Assembled We Are Strong

Chapter 25

AN: This time Natasha hacks a mechanical octopus, Thor chases a missile, Steve chases the Red Skull, Clint takes the weight, Bruce hulks around and Tony fails to shoot straight. Just a typical day for the Avengers really.

Natasha watched with disbelief as Hawkeye flew into view. She had never expected to see him up and about so quickly. She saw him nock an arrow and was well aware of what was about to happen. Some people would have been worried, but Natasha knew how good Clint was. He never missed. The arrow soared through the air and pierced the windscreen of the tank. The glass didn't shatter but there was now a neat hole, about the size of an arrow head and Natasha could feel wind on her face and hear the thud of the tips of the legs hitting the ground. The arrow continued its flight and sliced through the metal tentacle that held her in place. She found herself dropping to the ground unceremoniously, without the bindings around her to keep her upright. Two more arrows slammed through the glass and cut through the metal holding Steve and Thor. Clint managed to get the trajectory of the final arrow to slice through two tentacles, freeing Thor's hammer as well as the Asgardian.

The Red Skull had left the cockpit only moments earlier, saying something about being needed elsewhere. Natasha was betting that it was to escape.

"You heard Tony's message," said Steve.

Natasha nodded, checking her weapons to make sure they hadn't been damaged by the crushing metal tentacle. She tried her radio and got static. "The com's down again."

"The Red Skull will deploy the seismic devices when he has reached the correct location," said Thor.

"So we have to stop the missiles from firing," said Steve.

Natasha watched Hawkeye zip past the window. "What the hell is Hawkeye doing here?"

"His job," said Steve. "Now we need to do ours."

"And the Red Skull?" asked Thor.

"If we run across him then we'll deal with him, but the missiles have to come first," said Steve.

There was a thunk and then a muffled explosion. A siren began to sound, and red lights came on as full power flickered on and off for a moment. That was Hawkeye again, putting a well-placed arrow into something important. The tank actually stopped moving for just a few seconds, but Natasha could see screens rebooting and technology jumping back to life as she watched. She headed for the nearest screen and began trying to work out how to access the systems.

They heard the sound of servos whirring and the screen indicated, in German, that the missiles were being moved into the launch tubes. It was followed by a much larger shudder and the entire room tipped sideways, in much the same way that it had after losing two legs. This time the damaged seemed to be worse and the tank had trouble staying on its feet. Natasha, Steve and Thor were thrown to the ground. Natasha grabbed hold of the Red Skull's chair to stop herself rolling into the wall. She pushed herself upright against gravity's pull and grabbed hold of anything she could to help herself.

"I need to take a look at the controls," she said. "The missiles are already in the tubes and getting ready to launch. Maybe I can shut it down from here."

"Can you tell us how to get to them?" asked Steve, getting to his feet again now that the tank seemed a bit more stable.

Thor was already upright and looking for a target, but there wasn't anything for him to throw his hammer at here.

Natasha typed furiously. "There's a hatch in the corridor, just above the doorway into the cockpit. Up there is the armoury." She typed some more. "I think I can hack the computers and bring this tank to a stop, but I'm locked out of the weapons systems." Her eyes glanced across a schematic of the major areas of the Hydra tank. Her heart sank. "There's also an escape pod to the rear. I think that's where the Red Skull is going. One of us needs to go after him and someone needs to go up to the armoury and stop the missiles from firing. It's a lot of climbing and I don't think I'm going to be fast enough with my bad arm."

"I am the only one that is uninjured," said Thor. "I'll go. Captain, you should follow the Red Skull. The Widow is needed here to stop this behemoth."

Natasha could see that Steve felt guilty about leaving what he would consider the real work to others, while he chased after his old enemy.

"Thor's right, you need to take him down. He'll be back with another plot in a few months if you don't and the next one might be even worse than this," said Natasha. "There's a camera in the armoury. I can get it online and talk him through what he needs to do to shut down the missiles."

Steve let out a slow breath. "Okay, I'll go after him. If it looks like Iron Man, Hawkeye and the Hulk are close to taking this thing down then I want you both to do your best to get off before that happens."

"Understood," said Natasha, turning back to the screen in front of her. "Now go!"

"Yes, Ma'am," replied Steve. He exchanged a look with Thor and then the two of them left on their respective missions at a flat out run, while Natasha was left to wrestle with the computer.

