"Here's a bulky energy core, equivalent to an advanced battery. It's at least a decade ahead of external technology, but to me, Tony Stark, it's just a pile of junk!"
Tony, hunched over, stood near a thruster on the Sky Base, its outer casing already removed.
"What's this thing for? Backup power?" Qin Xiao stood beside him, handing him tools.
"Close enough! Think of it as a UPS for your house—it kicks in when the main power fails, ensuring a safe landing." Tony grunted, wrenching at a bolt.
"Replacing it with mine will guarantee the Sky Base can fly hundreds of kilometers and land smoothly even if the energy system fails!"
"Damn it! These hex bolts are completely seized. Don't they ever maintain this thing?" Frustrated, Tony threw the wrench to the ground.
"Let me! Let me!" Qin Xiao scrambled to pick up the tool. He couldn't help it; when it came to technology, especially mechanical engineering, Tony was undoubtedly one of the best on Earth.
Qin Xiao had been listening to Tony's boasting for ages, and now he finally had a chance to prove his worth.
He quickly grabbed a wrench and stepped forward.
"A real man can't just rely on his brain, Tony! You can't even handle a single screw without your armor? Today, I'll show you what a real man looks like! *Take that!*"
With a slight twist, Qin Xiao snapped the head off the screw. It flew high into the air, bouncing playfully on the distant ice before vanishing into a glint of sunlight.
"Hahaha!"
Tony laughed heartily from the sidelines.
"Go on! Mr. Tough Guy, just rip it out with brute force. Don't worry about breaking anything—I'll clean up the mess!"
"Alright then!"
Qin Xiao gripped the metallic box, about the size of two car batteries, and yanked with all his might!
The base and the wiring beneath it were ripped out violently.
*Whoosh!*
A burst of flame erupted from the detached base, and the sudden thrust sent Qin Xiao soaring over a dozen meters into the air.
Weightless and unable to gain leverage, Qin Xiao couldn't stop the momentum with his bare hands.
He spun wildly in the air like a broken faucet, carried hundreds of meters away from the base.
Qin Xiao only then remembered to release his grip, and he crashed heavily onto the ice.
Below in the base, Tony was doubled over with laughter.
"Tony, you bastard! Did you know this was going to happen all along?" Qin Xiao shouted angrily at Tony.
The truth is, men's happiness can sometimes be that simple—unconcerned with profession, social status, or societal expectations. It can be that childish.
Tony Stark was like that, and so was Qin Xiao.
"Just you wait, Tony! I'm going to melt a hole through this ice and throw you into the Arctic Ocean!" Qin Xiao's body erupted in blazing flames.
"I suspect the divine throne of Asgard has a side effect of lowering one's intelligence. You're starting to rival Thor in the dumb-as-a-rock department!" Tony ignored Qin Xiao's threat, muttering to himself before shouting back. "We're on Greenland! Even if you burn a hundred meters down, you won't reach the Arctic Ocean. You're more likely to unearth some frozen human from centuries ago—maybe a stunner with a killer posterior or something."
"Tony, Tony! Come here! I don't know if this one's a stunner, but she's definitely got a great posterior!"
"You actually found the frozen body?" Tony muttered, running over to Qin Xiao.
Qin Xiao had melted a pit several dozen centimeters deep in the ice around him. He was standing inside it, a round shield beneath his feet.
Tony Stark recognized the shield instantly—his father had forged it.
"My God! My father searched the Arctic Ocean for half a year and couldn't find this guy. And we just stumbled upon him?" Tony said in disbelief.
"In Chinese, we'd say this guy might have 'destiny' with us," Qin Xiao said, spreading his hands.
"Forget it! I have no interest. My father used this guy as an example every day when I was a kid, making me feel like a worthless piece of trash in comparison. I have no affection for him. At best, we can dig him up and donate him to the New York Museum—maybe get a patriotic flag or something."
Now that they'd found the shield, the body should be nearby.
Tony returned to put on his armor and used its scanning function to locate the body about ten meters below the ice, five meters from the shield.
"This guy should thank global warming!" Tony remarked as Qin Xiao hauled Captain America out from under ten meters of ice.
"Do you think the New York City Museum would give us a reward or something? I remember there's a Captain America Museum in New York that focuses on his life and his team's exploits. If we donate the shield and the ice block, their ticket prices could skyrocket!"
"Tony, have you considered that this guy might still be alive? I mean, frozen. You know, didn't some wealthy eccentric freeze himself too?"
"I love your lack of common sense, Qin. First of all, cryogenics requires very specific environmental conditions. Second, even if we thaw him, there's no guarantee his body functions, organs, or even his brain will recover. I bet you ten bucks this guy is just a fossil—a really fresh one."
Two hours later, in the Sky Base medical bay, after a comprehensive battery of tests and scans of his vital signs, organs, and brain, Tony pulled a ten-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to Qin Xiao.
"Let's be clear, this is an isolated case and absolutely not a scientifically valid precedent!"
"Oh, come on, Tony. You can't look at the world only through a scientific lens, you know? I can breathe fire, and someone can fly around wielding a hammer. What's impossible in this world anymore?"
***
The Sky Base finally settled at an altitude of 100 kilometers off the coast of New York.
It took two days to excavate Captain America and return here.
Tony's new energy source helped accelerate the Sky Base's speed.
Perhaps it was the proximity to home.
After the Sky Base came to a complete stop, Captain America suddenly opened his eyes.
The Sky Base was nearly empty at this point. Qin Xiao, fearing Captain America might clash with someone upon waking, had left him alone in the lower level beneath the fan blades.
Poor Captain America woke up to find himself utterly alone. When he stepped out, he was greeted by a futuristic corridor with glowing lights.
He ran outside and discovered he was in the sky, above the clouds.
He returned to the corridor and shouted for a long time, but no one answered.
"If I were to fly over in my armor, would our Captain Rogers think he'd arrived in heaven?" Tony said with a laugh, watching the surveillance footage.
After wandering around for a while, Captain America finally spotted the elevator at the junction of the fan blades and the metal pillar.
He'd actually seen it earlier, but the door and buttons looked so different from what he remembered that he didn't recognize it as an elevator.
He reached out to press a button, but before his hand could touch it, the elevator door slid open with a ding.
A young man with black hair and black eyes smiled at him.
"Welcome, Steve Rogers, welcome to heaven. I am your guiding angel, designation 1918!"
***
Actually, in the movie, Captain America was found in the plane wreckage. But Marvel's earlier lore had him separated from the plane!
Because Banner went to the Arctic, tried to kill himself by swallowing a gun, and later transformed into the Hulk. The Hulk smashed an iceberg in the Arctic, and a satellite captured a photo of the Hulk standing on the ice, roaring. In the corner of the photo, Captain America was buried under a chunk of ice.
Later, for some reason, they abandoned this setup.
Also, the main text of each chapter is sufficient, averaging over 2,000 words. This meets Tomato Editor's requirement of 2,000 words per chapter, and I'm even exceeding that average. The words after the dividing line don't count towards the main text word count, and I don't get paid for them.
Stop accusing me of padding my word count. I'm not getting paid for it!
If you think the main text is weak, that's a failing of my writing. I can't fix that immediately, but I'll keep improving! Have a great weekend!
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