Around the tunnel the footsteps of the two HAMMER agents echoed over the drip of water falling to the floor. As they swung their gun mounted torches flashes of movement could be seen as moths and other insects flew away from the light, so rarely seen in the deepest of New York's sewers.
"There's another dead rat," the first soldier said shining his torch on the skeleton of a rat picked clean by scavengers, "The fucker is around here somewhere."
"Hopefully not to close," his buddy replied, "I don't fancy our chances of beating him in this environment."
"Jeez Reilly you are the biggest coward I have ever met." the first HAMMER trooper stated.
"Not cowardly Geoff, cautious, there is a difference." Reilly replied as the two reached an intersection that split in two directions.
"Okay Mr. Cautious which way now?" Geoff asked as Reilly bent down and shone his torch on something caught in a grate. "Help me pull this out?" he asked tugging at the item. Geoff added some extra muscle power before quickly letting go of the item as the torches revealed the trophy to be the severed head of a HAMMER agent."
"Oh Jesus Christ that's nasty." he shouted.
"Keep your voice down the target might hear and do the same to us." Reilly whispered. From far down the tunnel shots rang out before quickly being silenced.
"You don't think that they were…" Geoff asked before slicing his finger across his throat and making a squelching sound.
"Quiet I'm trying to get a signal." Reilly ordered, "Okay it's faint due to all the walls and tunnels but it should do." he explained, "Johnson come in, Johnson are you there." Geoff suddenly heard a steady beep getting progressively louder. "Reilly," he whispered nudging him, "Seriously man something is coming."
Reilly swung his torch around just in time to see a figure running at them before pouncing slashing at him and Geoff, as he died and the figure ran past him Reilly heard the radio crackle and a voice said, "This is Sigma lead I am in hot pursuit of Target Lima."
Clad in silver HAMMER armor Sigma thundered down the tunnel that target Lima had just ran through. Passing the corpses of Geoff and Reilly she turned and stopped to check a stain of green blood that was left on one of the bodies. Sighing she checked the motion tracker only to find the target had vanished off the scan. Looking up she fired three shots causing the figure to drop down onto the floor, pulling the cloak off her target she kicked him onto his front.
"Dr Connors, you are under arrest." she stated, before she could finish Connors lashed out with his tail knocking her to the floor before crawling up to her ready to slash her neck. Grabbing her knife Sigma slashed first cutting off one of the Lizard's fingers before getting to her feet. At the same time howling in pain the Lizard started running down the tunnel. Setting off after the perusing captive Sigma heard the radio chime.
"HAMMER command this is Sigma perusing Target Lima towards the old reservoir." she informed her superiors.
"Sigma we have deciphered Conner's work and equations and found out he's carrying a water borne chemical that will result in anyone affected evolving into a reptile. You must retrieve that vial before he reaches the tanks."
"Okay Command, I'm on it Sigma out." Sigma replied speeding up as the Lizard made a left turn up ahead apparently unaffected by the wounds she had inflicted on him. Turning the corner Sigma found a gapping hole that lead down to the cistern, although the stairway had long since rusted away. The Lizard, crawling across the walls turned and hissed menacingly before continuing down to the main Reservoir intake valve. Sigma knew that she had no choice but to jump the twenty foot down to the next gantry. With a thud she landed wincing in pain as the Lizard leapt to the same position and began to pull out the valve intake feed.
"Not this time Connors." Sigma moaned as she fired a shot that shattered one of the vials on his belt. With a roar he pounced on her biting down on her arm as Sigma used her free hand to punch the monster in the face. Recoiling the Lizard gave her the space and time to kick up throwing him off the gantry onto a lower platform only five foot below her. With a scream the Lizard reached up and pulled her through the gantry down to his position, the metal causing gashes in her armor. Sigmas responded with a flick of her wrist causing the extendable riot baton concealed there to spring out and smack him on the nose.
The Lizard dropped her just as an adjacent gantry screeched under the footfalls of HAMMER troops that opened fire with assault rifles. Eger to escape the Lizard jumped one more time heading for the massive tank below him. Sigma fired a shot sending the flying reptile smack into the side causing him to slide down the sides instead of landing on target.
"Sorry but your plans on a cold blooded revolution are over." she said down to the clinging Lizard who responded with a hiss that almost sounded like a human snicker. Sigma followed his eye line to see a HAMMER soldier lining up a shot with an AT4 Missile Launcher. Knowing what was going to happen Sigma swan dived off the gantry falling past the Lizard who leapt after her slamming them both into the wall. Up above the missile detonated on the tank causing the rusting hulk to vaporize releasing a torrent of water down onto the struggling combatants who were heading for the reservoir below.