She could still see Hawkeye, dodging plasma cannon fire out of the corner of her eye and was amazed that he was out at all. When she'd last seen him he'd been in a coma and on a ventilator. Now he was jetting about in something that looked a little like a cut down Iron Man suit and firing off arrows as if he was fine. The occasional wince, that he probably thought no one could see, let her know that he wasn't, and she hoped that he didn't pay for this outing too harshly afterwards. Which assumed that there would be an afterwards. She ignored her partner as best she could and concentrated on at least stopping the tank moving forwards, whilst pulling up the camera feed of the armoury.

She finally found the correct series of commands and the tank ground to a halt. She now had more time to observe Iron Man and she realised that he was flying on a single repulsor with the other one cutting in and out, making his flight erratic. Clearly he'd been hit at some point. Clint was still putting arrows into the tank, with varying degrees of success. The jet pack was definitely hampering his ability to fire, but it wasn't that much of a hindrance to his accuracy.

Her com sparked into life, and she could now see Thor on the camera feed from the armoury.

"Black Widow, can you hear me? I have reached the armoury," said Thor.

"Okay, there's a screen to your right," said Natasha.

Thor turned and located the screen which she was talking about. She took him through typing the series of commands that he needed to gain access to the armoury systems. This took longer than Natasha would have liked.

"I appear to have access to the missile systems, but there are some numbers that are getting smaller," said Thor.

"That's a countdown to launch," said Natasha. She persuaded the camera to zoom in so that she could see what Thor was looking at. The countdown was rapidly approaching zero and not only that the other thing that was flashing on the screen was "password". She had no idea what the password might be. She doubted "Hydra" or "Red Skull" would work and she doubted the Red Skull was stupid enough to leave his passwords lying around in his system. Even so, she began looking for a password file, but it wasn't there. Nothing she was trying was working, she couldn't hack the system in the time available and she couldn't tell Thor what to do when she had no idea herself.

"Thor, there isn't time to find a way to shut these things down. We're going to have to let them launch and shoot them down. I'm pretty sure that Tony and Clint are thinking the same way right now. I can give you access to the guns, but you'll have to target from there." She talked him through the targeting system.

"I understand," said Thor. "You have done everything that you can. I suggest you find the Captain and leave this metal monster."

"Thor…"

"I have my task and I will join you once it is complete," said Thor.

Natasha was about to argue but realised that Thor was right, there was nothing more to be done here.

"Just be careful," said Natasha. "Those things may not exactly be missiles but they still carry explosive charges to help them penetrate the ground. There's an escape hatch above you, if you need it."

The countdown reached zero and Natasha felt the floor shake as the six missiles launched.

Clint took the first missile down with one of Tony's specially built arrows before it had risen even a short way above the launch tube. He caught the second one a little further out and used the jet pack to put him in range of the third which was rapidly travelling away from him. He fired his third arrow, regretting the quick movement as his ribs protested. The painkillers, that Bruce had given him in the Quinjet on the way out, were wearing off and he wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer. The third missile exploded in a satisfying manner. However, he knew that there was no way that he could take down all six, that had been the limit of his range – he just couldn't move fast enough to keep up.

Tony was in the air and aiming at the others but he wasn't stable enough to get a proper shot off.

"Shit," swore the inventor. "They're too fast and the suit's crippled. Even with Jarvis compensating, this isn't working."

It was then that Clint heard the tank's plasma gun begin to heat up and he got ready to dodge a shot from it. He was pleasantly surprised when it aimed at the fourth missile and then the fifth, destroying the two in quick succession.

"Way to go, Natasha," said Clint, assuming (not entirely correctly) that this was the work of his partner. "Now, if you can just get the final one…"

The gun fired again several times, but none of the shots hit this time. Clint could only watch as the final missile fell to the ground, deployed its explosive charge and began burrowing.

"I really hope one missile isn't enough," said Clint. "Because if it is, we just killed Washington."

Clint heard a clang and turned to see a hatch being thrown open on the top of the metal beast. Thor emerged from the opening.

"My friends, my sincerest apologies. I failed to hit the final device but I will follow it and ensure that it is disabled before any damage can be done," shouted Thor. Mjolnir was already whirling in his hand and then he was flying towards the downed missile.

