Author´s notes: Hi there! I know this chapter took a while longer for me to write, but I was really busy at work this past few weeks, it was hard for me to find some time to sit down and write, since I have to write in english I really gotta focus or nothing comes out...lol! Oh, well. It´s finally here, hope you guys like it! Thanks again for the support!
CHAPTER 14
Germany - outskirts of Hamburg, evening
Clint and Maria are crouched near the wired fence that stands between them and HYDRA´s warehouse. Clint throws some pebbles at the fence. They can hear the buzzing sound of electricity and see a flicker of light as the pebbles hit it. The fence is electrified.
Maria looks around and spots a panel at the wall on the warehouse: "That must be the power source." She points at the panel and looks at Clint.
Clint takes his bow from his back and barely aims as he shoots an arrow and hits the panel. The arrow releases an electrical discharge and shorts the circuit on the panel. Then he throws some pebbles at the fence again to make sure it worked. Nothing happens, so he nods at Maria who nods back at him.
Clint whispers in his communicator: "Thor, we are in position. It´s your turn!"
Thor is far behind them, he hears his friends on his com and goes flying toward the warehouse with his hammer in his hand. As soon as he got closer, the alarm of the building goes off and a metal door opens on the top of the warehouse. Thor notices the laser cannon that Clint talked about coming out from it. It starts to fire at him.
Clint and Maria can see their friend flying by and they watch intensely as Thor easily dodges the several blue laser beams that the remote-controlled cannon was firing at him.
Thor get within reach and smashes his hammer at the cannon´s tip. This first hit bends the metal, already taking the cannon out of function, but just to be sure, Thor hits it a couple of more times until the cannon is a pile of junk.
Now, several HYDRA soldiers are coming out of the warehouse to see the God of Thunder standing in the rooftop, a broad smile on his face. He looks down at the soldiers and asks with his booming voice: "Who is next?"
They open fire with machine guns at Thor, who flies off the roof before the bullets hit him and takes charge at a group of soldier on the patio. Thor lands on his knee between them, putting his hammer down and making the earth tremble, knocking several soldiers down. He stands up and starts to wave his hammer around, hitting one by one of the remaining soldier.
That is the moment for Clint and Maria to go in. They climb the fence up and jump down on the other side, then quickly get to the door that the soldiers came out. Once inside, Maria draws her handgun and leads the way into the hallway with Clint close behind her holding his bow, glancing at every corner as the walk. They get to a big double door, Maria slowly opens it and sees a great room which has a lot of wooden crates piled up.
Clint speaks in a low tone: "Go! I´ll cover you!" and then he climbs up on the top of a high pile of crates near the entrance, where he can see most of the room. It seems to be clear of enemies. He watches as Maria makes her way around the crates to the center of the room.
When Maria arrives at the middle of the stocked warehouse, she stops and looks around for a moment before putting her handgun back into its holster in her thigh. She kneels on her left leg and takes the small but powerful bomb from her backpack. She puts it carefully behind a crate, making sure it is armed. She pushes a small green button and a red light is now pulsing on the side of the device. She puts the backpack on her back again and was about to stand up when Clint says on her com: "Hill, get out of there, FAST!"
Maria, as an instinct, draws her handgun and looks around. She doesn´t see anything so she starts to quickly make her way back to the entrance of the room, when she hears a growl. She turns around and sees a large metal hound, with red lights on its eye´s sockets, snarling at her. She points her gun at it, but before she could open fire, an arrow comes flying from behind her, hitting the hound and releasing an acid substance which makes the robotic beast growls as it shakes the substance away from his back, but it doesn´t seem to affect it. At least it gives Maria time to turn and run away.
Clint watches as his acid arrow did nothing to the metal hound. "It was supposed to melt the damn thing!" He thinks shocked.
Maria stops beside the pile of crates that Clint is on top, she is panting, but she manages to shouts from below Clint: "Barton, what the hell is that?"
"I don´t know!" Clint answers as he shoots an explosive arrow at the hound. The metal hound howls, but as the smoke disappears, Clint sees the enemy is still standing and it is now looking at him, showing his iron teeth, so he starts to climb down saying to Maria: "I think I only made it angrier!"
Maria glances back and sees the hound coming at her with his iron teeth showing from his metal jaws. Clint lands besides her and pushes her out of the room shouting: "Keep going Hill!"
