Tony grins at that. Heh, Natasha had been too smart to ever try to take advantage of JARVIS in a more meaningful way, but they'd let her get away with all sorts of small things. Like the first time she'd been waiting for him and Pepper in their bedroom after getting back from a date. Or the times when JARVIS made a show of teaming up with Tony in order to get him to eat.
In actuality, Tony ate a lot of fucking food these days, but Natasha never saw that because he only took his meals when she was off working under Pepper… or under Pepper's desk, as was often the case.
Still…
"So then what's the problem, J?"
" The problem, Sir, is that the Winter Soldier was just activated and given orders to neutralize the nuclear scientist that Agent Romanoff has been tasked with escorting out of Iran. He is currently en route and will likely intercept them in Odessa, Ukraine within the next ten hours."
Tony pauses at that.
"Shit. Prep the suit, J."
"As you say, Sir." -x-X-x-
Natasha Romanoff curses under her breath as she bunches up her legs and then kicks out the side door of the upside down jeep she finds herself in. At the same time, she reaches over and grabs her mark's shirt, giving him a good shake that has him groaning as he slowly comes back to consciousness.
"Good. Still alive. Come on, we need to get out of here."
She finds herself wishing she'd told Fury that she needed the actual vacation. Visiting Petra herself instead of relying on a body double sent by SHIELD is sounding really nice right now, especially compared to this bullshit. Everything had been going so smoothly too. She'd gotten to her target, secured him, and then set about smuggling him out of Iran.
In a week, Natasha had managed to get the nuclear scientist Fury wanted her to retrieve out of Iran, through Turkey, across the Black Sea, and all the way to Odessa. They were heading to the rendezvous with SHIELD located just ten miles outside of Odessa when the wheels on her jeep were shot out and they were sent off of a damn cliff.
Still, they were both still alive. She could still complete her mission. All she had to do was kill whoever the fuck was in her way first.
Reaching over and unbuckling her mark's seatbelt, Natasha' s lips compress into a thin line as she begins to tug the groaning egghead out of his seat and across the upturned roof of the car with her. One hand on his shirt and the other holding her gun, she slowly begins to extricate them both from the jeep. On the one hand, cars didn't like to be tossed around. They were prone to sometimes exploding as a result. So she was incentivized to move quickly.
On the other hand, she couldn't give whoever was hunting them a clear shot at the scientist. It was obvious he was who they were after. Climbing out of the car, Natasha's eyes shrink to pinpricks as she sweeps the area, looking for-
There! Her eyes widen as she sees it too late. Not it. Him. And when she actually clocks him… she does something she's not proud of. She freezes up.
But to be fair, the Winter Soldier is a boogeyman among boogeymen. He ' s a horror story even among the spy community, an urban legend Natasha had never thought was real. Until now. And he's bearing down on her and her mark with a rifle pointed in their direction.
Cursing herself for freezing, Natasha goes to bring up her gun, knowing already that she's too late. The Winter Soldier's finger is already compressing on the trigger. Only just as the familiar sound of rifle fire fills the air… something comes out of the sky so fast Natasha can hardly believe her eyes. The bullet from the rifle, instead of hitting Natasha, hits the matte black armor of what can only be described as a big, shiny robot. A bulletproof robot from the look of things, because the Winter Soldier immediately switches his rifle to full auto and takes a step back, beginning to spray the robot down, specifically targeting joints and other would-be weak points.
Not that it seems to matter much. The robot steps forward, grabs the barrel of the still-firing rifle, and crushes it in an instant. And then it grabs the Winter Soldier by the throat. The Soldier's infamous metal arm comes up and slams down on the robot's arm, and to his credit, he manages to break the hold for a moment. From there the Winter Soldier attempts to deliver a series of physical blows now that his gun has been turned into so much scrap.
WHAM!
None of it seems to have much effect, but what does have an effect is the robot slamming its metal head into the Winter Soldier ' s human skull. The legendary masked assassin stumbles back but stays on his feet in a way that shows just how tough he really is. The robot stays on him though, is all over him in fact, and continues to pummel him with a mechanical brutality that leaves even the Black Widow unsettled. Until finally, the Winter Soldier drops.
Natasha could hardly believe her eyes. Truthfully, she doesn't get much of a chance to properly process what she's seeing before it's all over and the robot is grabbing the unconscious Winter Soldier by his tactical vest, hoisting him up over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. For a second, just a split second, the glowing eyes of the robot turn towards her as it twists its body in her direction.
She tries to say something then, but for one of the first times in her adult life, Natasha finds she can't form words because her mouth and throat are both too dry from her staring wide eyed and open mouthed for a little too long. And then her chance is taken from her, as the robot blasts up into the air and disappears, taking the Winter Soldier with him. … What the fuck? What the actual fuck?
" Oooooh my head … what happened? The last thing I remember… ack! Are we under attack?!"
Natasha looks to her mark as he fully wakes up, the nuclear scientist panicking as he finally remembers the sounds of gunfire that heralded their tires exploding and them going off the cliff. But he didn't see any of what just transpired. He didn't know they had been about to die at the hands of a living legend, only for that living legend to get dismantled and taken apart in five seconds flat by a futuristic looking robot.
Lips compressing into a thin line, Natasha pulls the nuclear scientist fully out of the jeep and gets to her feet, dragging him up as well.
"Don't worry. Stay close, stick with me, and I'll get you to safety. I'm not going to let you die." She doesn't let so much of a waver of uncertainty enter her voice. And in the end, getting the scientist the last few miles to the SHIELD rendezvous is actually rather easy. There, she tells Fury what happened over a secure line, of course. He says he'll send out a forensics team to canvas the area, but she can hear the doubt in his voice all the same.
He sounds like he doesn't entirely believe it wasn't just her concussion talking, especially since there's literally no sign of a bogey on any form of radar located in the area. Not even satellites SHIELD had both legal and illegal access to had seen a single ounce of a matte black robot flying through the skies directly over the region and in the surrounding regions.
In the end, Natasha doesn't try very hard to convince him. Nor does she tell him of her suspicions. She's not sure why, but somehow Natasha thinks she already knows who that robot belonged to, deep down inside. And yet, she doesn't mention it to Fury. She doesn't even try to tell him. Maybe it' s because the robot saved her life. Maybe it's because it all sounds ridiculous and farfetched, even to her ears.
Or maybe Natasha just wants the chance to ask Tony Stark why he went out of his way for her first before she decides whether or not she's throwing him to the wolves.
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