Rand Enterprises Chemical Plant
It took about twenty minutes of running and outwitting, but Rappaccini made it inside the Rand Enterprises Chemical Plant factory, taking the stairs. She had to trick Nat into running off in the wrong direction before she doubled back and made way for the chemical plant, which was only several miles away from Washington Monument. It had about four stories high and almost a hundred steps to climb to get to the top. She climbs up the stairs on the inside and when she makes it to one floor, she spots a group of employees and workers in orange coughing and covering their faces with rags, most likely from the fumes that were being evaporated due to Rappaccini's detonator. The employees and workers fell to their knees and started retching.
The fumes in this place. I can't handle it nor control my makeshift C4 water vaporizing device but it is the best place for me.
Nat was not stupid… just tired. She knew that Rappaccini had cut her off somewhere and she picked up the trail based on where the pipes were bursting. She saw her charge into the Rand Enterprises Chemical Plant and she spent ten seconds catching her breath before pulling out her gun and running into the chemical plant after her.
Inside, she finally allows herself a quick break but limited herself to only thirty seconds. She looked over to the elevator doors and saw them closed and the lights weren't on, meaning that the elevator was no longer working.
If I was a supervillain, Nat asked herself. Where would I go to a place like this?
If the answer was as simple as a math question on paper, she would've figured it out. The only place she could think of was at the very top.
If she spread the gas throughout the city and she has only one device to vaporize that gas and it has an antenna, then she would go to the top floor for a better signal. Either that or this is the main supply of Midnight Oil.
She finds the door leading to the stairs and charges through it. She stopped only for a moment to look up and count about 100 steps going in a loop.
Rappaccini runs out of gas over halfway up to the monument. Less blood reaches to her head and she collapses forward on her knees. She coughs up blood before taking deep breaths in like she was learning to breathe for the first time. Her breathing exercise was interrupted when her keen senses told her to look down the stairs. She followed them and could barely see a tiny figure running up the steps.
"Romanoff," she gasped/wheezed. "Not yet."
She reaches into her jacket and pulls out a can of spray paint. She shakes it and smirks at the sound of clicking like teeth chattering. She heads down several steps and sprays about fifteen of them as she walks up backward. "I hope you have high pain tolerance, Romanoff."
When Nat did get to these steps, her foot fell right through the wooden step and she barely managed to catch herself but her gun went flying over the edge. However, as she caught herself, she noticed the sticky black tar-like substance that was caked to the steps and her fingers started to burn.
She silently curses in pain before she gripped the railing with both hands and pulled her right leg out but the more contact she made with the black substance, the more sizzling sounds began to give Nat the cringes.
She pulls herself up and has to climb up to fourteen more steps and she was careful to not get her leg trapped or even fall through completely. She was already a hundred and fifty steps up which meant she was at least three hundred feet in the air. If she fell to her death, then this all would've been for nothing.
When she got to the door at the end, she opened with caution. Because she lacked her gun but Rappaccini still had hers, she knew the only weapon she had was her wits. She takes out a pair of gloves and pushes a button on each of them. They light up and reveal themselves to be Black Widow Bites, which she had stolen off her treacherous friend one year ago during Operation: White Widow.
She looked around to access which room she had been in. It was the top floor and there were railings over and the floor was a big grate. She could see several vats of green chemicals below her and wondered what would happen if she were to dive into one. Chemicals are tanks of acid so she would die. The first thing on her bucket list is to die of old age and that was a goal she was determined to achieve.
Aside from that, the room appeared to be an observation room with bulletproof glass in front of her to overlook the whole factory. There were only two windows and neither one had a lock. There was one door labeled exit but it was barricaded from the inside. The lights were off and the only way Nat could see was because her Black Widow Bites gloves were giving off a soft blue light to let her see, but only two feet in front of her.
"Where are you?" she whispered so quietly that not even she could hear her voice. "Face me like a real opponent."
Rappaccini hid in the shadows and raised her gun to her eye level. She aimed her sights with the back of Nat's head and prepared to pull the trigger.
Nat freezes and sweat falls her face like water from an ice-cold cup. She looks in the corner of her eyes, her head slowly turning in the right direction but with determination and will, she stops herself from rotating her entire body off her shoulder. She makes a fist and feels the adrenaline pumping within as she attacks.
She discreetly pulls out two batons from her holster, aware that she is being watched, and clicks them together to make a bo staff. A bo staff version of her Black Widow Bites gloves. She looks up at a sprinkler just five feet above her head. Her bo staff was six feet long and it doesn't take much time to think or act as she shocked the sprinkler with the bo staff.
