If you asked anyone around SHIELD there are 3 things that everyone could agree on. 1. Director Fury loved his doughnuts and no one takes the first or the last ones, those are his. 2. Tony Stark was the smartest guy around, scoring a higher IQ than some of their best. 3. Clint Barton was the coldest, hardest, yet the sassiest and unemotional recruit SHIELD has ever had.
Clint was just at the young age of 22 and yet he was already one of the best agents SHIELD ever had. He was smart, cunning, the world's best marksmen in the world, not to mention all the female agents eyes lingered on him when he passed by. He had just started his job as a full time agent and he was already one of the best.
Another thing about Clint was that he never screwed up a mission. All of his thoughts, actions, shots from his bow and arrow were flawless. Already he had brought in the man who was in charge of the biggest cult in America, had found the conspirators of the presidents attempted assassination. And the most impressing part was that he didn't have a partner, he refused one. He got his nickname 'Hawkeye' for 2 reasons- his eye sight was 30% better than the average humans, and he always did his missions alone just like a hawk killed alone.
"Barton, Fury's office 5 minutes." Maria Hill called into the gym as Clint let loose another arrow.
"Will do," Clint breathed. He walked over the target and started pulling out his arrows. All of them had hit the target at the bulls eye just like he wanted. As he pulled each arrow out and placed them in his bag his mind came up with a million and one different scenarios of what Fury was going to ask Clint to do this time. Busting a drug lord? Top secret experiment gone missing? It could be anything with Fury, Clint never wanted to know.
Clint decided to wash his face before he went to his bosses office. He looked in the mirror and saw all the scars, scratches, and dents in his face that he made over the years from doing all the crazy shit he had done to survive and get where he was today.
Walking out a group of agents walked past him. He would admit there were some female agents that were attractive but any service member of SHIELD were trained to swallow their desires and focus on what was best for the service. Even working here Clint didn't feel totally comfortable with this place. There were too many secrets, too many protocols you had to follow, Clint didn't like them but he followed them. He was reminded of these rules when he reached Fury's office door.
"ID required." An automatic robot voice asked him. Clint pulled out his ID card that had his picture, code name Hawkeye, and his level of security. Scanning his card the tiny hallway he was in filled with a beep.
"Agent: Barton, Clint. Security Level: 6." The robot women voice said. Automatic doors slid open reviling Fury at his desk going through some papers that Clint didn't give two shits about. Clint knew the routine when you were invited to Fury's office- you stood until asked to sit down, don't talk until he was finished and do leave until you were dismissed. It was like being sent the principal's office as a kid.
"Sit, Barton." Fury said in his usual cold voice. Clint sat down in the big black chair right in front of him. The room was pretty plain, the walls were a dark navy blue, clocks from different cities and countries lined the walls with different times, windows were the wall behind Fury and from the light coming in you couldn't see his face (Clint guessed it was supposed to be intimidating), and the only furniture was Clint's chair with one exactly like it beside his, Fury's desk and chair and finally curtain to close the windows. "I'm guessing you're wondering about your assignment." Fury sharply guessed.
"I've learned to just role with it," Clint tried to sound light but it didn't help the dark mood in the room.
"Good man, now this time your assignment is going to be a little different." Fury got up and started walking around the room.
"How are any of my missions the same?" Clint asked raising a brow. Fury gave him a shut-the-hell-up-and-let-me-talk-dumbass and Clint kept his mouth shut.
"This time you are going to be traveling to Russia," Fury looked out the window. The main SHIELD building was D.C so it overlooked all the white monuments and usual peaceful area. "We've have picked up on a major threat from a secret society called The Red Room." Clint was already thinking of all the things he would need, a thicker coat, heavier arrows for the wind he would most likely experience… "However," Fury interrupted his train of thought. "You can't shut it down." This strange comment puzzled Clint.
"Why not? If they are a threat why don't we shut them down?" Clint took Fury's few seconds as permission to speak.
"Because we don't have their exact location, that's one of their strong suits. We have our ideas but we don't want to strike until we are absolutely sure, we have promised to the Russian government to keep this under wraps until we are for sure that both of us are positive about Red Rooms location." Fury explained.
"If we can't shut them down then why are you telling me?" Clint was trying to keep his little frustration out of his voice.
"Because there is one person from the Red Room who we need to terminate imminently and you seem the most capable to do it." Fury turned to look at Clint, Clint had never asked what happened to his eye and always wanted to but never did.
"Who is he?" Clint asked, termination-kill them is what Fury was really saying.
"She…" Fury stressed and Clint was surprised that it was a women he would be killing. It's not like he hadn't done it before but most of his kills were men. "… is one of the most deadly people we have ever seen. She has been on our radar for about half a year and recently it's gotten worse. Her number of killings has doubled over the past 3 months and the worst part is, is that she's almost untraceable. From what we can tell she has no family, no educational background, nothing. She has been completely isolated and brought up to what she is now, invisible and a killer."
"What do I need to know about her?" Clint was eager to get on the assignment. Not the killing her part, he never like that, but he did like getting to know the people especially this one who had such a notorious reputation.
"Her full name we think is Natalia Alianovna Romanova. Her aliases include Natasha Romanoff and goes by Black Widow. We know she has been in Volgograd for the past couple of months and around that area" Fury slipped a file to Clint across the desk.
"And?" Clint asked.
"And what?"
"I'm just used a little more information about the person than this. You know, age, background, co-conspirators, that sort of stuff." Clint looked at the paper which had only a few lines of information on it.
"That's the thing Barton," Fury sighed and looked out the window. "That's all we do know. I told you she's invisible other than this and the people she's killed we have nothing." Clint was a little surprised by the little information SHIELD had given him. This girl must be good.
"What' the plan?"
"You'll leave tomorrow morning, fly to an airport just outside Volgograd and take a bus there. You have only 3 weeks to kill her Barton, that's all we can manage with the Russian government, plus her pattern is to change quickly." Clint was now a little stressed for how quickly he would have to complete this but it was doable.
"Alright then," Clint closed the folder and tucked it under his arm. And straightened up and saw a nod from Fury that allowed him to stand up. Clint headed towards the door.
"Barton," Fury said stopping Clint midway from opening the door. "I trust you that you'll get this done quickly and quietly."
"Always Director." Clint shut the door and walked down the hall to go home. Which in his case was a condo on the upper most floor of the building.
