Chapter One:A Strange New World
"Romanoff, we need you to come in."
"I'm a little busy at the moment." Natasha grunted as she squirmed against the ropes that confined her to the old wooden chair she was forced to sit in.
S.H.I.E.L.D's youngest field agent was on a covert information gathering op in Bengal when unfortunately(and uncharacteristically) she was discovered by the Russian spy she was tracking. Which is how she ended up tied to a chair in a dark dingy room in some cheap abandoned hotel.
The only door in the room swung open allowing a bright light from the outside world to shine into the dark space. The Black Widow ceased her attempts to escape her confined when a woman in her late thirties walked into he the room, the echoing taps of her heeled boots were the only sounds made in the small space .
Flanked by four men with AK-47s, the woman who had slicked back black hair with a patch of white in the middle stepped towards Natasha ,throwing her left hand up into a fist to signal the four men to hang back. As her empty grey eyes stared into Natasha's vibrant green ones a feeling of contempt was evident in the older Russian's features.
"My men found you snooping around my base of operations, under normal circumstances you would have been shot on sight."
The woman bent down in front of Natasha , a wicked and vile smile creeped into the corner of her mouth.
"But this is no normal circumstance... after all it's not everyday one gets to meet the Black Widow."
Natasha unflinchingly continued to stare up at her captor defiantly, the old Russian seemed neither impressed nor angered at the young woman's ability to masks her emotions. She reached over and grasped one of the younger woman's hands with her own cold clammy fingers.
"Do you know who I am Natalia?"
The agent of S.H.I.E.L.D clenched her teeth together for the slightest of seconds as a chill shot down her back. But that wave of vulnerability disappeared just as fast as it appeared as the Black Widow put on her "mask".
"You're ex KGB, responsible for dozens of assassinations and prostitution rings. You're known only by the name 'Sofia'" Widow answered with an air of boredom and disinterest.
Sofia lifted her hand off Natasha's wrist and stood up crossing her hands behind her back, gazing down at the restrained Black Widow."You are as well informed as your reputation suggests."
Natasha shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly without breaking the staring contest the two Russian femme fatales were having.
"I trust you know how widely regarded your mantle is in our line of work." Sofia stated arching her coarse left eyebrow, when Natasha said nothing and only continued to stare Sofia sighed like a disappointed parent.
"The title of 'The Black Widow' has been passed been legendary long before even the Cold War. It has been passed down from generation to generation, given only to those worthy to carry the reddest of ledgers."
"It's a bedtime story Russian parents tell their children at night to scare them into behaving-'Be good or the Black Widow will get you'" Natasha remarked.
"But you and I both know that you're more than just a simple nightmare." Sofia said unamused. "Child you carry the highest honor imaginable."
"It's not exactly a miss universe title."
Sofia smacked Natasha, the slap resounded across the room causing her henchmen to flinch.
"Curb your sarcasm child."
Natasha glared daggers up Sofia whose hand had left a red mark on her left cheek. Never one to go down quietly the teenager spat at Sofia's face hitting in her dead on her right cheek.
Sofia swiftly slapped her again further reddening the now raw skin of her prisoners cheek. Natasha's fiery red curls covered her face, her chest puffing in and out to regulate her breathing.
Her captor took one last disdainful look at Natasha and turned her back on the young woman.
"What a wasted opportunity you've turned out to be." Sofia said lowly, not noticing the subtle movement of Natasha's hands behind the back of her chair. "But no matter, because you see Natalia your death will allow someone more worthy to step into the mantle of Black Widow. Someone like me."
Natasha rolled her eyes as she sawed at the ropes her wrists were imprisoned in.
"It's just a shame you didn't put up more of a fight, give me an opportunity to savor this moment in battle"
"If you want a fight then why don't you let me out of this chair and then we'll see if we can make something happened." Natasha challenged still slicing through the ropes covertly.
Sofia grunted a low croaky sound out of her throat that may have possibly been a laugh but the woman still kept her back to her prisoner. "I've enjoyed our time together Natalia, though I'm afraid it must now come to an end."
Sofia turned towards her four henchmen standing up against the wall and threw up two fingers and waved them.
"Kill her."
