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Natasha sighed, deep in thought as she tinkered with one of the engineering bots that had malfunctioned and tasered one of the crew mates, luckily they were fine but they did kick the thing and immediately yell for Natasha to fix it. Ever since the debacle on the heist, her first heist, her mind had been wondering. Both because she was afraid of the consequences since they had failed and also why had some princess decided that night of all nights to to break free?
The bot shrieked when she got too close to it’s mainframe and she turned to grab a pair of smaller tools, she stopped when she saw the Grey toy that she had stuffed into one of her pockets. She shook her head and stuffed it deeper, grabbing her tool and turning the bot off so that it would stop making noise.
“Hey, Nat.”
She jumped, knocking off a few pieces of metal that surrounded her on her work bench, she turned around angrily, “What is it, Jack?” She said through clenched teeth.
They put their hands up, “Peace, man, I just wanted to take you to the meeting that Fury is holding so that we can all talk about our failure on the planet. Because that’s smart and mature apparently..” They looked off, lost in thought again, “So you coming?”
“Why would they even let me in there?” Natasha looked at them skeptically.
Jack scoffed, “That’s not a good attitude, besides, you were there when everything went to hell, you deserve to be there. Also, I fucked up and I don’t want to go alone.” they added sheepishly.
Natasha rolled her eyes, “Fine. But if you get me shot out into space I’m taking you with me.”
Jack grinned, “Fair enough ‘cause I will throw you under the bus if it comes down to it.”
Natasha stood up and threw her mechanic’s belt over her shoulder and stepped up to the purple haired engineer, “Let’s go then.”
“How did you even end up here, Jack, I’m curious.” Natasha asked as they made their walk up to the bridge where this "meeting" was being held.
It was strange, a pirate ship, a literal crimminal vessel and somehow she felt like she was working on a military ship. Although, many said that this strict regimen was the reason that Nick Fury was so sucessful and had so many relations with people in high places from all over the void.
They scratched their head and made a clicking sound that almost resembled a laugh, “It’s a long story, but basically I met Fury during one of those black market auction things on Tah’Woh, we, uh, got along and now I work for him.”
Her eyes widened, “Oh my god, Jack, you slept with Fury?” She asked, shocked.
Jack shrugged, “Well, I mean, yeah. We were both intoxicated and young, you know how those things are, child.” He added quickly.
“I’m like seven years younger than you, Jack.”
“Anyway, we had some time to chat after that, Fury was brilliant and so was I.” They smiled and Natasha kept staring at them with her mouth wide open.
“You slept with captain Fury..” She said quietly to herself and they rolled their eyes. They were a few steps ahead when Natasha spoke again, apparently over the initial shock, “Wait, I heard that Fury broke you out of a prison on Venus?”
Jack stepped through the elevator door and the redhead followed, they told the lift where they wanted to go and it began to speed upwards, “Yeah, that was a while later. Bit of a shock when he did that.”
“You mean, you guys didn’t plan that?”
“Nope, hadn’t heard from him in years, heard an explosion and next thing you know there was a hole in the building. Fury stepped up and told me that he needed my help and that he was sick of incompetent criminals.”
“And you’re not an incompetant criminal?” She jabbed,
They ignored her and continued, “Then we went on to find the finger bone of some dead king.” They said it as if it was a really good memory.
“He wanted you to find a finger bone?” She asked skeptically.
Jack wiggled their hand, “Well, it was more the giant shiny rock on it that really made the big bucks. But Fury let me keep the finger.” They said with a smile, putting their hand in their pocket and pulling out a dried up knuckle bone, “Good old king Miredom The Black Heart, always brings me luck.”
Natasha grimaced, “That’s lovely.” She said dryly.
They nodded, apparently not hearing her tone, the lift stopped and they stepped out onto the large and impressive bridge of The Righteous Man. A intimidating looking woman turned around when they entered.
“You’re late.” She said curtly.
Jack gave her a big toothy grin, “Time is an illusion, commander Hill.”
The woman shook her head, looking past Jack and straight at Natasha, “Are you Romanov?” Natasha nodded quickly, nervously.
