10 years later.
Natalia was out of breath and panting, everything hurt yet she tried not to show it. They were after her, they would kill her if they got the chance. She refused to give them that.
She cocked her gun and ran for the nearest cover, there she lay low for a few minutes until she could figure out her next move.
Under a computer desk, she figured it was only 30 paces to the door and she would be free. Natalia tried not to get her hopes up yet, she still wasn't in the clear.
To her left she heard the sound of running feet, she guessed three, and to her right was two more; they were closing in and they knew it. Just when Natalia was about to make a dash for the door, the desk was overturned and a gun was pointed at her head "Сдавайтесь, вы окружены, и мы знаем, что у вас есть только одна пуля слева"
"Не сегодня!" Natalia lashed out and kicked her assailant, knocking the gun from her hand. Another was upon her, landing a punch to Natalias jaw but was met by a fierce blow to the stomach.
Natalia ran for the door, another attacker laughed from the side but Natalia was ready and dodged them, ducking down and then coming back up to land a punch to the sternum, winding them. Two down and only three more to go. Natalia hoped she could make it.
She reached for her gun, shot at a pipe above two more agents and they screamed as steam poured out all over them.
One more to go.
Natalia was pulled down and pinned to the floor, the last agent held a large knife to her neck and pushed against Natalias grip, aiming the blade at her jugular. Natalia pulled her knees up either side of the agent, gripped and flipped the agent off her.
Throwing the knife away and grabbing her gun, Natalia was quick to gain the upper hand. With the gun pointed at them and no weapon of their own, the agent admitted defeat.
Before Natalia could pull the trigger, a loud bell sounded above them "Слава Богу! Я не мог принять многое другое!" Natalia sighed and dropped the gun
"Вы не могли взять больше? Ну, мы лучше остановиться тогда!" The agent on the ground laughed as Natalia helped her to her feet.
Natalia smiled tiredly at her friend, Anya was a skilled fighter and her signature weapon was her knives, nobody in the entire programme could wield one like her.
Anya and Natalia gathered the other Black Widow agents together, they all started joking around and comparing battle wounds after the training session and headed for the bathing room where many showers and a large bath awaited them.
As the hot water soothed her aches and pains, Natalia thought on how much she had changed over the years. She had become strong and fast and was handy with a whole variety of weapons. Ivan had sent her sisters away on special jobs, sometimes they would be gone for days or even months and they always came back and raved about what they did.
It wasn't that Natalia was jealous, she just wanted to know when it was going to be her time to finally go on a mission and make her father proud!
As she was getting out of the shower to dry herself, a voice sounded over the intercom that she was needed in her father's office. Her sisters all started to give each other looks, Anya punched Natalia playfully and commented that now was finally her time and that Ivan was trying to surprise her.
Natalia quickly got dressed and raced to Ivan's office, knocking twice and then going straight in to sit down at his desk.
Her hair was still dripping onto the floor so she hastily put it up in a bun to strop the dripping, Ivan came in and greeted his daughter "Hello Natalia"
for the past year Ivan had been teaching the girls to speak various languages, starting with English, and used it without warning to keep them sharp in their language skills
"Hello father, thank you for seeing me" Natalia was quick to respond
"Tell me how the training session went"
"Well father, Anya is getting better with her knives every day. She mentioned how much of a help they were on her last mission" Natalia eyed her father and put slight emphasis on the word 'mission'
Ivan nodded in agreement "yes she is good with a knife, nice clean buts and never too much mess to clean up afterwards"
"Father, I wanted to ask you something. Anya and the others always go on missions. When will it be my turn?" Natalia tried not to sound too desperate.
Ivan got up and went over to a filing cabinet, pulled out a folder and placed it in front of Natalia. Flipping through the papers and photos inside, Natalia saw black and white pictures of a man and on the papers at the top was a name that read Professor Anton Vanko.
Ivan explained that this man used to work for him and helped create the Black Widow Ops, he used to be his most trusted colleague and friend. Then one day the professor decided that America held better and more promising opportunities. Natalia continued to flip through Vanko's papers and work while Ivan went on to say that he could no longer be trusted now that he is in America and that he betrayed everyone in the Black Widow Ops and he must be punished for his actions.
Ivan explained that Natalia would finally have her first mission "I have gain information that my old friend is going to be hosting a party in America and I have two invitations, forged of course, and it will be up to you, Natalia, to kill Professor Vanko. Can you do that for me my dear?"
Natalia looked at the photos again, overlooked all of Vankos work. There was no doubt that this man was well respected in America and used to be in Russia. This was her first mission. Natalia was scared and excited, she had severely hurt people before and used a gun several times during training but had never actually killed someone.