Natasha sprung out of the chair free from her ropes and quickly pulled two stingers out of her sleeves and launched the disks at the two farthest thugs knocking them both out with an electric shock before they even raised their guns.
She quickly turned her behind her and grabbed the chair whipping towards the third thug that was charging at her firing his gun. The chair hit him,breaking into a dozen pieces as he dropped the gun. Natasha ran at him and jumped into the air drop kicking him to the ground.
Landing perfectly on her feet Natasha narrowed her eyes at the last thug who had his rifle beamed on her but she could see his hands tremble. He opened fired but his aim was sloppy, she had plenty of time to roll out of the way and jump back in the air, bullets missing her by a hair and wrapped her thighs around his neck and spun him to the floor. She swiftly jumped off her back onto her feet her arms raised in a defensive posture. Sofia was the only one left, a pistol aimed at Natasha.
"I apologize for underestimating you Natalia, but it does not matter now as this is how it should have been from the start. You and I locked in combat."
Natasha cracked her neck to the side curled her hands into fists. "If you wanna be The Black Widow then you're going to have to come and take it from me staraya zhenshcina."
Sofia pulled the trigger as Natasha launched a stinger, Natasha rolled to the side to avoid the bullet but her disk hit Sofia's side arm dead on shocking it out of her hand. The Black Widow charged at her foe throwing a punch towards Sofia's jaw but the woman blocked it with her wrist and kicked Natasha's side momentarily disorienting her. Sofia threw her own punch but Natasha ducked under it and spun around performing a roundhouse kick hitting Sofia's left shoulder.
The two traded blows back and forth and Natasha would have been impressed with Sofia's capabilities if the woman didn't completely creep out the teen. Even though the woman was past her prime Sofia still had the ability to hang with the worlds deadliest battle in combat. But as the battle drew on Natasha began to notice that Sofia's reaction time was slower whenever Natasha struck her right side. After blocking a jab Natasha kicked under Sofia's right arm and she noticed her opponents left knee buckle slightly.
She had a bad left knee.
Seeing her chance to end the battle quickly Natasha waited for Sofia to strike and once she did Natasha side stepped Sofia's elbow and she kicked her left knee as hard as she could. Sofia cried in pain and fell to her left knee, Natasha quickly spun around and kicked Sofia square in the jaw finally knocking her out.
"Savor that moment."
Natasha bent down and grabbed the back collar of Sofia's jumpsuit and dragged her behind her as she walked out of the hotel room.
"Done yet?" asked a voice in Natasha's ear.
"Just finishing up. I need an evac at my location,preferably soon". She replied.
"You have the target?"
"She's neutralized. Don't worry I left her in tact enough for you to question her."
"Good girl." The voice teased.
"Careful Coulson. I haven't killed anybody today but I could easily change that."
"Promises, promises"
Natasha stepped out of hotel, still dragging the unconscious Sofia behind her, to see a black van pull up in front of her. The side door opened to reveal a stone faced Phil Coulson but Natasha could see the hint of amusement in his eyes.
"Starting to slip in your old age Romanoff? It's not like you t get caught." Coulson teased.
The sixteen year old snorted as she hauled Sofia into the van placing her on her side in the back row of the van. "Please, I let her capture me so I could get away from most of her hired goons. Oh by the way there's a few of those goons laid out in the hotel."
"I'll have some agents come pick her up later." Coulson assured as Natasha stepped into the van sitting next to her handler. One of the other S.H.I.E.L.D agents in the van closed the door behind her and the van drove off. The youngest agent in the vehicle arched an eyebrow at Coulson once she was settled into her seat.
"You I know I don't appreciate you bothering me when I'm in the middle of an op." Natasha stated referencing Coulson requesting her services when she was held captive.
Coulson shrugged. "I figured you'd have been done by then."
Natasha rolled her eyes at the senior agent but she did nothing more than that other than to cross her arms across her chest. Coulson was the one who brought her into S.H.I.E.L.D and away from the KGB so he earned her respect and trust a long time ago.
"What do you need me to do?"
Coulson just looked at her for moment with the smallest of smirks and while his eyes were usually hard to read at that moment they were impossible to read, and with her being a master spy that annoyed her to no ends. But if she had to guess she would describe the look as... tentatively amused.
"We need you to go to high school."
