Kamen Rider ZZZ from the American comic book world

"Speaking of which, when I was studying in Springwood Town, you were the first person to talk to me."

“I didn’t have many friends back then. There were rumors at school that the police would plant spies among the students to investigate contraband, which made many people afraid to approach me, afraid that I would tell my dad.” Nancy’s tone was a little troubled, but she changed the subject and said with a smile:

“But you are completely different from them. You are not afraid of my dad at all, you don’t listen to those rumors, and you are willing to study with me. You even saved my life.”

“Although you always say that Sheriff Thompson is very strict, I’m sometimes quite envious of you. For example, you can lie on the bed and sofa with your shoes on, which I can’t do…” Li Ai said.

Upon hearing this, Nancy chuckled and said, "I remember you mentioned this. You got a beating from Mrs. Scott for lying on the sofa at home while wearing your shoes."

“Yeah, I found out that night why her dress was so red,” Li Ai complained.

Nancy suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, how's your SAT preparation for March going?"

The SAT, commonly known as the 'American College Test,' plays a significant role in college applications.

However, if you want to get into a good university, you may need to take several more exams.

"The only choice I have to make is whether to go to Columbia University or New York University," Li Ai said confidently, turning his head to look at Nancy's face.

"If you're not confident, I can take some time out of my schedule to help you review, just like before."

“Just like back in Springwood.” Nancy turned to look at Li Ai, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons with laughter.

“It’s more free than before. Once the sofa arrives, we can buy a big TV and a PS3, and we won’t have to worry about those conservative adults nagging us.” Li Ai began to envision the next steps for the apartment.

“We also need plenty of snacks and fast food!” Nancy continued, echoing Li Ai’s 'unhealthy' idea.

"A tub of iced cola!"

"Popcorn!"

The two began to dream about their happy life, but unfortunately, they had to attend class and train with the Avengers the next day.

...........................

With the winter break over, students at Midtown High School had to return to this somewhat heartbreaking place.

Li Ai wore the Avengers jacket directly because the same style of clothing already existed in the market. Rather than worrying about being exposed, she was more concerned about wearing the same outfit as someone else.

On her way to the cafeteria, Li Ai saw three Iron Man products, five Captain America products, and seven ZZZ-related products.

Avengers-related merchandise is very popular among young people.

After ordering a plate of spaghetti bolognese and baked beans in tomato sauce, Li Ai found a table and sat down. Several people who were familiar with him automatically gathered around him.

Peter, carrying a plate of food, sat down to Li Ai's left, glanced to the side, and then remarked, "There are more Avengers at the school than at the base."

"So, do you want to see Spider-Man merchandise sell like hotcakes?" Li Ai asked with a smile.

"But Spider-Man's reputation doesn't seem to be very good," Peter sighed helplessly.

"Because J. Jonah James is insulting me again, and this time he's dragging you into it too."

With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power greatly diminished and Nick Fury imprisoned, there's no one to stop J. Jonah James from making negative comments about masked heroes.

At that moment, Nancy, who had just become a member of Midtown High School, heard Peter's words. She frowned slightly and said unhappily:

Who are you insulting?

Peter looked at Nancy, who was sitting to Li Ai's right, but before he could speak, Li Ai interrupted him.

“It’s alright. J. Jonah James is a shill. If you actually listened to him, that’s what he saw.” Li Ai ate her pasta calmly, completely unaffected by the news.

"Kamen Rider ZZZ, is he a great hero or a villain hiding evil intentions?" Gwen, holding a plate of food, sat opposite Li Ai and the other two. She looked at the captain of the Young Avengers and asked:

"Can you really accept this kind of talk?"

“Yeah, I definitely couldn’t stand it,” Jessica chimed in, sitting next to Gwen. Daisy arrived at that moment and continued the conversation:

"Should we investigate this J. Jonah James and see if he's some kind of alien spy?"

"You guys should hurry up and eat, there's still training this afternoon."

Li Ai interrupted the others' conversation because Harry Osborn and Flynn, who had been Li Ai's temporary roommate, were walking towards them, so they had to change the subject.

But the addition of Harry and Flynn, two ordinary people, was not a big deal; they could still get along as friends, until a silver-haired figure appeared before them.

Her silver hair cascaded down to her waist like a waterfall, and even in winter clothes, her figure was far superior to that of the school cheerleading captain, and her face was comparable to that of a movie star from the last century.

