I decided to start over with a story of Natasha's past, so I'm going to delete Lost In the Fire. Anyways, i hope you like this one and please review at the end because right now it'll help me decide if this story is any good or not and if i should keep updating. Enjoy :)
Natalia coughed and stumbled out of her bed. The smoke was too thick to open her eyes, but the searing heat was evidence enough that threat was imminent.
"Мама? Папа?" (Mama? Papa?) She cried, opening her eyes.
"Наталья! Беги! Проб- " (Natalia! Run! Ru-) her mother's voice was cut off with a sharp gunshot. Followed by another.
"Мама!" she cried as she made for her door. But a thick curtain of flames eating away her door quickly deterred her. Natalia turned and ran for her window. On the second floor, she would have to jump down, but it was better than the fire. She climbed through the window. Her survival instinct took over and she swung herself over the edge, the sharp gutter biting into her hands. She let go. For a moment she was suspended in the air, completely weightless. And then she hit the ground.
Watching her escape from a car, Ivan spoke into his radio, "я хочу, чтобы она," (I want her)
"Le rapport de niveau 7 à la salle de formation -4C," (All level 7's report to training room -4c) an intercom blared in French. The red room taught their recruits to be completely fluent in 11 languages: Russian, English, Spanish, Mandarin, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Swahili, Dutch, and Portuguese. To keep them fluent instructions were intermittently issued in foreign languages.
Of the 53 recruits initially in the Black Widow program only 9 survived the 10 brutal years to become a level 7, the highest level. Natalia made sure she survived. She had to.
In a room with 9 twin beds and 9 thin blankets, 9 girls quickly got up from their beds, it was 2:30 am. They had 4 minutes to prepare for the day's trials. But they had grown accustomed to these irregular awakenings by now.
"Recruits, you have made it this far. Now it is time for your final test. Your test to become the Black Widow and serve Mother Russia. Only one of you will survive." Ivan told them. "You will receive a time and place on your pager. Do not be late." With that they saluted Ivan and left. This was the moment they had been training for, had killed for; to have a chance at becoming the Black Widow. They silently walked back to their room. Each absorbed in her own thoughts. At 7:30 the first girl, Anastasia, looked down at her pager and silently left the room, head held high. After all, she had survived this much, she could do this. 33 minutes later two trainers came in and dragged a cot away. They all knew what had happened. Every time a cot was taken, someone had died. 9 years ago, Natalia would have been sad that a girl she had considered a sister, a close friend at least, had died. Now, she felt nothing. Not giving a f*ck about people you would otherwise care about was a trait you had to develop in the red room. Sentiment was a weakness that only got you killed. 12 minutes later, Izabella left. An hour later Larisa left, 41 minutes later a cot was dragged away. The remaining 6 girls sat in silence, the only sound their quiet breathing. Kristina left. 54 minutes, and then a cot was dragged away. Nadiya left, taking another cot with her. Svetlana left. No cot was taken. Sofia left, 11 minutes later a cot was taken, leaving just Natalia and Mariya. Finally, Natalia received a room and time on her pager. The time was 4 minutes away. She had long since packed her weapons. She left, leaving Mariya.
As she briskly walked down the deserted corridors of the red room labyrinth, though she had long since memorized the layout, it was enormous. her soft footsteps seemed to resound in the deserted corridor. Finally she arrived at room 221B. She cautiously opened it, the cold, metal handle in her hand. It was 7 minutes until a trainer came in.
"When I leave, proceed through the back door. Get to the top." With that she simply left, the door shutting behind her. Setting her jaw, Natalia slipped through the back door. A hand softly on her gun holster, the cool metal felt natural under her hand. She was in a building of some sort. Evidently, she was still in the red room, as she had not ascended or descended any levels. But she was in a building. The walls were grey. Glancing up, Natalia counted at least 5 floors. All the sh*t we went through and the deciding test is to get to the top of this building? Natalia thought. And then she thought five out of the seven to have gone died. They were not amateurs. Another lesson from the red room; never think you're the best in any situation. A soft rustle of cloth, Natalia had her gun in her hand, pointed at the noise. A sharp bang sent her behind a corner. After a moment, Natalia returned fire. A body fell to the floor. Upon closer inspection, Natalia saw that the body was a trainer.
