Hawkeye: Agony

The Black Widow? (Part 1)

So I guess you're wondering why I looked like I had a heart attack at the mention of the Red Room? Well... I kind of, almost, MAYBE, died there.

"It's an easy mission, Barton. Stay in the rafters, find the Black Widow, and kill her before she raises any flags," Fury commanded, staring at me so that I could read his lips.
"How do I know which person to shoot if you don't have a photo of her?" My brow furrowed in thought. I didn't want to hurt the wrong person.
From what I knew, the Black Widow was a master assassin with years of training. And the Red Room was a base full of operatives trained in the art of dance, which is a lot more dangerous than it sounds. Try finding an assailant at a club. Dangerous.

"You'll know her when you see her. She'll notice you when no one else can," He gave me an eyebrow raise, which hardly poked out behind his new eye patch. He never did tell me how he lost that eye. "Be quick."

**

They waited a mile out in the forest and I walked towards the Red Room, bow in hand. Looking up at the building and frowning, I tapped my comm. "You never told me this place was a mansion."
I couldn't hear the response down the other end, so I just sighed and climbed in through a window after breaking a lock with a laser.

Once I was inside, I peered around and stood shock still. There were children. Lots of children. Some looked a little older than me, but I did look young for my age. As a man in his young 20s, I still looked like a teenager. Some were in their junior years, I even saw a few toddlers.
"Where the heck am I..?"

I tried to slowly make my way to a large dance hall, sticking to the shadows of the rafters like Fury had told me. It's hard to be quiet when you can't hear your own breathing, but the chatter of the school corridor must have drowned me out.
There was a girl in there, dancing ballet, just as Mrs Carter said there would be.
I didn't know at the time, but she had a history with this place.
Ballet was how they trained, which isn't as strange to me as it was to anyone else in S.H.I.E.L.D. I mean, I don't think any of them had to do splits on a tightrope to train themselves.

After a few minutes of me being in the room, the girl stopped dancing and looked up at me - she found me. The Black Widow. She was one of the older ones, about seventeen, with ginger hair that mostly hid her face. Smart.
Before she could pull out a gun, I dropped down in front of her, arrow drawn and aimed at her forehead.

I could have shot from up in the rafters; hid behind a pillar. 'Why did you jump, Dummy?'
"Why did you jump? You couldn't have shot from up there? I thought you were a marksman," Her Russian accent was thick, but she was young, maybe younger than I thought.
"I could have. But you could have shot me without looking up, so I'll call us even," She tilted her head a little, so I guess I wasn't as funny as I thought I was. Tension still lingering in the air.

We stood for a moment at our crossroad. One of us was going to die. She kept glancing over my grip like she was analysing my shot, as if she doubted I could release the arrow as quick as she could pull the trigger.
"So you're the Black Widow?"
"That's what they call me."
"...They?"
"The girls here. ...And you're Hawkeye. The side show," I gave her a tilted look, "I know more about you than you think, Clint Barton."
"That's not fair. I don't even know what you look like," I smirked, glancing her over, her hair still draped over her face.
"We're not raised like normal children. We're taught to fight."

'Normal'. She wanted to be normal. I could read her eyes through her hair, she was staring at me. This wasn't a conversation; she wasn't trying to psyche me out. At that moment I understood, she was giving me a cry for help, in a subtle way, so that I could understand without being able to hear her voice.
My eyes narrowed on her lips.
"They don't like men here."
I slowly lowered my bow, "We don't have to fight... You're all just kids. If you know who I am, you know I can show you another way. S.H.I.E.L.D can help."

Her eyes darted to the doors behind me, and before I could glance around to see, her foot made contact with my temple.
My vision blurred for a split second, but it was just long enough for her to share a grip on my bow and flip it around my neck with the string tugging against my throat.
I rolled forward, pulling her over my back and throwing her on to the floor, but she was able to pull me down by the neck tie.
I choked, "I don't want to hurt you," and froze as I felt a gun press in to my optical bone, arched up to towards my brain.
I understood the message and slowly released any pressure I had on the girl and she shuffled out from underneath me.
It was an old lady, who had me surrounded by a posse of young girls.
"They don't need to see this..." I could see a few girls laugh in response, a blonde haired girl in particular caught my eye as she edged herself over next to the Black Widow. I stared at her a little for help but they both glanced away as if they didn't think they would make it out alive.
I wasn't sure I was going to make it out alive.

The lady helped me stand up and walked around to my front, keeping the gun pointed at me, "Why are you here?"
"... To free these kids from you," I glanced around at the girls and landed on the one from the ballet room, "The mission doesn't matter now..."
Madame B smirked slightly down at me, "They don't want to go with you," She looked around and her eyes landed on the star assassin- forcing the gun in to her hands, "Our Black Widow will show you that."

The girl looked nervous but she held the gun with a perfect grip, aimed right at my head.
I smiled weakly at her, "...Go for it."

I had no escape, every girl around me was armed with at least a knife - and the girl, Natasha, with the gun.
I had my arrows, but these girls were stanced. Subtly, but they were ready, and a gas arrow wasn't going to be enough to stop them from rugby tackling me in to a pile of stab wounds.

I stared Nat down, as if it was just me and her alone in the room. She was going to be punished if she didn't do this. I've seen abuse and these kids were scared of the old lady.

I raised my hands slightly in front of my face. "Shoot".