The Price

"Everyone, take out all the explosives!"

Steve Rogers's voice was like a slap across every surviving soldier's face.

The soldiers who had been sprawled on the ground waiting to die seemed to snap awake. Instinctively, they began rummaging through their packs and unfastening their tactical vests.

Blocks of C4 explosive were pulled out and piled at Steve's feet, quickly forming a small mountain.

"Captain!"

A veteran with a face blackened by soot lunged forward and seized Steve's arm. He was Falsworth, the Howling Commandos' demolition expert.

His eyes were bloodshot, his voice hoarse. "Are you crazy?! Using this much explosive down here—do you want to bury us all alive? It'll definitely cause a secondary collapse!"

The others came to their senses as well. Blasting in an unstable underground structure was suicide.

Steve did not turn around. He merely stared at the pile of concrete and rebar wreckage before him.

"Falsworth," he said calmly, "if we do nothing, how long can we survive?"

Falsworth opened his mouth, but no words came out.

The red countdown on the wall was the answer: 0:58... 0:57...

"In less than a minute, we'll be blown to ash." Steve turned around, his gaze sweeping across every soldier's face. "If we gamble, we might be buried alive. But at least we'll have a chance to dig our way out with our own hands."

His eyes swept toward the corner. Logan was holding the unconscious Chu Hang protectively in his arms.

Steve had seen it just now, when the massive rocks came crashing down. The ripples in the air twisting before Chu Hang.

It had not been an illusion.

It was a kind of power he could not understand.

Dr. Erskine had once said that the serum amplified everything. It had amplified Steve's sense of justice, and it had amplified Red Skull's ambition.

So what had that serum amplified inside Chu Hang?

Steve did not know. But he knew miracles existed. And now, he was going to create another one by mortal means.

"Falsworth, I need a demolition plan!" Steve's tone left no room for argument. "Find the load-bearing points. Use the least explosive possible to cause the greatest structural damage. We're not blowing it open—we're making it fall apart on its own!"

Falsworth stared into his captain's eyes for three seconds.

He gritted his teeth, spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and swept all the explosives from the ground into his arms. "Everyone get the hell back! Five men, get over here and shine your flashlights on those points! Move!"

The desire to survive overcame fear.

Several soldiers immediately sprang into action. Following Falsworth's instructions, they planted the explosives at several critical structural joints within the wreckage and quickly connected the detonators.

"Captain, it's ready!" Falsworth ran back, drenched in sweat. "The fuse is set for twenty seconds. That's enough time for us to find cover!"

The countdown on the wall read: 0:35... 0:34...

"There's no time." Steve shook his head. "Ten seconds. Everyone takes cover in ten seconds. I'll set it off."

"But, Captain..."

"Execute the order!"

Steve snatched the detonator from his hand and strode to the front of the group.

Logan carried Chu Hang on his shoulder and silently retreated to the farthest corner. He used his own body to shield Chu Hang tightly behind him.

"Ten!"

Steve began counting down.

"Nine!"

The soldiers scrambled desperately to find cover.

"Eight!"

"Three!"

Steve took a deep breath and raised the Vibranium Shield before him.

"Two!"

He glanced back at his soldiers.

"One!"

He pressed the button.

The world went silent for an instant.

Then, a burst of fire exploded within the wreckage.

BOOM—!

The shockwave, mixed with shattered rocks and steel bars, swept in every direction.

Steve took the brunt of it. The immense force traveled through his shield and spread throughout his body. He felt as though a speeding truck had struck him head-on.

His boots plowed two deep trenches through the ground as he was shoved backward more than thirty feet, slamming viciously into the wall.

"Gah!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood.

Behind him, the entire underground space began collapsing. Huge chunks of ceiling came crashing down, and cracks split open across the floor.

But at the center of the blast, the wreckage blocking their escape route truly fell apart from within. A black opening large enough for one person to pass through appeared.

"Move!"

Steve roared, using his shield to shove aside a falling boulder.

The countdown on the wall read: 0:10... 0:09...

The soldiers supported one another as they scrambled toward the opening.

Logan charged through first with Chu Hang on his shoulder, smashing aside the debris in his path with his body.

Steve remained at the rear, swinging his shield to knock away the rocks constantly crashing down from above and clear a path for the group.

A massive beam fell toward a limping soldier.

Steve's arm muscles bulged as the shield in his hand shot out with a howl.

CLANG!

The shield struck the side of the beam with perfect accuracy, deflecting it so that it slammed into the ground just inches from the soldier. The shield rebounded off the wall and flew back into Steve's hand.

"Move! Five seconds left!"

Logan was the first to rush through the opening with Chu Hang.

Then came the second, the third...

When the last wounded man was dragged through the opening, Steve glanced at his watch.

[0:01]

Without hesitation, he turned and threw himself toward the opening with all his strength, his body shooting forward like a cannonball.

The instant he leaped into the opening, the Hydra base behind him became a silent field of white light.

All matter was reduced to particles in the annihilation of energy.

An invisible shockwave shoved him from behind. Steve tumbled through the narrow drainage tunnel more than a dozen times before crashing into Logan and finally stopping.

"Cough... cough, cough..." He coughed violently, his internal organs wracked with pain, but he smiled.

He looked at the drainage pipe leading to the outside world before him, then at the comrades behind him—every last one of them accounted for.

He had won the gamble.

"Captain... we survived?" a young soldier asked in a trembling voice.

"Yes." Steve got to his feet and brushed the dust from himself. "We survived."

The soldiers cheered, embraced, and wept.

Only Logan frowned as he looked down at Chu Hang on his shoulder.

"Hey, kid. The show's over. Time to wake up." He patted Chu Hang's face.

Chu Hang did not react. His breathing was steady, his heartbeat strong, but he would not wake up.

Logan sensed that something was wrong.

The kid's body was far too hot, as if a small sun were hidden inside him.

And Chu Hang's scent had changed. It had smelled like ozone after rain before, but now it was richer and purer.

Just then, the unconscious Chu Hang's eyelids began to tremble violently.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

Deep within those eyes, it seemed as though two nebulae were slowly spinning, profound and mysterious.

"Ugh..."

Chu Hang let out a groan, and the strange sight in his eyes vanished.

He felt as though an entire library's worth of data had been crammed into his brain. Countless fragments of knowledge about space, dimensions, and energy crashed through his mind.

"I... where am I?" He shook his head and looked around blankly.

"You're awake?" Steve's voice came from nearby. "How do you feel?"

"I feel..." Chu Hang moved his body. The weakness was gone, replaced by an explosive sense of power. He even felt as though he could tear apart the surrounding space like paper.

"I feel... amazing." Chu Hang grinned.

Then his face suddenly itched. He instinctively reached up to touch it.

His fingertips felt something cold and wet.

He lowered his hand before his eyes, and his pupils contracted.

Blood.

It was slowly flowing from his nostrils.

Then he felt warm fluid trickling from his ears as well.

He saw Steve across from him and Logan beside him turn deathly pale.

"Kid, blood's pouring from all seven of your openings..." Logan's voice was full of horror.

Chu Hang's mind buzzed, going completely blank.

The next second, a cold, clear thought surfaced in his mind.

I screwed up.

The spatial energy had undergone its initial awakening. A mortal body could not withstand it.

His cells were rebuilding themselves while simultaneously exploding. The Healing Factor could not keep up. Even the Super-Soldier Serum could not stabilize it.

His body was collapsing far faster than it could repair itself.