Marvel One Shots

Budapest

Five months.

That was how long Agent Clint Barton had been on the same case. As someone who usually got assignments that lasted anywhere from two days to a month, Agent Barton was understandably getting anxious to wrap it up. He was 23, after all. Wasn't there more to life than tracking one person down across the globe for nearly 1/46 of his entire life? Apparently not, at least to Director Fury.

The worst part about this case was how tragic it was. His case was the Black Widow. The Black Widow (known only as Romanova, her last name) had been enrolled at age four into an exclusive girls academy located just outside of a small Russian town. Her mother's body was found in an ally two weeks after Romanova's enrollment. Her death was credited to a mugging in the official report, but no one was ever convicted.

Romanova's father, Sargent Peter Romanov, was a well liked man. But he had been sent on a suicide mission to the German border, and his body was found miles away from his rendezvous point. He had been shot in the head execution style. The government summed up his death as 'a war time tragedy'.

This left Romanova and her sister, Anastasia, orphans. Anastasia was moved to an orphanage for children whose parents had been in the military, and Romanova stayed in the Academy. The system 'lost track' of Romanova (more like, all files that had her name in them were heavily redacted).

The next entry on either of the girls was a death certificate for twelve-year-old Anastasia, six years after her parent's death. Workers in the orphanage reported that a red haired girl of about ten had been seen fleeing the scene, and that it was the same girl that had claimed to be the victim's sister.

There were pretty much no records after this until twenty years later, when an eye-witness described a young woman with red hair leaving the house of a man that was discovered dead the next day. That got her on SHIELD's radar.

Murders like this had been happening for many years when SHIELD raided a Hydra facility and found a file on one Romanova, N. It fit the description of the mysterious assassin.

The file had been heavily redacted, but Director Fury had still been able to put together some of the pieces.
One, she had been injected with a similar serum as Steven G. Rogers.
Two, she had gone rogue two years ago.
Three, she was still alive, as far as Hydra was concerned.
And most incredibly, she had been born on December 21.
Of 1938.

Both Agent Coulson and Clint had been amazed by this. The Black Widow was 72 years old.

Some of Clint's wonder faded when he was informed by Director Fury that she had probably spent most of her life in a cryo-chamber, frozen until Hydra decided that they needed her skill set. Hydra had controlled her body by freezing it, and had her mind swayed by a never-ending flow of brainwashing and mind control. Somehow she had broken their control and escaped.

For two years she had been making a living the only way she knew how. Sure, she pretty much only killed bad guys now, but she was still a murderer. SHIELD had a low tolerance for people like that.

Now it was his mission to kill a killer, and Clint wasn't liking it one bit. He knew that pulling the trigger or letting go of the bow string would be hard on this job. He was supposed to kill someone who killed evil people. Wasn't that his job description? But Director Fury wouldn't take any of that 'sissy stuff', as he called it. The show must go on.Today
16:10So here he was, tugging at the uncomfortably tight collar of a shirt that he was pretty sure he didn't own, and feeling as bare as the day he had been born. Why? Because this event was exclusive. It had been hard enough for SHIELD to even get Clint entry on such short notice, (short notice being about 6 hours) so he tried to not complain about the lack of weapons permits. SHIELD tried to stay within a country's laws, whether it looked that way or not.

No matter how much Clint didn't want to complain, it was hard to ignore that fact Director Fury was sending him into an event with little security to kill the worlds most notorious assassin. His knives were left in his quinjet, along with a good assortment of semi-automated weapons. His beloved bow was stashed across the street, which was as close as he had been able to get it. So what kind of weapons did Clint have to combat a person known to be skilled with nearly every weapon (the exception being a boomerang)? He had a handgun. And seven bullets. Great.

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Natalia perceived the man to be a threat as soon as he walked in. He was dressed in a suit that looked maybe a size too short, though it might be that all of his clothes fit that way, considering how tall he was. Natalia estimated that he was about 6'3", built with a lithe frame except for broad shoulders. This contrasted most of the other men in the room pretty substantially. Natalia suspected that the man noticed this.

