Alexei pressed the star emblem on his Red Guardian figure's chest, and it lit up and emitted a charging sound effect.
On the back was a pull cord — he tugged it.
"Red Guardian, advance! The horn calls you!"
Hearing the line, Alexei let out a bitter laugh. Once the hope of the Soviet Union, now reduced to a prisoner.
The next second, the figure's head popped off. Alexei caught it, noticing the connector inside held what looked like a tiny earpiece.
Glancing around to make sure no guards noticed, he slipped it into his ear.
Immediately, Natasha's voice came through:"Today's your lucky day, Alexei."
Above the deep pit prison, John Wick piloted an armed helicopter while Natasha and Smith sat across from each other.
Smith adjusted his scouter, activating the life-energy detection.
He had a theory now: on the Dragon Ball Earth, anyone above 5 battle power was essentially manipulating ki, consciously or not, hence even a 10 could be hard to harm. But here in the Marvel world, outside of Kunlun's inefficient use of chi, no one understood or sensed their ki. So even with great physical strength, they couldn't fully manifest it.
The Hand's Five Fingers, at their peak, had 40–50 power. Now Smith wanted to see just how much the Red Guardian — meant to rival Captain America — would register.
With the scanner's view opened, numbers popped up:"5… 6… 5… 4… 6… 7… 40."
A solid 40 lit up on his display. Surprising.It fit: normal humans maxed at 8, and the serum quintupled that. But even with 40, since they didn't use ki, their actual combat ability was lower than a skilled martial artist with a 9.
This confirmed for Smith that teaching ki techniques couldn't be done lightly — even someone with a thousand power would only manifest a fraction if they didn't know how.
Meanwhile, Natasha glanced curiously at Smith's monocle-like scouter, its rolling numbers and icons catching her eye.
On the ops display, she spoke:"Alexei. This is Natasha Romanoff."
Her name startled Alexei, though he soon remembered that in their American cover family, his eldest daughter had been called Natasha Romanoff.
"Head to the south wall door," she instructed.
Alexei set down the figure and approached the guard."You okay? Back off," the guard barked.
But Alexei shattered the glass with a punch, yanking the guard through and knocking out another.
"Left. Don't make too much noise," Natasha warned.
But the prison alarms blared anyway.
"Red Guardian's escaping!" inmates shouted as guards swarmed in.
Wielding shields and batons, they charged — but Alexei, even without ki, was unstoppable, his super-soldier physique enough to crush them.
He even used their shields and a door to trap them.
"You made a scene, didn't you?" Natasha's voice teased in his ear.Smith chuckled."A scene? Everyone here knows Red Guardian is escaping."
Alexei burst through the outer gate into a snowy expanse surrounded by fences and defenses.
"What now?"Natasha's voice came again:"We're getting you out."
He looked up to see the helicopter above.
John piloted while Smith stood by the open door.Smith glanced at Natasha and said,"I'm sure you could pull this off… but this is too risky. No more wasting time — leave it to me."
And with that, Smith stepped out of the helicopter and dropped.
Natasha lunged forward, shouting:"You didn't take a parachute!"
John said calmly:"Boss doesn't need such things."
Below, Smith flew toward Alexei's position, defying gravity.
Natasha stared."My God… he can fly."
John's voice was low:"I don't know why Boss is helping you. But understand — he's God."
"The leader's power is beyond your imagination."
Natasha turned to look at John, noting how he, who hadn't been with the Assassins long, already regarded Smith with deep faith — almost worship.
Just what kind of power had he seen?
(End of Chapter)
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