#and he took that chance and crumpled it up into a ball and slam dunked it into the garbage for three points | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wolferine · 3 years

Text

Unforgivable - Part 2

Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Summary: When the reader loses their temper, it causes them to commit an act they can never take back...

Warnings: Violence, blood, torture, death

Word count: 2372

Part 1

Tags: @yeetus-thyself @phoenixofash @lilclownx @yeeterthekeeper @alessiapn @diaryoflife

AN: Please read to the end before you come after me. :)

Everything is a blur. The last thing you remember is cradling Natasha in your lap and seeing the pain of betrayal in her eyes. You did this to her. You couldn’t control your anger and now she had a bullet—shot out of your gun—in her back. You hurt her and there was no way you could ever forgive yourself for that.

You finally let Tony get close enough to take care of her, because you realized you don’t deserve her anymore.

You run away from the Avengers Tower, your leg slowing you down, but you don’t care. Each step feels like a knife rubbing against your bone, but even that’s not enough to distract you from the pain in your chest. It feels like someone has torn you open, ripped your heart out of your ribcage, and thrown it into a bonfire.

But you have no one to blame than yourself.

Tears stream down your face as you stumble through the streets, eventually finding some privacy in a nearby forest. Your sobs echo through the trees as you crawl hand over hand, your uniform shredding open on bushes and branches. The trickle of a creek calls to you and you dunk your bloody hands in the freezing water, desperate to wash yourself of your failures.

You can’t believe what you’ve done.

The scene of Natasha falling to the floor plays over and over in your head and you would pay anything to unsee it. You curl into a ball, wiping your nose on your knees. You deserve all the pain and misery for your actions. You’re so caught up in your head, thinking about all the ways you can punish yourself, that you don’t notice the group of men sneaking up on you from behind.

“Over there! Over there!”

“By the creek, see?”

“Wait—that’s an Avenger?”

“Looks like someone had a bad day.”

“Hey, Y/N.”

At the sound of your name, you finally lift your head, only for the butt of a shotgun to slam into your face. Your nose breaks and blood fills your mouth. You turn away, not even interested in protecting yourself. If they killed you, you would thank them.

“Aw, come on. At least give us a reaction,” someone says.

The shotgun butt smashes against the back of your head and you wouldn’t be surprised if it cracked your skull. Someone kicks your leg where you were shot, and you bite your lip to hold back a scream.

“Well, this is anti-climactic.”

“Hey, if it makes our job easier, I’m not gonna complain.”

“I still think Hammer’s weird for wanting Y/N over the other Avengers.”

“Given the circumstances, he couldn’t really be picky—”

“Stop standing around and get to it!” someone yells.

The men surround you, punching and kicking every inch of you. The bulletproof vest of your uniform does little to lessen the impact of their blows. You feel bruises forming along your ribs and your rattling teeth bite your lips bloody. It doesn’t take long for you to black out and the peace is blissful.

***********************************************************************

Sometime later—you have no idea how long—you jolt awake, finding yourself strapped to a metal chair in the middle of a dark, concrete room. A man in glasses and a gray suit with white gloves stands in front of you.

“Hello, I’m Justin Hammer,” he says, offering a hand, then withdrawing when he realizes your arms are tied to the chair. “Sorry, force of habit.”

You stare at him. Your tongue pokes around the inside of your mouth and you notice some teeth are missing. There is a painful crick in your neck every time you try moving your head and every breath you take feels like a razor blade scraping the inside of your lungs.

“You’ve probably never heard of me, but I’m very familiar with you and your work with the Avengers. But the reason I have you here today is to talk about this man.” Hammer pulls out a folded photograph from his pocket and shows it to you.

It’s Tony Stark, but you have no desire to even think of that man anymore.

“Your best friend, right?” Hammer teases and you curl your lip at him. “What’s wrong? He’s the one who got you a spot on the team, isn’t he?” You look away from him. “I heard what he did to your girl,” he continues. “That must’ve felt like the betrayal of the century.”

“What?” you ask, confused as to what he’s referring to.

“I heard about what happened at the Avengers Tower. So tragic.” Hammer crumples Tony’s photograph and drops it on the floor. “Romanoff didn’t deserve that.”

“W-What are you talking about? Is she okay?” Your bottom lip quivers in fear.

Hammer kneels in front of you. “She’s dead, Y/N.”

“No, no…” You feel like he’s punched you right through the chest. “T-That’s not possible.”

“I’m sorry. I know she meant a lot to you.” Hammer stands again.

“How do you even know what happened at the Tower?” Given its security, there was no way news like that reached the public. At least not the truth of it. Maybe Hammer was just trying to mess with you.

Hammer motions behind him and a blonde woman steps forward from the shadows. Her face jolts your memory, but you don’t remember exactly where from.

