"Regardless, it's necessary to investigate HYDRA. I have a feeling they're plotting something in the shadows," Nick Fury said.
He always felt it was strange that HYDRA, after accumulating power for seventy years, could remain so stable and hidden.
"What exactly was in the trunk of my father's car?" Tony Stark asked.
Everyone was puzzled. Clearly, each time the Winter Soldier, Bucky, was thawed and frozen, it came at a considerable cost, and there should be some loss.
Normal missions wouldn't even require waking up the Winter Soldier, Bucky.
Truthfully, considering the ages of Howard Stark and his wife at the time, any special forces operative could have killed them and gotten away without alerting anyone. There was no need for Bucky to personally intervene.
It must have been that the mission needed to be absolutely foolproof, and obtaining that box of things was key. Killing Howard Stark was just a side task.
"Since this Winter Soldier is under HYDRA's command, that means HYDRA has been keeping an eye on my father's research. My father also had a collaborative relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D., I recall it involved weapons research." Tony Stark inquired.
"Yes." Nick Fury replied.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technology is so far ahead of the outside world, partly due to their absorption of HYDRA's technology, and also because they acquired technology from aliens. Of course, they also collaborated with some famous scientists.
These included Howard Stark and Hank Pym.
They were both outstanding figures in their fields.
"Then this thing must also be a project my father collaborated on with you at S.H.I.E.L.D. Otherwise, HYDRA wouldn't have known about it, let alone have been able to pinpoint my father and kill him, faking it as a car accident," Tony Stark analyzed.
Although there wasn't very concrete evidence, they weren't the police, so they didn't need evidence to investigate. Suspicion was enough.
"The key is, what project?" Natasha Romanoff spoke up. "What project is worth HYDRA going to such great lengths to kill someone and steal?"
Everyone was also a bit puzzled. Generally speaking, even if Howard Stark had developed some new weapon, it wouldn't be worth HYDRA risking exposure to intercept him.
It made no sense!
"What project was my father working on with S.H.I.E.L.D. back then, Fury?" Tony Stark asked. "I have a feeling that whatever was taken might be important."
Nick Fury, on the other hand, wore a solemn and puzzled expression. He scanned through all the projects that S.H.I.E.L.D. had collaborated on with Howard Stark, but none of them matched in terms of timing or importance.
"Don't bother thinking about it. If it was HYDRA, they wouldn't have left any evidence behind," Natasha Romanoff said. "We've already confirmed that HYDRA infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. a long time ago. They were already in high positions within S.H.I.E.L.D. If they wanted to cover something up, Fury, who was only in a mid-level position at the time, wouldn't have known anything. In other words, Fury didn't have the authority. They had plenty of time to erase this matter without alerting anyone."
Nick Fury's brow relaxed, as if this could indeed explain why he knew nothing about this matter.
"The Super Soldier Serum, it's the Super Soldier Serum," Captain Rogers suddenly said. "The color of that liquid reminded me of the Super Soldier Serum!"
"Why do you say that?" Tony Stark asked urgently, setting aside his anger.
Captain Rogers paused, then said, "The Super Soldier Serum program was originally a HYDRA project. The first person injected with the Super Soldier Serum was the now infamous Red Skull, and I was the second. Dr. Erskine, who was in charge of developing the Super Soldier Serum, escaped to America. They successfully created three doses at the time, but only one injection was successful, and the final product was me. The other two were damaged directly, and Dr. Erskine was killed on the spot.
Later attempts to replicate it failed. Your father, Howard Stark, was once Dr. Erskine's assistant and knew something about the Super Soldier Serum formula. If there's anyone in the world who could reproduce the Super Soldier Serum, it's likely your father.
I imagine S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to replicate the Super Soldier Serum quite a bit after the war ended, right?"
Although Captain Rogers was asking a question, his tone was quite certain.
Based on his understanding of the bureaucratic institutions of America, this was basically a done deal.
