Rescuing Steve Rogers

The armed man who jumped down was brazen. The moment he landed, he aimed his weapon at the fleeing woman with reddish-brown hair.

The road beneath the overpass was wide, with nowhere to hide except behind Duncan's convoy.

The red-haired woman didn't hesitate. She rolled sideways over the hood of Duncan's car.

Boom!

A grenade exploded beside Duncan's car. Even the armored vehicle couldn't withstand the shock wave from a close-range blast. The windows cracked like spiderwebs, and the car bounced half a meter into the air.

Duncan, inside the car, was caught in the blast. His head slammed into the roof, then everyone inside was thrown about.

"Protect the boss!" Seeing Duncan under attack, the Clone Soldiers, Umbrella's lackeys, immediately yanked open the doors and jumped out.

Using the cars as cover, seven Special Operations Force soldiers stood or crouched, aiming their assault rifles at the armed men ahead and opening fire.

The armed man, dressed in combat gear, narrowed his brown eyes beneath his unruly hair. Only then did he notice the armed men in black combat uniforms inside the black vehicles.

The instant the muzzle flashes appeared, he rolled sharply to one side with extraordinary combat instincts. His mechanical left arm pushed hard against the ground, sending the hundred-kilogram man sailing like a kicked balloon behind a concrete barrier by the roadside.

The Special Operations Force soldiers had joined the fight. The others in the vehicles had no choice but to get out and take up defensive positions.

The first thing the men who jumped out did was capture the one who had caused all this trouble.

Faced with more than a dozen armed men emerging from the cars, and the open area around her, the red-haired woman reluctantly raised her hands and let members of the Security Force bind them with black plastic zip ties.

"Behind us!" came a warning over the radio.

The U.B.C.S. members turned quickly and saw four armed men with various automatic weapons rappelling down on ropes.

The four had their backs to the convoy and didn't seem to notice the people behind them.

Then they were shot in the back. Seven assault rifles opened fire, and the four armed men were riddled with bullets in an instant.

"Forget it. Let's go!" Seeing how pointless it was to waste time, Duncan still wanted to establish a foothold in this world first. Getting involved in this bizarre shootout would only expose them to the authorities.

Rubbing his aching, foggy head, he knew his body wasn't in great shape. One bump had left him dizzy.

Bark, standing beside the car, heard his boss and asked, "Boss, what should we do with the woman?"

They'd only just arrived in this world and had no idea what was going on. Duncan had no interest in getting involved in an attack involving explosives and weapons. "Leave her. Let's hurry."

At the order, everyone got back into the cars, while the seven Special Operations Force soldiers covered their retreat.

Rumble!

Just as they prepared to turn around and take another route, a metal ball flew out from behind the concrete barrier and bounced beneath the first car.

The seven Special Operations Force soldiers had never seen anything like it, but instinctively treated it as an explosive and scrambled for cover.

Boom!

An armored SUV worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was blown to pieces. Two Special Operations Force soldiers who failed to get clear were sent flying. The close-range blast had probably damaged their internal organs. They wouldn't survive.

The armed man with the metal arm, who had rolled behind the concrete barrier, leaned out and fixed the convoy with a cold stare. The grenade launcher mounted beneath his M4A1 spat out a large projectile.

Boom!

The second SUV was hit, and all its windows shattered. It was no longer drivable.

Fortunately, the five surviving Clone Soldiers had taken cover behind the vehicles and escaped serious injury.

They climbed out from behind their vehicles and returned fire without mercy. One soldier even pulled a grenade from his belt and threw it at the armed man.

Before passing through the Cross-World Gate, Duncan, who suffered from a fear of insufficient firepower, had made sure everyone brought plenty of weapons. They had six spare magazines each, and three grenades apiece.

Two cars had been blown up, and his anger flared. He'd only been passing by. How could he still end up caught in the crossfire?

Were honest people just supposed to get pushed around?

"Fuck... Get out! Take that guy down before we leave! Throw every grenade we've got!"

