MTLNOVEL Chapter 293: Three People Mission
INT. STARK OFFICE – MOMENTS LATER
The doors remained sealed, the room dim but alive with faint pulses of red and gold from the HUDs lining the walls. Stark tech hummed like a waiting heart.
Tony stood with his back to the door, staring at a holographic projection of his parents—Howard and Maria Stark—frozen in a candid moment from decades ago. Laughing. Alive.
His hands were clenched into fists.
"Bucky," he muttered. "No… the Winter Soldier."
He walked to his workstation and pulled up files. Surveillance. Decrypted HYDRA records. Medical overlays of Bucky's brain scans. Lines of code that made him feel sick.
"They made him into a ghost. A weapon. Stripped him down until there was nothing left but the trigger…"
The AI spoke softly.
Jarvis: "Sir… your heart rate is elevated. Should I prepare a neural stabilizer?"
"No," Tony said, sharp but controlled. "I'm not unstable. Just… angry. Angry at a world where this keeps happening. Angry at Steve for hiding it. Angry that I let myself care about someone who killed the two people who meant the world to me."
He paused, shoulders rising and falling.
"But mostly…" he swallowed, "…I'm angry that I understand why he did it."
He powered down the projections and turned toward the window overlooking the city skyline.
Then, he whispered to himself:
"We forgive, or we fall."
INT. UNITY TOWER LOUNGE
Steve sat quietly next to Dave, lost in thought. The silence between them was calm, not awkward—more like a pause between thunderclaps.
Dave finally spoke.
"He won't turn on you. Tony's just… recalibrating. He always does."
Steve gave a faint smile. "You know him better than I thought."
"I've fought beside him. Watched him break, rebuild, break again. He's a damn blueprint for perseverance."
Then footsteps approached. Natasha returned, coat slung over one arm.
"Lead confirmed. There's chatter in dark ops channels. A lab exists in Eastern Europe. Remote. Hidden under an abandoned Soviet bunker. Fury's already mobilizing a scout team."
Dave stood.
Steve nodded, grateful to have something—anything—to move toward. "We go together?"
Natasha's eyes narrowed. "This isn't just clean-up anymore. It's personal."
Dave cracked his knuckles. "Then let's knock."
Steve looked between the two of them and said firmly, "Let me and Tony handle it."
Dave shrugged. "Whatever. It's not like I can even find any worthy opponents to fight anyway," he muttered, slouching back onto the couch.
Tony glanced at Steve, then at Dave. "No offense, mate—but you're not stopping me," he said flatly, determination in his voice.
Steve nodded.
Just then, Bucky stepped forward. "Let me come too," he said quietly.
Tony looked at him for a moment, eyes unreadable. Then he sighed and shook his head slowly, turning to leave.
"Are you sure about this?" Steve asked Bucky, concern in his voice.
"Yes," Bucky replied, his voice steady. "They used me. Now I'll help shut them down."
INT. MILITARY BLACKSITE – NIGHT
A hidden entrance embedded into the rocky side of a canyon gave way to steel doors reinforced with unmarked tech. No insignia. No nation.
Just shadows.
Tony, Steve, and Bucky crouched atop a ridge overlooking the site—drones hummed faintly below, scanning the perimeters.
Tony's suit adjusted silently as he peered through HUD overlays. "Thermal shields. Null signal perimeter. Someone's playing with serious tech."
Steve looked through binoculars. "How do we breach without setting off alarms?"
Bucky, eyes cold, simply said, "They won't expect someone to walk in the front."
Steve gave him a look.
Tony muttered, "He's serious…"
CUT TO:
INT. LAB INTERIOR – MOMENTS LATER
Three guards at the front station glanced up as the steel door slid open.
"Identification?" one barked.
Then Bucky walked in.
The first guard stepped forward, raising a scanner—
Crack!
One punch, one down.
Steve followed right behind, dropping the second with his shield in a clean arc.
Tony hovered in through the roof in full armor, palm blasters charged but not firing. "Told you this would work."
Bucky already had the last guard pinned. "Where's the lab?"
The guard grunted. "Lower levels…Sector 4…Beneath the chamber."
"Thank you," Bucky muttered—and knocked him out.
INT. LOWER LAB – DEEP SECTOR
The group descended into a cavernous hall filled with pods. Each held a human—unconscious. Wired. Modified. Some with mechanical limbs, some entirely organic but altered.
Steve's expression darkened. "They've been experimenting for years…"
Tony scanned one of the pods. "Most of them… are incomplete. Failed iterations. But a few—" He tapped his visor. "—are ready. These were meant to be fielded."
Suddenly, red lights blinked on.
ALERT. SECURITY BREACH.
Steve raised his shield. "Here we go."
From the side passages, figures emerged—men in dark combat gear, moving too fast to be normal. Enhanced. Wired. Eyes glowing faintly.
Tony muttered, "Looks like we triggered the hornet's nest."
Bucky raised a stolen sidearm. "Good."
Steve nodded grimly. "Let's finish this."
Steve spoke, his voice calm but focused.
Suddenly, he placed his shield aside—and both his hands began to glow, turning into molten lava-like forms, with cracks of glowing magma running across them like veins of fire through cracked rock.
It was the power of the Inferno Titan Devil Fruit—a gift from Dave.
"That's… new," Bucky muttered, eyes widening slightly.
Tony just shook his head, smirking beneath his helmet. "You've got a lot of catching up to do, Buck."
Without another word, Steve slammed his hand forward—molten fingers driving into the reinforced steel of the chamber wall. The metal hissed violently as it began to melt and warp instantly from the sheer heat. The edge of the structure turned red, then orange, then dripped away like wax.
The room trembled from the pressure as the metal support beams behind the wall groaned.
Even Bucky, with all his enhancements, had to take a step back from the scorching heat.
Tony raised a hand to shield his face. "Okay, Cap… remind me never to piss you off again."
"Don't worry..." Steve muttered, his voice now deeper, resonating like a distant rumble of thunder. "I'm already pissed off."
A pulse of heat erupted around him as his body was suddenly engulfed in searing red flames. His muscles hardened, skin glowing like molten stone. Blackened magma-like armor formed over his arms and chest, steaming with raw infernal energy. His eyes turned into blazing orbs of fire, and with a final surge, Steve fully transformed into the Mythical Inferno Titan.
The temperature around him spiked instantly—alarm systems started blaring, and the reinforced lab walls quivered.
He turned toward the sealed lab gate. With a single stomp, the ground beneath cracked like a shattered volcano.
"I'm done asking nicely," Steve growled.
Then, without hesitation, he launched forward like a meteor, blazing straight toward the hidden lab entrance—melting steel, stone, and reinforced alloy with every step.
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