Maria runs as fast as she can to exit of the warehouse with Clint right behind her.
Maria runs across the patio and reaches the wired fence. She quickly makes her away up and jumps down on the other side.
Clint starts to climb the fence too, but the hound reaches him and closes its metal jaws on his left ankle. Clint screams in pain as the hound pull him down, back to the ground.
Maria turns around and starts shooting at the hound, it stops attacking Clint for a moment but her bullets bounce away on its metal skin: "Damn it! That thing must be made of adamantium! My bullets don´t even dent it!"
Clint sits up and faces the hound as it charges at him again. He put his bow up to block the attack, and the hound bites the bow with such strength that it breaks it in half. "Shit! My bow!" Clint shouts as he watches the hound shakes one piece of his bow around in its mouth.
Maria quickly talks in her com: "Thor, we need help at the back of the building! NOW!"
Clint tries to stand up, but the pain in his ankle is too much, so he crawls backward, until his back hits the wired fence. The metal hound drops the piece of the bow and snarls at Clint again, he is going to pounce at him. Clint put his arm up to protect his face as it jumps at him again, but the impact of its metal jaws never came.
Thor appears flying from nowhere and hits the side of the hound, sending it several meters away from Clint. He extends a hand to Clint: "Are you hurt?"
Clint takes his arm down and looks up relievied at Thor, who is standing in front of him. He takes his hand to stand up: "That thing bit my ankle, it hurts like hell..." He grimace as he tries to put his left feet down without success and then leans his back on the fence for support, since he can´t put weight on his left ankle.
Maria got her eyes on the hound and shouts: "Look out, the dog from hell is up again!"
Thor turns around to see the metal hound running to them. He starts to swirl his hammer on his right hand and throws it with full force at the hound. It makes a loud metal sounds as it hits the hound, the impact sending it flying through the warehouse wall. Thor calls his hammer back to his hand and shouts: "Stay down, metal beast!"
Thor turns to Clint: "Hold on to me my friend, I will help you."
Clint put his arm on Thor´s shoulder for support as Thor grabs him and flies around the fence, landing next to Maria on the other side. He says: "Lady Maria, did you fulfill your part of the quest?
Maria nods at him and Thor continues: "Good, then we are done here. Let´s return to the jet and tend to Hawkeye´s wound."
The three team mates walk away from the warehouse, Thor is supporting Clint since he can´t walk on his own.
When they are at a safe distance, Maria speaks up: "I just need to do one more thing." She grabs the detonator from her backpack and pushes the button.
They turn around and watch as the warehouse blow up in flames.
"Take that, damn dog! I can´t believe you broke my bow in two!" Clint shouts angrily, looking at the flaming warehouse.
Maria smiles sympathetically at Clint: "Better your bow than your face."
Thor laughs looking at Maria: "Indeed!" Then he says to Clint: "Don´t worry my friend, I´m certain that Lord Tony can craft you another bow."
Clint says sadly: "I guess so. It´s just that I feel...naked without my bow." Clint sighs then continues still irritated: "Just help me get the hell out of here, because my ankle is killing me! Damn adamantium dog!"
Japan – an industrial area in Yokohama, late night
Bruce makes his way to the front gate of the pharmaceutical industry and mutters to himself: "Time to get angry."
The two HYDRA soldiers guarding the front gate spot him as he turns into the Hulk. The Hulk growls and smashes the front gate with a punch. The soldiers start to fire at him and the alarm goes off. The bullets from the machine guns only make the Hulk angrier, so he charges at the soldiers and grabs each them in one hand, the soldiers scream with panic at being stuck at the big green monster´s hands. Then Hulk knocks their heads together so hard that, even with helmets, they fall unconscious.
More soldiers come out from the building, making their way to Hulk at the front gate.
On the roof, a soldier is aiming at Hulk with a bazooka. He was about to fire when Iron Man shoots one of his beams at the soldier, sending him falling off the roof before he was able to fire. Iron Man lands at the strategic position and opens fire at the soldiers down on the front patio, who are attacking Hulk.
War Machine appears on the back where some soldiers are inside a bunker with heavy artillery machine guns. They start to fire high caliber bullets at the Hulk, who is now backing away with his arms up on his face trying to defend himself from the painful bullets. War Machine gets them by surprise and shoots small missiles that go inside the small gap on the bunker. Several HYDRA soldiers fly out of the bunker as it blows up.
