The high-altitude wind whipped through Natasha's red hair, yet she didn't feel cold.
She held Leon's hand tightly, gazing at the fish-like glow of city lights far below.
"This is amazing! You just took me flying like this!" She reached out, letting the mist of the surrounding clouds slip through her fingers.
At the Stark Mansion, after ensuring Natasha was ready, Leon had simply taken her hand and soared into the sky, cutting through the clouds with ease.
The acceleration alone shattered the sound barrier in an instant.
Even with Natasha's calmness, she couldn't help but scream at first.
In her twenty-four years, she had endured the most grueling training, piloted the fastest jets, and assumed the roles of aristocrats and spies alike. She had seen much of the world.
But this was the first time she had experienced supersonic flight—without any protection.
"We're at least a thousand meters above the ground. How am I still breathing and talking normally? Shouldn't I be getting hit by high-speed winds?" She looked around in astonishment.
"Because I'm projecting a bio-force field," Leon replied, offering no further details.
He looked up. "We're too low. If we accelerate here, we might cause environmental disturbances. We need to go higher."
"How high?" Natasha asked, alarmed.
"You'll see soon enough!" Leon grinned before rocketing upwards with her.
"Oh!!!" Natasha shouted but quickly adapted, letting out a thrilled laugh as they passed through the cloud layers, as if riding a roller coaster.
They climbed swiftly into the stratosphere.
The moon was already high in the sky.
Below them stretched an endless, smooth layer of clouds. The moonlight shimmered off them, casting a bluish-white glow over the dark expanse.
Natasha peered down at the boundless sea of clouds. There were no landmarks, no directions—just an infinite stretch of sky.
She suddenly realized something.
In the past, flying fighter jets at this altitude, she had relied on satellite navigation to know her position.
But now, with nothing but her own body, there was no navigation.
"Leon! Do you know where you're going?" she asked loudly.
Leon gave her a strange look. "Of course. Why, do you want to point me toward the Red Room?"
"..." Natasha was silent for a few moments before asking, "If I said I don't know where the Red Room is, could you still find it?"
Leon's eyes narrowed slightly. "You trained there, were controlled by them, and carried out their missions... but you don't know where it is?"
Natasha shrugged. "The Red Room has been operating in secrecy since the '90s. It's an intelligence facility, completely off the grid."
"To maintain secrecy, they rely entirely on girls who were trained from childhood."
"Every time we returned from a mission, they injected us with tranquilizers."
"So... I really don't know where it is."
"But someone might." Natasha fell into thought. "I had an adoptive father, the second Red Guardian—basically the Soviet version of Captain America. He might know something. We should find him—"
"No need," Leon interrupted.
"If you want a family reunion, you can do that after we're done. But for now, I don't need directions."
Finding the Red Room wasn't difficult for him.
Besides, Natasha's adoptive father, Alexei, was more of a comedic relic than a useful informant.
Apart from being a father figure to Natasha and Yelena, he had no real insight into the Red Room's current operations.
"So how are you going to find it? Using your AI butler... what's his name, Jarvis?" Natasha asked.
"No, I'll use my own eyes and ears." Leon had already locked onto the Red Room's location.
Natasha's eyes widened. "Super hearing and vision? You have those too!?"
"Didn't you suspect as much when you saw me wearing the Superman suit?" Leon smirked.
"People might guess, but it's so unbelievable that no one really wants to believe it!"
She studied him more closely. "So you really are like Superman... Are you a Kryptonian? Or did you gain these abilities through an experiment?"
She even reasoned, "Howard Stark was involved in the Super Soldier Serum project. It wouldn't be surprising if modern Stark scientists worked on a 'Superman Serum.'"
"Your logic jumps from science to fiction," Leon commented dryly.
"Then how did you become Superman?" Natasha pressed. "Your blood test records don't show anything unusual."
"You'll find out someday," Leon replied mysteriously.
Suddenly, he tensed, eyes narrowing.
"Hold on tight. Your boss at the Red Room is losing his mind trying to contact you. We need to move."
"Are you going to return me before his tantrum ends?" Natasha joked. "He'll be so grateful."
"I can't wait to see his face," Leon said, suddenly accelerating.
A sonic boom tore through the sky, parting the clouds in their wake.
Natasha marveled at the sensation.
Despite their incredible speed, the bio-force field shielded her from the crushing wind pressure, making the experience feel like a gentle spring breeze.
It was like wearing VR goggles and experiencing an intercontinental missile's flight firsthand.
Her senses were completely disconnected from reality.
"Oh my God, this is incredible!" she exclaimed again.
They quickly passed Mach 50, crossing dozens of kilometers in mere seconds.
There were no visible landmarks in the stratosphere, only stars and the thin upper atmosphere.
But Natasha soon noticed something.
The North Star was moving closer to directly overhead.
"Are we heading north? The Red Room is in the Arctic Circle?" she asked, realization dawning.
The closer they got to the North Pole, the more Polaris appeared directly above them.
"To be precise, it's above the Arctic Ocean. We're almost there."
Leon and Natasha began their descent.
It was time.
Natasha tensed as the clouds rushed toward them.
She had never seen the full layout of the Red Room before. It had always been a mystery, a looming presence in her past.
It was a cage—one that symbolized death and cold-hearted control.
And now, she was finally going to see it.
With Leon at her side, an unstoppable force, her past was about to end.
But instead of feeling the thrill of vengeance, she felt something else.
For years, her mission had been her entire existence—one she was prepared to die for.
Now that the mission was about to be completed, what else was left for her?
She felt like a caged dog about to be released into the world.
She would be free, but what then?
For the first time, she would experience life beyond her programming—sunlight on her skin, grass beneath her feet.
But after years in the darkness, would she even know how to live in the light?
…
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