If Hydra really had that kind of human cryostasis technology, they could have done far more than preserve a handful of soldiers.
They could have used it to recruit the rich, the powerful, the desperate people terrified of death itself. They could have built an empire out of fear and promises.
Instead, they were using this perfect technology to keep a few soldiers combat-ready.
Idiots.
But whether Hydra was brilliant or brain-dead was beside the point.
One of the Winter Soldiers they had thawed was Drex Valen's real target.
His third Rider.
Jas Buchanan Barnes.
The man Captain Arica had fought a civil war over.
The best friend Steve Rogers had once been willing to betray everything for.
Barnes had originally possessed no real will of his own. But after Drex restored his mories, he not only regained his identity, he also rembered everything he had done.
"No... I did all of that? So many unforgivable things..."
Jas Buchanan Barnes dropped to one knee, shaking.
That was when Drex appeared.
"Do you want to atone?"
His opening line was different from what other dinsional gods would have used.
Normally, they would have asked what Barnes wanted, or tempted him with power.
Do you crave strength?
What do you desire?
Drex thought that kind of pitch was weak. Pathetic, really. It was better to strike straight at the wound.
Barnes looked up sharply. "Who are you?"
"Steve is still alive," Drex said, taking a seat as if this place belonged to him. Around them, every Hydra operative in the room seed to freeze in place, trapped in a pocket of suspended ti. "Do you want to atone, Barnes?"
That caught him.
"Steve... is alive?"
Barnes had now recovered all his mories. He knew exactly how much ti had passed.
Seventy years.
Rogers had to be an old man by now.
Drex smiled. "Young. Healthy. Alive. He's been frozen too, just like you. He still hasn't been thawed."
At the ntion of Captain Arica, Barnes changed instantly. The subject hit him like a live wire.
Only then did he truly understand who was standing in front of him.
Only then did he understand what this so-called atonent would cost.
"The souls of the sinful... darkness descends..."
Barnes was still thinking it through when Drex's expression changed.
He frowned.
Another dinsional breach had just opened.
Incursions like this happened all the ti. That was why Kamar-Taj existed in the first place. Ancient One had likely wanted nothing more than to stop dealing with it, year after year, dinsion after dinsion, crisis after crisis.
Drex, however, had temporarily taken over that job.
Not because he cared.
Because whenever another dinsion invaded, he could harvest the souls of whatever ca through.
And if the invading realm was sothing like Hell, all the better.
Those demons and devils were premium-grade fuel.
After a brief consideration, Drex set the breach point in an Arican football stadium.
"Darkness descends now, Barnes."
A luminous screen opened before him. Barnes stared and saw the stadium on the other side.
New York City Stadium.
On the field where the ga should have continued, a flash of green light dropped from the sky. Caught by the caras, it arced beautifully through the air before crashing into the turf with a thunderous impact.
The field exploded into a crater.
Steam poured from the impact site, carrying with it a furious, animalistic roar.
Then, before the eyes of thousands, and in a live cara close-up for the world to see, the thing climbed out.
It was roughly five ters long.
A monstrous creature with青-green scales, a serpent's head, a wolf's body, tiger claws, and a scorpion tail.
As it hauled itself from the crater, freezing mist leaked off its body in waves. Once the full shape erged, it lifted its serpent head and let out a deafening howl.
An icy blast erupted from above it, spreading outward across the stadium like a storm front.
The crowd scread and scattered, but it was too late.
The freezing air slamd into spectators on all sides. Their limbs stiffened. Their movents slowed. Panic rippled through the tens of thousands packed into the stadium.
And with them, the fear reached the millions watching the live broadcast.
Of course, that number was only climbing.
As the footage spread online, the television stations carrying the New York ga were already being flooded with calls from competitors, analysts, and furious executives.
Within minutes, anyone watching television or reading the headlines would know sothing terrible had happened.
Mystery monster appears live during New York football match!
Thousands affected. Lives in danger!
S.H.I.E.L.D. caught wind of it imdiately.
"Monster?"
Nick Fury's skin itched as he watched the agency's 4K satellite feed.
The creature was enormous, completely unknown, and utterly untraceable. It had appeared from nowhere. S.H.I.E.L.D. had already checked the surrounding security footage. There was no sign of it entering the area.
The stadium spectators had nowhere to run.
The dinsional creature had unleashed a pressure, a killing intent, that crushed human courage in an instant.
Then it started feeding.
"No!"
Barnes recognized the location instantly. This was New York. This was Arica. Innocents were being torn apart in front of him.
His jaw clenched hard enough to hurt.
"I'll do it."
He stared at Drex.
"I'll serve you."
"That's the smart choice."
Drex did not bother with contracts or dramatic formalities.
He was stronger than phisto. A great deal stronger.
And the Black Hole Dinsion was already beginning to connect itself to Earth.
Every ti Johnny Blaze or Frank Castle used its power, that connection deepened.
Barnes' body ignited in black flas.
He roared as the fire wrapped around him and remade him into a Ghost Rider.
A motorcycle surged out of the flas beneath him.
Barnes leapt into the air, landed on the bike, and plunged straight through the screen.
A mont later, he arrived in the stadium.
"Another Ghost Rider?"
Nick Fury stared.
Then he imdiately contacted the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents assigned to monitor Johnny Blaze.
The reply ca back fast.
Blaze was already on the move, riding toward the location.
"Another Ghost Rider?"
Fury's headache only got worse.
One Ghost Rider had already been enough trouble.
Now there were two.
Unless...
Unless that creature was the "darkness descending" Blaze had talked about.
The long-feared turning point.
The kind of event people only whispered about before civilization broke.
Barnes hit the field and imdiately pulled a weapon from his arsenal.
An NSV heavy machine gun.
12.7×108mm rounds.
A brutal anti-air weapon, now further empowered by Black Hole Dinsion energy.
He gripped it with one hand.
Then he squeezed the trigger.
DOOOOM DOOOOM DOOOOM DOOOOM DOOOOM!
The roar was like thunder cracking over the stadium.
The ground trembled beneath the force of the fire, even as Barnes held the weapon effortlessly in one hand.
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