In the video.
Steve Rogers sat in the car with his hands tied, his head lowered, his expression filled with melancholy and conflict.
He was relieved that Bucky was still alive, but heartbroken that Bucky was now working for Hydra and didn't remember him at all.
Steve snapped back to reality only when he heard Natasha humming beside him.
"Are you okay?"
"It's fine, I was just shot in the shoulder."
He shook his head, but Natasha was already pale from excessive blood loss.
"Hey, we need a doctor!"
Falcon, who was standing nearby, immediately shouted after seeing Natasha's colorless face.
Before he could say anything more, the Hydra soldier guarding them smashed Falcon in the gut with the butt of his rifle.
"Don't be impulsive!"
Seeing Falcon and Steve both tense up to fight, Natasha quickly shook her head.
"According to the timing… my backup should be arriving right about now."
"What?"
Steve and Falcon exchanged confused looks, having no idea what she meant.
The next second, the vehicle in front of them exploded, flipping violently to the side.
Hearing the explosion, the Hydra soldiers in the car tensed immediately.
Before any of them could react, two beams of heat vision pierced straight through the roof. A moment later, Linen dropped from the sky, crushing through the roof and landing directly inside the transport.
The Hydra soldiers saw the masked figure and tried to raise their guns—
—but Linen took all of them down in seconds.
Turning around, he saw the three prisoners restrained with specialized handcuffs.
Heat vision flashed again from beneath Linen's mask, melting the metal apart and freeing them.
Falcon rubbed his sore wrist and glanced at Natasha.
"When you called for help this morning… were you talking about the famous Judge?"
"Damn it, you should've called him earlier! What about the Hulk? Is he part of your backup too?"
At Falcon's "complaint," Natasha shrugged.
"This time we're going up against the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. We don't even know if we can win. I didn't want to drag every superhero from the Battle of New York into this mess."
But the shrug tugged at her wound, and she winced in pain.
Kicking open the overturned car door, Linen said, "Let's go. Tony is with Nick Fury. The medical setup is a bit simple…"
"But we already prepared blood bags matching your type."
"Tony's involved too?"
Steve immediately jumped out of the car after hearing that.
"When Natasha contacted me this morning, Tony was right next to me."
"After he heard that you were wanted by S.H.I.E.L.D., he insisted on helping. I told him not to, but after calling Maria Hill, he learned about Nick Fury's fake death."
As he spoke, Linen opened a glowing portal.
"Wait—Nick Fury isn't dead?"
Natasha frowned as she stepped out of the transport.
"Then why did he… never mind. I think I know why he did that."
Steve and Natasha walked straight through the portal.
Falcon hesitated for a few seconds.
"The Judge + Captain America + Natasha + Iron Man… half the Avengers are here. I feel like something big is coming."
"It is something big. This time we're targeting Hydra hidden inside S.H.I.E.L.D. It might be extremely dangerous."
Steve looked back at Falcon from the other side of the portal.
"So? You joining us?"
The video paused.
Tony Stark slapped the armrest of his theater seat.
"Come on! With my personality, if I knew Steve and Natasha were wanted by S.H.I.E.L.D., of course I'd show up! How could something this big happen without Tony Stark?"
"But… the superhero who won the Battle of New York? What Battle of New York? I become a superhero in the future?"
Leaving the theater in confusion, Tony immediately opened his laptop to contact other people with spoiler systems.
In Wanda's bedroom, somewhere inside Hydra's Sokovia base—
"So… Hydra inside S.H.I.E.L.D. is exposed?"
Wanda's expression was complicated as she walked back from the theater.
The last time she heard Steve say "Hail Hydra" to Sitwell, she already knew Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.
But Wanda hadn't told anyone — not even Pietro.
After all, she had the spoiler system, and she couldn't explain that to anyone.
Now that Hydra's embedded agents were exposed… would Linen be fighting Hydra next?
If so… then where did that leave her?
According to the video, Linen would become her future husband.
But she was Hydra now.
Did that mean she and Linen were enemies?
So how would they end up together?
Would she really betray Hydra and join the Avengers?
But she joined Hydra to protect Sokovia — and to take revenge on Tony Stark.
How could she ever stand with them?
Staring at her reflection in the mirror, Wanda felt her thoughts spiraling.
If only she could watch more videos of the future…
At the same time, in Tony Stark's villa laboratory in New York—
"You two are way too slow getting online!"
Tony complained the moment Natasha and Steve appeared on the screen.
Before either of them could reply, Nick Fury's voice cut in seriously:
"Now isn't the time for this. You saw in the video that at some point in the future, I'll be assassinated by Hydra, and—"
"2014!"
Before Fury could finish, Tony interrupted.
"I'm certain this happens in 2014."
"When you were attacked, and that stupid A.I. said the only functional system was the air conditioner… I checked the timestamp on the car's radio."
"Tony's right."
Inside a small alley in New York, Natasha sat in a parked car.
"I checked too. But the video didn't show the full radio display. I only saw the year: 2014. No month."
"2014… that's nearly here. Which means the event happens three years from now."
"By then, Alexander Pierce's Insight Project will be ready, and the Zola Algorithm will be fully deployed."
Nick Fury nodded.
"Looks like we have three years to wipe Hydra out completely."
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