Head On
“PARTNER? PARTNER? ME?” Alexei yelled at Melina, gesturing to himself. He was innocent! He was led astray. “I am .. I was a patsy, he lied to me, he sold me politics, and then he threw me in jail. ME. And you all left me, to rot.” Alexei scoffed and sighed to himself and then took a swig of vodka.
“I just rescued you…” Natasha growled under her breath.
“AHEM.” Yelena coughed.
“We…” Natasha corrected but the two of them were ignored.
“You WANTED to become a super soldier. We are his prisoners. We literally do not have any choice. Architect? I am just trying to stay alive, you….” She paused. “We left you? We have no option to leave anything or anyone. You have no idea!” Melina yelled at Alexei.
“They left! Our girls were able to leave him, but not you?” Alexei shot back at Melina and Melina sat back in her chair and crossed his arms.
“Natasha got away, because she was too skilled of a killer to be left to Dreykov and Yelena was freed. No one else gets that.” Melina shook her head. “When Natasha got out, Dreykov made sure no one else could escape, that’s what this is about.”
“You’re right that’s…” Natasha started to interrupt.
“You were fine with Dreykov until he put you away.” Melina glared at Alexei.
“No, Melina, I wasn’t! That’s WHY he put me away!” Alexei glared at Melina with an obvious stare and the two locked eyes.
“OKAY, ENOUGH! FOR REAL THIS TIME. You guys are worse than Stark and Rogers.” Natasha mumbled the last part to herself.
“I am not the villain!” Alexei started to yell.
“No, you’re an idiot!” Natasha corrected him. “And you..” Natasha pointed at Melina, “you are a coward.” Natasha said like a disappointed mother, taking inspiration from Maria. “And this little family dynamic? Not real, never real, always fake. So, let’s drop it and stop pretending there is anything other to talk about than business.” Natasha was trying to get the room back on track.
“Never real?!” Alexei asked offended. “For some Russian agents pretending to be an American family, we crushed it, we were as the kids say ‘one hundred.’ We were GREAT parents for those three years.”
“Even great fake parents don’t send their kids back to the Red Room.” Natasha stared at Alexei and Alexei sighed.
“No, we were perfect family, we played the roles perfectly.”
“Who cares, it wasn’t real.” Natasha huffed.
“I just love hearing you so casually remind me that the best part of my life was fake. It was fake an none of you bothered to tell me.” Yelena sighed emotionally. “And those agents you helped Dreykov subjugate around the globe? That was me, your fake daughter.” Yelena growled and then stood up aggressively.
“Yelena, please. I’m so sorry.” Melina said in a motherly voice that just made Yelena more angry.
“Do not sit there and fake mother me, I can’t stand it anymore.” Yelena said in a cold voice and Melina went to pet her arm and Yelena pulled it away grabbing a bottle of vodka off the table instead. “I need to … I don’t know.” She said as she took the bottle and left to another room. She was half thinking of walking out the door to catch a ride with Maria, or even hang out with the pigs.
“I’ll go talk to her.” Alexei said in a fatherly voice.
“You should not do that.” Melina scowled at Alexei as he started to follow Yelena and ignored Melina.
Natasha then got up from the table too.
“Now where are you going?” Melina asked.
“I’m done, I am going to finish this myself. Thanks for your ‘help.’” Natasha rolled her eyes.
“You didn’t really come here with one of your Avengers’ associates to ask me where the Red Room is, did you?” Melina questioned astonished.
“I did.” Nat answered forcefully.
“Don’t do it Natasha, you will die.” Melina said in the most considerate voice she had used since everyone showed up at her home.
“Don’t act like you care.”
“I do care!” Melina defended.
“Then why do you do this? Why do you help him. You sat here and said you were prisoner, acted like you hated him, and you help him and you hide him.” Natasha shook her head at Melina disappointingly.
“I don’t know, why does a hamster run on a wheel in a cage?”
“Melina! Maybe you were born in the cage but I am trying to open the door. All you had to do is tell me where the guy is who locked it.” Natasha scolded her former mother.
Melina looked at Natasha like she wanted to tell her but then she looked apologetic.
“What?” Natasha asked. Melina slowly tilted her head and put her lips to the side of her face.
