Dang, I never thought that I would get to this point. Honestly, I feel like I've been procrastinating. I'm pretty sure most of you saw what's about to happen coming.

    "Beth, again?" Ashley groaned as she sunk into one of the seats in a, once again, empty meeting room. Bethany wasn't picking up her phone at all. It seemed as though she had been wiped off the face of the planet. Knowing the drill, the teenager pulled out her homework from her backpack and got to work on it, but she was done in a matter of no time. Thirty minutes had passed, and, much to Ashley's dismay, Bethany was still a no-show.

    The icy-haired girl checked her watch and frowned when she realized it was half-past five. She was supposed to be doing a conditioning session in their apartment at six, something that Bethany really hated when she missed, but there was no way that she was going to make it in time if she just stood around waiting. According to the brunette, missing just a single workout could set her back in her progress exponentially.

    Ashley mentally calculated the distance between the studio facility and their apartment complex. If she left right now, she would probably be arriving just a tad late for her self-taught session. So, with a careless shrug, she swung her bag up onto her shoulder and started briskly walking out of the meeting room and out the building. She was met by a gush of warm, late-summer air and the sound of traffic, both of which she had grown accustomed to. Despite her unknown origin, this city was her home. There was no convincing her otherwise.

    The teenager waved a greeting to a couple of familiar faces walking on the other side of the road. Once they caught sight of their waving classmate, they mirrored her positivity and returned the gesture with wide grins. Ashley turned to continue her walk home, however, a small, nagging feeling began bubbling up inside her. She couldn't really understand what it was trying to tell her, but this by no means meant that she was listening to it any less. Ashley could already tell that this was one of those feeling that her inhuman senses gave her, so she immediately channeled all of her attention to it.

    She still couldn't tell if the energy she was getting from it was positive or negative, but she began to catch on to something. Whatever feeling it was, she had felt it before. It was painstakingly familiar. She was going continue absentmindedly making her way back to her and Beth's apartment, but something practically shouted at her to turn right and into a deserted ally.

    "You know, this is the part where the protagonist gets kidnapped or murdered," Ashley duly noted to herself as she pressed herself up against a wall that was right next to the entry of the alley. Just for peace of mind, the teenager placed her hand on the discretely hidden pocketknife that she had wedged between her hip and the waistband of her jeans, then cautiously proceeded forward.

    Just as she had predicted, the second that she rounded the corner, something painfully solid came into hard contact with the side of her head. It narrowly missed her temple, but that didn't spare Ashley much relief. It took a couple of moments for her vision to be partially operable and for her to realize what was going on, but she was soon on her toes and turned to face her attackers. Both were buff men dressed in black, sleek, clothes, so it sent Ashley off the edge a bit. However, she knew that hesitation was not tolerated in a fight that you wanted to win, so she immediately sprang into action.

    Ashley whipped her pocketknife out of her waistband and flipped the switch, then charged the man on her right. He was the one to throw the first punch, but she effortlessly caught it with her left hand and kept his wrist in a death grip. She attempted to the slash on the underside of his forearm, but he forced the knife out of her hand. She frowned at this and let go of his arm to only grab a hold of his ankle. She twisted it to the point that he fell to the ground, then turned around to go up against her other opponent. She was the one to make the first move this time by revving herself up and delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to the man's side. He grunted and doubled over in pain, but the man in black quickly bounced back and threw a punch at her face. She tried to sidestep, but his knuckles ended up grazing the side of her cheekbone. Ashley tentatively raised a finger to touch the abrasion on her skin, then gave the man a "you really didn't want to do that" look.

    She caught him off guard by delivering a punch as though her knuckles were made of steel to his gut, then rose the side of her foot up to kick him across the face. He spat out the blood and readied himself to continue, but it was obvious that he was dazed and his vision was blurry from the blow. He sloppily threw a punch straight at her nose, but she easily ducked and grabbed a hold of the arm while it was above her. She used this leverage to sharply pull towards herself, which promptly sent the man flying over her body that was currently in a limbo position. He flipped as he was jerked up and over Ashley's body, causing him to end up landing slightly too hard on his head. Ashley knew that he was alive, but there was not a chance that he was going to attempt to get up anytime soon.

    The teenager was just about to check the other man when she felt something wrap around her ankle. In no time she was on the hard ground with the breath knocked out of her and a man that looked ready to punch her brains out. He reeled back his arm and readied himself to deliver a devastating punch, but just as he was driving his fist downwards, Ashley elbowed his leg to the point where it gave in and allowed her to roll away from the position she was trapped in. The man hissed in pain as his hand hit the concrete, but there was no pity given on Ashley's end. She would much rather have the guy end up with a bleeding and shattered hand than her end up abducted for whatever reason they wanted her.

    Before the remaining man could react, she quickly ducked behind him and gave the back of his leg a firm kick with the toe of her shoe. He fell to his knees and grunted in pain. Delivering the final blow, Ashley wound up and kicked the side of his head. He twisted and collapsed to the ground beside the other man as he quietly whimpered. That was definitely going to bruise.

    The other attacker reached for his gun on his belt and Ashley knew that she would be done for if she didn't stop him. So, despite all of the internal yelling and screaming voices that were demanding her to not reveal her inhuman strengths, Ashley shot her hand out and summoned the firearm to her hand. Just the look of terror on the two men's faces was enough to make her crawl into a hole and never come out, but she knew that the damage was done. With a scowl, she shifted her grip on the handgun she had in her possession now so it pointed directly at the two men.

    Ashley was just about to snap her warnings at them when something caught her eye. Right there, on both of the left shoulders of their jackets, was a symbol she knew all too well.