This was Natalias chance to prove to her father that she was a good agent, the best there was in all of Black Widow Ops! She wanted to make her father proud.
"Yes father, I will make you proud" and she hugged him feeling butterflies in her stomach as she thought about the mission.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The target was in sight ready and waiting. The room was almost pitch black yet the figure in the corner still wore sunglasses.
With a few deep breaths, a large black bow was lifted and strung, strong fingers and arm muscles held the bow with ease over years and years of training; now it felt like nothing at all. With a slight twang, the arrow flew through the air, the sunglasses were quickly removed so as to see the final blow, the arrow hit the target in a perfect bullseye.
With a woop for joy the archer turned on the lights and walked over to his target. He almost never missed.
Agent Clint Barton had been a member of S.H.I.E.L.D since he was a young child, a man named Phill Coulson had picked him up after seeing him perform at a medieval festival. The boy had been adopted by a man who worked with horses at the festival, taught him to ride and use a bow and often saw the boy perform various stunts.
Phil saw the boys potential and Nick Fury gave him permission to bring the boy in. Clint was adopted by the S.H.I.E.L.D agency after his first adoptive father claimed that he could have a better life with S.H.I.E.L.D and go on to do better things other than perform on a stage or with horses.
It was a bittersweet moment for Clint and he would regularly keep in touch with his father and sometimes would go to see a show. Only he never went into detail about what he actually did for S.H.I.E.L.D and his father didn't want to know.
Clint was broken out of his pondering by a knock at the door, he turned and smiled when he saw Phil standing there "hey Phil" he gestured to the target "could hardly see a thing! Almost totally blind and I still managed to get a bullseye!"
Phil Coulson smiled at the young archer and clasped him on the shoulder in a friendly way "that is very good Clint and I have some good news for you. Nick has told me to come and get you for your briefing, you're going on your first mission"
Clint punched the air enthusiastically "Really? It's about time! I wonder where it will be?"
"You'll find out soon enough"
Clint nodded his greetings to General Fury as he walked into the room with a file and placed it in front of him. Inside were several documents detailing the efforts and dealings of the Black Widow Ops, according to the papers they were a spy organisation based in Russia and were find of using orphan girls to train and become spies.
Clint eyed Fury questioningly "is the mission in Russia, sir?"
"Not exactly. We have reason to believe that one of our allies, Professor Vanko, is going to be assassinated by someone in the Black Widow Ops." Before Clint could say anything Nick Fury went on: "Anton Vanko is an ex-Russian scientist who specialises in electricity and making weapons. A few years ago he defected after whatever it was that held him so tightly to Ivan Petrovitch broke down and started working for us"
"So, he was brainwashed but broke free? Is that what they do to everyone in Black Widow?"
"More or less. He was brainwashed but we managed to break through because he hadn't been working with Ivan for very long, only about three years. Now he is one of us and has been in hiding but now he has been targeted by his old organization"
Clint thought for a moment and then asked "so what am I meant to do?"
"Vanko is hosting a party this Friday night. This is when we think the assassination is going to take place, your job is to protect Vanko by any means necessary. You will escort him to and from the party and only leave his side when necessary or when he tells you. Vanko knows how to take care of himself but it never hurts to have better protection" Nick shook the young agents hand "think you can do this Agent Barton?"
Clint felt butterflies in his stomach and couldn't help the goofy smile on his face at the mention of 'Agent' before his name, he composed himself "Yes sir. I won't let you down"
Clint took the file from Fury's desk so that he could read through everything in his room.
Finally he was going on his first mission!
Back in his room he read over the papers about the Black Widow Ops, 'being brainwashed to think you are someone else and made into a spy' Clint thought 'mustn't be very pleasant' and he felt awful at the notion of little girls being taken and made into killing machines.
Clint hated the idea but would kill one of them to protect Vanko, he had to protect him.
He went to bed that night thinking about them and asked himself that when the time came to it, could he actually kill someone who didn't know who they really were? It just didn't seem fair.
A/N: WOW This is a long one! I never thought I would be able to write something like this! Natalia has her first mission and CLINT IS FINALLY ON THE SCENE!
I was thinking about introducing him in the next chapter but since this is his first mission too, I thought he deserved to be in it.
TRANSLATION (in order):
Слава Богу! Я не мог принять многое другое! – Thank God! I couldn't take much more!
Вы не могли взять больше? Ну, мы лучше остановиться тогда! - You could not take any more? Well, we'd better stop then!