章 265: Symbiote 0265: Confrontation

"How in the world has such a large clearing never been detected by our satellites?" Natasha asked with slight disbelief as Alex lowered the jet into the clearing surrounding the Ta Lo maze entrance.

"More often than not, the answer is magic," He said.

"Can't we just lower the jet at the center of the maze?" Xialing asked. "Why do we need to go through the maze on foot?"

"I'm not completely sure of the situation surrounding your mother's home," Alex answered honestly. "But from what I know, that maze is a protection mechanism for the village. If we try to skip it, we will never find the spot that we are supposed to land in."

"Ohh ..." The girl trailed off curiously looking at the magical bamboo maze. "Where do we go in from?"

"The clock hasn't struck midnight yet. In ten minutes, the bamboo shoots in front of us will naturally split apart and allow us to enter," Alex said as he landed the jet in the clearing.

As the stands were about to stabilize themselves on the ground, Alex's gaze sharpened as he quickly pulled up the throttle higher. Just as the jet was about to retake flight, a blue beam hit one of its wings, destabilizing the entire jet and causing it to start spinning.

"Hold on tight," Alex spoke up and Xialing found herself being enveloped in some kind of a cocoon that made her forget about the immediate danger. She felt a sense of warmth and comfort while enveloped by the darkness that instantly put her to sleep.

Instantly, the ceiling of the jet burst open as an Asian man with a menacing expression broke through into the cockpit. He looked around as his lips twisted in an angry snarl. His wrists glowed blue moments before the rings all exploded outward in multiple directions, breaking through the hull of the already damaged jet.

Moments later, Alex and Natasha broke through the cockpit of the jet and landed on the grassy ground. Neither of them seemed to have been hurt by the rings that had grazed them. Even their outfits — Alex's casual blazer and Natasha's combat suit — were completely pristine.

Behind them, the plane exploded moments after coming into contact with the ground.

[Where's Xialing?] Natasha asked hurriedly with a hint of panic. Everything had happened in a matter of seconds, not giving her the time to process the events completely.

[Safe. She's inside my soul.]

"If you wish to die a peaceful death, I suggest that you return my daughter to me," A deep voice interrupted Natasha's reply as she turned to the source. The burning wreckage of the Quinjet. Their attacker, completely unhurt, came out through the flames to face the duo.

"You must be Xu Wenwu," Natasha said calmly.

"Where is my daughter?" The ageless Asian man in front of her spoke with a forceful voice.

Natasha and Alex both had stoic expressions at his question, "In the plane." Nat gestured to the burning wreck of junk that Wenwu left behind.

The man's expression hardened at her words. In the next instant, Natasha found herself face-to-face with Wenwu as he threw a punch in her direction. She barely blocked it and jumped back before sensing a projectile rapidly approaching her, barely maneuvering away from her original destination as a blue blur passed by.

"I will not ask a third time," Wenwu said. "Where is my daughter?"

"I just told you. But you don't need to worry. I'll send you to meet her soon," Natasha said flatly before sidestepping two approaching rings and blocking Wenwu's punch. She countered with a jiu-jitsu grapple by grabbing his arm and trying to throw him off balance.

Wenwu threw a punch behind himself with his free arm, releasing a powerful shockwave with his rings that pushed him toward Natasha. Her eyes widened as she felt the man slam his shoulder into her chest with immense force, throwing her off her feet.

"If anything has happened to my daughter," Wenwu snarled at Natasha who barely landed on the ground with a slightly stirred expression, "I will wipe the Avengers off the face of the Earth."

Her expression hardened at the threat, "We'll see about that." The words were followed by a powerful crackling sound as the red stripes that went all along her outfit changed hues into blue, and her suit itself took up a slight tint of blue.

Wenwu punched in her direction, sending a wave comprising five rings. As for the other five rings, they went sent toward her companion.

Arcs of free electricity went all along Natasha's suit as she put her palm forward and released a bolt of lightning at the rings, immediately dispersing the force of the rings. She flexed her forearms and two black whips were created from her gloves, only to turn electric blue as they got saturated with electricity.

[Really, copying whiplash? He was a third-rate villain at best.]

[Hey, that incident was the main reason that the Avengers Initiative was finally greenlit.]

As for the rings that had reached Alex, they were casually deflected away as he grabbed one of them with an inquisitive expression.

