Scarlett Johansson | One-Shots (1)

NR - Target Acquired Pt. 2

Natasha:
I walk into Tony's tech lab per his request. "Hi, what's up?" I ask.

Tony only glances up at me. "The sky. What's up with you?" He looks back down at his work.

I shoot a confused look to the back of his head. "You asked me to come?"

"What are you going on about this time, Romanoff?" he asks without looking up from his work.

"The- The text I just got from you? Where you asked me to meet you?"

"I did no such thing," he drawls.

I stand in silence for a moment, thoughts running through my mind. "Oh... shit..."

Now Tony faces me. His face has the same recognition as mine. "FRIDAY, connect me to Atwood's room." We wait for a second. Nothing. "FRIDAY?" Silence. Tony looks me dead in the eyes. "Go."

We sprint out of his lab and down the hall, up a flight of stairs (the elevator would have taken too long), and down the hall of bedrooms. Callie's room is halfway down. I swing open the door. No one.

"Shit." Tony enters Callie's room after me. Just then, there's a high-pitched tone that fills the whole compound.

"Mr. Stark?" FRIDAY's voice sounds in Callie's room.

"FRIDAY? Where were you? What happened?" Tony asks his AI.

"It seems that I was disconnected, Boss."

"By who? How did this happen?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that."

Tony turns to me. He studies my face. Then, he says, "There's no other possibility."

He read my mind on that statement. And I hate it. "Who, then?"

"Hydra?" he thinks out loud. "It has been long enough for them to find her again. It's not hard to find an Avenger. We all live here. The Avengers compound. It's in the name."

"But how would they get to her? She was right here just barely five minutes ago."

"I don't know. But all security was down. They could've been inside and we didn't know."

"God, how could we let this happen again?"

"And we'll find her again. It's what we do," he tries to assure me.

Unknown:
"Do we know who hired us yet?" Agent 22 asks for the third time this week.

"Stop asking," I respond sternly. "The answer hasn't changed."

22 groans under his breath. "You'd think Boss would tell us why he was hired to capture the Vertigo."

"If he was able to tell us the why, he would tell us the who. He'd also probably tell us his actual name rather than have us call him 'boss'. Now, can we focus on getting her out of this car? I can't drag her myself," I say, annoyed, as I rip open the back door of our low-key getaway van.

Agent Atwood is still tranquilized from when I shot her. It's better that she's unconscious but it comes with the trouble of us having to move her ourselves. So, with the help of 22 and 15, we carry Agent Atwood down the dark alleyway, through some doors, down a staircase, and into the underground mansion of a base. We find our boss waiting impatiently in his perfectly smooth black and white suit and tie.

"You're late," he deadpans.

"Sorry, boss. It's not easy breaking into the Avengers' compound," I respond calmly.

Boss nods once. He then looks down at Agent Atwood who's now lying on the floor since we didn't feel like holding her up, still unconscious. "She looks sleepy. Why don't you bring her to her room while we wait for our visitors." He smirks then waves at us to move Agent Atwood to her "room", which is just a small, unbreakable, square, locked area.

"She looks comfy," I joke as the three of us stare at Agent Atwood laying on her side on the floor where we put her. "Let's get out of here before she wakes up."

-

Natasha:
"How could you let her out of your sight?!"

"We should have predicted this!"

"One minute. One minute alone and she's taken?"

"It's not possible!"

"How does your 'amazing' security get hacked?"

Everyone is yelling at each other in the lounge. But not me. I'm silent. While everyone is screaming at each other, I am trying to come up with any and all ideas on where she could be, who she's with, how she was taken, why she was taken, etcetera, etcetera.

"If she was taken that easily, how can any of us feel safe here?!"

"Everybody shut up!" I finally snap. Everyone goes quiet and looks at me. "Arguing has never, never, helped us! What makes any of you think screaming at each other is doing good? We should be thinking logically, figuring this out, not yelling at each other."

Steve sighs first. "I'm sorry. You're right. I think we're all just shocked and confused. Personally, I am."

"It just... I don't understand. If this was Hydra's doing, why would they wait almost a year to take her back?" Tony adds.

Bucky finally comes in. "How do we know it's Hydra?"

"Buck, be serious," Steve mumbles.

"I am. I am being serious. How do we know?"

"If not them, then who?" I ask.

"Who else knows about Callie's abilities? Who wouldn't be supportive of it? Think about it, the US government and SHIELD know about Callie, and both have agreed to and supported the trials on her. They've been with us every step of the way," Bucky explains calmly.

"If Hydra wanted her back, they would have gotten her a long time ago, Bucky's right," Steve agrees.

"We have a lot of enemies," Tony adds. "There's no doubt about that. So, the question is, which one feels the most threatened by Callie's presence and her role here?"

We fall silent, all of us racking our brains for an answer. Then Wanda speaks up. "I agree with Bucky. What if it's not Hydra, not the government, nothing like that?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well, what if it's just a person. Or a group that isn't affiliated with anyone we're enemies with?"

"So, you're talking about..." Steve starts but Wanda continues for him.

"Mercenaries, thieves, criminals. A private organization or just a small private group. Someone who's able to stay off our radar because they've never been on it."

We all take this into consideration. Then Clint speaks up. "If Hydra had her, they'd be rubbing our faces in it. If the US government had her, there'd be records we could access illegally. Wanda might be onto something here."

"But why would a private group want her? Why would they go through the trouble of capturing an Avenger?" Tony asks now.

"Maybe they hired someone. Or maybe they were hired themselves," Steve answers. "With word of Callie's integration back into the system and records of it, anyone who has a grudge or good enough motivation could get it done. We aren't indestructible or invincible."

"Okay," Clint starts, "let's go with this. A private group was hired or hired someone. What would they want with her? What's their endgame?"

"I hate to say it, but I can only assume they'd want her dead," Tony says. When I look at him with heartbreak and shock, his face softens. "She has a past, Nat. Hydra made her do unthinkable things to a lot of people."

I sigh. "I know. And that's what makes me feel worse about it. That I know you're right."

"If we were able to find and take her from Hydra, we can deal with a private group," Clint tries to assure me.

"Let's hope you're right."