When Captain America's figure appeared outside the base, everyone was stunned. Nightingale was the first to react, he cried out in surprise, "Captain America?! You are... are you Captain America?!!"
"Oh my God!!" Fungi Man's voice trembled a little, he said, "You're the alive Captain America! They said you didn't die, said you came back, but I've never seen... God, am I hallucinating??!!"
Speedball's mouth was wide open, unable to close for a long while. He stood by the cabinet which held his figurines, most of which were Captain America collectibles that he'd spent a pretty penny on.
The rest of the team had envied his collection many times over, and now, Captain America himself appeared before him.
"Captain America!! You... you... I mean, why would you come here? Before, we were considering applying to the Avengers, but they said they weren't recruiting. I've always dreamed of meeting you, could you give me an autograph?!"
Speedball started excitedly rummaging for paper and pen in the drawer beneath the cabinet, then quickly made his way through the crowd towards Captain America, hoping to get his autograph.
Yet at this moment, Steve didn't look as robust, brave, and full of vigor as the figurines on the cabinet. On the contrary, he seemed very exhausted.
Even through the mask, Speedball could see that the entirety of him suddenly seemed older. Beneath his youthful appearance, a soul seemed to exude a weary quality.
"We'll talk about autographs later." He spoke, his voice no longer as clear, but rather a little hoarse, he said: "I came to ask you some questions, concerning Spider Man's death."
The warm atmosphere inside the base came to a halt, but Speedball, as if suddenly bursting, tossed his notebook on the floor, and said, "Spider-Man! Spider-Man! The whole world is focusing on Spider-Man!! Why isn't anyone paying attention to us?!!!"
"We are heroes fighting crime too! We were injured during the explosion too!!!" Speedball's voice sounded like sharp metal scraping across wall. When he spoke, the veins on his neck were clearly visible and his eyes bulged out, clearly he was exceedingly angry.
"Everyone is attacking us! Everyone is sympathizing with Spider-Man! Is it because he died?! Why can't those people think clearly?! We are also superheroes! We also want to do good, why is it that he is the only good guy and we are all villains?!!"
"Calm down." Steve spoke up: "I came here not to discuss this, I just want to know, at the time of the explosion, did you see any suspicious persons?"
Speedball slammed the pen in his hand onto the table, trembling as he said: "Suspicious person!! You mean to say, we are the suspicious people?!! You also want to say, we killed Spider-Man!!"
Fungi Man stepped forward, pulling at Speedball's arm he said: "Calm down, the captain is just here to investigate, he won't misunderstand us…"
But Speedball had already broken down. He violently shook off his teammate's hand, with one hand leaning on the table he swayed a bit, and in a crying voice said, "I just wanted to be a superhero, I never meant to hurt anyone! I only wanted to catch those criminals, I didn't mean to cause an explosion, I didn't intend to kill Spider-Man..."
"We all know that." Nightingale stepped forward, patting him on the shoulder, "You should take a rest."
After saying that, he signaled to a teammate. Squirrel Girl led Speedball away to the adjacent lounge to be by himself for a bit.
Nightingale was more composed than Speedball, he walked up to the captain and said, "I apologize, we genuinely only intended to apprehend those criminals. However, we didn't seriously investigate these criminals' abilities, leading to the tragedy."
"If possible, on behalf of New Warriors Team, I would provide humanitarian compensation to his family."
"As for suspicious people…" Nightingale furrowed his brows slightly and said: "I'm not sure what's going on, but at that time, we saw more than one Spider Man, yes, there were many Spider Men..."
"Their costumes were not all the same, even their genders were different, but they all had the same compound eyes of a spider, and they could all shoot spider silk. I don't know if they would count as suspicious people..."
"Oh, right, there seemed to be two more people in the distance... I'm not sure if they were also Spider Men..."
"I hope, you could send someone with me to the chemical plant to describe the situation at the time. I suspect, Spider Man's death is not as simple as it seems, someone is manipulating everything from behind the scenes."