“I told them, I told the Red Room you were here when you first arrived. I’m so sorry, they’ll be here any minute.” Melina admitted and then Natasha felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.
——-
Maria walked back toward the car to take a break from the awkward family reunion happening. She knew she really wasn’t part of that, and honestly she was looking for a way out of that situation. Did she want to support Natasha? Sure, but at the same time, it was really awkward and uncomfortable.
She pulled up what she was able to see from Melina’s tablet on her phone and started looking through it as she walked. She forwarded what she had to Fury and called him.
“Did you get that?”
“Hill, do you know what a vacation is?” Fury asked with a huff in his voice.
Maria scoffed to herself.
“The last time I took a vacation, you called me 27 times— that’s not an exaggeration I counted — and it was only gone for two and a half days and then I had to come back.” Maria reminded.
“When did you ever take a vacation?” Fury muttered into the phone.
“You’re right, never.” She snarked rolling her eyes to herself.
“Am I looking at what I think I am looking at?” Fury asked looking over what Maria sent him.
“Yeah, the complete fruition of the Hydra research stolen from SHIELD back in the 90s. These controls are for some farm animals, some pigs at this farm outside St. Petersburg, do you have anyone close by?”
“Yeah, I think someone is around…” Fury mumbled.
“Apparently Dreykov used this chemical subjugation technique to keep sleeper widows all over the world that he could turn on at any time. They likely don’t even know they under his control in this way. He can tell them all to stop breathing and they will until the die unless he lets them draw breath again.”
“Well, that’s not good.”
“A former widow invented a freeing agent, a gas or substance or something, that can stop the chemical control but does little for the Red Room psychological effects.” Maria sighed.
“Do you have any?” Fury asked.
“Na—-…” Maria paused she was about to say Natasha did. “Not currently, but I think I can get some.” She tried to cover herself.
“I don’t know that you should be meddling where you’re roaming around.” Fury said in a bit of a fatherly cautious voice.
“So, you’re saying you want to sit on a massive sleeper cell of chemically controlled, trained assassins all over the globe…”
“I am saying this might be a project for someone with a different skill set— of the super type of skills.” Fury reminded.
“Well, if you want to go spring some people from jail…” Maria echoed his tone.
“You know who really needs this information is Secretary Ross.” Fury pointed out with a grumbled and Maria sighed.
Maria looked at her watch wondering how much time she could give Natasha. “I can get it to him, soon.”
“Not now?” Fury asked knowing he was baiting her.
“I gotta put some stuff together.” Maria huffed into the phone.
“I don’t like this.” Fury warned in his fatherly code that he knew she was up to something.
“Don’t worry about it, you’re on vacation.” Maria dismissed. “I gotta go.” Maria hung up on him.
As Maria walked back to the car she was pretty sure she had seen a loose vial of the red substance Yelena gave to Natasha. And Maria wondered if she should save it and get it to someone so it could be replicated to help free the thousands of subjugated women all over the globe. She stared to look through her phone and read what she was able to swipe off Melina’s tablet, she was able to see some messages from Melina to some blocked number.
Maria stopped walking as she read through some of the messages. It was a photo of the car with Maria and Yelena in the front driving up toward the farm, the photo came off some security camera Melina must have set up outside of her property. She sent the photo to this number saying it was Yelena and some woman coming toward her.
Another photo was sent that got Natasha and Alexei in the back of the car, despite the tinted windows, the camera could see through them. The unknown number sent back of a photo of Maria and Igor from a few nights go, identifying Maria as an associate of Nick Fury and the Avengers who the unknown number ‘tried to get rid of a few nights ago with Igor but she apparently survived.’
Maria realized this was probably Dreykov and that Melina had told them they were coming, just like Maria worried she would. She immediately called Natasha but as she put the phone to her ear there was suddenly a blast from the side of her head and she heard a gunshot from the distance behind her. She felt a hot sting graze across the side of her jaw. Maria ducked quickly hitting the ground, in complete shock as she realized her phone was just shot from between her hand and face with such precision it missed injuring either of her body parts. If she wasn’t so stunned and terrified, she’d be very impressed by the shot.
