(A very big chapter, word-wise)
To be honest, when Bucky’s uncontrolled attack began, Taras, who was standing nearby, had a hint of anticipation in his heart. After all, the Winter Soldier, the strongest force of the Red Room, which they couldn’t completely control, might be able to eliminate Kyle.
However, when Taras saw Kyle directly withstand Bucky’s powerful mechanical blow with his bare hand, it was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, making him shiver.
That was a punch from a mechanical arm that had the power of several humans combined! And Kyle took it head-on?
Next, as Taras watched Winter Soldier, the proud creation of the Red Room, being tossed around and bullied like a ragdoll in Kyle’s hands, he was left speechless in utter shock.
“What’s going on?” The other two high-ranking officials heard the unexpected commotion and hurried over from the base entrance. When they saw Kyle engaged in a fierce fight with the rampaging Winter Soldier, they could only sigh in frustration.
“Winter Soldier, stop!” As the person responsible for the Winter Soldier’s brainwashing, the Red Room executive stepped forward to issue commands and stabilize Winter Soldier. However, under Raina’s Mental Manipulation, his progress was halted ten meters away from the combat zone.
“No one is allowed to approach Boss.” Raina extended her small, fair hand as she spoke while her silver eyes shimmered with power. With her extraordinary telepathic abilities, she maintained control of the situation, preventing others from interfering in Kyle and Winter Soldier’s battle.
Hmm, let’s call it a ‘Battle,’ though it seemed more like a one-sided ‘beat down.’
“Bang!”
In the heart of the battle, Kyle violently tugged at Winter Soldier’s mechanical arm with his body spinning a full circle in the air. He then exerted force and flung him away.
Once again, the Winter Soldier was sent flying away from Kyle.
He landed at some distance with an expressionless look in his eyes, his feet gripping the ground as his mechanical arm dug three furrows into the concrete. Amid a cloud of dust, he managed to steady himself.
“Not bad. You’re almost on par with Steve.” Kyle gave an honest assessment.
The Winter Soldier Bucky’s strength was comparable to that of Captain America Steve, with nearly identical physical endurance and combat skills. The only difference lay in their abilities: One had the indestructible Vibranium Shield for defense, while the other possessed a powerful mechanical arm for Offense.
One attacked, the other defended— which made perfect sense in a somewhat chaotic sense.
Kyle didn’t care about how strong someone’s offense was. When it came to strength, both Winter Soldier and Black Widow were like younger siblings in his eyes.
“S-Steve?” Upon hearing the name, Bucky’s eyes seemed to regain some focus. Emotion colored his otherwise cold gaze as he held his throbbing head, muttering to himself.
“I knew it. Even if you forgot my name, you wouldn’t forget Steve Rogers.” Kyle smiled when he saw Bucky’s situation and slowly approached him.
He continued to guide the narrative, saying, “Did you forget? Steve is your closest friend. You saved him from thugs in the streets of New York, and he broke into a German factory to rescue you.”
The name Steve seemed like a key, urging Bucky to clutch his head and roll on the ground while memories that had long been sealed away were forcefully awakened.
Witnessing this scene from outside the battlefield, the Red Room executives urgently whispered, “This isn’t good. Winter Soldier’s original memories are coming back.”
“With that man here, we’re powerless to do anything.” Another high-ranking individual, Reese, shook his head, offering his advice.
Kyle looked at Bucky, who was rolling on the ground and continued to approach. “You, me, and Steve. We were on a Mission together once. You saved Steve by throwing yourself from a speeding train, plummeting hundreds of meters off an ice cliff.”
“Steve, speeding train, ice cliff…” Bucky shuddered and abruptly opened his tightly shut eyes. He looked up at Kyle beside him, and gradually, a recovering clarity appeared in his gaze.
“Welcome back, Sergeant Bucky Barnes.” Kyle lowered himself and extended his hand to Bucky. Bucky firmly grasped it with his mechanical left hand and stood up with its assistance.
His first words left everyone around stunned, “Major Kyle, I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
Major?
Kyle nodded with a perplexed expression on his face. It had been a while since anyone had used that title for him.
“What’s wrong? Is something off?” Bucky scratched his head in confusion when he saw Kyle’s expression.
Logan walked over while carrying Natasha and explained, “The Boss was promoted to Major a long time ago and was promoted to General. Of course, he applied for retirement after the war ended.”
“General? Hold on, did you say the war ended?” Bucky stood there with a bewildered expression on his face. During his time in the Red Room, he had no idea that over half a year had passed outside.
“I’ll explain on the plane back. Also, there’s something I need to tell you about Steve.” Kyle patted Bucky’s shoulder comfortingly as he spoke before his gaze scanned the surrounding Red Room personnel before he spoke. “I can help you take care of them. What do you think?”
Kyle’s statement fell on everyone’s ear with unapologetically icy words, leaving the armed soldiers and high-ranking members of the Red Room pale and trembling, their eyes fixed on Bucky.
Bucky gazed intently at the Red Room executive and then shook his head, saying, “Never mind. They saved my life, and my brainwashing was my debt to them.”
Upon hearing this, relief washed over the Red Room members, and they sank to the ground.
“Let’s go then.” Kyle was nonchalant as he walked out of the base with Logan, Bucky, and the others following.
