As Steve caught his breath, a familiar voice broke the silence.
"Well, this is awkward."
Steve turned, surprised, and saw Natasha working on a computer nearby. She was calm and focused, seemingly indifferent to the chaos.
Frustrated, Steve snapped, "What are you doing?" as he walked toward her.
Natasha, still smiling, replied, "Backing up data. It's a good habit."
Steve grew angrier, "Rumlow needed your help. What are you doing here?"
When he reached her side, he saw the files transferring on the screen.
"You're salvaging S.H.I.E.L.D. intel," he stated, his tone sharp.
"Saving as much as I can," Natasha replied nonchalantly.
"Our mission was to rescue hostages!" Steve exclaimed.
"No," Natasha countered, "That was your mission. And you did a great job."
As the data transfer completed, Natasha removed the USB drive and began to walk away.
Steve, unwilling to let it go, grabbed her arm firmly.
"You jeopardized the entire operation," he said angrily.
Natasha met his gaze calmly, "You're being dramatic."
Before their argument could continue, the unconscious Batroc suddenly revived.
He grabbed a grenade and hurled it toward them, using the distraction to make his escape.
Steve reacted instantly, pulling his shield from his back and swatting the grenade away.
In the same motion, he grabbed Natasha and sprinted toward the nearest exit. Natasha, quick on her feet, fired her pistol to shatter a window ahead, creating an escape route.
But the grenade detonated just as Steve leapt through the window with Natasha in his arms.
BOOM!
The explosion engulfed the room in a fiery blaze, sending shards of debris flying as the two narrowly escaped.
Steve carried Natasha as they leaped through the fire-lit air into a nearby room, but both of their backs were struck by the blast's shockwave.
Leaning against the wall, Natasha grimaced as she stretched her back. Even with the enhancements from the super-soldier serum, such an explosion was still excruciating.
"Okay, this one's on me," she admitted.
Steve took a deep breath. Though he was also hit, his stronger physique allowed him to recover faster.
"It was your fault."
Without wasting more time, Steve stood and chased after Batroc. However, Batroc had already dived into the sea and disappeared.
With both the rescue and data recovery missions complete but Batroc's trail lost, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team decided not to linger. They boarded the Quinjet and returned to New York.
…
Elsewhere-
Killer Bee arrived at Coulson's location.
Seeing Bee approach, Coulson opened his arms in welcome, "Welcome back!"
Bee hugged him briefly and laughed, "Ah, the fresh air of freedom! Guard duty's definitely not my thing."
"Got any missions lined up?" Bee added, his tone brimming with excitement, "My fans on Twitter are already tagging me nonstop, waiting for my next concert."
Coulson chuckled, "Don't worry, Bee. Around here, we've got no shortage of missions—or concerts."
"Although," Coulson continued, "there's still some business to finish up. If you hadn't come back soon, I'd be heading back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ myself."
"Alright, let's board."
Bee nodded and followed Coulson back onto the aircraft.
…
Meanwhile-
After giving his orders, Charles returned to the Summoning Realm.
The batch of 42 084 artifacts sent by Mei Terumi wouldn't be processed at his base. Charles was careful not to risk exposure in case S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra had hidden trackers in the items.
To play it safe, he decided to handle all 084 items in the Summoning Realm. Even if any tracking devices were present, they'd be rendered useless there.
Looking at the 42 crates before him, Charles waved his hand to open them. Inside were various objects—stones, rings, daggers, crowns—all unique in design, with no duplicates or energy cubes among them.
Ding! Detected rechargeable items. Would you like to recharge?
Recharge!
Upon confirming, the 42 items were absorbed by the system, converting into gold coins.
After checking the recharge tally, Charles saw he'd gained 84,000 gold coins, a significant haul that boosted his total to 210,000 gold coins.
Ding! VIP level increased to V13!
The system celebrated with a vibrant display of fireworks in Charles's system space.
Watching the colorful display, Charles shook his head, "Took long enough to hit VIP13. At least reaching VIP14 for Kakashi Hatake is finally within sight."
Although it had taken a while to go from VIP12 to VIP13, Charles was optimistic about reaching VIP14 soon.
Once the one-year cooldown on using the Infinity Stones was over, he could make a massive recharge and potentially jump straight to VIP14.
Ding! VIP13 level achieved. Rewards unlocked:
1. Privilege Gift Pack (includes 60,000 copper coins, 600 prestige, 6 ninja recruitment scrolls, and 50 bowls of delicious ramen).
2. Privilege: Ninja Shop daily purchase limit increased to 10 per item.
3. Privilege: Customizable Ninja Shop settings unlocked!
4. Privilege: Summoning Beast Shop unlocked.
The mention of the Summoning Beast Shop intrigued Charles.
"Could summoning beasts finally be available for direct purchase?" he wondered. This feature hadn't existed before.
After reviewing the VIP13 rewards, Charles opened the shop and navigated to the Ninja Fragment section. Four ninja portraits appeared on the screen:
• Shippuden Kankuro: Daily limit 0/10, 80 gold per fragment.
• Shippuden Ino: Daily limit 0/10, 80 gold per fragment.
• Kushina Uzumaki: Daily limit 0/10, 160 gold per fragment.
• Young Kakashi: Daily limit 0/10, 180 gold per fragment.
At the bottom right, he found the long-awaited "Customize" button.
Clicking it, a familiar interface appeared. On the left was a customizable slot, with ninja details below. On the right was a list of available ninjas to choose from.
If left unconfigured, the shop would refresh randomly daily. Since Charles often spent his luck on summons, the shop's random offerings were usually underwhelming. Now, however, the shop could finally become useful again.
To his disappointment, there was only one customizable slot. Charles had hoped for four slots to configure, which would've allowed him to gather enough fragments for an S-Rank ninja every ten days.
Exploring the available options, he saw the following selection of ninjas:
• S-Rank: Jiraiya.
• A-Rank: Sasori, Hidan (Cursed State), Asuma, Guy, Kisame, Deidara, Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, Kamui Kakashi.
• B-Rank: Kushina, Kimimaro (Cursed Seal), Kurenai, Anko, Young Kakashi, Haku, Shippuden Sakura, Shippuden Naruto, Shippuden Kankuro, Shippuden Rock Lee, Shippuden Ino.
• C-Rank: Neji, Rock Lee.
Charles was pleased with the range of choices. The S-Rank Jiraiya stood out, alongside Kamui Kakashi and Shisui, both of whom possessed Mangekyo Sharingan abilities he greatly valued.
After weighing his options, Charles prioritized S-Rank Jiraiya due to his immediate value and the possibility that acquiring him could refresh the S-Rank recruitment pool with a new ninja, perhaps even Pain.
Ding! Spend 10 recruitment scrolls to lock S-Rank Jiraiya fragments?
(Note: Changes will require a one-month cooldown.)
"Yes," Charles confirmed.