Chapter Text
Maria walked into the bedroom of her suite in the black site and raised an eyebrow. “Are you pouting?” She demanded. Natasha glared at her.
“No.” She snapped, looking back down at the phone on the bed in front of her.
“If none of our people can crack it the right way, I kind of doubt you can glare it into submission.” Maria snarked, sitting down next to her.
“Everything goes back to this phone.” Natasha muttered. “Everything. If I can figure out how the brat hacked into it, I can figure out how to track her back.”
“Still don’t think glaring at it will accomplish anything.” Maria said with amusement, rubbing Natasha’s back. Natasha groaned and leaned into Maria.
“Has the interrogation team gotten anything out of them yet?” She asked.
“Not yet, but it’s early days yet.” Maria assured her. There was a moment of silence. “Fury thinks he found her.” She said slowly. Natasha sat straight up.
“What?”
“She’s staying in Queens apparently.” Maria continued, still reluctant and slow. “She’s stayed off the radar to a certain degree, but she seems to have one hidey hole and she keeps coming back to it. Some of our tech people found footage of her slipping in and out of Iverson’s building before and after his murder, and entering the subway station we found the three soldiers in. Whoever she is, she was careful, usually wore a hoodie and changed her hair style, and we only got a few seconds each time, but she wasn’t careful enough.” There was a pause as Natasha considered Maria for a long moment.
“Why don’t you want to tell me this?” She asked slowly.
“Because we don’t know anything about this girl besides that she’s brunette, very skilled, and gunning for you. We don’t know who trained her, where she comes from, or what weapons she has. For all we know she wanted us to find her and track her back to this flat. And I can’t stop you from throwing yourself at her, because you’re seeing red.” Maria said sharply, shaking her head. “I don’t like any of this.” Natasha looked at her for another long moment, then kissed her on the cheek.
“You’re sweet.” She said softly. “And I’ll be careful. I’m a professional, I can be objective. Besides, this is what my job is. Clint’s in Vietnam right now, May’s off the grid, and Morse isn’t ready. There’s just me right now.” Maria raised an eyebrow.
“And the team that just saved the world can’t go in because…?”
“Stark’s dealing with PTSD, Steve’s still adjusting, Thor’s off who knows where, and this isn’t the kind of thing we want Bruce helping with.” Natasha rattled off. Maria blinked, and Natasha sighed and slid herself into Maria’s lap, facing the other woman. “Babe, I’ve thought about this. From the minute I got that first text I’ve been trying to decide what needs to be done about this girl. This is how it’s going to be.”
“…I still don’t like it.” Maria muttered. “But…fine. If Fury approves of your plan, whatever it turns out to be, then fine.” Natasha smiled and kissed her on the lips.
Twelve hours later-Queens
The young woman was walking through her apartment, humming to herself as she placed a chimichanga in the microwave, when she stopped and stood up, the hair on the back of her neck prickling. She frowned and looked towards the door to the outside, then at the window. She’d modified both to make them tougher than normal, but she could only do so much in a civilian owned building with neighbors, especially when she needed to be able to escape quickly if the situation called for it. She wasn’t under any illusions, she knew what she’d done. She was a lone, dirt poor young woman who’d gone and poked SHIELD and General Ross’ cult of personality at the same time. A more mature, rational person would have waited to upset SHIELD until after dealing with Ross. But she was angry, and that had led to her making some poor choices. But no point in crying over spilled milk, she’d made her bed and now she needed to deal with the consequences of her actions. And those consequences were that she had to deal with the probability of being surrounded if they managed to find her.
And then her door was kicked in. The young woman’s eyes widened as a bundle of black and red barreled through the doorway. “Crap…” She muttered, yanking a drawer open and pulled a baton out, pressing herself against the counter, avoiding the window. The Black Widow unfolded and stood up, glaring at her.
“Hello.” The more experienced assassin growled, her own batons out, electricity crackling down them. “I hear you’ve been looking for me.” The younger woman glared back.
“This is my home.” She growled before rushing forward. Natasha reacted instantly, parrying the baton with one of her own and swinging the other at the younger woman’s stomach. “Seriously, I didn’t track you down to your place and try and kill you there.” She continued, dodging by leaping backwards.
“Well, if you’d gotten a headquarters we’d be doing this there.” Natasha snarked, lashing out at the girl’s head, who ducked down and struck out at her legs. Natasha jumped back and away from her. “What did I even do to you? Did I kill your father or something?” She demanded, voicing her biggest frustration with the whole recent string of events. Most times when somebody gunned for her she at least knew why she was being attacked.
“You ruined my life!” The younger woman snarled, leaping at her. Natasha frowned and countered the clumsy blows, slamming her electric baton into the girl’s stomach, shocking her.
“You want to be more specific?” Natasha asked. “I’ve…let’s just say I have a lot of red in my ledger. A lot of it that I’d rather wasn’t.”
“Ask Ross.” She growled, picking herself up and glaring at the older woman. “If you make it through this.” Natasha’s eyes widened as the girl surged forward, faster than before. The younger assassin slammed into her, shoulder first, shoving Natasha into the wall, hard, cracking the drywall. Natasha winced and jabbed her two batons into the girl’s neck, but the other ignored the pain, jackhammering at Natasha’s stomach. A rib cracked and Natasha forced herself past the pain, lashing out and slamming her forehead into the bridge of the girl’s nose. That finally got the younger woman’s attention, and she staggered away. Natasha crouched down, gasping lightly as she stood there, at least two ribs were cracked. She shoved the pain down and rushed at the mysterious assassin, who glared and dodged to the side, leaping back through the window. Natasha rolled her eyes. Glass hurt, no matter what anybody said, and leaping through windows was not a good plan. Suddenly a brick came through the window. Natasha frowned. That brick hadn’t come close to hitting her. And how’d she managed to pull that loose so quickly…unless…a second later a gas grenade came through, and Natasha cursed as tear gas filled the room, the sound of the younger woman clambering up the fire escape. She turned around and bolted for the doorway, shoving past the crowd of onlooking neighbors as she headed for the roof.
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Fifteen Minutes later-Unmarked subway tunnels
The mysterious young woman leaned back against the wall of a tunnel, gasping. That had not gone the way she’d hoped. Her neck was pretty badly burned, and her nose had been broken. At least she’d gotten a few hits in on Romanov. That was something at least. Not much, but something. She’d gotten away, but she’d lost her laptop and hideout in the process. Fortunately she’d prepared just in case something happened to force her to run, and had pried a brick loose and made a little hole in order to hide that tear gas grenade. She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to pat herself on the back. SHIELD had her laptop, and that meant that they’d be able to get her history and realize her interest in Ross, and that she knew where he was. Which meant she had to go and get him as soon as possible.