Ch 22- Echoes
She killed them. Natalia watched Darcy go down, and then felt the bullets pierce her flesh. The alley echoed with the shots of gunfire, and then she too went down. She had been shot. The pain of her wounds increased when the kicking began. As she lay on the dirty ground, she noticed that Darcy was gone. She must have run away as soon as Natalia had been hit. The thugs only got a few kicks in when her rage boiled over. She grabbed the nearest leg, and broke it at the knee; the man would never be able to use it again like he used to... if he lived. He fell to the ground as she felt herself stand up. The two remaining men looked at her in bewilderment. They had shot this girl three times. The red head took a bullet to the chest, stomach, and thigh, and she didn't look fazed.
"You ruined my clothes," was all she said before breaking the necks of the two men, and then laughing as the one with the broken knee screamed in agony and fear as he watched his two friends die in a matter of seconds. He looked at her pleadingly, as if to ask for mercy.
"No mercy." She brought her foot down onto the man's chest as he lay there. The alley echoed this time with the crack of a shattered rib cage. She stared into his eyes with hate as his lungs filled with blood and the life left his body. She then kneeled next to the lifeless forms, and for some reason, she started crying; she never cried. For two whole minutes, the alley echoed for a final time with the cries of a broken girl.
When she reached the tower, she found that its defenses were down. Darcy must have found a way to break in and made her way to the rest of the team. Natalia then entered through a side door, and immediately found her way into the air ducts and for some reason, they felt extremely familiar. She figured out a route to the lab and as soon as she heard the voices of Darcy and the team, the duct closed behind her as the lab was locked down once again. Darcy's warning must have gotten through to the team that she was coming for them. She peered through a vent and found that everyone, minus Bruce, was assembled around the dark haired girl. She heard her name as Darcy filled everyone in on what had happened in the last few days. Her skin crawled when she felt eyes on her.
It was Loki. He was peering up at her in secret, his eyes telling her that he wouldn't give her away. It disturbed her that she wasn't sure why he was doing it, and she felt as if she needed to get away. As quietly as she could, she made her way to the part of the duct that had closed off. She found some equipment on her side of the wall, and went through it. It looked like it would be able to disable the door, but why was it here? Did Loki put it here? Or did she, when she was undercover and needed to spy on the lab. Natasha must have encountered the problem of the lockdowns before, and kept the things here in case she ever needed it again. She had to hand it to her, as much as Natalia hated herself on the videos as Natasha, she made good plans.
Natalia set up the equipment as if she was on auto drive. Her hands worked like they knew what they were doing, and before she knew it, the wall silently slid down. She glanced behind her and cursed herself when she saw her blood smeared behind her.
The sight of blood was starting to make her sick and as soon as she turned to crawl away, she heard a clink. Freezing in place, she hoped the sound wouldn't alert the team to her presence. She looked for the source of the sound and quickly found it beneath her. The bullet from her chest had worked its way out of her body and had fallen to the smooth metal below. The voices below paused for a moment, but then picked back up. Her stomach started to tickle, and she caught the bullet that fell from it this time. Sighing quietly in frustration, she pulled the remaining one from her leg and set it next to the other two before attempting to leave again.
Natalia was all too relieved when her blood trail ended, and she was outside again. Taking a cab, she made her way back to the airport. Her plan was still to find James and have him tell her what the hell was going on, and maybe even convince him to help her take out The Avengers. She just didn't have the will to do it herself anymore.
Stealing the private jet was easy, it was the flying part that made her nervous. She had flown planes before, but this one was far more advanced. Again, her hands went on auto pilot and quickly learned the controls. She set her coordinates to the ones Skye had given her, and made the long journey to Kazakhstan. He had better still be there, she thought the whole way.
And he was...