Within the cramped space, a battle was about to erupt.
Felicia went straight for Nebula, the two women clashing immediately. Although the movies barely showed how strong Nebula and Gamora really were, the truth was otherwise. Thanos hadn't stuffed her body with junk through all those cybernetic modifications. Part of her brain had been replaced with electronics, and one eye was a bionic eye, allowing Nebula to precisely predict her opponent's attacks through data and counter in an instant. As a warrior trained as an assassin since childhood, Nebula was a tough opponent for Felicia.
Felicia's claws tore through the air, swift and vicious. Her movements were incredibly agile; she used the walls of the confined space to leap and spring, her claws glinting white like silken threads tracing lines in the air.
On Bant's side, the fight was much simpler. Masses of herbaceous plants spread from his body, surging like a frenzy toward the remaining soldiers. Wild Demon Vine's physical resilience wasn't high—lower even than Felicia's current form, let alone comparing to Swamp Fire, which had once toppled the Evolutionary's thousand-ton weather tower. But for plants, strength was never about raw toughness; it was about indomitable vitality. Vines shot out from Bant's arms and instantly filled the space ahead, like thousands of green venomous serpents slithering through, binding every soldier in sight.
Boom!
But the soldiers fought back. Even while restrained, they poured fire from their energy weapons wildly at Bant. Countless beams struck, blasting a massive hole through the vines in an instant. Seeing that, many of the Dark Order and Accuser troops grew excited.
"Keep shooting!"
"Blast this weed to pieces!"
Their firepower intensified. Numerous beams even pierced through the shield of woven vines and blew away half of Bant's body. A Wild Demon Vine's frame couldn't withstand such heavy attacks!
"Bant, are you okay?" Felicia spotted his injury from the corner of her eye and called out, turning her head.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," Bant said expressionlessly. In the next moment, new plant growth filled in where his body had been destroyed, leaving him looking exactly the same as before. Honestly, if Felicia hadn't pointed it out, Bant wouldn't even have realized he'd been hurt.
Relieved, Felicia let out a breath—but then Nebula's cold voice reached her ear.
"Getting distracted in a fight? Rookie!"
Nebula couldn't remember the last time she'd seen an enemy this naive in the cosmos. Seizing the opening, she opened her right palm. Her mechanically modified hand housed a device in the center, much like Iron Man's palm repulsor, already glowing with gathered energy.
BOOM!!
She attacked without mercy. A powerful shockwave capable of pulverizing anything slammed directly into Felicia's body, sending her hurtling backward.
"Ah!"
Felicia flew through the air and was about to crash into the ground when several vines sprouted and caught her. Clenching her teeth, she clutched her head and stood up. On her black suit, a purple light flickered before dimming.
"You okay, Felicia?" Compared to the absurdly durable current Felicia, Bant was like a nature mage dishing out damage from a distance, so his brief lapse in attention didn't matter.
"I'm fine," Felicia said, shaking her head.
Thanks to the vibranium suit, she'd actually taken very little damage. Only the shockwave's aftershock had left her head ringing and dazed, but that only fueled her wild temper and fury.
Nebula, however, was surprised.
"You can take a shockwave blast?"
"Take it?" Felicia sneered coldly, then lunged at Nebula again.
Nebula didn't dodge, having calculated that the impact point of this strike would never hit her. Sure enough, Felicia's leap landed about two meters away. At that range, even if she tried something, Nebula could react instantly.
"Is that all you've g—"
BOOM!!!
Before Nebula could finish her taunt, purple shockwaves burst out from Felicia's suit in an instant.
"Agh!"
All the concussive energy was reflected right back, blasting Nebula off her feet.
"Prymos tech, baldy!" Felicia declared smugly.
Although vibranium came from Wakanda and the suit's design was inspired by Wakanda, in this world Bant was the one who'd actually made it, so calling it Prymos tech wasn't wrong.
Seeing Felicia unharmed, Bant pressed the attack.
"They want to trade blasts? Fine." He stretched out an arm, and along its gourd-vine-like length, black oval spheres grew. "Let's do it."
With that, he hurled a torrent of seed bombs, setting off a chain of explosions throughout the underwater ruins.
Elsewhere, T'Challa and Captain America had run into the squad led by Gamora, and a fierce battle was underway.
Gamora's combat ability surpassed even Nebula's; no matter how many modifications Nebula underwent, she still couldn't defeat Gamora. Worse, Gamora had far too many fighters backing her up, plunging Cap and T'Challa into a bitter struggle.
At the same time, the Winter Soldier, lurking in the deep sea, observed three teams departing from the Kree fleet. He also received word from Peter that the Kree leader had left.
"The strongest one's gone… so the Kree ship is empty?"
Bucky's brain hadn't been frozen solid. The Kree ship wouldn't be completely empty—there had to be plenty of soldiers still guarding it. But with the main fighting force absent, this was clearly a prime chance to infiltrate. Even if he got discovered, he'd only have to deal with a horde of soldiers—much better than facing bombardment from their ship later. The Kree vessels were enormous; even the THUNDER Agency's mothership was significantly smaller. The group had come in a Sakaar messenger ship, which wasn't even in the same weight class. No matter how the fight for the Power Stone turned out, they'd probably end up having to face the Kree fleet's firepower. But if he could hijack one of their ships, that outcome would change entirely.
That thought settled it. Winter Soldier made his decision:
Backdoor their base.
Of course, he knew charging into the enemy mothership alone would be dangerous, but Winter Soldier didn't fear sacrifice. At this point, his ties to this world were few. Although his memories were slowly returning, they only tormented him more, because what surfaced first wasn't the life of James Barnes, but the sins he had committed as the Winter Soldier over seventy years.
Just as that kid Lightning had said: if he died doing this, it would be atonement.
