"Squelch-"
The muffled sound of flesh being pierced echoed through the dim archive room.
Steve Rogers sat in a metal swivel chair, his back ramrod straight. His finger pressed the playback button, freezing the image on the screen.
It showed an intersection in Harlem. An Asian man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a white coat had turned his entire right arm pitch-black and metallic, then driven it clean through the three-meter-tall Green Monster.
Steve stared at the frozen image, his brow knotted tight.
He had spent the entire night reviewing files. From the end of World War II to the Cold War, from the moon landing program to the rise of Stark Industries. But this top-secret file on a man named "Yang Ming" had stopped him cold.
It made no sense.
Steve pulled up Yang Ming's background information. No military background, no training as an agent-not even a proper medical license.
In the file's profile section, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s psychological assessment specialists had labeled him: extremely greedy, cold-blooded, utterly lacking in selflessness, suspected of possessing multiple supernatural abilities.
"Why would someone powerful enough to smash a monster of this caliber with one punch hole up in New York's worst slum, making dirty money stitching up gangsters?"
Steve muttered to himself. He had seen Dr. Erskine's Super Soldier Serum at work. He knew power amplified a person's nature. Good became better; bad became worse.
But Yang Ming seemed to exist outside both categories.
"Creak."
The archive room's door opened. Nick Fury strode in carrying a thick folder and tossed it onto the desk in front of Steve.
"Modern tactical system, the Holographic Weapon Operations Guide, and a preliminary framework for the Avengers Initiative." Fury fixed his lone eye on Steve.
"Your physical functions have fully recovered. In three days, I'm sending you to a