Chapter 128: Spies and Spells
Hope you all enjoy!
Power Stone Goal; for extra Chapter: (130/400)
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Natasha was having a shit day, all things considered. Not only had she woke up in a puddle of her own sweat after having nightmares about her time spent in the red room, but she had also discovered Roger’s utterly ignorant and stubborn rant to the media.
The master seductress had spent hours yesterday attempting to convince him to wait at least a week and she thought she had been successful after he started turning silent and nodding... It was evident that she was wrong however as the ’hero’ of America just put a massive political target on the back of his head without even realising.
If that wasn’t all, she had just been sent a text from Fury saying she was officially cut-away from Shield due to security concerns relating to the recent cyber attacks the agency had been experiencing. He had apologised and said his hands were tied on the matter, Alexander Pierce directly calling for her dismissal at a meeting of the World Council. Yes, somehow Hydra was still hanging around despite the fact that Coulson had informed Fury of Drecarios’s warning... Apparently the words of Singularity weren’t being given too much credence of late; which was beyond imbecilic in her opinion.
So now she was left without a job, without a connection to Shield and completely by herself. This of course led to a ten-hour long binge of the Lucifer TV show and half a tub of Vanilla ice-cream in her hotel room. She had to get everything she could out of the suite before her time ran out after all.
Just as she watched Lucifer’s daughter threaten him with her wings there was a knock on the door of her suite. The pace of the knock was restless and the scuffing of shoes on the other side of the door suggested nervousness or excitement. Either one was concerning.
Discarding her ice-cream and the remote she pulled a hidden pistol from her pyjamas whilst she softly opened a side-drawer, pulling out a handbag that was filled to the brim with all of her worldly possessions. She had scheduled a pick-up with Clint later tomorrow for more supplies and information but she would have to make-do with what she had on hand.
"Ms Rushman? A, um, Tony Stark is here to see you...???" A Hispanic accent dully echoed on the other side of the doorway as a clanking noise clunked down the hallway.
Natasha drew her nine millimetre, crouching behind the furthest side of the bed from the door, as the metallic noise echoed closer. She took a steady breath and whipped her head to the side, making a note of the exit strategy she had already planned yesterday. She had rigged the bathroom with small breaching charges that would immediately detonate if she clicked a button on top of her handbag, then she would rush through the newly made hole and flee through the adjacent room before exiting out of a window and rushing down the fire-exit down into the alley... From there she had a rental car parked out front of a bakery which she would use to escape, taking the most direct route to Avengers Tower.
If Steve Rogers wasn’t going to listen to her, maybe Tony Stark and Drecarios Frost would find her advice more useful, she almost huffed in indignation despite the possible danger of her situation.
"M-Ms Rushman???" The Hispanic woman asked, a quiver in her voice revealing her desperation.
’That isn’t good...’ She thought as she softly manoeuvred closer to the bathroom, her pistol staying completely steady as she relocated, her aim never shifting from chest height at the door.
"MS RUSH-" There was a dull thump and what sounded like a bullet striking into flesh as the woman’s voice gasped out mid-word. Natasha took that cue to strike the button on her handbag, opening fire into the door just as the thumping of several boots reverberated on the other side.
A concussive blast wave whipped her hair sideways as the bathroom door was flung open in the explosion. She immediately sprinted inside and through the wall, debris and detritus still rumbling across the tiled floors as she flung herself into the doorway in the other apartment and began sprinting across the polished wooden floorboards towards the large central window of the suite.
Subdued sounds of boots impacting wood vaguely reached her ears from behind but she ignored them in favour of escaping the assassination attempt entirely. She slid around a corner whilst running, her right hand slapping against the corner to stabilize herself. A mild flare of relief washed over her as she saw no targets between her and her escape route... She sprinted down the short hallway as the sound of sirens down below started sounding.
’Shit.’ She cursed inwardly before a loud crunch rebounded through the room with all the force of metal striking wood. Cringing at the sound and what it could mean for her she fire several shots into the glass window, leaping after the crumbling glass down into the fire escape which was one floor down.
