DC/Marvel: This Guy is Insane

The gates of the long-frozen base creaked open slowly, the internal machinery needing time to transfer kinetic energy.

Natasha looked at Alan, who was hunched over from the cold, and couldn't help but urge, "You still have time to go back to the cabin and put on some clothes."

"I'm not cold at all," Alan insisted, though his teeth chattered uncontrollably, and ice crystals formed on his hair and eyelashes.

"If you're not cold, take your hands out of your pockets," Psylocke teased, seizing the opportunity to mock him.

"I'm just worried Lefty and Righty might catch a cold, so I'm warming them up on my hot rod," Alan said seriously, while doing something utterly ridiculous.

Well, you can't reason with a madman. At least he's not the one freezing.

Soon, the base gates fully rose, revealing the long-sealed Winter Soldier base to the light of day.

"I never expected that the Soviet Union's key project was actually controlled by Hydra all along," Natasha mused.

Sometimes, Black Widow agents would be assigned missions alongside Winter Soldiers. Natasha had naturally come into contact with the Winter Soldiers and regarded them as a batch of emotionless killing machines.

The first order of business was to find the lighting power source. The vast interior of the base was pitch black. To survive in the icy wilderness, the shelter had to be thick and sealed tight, so natural lighting was not a consideration.

As the lights flickered on, the layout of the base became clear. It was a simple super soldier research facility, not requiring massive scale or layers of defense like a nuclear research building.

Following the layout map, they headed straight to the cryo-chamber room. They arrived smoothly at a room housing six cryo-pods. A faint glow indicated the equipment was maintaining the Winter Soldiers' vital signs. Dust on the glass covers revealed frost coating the Winter Soldiers inside.

"Why only six?" Natasha asked, puzzled.

She remembered there were quite a few Winter Soldiers, often deployed in large groups of twenty or thirty for assault missions, which greatly reduced Black Widow casualties.

"When Hydra withdrew, they eliminated the defective units, preserving only the six strongest Winter Soldiers, who had slaughtered the others," Alan explained.

He recalled that during the early Cold War, the Winter Soldiers were active, but as Hydra went underground, any project that might be exposed was suspended. Later, in the 21st century, Baron Zemo awakened Bucky and killed the other five Winter Soldiers.

It was truly a pity.

Alan knew well that the combat power of those five fallen Winter Soldiers was terrifying, capable of toppling a small country's regime overnight. Each soldier's strength was comparable to Captain America's.

The defrosting procedure began.

Steam billowed inside the cryo-pods, thawing the Winter Soldiers' bodies.

"How long will the defrost take?" Alan exhaled warm breath, feeling he might freeze to death before the process finished.

"Half an hour," Natasha read from the Russian manual on the equipment.

"Half an hour? I don't want to be stiff and frozen," Alan realized he had been caught out and immediately put on a serious face.

He walked over to Psylocke and said, "Your energy sword has a flaw. Let me help you study it."

"If you want to warm up, just say so and I'll agree," Psylocke sneered.

With a thud, Alan dropped to his knees, grabbed her thigh, and pleaded, "I'm begging you."

"…"

It was so sudden, Psylocke was momentarily stunned. She had only wanted to tease him, never expecting him to shamelessly beg like that. In an instant, a purple energy sword formed in Psylocke's left hand.

Alan happily crouched beside the sword, enjoying the residual warmth, praising, "Little Butterfly, you're amazing. Little Butterfly, you're so good. Little Butterfly, muah…"

"If you get any grosser, I'll take back my power," Psylocke said, disgusted.

"Just complimenting you twice and you get shy." With his body warmed again, Alan reverted to his usual neurotic, cheeky self.

Hearing praise from a madman, Psylocke felt as if she was being insulted.

"Little Butterfly, can you change your form?" Alan asked curiously.

"I can, but I don't want to," Psylocke bluntly refused.

Her power controlled concentrated energy, allowing her to change its shape at will, but she preferred the sword form for practicality and energy efficiency.

"Come on, change it, please, please, please…" Alan whined four times, causing Psylocke's forehead vein to bulge.

"You better agree," Natasha advised. "Back when you rode a motorcycle with him, he annoyed me so much I almost crashed into a tree."

"You two used to be a couple?" Psylocke's gossip instincts kicked in, sensing something unusual. To her, neither of them seemed normal. Who stays looking the same all the time?

"No," Natasha explained. "He was imprisoned in a Nazi prison and tricked scientists into eating geckos. When we Black Widows rescued the scientists, we took him along. I was responsible for rescuing him."

"He's a scientist?" Psylocke raised her voice in disbelief.

A madman who looked abnormal but was also a scientist? How were ordinary people supposed to live?

"That's right. He designed the individual rifles for the US and USSR," Natasha confirmed.

Psylocke's eyes nearly popped out. She couldn't tell at all. At this moment, Alan had assumed a relaxed sleeping posture and shyly said, "Black Widow, don't make me sound so good. Actually, I'm best at being studied."

"…"

Psylocke pointed at Alan again, questioning, "Does he look like a scientist to you?"

"Judging by appearance, I don't believe it either, but he did improve the original super soldier serum, making Captain America's enhancements more stable and increasing them by over tenfold," Natasha said seriously.

"…"

That was a lot of information for Psylocke to digest.

After much coaxing, Psylocke finally agreed to change her energy form to one Alan liked. A small sun heater was born.

After half an hour, the defrosting process was complete. The six Winter Soldiers returned to normal, their chests rising and falling, indicating they were ready for awakening.

"Bucky's arm is still broken," Alan said, pressing his face against the glass cover, carefully examining the sleeping Bucky.

"What a coincidence to meet him again," Natasha said.

She and Bucky had fought side by side many times and were considered friends. Most of the Winter Soldiers were in a hypnotic state, acting as humanoid killing machines. When awake, they were usually amnesiac.

It wasn't difficult for Natasha to understand the process of awakening them, so she wasn't surprised Alan could call Bucky by name.

"Black Widow, it's your turn to awaken them," Alan said, handing her a booklet containing the Winter Soldiers' awakening codes.

Once awakened by the code, the Winter Soldiers would identify their superior by voice and complete their missions at all costs.

"Why me?" Natasha asked in surprise.

"I don't speak Russian."

(End of Chapter)

***

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