Marvel’s Shadowed Knight

"War."

Bruce gazed at the brightly lit Liberation City below. Despite its cyberpunk appearance, it was clear that Steve had tried his best to minimize all possible safety risks.

Still, there was one thing Steve had done well—he had truly granted freedom to the people of his country.

Baldwin took a sip from his flask, then stared at it as if speaking to himself. "In the end, we were just being played."

Bruce shifted his gaze from the city below to Baldwin beside him.

Baldwin didn't respond. His eyes seemed locked on the flask in his hand, as though it had absorbed all his attention.

He said nothing, like a silent puppet.

It was hard to imagine that this quiet, withdrawn man was once the boy who had tried to capture villains through a reality show.

Although Bruce wasn't from their universe, he had learned quite a bit from Stark.

In that universe, it seemed like all the heroes had gathered in New York. The superheroes there were practically divided up by neighborhood.

And after the early-established heroes formed the Avengers, it was as if every hero's ultimate goal became joining the Avengers.

Just like in his own world, where every hero seemed to strive toward joining the Justice League.

That seemed to have become the final goal for emerging heroes.

Of course, not everyone wanted to join the Justice League.

Take Green Arrow, for example.

If he hadn't met Black Canary at the Watchtower, he might never have joined the League at all.

After all, before joining, he was fighting ordinary criminals. But once inside, he was dealing with gods and monsters.

To put it bluntly, if even one teammate lost control, his chances of survival were slim.

As for the Batman question?

Batman had never claimed to be a full-time Justice League member.

That was always just something he did on the side.

So, it didn't seem so strange that Robbie Baldwin would do what he did.

The only real issue was that he had acted far too rashly at the time.

And he hadn't fully understood the difference in power between himself and his enemies.

But if Bruce were in his shoes at that moment—facing an enemy who could self-detonate with a blast rivaling a small nuclear bomb…

And without any prior intel?

That was a truly difficult situation.

Bruce considered all this in a split second. Meanwhile, Baldwin took another sip from his flask.

"What do you want me to do?"

Baldwin's bloodshot eyes locked onto Bruce.

He knew all too well that he wasn't anything special in this world.

Whether it was his abilities or anything else, he was never going to be the center of this universe.

He had realized that ever since that day.

Even if he'd succeeded back then, he would've remained just another average hero.

Nothing worth mentioning.

And possibly, someone who would create even bigger disasters in the future.

Meanwhile, Steve and Stark were watching the current surveillance feed, which showed Bruce and Baldwin talking.

Unfortunately, they had no way of knowing what was actually being said.

Bruce had chosen his angle very carefully, completely blocking the camera's ability to capture his lip movements.

As for Baldwin, all they could see was his awkward and conflicted expression.

It seemed like he had heard something shocking.

He clearly wanted to say something, but in the end, he suppressed his emotions.

He nodded, but said nothing.

Even if they wanted to know what was said, Steve and Stark were out of luck.

"You trust him?" Steve asked, glancing at the old friend beside him.

Even after clearing things up, he still couldn't fully let go of all the baggage between them.

Everything that had happened was just too dramatic.

The fact that he could sit here and calmly talk with Stark was already pushing his limits.

Stark shook his head. He couldn't possibly trust Bruce—even if Bruce had helped them uncover the real culprit behind everything.

Just like he'd told Jennifer in the beginning: they were only working together because it served their interests.

Still, what Bruce had said to him earlier had sparked a strange sense of camaraderie, a feeling of "we should've met sooner." But it didn't go beyond that.

The fact that Bruce had managed to pull him from the Iron Nation and bring him face-to-face with Steve said plenty on its own.

"Then why—" Steve eyed Stark with suspicion. If Bruce hadn't somehow brainwashed Stark, why would Stark risk so much to come here?

"We needed to have a serious talk—especially about something like this." Stark didn't think it was anything unusual.

The issues between them ran deep.

If they didn't resolve at least some of them, a war could break out at any moment.

"So, what exactly is his condition?" Steve didn't believe Bruce would be so kind as to simply hand over this information.

"Leave the War Zone. Start a war with the ones above," Stark said, pointing upward.

Steve froze. He had never expected things to escalate to this extent.

"You're joking, right?" Steve stared into Stark's eyes, hoping to hear the word "joke" come out of his mouth.

Stark only shrugged, offering no further explanation.

"Are you insane? If the Thunder Legion finds out about this, they'll descend from the sky!" Steve was still wary of those beings.

Even though they didn't really believe in gods or care much about the outside world—

The power of the Thunder Legion was ingrained in their bones.

Because the War Zone had always been fractured, there was no official lord, and thus they were never summoned to Doom Castle.

But that didn't mean they were unaware of how terrifying the Thunder Legion was.

And that was exactly why Steve felt helpless.

"Don't forget, Steve—I used to be a Thor, too," Stark said casually, utterly unfazed by the Thunder Legion. He simply refused to let some so-called deity play god over his head.

Besides, he had once created his own Thor robot.

Its combat power wasn't any weaker than a regular Thor.

"Yeah—and that thing went rogue and killed our friend," Steve's gaze turned dangerous at the mention of Stark's old Thor project.

That friend had been the first to die during the Civil War.

And he was someone both of them had cared deeply for.

