Multiverse , Leveling Up in the World I Created

Chapter 394: 394 MCU 69

The next day, Minerva reported that she had found Bucky and Rumlow.

But they weren’t alone—they were with several other super-soldiers, and from the direction they were moving, it seemed they were trying to cross from Poland through the Baltic states into Russia.

I quickly informed the team members of this fact.

"I found them. They’re in Poland. Rumlow and Bucky are there, along with other super-soldiers. It looks like they’re trying to cross into Russia."

"Good. Let’s head to Poland immediately."

When the Captain said that, the members prepared right away.

Only Natasha and I boarded the Aurea, while the rest of the members boarded the Odyssey and departed.

This time, Rhodey and UN agent Everett Ross also came along.

Because of the trouble with Wakanda, they had decided to accompany us as well.

As the ships departed, there was one aircraft following behind, hidden using an active camouflage panel.

It seemed to be T’Challa’s Royal Talon Fighter.

But the Aurea and the Odyssey had not only basic detection functions but could also track fluid flow to detect hidden vessels nearby.

There was no way I would have built ships without preparing for such things.

"Jin, do you see that?"

"Yeah."

The Captain also sighed heavily, seeming troubled that T’Challa had followed them secretly.

"Huff... We don’t have time for this..."

It seemed the Captain wanted to catch Hydra before they crossed into Russia.

Then Tony spoke up.

"Just go. Those Wakandans can’t handle us anyway. You know that from the last fight. When we get there, we’ll split into two teams and one team can hold them off."

"Right... You’re right. Catching them is the priority for now."

There was something in the Captain’s voice that sounded like he was deeply conflicted.

We moved quickly and arrived in Poland.

We found Hydra moving in vehicles, but since they were in the city, we couldn’t attack.

Then as they passed through an empty lot, the Captain, seeing an opportunity, said,

"Everyone, get ready."

With the Captain in the lead, all the members jumped out of the ships and blocked the vehicles.

Hydra spotted us too and tried to speed up and plow through, but with Wanda there, that attempt was quickly thwarted.

Bang! Clatter! Thud!

As Wanda began using her telekinesis to toss the vehicles off the road one by one, one vehicle unluckily crashed into a tree.

But then, suddenly, energy blasts started raining down from the air toward that crashed vehicle.

It seemed to be coming from T’Challa’s Royal Talon Fighter, which had been following us.

I quickly used Mystic Arts to create a massive barrier in the air, blocking all the energy blasts.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!

"Vision, Myo Myo, Tony, Rhodey—stop Wakanda’s aircraft! Everyone else, get ready to subdue the super-soldiers!"

Seeing that, the Captain quickly gave orders.

As if it had been discussed before coming here, Tony, Vision, and Myo Myo quickly flew off and began engaging the Royal Talon Fighter in the air.

While I was blocking the energy blasts with magic, Hydra’s super-soldiers had already exited their vehicles and were facing off against the Avengers.

Naturally, Bucky, the Winter Soldier, was among them.

"Bucky..."

As the Captain looked at Bucky with a pained expression, Rumlow lightly tapped Bucky’s head and spoke.

"This guy, it’s like he’s developing resistance or something—his memories aren’t erasing properly. If you ask me, I think it started after he met you. That just goes to show how much you mean to him as a friend. Right?"

Rumlow sneered at the Captain and started hitting Bucky’s head harder.

But even as he was being hit, Bucky didn’t resist at all and just glared at us.

"Stop it!!"

The Captain, unable to bear it any longer, shouted and raised his shield, about to move toward Bucky.

Then Rumlow pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Bucky’s head.

"Ah, ah, ah. Stop right there. Make a wrong move, and your precious friend’s head might get a hole in it."

The Captain glared at Rumlow with a furious expression.

"Rumlow!!"

"Don’t glare at me like that. Honestly, I’d love to have a proper fight too... but almost all the famous Avengers are gathered here. Guys like us wouldn’t stand a chance. There’s no point in fighting a losing battle, right?"

