The Irony of it All

46

“So...How’s Steve?”
    “I wouldn’t know.”
    “You haven’t spoken to him at all?”
    “He didn’t leave me with a contact.”
    He shook his head and smirked. “Oh, come on Nat. I know you. You’ve seen him since Germany. When’s the last time you saw him?”

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    “So why are you here, meeting “F” in a hotel across town?”
    “Leave Clint.”
    “No. I knew something was up. You’ve been acting different, sparring different, eating different. Even your bladder’s different, and I want to know what’s going on!”
    “You’re kidding. You got all that but you still can’t put together what’s going on?”
    He scoffed and shrugged his shoulders, looking at her with confusion written all over his face.
    She sighed. “ “F” as you call him, is Dr. Fine. I’ve been meeting him here in secret so he can keep tabs on my condition.”
    “No.” He looked suddenly distressed. “Gosh, Nat. I’m so sorry. I should have known.”
    She quirked an eyebrow but let him continue. “No wonder you’ve been acting so strange and distant, and you can’t join Steve on the run. How far along are you?”
    “Three.”
    “What?! Stage three?! Oh my gosh. Nat. Please tell you’re doing everything you can. Chemotherapy? Dieting?”
    “Clint.”
    “Where is it?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Where is it? Where is it located?”
    “Clint! I’m not dying of cancer!”
    He paused, looking at her again in confusion. “But...you said...”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Then why are you secretly meeting Dr. Fine?”
    She looked around the hall, fidgeting with her hands. She looked really uncomfortable and unsure of herself. An emotion Natasha rarely emitted. “I’m pregnant,” she said softly.
    Although he heard her, he was almost certain he heard wrong. “You’re what?”
    “You heard me. I’m not saying it again.”
    “I heard you...but I’m pretty sure I heard wrong.”
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“No one can know that I’m expecting. You got that? No one! They’re carrying their father’s serum, and they’re already manifesting it! Ross will force me to sign them over to the accords, or he’ll put them in the raft! Not to mention the four thousand other bad guys out there who would love to have a baby super soldier in their hands! This world doesn’t need another Winter Soldier!”

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    Before either one of them could devise a plan of action, the large, rusted, green dumpster was wretched away from them and thrown into the air. The shock of their hiding place being ripped away from them morphed into horror as they looked into the cold eyes of the monster before them.

    Monster. That was the only word that could describe it. The thing stood at over nine feet tall, with protuberant muscles and veins popping out over it’s gray, cold skin. What had obviously once been a man, was now a lurid beast that no nightmare could have ever conjured up. The Hulk was a plushie compared to this thing. One thing came to  his mind. “Run.”

    They didn’t make it very far. He managed to push Natasha ahead of him. Then something wrapped around his ankle and pulled. He lurched into Natasha, both of them hitting the ground before he was roughly yanked off of her by a cold, gray, and scaly tentacle. His heart pounding in his chest as adrenaline flooded his veins. Fear. The pain, like searing electricity through his veins. He tried to scream out but no sound came. His ears rang. He felt his body getting weaker, like he was dying. Like his life was being sucked out of him through the grip around his ankle.