"Die, you bastard!!"
Windeye thrust out his arm, unleashing a compressed air blast.
But a split second before his arm fully extended—
Winter Soldier was already gone.
He dropped straight down, moving like a black panther in free fall.
Midair, without adjusting his posture, his mechanical left arm smashed into the container wall. Using the recoil, he redirected his trajectory, narrowly slipping past Windeye's follow-up barrage.
Landing. Rolling.
Bang! Bang!
Two muffled gunshots.
Windeye's thigh erupted in a spray of blood. He screamed and collapsed to his knees.
Sonic Siren's amplifier shattered under a precision shot. The violent feedback shriek slammed into her ears, sending her writhing on the ground, clutching her head.
The Winter Soldier stepped over Windeye's twitching body.
No hesitation. No words.
He raised the rifle, muzzle steady, lining up a clean shot at Sonic Siren's forehead—
"RAAAH—!!!"
At that instant, a massive shadow slammed into him with a howl of displaced air.
BAM!
The shot went wide, grazing Sonic Siren's scalp and sparking off the concrete floor.
Iron Arm Joe.
The man who usually flexed biceps for the camera now charged like a wounded bull.
His right hand clenched into a fist and smashed into the rifle.
The sheer force pulverized the M4A1 carbine into flying components.
Metal clattered across the ground.
The Winter Soldier's eyes flickered.
He executed a textbook tactical backstep, instantly widening the distance.
He studied Iron Arm Joe.
The arm he'd shattered earlier—now fully restored.
Not only intact, but thicker. Denser.
At Joe's feet lay an empty syringe.
T-VEX.
Joe had cashed in two months' worth of hero points—plus a Black Friday first-purchase discount—just to get that single dose from the V.G.D. store.
Originally meant as a last-resort lifeline.
Or maybe a secret weapon for his next evaluation.
Now it was burning through his veins.
"FUCK YOU!!" Joe roared, white vapor blasting from his nostrils as his body temperature spiked.
"You know how expensive that shit is?! HUH?!"
He charged, each step cracking the concrete beneath his boots.
"I'm gonna rip that metal arm off—
AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!!!"
Boosted by T-VEX, his speed and strength skyrocketed.
The punch tore through the air, aimed straight at the Winter Soldier's face.
The assassin didn't block.
He leaned back, pivoting cleanly on his heel—
a flawless sambo evasive maneuver.
The fist grazed his mask.
In the same instant, the Winter Soldier's mechanical arm shot out, clamping onto Joe's wrist, attempting a joint-lock disarm.
It didn't budge.
No movement.
"Strength increased," the Winter Soldier calculated.
"GET OFF ME!!"
Joe bellowed, twisting violently.
Raw, drug-fueled power flung the Winter Soldier through the air.
CLANG!
He smashed into a container five meters away, denting the steel inward like paper.
"Hahahaha!! SEE THAT?!"
Joe felt invincible. The omnipotent surge from the drug drowned out all fear.
"This is POWER! This is Vought's power!!"
He marched forward, preparing to finish the assassin.
But when he reached the container—
No one was there.
Only a deep, concave dent.
"Where the hell did that masked freak go?!"
"COME OUT, COWARD!!"
Joe smashed everything around him, trying to force his enemy into the open.
Clink—
A small object rolled to a stop at his feet.
A flashbang.
"What the—?!"
He turned—
BOOM!!
Blinding white light.
A concussive roar.
His vision and hearing vanished in an instant.
"AAAAH! MY EYES!!"
Joe flailed wildly, each punch strong enough to shatter air—yet hitting nothing.
Above him, clinging to the shadowed edge of a container like a phantom, the Winter Soldier watched coldly.
As Hydra's most perfected weapon, he never fought fair.
And he never brawled head-on with a drug-frenzied monster.
He unclipped a magnetic mine from his tactical vest—
the kind designed to cripple tanks.
He didn't throw it at Joe.
Instead, he flicked his wrist.
The mine arced through the air, landing beside Sonic Siren, who was struggling to crawl away.
Beep… Beep…
A red light blinked.
"NO!! AMY!!"
Joe's sanity snapped.
That was his goddess.
He lunged toward her on instinct.
"STAY STILL!!"
He threw himself over her, using his enhanced body as a shield.
BOOOOOM!!
Fire swallowed them both.
Joe's back was shredded, flesh torn open—
yet T-VEX regeneration kicked in instantly, muscles knitting back together before the eye.
"Cough—damn it…"
He spat rubble, dragging Sonic Siren behind cover.
"Don't go out there, Joe…" she sobbed.
"He'll kill us…"
"I know! I know!!"
Joe glanced at his watch.
Ten minutes left.
And the killer still refused to fight him head-on.
From above—
RATATATATAT—
Rifle fire poured down, pinning them in place.
Every time Joe tried to move, his teammate took fire.
The Winter Soldier kept shifting positions—
terrain, traps, pressure, psychology.
He wasn't fighting Joe.
He was bleeding out the clock.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Eight minutes.
Joe's breathing grew ragged.
The invincibility ebbed.
Hollowness crept in.
"Shit… it's wearing off…"
His knees buckled.
Strength drained away like a receding tide.
From the shadows, the Winter Soldier stepped forward.
The weakness was obvious now.
Click.
A fresh magazine slid into place.
His mechanical hand drew a tactical knife.
Harvest time.
He leapt down—this time charging straight in.
No evasions.
No tricks.
Just execution.
WHOOOOM—!!!
An engine's roar split the rain.
A blinding searchlight slammed down, pinning the Winter Soldier in its beam.
Wind howled.
A Vought Nightingale-class VTOL hovered overhead, the massive VGD logo emblazoned on its hull.
"DROP YOUR WEAPON!!"
The command boomed from loudspeakers.
The Winter Soldier looked up, eyes narrowing.
He didn't stop.
He accelerated.
The knife shifted from a thrust to a throw—
aimed straight at Joe's eye socket.
CLANG!!
A red, white, and blue shield spun through the air, striking the blade aside at the last possible instant.
The shield rebounded—
slamming toward the Winter Soldier's chest.
His metal arm snapped up, barely deflecting it.
The opening vanished.
THUD!!
A tall figure dropped from the aircraft, landing squarely between the assassin and his prey.
Dust rolled outward.
As the shield flew back into his grasp, Steve Rogers stood and straightened.
The star on his chest gleamed beneath the searchlight.
The rain fell harder.
And for the first time—
The Winter Soldier paused.
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T/N:
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