"Li Ai, Flynn, the schedule for the Academic Decathlon State Competition has just been released. It's at the end of February. Let's all work hard to get a good ranking." The silver-haired girl smiled sweetly.

“Understood, Felicia,” Li Ai replied politely. “We’ll definitely bring a trophy back to school.”

"Okay, sure." Flynn replied somewhat perfunctorily, because all he could think about was how to start a conversation with his girlfriend.

"Then let's prepare a victory celebration party in advance," Felicia said before leaving.

"She's so beautiful," Peter, who was in his adolescence, remarked as he watched Felicia's departing figure.

Seeing Peter's state, Li Ai had a bad feeling, so she subtly probed:

“Philica’s family can afford a Ferrari, Peter, you need to think this through.”

"I understand, senior." Peter had become more clear-headed in the face of reality, but a seed of doubt still lingered in his heart.

Chapter 145 Tony: I Just Want to Kill Hydra

In the afternoon, at the Avengers base, in the training area on the first basement level.

Hawkeye was training Peter's reflexes, holding a tactical compound bow and using a type of soft-tipped rubber arrow.

"Kid, I think you could go a little faster, otherwise getting hit by a rubber arrow will hurt a lot," Hawkeye warned after firing a rubber arrow.

"I'm already trying my best to fight against six times gravity."

Wearing a spider suit, Peter dodged back and forth across a field with only scattered obstacles, trying to avoid the arrows shot by Hawkeye.

Another rubber arrow whizzed past, and Hawkeye, wanting Peter to work even harder, taunted him:

"If you continue like this, you can go over there to learn makeup."

When Hawkeye said "over there," he was referring to Black Widow, the legendary female assassin who had carried out countless missions and possessed top-notch stealth skills. Her first lesson in stealth was "makeup."

The girls in the Teen Avengers, aged fourteen to seventeen, are at the age when they love beauty the most, so they must take makeup very seriously.

Their chatter could be heard from halfway across the training field, occasionally punctuated by bursts of clear laughter.

But as one of only two boys in the Young Avengers, Peter had absolutely no interest in makeup and even scoffed at it.

“But what’s the difference between that and a chemistry class?” Peter asked, utterly puzzled. He grabbed the shaft of an arrow with his bare hands, dropped it, and tried to get closer to Hawkeye.

Upon hearing this, Hawkeye smiled. As a married man himself, he empathized, but he also felt compelled to offer a reminder:

"But you'd better not say it in front of them; it's for the sake of team unity."

“I know, I know.” As he spoke, Peter moved closer to Hawkeye, his fists clenched, as if he wanted to fight Hawkeye in close combat.

Seeing this, Hawkeye threw away his longbow. Under the influence of different gravitational fields, the two were physically equal and there would be no one-sided situation.

On the other side, two other people were engaged in combat training.

Even with the suppression of the gravitational field, Li Ai and Steve's punches and kicks were still fierce, with the power to split bricks and shatter stones with every move.

“Your boxing is indeed very fast, but your jiu-jitsu and grappling are much weaker.” Steve dodged Li Ai’s straight punch by sidestepping, his movement so small that he just barely missed the target.

"Come on, the opponents I've fought all the way through have only fallen into two categories: either they're not as strong as me, or they don't require any skill in the fight," Li Ai said, maintaining his standing boxing stance.

Li Ai primarily uses boxing techniques in close combat. Ada and Leon taught him some, but he rarely uses them in many situations.

After Steve awakens in the modern world, he masters more than twenty different fighting styles, making him the best fighter in the Avengers.

“It’s always good to learn more skills,” Steve said after throwing a jab that was so fast it was almost invisible. “You never know when you might need it.”

"So I'm learning, aren't I?" Li Ai replied, having blocked the punch with her forearm.

A sparring session ended in a draw, with both fighters covered in sweat. Then, a mechanical wolf designed and built by Li Ai arrived at their side carrying towels, electrolyte drinks, and energy bars.

After a short rest, the two, with towels draped around their necks, found a bench at the edge of the training area and sat down. Li Ai looked at the group of people who were still training and brought up something.

"By the way, Bucky's surgery is scheduled for today, it's starting in half an hour, and I'll be assisting them."

After Li Ai proposed the concept of a neutralizing agent, Banner and Tony quickly formulated a neutralizing agent to neutralize the Hydra version of the Super Soldier serum, and the surgery can be performed today without threatening Bucky's life.

