585

Chapter - The Captain America

Frank was resolute.

As the Punisher, his stance towards villains had always been singular: to kill!

It was straightforward and brutal.

Hundreds of thousands had perished at his hands. While all were guilty, his methods of severe punishment veered well outside the law, warranting at least a life sentence upon conviction.

The government disliked vigilantes who abstained from killing and certainly wouldn't tolerate such a violent approach.

Nick Fury queried, "Must it be this way, Frank? You've had your vengeance."

Frank replied firmly, "Yes, I've avenged myself, but there are countless others awaiting justice. I'll deliver it to them all, punishing every villain who escapes their due fate. That's why I call myself the Punisher."

Nick Fury found himself at a loss for words.

He sincerely desired Frank's enlistment, but if Frank persisted, his hands were tied.

After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. was a government agency. Despite its discreet and specialized nature, it couldn't condone extrajudicial killings.

In essence, the Punisher was already a super-criminal, and S.H.I.E.L.D. now had the responsibility to apprehend him.

A tense silence hung in the air.

At that moment, General Ross approached with his troops, fixing a scrutinizing gaze on the Punisher, his eyes filled with both wonder and ambition.

General Ross coveted extraordinary power; the Hulk's power had been his lifelong aspiration. Naturally, he couldn't ignore the potential offered by the Punisher.

Noticing General Ross and his men, the Punisher furrowed his brow. "Fury, I must depart."

Nick Fury sighed.

Once more, the Punisher transformed into his demonic form. With a sweep of his wings, he ascended into the night sky on a gust of wind, disappearing in the blink of an eye, swallowed by the darkness.

---

Several months later.

"Captain, it's still hard to believe." Nick Fury approached a burly young man.

The youth had short blond hair, a tall, robust physique, and his rolled-up sleeves revealed the muscular contours of a well-trained bodybuilder.

He stood by the window, gazing out at the bustling scene below, his eyes distant and contemplative, as though from another world.

Nick Fury continued, "The World War II legend, Steve Rogers, resurrected today after more than sixty years... It's almost as unbelievable as your own journey."

Facing him was Steve Rogers, known as Captain America, the heroic super-soldier who had almost single-handedly crippled Germany during World War II. He had disappeared after crashing his plane into the Arctic Ocean over 60 years ago, only to be accidentally discovered frozen in ice and snow not long ago.

Thanks to his enhanced super-soldier physiology, Steve had managed to survive and recover after a long period of cryostasis, awakening to a new, unfamiliar 21st century world that left him feeling both familiar and lost.

Nick Fury opened a can of Coke and handed it to Steve. "Try a 21st-century Coke. It might taste a bit different."

Steve hesitated for a moment before taking a sip, though his demeanor betrayed his melancholy.

"You were thinking of the date you missed with Peggy Carter?" Nick Fury asked.

Steve nodded silently.

Nick Fury continued, "You should go see her. She's still as resilient as ever."

"I'm decades late," Steve confessed. "I don't know what to say to her now, how to face her."

"But you have to face it," Nick Fury replied firmly.

Steve didn't respond, taking another sip of Coke with a troubled expression, as if it were a strong spirit he was downing.

After a pause, he seemed to recall something. "By the way, what about the Cosmic Cube? Have you found it?"

"Well... we found it, but then it was lost," Nick Fury explained.

"How so?"

Nick Fury elaborated, "Although the Tesseract is only the size of a fist, it emits constant energy emissions that make it easy to detect. We discovered it in a glacier early on and conducted research."

"Our studies on the Cosmic Cube yielded much insight, but unfortunately, subsequent events led to its disappearance alongside the Skrulls. There's been no trace of it since."

"Skrulls?"

Nick Fury nodded. "An alien race in flight. Using the Tesseract, our scientists developed a light-speed engine to clandestinely aid these refugees in escaping war."

"However, after the scientist's untimely demise, the Tesseract remained with the Skrull refugees hidden in their secret laboratory. When the truth came to light, the lab, the Skrulls, and the Cosmic Cube had all vanished."

The Cosmic Cube, like in the original story, hadn't returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. with the Skrulls' disappearance, and its whereabouts remained unknown.

Steve fell silent, appearing uninterested in further details. To him, the Tesseract symbolized war and destruction—an ominous artifact that had ensnared even the Red Skull. He wasn't sorry to see it gone.

"Captain, we're forming a team called the Avengers, and I think you should join," Nick Fury finally proposed.

"The Avengers are being assembled to combat major threats—like alien invasions. It'll be a team of superheroes, and you're the perfect candidate to lead. What do you say?"

---