Marvel Women One Shots

You're just different now Pt 1 - Natasha Romanoff

"I've made it to the data center. It's going to take me a few minutes to download everything. There's more here than I originally thought." Hearing Natasha's voice caused me to smile slightly. It was just nice to have some reassurance that she was still alive.

"I'm right outside the room with the shipment." I reported, stopping a few feet from my destined door.

"Good, just make it quick. I think our element of surprise is fading." Tony ordered. Sometimes, it was weird hearing how business-like he can get, considering that just about everything he says is sarcastic.

I reloaded my handgun and pushed my way through the door, drawing my second one the moment I stepped through. I had come face to face with one of the enemy guards.

He seemed to be dressed identically to the other's I had encountered: dark blue jumpsuits with black vests and tactical gear, with a helmet covering their faces. This guard's only difference was that his helmet was laying discarded on the floor a few feet away.

"Take one more step, and I drop this." he threatened immediately, holding up a long, blue crystal with misty gray veins. I had no idea what it was or what it could do, but I wasn't in the mood to find out.

"Listen, no one else here has to get hurt. Just hand over the shipment you recently got, and we'll be on our way." I tried to negotiate, replacing my guns to my sides and raising my hands above my head, showing him that I meant no harm. Sometimes, going in guns blazing wasn't a good idea.

"We will do no such thing." the guard spat, holding the crystal high above his head, seemingly ready to throw it on the ground to break it.

"Wait, what do you think you're doing?" I outstretched my hands in a questioning manner. I really didn't want to find out what that crystal does

Sometimes, we don't get what we want.

"Sacrifices must be made." The guard smashed the blue crystal to the ground, causing it to shatter and disperse into a sort of mist or gas.

The moment it filled the room, I could feel my body begin to react. The guard before me began to slowly turn to stone, standing still, watching me with a smug expression.

I looked down at my hands, feeling something strange around my whole body. Rock was beginning to form around my fingertips, crawling its way up my forearms, to my shoulders and chest. I tried to move, to run, to break the weird rock layer forming around my body, but I couldn't move. As the stone began to cover my head, I looked back up at the guard, who was now fully turned to a stone statue, his look of victory permanently plastered to his face. Then I joined him, becoming totally covered in the rock.

It felt like I had been stuck in there for about five seconds, yet it seemed to last for five years. My heart was pounding, adrenaline and fear pumping in my ears. There was this sort of buzzing in my mind, like something that had laid dormant for so many years had just been woken up.

 I couldn't even speak, shout for help into my comms. All I could do was hope that someone on my team would come find me, and know how to help me.

That's when I could feel the rock layer begin to crack around me. Sections of it began to fall off, slowly freeing me from its grasp. First my fingers, my hands, my arms, then my torso and shoulders, the cracks working their way to my head. The stone crumbled to the ground, releasing me from my cocoon, letting me fall to the ground, gasping for air.

What in the world just happened? Some sort of crystal just turned me to a stone statue for a few seconds.

I landed on my hands and knees, trying to get my head to stop spinning and my breathing under control. I couldn't tell if I was panicking or having some sort of reaction to the stone cocoon I had just been in. Either way, I knew I was about to pass out.