"Prepare to join my family." the Lizard hissed producing the second vial of reptile mutation chemical ready to be taken by the falling water. Sigma didn't respond she simply slammed into the protruding pipe causing the two to become separated the Lizard falling into the reservoir with a massive splash. Sitting up she produced the vial she had stolen from the gloating reptile and placed it into the hardened tactical case.
"Formula secure, Target Lima is still mobile." she informed command, "And tell that idiot with the rocket launcher that I am not amused by his actions."
"Will do Sigma Lead, is the target still in sight." Command asked
"Negative he's under the water." Sigma replied, "Wait I have movement on the tracker." she added as seconds later the Lizard sprang from the reservoir heading for her location. Producing her gun she fired a shot down and with a yelp the Lizard fell back down slamming into a lower pipe. With a groan his form changed from reptile to human. "Target Lima is down I repeat Lima is down bring in lift and containment teams." she ordered.
"Good work Sigma Lead, Extraction team is incoming to your position." Command informed her.
Within a few minutes HAMMER units had secured Dr. Connors and extracted him to the surface. Sigma pulled off her arm shield that had buckled under the Lizard's bite revealing a bite mark.
"Thank God he's a lizard and not some kind of Killer Croc." she joked as the Corpsman strapped her into a stretcher. "I'm fine honestly." she added.
"You may have broken bones Agent Monroe." the Corpsman replied, "This is just a precaution."
Monroe didn't argue as she was brought back up to the tunnels and helped out by HAMMER medical staff to the surface just in time to see Connors loaded into a Grizzly APC.
"Where are they taking him?" she asked one of the corpsman.
"Negative Island, some kind of section in the Negative Zone for super beings." the Corpsman replied, "Personally I think we should just euthanize him, he's just an animal."
"No, prison is good enough, Dr Connors has little control over his actions in that form." Monroe replied.
"Interesting." a new voice said. Monroe turned her head to see a woman with black and red hair clad in HAMMER commander armor. "Agent Elizabeth Monroe, former SHIELD specialist trained by Natasha Romanov herself." she read off a palm top mounted on her armor.
"And you're Victoria Hand, glorified accountant." Elizabeth replied, "Why are you here, Osborne didn't assign you to field ops."
"No he didn't. I came down to see if you really are as good as your file says, looks like whoever wrote it was correct." Victoria complemented her.
"What do you want with me?" Elizabeth asked trying to be heard over the roar of a Thunder Hawk's rotors as it landed nearby."
"To promote you, Southern Command needs a skilled agent like you to cover areas such as Florida and Louisiana." Victoria offered.
"No offence but I'd rather take part on Black Ops missions, it's what I have been trained to do." Elizabeth answered, "I hate this grunt work." she added.
"The promotion is compulsory, although I'll keep an open mind if Osborne creates a covert-ops team. You leave next week as long as your physical checks out."
"Yes Ma'am." Elizabeth said darkly as she was loaded onto the Thunder Hawk. As the VTOL took off Elizabeth was sure she could hear Victoria say, "Interesting I must peruse this further."
After a medical check Elizabeth was released, she was bruised rather then broken but luckily she had been trained by tough people. Walking the five blocks from Avengers Tower to her apartment she was glad to be home as the door creaked open.
"You're home." a voice said from the darkness.
"Jesus Nijo can you stop the whole shadowy thing." she said flicking the light switch on.
"Just payback for all the times you did that to me." Nijo stated stepping into the light revealing a tall heavily built man with an X shaped scar across his face. "You smell bad, what did you do roll in the sewers."
"Had to deal with a Lizard problem." Elizabeth replied, "There sending me to Florida." she added.
"Should be nice." Nijo replied sarcastically, "Just in time for Hurricane Season." he added.
"I have good news." Elizabeth said, "I planted the idea in her head. Hopefully we should be getting results very soon as long as something convinces her it will be useful in the future."
"I don't understand why you didn't state it to Osborne." Nijo asked.
"Because Osborne broke my cover once, I couldn't risk it again, not so soon." Elizabeth replied, "The closer we get to Hand allows us to get close to Norman Osborne."
"And the closer to Osborne we get, the closer to completing our main objective." Nijo finished walking over to the fridge and pulling out two beers. "To a HAMMER Covert Ops Unit."
"To a HAMMER Covert Ops Unit." Elizabeth repeated taking a beer, "And a world rid of Norman Osborne once and for all."
HAMMER Agent Elizabeth Monroe is my own origonal creation and is not owned by Marvel Comics
