Chapter Text
“Alright, STRIKE team: Delta, your mission is pretty simple. We have evidence that there’s a HYDRA cell in Sokovia. We believe it’s a skilled lab facility where some of their scientists are as well as some of their more risky experiments.” Maria explained looking serious. “It’s your job to get in there and flip the place. Take out anyone who is HYDRA and bring back any information regarding their experiments.”
“Sounds easy enough. We’ve taken out a HYDRA cell every month for the last six months, and that’s just with SHIELD. Do we have an estimated location for the base of operations?” Natasha had taken the mission file from Maria and was now glancing over it.
“We believe it’s near a small village that was destroyed a year ago.” Maria said “The coordinates have already been set into the quinjet. You can leave as soon as you’re both prepped.”
“Just let us go and grab our go bags from our floor.” Clint got up and walked to the door, waiting patiently for Natasha to follow.
“We’ll see you when we get back, Maria.” Natasha said as she walked out, her head remaining in the case file.
And with that they both moved to the elevator of Avengers tower.
“JARVIS could you please take us to our floor?” Clint asked politely as he made a grab for the case file in Natasha’s hand.
“I’m not done with it, you may have it when I’m done with it.” Natasha pulled her hands away from his grabbing hands in a graceful manner as the elevator began to rise.
“Come on Tash, you and I both know you’re on your second time reading that thing. Let me read it.” Clint whined out as he leaned against the elevator wall.
Natasha smirked as she continued to read.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened soundlessly onto their floor.
Natasha walked off first handing Clint the case file and stating “I believe my widow bites are in the kitchen. Grab them for me.”
“Why exactly are they in the kitchen?” Clint said as he walked towards said space in search of the specified weapon.
“Remember how I got back from that solo mission last week and we had a little bit too much fun in the kitchen? Yea, I took the catsuit out of the kitchen but not the widow bites.” Natasha’s voice echoed out to him from their room.
Clint grabbed the weapons from their place next to the toaster and walked to their room. “Your bites.”
She gave him a small smile as she took the weapons and placed them in her bag.
“We should probably let the others know we’re leaving again.” Clint said as he began collecting his archery supplies.
“We can stop on the common floor before heading up to the quinjet.” Natasha had her bag zipped and on her shoulder as she stood waiting patiently for Clint.
“Alright, let’s do this.” Clint grinned as he put his go bag on his shoulder and grabbed his bow case. “JARVIS our floor can be turned onto mission mode until we return.”
“Of course, Agent Barton.” The AI replied as the lights turned off. The elevator popped open for them when they approached.
When they arrived to the common floor only Pepper and Tony were there. They sat in the kitchen eating lunch.
“Hey, just thought we would come down here before we left to give a heads up that we’ll be gone for a few days. Maria gave us a mission in Sokovia.” Clint said as he walked towards the couple.
“Where the hell is Sokovia? Never heard of it.” Tony said as he stuffed another bite of food into his mouth.
“It’s near Russia. When I was with the KGB I had a few missions there.” Natasha said “It’s a small and a rather poor country. You have more money than the entire country, Stark.”
“And that would be why I have never heard of it.” Tony said “Going to kick some HYDRA ass?”
Clint laughed “You know it. Just wish Steve was here to join us for this one. Supposedly, this cell is where a lot of the scientists are holed up doing their futzing experiments. Guess we’ll just have to give the scientists some extra hell for him.”
“I am sure he’ll appreciate it. Although he did call and say that he and Sam should be back to the tower within a few days. Their latest lead fell short.” Pepper said as she got off the barstool she was sat on.
“Well hopefully we can find something that can help him find Bucky.” Clint said
“I;m sure any help would be nice.” Pepper smiled “Come on Tony. We can see them off.”
“Pep, my sandwich.” Tony gestured to his half-finished meal.
“Your sandwich’ll be waiting for you to come back. Now come on.” Pepper insisted.
Tony groaned as he followed them onto the elevator.
“To the roof, JARVIS.” Natasha said.
“Of course, Agent Romanoff” the elevator began to rise.
At the HYDRA cell in Sokovia
“This place doesn’t seem too heavily guarded, Hawkeye.” Natasha called out to Clint as the last of the HYDRA agents’ fells to the ground with either bullet wounds or arrows sticking out of them.
“Well, just keep on your toes, Widow.” Clint said as he stalked over to the collapsed enemy, checking for signs of life. “We’re good here. I’ll go left. You go right. Keep your com line on. Remember to get any data you can.”
“Especially for Cap.” Natasha nodded as she headed in the direction Clint prompted.
