Dangerous Woman ♠ Natasha Romanoff

♠ chapter two: romanoff ♠

"Nat."

I decided to pretend as if I didn't hear Clint, and that I was still sleeping, as there was a better chance of him going away, so I could fall back asleep. I opened my eyes slightly, and peered at my alarm clock in front of me. 7:30 am, the time read.

It's too early for him to be starting his stuff already.

"Nat."

I groaned, and rolled over, grabbing my pillow and using it to cover my ears. "Go away Clint. Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"

Clint ripped the pillow out of my hand, and threw it on the floor. "Natasha, get up. We have a serious problem."

"Figure it out yourself." I told him, my voice laced with sleep.

"C'mon Natasha, Tony's really pissed about it." Clint implored, making Natasha laugh.

"When is he not pissed about something?" She remarked.

"There's some girl that's better at tech than him, who's hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D. databases." That got Natasha going. Someone beating Tony at his own game, huh? That's something we don't see everyday, she thought to herself as she made her way out of her bed, getting ready for the day before joining the others in a large conference room. The room had floor to ceiling windows lining its back wall, with a large table running down the middle of it, and a big screen in front.

"A few weeks ago, a young woman in her twenties, by the name of Sage Sinclaire broke into my house and stole highly classified files from my office," Tony started. "Files that no one but our team, and some high ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. officials have seen. She was caught on security cameras, and seemed to know exactly what she was doing, and where the cameras were, as she went around and did this in front of all of them."

Tony played some clips from his security cameras back. The footage showed an enticing young woman flipping each camera off as she walked by, a determined look on her face. She had long blonde, almost brown hair that fell about to her middle back. I couldn't stop staring at her face; she had angular features, and deep set chocolate brown eyes. I savoured every single thing about her, and wondered how beautiful and intricate her mind and thoughts were.

My pleasant thoughts were interrupted by Tony whispering, "Someone's dreaming over there... Too bad this tech hottie is mine."

The word "hot" made my blood boil, and I couldn't control myself. "You have got to be kidding me Tony.. For someone as intelligent as you, I would expect there to be more adjectives in your vocabulary. Women are so much more than just 'hot'. Besides, Sage's looks are obviously not what we're here to be discussing, am I right? That mind of hers is obviously very complex if she's able to do all the things that she does, and it's obviously a serious threat to all the work that we do here at S.H.I.E.L.D. So get your fuck-boy mind back to business, because we need to focus."

By the time I was finished, the tips of Tony's ears had turned a fine shade of scarlet. He looked away, and cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed.

The rest of the Avengers stared at me like they were impressed. No one had ever really made Tony embarrassed; at least, if they ever did, he never showed it. Tony was very skilled in the art of masking his expressions, keeping his feelings under lock and key. Not even those closest to him, except Pepper, ever really knew what was going on in that mind of his. Even so, I highly doubt that even Pepper knew what he was thinking sometimes.

I can't say anything bad about lying when it comes to your feelings, since I'm the same way. It's better to fool your friends and family into thinking you're okay than have them worry about what you're going through, especially in this kind of lifestyle. Any slip could give the media that juicy new break they've been hounding around for.

"Anyway," Tony cleared his throat before continuing. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has now been keeping her under 24 hour surveillance, although, might I add, they're not doing a very good job. Sage is very skilled with technology, and seems to be able to hack into any and every database she wants, and it looks like that she's recently made something that allows her to remotely download things from any server she pleases, without getting caught, but unfortunately for her, she didn't do it soon enough, because here we are," Tony pulled out her file, and looked at it for a few moments before continuing. "It says here that her goal was to become a technician for NASA, and she went to MIT for two years before unexpectedly dropping out following the murder of her childhood best friend, Jessica West. Sage graduated high school with honours; she was majoring in computer science, and minoring in engineering."

Wow, she really is intelligent. No wonder Stark hasn't been able to do anything about this yet.

"Sage has read my file, Bruce's file, Thor's file, Loki's file, and Steve's files. She seems to take a liking to reading mission reports that have been written by Clint. Most recently, she has begun to delve into your file, Romanoff." Tony turned to face me. "We are going to wait, and see if she makes any more advances. If she does, we're going to send you out to shut her down, and make sure she doesn't put this information on tumblr or something like that." He shivered at the mention of "tumblr", as if he'd read a fanfiction about him and Rogers. "Birdman," he gestured to Clint, "and Fossil Fuel," he nodded at Steve, "will be waiting to leave on your signal in case you call for backup." Tony looked around the room. "Questions?"

***

I spent the rest of my day reading up on Sage Sinclaire, the mind that was able to outsmart Tony Stark. It made me laugh a little just thinking about it. While I was looking through the file, my computer froze for a few moments before turning off. That's odd.. I tapped the power button a few times, trying to get the computer to turn back on, when suddenly, all the power went out, and the room was plunged into darkness.

edited: February 17, 2022