章節 22: The Mystery of Alex

Tony Stark was confused. This man seemed to be here for revenge, but Tony had never offended such an enemy. Could it be the grudges of his father's generation?

Tony was deeply moved when he saw the bone-deep scars on Alex's hands.

"Thank you, Alex, for saving my life again."

"You're welcome. Even if I didn't save you this time, you'd find a way."

"Alex, there's no need to be modest. I will always remember your help."

With the sound of "ding..." in his mind, Tony's trust increased by another 2%.

He thought Alex was being modest, but Alex didn't receive a prompt from the system to save people, so he was sure that Tony wouldn't have been in crisis this time.

He just interfered and unintentionally took the credit from Tony.

Looking at his hands, he saw that the electric whip was really powerful, but after just a few seconds of contact, his hands were almost severed.

Fortunately, the Hulk's blood was not given in vain, and he was slowly recovering.

Back in the VIP seat, Natasha Romanoff and Pepper Potts ran to their men and expressed their concerns.

Happy was left alone, looking around. It wasn't suitable for hugging anywhere at this time, so he had to stand aside with his suit box.

Natasha touched the scar on Alex's hand and asked, "Do you want me to give you some medicine?"

"No, it will take about a day or two, and I'll fully recover."

Natasha gently wiped away the burnt skin on Alex's hand and asked softly, "Does it hurt?"

"It was quite painful at first, but as soon as you touched it, it eased a lot. You have been holding my hand for the past two days to prevent me from hurting again."

"Hmph... Only a devil would believe you."

The two sat together for a while, feeding Happy well with the sight of their intimacy. Finally, he couldn't bear it anymore and kept coughing.

"Alright, you're almost done. Tony, if you don't leave, you'll have to deal with the European police when they come over."

Tony was most afraid of these trivial troubles, so he quickly left.

Back at the residence, Alex said to Natasha, "I have something to ask you for help. The person who just attacked is named Ivan Vanko. His father once did scientific research with Tony's father. I want to know where that person lives in Siberia."

"Okay." Natasha nodded without asking why, "I will use S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network. There should be news soon."

Natasha sent a message to S.H.I.E.L.D.

After a while, a message came from S.H.I.E.L.D., sending an address to Natasha.

After seeing it, Alex called Ethan.

Ethan had been brought to the United States by Alex and had been working with Dr. Stern on recovery potions, but there had been little progress.

There were not many people Alex could call on now. Although S.H.I.E.L.D. was good, they were not his own people, so some things were inconvenient.

"Ethan, I sent you an address. Go on a business trip and find a bird. Try your best to bring it back safely."

"A bird?"

Ethan was confused and looked at the address. Go to Siberia and bring a bird back to the United States? What kind of mission was this?

However, what Alex told him must be very important, so Ethan didn't ask any more questions, took the money, and set off immediately.

Ethan was chosen because he had survived in the chaotic Middle East and knew a lot about various complicated channels. With money to open the way, it wouldn't be a big problem.

On the contrary, Dr. Stern was a pure academic scholar and a bit of a nerd. If sent out, he wouldn't be able to find the address.

---

At night, Tony decided to go to the prison with Alex to see Ivan.

He wanted to understand why Ivan attacked him.

Those who master this kind of technology could easily sell it on the black market and earn enough money to be rich and wealthy for a lifetime. Risking their lives to attack them must mean a blood feud.

But Tony didn't have any grudge against Ivan, nor had he heard that his father had such an enemy.

When Tony arrived at the prison and asked, he found out about the grievances between Ivan's father and his own.

It turned out that Ivan's father was a scientist sent to the United States to cooperate during the Soviet era.

At that time, there was no Cold War between the two world powers, and they cooperated in many fields.

Ivan's father and Tony's father, Howard Stark, jointly developed the arc reactor. However, due to the limitations of the times, the arc reactor was extremely large and not very practical. Only one prototype was left in Stark's company.

Later, in order to compete for hegemony, the two major powers in the world began to turn against each other, and the Cold War began.

Ivan's father was arrested by the US government on espionage charges and deported.

Ivan's father thought it was Howard who did it, and he held a grudge ever since.

After returning to the Soviet Union, it experienced a series of turmoil, and many scientific researches were interrupted.

