They stepped out of the oppressive Capitol building, instantly swallowed by the blinding sunlight and deafening noise.
The plaza outside was already a chaotic mess.
Screaming fans, shouting reporters, blaring sirens—everything collided into a deafening cacophony.
The events that had just unfolded in the hall were now known to everyone.
"Mr. Stark! Is what Henry just said true?!"
"Superman! Are you really going to wipe out Hydra?!"
"Does Hydra really still exist? What does the Department of Defense have to say?!"
Countless microphones and recorders were thrust toward them.
But the Stark brothers showed not a hint of panic. If anything, they seemed to be back on their home turf.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Ladies and gentlemen! Calm down! Calm down!" Tony relished the crowd pressing around them, smiling for the cameras. "I know you have lots of questions. And yes, my brother's entrance was a bit… unconventional. But you have to understand—Stark men like to express themselves in a pretty direct way."
"As for Hydra…" His smile faded, replaced with an unprecedented seriousness.
"That isn't a lie, nor is it a conspiracy theory. It's a truth that's been buried for decades. And starting today, we'll be the ones to reveal it."
Henry was even more concise.
He took a pen from a girl who looked like she was about to faint and signed his name on a T-shirt printed with "Stark." Then he raised his head, looking at all the cameras, and calmly said:
"My hunt begins."
No sooner had he spoken than a stretched, custom limousine silently parted the crowd and came to a stop before them. Happy immediately moved forward to open the doors.
Amid the flashes of cameras and the cheers of fans, the five of them boarded the car calmly.
The doors closed slowly, isolating them from the noisy world outside.
Inside, it was like entering another dimension.
The quiet was almost disorienting after the earlier roar of chaos.
"I've got to say, you little bastard, you're getting better and better at stealing the spotlight." Tony collapsed onto the soft leather sofa as soon as he got in, tugging at his tie and scowling at Henry.
"Do you know how much wit and humor I prepared for today's hearing? And what happened? You, the late-stage drama king, just came crashing in from the sky and ruined it all!"
"Oh? Really?" Henry leaned back on the sofa, eyes closed.
"Does your 'brilliant performance' include nearly giving Pepper and Happy heart attacks down there? I have to say, Tony, your ability to torture your own people is far superior to how you handle your enemies."
"That's called tactical weakness! To bait the enemy into revealing their hand! Get it?!"
"All I see is a duck about to be boiled, with nothing left but a stiff beak."
Pepper, listening to their familiar bickering, finally felt the tension in her chest relax. She shook her head helplessly, then handed them each a bottle of ice water from the car fridge.
"Alright, can you two just be quiet for a moment?" she said weakly.
"I need to deal with the problem you two just created for me—potentially a problem so big it could get the entire Stark Industries PR department to quit."
Happy focused on driving, a small smirk playing on his lips.
Only Natasha remained silent, sitting quietly in the corner like a model assistant, but her eyes concealed a storm.
Hydra.
The Winter Soldier.
The murder of Howard Stark.
Any one of these pieces of information could trigger a seismic shock inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
Yet Henry Stark had just revealed them to the world.
Even more perplexing to Natasha was Tony's reaction.
He wasn't shocked, nor confused.
He was merely complaining—about Henry's entrance, about Henry stealing his spotlight.
This could only mean one thing: he already knew all of this.
The intelligence the Stark brothers held far exceeded S.H.I.E.L.D.'s estimates.
They were like an iceberg floating on the ocean—what S.H.I.E.L.D. had seen so far might not even be the tip.
Natasha realized her own job was getting increasingly dangerous—and truth be told, working at Stark Industries was way more comfortable than being an agent. After years as an operative, her salary couldn't even match the bonus she got as Tony's assistant!
She didn't even know where to start complaining—or if Fury had skimmed the bonuses, because otherwise how could her salary be so low?!
"So…"
The car's bickering paused for a moment. Tony sipped his water and looked at Henry.
"What's next? You really plan to hunt down every Hydra agent in the world and turn them all to ash?"
"What else?" Henry replied matter-of-factly. "You leave them around for New Year?"
"Alright," Tony shrugged. "I just feel this… blunt approach doesn't quite fit the image of a great Superman."
"Oh? Really?" Henry glanced at him. "Got a better idea?"
"Of course." Tony's eyes lit up instantly, and he snapped his fingers.
"J.A.R.V.I.S."
A massive 3D globe appeared in the car's holographic display.
Thousands of red blinking dots covered the map.
"This is…" Henry looked at the map, puzzled.
Tony's mouth curved into a smug grin.
"While my lazy little brother was just sunbathing in space on his boring vacation, I—his brilliant, hardworking older brother—used my genius mind, along with J.A.R.V.I.S.'s okay-ish computing power, to build a global Hydra database."
"Each red dot represents a suspected Hydra base, outpost, or agent."
"Most are just unconfirmed guesses."
"But…" He paused, raising an eyebrow proudly.
"It's way more efficient than you running around like a headless fly, isn't it?"
Henry studied the map quietly, staring at the thousands of red dots.
After a long moment, he finally spoke.
"Well done."
Tony: ...…
He felt like he had just punched a mattress with all his strength.
"Well done?! That's just the tip of the iceberg—wait till you see the lab!" He raised an eyebrow.
"So, please, Henry… you call this…"
"Alright, alright." Henry cut off his impending roar.
"I get it. You're the best, you're amazing, alright? The great future-maker, Hydra terminator, Tony Stark… which lucky red dot should we start with?"
Tony finally smiled, satisfied.
He touched the holographic screen, and the map zoomed in to reveal an abandoned military base in the icy wilderness of Siberia.
"Here," Tony said, his eyes cold.
"According to some encrypted files left by my father…"
"This is where the Winter Soldier lies frozen."
***
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