Dr. Zola
Somewhere in New Jersey, an abandoned military base, once famous for producing super soldiers like Captain America, and the birthplace of S.H.I.E.L.D.., where every command issued during the Cold War had the potential to shake up the world order.
In Avengers: Endgame, Iron Man and Captain America traveled through time to this base in order to obtain the Tesseract and Pym Particles. In short, this base was once incredibly glorious.
Now, all that remains is desolation and tall weeds swaying in the wind, the old barbed wire covered in rust—a place even thieves wouldn't bother with.
At that moment, a luxury bus slowly drove onto the road outside the base. It was a luxury travel van belonging to Stark Industries. A few years ago, Tony had seen it on a road trip program.
On a whim, Tony bought three cars in the company's name for annual trips for outstanding employees. This was a reward that Tony was very proud of at the time, but unfortunately, most of the company's employees did not appreciate it after it was launched.
For long distances, flying is the obvious choice; for shorter distances, driving is sufficient. The key issue is that Stark Industries doesn't offer enough vacation time each year to support a road trip in a motorhome.
Enraged and feeling humiliated, Tony personally bought the property from the company, but never changed the ownership.
This RV was luxurious and comfortable enough, but it was too understated in the eyes of S.H.I.E.L.D.. or Hydra, so Tony found it and took everyone to New Jersey.
Unfortunately, New York is too close to New Jersey. Before Tony could even boast about how luxurious his RV was and what unexpected features it had, the vehicle arrived outside the military base.
Besides the reasons mentioned above, the main reason was that there were too many people and vehicles coming this time, which attracted too much attention.
Apart from Nick recovering from his injury, Betty and Banner staying at the base, everyone else came, even the Winter Soldier was brought along by Captain America out of concern.
Just as they were about to get out of the car, Xia Yu stopped them. "Guys, I think it's better if one of us stays outside. What if we find something inside and another Missile comes along? They have plenty of legitimate reasons to bomb an abandoned base like this."
Of those present, only Tony and Xia Yu were capable of intercepting Missiles. After discussing it, Xia Yu volunteered to stay, reasoning that in case there were any computer programs or networks in the base that needed to be cracked, Tony would be much more useful than him.
So everyone got out of the car to get to work, while Xia Yu sat in the car, ready to intercept the Missile at any moment. Having seen the movie, he knew that Dr. Zola, whose brain had been turned into a computer, would definitely launch a Missile.
The group entered the base. This time, they didn't need to look for the hidden elevator, because it was the place where Peggy Carter used to work, and she was very familiar with it.
They entered the underground base through the elevator. This was the first headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D.. after its establishment. Setting up the headquarters here was also a way for the three founders of S.H.I.E.L.D.. to deeply remember Captain America.
After the elevator descended to the ground floor, upon entering, the first thing you saw on the wall were photos of three people: Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Colonel Phillips.
Captain and Peggy Carter stopped in front of the photo. Everyone in the photo looked exactly as they did back then. Captain and Peggy were filled with nostalgia. These were their closest friends.
"The decision to choose this location as our headquarters was Howard's suggestion, and the three of us completely agreed. It's because this is where Phillips trained you, and that's where we selected you," Peggy Carter said with emotion.
"Peggy, you look younger than in the photos. Who are the other two people?" Natasha asked.
"Colonel Phillips, he trained me and was my superior, and the other is Stark's father, who was our closest comrade and partner," the Captain replied.
Tony scoffed. "Yeah, he always tells you your story before dinner every Christmas Eve. I'm sick of hearing it. Let's go inside."
"What are these? Old-fashioned server sets. These things are all antiques. Can they still be used?" Natasha said, looking at the pile of old-fashioned servers in front of her.
"This is Dr. Zola. After World War II, we launched Project Paperclip and recruited a large number of outstanding Germany scientists. Dr. Zola was recruited to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.. In 1972, he was diagnosed with cancer, and we stored his brain data on a computer server. It's been many years, so it shouldn't be needed anymore," Peggy Carter said.
"It's obvious this old relic is still active. Looks like you made a huge mistake back then, personally recruiting Hydra into S.H.I.E.L.D.." Tony said as he walked towards the USB port on the table.
"JARVIS, see if these old relics can still be started, and see how long it will take to crack them." Tony took a USB port with wires attached from the right arm of his Armor and plugged it into the port on the table.
"The cracking time is unknown. I need to start it first, sir," JARVIS's voice rang out again.
"Let's start it up then." Tony stared at the screen in front of him.
With JARVIS's activation, the numerous old server processors around him quickly lit up, and the computer screen displayed the question, "Start the system?"
Tony typed "yes" without hesitation, and a blurry face made up of green pixels appeared on the screen.
"This reminds me of the old-fashioned game consoles I played as a kid. I certainly don't want to end up looking like this on a computer screen after I die, even if it's some kind of immortality," Tony complained, pointing at the computer screen.
"Tony Stark, born in 1970," the computer in front of him suddenly announced.
The camera at the top of the screen turned and pointed at the Captain. "Steve Rogers, born in 1918."
Dr. Zola, now a computer system, seemed to be showing off, announcing the birth years of everyone present. But when he got to Peggy Carter, Dr. Zola stopped.
"Impossible! Peggy Carter, you should be too old to walk and lying in a hospital bed by now. How come you're here with Steve? You weren't frozen for decades, were you? Or has some new kind of gene-editing agent been invented?"
Everyone could hear the surprise in Dr. Zola's emotionless voice; it seemed that Dr. Zola also wished to live like a real human being.
Peggy Carter stepped forward generously and said, "Isn't it great to see two old friends at the same time? Zola, I remember I was the one who signed off on the plan to upload your brain back then. You should thank me."