“Recognize her?” Hammer asks. “She actually works for me, but she’s been pretending to be a SHIELD agent for some time now. She was right outside the door when your little spat with Stark went down.” Your mind flashes back to when you returned from the mission with Natasha. On your way to the private Avengers’ quarters, you remember passing the same blonde woman right outside the door.

“She heard everything that happened inside,” Hammer says as the blonde woman retreats into the darkness again.

“N-Natasha’s…She’s…She’s not dead,” you stammer.

Hammer shakes his head. “She went into surgery after Stark shot her, but due to the placement of the bullet, there were some complications and she coded on the table. They couldn’t revive her. That part was all over the news.”

You feel so sick you want to vomit. “I…I killed her?”

“No. You didn’t kill her. Tony Stark killed her.”

You start gasping for air, only worsening the pain in your chest. “No—But—He—I’m the one who pulled the trigger—”

“But you weren’t aiming for her. You were aiming for Stark, and he’s the one who deflected the bullet into her,” Hammer says. “He’s also the one who sent you two on that mission to begin with, wasn’t he? The reason you lost your cool and pulled your gun out? Think, Y/N. All of this is Stark’s fault.”

But the sadness of thinking you’ve killed Natasha is too overwhelming. You can’t focus on anything but your own guilt. You will burn in hell for this and you won’t even mind.

“Listen to me, Y/N!” Hammer snaps, striking you across the face. His rings cut into your cheek and blood fills your mouth. “I hate Stark just as much as you do. He’s been my business rival for years and I need someone to help me take him down. Who better than you, a former friend of his, who knows how to hit him where it hurts?”

You start crying at the thought of having to exist in a world without Natasha Romanoff.

Hammer tries getting your attention by slapping you again, but you’re unresponsive. You’re too lost in your grief to process anything he’s saying, and eventually he gives up, promising to come back another time to reveal his master plan to you.

It takes an entire month before he can even communicate with you. Your depression is all-consuming and their threats on your life have no effect. They’re startled to learn you actually enjoy the torture because you believe you deserve it after what you did to Natasha. But Hammer is relentless and finally figures out how to manipulate you into his bidding.

Six months after your capture and the accident, you finally crack. Your agony and pain turns into pure rage and hatred for Tony Stark. You can’t bring Natasha back, but you can get revenge on the man who took her life. After training with Hammer’s technology, which is almost as advanced as Tony’s, you’re deemed ready to be let out in the real world. Hammer personally asks for your help to kill Tony Stark, and it’s an offer you accept gladly.

***********************************************************************

Three months after the accident…

Natasha wakes up and looks to her right, disappointed to see the bed still empty. She’s tricked herself into believing that one day you’ll show up, ready to pick up the pieces and continue where you left off. But nothing has been the same since you left.

She sits up and turns the lights on. She scoots to the edge of the bed and carefully lifts her body into the wheelchair parked there.

The bullet had struck her lumbar spine, shattering her L1 vertebrae and paralyzing her from the waist down. Tony requested help from the best doctors he knew, but even the greatest modern advancements couldn’t repair her spine. He had personally designed her wheelchair, and she knows she should be grateful to still be alive, but she’s never felt so helpless and alone.

After the accident, you ran off and no one could locate you. Secretly, she held onto the hope you would return one day, but she knows your guilt and shame are keeping you away. She wants to tell you that it wasn’t your fault and that she doesn’t hate you, but you’re not even giving her that chance.

Tony made the public announcement that Black Widow had retired from the Avengers. No one knew she had been paralyzed, nor that you had unofficially resigned from the team. Without you, without Black Widow, Natasha didn’t know who she was anymore.

She leaves her bedroom and goes into the kitchen. Tony arranged most of the food and dishes down to her new height but she feels like she’ll never adjust to not being able to stand anymore. She locates a bowl and a box of cereal and rolls over to the table. She chokes down dry Cheerios and pours her second bowlful when Tony walks in.

“Thank God you’re finally up,” he says. “When you’re done, I have something to show you.”

“Y/N?” She perks up.

“Uh…no…”

Natasha knows Tony blames himself just as much as she does for her accident, but it wasn’t his fault either. She wrestled between anger and guilt, sometimes blaming you, sometimes blaming him. But in the end, it’s easier to blame herself. She should have stopped you the moment you took out your gun, regardless of whether or not you pushed her. But she got so caught up in the moment she froze, and now she was paralyzed and you were gone.

“Just come down to my workshop, okay?” Tony disappears again.

With nothing better to do, Natasha takes the elevator down to Tony’s workshop. She doesn’t visit often, but when she does, she’s always impressed by his latest inventions and gadgets. She rolls down the aisle of old Iron Man suits displayed in glass cases, admiring the subtle differences in each one.

“Where are you, Tony?” she calls.

