Chapter 176

"A family meeting, huh? Well, I also want to get rid of that idiot," Alexei said, nodding as he began to eat.

"You can't defeat a man who manipulates the will of others," Melina said, shaking her head.

Natasha turned her gaze to Yelena and saw that her expression wasn't favorable either upon hearing Melina's words.

Melina stood up and brought a tablet, ordering a pig to pass with her voice.

Natasha, Yelena, and Alexei watched as the pig did various things, even stopping breathing under Melina's orders.

"Let it go," Natasha said, seeing the pig convulsing on the floor.

"Alright, I just wanted you to know that today, science is so precise that you can command a subject to stop breathing, and they'll have no choice but to comply," Melina said, letting the pig breathe again and telling it to leave.

"We already knew about that; it's just that I didn't know you helped create it. Are you crazy?" Natasha said, annoyed, looking at Melina.

"Dreykov has chemically subjugated agents all over the world; he's almost the owner of the world," Melina said, fear in her voice.

"Don't make me laugh, the owner of the world? That little rat who only knows how to hide?"

"I'm asking you nicely, tell us where the Red Room is," Natasha said, getting impatient.

''Do you know who they use it on?" said Yelena suddenly, looking at Melina and referring to the chemical subjugation.

"Hm... that's not my department," Melina said, denying.

"Come on, don't lie to them," Alexei told Melina, knowing her well enough to be sure.

"I'm not lying," Melina said, looking at Alexei.

"After all, you are Dreykov's architect," Alexei said while eating.

"Yes, I was the architect. What were you? His partner?" Melina said, raising her voice.

"Partner? That idiot doesn't know what that word means," Alexei said angrily.

"I did everything for the political party; you know very well the only thing I asked in return, and what response did I get? Life in prison. So don't come telling me he was my partner. If you don't want to go, that's fine, but I'll hunt down Dreykov with my daughters," Alexei said, raising his voice without his usual relaxed expression.

Natasha and Yelena looked a bit surprised at Alexei for his words, not fully understanding what he meant.

"What do you mean? What did you ask Dreykov?" Natasha said, furrowing her brow. It had seemed very strange to her that they had put Alexei in prison.

After all, he's a super soldier; in pure strength, he's even stronger than Steve. It doesn't make sense for someone so strong to be abandoned in prison.

"Won't you tell them?" Melina said, looking at Alexei, who seemed guilty.

Natasha frowned, not liking where all this was going.

"Your father agreed that you two would train in the Red Room, but there was a condition," Melina said.

Melina glanced at Alexei for a moment, who looked depressed and guilty.

"You had to stay together, without undergoing any psychological conditioning, and you were exempt from many things... like graduation," Melina said, making a slight pause at the end.

"Is that too much to ask? Dreykov's daughter didn't even train; she lived a normal life," Alexei said, angrily hitting the table.

"I just wanted you to have the skills to be free, to reach for the stars if that's what you wanted," Alexei said aloud.

"He clearly didn't keep his word. Alexei got angry with Dreykov, and they argued many times until Dreykov considered it dangerous to keep Alexei, so he set a trap and imprisoned him," Melina said.

Natasha and Yelena looked at their father in amazement, not believing that their usually foolish father would do that.

Yelena's lips curled involuntarily; all she wanted to know was that she really mattered to her father. The rest was secondary at this point in life.

Natasha, on the other hand, didn't know what expression to put on or what to feel.

Although those three years had made her recognize Melina and Alexei as her parents, she had always felt resentment towards them for everything she and Yelena had to go through.

They were just little girls; their parents should have protected them.

Now knowing that Alexei tried to defend them made her feelings waver, even if he didn't succeed, it didn't matter at this point.

"So, will you tell us where the Red Room is?" Natasha said, looking at Melina.

Melina remained silent, unsure of what to say.

"Are you going to keep siding with him?" Yelena said, looking at her.

"Do you remember those chemically subjugated agents you mentioned? I was one of them," Yelena said, looking at Melina, nodding while biting her lip.

