Chapter 7 ━━ The Rescue

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The car comes to a halt and Natasha demands her teammates to get out of the car. They grabbed breakfast in their last stop and it's still too early in the morning for Hedeon's preference. He rubs his eyes, trying to get rid of his sleepiness before climbing out of the car and stretching his limbs, lazily. His backpack is hanging over his shoulders.

Feeling eyes on him, he turns to meet Yelena, watching him with an unusual expression all over her face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He raises an eyebrow, confused. It's hard to pinpoint the cause of the look she's giving him. "Are you plotting my death?"

Amused by his question, she chuckles, shaking her head. "I'm trying to read you?"

"Read me?" Hedeon laughs, sobering up from his sleepy state, eyes shining with happiness. "I didn't know you could read minds."

"This way, guys!" Natasha yells, gesturing to the two best friends to follow her lead into the woods ahead of them.

"I can't. I wish I could though." Yelena says, quickening her pace to catch up to her sister.

Hedeon stands on his spot for a moment, trying to extract the meaning behind her words, until he decides to shrug it off and jog down the path to reach a clearing to spot a rusty aircraft where Rick Mason is stepping out of it.

"I said we needed a jet."

"Yeah, you know what you didn't give me?" Rick asks, crossing his arms. "Time. Or money. I'm not made of jets."

"I thought you were supposed to be the best." Yelena teases him as Hedeon stands next to her. "Like a real pro."

"Oh, I beg your pardon, tsarina. Was the free flat and lifetime supply of Kissel not to your liking?"

"Ha! I say he's a real pro." Hedeon grins.

"Don't let him wind you up." Natasha says, glancing at the aircraft.

"No, I take exception to impugning my professionalism." Rick replies with a shrug.

"Well, you did set me up with a generator that crapped out after six hours." The redhead points out, before walking away to look at the rusty aircraft. "Where's the rest?"

Yelena walks to the front of the glass window of the aircraft and exhales, making the glass foggy. She draws a smiley face on it, before smiling at her work.

Hedeon stares at her with a smile, his hands in his pocket, when Rick takes out a bag from inside the aircraft placing it in front of them before opening it, revealing two, white pairs of suits in it.

"Voilà."

"Ooh." Yelena grabs a chocolate bar from it and opens it.

"Oh, I stashed that, like, five years ago." Natasha says when the blonde takes a bit of the chocolate.

"How is it?" Natasha asks.

"It's dry. It's really dry." Yelena says, chewing it before swallowing.

"I don't have any male suits with me for you." Natasha tells the ravenhead.

"Don't stress about it." Hedeon points at his backpack. "I got my badass suit packed and ready."

"Okay then. Suit up, you two."

After getting changed, the three of them fly the aircraft to Seventh Circle Prison in Russia and coordinate with Alexei Shostakov to escape from imprisonment. Then they manage to slip an earpiece in Alexei's prison mail and contact him.

"Today is your lucky day, Alexei." Natasha greets as they're nearing close to the prison in the snow escape. "Move to the door on the south wall. Just don't make a scene."

Just then a loud crash echoes through the monitor as the clamouring of inmates rises.

"So much for not making a scene." Hedeon snickers when the alarms start to blare.

"You made a scene, didn't you?" Natasha asks and in the same moment, Alexie sprints out of the large doors in a hurry.

"What now?" Alexie asks.

"We're gettin' you outta here." Natasha announces, but then again, a bunch of prisoners, followed by prison soldiers burst out of the same large doors Alexie appeared.

"Go to the upper level. Move your ass, super soldier." Natasha encourages the panicked man, who runs for his life.

"He's never going to make it." Hedeon remarks as Alexie's is surrounded.

"Get me closer." Natasha orders, tangling one corner of the cable into herself and other others aircraft, ready to jump out.

"You're going down?" Hedeon asks, raising an eyebrow. With the situation, it seems the stupidest thing in his eyes.

"You got a better idea?" Natasha asks, before leaping out of the aircraft before landing in her fighting stance.

"Such a poser." Yelena comments with a chuckle following behind and suddenly the noise of bullets clanging fill in the air as the guards shoot at the aircraft. "Okay. Enough of this."

"I got it." Hedeon mumbles, holding into a missile launcher, aiming at the prison tower and fires. Boom. "Ha!"

Even though it is enough to create a distraction to Alexie to escape from the prison guards, a distant rumbling gathers their attention.

The missile triggers an avalanche and the large layer of snow ends up cracking and breaking before falling down towards the prison.

"This would be a cool way to die." Yelena states.

Hedeon blinks once, twice and scowls. "Great."

The prisoners and guards begin to move back into the building, trying to save their lives from the avalanche.

Natasha sprints through the railway and jumps into the cable, attaching herself back to it and manages to grab Alexie just in time as Yelena flies them away before the prison is completely swallowed by ice.

Hedeon helps Natasha up and then Alexie, who is grunting and struggling to climb into the aircraft with his overweight body.

"Прощай, бездельники!" (Farewell, Douchebags!) Alexie screams, standing at the door, watching the prison growing smaller and smaller in his vision, before closing it, breathing heavily. "Oh, that was exciting."

Natasha returns to her seat at the front, giving Yelena a helping hand to drive as Hedeon simply sits behind, arms crossed, looking bored. The three of them are wearing their headsets while Alexie grins, walking to stand behind between both Natasha's and Yelena's chairs.

