By the time Thea got off the phone with Luka, she was only 20 minutes behind Black Widows team. With her driving though, it was more like 10 as she rushed to catch up with them. The tracker she had placed in the coat of the brunette said that they had just stopped at a hotel, she presumed it would be their safehouse for now. When she circled the building, she was relieved to see them just now exiting their car. They were probably talking things over before going in to check out their room. She parked her car on the street, opposite the front of the building where it was out of the way and harder to see. Watching her tracker from her phone, she saw it go up to the fourth floor and then move a few meters down a hall. The room was on the far end, away from prying eyes and facing away from the streets, getting up there unseen would be easy.
She ran to the side of the building and couldn't believe her luck, it was a balcony floor. The lattice going up adjacent to it provided the perfect footholds to get anywhere she wanted. Quickly climbing, she peeked over the balcony to see a large glass door covered by a curtain on the inside. It was only a matter of seconds before the team got smart and investigated their new safe haven, so she covered the small space and planted a listening device before climbing up one more floor to a presumably vacant balcony and inserted her earpiece.
Not three seconds after she made it safely to the fifth-floor balcony, she heard the curtains open and the door slide open.
"I don't like this," she heard a voice say, it sounded like Romanoff. She wasn't alone, but she wasn't sure who the other person was yet. "Anyone could hide out here, and we can't see anyone coming with this view."
"True, but they also can't see us and its not like we are going to be out here." It didn't sound like the brunette she had encountered in the alley earlier, it had to be the blonde that exited the car with them and the other black guy. She needed to figure out how they fit into this whole equation.
Once Thea heard them close the door and pull the curtains tight, she swung down from her perch and found a nice spot where she could see through the end of the heavy curtain. It would be hard to spot her unless they were really looking, so she relaxed and tried to figure out which one of them had the flash drive.
After Natasha, Bobbi, Darcy, and Dove left the car, they quickly found their rooms and broke up to get changed. Dove had his own room while the girls all shared theirs.
"This is so much better than the old place," Darcy said as she surveyed the room while Natasha and Bobbi checked out the balcony. Once they came back in, they found Darcy in the bathroom changing out of her grimy clothes. She had complained the whole ride there how gross she felt from laying on the nasty alley ground.
Natasha took off her jacket and then shirt to get a better look at her chest. Her undershirt only hid so much as a large purple bruise was starting to form.
"Damn," Bobbi said as she walked over to see, "that bitch hit you hard."
Natasha rolled her eyes before slipping her shirt back on. "I still think you have me beat as far as injuries go," she teased back.
From listening in on the balcony, Thea catalogued that the blonde was injured as well. She could use that to her advantage if she needed to later on. When the brunette exited the bathroom, she noticed how she threw her clothes in a pile next to the couch. Trained agents didn't do that, they kept their belongings together incase they needed a quick getaway. Speaking of getaways, she pulled a small charge out of her pocket that she grabbed from her car and stuck it on the door, just in case something went wrong and she needed a distraction, or a way in.
"I feel so much better after getting out of those clothes," the brunette said.
"Darcy, getting dirty is part of the job you know," the blonde said mockingly.
"I know Bobbi, but I still don't like it. Dove isn't here yet?" Darcy asked looking around in annoyance.
Thea now had all their names.
"No, he isn't," Natasha said as she slowly paced in boredom.
Darcy flopped back onto one of the two queen beds and Bobbi removed her jacket. Thea got a glimpse of an angry scar running across Bobbi's stomach and guessed that was the injury Romanoff had mentioned earlier.
"Stop pacing" Darcy said as she sat back up in reference to Natasha, "it won't make Dove hurry any faster. He's probably taking a shower, I doubt the base had warm water running to it."
Natasha stopped pacing and instead sat on the small couch. "What all were you able to see when the flash drive was downloading?"
"I don't know, things were popping up so fast. I know for a fact that I saw something referring to Project Lazarus which we already saw, and there was something about a Project Echo too. Luka's name did pop up a few times as well, so at least we are on the right track and closer to finding him."
Dread hit Thea right in the chest as she realized that they knew more than she thought. And they already knew about her brother, Luka, but how much? If they knew about Project Lazarus, then did that mean they knew about her father? It would make sense; her father had always warned them to stay away from the Black Widow.
