Capture

Near midnight, at the docks.

A nimble, swift black shadow raced through the streets and into the dockyard, chased by a barrage of gunfire that echoed through the sky. Muzzle flashes flickered continuously in the darkness, bullets streaking after it, but every shot sailed past the shadow.

The black figure sprinted forward along an erratically twisting path. He lightly vaulted onto the top of a shipping container, then leaped gracefully from one container to the next. Bullets ricocheted off the containers with piercing clangs, yet they never managed to touch the agile shadow.

Amid the dense hail of bullets, a sharp whistle, like air being pierced, suddenly cut through the night. The shadow seemed to sense something. He abruptly halted mid-stride, forcefully stopping himself before springing straight up. He executed a nearly perfect backflip just as a rocket streaked past his back by a hair, stirring up a scorching blast of air.

The shadow avoided it, but the container beneath him was not so fortunate. Its outer shell was torn apart by the rocket's violent explosion, flames and red-hot shards of metal spraying outward from the blast center.

The shockwave swept the shadow up and hurled him high into the air before slamming him heavily back onto the ground. He struggled on the ground for quite some time, until a squad of soldiers in black tactical uniforms rapidly caught up and formed a perimeter around him.

"This is Sky Sword Special Operations Squad C-03. Target is surrounded but has not lost combat capability. Reinforcements may be required. Over!"

A ring of pitch-black gun barrels surrounded the shadow, their mounted lights shining on him in unison. The ghastly white beams revealed a figure clad in armor. He was small and slender, but his entire body was covered in scale-like plating. The thin, iron-black shell clung tightly to his skin, reflecting a cold gleam beneath the lights.

But the target wore neither helmet nor mask. He slowly raised his head, involuntarily narrowing his eyes beneath the harsh glare. It was a pale, delicate teenage face, with dirty, disheveled black hair and traces of childishness still lingering on his features. Yet his eyes were unmistakably those of a beast—devoid of reason and filled with primal savagery.

"Fire!"

Gunfire erupted in perfect unison. Every muzzle spat long tongues of flame as bullets instantly intertwined into a storm of steel sweeping toward the boy. But the boy moved first. He sprang into the air and charged straight into the dense barrage. His body possessed flexibility that would have put even the finest gymnast to shame, and with impossible movements and agility, he broke through the bullet storm and closed in on the soldiers.

He raised both hands, and with a metallic clang, sharp snow-bright blades sprang from the tips of all ten fingers. His claws came down, five streaks of cold light tearing through the protective ballistic fibers. Blood sprayed as a soldier collapsed.

He was too fast, moving like a flickering ghostly shadow. Bullets could not touch him. He weaved freely through the Sky Sword Agents' encirclement, and each vicious sweep of his claws sent another agent's blood splashing across the ground. His metal claws were impossibly sharp as well. When one agent saw him charging fiercely toward him, he instinctively raised his gun to block. But with a clang, the steel claws effortlessly shredded the barrel into several pieces, and the cold blades sliced open his throat the next instant.

The boy was unstoppable, carving a bloody path forward until a silver-white metal hand firmly caught the wrist of his descending claw.

It was the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier's mechanical arm gripped the boy's wrist as his right foot suddenly shot up, savagely kicking the black-scaled armor over the boy's abdomen. The black shadow was kicked backward like an arrow, but after a backflip, he landed on the ground again. He dropped to all fours, body hunched low, and raised his head. His eyes fixed on the Winter Soldier as though they could shoot icy knives.

Without a word, the Winter Soldier drew his SIG Sauer P266 pistol. The semi-automatic weapon loudly spat fire. His super-soldier physique allowed him to ignore the interference of recoil, while his keen perception and dynamic vision gave him terrifying accuracy.

But his opponent was clearly exceptionally talented at dodging bullets as well. The boy drove off with all four limbs, launching himself into the air and twisting around the trajectories like a swordfish darting through water.

He dodged four shots in succession, then flicked his claws upward, slicing the barrel of the Winter Soldier's P226 into two pieces. The boy pressed on relentlessly, his second swipe aimed straight for the throat. The Winter Soldier knocked it aside with one hand, then swept a hook punch toward the boy's face.

Though the black-scaled boy seemed to know no martial arts techniques, his reactions were incredibly fast, and he possessed monstrous strength. Once he began bounding and leaping around, he was extremely difficult to catch. The Winter Soldier, meanwhile, was a combat master proficient in numerous martial arts, with extensive close-quarters experience. Combined with his superhuman physique and mechanical arm, he and the boy were locked in an even battle.

The two enhanced humans fought back and forth across the docks, their rapid punches and kicks nearly becoming a blur. Everyone else had long since retreated to the side and remained on standby. It was not as though they looked capable of helping in a fight like this anyway.

After more than thirty exchanges, the boy caught the instantary opening as the Winter Soldier threw a punch. He ducked low and slid beneath his arm. His five fingers spread, sharp claws springing out as he viciously raked toward the other man's waist and abdomen. The attack came too quickly. Seeing that he had no time to evade, the Winter Soldier simply changed moves, sharply lifting his left leg and swinging it with all his strength at the boy's low, sliding body.

The cold, sharp claw blades tore through the protective fibers, cutting flesh and scattering drops of blood. But the Winter Soldier's full-force kick also struck the boy, sending his slender body flying high into the air.

Yet the boy's balance was equally astonishing. Kicked off the ground, he somehow spun several times in midair along the direction of the force, regaining his balance while bleeding off the impact. He landed steadily on the ground again on all fours.

Agile and vicious, with physical prowess and reflexes far beyond human limits, the boy was undoubtedly one of the most terrifying opponents the Winter Soldier had ever faced, even fighting on instinct alone.

Capturing him might have required considerable effort—if not for fresh reinforcements arriving just in time.

A scarlet blast roared in like a torrent condensed into an arrow, striking the boy hard before he could regain his footing. The slender black shadow was helplessly blasted away by the red tide, slamming into a red shipping container at over forty miles per hour. The metal shell caved deeply inward from the impact.

A girl in a red leather jacket and black stockings stood atop a container several meters away. Magic swirled around her body like flames, while her dark-red hair rose and fell like waves.

Scarlet Witch.

She pulled both hands back through the air, and tremendous force transmitted through magical energy violently tore the steel plate the boy had been embedded in from the container. Chaos Magic kneaded and warped the steel plate, curling it into rope-like bindings around the boy. He struggled desperately, the armor plates across his body grinding violently against the steel with crisp cracking sounds.

The Winter Soldier flicked his arm, and a dart cut through the air to strike the boy's exposed neck. The sedative swiftly entered his bloodstream through the veins in his neck, and the boy soon drifted into a groggy sleep.

Wanda let out a long breath as the Chaos Magic gradually faded. The boy's body tipped over, still wrapped in a layer of metal sheeting, and the agents waiting nearby quickly stepped forward to handle the cleanup.

"This kid is really strong." Wanda folded her arms and walked over to the Winter Soldier, trying to find a topic with her "new colleague." "This is a killer job, isn't it?"

The Winter Soldier gave her a sidelong glance. Wanda instinctively took a step back. She found that the tall man looked at people like a hawk searching for prey, making her deeply uncomfortable.

The Winter Soldier looked away, but he still ignored her. He put away his equipment, turned around, and silently walked off.

"Fine, you're welcome." Wanda muttered to his retreating back. "So I have to work with this weirdo from now on. Just great."

(Thanks to reader BARRYALLEN for the 10,000 Qidian Coins donation, reader Black Mountain Stronghold for the 3,000 Qidian Coins donation, and reader →_→Fan Er Song Ling for the 500 Qidian Coins donation!)