The floor shuddered as the hangar doors began to open, icy wind roaring in like a living thing. Snow whipped through the gap, blinding white against the cold steel of the plane's interior.
Howard stood, the watch on his wrist pulsing once before the suit flowed over him like a second skin, metal wrapping tight around his frame with a hiss of locked joints and a low hum of energy.
Peggy looked up at him, startled. "You're not serious..."
He grabbed her without waiting. "Hold on."
The blast from the thrusters kicked up loose papers and scattered cups as he launched them both out of the plane. The cold hit instantly, biting and fierce, but the armor adjusted. A thin energy shield appeared around Peggy. Wind howled past. Below, a sprawling patch of white stretched across the landscape, broken by steel pylons, heat tents, and the faint glow of energy fields.
Howard's visor lit up, a HUD flickering to life. "Hermes, mark the LZ."
A soft chime. Coordinates locked. Descent path calculated.
He angled them down. Snow-covered ridges blurred past. Peggy clung to him, her breath short but steady, eyes locked on the ground coming into view.
They touched down in a crouch at the edge of the dig site. Howard let her go gently, metal plates withdrawing from his arms as the suit receded partially, retreating back into standby mode.
Peggy took a shaky breath and straightened.
Around them, movement stirred.
Melina stepped out from one of the tents, wearing a thick winter coat over reinforced body armor. Her hair was pulled back, frost clinging to the edges. Several Widows flanked her, rifles slung, watching the skies.
"You're late," Melina said.
"We came as fast as we could," Howard replied, already scanning the site.
Just beyond the line of heat lamps, a drone buzzed past, its red lights blinking as it zipped toward a scaffold near the ice trench. Another followed, sweeping the perimeter, building a silent grid of surveillance.
Tony's voice crackled over the comms. "About time you showed up. We've got about six hours of daylight left, and this place isn't getting any warmer."
"Where are you?" Howard asked.
"The dig site. We are close," He replied.
"C'mon," Melina said, giving them a slight nod.
Peggy followed, her boots crunching against the packed snow. The wind cut through her coat, but she barely noticed. Her focus was fixed ahead, where floodlights cast sharp beams across the excavation site.
Steel scaffolding framed the edge of a deep trench carved into the ice. Orange tarps flapped on support poles, half-buried under snowfall. Generators rumbled nearby, their cables snaking across the ground like frozen veins.
Howard moved ahead, eyes scanning the layout. He tapped his watch. The nanites moved, revealing his face.
They reached the edge of the trench. Peggy looked down. A rectangular shaft opened beneath them, descending through layers of packed ice and exposed rock. Warm light bled up from within.
Tony was at the bottom of the trench, crouched beside a thick column of machinery, his face illuminated by the glow of an arc reactor core embedded in the central console. Cables ran from it in all directions, pulsing with a steady blue light that made the frost on the walls shimmer. He was working on the interface.
"Welcome to the coldest damn rescue mission in history," he said without looking up.
Howard dropped down beside him with a hiss of hydraulic brakes, the nanites on his boots anchoring him to the platform. Peggy descended more cautiously, climbing down a ladder until she reached the lowest level. Melina stayed near the opening above.
Tony stood and turned to face them, brushing snow off his shoulders. "We hit the chamber wall about forty minutes ago. It's deep. Too thick for conventional drills, but Arc-based plasma cutters are holding up. We're about twenty meters away from breaching the containment shell."
"Any sign of structural collapse?" Howard asked, stepping up to the central readout.
"Negative," Tony said. "The ice is denser than we thought, but it's stable."
Tony turned to Peggy, giving her a once-over with a quick, unreadable glance before holding out his hand.
"Ah! Agent Carter," he said. "Tony Stark. I've seen you kick those Oscorp agent's ass back the base. You were good."
Peggy took his hand, her grip firm despite the cold. "You've got your father's charm."
Tony gave a lopsided grin. "Yeah, I try not to let it ruin me."
He let go and turned back to the control panel, already busy. "We're almost there. Final layer of ice is thin. The arc cutters have kept the integrity intact... no melting around the edges. That's the good news."
Howard stepped up beside him. "And the bad?"
Tony tapped a few keys. "The readings are fuzzy. He's deep in cryogenic suspension. No life signs... but no decay either. Like the cold preserved everything. Which, biologically, makes zero sense, but I stopped questioning miracles after my third lab accident. But if I were to guess, it's the serum that kept him intact."
