Cosmically Natural Noir (For Juggernaut)

[Black Widow]

The streets of New York seemed to stretch on interminably, empty save for a few bodies and the rubble that served as indication of the battle that had occurred. It was dark, the streetlights mostly out, the buildings in this primarily business district dark and silent, the only witnesses remaining save two on this dismal piece of property. For one of those remaining, the street was beginning to look less like a typical roadway and more like a dismally vast pile of paperwork that was likely to pile up in front of her. She didn’t particularly fancy it. With deft fingers encased in dark gloves, still standing protectively over the limp scientist, she reached for a communicator lodged inside of her bracer, hooked it over her ear, and called in to SHIELD. “Yes, I need a clean up crew, ah…” She glanced down at the scientist, and quickly remembered Standard Operating Procedure in the case of this particular man’s unfortunate alter-ego.

“Unknown, sir.” She said it solidly, even looking at her one wouldn’t be able to tell she was lying through her teeth. Reporting the truth would end up with the poor man in one of SHIELD’s holding cells, and she didn’t want to do that to him. Dangerous he might be, but it wasn’t his fault. She knew how she would feel, to wake up in such a state, she also knew that with the sheer amount of sedative in his body he wouldn’t be dangerous until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. “I have other business, sir, I can’t remain. I apologize.” She clicked the communicator off, pocketed it, and glanced down at the scientist and up at a retreating figure.

The Black Widow, Natalia Romanova, needed a hand. She needed to get the hell out of this place with the scientist in tow. “Juggernaut!” She half shouted down the street, hoping he would turn around, “I need you to carry Dr. Banner, there’s a clean up crew coming right now and I don’t want to let them take him in!”

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

Walking away was somewhat awkward but Cain moved on. He was only half way down the block when a sweet voice yet again touched his ears.

“I need you to carry Dr. Banner, there’s a clean up crew coming right now and I don’t want to let them take him in!”

He stopped and smiled. The ol Juggy charm had worked. There were times he was irresistible and apparently this had been one of those good, rare, days.

A quick spin on his heel and a short run brought him back to her. He nodded and scooped up Dr. Banner.
Right before Cain picked the good doctor a weird thought hit him. How the hell do his pants always fit before and after the change? He dismissed the thought and slung Banner over a shoulder. Probably just some more science crap at work.

"Where too Natasha?"

[Black Widow]

Natalia had already started walking, wanting to put a much space between herself and the scientist, and this particular street. "Just to my apartment, it's not far." She would have picked him up, it wasn't as if he was particularly heavy, but she'd dislocated her shoulder a week ago, and in the interest of having it heal early, she'd been avoiding heavy lifting. Hopefully it would be all better in the next few weeks, she was getting sick of waking up stiff and sore every bedevilled morning.

A street later, a few moments of silent walking put behind her, and Natalia calmed down. She slowed and waited for Juggernaut to catch up the few steps. "I don't suppose you'd do me a favor and not... well, not mention this to anyone? Fury'd have my head if he found out I wasn't following SOP this way." She chuckled slightly, twisting one of her bracers around to it was in its proper place on her wrist. "How've the Avengers been treating you?"

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

"No problem darlin'. I've heard of Fury but never met the guy." Cain adjusted Bruce on his shoulder. "I actually just joined the A team. Not really much going on." He leaned in to Natasha as they walked. "I'll tell ya what though. That Pepper Potts that Stark has working for him...." A small whistle escaped his lips, "...one spicy little number."

He straightened back up and kept on walking. A few random people on the street kind of stared but tried not to. Hard to not notice a large man carrying another and having a conversation with a beautiful woman like it was a stroll in the park. Still, Cain supposed New Yorkers had seen stranger things.

[Black Widow]

Natalia smiled slightly, "Fury's... Well, Fury's an inspired military man." Unfailingly loyal, half-mad really, one would never mistake him for a man of ideal sanity. He tended to jump on things, which was what she did herself, and he was ideally suited for the tasks they gave him. That aside, he was also an exceptionally rigid person when it came to regulations, and as her ranking officer he would likely have her head on a silver platter if he found out she had disobeyed direct orders. It was not something she looked forward to.

