Viper?
Tony quickly ran through his impressions of all Marvel characters in his mind, and soon filtered out the only character from his memory who used this codename.
A high-ranking cadre of the international terrorist organization Hydra, Viper, also known as Madame Hydra.
But unlike other Hydra cadres, if one were to speak of the impression she left on Tony, he could only think of a few tags for the moment.
Snow-white skin, large assets, possessed skilled seduction techniques, and was very good at sleeping her way to conquering her opponents.
Could it be her?
Tony frowned, feeling a bit worried.
It wasn't that he was worried the other party would fail the assassination and then use her special skills to come and test him personally... No, if it was just that, it would be fine; he was quite confident in "Little Tony."
The key point was that if it really was her, it meant his head was being targeted by Hydra. That was the trouble.
The Marvel version of Hydra was a massive organization, operating secretly within S.H.I.E.L.D. in the modern era.
The trickiest part wasn't how strong the organization's combat power was, but that these people were truly like a "Hydra"—cut off one head, and nine more would grow back.
No one knew exactly how many branches and how much manpower they had hidden in the dark. It wasn't easy to destroy a Hydra base in a frontal assault, but to completely purge and exterminate them from this world would be a massive undertaking.
After repeated interrogations combined with a polygraph, Tony was convinced that this trash, Dreykov, had no more useful information for him, and quickly lost interest.
But Natasha quickly stepped forward, stepping on Dreykov.
"Yelena!" Natasha ignored his painful wails. "She's not here. Tell me, where is she?"
This was Natasha's last tie to the world, her sister... at least in the bottom of her heart, Natasha still treated her as a sister.
At this moment, Dreykov, having undergone Tony's continuous electric shock interrogation, was already on the verge of collapse. He had no strength to hold out. Upon being asked, he immediately cried out in pain: "She's not at the base, she's in... Russia! She's on a mission. I can tell you the alias and address she is using..."
But just as the words left his mouth, he was lazily interrupted by Tony behind him: "No need for you to bother. I've just taken over your system. I can see any information you have here."
As he spoke, Natasha felt a message arrive on the S.H.I.E.L.D. communicator she carried with her. She opened it and found a mission briefing including a name, address, and other details had been sent to her device, along with the personal file and photo of the Black Widow operative, Yelena.
Natasha looked back in surprise at Tony, who was standing by the console. The figure in the red and gold armor didn't even turn his head, simply waving his hand in her direction as if to say it was a trivial matter, not worth mentioning.
A look of shock and suspicion flashed across Dreykov's pained face: "You... I have the best firewall, the best system, how could you..."
"Cracked your firewall in two minutes?" Tony said casually. "Actually, I only used one minute. I spent the rest of the time casually browsing and downloading your data, just in case there's anything I can use later."
He thought for a moment and added.
"Oh, by the way, your security protocols are too old. They feel like stuff from the last century. You need to learn to keep up with the times, pal."
Dreykov: "..."
If someone had said this to him before, Dreykov would certainly have dismissed it. But today, his aerial fortress, which he took pride in, was breached single-handedly, and his top agents were crushed like ants by a strike from a higher dimension.
And this iron shell, who had accomplished all this with ease, telling him he was outdated seemed inexplicably convincing.
Soon, Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. download all information valuable to him from this fortress. Finally confirming that there was no other intelligence worth squeezing out of Dreykov, he fired a repulsor blast, directly helping this notorious Red Room leader achieve physical ascension to the afterlife.
This was necessary. If he didn't personally ensure the opponent was blasted into slag, heaven knows if S.H.I.E.L.D. would spare Dreykov's dog life, lock him in some cell to try and exploit some residual value, and then who knows, maybe one day in the future he would break out of prison, stage a "Return of the King" scenario, and come back for revenge...
To prevent such a thing from happening and to nip such dangerous possibilities in the bud, Tony had to ensure here and now that the other party turned into ashes.
Natasha watched her greatest enemy turn to dust under Iron Man's repulsor blast, her expression complex.
Next, she would soon need to make time to find Yelena. In the past, she had almost never thought that she might see this sister of hers again in her lifetime.
What should she say when they meet again?
What reaction would she have upon seeing her? Resentment? or simply looking at her like a stranger...
"By the way."
With everything at the scene handled, just before leaving the door, Tony suddenly seemed to think of something and turned his head to look at Natasha behind him.
"When are you coming back to work?"
Natasha was stunned for a moment, not reacting to what he meant immediately.
Then she looked at him in surprise.
This guy, knowing her identity, actually asked if she was going back to work?
But his attitude made it seem like it was a matter of course.
As if saying, I haven't fired you yet, so of course, you have to continue coming to work.
After a few seconds of silence, as if possessed, Natasha looked up and smiled: "I'll consider it."
Tony waved his hand again and walked out the door. The sound of engine propulsion soon rang out from outside. Through the porthole, Natasha soon saw a magnificent tail flame disappear into the clouds as the red and gold armor turned into a black dot and vanished into the horizon.
Tony flew home and landed back in the laboratory. He extinguished the jet boots and stood firm on the launch pad. Immediately, several mechanical arms extended from all around to assist him in dismantling the armor.
He took a comfortable bubble bath, feeling as if he had washed away the fatigue from his body. Tony changed into a bathrobe and returned to the bedroom. Clearly, he had taken out a killer organization that wanted to cause him trouble, but his mood hadn't improved at all.
Hydra wanted to kill him... or at least it was suspected to be Hydra. For him, this was enough to raise his vigilance. Next, he had to formulate a plan and put the confrontation with Hydra on the agenda.
However, things had to be done one by one.
By this time, Nick Fury had already had someone deliver the legacy left by Howard Stark. Currently, the highest priority item on Tony's to-do list was the replacement of the Palladium element and the development of a new element.
The sooner he replaced this toxic reactor in his chest, the sooner he would suffer one less day of misery.
The good news was that having seen the movie, Tony had already found the method. The clue to extracting the new element was actually hidden by Howard Stark in the model of the Expo held by Stark Industries back then.
As long as he knew this, and had the corresponding technology and equipment, extracting the new element was only a matter of time.
With the equipment ready and the data in place, just as Tony was making a big fuss preparing to start work, J.A.R.V.I.S. reminded him that he had received a message.
"There is a voice message from Miss Pepper Potts."