“Speak up.” She said and then turned, beckoning them to one of of the doors on their right.
Natasha glanced at Jack and they explained quickly, “Maria Hill, Fury’s right hand woman. A rogue agent from somewhere in the Milky Way.”
“Huh, “ Natasha began, “Seems like Fury picks up a lot like that.”
Jack chuckled, “Yeah, except I think that it was the opposite with Hill. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”
Natasha wondered if the commander could hear them, if she was trusting Jack, she probably could and she was continuing to dig herself into a deeper hole. Hill gave them a quick glance and Natasha tried to give her an apologetic look but she didn’t know if it went through.
“Where did you hear that?” The redhead asked, more quietly this time.
“Well, I mean, from the computer.. Where I was looking into her deepest and most hidden files..” Jack cleared their throat and then slipped past Hill into a very formal
Looking room with a long metal table in the middle. Fury was standing at the end and he sighed as they walked in.
“You’re late.” He said sharply.
Natasha jumped slightly but Jack just smiled, “So we’ve been told, Cap’n, now what are we here for.”
The captain’s head tilted slightly, “Did you read the message I sent to everyone?”
“We can message each other?”
Fury rolled his eye and then turned around, turning on a small holographic projector waiting until it had constructed the image he was waiting for.
The item it was showing was a chunk of wood, or at least that’s what it looked like, it was probably about the size of a human hand and it had sharp edges around it’s dull appearance.
Fury turned around to them and the rest of the crew that was attending, he pointed to the image, “This is what we lost last night.”
Jack raised their hand and Fury promptly sighed, “What?”
“Respectfully, Captain, I though we were going after an expensive piece of rock not a chunk of oak. I could’ve gotten that for you with a wood chipper, and I wouldn’t have been shot at.”
Fury ignored them and turned back around, “This item has many names but we call it the key of Anima , there is only one in the entire universe and it was held in the vaults of Pacis, it has been for centuries.”
“A key? Not treasure?” Jack, of course, spoke up.
Hill shook her head, “A key.” She confirmed. Jack made an Impressed, “Huh!” noise and sat back in their chair. Natasha nudged them with her elbow to signal to them to be quiet.
Fury continued, “We’ve been fucked over and the second that we find this bastard, they’re going to know the meaning of the word fear.” He threatened to no one in particular.
One of the crew, a short pirate with ankle length straight black hair, named Thi Phan made a loud whooping noise and hit her fist in the air. A moment later the room was surrounded with the sounds of cheering pirates.
Fury didn’t silence them but when he spoke again everyone went silent again, “We need to find out who would have the resources and the motive to steal this thing out from underneath us. We need to look at who we’ve fucked in the past, who would be coming after us now. Finding people won’t be very hard but finding locations might be. I expect results within the next 24 hours. We’re going to get this son of a bitch and then we’re going to get our reward.” He finished the room broke out in wild cheers, as if they were in a bar whose favorite sports team had just won.
He tapped on the screen again and everyone went silent, four faces came into view with profiles. "Let's start with these." He tapped the first picture and the picture zoomed in, "Peggy Carter, AKA Miss Union Jack, treasure hunter."
Pua then pointed out, "Union Jack ain't been in the Andomeda in years, why would she be trying to fuck us over now?"
"As far as we know." Fury answered, "She's got aliases all over the void and this hit matches her M.O. It's worth a look." Then he continued his list, "Also, check out Matt Murdock, Gamora, and Wanda Maximoff, this job could easiyly be any of theirs."
Hill looked over at Fury, "I think that we should also look into America Chavez, she's young but she's been making waves. This could be a grab for power."
Fury nodded, "Add her to the list. Now get to work." He ordered.
They had all begun to pile out when Fury called over the crew, “Romanov, my room. Now.” She stopped dead in the doorway and her face went red, beside her, Jack shrugged and turned to go with her. Fury put a hand up, “Just Romanov, Roth.”
They glanced at Natasha and smiled, patting her on the shoulder, “Aww, be good in there by yourself, okay?”
