Death Spores

Baron Strucker showed no surprise at the sudden appearance of Alex and the others, as if he had anticipated it. This was indeed the case. At Strucker's command, hundreds of soldiers armed with large energy guns emerged from all directions. The fist-sized muzzles looked like cannon barrels.

"We fell into a trap?" Alex wasn't flustered at all. He calmly surveyed his surroundings, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.

Natasha lightly brushed a strand of hair from her ear, saying with a calm expression, "It seems so."

"Cap, what's the plan?" Logan braced himself, a pair of bone claws slowly extending from the skin of his back, looking ferocious and terrifying.

Steve chuckled, then suddenly threw the shield in his hand. His body shot forward rapidly, his commanding voice echoing in the air, "Attack!"

Following Steve's action, the Howling Commandos moved instantly, like a pack of wolves, ferociously charging towards their prey. Due to prior assignments, everyone found their own targets. Although the scene was a bit chaotic, it was the enemy soldiers who were in disarray.

Alex observed the situation on the field and found that everyone's performance exceeded his expectations. The weapons and equipment provided by Howard were also very powerful. In just a moment, hundreds of enemy soldiers were almost completely wiped out by Nick Fury and Bucky. Especially Nick Fury's heavy machine gun, it was like the scythe of death, sweeping through large swathes.

The rank-and-file soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and Baron Strucker was quite disheveled. With Wolverine, a true combat expert, present, Strucker seemed outmatched. Coupled with Steve's support, Baron Strucker quickly sustained several bloody wounds, all inflicted by Logan's bone claws.

Seeing that the situation was decided, Alex immediately ran outside. His mission was not light either; he had to intercept the enemy soldiers and Hydra agents rushing from outside. To deal with this kind of large-scale battle, Alex had specifically picked up several energy guns from the fallen enemy soldiers.

Watching a large wave of enemy soldiers rush over, Alex fired both energy guns simultaneously, one on each side, continuously hitting the crowd. The energy in the energy guns was converted from the Tesseract, and the energy was extremely vast. One shot hitting a person caused them to turn into ash and disappear directly.

The lethality of the two guns was astonishing, with people constantly falling under their fire. However, even the strongest fists can't fight off four hands, and the enemy soldiers finally charged forward, disregarding their own lives.

Alex was prepared. He removed an energy crystal from the energy gun, tapped it hard, and then threw it into the crowd like a grenade.

With a "boom," the energy crystal exploded. The area within a dozen meters was within the blast radius. The enemy soldiers were sent flying back, spitting blood. The lucky ones managed to keep their lives, while the unlucky ones were directly blown to death.

After throwing several more, the surging enemy soldiers finally stopped their charge, keeping their distance. No one was foolish enough to seek certain death.

"Thanks, Howard!" Alex said with a grin, casually throwing a few more, forcing back some enemy soldiers who were trying to sneak up. He then immediately returned to the base.

Inside the base, besides the Howling Commandos and Baron Strucker, no one else was standing.

"Captain America, you think you've won?" Seeing Alex appear, Baron Strucker suddenly gave a strange smile. A remote-control-like device suddenly appeared in his hand, with a glaring red button in the center.

Logan retracted his bone claws, crossed his arms, and said leisurely, "Do you still have a chance to escape?"

"Why should I escape?" Strucker placed his thumb on the red button, his smile becoming increasingly sinister and terrifying. "It's a win for me, Baron Strucker, to have you all accompany me in death!"

"Explode, Death Spores!"

With Strucker's roar, the entire base began to shake violently. Following that, countless Death Spore gases permeated from all directions, instantly filling the entire base.

Upon hearing this, Alex's expression changed drastically. He remembered the corpses in the tunnel. "Everyone be careful, this spore gas is poisonous!" he shouted, quickly dispersing his Psionic Power to cover everyone. He then used Teleportation to quickly escape the base and return to the camp.

As soon as he returned to the camp, Alex looked at everyone nervously, asking with a worried expression, "Are you all alright?"

Steve looked down at his body, his expression one of surprise. "I'm fine? I feel perfectly fine, not a problem at all."

Logan, Nick Fury, and Natasha all shook their heads, indicating they were fine.

Seeing that Bucky hadn't responded for a long time, Alex reached out and patted Bucky's shoulder, asking again, "Bucky, are you okay too?"

To everyone's shock, Bucky's body collapsed to the ground directly under Alex's palm!

Alex and Steve were stunned for a moment before snapping back to reality. They quickly rushed forward, frantically helping Bucky up, holding Bucky's head and anxiously shouting, "Bucky! Bucky!"

Howard also rushed over upon hearing the commotion. Seeing Alex and Steve holding Bucky and weeping profusely, he looked at the other three with confusion. "What happened?"

Hearing Howard's voice, Alex quickly stood up and grabbed Howard's arm. "Howard, come and take a look at Bucky. What's wrong with him?" Logically, if the Death Spores had worked, the others shouldn't be completely fine. But if they were useless, then what was wrong with Bucky?

Howard, though a mechanical engineer, was not a doctor. Hearing Alex's request, he awkwardly stepped forward and looked a few times. "What happened?" From Howard's observation, Bucky's bodily functions were still intact, but he was unconscious for an unknown reason.

Alex explained the whole incident. After finishing, he looked at Howard nervously. "What are Death Spores? Is Bucky going to be alright?"

Howard, who had been looking calm, was suddenly stunned upon hearing "Death Spores." He didn't even hear Alex's last question clearly, muttering to himself in disbelief, "How could it be Death Spores?! How could it be Death Spores?!"

Seeing Howard muttering to himself distractedly, Alex couldn't help but roar, shouting loudly, "Howard, tell me, what exactly are Death Spores?!"

With a loud shout, Howard suddenly came back to his senses. He looked down at Bucky, who was being held by Steve, and after a long silence, he slowly explained, "Death Spores are a special virus. Once it proliferates in the human body, it can cause death."

"Death?!" Alex and Steve looked up sharply, their eyes filled with horror.

"Why are we all fine?" Nick Fury lowered his heavy machine gun, his dark face filled with surprise. "We were all in the Death Spore gas at the time. Why did only Bucky have a problem?"

Steve quickly regained his composure and asked Howard anxiously, "Is there any way to save Bucky?"

Howard gave a bitter smile and slowly said, "There is no cure, but low temperatures can slow down the virus's reproduction."

"Freeze Bucky immediately, I'm going to find Hydra!" Alex disappeared instantly after saying this. Alex figured that since Strucker could develop these Death Spores, he must have the antidote.

However, when Alex returned to the base, the Death Spore gas had already dissipated. There was not a single living person in the vast base. Baron Strucker was also lying on the ground, lifeless!!!

ps: Supplementary update delivered. Scorpio is very sleepy and is going straight to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow!