September 28th 23:10PM
LOCATION: The Mechanic Shop (Streets of Raccoon City)
"Is someone in here?" Jill asked as Natasha cautiously took the lead cutting the heavy chain on the locked door.
Neither of them had expected to find anymore U.B.C.S officers around- and this one slumped on the floor of the mechanic's shop looked to be very injured,
"Are you with U.B.C.S?" Black Widow asked as she tried to get a better look at the damage, the young officer stared at her for a few seconds.
"Yeah, careful, careful." he told her as she carefully moved his arm which had been clutching his injured side,
His terrified eyes quickly met Jill who was concerned about the state of his injuries and what caused them,
"Come on- don't look at me like that I've not been infected!" he quickly insisted, Jill wasn't convinced, but wasn't going to stop Natasha from helping him.
Black Widow isn't able to react in time as she heard the loud footsteps of someone else approaching them,
The U.B.C.S officers head shot up, looking at the newcomer, the fear in his eyes would be the last thing that Natasha would be able to recall.
"NO, NO Wait PLEASE!" *BANG* a loud gunshot to the head killed the officer immediately sending blood splattering across Natasha's face, she felt her blood boil as she looked up at the boys murderer.
Jill was stunned- it all happened too quickly, she now stared at the older silver haired officer who searched the body of the boy he had just killed in cold blood,
"What the fuck!" Jill exclaimed as she glared angrily at the other U.B.C.S soldier.
"He was infected!" the man insists,
Natasha who was still kneeling next to the boys body wiped the blood off her face and silently glared at the man 'Another Russian' she thought ironically to herself, the older soldier momentarily met her glare- the slight flick in cold his stare told Natasha that she shouldn't trust this officer
"He 'might' have been infected!" Jill snapped back,
The officer immediately went to leave not wanting to get into an altercation with the deadly redhead especially since he knew more about her than most people.
"Are all S.T.A.R.S this soft, no wonder so many of you are now dead" the stranger seemed to gloat at the deaths of Jill's work colleagues, a cruel statement which made Black Widow get to her feet, whilst Jill still furious, wasn't going to let him get away with that remark
"And what are you, U.B.C.S killing your own people!?"
Jills words stopped the officer in his tracks as Black Widow watched from the side lines, he turned to face Jill seemingly angry at being judged by her, after all he had his reasons.
"He would have turned. Where's your sense of self-preservation?" he glanced at the silent Avenger, he didn't like the way she was watching him- no watching wasn't the right word 'assessing' seemed more adequate
"I'm sure your new friend here can teach you a lot about self-preservation"
The way in which he spoke about her convinced Natasha Romanoff that this mercenary knew more about her dark past than most, the thought caused a fire to flare inside of her.
"How about I shoot you in the face, how's that for self-preservation?" the soldier got up into Natasha's unconcerned face,
Jill suddenly anticipated a fight was going to break out and she knew who she would put her money on.
Natasha took a deep breath;
She could almost hear Steve's voice in her head giving her the third degree about threatening to shoot people who pissed her off
The Russian laughed "Please tell me that no more of your kind are on the way, we don't want a repeat of Sokovia"
He thought that he'd hit a nerve, he was wrong- "I'm the only Avenger here if that's what you want to know" she realised that she didn't know his name- she felt as if maybe she'd met him before, but she was certain that she would recognise him if she had.
"What is your name comrade?" Jill noticed that the Black Widow's voice seemed to subtly change slightly at the use of Russian terminology.
"The names Nikolai, and that's all you get to know Natasha Romanoff or should I call you Black Widow. What's it they say once a Russian Assassin, always a Russian Assassin?"
Jill couldn't believe what was going on, but what concerned her the most was the Black Widow's deathly calm demeanour.
"Have I threatened you before?" She asked him with a deadly smirk.
Nikolai sneered at the Avenger with personal contempt as he left the pair to their thoughts
"Go back to the subway station Ms Valentine, we don't need a bleeding heart like you getting in the way" Nikolai left them both in angry silence.
Jill watched Black Widow carefully, but really couldn't determine anything about the mysterious Avengers thoughts.