“Over here!” He waves her down from the other end. “I’ve been working on this for a while, and I know it’s a little premature, but I couldn’t help myself.” Tony stands next to another Iron Man suit, but it doesn’t quite look like it will fit him.

The suit is curved to fit a woman, black and red instead of Tony’s iconic red and gold. Natasha sees a red hourglass emblazoned on the belt buckle.

“What…What is this, Tony?” she asks, tears in her eyes.

“It’s an Iron Widow suit,” he says. “Or, whatever you want to call it. You’ll have to get in and test it out for yourself, but it’ll allow you to walk again and…be an Avenger again.”

Natasha wishes she could throw herself into his arms, but pulls him down to her level instead. “Thank you,” she whispers, wiping her face. She never thought she would be able to serve as an Avenger again, but she’ll take the opportunity if it means taking her mind off recent events.

“Ready to try it out?” Tony presses a button on the side of the suit and the suit opens up, bending into a crouched position so Natasha can get in it like a chair.

She smiles for the first time since the accident.

“I am.”

***********************************************************************

Six months after the accident…

Natasha is in the gym, lifting dumbbells on a bench when Tony walks in. Although she now has a legitimate excuse for skipping leg day for the rest of her life, she now has to make sure her upper body is twice as strong to make up for it.

“Look who decided to slide through my DMs this morning,” Tony says, shoving his phone in her face.

Midnight. Central Park Carousel. Come alone.

The text was from you.

“Oh, my God,” Natasha says, setting the weights down. You haven’t even texted her since the accident, and she’s a little hurt you didn’t reach out to her first. “What’s this about?”

“I have no idea.” Tony shrugs. “I know it says for me to go alone, but since it’s from Y/N, I wanted to ask if you wanted to tag along.”

“Of course.” In a way, Natasha feels like the text is really meant for her. Central Park was where you had asked her to be your girlfriend. That couldn’t be a coincidence.

“I’ll need you to be on your A-game. We have no idea what Y/N’s been up to these past six months. I don’t know if you’re gonna like what we find,” Tony says.

Natasha has spent countless nights wondering where you’ve been and what you’re doing. Now she has the chance to find out. “It’s going to be okay, Tony,” she says.

He shakes his head. “Just so you know, I’m praying more for you than me right now.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here for Part 3!

AN: I never went to medical school, so forgive my medical inaccuracies.

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff fanfic #black widow #black widow fanfiction #marvel imagine #natasha x reader

136 notes · View notes

junker-town · 7 years

Text

‘NFL Blitz’ bracket: Which team has the best QB, WR, RB and TE combination?

Judging the NFL’s best football teams ... via an 18-year-old arcade game.

asThere are two types of football video games. Some, like EA Sports’ Madden series, go to far lengths to painstakingly recreate every aspect of the game, dealing in the mundane to offer an authentic experience.

Others, like the legendary NFL Blitz ‘99, run purely on button-mashing excitement.

Blitz was Midway’s ode to the best parts of football. The game distilled the NFL to its basest points, eschewing the run game, turning off penalties, and trimming rosters to eight players — only five of whom actually counted for anything. The loosely based simulation took franchises and boiled them down to five players: a quarterback, a running back, two wide receivers, and a tight end. While each team had a defense built to reflect its real life model, each squad played roughly the same when it came to stopping 45-yard Ryan Leaf bullet passes downfield.

With a nearby retro arcade doing God’s work and putting Blitz back into the lives of Wisconsinites, one question became clear. Which NFL team would create the best, sort-of-football roster? Whose five-man offenses would reign supreme in a game boiled down to speed and deep balls? Which franchise offers the most exciting product?

With the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament rounding into shape, a bracket seemed the perfect way to crown a winner.

Like NFL Blitz, winning will rely solely on who can pull off the most ridiculous plays. Defense doesn’t matter, just the star ratings of each team’s five most important skill players. Victors typically come down to how can run “Da Bomb” to perfection. Athleticism, speed, and passing are key. Blocking, run games, and injury concerns are not.

The NFL’s 32 teams allow for a tidy bracket, and this year’s draft order provides a handy seeding chart. Each team was considered as it currently stands — which means the Patriots get the luxury of Brandin Cooks as a wideout while the Jets have to roll with Bryce Petty at quarterback. The first round of the tournament sports a few blowouts at the top of the bracket — but things get pretty interesting once you speed past the first six seeds.

Even without a No. 1 tailback locked in, the Patriots have the advantage at every position; adding Cooks was the icing on the cake. Tom Brady and four pass-catching athletes who can roast defenders make New England well deserving of its No. 1 seed.

Winner: Patriots. Not even Blitz 99’s patented “no blowouts” algorithm could keep this game close.

This game would be as ugly as the first 2.5 quarters of Super Bowl 51. The 49ers did work to add some talent this offseason, but still get smoked by one of the NFL’s scariest offenses.

