A certain American comic book's secondary profession master

Chapter 42 Twins

"The Black Widow project actually started with the Northern Research Institute in Ohio, which belongs to S.H.I.E.L.D.!" In Tony's lab, Levi explained to him while trying on his Iron Man suit. "And you've already seen the Northern Research Institute's main achievements!"

Although they had decided to cause trouble and rescue the "Black Widows" from the Red House.

However, Tony and Levi were not in a hurry to set off immediately.

After all, the Red House and Drekoff are not small organizations.

Rather, it is a powerful intelligence agency that, to some extent, inherited some of the assets of the once-powerful KGB, and is comparable to the CIA, with influence spanning across Europe.

Dealing with this special being is not like in the Iron Man movies, where you just rush in wearing an Iron Man suit and wreak havoc.

If they rush over there rashly, they might not even catch a glimpse of Drekoff and the Black Widow.

Therefore, they have a lot of preparations to do before they officially set off.

For example, list the goals that need the most attention, as well as the problems that may be encountered.

This inevitably leads us to the origin and development of the Red House.

"I've already seen him? Wait, you don't mean the Winter Soldier, do you? But the Winter Soldier is a product of Hydra... So this Northern Research Institute is nominally a department of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it's actually Hydra? The Red Room is also related to Hydra?" Hearing Levi's words, Tony quickly drew inferences and thought of the Winter Soldier.

"Of course, Hydra has never been just one entity. In the US, they're called S.H.I.E.L.D., while in Russia, they're called Leviathan—in fact, the Red Room was originally an organization spearheaded by Leviathan." Levi pointed at a distant target, experiencing the Iron Man hand cannon firsthand—it was really awesome!

"So Drekoff is actually a member of Leviathan? If we eliminate him, we'll be weakening Hydra's power, right?" Tony raised an eyebrow. This was a good thing; it was killing two birds with one stone.

“It shouldn’t be. If he were Leviathan, there would be no need to send Red Guardians to infiltrate Ohio and spend three years stealing the Northern Research Institute’s findings.” Levi shook his head, denying Tony’s speculation. “Oh, right, Red Guardians are the Soviet version of Captain America. They were created before the Soviet Union split. After the Soviet Union disintegrated, he joined the Red Room at Drekoff’s urging.”

"Moreover, if he were Leviathan, he wouldn't have taken advantage of the Soviet Union's collapse and its inability to attend to other matters to claim the Red House as his private property!"

Although the Red House is a powerful organization, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was taken over by its former director, Drekoff, and has now become his private property. It has become a dark organization that buys and sells intelligence and undertakes assassination missions, and is not affiliated with any country.

This is why, in the original timeline, Nick Fury dared to be so bold as to send Patton to turn Black Widow against her and directly destroy the Red Room.

And that's why Scarlett Johansson betrayed him so cleanly and decisively.

Although the Red House remains powerful after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it ultimately lacks the backing of a world superpower due to Drekoff's actions.

At most, it's just that Drekoff himself has a tiny bit of influence in the political arena.

But with this much network, it's basically only enough to handle minor things like putting the Red Guardians in jail.

This is why Levi dared to conclude that Drekoff had no connection with Hydra—Hydra wouldn't be as short-sighted as this guy.

An intelligence agency that is not backed by a world-class superpower, no matter how powerful, is like a floating duckweed.

This is also why Li Wei dared to encourage Tony to take action against the Red House.

If the Red House were still under Russian control, let alone Levi, neither Tony Stark nor Nick Fury would necessarily dare to take action against it.

After all, while the Soviet Union is gone, Russia remains a member of the World Security Council, essentially the superior authority of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The current S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer an agency belonging solely to the United States!

"You're right, so why did you say that?" Tony nodded and then asked.

“Although Drekoff is most likely not Leviathan, as the former head of the Red Room, he obviously knows a lot of information about Leviathan, or rather, Hydra. He might even be a collaborator with Hydra. This would explain why he knew about the existence of the Northern Research Institute,” Levi continued.

