Chapter 8: Avenger

November 12th, 2013

The next few weeks were the best and most interesting weeks of Natasha's life. She stayed with Steve in the tower when she had to be there, but didn't speak to Tony at all. She mostly spent her time in Steve's room or out in New York.

When she was with Steve, they worked on their relationship, progressed it, and grew very happy. She made sure he had caught up on most modern tech and everything he needed to know. She had even taught him how to use a computer properly. They watched a movie every night, to catch him up on that front. Back to the Future, Terminator, Rocky, all the famous ones. They had been sleeping together as well, some of the best she had ever had. But just sleeping in the same bed with him alleviated all of her nightmares. She felt safe with him, and she hoped he felt the same way with her.

Aside from her relationship with Steve, she was also working furiously to rebuild her web. She'd been talking non-stop with Isaiah and Idit, who were personal and top secret friends/accountants of hers, trying to figure out where all of her money went. They managed to sell most of the safe houses that were compromised or not foreclosed on, which put about a million total back in her pocket. Really short of what her web once was before Hydra, but better than nothing. She was trying to track down the Winter Soldier for Steve, and that needed money and resources.

With all of her attempts though, she was having absolutely no luck. He really was the master at espionage and hiding. Not even a whisper from all her little spiders all around the world. She was disappointed on this front, she wanted to tell Steve so badly that she found James, but she couldn't. She couldn't focus on both of them at once, and she was currently speaking with a possible group to help her get what she wanted, and not having much luck.

"What are you talking about that you're busy," Natasha said over a video call.

"I mean the bus team is busy," May responded.

She had been in contact with the remaining members of Shield ever since its demise. She helped train May in the early days of Shield, and Coulson was still a dear friend.

"Busy enough to ignore help from Captain America," Natasha questioned. "I can't believe Coulson would ignore something like that."

"Well there is the Inhuman problem that's going on," May said. "And he has taken a liking to Daisy Johnson."

"So much he's told me," Natasha relented. "Fine, but I want a report on this Inhuman problem and what's going on with that."

"That much I can do," May said.

Natasha nodded and closed her laptop. She sighed and placed it on the coffee table in Steve's living room. She brushed some hair out of her eyes and wiped a hand across her face, deep in thought about the entire situation she was currently in. Trying to rebuild her web, finding James, and worrying about when the Avengers will come calling for the hunt for Hydra. She knew it had to be soon, Stark had resources out searching, and he had the best resources out there.

She only hoped that her wedding gift, plus time, had at least mended the bridge enough to where they could have each other's backs on the battlefield.

"Hey," Steve greeted with a smile and a kiss on the cheek as he walked in the room. She knew he had been out in his room reading and just relaxing, and normally she would be there as well, but her volume and mood would definitely have soured his time. She was about to greet him back, but Jarvis took that time to break up the reunion.

"Terribly sorry to interrupt," JARVIS said, "but Mr. Stark has called an emergency Avengers meeting in the main boardroom."

"Duty calls us," Steve just said with a smile, heading towards the door already.

"As always the timing is perfect," Natasha added getting up as well.

She followed Steve out, grabbing her black leather jacket and slipping it on along the way. She also slipped into her boots that were by the door and hoped this was good enough. She figured that jeans and a tank top, which wasn't very modest, wasn't the appropriate attire for a meeting. She also slid a glock into the waistband of her jeans just in case. She had always learned to carry a weapon with her, something she picked up with the KGB that just never dropped. And especially with Stark, who could pop at any minute, it was a necessity for her.

"So, this has got to be the last of Hydra right," Natasha brought up as they were walking. "I mean, I told you about what Coulson and his team told me. Fury tasked them to finish off the small pockets of Hydra as we were going to, but the big stuff comes to us ultimately. This must have been too big for them to deal with, otherwise why contact us?"

Natasha thought about it for a second, and then had a slight revelation.

"Unless there is something more interesting about this base in particular," Natasha said slowly, turning her head to face Steve as she kept walking.

"I guess we'll find out," Steve was saying as they entered the meeting room. Bruce and Terra were already there and Tony was walking in as well, and the room was silent.

For about 0.002 seconds.

A folder full of papers thudded onto the round table in the middle of the room, as Tony dumped them from his arms, its documents spilling onto the surface. A photo caught Bruce's eye and he stepped forward, slipping the glasses from his breast pocket onto his face. He gingerly picked up the photo.

It was Loki's sceptre.

"This is... not good," said Bruce.

