The once peaceful lecture hall filled with students working quietly to themselves was now completely silent. The door was locked shut and the lights were turned off, leaving no visibility except for the afternoon sun that peered through the window. Their textbooks and papers littered the floor around them, and their backpacks had been raided and thrown across the room. The twelve college students once sitting in groups at their desks now sat in a row on the floor. Their ankles were tied together and their hands were roped behind their backs tight enough to make them bleed. Two at a time they were tied up, silenced with duct-tape, and lined up on the floor at the front of the room.
The mad Russian paced the dark lecture hall, scanning his eyes across the room. He was cloaked in intimidation and evil and wielded a gun that he would occasionally point at one of the students, just to laugh at them when they would flinch. He stood tall at the front of the room, watching over his victims.
"What do you think?" he spat in his thick, Russian accent.
His partner Igor loaded another magazine into his gun with a chuckle. "Well, we didn't pick Columbia because we thought the location was nice." He walked up to a boy in the row, crouching down close his face. "What do you think?" He mocked, tapping his finger over the boy's duct-taped mouth.
Abram walked up to the row of students, a sense of pride beaming from him. "I think you will all serve us well. We're always looking for new faces, and you're all exactly what we need." He strolled down the line, studying each of them: how they would stiffen when he got close, how some of them couldn't even look at him, and how others wouldn't so much as blink in his direction. He reached the end of the row and paused. The young girl at the end caught his attention. She had bright blue eyes that glistened under strands of light blonde hair. They were overflowing with tears and her whimpered cries were almost inaudible. The boy sitting next to her nudged her occasionally to quiet her, knowing that even a peep from one of them could have all of them killed.
"Igor, come here," Abram called.
His partner tucked his gun away and stepped over.
"She's beautiful, eh?"
Igor knelt down, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind the girl's ear. She turned her face away and Igor cooed playfully.
"Don't be scared, *krasivaya... *Ty samyy osobennyy zdes'."
"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you breaking news: twelve students at Columbia University have been held hostage by an unknown international terrorist group. A call was received just an hour ago by a student who claims he was walking by a lecture hall when two men ran into the classroom with guns, threatening to kill the students if they attempted to leave. Columbia has since been placed on lockdown and no students or faculty will be permitted to enter or leave the campus at this time. Local law enforcement as well as the SWAT team are currently on location, and we will update you as soon as we receive more infor-"
The news segment was paused and the room immediately fell silent.
"So what's the next plan of action?" Steve Rogers broke the silence, resting his arms on the table.
Captain America was always the first one on the Avengers team to draft plans of attack, but this time, every move had to be carefully calculated. A single mistake in their ambush could cost the lives of twelve innocent students.
Nick Fury placed a red-stamped classified folder at the head of the table. "HYDRA is trying to infiltrate us form the outside in. We've been monitoring them since Sokovia. They're recruiting students from Columbia University, known for it's prestigious computer science program."
The words HYDRA caused a resurgence of familiar tension, and the team grew stiff in their chairs. The Avengers knew that they never made their peace with HYDRA after the battle in Sokovia, and their recent reappearance felt like salt in their still-healing wounds.
"We can't just run in there," said Steve. "We need to try and save as many lives as possible." He glanced over at Fury, who was holding a stiff composure in front of his team.
"This is a very delicate task, but I am confident that you will all succeed, as always."
Clint Barton peered up from his chair, scanning the room. "How are we going to tackle Hydra again this time?"
Clint wanted no part in any agenda that involved HYDRA, and no more so than his wife. Following the battle in Sokovia, Clint continued to dedicate his time towards retirement and his family. With three kids and a wife counting down the seconds until his arrival back home, every mission that involved demolishing HYDRA reduced his chances of him returning.
"Our main priority right now is making sure those kids make it out alive and safe," said Fury. "We can handle HYDRA after."
Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff quickly stood up from the table. They had their individual woes with HYDRA following Sokovia, and they were out to find their own peace once and for all. "I think we know what we need to do here," said Tony, walking out of the room with Natasha quietly following pursuit.
With a swift hand, Igor smacked his gun across the face of one of the boys, knocking him out cold to the floor. He let go of his shirt, letting him drop onto the floor in front of his peers. His cheek was purple and speckled with blood.
"Does anyone else want to disobey?" He growled, pointing his gun at the other eleven students, still tied up in a row. "*Ty takoy umnyy dlya nekotorykh veschey, no glupo dlya drugikh."
Igor pulled the young blonde girl at the end of the row up from the floor. She stumbled over her tied ankles, and Igor quickly yanked her back up.
"Abram, what are we doing with her?!"
The Russian mastermind turned around slowly, stroking his beard. "I want to keep her. I'm sure we can put her to good use."
Igor viciously threw the girl back down with the others, cocking another bullet into his gun. The students flinched when they heard the gun click, and Igor chuckled to himself at their muffled gasps. Abram reached for the first student sitting in the row, picking him up off the ground and quickly yanking a cloth sack over his head.
"As we said before: you disobey and we kill you," he warned the group.
The young boy frantically nodded as his ankles were untied and he was shoved towards the door of the lecture hall. One by one, each student was picked up, untied, sacked, and piled up towards the exit. The two HYDRA members made it halfway down the row before they were interrupted.
