Marvel: Master Of Role Playing
Chapter 213 – Clues about Hydra

"Reid…"

As Reid walked in, Tony’s expression turned complicated.

He had always respected Alfred like a senior family member. He believed someone like him deserved a much better ending, but reality had proven otherwise.

Alfred had given his entire life to serve the Wayne family. Yet at what appeared to be a grand funeral, Bruce Wayne, the very man he had poured everything into protecting, seemed barely moved.

Until he finally fell, completely becoming the Joker.

Later, when Tony secretly uncovered Bruce’s identity as Batman, the truth made the entire outcome feel even more sad.

And Reid, Alfred’s adopted son, hadn’t even shown up at the funeral. 

To Tony, calling such a fate tragic wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

"I’ve always known who you were," Tony said calmly. "I’ve even wondered why the Pennyworth family seems to have a thing for serving others."

He paused before continuing, "But now it looks like everyone in your family has their own secrets. With the powers you have, I’m sure you knew exactly what was happening all along, didn’t you?"

From Tony’s perspective, someone like Reid—capable of supersonic flight, possessing super strength, super speed, and even telepathy—could not possibly be unaware of what was going on in Gotham. Yet even with all that, he stayed silent, doing nothing, not even when Alfred faced his darkest hour while trying to protect the Wayne family.

"My father was the Wayne family’s butler. I’m not." Reid smiled faintly. "And rather than worrying about the strange story of the Pennyworth family, Mr. Stark, I suggest you brace yourself for the wave of information that’s about to hit."

His tone carried no resentment, showing he wasn’t bothered by Tony’s criticism.

The playboy had always been something of an outlier among superheroes. Unlike Captain America, he wasn’t driven by pure ideals. He knew how to draw the line between heroism and reality. So naturally, Reid didn’t bother getting caught up in petty arguments over things with no clear right or wrong.

He clapped his hands lightly. A moment later, a group of men with blank expressions and ragged suits walked stiffly into the conference room.

"If I'm not mistaken, these must be the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who attacked Richard Parker. What now? You think regular agents like these could know anything about Hydra?"

Tony glanced at them with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, though in truth, his mind was already racing. He knew what Reid was capable of. If these agents had fallen into his hands, then them revealing something important didn’t seem far-fetched at all. 

Then Reid gave a simple signal with another light clap, and at the exact same moment, the entire group of agents raised their voices in unison.

"Hail Hydra!"

"What the hell?!"

The sudden outburst startled Tony, making him jump a little. But he quickly gathered himself, his face turning grim as he looked at Reid.

"Tell me you didn’t just make them say that using your telepathy."

That was always the fundamental problem with telepaths. It wasn’t about whether they could find secrets, but whether anyone could believe the truth of what they claimed to have found. Unless there was deep trust, people were rarely willing to take a telepath’s word at face value, especially since there was no way to confirm if they were lying.

And clearly, there was no such trust between Tony and Reid.

"No matter what I say, you wouldn’t believe me, would you, Mr. Stark?" Reid replied. "So why not ask these agents directly and compare what you learn? See if the information lines up."

Tony didn’t respond right away, but he didn’t refuse either.

He had always suspected S.H.I.E.L.D. From the beginning, it was the only organization capable of orchestrating an attack on his parents with such precision and ease. The problem was, as chairman of Stark Industries, he had no direct link to the agency so he had never found an opening.

Now, even if Reid might have manipulated things behind the scenes, Tony wasn't going to waste this chance.

"Alright then. Let’s begin. Where are you from?"

* * *

He started with basic questions, then dug deeper and deeper.

But as the interrogation went on, Tony’s face gradually turned pale. Eventually, he asked the one question that had haunted him for years.

"December 16th, 1991. Tell me what you were doing that day."

By this point, Tony had begun to believe most of what Reid had claimed. These agents really did seem like they were part of Hydra. They hadn’t revealed the exact location of any Hydra base, but the way they described their infiltration and activities within S.H.I.E.L.D. sounded disturbingly real. Too detailed to be faked.

Even if Reid was pulling the strings, it would be nearly impossible to fabricate such flawless stories without some truth behind them. That alone was proof enough: Hydra existed inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

So Tony took a chance. He asked the question he’d been holding back.

Hydra had to be destroyed. However, that wasn’t the most important thing for him.

What mattered more was vengeance for the one who had torn his family apart. The man who murdered his mother and left his father to die broken and alone: the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes.

But Tony was disappointed.

It was already 2001. Nearly a decade had passed since the attack on Howard and Maria Stark. Most of the agents involved in field operations had only joined S.H.I.E.L.D. during those years. They couldn’t possibly have been part of what happened back then.

That was, until the last man spoke. An older agent, slightly graying at the temples. When he heard Tony’s question, his body trembled slightly before he slowly opened his mouth to speak.

"Oh?"

Reid's eyes narrowed. He could feel something different from this one. A struggle. This man, an ordinary human with no special abilities, was somehow resisting his telepathic control, if only slightly.

That caught his attention.

While it wasn’t unheard of for someone with a strong will to push back against mental influence, Reid didn’t take such things lightly. The world was changing fast, and with Hydra evolving in unpredictable ways, anything could happen.

Of course, he didn’t mention this to Tony.

"I… I threw a copy of Howard Stark’s personal itinerary into a trash can on the side of Times Square."

He started off like the others, recounting his day from the moment he got up in the morning. But when he got to his time at S.H.I.E.L.D., that one sentence made Tony snap.

He lunged forward and grabbed the man by the collar, lifting him off the floor like a rag doll.

"Who?! Who asked for Dad’s schedule? Tell me! Answer me!"

But this time, the man gave no further response.

The plan to assassinate Howard was clearly part of something much bigger. It had to be layered, controlled, carefully orchestrated. There was no way a single field agent, even one still active after all these years, would know the full picture.

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