Rumlow sneered and laid out his threats.

"So just step aside quietly. Let’s not make things more exhausting for each other. Oh, and if you’re thinking of trying anything, I’d drop that idea. If you mess with him, I can’t guarantee what might happen to this guy. We even planted a bomb inside him, so you’d better think carefully before you act."

Hydra seemed to have anticipated this kind of situation, planting a bomb inside Bucky’s body.

It was cruel, but I had to admit it was a fairly effective tactic for Hydra.

"Damn bastards!"

Jess couldn’t hold back her curse and moved to attack Hydra, but the Captain quickly stopped her.

"Jess, calm down."

"But if we let them go like this, who knows what kind of damage they’ll cause next!"

Wanda also agreed with that.

"Jess is right. If we let them go and more people end up dead or injured, we won’t be able to bear that responsibility. We have to stop them here."

"..."

Because both of their arguments were perfectly valid, the Captain couldn’t say anything in response.

Feeling the situation turning against him, Rumlow quickly said,

"Whoa, whoa~ Everyone calm down, this is getting scary... We just want to get back safely. If you clear the way, we’ll leave quietly without causing any trouble, so don’t worry."

"How can you say that!"

As Jess moved to attack again, the Captain stopped her once more and said,

"Let them go. I can’t lose Bucky again here."

"Cap..."

When the Captain said that, Rumlow raised his hand to signal to the Hydra operatives.

They quickly began to leave.

It seemed they wanted to get away fast before anyone changed their minds.

We had no choice but to watch them leave.

"Dammit..."

Even Jess, Wanda, and Natasha, who had been watching the situation beside me, had very grim expressions.

The Captain looked the same, but Thor walked over and patted his shoulder as if to comfort him.

Everyone waited silently for a while, and then Tony, Rhodey, Vision, and Myo Myo returned.

It seemed they had successfully driven off T’Challa’s Royal Talon Fighter.

"Huff... That wasn’t easy. The thing was completely coated in vibranium. But why does everyone look so glum? Did you catch all the Hydra guys and put them in the Odyssey’s brig?"

When Tony asked that, Natasha replied,

"You’ll have to ask the Captain about that."

At Natasha’s words, Tony seemed to grasp the situation roughly.

"Don’t tell me... you let them go because of Bucky? Why on earth would you do that? Don’t you know that if we don’t catch them now, there will be more attacks!?"

"Tony... I had no choice."

"Then why did you just stand there, Jin?"

Tony also turned on me.

"I don’t know either. Whether it was sympathy, or because he’s a friend..."

Tony let out a heavy sigh and said,

"Hah... This is insane... Cap, if this is how it’s going to be, stay out of Hydra-related matters from now on!"

Tony seemed extremely angry.

And honestly, he had every right to be.

He had wanted to catch Hydra himself but had yielded the task to the Captain because of his flying ability, and this was the result.

Tony had trusted the Captain’s judgment.

There was another problem.

Everett Ross, the UN agent who had witnessed everything, couldn’t understand the Captain’s actions at all.

"You just let them go!"

"There was a hostage situation. I had no choice."

"A hostage situation? What hostage? I will be reporting this to my superiors."

We returned to the Avengers base aboard the ships.

I had suggested it, judging that there was no further business with the UN, and everyone agreed without complaint.

We dropped off Everett Ross near the UN headquarters on the way.

Even back at the base, the atmosphere was very tense, and no one said much.

That day passed like that, and on the second day, a letter of protest arrived from the UN regarding the previous day’s incident.

The report must have gone up yesterday, but I hadn’t expected them to move that quickly.

It seemed they were trying to use any excuse to shake us up.

"Unbelievable... These people who always take their sweet time suddenly move fast when it comes to this."

As I looked at the letter, shaking my head in disbelief, Natasha, who was beside me, agreed and asked,

"Tell me about it. How are we going to respond?"

