CHAPTER 8 - Luchnik
"Ugh... My head," Clint mumbled to himself as awareness began to slip through. What the hell was going on? Where was he? Carefully, he opened his eyes. The light filtering into the room wasn't all that bright. But it still gave a small piercing pain into his head. Almost like when his father had snapped a broken beer bottle against his head. Blinking, Clint focused. Something was going on. Something big. Important. Racking his brain, Clint hardly looked around. Then it hit him. "Hydra."
"Impressive," a familiar voice responded with a slow clap. Surprised, Clint jerked upwards, looking out. Through an electric barrier, Clint could see Rumlow sitting backwards in a chair. Of course. It had to have been him. "Techs said you might remember everything by now."
"What the hell Rumlow?" Clint snarled, shifting to get to his feet. His body stuttered for a moment in weakness but already Clint could feel everything mending itself as the super soldier serum fixed everything. How long had he been here? Did the others know yet?
"Ah, you don't like speaking with me?" Rumlow 'cooed.' Clint growled. They hadn't ever really gotten along.
"What do you want with me? And don't give me that bullshit of having another Asset. You know it won't work," Clint hissed. Rumlow laughed making the archer still. What was going on? What was he missing?
"You'd think that, wouldn't you," Rumlow retorted. Clint frowned and watched as the Hydra agent got up off his chair. From behind his back, likely slid behind the top of his pants, the agent pulled out a little red book. Clint paused. Okay... Maybe Rumlow did have some ability to make a new asset. It wouldn't do well for Bucky if Hydra kept hold of that damn notebook. "But. If I'm reading this correctly. I've already got my asset."
"The Winter Soldier was mindless. I remember everything," Clint snapped, reaching for anything to prove that Rumlow was wrong. Rumlow snorted before opening the book and looking through the pages. Pursing his lips, Clint shifted his weight. Why wasn't Rumlow convinced he failed?
"Operative Soldat shows no sign of betrayal as of yet. When not under orders, Sergeant James Barnes returns and fights. Giving orders again erases Sergeant Barnes. Possible alterations may be needed," Rumlow quoted when he found what he was looking for. Clint paled. Bucky remembered everything in the beginning? They had him jumping back and forth? Rumlow shifted a few more pages. "Sergeant Barnes is beginning to vanish with more Mind Alterations. We risk impairment of operating experiences if continuing course. Suggestion, leave enough of Sergeant Barnes behind."
"What the fuck!" Clint cried, backing a step away. This couldn't be happening. This was a nightmare. He just had to wake up. Right? Rumlow snapped the book closed.
"Barnes was never gone from the Soldat. His thoughts were just shoved behind the training. And, with all of this information. Well... Longing, Rusted,"Rumlow called out. Clint stiffened. "Seventeen, Daybreak." Something was wrong. Shaking his head, Clint stepped back, deeper into the room. "Furnace, Nine, Benign." Clint growled as he tried again to shake whatever was happening away. Something was fighting him. Pushing itself forward. Just like Hulk... Wait... Oh shit. "Homecoming, One, Freight Car."
Clint's body stilled. Mentally, he tried to shake his head one last time but he couldn't. Oh god! It was like being under Loki's control! "Orders, sir?"
"No orders yet, Luchnik," Rumlow replied. Clint's mind went icy. Jesus. They were calling him 'archer?' They wanted him to be Hawkeye again? Rumlow chuckled, moving forward. When he got close enough, the barrier dropped. Clint tried to make himself tense. Move. Anything! But not even a finger twitched. Dear lord! He was trapped! "Do you understand now, Luchnik? I own you."
Mentally, Clint screamed in rage. This couldn't be happening! Rumlow laughed and went to speak again when suddenly the floor rocked. The agent stilled for a moment. Clint paused. What? Then the sound of explosions came through the ceiling. Oh fuck. The others had arrived. Rumlow huffed, a smile coming to his face. Clint paled. Stupidly, he had seriously half hoped that they wouldn't have come looking for him.
"And you thought they wouldn't come for you?" the agent cooed. Clint felt a tear form in his eye. It slowly leaked out. He had some control. Not enough for it to matter. But some, apparently. "I wonder. Will they hurt you when you attack them?" Rumlow once again chuckled as explosions went off again. It didn't sound any closer. Smiling, Rumlow turned around. "Luchnik, follow."