Shortly after they left, the guns floating in the base’s air lost their telepathic control and rained down like drops of rain.
Howard’s team had arranged for a transport plane to take them back to New York.
“I see. Steve actually… Kyle, you managed to stop World War II? The ‘Symbol of Peace’, you are a Superhero?” Bucky’s emotions churned as he processed the new information.
He was both melancholic and pleasantly surprised, not expecting that so much had happened while he was in the Red Room for over half a year. His expression remained dazed for quite a while.
It hit him particularly hard when he learned about Steve’s disappearance after his plane crashed into the ocean, along with the plane itself, he sat in the aircraft seat sighing repeatedly.
Logan placed the unconscious Natasha in her seat, his eyes sharp as if he had noticed something. He looked at Kyle’s face, his expression one of astonishment as he spoke. “Boss, your chin…”
“Huh?” Kyle raised an eyebrow, his hand wiping at his chin where a slightly sticky smear of blood had been left.
It was a small wound from the previous exchange with Bucky’s punches, which was still not completely healed.
“Sergeant Bucky, right? Your mechanical arm, is it made of Carbonadium steel?” Logan asked Bucky.
“Carbonadium steel?” Bucky murmured, raising his mechanical left arm with a puzzled expression. Shaking his head, he said, “It’s just made of high-quality steel for the mechanical components.”
“Then why…” Logan began to ask, but Kyle interrupted him. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
“Boss, can you get hurt too?” Raina asked curiously. She had seen Kyle get injured before, but even massive injuries caused by nuclear explosions would heal in a matter of seconds.
“It’s just a minor injury.” Kyle calmly responded, clenching his fists quietly. His inner turmoil was far from being as serene as it appeared on the surface.
Back at the Red Room base, he had realized that his self-healing ability had been disabled— not completely, but temporarily suppressed due to some anomaly in his body.
Indeed, his body had developed some unknown issues after the nuclear explosion in Tokyo.
“After we land at the airport, Logan, take them back to the mansion. I’ll go visit Stark Industries and have a talk with Howard.” Kyle instructed.
“Sure thing.” Logan nodded.
“Raina, with your telepathic abilities, you should be able to handle Bucky’s uncontrollable episodes. Focus on that.” Kyle instructed, walking over to ruffle Raina’s hair and she obediently nodded in agreement.
Kyle wasn’t aware of the exact problem affecting his body that caused his self-healing ability to fail temporarily. There was no need to trouble the Carl Family members unnecessarily.
However, he needed to find out the root cause of the issue with his body as soon as possible.
…
Late at night in New York, Stark Industries building, 52nd floor, Medical Research Division.
The entire floor was quiet, with only Howard, now in a lab coat, working diligently in a brightly lit isolation room, manipulating medical testing equipment and conducting assays.
In the advanced medical chamber, Kyle lay unclothed, his perfect physique resembling a work of art crafted by God. A green light repeatedly scanned over him.
Half an hour later.
The medical chamber opened, and Kyle, seemingly aware, sat up and dressed himself in a simple shirt.
Howard removed his mask and let out a deep exhale. His gaze fixed on Kyle, his expression unprecedentedly grave as he said, “We don’t have all the detailed chemical analysis data yet, but I have a general understanding of your body’s condition.”
“Go on.” Kyle nodded calmly, his face showing no signs of panic.
“Your body has been contaminated with a significant amount of nuclear radiation. For comparison, just one-thousandth of the radiation value is enough to make an ordinary person feel dizzy and feverish. If it exceeds one percent, it can torment and kill a person within a few years.”
Howard sighed deeply, continuing, “Such a high level of radiation deeply entrenched within your marrow, and you’re still alive. Only something like calling you Superman can describe you.”
“But indeed, you are ‘Superman.’ Your metabolism is more than five times that of a human. Your strength, speed, and endurance are tenfold those of a human. You’re the epitome of human evolution! This should be the theoretical peak potential achievable by the Super Soldier Serum.”
“And then there’s your incredible self-healing speed. Your blood contains some mysterious factor that neutralized the effects of radiation sickness, which was probably caused by something in your gene.” Howard was left in awe.
Kyle propped up his chin and asked, “So, apart from losing my self-healing ability, my body hasn’t been affected much?”
“That’s not it.” Howard frowned before he shook his head and spoke. “The problem isn’t a radiation-induced illness. Originally, your Super Soldier genes had stabilized into a state of perfection. But now, under the influence of radiation, they’re starting to break down, collapse, and attempt to reassemble.”
“Am I going through a second mutation? Or, you could say, a latent initial mutation?” Kyle pondered.
“We don’t know the severity yet. Becoming even stronger than you are now, without compromising your natural lifespan— that’s evolution.”
Howard paused and then slowly said, “The genes that are currently reassembling in your body are indeed inducing powerful abilities. However, until the genetic restructuring is complete, you’ll gradually lose your abilities, and potentially your life, one step at a time. In other words, your genetic abilities are like a flood, and even with the dam-like strength of your Superman physique, it won’t hold for long.”
Kyle shivered, maintaining his composure as he asked, “How long do I have?”
“Less than a year.”
Howard’s words were akin to a decree from the Grim Reaper, marking the beginning of the terminal phase of Kyle’s life.
(End of this chapter)
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