The look on her face was both priceless and indescribable with shock, horror, and little bit of defiance all mixed together into one facial expression. Coulson could have laughed but then Natasha would have kept her promise to kill somebody.
"Excuse me?" She finally choked out after a few moments of silence. Coulson silently chuckled for just a moment but reached into the bag on the floor of the car of his seat and pulled out a stack of files, handing them to Natasha.
"What's this?" she asked as she flipped through the files.
"Your new team."
"My what? Quit being so damn nonchalant will you, this isn't funny."
"Can't help it, it's what I do." When Natasha glared at Coulson with her best Black Widow stare he coughed to clear his throat and continued before she get the chance to stab him with the blade he knew she kept in her boot. "The Council ok'd the Avengers Initiative. Fury wants you to be second in command."
"Who's team leader?" She asked even though she was nowhere near ok with this.
"Steve Rogers." Coulson answered simply.
"Should I know who that is?"
"You may recognize him better by his codename-Captain America."
Natasha closed the files shut and looked up at Coulson with both eyebrows raised as far up her forehead as humanly possible. "Captain America? As in the American urban legend from the forties that the military uses to get people to enlist?"
"He's much more than an urban legend. He's the greatest soldier in history." Coulson said with a inflection in his voice that suggested reverence towards this so called 'super soldier. '
"Steven Grant Rogers was born July 4, 1926 to Irish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York. Captain Rogers was a sickly child who was dreadfully skinny, and after both his parents died he made numerous attempts to join the army during World War II but was ejected each time due to both his health and the fact that he was underage."
Natasha shifted in her seat as she listened to Rogers' story, unwillingly becoming more and more interested as Coulson went on.
"Everything changed when Steve faked his documents and finally got admitted into the army. He was then chosen by a one Dr. Erskine to be the test subject for his experimental and dangerous serum."
"What type of serum was it?" She asked.
"Erskine promised that it could exemplify and enhance ones strength and will to superhuman levels, but he said it would only work on one who is pure and apparently Captain Rogers fit that description."
"What happened?"
"It worked. Erskine injected Rogers with the serum and he was transformed from a 100 pound five foot nothing scrawny kid into a towering physical specimen with near perfect endurance and strength."
"Well if the serum worked then how come the army isn't crawling with super soldiers"
"Because shortly after he injected Rogers Erskine was assassinated by an agent of Hydra. And we've tried to recreate the serum since the but it always failed. For whatever reason it only worked on Rogers. Regardless Rogers was given the moniker and costume of Captain America by the government because it was discovered that Steve was only sixteen years old, but since the military saw what a valuable asset they had they decided not to discharge him and instead gave him a costume, a mask, and a shield made out of the toughest allow in the world vibrainum. Rogers took that and became the single greatest weapon against the Nazis. The only catch was that his name would be kept out the history books, he wasn't Steve Rogers anymore he was only Captain America."
"I still don't see how he can lead the team." Natasha said bluntly. "Even if he's still alive, he must be what like ninety?"
Coulson gave her a knowing look. "You should know better than anyone that science can do wonders for agIng. Besides, in 1945 towards the end of the war Rogers brought down a Hydra rocket ship with a nuke on it into the Antartica. Rogers saved countless lives but in doing so he was lost forever."
"Until now." Natasha said causing Coulson to give her a small smile.
"We found him a few days ago. He was frozen alive in the ice and the kicker is he looks exactly the same as he did 1945."
"He hasn't aged at all?"
"Not a bit. We're thawing him out on the Helicarrier as we speak."
"You sound excited Coulson." Natasha noted with a small smirk.
Coulson smiled as he leaned back into his seat. "I may have admired Captain America a time or two when I was a kid. But if anyone should be excited it should be you." He said turning to her again with a daring smirk.
"And why's that?" She asked in a challenging tone with her eyebrow arched at Coulson.
"Because he's your new roommate."
"Ok now you I know you have a death wish." Natasha stated throwing daggers at the man with her eyes.
"Is there a problem Romanoff?" He asked sounding like he was chuckling as he spoke. Smug bastard.
"Why does he even need a roommate, this is high school not college." She gritted through her teeth.