A thud on the ground indicated that the Hulk was abandoning ripping the metal squid to pieces in favour of bounding after Thor and the missile. Clint raised an eyebrow, aware that a god and a monster had just run off to deal with the seismic device and, strangely, they were probably the best people to do so. His body ached in new and horrible ways and he was very much inclined to leave them to it and go find Natasha. The sooner they could all get back to the Tower the better and then he could pass out in his own bed, in his own apartment. As long as someone told him where it was.

"I'm going to find Nat," he said over the com.

"I guess I'd better follow them," said Tony, with resignation. "We'll meet you back at the Quinjet, assuming that the seismic device doesn't drop the entire area into the sea."

Steve ran down the metal corridors. This place was maze-like but he'd seen the map that Natasha had brought up on the screen and he had a good memory. There was an escape pod at the end of the corridor and the Red Skull should be getting it ready for launch. He just hoped that he wasn't already too late.

It had only been moments after the Red Skull had left the room that Clint had freed them with some well-placed arrows, so he couldn't be that far ahead. He took the final turn and could see the door of the escape pod shutting. He put on a burst of speed and threw his shield into the crack. The door clanged into it, the shield dropping to the floor as it opened slightly again. However it had bought Steve enough time that he was able to grab hold of the handle with a couple more steps. He put all his weight behind it and fought against the machinery to pull it open again.

There was a squealing and breaking sound as the door tried and failed to resist him. He grabbed it and pulled it off its hinges, retaking his shield as he threw the door to one side and stepped inside the pod. The Red Skull was sat at the controls readying the vehicle for flight, but stood as soon as he heard the noise. He held a gun at the ready, but Steve had his shield and easily blocked the first few shots.

The Skull said something in German and a whirring sound alerted Steve that more of the metal tentacles that had captured them earlier had been called down from the ceiling of the craft. This time he knew what to expect and was ready. He dodged to the left, rolling under the tentacle's swipe at his previous position. He hit out with his shield and caught the metal of the twisting tentacle, slicing through it with the amount of force behind the swing. Another of thick metal cables slashed across at him and received similar treatment, the dismembered half twitched on the floor for a moment after being cut off, almost as if it was alive.

Steve didn't have time to contemplate it, as the Red Skull had used his pre-occupation with the tentacles to move closer and fired at him again with his gun. Steve just had time to pull his shield round again, but the Skull had made the mistake of getting close enough for Steve to sweep a leg out. The Red Skull hit the ground, but rolled with it and suddenly Steve found that he too had been pulled to the ground. He hit his head a little too hard as he toppled backwards and for a moment found himself too dazed to move quickly. He could feel the vibration of the powered up escape vehicle beneath his back.

He regained his senses just as his enemy aimed a hard punch at his head. He twitched sideways enough that the Skull's fist landed on the deck plating rather than slamming into his face. Somewhere in all this he'd lost his grip on his shield, probably when he fell and it was now just out of his reach. Steve couldn't dodge a second punch from the Skull fast enough and he took another blow to the head. His eyes refused to focus properly for a moment and the Skull was suddenly gone and back at the controls.

"We won't get far without a door, but it'll be far enough," said the Skull, apparently to himself. Steve could feel the vibration building and he got the distinct impression that the craft was ready to launch.

"Safety override required to launch," said a computerised voice, and then it repeated the warning in German. The Skull swore in the same language, and unstrapped himself, apparently to do something important.

Steve rolled onto all fours. He was bleeding from a cut just above his eye, and the blood was leaking down and into his eye. He blinked it away. He hadn't got this far to lose against the Red Skull now. The Red Skull was punching buttons on a panel at the side of the craft. Steve got himself to his feet just as the Red Skull completed his task and was about to return to his seat. He took one look at Steve, now upright and aimed his gun at him. Steve stopped breathing for just a second, expecting to be impaled by a bullet at any moment. The gun clicked and again the Red Skull swore.

Steve wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, he leapt at his enemy and the two of them rolled together on the ground. They got closer to the control console and the Red Skull got a hand free and hit a button. The entire cabin shook. The escape pod was in the process of launching. Steve got in a good punch and the Skull reeled for a moment. The Captain was pulling back for another when he caught sight of Natasha coming down the corridor at a dead run. The escape pod gave one final shudder and detached from the main vehicle just as Natasha reached the door. However, she didn't stop running, she just used the edge of the open door as her jumping off point.

He didn't get to see if she made it, because he was too busy trading punches with the Red Skull as they tangled limbs.

