Black Widow and Hawkeye are in
Sapporo, Japan; she picks the pocket of a client leaving a brothel, taking is
ID, and gives it to Clint so he can enter the place, which Natasha thinks may
be run by the Dark Ocean Society….
On Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia,
Mockingbird and Dominic Fortune are observing troop movements which look like
preparation for an invasion of the Kuril Islands, disputed land between Japan
and Russia. They are caught by some guards….
Hawkeye enters the brothel to chat
up the girls, makes an ass of himself, and a fight breaks out as the girls are
all ninjas. Natasha enters, slides him the case with his bow and arrows and the
fight begins in earnest, with multiple ninja weapons in play. Then Nat’s goal
is achieved: the Madame of the place enters and she tangles with Nat, an old
enemy. Madame reveals that her Ronin plans to destroy both Russia and Japan to build
a new empire and Madame will be his queen. Then all the ninja ladies vanish. But
Nat now knows who and where the new Ronin is….
Bobbi and Fortune easily take down
the guards, then don their uniforms so they can sneak onto the military base. They
hijack a speedboat and head for the islands where they meet up with Natasha and
Clint. They bring each other up to date and then they are greeted by the new
Ronin. Nat attacks and overpowers him, unmasking him as her one-time husband Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian. He
reveals his scheme to create a new empire to replace the current Russia and
shows off his army: a multitude of Crimson Dynamos and Peruns and ninjas of the
Dark Ocean Society. Hawkeye believes it is an illusion created by Fantasma but
it isn’t. Hawkeye wants to know why they had to be involved. Shostakov explains
that resurrecting Ronin meant eliminating the earlier people who had the
identity; Echo is too hard to find but Hawkeye isn’t; Mockingbird was used as
bait for Clint, and Natasha so Alexei can gloat over his accomplishments before
he kills her. And then the next part of his plan comes to fruition: his Dynamos
and Peruns fire into Kambalny volcano to cause it to erupt and destroy the
Kuril Islands….