Before Wenwu could react to the disrespect that Alex was blatantly showing him, he was forced to block the newly created whip that Natasha attacked him with. A pained hiss from his lips followed the action as the whip's electricity tore through the defense of his rings and left his hand singed. He pulled away before the electricity could affect his nervous system, but it still left him shaken up.

"You should feel proud to have been able to hurt me," The man spoke, seeming completely unaffected. "You won't get another chance."

"Oh, bite me," Natasha taunted. "Apex hasn't even made a move yet and you are already on the back foot. Give up and return from whence you came."

"I will not leave without my daughter," The man's tone didn't leave any room for disagreement as he sent his rings at her from multiple directions and approached her.

Natasha deflected the rings with effortless movements of her whips and met Wenwu's approaching boosted punch with one of her own. The collision resulted in a blast of electricity and raw psionic energy as both of them stood their ground in a stalemate.

"Why do you even care?" Natasha asked. "You're fighting a losing battle for the sake of someone you don't even seem to like very much. I've talked to her. You barely even talk to her, let alone raise her. I'm taking her to her mother's home. You should turn around and leave."

"Do not try to turn this around on me," Wenwu said. "I am a busy man and cannot make much time to spend with my daughter, but that doesn't mean that you have any right to kidnap her." He followed his statement by trying to close the distance. As Natasha whipped at him, he released two rings to deflect the whip's trajectory and continued unimpeded. About to reach her, he controlled the two rings to restrain her electric whips before punching her abdomen with a full-powered punch.

"Now that's not very nice," She mumbled while attempting to free her whips. The rings seemed to have an ethereal aura that prevented Alex from morphing the whips around them, forcing Natasha to release the whips. She extended her palms in the direction of both of Wenwu's fists as a new, much larger blast was released from the collision that comprised psionic energy charged with lightning. This time, Wenwu was thrown back as Nat stopped holding back completely.

"Leave. And I won't hurt you. As for your daughter, she will meet you if she so wishes," Natasha said. "I did not kidnap her, she came with me willingly, eagerly even."

"I will not leave without my daughter," The man said with an unwavering will. "Men." Wenwu raised his arm as a convoy of almost twenty vehicles came into view with more and more entering the clearing. "I will raze everything to the ground if you don't return my —."

"Stop!" A young girl's loud voice shut Wenwu up completely as his head whipped in the direction of the source. Xialing was standing beside Alex, who had a hand on her shoulder while his other hand was still holding the struggling ring as he examined it.

"Xialing," Xenwu's stern and threatening expression was nowhere to be seen as it melted into a parental sternness that was much more mellow, "Come back to your father right now. I will take you home." He spoke fluent Mandarin.

Xialing cowered, about to walk forward, but the hand on her shoulder gently squeezed her, bringing her out of her trance. "No!" She shouted, stepping back and hiding behind Alex.

"Are you rebelling against your father, Xialing?" Wenwu said sternly.

"Hey now, you're scaring the poor girl," Alex said. patting Xialing on the head, "Don't worry, you saw how your teacher beat him up, right? He can't do anything to you when she's here."

Alex's words and his calming pats helped the girl gather the courage to respond to her father, "I'm not going with you father," She spoke up. "You said I remind you of Mother, right? Then I'll leave. I'll leave so you don't have to be reminded of her every time you look at me. I'll stay with shishō in Ta Lo."

[Don't.] Natasha was about to quip at Wenwu, but Alex stopped her, [Let them have their moment.]

Wenwu was shaken up by the words of his twelve-year-old daughter, "Come home, Xialing," He spoke, much softer this time, "I know that I don't spend a lot of time with you and … and that was my mistake. Father will be better from now on. But please. I can't lose you. Not like this."

"Big brother is gone too," Xialing said. "I don't see you sad about him."

"Because I know where he is and how he's doing," Wenwu said. "If you go to Ta Lo, I won't know anything about you. If something happens to you, I won't even be able to find out about it."

"I'm leaving, Father," The man's words had only strengthened Xialing's resolve to get away from him. "Please go back. I want to see mother."

Wenwu's expression hardened, "Men!" He raised his arm as the sounds of multiple heavy weapons powering up resounded. He met his daughter's resolute eyes before sighing and shaking his head, "Stand down."

***

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