"Nat, what are you doing?" came a voice over the com. It was Clint. And just like that, Steve could hear all the com traffic from his team again. He could only assume that it had something to do with being outside the tank's armour plating.

"Hanging out," came Natasha's reply. "I love your new fashion statement. Want to help me up?"

Steve could just make out Natasha's fingers over the lip of the door, apparently she was hanging out of the escape pod. Between punches, he could see the flash of Clint's red and gold jetpack and then Natasha was landing lightly inside the craft. She nearly fell out again when the craft lurched to one side as Steve accidentally kicked a lever as the struggle continued. Instead she grabbed hold of a piece of the craft's airframe and was able to cling on.

"Nat, Steve, what's going on in there?" asked Clint.

"Oh, not much," replied Natasha. "The Captain's a little busy, but standby, we might need you."

Somehow the Red Skull had managed to use the unexpected roll of the craft to get away from Steve so that he was now able to kick out with both feet simultaneously. Steve toppled backwards, but was now within easy reach of his shield. He grabbed it and threw it at the controls where it made a satisfying shower of sparks and bounced back to Steve's waiting arm. The Red Skull yelled some obscenities and had apparently found time to reload his gun. He fired at Steve again, who deflected them with his shield. Another unexpected tilt, sent Steve crashing towards Natasha. The Skull was thrown to the ground, but had enough of his senses left to aim again and Steve pushed himself and Natasha to the floor, with the shield to protect them.

"I think it's time we made our exit," he said to the red haired assassin. "Hawkeye, I think we're going to need a lift to the ground. Take Natasha first."

"Like hell," said Natasha.

"No time, Captain. It'll have to be both of you together," said Clint, he hovered outside the doorway.

Tony's voice chipped in. "Uh, you don't want to do that."

"It'll be fine, I'll just increase the power."

"If you overload it then you'll drop like a stone. And how are your ribs holding up?" asked Tony

"Bruce's painkillers are doing their job," replied Clint. Only Steve heard the added sotto voce "…as far as they can."

"That wasn't what I asked, birdbrain," said Tony.

Clint ignored him and signalled to Natasha to jump on. "Come on."

"Are you sure you can manage this?" asked Steve.

"No," replied Clint, "but I can't see another way of getting you to the ground before this thing goes down, unless you packed an invisible parachute."

"I must have left it back in the Tower," said Steve.

Steve glanced back at the Red Skull, who was still dazed after being thrown to the ground. Instinct told him to rescue his enemy, but the reality was that Clint was pushing it with the two of them. He had to hope that the Red Skull could ditch the craft well enough that he'd survive and could be brought to justice. He still hesitated.

Natasha jumped on to Clint, putting her arms around his neck, and the jet pack dipped for a moment. Clint fiddled with the controls and it rose up again. Natasha shuffled round to what Steve knew to be Clint's bad side, where he had two broken ribs. He could see the archer grit his teeth against the pain and hand her his bow. It would have been a weird move, but Clint indicated for Steve to get onto his other side and Steve was heavier. It would be slightly less painful for Clint to carry Steve on the side without the broken ribs.

"Move it, Captain, we don't have all day."

He got onto Clint rather more carefully that Natasha had and they fell, the jet pack straining, while Clint tried to increase its power. Eventually they stopped going down quite as quickly, but they were still going down, just more slowly. Both Natasha and Steve shifted their weight so that they were holding onto the chest plate of the jet pack, but it wasn't helping much. Clint was clearly in a lot of pain from taking the weight of two extra people.

"Uh oh," said Clint.

"What? What?" asked Tony, too far away to do anything, but still worrying. "Did you damage my jetpack?" Steve knew that the last thing on Tony's mind was the jetpack but the billionaire had to keep up appearances.

"You…uh…may…uh…have been…right…about…uh…overloading. Crap," said Clint, breathing hard, but badly. Steve could feel that he was breathing shallow and fast. They weren't that far from the ground now, but that was just as well because the jetpack cut out and the three of them fell hard.

They landed in a heap of twisted limbs and exclamations of pain. As they picked themselves up and checked each other for further injuries, they could see the escape pod heading downwards in a spiralling crash vector. They didn't have to wait more than a few seconds to see it hit the ground and burst into flames, an explosion blossoming as the escape pod's fuel ignited.

Natasha turned to Steve. "I think he might finally be dead."

Steve paused but nodded eventually. The Red Skull had come back once from the dead, but the crash and resulting inferno looked pretty permanent.

One chapter left...