Gel sighed and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. The phone showed a call in progress, and the person on the other end was Wanda.

Gel whispered into the phone, "Wanda, come back."

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

A moment later, a portal opened in the office, and Wanda walked in looking utterly dejected.

“Brother, I can’t find Pietro.” Wanda, her eyes red, looked up at Gel, standing there with a sorrowful expression.

Suppressing his inner turmoil, Ger stepped forward and hugged Wanda: "Wanda, I will definitely find Pietro, you have to believe me. But you need to calm down and tell me what you saw when you were attacked. We need to find more clues before we can rescue Pietro."

Wanda recalled the situation, looked around, then turned her gaze to Gel, and shook her head: "I don't know what happened. The only thing I remember is that while I was sleeping, my defensive magic automatically warned me. Brother, you know, when the user's physical condition shows obvious abnormalities, this defensive magic will automatically warn and wake the user. At that time, in a daze, I seemed to hear many people rushing towards my room door. I forced myself to call you, then opened a portal back home, and then passed out. After that, you all know what happened."

Gel sighed deeply—at the Kamar-Taj Library, Gel and Wanda had learned many practical spells. This automatic warning defensive spell was one of them.

“It’s a hypnotic gas,” Nick said in a low voice, closing his eyes. “The other party is very familiar with the abilities of superheroes. They know that if highly toxic gas is used, the superhero’s body will react immediately. But some hypnotic gases will hardly have any effect on the superhero’s body.”

"Buzz".

Another phone vibrated. Hearing this, Ger and the others felt a jolt in their hearts, wondering what bad news was coming next.

Hill answered the phone.

A minute later, the call ended, and Hill looked at Nick: "Our people just found the leader of the Imperial Public University Academic Knowledge Society team, but they didn't find anything unusual from him. The unusual person is Professor Horton, who handed over the entire event to him. According to him, all the activities today, including the dinner and hotel arrangements, were arranged by Professor Horton, but Professor Horton just said he was too busy and never showed up. When our people went to look for Professor Horton, they found that he had disappeared."

Hearing Hill's words, Nick felt his strength drain away even further: "To prevent Peter from noticing anything amiss, only Professor Houghton, who was hiding behind the scenes, knew about it, while everyone else involved in the academic competition was unaware. Therefore, everyone's reactions were genuine. I think the situation is the same for Wanda, Harry, and Gwen. I wonder how long they've been secretly setting up this scheme?"

Thinking of this, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

Secretly deploying personnel, placing hypnotic gases in multiple hotels, and conducting multi-pronged operations...

What exactly is the other party's purpose that would require so much effort?

“Spider-Man, Green Wind Man, Iron Man, Captain America…” Nick listed the names of these superheroes, paused, and continued, “If it really was Hydra, if they used these people to do something…”

Gel remained silent, but he couldn't help but feel alarmed by the scenario Nick described.

The investigation has reached this point, and it seems that all the leads have gone cold.

Only Hawkeye looked out the window, speaking in a tone that was both reassuring and extremely firm: "After all these years, I believe Natasha won't be captured so easily. Unless, she has another purpose..."

One day later, in a mysterious space in New York.

"Cough cough."

Natasha coughed a few times, slowly opened her eyes, and looked ahead. After a moment, the scene before her gradually became clear.

"Hello, Natasha." A familiar voice came from in front of her. Natasha easily recognized it as Pierce's voice.

At this moment, Natasha finally saw everything in front of her: the wall opposite her, more than half a meter high, had been replaced by a transparent glass panel. Through the glass, she could see a high-definition screen placed directly in front of her, displaying Pierce's smiling face.

Using the light in her peripheral vision and the reflection in the glass, Natasha could roughly make out that she was currently tied to a strange, one-person-high steel frame. Around the steel frame were many supports of unclear function, and on top of the steel frame were two rotating, half-arc steel pieces.

Her legs, waist, and shoulders were all fixed in place by a piece of steel, making it impossible for her to move at all.

Even the clothes she was originally wearing had been completely changed. She was now wearing a hospital gown.

Only her hands were tied behind her back to the steel device. Judging from the feel of her body, the ropes that held her wrists in place were special ropes designed to prevent people from escaping. The more she struggled, the tighter the ropes became.

Moreover, this rope was extremely strong, and she couldn't break it with her abilities.

There is a surveillance camera at each corner of the four walls, which can clearly see every corner of the entire room.

There were no other items in the room besides the mechanical device that bound her.

In just a moment, Natasha finished observing her surroundings, and her heart sank.

The other side's preparations were too meticulous.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!