Several agents arrived at the prison a little while after Tony left, led by a bald man in a suit and a white agent with glasses.
"We are from SHIELD, here's our clearance. We are to take an important criminal called 'Ivan Vanko,'" the bald leader said, handing a document to the warden.
"Alright, come with me." The warden looked at the documents and verified them before leading the agents to Ivan Vanko's cell.
...
Ivan Vanko stared at the soap in the box for a while after Tony left. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He grabbed the soap and threw it against the wall.
Boom!!!
Right before the warden and the agents reached Ivan Vanko's cell, a violent explosion suddenly blasted them, slamming them against the wall.
The bald leader hurriedly got back up and looked into the burning prison. He shouted, "
"Rumlow, check the status of the prisoner!"
"He's not breathing. He's dead."
...
Tony was sitting in his luxury car outside when he heard the explosion.
"Vanko, you're too easy to provoke!"
Tony didn't want to do this, but Li Yue's warning steeled his heart. Instead of risking any trouble, it was better to end this right here and now.
"Anyway, what are SHIELD's people doing here?"
Whatever they wanted to do, it certainly wasn't just sightseeing. Tony couldn't think of anything they would want other than Ivan Vanko.
"It seems that SHIELD is not trustworthy," Tony thought as he started his luxury car. The car rushed away, its engine roaring.
...
"Mister Pierce, the target has died. We were too late."
.
Li Yue was in Tony's Malibu villa when Tony returned from Monaco.
"How is it? Have you finished the business with Ivan Vanko?" Li Yue asked from the sofa.
"It is done. Though, I saw SHIELD's agents going into the prison. Were you warning me about them when you said he wouldn't go unnoticed?" Tony replied as he crashed into the sofa himself.
"SHIELD? What are they doing? Did you see their faces?" Li Yue was a little confused.
Shouldn't Justin Hammer be the one who bribed the police and took in Ivan Vanko? Where did SHIELD fit into all this?
"They're led by a bald man. I asked Jarvis to hack into SHIELD and get their names: the bald man leading them was Sitwell, and another was the leader of SHIELD's quick response special forces, Brock Rumlow. What do you think?"
Li Yue fell into deep thought after he heard the names that Tony mentioned.
"I didn't want to reveal this to you right now, but you already met them, so it shouldn't be a problem. The people you saw were the agents of Hydra who are hiding in SHIELD!"
"Hydra? Do you mean the Hydra that was active during the Second World War? Didn't Captain America wipe them out? How are they still here? Hiding in SHIELD no less?"
Tony had heard of the Hydra, but he thought it was wiped out during the Second World War.
"During the Second World War, only one branch of the Hydra was wiped out. Hydra has existed for thousands of years in different forms, but I'll leave the details for later. We need to talk specifically about the Hydra that had infiltrated SHIELD
"Back in the forties, when SHIELD was in its infancy, Hydra used Project Paperclip to send their agents as the members of various institutions, including SHIELD," Li Yue began explaining how Hydra had spread its roots into SHIELD.
"Sorry to interrupt, but did I just hear that our SHIELD had been infiltrated by Hydra?"
Suddenly, a group of people barged in, led by a one-eyed bald Black man. Behind him were two beautiful women and two men, one of which Tony was very familiar with: she was the personal assistant he that just hired a few days ago.
"Sir, my program has been forcibly overwritten..." Jarvis said.
"Natasha? You're fired!" Tony said angrily, glaring at Natasha, who was clad in a black leather suit.
"That's not your decision to make!" Natasha replied defiantly.
"Sorry to cut your conversation short, but did I just hear that Hydra still exists? I clearly remember wiping them all out; I even missed an important date. What exactly is going on?" Another person interjected and anxiously asked Li Yue.
This person was wearing casual clothes, but they couldn't hide his perfect figure and bulging muscles. That's right, he was Captain America, Steve Rogers, in the flesh.
Everyone in the group was SHIELD's top agents: Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, and the Black Widow Natasha Romanov.
All of them were also people that Li Yue was very familiar with. The only one missing was Hawkeye.
"Hello, Captain America, Steve Rogers! Nice to meet you. My name is Li Yue." Li Yue stood up from the sofa and extended his hand to Captain America.
Captain America shook Li Yue's hand in a friendly manner. Tony, however, was displeased. These people intruded into his house, after all.
He was even more upset seeing Natasha following behind the intruders. He regretted not listening to Li Yue's warning about her.
Therefore, Tony kept himself firmly sitting on the sofa, though he glanced at Captain America as the Captain shook hands with Li Yue. It was the first time he had known about Captain America's survival.
...
"Mr. Li Yue, I think you need to tell me in detail about the Hydra!" Nick Fury kept his face calm, but not his voice. This was the first time he had heard about Hydra infiltrating the SHIELD that he had been leading.
Grasping the situation took utmost priority, so he wasted no time asking Li Yue directly. Others in his team also looked expectantly at Li Yue.
"Alright, I will tell you. The Hydra you destroyed was a physical organization, but Hydra was not just a mere gathering of people. The version of Hydra that you had destroyed was just a single branch in the long river of Hydra's history, one with dubious legitimacy at that. Red Skull simply established an organization mimicking the Hydra ideology, so it was not a true Hydra.
"The original Hydra organization exists throughout history within the branches of various governments, silently fostering and influencing their growth. This True Hydra had existed since around 1400 years ago, founded by a certain powerful person on Earth who would later be exiled to a distant planet due to his ability. Thus, the primary purpose of Hydra was to bring this powerful person back."
...
Li Yue slowly narrated the history of Hydra.
"As for the SHIELD, I think you should change your name to the Hydra Shield Bureau!"