You and I remember Budapest very differently....

[agenthawk]

Who: Clint and Natasha
Where: Budapest, Hungary
When: Flaaaashbaaaaaack
What: In which Agent Barton makes a different call.

Comments

[red_in_ledger]

A sudden pain in her stomach, and Natalia was reeling back from the blow. Not much, but just enough to allow the other woman time to get her own gun trained on Natasha. Though her mind was reeling, one part of her brain kept analyzing the scene

[agenthawk]

"I have her."

"Take the shot when you're sure you can get it it in one." Clint rolled his eyes, though the affect was lost on his handler, like he needed to be told that. He always got it in one. He wouldn't have been sent on this mission if Director Fury wasn't sure of that

[red_in_ledger]

A knock at the door. Shit.

With only the barest second's delay to check the peephole, Natasha threw open the door, yanked at a laundry cart, and dragged the hapless maid inside. A sharp jerk, and the new woman fell boneless to the ground, neck snapped.

Natasha quickly frisked the woman, sighing with relief when she found a gun. A lone on-sight overseer indicated there were none others in the immediate vicinity, otherwise she would have waited for back up. And where a dead maid would call undue attention, Natalia could be sure the Red Room would make this body disappear without a fuss.

Tucking the dead agent's gun into her own holster, Natalia was about to leave, to take advantage of every second, but stopped at the doorway.

[red_in_ledger]

The Red Room wanted Belova dead? Then Natalia would ensure her survival.
The first thing they would do is lock down the building. So Natalia's first move would have to be get out of it. Moving Belova had eaten up too much precious time.

Speed, then, not stealth. Nowhere to go up, and they'd be coming in at the ground. But...

Running for the stairs, Natalia sent up a thanks for multiple-building hotels. The floor above connected to the one across the street via a bridge over the road. Better yet, the bridge was covered; less chance of being spotted as she switched buildings.

[red_in_ledger]

She had made it to the next floor and across the bridge with no hassle, and Natalia almost started to believe she might make it out clean. Until, of course, she heard the voices echoing in the stairwell. Spreading out, searching--that was good. They didn't know she was here.

Below her--that was bad.

Turning on her heel, she sprinted up. No goal in mind, just up, up to the roof, hoping that when she burst through that door she'd find some way out.

[agenthawk]

He'd missed his shot and lost his target, today was not turning into a good one

[red_in_ledger]

A voice, and Natalia spun, gun out and cocked, leveled at the speaker's chest.

She couldn't resist a dull laugh at the sight of the figure. "Clinton Barton," she replied. "I'm almost flattered."

Dull echoes, indistinguishable but still present, emanated from the stairwell. She jerked her head toward the sound. "Here for the fun? If not, pardon if I ask you to get in line."

[agenthawk]

"We only send our best when dealing with the best."

He replied, almost put off by her near lack of interest, but not shifting his arm or stance a bit. "Tell me, exactly who else have you managed to get to come after you in these numbers." The noise inside could only have been from many people not the least bit worried about who heard them.

He wasn't exactly sure who he should be siding with at this point.

[red_in_ledger]

This time she did smile as she backed away from the door. "You don't know?" she responded sweetly. "Guess your intel isn't all it's rumored to be."

She palmed a small grenade. She didn't want to blow the stairs, but she would if necessary. "Besides, I take the numbers as a bigger compliment that your presence."

[agenthawk]

As someone made their way around the corner of the stairs, Clint fired and took them down immediately, another arrow in drawn within seconds, wondering why exactly they were suddenly on the same side (but internally glad to not be fighting hand-to-hand with her) but figuring that the people fighting to kill her probably wouldn't think twice about offing him since he was there. Wrong place wrong time, it seemed.

"Then you must be thrilled." He deadpanned, "You're practically a celebrity." He fired again making the small stairwell harder to get past now that a couple of their buddies were blocking the way, and he eyed what she held in her hand carefully.

[red_in_ledger]

"Ecstatic," Natasha replied. With the other assassin's arrow now facing the oncoming men, she turned to the doorway as well, firing into the stairwell.

Barton's appearance on the roof was, in an odd way, reassuring. No self-respecting assassin had only one exit strategy.

She fingered her grenade. "Got another way off? Because I think this one's occupied."

[agenthawk]

"Really, I hadn't noticed." Clint kept an arrow ready while he check his surroundings carefully, keeping track of where the most noise was coming from (the stairwell and the building across the street), while considering his options. The stairwell itself had had no part in getting him to this particular roof, he would've been far too noticeable that way. But his cover was very much blown by this point so it hardly mattered.

He nodded his head to the left, "If your grenade can provide a big enough distraction, we should be able to jump a couple roofs and then get down to the street for more cover." If there was more of whoever was attacking them down below there was less open space to get them than there was up here.

[red_in_ledger]

"You should get your eyes checked then, Barton. It's a terrible sense to lose in our line of work," she shot back. Firing off a few more rounds, she tossed aside Belova's now-empty weapon and pulled her own. Her gaze flickered between the stairwell and the other roof, and she jerked her head back.

"I can draw their eye. You might want to get back."

Continuing to lay down fire, Natasha pulled the pin off one of the grenades and rolled it into the stairwell. Pulling another, she tossed it toward the side of the building where she had left her pursuers.

[agenthawk]

"You keep them in your pockets? Seriously?!" Clint managed to get out as he took a good many steps away, at more or less a run, from the stairwell, before the grenades went off, one very quickly after the other. He slung his bow over his shoulder, needing his arms more free for this moment as he took off for the next roof, jumping the space between with little difficulty, hitting the other side at a roll to lessen the impact, getting back to his feet quickly.

He looked back a moment to see if the other was following and caught sight of a glint of red leaping across the two buildings and he nodded at her when she landed before nodding to the next roof in a silent direction of where he was planning to go.

[red_in_ledger]

Natalia rolled her eyes at Clint's quip, but there was no time to respond. Following the other assassin, Natasha leaped as the first grenade went off, searing heat chasing her escape from the building.

Two roofs away, Natalia started to let herself believe she'd escape the whole mess. Her original exit strategy may have been shot, but she had cultivated a network and identities outside the Red Room. She couldn't stop moving, not yet, but soon enough she could get to the streets. And once in that crowd of people, she could disappear for good.

Just one problem.

Barton.

So she eyed him warily as they fled, waiting for him to show his play, watching for a way to vanish from his side.

[agenthawk]

Clint was aware of her watching him carefully and was doing the same out of his peripheral vision, unknowingly thinking around a similar train of thought. He'd not taken his shot and worse even, he'd helped her. For all he knew, he wanted to be on the side of those they'd just blown up, and now he'd never really know. Coulson was not going to be pleased, and Fury was going to be...well...furious for the lack of a better term