"No shit," Tony replied, standing flush against the chair two down from him. "The clean-up crew found these documents in the latest wreckage from Los Angeles. After the invasion, the sceptre went into SHIELD custody to keep it as far from Loki as possible. When Hydra took down SHIELD, they managed to get their grimy hands on it. These papers say it's being held in a base in Sokovia, a small country in eastern Europe that I can honestly say I've never heard of before today. There's a Hydra base there that's been doing who knows what kind of 'research' on this thing for who knows how long."

"We've got to get it back," Steve declared, closing the file he'd been flipping through.

"Captain Obvious is right," said Tony. "So we're going on a mission."

"Sokovia," Natasha said, knowing she heard that name before.

She took the file from Steve and opened it up and looked at the picture of the base.

"Now I remember," Natasha said. "It was an area granted to Hydra after World War II by the Soviets. In exchange, they would provide genetic enhancement tech to the USSR for immunity. That's where a lot of the Red Room's serums and tech came from. It was run by a family named Strucker. That area was hit pretty hard with weapons that Obadiah Stane dealt under the table from Stark Industries, so they aren't too fond of Iron Man or the Avengers over there. That means that volunteer soldiers for Hydra shouldn't be hard to come by."

Natasha looked up from the file and around the room.

"Especially if they are still working on genetic enhancement. And with the power of the scepter."

"Hmm," Terra hummed, looking at the picture of the sceptre over Bruce's shoulder. "Welp, it's a hella long flight to Sokovia. We should leave, before they know that we know what they know. Wheels up in 10?" Terra suggested.

"What about Barton?" Natasha asked. "This is a big attack and he may be needed. I can call and get him back from his leave, but it'll be an hour or so."

She still didn't have the guts to tell anyone about Barton's family, even Steve. It wasn't her secret to tell in the first place, and she loved that family with everything she had. Especially Laura with little Natasha on the way, she didn't want anything to jeopardize their safety.

Steve nodded at Natasha. "Call him. According to these papers, it's a big base. We're gonna need a lot of manpower. And he's our best pilot," he said with a smile.

"That's it?" Tony said, surprising everybody. "We just waltz in there, guns blazing? No big speech? No meeting about plans? That's not like you, Cap. Not that I'm complaining. Or do you already have a plan?"

Steve grinned. "I have a plan: attack." He closed the folder he'd been looking at and dropped it on the table. He grasped Terra's shoulder gently, followed by a nod of acknowledgement. "Wheels up in an hour"

The one hour till launch was tricky for Natasha and Clint to work around. Clint had to leave his family abruptly, who were visiting from Iowa, and get geared up. They were scheduled on a first class trip back to Des Moines a couple hours later, courtesy of Natasha. Clint was pretty disappointed and frustrated at the timing though.

"I can't believe I had to miss that game," Clint said, walking down the hall with Natasha towards the landing pad.

"It was a Yankees game," Natasha said. "You're not missing much. Plus, Cooper is already in love with the Red Sox, I made sure of that."

"So much for me trying to get him to be a Royals fan," Clint grumbled, but Natasha knew it was in good nature.

Natasha had told them that she went to get Clint away from his leave, and took off without answering any questions, even Steve's. It killed her to do that, she didn't want to keep secrets from Steve, but she knew she had to. Clint knew that too, and he was always on her to tell him about his family. She always shot him down, saying that it was best if as few people knew about Laura and the kids as possible.

Natasha had changed into her new suit, since her one from the Mexico City disaster was filled with knife cuts and bullet holes. It was a new model, still all black but with small power packs around her calves. There were cables that ran up her sides and down her arms that connected to her wrist gauntlets, allowing her to better control how much of a shock she could give to any opponent. Her belt contained numerous pouches for Widow bites, small medical supplies, air breather, etc; and on the front, the trademark hourglass. She was embracing her name, no matter what. She had a couple holsters on her hips for her pistols, and also a new stun baton she had developed that she thought to try out. When everything was charged, from her power packs and cables to the batons, they all glowed a light blue color.

Clint himself just had on a standard black combat suit, but he added a black and maroon trench coat of sorts. It was a snowy area in Sokovia they were going to and Clint claimed he was just trying to stay warm. He was really just trying to look cool. He had himself a quiver with every known arrow imaginable, and his bow strapped over his shoulder as well.

The two walked out onto the landing pad and towards the jet. They got there just as they heard a large crash, followed by a curse.

"Frick!," they heard Terra yell.

"Frick?" Natasha said, walking in the jet. "What are we, in middle school?"

Clint chuckled and headed to the cockpit to prime the jet for takeoff. Steve, already in the jet himself, chuckled at Terra's antics

"Trying something new?" Steve asked, referring to Terra's choice of words.

