Chapter 162: Evading the Pursuit

Natasha began driving in a zig-zag pattern, but she failed to evade the mysterious assailant's attack. An arrow shot straight toward the undercarriage of Natasha's car.

The arrow detonated right beneath the vehicle, blasting it up into the air. It flipped over and crashed squarely onto the roof of a car behind them.

Then, it fell back down, getting struck and sent spinning away by a trailing vehicle. The car rolled over continuously until it plunged directly down a subway entrance, finally coming to a halt in the concourse of the B1-level subway station.

The blue sedan lay upside down on its four wheels, its body severely damaged, yet neither Natasha nor Yelena suffered critical injuries. Both of them struggled to crawl out.

Yelena's arm was deeply gashed by a piece of flying debris and was bleeding profusely. Just as she pulled out a scarf and prepared to wrap it around her arm to stem the flow of blood, Natasha stopped her.

"Don't! Trust me. Come with me," Natasha urged, pulling Yelena toward the crowd in the subway concourse.

The mysterious figure, clad in bizarre armor, descended the subway stairs just in time to spot the two of them sliding down the smooth incline in the middle of the escalators.

The assailant hurled a round shield through the air toward them. Just as Natasha and Yelena slid smoothly down to the second basement level, they instantly dropped to the ground. The shield whirred past just above their heads and embedded itself deeply into a pillar ahead.

Natasha grabbed Yelena's hand and pulled her up to flee. Unfazed, the assailant took the elevator down and slowly walked into the subway passenger hall.

Everyone here had just boarded the newly arrived train and departed, leaving the entire subway station completely deserted.

Noticing the bloodstains on the ground, the assailant tracked them all the way to a subterranean manhole, lifted the cover, and dropped inside.

Not far away, in the overhead ventilation duct, Natasha and Yelena were hiding, watching the mysterious figure jump down into the manhole.

Yelena lay inside the ventilation duct, using the scarf to tightly wrap her wounded arm and staunch the bleeding.

"Are you okay?" Natasha asked, looking at Yelena, who was wincing in pain.

"Oh, what a brilliant idea! I just love the part where I almost bled to death. It's so cozy up here," Yelena said, sitting up and glancing around the spacious ventilation shaft.

"Barton and I once hid out here for two days," Natasha recalled.

"That must have been a blast," Yelena said, following Natasha's gaze to a mark they had once carved onto the wall overhead.

"Who on earth is that person?" Natasha asked.

"One of Dreykov's special projects. He can mimic anyone he has ever laid eyes on—it's like fighting your own reflection in a mirror. Dreykov only ever deploys him for the most critical missions," Yelena replied.

"It makes no sense for them to hunt us down like this!" Natasha said.

"Facts are awfully hard to make sense of when you leave out the crucial details," Yelena remarked.

"What do you mean by that?" Natasha demanded.

"You haven't uttered a single word about Dreykov's daughter. Did you kill her back then?" Yelena challenged.

"I had no choice! I needed her to lead me to Dreykov. Dreykov's daughter was merely collateral damage; I needed confirmation from her to pinpoint Dreykov's exact location." Natasha remembered how, back then, to verify that Dreykov was home, she had chosen to bomb his house when his daughter was returning from school.

"And yet here you are, looking far from certain about it!" Yelena pointed out.

"I need some air..." Every time Natasha thought of that incident, a profound wave of guilt washed over her. Although she had taken many lives, the fate of Dreykov's daughter was something she could never truly forget.

Once they were certain they were safe, the two left the subway station and made their way to a small convenience store at a gas station to rest and regroup.

"The Red Room is still active. Where is it?" Natasha asked Yelena.

"I have no idea. It constantly relocates. Every Widow has to take sedatives upon entering and leaving the country to maintain the highest security clearance," Yelena replied as she picked out wound disinfection supplies.

"I just find it hard to believe he managed to slip past our radar," Natasha said, bewildered. No one should be able to hide from the purview of the Avengers.

"If you're trying to stay hidden, picking a fight with the Avengers isn't the brightest move. The clue is right there in the name. If Dreykov were to kill you, one of the heavy hitters from the Avengers would come looking for you to exact vengeance," Yelena told Natasha.

"Wait, who are you referring to when you say heavy hitters?" Natasha asked.

"Well, I imagine those Atlanteans from the bottom of the ocean must chug tons of water after every battle just to replenish their energy. Where do you think I've been all this time?" Yelena joked, tossing the question back.

"I thought you were out of prison, living a normal life," Natasha replied after a moment of thought.

"And then you just never reached out again?" Yelena pressed.

"To be completely honest, I figured you didn't want to see me," Natasha said after a brief silence.

"Ha! What absolute nonsense. You just didn't want your little sister tagging along while you and the cool kids went off saving the world," Yelena retorted.

"You aren't my real sister," Natasha said, dealing a hurtful blow.

"And the Avengers aren't your real family either," Yelena fired back, caught off guard by Natasha's coldness. Then, after a moment's pause, she abruptly asked, "Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?" Natasha countered.

"That little routine during fights. You know... you always do this thing where you flip your hair, move your arms and hair just so... and then strike a combat pose." Yelena half-crouched as she spoke, mimicking Natasha's signature pre-fight stance.

"A fighting stance like that just proves you're a total poseur! Ha!" Yelena taunted.

"I am not a poseur," Natasha replied with a deadpan expression.

"Oh, come on, those poses look cool and all, but you act like the whole world is watching you, every single second..." Yelena said.

"I spend all that time striking poses because I'm trying to do some good to make up for the pain I've caused. I'm trying to be more than just a brainwashed killer!" Natasha interrupted Yelena's mocking. The dramatic flourishes she adopted were merely her attempt to rewrite how the world saw her.

"Then you're just deluding yourself! Because pain and suffering happen every single day, and at the end of the day, we are both just trained assassins. Only difference is, I'm not the one on the magazine covers, and little girls don't call me a hero!" With that, Yelena turned and walked out.

Natasha stood frozen for a couple of seconds before paying the shopkeeper for the items she had just purchased. Fortunately, the owner didn't recognize them and couldn't understand their language.

Outside the shop entrance was a canopy shading several tables and chairs meant for customers to rest, alongside an auto repair shop where a few young boys were kicking a soccer ball around in the open yard.

The atmosphere here possessed a certain rustic charm. Yelena sat at a chair, using hydrogen peroxide to cleanse the wound on her right arm.

Carrying a shopping bag with two bottles of liquor, Natasha walked over and took a seat across from Yelena.

"That gas—the counter-agent—it was synthesized in secret, brewed by an old Widow from Melina's generation. When I was sent on a mission to retrieve the agent, she was the one who used that gas to wake me up. And yet, I killed the very Widow who woke me," Yelena said expressionlessly.

"Couldn't you have tried to fight for control?" Natasha asked.

"What you went through was psychological conditioning. I'm talking about a chemical alteration of brain function—those are two completely different things. You're entirely conscious, yet you have no way of knowing which parts of your thoughts are truly your own. Even now, I can't be sure," Yelena replied, locking her eyes onto Natasha's.