Betting Debts   von Lollapie
                  (Clint Barton x Natasha Romanoff and more)
================================================================================
                            Kapitel 3: This Is War
                            ----------------------


Blue-grayish  light cut through the trees and the fog. Giving the only light
they had at this  hour. The helicopters circling the sky, throwing a bomb now
and again, when  they thought they had the enemy beneath them.   The rotors
tuning out the sounds of desperate screams and yells echoing  through the
forest. They were at a border, in the middle of nowhere. Running.
He could  hear a bomb explode; it ripped through the trees, made the ground
quiver  beneath his boots, as his feet brought him forward on the unsteady,
bulky  ground. For a moment he thought he might trip, but he didn’t; only
gaining  speed, with every further step.
He was  running, running toward to opponent. The fiend.  
His arms  were flung over his head protectively, his shield covering his right
side, so  the force of the next bomb hitting the ground, might get derived by
it. The fog  lightened the longer he ran, by now he could see where he was going
and not  only guess it. The tension in his body grew with every second, with
every foot  he placed in front of his other.
Steve  could hear the men that had come with him, dozens of them running behind
and  also next to him, fighting on the ground, to win the war.
Blood  stained the dark gloves he was wearing. Splatters ornamented the front of
 bodysuit. But he had no time to care. Not now, not in the middle of the field
–  and probably not later, when he returned back to camp.
Sweat gleamed  on his face; slowly forming driblets which ran down is face, down
his throat or  is neck and vanished into the material of his suit. Steve could
feel the damp  wetness of sweat all over his body, beneath the armor he wore.
The past  few minutes he left the last battlefield behind him, running,
sprinting to the  next.
He was  panting hard, hearing his blood rushing through his veins, feeling his 
heartbeat heavily against his ribs.
Then  finally he saw movement before them.
“Arm  yourselves.” he shouted, trying to overtrump the surrounding sounds of
heavy machine  guns and other weaponry, aiming his own high.
Suddenly  he startled.
Stopping  dead in his tracks his glance rose up the low hill, they were about to
run up.
The men  around him slowed, some stopped even, irritated by his sudden reaction.
Steve  didn’t focus on them - couldn’t focus - on them right now.
His eyes  had met his opponents. A quiet gasp left his lips, as he stared at the
man  opposite.
Was he  seeing things?
The  images of his best friend falling out of the train came immediately back to
his  mind. He couldn’t save him. He was too late. Too slow.
Bucky  had fallen.
Deep.
It was  impossible for him to stand there. He had died.
Disbelieve  crossed Steve’s face, while staring at the man before him. His
believed dead  best friend.
Speechless  he stood there, not able to step up closer, or draw back. There were
no words,  he could find to describe the feelings that rushed through his body.
Among them  where worry and anger, but also hope.
His eyes  caught more movement and only a few seconds later a woman appeared
next to  Bucky. Red hair hung in thick curls over her shoulders, looking tousled
but not  messy. Her eyes were cold as ice. Her glare itself was deadly.
A  murderous smirk hung on her lips. She was radiating. Power, might, a dark 
greed.
Greed  for more blood. Without being able to resist he looked at her, at her
body, her  face, her emanation. She stood upright, holding her chin high, her
hands  hanging ever so relaxed next to her body, holding nothing more than two
simple  small arms.
Within  an instant Steve knew who she was. It could only be her. The description
fitted  perfectly. A Woman around twenty, with red hair, a black suit and 
breathtakingly cold eyes. People would say she was soulless.
The  Black Widow.
He could  see her, but he had a hard time believing she stood there. In the
middle of  nowhere. And at her side his best friend. Alive.
Alive  and healthy as it seemed.
The men  around them started moving, reassumed their purpose: to fight, to win
the war.
It was  only the three of them, standing in the middle of a forest, between the 
boundaries of enemies. Just looking at each other. Not making one move within 
minutes.
The tension  in his body was almost unbearable. The anger that rose while he was
standing  there, taking in what he saw. He just couldn’t believe it. How was
it  possible?
He saw  him fall.
“Steve”,  it was Bucky’s voice, knocking him back into reality.  The Cap
looked back at him, still being at a  loss of words. “You’re wrong, you
know?”
“What?”,  it was the first thing that came over his lips, his voice filled
with  irritation. But he would never get an answer. In an instant the Black 
Widow was at his side. Her legs made her seemingly fly down the hill, her  fist
finding his solar plexus within a split second. Steve wasn’t able to react  so
quickly, still too startled. Too shocked.  
She didn’t  hesitate, not caring about his situation. In her eyes he was the
enemy and he  had to be taken down. Natalia removed her fist from his torso,
stepping past  him, in one fluent move, still using the speed she got from
running down the  hill. She dropped herself on her hands, stretching out a leg
and swept him off  his feet with kicking her leg into the hollows of his knees.
