The Legendary Mechanic in Marvel Universe

Chapter 154 Steam and Dr. Zola

TL: Kyous

In a certain inhabited mountain range within the United States, dozens of caves of various sizes connected together and formed into a huge-scale base. It was the gathering place of H.Y.D.R.A. remnants in the country.

A year ago, Dr. Zola and Sinthea led the remnants to this location and hastily set up this spot as their hiding place.

A year later, this place was operated by H.Y.D.R.A. in an orderly manner. Every necessity and infrastructure was available, letting everyone wowed at the vigor of H.Y.D.R.A. Furthermore, the population of the base a year ago was nearly a hundred people and had expanded to thousands of people.

When Fury bulldozed the H.Y.D.R.A., the second base was flattened yet he failed to clear out all of the H.Y.D.R.A. members because of the huge time gap between the time he bought the first and second location from Leo.

Thousands of HYDRA members at this location were slowly gathered by Dr. Zola over the past year. Although many of the members survived, most of them had been identified and placed on the U.S. Military’s blacklist. So, they could only live like a rat on the street, shrinking into the depths of woods to survive. In the entire U.S., except for S.H.I.E.L.D., this was the only H.Y.D.R.A. base left.

However, Dr. Zola wasn’t disheartened by this. When Johann Schmidt “mutually destructed” with Captain America, he established a brand new H.Y.D.R.A. by himself. Now, he also carried the confidence to let H.Y.D.R.A. regain its former glory!

Since Sinthea “Sin” Schmidt was traveling across the United States, Dr. Zola was the top person in the base at the moment.

By now, it was twelve o’clock at midnight. Dr. Zola was preparing to lie into his sleeping device to rest. This sleeping device was still the one Leo and Dr. Zola designed together before Leo left. Since he felt the device was very comfortable, he replicated one in the new base.

Needless to say, every time he lied on the device, he would think of Leo. And every time complicated feelings emerged in his heart. This time was no exception!

At this point, he would swiftly activate the sleeping device, immediately forcing himself into the “dreamland”. The sleeping device connected to his body began clearing out redundant data in his robotic body. Concurrently, his consciousness transformed into a stream of sentient data, crossing an infinite range of distance and entering his “world”. This was an unknown place on the network where he stored all of his data.

Meanwhile, using this place as the starting point, he could communicate with the countless backups he had hidden around the globe.

When he arrived here, he would automatically sense the number of his backups. Then, one by one, he would communicate with them, exchanging data and thus establishing dominance as the main body. Once the main body was destroyed, the backups with the highest priority would become the new main body. Thus, ensuring the “immortality” of Dr. Zola.

As he continued communicating, an hour flew by. Out of the blue, he sensed an abnormal entity. It possessed the characteristics of his backups yet was fundamentally different from the backups. It possessed its own consciousness like a baby “cloned” using Dr. Zola’s core data.

Dr. Zola, akin to a shark that smelled fresh blood, instantly traversed a huge distance and charged at the abnormal entity, drilling into its body. The instant he entered its body, he learned its name. Its name was Steam and its core database was an exact copy of his robotic body.

Meanwhile, in the serene laboratory, when Dr. Zola’s data stream entered Steam’s body, Steam immediately noticed Dr. Zola. The next instant, the rainbow shimmering in its eye disappeared and fixed on a dangerous crimson light. Its immediate decision was to sound off the alarm, notifying his master.

As Steam’s core database was the exact copy of Dr. Zola, Dr. Zola broke through its first layer of firewall instantly and devoured the signal it transmitted to the outside world. Its warning signal was equivalent to tossing a pebble into the ocean, responseless. The lab was still silent without any alarms blaring.

However, Steam couldn’t sit still and do nothing. Its core database was the same as Dr. Zola’s and its capabilities weren’t dissimilar to Dr. Zola’s. Thus, it naturally possessed the capabilities to resist Dr. Zola’s intrusion.

Immediately, Steam’s consciousness also turned into a data stream, beginning to clash with Dr. Zola. The two of them were like two armies confronting and the battlefield was Steam’s body.

Nevertheless, Steam suffered the disadvantages of being “young”. It was constantly changing its data encryption method as if building walls within its body, attempting to get rid of Dr. Zola’s pestering. Yet, Dr. Zola was able to swiftly decrypt the “data wall” with his experiences in coding. Akin to a sharp blade, Dr. Zola was attempting to stab into its body to reach its core database.

At the same time, Dr. Zola was slowly unearthing more basic information stored in Steam’s body. For example, Steam was located in a place named El Tech Company in New York City. And for another example, El Tech Company’s owner was Leo Erwin, the proud student of his who he missed. On top of that, he also saw the Winter Soldier’s figure.

After discovering Leo and the Winter Soldier’s whereabouts, Dr. Zola increased his aggressiveness to invade Steam, trying to pry more information.

Steam was very anxious at this point. It knew it couldn’t “beat” the abnormal data stream that suddenly invaded its body and kept devouring its data. If this continued, every important data its master stored in its body would be at risk of being leaked. 

It was unsure what exactly was the odd data stream. The data stream was extremely familiar with it, leaving it helpless. Therefore, it instantly began analyzing. If it wanted to get rid of the data stream’s grasp, it must load a different kind of encryption method to prevent the data stream’s invasion.

“Buzz! Attempting loading the latest encryption method. Searching for solutions… Search completed. Source of the encryption method, Nick Fury’s phone encryption method. Judging the reliability of the source… Judgment passed! Begin loading.”

Importing Fury’s encryption method into its core database, it hastily mixed the new encryption method with its original encryption method before building a new isolation wall. If the previous “data wall” was a wall made from straws and mud, then the new “data wall” was created using steel and cement.

Upon stabbing the new “data wall”, Dr. Zola’s “sharp blade” immediately cracked, rendering it useless. He was defeated and livid as if being fooled by a child. But he was unwilling to let go of this hard-won chance. If he gave up now, it would be difficult for him to search for Steam again on the network due to Steam’s changing its data structure!

Hence, Dr. Zola began violently cracking the new “data wall”, aiming to break the new encryption method. But just as he managed to obtain a few data chains, he realized this encryption method was very complex. It wasn’t something he could crack in a short amount of time.

By now, Steam had stabilized the situation and the exasperated Steam silently shouted, “Buzz! Buzz! Buzzz!” before beginning its counterattack on Dr. Zola’s data stream.

The next moment, the situation was overturned.

Initially, it was Dr. Zola’s iron spear facing Steam’s wooden shield, but now it was Steam holding both an iron spear and an iron shield while Dr. Zola was left with a pitiful wooden shield. As for the ultimate winner? It was evident enough.

However, Dr. Zola still had a way out. Sensing the heaviness of the situation, he hastily escaped via the network port back to where he came from.

Steam finally regained its body control and hurriedly unplugged the network port, separating from the Internet world to prevent the odd data stream from coming back. Then, it sounded off the laboratory’s alarm before crying and dashing toward Leo’s bedroom like a wronged child.