The redhead rolled her eyes and Jack continued, “I’ll be back to pick you up at 3, yeah? Be good and I’ll see you soon.” They made a fake sniffling sound, “I’m so proud—“ They said through their fake face of despair. Natasha punched the purple haired engineer in the arm and pushed them away.
However, when they left through the door, her heart jumped and she walked through the sliding doors at the end of the room. When she entered, Fury was already sitting comfortable at a large metal desk, reading through something. At the side of his desk Hill was standing with her arms behind her back at attention.
Natasha didn’t quiet understand that, this was a pirate ship, not a military vessel. However, If Hill was going to scare her into submission, it was definitely a good look. Natasha approached the desk and held her hands tightly at her side. “Yes?”
It took him a moment to respond but a few moments later he looked up from what he was reading and looked the red head up and down critically, “You were on the planet, I want you to help follow up on the thief.”
Natasha nodded and her eyes glanced at Hill who was inspecting her carefully, “I honestly thought I was already going to, at least, I know Roth did.”
“Roth is a nutball.” Hill spoke up, “The best at their job but still a nutjob, don’t take anything they say for granted.”
“I wanted to let you know personally, Romanov.” Fury said, ignoring their discussion about his engineer, “Don’t disappoint me.”
Natasha was just having a weird little daydream examining the idea of Nick Fury sleeping with Jack Roth of all people, it was a strange image and it just confused her more but when he reminded her to do a good job it shook her out of her own thoughts and she nodded quickly.
The room went silent and she wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to do until Hill gestured for her to leave and she turned to go out the door. Once she was outside in the meeting area she realized that Hill had followed her out and she turned to face the second in command.
Natasha jumped as Maria put a firm hand on her arm and patted it robotically, if she hadn’t known for sure that Hill was biological she would have figured her for an android. “You have gotten into Fury’s favors. Not an easy thing to do.”
“I still don’t know what I did any differently that made all this happen.”
Maria still had her hand on Natasha’s shoulder and the redhead was still trying to figure out what in the world that gesture even meant.
“Maybe he just got tired of you not doing anything to advance your future.” She said blankly, taking her hand away.
She didn’t know if that was a compliment or a straight up insult but she gave an uncomfortable smile either way, “Thanks?”
Maria took it, “We have a lot of work to do, I want to see you here in two hours. I think that we'll work well together.”
Natasha nodded (Was that flirting?) and walked away slowly, still in a daze because everything seemed to be happening so fast and she had no idea what it all meant. She walked through the ship, her stomach growling and her head slightly dizzy, she wondered if she should go to the doctor, maybe she picked something up in those sewers.
The redhead stopped suddenly in the corridor and tilted her head, her eyebrow furrowing in confusion, something was coming through the walls. Drums? It was muffled but she could hear it and upon further inspection she knew that she was next to the auxillary conduit and she wondered why anybody would be working in there.
She opened a panel and then climbed up behind the wall, when she reached the first level and her head peaked over the top of the ladder her eyes widened. There was a woman sitting, leaning really, on one of the auxillary generators. She had music in her ears and it was blaring loud enouth that anybody in the general area would be able to hear it.
Natasha stopped and stared at the stranger for a moment, She was beautiful, that was certain and even with her eyes shut she had a certain life about her, a life that seemed to surround her being. She had long brown hair that tumbled around her shoulders and chest. Natasha was definitely sure that this girl had not been here before, she wasn't someone she would have missed or forgotton.
Natasha took a few more steps up and stepped into the cove. Apparently the vibrations alerted the stranger and her eyes shot open and she ripped her head phones out of her ears with a pop.
"I-- I uh- I just wanted some privacy!" She lied, putting her hands up in front of her as the redhead took another step forward.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Natasha interrogated. The stowaway stood up and Nat raised an eyebrow, "And don't try to run. We'll catch you."
"I--" She seemed at a loss for words, "I didn't think anyone would find me here." She admitted.
"They probaby wouldn't have until the next scan except for your music."
Darcy grimaced, "What are you going to do with me? I just needed a ride, surely that can't be that bad?"
