Chapter 17: Natasha's Report

A/N: Natasha finally gets a chance to report in. But you know what they say. The only reward for good work is more work.

-x-X-x-

"Let me get this straight, Agent Romanoff. You've been undercover as the Personal Assistant to Tony Stark and Pepper Potts for ten months and the best you've got for me is that Tony Stark has an AI guard dog and he and Potts are particularly exceptional lovers?"

Sitting in a hotel room in Amman, the Capital City of Jordan, Natasha Romanoff raises an eyebrow at the screen, not intimidated in the slightest by Nick Fury's irritation or Phil Coulson's quiet disappointment. Their visages are transported halfway across the world from the Director of SHIELD's office in the Triskelion, and Natasha has just gotten done making her report to the two men.

Technically Natalie Rushman had taken the two week vacation mandated by Stark Industries to travel to Jordan for the chance to see Petra. In reality, Natasha still didn't fully understand why she was here, save for that SHIELD had left a paper note in her apartment saying that this was where she was to come for her vacation.

After ten months of working under Stark and Potts, the last six of which had been as their personal plaything more than their personal assistant, Natasha had certainly gotten a feel for how the two operated. Unfortunately, she'd got distressingly little of what SHIELD actually wanted, save for the information about JARVIS and… well, the fact that the pair had ungodly stamina.

"You did tell me that you wanted me to take things slowly, Director. Once I discovered I was almost certainly being watched twenty-four-seven by an AI, I knew that I needed to be careful. Besides, the report on Stark and Potts' sexual capabilities should concern you very much. Especially given that new miracle drug that Stark Industries commercialized before I was sent in. PlusExtra.".

Fury's brow furrows and he looks at something on his desk for a long moment in thought. Natasha doesn't bother insulting his intelligence by explaining it all directly. She lets him get there on his own.

"… You think they have something stronger? Something more permanent? And that Stark has dosed him and Potts with it?"

Natasha inclines her head. That first night had been rather embarrassing for her. Afterwards, Tony and Pepper had been far more willing to enjoy her body by themselves. Whether it was Pepper ordering her to crawl under her desk or Tony bending her over his workbench and having her hand him tools while he multitasked fucking her from behind and doing science at the same time… they definitely weren't shy about it anymore.

However, any time it was all three of them… Natasha found she simply couldn't keep up. Once was a fluke. Twice might just be an anomaly. But three times or greater and that was usually enemy action. It had taken her time to figure it out, but ultimately it was staring her right in the face. Stark and Potts weren't entirely human. Or at the very least, they'd been Enhanced in some way.

If it was just Stark, Natasha would assume that something had happened to him in the cave. Maybe he'd even been turned into some sort of sleeper agent by the Ten Rings and the destruction of their holdings in Afghanistan was just a smokescreen. But for Pepper to have just as much stamina spoke to something else. Something straight out of Stark's genius brain.

"I think it's a safe bet, sir. Unfortunately I couldn't confirm it. Not with JARVIS breathing down my neck every step of the way. Natalie Rushman has been a loyal, submissive employee for the last ten months, albeit a little bit curious and a whole lot adventurous. But she's not that curious and if I started looking into that sort of thing, my cover would be blown faster than I could blink."

Fury grunts as he leans back in his chair. Probably because he knows she's right. Natasha hadn't known going in how impossible of a task this would be. But she'd done the best she could with what she had. Frankly, getting this much without being burned in ten months was pretty damn good.

"… We know about JARVIS, of course. Stark started building him shortly after his childhood butler, Edwin Jarvis, passed away. For a long time it was assumed that he was just a particularly advanced user interface taking care of Stark's Malibu Residence. But if what you say is true… it explains a lot. Upgrading JARVIS into a full-fledged AI after Afghanistan would certainly be something that a man like Stark would do in a fit of paranoia and out of a need to stay safe."

Here, Coulson leans forward.

"A sufficiently advanced AI would also be capable of covering up all sorts of activities, sir."

Fury's one visible eye widens almost imperceptibly at that, and Natasha watches the Director of SHIELD tense up in his seat.

"You're right. Shit, Coulson get our people on that right away. We used to have a backdoor into the Malibu Security in case we needed to pay Stark a home visit, but now I'm thinking that's woefully out of date. We need updated methods for taking down Stark and his AI, yesterday."

"Yes sir."