"Black Widow I- uh" Jill wasn't sure what to think, but the more she thought about it the more it made sense.
The Avenger had once been called to Capital Hill a few years ago, although she had been there to give a statement on the issue of S.H.I.E.L.D being infiltrated by Hydra,
There had been a threat to throw her in prison, if Jill remembered the news footage correctly, 'she learned to shoot when she was young' the attitude, the fighting style everything suddenly screamed assassin.
Natasha knelt next to the boys body taking the soldiers dog-tag with her 'Red in my Ledger' she thought to herself as she pushed herself onward to the power station with Jill quickly on her heels.
"Natasha Romanoff, I think we need to talk" Natasha didn't like talking especially when she sensed that the topic would be her.
Natasha's past wasn't a subject up for discussion, even the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D from what little they did know about her- knew better than to pry into such a sensitive topic.
Black Widow had made a new life out of being whatever was required of her to be, she wasn't the assassin anymore.
Natasha sighed loudly, crossing her arms she turned back to look at Jill who watched her with curiosity-
"You- You're an assassin?" Jill asked she noticed a slight uneasiness in the Red-heads stare,
"I was" Natasha corrected
"Before I was an Avenger, before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D I made quite the name for myself. I have a very specific skill set"
Jill had seen the Black Widow in 'That skill set' in action, but still an assassin turned Avenger,
"What happened?" Jill asked perching on the stairs, she was sure that they would be safe here for a short while-
"My name came up on S.H.I.E.L.D's radar in a bad way, they sent Clint Barton to kill me, he made another call" Jill already knew her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn't help her surprise,
"Next thing I knew, I was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Hunting down the people that crafted me into a weapon, I told you that I started young" Black Widow lowered herself into a sitting position on the steps next to Jill.
"How young?" Jill asked which only got a small shrug from the elusive Avenger
"How young?" she asked again-
"Maybe three or four" this revelation made Jill feel sick to her stomach,
"Holy Shit" Jill whispered to herself-
"Yeah, that's one way to put it" Natasha responded, Jill wasn't certain how to respond to such a devastating fact.
Natasha Romanoff was broken inside,
Every inch of Natasha's mind and body had been altered from birth into becoming a perfect trained killer.
Jill couldn't imagine the trauma that must have accompanied such an upbringing nor how strong she must have been to leave it all behind- to start working for the good guys.
"So... your objective with the Avengers is what? Redemption?" Natasha shrugged again
"Yes in a way, but despite what people like Nikolai may think about me, I- I care. I care a lot about others" Natasha thought of a way to put it so that she would understand.
"I was brought up to be a killer, emotionless, ruthless, but it's not really who I am"
Natasha sighed as she raised herself to her feet stretching her muscles as if their conversation had taken a weight off her.
Jill felt her heart go out to Natasha "We should be on our way to the power station" Jill suggested, the last thing she wanted was for Carlos to call and ask what was taking so long
"Yes- we wouldn't want to keep the boys at the subway waiting" The garage side door opened out onto a set of stone steps which led up to another street
"Did you hear something?" Natasha asked as she stopped dead in her tracks, it took Jill a few seconds to heat what Natasha was hearing "Get back" she yelled to the Black Widow as two undead Dobermans ran at them with an angry bark,
Jill heard a buzzing noise as Natasha fired two electric bites from her Stingers
"Those things don't actually kill, do they?" Jill asked motioning at the weapons mounted on Black Widows wrists
"No, but I feel kind of bad killing dogs, even the undead ones, besides Clint is a big dog lover" Jill looked at the Avenger with interest
"So are you and the arrow dude- a thing?" her response was something that Jill hadn't expected as the Black Widow began to laugh
"HA! No, no, no we're just best friends and besides Clint is married"
Black Widow even before she had known about the wife and kids had never pictured anything between them, Clint was more like an annoying, but loveable brother
"But I'm trusting you to guard that fact with your life" Clint's family isn't something he would ever want to be made public-
"Yeah of course" Jill agreed.
