An Outstanding Junior
The footage from the surveillance camera was somewhat dim, with many areas completely dark due to insufficient light. However, this did not hinder the Winter Soldier's actions; their vision quickly adapted to the darkness, and they began their hunt.
Most of the Winter Soldier chose to act alone, with only a few opting for pairs. They knew who their targets were: female agents skilled in assassination, or more precisely, female agent trainees who had not yet graduated.
Remove the special agents, and it's just a group of girls with an average age of sixteen or seventeen, and they don't even have weapons.
The Winter Soldier laughed with shame. It was a little embarrassing to admit that 20 of humanity's best warriors had bullied a group of little girls!
Overconfidence is arrogance!
Natasha glanced at the Winter Soldier swaggering in the monitor, a mocking smile playing on her lips. She turned and walked out of the monitoring room, returning shortly after with a stack of documents.
"Boss, the list of trainees for this cohort, if nothing unexpected happens, the person who survives to the end will become 'Black Widow'."
Natasha placed the documents on the table, Russell waved them off, too lazy to look at them. Natasha, who was supposed to be Black Widow, had switched sides and worked for him; he didn't believe a replacement could be better.
However, these female cadets were indeed quite skilled. Russell didn't see a single female cadet in the surveillance footage except for the Winter Soldier; at the very least, their ability to conceal themselves was exceptional.
The church-style hospital has a very complex internal structure, with a total of five floors, various staircases interspersed throughout, and countless rooms of all sizes. Apart from the hall facing the main entrance, the overall layout is completely irregular and dazzling.
Natasha is right. This place is a hunting ground. The KGB uses a method of breeding spiders to release a group of Spider-Man, making them kill each other, in order to harvest the most venomous Black Widow.
For a full ten minutes, the Winter Soldier had spread to almost every corner of the hospital, but they hadn't found a single target, which made them slightly more vigilant.
Russell was getting sleepy in the monitoring room. Perhaps the Spider-Man could indeed give him some surprises, but they were too patient. There were only a few big men on the screen, which was really not interesting.
Finally, a female student appeared in the shot for the first time. Because the resolution was low, her face was not clear, and all that could be seen was that she was wearing a thin hospital gown.
She followed a Winter Soldier, stealthily moving through the shadows, her toes barely touching the ground like a nimble black cat, and silently arrived behind Winter Soldier.
The Winter Soldier wasn't armed, but he carried a tactical knife, which he was currently holding in reverse. He swung casually down the corridor, and just as the female cadet approached to launch a sneak attack, he suddenly turned around and swung the knife at her.
Whoosh!!
The black dagger flashed past, and the female cadet judged the situation by the movement of the Winter Soldier's shoulder, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow, leaving a tuft of hair in mid-air.
She leaned back and flipped over, her slender waist like a strong bow, and with her hands on the ground, she sprang up and slammed her elbow into the Winter Soldier's face.
The camera had no sound, only images. Russell imagined a muffled thud. The attack was fierce but useless. The Winter Soldier's head swayed slightly, and he grabbed the female cadet by the neck, slamming her against the wall with a bang.
The female trainee cried out in pain as she was lifted into the air with nowhere to grab her. She tried desperately to pry open the arms that were holding her, but found that the Winter Soldier's strength was inhuman. His muscles seemed to be cast from steel, and no matter how hard she tried, he did not budge.
The female trainees performed admirably, but the gap in physical fitness was too great, and the battle became one-sided, ending before it even began.
Other surveillance footage also showed contact and fighting, but just a second before Russell looked away, the female cadet grabbed the Winter Soldier's arm with both hands, using it as a fulcrum, and kicked out with a groin kick.
"Smack!"
Russell gasped as he listened to the voiceover.
In the scene, the Winter Soldier was kicked and staggered back a few steps, but he held on tightly to the female cadet's neck.
Using that arm as a support point, the female trainee stepped on the Winter Soldier's knee, and instantly exerted force with her waist, clamping the Winter Soldier's neck with her two long legs.
Clamping her thighs together, gripping her wrists, straightening her forearms, thrusting her hips... several consecutive movements were completed in one go, and the two fell to the ground at the same time. The female trainee took the opportunity to break free of the large hand around her neck and also completed the upper armbar.
This was a gesture of submission, but what she wanted was not submission, but to break the Winter Soldier's arm.
The next second, the female student felt a strange force strike her. Her arm, which should have been unable to exert any force, suddenly sprang up and sent her flying.
This guy isn't human!
The female trainee was thrown seven or eight meters, barely managing to land after maintaining her balance in mid-air. Her eyes were filled with horror as she looked at the Winter Soldier. Because she was pressed so close to his body, she could feel the terrifying explosive power of the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and back; he was simply a monster in human skin.
If you can't beat them, run away. The female student ducked down and slipped into the side door.
The Winter Soldier quickly caught up, kicked the door open, and found himself in front of a wooden staircase. He listened quietly for a few seconds, then walked up the stairs, hugging the wall.