The sound of a shotgun loading filled the room behind her before she slipped below the window’s level on the building and roughly crashed into the fire escape’s top platform. Grunting in mild pain and exertion, her hand slid across the railing, her pace becoming more frantic as she loudly rushed down the constricted metal stairs.
Crackling glass from the window above was the only warning Natasha received before a shotgun shell’s worth of death was blasted towards her. Metal grated on metal and the rusty fire escape squealed at the explosive impact, the entire structure rattling at the blow. Luckily she was a level below the top and was rapidly navigating her way down to the level just above the lowest level.
Her knuckles were completely white as her bare feet slapped into the bottom layer of fire escape, her breath slightly heightened from the intense flurry of movements she he just carried out in such a short timespan. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to spend more time taking a quota of her status or who her enemies were, as the sound of sheering brick and the sight of a man dressed in pitch black clothes, with a metallic arm, sliding down the building opposite the fire exit using purely his metallic limb stopped any chance of it happening.
The man grunted as rubble sprinkled the bitumen below, which was all she needed to know before she started firing at him, her movement never ceasing as she simply jumped down the final level and chaotically started zig-zagging across the alleyway. She was using garbage disposals and trash-heaps in order to break visual line of sight as the man simply dropped the last few floors to dodge her gunfire, his combat boots metallically slapping into the bitumen as he started slowly rising from his impromptu landing.
’Son of a bitch, that’s the Winter Soldier...’ She almost gulped before her survival instinct kicked in for the second time today and she threw herself behind a pile of scrap metal, another volley of shotgun fire pinging off of the detritus cover.
Said man flicked his shotgun open, reloading it as she quickly raced through the sticky alleyway in nothing but her pyjamas and her surprisingly smooth feet. Police sirens grew louder as she reached the mouth of the alleyway, her body whipping towards the right as she reached the exterior walkway outside the hotel. She was two minutes away from her rental car and she had already mapped several shortcuts... Now she just needed to weave into the crowd.
Her form slunk between the ambling masses of California as she carefully observed her surroundings for the menace after her. Many questions were permeating her mind but she flung them aside in favour of survival...
Thirty seconds passed as she slid between groups of people, acting like a cosplayer when she needed to, until the Winter Soldier exited the alleyway behind her and simply started opening fire. Screams quickly erupted from the walkway as women, children and men alike all dropped to the ground and attempted to crawl behind any cover they could get close to. Natasha grimaced hard at the blatant disregard for secrecy, they wanted her gone and didn’t care for any form of subtlety, a dangerous indicator for any operative trying to survive an assassination attempt.
She barely even got a chance to see the body of a young girl drop to the ground dead before she dipped into another alleyway and rushed to a pile of trash that she had set up the day before, it covered a small tunnel that bled into the sewer system.
Another blast impacted behind her as the corner of the building to her right was blown into small pebbles. Her heartbeat thumped in her chest as she tripped and rolled into the pile of trash she needed to move. Dirt and grime immediately clung to her red hair and up into her nose as she pushed herself off and started pulling away the false trash layer. She finally felt the other side and started to pull when the sound of a shotgun being snapped into readiness loudly echoed right behind her.
Stopping, Natasha slowly turned, her eyes immediately snapping onto the figure of the Winter Soldier as she advanced on her. His shotgun, which she noticed was a two-shot pump action DP-12, was braced against his shoulder with a metal index finger hovering above the trigger. He said nothing. He made no noise. He wasn’t even tired from the chase.
"Why?" Natasha asked despite the lump in her throat, a sense of all encompassing dread filling her gut as he stopped a metre away from her.
"Mission. You are the target." The Winter Soldier robotically stated, as if he were an accountant handing over a financial statement he’d just finished auditing.
"I- I didn’t even get to hit Rogers for ignoring me..." She smothered the dread in her gut and closed her eyes, expecting to be shot at any second... She obviously wasn’t getting out of this alive.
When the pain never came she opened her eyes, the man before her blinking and frowning as his shotgun dropped ever so slightly. He seemed confused about something, his black mask barely covering the raging emotions within him.
