Red Vial
The sea pressed in from all sides... cold, black, crushing.
A stealth-class Submarine glided silently through the darkness. Its alloy skin deflected sonar. Its systems ran dark. Inside, General Thaddeus Ross stood in the command capsule, flanked by his inner circle. Data crates and biohazard canisters were being sealed inside a vibration-dampened vault.
00:11:38 until crossing into international waters.
Ross gripped a reinforced rail, eyes scanning live feeds. Blood crusted on his collar. His expression: unreadable. The final stage was in motion.
"Power readings steady. Jammers intact. We're clean," muttered the navigator.
Ross responded only with a nod and tapped in a private command:
[Activate Anti-Tamper Protocol – Rear Hull]
[Subpressure Reinforcement: Engaged]
[Neural Enforcer – Online]
[Outside – Widow Approach]
Yelena drifted in the dark like a ghost.
Her Sub-Armor Mode was form-fitting, pressure-rated beyond 1,500 ft, its nanite mesh adjusting with every shift in current. Jet-black, hydrodynamic, and frictionless. Around her wrists, vortex micro-thrusters pulsed with soft blue glow.
Her HUD lit up, mapping thermal residue from the sub's quiet reactor.
[Target: Class-FCV6 Submarine] [Depth: 1,234 ft]
[Hacking impossible: Analog independent system]
[Hull Rating: Grade-12 Composite – No Physical Breach Permitted]
[Recommend: Micro-Worm Port Entry via Secondary Intake Node]
She smirked. "Always the ducts."
Yelena didn't breach the hull, not directly.
She latched onto the exterior near a maintenance-grade intake node: a narrow shaft used to cycle filtered water for cooling systems. Normally sealed, but not armored like the pressure hull.
The nanites on her right hand shifted, forming a spiderlike device. She released a nano-filament infiltrator. It crawled into the intake shaft and deployed a localized pressure nullifier: a Stark-engineered field that simulated interior pressure just long enough to punch through without destabilizing the vessel.
The device hissed.
Pressure equalized.
A momentary window.
Yelena followed, sliding through the shaft feet-first like a bullet. The field sealed behind her, maintaining hull integrity. No alarms triggered. No pressure differential to alert the sub.
Inside the ship, the ambient lights glowed red.
She was in.
[Interior – Submarine Corridor]
Yelena emerged into a vent access maintenance deck, just above the engine bay.
She moved fast. Silent. Focused.
Two guards near the junction, standard patrol.
Two shots from a wrist-mounted silencer. Necks snapped forward. Bodies fell quietly.
Her HUD pinged a warning.
[Combat-Class Lifeform Approaching – Sector B3]
She didn't have time to hide.
She shifted her stance, drew twin shock blades. Right now, she has no reason to hide and fight. Why would she when she had so many weapons to test on those motherfuckers?
The Combat Enforcer entered. He was massive, genetically enhanced, armor-covered. No insignia. No voice.
A relic of Ross's private army.
The freak lunged. He was fast despite his bulk. She dodged, barely, spinning beneath its swipe and slashing upward across its side. Sparks flew. No blood. Just flesh bound to Kevlar-threaded plating.
"Would you look at that? Cute."
He grabbed her arm. She rotated with the motion, wrapping around his torso mid-spin, planting a fusion knife at the base of his skull.
He roared... but not in pain. It was instinct.
He charged backward, slamming her into the wall.
Yelena gasped, teeth gritted, then yanked the knife out and jammed an EMP disc into the joint of his spine.
BZZZZZRT.
He collapsed, twitching... nervous system disrupted.
"So much for a freaking giant," Yelena stomped his head, splattering brains and blood all over the floor.
...
The corridor walls were smeared with streaks of blood and oil. Bodies of Ross's elite guards littered the floor in twisted piles, some burnt, some slashed open, some crumpled like broken dolls. Sparks dripped from overhead wiring where energy blasts had overloaded circuits.
Yelena moved like a force of nature.
Unstoppable. Unapologetic.
Her suit shifted modes seamlessly. One room, she used sonic-dart rounds that liquefied eardrums. The next, she flicked her wrists, deploying monofilament threads that sliced through armor and flesh alike. The suit's kinetic redirection system absorbed gunfire and sent it back in calibrated bursts that turned reinforced blast doors into shrapnel.
