"I knew it!"
Tony Stark muttered with a tone of certainty.
It could be said that Nick Fury reaching out to Satan wasn't entirely unexpected for Tony.
With every Avenger potentially susceptible to Loki's control, and anyone possibly being a Loki agent, Fury's options were indeed limited.
No matter how you looked at it, Satan was the safest and most efficient choice Fury could make.
The playboy thought to himself that if he were Nick Fury, he might have gone to Satan too.
And Satan? He certainly didn't disappoint Fury.
Judging by his tone, Loki seemed insignificant in his presence; it was as if the moment he acted, he could retrieve the Tesseract effortlessly.
And on this point, Tony—who was usually skeptical and critical—found himself showing little doubt.
The Avengers standing at the pinnacle of the universe in the future hadn't yet emerged. The current Avengers were still the original team.
In that context, if anyone had the highest likelihood and capability to accomplish such a task, it was undoubtedly Satan.
Moreover, Tony had seen Satan's strength firsthand. He was undeniably powerful.
Even arrogant Tony had to admit that, as of now, he was far inferior to Satan.
Of course, that was only for the present.
The playboy also believed that one day in the future, he would develop an armor strong enough to leave someone like Satan far behind.
"Hydra… Hail?"
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Tony's eyes scanned the journal and then froze.
According to the journal, Captain America actually shouted "Hail Hydra" during the Battle of New York?
What the hell!
"Hail Hydra" was Hydra's slogan, wasn't it?Why would Captain America shout Hydra's slogan?
Could it be… Captain America was actually part of Hydra?Was Captain America not the Captain America we knew, but Hydra's leader instead?
Tony's expression turned quite dramatic.
The journal had previously mentioned Hydra's leader and a way to verify whether Cap was Hydra's head:
Go to Vormir and see if Red Skull Schmidt was there.
If the Red Skull was there, Cap wasn't Hydra's leader.
If he wasn't, well… it was unclear.
To the Avengers, this method was clearly nonsense—completely impractical.
Fortunately, the journal later revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D.—no, Hydra Shield—had hunted Captain America.
Cap had even worked with Black Widow, Nick Fury, and others to sabotage Hydra's Insight plan.
That cleared Cap's name, and the journal's readers generally believed Captain America was not a Hydra agent.
Yet now, "Hail Hydra?"Suddenly Tony was at a loss again.
If Cap wasn't Hydra's leader, why would he utter Hydra's slogan?The journal gave no context, no clues to connect it.
Tony couldn't make sense of it immediately.
At the same time, another question formed in his mind.
If Cap truly was Hydra's leader, then obviously he wouldn't shout "Hail Hydra" just once.
It would happen many times.
So why was it this particular instance during the Battle of New York that Zhou Cheng considered a "famous scene"?
Moreover, the journal always highlighted "famous scenes," intentionally or not, and all these famous scenes were from the "hero side."
In other words, they were heroic moments, not villainous ones.
From this perspective, Tony leaned toward believing that Cap was not Hydra's leader.
It was just that his "Hail Hydra" line was currently inexplicable.
There was yet another confusing detail.
Since "Hail Hydra" occurred during the Battle of New York, why did this famous moment exist even if the battle wouldn't happen?
Was it possible that the "Hail Hydra" from the Battle of New York actually had nothing to do with the Battle itself?That was indeed contradictory.
Clearly, some crucial information was missing, causing this logical gap.
But what exactly was missing? Only Satan knew.
"Ha! I really didn't know before—Cap can be so clever.""What does 'win without bloodshed' mean? This is what it means!""Just a touch of the lips, and he easily tricked Hydra out of the scepter, avoiding a bloody battle.""Though actually, having Cap reenact the 'elevator fight' wouldn't be bad either.""That's one of Marvel's classic, iconic battles too!"
Win without bloodshed?
Tony finally realized the truth and completely relaxed.
He had overthought it, misled by Zhou Cheng's partial description.
It was simply Cap's strategy.
Cap had used it to trick Hydra and seize the scepter.
Now the question was: what exactly was this "scepter" mentioned in the journal?Why were both Cap and Hydra after it?By all appearances, it was extremely important!
Furthermore, considering "Hail Hydra" was a famous moment during the Battle of New York, it seemed the scepter was connected to that battle.
"Wait a second!"
"The scepter!"
Immediately, a flash of insight crossed the playboy's mind.
Tony's eyes lit up.
Wasn't the "spear" Loki held just the scepter in design?
Given all this, one fact became almost certain:
The scepter mentioned in the journal was definitely Loki's weapon.
And based on previous journal entries, humanity—and the Avengers—had won the Battle of New York.
So Loki being captured and his weapon confiscated made perfect sense.
No problem there.