"You betcha," Terra replied to Steve with a sigh. "Doing a verbal cleanse. Don't want to accidentally swear in front of Kara and have her cuss out kids that take her favourite jump-rope like I did at eleven." Terra stretched her arms up, feeling stiff from sitting in meetings all day. "Gavin Lewinski was a lil' shi-" she stopped herself, looking up at the ceiling in exasperation. "...a lil' troublemaker."

Natasha chuckled at that, clearly still a work in progress.

Tony waltzed in last, accompanied by Bruce. The two of them were deep in conversation, but there was too much science jargon for Natasha to bother wanting to follow along. She knew that they were both working on a new project, one they'd been pretty tight-lipped about. Natasha wasn't even sure if Terra or Steve knew about whatever it was they were planning, that's how secret it was. Steve had tried asking once and it hadn't ended well. It appeared to be a touchy subject, so Natasha just stayed clear, not wanting to ruffle any more feathers than she already had.

"Gangs all here Barton," Natasha said. "Get us going."

Barton nodded and lifted the ramp. He flipped the switches and started up the quintet, ready to head to Sokovia.

Natasha sauntered over to Steve and discretely patted him on the backside before heading to the cockpit, smiling coyly at him the entire time. God he looked good in his uniform, and she also didn't miss the smirk and slight 'not the time' glare he gave her. She still felt the weight of his dog tags around her neck as she sat down in the co-pilot chair. She put on the headset and flipped the last few switches as the jet lifted off the ground.

"We got cars to move us quickly on the ground once we get there," Natasha asked back to the man that had the most resources out of all of them. "Not all of us can fly or run as fast as a super soldier."

"All taken care of," Tony said in reply to Natasha. "Cap requested I start storing motorcycles here so I've got three stashed under the floor. Figured Banner and I don't need them and the rest of you can share."

"Also, that's as many as the quinjet can carry," Bruce added

"Then we'll make do with what we've got," Steve said confidently. He reached for the duffel bag he'd placed under the bench and pulled out some of the files from the meeting. He flipped through them until he found a schematic of the Hydra base. "The base is too big for a stealth mission," Steve said. "So we go all in. Launch an all-out attack. Stark, you're on aerial duty. Grab the snipers, the reinforcements, and the big weapons. Banner, according to the files, they've got a lot of manpower and possibly weapons powered by the scepter. It's a safe bet we're going to need the Other Guy on this."

Bruce nodded solemnly.

"Barton, Romanoff, Montgomery, and I will take the bikes. The base is surrounded by forest so we'll have to find somewhere to land just on the outskirts. Landing too close could cause us to get shot out of the sky, even with the cloaking system. The noise is a dead giveaway. Stark, Banner, you're both on security. You stay outside of the base until we call you and you distract the guards. The rest of us, whoever gets inside first finds the sceptre and gets out. Once we have it secured, we can give 'em hell."

"How am I supposed to ride and shoot?" Clint asked.

"You'll sit with me and protect my back and I'll drive," Natasha said. "More than likely, they'll have vehicles of their own, so we can nab one of those."

Natasha turned back to the group and added a couple more details.

"This castle goes back to before World War I," Natasha said. "Expect numerous tunnels, dead ends, and traps. They probably know that they could be found by us, so they'll be prepared. Plus, with the scepter and their history, there is a good chance we'll have enhanced."

"Agreed," Steve said. "Let's give them hell."

In the wintery woods of Sokovia, the jet had touched down, hidden in the trees and positioned several kilometres outside the Hydra base radius. Disturbing the quiet wood were three motorcycles ripping through the snow and weaving between the trees.

Terra was flanking right, her skin vibranium from touching Steve's shield before they left. It was quiet now, but would only be a matter of time before they came across foot-guards. Her eyes scanning up, Terra spotted a security camera hidden in the branches of a tree. Whipping out her pistol with a silencer on it, she quickly shot the lens after a quick turn around a tree. "Well, they definitely know we are here now," she commented in the comm, looking at the radio wave radar on the motorcycle. "I'm also picking up a guard tower about 3 klicks northeast from here."

Natasha and Clint were flanking left, Natasha driving while Clint sat behind her, holding onto her waist for now.. Natasha jumped over a small bump to avoid a log and landed pretty hard on the other side.

"Dammit Tasha," Clint said, wincing in pain when they landed. "Laura will be pissed if I can't use that anymore, and with your driving it may be put out of commission."

"Relax Barton," Natasha said, taking a hard left to avoid an energy burst that appeared out of nowhere. "Starting to fire at the people that are shooting at us would be a good start."