"What about the crazy chick?" Bobbi asked. "I mean why was she the only one after the drive?"
"Oh!" Darcy yelled, "I forgot to say this earlier, but I saw her before going into the building. I think she knew we were coming."
"So, is she HYDRA or something else?" Natasha asked to no one in particular. Speaking a little louder, shared her concerns. "What if she was the one keeping us out of the database, I mean if she was, she would have been just waiting for us to try another way to get in right?"
They didn't know how right they were, Thea had to applaud how smart they were. She was then pulled from her thoughts as her phone buzzed from her pocket. Checking the room once more, she pulled it from her pocket and saw a message from Luka.
"They're coming, get out of there now. Echo is active, and I think they have your location. They know about us." Thea's heart almost stopped but she managed to shoot a text back.
"I've almost got the flash drive and then I'm out of here."
Back inside the room, Darcy nodded in agreement before getting up off the bed and heading for her pile of dirty clothes. "There's something on that flash drive she doesn't want us to see, and I don't think its just HYDRA secrets." She fished it out of her pants pocket and tossed it to Natasha. "I'm going to get Dove so we can start sifting through data, my curiosity is killing me!"
Natasha pulled the laptop from her bag and moved to the bed while Darcy went across the hall. She had just plugged it in when Darcy poked her head back in. "Dove forgot something in the car, I'm going down with him."
"Ill go too," Bobbie said while pulling her jacket back on and hurrying after the girl.
Natasha was left alone as the flash drive started downloading some of its files to the computer. If there was ever a time for Thea to strike, it would have to be now while Natasha was alone.
She detonated the charge that she had placed on the door and then she was in. Immediately she was met with a very angry assassin. Recognition flashed in her green eyes as she realized that it was the girl from the alley, the girl who was after the flash drive.
As soon as the glass shattered, Natasha immediately went on the defensive. It was the girl who had been following them, and she must be back for the flash drive. She watched as the girl drew out her two halves of a bo-staff and prepared for a fight. Thea made the first move and Natasha dived across the bed, grabbing the laptop on the way across. She pulled out the flash drive and before she could pocket it, her wrist exploded in pain as it was hit from her grip by one of the metal staffs, while the other one sent a blow to her temple.
It slid across the room and came to a stop by the front door. As Thea watched it slide, Natasha shook away the fuzziness from the blow and tackled the girl to the ground, wrestling the staffs from her grip. She succeeded but was quickly thrown off by another blast of power like before. The bathroom door shattered as she was sent through it, but she recovered quickly and was back at the intruders side in an instant, getting in a few good punches and a kick that sent her to her knees. She pushed her the rest of the way down with her foot and quickly subdued her.
"Who are you and what exactly is it that you don't want us to see on that drive?"
Meanwhile Dove, Darcy, and Bobbi had reached the car and Dove found what he was looking for.
"Found it!" He announced as he waved the tracker towards the two women. "I put a tracker on that girl's car so we could follow her, and now that we have the flash drive she may be trying to find us."
"Smart," Bobbi offered as she hugged her jacket tighter. It was starting to snow again, and the temperature was dropping in the late afternoon. "Can you see where she is now?"
Dove turned it on and they could tell by the way his face fell that she was already here. "Her car is over there somewhere, let's check it out."
"Be careful, we don't want her to see us," Bobbi warned as she got between Dove and Darcy.
As the trio looked for the car, Natasha looked for answers.
"That's none of your business, Widow. Just give me the flash drive and we can forget about all of this."
"That's not going to happen, you screwed that chance up when you threatened my teammate..." she trailed off. The phone in the girl's pocket started buzzing so Natasha pulled it out.
"Don't you DARE," the girl threatened. All she could do was turn her head and glare at the red head who had answered the call. The voice on the other end was Luka.
"Thea get out of there now! Echo found you..."
The line had went dead and just before chaos blew up around them. Gunfire erupted in the room as masked men knocked in the door. Natasha let go of Thea and they both dived to the other side of the bed as four men stood in the doorway.
"Stand up slowly and show us your hands," one of the men ordered.