After watching Natasha leave down the hallway he walked to the left and into what could only be considered the main hub of the HYDRA cell. A circle of high tech computers were whirring and two more HYDRA agents sat at the stations. Clint carefully slunk into position undetected. He was surprised these agents had not heard any of the commotion that had been going on only thirty yards to their right. Within ten seconds both of the agents where on the ground arrows in their hearts.
Clint walked over to the computer and stuck a thumb drive from SHIELD into it. It was one that would nearly instantly download all information onto it.
As he waited the time necessary for the device to collect all the data, he scanned the room. His eyes fell on a pair of cells. One was empty but obviously lived in. As he approached the other cell to inspect it, what he initially thought to be a blue-grey blur slowed down and turned into a small and quivering child. The boy could not have been more than three years old and was extremely skinny. His silvery blonde hair was matted. Silvery-grey eyes filled with fear as they landed on Clint. The boy began speaking in rapid Sokovian. Clint barely understand a word. But he did understand that he needed to look less threatening as he laid his bow down on the ground and raised his hands up so that the young boy could see his hands. The boy looked at him curiously before he pointed to himself then at the wall that joined with the other empty cell. And he asked one simple word.
“Safe?” He stuttered over the English pronunciation.
Clint immediately nodded and said “Safe.” He then moved forward to the pad on the wall and grabbed an arrow from his quiver. He stuck the taser arrow into the keypad and activated it. At once the doors on both cells swung open and not a second sooner he was bombarded by the child that occupied one.
The young boy clutched Clint’s leg and said simply “Need Wanda”
“I have no clue what you mean kiddo but I think we should get out of here.” And with that Clint scooped up the undernourished child and began walking back to the meet up point, remembering the drive as he passed it.
Meanwhile on the other side of the base
The hallway that Natasha walked down led to a large lab. Within the lab there were four scientists. They all seemed too occupied with whatever experiment they were working on to care about the intrusion within their base. Pulling her gun she leaned around the door frame and quickly fired out four shots. The bodies hit the floor to reveal the only computer in the room- a laptop- as well as a stack of files.
“Jackpot.” Natasha whispered as a smirk graced her lips. She quickly entered the room.
She made to grab the laptop and files but was impeded by what appeared to be a childs building block surrounded by scarlet light smacking her in the hand. She looked up only to discover multiple more blocks floating in midair directly in front of her face. She glanced to the corner of the room she had thought only contained a table. What she saw was a frightened little girl who could be no more than three years old sitting atop said table. She had long and tangled brown hair. Her brown eyes seemed to glow with the same scarlet light as the blocks.
[Leave! No hurt. No more. Leave me an’ Pietro alone!], the thoughts popped into Natasha’s head in Sokovian and sounded out in a little girls voice.
Natasha understood after a moment’s thought. “[You are safe! No more hurting. I’m not going to hurt you!]” she said and thought in Sokovian until the scarlet light in the girls eyes dimmed and the blocks fell.
[You… save us?] The timid voice sounded off in her head again in Sokovian.
Natasha decided to try her luck with English and spoke “Yes I am. Saving you.” She nodded in affirmation as she approached the girl cautiously.
As soon as Natasha was close enough the little girl stood on the table and flung herself at her, clinging to her neck.
“Come on little one. My partner is probably waiting for me.” Natasha said in English as she adjusted the child onto her hip. The girl buried her face into her neck. Natasha quickly grabbed the computer and files.
Natasha was not surprised to find Clint standing with a small child in his arms.
“I think we’ve found HYDRAs most prized experiments Clint. We need to get in the air now before they realize.” Natasha was glancing nervously at the skies as well as the winding road that led to the base.
Clint only looked slightly surprised at the fact that his partner also had a child in her arms.
“Alright let’s go. Mind telling this little guy that I need to set him down so I can take off? But once we are in the air properly I can pick him right back up if that’s what he wants.” Clint nodded to the small, skinny boy in his arms.
Natasha relayed the message to the boy as they entered the quinjet. She stored the stolen laptop and files with their gear. Clint placed the drive he had on top.
“Alright as soon as we are in the air, I’m going to detonate the explosives we planted at the front of the base.” Clint said as he began take off protocol.
Natasha nodded as she clutched the two children closer to her, protecting their ears from what was bound to be a loud blast.
As soon as they were at a proper altitude, Clint turned JARVIS onto Auto-Pilot and got up and walked over to Natasha and grabbed the now sleeping boy from Natasha.
“So, how exactly are we explaining this to Maria?” Natasha smirked as she shifted the sleeping form of the little girl in her arms to a more comfortable position.
“Let’s just show up. Seeing is believing as they say.” Clint shrugged as he shifted the sleeping boy to rest on his shoulder “JARVIS please alert Agent Hill that we will be going to SHIELD headquarters to debrief.”
“Of course Agent Barton.”