Chapter Text
It was just another day in the life of being an Avenger. Like always, Hydra was popping up in new locations, and like always, they were being sent to stomp out the problem. Specifically, Natasha, Clint, and Steve were being called. Fury said that it should be easy. It was a fairly new base out in the deep woods of Alaska, so it shouldn’t be too full yet. It would be fairly straightforward for the three of them to take care of things. Natasha certainly hoped so. She was exhausted, only returning from a previous mission with Sam and Bucky the night before. She wasn’t sure if she had the mental capacity to fight anyone right now, but Fury assured her that it would be in and out. He had better be right.
Her friends knew how tired she was, so they let her sleep while Clint flew the three of them to their destination. She appreciated her teammates in these moments, when they proved that they didn’t just care about her skillset, they genuinely cared about her. Even after spending a few years with them, it was still kind of strange to her to have people who cared. And she cared about them too, which was even stranger. For all of her life, she was taught to disregard others. To follow orders, maim, and kill with no emotion. To ignore the name that was tattooed on her right forearm. But now, she had friends. People who loved her, who didn’t care about her past, and enjoyed spending time with her. She may not have found (y/n) (y/l/n) yet, but she had the Avengers, and that was enough for now.
It felt like she had just fallen asleep when Steve was gently shaking her awake.
“Sorry to wake you, Natasha,” he apologized, “but we’re nearly there and we should probably go over some kind of plan.”
She yawned and stretched, “It’s fine, Cap. Thanks for the few minutes I got.”
He smiled at her, then launched into the plan, “There are four entrances: a main one in the front, a loading dock in the back, a small side entrance on the right side of the building, and a vent on the left side. I’ll go in through the back, Clint will slip through the vent, and Natasha can sneak into the side entrance. While Natasha and I take out all of the Hydra goons in the building, Clint will sneak to the foundation and lay down a couple bombs. When everything’s in place, we clear out and light up the building. That way, either Hydra will just abandon it, or if they really want that base, they’d have to rebuild it, which would take ages.”
Natasha nodded her affirmation. It was a fairly simple plan, similar to something they’d done a few times before.
“Works for me,” Clint called from the pilot’s seat.
The rest of the flight was spent getting ready. Not too many words were exchanged, mostly because Natasha was too tired to exchange them. But soon enough, they were there. Clint landed the Quinjet in the thick wood, concealing the aircraft in the pine trees. A freshly fallen snow covered the tree tops, and remarkably, it was mostly undisturbed by their landing. They were far enough away that hopefully they went undetected. The three exited the jet, then stole through the woods silently, save the soft crunch of powdery snow beneath their feet. Hopefully that wouldn’t screw them over.
Soon enough, they happened upon the base, and it was bustling with activity. People were streaming in and out of the doors, carrying weapons and other machinery. Various vehicles were strewn about in the snow, and there were engineers welding bunkers outside of the main metal structure.
“Whoever Fury got his intel from was extremely wrong,” muttered Clint, and the others nodded in agreement.
“We’ve taken out less people than this between the three of us,” Steve pointed out, “we should be fine. Let’s do this.”
Steve and Clint went one way while Natasha went the other. She slunk through the trees, careful not to be spotted. Her dark outfit helped her to blend into the shadows until she was nearly in front of the door. There was a keypad beside the door, and she noticed people swiping badges to get in and out. Guess she’d have to get one somehow.
Luckily for her, a lone Hydra agent turned the corner. She readied one of her knives and aimed for the target. It sunk into his head, and he slumped to the ground, motionless. Before anyone saw, she slipped over to him and hid his body behind a large stack of boxes. That would at least buy them some time before anyone saw him. She covered the crimson-stained snow with a pile of snow that was still white. She then returned to the body and stole his badge. She placed the badge against the reader, and the door clicked open. Nataska smirked. She was in.
Silently, she slipped through the unlocked door. The side hallway she had entered was dark, though she could see lights and people passing through the main one. There were doors lining the walls, though she had no idea which ones lead to what. Might as well try one out and see what happens.
