New York's underground sewer system is like the most invisible part of this bustling city.
Soldier Boy fell to the ground along the rusty iron ladder.
His bare feet stepped on a puddle of sticky water, and he didn't even want to think about what kind of liquid it was.
There is no sunshine here all year round, and the air is filled with a sour smell of fermentation and rot.
But fortunately, there is a thick city public heating pipe passing through the wall, which makes the room warm and comfortable.
He found a slightly cleaner place and sat down with his back against the warm pipe.
He wrapped the stolen shabby windbreaker tightly around him.
My stomach let out a long series of thunderous gurgling sounds.
He closed his eyes and forced himself not to think about the neon-lit restaurants above or the sizzling, greasy barbecue.
Fatigue came like a tide.
Under the cover of the rumbling sound of the subway passing by, Soldier Boy finally couldn't hold on any longer, and his head fell into a deep sleep bit by bit.
He had a dream.
In the dream, he was not sold to Russia, nor was there any Long Island Estate.
He was sitting in the luxurious restaurant on the top floor of Vought Tower, with a medium-rare tomahawk steak and a glass of top-quality Whiskey with ice in front of him.
Just when he picked up the knife and fork and prepared to feast, the man named Lynn suddenly emerged from under the plate and kicked his steak into the sea.
Then he tried to fight back, but was picked up and beaten by his own son.
Too weak.
But it's not over yet, another dream within a dream comes one after another.
The most ridiculous thing is that he was frozen again, and outside Cryogenic Chamber was John, who was in his forties and holding a milk bottle in his mouth.
How is this possible!?
John follows Lynn, and he will become a sunny and cheerful boy when he grows up.
It seems that I am still too tired.
He didn't know how long he had slept, but the beastly instinct he had developed on the battlefield suddenly tugged on his nerves.
A faint, rustling sound came from the darkness not far away.
It sounded like the sound of small paws stepping on wet moss, or like something dragging something in the muddy water.
Soldier Boy opened his eyes suddenly, and his pupils shrank instantly in the darkness.
The muscles all over his body tensed up instinctively, and his body, which was originally a little sluggish due to the cold, immediately entered a fighting state.
Is he from Vought International?
Or Lynn them?
He held his breath, stood up quietly against the heating pipe, and clenched his casserole-sized fists.
Although the energy in his chest cannot be used now, with pure physical strength alone, he is absolutely sure to break the neck of any sneak attacker.
Any sneak attackers?
What about John?
John There is no need for a sneak attack.
The rustling sound got closer and closer, and the stagnant water in the sewer was gently pushed away.
Under the faint emergency light at the end of the passage, several short silhouettes slowly walked out of the shadows.
Soldier Boy took a deep breath, lowered its center of gravity like a cheetah preparing to pounce, and was ready to attack.
But when he saw the person clearly, his fist, which had been filled with strength, stopped in mid-air.
Four green little things lined up and staggered out of a sewage pipe.
Those are four Little Turtles that are only the size of a dinner plate.
The most outrageous thing is that these Four Little Turtles actually walk upright like humans. They have round heads and blue, red, purple and orange rag strips tied to their heads.
At this moment, the four little guys were working together to drag half a piece of expired leftover pizza picked up from the trash can of an unknown pizza shop, and they were walking forward.
And walking in front of them was an abnormally large rat.
Not only does this mouse stand like a human, it is also covered with a long, ragged dark red rag, which looks like a shrunken version of a kimono.
It was holding a short wooden stick picked up from somewhere on its two front paws, and it walked like an old man who had just returned from a walk.
That Big Rat obviously noticed someone in the darkness.
It immediately stopped, its beard twitched twice, and quickly blocked four Little Turtles holding pizzas behind it.
It held the short wooden stick tightly with both hands, stared at the direction of Soldier Boy with a pair of round eyes, and assumed a fairly standard defensive posture.
It was deathly silent in the sewer, except for the occasional dripping sound from the heating pipes.
Soldier Boy maintained a posture ready to punch, standing on the same spot with two bare legs.
He looked at the four little green-headed tortoises and a Big Rat holding a stick in front of him, and his mind went blank.
The water droplets in the pipe hit the moss-covered stone slabs.
Soldier Boy felt that he might be hallucinating from hunger, or perhaps still dreaming.
No matter how many bizarre Supes he has seen in his life, he has never seen a rat or a tortoise that can stand and walk.
Moreover, this rat wearing rag strips looks much larger than the ordinary Hound, and the broken wooden stick in his hand actually shows a very sophisticated defensive stance.
He looked at his sandbag-sized fists, then at the four little green tortoises across the way who together were no thicker than his thighs, and finally his eyes fell on the half piece of hard leftover pizza they were holding tightly.
Grab a few little tortoises' garbage to eat?
Soldier Boy The corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably twice.
He is United States, the greatest Superheroes, and even if he is down and out now, he would not do such a bottomless thing.
He slowly loosened his clenched fists, rolled his eyes with disgust, turned around and leaned back against the warm heating pipe, wrapped the shabby windbreaker tighter, and simply closed his eyes to be out of sight and out of mind.
Seeing that this behemoth had no intention of attacking, Big Rat's tense body relaxed a little, but the wooden stick in his hand was still placed across his chest, his round eyes staring at this side, not daring to be careless at all.
At this moment, Little Turtles, whose head was tied with an orange strip of cloth, suddenly broke free from the obstruction of Big Rat.
It held a piece of pizza in its hand, not much bigger than its paw, swayed roundly, stepped on the shallow water, and walked to Soldier Boy's feet.
Big Rat was so anxious that he wanted to reach out and grab it, but he was afraid of Soldier Boy's size, so he could only freeze in place and watch nervously.
Soldier Boy opened his eyes again and lowered his head.
The orange cloth Little Turtles raised his face and handed forward the pizza with a little muddy water in his hand.
Its dark eyes do not contain the complex calculations and fears of the human world, but only a very simple desire to share.
The sewer was so quiet that only the faint sound of water could be heard.
Soldier Boy stared at the pitiful piece of pizza, his throat rolled unconsciously.
On this bitterly cold winter night, his self-esteem was shattered by his own son, and he was deprived of the confidence to take revenge by a few words from an ordinary person. Finally, he hid in the stinking underground sewage pipe like a lost dog.
As a result, in this hellish place where even the homeless man didn't want to stay any longer, when he was most alienated from his relatives and his eyes were black from hunger, a mutated green-headed little bastard was actually willing to give him a bite to eat.
This extremely absurd sense of gap was like a blunt knife, slicing across the heart that Soldier Boy thought was indestructible, causing a burst of indescribable sadness.
He slowly stretched out his rough fingers and picked up the pizza edge from his little paw.
He didn't dislike it, but casually rubbed off a little bit of sand on the edge with his thumb, then threw the hard piece of dough into his mouth and chewed it hard twice.
It was cold and hard, with a rancid smell and sewer moisture.
But he swallowed it hard.
"Thanks, little green hair."
Soldier Boy's voice was a little hoarse, and he closed his eyes again, "Take your elders and get away, don't disturb my sleep."
When Little Turtles saw him eating the pizza, he smiled happily with his toothless mouth, then turned around and ran back to Big Rat.
Big Rat took a deep look at Soldier Boy who was leaning against the pipe, and then quietly disappeared into the darkness deeper in the sewer with the four little guys.
The long and cold winter night is finally over.