"I don’t know... For now, I think we should just watch and see. Our own problems haven’t been resolved yet either."

"That’s true..."

But then another incident occurred.

That evening, the Captain left a single message and quietly departed on the Aurea with Hawkeye, Thor, and Falcon.

[Tony, Jin... everyone. I apologize for putting the Avengers in a difficult position because of me. But this is something I started, and there’s also the matter of Bucky. I can’t back down here. I will see it through to the end and take responsibility.]

The members who remained at the base had mixed reactions—some looked dumbfounded, others sighed.

Tony, looking like he had a headache, sat on the sofa, resting his hand on his forehead, and said irritably,

"Huff... Damn it. I want to punch that handsome face."

In the midst of that, bad news came from Rhodey.

A prison had been built in the middle of the ocean, far from land, led by Secretary Ross, to hold criminals with special abilities.

It was likely the same place as the "Raft" from the original story.

The fact that Rhodey had relayed this information to us wasn’t just a simple notice that a facility for criminals had been built.

It was a warning message: "Watch your step too."

"Wow... This makes me want to just retire."

Pietro said in disbelief, and Tony nodded in agreement.

"It’s the worst. When you want to run a business but your house and neighbors are a mess, nothing gets done. At times like that, you have to deal with things one by one. So first, we need to figure out what to do about the Captain’s situation."

I also thought Tony’s words made sense, so I chimed in.

"Tony’s right. If we stay like this, nothing will get accomplished."

Everyone agreed with that opinion and started gathering information on Hydra again.

"Last time, you said Hydra was trying to go to Russia, right? What’s in Russia that they’d want to go there?"

"I don’t know... Maybe there’s a hidden Hydra base there? They could be making super-soldier serum there or something."

I knew the reason because I’d seen the original, but I couldn’t reveal it directly, so I answered with speculation.

In Russia, Winter Soldiers like Bucky were sleeping in cryogenic stasis, and Rumlow was surely planning to awaken them to strengthen Hydra’s forces.

In the original, they were described as being even more powerful than Bucky.

Even among super-soldiers, they were different from mere strong soldiers.

The Winter Soldiers were thoroughly trained weapons, specialized not only in combat but also in assassination, espionage, and spy activities.

That’s why Bucky had said, "If they wake up, they could bring down an entire country in an instant."

In the original, the Winter Soldiers were killed by Zemo before they could even awaken, but here the situation had changed significantly, and time had passed, so it was highly likely they had already been awakened by now.

"We should start investigating there first."

"Right."

I didn’t know the exact location either.

Even in the movie, it was only mentioned as a "Siberian base" in Russia.

But by using AI to backtrack the movements of Hydra operatives whose identities had been exposed before Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it would probably be found quickly.

"Found it! It’s north of Silehart in Siberia."

"Good, let’s head out immediately."

This time, all members except the ones the Captain had taken boarded the Odyssey and moved out.

Given the uncertainty of what Hydra might have prepared, and the desire to quickly resolve the growing list of problems, we made the move.

We traveled for a long time and arrived at the Siberian base.

BOOM! CRASH! BANG!

"Gah!"

"Ugh!"

We surveyed the base, assessed the internal situation, and raided it.

But as expected, we were too late—there were almost no personnel guarding the base, and most of the supplies were already gone.

"Damn... Looks like we’re too late."

"Still, let’s look around more. There might be something."

We moved all the subdued operatives to the brig on the Odyssey and began searching the base.

One by one, documents about the Winter Soldiers began to surface.

Records of what experiments had been conducted, the training processes, and how many people had been sacrificed to create the Winter Soldiers—all kinds of records poured out.

Furthermore, documents related to the super-soldier serum were also found.

Unfortunately, those included information about Tony’s father, Howard Stark.

Through those documents, Tony learned exactly how the super-soldier serum had ended up in Hydra’s hands.