Natasha pulled up her radar as well and looked to the left.

"We have a vehicle depot on the left," Natasha said into comms. "Barton and I will take it out before they can launch anything serious."

Steve had taken the lead and acted as head of their triangle formation before they split up. Iron Man zoomed over his head, nearly clipping Steve on the way by.

"I got the tower," Stark announced, disappearing through the trees before he'd even finished the sentence.

"We're still a way's out from the compound," he reminded over the comms. "Don't lose sight of the main objective."

"Don't worry, Cap. JARVIS caught a glimpse of the inside. They're running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We got this," Tony said.

"Remember how we got into the compound in Budapest," Natasha yelled as they approached the vehicle depot.

"I wasn't exactly fond of it then," Clint said, letting a few arrows fly.

"Stark I apologize for the motorcycle in advance," Natasha yelled into comms just before the action started.

Natasha slid the bike and it started sliding on the pavement. The bike crashed through two guards and the gate, opening up a giant hole into the depot. Natasha had rolled off and sprinted around the right side into the depot. She made her way over to the nearest jeep that had a guy in it. She tossed a widow bite to her right, hitting a man right in the neck and dropping him. She pulled out both of her pistols and fired three shots to take out all of the Hydra soldiers on the jeep she was choosing. She got to the door and yanked it open and pulled the dead soldier out and hopped in the driver's seat.

Clint had jumped up from the motorcycle and fired two arrows into the guard tower, taking out both of the guards in one shot. He used a couple of his explosive arrows to take out some groups of jeeps and hopped into the back of the jeep Natasha was currently in.

"Go go go," Clint yelled and Natasha slammed her foot on the gas pedal and they rocketed out of the depot.

They started down the road that seemed to lead to the compound, weaving off road when there were explosions around them. They currently had a couple jeeps on their tail and Clint was firing at any Hydra flying soldiers that were trying to buzz them. Blasts of blue energy whizzed past their heads from the tailing jeeps, who seemed to have advanced weaponry cannons mounted on them. What a nice thing to have on their jeep.

We now have literally no element of surprise, Natasha thought as she swerved between a couple trees and avoided another blast.

She was still navigating the best she could when one of the flying troops came up beside her. She jabbed him quickly in the neck and then kicked the door, sending it and her foot into the soldier. He careened off path and right into a tree. Natasha had little time to relish as she turned her eyes to the road once again. Behind her, Clint was still keeping her cover the best he could when a flying troop landed on the back of their jeep. He quickly pulled an electric arrow and stuck it right in the soldier's neck and the troop dropped quickly.

It was considerably slower progressing through the forest with the jeep instead of the motorcycle, but considerably safer. Clint was picking Hydra soldiers off left and right and Natasha even had the pleasure of running a couple over.

Nat glanced up ahead and saw a laser blast go right by Steve's head as he sped through the forest. Her heart dropped a little bit and she became distracted.

"Nat focus up," Clint yelled at her just in time for her to barely avoid an oncoming tree.

Natasha shook her head and focused back on the road.

"Sorry," she said back to Clint.

"It's all good," Clint said, taking out another flyer. "This is new for you, try and compartmentalize until after the battle. It's what I do."

Natasha nodded and turned a corner, tossing a bunch of snow onto a couple of Hydra soldiers. There was a barricade coming up ahead, and they were running out of road. There was also the fact of a couple of jeeps and other Hydra troops in the way of that path. She heard the Hulk and Terra making a lot of noise behind her, so she figured the best chance was to send the jeep moving forward and jump.

"Get ready to bail out," Natasha yelled as she stomped on the gas pedal.

Steve caught up with Nat and Clint's jeep, keeping steady with them as they headed for the ramp, Terra meeting back up with them as well. Tony followed, lowering himself to their level to make sure they landed safely. The Hulk stomped after them, easily maintaining speed. The barricade appeared and then disappeared beneath them, leaving them all airborne.

Natasha sprinted through the forest, dodging blasts and gunfire. While she was running, she heard a very loud curse through comms.

"Shit!" Tony yelled.

Language," Steve chimed, and had Natasha not physically been in the heat of battle, she would have definitely made fun of him. "JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?"

Through everyone's comms, JARVIS replied: "The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken."

Then the sceptre must be here," Terra said. "Doubt they could create that great of a defence without it. At long last," she huffed dramatically.

She grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin and tossed it at a passing jeep without even looking if she hit her target. By the sound of the large explosion, she knew that she hit something. She came up on a small hill, with a machine gun nest on the opposite side. She jumped over the nest and punched one of the gunners in the face as she was coming down. He fell unconscious and she tucked into a roll on the other side.