Natasha lightly gulped at the unexpected boon, her right hand smoothly inching her pistol up to potentially get a shot off.
"R-Rogers? Who? What...?" The soldier shook his head, his arm whirring and creaking as if he were tensing it somehow.
"That’s enough of that Damodar!" A blur of metal slammed into the Winter Soldier, flinging him further down the alleyway as the vague sound of ACDC filled Natasha’s ears. She slumped to the floor in hope and relief, ACDC never having sounded as good as it was right now.
"AhhhhhHH!" The voice of her pursuer screamed in agony as a jagged fragment of the drainage pipe he landed on top of pierced through is shoulder. Tony didn’t even check if she was alright before aiming his right arm at the man, launching several small missiles that turned critical at the last moment and became plasma... Needless to say the metal arm that the Winter Soldier had was now molten slag that was gooping into a small sewer grate in the alleyway, the remnants of the red star mixing in with the slurry that was his prosthetic limb.
The pain seemed to be too much for the assassin as his head dropped forwards onto his chest, blood slithering down his entirely black-silver combat gear.
"Villains just don’t have any showmanship these days... I mean, come on! He was just going to shoot you, without a monologue!? Terrible..." Tony lightly ranted with a sarcastic tone, his Iron Man suit lowly thrumming with energy as he knelt down next to Natasha, her breathing starting to settle down as the hunger for survival faded from her mind.
"He-" She paused and clutched at her chest before falling back into the trash behind her, "Hehahahaha! REALLY!? That’s what you say after saving my life...!?!?" She hysterically guffawed before breaking down into a full belly-laugh that sounded completely unnatural coming from the usually composed Shield Operative.
Tony almost flinched at her reaction before he put his hands on his hips in fake annoyance. "I’ll have you know that my complaint was completely fair! Villains just aren’t what they used to be, I tell you."
She continued to laugh in the man’s face as the Hydra assault squad quickly and quietly fled the scene... All of them shitting themselves at how fast Tony had just completely nullified their most dangerous asset in the mission.
~~~
Harry groaned as he walked through Diagon Alley alongside his mother and father, who were giggling to themselves about the reactions of everyone around them. He was here to get his supplies for his 6th year at Hogwash, ahem, he meant Hogwarts... And naturally the newly revived Marauders wanted to start their re-entry to the public with a massive bang.
Lily and James had thus decided they would do something they’ve always wanted to do with their son, go shopping in Diagon Alley as a family. The small prank-like snag in that choice was the fact that they were previously dead.
Rita Skeeter had released an article or whatever about Lily being back but not many people believed her. Ever since the Daily Prophet had declared Harry dead and been wrong the general public started examining them far more closely, with the majority of Wizards and Witches abandoning the paper completely.
"Hehehe, they look like your old goldfish when I gave him candies..." James offhandedly commented to Lily whilst giggling like a little kid at their faces.
"I know, heh... Wait, you did what?" Lily shot her husband a look of pure suspicion.
"So Harry, what do we have to get?" James quickly interjected into the flow of conversation, the young man rolling his eyes at his father’s antics. Sirius had been an absolute menace to put up with and now he effectively had to deal with another version of him, but with glasses similar to him and a confidence that bordered on arrogance.
"I’m gonna get a new wand and new clothes. Oh, I also want a new trunk and a bunch of useful magical items." Harry threw his dad a bone by speaking about further shopping, something that he had noticed distracted his mother quite well.
James gave him a thumbs up as Lily started humming happily and dragging them both towards a shop aptly named ’Tillingworth’s Trunks & Travelling Cases ’. The store front was wonderfully anointed with lavish tapestries and stands that displayed luxurious travelling cases of all sizes and shapes. From large trunks to suitcases that shimmered silver despite the overall colour being completely onyx, the shop looked affluent beyond the norm.
Entering into the shop Harry was struck by the smell of rose perfumes and a small twitch of leather. The inside of the shop was far larger than the exterior would indicate, with the salesfloor encompassing expanded-coats, spatial trunks, bags of holding, expandable-coin-purses and all manner of other storage device that one could imagine. Small candles hovered above several displays and isles whilst staff moved between different segments of the store, offering their aid to customers who had gotten lost in the store’s expansive selection of goods.
