Chapter 4: Woodpecker part 4
Authors Note:
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers.
After twenty minutes Phil noticed that Clint and their new guest haven't come back so he went upstairs to check on them. He wanted to get started on the raid on Fyodor's tower and he would need his best man for the job.
When he got to the roof, he was shocked to see both Clint and Wood Pecker gone and a footlocker half empty. It didn't take him long to figure out what had happened to the two.
"Dammit, Clint!" He sapped before heading back downstairs. That's when he heard the gunfire from downstairs.
He drew his sidearm and made his way back downstairs, checking each corner as he made his way to their makeshift headquarters. He pressed his back to the doorway and slowly peeked in to see a couple of his fellow agents dead. He had wondered who was doing this or what was doing this until he saw her.
Estelle Shire had taken down the entire team. Only she didn't use a gun, Phil had spotted three yellow spikes sticking out of the chest of his deceased colleague. He made no sound as he watched her walk over to the nearby laptop. She typed in a few keys and he watched as Fyodor's face appeared on the screen.
"Estelle, what happened?" He asked from his end.
"I was compromised by S.H.I.E.L.D." She explained. "I managed to break free, but the girl is no longer with them. I think she was escorted by their archer."
"Hawkeye, they are heading here right now." Fyodor confirmed.
"Are you secured?" She asked, more out of concern for his wellbeing rather than her paycheck.
"Yes, for now, but I still need time to offload my special project. I have some people who will succeed where I have failed."
"How long will it take?" She asked.
"An hour. The file transfers contain everything I ever had."
"Fyodor." Estelle pleaded.
"Save it, just go. S.H.I.E.L.D will be upon us soon. I don't want you caught in the crossfire." Fyodor warned her. "Goodbye."
The screen went blank and Phil had decided to make his move. He remembered that he still had the sedative that she was going to use on Woodpecker. He pulled the jet injector out of his coat pocket and charged at the young woman.
Before he could stick the needle in her neck, Estelle turned and aimed the palms of her hands at Phil and to his surprise he watched as her palms split open across the middle and fired yellow spikes projectiles at the agent.
Phil managed to duck down at the last second and tackle the strange woman into the table she was previously occupying. He managed to roll her on to her stomach and restrain one of her hands while pressing the barrel of his gun to the back of her head.
"Try any more of that crap and you'll be just as dead as my fellow agents here!" Phill warned, but Estelle wasn't having it. Phil didn't have time to react this time as he felt multiple spikes stick into his legs.
He rolled off of Estelle, cringing at the multiple bleeding puncture wounds on his legs. Estelle rose to her feet, Phil's blood dripping from the little spikes sticking out on the sides of her lower back.
"So, it's not just your hands." Phill chuckled as he raised his gun at Estelle who immediately shot it out of his hand with one of her spikes. She quickly moved in and pinned him to the ground raising her hand as a larger spike ripped out of her palm.
"Nothing personal, Mr. Coulson." Estelle said as she prepared to finish him off.
Phil braced himself for the attack, but before she could strike a blur of black swooped in and tackled her to the ground. Phil looked over to see a black figure restrain Estelle's spiked hand behind her back before raising the syringe Phil had earlier and stabbed it into the woman's neck.
The woman struggled for a moment before succumbing to the sedative. The silhouette stood up from the unconscious woman and turned to Phil. "Never knew you were into the rough stuff, Phil."
"You're the second woman to make that remark tonight, Agent Romanoff." Phil grunted as his fellow agent helped him sit in a chair while she examined his wounded legs. "We have a problem. Not only does Fyodor know we are coming, but Agent Barton went rogue and took a high-profile target with her."
"The kid?" She asked, Phil nodded. "Dammit, Clint."
Natasha fitted in her head piece and tried to get in contact with her fellow agent. There was no response at first, which the woman found unsettling until finally there was an answer.
"Hey, Phil I know you're pretty pissed right now, but I can't really talk right now." Clint said, his voice sounding winded.
"Clint, it's Nat and from the sound of it you walked right into Fyodor's ambush." Natasha said in an unpleasing voice.
"Yeah…" Clint sighed.
(Ten Minutes earlier)
Clint stood across from Fyodor's building on the rooftop of the neighboring building and readied his arrow. He looked over at his young companion who was checking her equipment. She looked at him and nodded.