There were two guards on the back side and she quickly moved towards them. She swung up on the taller one, wrapping her legs around his neck. She reached over and grabbed the second man's neck tightly and twisted her body, snapping both of their necks and bringing them to the ground. She brought herself upright on one knee and took in her surroundings.

"At long last is lasting a little long guys," Natasha commented in the comms.

She glanced back over her shoulder and saw a Hydra soldier still firing out of the machine gun. She pulled out her pistol and shot him a couple times, effectively neutralizing the nest.

Clint was firing arrows in a group of trees. He barely dodged a blast from a heavy bunker and growled. He pulled an explosive arrow from his quiver and loaded it up before quickly spinning behind him where the bunker was located and fired it right into the window. A couple seconds later, the bunker exploded as the arrow went off and Clint ducked back behind the tree.

"Yeah," Clint said, piggybacking on Nat's concern about this getting out of hand. "I think we lost the element of surprise."

"Wait a second, no one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?" Tony said, obviously not wanting to let that little quip go.

"I know," Steve replied, obviously realizing his mistake and hoping no one else would notice.

Natasha moved through the forest with grace and precision, taking out any stray soldiers she saw along the way and advancing slowly towards the castle. She stopped in her tracks when she heard a loud shot and a grunt of pain near her. She looked to her right and saw Clint collapse to the ground.

"Clint," she yelled, switching directions and sprinting over to him.

As she was on her way, Steve's voice came in over comms. "We have an enhanced in the field."

"Clint's hit," Natasha said, sprinting over to his side.

She fired her pistol a couple times randomly and kneeled down at Barton's side. He was groaning and ducking away as the Hydra bunker kept firing at him. Natasha ducked as well and assessed the wound. It was deep and bloody. She started to pull out bandages and a painkiller shot, but the bunker was making it very difficult.

"Does somebody want to deal with that bunker," Natasha asked.

Just then, a bright and colorful stream of lights came from the sky and crashed down in the forest near Natasha and Clint. She looked up incredulously, almost forgetting Clint in what she was seeing. At first, she thought it was something that was going to be brought out to attack them, until a hammer pulsing with lightning shot out of the brightly colored lights and flew right into the Hydra bunker, destroying it to pieces.

Then, the hammer stopped in mid-air and made its way back to the pulsing lights. All of a sudden, the lights went out and a man with blonde hair and full armor with a red cape caught the hammer and looked over at the two. Natasha almost couldn't believe it, but this had to be the Asguardian that Coulson described in his encounter in New Mexico. Thor, she recalled his name.

"Thank you," Natasha said, hesitantly as he walked over.

"Barton," Thor said. "Is he alright?"

Natasha snapped back into action as she started to patch up Clint's wound and inject the painkiller shot in his neck.

"Thor?" Clint managed. "Haven't seen you for a while."

"It has been some time," Thor said. "I received word that Loki's scepter was found and the Avengers were chasing after it. The scepter belongs on Asgard, so I am here to help retrieve it."

"Umm okay," Natasha said, not really in the position to argue with a god. She got on comms to let everyone else know the situation. "Guys, Thor is here. Says he's going to help get the scepter."

The confirmations came all around the group and Natasha focused on getting Clint patched up the best she could in the field. Thor left to help someone else while Natasha worked. She finally got him as stable as possible and reported back to comms.

"Clint's hit pretty bad guys," Natasha said, knowing he needed to get back to the jet.

After a few seconds, Thor had come back and scooped Clint off the ground and took him back to the jet. Clint had made a reference to an old movie, which Natasha snickered at and Thor didn't get, before he jumped back into the air. Natasha moved on, not looking at the ground where her best friend had just laid.

Natasha proceeded to finish cleaning up the area after that, the Sokovian National Guard coming in to lead away prisoners. She took a look around and nodded to herself, everything was wrapping quite nicely. It almost seemed too easy, but everything checked out here.

"We're locked down out here," Natasha said into comms.

Montgomery, I think it's time for a lullaby," Steve said, knowing that the Hulk needed to be corralled and Terra had been working on a lullaby to help solve this.

"Way ahead of you," Terra replied and Natasha allowed herself to take a deep breath to relax and then went to head back to the jet to take care of her friend, knowing the rest would be able to take care of everything else.

A/N

And we begin Age of Ultron, but much better since we've repaired the Ultron dialogue and, no offense to any Brutasha fans out there, but that horrible ship is gone. Again credit to A Velvet Rose and SarahCon for their contributions.

Reviews always appreciated