    "You're... you're S.H.I.E.L.D? Why the bloody hell would S.H.I.E.L.D. attack me?"

    Instead of waiting for their response, Ashley took note of that familiar energy signature that had lured her in there again. She looked up immediately and took note of a redhead woman that was frozen in place with her hands on her hips.

    "And you're the..." Ashley stared at the woman in shock, then blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure she was hallucinating. However, when she opened her eyes again, the same exact image was portrayed in front of her. "You're the Black Widow."

    "...and I am screwed," Natasha declared to herself as she looked at her two fellow agents that were lying on the ground at gunpoint.

    Ashley's eyes widened as she listened to the Black Widow's voice. It sounded... painstakingly familiar.

    A gasp tumbled from her lips as she got a good look at the one and only Natasha Romanoff's face.

    "Bethany?"

    Natasha, who was currently walking to check her comrades, froze in place and chuckled nervously. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

    "You're not denying it," Ashley mumbled as she flipped the safety on and withdrew the gun from its threatening position.

    "There's nothing to deny, Ash," Natasha sighed as she reached out a hand to each of the men and pulled them up. "I might as well be straight with you. I was undercover."

    Everything around Ashely seemed to be spinning at an increasingly fast pace. The teenager withdrew a sharp breath as she staggered around, eventually falling to the ground. The gun clattered to the concrete beside her, but she couldn't hear it. The Black Widow was Bethany Everglade. She had lied to her. She had sat through Ashley's talks of how much she admired the red-haired superheroine and how cute she'd be with Captain America. Suddenly an uneasy thought crossed her mind and she looked up to Natasha with pain written all over her face.

    "You only adopted me to help your cover, huh? After you're done with this mission, you'll just go dump me somewhere and continue on with your business of lies."

    Natasha snapped her head towards the girl and stared at her with an open mouth.  "What?! Of course I wouldn't! I may be a spy, but I'm not a b*tch. I would never do that to you. Girls stick together, remember?"

    "If girls stick together, then you would've told me who you really were, 'Bethany'. I know you aren't one to follow rules, so why follow them now?" Ashley demanded. She attempted to get back on her feet, but seeing that her legs were useless at the moment, she gave up and let herself rest on the pavement of the alley.

    "Because..." Natasha trailed off as her voice cracked. "I couldn't lose you too Ash. If I let you in on this, you would've been in danger. If anything ever happened to you, I would kill every single person associated with the incident, then myself."

    Ashley looked up at the redhead with teary eyes. "You really mean that?"

    "Of course I do," Natasha smiled, then outstretched her hand for Ashley to grab on to. When she noticed the other men watching intently, she let out a growl and snapped at them. "Get lost, agents."

    They nodded quickly and scrambled off, both with fingers tentatively tracing the cuts and bruises on their faces that they had earned from the teenage girl that had kicked their butt. "If I didn't, then why would I spend all of that time with you? Why would I train you? I wanted to make sure that when the time came, you'd be able to protect yourself."

    "You wanted me to..." Ashley wandered off as she looked at the spy, then back to the very hands that had been responsible for showing two very-well-trained agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "You wanted me to train under you."

    "I was going to be your S.O." Natasha smiled to herself. When Ashley looked at her in confusion, she laughed and quickly explained. "Supervising Officer."

    "You wouldn't," Ashley stammered in disbelief. "The Black Widow was going to be my S.O. in S.H.I.E.L.D."

    "No," Natasha shook her head. "Bethany is going to be your S.O. I don't want you to see me like some famous person. I want to be a Bethany to you. Someone who you feel comfortable with."

    "You'll always be Bethany to me," Ashley assured her as she wrapped the redhead in a warm hug. At first, Natasha was stiff, seeing that she wasn't exactly accustomed to gestures like this, but she eventually settled into it and hugged Ashley back. You would never get her to admit it, but she knew that she saw Ashley as more than just an acquaintance. She was her daughter. And nothing, nothing, would take that away from her as long as she lived.

    "Alright, alright, enough sappy stuff," Natasha laughed as she pulled back from the hug. She looked down at her specialized watch and took note of the time. "You are currently 15 minutes late to your conditioning session."

    "Oh dear," Ashley gasped in mock-horror. "We totally wouldn't want to miss that, right?"

    "You would," Natasha remarked with a knowing smirk. "But being your future S.O., I won't tolerate you missing workouts and getting weak."

    "Right," Ashley rolled her eyes, "missing one session would completely ruin everything."

    Natasha shook her head with a chortle. "Wait here Ash, I'm going to change into normal clothes. After that, we can head back to the apartment."

    Ashley nodded her head in acknowledgment and watched as Natasha ducked into a building where she had presumably stashed her regular clothes. The teenager hummed to pass the time, but her mind was going a mile a minute. She was going to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Her adoptive guardian was the Natasha Romanoff. She had displayed her powers in front of two agents and Natasha. Shoot, she had taken out two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents like they were nothing. It took everything the girl had to not give in to the stars that were dancing across her vision and pass out.

    "You ready to go?" Natasha asked as she emerged from the building wearing jeans, tan leather mid-calf boots, a black undershirt, and a jacket that matched her boots and, what Ashley now realized to be a wig, brunette hair. The teen nodded and fell in stride with the woman. After all, her muscles weren't going to work themselves.

Scarlett Johansson as

N A T A S H A R O M A N O F F

alias

B E T H A N Y E V E R G L A D E

a.k.a.

B L A C K W I D O W

Welp, the cat's out of the bag. Bethany isn't just an agent, she's the agent lol.