Steve puckered his lips, his shield-clenching hand trembling slightly, he said, "You might think that you're living in a peaceful era, but truthfully, the shadow has never left us..."
"Fungi Man, you go with the captain." Nightingale said to Fungi Man, Fungi Man nodded, just as he was about to leave with Steve, Speedball rushed out from the room saying, "I'm going too!"
"I will prove to you that we aren't murderers! It was just an accident!" Speedball yelled.
The others felt somewhat troubled, Nightingale can only step forward, quietly saying to Steve, "Sorry, a lot of people online are attacking us, Speedball is rather temperamental, his mental state isn't very stable right now..."
"It's okay. If he wants to come along, he can." Steve didn't seem to want to say more, shaking his head, he turned and walked out.
In the end, Nightingale, Fungi Man and Speedball all sat in the car heading towards the chemical plant.
The journey was silent, Steve didn't seem to wish to talk at all, and the others also noticed that the Captain America they admired in their hearts could also be tired and sad.
In the back seat, Speedball tightly clenched his fists, when he looked out at the passing views he couldn't help but grit his teeth and start sobbing quietly. Fungi Man patted his back, quietly comforting him.
Nightingale, sitting in the passenger seat, looked awful. These past few days, they'd borne immense pressure.
Everyone expected them to apologize, but all Nightingale could do was apologize privately to Captain America and express a willingness to make amends. He couldn't confess his mistakes to the public. If he did, the team would fall apart.
Amongst them, Speedball had the worst mental strength. But that doesn't mean the others were much better. They were just a bunch of young people, sensitive, lost, and confused like all young people.
Under tremendous pressure, everyone was holding their breath. If one person broke down, the others would surely follow. Nightingale was unwilling to give up the team he had poured so much effort into creating.
The sobbing from Speedball in the backseat made Nightingale close his eyes in agony, gripping the weapon tightly in his hand.
He had to admit, even though they could firmly deny any wrongdoing, the gruesome death of Spider-Man still filled everyone with uncontrollable guilt.
It was the same as them, a young and vibrant life, which ended in such a brutal manner. All they felt was guilt, along with a deep-seated fear.
Just as the members of the New Warriors Team were all lost in their thoughts, the screech of brakes sounded, and the car spun out of control. Before the car hit the electric pole on the side of the road, they all jumped out.
While Captain America held on to Nightingale, Fungi Man led the dazed Speedball away. The New Warriors Team members scrambled frantically out of the car. The next second, the car exploded.
Chaos filled their hearts, but battle-hardened Steve gripped his shield and gazed vigilantly at two figures appearing at the end of the road.
A boy and a girl, twins, very much alike, their blond hair billowing in the wind. However, as they activated their powers, their eyes glowed brightly in the dark, like approaching wolves.
"Captain America Steve, Baron Strucker sends his regards." The twin sister spoke first, and then the brother coldly said, "Impediments had better move aside quickly. It's their lives we want, those behind you. They've seen things they shouldn't have."
"So it's you, Hydra!" Stephen gritted his teeth, clutching his shield tightly, and said, "Did you kill Spider-Man?!"
Two voices sneered and several bright streaks flashed by. Stephen immediately threw his shield, blocked a shockwave with a bang, while another shockwave brushed along the edge of the road.
"Speedball, run!!" Nightingale shouted, but in the next second, he fell into a daze. He shook his head forcefully, his chest heaving violently.
The glow in the eyes of the twin brother flashed, revealing a cold smirk. At this time, Steve had to use his shield to defend against the sister's air cannon.
He stared at the approaching enemies. Turning slightly, he told the three members of the New Warriors Team, "Go! They're out to kill you. Leave now. I'll hold them off!"
"Captain, let me help you!" Fungi Man, the most stable among the team, joined the fight.
However, like other mutants, Fungi Man has strong powers but without much education. He could communicate with bacteria but his ability was limited to making others experience nausea and vomiting, or contract bacterial infections.
