Spider's Web

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Darkness seemed to be the mood of the facility. Every corner felt full of shadows and with that a despairing unknown. Keen on having a line of sight Hawkeye's progress was slow and steady with the ultimate goal of the records room well ahead of him. It had taken him almost two months to get to this point and he knew the most dangerous part of a mission was the moment you started to think it was in the bag. He also knew that he was now moving though one of the most dangerous facilities a person could walk though. In the early stage of his infiltration the silence of his bow had let him deal with watchful eyes. All non lethal with the use of taser arrows which delivered a strong electric shock to whatever the arrowhead strikes.

Now inside Hawkeye felt his bow while effective, would be a disadvantage with so many corners. So after he had it collapse back into his quiver and pulled a long knife and pistol he continued to move forward. Short hallways and more rooms than he cared to count Clinton finally found the part of the building he was looking for. It had taken him hours to make it there unseen. A quick step and shuffle though the door had him in the room. He turned just as the light clicked on and the sound of a bullet pulling into a chamber could be heard. Turning to face the sound he saw an excellent example of beauty and danger.

Standing with their weapons aimed straight at him were almost ten young woman ranging from teenagers to young adults. In the middle of the room was a large man with a massive scar on his face. He held a folder and was flipping though the pages. "You are not an unknown player in this world Mister Barton." The man said while walking forward. "Of course now that you have walked into our home." He was now face to face with Hawkeye who had now dropped his gun and knife. The man reached back and punched Clinton square in the stomach knocking the wind and making him fall over. "I am going to have to insist on you staying."

--------------------------------------------------------One Week Later--------------------------------------------------------

The past week had been a long string of your standard torture, terrible food, and of course lots of time to think. On the off chance that his food was given in person he would talk to them with a casual amount of flirting and disinterest. It showed he was far from being broken and had been well trained in the art of withstanding pain. Both though his SHIELD training and life experience had groomed him into something that was more than just a solider or spy. He was what everyone knew a man able to stand with the greats of the world. Names which everyone on Earth knew. Thankfully he was lesser known to the public. His life was in the shadow just like the place which held him prisoner.

...Hong Kong, China...

Natalia was a woman of high patience, at least she liked to think of herself as one, but hiding inside of a office closet for the last forty-five minutes was truly putting her on the wire. Especially when she had to hear the obvious fake moans of pleasure coming from the other side of the door. Her latest mission for S.H.I.E.L.D entitled gathering some highly classified intel about an unknown weapon rumored to be quite dangerous. It had to be if it had gotten Fury's attention. Black Widow had thought this to be a simple in and out mission but it had proven more trouble some than it was worth, still she wasn't one to back off a challenge and so she waited, quietly and deadly. Poised like a spider on her web, waiting for her little fly to get caught.

Her fingers flexed as she watched through the crack of the door, anxious for the target o be done with his female friend. She didn't want civilian getting involved if she could help it. Last thing Natalia needed was another lecture from Fury on how much trouble it cost him keep people quite. She had been 'Silent' for the past two hours, meaning no radio contact, so it came as a surprise to her when suddenly there was a voice coming out of her earpiece.
"Agent Romanoff, we need you to come in." Natalia could tell it was Agent Hill on the other side.
"I'm preoccupied at the moment." She whispered as loudly as she dared without being heard by Lau Cheng in the other room, although with all the noise they were making it she doubted they would hear much of anything else.
"It's Barton. We think he is in danger."

Natalia's face suddenly went rigid and all though of her current mission flew out the window. Kicking open the door to the closet, the Black Widow walked out in full strides. Startled Lau and his partner stopped in mid act, his lady friend friend jumping off of him, gathering her clothes from the floor and trying to cover herself as best as she could. The man was screaming in Chinese at Natalia, and although she could understand what he was calling her she could care less. "Trust me, I'm doing you a favor." She said to the terrified woman as she walked out of the office.

"I'm on my way."

--------------------------------------------------------Two Days Later--------------------------------------------------------

Natasha stood upon the hill over looking the last place she ever though she would ever lay eyes upon again, Red Room Academy. Distant memories and even those that she had thought forgotten, all came flooding back in a torrent, none of them in the slightest pleasant. What had compelled Barton to take on this mission, especially alone, was beyond her she just hoped she wasn't too late.

With great dexterity and flexibility infiltrate the place she had once called home, slipping silently past guards where she could and stunning them with a 'Widow's Bite when she couldn't. Every hall, every turn seemed to open more doors to memories she didn't even know she had of the place, and although she had to stop on more than several occasions she found navigating this facility much easier than previously expected. Her goal was to find Hawkeye, slap him for even accepting this mission in the first place, help him finish what he started if possible and then get the hell out of here. And she had a feeling she knew exactly where they were holding him, she just had to get there undetected. Easier said than done. If Barton, one of the greatest spies she has ever known got caught, what did that meant for her.

