Chapter 5: The Second Break-In
Coming up on the headquarters building, Natasha's eyes zoomed in on the broken glass on a higher level of the building which must have been how she gained access to the building last night.
Landing on the ground in front of the headquarters, she made her way to the structure and began slowly climbing up to the floor with the broken glass, making her way up with ease as not to draw suspicion or a wayward second glance from a passerby. When she arrived, she flipped onto the floor and began looking around.
"SHIELD employee archives…" she said to herself. "An interesting place to start."
Putting on the symbiote's heat vision, she looked for something, anything that would help disclose the nature of why her symbiote had chosen to come here.
Nothing seemed too out of place… Whatever her symbiote had done, it had done a decent job of covering its tracks.
After coming up with nothing, Natasha was about to leave when she noticed a figure not too much further away from her.
Trying to focus on it with her enhanced eyesight abilities, she couldn't catch who it was…
Suddenly, she heard gunfire, and leapt onto the ceiling, crawling on the ceiling to try to sneak up on the figure and catch whoever they were by surprise.
Not noticing Natasha above them, the figure moved out from hiding and revealed itself: dressed in black, with a fabric facemask on that hid of its face with the exception of its eyes. Natasha didn't have to think too long on exactly who she was looking at: the mole.
Quickly, Natasha jumped down and pelted the attacker with her symbiote webbing. It caught the attacker off-guard, enough for the symbiotic wrist contraption to grow in the time Natasha took running to the attacker in order to electrocute them. However, the electric attack missed as the attacker rolled out of the way, then eventually stood up and ran down the hall. Natasha fired more shots from her wrist to no avail.
She ran after the figure, realizing this might be as close as she would get to discovering the identity of the mole.
But all of a sudden, Natasha heard sirens blare, and had to cover her ears because of the intensity of it, particularly to the symbiote.
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" was blaring on the speakers. The symbiote didn't like the loud noises, so Natasha retreated into a stairway where it was quieter.
Leaning against the wall, her enhanced hearing could hear the marching of soldiers, making their way up the stairwell.
Natasha wanted to scream "I'm not the one you want!" but she knew that would not do much good at this point.
Strangely enough, she heard movement above her, coming down the stairs. Thinking it might be her attacker, Natasha got into a defensive position, while her symbiotic wrist contraptions formed up again, ready to fire.
When the figure was in view, Natasha was surprised to discover who it was. It was Maria, in her SHIELD uniform, with her gun in her hand.
Natasha wanted to reach out to her friend, but doing so might have put Natasha in even further jeopardy…
"Natasha. I know it's you in there. It's okay. You can trust me."
Without willing the symbiote to do so, Natasha's face came through the mask of the symbiote, revealing herself to her friend.
"Maria. How did you-"
"There's no time to explain. But you can trust me. Those men down that are locked and loaded with sonic weapons to destroy you and your symbiote. Be smart, be quick. I'll meet you in the front of the building in the black Acura in 15 minutes, and then I'll explain everything."
Maria made her way back up the stairs, while Natasha opened the door back to the office floor, looking for an escape route.
All of a sudden, she heard the cocking of a rifle, and ducked as a smoke grenade was hurled her way.
With her breathing being modified by the symbiote in order to pass through the smoke unphased, she tried to make her way to the nearest window.
There she found two soldiers on either side of her, both of which began firing at her. While she tried to cover herself, she looked around when she did not feel the pain of bullet, merely slight stings at what would have been their points of impact. Bullets fell to the ground, her impenetrable symbiote second skin proving affective.
She kicked one of the soldiers, and turned around has her wrist apparatus fired what appeared to be a large ball at his mouth. When it landed, it spread out, muffling his screams until eventually he passed out.
Natasha walked over and checked his pulse. He was still alive, his passing out an effect of panic, or perhaps…
"You're smarter than you look. SHIELD prefers weapons that stun and don't kill." she said to her suit.
Natasha then walked to the nearest window, kicked it open, and began crawling on the floor, down the opening, and back up the skyscraper, trying to reach the top of the building.
As she was climbing up, she moved unconsciously at first, then finally jumped out of the way of what she realized were oncoming bullets that her symbiote was forcing her to avoid. A sniper was firing from the top of the building. The fire intensified, as Natasha realized there must be other soldiers firing at her with machine guns.
She spun a web and began swinging away from it, but the bullets followed her wherever she went. While her symbiote suit deflected any that came too close to her, she worried about the prolonged effect of SHIELD's strong weapons being used against her.
A bullet severed her web, causing Natasha to fall. Thinking quickly, Natasha spun too towards a window, and maneuvered herself to speed headfirst into the glass structure. She sped as fast as she could, breaking into the glass and landing down in a sea of broken glass.
As soon as she landed, she could hear soldiers scrambling towards her position.
"Oh, for the love of-" she said, putting her hands up as she was surrounded by SHIELD soldiers carrying sonic weapons.
"Suspect, you are in possession of a deadly symbiote weapon. Disable your symbiote and surrender to us now, and we may be able to reach some kind of agreement."
Natasha scoffed under her mask. "You've got the wrong person! There was a person here with a facemask-"
"Whoever you are, as designated by Director Fury, YOU are the number one priority of this organization, and you will be charged with high crimes including felony level breaking and entering into a secure base, and high treason if it is discovered that you are in fact an employee of SHIELD."
Natasha looked down in front of the building. Sure enough, a black Acura was there, just as Maria had promised.
"Look," Natasha said, with her hands still up in the air, slowly turning towards the window, "I'm here to help. But if you are just going to dismiss me rather than look for the real threat out there, I have places I'd rather be."
With that, Natasha quickly dove out of the window she had just landed in. When the ground was speeding quickly toward her, she spun a web towards the car, and leaped on the roof. She could hear the gunfire emanating from the background of the building as she screamed at Maria to drive.
Maria drove as quickly as she could away from headquarters, while opening up the sunroof for Natasha to jump into the passenger's seat.
Finally secure, Natasha's face once again appeared through the mask.
"You all right?" Maria asked.
"Just a little shaken." Natasha replied. "I saw the mole."
Maria nodded. "I think whoever they are came because they thought you might come back. Either your appearance completely took them by surprise… or…"
"Or what?"
"Or you're playing into their plan somehow."
Natasha shuddered with the thought, before a more pressing issue came forward.
"Maria, you've to explain how you knew about all this."
Maria laughed. "I was wondering when you would get to that. Well, I've got plenty of time to explain before we reach our destination."
"Which is where?" Natasha inquired.
Maria smiled. "To meet your symbiote's daddy.