He walked like he was in the military, placing one foot smartly in front of the other, eyes scanning the perimeter as casually as it is possible when you looking for vantage points, escape routes, and an assassin all at once. Two could play at this game. Natalia casually turned around, facing her mark with a smile. "Luis, you'll have to excuse me for a moment, I'm almost certain I just saw an old friend of mine." She said, glancing unconcernedly in the tall mans direction. He had definitely spotted her. By the looks of his hands, he was used to carrying weapons. That was her cue to leave. "I'll be right back."

Clint grabbed a hors d'oeuvres as he made his way over to his mark, the woman in the black dress with red hair. No one (other than Nick Fury) knew her real name, they just knew her as the Black Widow. Clint could see how men could fall for her. Gorgeous eyes, high cheekbones, porcelain skin, and vibrant auburn hair. This all combined to give the Black Widow a striking look, to say the least. But that was part of the job. She was supposed to look good. The only thing that surprised Clint was that she was about 5'3". That was good. At least he had a very definite height advantage. If her reputation wasn't exaggerating, he would need the edge.

Both spies had seen and assessed each other. Now It was just a competition of 'how fast can I walk without looking like my ex-wife is leaving on a plane with all of my money in two minutes and I'm on the other side of the terminal'.

Natalia adopted a nervous look as she rushed up to the valet attendant. "Matthias!" She called out, catching a glimpse of his name tag. "Mr. Andres told me to tell you that there had been a disturbance in lot three and he needs you there immediately! Something about how a Porsche had been keyed?"

Matthias, the valet, whipped around with a horrified expression. "Keyed?! No, it can't be!" He took off sprinting down the lot, leaving a box full of keys unguarded for the moment. Natalia almost smiled as she pocketed a set of keys. People were so unsuspicious now-a-days. However, it was still a good turn of luck that the valet attendants had changed shifts so that she didn't have to trick the one that had parked the mark's car. It was within her skillset to trick him, obviously, but it would have taken longer. And time was of the essence.

As soon as the Black Widow disappeared out of his line of vision, Clint felt his adrenaline start pumping. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the fading sunlight outside of the building. Clint felt blinded when car headlights suddenly flashed in his face. So, she was getting away by car. He had a lead.

Clint dashed across the narrow street, ducking into the obscured alley that he had stashed his bow and motorcycle in. A couple moments later Clint was gunning the motor as he roared after the Black Widow. His mind was racing almost as fast as his motorcycle. The Black Widow had taken a car, which basically gave her two options. She could lock him up in traffic and try to lose him in the city, or she could turn a corner hard and jump out of the car.

The latter option was more likely. You can never guarantee that there will be enough traffic to stop your pursuers. Also, people are usually so startled by the car crashing that they don't notice the person jumping from it. Clint felt slightly disappointed. He was starting to like his motorcycle.

It happened just as Clint had imagined it. Tires squealed as the Black Widow turned the car around a tight corner. He saw the car crash, and he slowed down just enough so that he wouldn't get seriously hurt before jumping off, running after her in pursuit.

Natalia was sprinting down an alley like her life depended on it (which it did). She took stock of the weapons that she had on her. Dresses are notorious for not having a lot of extra fabric that you can conceal weapons in. As spectacular as Natalia was, even she couldn't hide a gun in plain sight. Weapons stock: Two knives and a glock with one clip of ammo in it. If things came to a fire fight, she would have to count her bullets carefully.

The pavement rang as two sets of footsteps pounded into it. Clint was gaining ground, as he was the faster runner. Even an enhancement serum can't get rid of all of your problems, especially when the competition has such a substantial stride advantage.

Natalia knew that a dead end was coming up. If her pursuer wasn't too close behind her she could probably scale it. She risked a glance back and knew immediately that scaling the wall was not an option. They would be forced to exchange blows.

The fight definitely didn't start like a fight in the movies. Natalia stopped when she got to the dead end, but Clint didn't show any signs of slowing down. He tackled her like a linebacker, bringing both of them to the ground. Clint knew he wasn't a spectacular grappler, so he jumped up as soon as possible, the wind almost knocked out of him.

