Rescue

Hydra's base was built in a small forest. Its bright lights stood out starkly in the darkness as Alex and the other two picked their direction and cautiously made their way over.

Seeing the fully armed ** at the gate, Bucky looked worried. "What do we do? Charge straight in?" He turned to Alex. "Or can you take us inside?"

"I can only take you to places I've seen." There were ** everywhere he looked, so Alex had no way to get them in.

As they considered their options, the roar of engines reached them. Steve turned and saw three military trucks driving toward them along the forest road. At the sight of the trucks, Alex chuckled. "Look, free transportation!"

As he spoke, Alex moved like a nimble cat, flipping up onto the back of the last truck. Steve and Bucky exchanged a glance and followed close behind, just as swift.

The moment the two of them jumped into the truck bed, they heard Alex give a sharp shout, followed by a flurry of punches and kicks. Then they saw two unconscious ** lying in the truck bed.

Having easily dealt with the two **, Alex turned and saw Steve and Bucky climb aboard. He hurriedly called out, "Help me throw them out!"

Without any inspection, the three of them successfully slipped into the camp aboard the truck.

Pulling back the canvas at the rear, Alex carefully surveyed the area.

The camp was enormous. Buildings resembling factory workshops were scattered around its perimeter, while rows upon rows of tanks stood in the open space at its center. They looked somewhat different from ordinary tanks—larger than normal, but with much smaller cannon barrels. ** in full black uniforms patrolled back and forth from time to time, and searchlights regularly swept across the camp. Security was extremely tight.

Once the truck stopped, Alex and the other two quickly slipped out under cover of darkness and jumped into a nearby brightly lit "factory."

As they entered the factory, all three were stunned by the sight before them. Massive bombs over three meters tall stood throughout the building. There were at least a thousand of them as far as the eye could see!

Bucky stared wide-eyed, reaching out to touch one of the enormous bombs beside him. "What is Schmidt trying to do? Blow up the entire Earth?"

"Schmidt's ambitions are even greater than Little Mustache's." Knowing the movie's plot, Alex snorted and said mockingly, "He wants to rule the whole world!"

Steve picked up a small object emitting a blue glow from a nearby table and asked in surprise, "What is this?" There were many more such objects around them, some large and some small, but every single one emitted a strange blue light.

Alex had noticed them long ago. At Steve's question, he sighed. "This is the power of the Tesseract—powerful energy from the gods."

After saying only that, Alex said no more. Using the massive bombs as cover, he kept moving forward and searching the area.

A moment later, Alex found the prison where the captives were held. In fact, it was near the giant bomb factory. A heavily secured wire-mesh passage connected the two areas. All the prisoners were locked in two-meter-square iron cages, with three to five people in each, while ** patrolled above the cages.

Alex glanced at the patrolling ** above the cages, then turned to Steve. "Steve, go deal with the patrols up there." Then he turned toward the wire-mesh passage in front of them, where more than a dozen ** stood guard. "I'll deal with these **!"

After saying that, Alex turned to Bucky. "Bucky, rescue the prisoners afterward. We don't have much time, so we need to move fast! Before we leave, grab as many guns as you can. Once we're out, immediately send people to seize those tanks outside."

Reality was, after all, different from the movies. Transporting these captives back from thirty kilometers behind enemy lines would not be nearly as easy as it looked on screen. Fortunately, Hydra's camp had plenty of weapons, all of them extremely powerful energy weapons. Their chances of fighting their way back were still quite good.

With the plan settled, Steve leaped up, climbed onto the railing above, and vaulted over it. Before the patrols upstairs could react, he knocked them down. Alex moved just as swiftly, cutting through the enemy without resistance and quickly charging inside with Bucky.

Alex pulled a ring of keys from a ** and tossed it to Bucky. "Bucky, free them!"

Bucky caught the keys and rushed toward the nearest iron cage. He looked at the lock, then down at the keys in his hand, before raising his head to look at the prisoners inside. "Which key?"

"Who are you?" The Black man with an eyepatch rose to his feet, his scarred face filled with astonishment.

"American Brothers!" Bucky said with some pride, then casually picked a key and inserted it into the lock. To his surprise, the cage door opened.

"What did you say?" The one-eyed Black man wondered if he had misheard. American Brothers? What was that supposed to be?

But Bucky had no time to address the people in the cage's confusion. He turned and ran to another cage, rapidly trying the keys. This time, however, he was not so lucky. After several attempts, none of them worked.

"Let me do it!" A short white man stepped out from behind Bucky, grabbed the iron cage with both hands, and roared. The bars bent directly apart, opening a gap large enough for a person to pass through.

Bucky stared in disbelief. The bars of those cages were as thick as thumbs. Bending them required truly astonishing strength.

Seeing that everyone had been freed, Alex suddenly remembered the movie's plot and asked, "Is everyone here?"

"There's an isolation ward in the factory. No one taken there has ever come back!" The one-eyed Black man strode over, his expression grave.

Alex pondered for a moment, then turned to Steve. "Steve, take them out. I'll check the isolation ward!" In the movie, Bucky had been used by Zola for human experiments in the isolation ward. But now Bucky had been at his side the entire time.

Steve nodded, then looked at the growing crowd behind him and raised a hand. "Let's fight our way out and show those ** what we're made of!"

Several loud roars rang out as the crowd charged through the wire-mesh passage and into the giant bomb factory.

Quite a few skilled fighters were hidden among the prisoners. With them, Steve, and Bucky, the factory's ** guards were no match for them. They were wiped out in an instant, and their weapons were seized as well.

Watching the group fight their way out the door, Alex turned and ran toward the factory's isolation ward.

By then, the entire Hydra camp had fallen into chaos, and the isolation ward was especially deserted.

As Alex searched around, he suddenly heard painful, ragged breathing. He turned toward the sound and found a woman lying on an operating table in the shadows of a corner—a woman with a head full of red hair. She seemed barely conscious, groaning continuously without awareness.

After looking around and finding no one else, Alex thought for a moment, scooped the woman up, and hurriedly ran out of the factory.