With that, the Hydra agent stalked off. Without a seconds hesitation, Clint's body followed. A soft whimper echoed through Clint's head. Was this going to be his life now? Was he going to be the new Winter Soldier? Rumlow led Clint down a small series of tunnels until they arrived at what could only be considered an armory. But it wasn't a normal armory. This armory was an archer's dreamland. If Clint wasn't under Hydra's control, he would totally orgasm at simply the sight of what was greeting him.
"Choose a weapon and head up top. I want you to kill Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Ant-man, Wasp, Black Panther, War Machine. Capture the Winter Soldier," Rumlow ordered. Clint's body jerked forward, snatching the best bow in the entire room and then spinning to grab a pre-collected quiver of arrows. From a seconds glance, Clint noted that most of the arrows were broad head like a normal arrow. But, there was also explosive. One EMP. A few net arrows. And a few tranq arrows. Oh shit. Hydra had all the specs of Clint's arrows due to their time in S.H.I.E.L.D! The EMP and tranqs had to be strong enough to deal with Rhodes and Bucky. And likely the nets... Well, they had to be enhancement blockers to take down Wanda. Fuck... He was actually going out to kill his friends.
Rumlow didn't even wait to see if Clint would listen to his orders. He had already taken off by the time Clint's body left the archer armory. Clint figured the coward was likely planning on leaving the base and heading off to somewhere else. Fuck him. Fuck all of this! He hardly had anymore time to think about what was going on before his body was rapidly heading up a set of stairs. Wait... How the hell did he know where he was going? Then, he burst out onto a scene highly reminiscent of the city from 1943 where he had to kill Eric Newmen. A shudder ran through his body. Yup, not every memory of Clint's had vanished from whatever Rumlow had done.
"Clint!" a voice cried. Clint's body jerked to the side just in time to see Scott suddenly appear. His fist snatched out, hitting Scott right in the visor, cracking it. "Ah, FUCK man! I thought we were over that shit!"
Clint's body didn't even give Scott another chance to realize something was wrong before it spun the bow around and cracked it against the side of Scott's head. Without the helmet, Scott would have dropped. Possibly would have had a snapped neck too. Instead, the man just stumbled away and smartly, activated his device and vanished. Clint's body stilled before focusing on the ground.
Something he had never told Scott, no matter where the guy was on the battlefield, Clint could always see him. It was about now that Clint wished he had told the man that. Especially when his body reared back a leg and kicked the smaller man across the field. Without a comm, Clint had no clue what happened to him after that. Was Scott alive? Did the kick kill him? Scott had seemed fine with hits similar to that in Germany and during the fight with Thanos, but what if Clint had hit just right? Or maybe even just hard enough?
"Clint!" another voice called out. Clint's attention snapped over there. It was Wanda. Mentally, Clint tried to scream at her to run. But she either wasn't paying attention or she trusted him too much. She was able to take maybe two steps toward him before his body had snagged one of the net arrows, nocked it and fired, the net splaying out to catch her. Thank god for training! In a quick flash of red, the net was tossed aside. Her eyes were wide, staring at him. Clint felt his face morph into a snarl before it reached for another arrow. A broad head. He nocked it but that was all he got before something hard slammed into the back of his head.
"What are you saying?" someone asked as Clint began to get his bearings once again. He hardly had time to place who the voice might belong too.
"Somehow we got there too late," another voice responded. A female voice. Wanda! He tried to open his mouth to cry out to her but he couldn't move. Shit, he was still under Hydra's orders. What the fuck! This wasn't fair! He was supposed to be okay now that she was here!
"What do you mean, got there too late?" a third voice. Scott. Yeah, that was Scott. Clint felt his hands clench into fists. Mentally he was so thankful that the man survived but his body was pissed.
"I don't know what else to say. Just..." Wanda started to say but stopped.
"He's a new Asset?" a fourth voice, Bucky. Clint's eyes snapped open against his control and it jumped forward as if ready to attack. Thank god someone had sense cause his body only minutely shifted with a tinkle sounding of metal on metal. He was held down. Hopefully with super soldier strength chains. All eyes focused on him. "Clint?"
His body said nothing. Without direct orders, he didn't have to talk to any of them. Clint let out a soft whimper that hardly made it through his body from his mind. Bucky must have heard it cause he dropped to his knees and moved closer. Mentally, Clint reviewed what he could see of his surroundings. At first he had thought he had been laying down. But now, he could tell he had been sitting up. He was chained to a seat. A seat inside a Wakandan jet.
