Chu Hang leaned limply against the cold iron door, his chest heaving violently, and he swallowed the turbid air.
His head was even more chaotic, like countless bees buzzing inside, making him spin.
The forceful twisting of the alloy lock core just now seemed simple and crude, but it almost drained the last bit of energy available for mobilization in his body, and he needed time to recover.
He followed the cold wall and sat down on the cold concrete floor.
He was safe, but only temporarily.
Chu Hang Close your eyes and sink all your mind into your body, trying to feel the condition of your body.
The new majestic power that he forcibly fused was now like a giant snake entering hibernation, quietly and heavily entrenched in every corner of his body, from muscle fibers to the depths of his bones.
He could clearly feel its existence. The vast Presence itself carried a kind of oppressive force, but he could no longer mobilize it as he pleased like he had just done in the hangar.
It became dull and lazy, as if full of wariness and alienation towards its new master.
The system panel in his consciousness was still a dead gray, and no matter how he called, he could not get any response. It seemed that the plug-in that had always been his biggest reliance had really exhausted its energy and fell asleep. As for when he would wake up, it was completely unknown.
Without the assistance and guidance of the system, he felt like a farmer who had never been exposed to modern technology and was suddenly thrown into the cockpit of a state-of-the-art fighter jet.
He knew that the machine beneath him had the power to destroy heaven and earth, but he couldn't even understand the symbols on the dashboard, let alone how to start the engine and pull the joystick.
You can only explore everything by yourself.
"Energy Perception..." He silently muttered the name of this newly acquired ability in his heart.
Fortunately, this ability seems to have been integrated with his senses and has become a passive instinct without the need to actively activate it.
With a slight movement of his mind, a whole new world unfolded in his mind.
The entire huge underground base gradually sketched out in his mind a simple three-dimensional map composed of countless energy veins.
This is a blessing among misfortunes. At least, he won't be like a headless fly, completely lost in this underground maze.
He just sat like this and rested for about five minutes or more.
Time lost meaning here. He forced himself to take out the last bit of food from his pocket - an energy bar that he brought out from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cell. It was hard and tasteless.
He chewed and swallowed mechanically. After the food was eaten, a weak heat rose in his stomach and then spread to his limbs, allowing him to finally regain some strength.
I can't stay any longer and find a place to wait for my body to recover.
This thought came to mind clearly.
He knows better than anyone what kind of person Nick Fury is.
The one-eyed dragon was so controlling and suspicious that he was paranoid. He, the missing prisoner, would definitely become the biggest doubt in his eyes.
Once the people at S.H.I.E.L.D. react and completely block the entire base, but he has not recovered and adapted to Binary, then he will really become a turtle in a urn, unable to fly.
He held on to the rough wall and stood up unsteadily.
Based on the energy map in his mind that was updated in real time, he carefully avoided all areas with strong energy reactions - those places were brightly lit and energy was concentrated, and they were probably heavily guarded sentries, or important functional areas similar to command centers.
He chose a route with the weakest and most inconspicuous energy fluctuations, like a ghost, blending into the darkness and walking firmly in the direction he determined.
He remembered clearly that all large military bases, especially those built on the seaside, would inevitably have a huge sewage system leading to the outside world. That was an engineering necessity, and it was also his only way to survive at the moment.
At the same time, Hangar B7.
The piercing siren has been turned off, but the aftermath of the chaos is still spreading. Medical soldiers push stretchers through the messy scene, racing against time to treat the wounded.
Phil·Coulson is directing the surviving agents to clean up the wreckage and count the losses.
The entire hangar looked like a ruin ravaged by giant beasts. The smell of burnt protein and the pungent smell of molten metal wafted in the air, which was nauseating.
Nick Fury sat on a relatively complete equipment box, expressionless, and allowed a young female medic to use tweezers to hold a cotton ball stained with disinfectant Venom and carefully treat the wound on his left eye.