With an ear-piercing shatter the window rained in glass fragments around the classroom. Iron Man flew into the lecture hall, pointing a plasma beam gauntlet at the two HYDRA infiltrates.
"HYDRA, our old friend. We meet again. We thought you would get the message after Sokovia."
The two HYDRA members began to babble something in Russian before Igor quickly pointed his gun at the Iron avenger.
"You're gonna have to go bigger than that, buddy." Iron Man mused.
In a panic, Abram pulled one of the remaining students from the row and held a gun to her head, with Igor following his actions. "You shoot"-Abram shook the girl as she whimpered-"and I kill her. You take your pick."
The girl looked up at Iron Man with bright, pleading eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Iron Man paused for a moment, scanning the room of innocent faces. If he had his way, he would've blown up the damn place and turned Igor and Abram into ash for the hell HYDRA has put him and his team through in the past months. But before Tony could finish calculating his next move, Black Widow and Hawkeye jumped through the broken window.
"Put the girl down!" Natasha held up a pistol in each hand as Clint pulled an arrow from his holster and took aim.
From outside, police sirens could be heard bellowing, as the commotion of curious people began to fill the streets. News trucks were lined up one after the other around yellow caution tape and the state SWAT team was on standby around the perimeter of the building, awaiting their cue. They were surrounded.
"Abram!" Ibor nodded his head towards the broken window. "*Oni nas ozkruzhili. Chto nam delat'?"
Natasha took a step forward, one gun pointed at the head of each man. "Kapitulyatsia," she whispered.
In just seconds, shots were fired from both ends. The Russians threw the students they were holding across the room, and the Avengers team took heed. Hawkeye quickly darted his way across the lecture hall, heading straight for the victims. He wanted to partake in as little of the action as he could, and he assumed the responsibility of making sure they all made it out safely. The students here huddled together by the door, praying for their lives while it rained bullets around them. Clint grabbed two at a time and ran out the door while Natasha and Tony were the distraction. Amidst their fight, Natasha fell to the ground with a bloody gash sprawled across her cheek.
"You okay?!" Tony called out, giving Igor one more metal blow to the face before knocking him out cold. He turned around to check on his partner to find her picking up his victim and giving him one more swift kick in the face before throwing him aside.
"Never been better!" she smiled, wiping the blood off her face.
The room was suddenly much quieter than before. Natasha and Tony knew their work wasn't finished yet, as there was one more HYDRA member that needed to be taken care of. Abram wasn't anywhere to be found, until Natasha turned around. Abram was bloodied up and backed into a corner, aiming his gun at the two Avengers.
"You stupid Avengers really think you can dismember us... For years we've been after you, taking over SHIELD without you even knowing and every time we come back stronger and stronger." His thick, Russian accent sent chills down the heroes' backs. "You think just because you had your moment of revenge in Sokovia that our fight was over, but oh, it's only just beginning. You don't know what's coming for you."
Before the HYDRA member could finish his ill-fitting victory speech, Captain America jumped through the broken window, startling Abram. His finger slipped on the trigger, and with quick thinking Captain tucked himself away behind his shield. Iron Man threw a quick plasma blast at the villain, and before more shots were fired, he fell straight to the floor. Clint suddenly bolted back into the classroom, checking for any students he may have missed.
"I counted eleven students, but the news said there were twelve," he huffed.
The Avengers quickly scattered throughout the lecture hall, tossing around desks and chairs as they dug through the rubble. It was under a pile of chairs that Natasha found the last student. She was the young blonde girl that Igor and Abram taunted earlier, who managed to crawl away during the firestorm. She was shaking, her mouth taped shut and her hands still roped behind her back.
"Hey, it's okay," Natasha cooed, slowly crawling towards the girl. "Don't be scared, we're here to help you."
The girl's piercing blue eyes screamed at her savior for help. Black Widow grabbed her arms pulled her out from under the chairs. Clint quickly jumped in to assist, untying the rope around her hands, while Natasha worked on getting the tape off from over her mouth. "It's okay," she comforted. "We're here to help you."
Before they could get her onto her feet, her knees buckled and she passed out. Clint quickly pulled her up before she fell to the floor
"She doesn't look like she's lost a lot of blood, but her body could just be reacting out of shock," Natasha said.
Steven stepped in, scooping the girl into his arms. Clint and Tony gathered around Black Widow and the Captain, making sure she was okay. Tony lifted his mask to get a better view of the girl, and caught himself staring at her.
She was beautiful. She was innocent, and pure. And a victim of circumstance.
"I'm gonna take her over to Fire Rescue," said Steve, adjusting her wait and trudging his way through the rubble out of the lecture hall. Natasha followed him out and Tony watched them leave, motionless.
"This looks like the beginning of something interesting," said Clint, breaking the silence between him and the Iron Avenger as they stood among the rubble.
*Krasivaya - Beautiful (Russian, rough translation).
*Ty samyy osobenny zdes' - You're the most special one here (Russian, rough translation).
*Ty takoy umnyy dlya nekotoykh veschey, no glupo dya drugikh - You're so smart for some things, but stupid for others (Russian, rough translation).
*Oni nas okruzhili. Chto nam delat'? - They have us surrounded. What should we do? (Russian, rough translation).
*Kapitulasiya - Surrender (Russian, rough translation).