Just before boarding the plane, Dreykov saw Blake lunging towards him and immediately issued an order to the two super soldiers.
The two super soldiers then leaped into the air, heading straight for Blake.
Although they didn't have the same extraordinary jumping ability as Blake, he was already in a falling state.
One on the left and one on the right, the two super soldiers targeted Blake's legs.
It was clear that their plan was to grab his ankles, restricting his movement to buy Dreykov some precious time to escape.
To this, Blake simply smiled.
While mid-air, he bent his body and swung his Tang sword from left to right.
As long as the super soldiers came close, they wouldn't even have the chance to grab his ankles before their hands would be separated from their bodies.
But to Blake's surprise, the moment he bent and drew his sword, the two super soldiers violently pressed the detonators in their hands.
"Damn!"
Only then did Blake notice the detonators they held.
After working all night, confident as he was, Dreykov's relentless schemes finally made Blake blurt out a curse.
A strong burst of light and heat exploded in the air.
The two human bombs generated an enormous amount of heat and a shockwave.
The blast sent Blake flying backward in the direction he came from, soaring past Natasha and her sister by over ten meters before crashing heavily to the ground.
As for the jet, it accelerated and quickly turned into a tiny dot in the sky.
"F**k, f**k, f**k!"
Blake cursed angrily three times in a row.
Tonight's events, when analyzed carefully, showed that Dreykov and Francis's conspiracy had been uncovered.
Even though Dreykov had played all his cards, he ended up losing heavily and had to flee like a defeated dog.
But that didn't comfort Blake. His goal tonight had been Dreykov, and despite all his preparations, the man still escaped.
"Damn! I should've brought Tony. I was too arrogant!"
Blake said, frustrated.
"It's okay! He's already lost a lot tonight. We'll have another chance, right?"
Natasha, who had more reason than Blake to want Dreykov dead, stepped forward to comfort him when she saw he was blaming himself.
"We didn't expect him to have so many backup plans. It's not your fault, Blake!"
"When we first arrived, someone shot special neurotoxin bullets at us. It must have been widows trained by the Red Room. Let's find them and free them from control first, shall we?"
Yelena changed the subject.
On the plane, Dreykov, having suffered a defeat, grimly opened a tablet and quickly pulled up the locations of three widows who had been ambushed earlier. Without hesitation, he activated their self-destruct programs.
In Blake's apartment.
The three of them sat gloomily on the balcony, each holding a bottle of beer.
Dreykov had escaped, and to make matters worse, the three widows they found afterward had already taken their own lives. Three young girls who could have been saved by the antidote were now just three cold bodies.
No one felt like talking, and the atmosphere was heavy.
Especially Blake, who sat in silence after listening to Natasha and Yelena recount some of their experiences in the Red Room.
What hit him hardest was Yelena's description of being controlled — knowing what she had done and being aware of her actions, but powerless to control her body or behavior.
Forced to watch helplessly as her bullets and knives continually kill people—some innocent, some deeply wicked—but all of whom she had no desire to kill.
Even the emotions of sorrow and guilt were suppressed, unable to be expressed, buried deep within her soul, slowly eroding her conscience and humanity.
Blake imagined himself in such a situation and couldn't help but shudder.
Blake wasn't a saint; he didn't have the so-called consciousness of a superhero, at least not yet.
But when such inhumane acts could be stopped and he had the ability to do so, he believed any normal person would step in to stop them.
It's like seeing some scumbag on the news abusing the elderly or children—if the law didn't handle it, many people would likely want to beat those people to death themselves.
As if sensing Blake's anger, the system promptly issued a new mission.
[Destroy the Red Room, rescue all the widows controlled by the neurotoxin, reward: 1000 points; kill Dreykov, reward: an accessory—'Widows' Sweetie!']
"Pfft!!!"
The heavy atmosphere between the three was broken when Blake spit out his beer.
The two sisters gave him unfriendly looks.
"Nothing, nothing, I was just thinking about something else!"
Blake quickly explained.
'System! Explain to me, what is this 'Widows' Sweetie'? Are you planning to reward me with a necklace shaped like a doughnut? Or maybe a bracelet with strawberries on it?'
[When the host completes the task, you will naturally understand the function of the reward. Please refrain from speculating based solely on the name, as it makes the host seem rather shallow.]
For some reason, Blake always felt a hint of disdain in the system's otherwise emotionless voice.
He cursed silently and convinced himself not to bicker with a non-sentient system.
Turning to Natasha and Yelena, he asked, "You both trained in the Red Room. Don't you know where their base is?"
"No matter how hidden it is, or if they blindfolded you or whatever, you're both spies. You could at least give a rough direction, right?"
Blake didn't believe Dreykov could hide so deeply that there wasn't a single clue.
"After my sister defected to S.H.I.E.L.D., Dreykov moved the Red Room base. For security reasons, every widow returning to the base had to be injected with a sedative before entering and after leaving."
"Also, the areas we were allowed in had no windows, no way to see outside, so we really don't know where the base is."
Yelena shrugged helplessly.
"But what about people? Anyone working for the Red Room, or someone higher up than you? Surely Dreykov isn't the only one who knows where the Red Room is?"
Blake pressed on, unwilling to give up.
"I do know someone who might know where the Red Room is."
Natasha said quietly.
Yelena glanced at her sister and suddenly seemed to understand.
"You mean Dad?"
Their father in the temporary family that was formed when they were undercover in the U.S., Alexei Shostakov, had once been a Soviet super soldier injected with the super serum.
He was known as the Red Guardian, sometimes referred to as the Soviet Captain.
"Your pretend father? He's that big of a deal, a Soviet superhero? Soviet Captain? But wouldn't he be hard to convince to work with us? And surely he's not easy to get to, right?"
Blake asked, curious.
"He's definitely not easy to get to," Natasha shrugged.
"He's in prison, in Siberia!"
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