The smile turned to a smirk when he mentioned Stark's secretary. "I've heard that from any number of men and feel it's my duty to warn you that she's really only interested in one person, and it's not you." She had a sarcastic enough tone, but it was pleasant enough. Just teasing, after all, she crossed her arms and continued forward.

"You haven't seen Daredevil recently, have you?" A nonchalant enough question, she was just curious, after all, about the fate of someone she had dated for a good long time. That was quite all there was to it. No more.

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

Cain shrugged slightly. "I'm guessing Matt's been busy. Just before the war broke out I heard he was really moving up in them law circles. Then recently there have been talks of people being convicted for war crimes. So I imagine he'll be involved in that."

As they kept walking Cain began to think about what he had just said. War crimes. How can there be any crime in war? Sure he had been on both sides of the law but never in war time. Magneto had once said 'In war, there are no innocents'. If so, how could there be a crime against those that are not innocent? Cain dismissed these thoughts as hard as he could but they kept creeping up. He decided to talk more.

"So ya seeing anyone?"

[Black Widow]

Natalia nodded, "I guess I dodged that bullet, SHIELD's been sheltering everyone with them that served in the war... Not that I did anything wrong, of course." She had been trained for espionage, not open war, and so her part in the fighting had been limited primarily to technical assistance and scouting. Such things suited her fine, to be honest, though a part of her felt cheated by not being able to serve in her full capacity. She might have been an assassin, but she had been trained as a soldier first.

He asked if she was seeing anyone and she laughed hollowly, "Not for a while... not steady, anyway. I'm a bit busy for that." That was a great answer, too busy. It made her sound like a workaholic. Her life was work, this was true, but she normally managed some semblance of personal life. Lately she just hadn't been in the mood for that.

A couple skirted them, staring blatantly and Widow rolled her eyes. They certainly made an odd sight, but she wouldn't have stared, that was just impolite. "What about you? Is there a future Mrs. Juggernaut I should know about in the wings, or are you too busy staring at Stark's secretary?"

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

About that time Cain felt Banner twitch. He paused a step then felt the man relax again. Whew

"Mrs Juggernaut? Funny you should mention that. Since Charles' death and the whole war thing I've really been thinking about giving up all this fighting and crap." He stopped and put a hand on Natasha's shoulder, spinning her around. "You know just as much as I do about being on both sides." A finger pointed at her chest. "Sometimes you just have to learn that enough is enough and give it up." That domed head came down slightly. "Black Tom didn't know when it was done and I had to stop him."

Cain sighed and stood up straight. "Enough of this talking stuff." He patted Banner's leg. "Lets get him some where safe and with a allot of sedatives."

[Black Widow]

Natalia raised an eyebrow when he spun her around, giving her face an unusually lopsided, almost comical look. Her mouth, however, was rather thin, "And some of us don't have the luxury of there being an end so we simply continue on as we always have. Maybe he just didn't know how to stop." She turned and continued walking, leading the way back to her apartment. As they moved forward she reached back and pulled her hair out of its braid, letting it fall loose and wavy to her shoulders.

"It's just a little farther, the sedatives should still hold for the next half hour, so we have plenty of time. If it comes down to it I have enough low grade sedative to keep him out in this state." She fiddled with the now empty syringe at her belt, rolling it back and forth in one gloved hand. "We only need the heavy stuff when he's gone green." They were gradually moving toward a quiet pocket in the bustling city, a metropolitan haven of rather dull brick and sandstone buildings. Natalia's apartment was on the other end of the street, a plain and uninteresting affair that suited her just fine.

"Thanks for helping me out with this. Capt. America was right, you're a good guy."

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

They hit her apartment just at sundown. Looking as dull and unobtrusive as it would be to a woman in her line of work. She walked up the short landing and jiggled a key in the lock and it opened with a creek.