For the first few doors she tried, there wasn’t much there. There were a few Hydra members, but she took them out quickly. As she crept through the hallways, she took out whoever crossed her path (except for Steve, who she accidentally met up with once). She wandered down another hallway and tried yet another door on her right. Inside was what looked like a lab, except no one was in it. It was relatively empty; there were stacks upon stacks of books lining the shelves and a few tables and chairs placed throughout the room, but not much else. Natasha supposed that they must not have finished furnishing this room yet. It seemed like all of the other rooms, insignificant.
She was about to open the door to leave when a voice called from the shadows, “What are you doing in here?”
She whipped around, pointing her gun into the corner from where the voice came, “Who are you?”
“I’d ask you the same thing, but I don’t think I have to, Miss Romanov,” the voice murmured back.
“How do you know my name?” questioned Natasha.
The figure, which appeared to be sitting before, stood up. Natasha could just start to see the figure; their legs, which were clad in leather, came into view.
“You’re rather, famous, Black Widow. Everyone knows your names,” the figure replied, stepping into the light.
When fully in the light, Natasha realized that the figure was masked. The ultramarine mask wrapped around their entire head, not allowing any identifying features to be seen. The combat vest on their chest matched the color of the mask, though the shirt underneath, along with the leather pants, fingerless gloves, and combat boots, were black. The voice sounded female, but it was slightly distorted, so Natasha couldn’t quite tell for sure.
“If you know my name, don’t I get to know yours?” she asked.
The figure chuckled, “Not my real one. But you can call me Mystic, if you like.”
Natasha raised an eyebrow, “Mystic, huh? Why Mystic?”
“I can show you.”
An ultramarine aura, matching the outfit Mystic was clad in, appeared around the door. When they pulled their hand forward, the door broke free from its hinges! Natasha barely had time to leap out of harm’s way as the door flew toward her.
“You don’t belong here. I’ll see you out.”
Before she knew it, Natasha was swept off of her feet and unceremoniously thrown out of the doorway! Mystic strode through the door as Natasha was getting to her feet and hurled a few balls of energy toward her. She skillfully dodged them and shot at the figure. Their magic surrounded the bullets, and they fell to the floor, rendering them useless. Natasha knew that one on one combat wouldn’t solve her problems, so she ran. Mystic pursued as close behind as they could, still throwing balls of energy in her direction.
Natasha radioed Steve, “Captain, Captain! I’ve got a superpowered hostile on my tail!”
“Coming your way! Might need your help, Clint!” crackled Steve’s response through her earpiece.
“I haven’t gotten to finish placing bombs yet!” called Clint.
“This is a bit more urgent!” exclaimed Natasha, firing a few bullets over her shoulder.
Soon, Natasha was being flanked by this Mystic and a bunch of Hydra agents. She shot down quite a few of them, but it wasn’t quite enough. Luckily, a red, white, and blue shield flew through the air, assisting her in taking out the agents.
“You doing okay, Nat?” shouted Steve.
“I guess,” Nat yelled back, “I’m not quite sure how long I’ll be able to keep this up though. I’m too tired from yesterday.”
“Maybe we should fall back,” suggested Clint through the earpiece, “I’m nowhere near done with these bombs, and if you two are having trouble up there, that might be the best option.”
“I hate to say it, but I think you’re right,” conceded Steve, “let’s get out of here!”
The duo weaved their way through the enemy, taking out as many as they were able while hunting for the exit. Swiftly, they found it, and practically threw themselves out of the door. They sprinted back to the Quinjet, where they found that Clint had already started it up. They entered the ship quickly, well aware of the magician still on their tail, and Clint lifted the ship into the sky.
Once in the air, Steve asked, “Who was that? The woman you were fighting?”
“I don’t know,” answered Natasha, “said her name was Mystic. She had psychic powers, pretty similar to Wanda. She had telekinesis, potentially more.”
“We’ll definitely have to watch out for her in the future,” Clint remarked.
Natasha nodded and sat in one of the vacant seats in the jet. As Steve called Director Fury to relay the day’s events, she was deep in thought. Who really was this Mystic? Why hadn’t they known about her before? And could they maybe, just maybe, defeat her?” She didn’t quite know, but all she knew was that she was strangely intrigued by this stranger.