Get to the top. Get to the top. Natalia kept repeating these words while cautiously going up a flight of stairs. She rounded a corner. By the time she realized that threat was imminent (.7 seconds), a person had twisted her arm and effectively disarmed her of her gun. With her liberated arm, Natalia pulled out a knife and slashed at her assailant, causing him to let go of her arm and crouch into a defensive stance. Natalia crouched, poised for attack or defense, as she watched the trainer's every move, for one mistake could prove fatal. She watched as his legs tensed and knew then that he was going to lunge at her. Another moment where she was and she would have been dead. Twirling out of the way of his blade, Natalia threw her knife at him with deadly aim, but not unlike her, he had been taught to survive and barely managed to dodge a fatal hit, the knife instead grazing his tricep. Grimacing, he continued his onslaught and punched her in the shoulder. Hardly discouraged, Natalia kicked him in the knee. Hard. He collapsed, his knee at an unnatural angle. Leaving him on the floor, Natalia relieved him of his weapons and stocked up her own. Knowing that there were cameras watching her every move, Natalia walked across the floor, to the next stairwell.
The second level resembled an office. There were grey cubicles in the middle, forming two hallways on the left and right side. Occupying each cubicle was a desk, chair, and shelf. The whole floor seemed deserted. But it was seldom that anything was what it initially appeared to be in the red room. Out of a cubicle a knife came whirling towards her head. Only 10 years of brutal training kept Natalia alive. She rolled into the cubicle that was adjoined to her attacker. She stayed absolutely still; any movement could give her position away behind the thin wall that could easily be pierced by a bullet. She heard a soft click of metal and pinpointed the trainer's positioned. Slowly, quietly, she pulled the trigger and heard it hit its target. No sooner had she killed one assailant then two more appeared in the open side of the cubicle. Firing two shots, Natalia ducked behind a desk. It was too silent. They should have returned their fire by now. it was too quiet. Natalia quietly took a knife and cut her way through the thin wall of the cubicle and climbed into the adjoining one. A grenade, thrown into the recently vacated cubicle, exploded, blasting Natalia into the vulnerable hallway. there was one flaw with their plan though, they were to close to the blast zone. As she stood up into a defensive stance, an enormous figure punched her back down on to the ground. The man unsheathed a knife and made to stab her, but as he threw his weight behind his thrust, Natalia rolled away. As she got up she pulled his arm down. His momentum propelled him to the floor. Natalia drew a knife and with a flick of her wrist sent it into his heart. She grabbed the hilt of her blade and pulled it out.
Natalia was blinded by the dark. She peered through the thick darkness. Instinctively, her eyes dilated and her ears sharpened, picking up sounds she formerly had not detected. Before she fully registered what she had sensed, Natalia had a gun pointed into the darkness, poised on her toes. A soft rustle of cloth. She pulled the trigger. A body crumpled to the floor. She quietly walked through the room, careful to not make any noise or clue o where she was, noise got you killed. Her body running on adrenaline, Natalia made her way through the room. Out of nowhere, somebody tackled her to the ground. He landed on top of her. Before she could adequately defend herself, a searing pain erupted in her shoulder.
"D*mnit" Natalia swore, grimacing. She reached over with her uninjured, free arm and pulled the knife out. By now her eyes had somewhat adjusted to the dark and out of her peripheral vision she saw another knife swinging toward her head. She reached up and blocked the am swinging the knife. She twisted it until she heard a satisfying crack. The knife clattered onto the floor next to her. Blocking and dodging his punches, Natalia tried to wiggle her legs free, but to no avail; although most of his body weight was focused on her upper body, he was still strong enough to keep her legs pinned. She twisted on to her hip, curling into the fetal position. Her head by his leg, she pulled out a knife and slashed his leg causing him to roll over. Crouched down, she stabbed him in the lower chest. After that, the entire floor seemed eerily deserted. The silence thick and unsettling, Natalia pulled open a door and was greeted with an onslaught of light. In front of her was a welcoming stairwell. One step closer.
As she opened the door, a figure loomed ahead of her. This floor, the fourth floor, rather resembled a labyrinth of halls and corridors filled with dead ends. The hallways were white. The ceiling was white. The floor was white. Everything was white. The color itself seemed to be too loud after the blinding darkness. Natalia ran past the figure, turned, and threw a Taser ball at him. Blue electricity snaked up his body. In front of her, two men turned a corner and ran at her. Natalia dropped to her hands and swept out one of the men's legs out from underneath him. While he was still down Natalia kicked the other's knee out, grabbed his lapels, and using her hip and leverage, threw him to the ground. Another figure was waiting for her as she rounded a corner. His stance was a bit off. His legs were too far apart, making it so that with a small push, he would be off balance. Natalia ran at him, and using his thigh as a launching pad, flipped into the air and landed behind him. Using a garrote wire, she strangled him, softly laying him onto the ground. Her next victim never stood a chance. As she rounded a left corner she sprinted at him, and jumping up, wrapped her thighs around his neck. She twisted around his body, landing in a defensive stance. After taking a moment to ensure that he was truly dead, she took off again. She turned right. The hall was empty.
