"You have that look in your eye," Clint Barton said, sitting down on the sofa next to Natasha, who was busy clenching her jaw and brooding.
"What look?" she asked, not even looking at her friend.
"Like you want to punch somebody," Clint replied with a hint of amusement in his tone. "What did Tony do now?"
Natasha shook her head. She didn't have time for playful banter, she was busy doing...something important that she'd rather not have Clint interfering in. The last thing she needed was another lame pep talk which was less pep and more depressed.
"Nothing," She said.
"Wow." Clint scratched his brow with the back of his thumb. "So, do you just want me to sit here and pretend that's an acceptable answer, or do you want to save us both some time?"
"It's nothing you need to worry about," Natasha hissed. "It's not even a big deal. Can't a person think in peace?"
"You're the one that came here!"
"My apartment was hijacked, I had no other option!"
Natasha finally turned to look at Clint. There was a question she needed to ask him, right on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't possibly ask it. It would look weird, and made her feel like she was carving out a vital organ and presenting it to him. She couldn't afford any more damage.
Before she or Clint could say anything, Steve Rogers suddenly appeared, his brows furrowed.
"Something wrong, Cap?" Natasha asked. Good, a distraction.
"I don't know," he said. "Come on you two, we're having a meeting."
It's been a bit since Natasha sat at this table with her teammates. Part of her missed it. But another part of her worries. She isn't quite sure why anymore. Something odd had been going on with her lately, but luckily she was good at hiding things.
Tony Stark is at the head of the table. He pulled up a picture of a familiar building on the monitor. Natasha realized it was one of many S.H.E.I.L.D compounds. But the entrances seemed to have been busted open somehow.
"What are we looking at?" Sam asked.
"Duty has been reporting a rapid number of various raids happening to compounds all across the globe."
"Racing an S.H.E.I.L.D compound?" Clint asked, surprised.
"How is that even possible," Wanda said. "It's a high-security establishment with thousands of highly trained agents."
"Do you know who ordered the raid'
Tony shrugged. " Not sure, but however it was had am army at their disposal."
"Army?" Natasha gasped. "They were that good?"
"Nick thinks that up against the Avengers this at has little to no chance, however-"
"We don't know what they want," Vison finished, thoughtfully.
"Whoever behind this must be planning something bigger," Steve started
"What'd they take?"
"Weapons," Yony replied. "And archive files."
"What would they want that for?"
"Beats me." Tony sat down on the edge of the table. "But whatever it was they must not have found what they wanted because they discarded the archive files shortly after taking them."
"What could this mean?" Sam wondered aloud looking to Steve for guidance.
Natasha clenched her fist. Something was off about all this.
"It means somebody is planning something," Natasha interjected. "And it's up to us to find out what that is."
"Us?" Steve asked, rating an eyebrow.
"Can't yet rid of me, cap," Natasha smirked. Besides, she was itching to bat somebody today.
"Where do we start?" Wanda asked, twirling a strand of hair apprehensively.
"We investigate," Steve replied, confidently. "Check out the most recent compound break-in, and see if our culprit dropped some clues."
"Think this could be related to the break-in at Natasahs apartment?" Vision questioned.
"Unlikely," Tony replied. "Why would somebody whos powerful enough to equip an army to raid our compound do a simple breaking?"
"It's too specific," Natasha agreed. "I think it's merely just a coincidence."
"We should leave as soon as possible," Sam suggested.
"Agreed." Clint nodded.
"Alright." Steve stood up from the table like the matter was settled. "We leave in ten."
Everybody started dispersing except for Natasha, who was busy biting her thumbnail. It was a habit that she'd thought she had been rid of, but in moments like these, it was something she did to soothe herself.
Noticing her reluctance, Steve decided to hang back for a moment, taking a seat next to her.
"What are you doing?" Natasha snapped.
"Figured you had something on your mind."
"You know, why does everybody keep asking that nowadays," she states bitterly.
"Because you've been brooding a bit more than usual," Steve joked, trying to cheer her up. Bad idea, she just shot him a glare that told him that she wasn't in the mood.
"I'm just thinking about that task at hand," she lied.
"Cool," Steve said, resting his arms on the chair. "now are you gonna keep trying to lie to me."
"What does it matter," Natasha snapped, standing up. Steve, of course, followed her.
"I just want to know what's been happening with you," Steve insisted. "We all do."
"What are you talking about?" Natasha asked, speed walking down the corridor towards the weaponry.
"I don't know," Steve exclaimed, exasperated. "It just kind of seems like you are not quite Black Widow anymore."
Natasha stopped in her tracks, whirling around to point a finger in Steves's chest.