"Well for starters everybody he knows is either dead or in a retirement home so next of kin isn't an option. And you have experience adapting to a new time and culture so you're the logical choice. We really don't think pairing him with Stark is a good idea."
Natasha groaned as she covered her face with her hands. "This just keeps getting better. You're recruiting Tony Stark? The rich brat on tv."
"Hey I don't like him either, he's been a pain in my side as long as I've been undercover at the high school. But what can I say- he is Iron Man."
"I guess I'd rather help an eighty year old going through puberty adapt to modern society than room with Stark."
Coulson grinned as he patted her on the shoulder lightly. "Glad to see you're looking on the bright side of things."
"I am going to kill you when this is over Coulson."
"Come on it'll be a good experience for you. It'll give you the chance to actually act like a teenager for once. Hey maybe you'll even relax once or twice."
Natasha shook her head but allowed a small smile to show as she ran her hand through her curly hair.
"I'm still going to kill you."
"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."
Natasha strolled down one of the corridors of the Helicarrier dressed in her form fitting black catsuit, her two guns holstered on the sides of her legs. She still wasn't sure exactly what to make of this current situation. She wasn't worried about the actual academic aspect of going to school( you don't become a master spy on just looks and physical prowess alone), but she wasn't anywhere even near excited about having to deal with normal teenagers with normal teenage problems.
The idea that she was being forced to live with a bunch of super powered hot head boys also gave her a headache she couldn't even begin to describe. She did get some comfort from the fact that she was rooming with the most desirable, or probably more accurately the least irritating of the bunch. Of course he was also an ageless American icon that is more or less a paragon of all things good and pure.
And she was a trained assassin credited with numerous kills and other unseemly and unmentionable deeds who isn't even old enough to buy herself a drink in America.
Odd couple much.
Besides the obvious differences in their perceived personalities and ideals there were also more under the surface issues with Natasha being the one in charge of reacclimatizing Rogers with the world. For one, in a situation like this she was well aware that he would probably need somebody who would be patient and honest with him.
Patience was something she had spades in when it came to her job, there was no doubt about that. Honesty on the other hand. It's not that she didn't know how to tell the truth... it's just not something she was used to having to do. She was raised by the Red Room to lie and seduce, and while S.H.I.E.D had on paper more noble intentions they had never asked her to do more than exactly the same thing.
She hadn't even met Steve yet but she already had a feeling just from hearing his story that he deserved nothing less than the truth. Sure there would be times she would have to lie to him, it just comes with the job description.
But none of this mattered till she actually met and got to know the young man she finally acquiesced as she reached the door to the Ned bay, which is where she was told Fury and Rogers were in.
"Time to go to work." She said to herself as she pressed the button of the side of the door causing it to slide over. She heard a deep velvety voice say something that sounded like a combination of a question and a surprised statement as the door opened.
The one and only Black Widow sauntered into the room, as she took in her surroundings she noted the various armed agents scattered around the room, Fury who nodded at her with his hands crossed behind his back, and finally her new roommate.
Super soldier indeed.
"Captain Steve Rogers, meet Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, she's one of S.H.I.E.L.D's best and youngest agents... and also your new roommate." She heard Fury say.
Steve hopped down from the observation table and awkwardly tried to fix his posture(forever a soldier it seemed) though she noticed his face was getting a red tint to it as she walked up to him and held her hand out for him to shake. Testing the waters as it were.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Captain." Since she was going to live with the man for the foreseeable future she may as well make a good first impression. She even threw in a flirtatious flirt for good measure.
Steve was attractive she wasn't afraid to admit that. He was built extremely well for a grown man never mind a teenager. But he wasn't so big that he looked like a freak of a nature. The most striking thing about him though was his cobalt eyes. They just oozed warmth and trust.
He finally shook her hand after he quickly wiped on the pant leg of his old uniform. "The pleasure is all mine ma'am... and call me Steve."
Huh. Maybe this would be more interesting than she originally thought.
"Call me Natasha"
Ok so I know I owe you guys a chapter for the high school initiative but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. So what this fic will be is a collection of extra scenes, from before and during the high school initiative. Some will fill in small plot holes like this chapter, and others will be snapshots of moments in between chapters from the main story. Some will be drabble like and some won't. Anyway I'm going to leave to go work on my main story please be sure to read and review to tell me what you guys think.