Bab 68: 068
Norman was moving quickly throughout the city thanks to his ability to teleport, he was in search of the mysterious shooter.
If he was right in his deduction then it was possible that she could be Yelena Belova, one of the many girls trained by the Red Room and for a long time considered to be Natasha Romanoff's replacement.
Norman was not sure if his deductions were correct, but if they were then he could use the whole situation to his advantage and try to somehow recruit an assassin comparable to the famous Black Widow.
If she refused then he would simply eliminate her, although that scenario would undoubtedly be a complete shame. While it would undoubtedly be best to have Natasha on his side, he knew that at the moment it was a virtually impossible task.
So having someone who possibly with the right resources and guidance could be even more lethal than her would be a better investment. Considering that currently the best fighter on his team not counting himself was Bucky he certainly needed to recruit more people.
Norman stopped thinking about that and started thinking about what kind of place would be the best place to hide in the city, there was too much search range, so he needed to start narrowing it down before he even did anything. But he needed to be quick as all his effort could simply be useless if S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to find her first.
Osborn was thinking of contacting Forge to help him get into the city's camera system and keep a watch on them in case she could be found that way, though considering that she was possibly an experienced assassin it was almost unlikely that she would reveal herself to the security cameras.
Before doing anything else Norman could observe a small raven near him that seemed to be watching him with interest, a second later a caw came from the small animal as it began to spread its wings to fly.
Osborn remembered the talk he had with Death a short time before, especially the words and explanations she gave him concerning to the crows.
Norman was thoughtful for a while, but his gaze was always focused on the crow that seemed to be circling around him. "Lead me" he said to it instinctively, an action that could be considered a sign of insanity just felt natural.
It didn't take long for the crow to make a great cawing sound almost as if it was happy to receive orders and immediately began to fly in an unknown direction.
Osborn observed the situation before starting to follow the crow thanks to his teleportation, anyway, a situation like that would perhaps be strange, but considering the world he was in then it could be considered something relatively normal.
At some point the rain began to fall and thunder and lightning began to appear spontaneously. All the while the strange scene of a figure dressed completely in black following a crow passed unnoticed by all the inhabitants of the city.
…
Somewhere in the city.
A blonde woman could be seen moving slowly and cautiously, constantly supporting herself on the wall next to her, due to the rain that fell constantly on her body she seemed to be trembling, but the most alarming thing was a red substance that fell to the ground every time she took a step.
For a few moments the woman stopped and brought her gaze to her right hand, where she held a gun, a few meters back she had to eliminate two officers who had found her attitude suspicious.
Usually that would never happen and even if it did, she could simply knock them out without needing to murder them, but due to her current state there was no way she could do that, in the end it was either her or them, so the answer was too simple to obtain.
If she let herself get caught then she might as well end her life herself, even if they put her inside a cell it would only be a matter of time before she died either at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Red Room itself.
Even if she wanted to make a deal with S.H.I.I.E.L.D. she had no valuable information to negotiate on equal terms, after Romanoff's betrayal, most field agents were only given a communication device by which they were given their missions and the location of certain safe houses.
From the moment they received their first mission they were simply dogs waiting for orders.
A brief flutter brought her out of her thoughts and she could see a crow land on a lamppost near her, "I'm not dead yet, and I don't plan to be" she mentioned to the air, she had never been one to believe in superstitions, but she knew there were various stories where crows were some sort of messengers of death.
In a job like her own she had come to realize that there was some truth in those stories. Perhaps crows were not messengers of death, but they could definitely sense it and were attracted to it.
A loud caw took her by surprise as the crow began to spread its wings to fly.
At the same time her instincts kicked in quickly demanding her to move, but before she could do, so she felt an impact on her left shoulder.
Her instincts acted faster than her mind could process the situation, and she quickly smashed the window of one of the stores near her, she didn't know where the shooter was so firing her weapon would only be a waste of ammunition.
As she moved throughout the store not caring anymore at this point about her previous injuries she could tell that she had been hit by an arrow, by a fucking arrow.
She was only aware of one person using arrows in this age of firearms and could only curse her luck of now having to deal with two people listed as high danger by the Red Room.
Maybe not getting caught will be harder than she first thought, was her first thought, but still she couldn't afford to just give herself away, in the worst-case scenario she always kept a bullet for herself.
…
Norman just kept transporting himself from building to building while following a crow, at some point he wondered if he was doing something stupid and came to the definite conclusion that he was, but he continued anyway.
In the end he had no other means of trying to locate Yelena, so he was simply doing what he felt he had to do, whether it was the right action or not, he would know in some time.
His thoughts ended when the small animal that was following him began to circle around what he assumed was a small candy store. His eyes soon caught sight of the state of the one of the windows that the establishment had.
After verifying that there were no potential witnesses to worry about, Osborn approached the store, the smell of blood was the first thing he could notice, and he meticulously began to analyze the scene.
His first deductions were about a possible confrontation with police forces, but it was immediately dismissed, however, there were signs of a small confrontation, so it was certain that she was probably being hunted by Barton and Romanoff.
His vision was directed towards the back door of the store, as it was logical to think that after a surprise attack she would seek cover, but staying static in the store was not a viable option either.
As he approached the back door he could notice a significant amount of blood, she was more injured than he thought she would be. As he had suspected it had been opened by a gunshot, considering the situation she may have been in he would not judge her reasoning.