"Are you serious?" she hissed. "I am, and will always be the Black Widow. It's what it was sold for, it was what I was trained for, it's what I bled for. If you think for just one second that I doubt my duties to this city and to the Black Widow you are seriously mistaken. I was trained to be a monster, but then people like you made me into somebody who fights monsters. The Black Widow fights monsters. She's somebody I want to be, she's all I ever will be."
"That's not true," Steve said. "You are more than just the persona you wear. You're Natasha Romanoff."
"So?"
"So.. there's more than just an avenger. You have something else there. Everybody does."
"Like what?" Natasha laughed, humorously. "I'm ok with who I am Steve, it's nothing. I'm proud of what I've become, and I appreciate your concern, and I'm sorry for just losing my cool. Forget it. Maybe you're right, maybe something is bothering me, but I can handle it."
"Whatever you say," Steve said.
Natasha turned on her feet to walk away. But before she could, Steve had to ask one more thing.
"Is this about the kid...Peter?"
Ince more Natasha stopped in her tracks. "Why would it?" She asked without looking at him.
"I don't know," Steve shrugged. "I haven't seen much of him lately, I figured maybe you were worried about him."
"It's not my job to worry about him," she said. "I just have to make sure he doesn't get himself killed or anything. Everything else is not my problem. Besides, he's gonna have to learn to toughen up."
"That's not what I meant."
"Whatever." She stalks away, without another glance. Steve had trouble believing it but, it did seem like Natasha was true to her word, which only made things harder. There was something off, and he had a sneaking suspicion Natasha wasn't telling him everything, and that she didn't quite no everything.
Peter Parker was blown away.
Why?
Well, it started the day after the fight when he felt very sluggish and he suddenly did all those impossible things he couldn't do before.
Well, turned out it wasn't just all in his mind.
The last few days Peter had holed himself up in his room, experimenting, for lack of a better word.
She journaled nearly everything he discovered about himself, new abilities he'd gained since the field trip.
So far he had this: Stick to walls, heightened senses, increased agility, enhanced strength.
How was he taking it?
Fine. Great.
Peter was freaking out!
He was reluctant to tell Natasha, especially since the level-headed Avenger would most likely think he was being an annoying, hyperactive, kid. He wouldn't blame her.
But in a world with super soldiers, flying rich people, and robotic heroes, Peter wasn't sure it was so farfetched.
Why and how we're all these things happening to him. Peter prided himself on being a logical person. It's what made him so good at math and mind puzzles. But, there was no logical explanation for what was happening to him.
He's notebook was littered with crossed-out theories on why he suddenly could do things that should be impossible.
His first theory: is puberty.
But when doing a quiet google search about puberty, he figured out that it was not the case.
Next theory: He was dreaming.
However, if he was dreaming it had to go down as the longest and most realistic dream in history.
Next theory: he was schizophrenic
But he doubted that the mental illness would impact him so much so that he would believe he was crawling on the ceiling or that he was now more muscular than he ever had in his entire fifteen years.
So after days of tossing and turning, and making sure his newfound abilities weren't just figments of his imagination, he concluded. A stupid, impossible one.
Peter found that a majority of his abilitesbcorralated to that of a spider. Wall climbing increased senses and agility.
He got bit by one of those fancy spiders on his field trip the other day. What are the odds that this spider could have given him some sort of freakish mutation of some sort, granting him these abilities?
He knew it was stupid and illogical. It was the best he could come up with. Besides the spider was part of that exhibit with all the newer more unique species.
Peter needed a lot of time to finally accept that this was happening before getting the courage to do something about his situation.
He called the only person who could help him.
"Natasha?"
"Kid!?" Natasha answered through the teen's phone. Peter didn't know why, but something about Natasha's tone was...different. It sounded almost like she was, glad to hear from him when most of the time she seemed annoyed when he bothered her.
"Where are you?" Peter asked. "F.R.I.D.A.Y said everybody was gone."
"Grown-up stuff," Natasha replied. "Might be gone for a couple of days. We're about to leave on the quinjet right now in a couple of minutes."
"You're leaving?"
"The tower will be armed," Natasha assured the boy. "You'll be safe."
"Oh."
"Everything alright?"
Peter hesitated. "Yup...I'm ok."
"Ok, see you later, kid."
When she hung up Peter couldn't help but feel a rush of anger. Why? He wasn't sure. But, lately, it felt like Natasha was being a bit cold to him. Well, she always was a little cold and harsh on him, and in her defense, he had been avoiding her to figure out his powers.
Peter didn't want to sit in the tower right now. So what did he do? He snuck down into the hanger ba and used his new agility to climb into the quinjet without being detected.
