Downstairs
at the Gala, Black Widow and White Widow come face-to-face with an old enemy of
Nat’s from Madripoor: the Living Blade. Natasha tells Yelena to run as she
takes on the enemy. There is much clashing until Nat sets off a small explosive
and runs, seeking safety in the ventilator system….
Elsewhere
in the building, Spider-Girl and Lucy Nguyen are locked up in very small cages,
with collars that cancel out their powers. The Twins, Liv and Lars, are in a
similar predicament nearby. And then they see the animal-masked villains enter
carrying an unconscious (or dead) Hawkeye. Lucy, knowing the Twins share their
strength, asks what would happen if one of them had all the strength…?
Outside,
Yelena finds Winter Soldier and, fighting the urge to go back and rescue Nat,
they proceed with the plan to find Anya, Lucy, and Clint….
Natasha
crawls through the vents until she locates the Host’s office and finds her
packing to escape via copter. Nat discovers that the “rare animals” she was
auctioning off were powered people as the villainess warns the Living Blade
that the entire place will self-destruct shortly after she’s gone. Nat,
uncertain as to whether their communicators are working, sends a message to
Bucky and Yelena telling them to evacuate the building and try to capture the
Host. They do this, Yelena firing a gun in the air and telling everyone to flee
for their lives, though they don’t see the Host….
Lucy
assures the Twins that if they merge their powers completely into Liv, she can
revive Lars; they do so and the hugely muscled Liv breaks through the cage and
smashes all of the other cages, breaking off the power suppression collars. She
cradles Lars’ shriveled corpse and pleads with Lucy to help him….
As
the fire alarms go off, Natasha discovers Craig locked up; she frees him and
tells him to let everyone else out and also find the master switch for the
power suppression collars. She hurries on and discovers the Living Blade. They
spar…and then the Blade slices Natasha’s right arm off….