Meal time had come and gone with no food being brought. This was not the most common pattern so it made Clint wonder if something new was in store for him today. When the door opened he was internally relieved to see that it was one of the widow trainees with a tray of food. The girls name was Sasha and she was very much a girl. Likely to be one of the youngest she seemed to have been put in charge of feeding the prisoners and as such had grown to be one of the only highlights of being a guest of the facility. With a week shared between them Clint had grown to watch her and see that she was not meant to be thrown into this world. She was smaller than the others and when she was near a person making a sudden move she would sometimes shrink making it obvious there was abuse involved with her training. This more than anything made Hawkeye angry. He didn't see it but he had begun to project his desire to protect Natasha on this young girl. Thinking that if someone had been able to get her out of this world she would have had a chance to live a normal life. Something he felt was never possible for him.

When the food was set down and his shackles releasing him from the seat he picked up the food and looked back at Sasha. He didn't speak. he noticed that if he did talk to her she would seem frighted and suspected that she was hit or reprimanded for speaking to the prisoner. So instead he had learned to communicate in other ways. Today the meal was a simple sandwich with some cheese. He pulled the cheese out and eating it carefully he ended up with a strip of food and then nodded with his head. The left over food spelled a simple thanks in broken English. When she picked it up the food was mixed up and the message gone, having already been read and earning a small smile from the girl. As she got ready to leave Clint felt the need to at least say something today. While he was strong the drag of the week had made him start to think about the long term and it made him tired. Would he crack and give away important information? Of course not, but he wanted, no needed, to talk to someone this time. "Family?" Was the only word he asked.

Sasha simply looked away and left the room leaving Hawkeye to his own thoughts. "What are you doing?" He asked himself out loud. He couldn't understand his actions at times and that was one of them. He knew there was a level to that girl he could never understand. He wasn't trying to sweet talk the girl into helping him escape. Instead he was using her to understand someone else. Someone who for as long as he can remember has always been the perfect riddle. Her name was Black Widow and from his own life experiences he figured the day he understood her was the day he could beat the Hulk in an arm wrestling contest. With that thought taken and pushed in the back he got up from the chair and started to walk around his little slice of heaven. He looked at the table and then backed away from it. Checking the door for what might have been the hundredth time he seemed to move like a well trained guide dog. Calm and collected even if he was likely living in the cell he could very well die in at any time depending on what they had planned for him.

The guard at the corner fell at her feet, completely knocked out. Natalia looked around once more to make sure none one had seen the scuffle. Time was short, in order to infiltrate the lower levels where she was sure Clinton was being held she had to dispose of a couple cameras, she was sure by now almost the whole base was aware of that someone was here invited, or at the very least something was amiss. She needed to move quickly and find Barton, but looking at either direction of the long hallway, at the many different doors, Barton could be in any of them and she had no time to search them all. Perhaps she should have gone with her first plan and had headed straight to the control room, but that was before she had realize just how much she remembered of this place.

A slight commotion coming from one of the rooms down the hall snapped Romanoff out of her thoughts and back to the task at hand. Pulling the guard behind the corner, so he wouldn't be a dead give away, Natasha used her impressive dexterity and flexibility, along with the suits scaling ability to jump up and grab one of the many pipes over heard. Pulling the rest of her body up and concealing herself in the darkness above. She watched as a young girl came out of one of the rooms, juggling in one hand a tray of half eaten food while she locked the door behind her. Natasha had a feeling Barton could very well be locked in that cell, if she was to get in there in the least amount of time she would need the key the girl had.
It was strange, the girl reminded her of when she was younger although many of those memories are foggy at best. Somewhere deep inside her it pained her for what she had to do to this poor girl that was probably going through the very same things she once had to go through. But this wasn't a sympathy contest and at the end of the day she needed to get into that room.

Steeling herself inwardly, Natasha waited for the opportune moment, and when the girl was close enough Romanoff grabbed the pipe in front of her and allowed gravity to carry her body down. Natasha swung around catching the tray the girl was carrying with her foot and forcing it up with her momentum, slammed it into the surprised girl's face. Sasha lost her balance and fell backwards as Natasha landed softly on her feet. The girl looked up through tear struck eyes as pain blinded her from her broken nose. Thinking her nothing more than a child, Natasha underestimated this widow trainee. As she was reaching down towards the girl's belt to grab the set of keys, Sasha performed a leg takedown catching the seasoned woman by surprise. Natasha tasted the concrete floor for the first time that night, but quickly recovering went into a front roll and spun around to face her younger opponent. Now, she clearly had a good view of Sasha, she couldn't be more than thirteen.

