Bab 355: Chapter: 355
"Darn it!"
The instant Green Goblin's voice rang out, Captain's heart sank. His initial reaction was that he had fallen into Green Goblin's trap once again. This emitter was undoubtedly a decoy set up by him to divert their attention and lure them.
Gazing at the central computer screen before him, Captain's face cooled as he watched the detestable visage of Green Goblin in the video. He even felt an impulse to throw a punch at the screen.
However, he refrained from doing so. Instead, he quickly calmed himself, using his own willpower to block out the continuous interference of Green Goblin's voice and images. He began to focus on the developments so far, all the clues and information they had gathered.
Firstly, Green Goblin was meticulous and cunning. Every action he took in his plan, even the seemingly innocuous video scenes crafted for taunting and showing off, must have specific objectives behind them.
Secondly, Green Goblin was adept at manipulating emotions and playing with people's hearts. Even he, who considered himself a master of emotional control, had almost lost control of his anger when he heard Green Goblin's arrogant and provocative tone in the video. Despite it being just a video, he felt the urge to punch Green Goblin's face on the screen.
Coupled with the fact that Green Goblin had successfully stirred up tensions between him and Tony before, leading to their internal conflict and rift, in the aspect of manipulating minds, Green Goblin's scheming had surpassed even enhancers like the Scarlet Witch, who possessed the power of mental control.
After understanding these two points, when facing Green Goblin's provocation in the video, Captain had already become composed, keeping his cool. He began to analyze the video, speculating about the hidden motives behind Green Goblin's recording.
"Previously, Bucky once deduced through recalling past memories that Green Goblin's target was a large-scale biochemical gas emitter left by Hydra in Lithuania.
Our confidence in the accuracy of this assumption was because Green Goblin indeed appeared in Lithuania and was captured in the information network by T'Challa's comrades.
Now it seems that this information is likely the smoke screen that Green Goblin released to deceive our focus. Just as Green Goblin mentioned in the video, he is perhaps the one who knows every member of the Avengers best in the entire world.
Thinking along these lines, the fact that Green Goblin, who has been hiding his tracks all along, suddenly had his location locked onto by us is very suspicious.
Even more baffling is the fact that with such a thorough understanding of every member of the Avengers, Green Goblin voluntarily exposed his own location. It's obvious that he intends to lure us to Lithuania.
With Green Goblin's character of wanting to display all the crimes he has committed in front of us and flaunt them, our arrival is certainly part of his plan. The real purpose of luring us here is to ultimately achieve the goal he has schemed for in our presence.
So, although we fell into Green Goblin's trap by coming to Lithuania, it indeed confirms the indispensable role of the large-scale biochemical gas emitter in Green Goblin's plan.
Later, the information Mark provided about Green Goblin being located at the Vilnius TV Tower, although I don't know how Mark confirmed this information, what can be certain is that, at the time, Green Goblin didn't leave behind any guiding clues.
So, in this regard, the information Mark determined at the time is actually more reliable in terms of credibility and authenticity than the information we directly obtained from Green Goblin.
Thus, the conclusion becomes clear. Green Goblin speculated that we had a high probability of determining his location and coming here, so he left behind this video in order to disguise his true intentions here. He concealed his presence and sought to blur our thinking, diverting our attention."
Thinking of this, Captain suddenly began to seriously scan his surroundings, hoping to find traces of Green Goblin hidden nearby. If he truly cared about the situation of the emitter at the tower's apex, he would certainly be positioned where he could have a good view of the situation here.
Moreover, this location must be sufficiently close to enable Green Goblin to reach the emitter's position quickly when needed.
As he looked down from the top of the TV tower, Captain continuously searched for hiding spots that met these two criteria.
However, this time, he had truly made a mistake in the light of the lamp; he fell into the trap of subjective thinking. The position of Green Goblin that Mark locked onto through the magical network was undoubtedly accurate. Captain's own analysis also suggested that Green Goblin was surely near the TV tower.
But Captain's focus on the ground was completely off-target; he forgot that Green Goblin could fly using his jet glider.
Just as he was conducting a carpet-style search of the TV tower's ground, looking for any sign of Green Goblin, in the sky above, within a shroud of clouds and mist, Green Goblin fixed his cold gaze on Captain.
These clouds and mist weren't formed naturally; they were modifications made by Green Goblin using a stage fog generator. This was to invisibly hide his own form while keeping an eye on the situation at the apex where the emitter was located.
He had put in a great deal of effort to transport the massive and weighty large-scale biochemical gas emitter to the top of the Vilnius TV Tower and secure it. His purpose aligned with Mark's deduction—to take advantage of the elevated position.
He had completed all the preliminary preparations, testing the emitter's circuits and control systems, adjusting the components, injecting the regenerative serum—everything was ready.
Now, all that remained was for the high-energy capacitors inside the emitter to finish charging. Once that was done, the device would be able to initiate on its own, releasing the regenerative serum throughout the entire continent of Europe, marking the completion of the first step of his ultimate revenge plan.
However, he hadn't anticipated that Captain and Quicksilver would actually break away from the team, arrive ahead of schedule to thwart his plan, and successfully coordinate to reach the top of the TV tower.
This immediately put him in a passive situation because Green Goblin was well aware that, if it came down to a contest of pure strength, his chances of winning against any member of the Avengers wouldn't be higher than fifty percent.
And when facing an opponent like Captain, whose equipment and experience far surpassed his own as a top-tier combatant, the probability of victory became even more faint.
