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Black Huntress

(Black Widow + Huntress)

Name: Natasha Bertinelli

Biography: Few people know the true history of Natasha Bertinelli. As one of, if not the best secret agent on Earth, this is to be expected. However, top secret files from the Advanced Strategic Institution for Defeating Enemies or ASIDE (SHIELD + ARGUS), written by Amanda Fury (Amanda Waller + Nick Fury) herself, contain what is perhaps the most likely story of her origin.

Natasha was born the only daughter of the head of the Berinelli crime family. As she was just a child at the time, she had no idea that her father was one of the most powerful mob bosses in Gotham City. So when her father told her to hide in the closet as six black cars with no license plates pulled in front of their mansion, she was confused and scared but did as she was told. From behind the closet door she watched as armed men stepped inside and filled her parents full of lead right in front of her. The assassins then walked away, leaving Helena as the sole survivor.

During her parents' funeral she was visited by a man who called himself a friend of the family, Ivan Cassamento (Ivan Petrovich + Santo Cassamento). Ivan explained to her that the people who killed her parents were out to finish the job. But if she came with him, he could take her to a place far from Gotham, somewhere they wouldn't think to look. Natasha agreed and soon thereafter, found herself on a plane headed for the Soviet Union. When they arrived, Ivan handed Natasha over to one of his contacts in the KGB, who then enlisted her into the Black Huntress Ops Program.

There in the horrifying Red Room, Natasha trained with over twenty other female orphans into becoming the ultimate spy. They didn't just train the girls in espionage, they altered their body chemistry to live longer, subjected them to countless hours of brainwashing, and forced them to become some of the deadliest people on the planet. By the time it was over, they were all tasked to kill their fellow students. In the end, Natasha Bertinelli was the sole survivor and was remade into the Black Huntress.

For decades, Natasha loyally served the KGB and Russia as their greatest agent, committing countless evil acts for the country who had taken her childhood away from her. Then one day, she was tasked by her handlers to infiltrate Gotham City and kill Bruce Stark (Batman + Iron Man).

Before she could get to her target, she knew she'd have to take care of his personal bodyguard, Iron Bat. It didn't matter how skilled or how strong she was, she knew she wasn't a match for the Armored Crusader on her own. That's when she noticed a new hero who had just arrived in Gotham hoping to make a name for himself, the Green Hawk (Green Arrow + Hawkeye).

Black Huntress seduced the aspiring archer and together, they tried to destroy Iron Bat. But during the battle, the Black Huntress was seriously injured. So Green Hawk stopped the fight to get Natasha to safety. When she woke up, she saw Green Hawk tending to her wounds and asked what happened. He explained that he ran away to take care of the Huntress after she was hurt. This one act of true, simple kindness broke through to Natasha and brought back the memories that the Red Room had suppressed. The next morning, Green Hawk came to check on her only to see that she disappeared.

After that, news reports started talking about multiple members of Gotham's mafia being brutally murdered every night for multiple weeks. Green Hawk knew that Black Huntress was behind this and asked Iron Bat to help him find her. She was located in the mansion of Stefano Silvio (Stefano Mandragora + Silvermane), the boss of bosses of all of Gotham's Italian crime families.

As Natasha avenged her parents' murder by putting a crossbow bolt between Stefano's eyes, dozens of KGB agents burst into the room. They knew that Natasha had defected and were there to kill her. While they weren't nearly as well trained, there were still too many of them and it looked like she'd meet her end. But then, Iron Bat and Green Hawk arrived, turning the tide and saving her life.

After hearing her story of why she went after the Gotham mafia, Iron Bat sympathized and offered Black Huntress and Green Hawk a spot on the Avengers League (Avengers + Justice League). They both accepted and not only would Natasha go on to save the world a few times alongside Earth's greatest heroes, she also joined ASIDE, hoping they would help her put her skills to good use.

But that wasn't her only reason for joining them. After climbing the ranks, Black Huntress found what she was looking for, the location of the Red Room. It was still active, still turning young girls into Black Huntresses. Natasha was going to save those girls and put an end to her quest for vengeance by destroying the Red Room once and for all. When she arrived, she was face-to-face with the man who sent her to the Red Room in the first place, now rebuilt into a powerful cyborg, Ivan Cassamento.

Cassamento went on to explain that he was the one who ordered the hit that left Natasha an orphan. He was having an affair with Natasha's mother and he had planned to kill the rest of the family and run away with her. However, the men he hired screwed up the order to leave her mother alive and spared her by accident. Ivan hated Natasha from the depths of his soul, she was never supposed to survive. He blamed her for her mother's death so he decided to send her to the worst place he could think of: the Red Room. The only miscalculation with his plan was that Natasha survived. A miscalculation he was going to correct.

But despite his cyborg enhancements, Ivan proved no match for Natasha, who left him in pieces before blowing up the Red Room with him inside it. At long last, everyone and everything responsible for her decades of misery was gone. Her mission complete, Natasha returned to doing what she does best, stopping threats to the world with the Avengers League, and eliminating threats for ASIDE. Even without godlike powers or weapons of mass destruction, the Black Huntress may just be the deadliest hero alive.

Powers & Abilities: As part of her transformation into the Black Huntress, Natasha was injected with the Russians' super-soldier serum. While it didn't make her as powerful as Super-Soldier (Superman + Captain America) it did push her natural attributes to the absolute peak of human ability, making her slightly more strong, fast, agile, and durable that what a human can possibly be. The serum also enhanced her immune system and slowed her aging to a crawl.

While in the Red Room, she was trained in a variety of different skills including stealth, espionage, martial arts, marksmanship and even seduction. They also gave her a catsuit made from synthetic stretch fabric. Despite it's skintight appearance, it's able to tank small arms fire and resist high temperatures. It also has microscopic suction cups allowing her to crawl up walls and cling to surfaces.

But more impressive than that are her gauntlets. Worn around her forearms, the gauntlets contain a grappling hook, built-in crossbows that automatically replace their bolts faster than any human could, and the Huntress' Trap, which fires 30,000 volts of electricity from up to twenty feet away, stunning nearly anybody they come into contact with.

Appearance: Natasha has black hair, blue eyes, and an olive skin tone. Her outfit as the Black Huntress is simply a black spy catsuit which covers her entire body except for her head. The only feature of the catsuit that stands out is the purple hourglass emblem on her stomach. Aside from that, she also wears a simple black domino mask and her yellow gauntlets that surround her forearms.