Natasha thought about it for a moment, in a crisis like this there was a good chance that they would kill the stowaway. If anyone but Natasha woyld have found her she would be halfway to Fury's quarters by now.
The woman was looking at her with big watery eyes and Natasha was momentarily reminded of a scared kitten which didn't help her situation. She had been a stowaway once before and someone had shown her kindness, maybe this was her chance to give it forward. Although Fury would be furious if he knew what she was doing.
She sighed, "You can come with me, hide in my room." Darcy let out a breath of air that she had been holding. "But--" Natasha raised a finger, "You're getting off the next time we land, understood?"
The stowaway nodded, "Understood."
"Now, give me your hands, I'm going to handcuff you until we get there so no one will snitch on us." Darcy oblidged immedietly.
Natasha made her way swiftly to her own quarters, and the stowaway stumbled unbalanced next to her as fast as she could given the circumstances. They passed several crew members on their way but Natasha just kept her head down and The brunette followed suit.
She spoke only when they had walked into the redhead’s quarters, “Oh my God, thank you so so much!” She cried when the door shut behind them.
Natasha gave her a blank look and then unlocked her handcuffs, “Don’t make me regret helping you, alright?”
“No! No, of course not, it will be like I was never here.” She assured.
Natasha frowned, “It better be. I’ve got better things to do than babysit some stowaway.”
“Of course.”
“And I wasn’t lying back there, the next time we stop you’re off.” She made a get out gesture and the woman continued to nod attentively.
“Thank you so much.” She repeated again.
“You don’t have to keep thanking me, okay? I just hate to see you get jetted into space or something, plus they always make a big deal out of it and it annoys me. Loud ass pirates- I just wanted to get some fucking sleep tonight, yeah? This has nothing to do with you. Now, make a place for yourself and remember that someone will probably kill you if you leave my room. So don’t.
“Jesus, what kind of transport do you carry?” She asked with a nervous giggle.
Natasha raised an eyebrow, “This isn’t a cargo ship. This is The Righteous Man. It’s a pirate ship captained by Nicolas Fury.”
The blood drained out of the stowaway’s face and her eyes went wide, “Oh, no, you’re kidding me…” She put two hands on her forehead and turned around, “You mean, you guys could really kill me?”
“Yes, what were you expecting when you snuck onto a warclass vessel? A slap on the wrist?”
The girl looked genuinely afraid now and that made Natasha feel slightly guilty, “I don’t know what I was expecting. I just wanted to get away, you know, I didn’t want to be trapped there anymore.” She sniffled, “But Now I’m in worse shape than I was.”
She looked like she was about to burst into tears, which was the last thing that Natasha needed right now. Natasha gave her a stiff and awkward pat on the shoulder, still standing two feet away from the brunette. “There. There.” She said uncomfortably.
Then she thought about what she had just said, “Trapped? Why were you trapped there?”
She sniffled, “The Pacis nationalists, they took me when they over threw our city.”
Natasha’s eyebrow raised, “Your city?”
Suddenly the brunette wiped her hair away from her face, “I’m sorry, I never introduced myself, I’m princess DarcemKanequinama.”
The redhead nearly choked on her own breath, “Excuse me?”
“But you can call me Darcy.” She said with a sweet smile, “What’s your name?”
“Princess, really? Like the runaway that ruined our heist?” She asked, now sounding angrier.
“Well, I mean, I guess the guards and the alarms would make it kinda hard to—“
Natasha threw her arms up and walked away, “This is just great, Nat, you might as well throw yourself into the void now.” She plopped down on one of her chairs and dropped her face in her hands, a scattering of materials clattering to the floor.
Everything was silent for a few moments until Darcy took a shy step forward, “Your name is Nat then?”
Natasha looked up at the innocent brunette and sighed, with a little nod of her head. “Yeah, It’s Natasha. Not like it matters ‘cause Fury’s going to kill me when he finds out that I’m hiding an escaped princess in the middle of my first mission.” She said dryly.
Darcy smiled, ignoring the pirates rant, “Natasha. That’s a really pretty name.”
The redhead groaned and dropped her head to the top of the table then proceeded to bounce it continuously on the hard metal surface.