Chapter 2: The Widow's Sting
Later in the day, after watching several episodes of She-Ra, Adora was out for a walk in the facility. Despite the fact that they had abandoned nearly all HYDRA ties the Followers of Inperatio were surprisingly well funded, and from what little she remembered about the HYDRA facility, this place much better. The Hallways were decorated with sigils and images of the being they claimed to follow, the rooms were much more tolerable than the near prison-like sterile rooms of HYDRA. Plus, she admitted, it was less intimidating seeing the Followers members in their crimson and black as opposed to the pure black faceless guards at HYDRA. Furthermore, the facility was connected to an Orphanage above it, from which Santos would take children for her experiments, or to raise as new followers.
Though many of the soldiers, like with HYDRA, wouldn't speak with her or Catra very frequently, even the other children stayed away. In fact they seemed scared of the two, or rather, scared of Dr. Santos. While it did make their lives rather lonely, it did manage to make the two grow up much closer than ever.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by a hand resting on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Dr. Santos looking down at her. "O-Oh, hey ma'am. what's going on?" she asked.
Santos grabbed her other shoulder as well. "I found a job for you Adora. A perfect test for your abilities" she explained, causing Adora's eyes to widen.
"You do, Doctor? Alright I finally get to use my training!" Adora exclaimed, jumping with joy, before composing herself and standing at attention. "What's my assignment ma'am?"
Dr. Santos smirked and walked with the young girl, never letting go of her shoulders. "You are to go to Washington and kill Senator Stern. We're being offered quite a bit of money to see him dead." she described, showing Adora an image of the senator.
"U-uh...kill him? Assassination so soon?" Adora questioned nervously. She had never taken a life before. Suddenly Santos' grip tightened on her shoulders causing Adora to go rigid.
"Senator Stern is a very bad man, and our client is willing to fund us greatly for ridding the world of him. You're the only one I trust to do it my dear Adora. My perfect soldier." she spoke, in an eerie whisper.
"W-well what about Catra? she's more stealthy than I am?" Adora recommended.
Santos gave her an icy glare and the bitterness was barely hidden as she spoke, "Catra isn't worthy of this job. Only you are. None of the other children are. Only. You."
Adora gulped nervously and nodded, "Y-yes ma'am, right away ma'am. When do I depart."
At that, Santos's demeanor softened up once again and she smiled. "You'll depart as son as you're ready. I look forward to hearing of your success Adora." she said in a sickeningly sweet sounding voice, chilling Adora to the bone. As her grip released, Adora hurried back to her room and began to change into her uniform.
As soon as she was dressed, Catra happened to walk in and her eyes lit up. "Adora! You ot an assignment!?" She gleefully yelled, Squeeing in the process.
Adora cracked a smile, "Yeah...I'm to kill an American Senator apparently." she explained, her vouice a bit quiet.
"You don't sound happy." Catra said, her ears twitching. "Something wrong, hairpoof?"
Adora had to bite her lip to not laugh out loud at Catra's rather embarrassing nickname for her. "Well, I've never killed anyone before. Santos says that he's a bad man and the person paying us wants him dead to protect people but… Well I can't shake the feeling." She began, getting into her combat suit and strapping a combat knife into her boot. "Plus it's my first assignment, what if I screw up? What if I get caught or killed. I'd be leaving you alone."
Before she could say anymore, Catra grabbed her arms, "Get a hold of yourself Adora you're gonna do fine. You're the coolest, you're even better than me, according to the doctor. She'd NEVER trust me with something like this." she told her.
Adora smiled back and moved her hands away. "Come on don't feel down, you'll have you chance soon, I'm sure of it." she told Catra, giving her a hug. "Now, I need to get going. But as soon as my job is done, I'll be back. Alright?"
Catra nodded, "And if you don't I'll kick your ass." she declared. Adora just laughed and waved goodbye as she joined a small squad of Followers and loaded onto a helicopter. Little did she know this job would be the one to change her life forever.
The Ride was long, quiet and did absolutely nothing to calm down Adora's nerves. She had been given the briefing by the other soldiers. Stern was going to be giving an address at Congress today, heavy security presence, and a possibility for SHIELD to be in the area. For whatever reason she was to kill him and leave his body for the public to find. The thought made her sick to her stomach, but she did her best to compose herself. She was a soldier and this was her job, that's all there was to it.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by one of the soldiers speaking up. "Miss, we'll be landing in 20 minutes. Are you ready?"
Adora looked up and nodded silently, before checking her pistol and knife. She put on a maroon coloured helmet that obscured her face and stood up, awaiting arrival. Eventually the helicopter set down a distance away from the mission sight, and the four departed, silently making their way to the Congress.
At that time, Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, and Clint Barton, Hawkeye, were acting on protective detail as the senator rehearsed his speech. She was watching from the crowd and Hawkeye had a higher vantage point. Only Clint could sit on a rooftop with a bow and STILL be confident he'll hit his mark. She thought to herself with a chuckle. She wasn't expecting anything to occur that day, but Fury thought otherwise. To quote the man himself, a "loudmouthed pain in the ass" like Stern had enemies, and there would be a lot who'd want to shut him up.
Her communicator crackled to life as Clint spoke, "I still don't see anything Nat, you got anything on your end?" asked the archer, his normal professional calm bleeding through.
"Nothing yet Clint. The Senator's coming on stage now." she replied, as Stern began his blustering. At that moment, movement caught her eye, and Natasha spied four figures moving, dressed in military gear. "Heads up Clint, Movement at 6 o'clock, headed right for the stage. Armed, dressed in black and red, do you see them?"
"Got them in my sights Nat. Might wanna get ready, I have a bad feeling things are going to get messy." he replied stoically, as he notched an Arrow.