Cain stooped through the small doorway and laid Banner on a couch. "What are you going to do to him?" He said as he turned back to see Natasha. "Oh, and Capt. said that? I'm impressed. Never met the man but I've heard good stuff."

[Black Widow]

Natalia flicked on a light, revealing a slim hallway that led to a kitchen and living room. She waited until Juggernaut was passed and closed and locked the door, checking it carefully before she entered the rest of the small apartment. "I'm not going to do anything to him. I'm going to keep him sedated, get him some clothes, and get him as far away from the city as humanely possible before SHIELD finds out. I don't feel like condemning him to the holding facilities... again." She ran her fingers through her hair and leaned lightly against the wall.

"Yeah, we were talking about you, the Avengers all together and such. He said he'd heard you were alright." She shrugged slightly, "Then again, I've always felt he was a pretty trusting sort of man." She gave a teasing smile, very slight, and continued to lean on her wall, casting a wary glance at the ceiling as if she expected to find something devilish on it. Just paint.

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

"Meh, he seems an alright kinda guy." Cain waved a hand in a dismissing motion then started to make his way to the door. He paused for a sec then turned back around to face Natasha. "I wouldn't be over stepping my bounds If I asked you out would I? Nothing fancy mind ya. Just dinner. Or coffee."

He cracked his knuckles together loudly. "Or hell, maybe we could just have a night on the town. Bustin' some heads." Cain let his words hang in the deathly quiet of the apartment.

[Black Widow]

Natalia raised a slim eyebrow when he... well, he asked her out. Dates weren't exactly her thing, she, in fact, avoided such things in the way most people avoided the plague. "Not overstepping your bounds at all, milochk." All right, so it wasn't a very definitive answer, but she was at least entertaining the idea. And that was what counted, right? The thought?

She gave something of a noncommittal shrug, "Look, this isn't really the right time to ask..." She waved a hand toward the prone form on her couch, "I'm not working or anything on Wednesday, though, if you're not busy why don't you give me a call and we'll arrange something." She ran her gloved fingers through her hair, "I just really can't think about that sort of thing right now. You know?"

[The Juggernaut, Bitch]

Cain held up a hand. "I understand. Wednesday it is." He turned and gently turned the door knob, careful not to break it, and stepped outside. Just before closing it he said one more thing.

"Just remember what I said hon. You gotta know when to slow down."

With that he closed the door and walked down the alley and into the street. A slight hitch in his step and a smile on his face.

[Black Widow]

"Of course, I'll keep it in mind." She said it not unpleasasntly, but with a definite disaste in her voice. "See you around." She walked toward the door, locked it behind him quite a few times and spent the rest of the evening going about the difficult task of dealing with the doctor. It wasn't surprising, therefore, that any possibility of plans being made on her day off flew out of her mind like a streaking bullet from one of her guns.

Wednesday found her cleaning, which was odd enough to tell the truth. Her auburn hair was tied up into a messy bun on the back of her skull, the vacuum was out, she was scraping at something nasty on the stove-top. It had been at least two months since she'd cleaned and just a little less since she'd done laundry. Aside from a few pieces of dry cleaning she had been almost impossible to find without her cat-suit, the men's jeans and white tank-top she wore were selected from a pile on her floor when she woke up that morning. There was a burn on one leg and a tear in the other. Her feet were bare, red nailpolish was chipping from her toes. There was a cigarette hanging from her mouth and the news was on a newly dusted television.

There had been a time, not so many years ago, when the apartment would have spent all of its time immaculate, when boxes would not have sat in an empty room or in her living room. There was a time when the laundry would have been done. Of course, ever since her adopted father had gone home it had been difficult. She was a trained assassin, not a cleaner, and certainly not a cook. The refrigerator was filled with cold chinese and pizza, there was a bottle of arsenic on one shelf.

In the background the television was playing, and there was a knock at the door, natalia knocked the ash off her cigarette and shoved it back into her mouth, pushing loose hair from her face and expecting to open the door on one of her neighbors. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case.