Tony and Bruce practically sprinted up to the medical bay; skidding to a halt before they ran into the team of nurses and doctors in the room. They'd recieved updates on their teammates and knew things didn't look good. Three of them were now exhibiting symptoms; the fact it had even affected Steve gave merit to how potent the venom was. Natasha was now barely hanging on. They handed the vials over to the doctors praying they'd got it right.

"No!" Bruce shouted abruptly as the doctor approached Natasha with a needle.

"Give it to him first!" He said urgently, gesturing to Clint.

"But she needs it the most..."

"We haven't tested it yet! We can't risk making her worse"
The doctor nodded, uncertainty written all over her face, but nevertheless, she obeyed. Bruce felt guilty at offering Clint up as a test subject, but he was in a much better place to handle anything else in his system than Natasha.
They all held their breath as the antidote was delivered to Clint; slowly he stirred, his hand reached up ripping the oxygen mask from his face. Finally, his eyes opened; his vitals were normal and he sat up slowly, eyes scanning the room; from Steve slumped in the chair, to Natasha strapped to the bed, he was evidently alert. He scrambled to his feet and over to Natasha's bedside.

"Nat, Natasha; I'm here, I'm with you. But you gotta wake up now, okay?" His hand were shaking as he stroked her face, grabbing her hand, and his face was damp with tears. The doctors eyes focused on Bruce who nodded before she darted to Natasha with another needle; administering the antidote, before turning to Steve. Steve perked up almost instantly, even quicker than Clint had. But it was an agonising wait to see if Natasha would respond.


Maria walked through the town, hugging her jacket tight around her. It was gone 10 o'clock, all the shops and restaurants were now closed. She could only hope the waitress had waited long enough for her to catch her. They couldn't come so close to getting something on Nazari to miss it like this.

She glanced at her phone to see a message from Coulson: 'Antidote successfully administered. C' Breathing a sigh of relief a smile flasher over her face; at least that was something!

As she reached the now closed cafe, she glanced around with worry; there was noone there. Not one to give up easily; she continued to search. Round the back of the cafe Maria found the waitress.
She was lay in a pool of blood, her eyes wide open. Her dark curly hair was a startling contract to her pale, lifeless face. A note was clutched tightly in her hand. Maria reached across, careful not to disturb anything and took the crumpled piece of paper from her. Scrawled in messy handwriting was a short note: 'Give my regards to Romanoff, Barton and Rogers. If you still can. N'
Damn.
They were seriously being played. SHIELD had sent their best people to Chicago to monitor Nazari, and he'd used that to try to kill them. She needed to get back to HQ; Chicago wasn't safe.