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Life can be so fragile.
Watching the SHIELD personnel drowning in the underwater base, Clark couldn't help but sigh. He knew many of them were likely not Hydra operatives, but he had no way to tell—they were all casualties of his actions.
After confirming that all Hydra members in the underwater base, as well as the ones he had personally identified, were dead, Clark nodded and turned to leave.
Truthfully, Clark didn't particularly care about Hydra. If they hadn't constantly tried to attack him, he probably wouldn't have retaliated so aggressively.
After all, according to the movies, Hydra seemed nearly immortal. Even if one base were destroyed, another would appear, and new leaders would always rise.
Although Clark had never actually watched Agents of SHIELD in his previous life, he understood the story well enough. He knew that even after SHIELD fell, some Hydra members would survive.
In short, Hydra shared a common trait: they were numerous. Clark had no intention of completely eradicating them—he only needed to eliminate those who provoked him, regardless of whether they were Hydra.
Having dealt with the Hydra members inside SHIELD, Clark didn't plan to hunt them across the globe. Instead, he opened a portal and returned to Skull Island.
Upon returning, he noticed that Tony was missing from the room where he had been decrypting the USB drive.
"JARVIS, where's Tony?"
Clark glanced at the still-active USB decryption on the computer and had a rough idea of Tony's location. At least, Tony was probably on his way to rescue Steve and the others.
"Mr. Clark, the boss received a call for help from Mr. Steve. The location is Wheaton, New Jersey."
As Clark suspected, Tony was indeed going to save Steve and the team. Although the SHIELD plane that had attacked them was already destroyed, according to the movie's storyline, Steve and the others were likely trapped in the basement of the Caspian Camp.
Clark reasoned that Tony should be more than capable of rescuing them. He grabbed a sofa and prepared to wait for them to return with good news.
What he didn't expect, however, was that he'd be waiting for Tony and Steve, both battered and exhausted from battle.
"What happened to you?"
Seeing the three of them—clearly just through a major fight—Clark frowned. At this point, very few things could embarrass Tony, but this situation seemed to have done just that.
"I ran into two super-powered individuals. One was so fast I could barely see him—I figured I could try cooperating with you. The other seemed magical, but using magic was incredibly difficult."
Back in the lab, Tony answered Clark's questions while removing his Mark 44 armor.
"Two super-powered people?" Clark froze for a moment, assuming Tony meant Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. In the Marvel films, they seemed the only siblings matching those traits.
However, Clark recalled that these two had only gained their powers after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and only mastered them in Avengers: Age of Ultron. How could they have appeared now, before Captain America 2's plot concluded?
Thinking it through, Clark reasoned that the film timeline might not have been fully explained. The siblings appeared in a Captain America 2 post-credit scene, so it's possible they'd had powers for some time. Clark decided to ignore the discrepancy.
"So that's how you ended up like this. What's in that place? Should I go back?"
The appearance of the two super-powered siblings indicated to Clark that the situation differed significantly from what he initially knew.
The USB contained Dr. Zola's algorithm. The base shown on the USB was a SHIELD facility where Dr. Zola resided. Although Dr. Zola was long dead, his brain had been preserved in a computer system.
Strangely, even though Zola had been employed by SHIELD, he had actually served Hydra. The Zola system had trapped Clark and Steve in that base until they called Tony.
Unexpectedly, the two powered individuals had arrived only after Tony got there.
Natasha, equally awkward, wiped her face with a towel while responding.
"The Zola issue you mentioned—I think I know what happened. I just returned from the SHIELD base. According to my investigation, over half the people in SHIELD were actually Hydra members."
Clark paused, considering Natasha's words, then recounted what he knew about SHIELD. Much of it came from what he'd seen in Captain America 2, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his words became reality.
"What?"
Clark's revelation shocked Steve and Natasha, who stood up immediately. Tony, who had no connection to SHIELD, was merely slightly stunned.
"Don't get too excited—I'm not done. SHIELD used to have a single space carrier. Now they've rebuilt three more advanced carriers, planning to use them to monitor criminals worldwide."
"I know. Fury told me before, though I didn't agree with their methods."
After hearing about the three carriers, Steve nodded, aware of SHIELD's plan.
"Unfortunately, though the plan is solid, when I arrived at the SHIELD base, those three carriers had largely been occupied by Hydra. Their plan was similar to SHIELD's—use the carriers to watch the world—but with one difference: they target potential threats to Hydra and eliminate them with weapons aboard the carriers.
I believe the key to this plan is…
'Zola's Algorithm.'"