Maria had ducked right next to the car that was on the side of the road. She slowly turned to the side and reached for her gun under the jacket she was borrowing from Natasha. She didn’t hear anyone coming, she assessed the angle from the shot being almost straight behind her but no one was there now. She would have hard someone if they ran across to the right which only meant they gone quickly to the left toward the woods when she ducked… this most likely meant the next shot was would be coming from … Maria jumped up from being in view under the car and moved toward the tire to block her and just as she moved shots were fired low on the ground where she had just been. Maria fired back rather blindly under the car.
She could hear a heavy rustling in the woods from behind where the car was parked, and Maria realized she was going to have to move, because she just had a feeling whoever was chasing her going to pop out soon and the car that was helping her as a shield might come down and crush her. As Maria heard the heavy foot steps come toward the car, she saw the black boots on the ground on the other side of the car. Maria fired at the feet but the boots lunged upward jumping over the car and landing on the side where Maria had been. Maria heard and saw the jump and flipped from being crouched by the right front tire to the front of the car. She heard the heavy stomp on the ground from this person who just landed.
Taskmaster scanned the ground for a moment a bit surprised that no person was there. She figured Maria had moved to the other side of the car quickly, cowering on the ground. Annoyed, Taskmaster started to step around the car but then she heard a rustling in the woods on the opposite side of the road. She stopped and started scanning the woods with her helmet. She couldn’t imagine how Maria could get across the road into the woods on the other side without her seeing it. Taskmaster took a brief moment debating the practicality of Maria being across the road or behind the car. She had to be behind the car, she just fired at her feet, and the bullets didn’t sound like they came from that far away. Taskmaster turned away from the woods and started to step around the car, but shots were fired from the woods. The bullets bounced off her body armor and Taskmaster turned back to the woods where shots were coming from and she shockingly did see Maria firing at her from the distance. She stopped walking around the car. Maria was the one she had to find, to make sure she didn’t send anything back to Nick Fury.
Dreykov would be furious and he had to know what Fury knew in order to stay one step ahead of him. Dreykov had flown so well under the radar pretending to be dead— you can’t kill someone you already killed. But, he knew that Fury must’ve been on his trail or close to figuring it out, he went after Arina and Igor, and Fury’s confidant showed up with two of his former widows and the man he put in jail—- straight to Melina’s. They knew here to go and what to look for. It was extremely concerning to Dreykov and he needed to nip it in the bud right now.
Maria watched from hiding behind the car, she saw the boots move toward the woods where the shots came from and she assumed it was Natasha firing. She slowly and quietly moved upward, she looked through the window of the car o see this large being in protective gear marching toward the shots being fired at her, never being struck by a bullet. She started to pick up speed chasing who was shooting at her, and Maria quietly moved into the car, she could see a singular red vial on the ground that had rolled under the drivers seat and she needed to grab it but she was afraid to take her eyes off of the person that appeared out of nowhere. Finally, Maria grabbed the vial and stuck it in her pocket.
Was this the fighter that Natasha and Yelena described to Maria earlier that had been chasing them. Taskmaster moved into the woods running toward what she thought was Maria. She dashed into the woods like a mad woman, scanning the area and chasing her down. She caught up to Maria who again fired at her.
Taskmaster knocked the gun right out Maria’s hand and went to force Maria up toward the tree, but Maria pushed back hard, with a force that shocked Taskmaster, this was not human strength. Taskmaster scanned the person in front of her she could read that this was not a carbon based lifeforms that she was fighting. She was trying to scan and understand what she was fighting but her system was getting a bit confused. As this Maria impersonation pushed her hard into the tree, Taskmaster fell backward into it. Taskmaster jumped forward to attack this being but it quickly moved out of the way with some superior agility skills. Taskmaster jumped at Maria again, her speed had increased but so did the speed of the Maria.
Back in the car, the real Maria was worried that Natasha was taking the brunt of this thing. She knew she was going to need help, Maria didn’t want to give herself away, but she wanted to draw out the attacker. She turned the car on.
Taskmaster heard the car turn on from the other side of the woods, it shocked her and in her moment of shock, the fake Maria hit her hard, and jumped over Taskmaster’s back trying to removed her helmet that felt glued onto her skull. Taskmaster moved quickly and tried to shake off the Maria imposter like a pest or bug that was bothering her. She tried to fling her off of her as the imposer tried and tried to remove her helmet to go at her head. In a moment of rage, Taskmaster backed herself into tree and started to slam the fake Maria up against a large tree in the woods trying to crush her.