Natasha looked at Thea next to her who seemed to be a little shaken. "Friends of yours?" she asked, believing Thea to be a part of them. When Thea glared at her and then stood with her arms up, Natasha realized that this was not the case. Having no other choice at the moment, she did the same.
They faced the line of men who clearly had the upper hand in this situation. One of them skirted the room and stood in front of the blown-out door to block any attempt at an escape. Thea was looking extremely nervous and Natasha wondered why with the way she had seen her fight before. She couldn't think about it for too long because the men advanced. Thea shot her a look and Natasha sent her a silent agreement, they would have to work together to get out of this.
Gunfire rang out again as the two women dodged and fought to get the weapons away from the men. There were only four of them, but they were way more trained than most people Natasha had fought. She found herself back to back with Thea several times and almost got hit with another blast of power from the woman as she sent it into one of the men, knocking him out cold.
Natasha cringed when one of the men got in a good hit and knocked Thea to the ground. She looked dazed and Natasha couldn't get to her. She was now up against two of the guys while the third grabbed the girl and started dragging her out of the room, they wanted the girl. Once the other men realized they had the girl, they started backing off, but Natasha wasn't about to let that happen. She wiped the blood from her face and charged the men, knocking one off balance and breaking the others leg. Adrenaline surged through her system and the sudden burst of energy gave her the chance to knock out one of the men. Thea started to wake up then, and when she realized no one was focused on her, she grabbed the flash drive and prepared to run.
She made the mistake of being too comfortable fighting with the Black Widow. When she tried to run past her to the balcony, Romanoff threw one of the guys into her, knocking her to the floor. She had seen her grab the flash drive. The remaining guy fighting with Romanoff soon got the upper hand when a kick knocked her to the floor. Thea noticed the guy that was thrown at her getting up, so she ran while everyone was occupied. She had the flash drive and Echo was preoccupied with Romanoff; she could try and get far enough away.
As soon as Natasha realized that Thea was gone, she knew the flash drive was gone as well. Her arm was almost wrenched out of its socket when the brute who had kicked her pulled her to her feet and wrenched both arms behind her back. The guy she had thrown into Thea joined his partner and punched her in the gut, hard.
"What do you know about the girl, where is she headed?" the lead guy asked.
Natasha coughed before answering. "Why don't you guys just follow her and find out?"
The guy grinned a bloody smile and hit her across the face. "We've got agents on that. So, tell me, what do you know?"
She spit out a wad of blood in defiance at the man and remained silent.
"No matter, we need you later anyways; lets go." Natasha tried fighting back as the men dragged her with them, but the lead guy grew tired of her struggles and ended up knocking her out. The other guy threw her over his shoulders and turned to leave but was stopped by three individuals blocking the door.
They hardly got a chance to raise their sidearms when the three attacked. Dove ran into the guy holding Natasha and tackled him onto the closest bed, saving Natasha from a fall to the ground. Bobbi went for the other guy while Darcy did her best to tie up the two guys that were already knocked out from the previous fight.
Bobbi and Dove weren't as tired as the two guys they were fighting, so they were able to gain the upper hand and drive them back. Seeing that they were losing, the two men bolted for the balcony and jumped. They landed gracefully and took off, leaving the rest of the team stunned at what had just happened in the few minutes that they were gone.
"Nat, Nat come on you need to wake up," Darcy pleaded before Bobbi reached them. She gently pushed Darcy away and checked Natasha's pulse.
"She's fine, just knocked out. Give her a few minutes and she should wake up. In the meantime, get these men tied up," she ordered as she put pressure on the gash on Natasha's temple, but Dove was already at work doing just that. He discovered one of the guys already dead with a broken neck so it made his job easier.
As he tied the one man to a chair in the center of the room, Natasha came to rather quickly. Darcy helped her sit up but was pushed away when Natasha tried to stand. She spit out a wad of blood and then did a quick survey of the room before sitting back on the bed, looking defeated.
"She got the flash drive, the girl was here first," she relayed, grabbing the cloth Bobbi had been using and pushing it back into her cut.
"We know," Bobbi said, "When Dove got the tracker from the car, we saw that she was already here. We followed it to her car and when she wasn't there, we tried to get back up here to warn you. There were a few of those guys," she nodded towards the man who waking up, "so we had to deal with them. It was then that Natasha noticed the bumps, cuts, and bruises that they had.
