Chapter 32
Everything was wrong.
True, SHIELD managed to find the Future Spy’s hideout and took over it, then managed to apprehend his Time Ship, but they didn’t find him or manage to pinpoint his location.
Not to mention how confusing and complicated everything was.
Many questions plagued their minds, with no logical answers for them.
Who is that future spy?
Who is he working for? Why did they send him to their present?
And that body that he brought with him made everything even more alarming and confusing.
It was a human body, with all the traits of Steve Rogers’ body.
Same Fingerprints. Same genetic code. Same DNA. Everything was a perfect match.
What did that mean?!
Is that Steve’s body from the future?
Or rather, his dead body?”
And if it was, why did that man bring it with him?
What is he planning to do?
That leads to a more disturbing question.
What is the future hiding from them?
What was waiting for them that led to the future trying to destroy their past like that?
All those questions and disturbing thoughts went through Rhodey’s mind as he watched with Fury the examination of that body they found inside the Time ship through a large screen in the former’s office.
They called him an hour ago, telling him the latest updates. Which was the appearance of Steve Rogers's body inside that goddamn ship that killed half of his Seventh Fleet.
He wasted no time in coming here, with all those questions swimming in his mind, wishing for his unconscious friends in the hospital to deal with this with him, because this situation was way too complicated and disturbing for him to deal with on his own with just SHIELD.
“Maria Hill is asking permission to enter.”
His thoughts were interrupted by a robotic voice sounding in the room.
“Did you check her identity?” Fury demanded firmly.
“Twice, sir. According to the latest orders.”
Fury pursed his lips, then exhaled tiredly. “Fine. let her in.”
Maria entered the room, waving a tablet in her hands. “The doctors and experts issued their reports.” She placed the tablet between Fury and Rhodey before continuing. “It’s not a dead body. All the cells and vitals are very much alive.”
“You mean that-that thing is actually alive?!” Rhodey exclaimed indignantly, feeling a sense of disgust filling him. That was the body of one of his closest friends. Someone he really respects and loves. Not to mention the husband of his best friend and the most important person to him. Of course, Rhodey was uncomfortable and angry with the entire situation.
“But that’s impossible.” Fury gritted out as he stood up from his chair to start pacing around the room. “He couldn’t have possibly brought back Steve Rogers from the future. He looks the same age as our Captain. What, he didn’t age a day in the future? Is that the super serum thing? I don’t think the serum is capable of that. Stark will be very confused how to feel about that if it’s true.”
“We didn’t determine if it's really him, yet.” Maria insisted firmly.
“What more confirmation do you need?!”
“The rest of the examination.”
“There are still more examinations?” Rhodey asked eagerly, still hoping they find out that it is not Steve Rogers after all.
“Of course. They only finished the outside examination. They are about to start the inside one. We still have a long way to go. Long story short, we will not stop until we revise all our information about our captain on that body, and we are doing our best to do that before-” she hesitated before swallowing and continuing. “Before he wakes up.”
“Wakes up?!” Rhodey felt a shiver run through his body from just that disturbing thought. He couldn’t handle it when that thing was sleeping, the idea of it waking up was just too disturbing and creepy to him. That thing creeps him out to no end.
“Well, of course, it’s not a dead body like I said.” Maria shrugged with a sigh. “It’s alive. It was just in an artificial coma, it’s natural that this coma will end soon and will wake up.”
“Well, shit.”
“I suggested that they keep him a little longer in that coma,” Fury pointed out as he leaned back in his chair with a tired sigh. “But the experts didn’t agree with that idea. They thought waking him up was the best course of action, to question him for any important information. Maybe what he will say will help us remove some of this mystery.”
Silence fell on the room, the tension around them could be cut with a knife from how thick it was. They were all on edge and couldn’t relax no matter how hard they tried.
“Did you get that message?” Fury looked up to Rhodey and Maria, giving them a pointed look, so they could understand what he was talking about.
“Yeah, and it is making me nervous and extremely worried.” Rhodey exhaled hard, his nerves were on haywire. “It’s very dangerous and risky. Even by their standards.”
“I also felt worried, but after thinking about it carefully, I decided this is our best chance,” Fury stated firmly. “The best option here is to do as they asked.”
“But what if that led to us losing everything?” Maria questioned carefully.
“Didn’t you take the needed precautions?”
“We did.”
“Then do what they asked.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rhodey was about to state his worries again, but was stopped by one of the doctors from the screen as he announced, “We will now start with the X-ray examination.”
