The Kirby was deployed to Lyon; and under cloak. Intel was that jihadists were planning to make a series of hits against the Christian community in this equally historic location; one reason for many in the modification of our overall continental security mission orders. Like Avignon and much of Europe it was filled with medieval Christian sites that were considered holy. These made ideal targets for crazies to hit; for tactical/symbolic reasons. And with recent events in Iran playing out as they had it had inspired homegrown/domestic terror units to rise up. Hydra was still in the mix too but this was more traditional jihadist in terms of its disposition/affiliation.

We were playing our cards close to our chests with these ops. There were sympathizers/traitors everywhere and unless I intended to lasso them all (desirable but impractical) then we had to handle this the old fashioned way. Trust none until proven different.

"Entering Lyon airspace now," flight control reported. "Good. P, Hawkeye; you're with me," I said. "Sharon - you and Nat will coordinate field ops from here." "Yes ma'am. We'll keep the troops on standby."

XXX

The Shield transport dropped us off near the outer limits of the city; in a wooded area. We had a good idea where the enemy was located for a local safe house. There could be others along with a base of ops but we weren't sure for the moment. Through a series of raids we would expose the enemy and deal with them accordingly.

Frank would hang back and play sniper; Clinton Francis Barton would travel with yours truly. Shield on my arm and Hawkeye with his bow at the ready we moved out. The target was one of the outer homes in this portion of the city. They'd likely picked its outlying location for ideal movement; both to and from the city. Frank from the cover of the woods would cover the rear portion of the target; Hawkeye would approach the rear door; and of course this patriotic goddess would hit them from the front.

I took to the air and flew up and around the target while Hawkeye crouched and got into position. I dropped down before the target. "My scope shows ten hostiles in there," said Frank into our comms. "Copy that," I said.

A baddie came out the front door. He spotted me and the famous shield on my arm. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to shout out...but I was already there and punching his windpipe hard enough to shatter it. I then smashed my semi invulnerable head into his not so much head; his spinal column shattered from the neck down. He then just dropped dead to the ground.

Hawkeye's first arrow punched through a rear window and nailed another crazy baddie - and straight through his brain dead head! Several more of them clustered up to see what had happened but Agent Barton fired off another arrow, this one explosive like the ones Rambo was fond of using in the movies...it burst into another portion of the same window and blew them and that section of the target to hell.

The hellfire cometh... And as ally/enemy/brother Hades was my relation I could say that with a greater sense of profundity than not.

Shield symbolically before me I lunged into the target and blew that part of the building away from my direct bodily impact. The remaining jihadi spun in my direction but I continued at them and at speed. I wasn't here to show mercy. I was here to kill the enemy before they killed Christians/Jews. I bashed them down/away with shield and fist for this portion of the assault. Hawkeye fired another arrow into another head of a baddie that tried to set off a suicide vest. It wasn't to hurt me (it wouldn't have anyway; non piercing ordinance); but rather it was to destroy the computers and other data storage devices around him. I was at his already dead body while it still stood and ripped the detonator off the vest and crushed it in my hand like a cheap soda can.

I scanned around, but no other baddies entered my visual field. "Clear here." Hawkeye entered the breached/burning structure with another of his many tactical arrows ready to go. "You are clear," said Frank. "On me," I said, setting my shield to my back again. "Copy that," said P. Hawkeye checked out the data stuff with me. "This too is a goldmine." It was. We'd found the same at that corrupted Avignon police station with Hydra; now it was this with jihadists. It was a winning streak we had to keep up.