Crimson narrowed his eyes then jerked upwards and shot the arrow at the fuse box above Nightstalker make it explode and making Nyssa's killer release his grip on Lyla. Crimson ran and leapt into the air going for a punch but Nightstalker saw it coming, and easily blocked the punch. Nightstalker went for a high kick but Crimson dodged the kick by jumping backwards at the last second. Crimson pulled out an arrow and shot it at Nightstalker then followed up with four more arrows. Nightstalker deflects all of the arrows with one of his kitanas. Out the corner of his eye Crimson sees that Lyla was still there so he yells,
"GET OUT, REGROUP WITH THE OTHERS NOW!" he watched as Harbinger runs out of the tunnel then turns his attention back to Nightstalker.
Crimson stands up and draws his own kitana,
"I have waited a long time for this Kraven, today I will get my revenge for the woman I love" Crimson growled in rage.
The two enemies circled each other before leaping into the air. Crimson and Nightstalker swing blades at the same time, and the two assassins being so in sync with each other deflected each other's attacks. They landed on the ground once more. Nightstalker went to make another move but saw Lyla appear again, she starts shooting at him so he drops a smoke pellet allowing him to disappear leaving them alone in the tunnel. Crimson puts his kitana away then walks over to where Harbinger stood.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU TIHNK YOUR DOING!" he shouted centimeters away from her face.
She didn't reply, she just turned and walked away.
Her silence gets him more angered so he storms after her then stops when he hears the communicator in his ear beep making him hit the button.
"You better have a good reason for making her do what she did," he growled.
"The mission has been compromised since the beginning Mr. Langston and I'm telling you this because there is a traitor among your team, the only people to rule out is you and Lyla so watch your back Mister Langston." Came Waller's voice on the other end of the mic.
"That doesn't explain why you stopped me from killing that son of bitch" he shot back.
"We were able to place a tracer on Fryers' plane, but right now I need you to return to base and that is not a request"
Crimson turned off the communicator then stormed out of the tunnel to see Lyla and the rest of the squad waiting for him. He says nothing as he makes his way past the remaining members of his team and stays silent until he reaches the awaiting plane. Crimson climbs aboard, makes his way to the back of the plane then takes a seat away from everyone else. He stares down at the ground ignoring everyone around him. Out the corner of his eye he watches everyone closely across from him sat Plastique, Bette Sans Souci, she caught his attention. There was something about her demeanor now that made her stand out from everyone else. He lifted his head then looked at Lyla who was sitting near him. He moved, allowing him to lay his back against the wall of the plane then using the fingers on his hidden hand, he taps a Morse code message to her.
He sees Lyla shift her head slightly then nods indicating she noticed the same thing as him. Crimson pulled his mask down around his neck then pulled his hood down off his head, his grip on his bow tightened until his knuckles under his gloves turned ghost white.
(!)
A.R.G.U.S. Headquarters
Mark stormed though the halls of A.R.G.U.S. looking for her. He flung open the door and entered Waller's office.
"You stopped me from killing the man who has made my life a living hell just because there is a mole on the team?" he growled at her. "I didn't agree to join this damn team so I can do your fucking bidding" he added before storming out of the room. He slammed the door hard enough that the pictures hanging on her walls all fell to the ground shattering the glass in the frames. Waller sat, watching him in silence, not flinching.
He went down to the training facility, walked over to the target practice area and grabs his quarrel of arrows along with his bow. He reached over and pressed a button activating the targets. He takes a step backwards then draws an arrow. Notching it in the bow and pulls backwards, he eyes the moving target then releases the arrow allowing it to sail though the air hitting the target right in the sweet spot.
He draws a second arrow but before he could release it, he felt a presence behind him so he turned to see Bette standing there watching him.
"I know about the mole and I also know you think its me but I can tell you its not" she said making her way towards him.
He goes to speak when suddenly Copperhead strikes down Bette. Copperhead turns her attention to Mark. He narrowed his eyes Bette wasn't the snitch. He started shooting arrows at the traitor but she used her agility to dodge each arrow. Copperhead ran at Mark, she leaps into the air and wraps her legs around his neck but before she could slash him, he blocks the attempt then swings her around slamming her into the wall.
Copperhead rolls away then stands,
"Foolish man, A.R.G.U.S. will do nothing for us, they will keep secrets from you and will never let you go! That is why you must get out now or you like everyone in this building will be dead" she sneered.
Mark looked at her confused when suddenly there was a large blast coming from the opposite side of the building. He turned back to see that she was gone. He walked over to check on Bette, he bent down and checked her pulse. To his relief she still had one, which meant Copperhead hadn't poisoned her. Mark stood up, picked up his bow and takes off running down the hall towards the explosion. He runs into the main room to see Lyla and Amanda hiding behind an overturned table firing their guns at the guards.