Ivan's father lost his job, lost his income, and became impoverished in his later years. A generation of genius scientists eventually died of old age in a simple rented house.

Before he died, he saw the news about Iron Man.

Ivan's father told his son that the arc reactor was their research. The Stark family were thieves and robbers who stole his results and the glory that should belong to them.

Both of them were extremely familiar with arc reactors. With the inspiration of Iron Man, Ivan successfully broke through the blind spots in knowledge and made a miniaturized arc reactor.

But he didn't have the financial resources of Tony to make an iron suit, so he had to buy some accessories on the black market, assemble a set of exoskeleton electric whips, and come for revenge.

After hearing this, Tony said, "My father is not a thief. This was their joint research."

Ivan was furious. "Liar! Your father testified and slandered my father as a spy because he wanted to monopolize the arc reactor."

The two quarreled, each defending their father's honor.

It's a pity that these old stories had no evidence, and no reason could be argued.

In the end, they parted unhappily.

Before leaving, Ivan said, "The feeling of palladium poisoning must be very unpleasant, right? Hahahahahaha..."

Tony paused. This touched his painful spot.

Now he consumed the recovery potion given by Alex every day. Each bottle of such a magical potion could save a life, but in his case, it only reduced the poisonous dose of the previous day, which made him feel deeply guilty.

Alex said calmly, "Palladium poison is not unsolvable. You still have too little knowledge."

"Oh?" Ivan said disdainfully, "Unless you can invent new elements that are non-radioactive, there is no second way. All elements in the world that can undergo nuclear change are radioactive. It requires both the energy of nuclear change and non-radioactivity, which is like having an impenetrable shield."

"But there is exactly such an element in the world, but your thinking is too limited to think of it."

"Impossible!" Tony and Ivan shouted in unison.

They were all geniuses. According to the existing particle physics theory, it was impossible for such contradictory and perfect elements to exist.

Alex said calmly, "Nothing is impossible."

With that said, he walked closer to Ivan, his hands like hooks, and thrust them into his heart.

"Ah..." Ivan screamed in pain, "You...you want to kill me?"

Alex didn't answer. He pulled his hand out, holding a beating, bright red heart.

Ivan couldn't believe he was dying like this.

Without the blood supply from the heart, Ivan's eyes gradually became blurred, and his limbs drooped weakly.

Alex took out a bottle of recovery potion from the storage compartment, opened Ivan's mouth, and poured it in.

As soon as it entered, Ivan's body glowed with bursts of green light, especially his injured heart.

Under the nourishment of the green light, the heart grew back at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even the color was the same as the surrounding tissue.

Ivan groped his chest in disbelief. If Alex wasn't holding a heart in his hand at this moment, he would have thought it was an illusion.

"Bah!"

Alex threw the heart in front of Ivan, and it was still beating.

"Ivan, it's not an exaggeration to say that you are a frog in a well. The world you see is too small."

No matter how shocked Ivan was, Alex turned around and left coolly.

The confused Tony left together. He knew about the recovery potion, but Alex, swearing that a new element existed, seemed like more than just a genius scientist.

"Alex, is there really a new element? Where is it?"

"It's not there now. Wouldn't it be there if you researched it?"

"Uh..., don't be kidding, Alex. Such a perfect element even violates existing particle physics theories."

"You'll find out soon enough." Seeing Alex showing off his mystery again, Tony Stark had no choice but to say, "Forget it, forget it. You have too many mysteries. This one isn't much."

Ever since Tony met Alex, there had been countless mysteries surrounding him. Every time Tony wanted to dig deeper for answers, he could never get them. It was really frustrating, but he couldn't help it.

Tony quickly thought of another question.

"Why did Alex show off the recovery potion in front of Ivan?"

With Tony's high IQ, after careful consideration, he quickly realized Alex's intentions and asked, "Do you want to recruit him?"

If it weren't for the purpose of recruiting, there would be no need for Alex to show off such a skill in front of a prisoner, only to pretend to be mysterious and leave without any explanation.

"Yes, he is a genius, and we will need him in the future."

"Aren't you afraid that he will continue to use high technology to do evil?"

"The evil he has done is nothing compared to the crisis in the future."

Tony asked again, "Then why not recruit him directly? I can say hello to my acquaintances in Europe and have him handed over to the United States."

"The time has not come."

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