One of many stories

Chapter 8

When Steve got into the room where the meeting was held, he was greeted by Fury. "Please sit down." He said and Steve did as he was told.
He looked around the table and saw Tony Stark and Bruce Banner sit by the table as well. He said hey to them and they nodded back. Fury glanced as his watch. "A cruise has been compromised and taken a few hundred hostages. We need to act as fast as possible." Fury began as he spread pictures and files over the table. "The ones responsible is said to be a group of some kind, they call themselves The XX. They've been involved in every sort of crime you can think of but no ones has ever managed to capture them all." He said seriously.
"How many guys are we talking about here?" Bruce asked and Fury put his hands on the table. "Around a thousand, but of course, there not all on be ship. You're ordered to kill them at spot if necessary but of course, the right thing would be to bring them back here." Fury continued. "Where's the cruise located?" Tony asked and Nick typed something at his computer and the coordination a where shown.
The door suddenly opened and Natasha and Clint walked in. "Nice that you could come lovebirds." Tony said with a smirk. "You're late." Nick said. "We were busy." Clint said and Natasha looked at Steve. She took the seat next to him while her eyes focused on the screen. The word "busy" kept flying around in Steve's mind.
"Is it The XX?" She asked and Fury nodded.
"You know about this?" Steve asked.
"I've caught some of them myself." She said, glancing at the information.
"You have two hours before we need to leave." Fury said as he left the room.

• • •

"You all set?" Steve asked Natasha in the small helicarrier. Natasha gave him a nod before Tony interrupted.
"How did the date with agent 13 go?" Tony said with a teasing voice as he hit Steve in the back with his palm two times, a little harder than expected. "It wasn't a.." Steve began but Tony interrupted. "Heard she's real nice." Tony kept babbling one. "Yeah she seems to be real good for you Cap." Natasha said with a small smile before going over to Clint who flew the helicarrier. Steve watched her leave and ignored Tony's teasing voice.
"There's nothing between me and Sharon." Steve said annoyed to Tony. "I wanted to know.." He stopped himself as he realised Tony had walked away and he started to focus on the mission instead.
Natasha sat down in the chair next to Clint. He smiled at her but she ignored it a bit. He relished right away that she didn't want to talk. So they sat there, quietly, in their own thoughts. She knew she was lucky to have a friend like Clint. Someone who actually understood her. But not even he could make a right of this mess in her head. Steve went on a date with Sharon? She had told him a while back to maybe give her a call, but she never knew he actually would. He could date whoever he wanted. She didn't care. Or at least, that's what she told herself. "Five minutes left guys." Clint said and everyone started to get ready. "Romanoff and I will be going in first to not draw any attention. Just do as we planned." Steve said and everyone nodded. He then walked over to Natasha who was putting on her parachute. "Need any help?" He asked and she shook her head.
"I can handle a parachute, Rogers." She said with a raised eyebrow. "Right." He said as Clint opened one door on the helicarrier. "Ladies first." Steve said with a smile as he glanced at Natasha. She gave him a smirk before jumping out of the plane with Steve following behind.

"Natasha!" Steve said as they were down on the cruise. She turned to look at him. "Be careful." He said and she tilted her head a bit to the right. "I know Fury said that the right thing to do would be to bring them back for justice. But that's not going to be the case." She said to him and he looked at her a few more seconds longer before her black suit disappeared in the shadow of the cruise.
Natasha walked in the shadows to not be seen as easily. She didn't see a single soul outside on the cruise but she didn't want to risk it. They had been informed that the hostages was further down in the ship, trapped in different rooms. When she had walked around the whole ship without finding a single soul, neither good or bad, she went inside. She came into an enormous room. Everything was very glamorous. It all felt very.. Expensive. Very Tony Stark taste. A big chandelier hung over small tables that where placed in front of a small scene. The tables where made and decorated with flowers. Everything seemed untouched though. She suddenly heard something in the quietness of the ship and hid behind a wall. She held her gun tightly in her hands. Steve opened the door and she sighed as she put her gun in her holster again. "Found anyone yet?" She asked and he was a little startled by her sudden voice. "No, not a soul." He said and they walked into some other rooms. "Are you sure we're in the right place? The XX usually have guards everywhere." Natasha said as they searched through room after room. "This is the place." He mumbled and she glanced at him. "Clint. It seems to be empty." She said through her earpiece. "We haven't searched enough." Steve said stubborn and Natasha rolled her eyes. "Barton, change of plans. Somethings not right here. Tell Stark and Banner to stay put." She said through her earpiece again.
Steve scoffed annoyed. "Nat, aren't you listening?" He asked and she looked him in the eye. "I have worked with these missions before. Something's up and we need to get out of here." She said, just as stubborn as he.
"But what if there actually is some hostages Natasha? What do we do then?" He asked and she agreed to search through the cruise quickly again. Steve was sure that there was something that they had missed. They walked into another room and Natasha tensed. Steve felt her stop behind him and he turned around to look at her. He followed her eyes to the wall where a clock sat. It had red numbers and counted down from 60 seconds. 59, 58..
"It's a bomb!" Natasha said loudly before running out of the room with Steve right behind her. 45, 44, 43..
They ran through the many hallways of the cruise, trying to find the quickest way out with no time to figure it out. After a while of running, they came to a dead end. 30, 29..
They ran back a bit and flew up the stairs. 19, 18, 17... They finally made it to the big room with the chandelier. 10, 9, 8.. They ran through the room with their hearts in their throats and went outside. 5, 4, 3.. Steve grabbed Natasha by the waist and threw himself with her overboard. 2, 1..
The ship exploded as Natasha and Steve hit the water. All that was left of the fancy cruise was an enormous cloud of fire.
They both gasped for breath as they reached the surface again and fought hard to swim as far away as possible from the pieces of the cruise. It was not only hard because of the waves but because of the ice cold water. They heard Clint's helicarrier fly around above their heads and they both prayed to be seen. Natasha tried to get her earpiece to work but it was all for nothing. She felt her body get colder and colder as Steve's could keep warm a little longer due to his super soldier serum. "Nat! Climb on to this." He said as he helped her up at a big metal piece from the ship. She started to chuckle a bit and he looked at her confused.
"Jack." She said as she chuckled. Steve looked at her confused from the cold water. Natasha's lips had turned blue but he felt a comfort in the fact that she was laughing. "It's from a movie.. I'll show you sometime." She said with a grin.