Although scared, terrified even, this girl was being trained by the very best and she was no fool. She came on with blaring speed, keeping Romanoff on her toes as she dodge some punches and blocked others. Black Widow retaliated sending a couple of her own and connection more than a few. Natasha grimaced when Sasha caught one of her blows and twisted her arm making Natasha bow forward as she flipped over her. Still holding Natasha's arm Sasha applied more pressure attempting to break Romanoff's arm. Having had enough, Natasha flipped around untwisting her arm and kicked Sasha in the midsection, followed by two quick blows to the face, leaving the girl dazed and on wobbly feet. Out of pure instinct Natasha brought the final blow with a reverse roundhouse kick to the chest. The girl slammed into the wall and slid to the floor in a heap, Natasha wasn't overly proud of what she had done, but her options had been limited. She took the keys from the girl and tried several keys before finding the correct one to open the large metal door.
Natasha pushed the door open, running into the room as her hair bounce this way and that matching her head's movement as she looked all around the room until her eyes finally found what she had been searching for. She let out a relieved sigh as her blue eyes met his, no words could ever express how she felt at that moment.

Clint stood up as the familiar sound of hand to hand combat could be heard outside his room. He had no idea what was going on, but he was sure someone was winning and both were not holding back when it ended. The door looked to be opening and with his body tense he felt foolish when it turned out to be a friendly face on the other side. He was surprised that his rescue was being lead by the Black Widow. Especially since Fury had been clear he wanted her to stay out of this mission if at all possible. Clint figured Fury thought she was the only one who would have a reasonable amount of success in actually carrying out the rescue. He figured Natasha and Sasha had been the two having the scuffle just outside the door and for a moment he felt himself worry over what state Natasha had left the young girl in. Still he didn't overlook the fact that it was very likely a you or me situation on the other side of the door just a half minute ago. "What took you?" He said while walking over to the black clad assassin.

Natasha looked at him with that ever familiar look that only he ever got from her. Her chest was still heaving heavily as she tried to catch her breath and even if her face wasn't smiling at least her eyes were. She ignored his question feeling it was neither unnecessary and a stupid way to crack the ice, still it was typical Clinton.
"Why?" She asked as she reached for one of her twin guns, "Why the hell would you accept this mission? Are you out of your mind?" She tossed him the gun before peering back out into the hallway to make sure none was coming. Her eyes briefly paused over Sasha's unconscious body, but that was all she was wiling to spare, a fleeting look. The young girl remind her far too much of herself and it was almost too much to bare.
"What exactly were you meant to be doing?"

With the first words shared Clint felt an ice start to build around the room again. After getting out of POW status he felt like he was now getting interrogated by Natasha. He responded to her first question with what was obviously an answer that avoided the question entirely. "We don't pick and choose our mission Natasha you know that." He averted his eyes and instead looked at his gun and checked to make sure it was loaded and ready for action if the event of it being fired came up. The next task at hand was to answer the next question. "Fury wants to know why the program was reopened." Clint said with a sour tone. He didn't like the mission any more than the last one he had, but he still felt like this was a personal mission. Not because of what the program had done to him, but because of what it had done to Natasha and others such as Sasha. He saw it as evil and from his core he wanted it destroyed. That was where the mission started to go grey. It was true that Fury had given him orders to observe and report. What he was doing wasn't just that.

For the past month and a half he had been studying and organizing a plan to trap the key members of the program and erase them. He wouldn't kill them, but he would prove that whatever reasons they had for restarting the program were not worth their lives. He had hoped to get to the records room in an attempt to gather some allies in the dismantling of the Widow course, but obviously along the way he had slipped up. Landing him in the situation he was currently working though. "I figured Fury would have called someone else, but considering anyone else would likely be seen as some sort of act of war he went to you. Sorry to make you walk down memory lane Natasha." Clinton said. His voice and body language was very serious and above all filled the room with a slight uneasiness. The most damaging and uncomfortable thing for people in his and Black Widows line of work was the past and people who you have one with. Still what they had wasn't just a past. Working together made him feel like there was a future. A next mission or something like that. Basically a next date as it felt sometimes considering how much working together meant to him.

"We can talk more later right now we need to get out and it isn't going to be easy with the extra weight." Hawkeye's last comment had obviously confused Black Widow as she started to question him on what extra weight. Moving though the door and pulling Sasha and sitting her up he bent down and started to give her a quick look over. He then turned and looked up at his rescuer and stated his position. "I'm not leaving her." Considering how crazy an idea this was Clinton wasn't sure how Natasha was going to react. After all this girl had likely just tried to kill her a few moments ago.

