The Irony of it All

25

The next morning, T’Challa did call Steve. He didn’t answer, which was unusual. Steve wasn’t the best at technology and still preferred flip phones. But he was almost always reliable. So he tried Sam’s number. Sam didn’t answer either. T’Challa wasn’t normally one to worry, but these men would wake up at three in the morning right after being awake for a 72 hour mission, just to answer their phones. As a last resort, he called Wanda. And she did answer. 

“Hello?”

“Wanda, this is T’Challa.”

“Hi...You’re majesty.” He couldn’t help but smile a little. Steve and Sam had gotten used to just calling him T’Challa, but the young Miss Maximoff still had a difficult time referring to him in any way less than formal. 

“Are you ok? I’ve been trying to contact Steve and Sam.”

“Oh. Yeah, sorry about that. Sam lost his phone in the river, and Steve accidentally crushed his. We have to get them some new burners. Is everything ok?”

“I don’t think so. I need to talk to the Captain. It’s about Agent Romanoff.” 

“Oh.” Wanda was silent for a few seconds. He knew Wanda was close the super spy. And while Wanda had had her own share of anger management issues in the past, she was for the most part, shy, and compassionate. And she worried far to much about her new adopted family. “Hold on a second.” 

He heard some static and rustling as Wanda moved around on the other end of the line. The next voice he heard belonged to Captain America himself. “T’Challa?”

“Captain.”

“Wanda said this has something to do with Agent Romanoff?”

“Have you had any recent contact with her?”

“No. I haven’t talked with her since she came and helped us out in Ghana five months ago. Why?”

“It’s not on the news. I had to pull a few strings over in America to get the information, but they’re saying she went rogue a couple months back. It’s not clear what actually happened, but whatever happened trashed the back alley behind a hotel, crushed a few FBI vehicles, left a Dr. Fine dead, and Agent Barton in a coma.”

“Clint’s in a coma,” He repeated to himself. “Nat’s a talented martial artist and she’s stronger than average, but she can’t crush FBI vans. Is there anything else?”

“Unfortunately, there were no witnesses, and the official reports from the FBI agents that were there only say that she killed Fine, fled from arrest, almost killed Hawkeye, and then fled the scene when they tried to corner her. She was put on  priority.”

“Nat would never hurt Clint. And I thought I was on the Most Most Wanted.” 

“Well, it seems that as far as what’s considered ‘Dangerous Risks’ go, she’s beat you. But it gets more confusing. The alarm was up for two months. Governments searching for her like crazy. She had to flee the country, and we think she originally went to Russia. But about a week ago, the alarms suddenly stopped. Everything was quiet. Around the same time, Rumors started up that a mysterious woman with red hair was taken in Niger, a little over 250 miles outside of Wakanda’s borders. Nothing like a hundred giant black vans filling a small goat herding village and leaving with only an unconscious woman to get the people talking like crazy. The rumors only reached me yesterday and I’ve been doing my best to try to figure out what’s happened.”

“Thank you, T’Challa. Do you know where she might have been taken?”

“Unfortunately, no. All we know for sure is that she is no longer in Africa. I will keep searching for more information.”

“As will I. Again, Thank you.”

“Captain.” He said in acknowledgement before the line went dead. 

When Steve hung up and walked back inside the small safe house, he found himself face to face with two pairs of concerned, worried, and desperate eyes. Namely, Sam and Wanda.

"What's going on?" Sam asked.

Steve took in a deep breath. "Clint's on his death bed. Another ex-Shield agent, Fine, is dead. They're saying Natasha did it, now she's a fugitive. T'Challa thinks she was captured a couple hundred miles from Wakanda's borders, but there's no noise." 

"Damn. What are we gonna do?" 

He was silent for a moment, his hands on his hips as he pondered what his next step was. He already knew what he had to do. Actually doing it was the hard part. "I have to call Tony." 

"Dude…"

"He'll have the best idea of what's going on."

"And we'll have 117 swat teams on our backs if he doesn't turn us in himself." 

"Tony's a little lost. We all are some way or another. Doing what we believe right is the best any of us can do. We're both at fault for how things turned out."

"Look man, it's your call. I'm just here to remind you that the guys that shoot at you usually end up shooting at us too."

Steve nodded. "Can I borrow your phone for a few more  minutes, Wanda?"

"Of course."

He disappeared up the stairway to the bedroom he'd called home for the last two weeks. He shut the door, but couldn't bring himself to pull out the phone yet. He fought to keep his breathing under control as his sight became blurry. His muscles coiled with enough tension to bring down a building. 

When she'd met up with him five months ago in Wakanda, he'd tried to convince her to stay. "Don't go back," he'd said. 

And she'd replied, "Soon, but not yet. I have unfinished business. "

He'd protest, and she'd say, "I can do more good out in the open than I can underground." She was right. But he should have tried harder. He should have insisted. Not that that would change her mind. A donkey wouldn't be able to compete with the stubbornness that was Natasha Rogers. 

It was obvious that she'd been framed. He knew Nat would never hurt Clint. Not unless he'd gotten himself mind controlled into being another greasy villain's goon. But now, she was somewhere out there. Completely alone. And it seemed, captured by the enemy. 

He suddenly snapped. His anger, frustration, and tension against himself releasing in a punch that went straight through the wall and completely shattering the 2 by 4 stud within like a hot knife through butter. It didn't release all the tension, but it helped. 

            He knew Sam and Wanda had heard that, but he didn't care. He was going to get that back. Even it meant reaching out to Tony Stark.