Fast writing... :)
Two weeks later
"You know," mused Hazel as they sat in their van eating breakfast, "I think this is the longest we've been in a city without killing someone."
"True." said Jo, and Chase, beside her, also agreed.
"What are you thinking about, Talia?"
Talia jumped, she had been miles away. "What?"
"I said, what are you thinking about?"
She hesitated, before replying, "I need to leave you for a few days."
The others stared; what was going on?
"Talia..." Chase began.
"Sorry." was the only word they got in reply before Talia jumped from the van and left them.
At the same time, in S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ
"Agent Romanoff, you have two weeks on-base leave, beginning immediately." Fury said as he sat in front of Clint and Natasha.
"Why?" Tasha was not happy at all about this.
"Red Room are trawling through New York at the moment, and you being taken is not a risk anyone here is willing to take."
Tasha froze, What were Red Room doing in New York? Instead of voicing this question, however, she merely said, "What will I be doing?"
"Whatever you want to, Agent."
"And what will I be doing?" came Clint's questioning voice.
"You will be on the lookout around New York for those four girls who caused that massacre in New Orleans."
"What makes you think they're here?" Tasha interjected; she did not like the sound of this at all.
"We have reason to believe that three of them are keeping close tabs on the Red Room operatives, but no clue as to where the fourth one is."
"Who will I be working with?" Clint again.
"Agent Morse." came the infuriatingly calm reply.
Clint exploded. "There is no way on this Earth or any other Earth that I am ever working with that crazy bitc..."
He shut up fast, as Tasha had just clamped her hand tightly over his mouth.
She told Fury, "Agent Barton will be fine with this arrangement."
"Good. Now get out of my office."
They left, and after they were on the other side of the base to Fury's office, Tasha finally removed her hand from over Clint's mouth.
"What the hell is wrong with you Tasha? There is no way I am ever working with Agent Morse!"
He fell silent as she glared at him.
"First things first, you won't be working with her. Second, I am not having two weeks of on-base leave. Third, I'm going with you, so Fury and Morse can stuff it up their ass."
Clint gaped; he knew Tasha wasn't really going to stay on-base, but to take Morse's place on this mission? New, but then again he probably should have anticipated it.
"And when Fury finds you?"
"He won't."
Clint shook his head; how could she be so confident that Fury wouldn't find her?
Tasha smirked, and held out her hand to Clint.
He stared, unable to process what she was doing.
Tasha sighed; he was so stupid sometimes! "Come on, let's get out of here."
The other side of New York
"No." was the only word that came out of her mouth.
"You will come with us." A thick Russian accent laced the words.
"No." Again, the same word coming out of her mouth, but this time also laced with a very thick accent.
"Why not?"
"You will kill me, and all of my friends."
"That is why it is very, very dangerous to have friends, dearest Talia."
"You think I do not know that? I will come, but if you swear on the life of all of your family that my friends will be left alone, and that they will not find out about what happened to me."
"Agre..." The man's voice was cut short as a single arrow flew through his eye, and as he fell, a bullet passed through his heart.
Talia twisted around, and looked into the eyes of the one person she had hoped never to meet.
Natasha Romanoff.
Elsewhere in New York
"So what do we do now?" Jo wondered, as their team leader had left them to fend for themselves merely an hour previously.
Chase opened her mouth to reply, but before she had the chance, a voice came over a loudspeaker outside the van.
"Come out with your hands up, you are surrounded and we will not hesitate to fire. Repeat, you are surrounded and we will not hesitate to fire."
The three girls looked at each other in astonishment; who knew that they were in New York?
"Use code names." Hazel whispered as they slowly exited the van, one by one, and were taken by the waiting agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. base, somewhere else in New York
3 days later
"How did they all do?" Fury asked the doctors who had put the four girls through their medical evaluations.
"All are in peak condition, but there is actually a larger age range than we thought in between the three we brought in. We only anticipated a year, maybe 18 months at most, but it ended up being over two years."
"And the solo one?"
"Four years difference between her and the eldest, and she's only others are 15, 16 and 17."
"Where's the fourth one?"
"Definitely not in the van; that was confirmed by Coulson when he swept it afterwards. Apart from that, no clue at all."
Fury cursed under his breath; he really needed the full set. "Ready for field work?"
"If you need them to do that, then yes, sir."
"Good."
Fury stood up, and stalked out of his office to the training centre, where two trios of agents were stood watching a fourth pair fight it out.
"What the hell..."
Fury stopped, and literally stared at the scene before him. Agents Barton, Morse and Phillips were stood on one side of the mats, watching intently. On the other side of the mats, the three girls code named Twister, Lexie and McGee were also watching the ensuing fight closely.
And perhaps most shocking of all, Agent Romanoff and the other red-haired girl were fighting on the mats.
This was not the shock, however. The real shock came from the fact that the two redheads were perfectly matched; each one countering and attacking with the same amount of precision and skill.
Clint, upon hearing Fury's entrance, said softly, "They've been at this for nearly three hours now." Raising his voice, he called out to the pair of fighters, "Tasha! Fury's here."
Immediately, the fighting ceased. Both stood up, bowed to each other, and walked to the sides of the mat where the others like them stood.
"Now you've finally stopped, I can tell you why you're all here." Fury spoke not only to the experienced agents, but also to the four teenagers stood opposite them. "Each of you is being assigned a new partner today. One of you," he gestured to the senior agents, "and one of you." He gestured to the girls.
At his words, they all froze, except the redhead, who spoke briefly to the others in a different language, Hebrew perhaps, and at her words, the trio relaxed immediately.
"Agent Bobby Morse, meet McGee."
"What's your real name?" asked Bobby.
"Hazel Anderson." said the girl.
Fury cleared his throat before continuing. "Agent Rebecca Phillips, Lexie."
"And before you say anything, my name is Jo Harvelle." came the immediate response.
"Agent Natasha Romanoff, Twister. And Agent Clint Barton, Foxface."
A thick Russian accent immediately assaulted everyone's ears; but to the agents' surprise it wasn't Natasha who was speaking.
"Lucky guess, Fury? Or are you just telling me you know my whole life story, same as anyone else you have here?"
Fury shook his head, surprised; that had been merely to spite the other three younger agents.
"Missions are here; each of you read them, and report to your respective handlers."
He tossed a file to each of the four girls; each caught it, opened it and read it in silence. In unison, the folders were passed over to their new partners, who read them in equally stony silence.
Still completely in unison, and in utter silence, the teenagers left, leaving Fury with his older, more mature (he hoped) agents.
"What?" he asked.
"Why?" Rebecca was the first one to speak.
"You were paired based on initial conclusions as to their strengths in the field. You share strengths with your partners, and they share strengths with you."
"And if they don't?"
"Then we'll have to see." said Fury icily as he left the room.
JojotheObsessedFish