Chapter Five Hundred and Twelve: Tonight in a Dream to Confess (Part 2)
When people's consciousness falls into a dream, it is often difficult to realize when they fell into the dream. The same is true for Steve. When the patter of rain gradually stopped, when he opened his eyes again, he had already arrived.
We arrived at a somewhat familiar place.
He squinted his eyes and blocked the light with his hands. After standing up, he looked at the environment here and found that it seemed to be a somewhat old laboratory.
Even if Steve is not a scientific researcher, he can still see that this laboratory should not be a product after the 21st century. Although the equipment here is very advanced from the perspective of the last century, it cannot cover up the slightly...
There are some cramped layouts, and there are traces of friction on the experimental bench that have been used for a long time.
Suddenly, Steve found something very familiar to him, which was an experimental bench. The reason why this thing looked familiar to him was that he had repaired a dent on the cabinet door himself.
At that time, Howard made the vibranium shield for him. Neither of them had ever used this kind of weapon and were not aware of its lethality. Steve took the shield and threw it directly, and the shield "clanged"
It hit the opposite wall with a loud sound, and when it bounced back, the rope of the chandelier was cut off with a "whoosh".
With a "pop", the chandelier hit the ground. Steve instinctively ducked back. With a "pop", he knocked out a dent in the cabinet door of the experimental bench behind him. Howard became furious and Steve could only
He spent the whole night repairing the cabinet door that he had broken.
Walking around the experimental bench, many familiar things appeared in front of him, including the parts of the hover car that Howard often boasted to him about, various models piled in the corner of the room, and even a half-peeled Playboy sticker on the wall.
poster……
Steve seemed to see his old friend Howard busy at the experimental table, while he himself was sitting on the table behind, holding a burger and devouring it.
At that time, they were all very busy. Howard was busy providing various logistic weapons, and he was busy fighting the enemy.
Recalling the picture in his mind, Steve sat down at the small table against the wall, and he could even smell the aroma of the burger.
"Bah", the sound of the wrapping paper being torn off rang in his ears. When he turned his head, what he saw was not Howard who had finally finished his work and started eating, but Stark.
Stark was holding a cheeseburger in his hand. The aroma of the cheeseburger that had just torn off the wrapper was wafting out. Stark turned his head and saw Steve swallowing his saliva. He changed his burger to another hand.
, and then said: "Don't look at it, we don't care about food here."
"Is this your conscious world?" Steve asked.
"That's right." Stark replied while eating: "You must enter my dream first, and then you can travel to the dream world."
"I'm sorry, Tony..." Steve lowered his head, his tone full of sadness.
When you are really in this kind of room full of details and memories, someone's death is no longer a cold word or a notice. Every detail here will make Steve realize
It turns out that Howard once lived in this world and left countless traces here, but his life ended abruptly at a certain time, and the traces here have never been updated.
When Steve saw all this, he realized that Howard's death had hurt Stark much more than he thought, because Stark, like his father, was a super genius.
His memory is many times stronger than that of ordinary people. Therefore, he does not have the best medicine for ordinary people to treat wounds - forgetfulness.
At least, in this dream space, Stark retained all the details of his time with Howard, and now, all of it is displayed in front of Steve's eyes.
Stark walked over and sat down opposite the small table. The other stool opposite the table was shorter, obviously for children, and Stark, who was now very tall, sat on that small stool.
It seems a little funny.
Steve and Stark sat at opposite ends of the table with their backs against the wall, one side taller and the other shorter, like a scale.
Steve turned his head and saw Stark sinking further than him. He knew that if this was really a scale, then Stark was heavier than him because he was carrying the death of his father.
Only when you see a person depressed and falling downwards in front of your eyes can you realize that death and separation are unbearable weights in life.
"I let you enter my conscious world not because I want to hear your apology." Stark said. He took a deep breath and seemed to make a decision that took quite a lot of courage. He said:
"I read a lot of psychology-related books and did a lot of analysis. I think this should be helpful to your condition."
Stark looked up and saw the flickering lights of the laboratory opposite through the glass. He said:
"The era that belongs to you and him has passed and will never come back. Many people you know are gone, and everything you once owned has been lost."
"You desperately want to find someone to prove that you have existed, but your existence itself is evidence that they have existed."
"You and your memories, those that exist in your mind, and the time spent with Howard, are another form of his existence, and are the most solid souvenirs left after his death."
"Therefore, I should thank you, because you can live forever, but I will not, so until I die, I can see traces of his existence from you..."
Steve could no longer control his tears, and those azure eyes shattered into a vast ocean, shining like pearls from clams between the ups and downs of the tide.
The two were silent for a while, and Tony stood up first and said:
"When Professor
"
"And after arriving at the Alliance of Radiance base, we can find Schiller's dream inside the base that Professor X once marked."
Seeing Steve still sitting silently on the chair, Stark didn't intend to explain anymore. He closed his eyes, began to liberate his consciousness, and looked for the possible path.
Silently, the walls of the room faded away, the light became brighter, the tiles were laid, and the sofa fell from the sky. In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the reception room of the base.
Stark breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Fortunately, thanks to magic, I only need to provide ideas and navigation. This is really too stream of consciousness."
