Standard disclaimer: Yo no owno nada! (I don't own anything please don't sue me)

There's a dark cloud overhead

Just remember what I said

Yeah, someone's gonna get hurt

(Is it gonna be me?)

Friday – 7:00

The week after her first mission with agents Natasha and Clint was relatively quiet. Vera pushed the thought of the strange note to the back of her head, knowing that her mystery boss would contact her when they needed her. Espionage worked the same no matter what side of the law you were on. As it happens, she had been heading to her morning workout session when she was finally called to action by her newest client.

"Agent One-seventeen?" A voice called to her from a narrow shadowy hallway branching off from the one she had been traversing.

She pulled to a stop and turned to face the speaker, a man not unlike the other one, wearing a standard suit, sunglasses, and a GI haircut. "Yes?"

"Follow me." He says before immediately turning around.

"Why should I?" She prompts as she crosses her arms, testing him.

"I'm with the Council." The agent replies. "That's all you need to know."

He certainly had the the attitude, or lack thereof. She nodded at him. "Fair enough."

He leads her to the lower floors of the SHIELD complex, aware that she had descended underground when windows cease to be featured among the walls. The Council would have been too vulnerable to attack in the upper floors, should the buildings be attacked, they would be sitting ducks. Vera guesses that she is two levels underground when the man finally opens a door and leads her into plain room with four blank walls, a table with chairs the only inhabitants.

"Wait here." He commands as he steps out of the room and closes the door behind her.

Vera rolls her shoulders to get rid of the sudden tension building in her neck, glancing around the room to see if there were any cameras. There were none that she could see. She fidgeted her fingers, running along the pockets and other hidden places where she kept weapons, despite not being in full uniform. She did not like closed spaces. Hearing the gears in the door handle turning, she leaned against the nearest wall and crossed her arms and legs at the ankle, taking on a relaxed countenance.

The door opened and in entered a woman dressed in a black pants suit, a thin gold chain hanging from her necks, a small jewel dangling from it, with matching studs in her ears. She was in her late fifties, if Vera had to guess, with wrinkling olive skin and faded green eyes. Her hair was cut to just above her shoulders, brunette with highlights, no doubt dyed to hide the grey hair at her roots.

A councilwoman.

"Good day, One-seventeen." The woman immediately spoke. "Call me Charlie."

Codename. Vera noted before nodding at the woman and pushing off the wall to approach her, walking in a slow, predatory manner until the two women were staring at each other across the table. The older woman straightened at the chilled atmosphere in the room, setting her face in a stern expression. Vera merely kept her arms crossed and braced her legs apart, cocking her head to stare at the woman with distant curiosity.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've asked you here." 'Charlie' says.

Vera's lips quirk in a humorless smirk. "I'm only interested in whether you intend to pay me, councilwoman."

"Why of course." The older woman gave her a tight-lipped smile. "These missions will be considered working overtime, with a considerable bonus to your usual SHIELD pay. And, of course, to guarantee your silence."

Vera's lips pulled into a full smirk. "Well that goes without saying, hm? Now then, I assume you called me here for more than just an introduction."

The woman nodded and pulled out a file that had been hidden beneath her coat and pinched between her arm and her torso. She handed the file to Vera, who receive the file and opened it, flipping through the pages, revealing a geographic and topographic map, a few blurry satellite pictures of a house surrounded by foliage in some distant countryside, and the picture of a man as he takes off his sunglasses, surrounded by his guards. No name, no affiliation, only the coordinates of her target. No questions asked.

"An assassination?" She asks with a glint in her eye. "You spoil me."

"Indeed. However, I am sending you in with a team, your other new team." Charlie responded.

Vera frowned at that. "Ugh, another team? I prefer to work alone, madam."

"It will be your job to infiltrate and take out the target." The other woman tells her. "The team is there to get you in, and more importantly, get you out, preferably in one piece."

Vera would have liked to tell the woman that military units only end up making noise and attracting attention, whereas the Black Widow could get in and out without anyone being the wiser. However, she was aware that the councilwoman would not budge on the subject.

"Fine." Vera sighed. "When does the mission commence?"

"This afternoon. Be at the SHIELD landing strip at 18:00 and be battle-ready. And don't expect to be back for the rest of the weekend." Charlie replied, turning around to open the door, glancing back at Vera. "Oh, and don't tell Fury about this. You'll be excused from your usual duties."

With that Charlie walked out of the door, leaving the door open behind her. Vera followed her out, the still in her hand. For a moment, she stood in the corridor and watched the councilwoman disappear around the corner, before turning and making her way to the stairwell, using her memory to navigate in the opposite direction than she had entered.