But why did a prisoner's weapon fall into Hydra's hands?Shouldn't it have gone to S.H.I.E.L.D.?
Clearly, at this time, Nick Fury had no idea that S.H.I.E.L.D. was Hydra Shield!
This is also corroborated by reality.
With Hydra's terrifying infiltration, if Fury hadn't gotten the journal and its intelligence…
He'd still be in the dark today!
So during the Battle of New York, Hydra was hiding well inside S.H.I.E.L.D., undetected.
But then another contradiction appeared.
Since Cap used "Hail Hydra" to trick Hydra and seize the scepter, it meant Cap already knew the Hydra agents' identities!
Wasn't that contradictory to previous analysis?Or did Cap not know the Hydra agents' identities beforehand and only discover them by chance?Even so, shouldn't he have reported this to Fury?
Why did he secretly steal the scepter instead?
Moreover, the word "reenact" confused Tony.
What did "reenact" mean?Had Cap previously had an "elevator fight" with these people?From the journal's tone, if Cap hadn't used deception, he might have ended up in another "elevator fight."
If so, since there had already been a previous fierce battle, why did they trust Cap now?Why were they easily tricked again?
Everything seemed awkward and illogical.
And this awkwardness wasn't isolated.
Clearly, crucial intelligence was missing.
Was it omitted in the journal, or did Tony just fail to recall it?
Tony fell into deep thought.
Seconds later, his frown smoothed out, a flash of insight striking his mind.
"That's it!""It has to be this way!"
Tony muttered to himself, recalling a key piece of information:
The journal mentioned that during the Battle of New York, other Avengers had traveled through time.
Their purpose was unknown, but it led to Loki being taken by the TVA.
And undoubtedly, the Captain America who shouted "Hail Hydra" was the future Captain America!
Only then did everything make sense.
Because he came from the future, he knew of Hydra before it was exposed, and he had already experienced an "elevator fight."
So the Hydra agents who fought Cap in the elevator had no suspicion and were easily tricked.
For them, Cap had already experienced a battle that hadn't yet happened!
It all clicked!
Bringing in future Cap's identity made everything coherent.
The logic was seamless, without flaw.
No doubt remained.
The Captain America who shouted "Hail Hydra" was undoubtedly future Cap!
So this explained why future Cap had been in hiding with Peggy Carter for so long, suddenly appearing during the Battle of New York—
It was all for the scepter?
"Looks like that scepter is really something extraordinary!"
Tony murmured, making a natural judgment.
Instantly, Tony's interest in the scepter skyrocketed.
What kind of object was this, to be so important that it justified time travel?
Unfortunately, so far Tony's understanding was extremely limited.
He had only seen that the scepter could fire energy blasts and be used as a club, nothing more.
At the moment, he couldn't figure anything else out.
After thinking for a while without result, Tony decisively gave up on that and focused on another critical question.
Since Loki had already stolen the Tesseract, one could say the Battle of New York had officially begun.
So, had the future Avengers already traveled here, secretly hiding in New York?Or would they arrive soon?
Tony wasn't very interested in the other Avengers.
But future himself? That version of Tony Stark was of great interest.
"The story inside the elevator was already amazing, but what happened outside is even better!""The Captain America who got the scepter actually encountered another version of himself—can you believe it?""And he was mistaken for Loki by that other self!""The two Caps fought a major battle.""The Cap who could withstand a blow from the multi-stone Purple Sweet Potato Spirit actually couldn't defeat his past self—truly astonishing.""Seems Cap's fifty-fifty luck doesn't apply when it's himself."
Just as Tony thought!His analysis was correct.
The Cap who shouted "Hail Hydra" was indeed the future Cap.
Not only that, he encountered his past self!The situation had developed into such an interesting twist?
Remember, Captain America wasn't an ordinary man. Even at a hundred years old, he was as strong as seventy years ago!The Super Soldier Serum slowed his aging tremendously.
Would the future version of him still appear as young as his past self?
Oh, right, you also have to account for the time Cap spent with Peggy Carter in the past.
"Mistaken for Loki?"
Tony raised his brow. How could this happen?
Cap and Loki were completely different people with no resemblance—so how could he be mistaken?
And the one who made the mistake wasn't some old man with poor eyesight—it was another Captain America.
Could someone like Cap make such a low-level mistake?Not only that, but he mistook himself for someone else!
It seemed absurd, like a joke.
After some thought, Tony concluded the problem likely wasn't with Captain America.
It was with Loki.
After all, the probability of Cap "misseeing" someone was extremely low.
The misidentification must have been like this:Cap saw someone who looked exactly like himself but still thought the person was Loki.
After all, the two Caps had fought face-to-face, not from a distance.
-----------------------
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