"You sure you're ready for this?" Clint asked.
"Yeah, now don't worry when we get close to the window, I can reduce the density of the glass and we can crash right through it without so much as a scratch." She gave him a reassuring wink and stood behind him as he readied his arrow.
"Stay back," He warned as he readied his arrow and fired it at the building. Woodpecker watched the arrow break apart across the way before the arrow head turned into a claw like clasp and latched into the side of the building. "Okay, from this angle we should be able to go through the window leading to the eighteenth floor of Fyodor's building. Stand behind me and hold on tight."
Woodpecker nodded and hopped on Clint's back wrapping her arms around his chest and her legs around his waist. Clint, with no hesitation, leaped off of the balcony and the two swung freely towards the building. Woodpecker let out an excited cheer as the two grew closer to the building by the second. Woodpecker saw her cue and snapped her fingers turning the clear window into a cracked mess.
The two flew through the window and to Woodpecker's word the debris didn't hurt them at all. Once the two had landed in the building, Clint looked over Woodpecker and nodded.
"Great job, kid." Clint complimented. "But why not just shatter the glass or pop out the window?"
"Because shattering glass leaves sharp, jagged shards that get into your skin and popping out a window would take too much time, time we don't have free falling from one building to another."
"Well, I can't argue with results." Clint examined the room they were in. I was a large empty room with a black tiled floor and orange walls. "Must be an empty office. I told you this place was a cover for something."
Just as the two were about to head out through the exit a group of Fyodor's guards started storming into the office. They were clad in full body armor and each one of them had a stun baton and a riot shield.
"So much for being subtle." Clint stated sarcastically as he readied his bow. "Why the stun sticks and shields?"
"Because they want me alive." Woodpecker said as she aimed her MP7 machine gun at the group of guards. "Just let me use my gift to disarm them and go for their legs. No need to kill them."
"Good pla-wait what are those?" Clint asked as Woodpecker watched as two of the guards set up a couple of large black circular devices on the walls facing the two renegade heroes. The devices impaled themselves on the walls with a loud clunking noise. One of the guards pulled out a small remote device which opened the panels on the devices.
Woodpecker recognized the devices and in one swift movement she dropped her gun and directed her powers at Clint, sending him flying towards the closest wall which she blew out, allowing her temporary partner to fly through the broken wall unharmed.
Clint, though taken by surprise, managed to quickly roll onto his feet and ready an arrow, He raised his bow ready to fire a concussion arrow when his ears started ringing painfully. He had almost dropped his bow as he stumbled over to the hole leading back into the office, he listened to Woodpeckers screams as she rolled on the floor in pain.
The guards were moving in on Woodpecker, stun batons at the ready, as the sonic devices kept screeching, she could not directly focus her powers on anything. One of the guards had raised his stun baton ready to strike her, but the young woman had managed to roll out of the way and pulled out her pistol shooting him in the ankle causing him to fall to the ground. She managed to grab her machine gun and opened fire on one of the closest devices. It took a whole clip, but she managed to destroy one of the devices.
The sound, while still painful and defining, had been reduced allowing her to get her bearings. She saw that most of the guards were still huddled together with their shields and stunners at the ready. Woodpecker raised her pistol at the remaining sonic device, but the guard she had shot beforehand had struck her in the thigh with his stun baton. She let out a painful yelp and fell to the ground while the guard had started crawling towards her with a collar in his hand.
The rest of the guards had started to slowly move in as well, until an arrow flew by and struck the sonic device silencing the room. Clint had rushed in and fired a concussion arrow at the group of guards while Woodpecker had struggled to keep the other guard from collaring her.
She used her powers to send the guard flying into the ceiling, leaving a large hole in the process, before slamming him back down onto the ground cracking the floor. She jumped when she heard Clint's arrow go off, turning to see the group of guards falling all over the place.
"Thanks for that." She sighed, rubbing her ears.
"What the hell was that?"
"Sonic scream device, or something like that." Woodpecker explained. "When I was a girl, they would use them on me all the time when I got rowdy. Then to a horrific degree they used it for training. It's one of the few things that can nullify my powers."
"He knew we were coming." Clint said, Woodpecker nodded in agreement.
"Well, he did send Estelle to sedate me, so we should have expected some extra security." She looked down at the guard she had taken down and then back to the ones Clint had shot down. "Speaking of which, why weren't they affected by that screech?"
