Chapter 30: The Long Blink
The decision was made in a heartbeat. Arthur knew that every second they spent in a transport plane was a second Hydra spent scrubbing the Siberian facility from existence—and with it, the lives of hundreds of "archived" soldiers.
"Gather round," Arthur commanded, his voice vibrating with the strain of his Core Integrity. "Steve, Bucky, Dugan—touch the staff. Do not let go, or you'll be left in the fold."
The Global Blink
Arthur didn't just tap into his power; he burned through his DP Balance like a star going supernova.
[ SYSTEM TRANSACTION ]
Spending: 8,000 DP
Action: Mass Spatial Displacement (Continental Scale).
Target: Vorkuta, Siberia.
Warning: High risk of 'Temporal Splintering'.
The interior of the medical transport vanished. It didn't fade; it was simply replaced by a blinding, sapphire-white tunnel of light. The Howling Commandos felt their bodies stretch across the curvature of the Earth.
When the light snapped back into a single point, the warmth of the French countryside was gone. It was replaced by a wind so cold it turned breath into ice before it could leave the lungs. They were standing on a jagged ridge overlooking a fortress carved directly into the Siberian permafrost.
Vorkuta: The Ice Grave
The facility was a brutalist nightmare of reinforced concrete and iron. High-powered searchlights cut through the swirling blizzard, and the hum of massive cooling fans echoed against the mountain walls.
"We're here," Bucky rasped, his eyes widening as he saw the Hydra flags whipping in the gale. "You actually did it. You skipped half the world."
"Look at the scanners," Arthur said, his [Chrono-Vision] highlighting the heat signatures within the base. "They aren't preparing for a siege. They're venting the cryo-tanks. They're killing the subjects."
The Asset Emerges
As the team moved toward the perimeter, the massive blast doors of the central bunker ground open. Out of the mist stepped a figure that stopped Arthur's heart.
He was dressed in tactical gear that looked decades ahead of 1944. His left arm was a matte-black prosthetic, etched with a red star, but it wasn't Bucky. The man behind the mask had eyes that Arthur recognized from the "True" records of the future.
[ SYSTEM SCAN ]
Target Identified: The Winter Soldier (Variant).
Identity: Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan (Neural-Warped Variant).
Divergence: 18.2% (CRITICAL).
Arthur looked back at the "real" Dugan standing next to him. The veteran soldier was staring at his own future—a version of himself that had been captured during a solo mission Arthur had failed to track during his three-month absence.
"That's me," Dugan whispered, his voice trembling for the first time in the war. "But... his eyes. There's nothing in his eyes."
The Winter-Dugan didn't speak. He raised a high-velocity rifle, his bionic arm locking into a firing position with a mechanical whine.
"The timeline is trying to fix the hole I left," Arthur realized, gripping [The Archive's Edge]. "It needed a Winter Soldier. If it couldn't have Bucky, it took his best friend."
[ NEW QUEST: THE DUALITY OF THE COMMANDO ]
Objective: Neutralize the Winter-Dugan without killing him.
Primary Goal: Stop the venting of the cryo-chambers.
Constraint: Arthur's [Record Overwrite] is at 10% charge.
Current Status:
DP Balance: 10,200.
Sync Level: 54%.
Enemy Threat: High (The Asset knows your tactics).