"Clint? Are you there?" Bucky whispered. Clint forced his body to slowly blink his eyes once. Judging by the fact that he had been able to in the end, there was something about Bucky that allowed the Sergeant to break part of the commands. There was a pause before Bucky's eyes closed in pain. "Fuck."
"Fuck? Fuck what?" Rhodes's voice snapped. Bucky sighed and stood back up.
"I... I never told anyone this, but... When Hydra first caught me, I... I was myself just as often as I was their Soldat," Bucky tried to explain. If Clint had control, his mouth would have announced that Hydra knew about that. That it had been mentioned in the red notebook. The same notebook that Hydra still had. Sam, Scott and Rhodes more than made up for that.
"What?" Scott questioned. There was a humm of understanding that had Clint's body jerk to the side. There stood T'Challa with Okoye tensely standing beside him.
"You mean to say, Barton can see and hear us. But cannot act upon it?" the king answered. Bucky nodded.
"It's like... It's like you are a video game character where, you can see what is happening. Can hear what is happening. You are totally yourself but... Something else moves and speaks for you," Bucky continued.
"So, you're saying Clint is still there. Watching us... Right now?" Hope translated once again. Bucky nodded, his gaze shifting to Clint. Again, Clint forced himself to slowly blink. How he was doing it, he wasn't certain. But he could not help but note, he seemed to have more control over himself with Bucky paying attention to him.
"And I thought this world was already fucked up enough..." Sam grumbled from Clint's other side. The archer's body snapped that way. "So... What do we do?"
"We need to figure out how to break the conditioning and... And remove whatever programming they may have given him," Bucky said, focused solidly on Clint. The archer wished he could do anything to respond to that. Anything at all. But, instead, his body shut his eyes and leaned back as if resting against the seat.
"Wanda, can you do anything to help?" Rhodes wondered. There was a feminine sigh.
"I can try," she muttered before Clint felt hands on either side of his head. His eyes jerked open seconds before her red tendrils of magic slid into his mind. She was only there for a second before she cried out in shock. Bucky was first to respond, grabbing the girl and pulling her away. Clint let out a choked sound. His magic 'shield' wasn't up. Hell, he couldn't whisper the spell to activate it! Mentally or otherwise.
"What the hell just happened?" Scott cried, pointing between Clint and Wanda. Wanda let out a hissing gasp. This time had been so much worse than before. Almost as if Clint's magic was attacking her rather than just draining her gently.
"His magic. It... It was draining me," she whispered. Mentally, Clint slapped himself. They should have known, just as he had. Hydra had no idea about his magic. And after getting mind wiped, he wouldn't have been focusing on keeping it under control. But...
"Wouldn't that have done it the first time you helped?" Sam questioned. Wanda sighed.
"Last time I went to help, as I touched his mind, unconsciously, he activated the spell. With him being under Hydra's control this time. He must not be able too," she explained. There were a bunch of swears that got traded around at that. "I won't be able to help him until he can get that spell back up."
"Is there anything else we can do to snap him out of... Whatever," Scott wondered, waving his hand over Clint's form. Mentally, Clint tried to think about it. Was there anything? "I doubt waiting would help."
"I shall send a message to my mother and sister. They may have answers by the time we return," T'Challa informed them. And with that, discussion seemed to end. T'Challa moved to a different part of the jet with Okoye and sent a call out to his family. Hope, Scott and Rhodes headed to a different corner, chatting. They were the only ones really new to this situation. Well, Rhodes had kinda been around when Bucky was under Hydra's control but he had never personally seen it. Sam and Wanda vanished around a wall so they could speak. Wanda had seemed highly upset and of course the self designated therapist of the Avengers (even if the group technically wasn't around anymore) would try and help her. Bucky sat down beside Clint.
"We will fix this. I promise," the soldier told him. Clint's body tensed even further but mentally the archer shook his head. It would have been so much better for all of them if he had been put into cryo. So much better.
Yeah... I missed by a day. That was because I was editing the sequel to my original story, Project New World. Didn't get very far in editing, but hey. I was trying.
Darius... The attitude. Oh god the attitude on that little dude. Not sure how much of it is my medication or just him hitting my breaking point, but I've spent more time getting angry with him then anything. He's gotten stubborn. If he gets used to playing a certain thing in one spot, you CANNOT move him. So... I get to enjoy a child version of repeated lines from Kiss songs right in front of me... ENDLESSLY! *sigh* At least he's having fun with that. I just wish I could get him to move it upstairs every once in a while.