"I don't know, their head gear isn't anything special, maybe they have some special ear pieces to block out the sound?" Clint suggested.
Woodpecker was about to say something when Clint fired another arrow at her. The projectile whipped past her head and impaled the man through his face mask. She was startled for a moment before she noticed that the group of guards were also getting up.
"What the hell is this shit?" She snapped as the guards stood their feet and charged at the two. Clint swiped his bow across the face of one of the guards before delivering a thrust kick to the chest of another, knocking him into another guard.
Woodpecker picked up one of the discarded stun batons and struck the electric end into the neck of one of the guards, but they remained unfazed. The guard turned towards her and pulled out a knife that was holstered on his shoulder and swiped it at her.
She easily dodged the rapid swings and managed to block his attack and disarmed him with a twist of his wrist. She spotted a couple of grenades on his belt and saw an opportunity. She looked over to see Clint struggling with the guards and she decided to use her powers to get them out of this situation.
Woodpecker held out her hands and using her telekinetic powers, she threw all the guards aside and ran towards Clint, tackling him through the exit door. The two stumbled into a stairwell as Woodpecker quickly turned back to the office, watching the guards stumble to their feet once more. Woodpecker concentrated her powers on the grenades and not just the ones on the one guard, but the grenades on all the guard's belts.
She watched the pins all go flying out, before crushing the ceiling above the doorway, blocking them from the potential explosion. She heard the loud explosion from the other side and even felt the stairwell shake all around them.
"Whew, that was a hassle." Woodpecker sighed. She stood to her feet and noticed that Clint had dragged one of the guards against the wall. "Where did he come from?"
"He went flying through the door when you threw them off of me. Nice job with the grenades by the way." Clint complimented. The young girl threw him a thumbs up and examined the guard. "Did these guys seem resilient to you. I mean how did they withstand that screeching device and those gunshot wounds. I didn't even hear them grunt."
"Let's find out." She kneeled down in front in front of the guard and started to unclasp his helmet. Clint watched her remove the helmet and take off his face mask and the two of them stumbled back at the horror they had discovered.
The guard had large surgical scars running along the sides of his head, which was shaved clean of any hair, his skin was pale white, his eyes were jet black and upon closer examination they were prosthetic. Woodpecker was starting to get P.T.S.D just from looking at him.
'This could have been me.' She thought while taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Clint looked over the guard some more and came to a conclusion.
"What do you want to bet that this is one of the missing bodies I've been tracking down?" He asked. Woodpecker managed to calm herself down enough to answer.
"I don't doubt it. I remember when I was held in captivity, Mr. Owl and Mr. Crow had talked about two things. Project Frankenstein and M.O.D.O.C." She explained. "I don't know anything about M.O.D.O.C, but Frankenstein was something Owl had been tinkering with. It had something to do with a new breed of super soldiers."
"Why not just use living soldiers?" Clint asked.
"Because living soldiers don't scream and yell when they have computer shit forcibly wired into their heads." Woodpecker gestured at the guard's surgical scars. Which started to glow red through the skin.
"Also controlled explosives, Ms. Woodpecker." Owl's voiced echoed over the P.A system.
"Oh shit!" The young girl screamed.
Thinking fast she used her powers to levitate the guard off of the ground and down the stairwell. The explosion went off a few floors below them, wrecking the stairwell around them. The two stood to their feet and quickly ran upstairs as the ground started to crumble under their feet. They ran up one more floor where Clint spotted a door. He grabbed Woodpecker by the arm and dragged her through the door and into another empty floor.
The two ran a few feet away from the door and once they were in the clear they decided to take a quick breather. The two slumped down against a nearby wall taking a few deep breaths.
"Jesus, this guy is even more insane than I remember him!" Woodpecker exclaimed. Clint nodded before his earpiece started going off.
"Hey, Phil I know you're pretty pissed right now, but I can't really talk right now." Clint said, the events of the past ten minutes taking its toll on him.
"Clint, it's Nat and from the sound of it you walked right into Fyodor's ambush." Natasha said in an unpleasing voice.
"Yeah…" Clint sighed. Woodpecker looked over at him confused at who he was talking too. He pulled out his phone and synced it to his earpiece and put it on loudspeaker so the girl could hear. "We got a problem too. You know those missing bodies we've been tracking well Fyodor has been turning them into zombified soldiers."