Winner: Falcons.

With Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, the Steelers may just be the most Blitz-friendly team in the NFL. Bell immediately benefits from the lack of league suspensions in a video game, while Brown plays like someone is holding down his turbo button non-stop in the first place. Though the roster drops off behind them, it’s enough to hold off the talent-starved Bears.

Winner: Steelers.

The NFL’s strongest arm vs. a man gunning for Matt Schaub’s crown as the league’s pick-six king. NFL Blitz allowed you to run 50 yards backward to your own end zone in order to uncork a 110-yard bomb downfield. With Rodgers, that’s not an egregious exaggeration.

Winner: Packers.

Behold! The most lopsided matchup in the Blitz Bracket!

Winner: Cowboys, in a game so unfair the arcade cabinet crumples in upon itself once these two teams are chosen.

The Chiefs are primed for an upset, but the talent-starved Jets aren’t the team to give it to them. New York’s skill positions should be declared a Superfund site. Kansas City may not be long for a tournament that hinges on excitement with Alex Smith at quarterback, but he’s still light years better than Bryce Petty.

Winner: Chiefs.

Blitz’s lack of injuries really benefits the Chargers here, who get full-strength versions of Keenan Allen, Melvin Gordon, and Antonio Gates. While the Seahawks have a solid team, this looks like our first upset of the bracket.

Winner: Chargers, thanks to a ballsy, nigh-unstoppable two-point conversion as time runs out.

The question here is whether DeAndre Hopkins has the attributes to pull his team to victory. Against a lesser opponent, sure — but a mobile quarterback like Newton is just too dangerous in a game like Blitz, and these Texans aren’t equipped for a shootout.

Winner: Panthers.

When reflecting on Cincinnati’s impressive streak of postseason disappointments, it’s easy to overlook just how boring its roster is. The Bengals have just one exciting playmaker on the roster (Green), which makes them Blitz anathema.

Winner: Raiders.

Running backs weren’t vital in the Blitz universe, which bails out a New York offense that ranked 29th in rushing yards last season. The Bills have a lot of talent here, but ultimately the receiver duo of Beckham Jr. and Marshall is enough to help the Giants squeak by in an Empire State showdown.

Winner: Giants, but not by much.

These two rosters are ready-made for the Blitz universe. Dynamic receivers and bruising tailbacks anchor two explosive offenses that can move the chains with big plays. However, in a game where the passing game is 90 percent of victory, it’s tough to deny Drew Brees, who is destined to throw for 7,000 yards in his age-53 season.

Winner: Saints. Sorry, Dolphins. You’re better than a first-round exit.

Philadelphia’s work to bring in wide receivers this offseason did wonders for its five-man offensive profile. Alshon Jeffery will be available every game in this universe, which swings his signing from high-risk, high-reward venture into slam dunk territory. Matthew Stafford will make this a game, but ultimately the Eagles’ edge at wide receiver makes this a win for the birds.

Winner: Eagles.

The Broncos have two awesome receivers and little else. The Cardinals have David Johnson, who would be a borderline superhero in the Blitz universe. Defense wins championships, but not so much in a video game where your most effective strategy is just to call a field goal block every play.

Winner: Cardinals.

Two fun teams here with talented receiving corps, but the Vikings can’t match the athleticism and excitement Tampa Bay brings to the table. Minnesota has some playmakers, but the Jackson-Evans combination is a match made in arcade heaven.

Winner: Buccaneers.

A game where defense doesn’t matter and blocking is superfluous is what the Colts have been preparing for the past three seasons. Tennessee, your receiving corps; woof.

Winner: Colts.

Two staid quarterbacks surrounded by a lot of what-ifs. What if Terrelle Pryor really is a No. 1 receiver who just needed someone other than the Browns’ cast of Scooby-Doo monsters throwing him the ball? What if Breshad Perriman could live up to his status as a 2015 first-round pick? And, most importantly, would we care about Rob Kelley as much if his nickname weren’t “Fat Rob?”

Ultimately, Washington’s slightly better receiving corp carries it to a close win.

Winner: Washington.

There’s round one of the Blitz bracket, which featured a handful of surprises but no major upsets among the top six seeds. Playoff teams like the Texans and Seahawks are going home early, which upgraded franchises like the Eagles and Buccaneers suddenly look stronger. Here’s how the tournament looks through its opening series.

That leaves some interesting matchups like a showdown between Drew Brees and — sigh — Alex Smith, a chance to stack the Eagles’ new acquisitions against their powerful NFC East rivals, and a game between two quarterbacks forever intertwined — Philip Rivers and Eli Manning. But which team will prove to be the NFL’s most exciting and take down the Blitz Bracket crown? We’ll learn more in the second round.

0 notes