Another one, this one has a lot of action and it prepares ground for something else. Also it (almost) explains why is Natasha so afraid of the Hulk.
Chapter 9: Blue
„Come on, Clint, we should go," Janet knocked on his door. He jumped down from the window sill, slowly walked to the door and joined them in the hall. Janet was on edge, while Abe was leaning against the wall, whistling the Indiana Jones theme song. „We are going to be late," she added.
„We are going to be on time," Clint said.
They walked on when Abe suddenly stopped. „We should pick up Nat."
He knocked on one door and after some shuffling inside she came out. It was the first time Clint had seen her since Sao Paulo. She looked almost the same, but somehow less... ethereal. Like there was less Black Widow and more Natasha.
„Where did you leave your pigtails?" he asked.
„They told me I am to work with the grown-ups now, so I dressed up for the occasion," she checked her neat knot of hair.
„Great, can we go?" Janet asked impatiently.
They reached the safe room just in time. Fury was waiting for them.
„Sit down," Fury ordered. „Your mission." He pressed a button and on the screen in front of them appeared a plan of a building. „It's a research facility of one Hemingway Forrester, who worked for Leonor Carreiro. Now he is in the service of Konstantin Dreykov himself. I know agent Romanoff asked not to be assigned to any mission related to Dreykov, but this is a top priority. They are making some kind of a weapon and we need to know what and why.
Barton and Romanoff are going to observe directly. Kirk, yes, I mean you, Abe, you're going to bug their computer system so Janet can connect to it from her post. Forrester has a security equal to SHIELD facilities, that's why I called you. One mistake and the whole complex is going after you. You'll need to be fast and invisible."
„Sure, because we are doing miracles as a part-time job," sniffed Abe.
„There are seven circles, Circle 1 is the heart of the production," Fury continued, ignoring Abe's remark. "You, Abe, don't have to get further than Circle 4, but you two..."
„I'm not going to like it, am I?" asked Clint.
„Circle 1," Fury confirmed his worries.
Clint exchanged a look with Natasha. She sighed. „I thought that it was too risky to let me in the field."
„Top priority," Janet said instead of Fury.
„Great. How do we do it?"
XXX
The first three circles weren't that bad. Now they reached a station where they left Abe to work on the computer system while the two of them moved on in. In Circle 2 they ran into a guard, but Barton responded quickly enough and the guard had one of his arrows between the eyes before he could make a sound. They dragged the body into a utility room and continued.
The very heart of Circle 1 looked a little like a morgue. There was at least a hundred metal tables, each loaded with something looking like a body covered with a sheet. When Barton lifted one of the sheets that was what they found. Body of a young man with short hair and athletic figure. Natasha tried another table and frowned.
„They look exactly the same," she said. On the next one she found the same man again.
They ran along the row of the tables, pulling sheets off the faces. When they reached the end, they looked at each other in horror. The room was full of clones.
„Alligator?" Barton whispered Abe's codename in the communicator. „We need to get out and fast. There are clones here, plenty of them, and I sincerely hope they are what they seem to be and not something nasty."
„Come here," Abe answered. „I'm almost ready."
They started to cover the clones again. Natasha hadn't reached half of her row yet, when the clone closest to her grabbed her wrist. She wriggled out, but the other ones were waking up.
She looked at Barton and he mouthed one word.
Run.
They darted for the door, avoiding the more active clones. Natasha was there first and she turned to see if Barton followed. She regretted it at once, because the situation was getting even worse.
The clones were changing into something big and blue. Their muscles grew to unnatural size and their faces turned into something between human and animal. And they started to roar.
Barton turned, not even stopping, and sent an arrow in their midst. They didn't have to worry about fast and invisible now, so he used the explosive one. It blew up one of the monsters, wounded three more and startled the rest. It wasn't much, but it gave them time to run.
For such giants the monsters were awfully fast. Natasha started to panic. When she imagined her death, it had always been a bullet, never being crushed. The monsters were closing in. Why are they so fast? Some analytical part of her brain suggested that it was because they weren't avoiding obstacles, they were smashing them.
She had barely noticed that they reached Circle 4 and Abe joined them. There was something wrong, there were no people in front of them, but she didn't have time to think about it, just to run and occasionally turn and shoot anything big and blue she saw.