Facing Captain Rogers's question, Nick Fury could only nod and said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. does have related research plans internally, but it hasn't been very smooth. There haven't been any results in the past few decades, but if you put it that way, it seems like there was indeed a period when a large amount of research funding disappeared without a trace, but the relevant research projects are completely unknown, even my permissions can't find out."
Nick Fury suddenly recalled that this was indeed the case.
He just hadn't thought about it before. For a mysterious unit like S.H.I.E.L.D., similar things often happened. Funds disappeared, and projects were unclear, even intentionally erased by the previous person in charge.
He himself had done similar things, so he hadn't thought about it in this direction.
With his sharp mind, if he had known about this project and that Howard Stark was in charge of the Super Soldier Serum, he would have discovered the problem long ago.
The person in charge suddenly died, and the project development failed. It would be strange if there wasn't something fishy! Especially now that he knew HYDRA had already infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., everything became clear.
Although the Super Soldier Serum project was highly classified, making leaks impossible, if HYDRA was present among the high-ranking officials of S.H.I.E.L.D. back then, then there was no such thing as secrecy.
The entire S.H.I.E.L.D. was one-way transparent to HYDRA. Howard Stark's research progress was likely always under HYDRA's watch.
But now, thinking about it, the missing project and the large sum of money during that time most likely went into Howard Stark's hands, and the project was very likely the Super Soldier Serum.
With this analysis, many mysteries were instantly solved, including why HYDRA would kill Howard Stark. After all, Howard Stark posed almost no threat to HYDRA at that time. It would be normal for HYDRA to want to kill Howard Stark, but the only abnormal thing was that since HYDRA had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. to that extent, they could have killed Howard Stark long ago, so why didn't they act earlier, but waited until that time?
Now it was all clear. Because the Super Soldier Serum was produced at that time.
After it was completed, HYDRA immediately jumped out to harvest the final results, and why did they have to kill Howard Stark? It was to cut off the possibility of S.H.I.E.L.D. researching the Super Soldier Serum again in the future.
"So that's how it is!" Tony Stark's killing intent surged. If he was angry at the Winter Soldier, Bucky, and disappointed and upset with Captain Rogers, then for HYDRA, it was pure, unadulterated killing intent.
Previously, he had been shouting about taking down HYDRA, but that was out of a superhero's sense of justice. Now, however, he was left with only boundless killing intent.
Not only had HYDRA impersonated S.H.I.E.L.D. and secretly ordered his father to research the Super Soldier Serum, but they had also sent people to kill him off immediately after the research was successful, murdering his father.
Even the most ruthless capitalists wouldn't be so cold-blooded; any capitalist would weep at the sight of it.
"That's right, it should be like this. So Bucky was just a weapon. Even without him, there would have been other Winter Soldiers, or perhaps HYDRA's special forces team. Your father didn't know he was already being monitored by HYDRA; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so careless with security!" Nick Fury said.
Howard Stark was already getting on in years at the time. Such a big capitalist, and yet he still drove around with his wife everywhere himself.
It was precisely because he didn't know about the existence of HYDRA, thinking that America had been at peace for a long time.
And this was quite similar to the current Tony Stark, who also liked to wander around without a security team.
If Happy counted as security, then that was right.
"But I think the only fortunate thing is that HYDRA probably hasn't replicated the Super Soldier Serum!"
Natasha Romanoff said, "After all, even though they have samples, they haven't used them. If they had replicated the Super Soldier Serum, then according to HYDRA's usual style, how many super soldiers could they have created in these decades? Just those Winter Soldiers?"
Everyone nodded. This was also a very reasonable inference. According to their understanding of HYDRA, if they had really obtained the formula for the Super Soldier Serum, the consequences wouldn't be like this.
There wouldn't only be five Winter Soldiers, there might be thousands upon thousands.
Although they might not be able to create so many due to funding issues, hundreds or even thousands were still possible.
"It seems the old man might have some sense of security, not writing the formula outside," Tony Stark murmured to himself.
"If that's the case, a lot of things can be explained, like why HYDRA had to kill your father. After all, if they could easily obtain all the research data, then they could completely use your father's talents to continue the research!" Nick Fury said.
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