"Yeah and they weren't that hard to take out either," Darcy began. "These two seemed a lot harder."
Dove joined them while still eyeing the guy. "The other three were new, and they were in HYDRA gear. These guys are dressed differently and have a different logo symbol all together."
When the guy scoffed at them, Natasha got up and pulled his head back, placing a broken piece of glass at his throat. "Who are you and what do you want?" When the man didn't answer, she pressed a little harder and drew blood. "Do you really want me to ask again?" she asked threateningly.
The guy laughed at her and as he laughed, the shard of glass cut him deeper. "You have no idea what is going on, do you miss Romanova?"
The use of her old name made her take a step back. Not many people knew that name. "What did you just say?" she asked, trying to regain composure.
"I think you heard me. My boss knows all about you, he's been obsessed with you since your days of being Ivan Petrovitch's little pet. Certain events have caused his hatred to grow, for his plans to grow but all he needed was confirmation. "You, my dear, better run. He's coming and he's coming you.
Natasha looked at the others who looked just as confused as she did. She raised the glass again and placed it over his jugular. "Who exactly is your boss, and what does he want with the girl?"
The guy just smiled. "Oh how I wish I could be there to see your face when you realize just exactly what Echo is."
A small pop was then echoed around the room and Darcy watched as Natasha, Dove, and Bobbi all dived towards the man at the exact same time. Through the flurry of movement, Darcy saw foam dribbling from the mans mouth as he convulsed and eventually became still.
"Son of a bitch!" Natasha yelled as she kicked the now dead man in anger.
"What the hell was that?" Darcy yelled, wondering what was going on.
"Cyanide cap," Bobbi explained as she eyed Natasha walking towards the far side of the bed. When she saw her pick up the unscathed laptop, her interest grew. "Did we get anything?" she asked as she joined the red head.
Natasha didn't answer right away as she tried to navigate the system. "Holy shit, we got something..."
Meanwhile, Thea had gotten away from the hotel and back to her HYDRA base with no more run ins. She was now incredibly paranoid as she navigated her way through the halls and to the tech room. There was no telling how many people in HYDRA were a part of Echo. Her and Luka had discovered a few, but due to a few 'accidents' they were disposed of. When she found the computer she was looking for, she started the erase. Everything she was ever a part of, any mention of her name or Luka's, was wiped out; she would now be a deserter and an enemy of HYDRA.
She got out of there as fast as she could but didn't dare call Luka on her cell phone. Every piece of technology could be used to find her and as soon as she ditched her phone and car, she found a pay phone and called her brother.
"Luka its me, I'm okay," she breathed as she tried to calm her nerves.
"Thea thank goodness. I was worried sick when I picked up their communications. You were right, as soon as Romanoff's team got a hold of that information, Echo saw it. They've been following you for years, they saw you use that power when you attacked that team in the alley. It was the different power than the one we thought they saw last year and that just confirmed it."
"I know, I'm sorry I screwed up, but I got the flash drive back from Romanoff. They don't know anything but from the way she was acting, she's not going to stop. She is after you Luka, she mentioned you by name. Dad was right, Romanoff is dangerous and we need to get as far away from her as we can." Thea was starting to tear up, she didn't know how much longer she could run from all this. Luka was old and sick, he was dying but he would give his last breath to protect his family. And what would happen if something happened to her, who would protect Juliette?
"Thea, get back to us safe. Ever since you left us at the last safehouse to chase after Romanoff and her team, we've missed you. You should have seen little bits face when you drove off. It's like she knew you were leaving for a while; smartest little 6 month old I know. Well, besides the few times you were that age I guess."
Thea teared up more at the thought of being away from her family to the point where one of her contacts fell out. "Shit, you made me lose a contact."
Luka softly laughed. "Well its not like you have to hide your eyes anymore, they know who you are now."
Thea looked into the tiny mirror next to the payphone. She had one green eye from the remaining contact, and the other was her natural color of brilliant lavender. She plucked out the other contact and dropped it to the ground. Her old life was now gone, again, and she was on the run once more. "Kiss Juliette for me and tell her I'm on my way home."
"I will," Luka said affectionately, "and don't be too long, you daughter needs you."