Would Natasha kill him? probably.
Was it worth it? No.
Why did he do it? He supposed he didn't want to be neglected any longer.
They landed about three hours later, in an open field where the most recent compound had been raided by the mysterious troopers that Tony had been talking about.
Nick Fury was waiting for them at the entrance.
"Thank you all for coming so quickly," Fury said. "Please, follow."
Fury led the team into the compound, where agents were scrambling around trying to clean up the mess and find what weapons and supplies were left untouched in the raid.
"We were unprepared," Fury admitted. "A rookie mistake on my part."
"Who could have done something like this?" Steve asked.
"Hydra," Fury replied without missing a beat.
"What, are you sure?" Clint asked.
"Positive," Fury said, gritting his teeth. "One of our agents was able to shoot one of the bastards, and found this one of them." Fur pulled something out of his pocket to show them.
"A patch," Wanda murmured. "What is the symbol?"
"Hydra's symbol," Vision answered. "It is truly them."
"Where the heck is that but job getting a freaking army?" Tony asked. "No person in their right mind would be willing to do anything for that crazy red-faced wishbone."
"That's what I thought," Fury agreed. "Until we tried to identify the body of the called hydra soldier."
"And?" Dam asked.
"It makes no sense...but theirs no known records of the fallen trooper since around the 1920's Fury said."
"Maybe they were preserved, like Cap," Natasha suggested.
"Excellent deduction, however,r this is not the case."
"How do you mean?" It was a vision that spiked this time.
"The fallen trooper...when we took off his mask we found that it was...a boy, about five teen perhaps a couple of years older, seventeen."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying his DNA matches that of a man who lived almost a hundred years ago. His name was Walter James, in the early 1900s he donated to a project along with his wife to have their egg frozen and preserved for unknown reasons. Lots of people participated in this project. We don't know why, but they were paid a large sum of money to sell their eggs to an unknown company."
"Hydra?" Natasha asked.
"Most likely yes," Fury said.
"Why would they want to preserve the eggs this long?" Steve wondered aloud.
"I'm not sure," Fury admitted. "But I guess that Hydra has been artificially insemination the frozen eggs, about twenty years ago, creating an army of willing children with no family and no other life except for the life Hydra spoon feeds them."
"No, there has to be more to this," Tony said. "Why do through all that trouble when you can just check a baby off from the streets "
"They needed something unborn," Fury said. "A they could experiment serum similar to the serum flowing through Roger's veins. I suppose they didn't have the tech to create the serum right then, at least not the one they needed."
"So they froze the eggs until they could use them." Natasha gasped.
"Correct," Fury nodded. "Hydra knew their number was dwindling, but they weren't sure who they could recruit who would be willing to work and possibly due for their cause."
"So they raise a bunch of children who don't know anything to do their bidding."
Precisely," Dury said.
"We're us hydra keeping them?" Wanda asked. "Perhaps we can stop the operation, and perhaps help the children without having to kill them."
Unlikely," Natasha said. "There most likely trained and whittled down to the core. They'll is deadly, and since they know no other life that makes them twice as dangerous. Because they believe everything hydra has been feeding them since they were created."
"Weapons of destruction" Vision muttered. "just like the red room."
"Perhaps," Natasha said. "But this is different. The red room was full of girls who were sold after birth, they knew a life outside of the room. We were also underneath some kind of substance that helped us remain loyal, that is until there was a cure."
"Guessing that's not the case."
"I should have known this was happening," Fury said.
"How?"
Fury turned to the team. "I knew Hydra was planning something years ago but wanted to see what it was. I was surprised when things were quiet, but I was a foo, and let them take us to be surprised."
"How many of the troopers are there?" Clint asked.
"One hundred," Fury said.
"That's all?" Wanda jaw from. "That's hardly an army."
"You don't get it," Fury said. "their children gave become deadly assets, they don't need to be big in numbers to wipe us out just like how they wiped us out during the raids on our compounds."
"Then we kill them," Tony said.
"Are you or of your mind?" Natasha snapped. "We can't do that."
"Got a better idea red?"
"We'll figure it out later," Steve said. "Right now we need to figure out the tech there using to artificially produce children without a womb or anything."
"We also need to find we're there rating them," Natasha said. "Figure out exactly what the system is."
"Then we figure out the best way to stop hydra from doing anything bad."
"Can I help?!"
BStasah's eyes grew wide. That voice..she knew that annoying high-pitched tone anywhere.
She whirled around and nearly pulled her hair out of her scalp when she noticed Peter crouching behind a metallic grate with a sly grin on his face.
"Peter I am going to murder you!" Natasha screeched.