Steve patted Li Ai on the shoulder and comforted her, "Just do what you're supposed to do, don't have too much of a mental burden."

“Let’s go, our family and friends can still observe the process outside the operating room,” Li Ai said, getting up.

The two then got up together and went to the experimental area on the second basement level.

Before entering the 'operating room', Li Ai changed her clothes and underwent full-body disinfection.

Because Banner has the highest level of expertise in biology, he is chosen as the 'attending physician,' with Tony, Pym, and Li Ai assisting him.

"Don't be nervous, the surgery will only involve a slight puncture sensation, and the whole process won't take long," Dr. Banner reminded Bucky on the operating table.

“Let’s begin,” Bucky replied.

Subsequently, under the operation of the four people, the instrument was started, and Bucky's blood was continuously drawn out and combined with a pre-prepared neutralizing agent before being poured back into Bucky's body.

The process wasn't long; it took about ten minutes for the surgery to be over.

Li Ai gestured to Steve outside the glass door, indicating that he could come in.

"How long until Bucky wakes up?" Steve asked impatiently.

"Right away," Li Ai replied.

Bucky slowly woke up on the operating table. He felt a little heavy, but not weak.

"I feel like this surgery was done for nothing," Bucky said, frowning.

“It’s normal for the Hydra Super Soldier Sergeant serum to have residual effects in your body after being in it for too long, Sergeant Barnes,” Pym said.

"Blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing are all normal, and his bodily functions..." Li Ai looked at the instrument monitoring Pakistan's vital signs in real time with a puzzled expression, and asked in confusion:

"The situation is better than expected. You still have about three years left, and your physical fitness is equivalent to that of a middle-aged person in their forties."

According to Li Ai's earliest estimate, after this surgery, Bucky will maintain the appearance of someone around thirty years old, but his actual physical condition will be similar to that of a seventy or eighty-year-old man.

“I’ve finally gotten rid of Hydra,” Bucky said, clenching his right fist.

At this point, Banner remembered something mentioned earlier and said, "Should we send him to the underground prison of the Holy See in New York?"

“Forget it.” Tony spoke up unexpectedly, seemingly implying something. “Anyway, he doesn’t have many years left to live, so it doesn’t matter where he goes, as long as he doesn’t hang around in front of me. What he does to me is none of my business.”

These words made Bucky's emotions even more complicated; the more tolerant the victim's family was, the more guilty he felt.

“Tony, I…” Steve wanted to say something for Bucky, but Tony ruthlessly interrupted him.

“I know what you want to say on behalf of the old relic number two, but I don’t want to hear it. All I want to know right now is where Hydra’s base is,” Tony said sharply, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth.

Seeing that Tony had already transferred all his hatred to Hydra, Steve changed the subject, saying, "We've identified that Hydra executive named Strucker. He'll be near the castle in Sokovia this Saturday."

? Chapter 146 Dispatch

After determining the next objective, Steve turned to Li Ai and asked:

"Do you want to participate in this operation?"

“Sure, I’m free this Saturday,” Li Ai nodded in agreement. “The main reason is that a bio-weapon that can use superpowers has recently appeared, and I think that when we go on missions, at least one of us, Dr. Banner or I, should be present.”

When the Avengers were first established, they needed an operational plan, one of which was that members needed to upload intelligence about their opponents to a database in order to expand the Avengers' intelligence network.

Li Ai has also uploaded the briefing on the Speed ​​Tyrant to the internal database. Anyone who pays attention to the database updates will know about the existence of the Speed ​​Tyrant.

“That kind of monster is indeed very difficult to deal with,” Steve affirmed, turning his gaze to Dr. Banner and asking:

"Dr. Banner, and what about you?"

"I'm sorry, Kamar-Taj is short-staffed again recently," Dr. Banner said apologetically.

As for Dr. Pym, we can't count on him at all; his health can't withstand such strain.

“I understand.” Steve nodded.

By this time, Bucky had almost recovered, and Li Ai helped him untie the restraints, saying:

"Let me give you a ride."

Although Tony has turned his hatred towards Hydra, Bucky's killing of Howard and his wife will not change. In addition, Tony is more prone to emotional outbursts, so Bucky is really not suitable to stay at the Avengers base for long.

"Thank you," Steve and Bucky said.

The three then left the underground area first, and when they met again, they were sitting in the black Porsche Cayenne.