"Sir, the wound is very deep, penetrating the eyeball... The tissue in the eye has been completely necrotic, I'm afraid..." The medical soldier's voice was filled with a hint of unbearability and trembling, and she did not dare to finish her words.
"Tell me the result." Fury's voice was extremely calm, so calm that it made people feel chilled in their hearts, and no emotion could be heard.
The female medical soldier took a deep breath, as if she had made a huge determination. "... You can't save your left eye."
Fury was silent. There was no expected anger or painful wail. He just slowly raised his hand and gently touched the brand new scar on his face that extended from his forehead to his cheek with his fingertips. The skin there was still burning and painful, as if a soldering iron had been repeatedly run over it, reminding him all the time how real and how absurd everything that had just happened was.
Aliens, energy weapons, and an orange cat that stretches out countless disgusting tentacles.
The worldview he had established over the past few decades, based on logic and reality, was shattered to pieces by these unbelievable things tonight.
Coulson walked over quickly, his face as pale as the lights in the hangar, and his expression solemn. "Sir, the personnel count is complete. We lost seventeen agents and thirty-four were injured. As for those Kree... they didn't leave any bodies behind, it was like they evaporated out of thin air."
Fury nodded, which was as expected. "What else?" He knew that Coulson's report was more than that.
Coulson hesitated for a moment, leaned forward slightly, and lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear. "There is one more thing. The man we brought back from the glacier...Chu Hang, he is missing."
Fury's remaining right eye suddenly focused, and that look was like a sharp blade that was unsheathed in an instant, so sharp that it could pierce the air.
"Gone?"
"Yes." Coulson immediately handed over a tablet computer, "His cell was empty, and the door lock was violently broken from the inside. Surveillance showed that after the base fell into chaos, he entered the B7 hangar area, and then... there was no video record anymore. Our people searched the entire hangar and did not find his body, nor did they find any blood."
Fury took the tablet, and the profile photo of Chu Hang was displayed on the screen. An oriental man with black hair and black eyes, his eyes were as calm as a deep pool of water, and there was nothing special about him.
The file record is pitifully simple:
Soldier World War II, a non-staff member of Howling Commandos, fell into a glacier while performing the last mission with Captain America, and his body functions miraculously remained at peak condition for unknown reasons.
A veteran who has been sleeping for more than fifty years.
Fury's brain is running rapidly, with countless clues colliding and connecting in series.
Lightspeed Engine exploded, and a pilot named Carol·Dan Vers disappeared.
Immediately afterwards, the mysterious prisoner who also appeared near the explosion site and was also controlled by S.H.I.E.L.D. also disappeared out of thin air in the chaos.
Is this all a coincidence?
Nick Fury never believed in coincidences, he only believed in well-planned conspiracies and uncontrollable variables.
He thought of the state when the man was found out of the ice, of his World War II military uniform that was incompatible with this era, and even more of that body that was completely inconsistent with any scientific common sense and was as warm as a living person.
"Raise his security level to the highest level." Fury returned the tablet to Coulson, his voice as cold as the cold wind of Siberia, "Immediately block all exits and conduct a blanket search of the entire base. If you want to see people alive, you want to see corpses."
"Yes, sir." Coulson stood at attention and responded.
"Wait." Fury stopped Coulson who was about to turn around and leave, "The search operation must be carried out secretly. I don't want a third person besides you and me to know that we have lost a person."
Coulson was stunned at first, but immediately understood the meaning of Fury, and nodded heavily. "Understood."
Looking at Coulson's hurried away figure, Fury slowly stood up, dragged his tired body and walked to the side of the orange cat.
"Goose" seemed to be exhausted, lying lazily on the ground, licking its paws carefully, as if the devouring scene just now had nothing to do with it. Seeing Fury approaching, it just raised its head and said "meow" innocently, its green eyes full of innocence.
Fury stared at it for a long, long time, his eyes were extremely complex, with fear, curiosity, and even a trace of... desire.
