"Thank you."
It wasn't just Tony; Harry also received Steve's heartfelt thanks.
"You're welcome. But to be honest, I'm quite hurt—you'd rather believe S.H.I.E.L.D. and have me arrested first instead of communicating with me beforehand."
Captain America wanted to say it was because the matter involved HYDRA and they couldn't afford any mistakes; if they had arrested the wrong person, they would have helped Harry clear his name.
But the problem lay in the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was HYDRA—anything he said would be hollow. HYDRA didn't want to interrogate Harry at all; they just wanted him dead.
And so, he found himself speechless.
Truth be told, Harry was also quite moved by the sentiment. Tony had been coerced, but Steve and the other Avengers hadn't treated him like a comrade-in-arms from the Battle of New York at all, let alone a friend.
"You guys are like a little clique, Captain," Harry sighed.
Harry's choice of words was somewhat ironic, but Steve could only endure it in silence.
He just wanted to say, wasn't Osborn also a bit of a clique?
As if reading his mind the next moment, Harry said, "Osborn is a large collective. All kinds of people work here—scientific research, production, combat, artistic creation... while legally Osborn belongs to me, I've never believed that Osborn reached where it is today by relying on me alone."
The Avengers were a few superheroes standing together to save the World, but in reality, they were also deciding the World's direction.
While Osborn was similar, ordinary people contributed throughout the process—perhaps a transmission device on Titan, or the safety seat design on a certain model of fighter jet, and so on.
"How do you plan to handle Bucky?" Steve decided to change the subject.
"Follow the law—the suspect was in an abnormal mental state when the crimes were committed, so theoretically, he could be found not guilty."
Harry wasn't interested in the Winter Soldier, and the people the Winter Soldier killed had nothing to do with him. He wouldn't interfere too much in that regard. As for Tony, whatever he planned to do once he calmed down, Harry didn't intend to meddle.
Steve quietly breathed a sigh of relief, a small gesture that Harry caught.
"But Captain, do you think the families of those victims will easily accept that explanation? He has to earn forgiveness through his own efforts."
"I will be with him," Steve said decisively.
That's for the best, Harry thought.
Acting on impulse is a trait that can be praised or blamed by the general public, which helps dispel the excessive deification of the title of Captain America.
"Captain, you know? You're not perfect," Harry said suddenly.
Steve was stunned for a moment; of course he knew he wasn't perfect.
"What are you trying to say?"
"But some people think you are perfect. You're like Jesus, a savior sent by God, flawless, representing absolute justice," Harry said.
Steve frowned; it was clear that even he didn't agree with that statement.
"But I've never labeled myself that way—"
"That's the problem. I want you to write about your experiences. People do need a role model, but they don't need a god-like existence.
Deifying a person causes many problems.
For example, people in Brooklyn might take pride in Captain America living there, but that pride can turn into a sense of superiority, leading to things like 'Brooklynites are just more refined than people from Harlem.'
In fact, the KKK once used Captain America in their propaganda to promote racism—'Why can't black people produce a Captain America? Because they are black.'"
Steve thought for a moment, roughly understood Harry's meaning, and readily agreed.
"Great, let's leave it at that for now. I'll contact you after dealing with HYDRA."
Harry opened the virtual reality pod; it was time to let the Winter Soldier out.
Barnes lay in the virtual pod like a sleeping beauty. Steve looked at his best friend with a complex expression.
"I used virtual reality to disrupt the control mechanism,
but he'll probably still react to those trigger words—I'll find a psychological treatment team to give him desensitization therapy. You can head back now."
Steve nodded, carrying Barnes to the plane's door.
Suddenly, he stopped.
"Wait a minute, how are we supposed to get back?"
He had come here on a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport plane. Steve wasn't Tony; he couldn't exactly carry Barnes and run all the way back to the United States, could he?
Furthermore, now that S.H.I.E.L.D. had collapsed, he was just a lonely hundred-year-old man.
"Uh... I forgot about that. Contact General Ross; he'll arrange it for you."
The U.S. Secretary of State arranging for Captain America's return to the country was quite reasonable.
As for himself, he still had to find the 'Winter Soldier's Tomb' from Barnes's memories.
HYDRA had built a secret Base in Siberia to monitor the Soviet Union's Super Soldier program, but the Soviet Union had eventually abandoned it for various reasons.
This Base then became HYDRA's Super Soldier research center.
After Barnes stole the serum samples, they completed the injections here, but the resulting soldiers had severe defects. Left with no choice, HYDRA could only seal the place away.
Searching through Barnes's memories, Harry had found it.
"I thought you would go back to deal with the Sokovia situation." Harry glanced at Zemo beside him.
"I'm curious about this place. How do you plan to deal with these Winter Soldiers?" Zemo exhaled, his breath condensing into frost in the air.
"Capture and research, as always."
"Don't you think Super Soldiers shouldn't exist in this World?" Zemo asked.
"That depends on how you define 'Super Soldier.' What makes them super?"
Zemo immediately listed a bunch of reasons: Super Human strength, agility, memory, thinking capacity, and so on, which allowed them to complete their goals more easily.
Being stronger than ordinary people allowed them to easily get what they wanted, harm ordinary people, lord over ordinary people, and so on.
"Is that so? But creating such a Super Soldier only requires a small dose of serum; it's not that difficult.
The problem isn't the Super Soldiers; the problem is that 'there are only a few Super Soldiers.' It's their scarcity and the worship of ordinary people that created the title 'Captain America,' not the serum."
Zemo stopped in his tracks. "What exactly are you trying to do?"
"I want everyone to become 'Super Humans.' That way, there will be no more super-powered individuals."
"Are you crazy? How can you guarantee they won't become uncontrollable because of a sudden enhancement?!" Zemo stared at Harry in disbelief.
"So that is the task I plan to give you—I've always intended to enhance the global human population, but this needs to be done in a controlled environment.
I call this plan 'Project Dionysus.'"
Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, possessed a dual nature—he could bring joy and intoxication, but was also cruel and easily angered.
Global human enhancement technology was like him and his wine; it would be a revelry—but it needed to be controlled.
"This..." Zemo took two steps back.
"When everyone transcends humanity, there are no more super-powered individuals. Do you want to join or not?"
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