries to handle tasks they could not—like eliminating mutants and super-criminals.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Fury. We've done our best."
Selvig could see Fury's frustration, which made him feel guilty. He had been leading the research team for a long time with no real breakthrough.
"It seems we need to find professional super-geniuses."
Nick Fury's eyes darkened. He had originally planned to avoid contacting the future Avengers because he knew their timelines were different. Even if this Earth were destroyed, nothing would affect the future.
However, the Tesseract was crucial to the next step. Fury finally made up his mind to reorganize the Avengers—this time using the future Avengers as the core members.
"Tony Stark… a mortal man standing equal to the gods. I hope you won't disappoint me."
Nick Fury turned and walked out of the laboratory. As he passed Phil Coulson, he gave him an order, and a Quinjet powered up.
Inside the Quinjet, Nick Fury sat quietly, eyes deep and unreadable. No one knew what he was thinking.
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