video

[outstandingbalance]

[The woman who appears on the feed might be familiar to a few people. She's sitting at a table or a desk and facing the camera, composed, but a little worse for wear. She looks tired.]

You sure know how to make a girl feel at home. [Not that she's faced frost giants or dark elves before, but dropped into the middle of a fight she wasn't expecting and wasn't prepared for? One that probably should be left to gods and super soldiers? That is familiar. The last two days haven't been boring] Is that normal?

[Natasha taps the table in front of her twice, drawing a slow breath as she considers how she's going to play this. If putting her face on the network is a mistake, then she's already made it.]

I think I'm ready for the welcoming committee now.

Comments

[hypoxic]

You can trust the Captain for that. He's had the longest uninterrupted tenure out of all of us.

[outstandingbalance]

I'll keep that in mind as a resource.

[And a very valuable one at that, but it only goes so far when he could leave at any time himself.]

Do we keep some kind of hard copy?

[hypoxic]

Not anymore we don't.

[His jaw tightens.]

[outstandingbalance]

Meaning you did have at one point. Probably until relatively recently.

[hypoxic]

One of the hydra turncoats was here for a time. We were concerned about theft.

[outstandingbalance]

The information you gathered was that sensitive?

[hypoxic]

It's complicated. [Enough that he attempts to simply shut this down entirely.]

[outstandingbalance]

Sounds complicated. [She won't forget that either.] Mind if I ask the ID of the Hydra agent?

[hypoxic]

Grant Ward. [The name flows freely, because fuck Grant Ward.] He's the current head of the organization. They've done some restructuring since the Triskelion incident.

[outstandingbalance]

I'm aware of at least a little of that.

[Natasha had been part of attempts to clean out a few of those Hydra bases. But Hydra is very good at presenting new leadership when the old one is removed; it's sort of their signature move.]

I know the name.

[hypoxic]

He was on a field team with us for nearly a year. We trusted him with everything. It meant he had a lot to use against us when Hydra exposed itself.

[outstandingbalance]

Don't feel too bad about it. Hydra pulled the wool over a lot of people's eyes. All the way to the top.

[Natasha hadn't known. Fury had suspicions, but only too late.]

[hypoxic]

He's a psychopath. I felt bad when he tried to murder me. Now, I'm mostly hoping I'll have the opportunity to watch him die.

[ he might primarily be talking tough. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha is very convinced, Fitz. Very convinced.]

Remind me not to get on your bad side.