Although these powers could be devastating over a long period, they were not ideal for short-term battle. With his addition, Steve had to divide his attention to protect him. The situation worsened when Nightingale joined the fight.
This interlude of young superheroes in the New Warriors Team had tremendous powers but lacked strategic thinking. They did not consider how to coordinate with the most experienced Captain America, but battled their own way, expecting others to adapt to them.
With the mighty Fenris twins to deal with, Steve was already struggling, occasionally disrupted by his own teammates. Soon he was overextended, forced to retreat step by step.
At that moment, he saw Speedball, who was at the end of the line, collapsed to the ground, convulsing and holding his own throat.
The eyes of the Fenris twin brother grew brighter. In the midst of the battle, Steve avoided a shot of an air cannon, rolled to the side, and threw his shield at the enemy.
But at that moment he heard a savage roar behind him, followed by the sound of something tearing through the air. Nightingale shouted:
"Speedball is under control!!! They have psychic abilities!!!!!"
In that split second, the rapidly accelerating Speedball smashed into Captain America's shield from behind.
The extreme speed and power, along with control over force fields, made his fists devastatingly destructive.
With a 'bang,' his fist went right through his chest. Steve's eyes widened, seeing his blood spewing from the chest.
His expression of agony flickered, his vitality fading.
The strong arm holding the shield dropped weakly, he slowly knelt to the ground, the blood-soaked shield rolled a distance away along the road, and slowly landed at the feet of the Fenris twins.
Speedball stood rooted to the spot, as if controlled by something, but the very next second, he regained his composure, looking incredulously at everything before him and letting out a devastated, piercing scream:
"No!!!!!!!!"
However, faster than him was the attack from the Fenris twins. Noticing the impending danger, Nightingale immediately faked a sudden strike, drawing their attention to the right before rolling to the left, grabbing Speedball's arm, and saying, "Let's move!"
Speedball was no longer able to think clearly until the fragments of the demolished building, shattered by the Air Cannon, grazed his cheek and the scent of blood filled the air, triggering his survival instincts and abilities to escape.
Thus, the body of Captain America lay silently in the middle of the road.
About five minutes later, a white portal appeared above the corpse out of nowhere, half of Schiller's body sticking out of it as he called back into it, "You guys pull his soul in later, I'll deal with his body. I need to hurry up and put him in the cryogenic chamber and inject the recovery serum or we'll end up with complications."
Having said that, he stepped out of the portal and landed in front of Steve's body. He pulled out a cryogenic chamber out of thin air, the bottom of which was marked "Manufactured by Stark Industries".
The outer shell of the cryogenic chamber was made of molten steel, utilizing the most advanced freezing technology and apparently recently manufactured.
Schiller dragged Steve's body and put it into the cryogenic chamber. After closing the lid, he looked at the button on top and paused.
"Why is the newest cryogenic chamber so complicated?" Schiller crouched before the cryogenic chamber, slightly confused. He stated, "Didn't I tell Tony not to design more than one button? With so many buttons, who knows which one to press?"
Looking at the row of buttons on the cryogenic chamber, Schiller hesitated for a moment, then touched one of them, saying, "This button looks bigger, it should be it, right? Well, let's give it a try."
"You pressed the wrong one; that's the cooling button. The injection button is the yellow one on the left."
"Oh, is that right? Thank you." Schiller moved his finger slightly and pressed the yellow button next to him. A needle from the back of the cryogenic chamber penetrated the sideneck of Steve's body. The Lizard potion-enhanced healing serum quickly took effect, and Steve's body began recovering visibly.
Satisfied, Schiller clapped his hands. However, the very next second, he widened his eyes looking to his side. Stark in his battlesuit was giving him the Death Stare.
Looking at the energy glowing from the hand cannon of the Iron Armor, Schiller took a step back, saying, "Hold on, I think I can explain ..."
"Do you believe in religion? Have you heard of God? Can I take three minutes of your time to introduce you to our Lord?"
