Chapter 233: Unbelievable Improvement

At least for now, the hostage rescue mission was going smoothly.

Cap had taken out the patrolling thugs, Black Widow had secured the control room, and next up was Brock Rumlow’s squad, who were going in to rescue the hostages.

Black Widow: "Captain, do you need backup?"

“Agent Romanoff, go assist Rumlow,” Cap replied, all business.

"Got it."

What followed was basically a solo showcase by Captain America. His iconic vibranium shield was thrown with such force that it shattered the 40mm thick tempered glass at the front of the ship’s bridge.

Cap, transformed into a muscle-bound juggernaut, jumped in and took out three armed guards barehanded.

However, Cap’s infamous tendency to evenly match anyone in a fight suddenly kicked in.

Most of the time, Cap exemplified the principle of getting stronger the tougher his opponent, a trait seen most clearly when he blocked Thor’s hammer strike with his shield when Thor first appeared.

But somehow, when faced with a mere mortal thug like Batroc, Cap was dragged into a fight that ended in a stalemate.

After seeing that Batroc was unarmed, Cap, ever the honorable fighter, put away his shield and engaged Batroc in a fistfight.

This scene left Black Widow, who had just arrived, completely speechless. She couldn’t help but think—seriously? The guy’s a scumbag who’s taken hostages, and you’re showing him honor?

Still, she had her own mission from Director Nick Fury. With a nimble flip, she entered the main control room and started securing backup copies of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s classified data.

At that moment, Cap tackled Batroc, knocking him and the door into the control room, where he saw Black Widow at work.

"Oh, this is awkward," she said, still typing on the keyboard.

“What are you doing? You’re supposed to ensure the hostages’ safety.”

Without missing a beat, Black Widow responded, “If we take out all the thugs, the hostages will be safe, won’t they? This guy here is the last one.”

“How can you be sure he’s the last one?” Cap glanced at the unconscious Batroc.

Black Widow froze for a second. She realized she had slipped up the moment she said it. Her senses had been heightened to an unbelievable degree. She’d always had good awareness, but now it seemed like her perception had multiplied by five.

The moment she focused, it was as if she had a cheat code. She could hear the heartbeat and breathing of every person on this hundred-meter-long ship.

The deep, slow breaths belonged to the thugs Cap had knocked out, and the rest of the sounds came from Rumlow’s squad.

A large group of people were gathered, but there was no sound of gunfire.

Her senses confirmed the situation for her.

But this wasn’t something she could explain to Cap!

Cap, ever the stickler for protocol, glanced at Batroc and started to scold her. “You ignored my orders. Even if this was Fury’s mission, your recklessness could have jeopardized the whole operation.”

“No! It’s your lack of thoroughness that almost wrecked this mission.”

Cap was taken aback when Black Widow suddenly drew her gun. In that split second, he realized that the supposedly unconscious Batroc had gotten up and tossed a grenade.

Cap froze.

It was a large grenade, one he could easily block with his body. But Natasha, who was still just a human, couldn’t possibly survive it.

Thinking quickly, Cap instinctively raised his shield to bat the grenade away.

But before he could, Black Widow’s pistol fired.

“Bang! Bang!”

With incredible accuracy, her first shot hit the grenade’s fuse, causing it to ricochet through the only open window and out of the ship. Her second shot nailed Batroc in the left knee.

Batroc, who moments ago was holding his own against Cap, was brought to his knees by a single bullet.

“Boom!”

“Aaah—”

The explosion outside forced Cap to raise his shield to protect Black Widow from the flying shrapnel. Despite his quick reaction, several fragments still flew into the room, causing some damage.

But Black Widow, who should have taken cover, didn’t even flinch. Calmly, she unplugged the military-grade USB drive and casually said, “All done.”

It was as if the explosion hadn’t happened at all.

Cap was stunned by her calm demeanor, standing there dumbfounded as she casually walked over to restrain Batroc.

“You didn’t dodge?” Cap’s frown could’ve killed a fly.

“I confirmed the blast radius.” Her calm response was almost a slap in the face to Cap. Failing to control the unconscious Batroc was entirely his fault, and her expression seemed to ask, “Now who messed up the mission?”

Well, Cap wasn’t the type to pass the blame.

He sighed. “Alright, I almost let Batroc get away. This one’s on me. But you still shouldn’t have ignored orders…”

And on and on he went with his lecture.

Suddenly, Black Widow found Cap a little less charming.

Still, it was a perfect mission—every hostage was saved, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ship was secured, all the thugs were captured with almost no injuries, and the classified files remained uncracked.

Batroc, who had demanded a $1.5 billion ransom, ended up with nothing.

It was a flawless operation, and Director Nick Fury was thrilled. Even S.H.I.E.L.D. Secretary Alexander Pierce had more confidence when facing the Council’s scrutiny.

But these were all minor details.

After the mission, Black Widow took extra care and went for a full checkup at S.H.I.E.L.D.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had a standard procedure for agents to undergo physical exams, though the timing was flexible depending on their mission schedules. Typically, agents were expected to have a checkup every three months.

“I need a full examination.”

“Sure,” the doctor replied, not suspecting anything.

After a thorough check, Black Widow received her report.

Some of her metrics, like bone density, had noticeably increased. While there were improvements, none of the numbers were beyond human limits.

Unsatisfied, she left S.H.I.E.L.D. and secretly headed to a wide drainage tunnel.

She carefully measured the distance, then, stopwatch in hand, took off running.

The wind roared past her ears, and the scenery blurred as it flew by.

She wasn’t wearing proper track shoes—just her usual boots—and this certainly wasn’t a standard running track.

Yet when she crossed her makeshift finish line and stopped the clock, the time left her speechless.

“6.34 seconds!”

Black Widow was stunned.

Even the world’s fastest sprinters would be nothing compared to her now!

Not convinced, she tossed a coin into the air, drew her dual pistols, and emptied the magazines.

The poor coin never even had a chance to hit the ground, getting shredded mid-air by continuous gunfire.

In the end, she even managed to hit the tiniest remaining fragment of the coin, less than a tenth of its original size.

Her face twitched in disbelief. “Did I seriously sleep with a god?”

(End of Chapter)