Symbiote 0261: Bullying

"Do we have any leads for the first target?" Natasha asked Alex.

"I have a general idea," Alex told her. "He should be a senior in a High School in the San Francisco Bay Area."

"You know more about a seventeen-year-old kid than you should," Natasha said, seeming weirded out.

"His information is all on public record since he got himself emancipated because of his orphaned status. He is legally an adult at the moment," He gave her an annoyed look. "Xu Shang-Chi. That's the kid's name. He thinks he's hidden but he is very easy to track. Not only myself but his father is also constantly keeping track of him. All we need to do is to go in and get the locket from him."

"How long do you need before finding his exact location?" She asked Alex.

"A few minutes. But the drive will be a long one, so you can get some shut-eye," Alex told her. "We will reach our destination in around eighteen hours without stops. With stops, it depends."

"Works for me," Natasha reclined the car seat all the way back as Alex also made himself comfortable while driving on the freeway. They were currently in a Porsche 911 that Alex had reinforced so that it would survive some of the more worn-out cross-country roads. He used his superhuman reflexes to his advantage, moving at a constant two hundred miles per hour or more while they had a distance of three thousand miles to cover.

"Just going for a long drive is also pretty fun sometimes …"

…

In a nondescript apartment in the San Fransisco Bay area, the door opened with a bang as an intoxicated man entered with a woman kissing his neck. Still an entangled mess, the duo entered while the man closed the door behind himself with his foot. He put his hands on the woman's waist and picked her up, her legs wrapping around him.

"Oh, Shaun~" The woman moaned, pulling back from the kiss only to meet his eyes.

"You seem to be enjoying life to the fullest …" An amused yet soft voice came from the couch. "For a seventeen-year-old, that is."

The woman's eyes widened, "You're seventeen?!" She exclaimed, pushing him away as the hints of intoxication in his eyes all but disappeared as she stumbled away from him. He turned to look at a tuft of red hair poking out from the side of the couch's backrest.

"Who are you?" He asked cautiously, his entire body tensing up.

"Answer me!" The woman shook his arm.

"Yeah, I'm seventeen. Now leave," The man identified as Shaun spoke irritably.

"Natasha," The intruder spoke, still as calm and amused as before. The woman who had come with Shaun quickly left, while curious, she wasn't willing to get into the murky situation. "Now should I call you Shaun? Or Shang-Chi?" Natasha asked.

The teenager with a body that was well-built to the point of allowing him to pass off as over twenty-one at a bar cautiously stepped in a circle, approaching the couch. "How do you know that name?"

"I tracked you down, silly," Natasha spoke, "How else would I know who you are?"

"Black Widow." Shang Chi spoke, still tense enough to burst into a battle instantaneously.

"The one and only," Natasha smiled at the man. "Avenger, protector, whatever else you want to call me."

"Home invader is the first thing that comes to mind right now, burglar second," He spoke.

"Well, you aren't wrong," Natasha said. "I did come here to ask you for something."

Shang-Chi's hand instinctively went to his neck, grasping the pendant of a necklace. His tense state seemed to naturally calm down a little, "What is it?"

"You know what it is," Natasha smiled, looking at his hand, making Shang-Chi clench his fist even tighter such that his knuckles turned white.

"Why?"

"I'm not here to hurt you, kid," Natasha said. "I will be meeting with your father and sister after this. I wish to go to Ta Lo and those lockets are the key that will lead me there."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, stepping back until his back was against the door.

"You've given up on everything from your past. That locket is a ghost that will continue to haunt you until you either throw it away or face it. Which one will it be?" Natasha said.

A clicking sound followed the door opening abruptly as Shang-Chi ran out without looking back.

"I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this," Natasha sighed as the man skidded to a stop, unable to believe that the woman would be able to catch up to him so quickly.

"Then leave!" He spoke with hints of agitation, "It's my mother's final memento. I cannot give it to you."

"What if I promise to return it?" Natasha asked, throwing a casual punch at Shang-Chi to incapacitate him.

