The Romanoff Built to Kill

Chapter 6: To New York

Neo

Neo sprints out of the apartment and into the corridor. She opts to take the stairs incase the elevator shut down during the explosion. When she spots S.H.I.E.L.D vans filling up the road in front of the apartment building, she improvises and kicks out a window that leads directly into an alleyway. Given that the widow is reasonably high up in the building, it's a pretty painful jump but she makes it none the less.

She hides behind a dumpster, not the most glamorous place on Earth but that's not the point, and dials Otto's number.

"I'm on my way now. At the end of the alleyway there's a fire exit on the side of another building. Get over the building and climb down the opposite side then meet me on the street". Otto orders.

"How did you...?"

"Tracker on your phone". He replies instantly. "Hurry up".

Neo follows his orders and swiftly makes her way out of the alleyway and over the building. She keeps as low as she can as to not draw attention from the growing amount of agents nearby. She spots the car and hurries inside.

Otto begins to drive immediately. Neither of them say a word for around a minute.

Not liking the prolonged silence, Neo decides to speak. "So...you keep a tracker on my phone?"

"You ran off with Natasha". Otto's voice is brutally angry but he doesn't shout. "You were ordered to kill her and you invite her to your apartment!"

"She wouldn't leave me so I..."

"No. You royally fucked up, kid. S.H.I.E.L.D has your face, did you know that?" Otto's fingers go white on his firm grip upon the steering wheel.

"I didn't know Natasha told..."

"She didn't!" He shouts, making Neo jump slightly. "You didn't check the second warehouse camera. They found the footage of you leaving the property after Herrmann's death".

"Natasha didn't inform them about me?" Neo starts to sense an undeniable dwindle of guilt in her stomach.

"No. The police found the footage and when Natasha went after you and you got into the car crash in the middle of the city, it wasn't difficult to track you down from there".

"I left her in the apartment. She might be dead". Neo admits.

"Don't have such an ego. She's the Black Widow for crying out loud. She probably walked out there in better condition than you". He humourlessly jokes.

Neo just looks down. 'I punched and kicked my own mother. What kind of fucked up person does that? I know she only cares. That's what mothers are supposed to do. How could I do that?' Neo never really let the guilt get to her often. She felt little to none of it the vast majority of the time. But in this case it was different. She had wrongly accused Natasha of lying then attacked her and left her in a burning apartment.

"Where are we going?" Neo sheepishly asks.

"New York". He responds.

Neo instantly looks to him and furrows her brow. "What? The Avengers are there. Why would we want to go to New York?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D would least expect you to seek refuge there. They'd expect you to be somewhere like Paris or Rome, not where the Avengers are located". He explains.

"Otto, I'm not going to New York. That's bullshit. I'm sorry, but how will playing it low-key in the middle of the Avengers home city help me stay away from them?"

"I've already explained. They'll be sending out agents everywhere but in New York. Just play the Trojan horse for a few months and then I'll get you somewhere else. It'll also give you the chance to keep an eye on them to track their moves".