Half an hour later.
"Cough, cough!"
Natasha surfaced from the icy river, then struggled ashore. She rolled over and slumped against a rock by the riverbank.
The Phoenix's instinct kicked in. Its flames were like a sauna enveloping Natasha, and in an instant, her soaked clothes were dry.
The next second.
Natasha took a deep breath and looked at the safe box she had just rescued.
There was nothing she could do.
If the Phoenix Star Palace Projection had been in this universe, Natasha would have sworn to heaven that she could have smashed that bastard's head with one punch.
But...
The projection of the Phoenix Star Palace was not in this universe. Not only was there no Phoenix here—there was not even a person named Lake Edwin. Naturally, the power of a Saint could not be projected here.
Even so.
Natasha felt that if she had not still possessed the Phoenix's instinct, she probably would have been in serious danger after facing that bastard.
Who was that bastard?
Natasha frowned. When she had fought that person just now, she had suddenly felt, for some reason, that she was not fighting a single person.
That was right.
That bastard had given Natasha a very strange feeling.
At first, the person had felt like Captain America—of course, this universe's Captain America. Then, his fighting style had suddenly become Barton's. During several exchanges, what made Natasha even more confused was that she had felt as though she were fighting herself.
Some kind of high-tech robot manufactured by Stark Industries?
But...
Why was the Tony Stark in my universe not as paranoid as this universe's Tony Stark?
Could it be that after this universe's Tony Stark discovered that he was ill, he had not sought a psychiatrist in time to treat and counsel