Friday – 17:30

Oh. It's him. Vera internally sighed as she arrived at the landing strip and saw her newest team gathered around the meeting point. A small group of SHIELD operatives all decked in their tactical gear, sitting on crates of supplies, a few sharing a smoke while others busied themselves with their weapons. And standing in the center was Brock Rumlow, radiating arrogance as he gave a boisterous laugh at something one of his men said.

He must have caught sight of her figure approaching them, as he quickly straightened from a slouch and settled his gaze upon her.

"Well, well, look who it is." Rumlow chuckled, his eyes traveling up and down her skin-tight cat suit, not even bothering to hide his interests.

She ignored him. It was not the first time men had leered at her battle attire, and anyway, most of them learned their lesson if their fingers started to wander, if with fewer fingers than when they had started. Then again, the design of the suit was also meant to distract the less-focused enemies.

Similar to what Agent Romanov often wore, the cat suit was made of a thick material that imitated Kevlar, but far more flexible and not quite as bullet-proof. Still, the fabric did not tear easily, even if a knife was taken to it, and her forearms, shins, and torso were reinforced with small ceramic plates that interlocked and created a modern-day chainmail, while her elbows and knees were tipped with bigger ceramic plates that capped the joints and made them harder to smash and harder to hit. Around her hips sat a utility belt, filled with trinkets from grenades to poison to a full lock picking kit. She was also given a brand-new pair of combat boots, tipped with sharpened steel toes, with a small opening in the heels that she was able to hide a small blade in.

I must thank Charlie when I return. Vera thought in satisfaction as she continued to approach the Council's hit squad, inwardly marveling at the way the suit seemed to cling to her every move like a second skin. I don't think I've ever had armor this nice before.

"Lookin' good, girly." Rumlow greeted her as Vera came to a stop before the team, every soldier eyeing her with either a leer, suspicion, or both.

"I was told you would be assigning me my weapons." She spoke, ignoring his earlier words.

"Yeah, yeah." Rumlow sighed as he shooed one of his men off of the crate they had been sitting on and opened the box to reveal a stash of guns, all shiny and new on their racks. "Business first, huh?"

"I'm only here for business, Mr. Rumlow." Vera stated curtly as he handed her a standard M16 and a hand-full of magazines.

He gave her a roguish grin and winked. "Call me captain."

She ignored him as she took the rifle and carefully inspected it, first checking the safety, then the cartridge, then the barrel, as well as various other parts that were liable to jam or malfunction. Finally, she swung the attached strap over her shoulder and placed the extra magazines into her utility belt.

"Special delivery." Rumlow caught her attention again as he handed her a pistol. "You won't be able to use the rifle where you're going. You'll only use it before and after infiltration."

Duh. Vera thought. There was no way she could sneak into enemy territory with a carbine strapped to her back. She glanced at the gun in Rumlow's hand and carefully took it in hand.

A Beretta? She checks the pistol as thoroughly as she did the rifle before accepting the ammo. M9A1. Always a good choice.

Holstering the pistol at her side, Vera glances over her newest team. Based on the way they moved and held themselves, she would guess that most of them were marines, with a few army men thrown into the mix. They sized her up without much discretion, probably wondering why she was there.

"Boys," Rumlow spoke up as he called his team to attention. "This here is Agent Vera. She'll be working with us from now on."

"Oi, we don't need some little missy gettin' in the way." One of the men protested, a burly man with a short mohawk shaved onto his head with a scar on his eyebrow that slashed down his temple.

"Cool it, Mike." Rumlow told him. "She's more than capable of kicking your ass, I assure you. Charlie personally assigned her to this team. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with her."

Mike grumbled under his breath, having no desire to speak with the councilwoman, and grudgingly backed now. Not far off on the landing strip a jet began to rev to life, the rotors spinning steadily and gaining speed while the back hatch lowered.

"Alright everyone, time to move." Rumlow yelled over the growing noise of the jet as nine soldiers and one Black Widow began to march onto the plane, Vera taking up the rear.

Saturday – Unknown base, 21:45

The flight took fourteen hours by her estimation, with the soldiers joking among each other for the first two hours before they fell into silence. Eventually some began to doze off, only to be woken by the rough turbulence that accompanied the jet's landing at an unnamed base in the middle of the night. Walking down the exit ramp, Vera was greeted by a hot and dry wind that scraped her cheeks with sand. The base was small, lit up by fluorescent lights, but the stars above them shone even brighter. City lights flickered in the distance, a few miles away if she had to guess.