Peggy moved closer to the edge of the trench, eyes locked on the narrow passage that led into the excavation site. Floodlights angled down into a chamber where machines had carefully carved away layers of snow and ice, exposing a large, uneven block.
Inside it, faintly visible through cloudy frost...
His arms were at his sides. Shoulders square. Head tilted slightly forward. The red, white, and blue of his uniform was still visible beneath the frost.
Strapped to his left arm. Faded. Scuffed. But whole.
Peggy took a slow breath. Cold mist formed around her face as she breathed. There he was, frozen in a block of ice.
Peggy stepped forward, her voice quiet. "Is he alive?"
Tony quickly ran another scan. "Yup. Alright, let's bring him out, and then we'll do the melting procedure." He tapped his earpiece. "Melina, have the Bio-Nanites ready."
"Will do," She replied.
The winch system groaned as the suspension cables lowered into place, guided by drones and pulleys anchored along the trench wall. Tony and Howard worked in sync, securing the block of ice with magnetic clamps as its base was gently lifted from the ice cradle.
"Steady," Howard muttered, adjusting the tension.
The block hovered upward, silent except for the hum of machinery and the soft crackle of frost fracturing along its surface. Floodlights tracked it, casting long shadows across the excavation site.
Peggy backed away as the icy tomb rose into view. She couldn't tear her eyes from it. From him.
His outline was clearer now: face pale but intact, mouth slightly open like he'd just exhaled. The frost curled along his cheekbones, clinging to the seam of his mask. It didn't seem possible that he could still be whole, let alone alive.
The block settled onto a reinforced platform beside the trench, surrounded by a semicircle of emitters, their blue LEDs blinking in slow rhythm. Melina arrived with a team in tow, Widows now wearing insulated suits and carrying sealed canisters marked with Stark Industries' logo.
"Bio-Nanites, batch 23-K," she said, handing one of the canisters to Howard. "Designed to repair cell degradation and stimulate neural activity. They've been tested on humans but... not someone who's been frozen for seventy years."
Tony didn't look up. "That's the fun part. Dad, you are on the hard part."
Howard keyed the interface, activating the emitter array. A low vibration spread through the air. The emitters flared to life, forming a lattice of blue light around the block. Heat radiated inward, slowly, carefully, and controlled down to the microdegree. Not enough to damage tissue. Just enough to begin the thaw.
Steam hissed as the outermost layer of ice cracked.
The shield emerged first, frost sliding off its surface like snow melting on warm stone. Then the fabric of his uniform was still intact, still deep navy blue with muted red lines. The star on his chest gleamed faintly under the floodlights.
Peggy stood still, fists clenched at her sides.
The mist thickened, swirling around the platform. The ice thinned fast now, inner layers collapsing into water. Puddles formed at Steve's boots. The shield strap snapped free. It clanged softly on the metal floor.
It took 30 minutes to bring him out of the ice without harming his body. Tony activated the bio-nanites.
The bio-nanites pulsed in silvery threads as they sank into Steve's skin, weaving across his chest and arms, dispersing beneath the surface. His body twitched once, faint and involuntary, then stilled again. Monitors beeped steadily. Howard kept a close eye on the vitals streaming across his HUD. Heartbeat. Respiration. Neural flickers. All faint, but present.
Tony stepped back, removing his gloves. "He's alive. No brain decay. No organ collapse. The serum kept everything on ice… literally."
Peggy stepped closer, her eyes scanning Steve's face. "When will he wake up?" She was barely holding back her emotions, but she knew that she couldn't just hug him right now, considering his situation. So, he controlled herself.
Tony's expression tightened. "Could be hours. Could be days. Could be longer. His brain's intact, but the shock of revival... that's uncharted territory. We'll take him to Horizon. It's isolated, secured, and fully equipped."
Melina motioned to her team. "Extraction transport is ready. I'll take you both."
"Yeah, that'd be great. We'll be able to monitor him better there," Howard agreed.
Peggy turned and followed Melina toward the waiting transport jet as drones created an energy shield around Steve and carried him to the jet.
Peggy looked back at him. "Aren't you coming?"
He shook his head. "Not yet. I've got something else to track."
Howard frowned. "The Tesseract?"
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