Chapter 51: The Courage to Run

Within the halls of the factory…

“Warning! Warning! The prisoners held underground have escaped. Please go to the crackdown immediately!”

Warning lights mounted on the wall blared a bright red glare, the broadcasting radio next to it eager to compete and announce the news to the world. It had proven effective when patrol guards began rushing en masse.

“Seems Steve had managed to release the hostages from captivity.” It was at the time Kyle snuck down the corridors’ of the factory did the warning lights blare and cause a ruckus. “Time’s running out. I’ve to move fast!”

He quickened his pace and turned a corner. There, he saw groups of German Soldiers near closer up an aisle ahead. Kyle’s eyes turned awry and a little icy. Gripping the army knife on his left hand, he withdrew 《Stealth Mode》off and rushed forward at soaring speed.

His timely appearance was unexpected, much to the enemy’s surprise. The soldier in front shouted, “Enemy attack!” in a great deal of panic before exercising proper judgement to pull out the gun from his holster and press the trigger button. When he finally did so, a dazzling white and blue laser burst out from the muzzle.

The hall was a straight and narrow passage. The need to use proper aiming was nonexistent for it’d be easy to hit a target given how tight and narrow the hall was. Besides, the laser had superior speed than a bullet. It’d be impossible for anyone to dodge.

Kyle’s pupils contracted. His hair stood upright on the surface of his skin as the rays of laser drawing closer toward him magnified. He scoffed, and rather than avoid it like any sane person would do, he shot forward maniacally and waved his right hand when it was centimeters close to his chest.

Hong!

The laser, one that had great potential of erasing mankind’s existence, had been bounced by Kyle’s right arm.

German Soldiers: Σ੧(❛□❛✿) He… He bounced it back… Is he a monster?!

The ones in the back had fright and panic brimming in their eyes, but it wasn’t so for the ones up front. They’d not been given a chance to react before they evaporated in a blink of an eye. To think its use (laser) was ineffective…

“Those who stand in my way, die for me!” It mattered not if the enemy had lost their will to fight. Kyle moved forward, obliterating those who stood in his way, and bringing about an unforeseeable change in the enemy soldier’s will; some gathered the last vestige of their courage and fought back, try as they might, while others stood frozen on spot with some few running for their lives.

Kyle was a cheetah plunging its claws on its prey, his army knife a sickle gifted from the God of Death, causing carnage and destruction with every blow and stab. The weapon was one with him. Every enemy killed was a fragile paper for their scarlet blood dyed the corridor red.

“Die for me!” Kyle repeated with a cold whisper, elbowing the last standing enemy soldier. The laser rays shot from the last soldier rebounded and targeted him instead. In a matter of seconds, his flesh dissipated into the abyss of nothingness. Vibranium… truly a sturdy material. It had the power to absorb, store, and release large amounts of kinetic energy.

After dealing with the groups of German Soldiers, Kyle, who had the emotions of wet concrete, almost emotionless, did not delay. He ran, feet kissing the ground with great lolloping gait that otherwise suggested his ankles were made of tightly coiled springs rather than the sinew and bones normal beings would have; he ran, like the winter breeze colliding into inanimate objects and crashing waves hitting the shorelines, like eagles soaring across indigo skies, and like herds of cheetahs racing through verdant meadows. Each one of his mighty strides resonated around the walls of the corridor with a clanging echo.

Meanwhile, he hadn’t noticed the scene of his slaughter had been conveyed from a small, lithe camera at the corner of the wall.

*** *** ***

Hub Control Room.

Red Skull, whose face looked as if it had sunk into his forties, looked at the dozens of monitor screens blaring in front of him. His brows furrowed, eyes indicating a hint of fear. “Two Super Soldiers invaded the factory?” He whispered beyond belief with a cockeyed look.

On one screen was an innocent-like blonde dressed in white and blue striped tights quickly bringing down two soldiers before proceeding in the underground area. On the other screen was a figure who had a cold aura around him. He stormed in the corridor halls, leaving behind tragic bodies laying callously on the floor.

“No… Forget the first one… Why is the second one so strong?” A spurn of disbelief arose. Could he do what that young man had done? Rebounding the rays of the laser gun like a boomerang? He asked himself such dubious questions, his heart in atrophy. He was like them –– a Super Soldier. Both his mind and body were enhanced. He was a war machine. So why then… Why was there a great disparity of strength between him and the other fellow? He’d been injected with the Serum too despite it being an unfinished sample causing disfigurement to his face, his strength shouldn’t be so… Bad.

“What are you doing?” Asked the old doctor behind him with perplexity as he calmly turned on all the self-exploding switch.

Red Skull looked up and pointed at the surveillance screen. “I can’t stop him. No one can,” He said solemnly. “So, we fall back!” He sauntered to the wall of the hub room and opened a secret wall. There emerged a glowing blue crystalline cosmic cube… The Tesseract.

“Should be right ahead!” Kyle bolted over the wall, showing a glimpse of a passage in the middle that’d lead to the hub control room. At the foot of the door he saw a middle-aged officer carrying a bag, followed by an old doctor. They looked anxious, ready to leave. “Want to run? I think not! That thing you have in the bag stays!” With a cold glint, Kyle rushed over.

“Stop him!” Red Skull looked over his shoulder and glared at the doctor before leaving.

“Damn it!” The old doctor’s face was pale with fear, his legs growing soft. He’d been abandoned.

“I said, don’t run away!” Kyle chased after Red Skull. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the item inside the bag was the cosmic cube just from one look.

“Piece of junk!” Red Skull sneered, glancing back at the old doctor. Relying on an old man to stall the decisive Super Soldier was useless. “Try this…” Red Skull threw an energy box towards Kyle.

“Rare Blue Energy?” Kyle looked in surprise, sensing the energy emitting from the box. It felt like the blue quality jewel energy he last encountered during the counterattack raid. “Is it in stable state? Can it be used as a weapon?”

His doubts were answered in the next moment when Red Skull raised his arm and aimed at the energy box hovering in the air. Then, he pulled the trigger.

“This crazy bastard!” Kyle roared. He leaped forward and grabbed the old doctor, using his body as meat shield to block the incoming onslaught.

At the same time, the bullet collided with the energy box.

Then…

The air was frozen and stagnant…

Boom!

The explosive energy was a tidal wave, sweeping and destroying everything it could.