A second of silence.
Natasha turned her head to look at Peter, something flickering deep within her eyes.
"...A long time ago?"
"Back when we first met, at Midtown High."
Hearing this, Natasha fell silent for several seconds, her eyes growing faintly misty. It turned out that this guy had solved a massive, hidden problem for her without her even knowing, way back then.
On the sidelines, Tony couldn't help but click his tongue inwardly. No wonder this kid Peter can juggle multiple girls; his long-term planning is on a whole different level!
On the other side of the room, Dreykov's face had turned an unnamable shade of ashen gray. He had originally planned to use Yelena and Antonia to buy time to activate his control device, then leverage Natasha's feelings for Peter and Tony to turn them all into his puppets.
In that scenario, he would have been the ultimate winner—controlling everyone and even using the combined power of Peter and Stark to dominate America and the rest of the world gradually. But now, it was clear that all of it had become a pipe dream!
He gritted his teeth in desperation and quickly pivoted his plan: "Yelena! Antonia! Cover my retreat!"
The moment Dreykov barked the command, the two women, who had momentarily paused when pinned, surged back into motion. Ignoring the immense strength in Natasha's grip, they began to struggle frantically. They looked as if they wouldn't mind if their own heads were torn off in the process.
Natasha, already feeling she owed these two a debt of blood and tears, naturally couldn't let them come to harm under her own hands. Consequently, even though she could have easily snapped their necks, she chose to let go.
The instant she released them, Yelena and Antonia coordinated with perfect, machine-like precision, launching a torrential barrage of strikes at Natasha. Among ordinary humans, they were masters among masters.
But to Natasha, who possessed the powers of the Makami Fruit and the protection of a symbiote suit, their attacks were child's play. If they hadn't been wearing those specific faces, she could have crushed their skulls in minutes. Instead, she was forced into a purely defensive stance, appearing completely suppressed and pinned in place.
"Peter, something's not right here," Tony muttered, nudging Peter with his elbow. "Natasha can't bring herself to handle those two girls."
Peter didn't need Tony to point it out; he had seen it from the start. He had initially wanted to see if Natasha could harden her heart, but it was clear she was far more fragile than her reputation suggested. In her case, the colder she was to outsiders, the more delicately she treated her own.
To Peter, this was actually a virtue. He wouldn't dare keep someone by his side who could ruthlessly strike down their own family without hesitation.
Peter finally stopped spectating and stepped forward, flickering instantly to Natasha's side. "Leave these two to me. You focus on Dreykov."
Natasha didn't refuse. She knew her own heart was too compromised for this fight, so she decisively tagged Peter in.
Compared to Natasha's agonizing internal conflict, Peter's approach was much more direct. He flashed in front of Antonia.
Antonia's HUD immediately flooded with massive amounts of muscle-fiber analysis data. This was the source of her title as "Taskmaster." Dreykov had subjected her to a horrific technological overhaul, planting a motion-capture and analysis system in her brain.
It allowed her to predict an opponent's move in milliseconds and respond via electrical signals—muscle replacing thought.
However... against Peter, all of that became a joke.
Seeing Peter raise his hand, Antonia instinctively moved into a grapple to disarm him. She coiled around his arm, but no matter how much force she applied, Peter's body remained immobile. It felt as if she were wrestling with a solid pillar of steel rather than flesh.
The moment she touched him, a hazy glow emerged from Peter's palm, instantly enveloping Antonia's entire body. Under the influence of this white light, she went limp as if someone had pulled her power cord.
Then, a massive amount of electrodes and tiny microchips began to seep out of her skin. The horrific burn scars across her body were replaced by new, smooth skin at a visible rate. In just a few seconds, all the "surgical upgrades" inside her vanished.
On Antonia's newly restored, flawless face, a human expression finally appeared—not anger, but a profound, hollow confusion, the look of someone who didn't know where to go after a lifetime of suppression.
"That's one," Peter noted.
Having dealt with Antonia, Peter turned his gaze to Yelena, who was currently "hammering away" at him. While Peter had been healing Antonia, Yelena hadn't been idle, throwing a flurry of punches and kicks. Any other person would have been beaten to a pulp, but Peter was someone who could take a hit from the Frost Giant King without flinching.
He didn't even need to use Iron Body or Armament Haki. Her strikes felt like nothing more than a light tickle.
"Now, it's your turn!"
Peter reached out and tapped Yelena squarely on the forehead. She was much easier to handle than Antonia; while Taskmaster was a cyborg, Yelena was purely human. She couldn't even register his movement before she was restrained.
The Horse Talisman went to work again. Moments later, a tiny chip was expelled from Yelena's nose, and her hollow eyes immediately regained their spark.
While the pheromone chip controlled her body, it didn't erase her memories. Yelena vividly remembered the affectionate way her "big sister" had looked at Peter.
Consequently, the moment she regained control of her voice, she looked Peter up and down and blurted out:
Peter, however, looked directly into Yelena's eyes. From those amber depths, he could read a mix of cunning and... possessiveness. Clearly, this little sister, who had been "betrayed" by her sibling once before, was already cooking up a revenge plot centered entirely around him.
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