"But that's not the point. The point is the undercover agent who partnered with the Red Guardians back then, the most outstanding member of the first generation of Black Widows, Melina Vosskov!"

"What's so special about this Melina?" Tony asked. Judging from Levi's words, this Melina seemed to be more important than Drekoff and Natasha.
“Based on Project Winter Soldier, the Northern Research Institute dissected and deconstructed the human brain, creating the first and only blueprint for the basal ganglia. This blueprint is what the Red Guardians and Melina stole. Melina, as the first Black Widow, was also an excellent biologist. Based on this blueprint, she created a pheromone that can control people!” Levi continued, “In addition, she was also the architect of Drekoff—she designed the floating city of the future Red House.”

“It seems this first Black Widow is also a genius. I understand what you mean. If we’re not careful with these pheromones, we might accidentally be controlled by them.” Tony frowned upon hearing this, as it did indeed sound like a problem.

"Actually, I'm not sure if this pheromone has been researched yet. Although in the future I saw, Natasha and Barton were not controlled by this pheromone when they first destroyed the Red Room. This pheromone first appeared after you and Captain America's Civil War."

“But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any pheromones during that period. After all, anything takes a long time to go from being extracted in a lab to being mass-produced. And when Natasha and her team first destroyed the Red Room, they didn’t have direct contact with Drekoff.” Levi reminded him, “I believe you know more about this than I do.”

He actually hoped that this pheromone had already been discovered.

After taking down Drekoff, controlling the Winter Soldier with these pheromones will be much easier than freezing him.

“You’re right, I need to think about how to deal with these pheromones!” Tony nodded and said.

Although he had never seen that pheromone before, he understood the basic principle of it when he heard the blueprint of the basal ganglia.

Don't let Tony's expertise in mechanics fool you; he's actually quite accomplished in biology as well, just not as obsessed with it as he is with mechanics.

This can be seen from the fact that he was able to spot the flaws in Maya Hansen's Extremis project at a glance and modified her formula.

Furthermore, in the original timeline, Pepper was injected with the Extremis virus, which Tony resolved himself.

“But it would be best to have a sample. It seems we should deal with Melina before dealing with Drekoff!” Tony said after thinking for a moment.

“That’s right, so I’ve already sent people to look for her!” After trying on the suit, Li Wei stood on the donning device and had Jarvis control the mechanical arm to remove the armor from him, as he spoke.

"You've already sent people? Frank?" Tony was taken aback when he heard Levi say this. "You've been wanting to take action against the Red Room for a while now?"

Tony naturally knew Frank; no wonder he hadn't seen him at the Alliance headquarters before—it turned out he'd already been sent to Europe by Levi.

“No, dealing with the Red House was indeed a spur-of-the-moment decision made after you reminded me. My initial purpose in sending Frank to Europe wasn’t to find Melina, but to go to Sokovia!” Levi explained, while looking at Tony with a mocking gaze.

Tony helplessly covered his face, realizing who Levi's target was.

The twin brother and sister from Sokovia.

The future Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the Maximoff siblings.

Since Levi has already told Tony about the main plot of the Avengers, he naturally wouldn't leave out the background of this brother and sister.

In addition, there are storylines from the second and third installments, which are closely related to Iron Man.

However, Tony didn't take the main villains in Iron Man 2, Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer, too seriously. He had already verified the information about the former; Anton Vanko was simply reaping what he sowed by trying to sell the Arc Reactor technology to the Russians.

From the American perspective, Anton's actions constitute espionage.

Even if he was one of the developers of reactor technology, it would still be the same.

Howard had already done everything he could by ultimately deporting him back to Russia; otherwise, given the nature of the US government, Anton would never have been able to leave the United States alive.