"Blam! Blam!...Hold up, I know you're not interested anymore! But have you heard of the Sanctuary of the Nine Realms? Do you know that all things must come to an end? Are you interested in contributing to His Majesty Thanos's great achievements? Have you heard of Lunations' thousand faces...Mundane Python..."
A few minutes later, a befuddled Steve and an unsightly Stark sat together before the Hippo Goddess.
The Hippo Goddess held Steve's hand with a benevolent smile, saying, "What a great lad! I have a son who also participated in World War II, he's a Soviet and almost lost his life in the Patriotic War. By the way, do you have a girlfriend? I have a daughter..."
"Wait...wait a moment! Ma'am!" Steve held his forehead and said, "What is going on? What is this heaven..."
"First of all, I mean no disrespect, but the New Religion God System and the Egyptian Pantheon, they should be two different systems, right? So their heavens couldn't be combined, right???"
"Moreover, the statue of Saint Peter in the square outside is holding a completely wrong book, isn't he supposed to..."
"Ahem, ahem." Two coughs resonated as Schiller, who was wrapping a bandage around his own arm took a step forward, "Goddess, are they registered? I can show them where to pick up their daily necessities..."
"Oh, hold on a second, I haven't seen their hearts of good and evil yet." The Hippo Goddess took out a scale from her drawer and started weighing, she said, "Steve Rogers, a truly righteous man, heaven will be your final abode, where you will undoubtedly find eternal peace and happiness..."
"Anthony Stark..." Hippo Goddess clicked her tongue and said, "You are a bit complicated. To be honest, according to the New Religion's judgment system, you are somewhat arrogant. You're an atheist, correct?"
"I don't know what the new religious Gods think of this, but in the Egyptian Pantheon, if you don't believe in God, you might have to wait a while for your resurrection quota..."
"Uh, he believes in God." Schiller quickly intervened, "I've thoroughly introduced him to our Lord, and he just converted ten minutes ago...Baptism? Well, if a baptism by gunfire counts as a baptism, then his baptism ceremony was quite grand..."
Stark squinted at Schiller and said, "Don't puff yourself up; I'm the one who gave you a baptism by gunfire."
"It's not important. Goddess, their forms are all filled out, could you please stamp them so we can go get their things?"
Just as the Hippo Goddess took out the stamp and was about to stamp it on the form, Peter came in with a pile of documents. He said, "Doctor, I could finish my theoretical research here, but I need support from academic papers. Is there any internet here? If not, can someone help fetch the papers that I need?"
Steve and Stark both turned their heads to look at Peter simultaneously. When Peter moved his gaze away from the documents and saw them, he immediately showed an expression of surprise and exclaimed, "My God! You guys are finally here..."
But then he realized something was off and stuttered, "Uh...I didn't mean you guys should have died long ago, what I meant was... actually...okay, pretend I didn't say anything."
Steve, who was still in a state of confusion, blinked and asked, "Am I hallucinating, or why is Peter here?"
"More importantly, why is Tony Stark in the heaven I'm staying in with Peter???"
"What do you mean?! " Stark crossed his arms, looked Steve up and down, and said, "You think I want to be in the same heaven with you? If it weren't for checking what Shiller was up to, I wouldn't come to such a place!"
After saying that, Stark looked around the room with a disdainful glance, saying: "Just now, I saw that the garden outside the door is less than 30,000 square meters. Whose heaven is so shoddy?"
"And this reception room, my god, even the place Jesus lived in before his death was better than yours. Look at this table, is it an antique from the Pharaoh era? And this cup…"
"Tony Stark! Can you get one thing straight? This heaven was only built three months ago, do you know how much effort I spent to integrate them all? Instead of nitpicking here, you better hurry up and read the Bible!"
Shiller took a deep breath, as if he had restrained for a long time and said, "And you two! Peter Parker and Steve Rogers, you guys have read the Bible a few times, right? Do you have to nitpick each statue's clothes?!"
