𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘢'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

Steve gets out of the car to talk to Sharon, leaving me with Sam and James.

"Can you move your seat up?" James asks monotonously.

"No" Sam deadpans.

James slides to the middle seat instead of being stuck behind Sam and I don't realise how close he gets to me until his thigh is pressed against mine, my right shoulder touching his metal one.

"Y'know, I've realised that you cry a lot" Sam declares and I look at him in disbelief.

"I do not" I argue.

"Yes, you do" He retorts.

"Even if I did- Not that I do- What about it?" I scoff.

"It's just uncharacteristic for someone who was trained to kill from birth" Sam shrugs "I've never seen Natasha cry"

♔ flashback ♔

Screams of pure agony rip through my throat as I'm injected with something that they're calling the super serum. My body feels as though it's on fire as they poke and prod at me.

My voice soon becomes raw and the pain dulls into a blunt buzzing feeling. My head lulls to the side in exhaustion and traitorous tears roll down my cheeks.

My face is roughly grabbed and my eyes meet with the dark empty pair that belong to the woman that insists I call her Mama.

"You are a weapon, Nemesis, and weapons do not weep" She declares sternly.

"Ты понимаешь?" She asks me and I nod weakly.
(Do you understand?)

"Я сказал, ты понимаешь?!" The woman screams in my face.
(I said, do you understand?!)

"Да, мамa!" I croak, making her grin sadistically in response.
(Yes, Mama!)

"Хорошая девочка" She coos, stroking my cheek.
(Good girl)

♔ end of flashback ♔

"Stas, what's wrong? Hey, look at me" James' voice pulls me out of my episode and I look at him in confusion.

"Hello?" I smile sheepishly when I realise he's holding my face in his hands with a worried look on his face.

"What happened there? It was like you're brain shut down" He sighs, tucking my hair behind my ear.

"I told you already, dude, she was having an episode. She gets them all the time" Sam explains.

"An episode?" James questions, letting go of my face and opting to grab a hold of my hand instead.

"My shrink calls it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" I elaborate "When something reminds me of a bad memory, I shut down and relive the memory in my mind"

"But she's a lot better with them than she used to be. I haven't heard her scream in a public place in over a year" Sam says encouragingly and I grin at him, rolling my eyes playfully.

My eyes land on Steve and I watch as he pulls Sharon in, kissing her.

"Oh, my God!" I gasp, using my free hand to slap Sam's arm "Oh, my fucking God!"

"Language" Sam scolds me.

Steve turns to us after the kiss ends and while the two men next to me grin at him proudly, I glare at him and shake my head in disappointment, giving him a 'we'll talk about this later, bestie' look.

‎✪ ‎✪‎ ✪

The car comes to a stop and I climb out after Steve to see Clint and Wanda getting out of a white van.

"Cap" Clint greets the blonde, shaking his hand while I grin at the Sokovian girl who pulls me into a tight hug and mumbles under her breath that she missed me.

"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice" Steve says.

"Hey, man, you're doing me a favour. Besides, I owe a debt" Clint shrugs, pulling me into a short hug.

"Thanks for having my back" Steve says to Wanda.

"It was time to get off my ass" Wanda replies

"How about our other recruit?" Steve questions.

"He's rarin' to go. Had to put a little coffee in him but he should be good" Clint chirps, opening the door to reveal a sleeping Scott Lang.

The door slams and he jumps awake, climbing out of the van.

"What time zone is this?" Scott asks.

"Come on" Clint ushers him towards us.

Scott's eyes immediately go to Steve and he looks starstruck.

"Captain America" Scott breathes out in awe, shaking the blonde's hand.

"Mr Lang" Steve greets him.

"It's an honour" Scott declares "I'm shaking your hand too long. Wow! This is awesome!"

"Captain America. I know you too. You're great!" He adds, grinning at Wanda who smiles back at him in amusement.

I let out a giggle and Scott looks to me.

"Oh, my God. You again!" He chuckles "You are so cool!"

"Thanks, Scott" I grin, sharing an amused look with Clint and Wanda.

"Ah, look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people, so...thinks for thanking of me" Scott says gratefully before looking at Sam "Hey, man!"

"What's up, Tic Tac?" Sam greets him.

"Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time-" Scott is cut off.

"It was a great audition, but it'll never happen again" Sam declares.

"The tic tac totally kicked your ass" I giggle causing Sam to look at me in betrayal.

"You swore you'd never tell anyone!" He hisses at me.

"But it was so funny to watch" I grin, making Wanda giggle and Sam looks at her suspiciously.

"What are you laughin' at?" He asks.

"We rewatch it on the security cameras to make us laugh when we're upset" She admits and I gasp.

"How could you tell him that? Now he's gonna delete it!" I whine.