Then Taskmaster heard the car starting to drive away, realizing she had been tricked and the real Maria had been back at the car where she originally thought. Clearly, she was trying to get away with information she had obtained. In a fury, Taskmaster threw the Maria imposter off of her and she finally crashed into the ground, she wanted to finish whatever the hell this was, but she started racing after the car that was fleeing. Her speed was also inhuman as she chased down the car. As Taskmaster ran off, Talos caught his breath on the ground in the woods—that was a rough one, but that human was being controlled by technology, Talos could tell, and no human could match her.
Maria saw Taskmaster run out of the woods behind the car chasing it. Maria stepped on the break quickly and whipped the car around. Maybe Maria was far from a physical match for Taskmaster, but she remembered Yelena and Natasha suggesting that it was like she could copy the fighting of the person she was against, but if she wasn’t fighting a person, what would happen?
Maria and Taskmaster stared each other down as Taskmaster’s metal skull of mask glared straight ahead. Maria wasn’t totally sure if this was a good idea, but she also didn’t want Natasha and Yelena taking on this superhuman alone. They had a mission too. In the stare down, Maria bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath. Taskmaster started to run right at her and Maria stepped on the gas peddle to the floor and the two sped at each other head on.
Taskmaster jumped into the air as Maria’s car approached almost crashing into her. She ran over the top of the car and jumped off the back just as Maria reversed the car at full speed running her over.
“FUCK.” Maria said to herself as she had never run a person over before. Taskmaster was on the ground for a moment but then started to get up. Maria was kind of conflicted, did she do it again? Where the hell was Natasha?
Taskmaster pulled herself up she seemed fine and again went head on the car and Maria moved forward as well as fast as she could pick up but Taskmaster jumped up and then kicked into the windshield.
Maria watched with her eyes widened as she jumped up and she opened the driver’s side door as Taskmaster crashed into in the windshield foot first with a heavy and powerful kick, her foot moved through the glass as it shattered around her ankle pushing into the car Taskmaster started kicking at the glass pushing more of it into the front of the car onto Maria. Maria tried to duck out of the side door and Taskmaster reacher her arm and the front of her body around the windshield toward the driver side door and Maria closed it quickly making her lose her balance and closing her fingers into the side of the door. She heard the cry and grunt of a what she thought was a woman. Maria turned the steering wheel sharply trying to force Taskmaster off the front of the car as she continued to forcefully kick glass toward Maria and make herself room to get into the front of the car. Taskmaster’s gloved fingers were crushed in the door as she she was stretched around the driver side windshield and door and still kicking glass in. Between the shattered windshield and Taskmaster blocking her view it was hard for Maria to tell what to do.
Maria could see a tree on the side of the road that she was heading toward from the passenger side of the car which was basically an open window now. Taskmaster used her other hand that was holding on to the top of the car to star to punch in the windshield in front of Maria’s face. Maria turned the car quickly to the driver’s side throwing, Taskmaster off balance as she took her grip of f the top of the car. Maria tried to use the momentum to force Taskmaster into the tree she just nearly turned into, and Taskmaster’s body whipped into it forcefully, and it looked like she was down for a moment, Maria started to crawl to the other side of the car to escape out of the passenger side door but Taskmaster was quick to recover, her protective gear protecting her from what could have been quite a fatal blow.
It was actually quite difficult for Taskmaster to anticipate what Maria was going to do, because she wasn’t really fighting with any physical movements. This was frustrating her as this should she been quite and easy catch, question, and kill. As she saw Maria aiming to escape out the passenger door she used her rage to freed her hand that had been crushed in the door and flipped the car toward where Maria was going. Taskmaster let out an angry enraged scream as she flipped the car forcefully.
As the car started to turn Maria crashed into the roof of the car and then toward the floor as it rolled. The pieces of shattered glass falling all around and cutting her. As the car rolled two times, Taskmaster took a moment. She took a low irritated deep breath as she grabbed a large, sharp sword that seemed like the mix of a sword and a machete out of her protected back pocket. She was sick of this and she had other things to do while she was down here.