Chapter 17

The alarm continued to shriek out its warning as Fury and Coulson left the office and saw the other agents had already cleared out. Fury touched his earpiece and was talking to someone who was in the control rooms, presumably it was agent Hill.

"Will someone please explain to me what is going on?" He said after hearing what sounded like gunfire followed by a bunch of banging around.

"We've got intruders sir!" Hill's voice called above the chaos that surrounded her. "Whoever it was somehow locked us into the control room. We're trying to override the code but…" her voice was suddenly cut off.

"Hill!" Fury said and looked over to see Coulson taking his earpiece out as well.

"Whoever it was must have jammed the signal somehow." Coulson said "we're dealing with highly skilled professionals." He didn't have to continue to know that the director was thinking the same thing he was. However neither men had much time to think about it as three masked figures approached them. They were easy enough to take down but then four more took their place. Fury and Coulson rushed for cover while Russian was being shouted back and forth.

"Damn it," Coulson shouted. "I knew she'd be nothing but trouble!"

"Does your cellphone still work," Fury asked as he aimed back down the hallway and fired. The men were advancing on them. "We've got to move!" Fury said and Coulson dived over to where his boss stood and they ran down the hallway towards the emergency exit.

"That's a negative sir," Coulson said when he glanced at his phone to see it had no signal.

"They closed the exit," Fury said and they back traced and barreled their way into another room. Gunshots were exchanged back and forth as more men joined the fight and they were rushing through different rooms and hallways. Eventually they made it to the main room of the building and where quickly surrounded. Fury saw that there was a small collection of agents that were being held there by other men.

"Surrender," a man with a thick Russian accent shouted at them. Coulson looked to Fury who closed his eyes in frustration and dropped his weapon. This was not how he wanted his day to go. Another man stepped forward then. He was bigger than the others and Fury couldn't help but to look at the metallic arm he had. A fierce glare was set on the man's face as he approached. He had no weapons and no mask. Recognition ran through Fury's mind as he looked at the man but he hid it well.

"Team two isn't responding," another man spoke up but the obvious leader of the group didn't look surprised.

"What do you want?" Coulson spoke up and the man looked at him.

"With you?" He said and as three men went to secure Fury the Russian reached for a knife that was attached to his waist. "Nothing." He barely even aimed before releasing the knife.

For Coulson, time seemed to slow down for a moment. He was aware that someone called his name. Was that Fury? With the adrenaline pounding in his ears there was no way he could be sure. He saw the knife leave the Russian's hand. He saw the light reflect off of the smooth, stainless steel as it came towards him. The moment he had resigned himself to death he saw a flicker of something else out the corner of his eye. Another blade, it sliced through the air and hit the blade that would've hit him directly in the chest. Coulson felt all the air leave his body. It all happened within a few seconds but it had felt a lot longer to him. He turned to see none other than Natasha Romanoff. Her eyes were on fire as she stared down the man that stood before them.

Some of the masked men went to rush at her but were stopped by the leader. Both Fury and Coulson decided it was best to keep quiet and watch it all play out, and wait for an opportunity to escape. They watched as she walked up to the man and Coulson noticed that she had gotten a hold of a gun. She moved to the left while the leader moved to the right and they moved in a slow circle. They stared at each other with an intense glare as they sized each other up and tried to plan out their next move.

"Natalia," he said with an almost animalistic look in his eyes.

"James," she replied "should've known it would be you." The tension was thick in the room around them.

"This isn't a fight you want to start," he said to her calmly and stopped moving. She arched an eyebrow at that and mirrored his stance on the opposite side of him.

"Isn't it?" she asked and the man practically growled at her.

"Don't make things worse for yourself," he warned.

"I'm not going back without a fight," she said and her lips curled up in a deadly smile. "It's in my nature."

"Natalia…" but he didn't get the chance to say anything else as she moved forward and he followed almost instantaneously. They exploded in a flurry of movement as they struck out at each other. They were a perfect match for each other, moving at a speed that was almost hard for the other occupants in the room to keep up with.

Fury waited until the guards holding him were good and distracted before trying to make a move. With the agility that came from years of practice, he got to his feet and landed a hard hit to both men who had been holding him. Out the corner of his eye he could see that Coulson was doing the same. Some of the other agents in the room were attempting as well. Fury didn't flinch at the sounds of gunshots and bodies hitting the floor. He heard another shot shortly after that had come from somewhere close behind him. He turned and felt the sudden sting of something embedding itself into his skin. He looked forward then to see who had pulled the trigger and was a bit shocked to see one of their nurses standing there. A slight dizziness started developing in his head and he swayed ever so slightly. Beside him, he could see Coulson pulling out a dart as well. Some more guards came over and pushed them to the ground again. As the nurse came closer, Coulson recognized him as the man who had been in the hospital room when Natasha had woken up.

A slight gasp caught their attention and they looked in time to see Natasha being thrown up through the air and landing on her back. Another shot was fired and she barely even twitched when the dart hit the bare skin of her arm. The man known as James quickly seized the opportunity and got to the floor to pin her down. She glared up at him and he mirrored the look in his own eyes.

"Enough!" He yelled at her when she tried to throw him off. The sound of a weapon cocking had her looking over to where one of the masked men was aiming his rifle at Coulson's head. She looked at his face and fought back the urge to try her luck anyways, but something held her back. It was obvious that agent Coulson, and director Fury for that matter, didn't trust her and they liked her even less than that practically nonexistent trust. However, both men had trust the archer's judgment and had allowed her the benefit of a doubt by letting her stay. They hadn't just killed her when she stepped in through the door and for that she owed them something. Also, it was obvious that Clint Barton cared very much for the man who had a gun pressed to his forehead at the moment. She looked at him and their eyes met for the briefest of moments before she allowed her body to go limp under her ex-partner's. "Only here for a week and already you've grown soft." He said under his breath but still loud enough for them all to hear.

"Pick your battles and wait for the right time to strike," she repeated to him the lesson he had taught her. He glared down at her as he grabbed her arm and yanked her up to her knees. The man who had been posing as a nurse at the SHEILD base came over and yanked her hands behind her back.

"Nice to see you awake darling," he said with a smirk and she felt metal clasp around her wrists.

"Where's the archer," James got to his feet and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why would I know that?" She shot back at him. The backhand sounded louder than it actually hurt. She tried to ignore the few gasps that she heard from one of the other SHEILD agents that was there. James grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him.

"Where is he?" He practically shouted.

"Sir we've got to get out of here," one of the masked men said. James looked from him then back down at her.

"Smart Natalia," he said as realization seeped it. He knelt so that he was eye level with her and saw a hint that the drug was starting to take effect. "You knew that we didn't have much time so you pulled me into a fight to waste time." He said and looked at her straight in the eyes "we have to go now but mark my words darling when I saw that I will find him." With that being said he motioned that it was time to go.

Yay! I'm finished with classes for now and will have more time to write! Also, I'm closing the poll on my profile page at midnight tomorrow so if you want to vote it has to be done by then. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!