Moreover, after returning to Russia, Anton Vanke initially received relatively good treatment. The reason he later fell into such a sorry state was entirely because after returning to Russia, he attempted to betray Russia's interests, which led to his exile.

Later, Anton Vanko's exile was actually lifted, and he returned to Moscow.

As a result, a few years later, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and they chose the wrong side again.

That's why he became so destitute.

None of this had much to do with Howard.

Moreover, from Li Wei's observation, Tony also deduced that the other party's arc reactor was far inferior to his own.

There's no need to worry about it too much.

If they really come, just beat them up, and then do the same thing Howard did to Anton Vanko.

We can't just go to Russia now and kill them because of their future actions, can we?

Tony said he couldn't do such a thing.

Just have Jarvis keep an eye on the other person's entry records.

As for Justin Hammer?

He's just a clown.

In contrast, it was Killian and Maya Hansen who made Tony feel a little bit guilty after learning about the future.

But it was only a tiny bit.

Since the other party was determined to take revenge on him, he wouldn't show any mercy.

He has already begun making preparations against AIM, and the day Killian actually takes action against him will likely be the day AIM is finished.

However, AIM is only in its early stages now, and that day is still a long way off.

In contrast, the Maximov twins, who suffered an undeserved misfortune, were the ones Tony truly felt a sense of injustice about.

The Maksimov family home was bombed in 1999 when the Sokovia War broke out.

This corresponds to the Kosovo War in Livy's original world.

So Li Wei, who arrived a few years late, had no chance to change the fact that the twins' family had been bombed.

All we can do is find them in advance so that their childhoods don't turn out so badly.

As for being recruited by Hydra as a test subject, that happened after the Battle of New York, after Hydra obtained the Mind Scepter.

Therefore, Li Wei felt that finding twin siblings during this period should be relatively easy.

After all, the two siblings haven't changed their names, and their features are quite distinctive.

Moreover, Sokovia is only a small place.

As Levi had predicted, Frank found the twins without much effort after arriving in Sokovia.

They were already planning to bring the siblings back to the United States when Levi and Tony decided to take action against the Red House.

"So Frank found them?" Tony asked.

"Yes, we found it." Li Wei nodded; there was no point in hiding it.

"How are they doing now?"

"Well, things weren't good when we found them. They had no parents, and their other relatives were unwilling to adopt them. The local orphanages were overcrowded due to the war, and the situation was terrible. The two children were already quite thin and malnourished." Li Wei couldn't help but sigh as he said this.

War is always a terrible thing for civilians.

This is especially true for a small country like Sokovia.

"Then they must hate me!" Tony sighed upon hearing this. "Victor, do you think I should really shut down the weapons department?"

“No, Tony, we all know it’s not your fault!” Levi shook his head and comforted him. It’s true that Stark Industries manufactured the weapons, but it wasn’t the one that started the war. “Besides, I think the twins hate you so much because of the tragic childhood they’ve endured for so many years. Now that we’ve found them ahead of time, maybe their hatred for you won’t be as deep.”

“I want to meet them first!” Tony nodded, then thought for a moment and said, “If possible, I’d also like to adopt them!”

"So bold? Aren't you afraid of being attacked at night after adopting them?" Li Wei was somewhat surprised to hear this.

"I don't think it's that bad. They're just two kids. How bad can they be?" Tony didn't care. When Levi told him about the two kids, he didn't know how to face them, so he didn't take immediate action.

But now that he hears that the two children are not doing well, he feels he needs to do something.

How bad can a child be? You haven't seen the little devils of the future, Li Wei thought to himself, scoffing.

Of course, the Maximov siblings were certainly not little devils.

Therefore, Li Wei naturally wouldn't say much about Tony's desire to adopt him.

We can only hope that a prosperous life in the future will, to some extent, extinguish the hatred in the hearts of the two children.

I got home late, and it was a two-in-one situation.
During the new book launch period, I hope everyone will vote for the book.

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(End of this chapter)