Shang-Chi reacted with almost superhuman reflexes, palming the side of Natasha's fist and using his other hand to absorb the force. He redirected it to his attack and punched Natasha in the abdomen.

She blinked, her hand instinctively moving to block the attack as Shang-Chi pressed further, swiping her leg as she stepped to the side. He didn't delay for a moment before moving forward and sliding past her.

"Did he just …" Natasha looked at her fist that had been redirected by Shang-Chi.

[He did. It seems that Shang-Chi is going to be a troublesome opponent in every reality.]

[Suppress my physical stats to match his once I reach him.] Nat said with an interested smile as she quickly moved to catch up to him. "There's no point in running away from me, kid. How about this, you give me your locket and come with me to meet with your sister and father? Once I'm done with the lockets, you both can keep them."

Shang-Chi growled in response. Natasha tilted her body to dodge his punch, swiping his leg as he was stepping forward. Shang-Chi fell but twirled his body to kick Natasha's legs, forcing her to jump in order to keep herself from falling. Just as she landed, he was already on his feet, throwing a punch at her which she was forced to parry. She couldn't counter as Shang-Chi hit her with another punch, forcing her to block it. His flurry of attacks continued, following the Wing Chun school's move set which relied on quick successive punching to keep the opponent on their toes. Initially, it seemed to be working, Natasha being forced to block his attacks as she analyzed his moves but that quickly changed as she found an opening in his attacks and capitalized on it, raising her leg to knee his stomach.

Shang-Chi reeled himself back with a hardened expression, taking a kung-fu stance.

"You're a strong fighter. You truly are," Natasha praised as Shang-Chi approached her. "But you still need a couple more years to match up to me in skill. Tell me, would you like to join the Avengers?" Natasha, as if already aware of an opening in his stance, threw a punch at Shang-Chi, making his eyes widen as he barely blocked it, stepping back. Natasha was already upon him, grabbing his arm and pulling it behind his back. Just as she was about to hold him down in a lock, he flipped over, dissipating her gathered force. She kept holding on to his arm as he landed on his feet, right in front of her.

"You're outmatched," Natasha smirked, kneeing him as he parried her attack, countering with his one free arm. She redirected his attack and moved behind him once again twisting his arm behind his back and pushing him down. She overpowered him and held him down.

He struggled violently but was unable to free himself from Black Widow's hold.

"Seriously, I would've felt good about myself if you weren't seventeen. I feel like I'm bullying a kid …" Natasha felt a little tired mentally. "Train more so that you can take your revenge on me when I meet you again when it's time for me to return your locket. I promise it to you as an Avenger." She unhooked the locket and Alex put it in his inventory. "And my offer still stands. Let me know if you want to become an Avenger. We need people like yourself."

"You've taken it, right? Let me go now," He groaned while continuing to struggle, ignoring most of Natasha's words.

"No, you're accepting it too easily. You're going to give up, aren't you? You're going to sit on your ass and wait for me to come back and return your locket. That's not how it works, boy," Natasha saw through the teenager's thoughts. "The only way for you to take your locket from me is if you can beat me. Understood. I'm giving you a rough estimate of six months. Either get good enough to beat me. Or lose your mother's final memento forever."

"I don't care, just keep the damn locket. Let me go!" Shang-Chi groaned.

"Don't you get it?" Natasha said. "I'm not accepting that. You will train and get stronger. Otherwise, I will be forced to threaten you with things that are very unbecoming of a world-renowned superhero. If you don't better yourself before our next meeting, a world of pain awaits you. Understood, Shang-Chi?" Just to make a dramatic movement, Natasha shot a bolt of lightning at the wall, destroying it completely. "Understood?"

The teenager was positively intimidated by the hole in the wall that was big enough for a person to go through. He nodded, "I will … Fucking hell, I'll train."

"Good work," Natasha smiled and freed him. The next thing he saw, the woman in the sexy black combat suit jumped through the hole in the wall.

"Do these Avengers always leave such collateral damage?" He mumbled to himself.

"I'll get it fixed. Don't worry. Your landlord won't make trouble for you."

***

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