"Jesus had twelve apostles, how am I supposed to know what each one of them wore?"
"Besides, Jesus is the Son of God, the twelve apostles are Jesus's employees, but I am directly God's employee, my rank is higher than theirs, whatever clothes I say they wear, they will wear it!"
Peter was about to speak, but Shiller cut him off and said: "You bunch of short-sighted brutes, I've been running around just to bring humans a Valhalla, if you guys won't help, that's fine, but why are you here nitpicking?!"
Peter and Steve both choked a bit, Peter spoke in a low voice said: "It's been hard on you, doctor, uh, sorry, I shouldn't have been critical, it's nice to have a heaven..."
"Hmm... so, you created this Valhalla? It's pretty good to have built it like this in just three months..." Steve nodded and said.
Stark rolled his eyes deeply and said: "Can't you guys be a little smarter?! Even if there's no brain, there should be some temper, right? Shiller just killed you two!! "
"That explosion, and the twins, if they have nothing to do with Shiller, I'll be damned! He just designed an extremely cunning conspiracy that caused you guys to die painfully! If it weren't for my early detection, he would've surely killed me too!"
"But, the doctor said, he would resurrect us." Peter started a bit hesitantly: "Since he can resurrect, it doesn't count as killing, right?"
Steve also scratched his chin and said: "Legally speaking, if you kill someone and then resurrect him, it probably can't be counted as murder, at best it's attempted murder, but the act of resurrection is proactive, so it shouldn't be considered a failed attempt…"
Stark took a deep breath, he turned his head to Shiller and said: "Do you have another heaven?? Send me over immediately! I can't stay with them anymore, I feel like I'm about to be melted by their holy light!"
If we say that Arrogant Shiller equally hates everyone in the world, then Spider Man, Captain America, and Superman are skilled at forgiving everyone in the world equally.
Shiller walked to the front of the table, picked up a piece of paper, and said, "Let's go, follow me to collect things."
A few minutes later, Peter and Steve who were crowned with halos, and Stark who was researching the halo in his hand, came together to the modern office building disguised as a church, where Peter had been earlier.
As they walked, Stark held the halo in his hand and said: "Peter, please don't tell me, you didn't notice that this halo is just molten steel with a tritium tube, plus Karmatiji's levitation magic? This thing is totally a man-made toy…"
"What, you were hoping, I would invite God over, and he would personally award you a halo?" Shiller said irritably: "Do you still want to research, what material God is made of?"
Upon entering the elevator, Stark was even more speechless . He said, "Before you swipe things, can you erase the name of the deprived? The 'Stark Industries' on the side of the elevator shaft... you haven't…"
Before he could finish his sentence, Shiller waved his hand, and the word immediately disappeared. Shiller shrugged and said: "Heaven original."
Entering the interior of the office building and seeing the hall that is no different from S.H.I.E.L.D., Stark sneered and said: "Heaven original, huh?"
Upon entering the office and seeing Nick Fury and Coulson sitting on the couch drinking, Stark took a deep breath and said: " I knew it, the King of Agents, how could he die by the black gun? Nick Fury, you're also messing around with this madman?"
"What do you mean messing around? What is messing around?" Shiller said rather dissatisfied: "Don't judge without knowing the whole picture, got it? My plan has just begun, the real show is yet to come…"
After saying that, Shiller walked to the back of the desk, put down his cup, and let the bottom of the cup tap lightly on the desk.
With a light "clang", the door of the detention room closed. Behind the iron bars, Speedball's face was extremely haggard.
The news of Captain America's death spread among upper levels instantly. And the subsequent bad news was that, due to continuous shocks, Tony Stark suddenly died of a heart attack.
If such continuous bad news still could not stimulate them, then the next news, like a bolt from the blue, gave them utter despair.
S.H.I.E.L.D is gone, Red Door Lan Project is gone, public opinion is gone, Spider Man is dead, Captain America is dead, Iron Man is also dead.
And at this time, Shiller, he came back.