After the collapse of the Third Reich, because Hitler's body was never found, the topic of "Hitler might still be alive" remained a hotbed for conspiracy theories. Among the most widely circulated conjectures were the "Third Reich's Secret Antarctic Base" and the "Third Reich's Secret Lunar Base."
On Earth-616, while Hitler was indeed dead and gone, Hydra was not. Much like the underground city in Budapest, Hydra had discovered a closed ecosystem on the Antarctic continent—the kind seen in A Journey to the Center of the Earth. This vast region had remained unaffected by the K-Pg mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. Furthermore, with just a bit of technology and magic, it was theoretically possible to keep it completely sealed off.
Thus, the Third Reich's secret Antarctic base naturally and logically existed.
"So, this place hasn't changed at all since the meteorite hit?"
Peter had carried Kitty to the top of a tree, where she stared at the tall, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs in the distance. "But aren't they a bit... uh, too short?"
"How tall do you think a dinosaur should be?"
"Thirty or forty meters?"
Thirty or forty meters wouldn't be a dinosaur anymore; that would be heading toward Godzilla territory. Peter complained inwardly, but he conceded to one of Kitty's points: the Savage Land indeed hosted many dinosaurs, but these creatures were significantly smaller than the general perception of them. For instance, Peter saw a dinosaur that was likely a tyrannosaurid, but its total height was only about three meters. Compared to the massive skeletons in museums, it was roughly half the size.
And that was already the largest dinosaur Peter had seen so far.
"Hydra's secret base is right here. It's completely shielded from technological signals and avoids magical teleportation other than through the Norn Stones—it seems Hydra's magic department is much more formidable than I thought."
As Peter spoke, he looked toward the massive Hydra Mountain in the distance. "And it looks like we won't be able to get out unless we deactivate the barrier."
Deactivating the magic barrier set up by Hydra, or finding the Norn Stones, wasn't essentially about running away. Given such a golden opportunity to wipe out a Hydra branch—likely a major one—the plan was obviously to kick open a door and immediately drag the Avengers in for a full-scale raid!
They had expected to bust a street-level villain like the Hand, but they had ended up poking a Hydra hornets' nest!
"We need to find a way over there, preferably without being spotted by any Hydra surveillance equipment or personnel. They definitely don't know we're here yet."
Peter discussed the situation in a low voice while looking around, then looked at Kitty with a hopeful expression. "Can you take me directly into the interior of their base? Through the ground?"
Kitty looked at the massive Hydra Mountain, which was roughly dozens of kilometers away, with a troubled expression. "I mean, I can move underground, but I still have to breathe. Usually, in these situations, I have to hold my breath. Two minutes is fine, but if the distance is too great and I run out of oxygen, my powers will probably deactivate automatically."
If that happened, Kitty would likely end up stuck in the dirt—the kind you can't pull out.
Hearing this, Peter didn't lose heart. "While I could get across using my suit and stealth capabilities, I can't just leave you here—"
"What if we knock out a couple of Hydra soldiers and go in disguised as them?"
"Great idea, but there are a lot of problems. For example, whether their gear has active cameras at all times, whether they have internal passcodes, or for instance... why haven't we seen a single Hydra person after being here for so long?"
Peter was listing reasons that discouraged Kitty, but then he suddenly stopped. He had actually spotted a person. To be precise, it was a wild man. His appearance was undoubtedly that of a Homo sapien like Peter and Kitty, but he was dressed like a primitive man. He was accompanied by a sabertooth tiger that looked neither modern nor Cretaceous. Armed with a spear, he was launching an attack on a dinosaur that was roughly the size of an elephant but resembled a Brontosaurus.
Peter had a slight impression of this character, remembering him as one of the starter card characters from a Marvel card game. What was his name again... Ka-Zar?
Kitty let out a "Wow" and tilted her head in confusion. "I'm pretty sure there were neither primitive humans nor sabertooth tigers during the Cretaceous period, right?"
"Then it's obvious they aren't original products of this place. It's unlikely Hydra is kindhearted enough to settle a primitive tribe here. They might be experimental subjects, or their very existence is an experiment."
Looking at the primitive man before them, Peter harbored no expectations regarding their intended purpose. Of course, from that perspective, they weren't necessarily bad people; in fact, there was a high probability they could be recruited as allies. However, if they truly needed to recruit primitive-level warriors to join the fight, it would mean the situation they were facing was far too exaggerated.
They watched as the robust primitive warrior finished off the miniature Brontosaurus and hoisted the thing up alone to carry it back. This gave Peter a fresh appreciation for this Marvel version of Tarzan's strength. Then, he narrowed his eyes.
"If these primitives were placed here by Hydra, then there must be Hydra personnel monitoring them. If we follow him, we might find a way into the Hydra base."
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the Savage Land.
"Hooray! That bastard Korvac fixed my face! And I'm out on parole! By the way, where is this again?"
A certain red mercenary, who had finally been released from his mansion prison, had run out in high spirits. He intended to use his teleportation belt to go out and have some fun, but the belt malfunctioned, resulting in him arriving on this strange continent.
Wade Wilson looked left and right, confirming one thing: he had probably traveled back to the Cretaceous.
"Well, I guess Spielberg's greatest contribution was making Jurassic Park, where a ton of the dinosaurs aren't even from the Jurassic, so I can recognize these bastards. Speaking of which, aren't these dinosaurs a bit on the small side?"
Deadpool walked on in confusion until he spotted firelight in the distance. Squinting, he walked toward it and saw a tribe of primitive people. They were holding some sort of ritualistic ceremony, and placed upon the altar was a head.
"Hmm... a handsome, zombified head belonging to me, Wade Wilson?"