Joker Steve

"Are you sure it's here?"

Steve pinned the "Chitauri soldier" down as he entered the factory from the video. "Let me tell you, the Mind Stone is in my hands now. Don't even think about trying any tricks."

The "Chitauri soldier" curled his lip disdainfully. "You really think you can stand against us with that stone? Maybe you've fallen into a trap without even realizing it."

Steve retorted, "You don't seriously think your pathetic short-term invisibility and transformations can fool the Mind Stone, do you?"

"Who knows?"

The factory doors were pushed open, and Steve immediately saw Valmont tied to a chair.

He was bound to the chair, his eyes covered by a black cloth, his mouth stuffed with a large wad of paper and tightly sealed with transparent tape.

"Valmont!" Steve cried as he looked at Shendu's current state. "Hang on, I'm coming to save you!"

Upon hearing Steve's voice, "Valmont" began shaking violently, struggling against his restraints and constantly making muffled noises. He gestured with his head for Steve to leave quickly.

Seeing "Valmont" like this, Steve reassured him, "Don't worry. Fury has temporarily entrusted the Mind Stone to me. Chitauri invisibility and shapeshifting are completely useless against me."

Hearing Steve shout, "Valmont" shook even more violently, kicking wildly at the air in front of him as though trying to drive Steve away.

The door behind him closed by itself, and the sound echoed in Steve's ears.

He raised his shield, gripping the Mind Stone tightly in his hand. "You don't think a simple trap like this can subdue me, do you?"

The "Chitauri" soldier who had captured "Valmont" said nothing. His body gradually vanished from Steve's sight, leaving only "Valmont's" desperate muffled whimpers in the factory.

Steve looked around solemnly. The Mind Stone glowed in his hand, and a trace of orange-yellow light appeared in his eyes.

"Your invisibility is useless before the Mind Stone."

Empowered by the Mind Stone, Steve swept his gaze around the area. The confidence in his eyes gradually turned into shock.

What he saw were not Chitauri soldiers, but ninjas—bearing the exact same presence as the ninjas he had encountered in the electrical room before!

"What is going on?! You aren't Chitauri at all!"

As if realizing something, Steve suddenly looked toward the "Chitauri soldier" he had forced here. The other man was no longer by the entrance, but had somehow made his way to the main control room above the factory, looking down at him.

To Steve's eyes, he no longer looked like a Chitauri soldier either, but a creature Steve had never expected to see—a dark green dragon.

"Little Dragon!" Steve blurted out instinctively.

He then looked toward the bound "Valmont." In his eyes, that was not Valmont at all, but an agent from S.H.I.E.L.D.!

"Little Dragon?"

Shendu's imposing voice came from the main control room. "You still dare to use that name?"

Steve looked at Shendu, who was no longer hiding his identity. He could hear the fury in his tone, as though a monarch had been mocked by an ant he could crush underfoot at any time.

"So there was never a mole in S.H.I.E.L.D. This whole thing was staged by you!" Even now, Steve found his own deduction difficult to believe, but the facts were right before him.

Whether Steve believed it or not, he could no longer change the truth.

Shendu said nothing. He continued looking down at Steve, then waved a hand through the air. The ninjas still standing by immediately charged at Steve.

With his shield in hand, Steve could easily sense what the ninjas were thinking with the Mind Stone's assistance, effortlessly predicting their attacks. The shield in his hand seemed to defy the laws of physics, always flying toward the ninjas from impossible angles.

"With fodder like this, you can't threaten me." After clearing out the ninjas, Steve looked up at Shendu.

Shendu's expression remained unchanged, still wearing the look one gave an ant. "You're quite confident. Is it only because of that stone?"

"Since you're using the Mind Stone now, I assume you can see what I'm thinking."

Steve narrowed his eyes. In his vision, a line of words appeared beside Shendu: The stone should be in my hands now.

"Wishful thinking. The stone is firmly in my hand. You can never get it."

Steve threw the shield in his hand toward Shendu, but a small section of ceiling beam in the factory fell without warning and struck the shield at just the right moment.

The shield's trajectory shifted. It missed Shendu and instead bounced off the sheet metal beside him.

Steve shifted his position, trying to catch the shield, but his foot suddenly twisted. His body pitched forward out of control, and the hand that had tightly gripped the stone loosened.

The stone flew into the air and happened to collide with the returning shield. The shield gave the stone an upward push, sending it in a graceful arc through the air before it landed perfectly in Shendu's hand.

Steve stared at the scene in disbelief. So many coincidences had happened at once, and the result was exactly as Shendu had thought: the stone was now in his hand.

"What... what is this?!"

Suddenly, Steve felt the strange sensation in his shoulder disappear. The haze that had weighed on his heart vanished with it.

"This... you did all of this? You can even control luck?"

Steve felt more and more like a clown. Earlier, he had called the other man Little Dragon. After becoming human, he had even believed Shendu was the person he could trust most. Now, all he could do was laugh bitterly.

Shendu toyed with the Mind Stone, now back in his possession. That temptation surfaced again, even deeper and more intense than before.

"You want to use me? You will only become part of my power!"

Black ripples emerged from his hand, their patterns wrapping around the stone and temporarily blocking off its temptation.

Shendu looked at Steve, sprawled on the ground, and slowly walked out of the control room. Bricks rose from the floor out of thin air, forming a descending staircase for Shendu. The final step hovered directly before Steve's head.

Steve watched Shendu descend the floating stairs. The sovereign aura around him grew stronger and stronger, pressing down on Steve until he could barely breathe.

"Who... who are you?" Steve forced himself to breathe and tried to stand, only to discover that two steel bars had pinned his calves to the ground. He could only kneel there now.

"You may call me Shendu."

Shendu's tone remained filled with contempt. "Now, ant, you will pay for your earlier disrespect."

Steve could feel a mass of flame igniting from his lower body, climbing upward.

"The Mind Stone is gone. Fury and Natasha will definitely notice something is wrong. Natasha is the best vessel for the Mind Stone—she'll certainly detect your abnormality!" Steve threatened Shendu through the pain.

As though he had heard a joke, Shendu burst into laughter. The shadow behind him stretched out, and a figure emerged from within it.

"Good afternoon, Captain."

For the first time, Steve's eyes filled with despair as he looked at the smiling woman before him, who was greeting him.

"Captain, are you still placing your hopes on Fury? He's nothing more than a self-righteous clown."

That was the last sentence Steve heard.