Because the tower's lobby was surrounded by glass walls, everyone could see the meteor clearly.
"Damn it! Open fire immediately! Kill them all!!"
Ross flew into a rage and instantly ordered the troops to shoot.
Ratatatatat—!
Bullets poured down like rain, but they all lost momentum about a foot away from the Avengers, freezing midair as if blocked by an invisible crimson barrier.
Wanda's eyes glowed scarlet as Chaos Magic erupted from her body, forming a shield that stopped every single bullet.
Then—
BOOM!!
The Zodiac Meteor crashed down from the sky.
The armored vehicles outside the tower were swallowed whole by the impact. A massive explosion shattered every pane of glass around the lobby, leaving only a twisted steel framework behind. Towering flames reflected across the faces of every soldier inside.
"M-Monster!!"
No one knew who shouted first, but panic immediately spread through the ranks. Some soldiers even tried to flee on the spot.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
Ross held a pistol in one hand and fired into the air to restore order, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"Soldiers! Do not forget your duty! Raise your weapons and fire immediately!"
As he spoke, Ross personally fired another shot—this time directly at Wanda.
The bullet still froze in midair before reaching her.
"Ross, you're courting death!"
The moment Karl saw Ross aiming at Wanda, fury exploded in his eyes.
A green wind blade shot out instantly.
"AAAGH!!!"
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Ross let out a miserable scream as the wind blade cleanly severed the arm holding the gun straight from the shoulder.
The severed limb spun through the air before landing nearby with a wet thud.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Aside from Ross rolling on the floor screaming in agony, the entire lobby fell into dead silence.
No one even dared go help him.
The Avengers certainly had no intention of helping. At this point, they practically wanted Ross dead. Everyone understood now—they had been played like fools, manipulated from beginning to end.
As for the soldiers, none of them dared move.
Who knew if the next person to twitch would be sliced in half? The armored convoy outside had already been turned into scrap metal.
Meanwhile, Fake Bucky's thoughts became active again.
This chaos was the perfect opportunity to escape.
With that thought, he quietly began backing away. His hands were cuffed, but it didn't stop him from moving.
Unfortunately for him, Clint noticed everything.
Without hesitation, Barton pulled out an arrow and fired it directly into Fake Bucky's body.
Crackle!
Electricity burst out instantly.
Fake Bucky's eyes rolled back as he collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
"You have three minutes left."
Karl calmly looked at the writhing Ross.
He had already shown the man enough mercy.
"Soldiers! Put down your weapons immediately!"
Steve suddenly shouted.
He was trying to save them.
Everyone could tell Wanda was merely holding the bullets in place for now. But with her abilities, reversing their trajectory would be effortless. Once that happened, how many soldiers would survive?
And no, body armor wouldn't save them.
Bulletproof vests could stop ordinary bullets—but bullets empowered by magic?
The soldiers exchanged uncertain looks, completely at a loss.
The armored division outside had been annihilated. Secretary Ross was rolling around bleeding to death. Without orders, they didn't dare lower their weapons.
"Right now, your priority should be getting Secretary Ross medical treatment," Steve continued loudly. "If this drags on any longer, he's really going to die."
He was giving them a way out.
Karl truly intended to kill Ross if this continued.
And if the U.S. Secretary of State died in front of them, these soldiers wouldn't have a good future waiting for them either. Better to get Ross out of here immediately.
"Sir… what do we do?"
Unable to decide, one captain finally asked Ross for instructions.
Ross gritted his teeth through the pain. Blood continued pouring from the wound. In barely over a minute, his face had already turned deathly pale.
"T-Take me… to… the hospital…"
His voice was barely above a whisper, but the captain heard him clearly.
"All personnel, retreat immediately! Escort Secretary Ross for medical treatment!"
The soldiers obeyed instantly.
One after another, they lowered their weapons and hurriedly carried Ross out of the building.
None of them wanted to stay there another second.
Only after Ross and his men left did Sharon finally appear.
Earlier, she had been the one ordering all the agents not to act rashly.
"Follow me."
She said only those two words before pressing the elevator button.
Everyone followed Sharon all the way to the command center.
Inside the conference room sat a disguised Nick Fury, casually fiddling with a holographic projection device.
Once everyone entered and took their seats, Fake Bucky was dumped into a chair as well.
Natasha walked over and slapped him hard across the face.
The pain jolted him awake.
"Who are you? Why are you impersonating Bucky? And where is the real Bucky?"
Steve was the first to speak.
What he cared about most wasn't the impostor's identity—it was the real Bucky's whereabouts.
Fake Bucky grinned.
The acid-scarred face twisted into a horrifying smile.
"The Winter Soldier has no name. As for the man called Bucky… as far as I know, he's already dead."
Steve frowned deeply.
He had mentally prepared himself for that answer long ago. Back before he was frozen, he had already believed Bucky died once.
"When did Bucky die? And how do you know so many secrets between us?"
Steve pressed further.
"I… I don't know…"
Fake Bucky suddenly clutched his head in agony.
Every time he tried to remember, splitting headaches overwhelmed him. He genuinely could not recall how he knew those memories.
Whenever the Winter Soldier carried out missions, his memories would be wiped clean, leaving behind only mission-related information.
That was exactly the case with this Fake Bucky.
The only things he remembered were his mission and the events of the 1991 operation—because those memories had been forcibly implanted by Zemo, together with the real Bucky's memories.
Seeing that he wasn't faking it, Steve's brows furrowed even tighter.
"There's no point asking further, Steve. He's been brainwashed."
Natasha finally spoke.
She had seen this kind of condition before—in agents assigned to special operations.
The Red Room had its own brainwashing system, and the symptoms were all more or less the same.
"Brainwashed? Can he recover?"
Nick Fury finally asked.
What he cared about was whether they could get information about Zemo out of him.
"It'll be difficult," Natasha replied. "First, we need the trigger words used for the brainwashing. Then we'd have to use those words to unlock the mental conditioning before gradually repairing his subconscious and making him forget the activation phrases."
She based the analysis on Red Room conditioning methods.
And from what she could tell, the Winter Soldier program operated in almost exactly the same way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For 20 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:
Patreon - Twilight_scribe1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~