Chapter 7
"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life—and you be honest with me—would you trust me to do it?"
Natasha's legs burned as she ran after the two seemingly local militia men, but she still followed closely behind.
"These guys just keep on coming!" Sam's frustrated voice emanated from her earpiece.
Natasha took a sharp turn and kept her eyes trained on the men she was following. "How's Steve holding up?" she asked, panting.
"Rumlow's kicking his ass, but he's keeping the fight away from the civilians."
"Rumlow? I thought he went down with the Triskelion?"
"He did. They must've found a way to keep him alive."
She pushed through a gaggle of teenagers and heard gunfire echoing both from her earpiece and around her.
Wanda's voice suddenly interrupted. "Natasha! I'm following your tracker now – should be there in a couple of minutes." She used her powers to somersault herself over cars and stands, whipping past civilians in a flash.
The Black Widow stopped and ducked behind an overturned booth. She peered around the corner and saw the two soldiers disappear into a large and slightly fortified structure. It wasn't like the buildings around it; cameras lined the corners and the doors were made of thick steel.
"They've entered some kind of base, I'm standing right outside it."
Natasha heard Wanda breathing hard through the communicator. Narrowing her eyes, she noticed that civilians had cleared from the area, leaving it isolated.
"Wanda…you might want to hurry."
The out of breath Avenger suddenly appeared and slid down next to Natasha, who kept her eyes trained on the building's entrance. Natasha had her guns out, checking the mags and slipping them back into place with a small click.
"What's…the…plan…now?" Wanda asked, leaning heavily against the booth. She saw the assassin's eyes rapidly scan the perimeter, but when she opened her mouth to respond, a loud screeching echoed from both their ears; their earpieces were fried. Natasha fished out the tiny ruined piece of technology and examined it, more alert than ever.
"EMP. Close range." The two women glanced at each other, and Natasha suddenly got up and started to drag Wanda with her. They only made it a couple of paces before three soldiers blocked their exit, and when they looked up, more were on the roofs. Natasha fired her weapons, taking down the soldiers in front of them while Wanda knocked off the ones on the roof with her powers. The two Avengers disposed of the soldiers within seconds; a dozen bodies littered the ground.
They had just stopped to take a breath when an object flew towards their feet, letting off a loud bang and flash, disorienting the two women. Wanda fell to her knees, and Natasha was staggering forward when the base doors suddenly opened and they were shoved roughly inside.
They hit the floor hard and rolled into a standing position. Or at least, tried to. A fist flew into Wanda's face and knocked her back down while Natasha received a harsh blow to the stomach. Blinking hard, Natasha looked up and tried to analyze the room they were in. It was quite large, but with dim lighting. Doors lined the walls and many trapdoors were on the floor. Natasha assumed they led somewhere underground, but had no idea why.
Someone walked in front of her and forced her into a sitting position; the rough floor dug into her knees.
"Why are you here?"
"Could ask you the same thing." The man punched her in the face, hard.
"I'll ask again. What business to the Avengers have in Africa? How dare you come back here after the destruction you caused last year?"
Natasha spit out a mouthful of blood and glared up at the giant soldier. Uneasiness entered her stomach when she saw the way the men were looking at Wanda, and she suspected that they knew about her involvement with the Hulk's destruction. "Look, we're not here to hurt anyone. We received a tip off that Hydra was going to make an appearance, and we came to stop them."
"And this has nothing to do with the Winter Soldier?" Natasha's heart skipped a beat, but her expression betrayed nothing of the thoughts that were rapidly flying across her mind.
"The Winter Soldier's been off the radar for years," Natasha said firmly. "We're here to stop a threat to peace, it's our job." The man chuckled darkly, and he signaled something to a pair of soldiers. They left the room and disappeared behind a door.
"And a great job you're doing at that. Do you know how many people have died today, and are still suffering?"
"The team's working on diffusing the situation-,"
"I don't care! No one does! The Avengers are nothing but a nuisance on this world. And we're going to teach you a lesson." The door opened again, and the two soldiers walked in, one carrying a weird contraption in his hands. Natasha caught Wanda's eyes and gave the younger woman a slight nod. A burst of scarlet energy enveloped the room, knocking down the soldiers who were constraining them both.
Natasha jumped into action and promptly kneed the soldier in front of her in the gut. As he doubled over in pain, she jabbed her hand into his neck and activated her widow bites, releasing a spray of electric shocks into his body. She whipped one of her electric discs at another soldier and he collapsed to the ground, convulsing. However, things went quickly downhill from there. Two soldiers tackled Natasha, knocking her to the ground, and another flashbang was released, forcing Wanda back and allowing the men to handcuff her against the wall.
The man who'd been interrogating Natasha stood up shakily with a livid expression on his face. Snarling, he grabbed the contraption that the soldiers had brought in and made his way towards Wanda. He lifted her face and, turning to Natasha, said, "You want to me to show you how this works?" He waved the metallic object around. Natasha resisted viscously, but the soldiers kept her well restrained.
Grinning, the man placed the object around Wanda's head, locking it into place. Wanda was still a bit dizzy from the flashbang, but her eyes were slowly coming back to focus, and she struggled. Natasha caught her eyes, and for the first time, Wanda saw fear flash across the assassin's face.