This move probably saved his life. As Natalia was struggling to get air into her shocked lungs she pulled out a concealed knife, and was going for a strike to the kidney when Clint leaped backwards. The knife grazed his stomach, scraping the skin but causing no serious damage. She scrambled to her feet, painfully aware of the gun strapped to his belt that had dug into her stomach.

As the two squared up, Clint looked Natalia up and down with a wry expression.

"So, Imma be honest with you. I was sent to kill you, and I think I'm going to win. You're not the kind of person who says their evil plan while being beaten up, are you? 'Cause that really gets on my nerves." Clint looked cautiously at the knife gripped tightly in the Black Widow's hand, the other hand behind her back.

"Fights don't usually have this much talking." Natalia retorted, bringing her hand out to show Clint something. It was the ammunition from him gun. She must have taken it out when they were on the ground. Well, it wouldn't be a gun fight tonight.Today
16:11Natalia threw the clip of ammo away from both of them. Taking advantage of the split second that he took his eyes off of her to follow the clip, she attacked. Natalia got in a knee to the stomach and two jabs to his throat before Clint even realized what was happening.

Karma works fast. Clint started blocking her moves, and soon threw in a nice combination of his own, two left jabs and a right hook to the chin that worked wonders on throwing a person off balance. The Black Widow barely staggered backwards, coming back with renewed force.

The next few minutes was a whirl of punches and kicks. Lips were split, knuckles were busted, bruises were formed, and ribs cracked. Clint would get a few hits, but Natalia would retaliate immediately. A punch to the chin for Natalia, an elbow to the lower back for Clint. A kick to the shin and the back of the knee for Natalia, a joint lock for Clint. The knife traded hands multiple times during the fight. Clint got a nasty cut on his palm, but Natalia seemed to not have been hit.

It was only when Natalia was trying to lock up one of his shoulders that Clint felt blood seeping through his shirt. The blood wasn't his.

Forty seconds later and Natalia had almost totally locked Clint's shoulder when he dropped to the ground, crushing her beneath his body and knocking her head roughly against the concrete. At the same time she felt the knife lacerate her ribs just above where she had already been cut. One of Natalia's hands reached for her other knife, but it had fallen to the ground during their struggle.

Her hands groped desperately for a weapon, and she found one. Ignoring the pain that was pulsing through her side and head, Natalia surged upwards, cracking a wooden plank against Clint's head. He stumbled backwards, head ringing, and both assassins gasped for breath and tried to clear their hazy vision.

Blood was flowing down Clint's face from his temple and eyebrow. With shockingly steady hands he wiped the blood off of his face. It was now or never, as far as he could figure. He had to make his move.

The next thing Natalia knew was that the cold steel of an arrow was pressed against her forehead.

Blood was streaming down the grip of Clint's bow from the gash in his hand, but the tip of the arrow never wavered. He was going to release his hold on the bow string and let the arrow loose. But then she spoke.

"So, I guess this means you won." Natalia was speaking clumsily around a swollen lip. She tasted blood in her mouth. "If you don't mind, I'd like you to just get this over with. I've been around too long anyways." Her head was protesting each word with an ungodly racket. She must have hit her head harder than she thought.

Clint was caught off guard by the Black Widow's words. He met her eyes, now slightly swollen thanks to his fist. "What is your name?" He asked, suddenly curious. If he was going to kill someone, the least he could do was learn their real name.

"My name? My name is Natalia Alianovna Romanova."

He knew he was wrong for asking about her name as soon as he did. Placing a name with a face made it harder to kill. He knew that he couldn't kill her as soon as she had asked him to hurry up and do it. He found himself speaking before he even knew what he was saying.

"I have a job for you."

"Oh? I thought you were here to kill me."

"New orders." Clint chose his words carefully. Blood was spattering the ground. "Have you ever heard of SHIELD?"

Natalia almost laughed. "Who hasn't? I hope you aren't planning on trying to get me to work there. I don't really work for the good guys."

"People change." Clint offered. "See it as a lawful revenge."

The tip of Clint's arrow dropped a little bit. Natalia was considering him with a slightly dazed look.

"What happens if I say yes?" She asked quietly.

"Welcome to SHIELD." Clint answered promptly. Fury could be dealt with later. He wasn't letting this arrow lose. Not this time.