Thus, he chose to conceal himself and employ psychological warfare tactics to confuse Captain, provoke his emotions, and cloud his judgment.
Unfortunately, this plan didn't succeed, as it wasn't tailored specifically to Captain's personality, leading to inevitable flaws during its execution.
At this point, Green Goblin was prepared. Once Captain attempted to disrupt the activation mechanism of the emitter, he would immediately reveal himself to divert Captain's attention.
...
After a careful search, Captain couldn't find Green Goblin's hiding spot, so he shifted his focus to the massive biochemical gas emitter in front of him.
The integrated control computer on the emitter's console displayed that the biochemical weapon storage compartment was fully loaded, indicating that Green Goblin had indeed manipulated this part. It meant that the emitter was a crucial element in his ultimate plan.
Beside the storage capacity data was a status report indicating that the charging progress had reached 95%, with three and a half minutes remaining until the automatic activation of the device.
Seeing this data, Captain immediately frowned. He didn't know what kind of biochemical weapon Green Goblin had injected into the storage or what effect it would produce.
All he knew was that he had three and a half minutes to stop Green Goblin from completing his plan. The immediate priority was to halt the device's activation and properly handle the biochemical weapon within.
However, dealing with such advanced technology was a challenge. Even decades-old high-tech devices were unfamiliar to him, a relic who had been asleep for over seventy years.
He had only one method at his disposal, which was brute-force decryption. But if mishandled, it could potentially lead to a leakage of the biochemical weapon at this location, over three hundred meters high with strong air currents—an enormous predicament.
Faced with this situation, the only option was to seek outside help for a solution.
He established communication with Mark, who was on his way here. "Mark, how long until you reach the Vilnius TV Tower?"
"At least another three and a half minutes. What's going on? How's the situation on your end?" Mark responded.
Three and a half minutes! The timing was the same. However, by the time Mark would arrive, the emitter would have finished charging and initiated its self-start sequence. There wouldn't be any spare time for handling it.
"I haven't found Green Goblin's whereabouts, but I've located the emitter. However, the emitter has been loaded with the biochemical weapon prepared by Green Goblin and is currently in a charging state.
According to the control computer screen, once the charging is complete, the device will initiate on its own and release the biochemical gas from its internal storage.
We have less than three and a half minutes left until the charging is finished, so there's no time to wait for you to arrive and handle it. That's why I need your guidance right now on how to safely shut down this device."
"No sign of Green Goblin?" On Mark's end, the impending activation of the emitter wasn't too surprising. This had already been deduced from the intelligence they had gathered.
But what perplexed Mark, much like Captain, was that Green Goblin wasn't personally guarding the emitter at this crucial moment.
Impossible! Green Goblin must be hiding in some concealed corner. The results he perceived through the magical network couldn't be wrong.
So, analyzing the existing information provided by Captain, there was only one possible explanation for Captain not finding Green Goblin's trace: Green Goblin was in the final step of his plan, which was also the most critical step, and he didn't have enough time to complete all the tasks.
Because he had let Captain and Quicksilver act separately, using their speed advantage to reach the Vilnius TV Tower ahead of time, catching Green Goblin off guard and preventing him from completing his plan. This forced him to hide once again and observe from the shadows.
With these thoughts, Mark didn't rush to deal with the threat posed by the emitter. Instead, he reminded Captain, "Captain, you need to be extremely cautious. Green Goblin must be lurking near the emitter, waiting for a moment when you let your guard down to launch a sudden attack.
Right now, you're the only one who can handle this crisis. Be careful, don't rush due to the time pressure. Moreover, this control system designed by Hydra using electronic technology from the last century, I can easily breach it. You have more than enough time in three minutes. Don't panic."
"Now, listen to my commands. I will help you handle the emitter issue safely.
Step one: Take out any electronic device around you that can connect to the mobile communication network.
Step two: Find the data cable in the control computer and connect the cable end to the data interface of your communication device.
The last step: Just watch the show."
Upon hearing Mark's instructions, Captain didn't ask further questions or doubt it. While remaining vigilant to his surroundings, he meticulously followed Mark's steps and completed the operation.
The instructions Mark provided were essentially for Captain to use his mobile device as a wireless network card, connecting it to the emitter's central control system, allowing it to access the internet.
As long as this device was connected to the network, with the help of Baymax's powerful abilities, it could directly disable the entire system, safely shut down the startup program, and render the device completely useless.
Swoosh!
Just as Captain followed Mark's guidance to locate the data cable on the emitter's central control computer and prepared to connect it to the communication device, a throwing knife shot towards his finger.
Clang!
Being well-prepared, Captain wasn't caught off guard by this surprise attack. The evaded throwing knife could only helplessly strike the base of the emitter connected to the TV tower.
However, while Captain managed to dodge the knife attack, he was forced to halt his actions, wasting a few seconds.
Based on the angle from which the throwing knife was launched, Captain traced its trajectory and looked up at the sky. Yet, apart from the blue sky and white clouds, he couldn't find a trace of Green Goblin.
This left Captain both deeply perplexed and he did not dare to continue focusing on stopping the emitter's activation. While open threats are easier to evade, hidden ones are harder to guard against. At this moment, Green Goblin was precisely utilizing this psychological tactic to buy time.
"Where is he? Where is Green Goblin hiding?" Anxious, Captain watched as every second passed, unable to take further action, growing increasingly distressed.
At that very moment, a phrase Mark had once said suddenly echoed in Captain's mind: "After eliminating all other possibilities, whatever remains, however unreasonable it may seem, must be the truth!"
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