A/N: Did I fool you all into thinking this grab-bag of one shots were done? Inspiration is fleeting that's my only excuse. Here's part-one of a new update :)

Catch and Release: Catch

She caught herself on her hands and was up before the nearest mall-goer had run over to help. She was not dressed for this and knew the price would be sore feet and knees.

"Where's Stark?"

Thankfully Natasha hadn't forgotten her comm. on her way out the door that morning. Tony had implemented the protocol that each Avenger, when not on duty, have the device of his own design. A secure line day and night in case there was an emergency personal or otherwise.

This happened to be one occasion. Natasha's vacation quickly turned into catastrophe, all due to a singular explosion on the third floor of the shopping mall.

"Sir is assisting in the evacuation of the third floor jewelry store."

"Agent Barton?" Speeding past anxious families with their children gave her an ill feeling. If the perpetrator of the bomb was around, she had to decide quick if she risked opening fire and deafening everyone.

"Bringing him through now." JARVIS patvhed Clint through with a double beep.

She ducked behind a rack of clothes in the suddenly empty hall before a swift run to another store.

"Nat what happened?"

She could hear sirens over his side of the conversation as she ran full tilt towards the other escalator down to the third floor. Her knee was already scraped from jumping over the railing of the stairs when the first rumble went through the infrastructure. She had left the confused public behind her and was now running against a new tide of evacuees.

Clint sounded winded, probably trashed the coffees he was on his way back with. Damn, she really would have liked a coffee after dealing with whatever consequences Tony had roped them into this time.

He didn't even have his suit. None of them were prepared save for a few handguns.

She couldn't get clear of the smoke and dust curling off the corner where the quaint jewelry store was tucked away near the south side mall entrance. Shadows swayed and moved with the emergency lights so fluently Nat picked up on the choppy movement of a person down the hall. She griped her gun and pulled it from the holster inside her jacket.

The emergency sirens were no match for the buzz of bullets being fired in her direction. They'd seen her. And they were trained. She let them fire until the gun jammed. Peeking out, the unknown target distracted racking the gun hard against the wall to unjam.

Didn't expalin why another gun was going off. Two of them. She hated gunfights in halls, the richotecht of bullets echoed so loud you were deaf for a few minutes afterwards. She pinpointed where the first unknown was hand signaling his buddy firing shots.

The firing ceased and left a dead hum in her ears. She moved an inch to her right to take cover behind the hard concrete pillar once she saw them pull out two rapid fire guns with feeding ammo chains.

One shot a short burst of bullets and let the other one take over, the tactic of talking.

Army trained?

Something precluded the explosion because their link to tony had cut off a few seconds before it happened. Natasha seemed to be the first responder other than the billionaire himself, all others had run for cover and no one returned. She was alone with two renegades with machine guns. hoping their barrels would heat up soon and explode, Natasha crept low away from them until the warm buzz filled her ears again.

She hated percussion guns. So apparently did the bad guys, making an escape once they believed she'd retreated. Outside light filtered through an opened door and shut as soon as they left out the east doors.

"Stark!" She paused just beyond where the smoke ended, wary to go further. not even able to hear her own voice over her ringing ears she kept a lookout in the halls leading to the larger one she stood in. They didn't know what had happened, but JARVIS was convinced Tony was in there helping someone.

"What are the readings?!" Knwing she was shouting nat tried staying out of sight. Heard but not seen was better than the alternative.

"Air toxicity sixty-two percent, oxygen levels decreasing in the affected area." Her left ear wasn't as bad thanks to the comm blocking out most of the noise. Catching most of what JARVIS said.

"Clint, what do we know of that sucks oxygen from the air to operate?!" She clenched her fist, she couldn't see any movement and all she could hear were the mall alarms blaring, emergency lights filling the gaps where the power had been cut.

All she had were jeans and a t-shirt, Clint even had her wallet and keys cause he had to get something from the car. Keys had her small Maglite.

"I'm not a know-it-all, ask Tony." It was a little more forced than she was used to hearing from him, but under the circumstances she let it slide.

"He was at ground zero."

"Fuck. Again? How many enemies does he friggen have, Nat?"

"I don't think this has anything to do with Tony. Stark!" She called again and nothing.

Wait, nothing. I see nothing. "Clint there's no fire." Her hearing was returning to normal only to listen to silence on the other end of the link. "Tony would understand, you need to get out of there now." Even over the shaky channel Clint managed to sound like he hated himself for saying it.

Nat would not take the backup if there wasn't even a Plan A to begin with. She stood and truly looked now that JARVIS confirmed the area was clear and she could hear anyone approaching.

The roof wasn't caved in. None of the doors were open, but a breeze was blowing into the store from behind her and gathering speed. Something was sucking in air, and taking the smoke with it.

It was clearing.

"I don't hear you moving!" Clint was out of breath, running. Natasha took a step away and backed into a hall bench. If it came down to it she would take cover, but she needed to see.

She ground her teeth together, taking a step towards the store.

By then she began to worry, the whirlwind around her not adding to her peace of mind.

She could take cover and wait for Steve, who JARVIS had radioed as soon as the explosion hit.

He was taking too long. Natasha, like Steve, knew the benefits of not putting all your eggs into the backup basket. Just the lingering thought of Tony being injured sent Nat into action and she sprinted through the clearing smoke into the store.

The engineer was ducked behind the counter, hands on his head with blood pouring through his fingers.

Natasha pulled his elbows apart to see his face, unfocused eyes and half-open mouth.

No coherent speech. "Stark?"

"Mmm,"

Great. Natasha grabbed him under his arms and began hauling him up.

As soon as she stood, everything blacked out. Vague memories of hitting something rubbery and bouncing into nothing flood through the visceral fear clamping her chest before nothingness made its grab.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Part two due to be posted next week. Have a lovely day! -G