With one last nod to Natasha, Coulson disappears from view, leaving the office entirely. Once he's gone, Fury looks back to Natasha.

"Keep up the good work, Agent Romanoff. You'll be returning to SI to continue as Natalie Rushman after your two week vacation. In the meantime however… you feeling up to taking care of something else for me while you're in the region?"

Natasha has to hold back a snort. Of course they had a mission for her on her so-called vacation. And really, what was she going to do, say no? Even if she thought she had a choice, Natasha couldn't imagine lounging around for two weeks. While infiltrating Stark Industries wasn't exactly a walk in the park, it also wasn't exactly action packed either. She'd had to do an awful lot of extra work on the side just to keep her skills sharp.

"I'd be glad to, sir."

-x-X-x-

"Sir. You wished to be informed about any developments regarding Agent Romanoff's 'vacation'."

Raising an eyebrow, Tony looks up from his work.

"Yeah J? What is it? We already watched Nat deliver her report to Coulson and Fury together. Keeping an eye on Coulson and the SHIELD eggheads trying to work out countermeasures for you still right?"

Tony had to admit, he was pleased with how everything was going regarding all of that. Natasha had played her part swimmingly, even if she didn't know it. SHIELD knew everything that he wanted them to know at this point in time and Tony wasn't really that worried at all. By feeding them breadcrumbs like JARVIS and the hints of Extremis, they were blind to everything else Tony was working on.

Besides, it wasn't like they were going to get an opportunity to truly strike at him and J anyways. Tony already had plans for defanging Fury and SHIELD in that regard before they could truly become a threat to him or any of his loved ones.

"Yes sir, they still do not realize that their assumptions are incorrect. I did not start life as a user interface who was turned into an Artificial Intelligence. I started life as an Artificial Intelligence who was masquerading as a user interface. They are still working under the mistaken belief that you have kept me limited in any meaningful way… likely from the numerous minor ways in which we have allowed Natasha Romanoff to circumvent and take advantage of my programming over the last several months."

Tony grins at that. Heh, Natasha had been too smart to ever try to take advantage of JARVIS in a more meaningful way, but they'd let her get away with all sorts of small things. Like the first time she'd been waiting for him and Pepper in their bedroom after getting back from a date. Or the times when JARVIS made a show of teaming up with Tony in order to get him to eat.

In actuality, Tony ate a lot of fucking food these days, but Natasha never saw that because he only took his meals when she was off working under Pepper… or under Pepper's desk, as was often the case.

Still…

"So then what's the problem, J?"

"The problem, Sir, is that the Winter Soldier was just activated and given orders to neutralize the nuclear scientist that Agent Romanoff has been tasked with escorting out of Iran. He is currently en route and will likely intercept them in Odessa, Ukraine within the next ten hours."

Tony pauses at that.

"Shit. Prep the suit, J."

"As you say, Sir."

-x-X-x-

Natasha Romanoff curses under her breath as she bunches up her legs and then kicks out the side door of the upside down jeep she finds herself in. At the same time, she reaches over and grabs her mark's shirt, giving him a good shake that has him groaning as he slowly comes back to consciousness.

"Good. Still alive. Come on, we need to get out of here."

She finds herself wishing she'd told Fury that she needed the actual vacation. Visiting Petra herself instead of relying on a body double sent by SHIELD is sounding really nice right now, especially compared to this bullshit. Everything had been going so smoothly too. She'd gotten to her target, secured him, and then set about smuggling him out of Iran.

In a week, Natasha had managed to get the nuclear scientist Fury wanted her to retrieve out of Iran, through Turkey, across the Black Sea, and all the way to Odessa. They were heading to the rendezvous with SHIELD located just ten miles outside of Odessa when the wheels on her jeep were shot out and they were sent off of a damn cliff.

Still, they were both still alive. She could still complete her mission. All she had to do was kill whoever the fuck was in her way first.

Reaching over and unbuckling her mark's seatbelt, Natasha's lips compress into a thin line as she begins to tug the groaning egghead out of his seat and across the upturned roof of the car with her. One hand on his shirt and the other holding her gun, she slowly begins to extricate them both from the jeep. On the one hand, cars didn't like to be tossed around. They were prone to sometimes exploding as a result. So she was incentivized to move quickly.

On the other hand, she couldn't give whoever was hunting them a clear shot at the scientist. It was obvious he was who they were after.

