Late at night, Dreykov looked at the messages Yelena had sent him on his phone.
A slight smile involuntarily appeared on his lips.
"It looks like your men have successfully approached their target."
Francis took an unidentified liquid with a metallic casing out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
"A highly concentrated anesthetic that doesn't require injection; simply dispersing it will do the trick. Even a real Tyrannosaurus Rex within ten meters will collapse instantly. Developed by the military, specifically for the Hulk."
"Oh? You can even get your hands on things from the United States military."
Dreykov was a little surprised. The Hulk had appeared in the public eye several times. Ordinary people who hadn't seen him might have been kept in the dark because of the news, but how could it have been kept from someone as omnipresent as the leader of the Red Room?
"Otherwise, why do you think I've been so content staying in the United States?"
Francis said smugly, "As one of the leaders of Hydra, Alexander Pierce has made a mess of S.H.I.E.L.D.. and the United States government. How could Francis not take the opportunity to send a few of his own people in?"
" Qin Xiao's strength is extraordinary, and with Natasha Romanoff by his side, it won't be too late for us to make our move in a couple of days, once they fully trust my people."
Dreykov had his own agenda. Even with Qin Xiao in hand, no one could be sure if they could develop such a powerful Super-Soldier Serum. It would be better to control Qin Xiao directly, which would not only make him cooperate with the serum's development but also give him an extra super weapon. Why not?
He has ordered the scientists in the Red Room to do everything in their power to synthesize a super-concentrated nerve agent, hoping to directly control Qin Xiao and use him for their own purposes.
The best time to take action yourself is once the nerve agent arrives. If that doesn't work, you can use the anesthetic Francis gave you.
After spending a few days together, Yelena gradually began to trust Natasha and Qin Xiao.
At least on the surface, that's how it appears. Not only does he begin to slowly recount his experiences over the years to Natasha, but he also quietly removes some small mechanisms from the doorway of his room while he's sleeping.
These changes made Natasha very happy, but on the other hand, she also felt sorry for Yelena, wondering what kind of life she had lived all these years, even sleeping so cautiously at night.
Qin Xiao, adopting a "see through it but don't say anything" attitude, happily watched the two sisters together every day.
Finally, on the eighth day after Yelena's arrival, Qin Xiao received a call from Tony.
"The party is all set, you're welcome to come anytime!"
OK!
Qin Xiao hung up the phone with a smile.
" Natasha, I need to go to Los Angeles, to Tony's house. Would you like to come with me? Yelena also needs to meet some new friends; she needs to have her own normal social life."
Whenever Tony has a new idea—whether it's about armor, reactors, or some other interesting gadgets—he always goes back to his Malibu mansion in Los Angeles and dives into his underground garage laboratory.
Everyone had grown accustomed to this scientific genius's occasional disappearances.
So Natasha didn't suspect anything about Tony's sudden return to Los Angeles, and instead followed Qin Xiao and Yelena onto the plane.
"Would you like to visit the birthplace of Iron Man, or more precisely, the birthplace of the Iron Man Armor, ladies!"
Qin Xiao stood at Tony's doorstep, beaming as he spoke to Natasha and Yelena.
" JARVIS, open the door!"
"Um, I'm sorry, Mr. Qin, your access has been revoked by Mr. Stark. He said that since you both have your own lives now, it's best to keep some distance!"
" Mr. Stark has granted your request for entry, but for some reason, he asked me to open the door in one minute. Once inside, you can go directly to the basement. Although the main door is now closed, the basement remains unchanged."
"Thank you, JARVIS. Please take a picture of this gesture and send it to Tony Stark, right away!"
Qin Xiao said, giving the middle finger.
Natasha pulled Yelena aside and explained to her that Tony was seeking revenge for being blocked at the door by Qin Xiao last time.
The three of them entered the basement.
Tony is testing a suit of Iron Man Armor.
Fingers flew across the keyboard, typing out commands one after another, as these commands were executed.
The armored vehicles beside them then struck various poses.
He even gave Qin Xiao the middle finger.
"The results are pretty good. I'm trying to input commands so that JARVIS can independently control the armor to perform some actions or fight independently. This is a huge project. Natasha, is this your sister? Let me think, what's her name again? Yelena, yes, Yelena, congratulations on finding your sister!"
Tony greeted the two sisters.
Qin Xiao spoke to Yelena as if she were a child.
"Want to touch it? No problem, go ahead and try it!"
Although Yelena was being controlled, she still possessed basic curiosity.
The renowned Iron Man Armor naturally wanted to go up and take a closer look.
He carefully walked around the armor, touching the material of it.
Sudden...
Flames shot out from the right thruster of the armor, and the armor's right arm swung back, striking Yelena directly in the back of the head.
Caught off guard, Yelena let out a muffled groan and collapsed to the ground.
"Hey! What are you doing, Tony!"
Natasha called out with concern and walked towards Yelena.
Qin Xiao grabbed Natasha and made a shushing gesture.
But he said it aloud.
" Tony, are you crazy? Why did you use the armor to knock Yelena unconscious?!"
"This was an accident, as you know. I was debugging its program, and Yelena's actions may have made it mistakenly believe that someone was attacking it."
" JARVIS, quickly scan where the problem is, you know what I mean?"
Tony said something with a hidden meaning.
"I understand completely, sir!"
A beam of red light shone down from the top of the garage, slowly scanning Yelena's body.
Although Natasha was somewhat puzzled, she remained silent out of trust in Qin Xiao, watching to see what they were doing.
"There are no listening devices, sir, but there is a GPS satellite locator in Ms. Yelena's thigh!"
The red light transformed into a red dot, which stopped in the middle of Yelena's right thigh.
The location of the tracker was indicated.
Upon hearing that there were no listening devices, Qin Xiao and Tony both breathed a sigh of relief.
Natasha realized what was happening too.
"You suspected Yelena's motives from the very beginning, and you've been keeping it from me all along?"
"Don't be angry, darling. After all, we were just attacked, and then she came knocking on our door. What a coincidence!"
Qin Xiao whistled at Tony, "Ready?"
Don't worry!
Tony pushed a huge white instrument right out from the middle of a row of cars.
It looks like the kind of machine used for CT or MRI scans in hospitals.
"What is this? What are you hiding from me?"
Natasha said with dissatisfaction.
"I've made some modifications to the latest brain scanning instrument, which can clearly scan the movement of neurons throughout the entire brain."
"To put it simply, we can test whether your sister is being controlled by someone else!"