Chapter 11:
-Interlude-
Natasha Romanoff was one of the best spies in the world. At least, that was her opinion. The Black Widow was a well known and terrifying legend to powerful politicians and businessmen alike. It should have been no surprise then when the order came down from on high to get rid of her. There was apparently such a thing as being too good at her job. Thankfully for her, the agent sent to eliminate her, Clint Barton, had a kind heart and chose to spare her. She was then 'offered' a job for the up and coming spy agency that he was a part of. It was known as SHIELD. She had been working for them for about a year now.
Earlier that day, Natasha had received a notification from the organization's leader. He had a new assignment that he would be briefing her on personally. That was why she was currently outside his office door.
"Agent Romanoff." Director Fury acknowledged her as she entered his private office. It was located in their current 'temporary base.' A deep bunker on the edge of New Jersey just outside New York. Natasha's clearance wasn't yet high enough in the organization to know about the details of their upcoming new base. She had Barton and Fury's confidence (she thinks) but the other agencies still didn't trust her.
"You wanted to see me sir?" She asked as she entered Fury's office.
"Damn right I did. A… weird situation has popped up on our radar in London." Fury said.
"Weird how?" She asked. Shield was pretty much built to deal with weird situations.
"A man was admitted to the emergency burn ward in Surrey today. His entire lower extremities were burned away and cauterized…" Fury explained with a grimace. That was a horrifying fate for any man…
Natasha smirked to herself as she reminisced about doing something similar to some of her targets in the past… "I'm assuming his attacker is what makes this situation weird?" Natasha asked.
"You assume right. Our best sketch artist put this together from the victim's description of the attacker." Fury said as he pressed a button on his desk and a pencil drawing of a beautiful woman appeared on the tv behind fury. Natasha assumed that was the subject. What Natasha found odd about the sketch was that the beautiful woman had 4 black angel wings…
"Are those wings… real?" Natasha asked.
Fury shrugged. "We're not sure yet. They are according to Vernon Dursley and his hysterical wife. According to them, the attacker identified herself as Layla of the Fallen. We've been running her face through every camera in London all morning trying to find a match.
"Did we find her?"
"Oh, we found her alright? Our algorithm picked up a woman with her exact likeness, minus the wings, on a few street cameras in the heart of London." Director Fury pressed another button on his desk and the image on the screen changed. On it was a photo of probably the most beautiful woman Natasha had ever seen. Layla of the Fallen had a gorgeous heart shaped face free of any imperfections. A perfect hourglass figure, long black hair that almost reached her waist, and hypnotic purple eyes. "Meet Layla of the fallen… allegedly." Director Fury spoke out as he pointed to the real picture.
"A Fallen Angel?" Natasha questioned with some doubts. "I wasn't even aware angels were real."
"No one was aware Angels were real. But if they are…" Fury trailed off as he didn't have to explicitly state the revelations of such a discovery. That would pretty much confirm the world's main religions were real. Natasha didn't know how to feel about that, since the Red Room had raised her to not believe in anything but completing the mission at all costs.
"So how did she burn away the man's…bits? And why?" Natasha asked.
Fury sighed. "According to Mrs. Dursley, Layla apparently created a lightsaber in her hand and threw it at Vernon. As to the why… that's another matter entirely. The man clammed up, but we've been thoroughly sweeping over his house. The family was supposed to have Mrs Durley's niece living with them after her parents died in a car crash over a decade ago. There was no sign of the girl anywhere. Her room has been sitting empty for what we speculate has been months now. When we swept it, we also found old blood stains, among other things." Fury said somberly. Natasha noticed that his fist was clenched hard. They came across a lot of fucked up people in their lines of work.
Natasha also grimaced as she was painting a picture in her own mind about what happened. "So Vernon assaults and murders his niece, and a few months later an actual angel comes and delivers retribution upon him? That sounds like something out of a fairy tale…"
Fury just shrugged. "Believe me, I've seen stranger things…"
"We need to put the squeeze on Vernon to confirm what happened to his niece." Natasha stated.
Fury grimaced. "That was the plan… Until Vernon Dursley vanished an hour ago along with his wife. The camera's in the hospital they were in went completely dark for around 20 minutes. When they came back online, the pair were gone and the hospital room was completely empty."
Natasha's eyes widened at that. That sounded like a professional abduction operation. "Was it the angel who did it?" She asked.
"No," Fury replied. "We've actually been monitoring her continually on various cameras throughout the whole day. Not once was she ever near the hospital. She seems to be wandering all around London constantly checking a weird looking compass. She's looking for something."
"I wonder if it's like the compass from Pirates of the Caribbean?" Natasha joked. Fury however did not laugh and just stared at her. Natasha rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on! There's no way magic compasses are real too!" She exclaimed.
"Once again Agent… I've seen weirder…" Fury dryly stated. "Pack your bags Romanoff, you're heading to London. Everything circles back to the supposed angel. While we still know where she is, go and investigate her."
"You got it sir." Natasha replied. An hour later her bags were packed and she was on a high speed shield jet to London.
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