Melina opened her eyes in surprise, looking at Yelena, unable to believe what she had heard.

"You're my mother, my real mother, the closest thing I had to one. Do you know how I feel knowing that you were the one who created what enslaved me for so many years?" Yelena said, her voice breaking.

Melina closed her eyes in pain upon hearing Yelena.

"We really are a messed-up family," Natasha said, laughing quietly while shaking her head.

"Since the ship arrived, I alerted the Red Room. They probably saw you through the cameras; they must be on their way," Melina said, closing her eyes to prevent a tear from falling.

"I... I'm sorry. I don't want to make excuses; it's just... the Red Room is all I know," Melina said, her voice trembling. She should have warned them as soon as she saw them, it's just that the terrible fear of Dreykov really controls her.

"It's okay. Wasn't I the same? I did everything for the cause, but after so many years in prison, I realized it wasn't worth it," Alexei said, consoling Melina.

"I let them take you even though I didn't want to... I'm really sorry," Alexei said, looking at Natasha and Yelena.

"It's okay," Natasha said, looking away, biting her lips, and closing her eyes, trying to prevent her tears from falling.

Yelena just stood up and hugged her father while tears fell down her face; this was all she ever wanted. Even knowing they could capture them, she felt at ease.

"Now is not the time for tears; let's escape quickly on your ship," Melina said, wiping her eyes and standing up.

"Alright, just let them come. That way, I can find out where the Red Room is," Natasha said, standing up.

"Nat, don't you understand? They'll send many people; we won't be able to fight them," Melina said.

"Trust me," Natasha said, looking at the clearly frightened Melina.

Alexei reassuringly squeezed Melina's shoulder as he nodded.

"Fine," Melina said, nodding. She still felt terrified at the idea of being captured by Dreykov.

She passed through the Red Room several times, making sure Melina always put the organization first.

"So what's the plan?" Yelena asked, looking at Natasha.

"We'll wait for them to come for us, capture their ship, and I'll try to find out the location of the Red Room," Natasha said after thinking for a moment.

"So simple? Surely, he'll send those from my group; they were all enhanced by Extremis," Yelena said, looking at Natasha.

"Hm, but it's fine; I'll take care of them," Natasha said, nodding.

"Extremis?" Alexei asked with doubt, looking at both of them.

"It's a genetic enhancement that Dreykov acquired by partnering with someone," Yelena said.

"Hm, although, in reality, that person has already been captured by Iron Man according to the information I have," Natasha said.

Melina remained silent because she really had no idea, although that resolved several questions, like why Dreykov had asked her for a more powerful control method.

"And what does Extremis do?" Alexei asked curiously.

"It gives you superhuman strength, accelerated regeneration, and heat attacks," Yelena said, raising her fist and heating it until it turned orange.

"Whoa," Alexei said, looking at his daughter.

"So, are you stronger than me?" Alexei said, starting to doubt his life.

Natasha chuckled, seeing Alexei's expression.

"A missile is approaching," Cortana suddenly said, appearing as a hologram on Natasha's wrist.

Everyone's expression immediately changed upon hearing her.

"This cowardly dog," Natasha said, annoyed.

"Shoot it down and try to find out where it came from," Natasha said.

The ship outside the house activated, firing a projectile that flew toward the missile.

"I'm tracking the origin of the signal in the missile silo, but it's taking a bit," Cortana said while humming.

"Who is it?" Alexei asked, looking at Natasha's wrist.

"It's Cortana, a genuine AI with a mind of its own," Natasha said, introducing her.

"That... is impossible," Melina said, frowning.

"Is it the Avengers' AI?" Yelena asked curiously, assuming it was made by Stark.

"No, my man created her," Natasha said, giving a slight smile.

Melina and Alexei looked at her in amazement, but before they could ask for more details, Cortana finally found the location.

"I have its location," Cortana said cheerfully. This time it was a bit more challenging than usual as the signal bounced in several places trying to avoid detection.

"You won't believe what I'm seeing; this guy is literally burning money," Cortana said, amazed, showing the location on a GPS.

"Let's go," Natasha said, standing up.

