They stepped into the castle side by side.
The first sight that greeted them was a vast, gloomy entrance hall. The floor was paved with cold obsidian, the walls draped with faded HYDRA banners and medieval-style suits of armor. The air reeked of dust and decay.
On their third step inside, a sudden change erupted.
Wooo! Wooo! Wooo!!!
The shrill alarms screamed across the entire hall without warning, and red warning lights began to flash wildly.
"I knew it." Tony curled his lip, showing no surprise at all.
"Internal proximity alarms. Physical isolation. Old-fashioned enough. Looks like our host already knows we're here."
Even as his words fell, more than a dozen hidden doors around the hall slammed open at once. From within poured out over a hundred HYDRA soldiers clad in black tactical gear, each gripping energy rifles glowing with ghostly blue light. In a blink, the brothers were surrounded on all sides, not a gap to escape.
"Oh, look at that. What a warm welcome." Tony glanced around, and instead of tension, there was excitement in his tone. "Seems we came to the right place. I love the feeling of being mobbed by fans."
"Hail HYDRA!"
One of the squad leaders bellowed in German.
The next second, a hundred blue beams rained down like a storm from every direction, blasting toward the two brothers!
"Party time!"
Tony laughed, the thrusters on his back roaring to life. In a flash the red-gold armor blurred like a phantom, weaving nimbly through the storm of energy fire. He moved like a dancer gliding through bullets.
Micro-missiles streaked from his shoulders, exploding precisely in the crowd. Lasers flared from his gauntlets like the scythe of Death itself, carving lines into walls with each swing.
"Hey! Who taught you guys to shoot, the PE teacher?" Tony taunted while dodging.
"I could stand here still and you'd still miss! Seriously, you're the worst class of terrorists I've ever seen!"
On the other side, Henry's approach was completely different.
He didn't even bother dodging.
He simply stood there, letting the volleys of energy beams slam into his body.
The black armor showed not a scratch in the explosions, not even dust. He was like an immovable reef, waves crashing against him in vain.
"Boring."
Henry exhaled two flat words. The next instant, his figure vanished.
He didn't use heat vision. He didn't unleash any wide-area attack.
He became a streak of black lightning, plunging into the HYDRA ranks.
What followed was nothing short of a nightmare for the soldiers.
All they saw was a dark shadow flickering among them, and suddenly their rifles were gone—or worse, twisted into metal pretzels in their hands.
Then came an irresistible force, flinging them like ragdolls. Soldiers crashed into each other like bowling pins, collapsing in heaps.
Henry wasn't even serious. He was playing.
One soldier tried to fire, only for Henry to pinch the barrel shut with two fingers, crush the gun into a ball of steel, and send the man flying with a flick. Another time, Henry swept through a row like a gust of wind—when he stopped, the entire line dropped unconscious, never to rise again.
On Tony's side, the fight looked like a Hollywood action blockbuster—explosions, lasers, spectacle. On Henry's side, it was black comedy, soldiers humiliated as much as defeated.
"Hey! You bastard! Quit stealing my spotlight!" Tony roared, just after blasting a sneak attacker with a repulsor.
"And can you take this seriously? We're carrying out a serious vengeance mission, not some cosplay party!"
"You're just too slow, old man." Henry's lazy voice drawled. He was holding up a HYDRA soldier in one hand, using the poor man's body as a shield against incoming fire.
"And this is psychological warfare. Breaking their bodies lasts a moment, but breaking their pride lasts forever. Trust me, after today, this gentleman who likes pink teddy-bear underwear will never dare hold a gun again. Oh wait—never mind, he won't get the chance."
The "shield" he was holding was already riddled by his own comrades' fire, turned into a sieve. If the man had heard Henry's words, he'd probably curse him for being inhuman—if he were still alive.
In less than a minute, the hall was carpeted with HYDRA corpses.
Tony landed slowly, his faceplate sliding back.
He glanced at the field of bodies, his mouth twitching.
"…Fine." He looked at the untouched Henry.
"I admit. Your 'tactics' kind of work."
"Of course." Henry dusted off his hands, like he'd just done a warm-up stretch.
"So, do we wait here for them to send another batch of cannon fodder, or just go find their boss and have a little chat?"
At that moment, heavy footsteps echoed from the depths of the hall.
A man appeared, flanked by a squad of soldiers in sharper gear. He wore a crisp German officer's uniform, hair slicked back, a monocle on his face. He looked like he'd walked straight out of a World War II film.
"Stark."
The man's English carried a thick German accent, his eyes venomous like a snake.
"I did not expect you to find this place. Perhaps I should say—you truly are Howard's sons."
"Oh, look, finally someone in charge." Tony raised a brow, his tone flippant.
"And you are? The property manager here? Because I'd like to lodge a complaint—your security system was a joke. I cracked it with one finger. And your employees? Pathetic training, can't even hold a gun straight. I suggest you fire the lot of them and hire some real pros."
"I am Baron Wolfgang von Strucker." The man's voice was ice. His expression didn't move.
"The master of this place. And the man who will end you."
"Strucker?" Henry piped up. "That sounds like some cheap German black bread. Dry, hard, tasteless. And ending us? You sure you're not overestimating yourself? What, with those guys behind you? They look like they just walked out of a comic-con."
The corner of Strucker's eye twitched, but he forced calm. He ignored Henry's trash talk, fixing his gaze on Tony.
"Tony Stark. Your father was a great scientist. But he chose the wrong path. You inherited his genius… and his foolishness. If you join us, HYDRA can give you everything you desire. Power. Wealth. Even immortality."
"Wow." Tony exaggeratedly widened his eyes.
"I've got to say, that sales pitch is even duller than Hammer Industries' product launches. Immortality? From you fossils who can't even keep a Wi-Fi signal? What's the plan, mummify me and put me in a museum for tickets?"
His grin faded, his eyes sharpening into ice.
"Spare me the disgusting spiel, Mr. Bread. I didn't come here to listen to you."
Tony raised his right hand.
"I came to do three things."
"First, tear down your crappy castle. Second, smash your labs. And third…"
He paused. A cruel smirk curled on his lips.
"…twist off every one of your goddamn heads."