Chapter 3: On the run

Thanks again for your great reviews.

Mel72000: Thank you too. Your reviews got me thinking: maybe if I get enough ideas together, I will write a side story where different one shots could explain some of the circumstances better. But I make no promises that there will be such a thing (even if I will try).

Anon: Thanks again! To answer your question: I thought that Clint would be around 19-21 and had been recruited by SHIELD a few years prior despite relatively young his age.

They had made it! After almost thirteen years in that hell, they had finally succeeded in escaping! …Only two things were dampening the joy of being finally free: the death of Yinsen and the high possibility of these Agents trying to capture them, presumably wanting to experiment on them too.

Tony and Natasha had stolen one of the cars in the hangar and left it in the first town they got to where they stole new clothes – even if their 'inner Yinsen' told them that you shouldn't steal. It was that or running around in bloodied clothes and getting arrested by the local police.

Once they had stolen some clothes – dark blue hoodie, jeans, sneakers and a warm jacket for Tony and dark red hoodie, jeans, boots and also a warm jacket for Natasha – they planned to take a bus (with stolen money…) to next bigger city.

But the bus they wanted to take would only drive the next day again and so they strolled through the small town, amazed at the simplest things they saw like children playing in a small park, birds sitting and singing in the trees, the sun on their pale skin and the snow that had only fallen a few day prior.

The people in the town were nice towards them – even though they were complete strangers – and a kind old lady asked them where they were staying and they had answered "Nowhere, we don't have the money for that." 'Or more like we don't want to steal more than necessary…'.

The old lady had dragged the bewildered Tony and Natasha to her house (more precisely, they let her drag them) where she feed them with things they had never eaten in their lives before and tasted heavenly. She even waved them good-bye the next day as their bus stop left the small town and towards the next bigger city.

From there they started to earn money with the only thing they were exceedingly good in: killing. But they didn't just kill anybody – no they only took down targets they found to be 'morally acceptable to kill'.

Simultaneously Tony improved his skills with technology, inventing new things – but only in his head since they were constantly moving and new inventions would only slow them down.

With each mission they took, they slowly became more and more known and feared in the underground as Black Widow and Blue Knives while they made their way towards their next goal after escaping the labs: America.

When they had first met, Tony had told Natasha (and Leonid) that his male creator (father) had been Howard Stark and the then trio had sworn that if they should ever get out, they would go to America and eliminate Howard Stark for what he had put Tony through (they couldn't do that to Natasha's or Leonid's parents since they hadn't had any part in their children landing in a lab since they had already been dead before that). It had been Natasha's and Tony's goal too when they had gotten out but after some research in a internet-café, they had found out that Howard and Maria Stark had died in a car crash.

But despite this literally dead end concerning the revenge, Tasha had still suggested in going to America since Howard's company still existed and maybe he could earn it for himself if he outed himself as 'Anthony Edward Stark' (although that possibility was highly unlikely) and if that didn't work they still could make new lives for themselves in America leaving Russia behind them and if Tony wanted to, they could track down Edwin Jarvis – the former Stark butler – so the Tony could maybe talk to the first important person in his life again...

While they were saving money, they had to change places almost weekly for almost two years because Agents of the U.S. agency – called Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division (or in short SHIELD) as they had found out – that had stormed the lab back then were still trying to track them down.

You've got to hand it to them that they were persistent and there had been a few close calls where the guy with the quiver and bow that Natasha had kicked out of the air ducts back then and Agent Coulson had almost caught them when they had stayed in one place to long.

Undeterred by this, Natasha and Tony still planed to go to America even if that meant to enter the lion's den itself and so they continued their game of cat-and-mouse with Agent Coulson and the still unnamed archer.

But then something went wrong on what should have been Tony's and Natasha's last mission before leaving for America…

Note: Hm… Somehow this turned out to be my shortest chapter for this story but I wanted to make a cut here and make the next chapter the last one... Ah, well, I just hoped you liked it despite its shortness! ^^