Misery and Destruction

IV

Avengers Compound, New York- 2021

It was reaching to midnight and Nat still hadn't received a text from Nish. She had received one everyday for the past three years just as they had agreed, even though the texts were a little blunt, it was still a text.

Looking at the clock, it was now midnight. Something was definitely wrong. Nat went up to Steve's room and wake him up.

"What is it Nat?" He groaned.

"She hasn't messaged all day." Nat panicked as she threw him some clothes. "We need to go out and find her." She ran out the room and straight into the office where she could trace back the texts. She groaned when she still couldn't track the location just as Steve entered the room in clothes instead of pyjamas.

"She clearly doesn't want to be found." Steve referred to the time when Nat tried to find where she went through the security cameras.

"But that means that she's doing something that she knows we won't like." She replied deciding to go back on any recent activities that have been suspicious by hacking into government files.

"There was a power cut in Manhattan about an hour ago but it's all sorted," Steve showed her the notification on his phone. "Maybe her phone died and she went to sleep realising she couldn't charge it."

Nat rolled her eyes at his stupid idea and continued to look through the records. She then stopped over a file that was titled 'BLOCK'S LARGE ENERGY BILL'.

She clicked on the file and skimmed through it. Her eyes then widened. "Did you say the power cut was in Manhattan?" She asked Steve nodded and looked at the screen she was looking at.

"This block in Manhattan had raked up a bill in one year that is the same value of the bills of the apartment block combined for the past 15 years. The bill is payed anonymously every month and is always over what needs to be paid." Nat read aloud to Steve.

"That date is from the day she left." He said pointing to the date it has been reported to have started.

"We should go and check it out." Nat said as she grabbed he car keys and headed to the garage with Steve following closely behind.

They reached the apartment block and noticed how it looked abandoned. The windows had all frozen over. That was when it hit Nat. "She's frozen herself." Steve looked at her as he too came to the conclusion. "She had a software that made sure her phone sent a text to me," Nat began to paint the picture. "The power cut would have stopped and reset the software."

Steve nodded. "We're going to need to wrap up warm if we're going to enter."

Nat however always came prepared, it was S.H.I.E.L.D protocol. She grabbed the thick coats that she had in the back and gloves and trousers. They both already had thick layers and boots on as it was November but they would definitely need a few more on. They both were now fully wrapped up.

Steve tried to barge open the front door but was no avail when he quickly realised she must have barricaded it.

"We're going to need to use the fire escape." Steve stated as he went round the side and pulled the ladder down. They both clambered up to the top trying to see if any window wasn't frozen. When they reached to the 20th floor, they could see the window wasn't covered in ice. Steve quickly smashed the window open and jumped through with Nat quickly following.

They began to overheat in their thick coats due to the warm temperature of the room. They could see the laptop and phone that Nish had used to trick Nat. She knelt down and opened the laptop. The page that popped up was the software that she was using to send Nat texts. Nat minimised the page only to be greeted by one that controlled the temperatures of the flats.