Vera did not know where in the world they were, what continent they were on, or what country they were in. She knew better than to ask.

Rather than entering the base, the team walked away from the jet and immediately began to pile into several Apache helicopters. Vera followed their lead, Rumlow catching her arm and dragging her into the same copter as himself, settling her in the seat beside him. She wondered whether it was because she was the newbie on the team, or if he it was because he did not trust her yet. Perhaps Charlie had asked him to keep an eye on her, to judge her performance.

Regardless, Vera remained quiet as she buckled her seat belt and accepted a pair of headphones from one of the pilots. Rumlow pushed a pair of night-vision goggles into her hands, which she quickly donned and activated. They flew across the land under the cover of night, her eyes scouring what little she could see of the arid, golden brown landscape, patches of vegetation scattered throughout.

"20 miles to the target." The voice of the pilot echoes across their comms.

The Apaches began to descend, hovering a couple feet above the ground. The ops team slithered down the ropes with practiced ease, feet touching down on the hardened sand and immediately scuttling for cover, Vera following in Rumlow's shadow.

They quickly covered the distance between them and the small desert town in their sights. The streets were dark and quiet, with only a few electric lights illuminating the major streets. They stuck to the alleyways, using only whispers and hand-signals to communicate. There were ten members of the team, with the majority being large, burly soldiers, but their size did not seem to hinder them in the least as they melted seamlessly into the shadows.

"Target building found." One of the nameless members of the team whispered into the comms, staring around the corner of an alley at a rather boring looking building, identical to every other shack on the street. The rest of the team found spots to observe the building, dark shadows hiding in the backstreets and on the rooftops.

"One entrance." Rumlow's voice whispered into her ear via the link.

He and Vera were perched on top of the roof of one of the houses, the only sound between them being the whisper of their uniforms and the scrape of a boot on concrete.

One entrance? Vera frowned. That didn't make sense. They were here to bust a secret, and highly illegal research operation, supposedly being privately funded by some rich weapons contractor. Despite the humble front they put up in this town, intel said that there was some kind of underground facility connected to this house, where they were working on WMD's.

Everyone on the team was thinking the same thing: there's no way this was the only entrance. Places like this, the people they were dealing with; they always had another way out.

"Let me take a look." Vera muttered into her mic, watching as Rumlow turned to look at her from behind his night-vision goggles.

There were some mutters from the rest of the members, but no one dared say anything before their captain made his mind.

After a long pause, Rumlow slowly nodded his head. "Do it."

She was gone before the words finished, leaping off the rooftops, silent in her movements, disappearing as she dropped into one of the alleyways and then found a way to squeeze into the sewers, heading in the direction of the house in question. There was not an exit anywhere near the target house, not that she expected any. But as she had suspected, there was a door in the sewers that was not on the town blueprints, and it was rather close to the position of the target area.

"Found something." She said into her comms, hoping the connection would still be strong. The sewers were not as far underground as they were in bigger cities.

"What?" Rumlow's voice cut through the static.

"A door. It wasn't on the blueprints." She said as she knelt to study the lock. "I bet it's connected to the facility we're looking for."

"Scope it and report back." Rumlow ordered, then addressed the rest of the team. "Stay still, men. Charging in through the front door will only get someone killed."

Vera guessed that someone had been complaining about the wait while she had been trudging through the sludge. The mystery door was locked, unsurprisingly, but she quickly pulled out a few tools and picked the lock, kicking the door open with her rifle at the ready. The hallway she found herself in was dark, but she was reluctant to turn on the flashlight on her rifle, not willing to gamble on whether the hallway was being watched or not.

Slinging her rifle back over her shoulders, she felt her way through the dark, the static of her comm going flat within minutes, telling her that connection had been cut. She pulled out one of her personal gadgets that she had kept from her time with the Red Room. It was a low-level flashlight the size of a pen that emitted an infra-red beam that was barely visible to the human eye, even in the dark. But when one had night-vision goggles, it provided enough light for the image enhancers to pick up.

With one hand holding up the infrared light, and the other pulling out her Beretta, she carefully made her way into the depths of the tunnel, eventually finding a rather large and sturdy steel door that was most definitely beyond anything that the townspeople could afford. There was no sign of a door knob, bar, or any sort of lever to open the door. Vera ran her fingers along the edges, hoping to find a catch or something to indicate hinges or a bolt.

Nothing.

She felt her lips tug into a frown. The door must only open from the other side. She sighed and pushed her ear against the smooth surface of the steel, closing her eyes to focus. She wasn't expecting to hear much on the other side of the door, but the still silence assured her that no one would be waiting for her on the other side. Or at least, she hoped so.