Adora and her squad neared the target, and one of her squad-mates drew his weapon and took aim. Adora raised her hand to signal him to fire, when he was struck dead on in the chest by a purple shafted arrow, causing him to discharge his weapon into the air. Adora immediately ducked as the crowd was thrown into panic. "Son of a- We have a sniper!" she yelled out, before noticing Security trying to escort Stern away, "Stay on the target!"
Adora took off at a full sprint, faster than her soldiers, before climbing onto the stage. Her Soldiers engaged the security forces as she charged Stern. A Couple secret service agents drew their guns on her, but she quickly whipped out her pistol and shot them both non-lethally, A Third managed to land a strike with a baton and crack her visor. She responded by kicking him in the right knee, then slamming her own left knee into his face. He hit the ground like a sack of bricks and she ran over him to pursue the senator.
Her Soldiers stayed behind her to cover her, only for another to be dropped by an arrow as Widow leapt on stage to engage them. Adora meanwhile ran into another team of security forces and got to work. As they tried to grapple her she moved around them fluidly, before landing devastating blows with every hit. One was kicked headfirst into a wall, another fell to a full-on punch to the face, she grabs a third and swung him into a fourth, taking both out in a single strike. A final one tried to attack from behind, she didn't even turn around as she planted her fist in his face, and continued her pursuit.
It wasn't long before she cornered Stern trying to hide in a room off to the side. She calmly knocked out the last of the agents guarding him and approached him, taking aim with her handgun. Stern, after cowering, went wide eyed seeing the uniform, and then her eye and part of her face under the visor. "You...you're one of Lorra's little brats aren't you?" he said in complete disbelief.
Adora froze, tilting her head. "What….?" was all she could muster.
Stern continued, "Why the hell does Lorra want me dead? What did I do to her?"
Adora was in stunned disbelief. "How do you know Doctor Santos?" she asked in anger, "She told me this was a contract, she didn't mention knowing you! TELL ME!" she yelled out, shoving the gun to his head.
"Yeah well she lies about a lot of things kid! How naive are you?" he began to reply, before someone entered the room.
Natasha ran right in and cocked her own pistol. "Step away from the Senator, that's an order!" she yelled out.
Adora looked over and shifted her aim, but Natasha quickly closed the distance and kicked her gun out of her hand. Adora flipped back, drawing her knife and engaging Natasha in close combat. The trained assassin was able to swiftly dodge her knife attack before twisting her wrist to make her drop that as well. Adora yelled out in pain and landed a punch on Natasha with her other arm, making her let go. As she stumbled back, Natasha's eyes went wide at how much the punch hurt. Adora, using this brief moment of shock, closed the gap again and attempted a roundhouse kick, Natasha dodging it and sweeping her legs. Adora leapt over the sweep and attempted another punch. Natasha caught the punch, but was slowly being overpowered by Adora as she forced her to her knees. Thinking fast, she moved to the side to throw her off balance and kicked her in the ribs, then flip-kicked her right in the chin, knocking her helmet off.
Adora stumbled back and rubbed her chin, gritting her teeth. She'd never had this much trouble outside of fighting Catra. Seeing her face, Natasha was stunned, "A kid? You're just a kid?" she said in disbelief. Adora took advantage of this and charged her again, grabbing her and slamming her into the wall. Natasha swung her legs up and attempted her signature Hurricanrana to reverse the hold but Adora caught her legs and slammed her into the ground hard. She ran for her knife...and was suddenly dropped by a taser arrow striking her right in the back, causing her to collapse and lose consciousness. Natasha looked up to see Clint standing in the doorway and lowering her bow.
"Sorry Nat, had to step in there, that was just getting embarrassing." he said with a smile as he walked over and helped her up. Natasha gave him a friendly punch ion the arm and looked at the unconscious blond.
"Did you manage to round up her partners?" she asked, cuffing Adora.
Clint shook his head. "One got away in the chaos. The others are all dead. Either from my arrows or cyanide." he replied, helping her scoop Adora up. "What sick freak sends kids on jobs like this? Uh no offense Nat."
Natasha looked at Adora's face, then back to Clint. "None taken, I'm as pissed off about this as you are."
Some Time Later:
Catra made her way into the main hall, just in time to see a furious Santos executing the surviving soldier with a bullet to the brain, causing her to wince. She slowly approached and mustered up the courage to speak. "What's wrong? Where's Adora?"
Santos didn't even bother to look at her. "Adora is gone, apprehended by SHIELD." she said, walking towards her chambers. "And all I have left of any use is you."
Catra snarled at the blatant favouritism. She yelled back. "Is that such a bad thing?!"
"It is worse than you can possibly imagine." was the venomous reply.
Catra was hurt, right to the core and pleaded, "I can get her back! Send me out, I'll get her!"
Santos turned and gave Catra the iciest glare she could. "No Catra, you'll just continue to fail me. Get the hell out of my sight." she replied, entering her chambers and slamming the door. Catra fell to her knees, left with only her thoughts. She was furious about Santos's treatment, but more than that, she was worried for Adora's safety. What was SHIELD going to do with her?
To Be Continued…
Part Two at last! This is….the fastest I think I've had a chapter come up so far.
I've already had a question about the title so I'll explain it. It's a play on both a lyric from the She-Ra theme song "Warriors" and a reference to the best damn cartoon theme of all time, Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes' theme song "Fight as One"
Reviews are highly appreciated and encouraged. I'd love to hear feedback on this story and thoughts on how I can improve.
I do NOT own She-Ra or the MCU, duh, all characters belong to their respective franchise owners.
REMINDER: I HAVE ONLY SEEN SEASON 1 OF SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER.
PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ANY AND ALL SPOILERS, THANK YOU.
Next: A New Life in SHIELD