"Mr. Ross, if you want to arrest Karl, then come do it yourself. We're powerless here."
With that, Tony cut off the communication without giving Ross another chance to speak.
Then he slumped back into his chair with a lifeless expression.
Karl had barely arrived before tossing him a massive bombshell.
If this incident wasn't handled properly, the consequences would be severe.
Casually killing a high-ranking official—and the newly appointed leader of the Avengers, no less—wasn't something that could simply be brushed aside.
And just as Tony expected, Ross couldn't swallow this humiliation.
He immediately escalated the matter to the United Nations.
The UN quickly issued a decision: deploy the Avengers to apprehend Karl.
The order came down incredibly fast.
Karl and the others were still chatting inside the base when JARVIS notified Tony that the UN had officially authorized Karl's arrest.
"See? What did I tell you? Orders from above. They want you arrested."
Tony tapped the table, and a holographic projection appeared, displaying the arrest directive for Karl.
"Hah~ They move pretty fast. Looks like I'll need to stay here for a few days."
Karl shrugged, utterly unconcerned.
If he wanted to leave, nowhere on Earth could hold him.
The reason he chose to stay was partly to reassure Tony and the others—at least this way, they could claim they'd complied with orders.
The other reason was to provide cover for Nick Fury.
Fury needed access to the base's systems to track the mastermind behind everything: Zemo.
Hearing this, Tony and the others relaxed considerably.
At least Karl wasn't planning anything extreme.
As long as he stayed calm, there was still room for negotiation.
In Tony's view, as long as the people at the UN weren't complete idiots, they should understand Karl's importance.
Even all the Avengers combined might not be enough to stop him.
If the UN didn't want worldwide chaos, then knowing when to stop was the smartest choice.
Afterward, Karl called Gwen and told the three of them to stay inside the agency as much as possible and avoid going out.
The one he worried about most was Gwen.
After all, she still worked at a laboratory.
Skye and Wanda mostly stayed at the office, but Gwen's work required her to be outside regularly.
After briefly explaining the situation, Gwen didn't say much.
She disliked the current Avengers situation as well.
Former comrades who once fought side by side had now become estranged—or outright divided into opposing camps.
Most importantly, Wanda had been dragged into all this too.
Gwen could honestly say she had no good feelings toward the current Avengers organization.
Of course, that resentment was directed at the Avengers leadership and the new system—not the Avengers themselves.
After everything was settled, Tony directly arranged for Karl to stay in the Avengers dormitories.
His room was right next to Tony's and Erik's.
There was absolutely no attempt to imprison Karl like they had with Bucky.
After all… there was no point trying.
---
Meanwhile, inside a hidden factory warehouse, Bucky sat on a machine with his head lowered while Steve and Sam stood in front of him, silently watching.
"Do you still recognize me, Bucky?"
Steve finally asked.
Natasha had already told him about the Winter Soldiers.
He now knew they'd all been brainwashed and implanted with commands against their will.
He had fought a Winter Soldier before—he just hadn't realized at the time that it was actually Bucky.
The fake Bucky immediately began talking about old memories involving Steve, including embarrassing stories from the past.
Naturally, all those memories had merely been implanted.
"Heh, they definitely don't put that stuff in museums."
Sam listened with obvious interest.
He never knew Captain America had a side like this.
"What… did I do?"
Bucky looked up at Steve and asked knowingly.
"You're pretty famous these days~"
Sam teased.
The news had been flooded with stories about Bucky recently. The whole world was in chaos because of him.
"I knew this would happen…"
Bucky looked dejected.
At this point, he deserved an Oscar.
"HYDRA implanted things into my head that I can't erase. They only need a few trigger words to activate me."
"Who did it?"
Steve immediately asked.
The person issuing those commands was the real culprit behind everything.
All of this had clearly been orchestrated from the shadows.
"I don't know. When the command activates, I lose consciousness."
Bucky answered.
This part wasn't a lie.
Whenever Winter Soldiers were activated, their minds essentially shut down.
Only after receiving a new command would their consciousness return.
However, this fake Bucky actually did know who the mastermind was.
After all, Zemo was the one who awakened him.
As long as commands weren't actively being issued, he retained his memories.
"Bucky, that person orchestrated the bombing of the UN building and got you hunted worldwide. You need to tell us something."
Steve was genuinely anxious for him.
If they couldn't catch the mastermind, Bucky would be forced to shoulder all the blame.
Bucky pretended to clutch his head as though struggling to remember.
In reality, he was preparing the trap.
He was about to reveal a shocking secret.
"I think… he wanted information about a mission from December 16th, 1991."
This was the ticking time bomb the fake Bucky intended to drop.
And it would become the direct spark that shattered Tony and Steve's relationship.
Because Tony's parents had died that day.
Murdered.
And the killer had been Bucky Barnes while under HYDRA's brainwashing.
"What happened that day? What mission were you sent on?"
Steve immediately pressed him.
The mastermind wouldn't ask about that date without reason.
There had to be a secret hidden there.
"That day… I was ordered to carry out a mission. Kill a couple and take the item they were transporting."
The fake Bucky deliberately revealed the information little by little.
That was part of the plan.
If he dumped everything at once, Steve would never bring him to Tony Stark.
And without that confrontation, the plan to split the Avengers apart would fail.
Steve still didn't realize the victims had been Howard Stark and his wife.
He assumed it had been some other couple.
So his focus shifted to the item itself.
"What did you steal?"
Steve felt the item had to be extremely important.
Otherwise HYDRA wouldn't have deployed the Winter Soldier for the mission.
"Super Soldier Serum."
Bucky spoke softly.
But to Steve and Sam, the words hit like a bombshell.
"You said Super Soldier Serum?!"
Steve stared at him in shock.
He had always believed he was the only successful Super Soldier.
Even Ross's research had merely been attempts to recreate the original formula from incomplete data.
He never imagined fully functional serum samples still existed.
"That's right. There were four preserved serum samples in the trunk of the car. HYDRA reverse-engineered them, and that's how the Winter Soldiers were created."
The fake Bucky didn't hide anything here.
There was no need.
A mixture of truth and lies was always the most convincing.
"Do you remember where they awakened you?"
Steve asked.
Combined with his previous encounters against Winter Soldiers, he already suspected there were more than just one or two.
Possibly an entire army.
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