Time to show some effort. She thought to herself as she holstered her pistol and trapped her flashlight between her teeth, keeping the light focused on the door as she freed both hands. Vera rolled her shoulders and wrists, cracked her knuckles, and then swung.

BAM!

Her first punch slammed into the steel sheet with enough force to make the door shudder in its frame. She shot her other fist forward, hitting the same spot in the middle of the door. This time, the metal whined under her weight, as the concrete edges around the door began to crack.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

She swung again and again, putting her weight behind each punch, the steel slowly but surely giving beneath her immense strength, creaking and groaning. Between the steel and the concrete, the doorframe broke. She made a small hop back as dust rained down and the frame shuddered before the cracks gave in. The steel door, now looking more like a dented square of aluminum, fell backwards, slipping through the frame and crashing to the floor on the other side.

There's no way that did not go unnoticed. Vera thought as she gingerly stepped through the doorway, swinging her rifle under her arm and fitting it into the crook of her arms, sights on alert.

"Ma aldhy yajri –"

The guard that had come to investigate found himself greeted by a single shot, his eyes widening in disbelief as he glanced down at the bullet hole in his chest, the red bloom on his chest the only sight he seemed to register as his hands fumbled for his gun. A second later he fell, greeting the ground face-first. Vera leapt forward, slinging her rifle back behind her as she hauled his body back into the tunnel she had come from.

After a quick look up and down each end of the corridor, wherein she took out one more guard and carried his body back into the tunnel to hide it, dumping it into a pile with the previous guard, she made a quick retreat back to the sewers.

The moment her comms link reconnected with the team, she alerted Rumlow.

"I got an 'in'." She said in a low voice, hearing a distant curse from one of the men over their connection, having probably startled the team after being disconnected for so long.

"The sewer entrance?" Rumlow asked just to be sure.

"Yeah." She answered. "Make it quick. I don't know when someone will check to see if the guards are still at their posts."

After a quick sound of affirmation, she heard the sounds of movement, the creak of leather, the clink of metal, the slight jingle of clips and chains. Vera waited by the doorway to the sewers, eyes peering into the darkness and waiting for the tell-tale flash of their scopes. They emerge from the shadows with only the sound of the water beneath their boots to herald their arrival, dim flashlights pointed to the floor, goggles reflected her face.

"Sir." She nodded in greeting, wordlessly gesturing for them to follow him into the tunnel behind her.

"Agent." Was his greeting as he stepped in behind her.

"I believe this tunnel was meant to be a last-resort escape route. It seemed abandoned, but it certainly connects to the facility we are looking for." She explained to him as they rushed towards where the steel door once stood.

Rumlow and the team paused at the empty doorway, glancing over the two dead men, and then eyeing the hole where the steel door once stood, the concrete cracked and crumbling. Their captain looked at Vera and pointed at the dented steel.

"What happened here?"

"I opened the door." Vera shrugged, stepping over the rubble, making an impatient sound in the back of her throat.

"And how did you do that? Punch your way through?" Rumlow asked sarcastically as they continued to follow her into the facility.

Yes. "I used some explosives." She lied. "Now quiet down. We're entering the main facility."

They began to stick closer to their shadows, pressing against walls and darting around corners, taking down the guards that they encountered before anyone could alert the rest. The darker halls gradually lightened as the fluorescent lights above grew stronger and more frequent, forcing the men to turn off their night-vision. They found themselves overlooking the main room of the facility from the crisscrossing metal walkways that hung above the large laboratory. Machines were scattered throughout the room, men in white lab coats scuttling back and forth with files and clipboards in hand. The air was filled with the hum of machinery, the clicking of keyboards, low conversations and scribbling of pens.

Men with guns and dressed in plain camo uniforms were placed at even intervals at the edges of the room, watching the scientists with sharp eyes. There seemed to be a main office at the opposite end of the room, up the stairs and separated by panes of glass. Within it were two men in suits, one talking to a scientist, the other on the phone, both holding themselves like most rich and dirty businessmen did.

"We kill everyone." Rumlow's voice sounded in her ear through the comms. He turned to face her, pulling his goggles up to rest on his head as he eyed her. "Ya have a problem with that, girly?"

She raised a brow at that. "Why would I?"

A bloodthirsty grin slipped onto his expression. Rumlow was about to give the hand-sign to attack, but Vera must have guessed what he was going to do and caught his arm. He glared at her with an annoyed look.

"What?" He hissed.