As he spoke, he said in disbelief: "So, what kind of monsters are these that can travel freely in dreams?"
"Is this a transfer station?" Steve finally asked.
"That's right, let me look for any signs that lead to other people's dreams..." Stark closed his eyes, tried to concentrate, and began to feel the structure of this dream. After a while, he raised his eyebrows,
Then he said: "Found it."
But then, he frowned again, opened his eyes, looked into the air, as if scanning something, and said: "...What are these?"
"What's wrong?" Steve walked up and asked.
"I found some paths that seem to lead to other places..."
"Wouldn't that be great? We can just go there."
"The problem is, there are no street signs."
Stark sighed and said: "Professor
.”
"Are there many ways? Can't we try them one by one?"
"Yes, yes..." After Stark finished speaking, he paused, and then said: "Let's try the first one first."
With a "swish", they returned to Stark's dream space. Stark shook his head and said, "It seems that we are out of luck."
When they returned to the reception room of the Alliance of Radiance, Stark chose the second path, and after disappearing again, they appeared in a museum.
As soon as Stark landed, he saw a gun placed in the display cabinet in front of him. When he walked over, he found that it was an old rifle, a bit too shabby, and it was difficult to judge just by its appearance.
What model is it.
He lowered his head and saw the introduction column of the display stand that read:
"Bard Smith, 18 years old, comes from a farm in Michigan. He loves sweets. His biggest wish is to take his mother to New York. He can't put down the newly issued firearms..."
At first, Stark didn't realize what the introduction had to do with the gun inside, until he saw in the light of the display cabinet that there was some blood on the bottom of the gun.
His finger on the introduction panel of the display stand paused, and he took a step forward, and there was another display stand with a worn-out notebook inside. The introduction panel said:
"David Petrov, a great engineer, drank heavily but had a bright voice, and liked to hum Soviet songs while repairing tanks..."
Further forward, there are many display cabinets, which contain all kinds of rags. Key rings, belts, glasses, towels and even thermometers can be seen everywhere. At least in the real world, there will never be any.
Museums put these things.
But they all correspond to a person's name, as well as some chaotic and unsystematic records. Those records often only have one or two sentences, which may be their favorite food, who is in the family, and what their greatest wish is.
Turning a corner, Stark saw Steve standing at the end of another row of display cabinets, staring at the items in the display cabinet. After he walked over, he found that inside was a pair of gloves with very slender fingers.
, it doesn’t look like it’s worn by a man.
Stark lowered his gaze and saw a name written on the introduction panel of the display cabinet - "Peggy Carter".
"...At that time, we were sitting on the steps in front of the garage chatting, and she said that her dream since she was a child was to be an artist, but in those days there were few people to support a girl working independently."
"I said I would draw her a picture, but she didn't believe it at all because I didn't look like someone who could afford brushes and paints, and the army didn't have those things, so I went and burned a piece of it. charcoal, and then drew her repairing the tank."
"She was very surprised. It was obvious that she wanted the painting very much, but she didn't have the money to buy it, so she threw me a pair of her gloves. When I saw her expression, I knew, I'm obsessed..."
Steve pressed his fingers on the glass of the display cabinet, then he raised his head again and looked at the rows and rows of display cabinets. He said, "Perhaps many people think that when I saw Paige for the last time, , it should be extremely sad..."
"But in fact, apart from the initial sadness about death and separation, I even felt a little relieved. She was full of children and grandchildren, very happy, lying quietly on the hospital bed, and was able to see her former lover before she died. , this is already very happy.”
"And more people..." Steve turned to look at the objects in the glass display cabinets and said, "I can't even remember how they died, but in my memory, the relics are Among the masters, probably less than one in a thousand can live a long and healthy life."
"Some were hit by bullets and died, some were shrapnel inserted into the chest, some suffered from dysentery, and some were frozen to death. I was not present when they died, but I just brought a message from afar..."
Steve looked up at the museum and said:
"Tony, I must apologize for this, for my impulsive behavior of defending Bucky, but I am not defending myself, but when I heard the news of Howard's death, what I felt was not sadness, but sadness. It’s numbness.”
"I have heard too much such news. On a certain day of a certain year, a certain person who I met on a certain battlefield died."
"They may have been lying in the same trench with me, they may have exchanged bullets with me, they may have lit cigarettes while covering each other, they may have even cut off my back and saved my life, but when they died, they left nothing behind. "
Steve took a deep breath, raised his head and looked at the display cabinet above, and said:
"Maybe you are right. That era has passed and will never come back."
"My existence is evidence that they lived and contributed to the peace of the world. Perhaps, this is the world's last mercy for a veteran..."
Stark closed his eyes and felt that the edges of his eyelashes were wet.
No matter how unbearable the weight of death and separation is in life, the man in front of me has also endured it, and he has endured it thousands of times.
Stark's sigh slowly dissipated in the dream space. In the middle of the museum corridor filled with display cabinets, the faint black shadow under the lamp cut the corridor in half. Steve stood at one end, and Si stood at the other end. Tucker.
None of them heard it. With the muffled sound of "rumbling", one end of the originally tilted scale fell down, and the scale regained its balance. Iron Man and Captain America once again stood on the same line.