"Let's go; I'll crush that idiot's skull," Alexei said excitedly as he walked out of the house.

Natasha and Yelena followed him, leaving only Melina, who also followed them with a face full of doubts.

Upon boarding the ship, it immediately rose before heading in a direction.

"This technology is too advanced even for the Avengers," Melina said, frowning after checking the ship.

The engines weren't combustion-based; they made no sound and flew at high speeds.

"Indeed, they are quite advanced; this is a space warship," Natasha said, sitting in the back of the ship.

"Yes, before, we went to a huge ship in space that had many of these," Yelena said with a slight smile.

Melina was surprised and looked at Natasha as her mind began to run with possibilities. In the end, she could only think of one place: Madripoor.

She remembered that Natasha had gone to that place when she was very young on a mission.

"We're getting there; I'll put the ship in stealth mode and try to take over their base," Cortana said.

People inside felt nothing, but the ship started to blur until it blended with the surroundings.

"There it is, it will take a few seconds," Cortana said before starting to decrypt the security.

"Really burning money," Natasha said, looking at the large floating tower with multiple runways and jets.

It was already night, so many things weren't as clear, but the lights of the tower could show its great size.

"This is Dreykov's project to stay hidden; it took several years to build, it's really a money-burning machine," Melina said, looking at the familiar tower.

Suddenly, the large tower began to descend slowly without any warning; the people inside didn't even notice.

"He did it; let's hope it reaches the ground before we attack; we need to free the others," Natasha said, making the ship also start to descend.

She doesn't know what kind of dangers there might be if they kept the tower in the air; she's not yet familiar with her powers.

Fortunately, the night made it so they didn't detect that the tower was descending, and they probably didn't have their guard up.

"It would be more fun just to blow up the whole place," Yelena said as they waited.

"I want to tear off his arms and shove them up his backside; letting him die too quickly is a waste," Natasha said, arms crossed next to Yelena.

"Will you really do it?" Yelena said, interested.

"No, gross," Natasha said, making a disgusted expression.

Melina, who still had a doubtful expression due to the entire situation, couldn't help but sigh when she heard them.

Almost 15 minutes later.

The base of the Red Room finally came very close to the ground, alerting some guards.

Cortana had cut off any alarms, so they had no other option than to run and inform everyone by word of mouth.

"It seems they've discovered us; let's end this," Natasha said, standing up before going to a wall and making a small armory come out.

Yelena approached excitedly to the armory, asking Natasha about each weapon constantly.

"They're very heavy," Yelena said, feeling the weapons. With her strength enhanced by Extremis, it didn't affect her, but a normal person could barely aim with difficulty.

"They're for super soldiers," Natasha said, nodding, casually taking a pistol and putting it on her leg.

Alexei wasn't very good with weapons, so he didn't take anything.

Melina also took a pistol since the weight of the big weapons was too much for her.

The ship quickly advanced towards the tower while Natasha quickly shot small devices that neutralized their jets. She wouldn't let anyone escape.

Natasha quickly descended while checking the surroundings and gesturing to the others to come down.

Yelena and Melina also descended and covered Natasha's back; the three of them looked really professional, unlike Alexei, who was just standing there awkwardly.

Cortana made the ship rise several meters to have a broader perspective and cover them.

The four quickly ran along the runway before entering the Red Room.

"There are hundreds of soldiers covering the hallways; there are only 20 Widows currently in this place, and they're outside Dreykov's office protecting him."

"First, we'll advance and deal with the soldiers. I'll charge straight at the Widows while you free the ones I leave unconscious," Natasha said, devising a fairly simple plan.

"Can you handle it?" Yelena asked worriedly, knowing how complicated it can be to fight Extremis soldiers, not to mention she wasn't sure how strong Natasha was.

"Let's find another way that's not so risky," Alexei said, nodding.

"Don't worry; I can do it," Natasha said, smiling confidently.

"All right," Melina said, nodding, seeing her so sure. Natasha wouldn't joke about their lives in this situation.

The four looked at each other and nodded before starting to advance.

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