Natasha Romanoff sighs as she fiddles with the zipper on her catsuit for a moment. After a second, she glances up at the ceiling.
"Any hints on what Tony wants me for, J?"
It's been years now since she found herself not only sent to spy on Tony Stark, but being flipped entirely by the impossible man. The eccentric genius billionaire had completely turned her fragile loyalty from SHIELD to himself, even if they thought she was still one of their agents and just working as his liaison.
Of course, by this point Natasha didn't think that Fury, Coulson, or Barton really trusted her all that much. She was probably considered 'compromised' all in all. It was only Tony's work with the World Security Council and therefore SHIELD itself that kept them from doing anything more permanent about her. So long as he was ostensibly their ally, it didn't matter if he'd all but turned her into his and his wife' s sex pet, she supposed. Still, Natasha had grown used to the rather insane life that Tony led. She'd even grown accustomed to Stark's AI, JARVIS. Enough that she had no problem asking him for whatever he could tell her.
"I'm afraid that Sir has told me to keep things hush-hush this time around Agent Romanoff. I can tell you that it's not a booty call, however."
Natasha hums and nods her thanks at that, pulling the zipper on her form-fitting SHIELD Uniform all the way back up to her neck. She does so just in time for the elevator doors to open, depositing her onto one of the many floors of Stark Tower that Tony has dedicated completely to Research and Development. The man is hard at work as ever, developing something that Natasha's eyes can't even fully comprehend, at least at first glance.
Walking into the lab, knowing full well that her ability to do so is in and of itself a sign of trust, Natasha saunters right up to Tony's side.
"You wanted to see me, Tony?"
"Oh hey Nat. Yeah, here you go."
Reaching off to the side, Tony picks up a thick cylindric container with one hand and holds it out to her. Blinking, Natasha takes it and sets it down on the table, flicking the clasps and opening the sleek-looking capsule. What she sees inside takes her breath away.
"Tony, is this…"
"Your dose? Yep."
He's so damn casual about it, it's enough to make Natasha grit her teeth. Inside of the cylinder is another cylinder. No visible needle, but it's obviously a high-tech injector of some sort based on the small viewing window that shows a glowing orange-red liquid inside of it. The thing is pretty intuitive … Natasha could pick it up and probably inject herself with it right now if she wanted to.
And oh how she wants to. This is what she's been working toward for years now, after all. Working for Tony Stark, serving him loyalty, being his and Pepper's little fuck toy… though admittedly that last one was completely of Natasha's own volition. She was well aware that she hadn't had to have frequent sex with the power couple if she wanted to earn this. She'd done so because it was fun.
Still…
"So I'm finally trusted enough, is that it?"
Finally looking away from his latest project, Tony gives her a grin. "You sound almost unhappy about that, Natasha. I did tell you that it would be a couple years, didn't I? And here we are. You've done everything I've asked of you. You've had ample opportunity to betray me and Pep a dozen times, and you haven't. You've earned your prize. Though there are a couple caveats."
Natasha presses her lips into a thin line at that. Of course, there's always a catch. At least Tony was the kind of man who was upfront about what those catches were… at least if you were on his good side anyways.
"And those caveats are…?"
Tony tilts his head towards the injector. "To be clear, that's something we call the Extremis Super Soldier Serum. Foundationally, it's built off of the stuff that my father and Erskine gave Steve Rogers back in the forties."
Natasha's eyes bulge out of her head at that as the gorgeous femme fatale finds herself unable to control her reaction, uncharacteristic as that is. But then, Tony makes her act in a lot of ways those who knew her would deem ' out of character'. Licking her lips, Natasha rolls Tony's words over in her head.
"… Foundationally. What ELSE does it do, exactly?"
"The part you want the most of course, Nat. The pure form of Extremis imparts extreme regenerative qualities onto whoever takes it. Not only will it heal you of what the Red Room did, but going forward you're going to be as strong as Captain America and a lot more durable. You'll be able to heal from most conventional injuries. Like I did against the Destroyer back in New Mexico." That gets Natasha's attention, her eyes darting from the injector to Tony as he gestures and a sudden recording plays of something she'd been present before a year ago. Namely, Tony getting blasted backwards through the entrance of the compound he'd made to secure Thor's hammer.
Except, the video shows what nobody except for JARVIS and Pepper apparently saw… the armored chestplate was just a cover story. Tony hadn't been wearing any armor when the Destroyer had struck him. The damn thing had literally blasted a huge hole through his chest with its energy beam, one that he'd regenerated from in less than a minute.
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