'What?"
"This guy wired something to their heads and now they're resilient as hell." Clint stated. "They used a sonic screeching device to try and take us down by non-lethal means. They also don't go down by conventional means either. The only way is to shoot them in them head."
"Well, that's good to know and you know what would help, more agents which is what we could have used if you had been here to defend them." Natasha scolded from her end. This took both Clint and Woodpecker by surprise.
"What are you talking about?"
"That secretary you picked up with the girl, she was an inhuman too. She shoots spikes out of her hands and she assassinated every agent here. She would have killed Phil too if I hadn't stepped in."
"Dammit, Nat I'm sorry. I didn't know she was inhuman." Clint apologized, but his fellow agent wasn't having it.
"Clint what were you thinking taking a high-profile target alone on a rogue operation?" Natasha snapped. Woodpecker was starting to think she was out of line.
"Hey, you should be thanking him, because if I had it my way that whole building would be a pile of rubble and your agents along with Clint would be dead!" Woodpecker snapped. "Now, I wanted to go after this guy myself, but your friend stopped me. We thought we had the drop on him, we didn't. This guy has been hidden from me for a while. If we don't go after him now, he'll disappear for another ten years."
"You're Woodpecker I presume?" Natasha asked.
"The one and only, baby. So, help us, or don't what's it going to be." There was silence for a few seconds before they had gotten a response.
"You remember that drug dealer you busted back in New York, Thomas Gruber." Natasha started to explain.
"Mr. Peacock." The two corrected.
"Whatever, it turns out that this guy's drugs were more than faulty super steroids." She explained to them. "Our medical examiners and top scientist have discovered that the liquid inside was some sort of coating, advanced and very lethal. They aren't sure how, but the substance can preserve vital organs and even protect them from harmful bacteria like smoke inhalation or poisons."
"They're already dead, what does it matter if they get poisoned or smoked out?" Clint asked.
"Their bodies need to be in capable condition for him to reanimate them." Woodpecker informed him. "That's what he always bitched at Mr. Crow about, he needed their brains intact and their bodies functional. Think of it like restoring a car. It's better to have all the pieces than just the damaged body. Plus, they are decaying corpses."
"How are they alive though, it just doesn't seem possible. I mean they can fight like professional marines. They don't stagger or anything." Clint explained, wondering how a bunch of corpses can fight like a professional S.W.A.T team. Luckily, Natasha answered for him.
"Probably because they aren't really alive," She explained. "I've got a satellite uplink to the building and I'm reading a large energy spike coming from the penthouse floor. I'm going to assume whatever is going on up there is related to the zombie soldiers."
"Maybe, I do remember Mr. Owl talking about needing a large powers supply and something about a neural uplink. Not just to control one soldier, but to control all."
"That sounds impossible, how could one man control a whole group of men?" Clint asked.
"That's why Mr. Crow laughed at him and told him it was never gonna happen it would take a great mind to have the strength to manipulate multiple thoughtless husks. I guess he must have found it." Woodpecker explained.
"Okay, we need to head upstairs and put a stop to all of this." Clint readied an arrow. "Natasha, get a call out we need air support this man is a high-level threat. If you encounter any of his private guards shoot to kill, do not hesitate."
"Clint." Natasha tried to talk to her friend, but he wasn't having it.
"Just do it, over and out." Clint snapped, ending the call and turning to Woodpecker. "You ready to end this?"
"Hell yeah!" She said, readying her gun.
Just when they had readied themselves another group of guards had moved in from the stairwell door. Clint spotted the ones with more sonic cannons and he targeted them first. He fired off two arrows right when they prepared fire, destroying them instantly.
Woodpecker opened fired with her machine gun, but the guards formed a line with their riot shields blocking the shots. She used her powers to rip their shields away, she instantly pulled out her handguns, gunning down the guards with precision strikes through their face masks.
"Super archer and mutant assassin one, robot zombie soldiers zero." Woodpecker chuckled as she picked up the discarded riot shields. "I have a feeling we'll need these."
"Good idea, I don't think he'll be using non-lethal means on us from here on out."
The two nodded at each other and made their way to put an end to Mr. Owl's cruel experiments.