Mark realizes there's no way for him to hit the guards with his arrows from his position. He runs back to the equipment room and pulls on the top half of his suit and grabs his kitana. He looked around and saw a grate to the ventilation shaft so he ripped it open and climbed inside. He crawled though it until he reached the spot right above where the guards were shooting at Lyla and Amanda. He notices that Amanda and Lyla had no more ammo and their position behind the table was almost completely compromised. He quickly pulled his mask up over his head and then the hood. He took a deep breath then dropped down landing in the middle of both groups. Reacting quickly, he pulled out his kitana and cuts each and every one of the men down. He slipped his blade back into its scabbard before making his way over to where Lyla and Waller were crouched down behind what was left of the table.
"Bette wasn't the mole, it was Copperhead but she got away thanks to the distraction by the explosion" he said.
He didn't wait for either one of them to say anything. He turned and took off down the hall. Mark made his way down the hall, noticing dead bodies of A.R.G.U.S. personal lying on the ground, which meant one thing to Crimson that Nightstalker was in the building. 'He must have stowed away on the plane back from Hong Kong' Crimson thought as he ran through the halls until he saw the man responsible for the bloody chaos waiting for him.
"Well… well… well, I must say Crimson, we have been seeing a lot of each other this week" Nightstalker said with a hint of glee in his voice.
The two men started making their way towards each other. They pulled out their kitanas as they ran towards each other. Crimson swung his blade upwards while Nightstalker brought his blade down, but because of the smallness of the hallway, they had no room for big movements so they dropped the swords.
"Lets do this the old fashion way, shall we?" Nightstalker said bemusedly before going for a punch which Crimson dodged making the dark clad assassin punch the wall behind him. Crimson swung and blocked Nightstalker's second punch then dropped down and went for a low leg sweep only for Nightstalker to jump out of the way.
Nightstalker went for another punch but Crimson grabbed his arm and twists it throwing the dark clad assassin over his shoulder making him hit the ground. Crimson went to stomp down but he only hits the ground as Stalker quickly avoids it as he takes Crimson down with a leg sweep. Crimson does a quick kip-up and kicks Kraven in the face knocking him backwards, he leaps, wrapping his legs around Kraven's neck taking him down leaving Crimson standing. Crimson steps back allowing the assassin to stand up much to Nightstalker's confusion. Crimson takes out a small knife from its place in his boot. The dark red archer twirls the knife before swinging at Nightstalker who goes for a punch of his own. Crimson tosses the knife into the air allowing him to block the punch while catching the knife with his other hand.
Crimson goes to stab Nightstalker in the neck with the knife but Kraven jerks his neck away then slams his elbow on the side of Crimson's skull making him stumble sideways. Nightstalker ran and leaps at Crimson as he tries to knee him in the face but Crimson rolls out of the way. Crimson throws the knife right at Kraven who knocks it aside with his gauntlet. Nightstalker pulls out a knife and shoots at Crimson who dodges the blade. Nightstalker leaps into the air, Crimson sees this and pulls out his bow and slams it right into the assassin's stomach knocking him down to the ground then right before Nightstalker could get up Crimson leaps into the air and takes him out with a spinning heel kick knocking Kraven out cold.
Two A.R.G.U.S. security who weren't killed by either Kraven or the explosion arrived and took Nightstalker away before Crimson could change his mind about not killing him. Mark pulled his hood and mask down before walking back to the main room where he knew Waller was giving orders to the remaining people to start cleaning up the place. When she saw him enter, she stormed right over to him and said,
"Mister Langston, I hope you have a good reason as to why you stormed off like that?" Mark didn't reply at first then said,
"Kraven Wilson, is in your custody."
Mark then walked past her towards the locker room where he put his suit away and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie before going back to the main room where he now saw Waller talking to Lyla about something so he walked over to them. He saw that Waller was busy talking to someone over a communicator so he turned to Lyla and said,
"What's going on?" Lyla turned to him and said,
"She sent Bronze Tiger and Plastique on ahead to take down Fryers when she got a confirmation on the location but it was a dud, Fryers must've found the tracer and ditched it before heading off to his destination which means we're back to square one"
Mark looked at Waller who was shouting at whoever she was talking to over the line then spun around on his heel and walked out of the room. He pushed open the door to the stairs then made his way down to the bottom floor. He pushed open another door, which brought him to the holding cells, and in the first holding cell was Kraven. He must have shown his anger because the first guard didn't say anything before opening Kraven's cell then after storming inside, Mark landed a right cross to Kraven's jaw then said,
"Where was Fryers going?" but Kraven didn't reply so Mark punched him again. He repeated this process until finally Kraven spoke and said,
"Lian Yu."
Only Two Chapters left before the story ends, hope you have all enjoyed the story thus far and please note that something happens near the beginning of Chapter 11 that ties into my The Purple Archer story as does Chapter 12 so be on the look out for those two final chapters.