His vision looked down the various alleys she may have gone down, but soon something caught his attention, a small part of what he assumed must have been an arrow specifically to the back where the fletchings were located.
The crow's song brought him out of his thoughts and he soon disappeared from the place as if he had never been there in the first place, shortly after Norman teleported to another place a black van pulled up in front of the store before stopping.
…
"You should have incapacitated her when you had the chance" Natasha's words reached Barton's ears.
"Anyway with all her injuries it should be relatively simple to catch her" he replied not quite sure what he should say.
"Never underestimate a Red Room member" Natasha mentioned to him seriously.
"Yes I know, trained to assassinate and do anything to accomplish their goal since they were children, people who feel no remorse or hesitation in carrying out their missions no matter what they are about" he told her, even he had occasions where he had doubts about his missions or cases where he definitely disobeyed the orders he was given.
"If you know that then you shouldn't trust yourself too much, as you will end up dead under her hands, especially if it's her" Natasha told him as she started to keep silent and ended up walking away from her partner.
Barton just watched Natasha disappear from his vision in search of her target, even with the passing of the years and all the missions they had done together he could simply never come to understand her at least not completely.
However, he soon shook his head and began to move, despite not wanting to give her the reason he knew she was right, if he had incapacitated her then they wouldn't have to go blindly in a possible place that the enemy knew beforehand.
They were currently in a somewhat old building that was used as a printing press for one of the local newspapers, it wasn't the worst place they had been, but it was still a place that had many spots that could easily be exploited for possible surprise attacks.
The grip on his bow tightened a bit, even to this day many agents didn't understand his choice of weapon and gave him strange looks, but he didn't care about that after all he was probably dozens of times more lethal with a simple bow than they were with firearms.
His gaze went back and forth across the space he could observe, his ears always alert for the slightest noise they might hear. A short time later a small sound reached his ears and he immediately prepared his bow and arrow to attack, but a squeak made him realize that it was only a mouse.
Sometimes that kind of thing happened, being in such a tense environment and looking for enemies while being in a completely unknown terrain any kind of sound could represent a potential danger, it was always better to be cautious.
Once he observed that all was relatively well, and it was safe to move he began to relax his defensive posture a bit, but always remaining alert. By the time he began to walk he was only able to take about five steps before he felt a brief but loud thump.
Almost instantly his body completely lost its strength and mobility so that the next second all his vision blurred completely, without even knowing what had happened.
Norman simply watched as the Hawkeye of this universe fell unconscious without even having time to react. Not that he expected anything else, maybe he hadn't learned all of Val's knowledge, but all in all his current knowledge and experience was not something to be taken as a joke.
Add to that his teleportation ability, and he was almost certain that there were few people who could take him on in combat. Unless they were cosmic entities or characters that had some level of omnipotence, then he was sure he could manage to keep his life.
The sound of two gunshots snapped him out of his thoughts and he quickly moved towards the source of the sound. He knew Barton would be unconscious for at least two hours unless a strong stimulus was given to his body.
…
Natasha looked at the unconscious blonde woman in front of her even though it was a long time ago she could still remember her, the Red Room trained girls to become perfect assassins and spies or at least the division she was in was like that.
Long ago she had escaped from them, but she still remembered her old companions although at that moment she considered them as her enemies, enemies to defeat or simply targets to kill if the order was given, she never doubted it because she knew they wouldn't do it either.
It really had been troublesome to subdue her, but the wounds she had been dragging around had made her unable to take it anymore, giving her a definite advantage to be able to knock her out before she could kill herself.
She brought her hand to one of the small compartments of her suit from where she extracted something similar to a cell phone, "Send a containment team and a medical team" were her only words.
Despite the possible enhancements she may have received from the Red Room, she would certainly need medical treatment if they wanted to interrogate someone alive. Her vision drifted to the weapon in her hand as various memories of her time as a Red Room agent began to flash through her mind.
Her thought ended abruptly as she felt a sort of shiver run through her entire body, the grip on her weapons intensified greatly as her gaze and other senses tried to find the reason for her reaction.
Not only that, but her instincts suddenly jumped as her body moved by its own reaction and tried to turn around, a loud thud was the only thing she could feel and the next second she simply lost her strength completely as she fell to the ground.
The next second her gaze began to see a figure in black hooded clothing, there was nothing that could help her identify it, she tried to move, but she was unable to, it felt as if all her limbs were disconnected from her brain, they simply did not respond to her orders.
She could see how the figure seemed to see her target for a few seconds and shortly after took her in his arms and simply began to walk with her.
Natasha could only watch as her target was carried away without being able to do anything, soon after her eyelids began to feel tired, and although she wanted to resist in a second she fell unconscious.
Norman only looked at Natasha while holding Yelena in his arms, unlike Barton, Natasha was able to feel his attack something that wasn't surprising considering what she must have gone through even though her body wasn't fast enough to dodge it.
Retracting his vision of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Norman simply ended up teleporting to another location. At the same time various anonymous reports of a shooting were received by the police.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
TheXVoid
TheXVoid Well very possibly the next chapter will end this mini arc that ended up stretching longer than I thought at first.
For those who wanted to see Norman fight, that is not going to happen in the near future, let's remember that Norman was trained as an assassin and that's how he behaves, so him fighting his enemies like some kind of Iron Fist or Shang Chi would just be stupid.
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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Power 
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