Marvel: Little Genius - Chapter: 426 (Patreon)

New Jersey Military Base - Birthplace of Captain America Steve Rogers!

Outside the military base, a huge propaganda billboard hangs, proclaiming its past glory and pride to the world.

Tony: "You definitely weren't born here, were you?"

Captain: "No, but the ideas that shaped who I am today were born here."

Inside the base, Captain and Tony, both from a future timeline, successfully infiltrated with the advantage of knowledge and information brought from the future.

"So you must be more familiar with this place. If you were the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and wanted to establish a secret organization similar to Hydra, where would you hide it?"

Tony scanned the environment through his smart glasses, gathering information, as he asked Captain.

But before he could finish speaking, Captain suddenly stopped in his tracks, his eyes filled with surprise. "Far away and yet right in front of us!"

In front of them, about a dozen meters away, there was a trapezoidal military facility. Two well-dressed individuals who appeared to be agents opened the door cautiously after looking around.

According to the information by Tony's smart glasses, the two didn't stay inside the facility but took an elevator down underground.

"Found it. There's a hidden base beneath the surface. What we're looking for should be down there. But these agents from this era are really not up to par. They can't compare to Natasha, Barton, or even Coulson. And setting up a secret base underground, hiding important things inside—this clichéd movie trope turned out to be real..."

Captain heard Tony's complaint and rolled his eyes at him.

"You can't say it like that.

Because we are from different times, their performance might seem lackluster to you, but compared to other special agent organizations of their time, they were already top-notch.

In my era, soldiers received basic military training in shooting, long-distance running, and hand-to-hand combat.

People who became agents or spies had some knowledge of cryptography or exceptional physical skills or acting talent.

They were slightly better than the average soldiers of their time.

So this is the progress and development of the times. The future will always be better than the past, and it took me a long time to adapt to this."

Indeed, when it comes to adapting to the society and life of the future, Captain is the most qualified person to speak, considering it's his firsthand experience.

"But our future doesn't seem to be better than the present, does it?" Tony said with a self-deprecating smile.

Captain turned to look at Tony beside him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll make everything better. It's time to take action."

Approaching the military facility, Tony and Captain followed the example of the two agents from earlier. They cautiously observed the surrounding environment before opening the door and swiftly entering.

Once inside, the facility appeared empty, with no offices or personnel on duty. There was only a high-tech elevator that seemed out of place in this era, leading to a secret underground base.

The elevator had identity recognition equipment, requiring triple authentication of an IC card, password, and physiological characteristics to enter.

Even in the 21st century, the security system of S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't stop Tony, and it was even less of a challenge with 1970s technology. With the assistance of Friday, the entire system was quickly breached, and Captain and Tony easily entered the elevator.

Inside the elevator, Tony seemed to remember something and muttered under his breath, "I need to remember to upgrade Friday's technology when we get back. That little punk, Mark..."

The rest of the conversation was too quiet for even Captain, a super soldier enhanced with the super-soldier serum, to hear. But judging from Tony's expression, it probably wasn't anything good.

As the elevator descended, a woman entered midway, appearing to be a civilian employee in the underground base. To avoid her seeing Captain's face and recognizing him, Tony intentionally stepped forward and positioned himself between the two.

Before entering, Tony and Captain had already allocated their respective areas of responsibility. Tony was responsible for the base's laboratory and armory, while Captain conducted the search in the administrative area.

"My place is up next. You go ahead, and good luck with your mission, Captain!"

"I wish you success with your project, Doctor!"

After saying that, the two passed each other, with Tony exiting the elevator, and Captain pressing down on his cap to conceal his face in the shadows.

...

[Particle detection, gamma radiation does not match! ]

"Damn it, hurry up!"

Inside the armory, Tony swiftly moved through the corridors, searching for traces of the cosmic cube while also staying vigilant in case someone else suddenly appeared and disrupted his search mission.

At this point, he was nearing the end of the armory, and if he didn't find the Space Stone soon, Tony would have to rely on Captain to obtain useful clues in the administrative area.

[Target match! ]

Finally, just when Tony thought there was no hope left, he heard the long-awaited good news.

"Found it!" Tony exclaimed excitedly, looking at the heavy safe on his right. Using the gamma-ray imaging function of his smart glasses, he could clearly see the shape of the item inside.

Tony confirmed at a glance that this was his target because the square shape was unmistakably familiar to him – after all, the Avengers owed a part of their establishment to it – the Cosmic Cube!

"You lucky little thing!" Tony huffed in a tsundere manner, but the excitement on his face was genuine.

Without any hesitation, he activated his nano-armor, and a plasma blade materialized between his fingers.

With a casual swing of his arm, the thick metal safe offered no protection as it was sliced open as if it were butter.

As the protective barrier was breached, the cosmic cube emitted its eerie blue light onto Tony's face. However, he couldn't afford to get too excited about finally obtaining the last Infinity Stone. Tony quickly found a suitcase and placed the cube inside.

"Time to find Captain and then we can go back and end this five-year-long nightmare..." Tony clenched the box tightly in his hand, thinking.

Just then, footsteps could be heard approaching from not far away. Someone else had entered the armory!

The voice of the newcomer was very familiar to Tony. "Zola, are you here? Zola?"

Because of this familiarity, Tony was momentarily stunned, and it was this brief moment of distraction that led to an unexpected encounter in the dim underground base...