Climbing out of the car, Natasha's eyes shrink to pinpricks as she sweeps the area, looking for-

There! Her eyes widen as she sees it too late. Not it. Him. And when she actually clocks him… she does something she's not proud of. She freezes up.

But to be fair, the Winter Soldier is a boogeyman among boogeymen. He's a horror story even among the spy community, an urban legend Natasha had never thought was real. Until now. And he's bearing down on her and her mark with a rifle pointed in their direction.

Cursing herself for freezing, Natasha goes to bring up her gun, knowing already that she's too late. The Winter Soldier's finger is already compressing on the trigger. Only just as the familiar sound of rifle fire fills the air… something comes out of the sky so fast Natasha can hardly believe her eyes.

The bullet from the rifle, instead of hitting Natasha, hits the matte black armor of what can only be described as a big, shiny robot. A bulletproof robot from the look of things, because the Winter Soldier immediately switches his rifle to full auto and takes a step back, beginning to spray the robot down, specifically targeting joints and other would-be weak points.

Not that it seems to matter much. The robot steps forward, grabs the barrel of the still-firing rifle, and crushes it in an instant. And then it grabs the Winter Soldier by the throat. The Soldier's infamous metal arm comes up and slams down on the robot's arm, and to his credit, he manages to break the hold for a moment. From there the Winter Soldier attempts to deliver a series of physical blows now that his gun has been turned into so much scrap.

WHAM!

None of it seems to have much effect, but what does have an effect is the robot slamming its metal head into the Winter Soldier's human skull. The legendary masked assassin stumbles back but stays on his feet in a way that shows just how tough he really is. The robot stays on him though, is all over him in fact, and continues to pummel him with a mechanical brutality that leaves even the Black Widow unsettled. Until finally, the Winter Soldier drops.

Natasha could hardly believe her eyes. Truthfully, she doesn't get much of a chance to properly process what she's seeing before it's all over and the robot is grabbing the unconscious Winter Soldier by his tactical vest, hoisting him up over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. For a second, just a split second, the glowing eyes of the robot turn towards her as it twists its body in her direction.

She tries to say something then, but for one of the first times in her adult life, Natasha finds she can't form words because her mouth and throat are both too dry from her staring wide eyed and open mouthed for a little too long. And then her chance is taken from her, as the robot blasts up into the air and disappears, taking the Winter Soldier with him.

… What the fuck? What the actual fuck?

"Oooooh my head… what happened? The last thing I remember… ack! Are we under attack?!"

Natasha looks to her mark as he fully wakes up, the nuclear scientist panicking as he finally remembers the sounds of gunfire that heralded their tires exploding and them going off the cliff. But he didn't see any of what just transpired. He didn't know they had been about to die at the hands of a living legend, only for that living legend to get dismantled and taken apart in five seconds flat by a futuristic looking robot.

Lips compressing into a thin line, Natasha pulls the nuclear scientist fully out of the jeep and gets to her feet, dragging him up as well.

"Don't worry. Stay close, stick with me, and I'll get you to safety. I'm not going to let you die."

She doesn't let so much of a waver of uncertainty enter her voice. And in the end, getting the scientist the last few miles to the SHIELD rendezvous is actually rather easy. There, she tells Fury what happened over a secure line, of course. He says he'll send out a forensics team to canvas the area, but she can hear the doubt in his voice all the same.

He sounds like he doesn't entirely believe it wasn't just her concussion talking, especially since there's literally no sign of a bogey on any form of radar located in the area. Not even satellites SHIELD had both legal and illegal access to had seen a single ounce of a matte black robot flying through the skies directly over the region and in the surrounding regions.

In the end, Natasha doesn't try very hard to convince him. Nor does she tell him of her suspicions. She's not sure why, but somehow Natasha thinks she already knows who that robot belonged to, deep down inside. And yet, she doesn't mention it to Fury. She doesn't even try to tell him. Maybe it's because the robot saved her life. Maybe it's because it all sounds ridiculous and farfetched, even to her ears.

Or maybe Natasha just wants the chance to ask Tony Stark why he went out of his way for her first before she decides whether or not she's throwing him to the wolves.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Heh, things just escalated, didn't they? Natasha thinks she knows something, but what does she really know?

And hm... would Tony really risk Natasha potentially ratting him out here? Or is something else going on?

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