Rappaccini was slightly startled by the fire suppression system suddenly became active and doused her in smoke and water. She dropped her guard only for a split second but it cost her.
Nat did a one-eighty and she whacked the gun out of Rappaccini's hand like a baseball bat. Rappaccini refused to be reactive and took a proactive approach by reaching for another gun. It was instantly hammered out of her hand but she was hit in the wrist and received a shock.
"Rappaccini?" Nat said as she twirled the bo staff. "Finally, we meet in flesh and blood. This time, no Photostatic Veil mask to conceal your identity."
Rappaccini's eyes lit up in amusement as she moved to the side and kept her guard up. She knew she was no match for Nat Romanoff but she had a high survival instinct combined with high intelligence and was more than ready to do damage to her. "How did you figure it out? How did you escape the hypnotism? I had Rose hypnotize you into killing yourself in the end."
"Why not just outright kill me?" Nat asked. "Would've saved you a hell of a lot of time."
"You're not supposed to die until Project: Flower was complete. You were supposed to be A.I, M's scapegoat, the one to blame when a biochemical weapon spread all over Washington D.C. Then New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, then the whole state. Well, in case you got caught. I was going to finish Project: Flower myself and I needed someone to frame in case things went haywire."
"Have I wronged you in some way?" Nat stops, causing Rappaccini to stop as well. "Is this about the Super-Adaptoid robot I scrapped?"
She shook her head. "No, nothing on this mission was personal. It has always been A.I.M. 's plan to overthrow the government but when it collapsed about a year ago, I was determined to finish the mission. It wasn't easy when you think about it because I had to fake my death, kill everybody that I worked with, and find someone to frame."
The pieces were starting to fit together and Nat was starting to get the bigger picture. "After Super-Adaptoid was scrapped, A.I.M. started collapsing. It was AIM's goal to overthrow the government as always, right?"
She nods.
Nat continues. "If you overthrew the government with a biochemical weapon, then America would hate the government for their failure and then AIM would've used this opportunity to profit and become bigger than before."
Rappaccini claps. "Congratulations. None of this is personal, just a mission that needs to be completed."
Nat began to see some similarities between her and Rappaccini. They were both women working for large organizations, completed and devoted to a task, and they had a partner (ie: Tony and Rose). But there was one thing that separated Nat from Rappaccini.
While Rappaccini puts the mission first before lives, Nat would never harm innocent people to get a mission done. That is where their similarities end. If Nat had stayed committed and devoted herself entirely to the Red Room, then she would've been something like Rappaccini.
Except I can fight.
Rappaccini lunged for the door. Nat reacted quickly and hit her in the leg. Rappaccini falls to the ground and clutches her calf. Nat hits her several more times and shocks her with a couple of volts of electricity that make her shake like she's having a seizure.
"Enough mind games, Rappaccini, where's the detonator?" She shouldered her bo staff and picked Rappaccini up by her collars. "Where's the goddamn trigger?" She punches the woman in the nose and breaks it. "Where is it?"
She wasn't talking, not surprising on either end. She shoves the villain to the ground and searches her pockets. She found the trigger in her back pocket and took it. She moves to the side and examines it. It was a C4 detonator or an M57 firing device with a short antenna. It looked like the kind from Call of Duty. There was only one button, the clacker, and she was worried that if she pressed the clicker one more time, then this whole chemical plant would evaporate with chemicals and the fumes would get to her.
Rappaccini crawls away but not for the door, a table. She pushes herself up and reaches under the table and feels the grip of a gun. There you are. She picks herself up to her feet as she pulls out a Webley Hurricane firearm. You goddamn three-dollar slut, I'm going to murder you in your sleep.
Nat took out an acupuncture needle from a matchbook in her pocket and pricked Rappaccini in the nape. You stole my acupuncture paralyzing technique now you'll get a taste of the doctor's medicine.
Unfortunately, Nat underestimated how strong Rappaccini's survival instinct, reflexes, and quick thinking was.
Rappaccini gaps in horror and quickly does a one-eighty and shoots Nat.
Nat looks down at her stomach and feels the pain and drug doing the job that it was supposed to do: Tranquilize its target
"Oh shit," Nat slurred as collapsed to one knee. "Motherfu…." She falls on her side and the last thing she saw before the lights went out was Rappaccini freezing up.
Rappaccini stood paralyzed with her arm in a position holding up a tranquilizer pistol and she cracked a smile as she looked down at Nat.
Nat couldn't keep it up any longer. Her eyelids were getting heavy and breath slowing down. Even as she was passing out, she managed to get one partial thought out:
I hope you choke on y….