The soldier removed a small remote from his belt and pressed a small red button on it. Instantly, Wanda's face screwed up in agony, and she began to scream. And she didn't stop. She kept on screaming and screaming, her cries echoing off the walls. Natasha's blood was boiling in anger. She felt her mind go blank, and pure rage took over.
The Black Widow's eyes reflected the devil himself, and she whipped around and snapped the neck of one of the soldiers keeping her back. He fell to the ground as limp as a ragdoll, and she smashed her head into the nose of another soldier. As soon as his hands moved to cover his bloody nose, she swept his feet out underneath him and grabbed his gun, shooting a bullet through the forehead of the soldier who had clicked the button on the remote.
Wanda was still screaming, and she had curled into herself. The other soldiers began to converge on Natasha, removing knives and guns from their uniforms. Natasha had already disposed of more than half the soldiers in the room, and she moved from one to the other, breaking bones and driving her knives into their bodies. Her hands were splattered with blood.
Someone slashed their knife across her back, but she kicked the man in his kneecap, shattering it, and continued fighting as if nothing had happened. At one point, two soldiers pinned Natasha to the ground and stomped on her side. She felt several of her ribs crack, but leapt right back up and stabbed them both in the neck. They hadn't even fallen down before she'd sprinted towards another and wrapped her thighs around his neck, making him crash into another soldier. A quick twist and a gunshot later, both were on the ground, dead.
A few minutes later, the Black Widow had turned around only to find that every single soldier in the room was either dead on the ground, or pinned to the wall in nightmarish ways. Her knife looked like it had been fished out of a lake of blood, as well as half her face and most of her clothes. Wanda's screams had ceased; the woman was now sobbing painfully, too tired to even yell.
Natasha's breath came out unevenly, and she stumbled towards Wanda, ripping the despicable contraption off her head. Wanda flinched violently when Natasha tried to turn her head, so the assassin focused on removing her handcuffs instead. They came off the railing they'd been attached to with a pop.
"Wanda, it's me. Come on, open your eyes." Natasha saw Wanda hesitate, but she obliged. Her eyes were shrouded with pain, and they widened when she took in Natasha's appearance. The Black Widow was covered in so many cuts and bruises, Wanda couldn't even tell how many there were, or who's blood was who's. Her arm hung at a weird angle; her left shoulder seemed to be dislocated. Wanda then looked around the room, and saw the bodies of the soldiers scattered everywhere.
She swallowed, and croaked, "You killed them all?"
Natasha dropped her head down and nodded. "They weren't going to stop otherwise. Can you stand? We have to get out of here."
She helped Wanda get up, and they could already begin to hear the shouts of soldiers nearby. Natasha shouldered open the heavy door and they stumbled back under the burning sun. Suddenly, the earpiece in Wanda's ear flickered to life.
"Natasha! Wanda! Answer me god damn it!" Sam sounded close to hysteria, and Wanda almost collapsed in relief at the sound of his voice.
"Sam! Where are you?" Wanda asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Natasha double over and cough violently, blood dripping down various parts of her body.
"Where are you?! We've been trying to contact you for ages! Your trackers stopped responding."
"We ran into some trouble. EMP disconnected the line. You mind picking us up?" She glanced worriedly at Natasha, who looked like she would pass out any second.
Sam, who was soaring over the market area, consulted the electronic tracker on his wrist and searched again for Wanda's signal. It popped up, roughly a quarter of a mile away.
"On my way now!"
Wanda blew out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, and turned to Natasha. They heard vehicles in the distance, and the two battered women moved behind a building to provide themselves better cover.
Less than a minute later, Sam dropped down in front of them, beat up and tired, but alive. He sent a concerned glance to Natasha, and started,
"Okay, I think I can-,"
They all heard a loud bang and a bullet suddenly pierced Sam's arm. Wanda pulled him forward and they all ducked down. Natasha whipped out her gun and returned fire, but her aim was off. Blood trickled down Sam's arm; and the vehicles approached faster and faster.
Sam groaned as Wanda pressed her hands against the wound. Natasha looked at him and said, "Take Wanda and leave Sam."
Wanda sent her an incredulous look. "No! We're not leaving you behind!" Natasha moved forward and shoved Sam to his feet, pressing her crimson hand against the button that activated his wings again.
"You can't carry us both and get out of here alive." Wanda opened her mouth to protest, but Natasha continued, more forcefully. "That's an order Wanda! Now get out of here!"
Sam approached Wanda, but she backed away from him. "I can't."
Natasha sent a meaningful glance towards Sam, and he gritted his teeth. He wrapped his arms around Wanda's middle and shot off into the air, dodging the spray of bullets that followed them.
"No!" Wanda screamed. "We have to go back Sam. We have to go back!"
Natasha closed her eyes and dropped her gun. When she opened them, five soldiers surrounded her, pointing their weapons at the injured Avenger. She didn't resist as they wrestled her to the ground and handcuffed her. The last thing she saw before a boot smashed into the back of her head was the small outline of Sam carrying a struggling Wanda away from her to safety.
What's going to happen when they go back without Natasha? Tensions are gonna be rising soon :) Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! Hope you liked this chapter.