Steve and Frank came back with pale faces. One could completely imagine how Mephisto used his skillful stirring tactics to turn the place below into complete chaos, upgrading a cesspool into a public restroom. Among them, Frank's face looked particularly bad; the moment the bullet hit the imposter Captain America, he had already arranged his prison schedule for decades to come.
The relationship between the two had undergone a subtle change. Frank realized he couldn't be an enemy of Captain America. Not only because society's rules wouldn't allow it, but also because if he just casually shot an innocent good guy, he wouldn't be any different from those thugs who killed his family back in the day. He couldn't accept this from the bottom of his heart.
But this involves a problem. Captain America is recognized as a good person; everyone in the world knows about his righteous heart, and Frank of course believes this too. But what if it's another person?
If someone looks like a bad guy and seems to have done bad things, you just kill him like that, what if he's not? What if it's just a misunderstanding or he's been set up?
Previously, Frank wouldn't agonize over this kind of thing. He didn't even know if any of the people he had killed were innocent and wronged. But facing that shot at Captain America was like a guillotine suddenly falling. When people face death, they inevitably ponder and reflect more.
As for Steve, he also noticed Frank seemed to be greatly affected. However, he wasn't quite sure why Frank was like this. He thought maybe that shot had scared Frank, and felt slightly guilty about it, deciding not to give him trouble on purpose.
The two no longer clashed so intensely and could barely coexist peacefully. Meanwhile, the chaos below was so messy it was impossible to tread on, so they returned. However, Mephisto stayed, as he evidently still enjoyed playing as Captain America.
Honestly, for now, Steve wanted to give him that title. Devils are indeed good at handling such things. Despite the chaos he stirs up, Mephisto manages to fish in troubled waters under the guise of righteousness. Steve felt he wasn't particularly adept at this and thought he still had much to learn.
Steve had just returned when he heard there was going to be a TV show again, as Little Thomas ran up to him and asked, "Dad, why can't we make a 'Captain America'?"
"Uh…" Steve thought for a moment then said, "I think you can directly go read the WWII history. When I was Captain America, I did only two things; one was to do recruitment propaganda, and the other was to go to war. There's honestly not much worth filming."
"But you fought Hydra for a long time, there must be many thrilling battles, right? Like the final one with Red Skull?"
"The thrilling parts were too brief," Steve continued, "Most of the time was spent in a certain place investigating certain clues or doing rapid marches. The actual fighting happened very rarely, and the combined time of combating Red Skull was less than an hour."
"But the movie would never show it that way. They would make it so exciting, letting everyone know how amazing you are!"
"That's the fundamental reason I don't want to make a movie." Steve gently patted Little Thomas on the head, "The Federal Government and the military have always tried to overly exaggerate my achievements, turning me into the WWII turning point. I know I'm not. Doing so is also unfair to those ordinary soldiers who sacrificed on the front line."
Little Thomas seemed to understand, but also seemed not to. However, children aren't very interested in such deep topics, so after a while, he went off to play again.
"I can tell you don't like the camera much," Greed said, "You even deliberately avoid them, refusing interviews and all."
"I've had enough of being a puppet used for exaggerated propaganda." Steve said softly; he usually wouldn't express extreme views on certain matters, except for what the military had done to him.
"Shortly after I became Captain America, they told me my duty was to act as a hero that embodied the American spirit, to help recruit more soldiers for them. I traveled around the country performing and speaking, becoming the battle hero they spoke of."
"But when I truly wanted to become a war hero, sought to end the war for real and prevent more people from getting hurt, they said I was daydreaming, claiming I couldn't fight, better stay obediently in front of the camera speaking good words for them."
"My rebellion grew more intense, and finally some among them spoke the truth from their hearts. They didn't hope for the war to end; they wanted to sit leisurely and reap the world's wealth and talent. I had enough of them, that's why I went to Europe for the mission."
"Do you think you made the right choice?" Greed asked, "If you hadn't gone, you wouldn't have been frozen, wouldn't have missed out on so much."
"But I've gained more," Steve replied, "It's because I was frozen that I can meet you all today. Otherwise, my life's trajectory might be completely different, perhaps I would have ended up as your enemy."
Greed contemplated it. Interestingly, it's easy to imagine an evil Superman, and indeed there are quite a few evil Supermen, but it's a bit challenging to imagine an evil Captain America. Many would think of Hydra Captain or imagine someone evil getting the Super Soldier Serum, turning into a Homelander-like character.