"You aren't seriously going to just shoot everything up?" She asked him with narrowed eyes. "We don't know if there are unstable chemicals in here. I don't want things blowing up!"

The slight widening of his eyes told her that he hadn't thought of that. Vera made a disgusted sound at his idiocy and then growled, "Wait here. I'll go scope out what kind of shit they've got in here."

He was gonna get us all blown up or radioactive that doorak*! She thought furiously as she darted to the nearest stairwell and slipped to the lower floors, trying to get a read on the chemical labels on the various containers.

It didn't help that they were all in Arabic. As a major language in the world, the Red Room certainly made sure that all of its graduates were fluent in it. Vera had plenty of practice with the language, but it was still a language she was not fond of. It was just… not a pretty language. Not that Russian was any better.

Gas, kerosene, not surprising… ethanol, uranium – shit! Vera inwardly cursed as she noticed the chemical names veering into the radioactive area. She pulled out another Red Room gadget – something akin to a monocle that could zoom in digitally. Holding the monocle-like machine to her eye, Vera used it to zoom into the papers on the scientists' desks.

Bio-chemicals, nuclear weapons… Vera shook her head. This whole place is one giant mushroom cloud waiting to happen. Once again, she felt the urge to smack Rumlow for his brash idiocy.

"Nuclear and bio-chemicals." Vera deadpanned as she returned to the team. Rumlow's face darkened with a hint of red as his team paled. Yeah, good thing she stopped them from rushing in.

"Then we need to do this quickly." Rumlow stated as he began to rearrange his plans. "And keep an eye on every bullet."

"Or at least until we can secure the chemicals." Vera agreed. "We can't just dump that kind of thing anyway."

He nodded, then turned to his men, giving them their newest instructions. Vera was ordered to remain at his side as the team split and began to creep around the walkways above the oblivious lab rats. The new plan was to aim before firing (Vera could not help but roll her eyes at that). The men would each target one of the guards, taking out at least two each in the time it took for their targets to register the attack. By that time the scientists would no doubt duck for cover, and the men in suits in the office would either come out to see the commotion, or hide in their office. Either way, once the guards were taken out, they would have to quickly dispose of every person in the facility.

Several voices sounded across the comms, alerting Rumlow to their position and awaiting the signal. Rumlow caught her eye, and she nodded in return.

"Go."

The calm atmosphere was ruined as bullets rained down on the men below. Vera took out three guards before she shifted her attention to the scientists below, mowing them down while carefully avoiding the chemical tanks around them. The rest of the team dropped down to the ground floor using ropes that they had tied to the railings above, the ropes unfurling simultaneously as they descended.

"Keep them away from their chemicals!" Vera hissed into their link. "We don't need some lab rat getting brave!"

Rumlow descended soon after that, with Vera staying above to keep an eye on the whole picture. Her eyes snapped up to the office area, catching sight of the men in suits as they panicked, began boarding up the doors and windows. Her eyes widened when she saw one of them tip a bookcase and reveal a secret door.

"The office has an escape route!" She growled into the comms as she leapt over the edge of the walkway and caught the rope on the way down, swinging her way down and landing in a roll. "Whoever's closest to it, make an opening! Before they escape!"

She was running across the main lab, stopping once to shoot a scientist that had been playing dead, before continuing forwards with her eyes locked on the office area.

"The doors are reinforced!" One of their men growled in frustration; she guessed it was the one slamming his body against the door.

Vera huffed in annoyance as she joined them, but instead of attacking the door, she went for a weaker material. The glass of the windows shattered with the butt of her gun, and then she punched her hand against the bookcase that was blocking it from the inside, tipping it over.

"Through here!" She snapped, barely restraining herself from commenting at their lack of creativity.

Vera lead the team as she leapt through, finding the office empty. She heard Rumlow swear beside her and across their comms. He took the lead as he rushed through the hidden entrance, Vera and the rest following him.

Luckily for them, the tunnel they were following did not branch off, and lead them straight to the garage where their targets were scrambling into an armored Hummer. The special ops knew better than to shoot at a bullet-proof car, instead splitting up as the men ran forward to break into the car while Vera slipped away to sabotage the garage door, which was already halfway open.

Vera paused in her running to take aim with her rifle, shooting the gears of the garage door on each side. It stalled, but was still open enough for an armored car to barrel through. She heard tires screeching as the team descended on the escape car, and then –

"Look out!" Rumlow's voice yelled out.

She looked up to see headlights zooming towards her.

Vera could do nothing but brace herself.

MUWAHAHAHA! The dreaded cliffhanger!

Be sure to leave a review! The more I get, the faster I update! *wink wink*

~Lilithia