Grenades rained down, forcing the armed man behind the concrete barrier to keep moving. He leapt out, sprinting with an eerie, superhuman speed beyond the blast radius before quickly vaulting the guardrail.

One explosion after another, and a hail of bullets—and not a single one touched him!

While Duncan's convoy kept the armed man pinned down, the red-haired woman had already slipped quietly behind the vehicles.

Her hands were bound behind her back with plastic zip ties. Seeing that the armed men who had appeared out of nowhere didn't seem to be with her attackers, and weren't showing much interest in attacking her, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

As she watched them battle, she suddenly snapped the half-cut zip tie with her bound hands, then fled into a blind spot beneath the overpass.

The U.B.C.S. members saw her run, but didn't stop her. This had been an accident, and they had no reason to keep her from escaping.

The armed man was driven into hiding by their overwhelming firepower, but somehow not a single bullet hit him. The many cars abandoned by passersby provided him with excellent cover.

After emptying two magazines without taking him down, Duncan didn't want to waste any more time. "Get in the cars. We're leaving!"

The five surviving Special Operations Force soldiers got into the other SUVs, floored the accelerator, and turned around to flee.

They hadn't gone far when Duncan, still dazed, spotted something on the other side. Beside the overturned bus lay a blackened, pot-shaped object, and a grimy, blond, muscular man was crawling out of the bus.

Huh?

Why did that thing on the ground look familiar?

The car was still moving, but Duncan kept looking back at the man climbing out of the bus. Then he saw the blond bruiser pick up the object from the ground and slip it over his arm. The dusty shield was marked with red and blue stripes, and a five-pointed star that stood out unmistakably.

"Stop!"

Duncan was stunned. Truly stunned.

The man looked pretty battered, but there was no doubt about it. He was Steve Rogers, the American superhero he remembered from the screen!

That was the wonder of traveling between worlds: people who had once been fictional could appear right before your eyes.

He'd planned to enter this world, find somewhere to settle down, then learn everything about it online and make his plans slowly.

He hadn't expected fate to bring this surprise!

"Turn around! Get over to that man!" Duncan hurriedly called to North.

When he ordered them to turn around, the other cars could only follow.

Steve, still standing there, saw a line of cars coming toward him. Sensing danger, he turned and started running.

That wouldn't do!

Duncan lowered the window, its glass covered in cracks, and shouted from inside the car, "Captain! Do you need help?"

With the Super Soldier Serum enhancing him, Steve was fast. The cars couldn't catch up right away.

Duncan's call didn't make him stop. What finally made Captain stop was the sound of sirens drawing closer.

Hydra was after them. Without a car, they'd fall into Hydra's hands.

The red-haired woman emerged from somewhere nearby. She'd heard Duncan's shout, and given that they hadn't attacked her and how they'd treated her assailants, she had come to trust them to some extent.

When Captain saw Natasha hadn't left, he stopped too.

Falcon, who had spent the whole fight doing nothing on the overpass, slid down the armed men's rope and shouted as soon as he landed, "There are a lot of police cars coming! What do we do, Captain?"

By then, Duncan's car had pulled up beside Captain.

"Who are you?" Captain narrowed his eyes, staring at Duncan in confusion.

Duncan didn't answer. Instead, he said, "There's no time to explain. Are you coming with us? I can take you somewhere completely safe."

Steve and Natasha exchanged a glance. With the sirens getting closer, they had no choice but to get into three separate cars.

When the hulking Steve squeezed into the car Bark was in, Kevin couldn't help blurting out from the back seat, "Oh my God, what do you eat to get that big?"

"Sorry..." Steve apologized politely.

The convoy set off again. They had to cross the overpass—but it wasn't really an overpass.

Ripples spread across the air like waves on a lake. The convoy passed through the Cross-World Gate. Less than ten minutes after Duncan had entered the Marvel Universe from the Resident Evil world, he was back in the Resident Evil world.