When they finally reached the exit and it didn't open, she understood why no one bothered to hunt them down. All the enemy had to do was to seal them in with the monsters.
She looked at Abe and Barton. There was no question, not even a goodbye in their eyes. Just determination to fight and see the outcome.
„We are trapped," she heard Abe tell Janet via the communicator. „If you can send someone to get us out and blow this whole place to hell, it would be very kind of you."
„They won't get here in time," Natasha said.
„They still can blow up our blue buddies," said Barton.
That was all they had time for before they had to fight for their lives. Natasha soon found out that the giants were fast runners and incredibly strong, but they had trouble catching a small and fast person. And they weren't even that big, about two meters tall, but the huge muscles made them look even bigger.
Her only hope was to stay in motion. Barton and Abe figured it out soon enough and after a while they were fighting on a pile of corpses.
She heard Barton cry out and turned to look. He was still shooting, but now he was on one knee and it seemed that he couldn't get up. Both she and Abe moved closer to protect him, but it was difficult, because he needed clear view to keep shooting.
„Down," Abe ordered and helped Barton hide behind the dead giants.
To their surprise the monsters were already leaving. One by one they turned and went back to the heart of the complex.
All three of them sat down, leaned against the wall and tried to catch their breath. Natasha wiped the sweat from her forehead and was surprised to see blood on her fingers.
„It's a cut. It's not deep," Barton told her and gingerly touched his ankle. „Broken," he muttered.
„Janet? No, listen to me," Abe interrupted whatever his wife was going to tell him. „Blow it up. Drop the bomb on the other side of the building, but don't wait. The monsters left, but I guess they're just regrouping. Clint is hurt, we can't handle another fight like this. We have a good position, we can survive the explosion."
They heard heavy footsteps in the distance, a sign that Abe was right.
„Missile deployed," said Janet in their communicator. She sounded a little teary.
„Good girl," smiled Abe.
Then the world exploded.
XXX
When Clint woke up, he was deaf. They were slowly getting him out of the debris and they were talking to him, but all he heard were indistinct noises like he was underwater. His ankle was killing him and the thousands of small scratches and grazes were making him wonder if this is what laundry feels like after it's been in the washing machine.
He felt a jab of the needle in his arm and within two minutes he fell asleep.
The next thing he knew was that he lay in a hospital. The other bed in the room was occupied by Abe, who was whispering with Janet. Clint sighed with relief, when he realized that he could hear them.
„Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," Abe greeted him hoarsely.
„What happened to you?" Clint frowned. Last time he saw him, Abe was all right.
„Couple of broken ribs," said Janet. „From when he made me drop a missile on his head."
„Don't sound so aggrieved," Abe sniffed. „We were fighting giants. Actual roaring blue giants."
„They really were blue? I thought I just hit my head and was seeing things," said Clint.
„No, you didn't. Well, maybe you did hit your head, but the giants were real," Abe assured him. „I call them the Smorphs. Like Smurfs, but they can do this metamorphosis..."
„Which is pretty stupid, if you ask me," said a voice from the door. Clint turned to see Natasha, scratched and with one hand bandaged, but otherwise fine. „The Smurfs were not murdering monsters."
„You watched the Smurfs?" asked Clint. Somehow he couldn't imagine a bunch of future child assassins sitting in front of a TV.
„Once, by accident," she admitted. „Last year could get really boring."
All right, the mental image of a grown-up assassin watching cartoons was even more disturbing.
„Great, I can bring the Lion King and we'll make a sleepover!" said Abe with fake excitement.
„Shut up, Abe," said Clint and Natasha in unison.
Abe looked offended. Janet just rolled her eyes.
„I am still your superior, you know," he reminded them.
„Shut up, sir," Natasha corrected herself. „Do we know anything more about them?"
„They are basically robots with some organic parts," Janet said. „They are just designed to look like living creatures. When they're inactive, they look like a dead person, so they can be left among the casualties and taken to the heart of the enemy camp with their fallen. Once they are where they need to be, their controller sends a signal and they... well, you saw it yourself. Like Trojan horse."
Clint shuddered. The thought of their own dead rising to fight against them was horrible enough even without them turning into monsters.
„Well, one thing is for sure," he said, trying to lighten the mood. „I'm never watching the Smurfs again."