On the other side of the surveillance camera, the first Winter Soldier to be eliminated appeared.
The unlucky guy fell into a trap. While chasing a female cadet, a second person darted out from the shadows to his side. Thanks to the Winter Soldier's reaction speed, the second person's sneak attack failed, so the two female cadets began to attack head-on from the left and right.
The battle remained one-sided, with the Winter Soldier dominating the two men. Just as he had taken them down, a third man jumped down from the ceiling.
The battle had just ended, and the Winter Soldier was at his most vulnerable moment when he was ambushed by a third person.
The latter used a sharpened iron plate to stab the Winter Soldier in the back. The three of them attacked together, and after a dazzling series of punches and kicks, they knocked him out of the third-floor window and onto the snow on the ground.
"This won't do; the training needs to be strengthened." Russell shook his head; he was too arrogant.
Bucky nodded with a dark expression and said coldly, "He has failed his codename. I will remove him from the Winter Soldier."
"That's really strict, Chief Instructor!" Natasha chimed in, making no attempt to hide her sarcasm, which only made Bucky's face darken further.
The last surveillance footage showed the women's restroom. A petite figure crept in, used a makeshift iron dagger she had created to pry open the tiles, took out a few pieces of hardened bread, soaked them in cold water, and quickly swallowed them.
Russell was speechless, his forehead creased with exasperation. There was no shortage of foodies wherever he went, and even at this moment, he still couldn't resist eating.
"Boss, she's replenishing her energy." Natasha looked at the girl on the monitor with interest. "She's very strong, probably the strongest among this batch of trainees."
"Why do you say that? Just because she has bread?"
"That's right, that's the reason," Natasha explained. "Each person gets only one piece of bread a day, which is not enough to fill their stomach. So, everyone here is in competition with each other. If you don't want to starve to death, you have to steal other people's food; if you don't want to freeze to death, you have to steal their clothes."
Hearing this, Russell nodded. Each person gets one loaf of bread a day, but the girl in the video has a stash, meaning she's robbed quite a few people. Regardless of her methods—whether clever or brute force—her strength is a cut above the others.
In the footage, the girl seemed to notice something and looked up in the direction of the surveillance camera.
A very pretty face, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with messy hair covering her cheeks. She should have had the youthful charm of a girl next door, but the gloom in her eyes shattered that charm completely.
The girl glanced sideways with a cold look, stuffed the hard bread into her mouth, and chewed and swallowed it while looking at the camera, before disappearing into the shadows.
"What's her name?" Russell became interested, estimating that if the girl's life trajectory continued without her dying halfway, she wouldn't be much worse off Natasha.
Natasha quickly flipped through the files, took out a file, and compared it with the girl's photo. "Found her, her name is Yelena Belova, and she is highly regarded!"
Russell stroked his chin. "This name... seems familiar."
"Boss, do you know her?"
Russell shook his head directly. "I don't know them, but I recognize the names of pretty girls."
Natasha: "..."
From the moment the Winter Soldier stormed in until the two sides engaged in close combat, approximately half an hour had passed.
The Winter Soldier initially suffered losses due to carelessness, but then they went all out and quickly turned the tide, capturing the female cadets one by one with the speed of an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
With specially made handcuffs and leg irons, the female trainee was locked in place from behind, unable to move like a crab, and was thrown into a truck by the soldiers. Russell watched the monitor and silently calculated that about 20 Spider-Man had been captured in total, a very gratifying result.
During the training, the Winter Soldier's incredible physical abilities made the female trainees realize that these intruders were not KGB-ordained personnel for an exercise. They were too strong; if there were so many strong individuals, the KGB wouldn't need to train them.
The base was invaded by an unknown force, and the female trainees lost their will to fight, instead focusing on how to escape. However, the church-style hospital was already surrounded, and the soldiers were on high alert. Every time someone tried to slip away, they were forced back by machine gun fire.
Finally, the last female cadet was handcuffed and put on the truck. The Winter Soldier searched the area thoroughly to make sure no one was missed.
"They didn't miss anything, are they serious?"
Russell smiled and looked at Bucky. How could he not have missed anyone? Yelena Belova, whom he was most concerned about, had not been captured yet and no one knew where she was hiding.
Bucky remained silent, his face grim. The Winter Soldier's performance today was utterly unacceptable, and as their head instructor, he felt deeply ashamed. With Natasha fanning the flames, he had completely lost face in front of Russell. He hardened his resolve and went back to train them rigorously, to toughen them up until they were bruised Winter Soldier battered.
Just then, a soft thud of toes touching the ground came from outside the monitoring room. The sound was so low that it was almost imperceptible, but the people in the monitoring room still heard it.
Jason was standing behind the door, opened his eyes, his gaze cold and ruthless, and raised his hand to grip the hilt of the knife at his waist.
"Boss, can I do it?" Natasha licked her lips; the outstanding junior made her itchy to try.
"Can!"