Without hesitation, he headed to the small cabin and boarded a mini-sub.
"Switch to flight mode, engage cloaking."
"Optical camouflage activating." The small craft's systems engaged, carrying Winter Soldier away from the ship and toward the sky.
At that moment, not a single Kree noticed his approach.
And not a single Kree realized that two other figures had also infiltrated their mothership.
Crash!
With a deafening noise, brown branches pried a steel door until it deformed. From beyond it, two figures—one tall, one short—walked in.
"Nice work, Groot!" Rocket grabbed the machine gun from his back and flashed a grin. "I didn't want to dive into that water and get my fur all wet."
"I am Groot."
"You want a bath? Come on, that's salt water." Rocket gave Groot a smack with the butt of his gun, then said, "Listen, we snatch this ship first. Once we do, whatever they end up getting will naturally be ours!"
"The four billion is ours!" Rocket held out one hand, then the other. "And the ship is ours too!"
His eyes immediately swept the area. Then his submachine gun pointed toward a distant corner. "That guy's metal arm—also mine!"
Winter Soldier: ???
Bucky never dreamed that the moment he set foot on the ship, he'd be discovered—by a talking raccoon and a bare tree.
Right then, both Bucky and Rocket had mistaken each other for Kree. Bucky knew next to nothing about the Kree, so he had no clue what their soldiers looked like. Rocket, meanwhile, assumed Bucky was one of those Kree races that happened to resemble Earthlings.
The conflict ignited instantly.
Before Bucky could even react, Rocket was already charging with his gun, Groot alongside him.
"Get him!"
"That metal arm is definitely mine!"
As a creature modified by the Evolutionary, Rocket had zero resistance when it came to mechanical limbs.
Rat-tat-tat—
The machine gun spat fire. Winter Soldier reacted immediately, turning sideways. With barely any cover in the corridor, he used his metal arm to shield his head, while his body was protected by yet another vibranium suit. Advancing through the hail of bullets, he went straight for Rocket.
But the first to meet him was the charging Groot.
"I am Groot!"
Groot's arms wove into a wooden shield as he barreled forward like a wooden tank. Winter Soldier straightened and delivered a kick, sending Groot flying. At the same time, his right hand drew an energy pistol from the holster on his raised thigh and fired several shots into Groot. Groot crumpled to the ground.
Seeing his friend take hits, Rocket snapped. He leaped straight at Winter Soldier's face, clinging like a facehugger and slashing with his claws.
"Agh—get off, you raccoon!"
Winter Soldier grabbed Rocket by the scruff of the neck and hurled him away with force. Quick-eyed, Groot extended his arms into a net of vines and caught Rocket, saving him from injury.
But now Rocket was absolutely livid, flying into a rage as if he'd been mortally insulted.
"You hear that?! He just called me a raccoon!"
Then he roared at Winter Soldier with fury. "You Kree piece of trash, looking down on me, treating me like a bunny, a raccoon dog, a rat, a fox—you think I'm easy?! I'm telling you right now! I'm not some little animal—my name is Rocket!"
Bucky was taken aback by the sudden outburst, but then he caught the information buried in Rocket's tirade.
"Wait, you're not Kree?"
"See! Now he's calling me Kree!" Rocket's nose was practically bent out of shape. He jumped up and down, ready to lunge again. Fortunately, Groot still had some sense and held him back with vines.
"I am Groot."
"Huh?" Rocket paused, the heat cooling a little. He lowered his pistol and looked at Winter Soldier. "You're not Kree?"
Winter Soldier shook his head.
"Dammit, why didn't you say so sooner!"
Rocket glared at him, then said irritably, "I don't care who you are, but I'm telling you, you're paying for all the bullets I wasted!"
Winter Soldier remained silent. Rocket, not caring one bit, took the silence as a yes.
Then Rocket asked, "So who are you? You after the Orb too? If so, that beating you took wasn't out of line." He raised a little cat-like paw and stuck out his thumb. "That four billion is mine!"
Bucky wanted to point out that, from the look of things, the ones who'd gotten beaten were the two of them, but instead, he just asked, "What four billion?"
"You don't know? Some group that popped up out of nowhere—calls itself the Celestial Union—put up four billion for anyone who can hand over the Orb." Rocket stroked his chin. "Man, they're loaded. Four billion! I wouldn't even know how to spend it all!"
He smacked his lips. "Tsk, tsk. You think they're just idiots with too much money? Spending a fortune on a single ball?"
Winter Soldier rolled his eyes and pulled out a Celestial Union badge. "Is there a chance that I am from the Celestial Union?"
Rocket: …
Rocket really wanted to smack himself right then. Calling someone an idiot with too much money right to their face—what was the difference between that and calling your boss a moron?
Thankfully, the ship's alarms broke the awkwardness. The scuffle between Rocket and Winter Soldier had clearly drawn the Kree's attention, and now a large number of Kree soldiers were converging on their position.
"Ah, crap!" Rocket wiped a hand down his face in frustration.
His original plan had been exactly like Bucky's—take the ship quiet and clean. But now that the soldiers were alerted, the stealth approach was completely blown.
Winter Soldier, however, shook his head. "Don't sweat it, raccoon."
"I'm not a raccoon!" Rocket shouted instantly.
But Bucky ignored him and kept talking, almost to himself. Captain America's face surfaced in his mind, and the corner of his mouth tugged upward.
"The infiltration isn't over yet."
"Give me a break. We've been made."
"I've got a friend. Every single time he infiltrates somewhere, he gets discovered. And every single time, he still completes the mission."
"Seriously?" Rocket was half skeptical. "How?"
"Simple. Just take out everyone who spotted us, right?"
Bucky raised both guns, ready to fight.
/-\
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