That's What Friends Are For
The next morning was a usual one - boring. It indicated that the day will probably be as every single other day since I came here - boring and without action. Tony always said it was the calm before the storm. Everyone always laughed at him when he said that. I guess everybody liked the 'calm' part and hoped it wouldn't change. Honestly, I felt like that would change today. Call me a pessimist.
After lunch, I walked to my room when I saw Steve down the hallway. I remembered I needed to talk to him about yesterday.
"Hey, Cap!" I called.
He stopped and turned around "Anastasya, what's up?" he smiled.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry..." I sighed.
"Sorry for what?" he furrowed his brows.
"I'm sorry for breaking down in front of you. Pardon me but... I'm fucked up and
I don't know what else I can do. I'm just trying to keep myself together. I don't know what came over me yesterday." I said looking down. I couldn't manage to look him in the eyes.
"What?" he huffed "What do you mean? I wanted you to open up to me. I saw something was bothering you and I wanted to help. There is nothing to be sorry for."
"I just... We weren't that close. We weren't that close and now I feel like I'm just bothering you with what I feel."
I always felt like that. My emotions are hard to handle and that's exactly why I didn't want to share that with anybody. The pain.
"Hey" he lifted my chin up so I was forced to face him "stop doing that to yourself. Stop overthinking. I wanted to help. There is no way on earth you could bother me with talking about your problems. I'm happy to help." he smiled.
I chuckled "You are too good to be there for someone like me." I gave him a sad smile in return.
"There it is again." he rolled his eyes "Stop doing that. Seriously." he chuckled "You are a good person. What you did all those years ago, it wasn't you."
"I know." I sighed "But I did it."
"Would you ever do that stuff if your mind was in your hands?" he asked.
"No, of course not." I furrowed my brows.
"Then it doesn't define you. I said this to Bucky and I'll say it to you countless times - you are not an evil person. Believe that, be the best version of yourself. You can do it."
"Thank you." I smiled "I don't know what is it, but every time I talk to you I feel better afterwards. You manage to turn every frown upside down, Captain." I smiled.
He laughed "Again, I'm glad I can help."
"Well thank you, Cap." I took a few steps back, away from him.
"No problem, Eleven." he smiled.
I smiled back and turned around to make my way to my room. Eleven.
...
It was almost dinner time when an alarm went off through the whole hangar.
"All units in the ready-room." Tony's voice was heard thru the speakers.
That's a first. I was excited, actually. Scared. Really wanted to prove myself. But excited.
"Everyone except Banner, Wanda and Vision - suit up. You three have nothing to do outside now, it's not that serious. Just a little main bank robbery with smartass robbers who captured the police." Tony sighed as the last person got in the room "And you" he pointed at me "you come with me."
I nodded and made my way thru all the others who went to grab their suits and weapons. Tony went to the room next to this one and stopped in front of - my suit.
"Do you like it?" he smiled.
"Yes" I giggled "it's amazing."
It was for sure a change from the normal everyday clothes he got for me. It was kinda similar to my old battle clothes. It was all black, the pants were the basic military style and paired with a black pair of boots.
"Great. I kinda took notes from Barnes' clothes so I'm glad you like it too." Tony giggled "Suit up, kid." he said and left the room.
I put the suit on and made my way to the ready room while putting the belt on. The belt was equipped with some knives and electric balls that I didn't quite understand. I then grabbed a trustworthy shotgun and entered the room.
The others were also almost ready. Everyone was laughing and making jokes. You could tell by the energy in the room this wasn't anything serious. It was just safer if we went there after the robbers captured those policemen.
I scanned the room until my eyes landed on Steve who was just exiting his changing room, looking down at his suit. As he lifted his gaze up, our eyes immediately met and he smiled. I smiled back while he made his way towards me.
"You look... amazing in that suit." he said looking me up-n-down.
"Well, thank you, you do too." I smiled, taking in how opposite our preffered suit style was. It was amusing.
"Okay attention everybody." Tony said entering the room in his Iron Man suit "There are multiple entries in the bank so we'll split into pairs." he said showing us the hologram of the bank "Nat and Clint, Rhodey and I and Steve and Anastasya. Sam, you are on air lookout as usual."