"Girls, can we focus?" Steve snaps and Sam shoots him a glare, making me cover my mouth with my hand to smother another giggle.

"Samantha" I whisper and Sam elbows me.

"I swear to God, if you two don't stop messing around I'm gonna leave you behind" Steve threatens and I pout, looking down at my feet like a scolded child.

"Now, did they tell you what we're up against?" Steve asks Scott.

"Something about some psycho assassins?" Scott summarises and Steve nods.

"We're outside the law on this one. So if you come with us, you're a wanted man" Steve warns him.

"Yeah, well, what else is new?" Scott scoffs.

"We should get moving" James speaks up for the first time during this conversation.

"We got a chopper lined up" Clint replies.

A loud blaring noise rips through the air and a man speaking in German talks over the PA.

"They're evacuating the airport" James declares.

"Stark" Sam sighs.

"Stark?" Scott frowns.

"Suit up" Steve orders.

‎✪ ‎✪‎ ✪

"We found it" Sam tells Steve through the earpieces "Their Quinjet's in hangar five, north runway"

Sam, James and I watch as Clint breaks Steve's bindings before Scott hands him his shield back, our cue to run like hell. I jump out from my crouched position and begin sprinting, the boys behind me. As we're running, the spider boy that Tony once told me about appears and my eyes widen as he crawls across the glass to chase us.

"What the hell is that?" James asks in confusion.

"Everyone's got a gimmick now" Sam scoffs.

"He's a spiderling or something, Tony told me about him a while back" I explain before he smashes the glass and kicks Sam into a wall.

James tries to punch him but the young boy catches the metal arm with ease.

"You have a metal arm? That is awesome, dude" The boy gasps and James freezes up when he hears the young voice.

Sam runs at the boy and grabs him, flying off.

"He's just a kid" James mutters, looking at me.

"A kid that could stop a moving train" I counter, trying to ease his mind and he nods "Come on, big guy"

James grabs a large billboard, ripping it off the wall and throwing it at spider boy to distract him while I climb up onto the poles he is swinging from.

"Hey, buddy, I think you lost this!" Spider boy yells before throwing the billboard back at James.

I leap from the pole I'm standing on and use the next one to swing forwards, crashing into the spider boy feet first. As we fall he makes a web to hold himself up but in a flash, I whip out my switchblade and slice the webbing. We both hit the ground with a thud and as quick as I possibly can, I pull a wire from my belt and tie it around the boy.

I pull myself to my feet and I hear a wolf whistle, causing me to turn to a proud looking James. I grin happily and make a move to walk towards the man but something catches my ankle and all of a sudden I'm hanging upside down from of of the poles. The spider boy breaks the wire with his super strength and Sam attacks him once again.

"Stupid, Spider boy" I grumble, reaching for my belt to grab a dagger but before I can, a blade soars through the air and slices the webbing for me.

I fall with a squeal and due to the surprise cutting, I didn't think about how to land so I expect my body to hit the floor with thud but I'm pleasantly surprised once again when it doesn't. I fall into a strong pair of arms and I grin at James gratefully, pecking his cheek. His cheeks turn a light pink as he places me on my feet.

A loud crash makes me turn and I raise a brow as Sam falls at my feet.

"Hey, Sammie" I grin.

"If you two are done making heart eyes at each other, can you help me?" He groans in annoyance.

"We weren't-" I try to defend myself.

"Don't even argue, pretty girl. Just fight" Sam retorts.

I help Sam up and spider boy swings over us, webbing Sam to the railing before doing the same to me.

"Those wings carbon fibre?" Spider boy asks.

"Is this stuff coming out of you?" Sam counters, looking at the webbing in disgust.

"That would explain the rigidity-flexibility ratio, which, gotta say, that's awesome, man" Spider boy gushes.

"I don't know if you've been in a fight before but there's usually not this much talking" Sam tells him.

"Let the kid talk. It's cute" I coo, grinning at the child in the red spandex suit.

"Thank you, ma'am" He chirps.

"You're welcome, kiddo" I reply "What's your name?"

"Peter. My name's Peter. I know you're Anastasia Novikov, I'm a big fan!" He rambles and I laugh in amusement.

"Who's side are you on?!" Sam yells at me in disbelief and I roll my eyes at his dramatics.

James tries to run at the boy but Peter kicks the man harshly, causing him to hit us. The glass railing smashes and the three of us are sent tumbling backwards to the lower level. My back hits the ground with a bang and Peter webs us to the floor, making me groan.

"Guys, look, I'd love to keep this up, but I've only got one job here today and I gotta impress Mr Stark, so, I'm really sorry" He rambles before holding out his hand to web us further.

Redwing swoops in and grabs the boy's wrist, dragging him away into the air.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" James asks Sam in disbelief.

"I hate you" Sam huffs.