They all turned to the screen, where the scene of the doctors and experts surrounding that body on the examination table was clear to them. A screen moved over the body until it stopped above the torso, then one of the doctors pressed the start button, to start the X-ray machine.
The screen let up, an image appeared on it of the inside of the body and-
And suddenly, the body on the table opened his eyes.
Then sat up with a sharp move.
With his sudden move, all the doctors flinched back in panic, as Rhodey shot up to his feet exclaiming. “Shit! He woke up!”
The body turned his eyes towards the security camera, which channels his image inside Fury’s office, as if he heard Rhodey’s exclaim and his eyes seemed like he was staring into their souls.
His face filled the screen. He was a perfect copy of Steve Rogers. Same sharp, sky-blue eyes. Same hair, same face. But that reaction on his face was extremely out of character to Steve Rogers.
It was evil. Angry. Harsh. Cold. Everything Steve Rogers was not.
At the same time, a long buzzing sound came from the X-ray machine, and on its screen was the image of what it found inside that body, making everyone’s eyes turn towards it without thinking about it.
Everyone’s eyes widened in panicked, terrified surprise.
Despite all the cells they examined. All the positive results of the fingerprints, DNA genetic code, and all that, what the X-ray results showed proved that all those positive results were extremely pointless.
Because what was inside that body wasn’t human organs. It was advanced machinery, wires, and electronic circles.
It wasn’t a human body. It was a robot. A Cyborg to be exact.
The robotic Steve turned towards the X-ray machine as well, which showed his insides to everyone’s eyes. The image that uncovered its identity.
Since it was programmed with a highly intelligent AI it immediately understood that he got exposed, and whatever mission it came for had failed before it even started.
So, it moved with a terrifying speed, as it jumped from the examination table and hit the closest doctor to him with a hard slap, throwing the poor man across the room, then turned to pull out the arm of one of the machines and slammed it on another doctor’s head.
“No! He is attacking!!” Rhodey and Maria screamed as they immediately turned and ran out of the room as fast as they could.
“Agents! Stop it! Stop that thing with everything you can!” Fury yelled through the speakers, sending his orders through the entire building.
Agents led by Maria and Rhodey crashed inside the room, raising their guns towards the robotic Steve, who turned to face them as well.
Bullets ran on it and it hit its body. The living cells were ripped off of it, blood splashed everywhere.
But that didn’t stop it.
It kept attacking. It slammed the gun out of one of the agents’ hands and hit it in the face with the metallic arm in its hands, then turned to face another one.
Rhodey jumped and kicked the X-ray screen as hard as he could. The screen turned on its axis from how hard the kick was, before it hit the robot’s head, sending it to crash on the floor.
With its fall, bullets rained down on it violently, until something behind its ear exploded and sparks came out from a ripped-off part by its neck.
More and more blood splashed around the room, but the bullets never stopped.
They kept shooting as the robot tried to stand up with difficult effort. Then its neck leaned to the side at an awkward angle until it hit its shoulder, and then it fell on its back, electric sparks shook through the entire body violently, electrifying the entire room, before the body stopped moving completely.
Yet, they never stopped shooting at it. They kept hitting the falling body with their bullets for two more minutes before Maria raised her hand and shouted. “It’s over! It’s over! Cease fire! It’s over!”
They all obeyed and stopped. Then stared with stunned eyes.
Rhodey panted harshly from how frayed his nerves were, as he and everyone else, stared at the motionless body that laid before them on the floor. It still looked like Steve Rogers, so the scene was as if they just murdered Captain America very violently and gruesomely. The scene was disturbing to everyone involved. Rhodey really felt like throwing up right there.
Then suddenly, the fallen body burst into flames.
Every part of it started to burn at an alarming speed and started to eat away the flesh and living cells, making the room smell like burned flesh, causing them all to feel nauseous and disgusted.
From the smoke, the fire alarm activated, showering them with water from the ceiling to put down the fire.
The fire went out, after it ate away every part of that body, leaving it with just melted, undistinguished remains.
No one said anything. Silence filled the room so thickly that no one dared to break it. They just stared down breathlessly at the melted remains in front of them.
The remains that were, just a few minutes ago, a perfect copy of one of the leaders of the Avengers. One of the most famous, strongest heroes of that era.
It burned leaving behind a huge question. Why? Why that future Spy brought that thing with him? Why?
With that, Rhodey toppled over and finally threw up.