Monsters // Black Widow

Two

I see our house on fire as he pulls us out of the house. I couldn't get it out of my head. I only remember fear and sadness. It's pitch black for a moment until mommy burned and scarred appear and reaches for me.

I jump awake with a light yell. I was sweating and aching all over from training the day before. I hear two light knocks and turn to see from across my glass door of my room, Natasha, awake and sitting by her glass doors. She seemed worried but our rooms were locked until the morning. "(Just a bad dream.)" I sign to her from my room. "(The same?)" She signs back. It felt embarrassing to have these same dreams over and over. I felt weak in a place I wasn't allowed to be.
"(No. Different.)" I lie, but she read me like a book, just like I can to her.

"Lost in thought there, Agent?" I look up to see Rogers with somewhat of a serious face. "Just a bit." I shrug before leaning back in my seat. I see the Helicarrier appear in the distance. I stand up and stand beside the pilot as brings us closer. "Showtime, Captain." I turn to smile at him.
The Quinjet lands down and opens the ramp as I collect my things. Coulson, Steve, and I walk down the ramp, meeting up with Natasha. I smile and give her a hug. "Been a while, huh?" I say as soon pull away. "Few months isn't so bad."
"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers." Coulson interrupts to introduce Mr. American.
"Ma'am?" Steve moves to put his hand out but Nat only lets out a "Hi."
She looks at Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."
"See you there." Coulson walks away, leaving Steve with Natasha and I. We walk towards the railing of the Helicarrier.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" Nat asks him.
"Trading cards?" Steve asks confused. "They're vintage, he's very proud." I smirk at them. I turn back forward to see Bruce Banner walking around the ship, trying to stay out of the way while people walk in his way.
"Dr. Banner." Steve calls before the two walk up to each other and shake hands. "Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming." He answers kind of awkwardly.
"(Was he this timid when you picked him up?)" I whisper to Nat. She only gave me a smirk before we watched their conversation.
"Word is you can find the cube." Steve brings up to him. "Is that the only word on me?"
"Only word I care about."
"It must be strange for you, all of this." Bruce motions to the Helicarrier after taking in his sentiment. He looks off to where a group of men in training are running. "Well, this is actually kind of familiar."
"Gentlemen," Nat steps up to them a bit, "you might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath." The Helicarrier starts to shake as it prepares to take "sail". Others abord strap down planes and Quinjets in preparation.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asks as they walk to the edge of the carrier. "Really? They wanted me in a submerged, pressurized metal container? As the two both move closer to the edge of the carrier, four huge lift fans mounted on the sides starts to lift into the air as the ship takes flight. Steve watches in awe while Bruce just smiles. "Oh, no. This is much worse." Bruce tells us. "Let's get you boys inside, shall we?" I tell them before we escort them inside.

The doors part and we enter the bridge of the ship. A flurry of activity, dozens of agents sit in front of their viewscreens. Agent Hill shouts instructions to leave. Steve and Banner walk through the glorious, gleaming bridge.
"Gentlemen." Fury welcomes them in as Nat and I take a seat. Steve gives Fury 10 bucks, making me chuckle a bit. Fury gives me a look that would intimidate others but I just shrug with a smile. Fury walks over Banner and extends his hand. Banner, reluctantly shakes it. "Doctor, thank you for coming."
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear." I bud in.
"Where are you with that?" Fury turns to Agent Coulson to explain, while Natasha eyes an image on a computer screen. I take a look and see Barton. He didn't look like himself. Almost like he was a different person.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Coulson explains.
"That's still not gonna find them in time." Natasha adds finally looking away from the screen. "You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are there?" Fury asks him.
"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
Agents Romanoff and Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Natasha nods as we get up and walk off, leading Banner down the hall. "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

I stood in the doorway as Banner and Nat stood in the lab until I hear a faint, "We got a match." From an agent at the bridge. I walk back quickly to see Loki on the screen. "Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent."
"Location?" I ask him before pulling up video feed of him dressed up at a gala.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
"I'll get a head start. I'll find him and see what he's up to. Captain.." I turn to him. "You're up. You'll fly in after me with Natasha and we'll take him out. Good?" I ask him and Fury in the distance. Fury just gives Steve a nod. "Yes ma'am. Steve nods to me and heads off to get ready. I walk out, grabbing my bag first, with Coulson trailing behind me. "You seem to love calling the shots."
"What can I say Phil," I get to the entryway to the outside to get a jet. A pilot walks up with his breathing mask on to go outside. "I'm a natural born leader, I suppose." I shrug. The pilot and I walk out and enter the quinjet. "You drop me off at this Gala and take off back here. I'll be coming back with Natasha." I explain before pulling out what I need. "Yes ma'am."
I get ready and equipped what I needed for the mission. Something told me this wasn't going to be pretty.