The Thunderbolts storyline opens with Yelena Belova wrestling with a deep existential void. She initially blames it on the death of her sister, Natasha, but soon realizes it’s something more—a sense of purposelessness. In a dramatic moment, she throws herself off a building, only to pull her parachute at the last second. Her sardonic quip—“maybe I was just bored”—masks the growing weight of her internal disarray.
She dives into a mission: destroy lab data tied to facial recognition experiments. During the op, she encounters a guinea pig and a strange scientist who claims the lab belongs to a secret group called OX. He warns her she’s making a critical mistake—then name-drops something ominous: Project Cry Y. Yelena eliminates the threat and casually exits as the building explodes behind her.
Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes is now a congressman and is hell-bent on removing Valentina Allegra de Fontaine from her post as CIA director. During a courtroom hearing, it's revealed Valentina’s tied to OX, which has been running illegal experiments in multiple black site labs, possibly aiming to engineer their own super soldier. Valentina claims her actions were all for the greater good. Privately, however, she orders any evidence connecting her to OX to be destroyed.
Yelena, now questioning the point of all her missions, visits her father, the Red Guardian. He’s upbeat at first but quickly admits he’s miserable. They reminisce and reflect on their roles, and he encourages her to keep going—not because of principle, but for the perks: power, fame, and status.
Back in action, Valentina gives Yelena one final mission—to guard a vault under threat. Inside, Yelena finds grotesque images and classified files. Then, John Walker (U.S. Agent) attacks. Before she can regroup, Taskmaster—Antonia Dreykov—enters the scene. Though formerly one of Yelena’s greatest enemies, Antonia targets Walker, not her. The skirmish is interrupted by Ghost (Ava Starr) and then a dazed young man named Bob, who stumbles in confused, claiming he was just getting his blood drawn.
Elsewhere, Bucky meets Mel, Valentina’s assistant, and subtly lets her know that if she ever finds evidence, he’ll protect her. Inside the vault, the group pieces together a shocking truth: all of them once worked for Valentina and were treated as expendable. Valentina, aware of their presence, activates a trap—turning the vault into an incinerator. Ghost escapes and heroically phases back in, rescuing everyone just before the explosion.
Yelena locks eyes with Bob, and something strange happens. She’s sucked into a haunting memory—her first mission, one where she betrayed and killed someone who trusted her. She wakes up shaken, the trauma freshly reopened.
Meanwhile, Mel warns Valentina the team survived and may be aligning against her. Valentina dismisses them as unstable misfits—until she sees Bob in a surveillance still. Now alarmed, she orders a deep background check. Unknown to her, Red Guardian has gone undercover as her driver, collecting intel from inside her operation.
Back with the team, tensions flare as no one trusts Bob, whose only memory is waking up in pajamas. Walker wants him gone, but Bob fires back with cutting sarcasm. Yelena de-escalates and learns that Bob is struggling with the same inner emptiness. He wants to stop running.
Elsewhere, Bucky gets another call from Mel. She hints the Avengers aren't coming back, and the time for secrets is over. When she asks if he can still trace phones, he hesitates—then admits he can, but doesn’t want to go back to that life.
The team escapes through underground tunnels. On the outside, Mel reveals that Bob is actually Robert Reynolds, a survivor of Project Cry Y—possibly the only subject the experiment ever worked on. He may be the key to everything.
Just as they begin regrouping, Bob gets pulled into a memory: a domestic argument with his wife over neglecting his family, especially during a superhero crisis. This haunting flashback is cut short as the group is suddenly surrounded by military forces.
As the soldiers close in, Yelena, Ghost, and Walker scramble a plan. Valentina, watching remotely, issues one caveat—no lethal force. She wants Bob alive. Yelena and Bob talk while prepping defenses. He opens up about emotional spikes—unexplained euphoria, depression, and a feeling that he did something awful. But no time for introspection: the fight begins.
Walker takes on the first wave. When Yelena and Bob arrive, they find him battered but standing over a pile of unconscious soldiers. The next wave closes in. Yelena hands Bob a weapon. He’s bleeding, confused—but ready to fight. Together, they charge into battle.