After killing Taskmaster, Karl immediately dispatched a large number of Shadow Ninjas to locate the true commander of the Red Room installation — General Dreykov.
The slaughter throughout the airborne fortress did not last long.
Within five minutes, nearly every operative, handler, and technician inside the Red Room was dead.
Only one sector still echoed with the sounds of combat.
Karl stepped through the Shadow World and emerged inside the chamber.
Dozens of shadow soldiers were engaged in close combat — yet they were being suppressed.
The man standing at the center of the room fought with brutal efficiency.
Karl instantly recognized him.
General Dreykov.
The architect of the Red Room.
The man responsible for decades of brainwashing, assassination programs, and psychological conditioning.
Karl watched with mild amusement.
He summoned ten additional shadow soldiers.
If ten could not overwhelm him — twenty would.
The tide shifted immediately.
Dreykov's body began to show wounds.
But they sealed rapidly.
Karl narrowed his eyes.
Accelerated regeneration.
Genetic enhancement.
Not surprising.
Natasha Romanoff's exceptional physical conditioning was no accident — the Red Room had long experimented with enhancement protocols to produce more resilient operatives.
Several shadow soldiers slipped from Karl's feet and vanished into the corridors.
He had already issued new orders:
Search for genetic serums.
Retrieve research archives.
Secure biochemical formulas.
Locate any longevity compounds.
Hydra's Shadow
Karl already understood the deeper truth.
The Red Room did not exist in isolation.
Hydra's influence had infiltrated intelligence agencies worldwide after World War II. Many former Hydra scientists were absorbed into Western programs, including early S.H.I.E.L.D. operations.
The Infinity Formula — a longevity compound originally derived from Nazi research — had been studied, modified, and quietly circulated through black programs.
Nick Fury's slowed aging was widely rumored to be connected to such treatments, though the formula required periodic reinjection and was far from perfect.
Even an imperfect life-extension compound could destabilize global power structures.
There were billionaires who would pay nations for it.
Karl watched Dreykov continue resisting.
Then the shadow soldiers forced him to his knees.
Dreykov opened his mouth — perhaps to bargain, perhaps to invoke Hydra.
Karl did not allow him to speak.
Telekinesis crushed inward.
Bone collapsed.
General Dreykov died without finishing his final sentence.
Karl felt no satisfaction.
Only completion.
He had long understood Hydra's reach.
They were not an organization.
They were a contagion.
Eradicating them entirely would trigger geopolitical collapse and paint him as a global terrorist. Governments would unite. S.H.I.E.L.D. would mobilize. Mutant factions could be weaponized against him.
Not fear.
Pragmatism.
Better to wait.
When a Hydra head surfaced — he would cut it off.
This destruction was merely a warning.
Securing the Red Room Assets
Karl entered the fortress armory and research vault.
The contents exceeded expectations.
Advanced materials.
Biochemical labs.
Weapons stockpiles.
And inside a sealed container:
Fifty pounds of vibranium.
Karl stored it without hesitation.
Nearby, a reinforced safe contained stacks of U.S. currency and hard assets — operational funds for global missions.
Shadow soldiers transported everything into the Shadow World.
Further searching revealed:
Three remaining enhancement serums used on Black Widow candidates
Complete biochemical research archives
Conditioning and augmentation protocols
Karl stored them all.
Inside Dreykov's private chamber, he located archived files referencing longevity compounds derived from the Infinity Formula.
He saved those as well.
Erasing the Red Room
Karl retrieved time bombs from the Shadow World.
Shadow soldiers placed them strategically throughout the airborne fortress.
He then entered the control center and overrode navigation systems.
The cloaked facility began drifting toward an uninhabited area outside the city.
Karl had one final task.
He ordered the shadow soldiers to extract Yelena Belova.
Minutes later, they vanished from the structure.
Ten minutes afterward —
The Red Room exploded.
A chain of detonations tore through its core.
The aerial fortress broke apart midair and crashed beyond the outskirts, debris scattering across frozen terrain.
From the city below, citizens saw only a distant fireball and falling wreckage.
The Red Room was gone.
Return to Stark Mansion
Karl stepped from shadow into Tony Stark's living room.
He had been gone less than two hours.
Tony turned immediately.
"Hey, Carl — there was an explosion over Belarus. Something fell out of the sky. Please tell me that wasn't you."
"It was," Karl replied calmly. "The Red Room no longer exists. Their leader is dead. I recovered the enhancement serums used on Black Widows… and research related to longevity treatments."
Tony froze.
"Longevity… as in aging slowdown?"
He processed it.
Then his eyes lit up.
"That's lifespan extension."
Pepper looked up sharply.
Aunt May and Raven exchanged stunned glances.
Tony leaned forward.
"Tell me I heard that right."
Karl nodded.
"It slows biological aging. But it requires continuous injections. Imperfect and unstable."
Tony exhaled.
Still processing.
Karl continued:
"I'll have Samuel improve it. A refined gene therapy could extend lifespan while enhancing physical resilience."
Pepper's hand slowly covered her mouth.
Raven's eyes softened with relief.
Aunt May looked at Karl as if seeing him anew.
Tony stared at him.
"You just wiped out an intelligence organization… and came back with the secret to longer life."
Karl said nothing.
For him, this was only the beginning.
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