Natasha listened to Clint, always keeping an ear open for movement from outside. She was angry. Angry at Fury for not coming to her with this mission, despite having a direct history with the Academy she was still the best suited for this mission. She looked at the man who had compromised her in so many different levels that no one else but them would ever understand. She hadn't seen him in almost a month with Fury sending them in different missions and all, but he still looked the same except for the minor bruises of torture. If it was true what he said, then Fury wanted nothing more than intel, something Barton could do easily and with little fuss. He had to be up to something else to find the need to get close enough to the Academy as to get caught. But Barton didn't say and Romanoff didn't ask, she didn't need too. "You trying to shut down a whole organization on your own." she asked, yet it didn't sound like a question but more like a statement.

Natasha didn't know how to rightly feel at the moment, but some part of her was glad that there at least was one person that wanted this place shut down as much as her. It only was a bonus that it had to be Clint. She didn't argue or protest about his course of action, in his position she would have done the same, "Fury should have sent me from the very beginning." Natasha retorted, showing no emotion. She wasn't about show weakness or show how shaken up she truly was to be back in this god forsaken place, especially not in front of Clint. She couldn't stand having other people see her as weak or incapable to coop with the situation, she was the Black Widow she could weather anything...at least in the outside.

Romanoff was about to poke her head out of the room once more when his words made her take a double take. It took her a second to catch on to what he was saying, "What extra-?" She began to ask but cut herself short as she began to piece it together and watched as Clint moved past her and to Sasha out in the hall. "You got to be joking." She scowled, "Its gonna be hard enough without her."

"I'm not leaving her."

With a roll of her eyes Natasha walked pasted the kneeling archer and to the end of the hall, with her back against the wall she peeked around the corner. Quickly noticing that the guard she had hidden around the corner was gone. "Shit." she whispered turning back to her partner, "Hurry, we might have company on the way, and I doubt its the good kind." If they were Widow trainees then Barton and Romanoff would surely have their hands busy. Natasha looked back at Sasha, if a girl that young had been able to stand up to her imagine what an older, or even two could do. She unsheathed her other gun, cocking it at the ready while she waited for Hawkeye.

When he lifted the young girl's body her light weight made him all the more determined to get her out safe. Unsure how he would be able to fight while carrying her he decided his bow wasn't meant to be fired while fireman's carrying another person. So checking the weapon they had liberated from the other guards. He had a full clip and was likely able to at least make some short runs with the added cargo. He looked back as he heard Natasha swore under her breath. He knew the odds were quickly stacking against them and that speed was going to be a priority. Even with that in the front of his mind he silenced all the reasons for giving up on taking Sasha. All that mattered was getting Natasha and the girl out.

"Ready." Clint said while moving out into the hallway. He checked forward and then back with his gun leading his line of sight. He had some trouble figuring out which way would be best until he saw his partner nodded in the correct direction. He took point with Black Widow moving silently behind him. Together he felt like they were a scorpion with death able to be delivered to any direction. That normally gave him more comfort, but right now they were one scorpion in a bag full of spiders. Each just as deadly as his own Widow. They turned the corner and then hugged the wall as they moved towards the next corner hiding whatever might be behind it. He turned his head slightly so he didn't have to talk loud for Natasha to hear him.

"How are we getting out?" He asked. He was wondering if there was a full SHIELD extraction team or a beat up old jeep with the keys in the ignition.

Ever so silently, Natasha followed her archer friend always throwing a cautious eye back to make sure no one sneaked up on them. Her gun was pointed upwards and her arms pressed against her chest at the ready to snap into position if an enemy was spotted. Looking at Sasha's unconscious body slung over Hawkeye's shoulder reminded her of the several times she would have surely bitten the dust if it wasn't for him being their to help, or to even...rescue her. She hated to admit it but where would she be if Clinton wasn't in her life. Most likely seven feet underground somewhere.

His question snapped her out of her thoughts and refocused on what was happening. She had to think for a second, clearing her mind. "West of the facility there is a car waiting. We got a response team waiting a mile out."
The sound of footsteps was faint but could still be heard coming towards them from the front. Natasha looked around at their current location and gave a silent curse when her memory failed her of where exactly they were. "We got to try an open confrontation with Sasha." she said grabbing the back of Clint's suit and pulling on it so that he would follow as she led him back the way they came before taking a different turn through the maze of halls. Natasha had taken point now, throwing a look every now and then to make sure Barton was following.

As they came around a corner, she was forced to fall to her knees and slide underneath a kick meant for her face. Instinct alone had saved her and warned her of the awaiting trainee around the conner. Nat came back up to her feet in a second and catching the woman's blow, she went into an array of flips and twirls slamming the woman's face against the wall. She looked at Clint and shrugged before starting to run once more.