Pacific Ocean, late at night.
An airborne squad parachuted from a S.H.I.E.L.D. exclusive anti-radar Quinjet into the nearby waters.
Captain America, Steve Rogers, led the team personally. The airborne squad swam ashore silently and found this hidden AIM laboratory.
Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s excellent intelligence gathering prior to the mission, the squad had already obtained a rough layout of this experimental stronghold before infiltrating.
A successful infiltration is actually determined at least fifty percent by sufficient preparation work. The squad had planned the entry route beforehand, so they only needed to proceed step-by-step according to the plan.
Neutralizing observation posts, disabling perimeter alarm systems, infiltrating the base interior... at first, things went very smoothly.
They entered the core area of the laboratory without triggering any alarms, reached the control room, and found the person in charge of this lab.
Of course, the AIM guards around the control room also reacted and attempted to counterattack. And just as the report stated, these people had high combat quality and their equipment wasn't bad either.
But this was useless. In fact, without even needing the squad's assistance, Captain America almost cut through all of them by himself.
With just one man and one shield, Steve almost theatrically demonstrated to his teammates the gold standard of a "grandmaster-level fighter," disarming all the guards almost instantly.
Up until this part, everything still accorded with the mission plan. But immediately after, things began to spiral out of control.
Because in front of them, something appeared that was completely absent from the mission planning.
In the prior investigation, the research content of this AIM laboratory was completely confidential; even S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know what exactly was being researched in this place.
But now, they soon found out.
Just as the armed AIM guards were almost wiped out and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had slightly relaxed their vigilance, Steve was the first to detect a variable.
He glimpsed... some kind of mecha?
A humanoid robot, with a silver-white armored shell covering a dark mechanical skeleton, had appeared silently behind them at some point.
It raised its arm, locking onto a S.H.I.E.L.D. member from behind. Mounted on its arm was a weapon that looked like a rocket launcher.
"Watch out!"
Almost without thinking, Steve shouted while leaping out, using his own body to block between the young agent and that dark gun barrel.
The machine soldier opened fire.
A rocket blasted out, trailing flames. Captain America leaped into mid-air, trying hard to curl his whole body behind the shield in his hand.
The rocket hit the bullseye, exploding right on the star of the shield. Flames and shockwaves spread, like an invisible heavy hammer sending Steve flying backward.
The shield flew out of his hand; even Vibranium couldn't completely absorb the impact of this shot. At this moment, Steve almost felt his body lose its weight, his back slamming heavily onto a wall seven or eight meters behind him. The laboratory's alloy wall panels dented under the impact of his spine.
Intense tinnitus. In a trance, he seemed to hear someone shouting "Captain," while gunshots rang out.
The team members had engaged the machine soldier.
Must... support them...
Steve forced himself not to lose consciousness, but that hit just now really made stars dance before his eyes.
In a trance, he suddenly felt as if he had returned to the battlefield of the past.
Sometimes he felt he was charging through a hail of bullets, sometimes he felt like he was raiding a secret Hydra stronghold, and sometimes he seemed to be back on that plane before he was frozen into a popsicle, steering the plane toward the ocean, thinking it was a regrettable but glorious sacrifice...
Then he saw Bucky.
His best friend, but in that mission back then, right in front of him, he fell from the train into the snowy abyss.
He possessed all this strength in vain, was called a hero in vain, yet failed to grasp that most important hand, failed to protect the most important person.
"Bucky..."
Steve looked at Bucky before him. He knew this might be his life flashing before his eyes, which was why he was seeing the most important person in his life, and also his greatest regret.
"Maybe I'm really going to die this time." Steve smiled self-mockingly and shook his head. "I don't even know why I lived to this era. But perhaps I'm going to see you now, Bucky."
Since waking up, Steve had always felt weird.
As an antique coming to the future, an era he shouldn't belong to and where Captain America should long since have ceased to exist. He felt this was a mistake, that he shouldn't be here.
"Because you are a vow, Steve," Bucky said. "Because someone always needs to carry the banner of promise, and you are that person."
"Last century? Maybe." Steve shook his head. "Before, I was Captain America because everyone counted on me. I was the one with the power.
But now? The war is over, and I'm obsolete. I can't keep up with this era, can't understand the novel technology, and understand the flashy modern weapons even less..."
But before he finished speaking, Bucky interrupted him: "It's not like that, Steve."
Steve: "Is it not?"
"Of course. Deep down, you should actually understand this yourself. Maybe you just slept for too long and forgot even such an important thing." Bucky smiled at him.
Steve froze for a moment.
Bucky walked up and patted his shoulder.
"You are Captain America. You are the hero we all look up to and are willing to follow, not because you took the Super Soldier Serum, not because you have greater strength, can jump higher or run faster than all of us."
Bucky emphasized his tone.
"It is never power that makes a hero, but the hero who defines power."
Steve: "!"
This sentence exploded in his mind, as if something deep in his heart that had almost died was suddenly awakened again.
"It's not time yet. You can't come to see me yet, Steve," Bucky said. "That you have lived until today perhaps proves that this era still needs you."
"Bucky..."
Steve took a deep breath.
Yeah.
He didn't know why he was alive, or why fate let him live until today. But Bucky—or perhaps it was actually the voice deep inside his heart—was right.
"..."
Steve suddenly snapped back to reality. In the instant the machine gun on the machine soldier's left hand swept over the spot where he had fallen, he performed a dangerously close roll to dodge it.
The bullets flew past almost grazing his back, leaving a series of craters clanging on the ground. He grabbed the shield that had fallen to the side in one fluid motion, held it up, and charged head-on towards the machine soldier's gun muzzle.
He remembered it, the most important thing he had almost forgotten.
No matter which era it is, he, Steve Rogers, is still Captain America.