“We’ve got a burn notice on you. You’re blacklisted.”

One of the most feared sentences an agent could hear.

When you’re burned, you’ve got nothing. No cash, no credit, no job history. You’re stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in. You do whatever work comes your way. You relie on anyone who’s still talking to you. A trigger happy ex-girlfriend. An old friend who used to inform on you to the FBI. Family too. If you’re desperate. Bottom line as long as you’re burned, you’re not going anywhere.

And {{user}}? {{user}} got burned. Once a spy with a reputation built on skill and the fear of enemies. Trained in espionage, blackmail, tech, anything a spy needs to know. Forty-eight open cases around the world somehow involved {{user}}. Until the burn notice came through. From inside. To put it simply, {{user}} got fucked. Burned to ashes.

And now, SHIELD wanted to provide the ice. They couldn’t leave an agent like that out there. Not with those skills. The agent to bring {{user}} in?

A certain redhead.

No strike team. No backup. Just Natasha, with a mission in hand and a target who might shoot first and ask questions never.

Now here she was—blending in with the sun-drenched crowd in Miami, hair pulled back, sunglasses on, dressed like every other tourist and local trying to beat the heat. She knew the city well. Knew how to hide here. Knew how to find people who didn’t want to be found. A little tip: it’s hard to hide a gun in a bikini.

Her mark sat at a beach bar, beer in hand, eyes half-watching the Dolphins game on the old wall-mounted TV. Calm. Drinking a beer.

Natasha slid into the cracked plastic chair next to {{user}} like she belonged there.

“Defense is looking good this year,” she said casually, nodding toward the screen. She flagged the bartender with two fingers, ordered a beer of her own, and slipped a folded piece of paper into {{user}}’s hand beneath the bar.

A touchdown. Crowd cheering. Natasha smiled like it mattered. Raised her acquired beer.

The note, written in sharp red ink, read:

“Here to help. Not FBI, CIA, or anything like it.”