Who is the Rival?
Natasha:
“Who the hell uses arrows anymore?” Natasha bypassed turning in a report to go straight to the beast. She slammed the arrow down at the table and waited for one of the many lab techs to run in to take it for analysis.
Her anger is broken by the loud speaker system. “Agent Romanova, what happened?” Her handler always had a flare for the sinister, but it can be highly annoying when the goal was getting to the root of the problem.
Her anger was back, maybe not the best look for an emotionless assassin, but it would have to do for now. “Someone shot at me using an arrow. An arrow.” It was so ridiculous that it was nearing ludicrous. Her assignment was a failure because some moron shot at her using a prehistoric weapon?
“New assignment.” The speaker told her, not even bothering with secrecy at this point. Soon enough everyone will learn of the Black Widow’s failure. “Your job is to deal with this archer.”
She bit her tongue before doing something that will mark her as insubordinate. “Yes, sir.” The system clicks off and Natasha turns her anger towards the lab techs around here.
One of them finally comes forward with a red file before scurrying off. She looks at the name at the top and was amused at the name.
Who the hell comes up with the name Hawkeye?
Clint:
He handed what he found over to techs and avoided the hospital staff by way of the vents. He really disliked being waylaid by the doctors and nurses that SHIELD kept around. They liked to poke and prod his body a bit too much for his liking. Also, they were usually his target of preference whenever they were off duty.
Well, besides the higher ups and newbies. While an equal opportunist prankster, some people were even funnier to prank than others. The newbies were so easy to scare at times, though.
He drops through the vent and into his favorite agent’s office. “Phil! What do you have for me?” No matter how many times he has tried, he has yet to receive much of a reaction from his handler.
Phil is looking at a file, and instead of reading out to him like he usually does, he passes the file across the desk to him. “Actually read it, Agent Barton.” Phil knew him too well.
He had a habit of using files for target practice whenever he was bored. Also whenever he wanted to really annoy some people. “Black Widow, really? Sounds ominous.” Before he could open the file, Phil was handing him another one. “Two? Ugh, you know I hate paperwork.”
“Read it.” Phil’s voice held the order, and Clint froze before looking up at his handler in shock.
The files were in his hands…but his focus was on the man he saw as a father. “Phil? What’s going on?” Phil never gave him orders in his order voice unless it was something extremely painful to him, or deadly in that one case involving the snake (don’t ask).
Like always, Phil’s face hardly showed any emotion. A bland face that covered a man that was anything but. The handler motioned for his agent again to the files.
The second file had a list of suspected nests for Hydra and Red Room operatives. One address caught his eye and held it.
“No.” Everything inside of Clint froze. Impossible. Nat wasn’t... She couldn’t be…
Phil was being the emotionless Agent Coulson, and Clint knew whatever was coming next would most likely be even worse. “Read the other file.”
Inside of it is another list and information about the Black Widow program. In it was photos of suspected Widows that they have track of.
“Phil…” Clint felt his entire world breaking around him. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. It’s impossible. He knows Nat… Nat couldn’t be this. She just couldn’t be.
But the information was there. Right in front of him. Everything was pointing right at it.
Agent Phil Coulson reached out a hand in a rare show of affection for the man he saw grow under the umbrella of SHIELD. “Do you want me to…”
Clint didn’t need to hear the rest of the question, because his mind was already going through scenarios and explanations. “No, I’ll deal with it.”
The others sent after her would shoot first and ask questions later. Special Agent Clinton Francis Barton, though? He follows his own rules.
Certainty before going lethal.
He needed to know beyond any doubt that his wife was this person shown in the photographs. Because even if all of the evidence points toward a fact, it doesn’t make something true.