Nick Fury said nothing, but every inch of him radiated curiosity. Even an idiot could tell he wanted to know.
"And why should I tell you?"
Karl's words were like a sword stabbing straight into Fury's chest.
"I—motherf—!!"
Nick Fury exploded in frustration. He jumped to his feet and stormed into the cockpit to sulk.
There was nothing else he could do. He couldn't beat Karl in a fight, so what choice did he have except endure it?
Still, Fury didn't dwell on it too much. Even though Karl hadn't said anything directly, his response had indirectly confirmed Fury's suspicions—Wakanda's technology was probably far more advanced than theirs.
"Where are we going?"
Karl glanced outside. There was nothing but clouds in every direction.
"To the new Avengers base. They captured Steve and the guy who bombed the building."
Fury rested his chin on his hands.
---
Inside the base, everyone sat in separate rooms watching footage of Bucky displayed on large screens.
Steve and Sam sat in a conference room together with Agent Sharon Carter.
"Hello, Mr. Barnes. I'm the evaluator assigned by the United Nations. I need you to answer a few questions."
A well-dressed man who looked like a lawyer entered the room where Bucky was being held. Sitting at a table, he glanced at the file in his hands.
"Is your name James?"
The man asked calmly.
But Bucky completely ignored him, not even sparing him a glance. The only command he had received was to drive a wedge between the Avengers and destroy them from within. Everything else was irrelevant to him.
Inside the conference room, Sharon quietly disabled the listening devices. Outside the room, Natasha remained standing guard.
"Do you know where you are, James?"
The evaluator continued.
Bucky remained silent, staring blankly upward at the ceiling of the containment chamber.
"If you don't talk to me, I can't help you."
The evaluator used the same tone and tactics typically used to coax ordinary suspects into opening up.
In the conference room, Steve looked at Sharon.
"Why release that photo to the public?"
He was referring to the screenshot from the surveillance footage—the one clearly showing Bucky's face.
"Getting the information out means more people searching for him. More people means more leads."
Sharon replied. She wasn't in command, so she didn't know the real reasoning. It was only her guess.
"Yeah. It's the perfect way to make someone unable to hide. Get millions of people in the city searching for a fanatic bomber… especially one who's also a super soldier like me."
Steve continued along Sharon's line of thought. The implication was obvious.
"You mean someone framed him on purpose so we'd find him?"
As a trained agent, Sharon immediately understood what Steve meant.
"Would someone who bombed the U.N. building really show their face afterward?"
Sharon also felt something was off. She had no evidence, but everything had gone too smoothly. They announced a manhunt, then immediately received leads pointing directly to the suspect. The search and capture proceeded almost effortlessly—and they even arrested Captain America and Falcon in the process. The whole thing felt unbelievable.
"Tell me, Bucky. You've witnessed many things over the years, haven't you? You and Captain America came from the same era—you must have gone through a lot."
The evaluator kept talking to himself.
The camera angle only showed his back, so no one saw his face.
At that moment, the evaluator's phone buzzed. A message appeared:
Package delivered.
He tapped the screen.
This "evaluator" was actually the mastermind behind everything—Zemo.
And the fake Bucky's true handler.
The two of them were acting out a show for everyone to see. Zemo's objective was simple: create chaos, free Bucky, and continue driving a wedge between Steve and Tony, splitting the Avengers further apart.
---
Several kilometers away, at a power substation, the man from the maintenance truck unloaded a wooden crate from the vehicle.
He placed it in the center of the station and pried it open with a crowbar. Inside was a metallic device—the same one previously seen in Zemo's hotel room.
As a shockwave spread outward from the device, sparks exploded throughout the station. Every electrical system hit by the pulse instantly failed.
The destruction of the substation plunged the entire city into darkness.
Homes, shopping malls, traffic lights—anything connected to electricity shut down instantly.
Even the new Avengers base lost power, switching over to emergency backup systems.
But the backup power could only maintain essential functions. It wasn't enough to sustain Bucky's containment chamber.
And that gave him the perfect chance to escape.
"JARVIS, take over the entire building immediately. Investigate the cause of the blackout."
Tony stood up and tapped beside his ear. A pair of nano-glasses formed over his face, faint lights flickering across the lenses.
In the conference room, Steve and Sam were both startled. Neither had expected this building to lose power. At the old Avengers base, all electricity came from Tony's arc reactors.
Apparently, this building didn't.
"East side, underground level five."
Sharon said quickly before leading Steve and Sam out of the conference room.
Natasha had already left the moment the power cut out.
---
Inside another office, T'Challa and Erik weren't sitting idle either.
The Black Panther and Killmonger suits materialized simultaneously, and the two of them shot out of the office almost like invisible shadows.
"This blackout happened too conveniently. There's definitely a conspiracy. Get to the guy named Bucky—now."
Erik immediately sensed something suspicious. He had used similar tactics himself in the past. Shutting off power was either to wipe out enemies or rescue allies.
And this situation clearly looked like the latter.
---
Inside the containment chamber, Bucky himself was momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected such an advanced facility to lose power.
Across from him, Zemo took out a small red notebook marked with a star.
As he recited a string of seemingly unrelated words, the fake Bucky instantly entered a trance-like state. His eyes became vacant, pupils dilating—a clear sign of mental dissociation.
Zemo then issued a command.
No one knew what he said.
Afterward came another string of obscure trigger words.
The fake Bucky instantly entered a berserk state.
His metal arm tore apart the steel restraints binding him, and with one punch he shattered the chamber's glass.
At that moment, Steve and Sam arrived.
Bodies were already lying all over the floor—including Zemo himself.
Of course, that was just part of Zemo's act to remove suspicion from himself.
Steve immediately rushed inside—
And from behind a wall, a steel fist suddenly burst through the concrete and slammed directly into him.
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