"Hedeon." Alexie greets Hedeon with his gruff voice.

"Hey man." Hedeon replies, leaning back on his seat, still arms crossed. "Wassup?"

Alexie nods and turns to the former Widows. "Oh, I'm so proud of you girls."

The two ignore him and continue on with their work.

"Oh, you can't hear me, huh? Okay." Alexie says, putting on a headset on his own. "Ah... wow."

Yelena slams her fist into Alexie's face, cutting him off while Hedeon lightly chuckles, holding his laughter, watching the movie ahead him.

Alexie buckles over for a moment, groaning and holding his bloody nose, until he recovers and strands upright back. "Okay. Why the aggression, huh? Is it your time of the month?"

"I don't get my period, dipshit. I don't have a uterus." Yelena replies, uninterestingly.

"Or ovaries." Natasha adds.

"Yeah. That's what happens when the Red Room gives you an involuntary hysterectomy. They kind of just go in and they rip out all of your reproductive organs." Yelena continues, moving her hands in the air. "They just get right in there and they chop them all away. Everything out, so you can't have babies."

"Okay, okay. Okay! Okay! You don't have to get so clinical and nasty." He cries, throwing his hands up in surrender, his face scrunched up with the unwanted information he just gathered, before moving himself to the seat right in front Hedeon, who has a smirk slapped across his face.

Yelena shrugs. "Oh, well, I was about to talk about fallopian tubes, but okay."

"It means so much to me that you came back for me."

Natasha shakes her head, dismissively. "No. No. You're gonna tell us how to get to the Red Room."

"Huh." Alexie says, looking between the former Widows. "Whoa, look at you, huh? All business."

"Trust me, this isn't pleasure." Natasha says, rolling her eyes.

"Little Natasha, all indoctrinated into the Western agenda."

"I chose to go west to become an Avenger. 'Cause they treated me like family." Natasha responses.

"Really? Family?" Alexie questions. "Well, where are they now? Where is that family now?"

"Tell me where the Red Room is."

"I have no idea." Alexie states and the blonde scoffs. "Okay?"

"Is it just me or did we really waste our energy to nothing?" Hedeon says, playing with the blade in his hand. "Look, I don't mean to be a bitch... well, actually I do. Can I stab him and push him out?"

Natasha takes her headset and moves to the seat next to Hedeon. "Come on. You and Dreykov were like..."

"Dreykov?" Alexie shouts.

"You know someone else with that name?" Hedeon asks, impatiently.

"General Dreykov, my friend, huh?" Alexie leans back to his seat. "Gives me glory... Soviet Union's first and only super soldier. I could have been more famous than Captain America. Then he buries me in Ohio on that stupid mission. Three years! So tedious, boring me to tears. No offense, huh?"

"Then puts me in prison for the rest of my life. Why, huh? Why? Why would he put me in... You know why? 'Cause maybe I want to talk about the withering of the state. Or maybe I don't like his hair or something and I say something casually about that. Maybe, you know, I want the Party to feel actually like a party instead of this sourpuss organization. But instead, no. He puts me in prison for the rest of my life." He continues rambling and complaining, stomping his feet on the floor. "He just runs off and hides, huh?"

"I'm done." Hedeon slams down his headset, stands up and sits on the pilot seat next to Yelena, putting on Natasha's headset.

"Can't you listen to your father's sins, huh?" Alexie taunts.

"Этот мудак не мой отец, ты, говнюк." (That asshole is not my father, you shit head) Hedeon glares at him.

"I'm not even the one who, uh, you know... I'm not the one who killed his daughter..." Alexie says, glancing at Natasha.

"Can we throw him out the window now?" Yelena suggests, fed up with his stupidity as well.

"I think we should wait till we get to a higher altitude." Natasha shrugs.

"Or maybe I can just chop his throat out." Hedeon grumbles.

"Violent, huh? Dreykov must be proud of you. You're his son after all."

"Shut up! I'm not talking to you!" Hedeon snarls in frustration. "I'm none of your business and out of all people you-you're not going to tell me who I am!"

Yelena rubs his shoulder, attempting to calm him down before he ends up creating a bloodbath and it works. "Don't let him get into your head."

Hedeon closes his eyes, trying to calm his anger down, focusing on Yelena's touch. He sighs and opens his eyes, when he's fully calmed. "Просто поторопись. Я тот, кто его выталкивает." (Just hurry up. I'm the one who is pushing him out)

The blonde slightly smiles. "All right then."

"Почему бы не спросить Мелину, где это?" (Why not ask Melina where it is?) Alexie asks.

Both Yelena and Natasha look surprised at his outburst so as Hedeon before Yelena decides to speak. "Wait, Mom Melina?"

"We thought she was dead." Natasha admits.

Alexie scoffs. "You cannot kill a fox that swift."

Natasha scrunches her nose in disgust. "Ew."

"What?" Alexie glances at her and continues. "She was the scientist, the strategist. I was the muscle. She worked directly for Dreykov far more than I ever did."

"Wait. Are you telling me that Melina is working for the Red Room present day?" Natasha asks.

"She works remotely outside St. Petersburg." Alexie informs.

"Uh... I don't think we have enough fuel for St. Petersburg." Yelena states, making Hedeon look at the fuel meter which indicates that the fuel is almost empty.

"No, we're good. We'll make it." Alexie insists.

"Okay."