The next corner revealed the main entrance for the power station for the subway,
"That doesn't look good" Jill mumbled to herself as there was clear evidence that 'something' had made a nest withing the power station,
Black Widow immediately hoisted her assault rifle and pushed a new clip into the weapon
"Stay sharp" she reminded the S.T.A.R.S officer.
September 28th 23:30PM
LOCATION: Subway Power Station
After clearing out the undead they find the main switchboard everywhere they looked there was more evidence of some unknown creatures presence, plus there was an awful smell
"Hmm" Natasha hummed to herself as she took to the main controls to the power station while Jill found some documentation that provided insight into the lack of power
"Black Widow it looks like the grid for the power supply is processed through four breakers, if the power isn't coming through the breakers all need flipping back on" 'of course', Natasha thought sarcastically
"And where are these four breakers?" she asked although truthfully she had already guessed,
Jill motioned to the big mess of a power grid behind the switchboard
"Of course" Natasha whispered, she headed for the door that led down to the power grid when a foul stench hit the both of them
"Ah! Ah god it smells like. God, I don't even want to think about it" Jill felt like she might throw up, the last time she had smelt anything remotely similar was when she had to observe a cadaver in her trainee days, that cadaver had spent three weeks submerged in a sewer drain.
They end up splitting up to look around the perimeter of the grid, both of them came across plenty of corpses of dead station workers
"Zombies didn't do this" Natasha observed a body that had its entire abdomen exploded from inside out,
On a set of metal shelves Natasha found some more green herbs and decided that they could prove useful.
Meanwhile Jill cautiously knelt next to a body that had a fancy looking box in its hands, she practically has to pry it off the corpses fingers when all of a sudden the dead body exploded via its chest cavity, it reminded Jill of something she had once seen in a horror movie, small parasites skittered out of the body and away
"Gross!" she yelled as Black Widow raced over to see what was wrong then she saw the box in Jill's hands
"What did you find?" she asks,
Jill opened the box to find a lock pick
"Perfect" Jill exclaimed, she had already found the entrance to the power grid behind a locked gate and whilst she knew that the Black Widow likely had a gadget that would destroy the door she had her own 'skill set' to live up to
"Aren't you the master of unlocking or something?" she shot a look at the Avenger,
How did she know? Her S.T.A.R.S. team were the only ones that knew about that nickname that Barry had bestowed upon her.
Jill shook her head as she went about unlocking the steel gate to the power grid, the gate opened with a heavy thud and the smell was becoming so strong that it hurt Jill's eyes
"You should stay here, I'll deal with the breakers and whatever's made its home inside"
Jill didn't appreciate the Black Widow's tone and decided to ignore her, Jill marched off into the power grid,
The Avenger should understand that she's done this before and that she shouldn't be underestimated-
"Or not" she heard Natasha mumble to herself as the Avenger stood perfectly still in the entrance way, not moving.
Jill found another door when a strange noise causes Jill to immediately check the area for threats, but she wasn't prepared for the creature crawling on the ceiling above her.
The giant mutated spider creature grabbed her neck with its two front legs hoisting her body into the air when the creature did the most disgusting thing Jill had ever seen the creature forced its tentacle/tongue right down her throat, Jill felt something else crawl deeper down her oesophagus.
"Fuck!" Natasha yelled as she shot at the spider with her assault rifle causing it to drop Jill as it burst in an explosion of green blood and guts
"Ah! Get it out!" Jill exclaimed,
Jill attempted to make herself puke
"Quick take this" Black Widow gives Jill the green herbs she found outside,
Jill swallows back the disgusting herb without hesitation when all of a sudden she couldn't stop throwing up the tiny creatures that had made their way inside evacuated her system with haste.
"Those herbs are a natural pesticide, not exactly pleasant but..." Black Widow rubbed Jill's back for the next few minutes as all the parasites vacated
"Fucking GROSS!" Jill exclaimed, Natasha agreed
"Yeah... somethings can never be unseen" Natasha shuddered as Jill finished puking and attempted to straighten up with as much pride and dignity that she had left
"Ok, here's the plan. You switch the breakers back on, I shoot everything that moves".