Hail Hydra

Ivan didn't know that Tony no longer cared about the palladium poisoning. He didn't have any reason to hide anything from Tony, so he honestly answered, "Anton Vanko, my father."

"Never heard of him!"

Tony's mind raced through his memories, but he really had nothing about that name.

Ivan's face stiffened. His family had regarded the Stark family as their sworn enemy, but Tony had never even heard of their name. This was the worst insult!

"I will watch every step of your downfall, Tony!"

Ivan said nothing more and silently glared at Tony.

"Then just stay put in the cell. I'll send you a bar of soap."

Tony stood up and left. He also wanted to quickly go back and investigate the name Ivan mentioned.

Tony considered what he should do to Ivan, but he ultimately decided to hand him over to the authorities. He might be rich and affluent, but he wasn't going to build a prison just for one man.

He had more pressing worries anyway.

There were two vital components of the Iron Man armors. The first was the energy source, and the second was the operating system—after all, the armor couldn't be directly worn and operated manually. It needed a system to control it.

There were other important parts, but these were absolute requirements. If someone acquired these two technologies, creating a copy of the Iron Man armors would no longer be a fantasy.

Tony had arrogantly announced to the world that his armor had privatized world peace. He could only say that because he knew how powerful his armor was.

Therefore, he absolutely could not let anyone steal the technology, not even the military with all their soft and hard measures. Mass production was obviously out of the question.

Tony had thought that his technology was unique to him, and nobody could copy it even if they tried. He had confidently said that nobody could rival his technology.

He never expected that someone would not only copy his technology, but publicly attack him with it right when he was at the center of the world's attention.

Tony understood what Ivan had told him. Ivan only had to prove that the technology could be stolen. The military would do the rest by forcing Tony to hand over the armor.

And not only the military. All kinds of forces would come sniffing at Ivan's trail. Tony could not imagine if every military and militant group in the world had a squad of his armors.

"We can't let that happen,"

Tony thought to himself.

Tony met the worried Pepper right after leaving the detention area. She was accompanied by Black Widow, who had taken the spotlight today.

"Tony!"

Pepper rushed forward and grabbed Tony, her eyes filled with concern. After ensuring that he was uninjured, she sighed in relief and asked, "Who is that guy?"

"Let's talk about it when we get back!"

Tony frowned at the swarms of reporters at the entrance. Today was supposed to be a momentous celebration, but someone had wiped all trace of happiness from it.

Tony returned to his villa, ignoring the reporters that gathered like ants around sugar.

Tony didn't know that right after he left, a certain group of people contacted Ivan Vanko in his cell.

"This is now under our jurisdiction."

One of them showed a credential with an eagle-shaped insignia. The personnel in charge of the detention facility seemed to recognize the symbol and obediently handed Ivan over.

Ivan was wholly uninterested in where or by whom he would be taken. He would do whatever he wanted anyway. He believed that his 'performance' had already brought him the recognition he needed.

Which was indeed true. Just as Tony arrived back home, Ivan had been secretly moved to an unknown place by these people. A vague sentence could be heard during the transfer process,

"Hail Hydra!"

...

When Fanny turned on the TV the next day, he felt like he was back to the day when Tony announced himself as Iron Man. Almost all channels were reporting about him.

The difference was that there were more doubts and demands on Tony.

What was the demand?

To have Tony surrender the armor technology to the country!

The analysis and arguments posed by the experts on TV had caught Fanny's full attention, but he had no idea how Tony would deal with it.

He was worried about the safety in New York, so he brought Skye with him to Kamar-Taj when he went there for his training. The tranquil old city reassured him.

Unfortunately, Skye still couldn't use magic. It seemed that her talents were simply incompatible with Kamar-Taj.

Then again, she already knew about that. She no longer felt bothered about it.

Happy times always passed quickly, and the holidays passed by unknowingly.

A full week of peaceful life made Fanny wonder if he was really living in New York. Ivan had not made any move after his first attack, as if he had disappeared from the world.

Fanny also paid special attention to the Hammer industry, but the CEO had not said much other than gloating the great benefit he reaped from Tony's controversy. If they had saved Ivan, they were being abnormally tight-lipped about it.

The more noteworthy news was that Tony finally compromised with the military.

The War Machine was born!

This time, its creation didn't involve any incident at a party that Tony held due to his despair and suicidal tendency that the palladium poisoning should have caused.

Fanny had expected that War Machine would just disappear from the timeline, so he was surprised to discover that it still existed.

Thinking about it, Rhodes was still Tony's best friend. He was the only one who believed in Tony when everyone thought that Tony died in the terrorist attack, and he was also the one who rescued Tony from the desert.

Rhodes was probably one of the very few people that Tony could completely trust, as well as the link between the Stark Industry and the military.

The birth of the War Machine seemed inevitable when one considered all the factors.

Tony's compromise satisfied the stubborn officials and swayed public opinion, but Fanny didn't care about any of those. He was just curious about where Ivan Vanko had disappeared to.

There were two other people who were as puzzled as Fanny.

The first was Tony, who had apprehended Ivan in the first place. He didn't think much about it when he heard that Ivan had been transferred right away, but when he tried to find the facility where Ivan was detained, he discovered that the Russian engineer had been secretly executed.

The other was the one-eyed director, Nick Fury, who had been watching Tony all this time.

He had discovered that the order to transfer and execute Ivan Vanko had come from his own agency, but he obviously never gave that order. His intuition told him that there was something deeply wrong with this situation.

Just as Nick Fury was about to begin his investigation, a secret conversation occurred elsewhere.

"Fury seems to have noticed something wrong. We must give up on him."

"But he is a rare talent!"

"We cannot endanger and expose the plan right now. We can't afford to keep him!"

"Alright

," One of them sounded a little regretful, but then said with renewed interest, "He seems to have prepared many things for Stark. We can use this to divert his attention."

"Let's move with this plan. Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"