An Interesting Alliance (ON HOLD)

Chapter IX

Natasha

  I kept my face blank from any emotions as I walk in the hallways leading to Fury's office, something about us (Clint and I) training two rookies. I still wonder why Fury chose us from all of the agents living in the Helicarrier. I didn't want to do it but you can't exactly say no to him, can you now? Especially that I just recovered from the only mission that I failed to accomplish. The mission was easy and simple: Escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Easy and simple. Everything was working smoothly until, near Odessa, someone shot out my tires. The car lost control and almost went flying straight over a cliff. Almost. If it weren't for my training kicking in, we could've died. Regaining control over the wheel, I pulled us out. We got out of the car and tried to run but he was there. Silver metal arm shining under the sun with a red star. The Winter Soldier. I covered the engineer but he shot him straight through my waistline. Soviet slug, no rifling. I tried to look after him, find him, but it only led me to dead ends.

  Every agent I met shied away from me. Just because I was wounded doesn't mean that I can't beat them to pulp. Especially that today I'm grumpy. Meaning that I am more likely kicking their asses.

  I hear familiar footsteps behind, speed-walking to reach me. Without turning to look at the person I asked in Russian:

"Right on time. How was your honeymoon with Laura?"

He raised an eyebrow:

"We did something that young innocent ears shouldn't hear about".

"Glad I'm not both then" I shot back, one corner of my lips barely twitching in a bitter smirk. We both lapsed into a pregnant pause.

Finally we arrived to the doors where we're going to meet our future protégées.

Clint

We opened the dark cherry doors to see the director and two girls. One has Hispanic features and a regal air adorned her face. Dark eyes and dark hair but not black and well tanned skin. I estimated that she would be close to 19. Very young to be joining S.H.I.E.L.D.. The other one was even younger, about 16 or 17. She had raven black hair with a silver streak and tanned skin and she had glasses perched on her nose. The most surprising thing was her eyes,  a swirling sea-green mixed with blue and a bit of gray. Her eyes literally mirrored the sea. Both of the girls had emotionless masks and were sizing us up. And both of them had the aura of leaders, and the same vibe that Natasha emits. 'Mess with me and I can't guarantee that you'll live". And that's scary.

"Agents Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff meet Reyna Avila Ramìrez Arellano and Perseus-Andromeda Jackson" announced Fury motioning the Hispanic girl as Reyna and the girl with the eyes of the sea as Perseus-Andromeda. Fitting. "Jackson your S.O. is the Black Widow and that leaves Reyna with Clint".

"Fury, aren't they young to join the agency? No offense kids." I asked. I mean, they're still teenagers.

"None taken", replied Perseus-Andromeda in a bored tone while rolling her eyes.

I spare a glance to my partner to see her still in her blank face but there was something akin to curiosity and pain in her eyes. The man with the eye-patch looked at the 2 girls, more specifically to the green-eyed one, and then replied:

"They have a somewhat similar past to you, Romanoff. They were trained to fight since they were pretty young. They've seen things that no one should for their ages. And both of them can the floor with your ass, Clint."

I was surprised, never, and I mean never, ever, ever, ever complimented or praised anyone about anything. If he complimented those two girls, then they must be something special. But there was also the fact that they were trained to fight, to kill. And Fury trust them. Something was up, that's for sure.

Once everything was clear, the four of us got out of the office and walked in silence to the gym.

"So..." I began awkwardly; insert mental facepalm;, "what kind of Perseus-Andromeda name is it?"

Natasha whacked me by the base of my neck while Reyna chuckled and Perseus-Andromeda gave me an unimpressed stare.

"Call me that name again and I will cut off your balls and feed them to you. Understood? I go by Percy" she threatened with a glare that can freeze Hell. Subconsciously, I took a step back only to bump in Natasha who shoved me off of her. I may be surrounded by hot women, but I'm married, and those are some seriously scary women. Oh boy...

"I like her" quipped the red-headed Russian with a ghost of a smirk on her porcelain face.

"Sorry for that but she tends to threaten everyone when she's grumpy or hasn't slept in a while" spoke Reyna, rolling her eyes.

"It's fine, being the Black Widow's friend and sometimes partner does have its perks", I waved off, I add with a dramatic flourish of hand and opening the door, "let's see what you're made of".

"Flesh, blood, organs, cells, skin, hair, bones..." Perse- I mean Percy chanted sarcastically.

I held up a hand and said in my most deadpanned voice: "Spare me the details".

She only smirked in retaliation.

"Reyna" I said, "let's fight". I'm totally gonna win this.

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I totally didn't win this.

She beat me, she fucking beat me like it was nothing. I wasn't even going easy on her. I did put up a good fight that lasted about 15 minutes, but she still fucking beat me. The agents that were watching the fight all had their jaws on the floor. It's not everyday you can beat a master assassin badly. Yes, badly. My nose is gushing blood, a bruise on my jaw, a pain that hurts like Hell in my side... And Reyna only had a bruise on her arm. I glare at every agent in the room.

"Beat it" I growled. They paled and scurried away. But only three stayed. Phil Coulson, Melinda Qiaolian May and Maria Hill. I was surprised to see a smirk on May's face. Ever since her last mission in Bahrain, she quit field work and reduced herself to a level 3 agent, taking care of the paperwork with a haunted look in her eyes. So seeing her out of the small desk smirking was a surprise.

"How did I do? What am I made of? Please do tell" smirked Reyna and got off the mat. Natasha, Percy and the silent trio (Phil, Melinda, Maria) laughed at my expression.

"Nat, Percy you're up", i grunted, "Once you're done, we'll move to guns and weapons".

Tell me what you think...