" – eading towards the west wing." She heard a staticy radio go off around the corner. Footsteps; but too many steps to be just one person, there were two, maybe three. Quietly, she unhooked two smoke bombs from her belt. She turned the corner and threw them at the feet of two trainers. While they were still disoriented, Natalia swept out their legs from one of them and kicked the remaining one in the head. He crumpled to the ground. Meanwhile, the other one had gotten up and had a gun aimed at her heart. Before he could shoot, Natalia had twisted the gun out of his hands and was now pointing it at him. She smashed his head with the gun. A steel grey door catching her attention, Natalia made for it. Inside were the stairs she had been searching for.
A shiver went down Natalia's spine. After years of training, surviving, Natalia had learned to trust her instincts above all things. She froze for a moment. Detecting what it was that was unsettling her. Before she could adequately find out, a bullet whistled past her head. She dove past one of the various blocks that were miscellaneously placed. The fifth floor fairly simulated a paintball range, the one exception being that the bullets were not filled with fluorescently colored paint. She landed on her knees behind a block while pulling out her own gun. Two rounds demolished the block she was behind. Natalia tilted her head up so she could pinpoint the exact location of her assailant. The majority of his body was hidden behind a wall. While he was still reloading, Natalia unhooked a smoke bomb and threw it at his feet. The man coughed and batted at the smoke, as if that would make a difference. Natalia silently ran around him and took cover behind a car. Obviously this floor was meant to simulate a civilian setting. As the man searched for Natalia, she snuck up behind him and leapt onto his back. Using her legs to prevent any head movement, Natalia swung the rest of her body towards his torso and he fell to the ground, his neck snapped. As Natalia ran past several cars a line of bullets followed her. Seeing an opportunity, she sharply turned behind a black truck. But as she had slowed down to turn, a bullet hit her left abdomen.
"F*ck. F*ck." Natalia swore. She could deal with the pain, but with both a knife wound and a bullet in her abdomen, she would start to lose a tremendous amount of blood. It would only be a matter of time before her body forced her to loose consciousness. She pressed her body into against the car. When she ran she had counted at least 6 snipers. Running through the middle of the landscape was a bridge made of rope and wood, which was where the snipers were. Her car was parked near the edge of the perimeter with several cars parked next to it. Sinking into a sitting position in front of the tire, Natalia thought.
" Why hello darling," a voice from behind her sprung her into action. From the voice alone she determined the distance from her to him: 1 and a half meters. She planted her hands on the ground and swung her feet at him. He was crouched down, like her, and had evidently crawled to her. He leapt out of the way, landing few feet in front of her, grinning.
"Ivan really has toned down his game for making you beauties hasn't he?" Natalia only glared in response. Something about the way he was merely playing with her, not fighting her, made Natalia unsettled. He acted as though he had bested all the recruits in the program.
"иди к черту" (Go to h*ll) Natali muttered.
"What was that darling?" Natalia suppressed a shudder. Steeling herself, Natalia leapt into the air and jumped over him, kicking his head as she passed him. Instead of resisting her, he simply used the momentum of her kick to roll forward. Reaching into her belt, Natalia took out one of her smoke bombs. As he recovered she threw it at his feet.
"Oh you're a feisty one aren't you?" as he taunted her, she silently ran behind him and jumped onto his back. A burden of weight unsuspectingly thrown onto his back, he stumbled forward, catching his balance. Flipping out two knives form her sleeves, Natalia stabbed them into his back. Twisting them out, she slashed his chest. His writhing made it difficult to ensure that she did lasting damage. Leaping off, she stabbed his spinal cord, which would paralyze him instantly. She ran to the end of the enclosure, searching for the grounding ropes that secured the bridge. They were in the middle, attached to a wooden telephone pole. Natalia climbed up the pole like a mad man, for she knew that it was only a matter of seconds before she got shot. The thin metal stakes protruding from it bit into her hands.
Finally she reached the top. Using her knife, she cut through the ropes that secured the bridge. The men realized what was happening too late. Following the bridge, they fell like stones. Natalia scrambled down, her new objective to find out where to go next, as there were no doors in the enclosure, except the stairwell leading down. Trying to staunch the blood flow from her abdomen, Natalia wearily walked through the wreckage. She found a door hidden behind a blue sedan. Turning the handle, Natalia opened the door. Inside was a glass tube. It slid open with a hiss as she approached it. Cautiously, she stepped into it. Once the door was closed the tube plummeted into the darkness.