She passed two more guards at a choke point.
One raised his rifle...
THK-THK.
Silenced shots. Both dropped, clean through the eyes.
No hesitation. No mercy.
Yelena chuckled under her breath as a flamethrower unit popped out of her gauntlet and turned a squad of waiting ambushers into walking bonfires.
"Tony really outdid himself. Luckily, this sub is too well-made. Everything is reinforced. Wonder if I should just snag it for us?"
She activated Stingray Mode... anti-grav boots reversed polarity, slamming her to the ceiling. A Widow-angled shotgun unfolded from her shoulder module. She shot downward while sprinting along the overhead steel, raining death as armored soldiers scrambled and screamed.
[Main Deck – Just Ahead]
She paused at the reinforced bulkhead.
Two heavy turrets rotated toward her. Automated targeting.
"Awww. He got me toys."
She didn't move.
Instead, she threw a fist-sized drone forward. It bounced once, then expanded mid-air into a reflective mirror.
The turrets fired.
The mirror snapped up to full height, a 180-degree concave shield.
The bullets ricocheted... directly into the turrets themselves.
BOOM. BOOM.
Turrets down. Smoke. Silence.
"Ha! Fuck yeah!"
Yelena stepped through like death incarnate.
[Command room]
Ross sat at the helm, still calm. His guards were gone. His crew: either dead or unconscious. The only sound in the room was the low hum of the sub's engine... and the slow tap of Ross's finger on a vial of red serum.
The steel doors slammed open with a hiss and a crunch of warped metal.
Smoke trailed behind Yelena as she stepped into the command room like a war god in Widow skin... shoulders squared, blood-splattered all over her suit.
She spotted Ross immediately.
The man sat like a statue. Unflinching. Still tapping one finger against the red vial on the table beside him.
No guards.
No panic.
Just that smug, calculating calm of a man too proud to beg and too dangerous to leave breathing.
Yelena cocked her head, eyes unreadable behind the shimmer of her HUD.
"General Thaddeus Ross," she said evenly, voice echoing in the silent room. "You have two options."
Ross didn't look up. "Do tell."
She stepped closer. Her tone didn't change.
"One... you stand up, walk over here like a nice little war criminal, and come quietly. Option two... I break every bone in your body and drag you back through what's left of your submarine by your spine."
Ross finally looked up. His eyes didn't flinch. No fear. Just that old, burned-in arrogance.
"You don't work for SHIELD," he said. "Your gear's custom. Your moves aren't federal. And your kills weren't military clean... You are a professional killer."
Yelena said nothing. She didn't need to.
Ross leaned back. "You're one of them, aren't you? The Shadow Legion. Who are you people to get in my way?"
Yelena kept her weapons ready. "Uumm... Just some sane people trying to take down a lunatic."
Ross's gaze flicked to the red serum again. "You think this is justice? Marching in here, spouting threats, acting like you're better than me?"
"I don't think I'm better than you," Yelena replied. "I know I am. And that's not ego talking... It's just math. I've killed worse men than you before breakfast."
Yelena was already scanning the vial in Ross's hand.
Ross scoffed. "You're just a kid in a shiny suit. Everything I did... every damned decision... was for the security of this nation. I kept threats off your doorstep before you even knew how to hold a gun."
He stood slowly now, backing away from the console.
"Men like me don't get thank-yous. We get blood on our hands so soft little civilians like you can play dress-up and pretend you're saving the world."
Yelena didn't move. "You tortured prisoners. You turned orphans into monsters. You built weapons out of children."
"For the greater good," Ross snapped.
"You're not a patriot," Yelena said coldly. "You're just a fucking insecure monster who got scared the world wouldn't need you anymore. So you made yourself necessary with blood."
Ross's smile was faint. Tight. "That's where you're wrong."
He picked up the red vial, held it between two fingers.
[Scan completed: Adrenaline serum]
'What the fuck?! Just adrenaline serum? Something smells fishy...' Yelena thought.
"I am a monster. But I'm one you can't win against."
And before she could react, he shoved the vial into his mouth.
CRACK.
The glass shattered between his molars. He swallowed the contents in one motion. The red fluid ran down his chin like blood.
Yelena moved instantly. 'Fuck! I got a bad feeling about this.'
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