Steve fell hard to  the floor, finally breaking his stare with Bucky, who still
stood aside and  just watched with his arms folded in front of his chest.
Within  her fluent motion, Natalia got back to her feet looking down at Captain 
America, who had dropped his shield to the ground, clutching his stomach with 
one hand and holding himself up from the damp ground with the other.
Pure  rage let the shock and sorrow, the guilt he had felt, melt away. Dissolve
into  thin air.
Steve  took a deep breath, suppressing the pain he felt from her fist.
The  Widow was standing behind him, her hands on her hips, waiting. She wanted a
challenge;  otherwise she would have just shot him, when he went down on his
knees. Instead  she stood there looking down at him, waiting for him to get back
up, one  eyebrow arched in wariness. He was supposed to be strong. At first it
was only rumors  that she heard about him, but when she got to know Bucky and
hear what he had  seen, live and in action, everything in her screamed out for
him.  Natalia wanted to play.
His jaw’s   were clenched together, his lower  jawbone standing out visibly
at each side, showing the tension in his whole  body, as he got back to his
feet.
Slowly  he grabbed his shield off the floor, the mud and dirt sliding of it as
if it  were smooth as glass. Steve turned to her, scanning her face, her
posture. He  had heard that the Russians had a super soldier on their side.
Someone that had  a similar serum running through his veins as his. He had known
it was a woman,  but still he was slightly surprised. She was short and slim,
but not skinny. To  him she seemed robust, but elegant.
He couldn’t  valuate her.
Just as  he got to his feet, she started moving again. She stepped back, just to
build  momentum, as she dashed forward, not holding back. With the side of her
hand  she aimed for his neck. Her skills as an incredible material arts
combatant  were known to him. In the last second he threw up his shield, ducking
his head  beneath it, he could see her feet leaving the ground, as she jumped at
him.  Steve automatically bent his knees, as he felt her weight come down on
the, out  of vibranium forged, disk. The next second she jumped back down to the
 floor, turning her body with a leg up high, so she would hit him hard on his 
chest.
Her  strike was perfect. With full force of her weight, put into the lunge, he
made  him trip back and almost fall. The air was pressed out of his lungs
painfully.
With a  moan, he came to a stumbling halt a couple of feet away.
Taking a  deep breath he caught his balanced and went into attack. Steve tore
the shield  from his arm to throw it at her, but she dodged it, without even
blinking. The  disk soared through the air and hit the ground over a dozen feet
away. It dug  itself deep into the soft earth of the forest.  
Natalia  had never taken her eyes off of him, but throwing the shield had
slightly  attracted her attention, maybe even surprised her. Steve took the
opportunity  and flung himself at her, throwing her to the ground and pinning
her to it. His  hand clenched over her fist, as she tried to hit him in his face
with her right  hand.
Their  eyes locked, a light smirk playing on her lips. She wasn’t even trying
and she  wanted him to know.
Steve  pressed her arm to the ground, the other already buried under his leg,
since he  had jumped her. “You.”, his voice was filled with venom. As he
leaned  in, his underarm pressed against her throat, making it hard for her to
breathe.  None the less her eyes glittered with gloat, mocking him. “If I were
allowed to  kill you …”
It was a  open dare. He had never felt the need to kill someone. Anybody. Ever.
She was  an exception.
The  Black Widow was a coldhearted assassin, working with and for the wrong
people.  Playing games and tricks along the way, not caring who and what she
left  bleeding on the ground.
Just as  he thought he was able to keep her down, he felt a muzzle pressed to
his  temple. Bucky. He forgot about him. Forgot that he might involve himself.
“Don’t  make me do that, Steve.”, his voice was only a murmur, but still
one could hear  the earnestness in it. The Cap froze in his position, not
immediately letting  go of the woman beneath him. Slowly he turned his face
toward his friend. “Bucky...”,  disbelief was all there was.
“No,  Steve. Don’t even get started.”
“You’re  wrong…”
“I said:  Don’t!”, the man cut him off, his voice vibrating with anger.
The next  thing happened so fast, that Steve couldn’t even register how it
could have happened.  Suddenly a piercing pain went through his skull.
It was  his friend, who had hit him with the small arm, he was holding. Startled
 he let go of the Widow beneath him, who had waited patiently. Before Steve 
could say or do anything, he was the one, pinned to the ground.
Her above  him, taking several blows at his face. He could feel the blood
trickle past his  ear and out of the corner of his mouth. His sight blurred with
the intensity of  growing pain.
How  could he have done this?
Bucky.
Anger  still stirred in his chest, but the shock had never really vanished and
took  over anew. He could feel Natalias weight lifting of his body. He tried to
reach  out for her, but grabbed nothing but air. “Why?”, his voice barely
audible, he  asked, as he watched them turn their backs on him and walk away.
Finally  darkness surrounded him, as he drifted into unconsciousness.

Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)