"So what sort of trunk are you looking for Harry?" Lily questioned softly whilst James began inspecting a rather suave looking trench-coat that was apparently enchanted with shielding spells and pocket-expansion charms.
"Well, I was wondering if I could get one that has everything I would need to live inside it... You know, if I need it for future trips or whatever."
"Good choice, I always wanted to get one but never had the money." She confided in him with a small smile on her lips.
"Mmm..." He hummed as his mum went over to one of the staff and started explaining what he wanted.
Harry naturally didn’t wait for her as he became distracted by the wand-holster section that had numerous glove-like holsters that seemed to mimic party-gloves... Others used a simple bangle design that would smoothly slide up and down the wearer’s arm. The one he was looking at though was a ringchain-bracelet that was made of pure metal, the chain connecting to the wearer’s middle finger. Reading the description he found that to summon the wand all he would need to do is flex his middle finger upwards sharply, as if he were flipping someone off...
He loved the idea. So he picked it up off of the shelf with the force and simply carried it over to his mother, who was now waiting for the staff member to come back. She was completely calm and looking around, until she noticed Harry using wandless magic as if it were a Lumos spell and she blinked several times before shaking her head. His parents still weren’t used to the Force, despite Sirius and Harry explaining what had happened to both of them.
"Found something you liked did you?" She asked after taking a second or two to compose herself.
"Yep," he popped the ’p’, "I found a wand holster that I could use that gives me a reason to flip someone off as I’m drawing my wand." A sly grin creeped over his face as his mother sighed and drooped her shoulders a touch.
"Oh god, you’re learning too much from your father and godfather..."
"Haha, the mistake you made was in thinking that I am not my own type of menace." He said in a sing-song tone as his father joined the both of them, carrying the trench coat he was looking at since he entered the store.
"What’d I miss...?" He glanced between mother and son, whilst said family members rolled their eyes at the same time.
Harry was about to respond before a cutting feminine voice sliced through the jovial atmosphere.
"Finally decided to stop being a pauper did we, Potter?" The young Sith Lord slowly regarded the woman behind him, his gaze snapping towards her cerulean irises and flowing blonde hair.
She was, oddly, more beautiful than the last time he saw her. Her height was now roughly 5’9 and her robes hugged her body in a semi-tight fashion that left everything and nothing to imagination at the same time. Her luscious fingers sported the Heir ring of the Malfoy family as she slowly crossed her arms across her considerable bust. She still couldn’t keep the disdain out of her voice however...
"I was never a pauper Malfoy, I was simply under the thumb of someone I couldn’t get out from under... Until now..." Harry drawled with as much disdain as he could manage, which wasn’t as much as Snape but was fairly equal to Malfoy’s.
"Hmmmm..." She hummed whilst looking him up and down, an imperceptible plush spreading across her cheeks before her occlumency kicked in and stamped it down. "Intriguing. I’m sure you now understand what I said about the ’right sort’ of people, yes?" She coyly mentioned, an amused glint sparking inside her eyes.
"Indeed." Was all he responded with.
"Good, then perhaps we can put aside this foolish squabble we’ve been having." She declared before turning towards the entrance of the store, her face turning just as she touched the door knob. "I shall see you on the train, Heir Potter." She finished before stepping out of the store, the door tinkling behind her as she left.
Harry sighed before turning back to his mother and father. Both of them were looking at him with pride. He could tell the pride was for different reasons though...
"You handled family interactions so well...!" Lily squealed in joy at the same time James said... "That’s my boy, wooing all the ladies! You did such a good job Harry...!" He even pumped his fist by his side a little.
Harry tried to hold back his embarrassment but failed spectacularly when he heard the snickering of other customers nearby.
"LET’S GO BUY THE STUFF!" He shouted out before walking to the nearest counter, Lily and James laughing in the background at his blatant ’exit stage right’ routine.
Eventually Harry got everything he needed for his sixth year at Hogwarts... If only it didn’t come at the expense of his accumulated Sith aura...
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