"I'd better keep an eye on you." He said softly, as if talking to himself or giving a notice to this unfathomable creature.
This world has become more and more dangerous and unfamiliar. He needs more weapons and more trump cards to deal with threats lurking in the shadows and even coming from beyond the stars.
A man who emerged from the ice, his life experience became a mystery, and he disappeared mysteriously.
And a cat... capable of devouring an elite team of aliens.
His eyes finally passed through the huge hole that was knocked out of the hangar, and cast their gaze towards the deep and boundless night sky filled with bright stars.
"Avengers..." He whispered a word that was buried deep in his heart and had never been mentioned to anyone.
Maybe, it's time.
Chu Hang I don't know how long I have been walking in this intricate underground pipeline.
An hour, or two hours. In this claustrophobic space, the sense of time becomes blurred and dull.
The surrounding passages are getting wider and wider, and the odor in the air is getting stronger and stronger. It has changed from the initial musty smell to the stench of various chemical wastes and domestic garbage mixed and fermented.
He knew that he was not far from his goal.
Finally, at a fork in the road, he turned into a huge circular pipe with a diameter of more than two meters. A strong stench mixed with all kinds of filth hit his face. The smell was so overbearing and penetrating that it made his stomach churn and he almost vomited on the spot.
But he doesn't care.
Because he heard it.
At the end of the pipe, through the layers of stench, came the most beautiful sound he had ever heard in his life - the rhythmic slapping of the waves on the rocks.
That is the symphony of freedom.
He suppressed his nausea and trudged through the knee-deep, sticky sewage.
The physical fatigue has reached its limit. Although Healing Factor is slowly repairing the damaged muscles, the depletion of energy cannot make up for it. Every step is like walking on the tip of a knife, consuming the last of his willpower.
He finally reached the end of the pipe.
A circular exit blocked by a thick, rusty iron fence.
Through the gaps in the fence, he could see the sparkling dark sea outside, smell the salty sea breeze, and feel the free, cold air.
This is the last step left.
He used all the remaining strength in his body to grasp the cold and slippery iron fence with both hands.
"Give... me... open!"
He gritted his teeth, the veins on his neck popped out, and he squeezed out a Beast-like growl from deep in his throat. The muscles on his arms stood up like tangled old tree roots. The powerful power given to him by Super-Soldier Serum was squeezed to the extreme at this moment, and every cell was burning.
quack--squeak--
The iron fence let out an overwhelmed, tooth-aching groan. The concrete base welded to it began to show spiderweb-like cracks, and stone chips and dust fell down, mixing into the sewage below.
Chu Hang felt as if his arm was about to be torn apart. But he did not let go. Instead, he put all the weight of his body on it and used more force.
Click!
There was a loud, crisp sound, which was particularly loud in the empty pipe.
The entire heavy iron fence was torn off the wall by him!
The huge reaction force made him unable to hold on any longer. Together with the twisted iron fence, he fell backwards and fell heavily into the sea water outside.
The icy sea water swallowed him up instantly, and the biting coldness was like a sharp blade, instantly piercing his brain and clearing his chaotic consciousness. He struggled to poke his head out of the water, like a dying fish, greedily breathing in the salty fresh air.
He looked back at the dark, foul-smelling sewage outlet, and then looked up at the bright moon and stars in the sky.
He came out.
He is free.
The exhausted Chu Hang floated on the cold sea, giving up all struggle and letting the gentle waves push him slowly to the beach not far away. He was washed ashore, lying on the soft and moist sand, looking at the vast starry sky, his mind went blank.
He survived.
He escaped.
He possesses unimaginable power that even he cannot fully Control.
What then?
An extremely realistic question emerged in his empty mind.
He looked down at the tattered white prison uniform he was wearing that was soaked in sewage. There was nothing in the pockets except wet sand.
He was penniless, had no identification, and knew almost nothing about a world he had not seen for more than fifty years.
Okay, Chu Hang.
What to do now?