Yet actually, the easiest evil Captain America to imagine would be one who didn't truly participate in the war, becoming a complete puppet of the military, even embodying the U.S. Military's will completely. That would be a disaster worse than Evil Supermen and Hydra Captain.
"I'm back." Wanda walked in through the front door, put down her bag, and said, "I just got back from Flushing. The witches there are doing quite well; some have even rented houses. I've invited them to come to my place this weekend. Are you all coming?"
"No, ma'am, there's still a lot of mess to deal with here." Greed shook his head and said, "I suppose all the self-sufficient witches have left, haven't they?"
"Yes. Except for those without much superpower who have had to work to support themselves, some with superpowers have been recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. and are now gone."
Greed nodded: "The nobles are also reaching their limits; they won't be able to hold on much longer."
"I'm curious as to how this will all end." Steve said, "Right now, it doesn't seem like any side holds the advantage. Are we really going to deplete everyone?"
"Of course not, our goal has always been to resolve the so-called curse in Hampton. Although Sarah has absorbed a lot of supernatural energy, the illusion part remains unresolved."
"So what are you planning to do?"
"The witches won't be able to hold on for much longer. Once they withdraw, the nobles will take action."
As Greed mentioned, the self-sufficient witches all left, leaving not many witches behind. Although some of them were quite skilled, they couldn't withstand so many mercenaries attacking at once.
Money indeed makes the ghosts work; in the end, even Spider Man from other universes was enlisted. How could the witches withstand such onslaught? They were utterly defeated. Three of the quartet were killed by the Black Hand, and the remaining four scattered and fled. Nicholas was also taken away by Strange and thrown into the seal of Kamar-Taj.
After expelling the third-party forces, the conflict between the locals and the Alien Nobles became exposed. The nobles of the Shi'ar Empire wanted to acquire land at low prices, surely they'd stir up trouble in the community to lower the land prices, and the locals wouldn't tolerate that. So the mercenaries turned their sights on the nobles.
The nobles were more dangerous than the witches because they had wealth and influence, along with formidable technology. If they were to rule Hampton, the locals would certainly be entirely suppressed. They tried every means to drive out these Alien Monsters, and Earth is not short of capable people.
The local tycoons sent out a hero's call; not just the heroes from New York, but members of the West Coast Avengers, Deadpool, and even Captain Marvel were called in, and they pummeled these Shi'ar Empire people.
The nobles of the Shi'ar Empire also realized that playing violent games against humans was futile. No matter how great your powers, you couldn't beat these superhuman beings, and this approach would not work to their advantage.
But the political savvy of these nobles was no less. They realized the hired mercenaries were not all ruthless killers, and many were actually famous superheroes. They were willing to act against them, not entirely for money, but because they were aliens causing trouble locally, which was inherently unjustified. With a few cries from the tycoons, they could play the part of the perfect victims whose legitimate lands were invaded.
The Shi'ar nobles, of course, wouldn't let them have their way. They conducted thorough investigations and eventually discovered the most effective strategy—a war of public opinion.
These local wealthy individuals were far from innocent; otherwise, Hampton wouldn't have ended up this way. Their histories of wealth accumulation were stained with blood debt. The nobles of the Shi'ar Empire, utilizing highly advanced technological means, exposed all their secrets.
Generally, there wouldn't be so many media willing to expose such matters, as doing so could easily get you killed, metaphorically speaking. But with Greed stirring things up, he had a word with JARVIS, and a web column called "Christ Crown Region Blood Investigation Report" was established.
The name sounded like some sort of interactive video mystery case produced by independent media, and initially, it was indeed very subtle. But as more real evidence came to light, netizens quickly realized that Christ Crown was a real place, and it was in New York, USA. Soon enough, Hampton's aberrations were also exposed, causing a huge uproar across the internet.
There was no need to look back centuries; in just the past few decades, even just in the years of internet popularization, there were plenty of unresolved bloody cases. The police colluded with the wealthy to create many injustices. Once this was exposed online, the level of attention reached terrifying heights.
The Federal Government certainly couldn't sit still, and the New York State Government, feeling shame, pushed for an urgent investigation. However, the people sent previously couldn't enter due to the turmoil of the superpower users. In the end, they had no choice but to turn to S.H.I.E.L.D. for help.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was quite easy to buy, and so were the State Police. But S.H.I.E.L.D. was a different story—Nick accepted a lot of money, but he did nothing.
Some people immediately turned to Nick Fury, trying to get him to cover up the evidence. Nick agreed incessantly on the surface and demanded hefty sums, almost reaching each person's breaking point, draining them completely. Then he turned around and arrested them all.