Stark realized his words had crossed a line. He went silent.

"By the way, the thing you guys stole from me… it must be important, right?" Stark suddenly changed the subject.

At that, Steve hesitated, unwilling to respond.

Stark didn't seem to care. He just kept talking to himself.

"I looked at that batch of material lists. Everything there seems like it's meant for building something akin to a bomb. So, what exactly has Hank developed that made you all go to such lengths—even stealing resources from me?" At this moment, Stark had already turned his gaze away from the surveillance screen in front of him. In the footage, Bruce and Baldwin had also separated.

"Hank has developed a bell-curve bomb that can strip superpowered individuals of their abilities," Steve finally revealed the news to Stark. After all, things between them were no longer the same as before. Even though their people might still need time to adjust to everything that had happened, the relationship between them had undeniably changed—they were no longer enemies.

"And that thing was originally meant to be used in the war against you, to strip all your superpowered individuals of their abilities completely."

Steve looked at Stark's widened eyes and felt a bit uneasy.

"Of course, it won't be used on you anymore. I'll also have Hank stop," Steve said, assuming Stark was apprehensive about the bomb's existence. But Stark immediately grabbed him by the shoulders.

"No, no, no—don't stop the development of that bomb! We finally have something that can directly confront the Thor Legion!"

Stark seemed genuinely excited. To be honest, he had always frowned at the existence of the Thor Legion.

They couldn't just throw lives at it, hoping to overwhelm the Thor Legion until it vanished.

That was simply impossible. No matter how you looked at it, Stark would never allow his friends—his former comrades—to die just to close that gap.

As for the God-King Doom, Stark didn't give that much thought. He knew that bat would have his own way of dealing with it.

It wasn't that Stark trusted the bat, but rather, he could sense that whenever the bat spoke of the God-King, he had his own considerations.

Clearly, he had a plan of his own.

And now, thanks to Hank's research, Stark finally had a way to deal with those electric eels flying all over the sky.

"We can take down those Thors!" Stark had done his own research on them.

Rather than true gods of thunder, they were more like superpowered individuals transformed through special means.

They had powers of their own.

But most of them relied heavily on their hammers to function.

Take away the hammer, and they were just ordinary people.

Now, the bell-curve bomb might just be the key to breaking this stalemate.

At that moment, Bruce arrived before them.

"He's gone mad?" Bruce frowned as he looked at the somewhat overexcited Stark.

"Maybe," Steve echoed Bruce's sentiment.

Stark quickly realized how he must have looked and adjusted his posture, saying to Bruce, "It just increases our odds of success in the future."

"Mm." Bruce nodded and didn't dwell on the matter. "What we need to focus on now is dealing with the Skrulls."

"When I caught him, he was on a call. Although the call ended just as I acted, there's still a chance someone knows what happened to him." Bruce recounted what had happened earlier.

"We need to act before those people realize what's going on."

"So, do we have a solid plan now?" Stark asked.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

"Someone's escaped!"

"Stop them!!"

Suddenly, a blaring alarm rang out outside, followed by the shouts of many people.

What they saw was a Skrull being taken away from the interrogation room and out of Liberation City.

From the bright, spherical energy, it was clear who was behind this—Robert "Robbie" Baldwin.

Formerly known as Speedball.

Baldwin, using the unique nature of his superpowers, disappeared from everyone's line of sight along with the Skrull.

Not a single trace was left behind.

If Steve still didn't realize by now what Bruce had said to Baldwin earlier, he might as well not have been in this position for so long.

Thud!

Steve grabbed Bruce by the cloak and slammed him hard against the wall.

"What did you do to Robbie?! Huh!?" Steve was visibly furious—veins bulging from his forehead.

"We merely started our plan."

Bruce remained perfectly calm despite Steve's actions and said plainly, "We need to know where those people are hiding. And Baldwin is the best operative for the job."

Listening to Bruce's explanation, Steve raised his fist and slammed it down—though not on Bruce's face, but against the wall beside his ear.

It was clear that a moment ago, he had really wanted to smash Bruce's head in with a single punch.

But in the end, he held himself back.

"What matters now isn't standing here waiting for things to happen—but continuing with our mission."

Bruce's expression remained unchanged, unaffected by Steve's loss of composure.

He understood the bond between these men. But right now, the top priority was finding the enemy's hideout.

"If anything happens to Robbie, I won't forgive you." Steve gritted his teeth, every word forced out through clenched jaws.

Releasing Bruce, Steve turned and walked off in another direction.

Stark walked over to Bruce's side. Looking at the man, even Stark didn't know what to say.

Meanwhile, Baldwin had already vanished from their surveillance, taking the Skrull with him.

Baldwin pressed the muzzle of his gun to the Skrull's head.

His voice was cold and menacing: "Take me to your base."

"Heh, what, you trying to be a lone hero?" The Skrull chuckled, showing no signs of giving up any information.

But Baldwin had already shifted his aim—and shot the Skrull in the thigh.

"FUCK!!!" The Skrull clearly wasn't some hardened warrior. He cursed and screamed in pain.

Baldwin didn't care at all.

He pressed the gun into the Skrull's wounded thigh, twisting it mercilessly.

The Skrull could no longer contain his cries.

"Take me there!" Baldwin's eyes were bloodshot.

(End of Chapter)

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