He just paired me with Captain America. He knew what he did. He wants to make me 'feel better about myself'. My ass. He looked me in the eye and smirked in satisfaction. That piece of-- ugh.
As Sam, Tony and Rhodey flew there, Clint, Nat, Steve and I took a Jeep and drove there. Nat was a fast driver and we were there in seconds.
We then split into pairs and Cap and I made our way to the back entrance that was assigned to us. He kicked open the door and went in, shield first. I got my gun ready and went into full awareness mode. I heard someone in the room in front of us so I hand signaled it to Steve. He understood and tapped his earpiece.
"Stark, someone is in the back room. We are going in now." he whispered and kicked open the door again.
We were immediately met by three armed guys guarding the prisoned policemen. Jackpot. Steve shielded us from their gunshots as I took away ones gun with my powers and shot him in his knees. The second one was already on the floor taken down by Cap and the third one tried to fight me. Didn't end well. For him.
"Dang, forgot you can do that." he smiled.
I shrugged and continued to the right as he went left. I sent the robbers to sleep one by one so they would be quiet.
"Down!" I heard Steve yell and I crouched. His shield came flying above me and into the head of another robber.
"Thanks." I said as I stood again on my feet.
"No problem, that's what friends are for." he smiled and went on with work as did I.
We got all the policemen to safety and continued to catch the robbers. Steve and I split up and I went upstairs to the offices while he stayed down.
The rooms seemed empty and quiet, but I could feel someone being here with my hightened senses. I kicked open the door to the office I assumed someone was in. I pointed my gun inside, but there was just a man standing by the window. Without any weapons or anything, just looking at the busy streets.
"Ah" he broke the silence with a sigh "Anastasya Ivanova. What a pleasure."
"How do you know my name?" I asked.
He turned around to face me "How could I not? The deadliest female assassin -slash- serial killer ever. Not as known as Black Widow, but very dangerous. Right shoulder-to-shoulder with the Winter Soldier. Everyone in this business knows who you are. Some believe you are a legend, a myth. I knew you were real. And look at us now." he creepily smiled.
"Who are you?" I asked. Still holding my finger on the trigger.
"That doesn't matter." he said taking a step towards me "What matters is you. Specifically, how many people are scared of you. Look at this- Tony Stark signed you up to join the Avengers as soon as he found you. He only wanted to be on your good side." he continued taking another step forward "They don't like you. They are not your friends. They are scared of what you could do to them so they put you up on a contract."
"Stop." I said. He was getting too close to me. But I didn't want to kill him. Yet. "What do you want from me?"
"From you?" he rose his eyebrows pointing at me "Nothing much. Just a couple kills. For Hydra, again. But from your dear friend... Well, his life. He is a cancer for this country. He was made from a poison and he turned into one. The Red Skull was right and I was born to finish what he started." he continued, getting angrier and angrier.
Really? Another 'I was born to finish what he started'?
Wait. This could be a setup. He could kill Captain America. My eyes widened. Fuck. Steve.
I quickly threw an electric ball to the man who fell to the ground in pain. I tapped my earpiece "All units, this might be a setup. I repeat, might be a setup. They want to kill Captain America. I got an open threat."
I heard Steve sigh "She's right. I ugh-" he grunted and stopped talking.
"He's in the lobby." Nat added.
"You heard the birdies. And Natasha. Everyone free, lobby. Now." Tony said.
I quickly took care of the man in the office, making sure he doesn't run away, and met everyone in front of the lobby. Tony opened the door and we saw Cap surrounded by the 'robbers', his hands in the air, knowing he can't fight all of those men with guns.
They immediately started firing at us. So we fought. And we fought hard. I don't think Tony was expecting this to come out of a little 'robbery'.
At the end of the fight, most of the robbers were badly injured or dead. We had my man from the office and two more for questionings. It wasn't really a hard fight since we were trained for harder and longer fights, so we didn't get any serious injuries.
"They went this far to kill Captain America? This guy wants to be a Hydra head real bad, huh?" Tony said as he dragged the guy from the office.
As they passed us, the guy smiled at me. It was the creepiest smile ever. Something like you know what's gonna happen next.
"Thanks." Cap hugged me around the shoulders as we made our way back to the Jeep.
"No problem" I smiled at him "that's what friends are for."