Peggy Carter walked side by side with Steve Rogers. After a moment of silence, she finally voiced the doubt in her mind: "Steve, I think you must have a lot to tell me."
Steve rubbed his brow with a headache. "Peggy, this is a bit complicated to explain..."
"It's fine, I have plenty of time."
"Uh... alright." Steve mentally drafted his words before explaining, "You could say it like this: that young man named Rory is conducting a very dangerous experiment, but I have no proof, and I don't know if he brought anything even more dangerous with him."
"What exactly is Rory, and why is there not a single trace of him in the database?" Peggy had plenty of doubts, but she was more willing to trust Steve Rogers.
"This... to be honest, I don't really know his background either. I only know that this guy is very dangerous." Steve was equally in the dark about Rory's origins.
Rory had simply appeared out of nowhere before him and Tony Stark, whisked him away to the future for a quick trip, made him do a bunch of dangerous things, and then dumped him right back here.
To be frank, Steve deeply regretted it now. He should have just left Rory in the future under the watchful eye of the Avengers—that would have given him far more peace of mind.
"Since you think he's dangerous, let's just arrest him first and sort things out later."
Though puzzled, Peggy trusted Steve's judgment.
Just as she was about to contact her subordinates to apprehend Rory, the lights inside suddenly went out.
Confused, she clicked the switch twice, but there was still no response. "Why is there a blackout?"
Steve walked over to take a look and said, "I'll go check the wiring."
Moments later, the two of them discovered the true scope of the issue: it wasn't just a simple local power outage in the house—the entire district had lost power.
Peggy immediately popped open a cabinet door to activate the independent power generator, then dialed the SSR headquarters.
"Downtown Manhattan has lost power. Find out what's going on immediately."
A few minutes later, the phone rang back.
"Agent, we just got word from the power company. There's a massive power drain at South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. We're sending a crew over to check it out..."
Peggy and Steve froze simultaneously, because the last time something like this had happened was when Steve underwent the serum enhancement.
"No! Is it Rory?"
Peggy immediately ordered a team to head to South Street Seaport for a complete lockdown. The two of them quickly dressed, rushed out the house, and sped toward South Street Seaport by car.
Just as Peggy was preparing to move in and arrest Rory, Rory had already completed his final live test on a lab mouse.
Compared to the previous frenzied mouse, this one was significantly gentler.
Although its body had undergone some changes, it had only grown slightly larger, still looking remarkably cute and docile, with its overall physical transformation extremely stable.
"Alright, now it's my turn."
Rory was very confident in this serum. There were only two possible outcomes: either his body would fuse with the Thanos DNA and be enhanced, or there would be no change at all. A third outcome simply didn't exist.
After fine-tuning the equipment, Rory stripped off his clothes and shoes, walked over to the makeshift energy chamber, and holding the serum syringe, he smiled at the mouse inside the tempered glass container: "Wish me luck."
Without the slightest hesitation, he injected the serum straight into his carotid artery.
The power-to-bio-energy conversion pod activated. The very lines the power company had just finished repairing were once again all being sucked dry by a certain warehouse inside South Street Seaport.
High-voltage lines connected to transformers, sending sparks flying everywhere in a chaotic burst of light.
Just at that moment, Peggy drove up to South Street Seaport with Steve Rogers.
"Where do you think he's hiding?" Peggy asked, hands on her hips as she surveyed the entire wharf.
The SSR agents who had arrived ahead of them were already conducting a thorough search of the docks.
Steve shook his head. "I don't know. Let's go down and take a look."
As the two of them entered the wharf and walked along, a power line overhead suddenly exploded with a loud *bang*, shooting out sparks that made Peggy jump in a start.
The severed live wire whipped toward Peggy, and Steve instantly scooped her up in his arms, dodging out of the way.
Steve then tracked the line forward with his eyes, spotting a faint blue glow emanating from an abandoned warehouse in the distance.
"He's over there! Move!"
Steve broke into a full sprint. Peggy couldn't possibly keep up with his pace, so she had to run while contacting reinforcements.
"Ahhhhhh!!!!"
Just as he reached the warehouse doors, Steve heard Rory's agonized screams echoing from inside.
He threw all his strength into a kick against the iron door.
*Clang.*
*Clang.*
After a few consecutive strikes, the iron door finally buckled under Steve's blows.
Stepping inside, he saw dense bundles of cables snaking across the floor, a buzzing machine on one side, and the energy chamber emitting a blue glow on the other.
Steve had arrived too late. By the time he drew close, the energy chamber had already peaked, and Rory's roars had ceased.
As the blue light of the chamber gradually faded, Steve rushed forward, impatient to grab and arrest Rory.
*Click... click-clack...*
Steve forced the chamber door open with his bare hands, and a thick plume of white smoke billowed out, obscuring his vision.
Suddenly, a foot shot out from inside with lightning speed—so fast that Steve had no time to react at all.
*Bang.*
Steve's entire body flew backward like a cannonball, crashing heavily to the ground seven or eight meters away and sliding another two or three meters before coming to a stop.
"Steve!" Peggy immediately rushed over to help him up.
Once back on his feet, Steve kept his eyes locked firmly on the energy chamber.
Seconds later, Rory stepped out wearing only his underwear, a gloomy expression on his face as he demanded, "Steve, why do you always have to hound me!"
"Rory, I'm doing this for your own good. I don't want to see you go any further down the wrong path."
"How do you know it's the wrong path? Why don't you question whether Erskine making you was wrong too? And yet here you stand, talking big. Is this the justice you love to preach?"
Rory walked forward as he spoke, stopping right in front of Steve by the time he finished.
He thrust a finger at Steve's nose and roared:
"Steve, you're just a grunt, not a scientist! I am! This is my experiment, you have no right to meddle!"
"No, I have to stop you..."
*Bang.*
Rory's foot slammed into Steve's stomach, sending him flying backward yet again. With a loud *crash*, he smashed into the wall, shaking loose a layer of dust.
"Who do you think you are? You go on and on about freedom, what right do you have to restrict mine?" Rory suddenly lunged at Steve, grabbing him by the throat and sneering, "I get it now. You're a superhero, not because you're so righteous—you just want to maintain your righteous persona, don't you?"
"Nonsense...!"
*Boom.*
Captain America retaliated. A knee strike forced Rory back, followed by a vicious punch straight to Rory's right jaw.