Iron Man, who saw the scene, speaks up in his com: "Nice shot, Rhodey!"
Hulk manages to catch a break. He notices five more soldiers coming out of the facility. Four of them are taking position in front of him to shoot and one of the soldiers was about to throw a gas grenade at him. He stares at them and growls so loud that all the soldiers fall back down, frightened with the unexpected sound.
Iron Man laughs at the sight: "I love playing with the green guy!"
The gas grenade goes off when it falls to the ground near the soldiers. They all start to cough and gasp for air. Hulk is mad and inpatient, he can´t just wait for the biological weapon to do its work on the soldiers, so he runs and kicks the grenade far up the sky and finishes smashing the soldiers down. The soldiers all stay still, lying on the ground unconscious.
War Machine lands besides Iron Man and says: "Wow, that´s is definitely out of the park!" Rhodes watches the gas grenades flies away and then continues, looking down at Hulk: "There isn´t much to do when that guy is around. He is a total beast!"
"Yeah, but it is fun to watch! Come on, you get inside of the building to see if there is anyone left while I get Bruce some clothes." Tony flies off the roof and lands near Hulk saying: "Hey, big guy, nice work! Could you please call the doctor back for us again?"
Hulk snarls to Tony and then starts to go back to Bruce Banner.
War Machine lands behind Iron Man and goes inside the building.
Iron Man flies off to their car that is parked a few blocks back, grabs a bag from the trunk and then returns to the patio where Bruce is un-hulking.
War Machine goes in a small lobby and looks around. He walks behind a counter on the right. There are screens with images of the several security cameras. He looks at the images and sees no one standing, except for Iron Man who is handing some clothes to Bruce that is now back to his normal self. So he says in his com: "Tony, all clear."
Tony responds: "Okay, Rhodey." He turns to Bruce and continues: "Come on Doc, put on the hazmat suit, you are going to sort the dangerous from not so dangerous biohazard material for us."
Bruce starts to put on the protective garment. He grins to Tony and says in a sarcastic tone: "Yeah…that sounds fun."
Russia – A hotel in Moscow, early night
Steve and Sam arrive back at the hotel. Steve is picking up the food he brought back to Natasha from the back seat of the car as Sam gets out.
Sam spots the police car, with the lights of the siren on, parked in front of the hotel and says with a concerned tone: "Steve! We may have a problem, man."
Steve quickly gets out of the car and follow Sam´s gaze. He feels a chill go down his spine when he sees the police car. He drops the bag of food at the front seat and glances at Sam with a worried expression.
Sam meet Steve´s worried eyes and says: "Call her!"
Steve strides to the entrance of the hotel as he takes his phone out of his pocket and calls Natasha. Sam is beside him, he is almost running to keep up with Steve´s pace.
The phone is ringing but there is no answer. Steve whispers to himself: "Come on Natasha! Pick up!"
They pass unnoticed through the lobby where a police officer is talking to the woman in the front desk.
When they stop in front of the elevator, Sam presses the button.
Steve is in panic as Natasha´s phone goes to the voice mail. He hangs up and puts the phone back in his pocket. His jaws are now tense as he grit his teeth nervously and the time waiting for the elevator seems like an eternity, so he loses his patient and decides to run up the stairs, since they are on the third floor.
When Steve arrives at their floor, he turns to the direction of Natasha´s room and his blood runs cold when he sees that a police officer is standing in front of Natasha´s door. He runs to the door, ignoring the police officer, and burst the door open, quickly entering the room.
The officer goes in after Steve and starts saying things to him with an angry tone, but Steve isn´t listening, and even if he was, he wouldn´t understand since the cop was speaking in Russian.
Steve sees two dead men bodies on the floor, one shoot on the head, the other on the chest. There are bullets hole on the wall near the bed and he can still smell the scent of what it seems to be tear gas in the room. He peaks inside the bathroom but there is nothing there. He thinks: "They took Natasha. Damn it!"
Sam arrives at the scene and tries to get the cop´s attention: "I´m sorry, officer. We are Americans, do you speak English?"
The cop turns around to Sam and speaks angrily: "You can´t be in here! This is a crime scene!"
Steve kneels beside the dead bodies and search for clues inside their pockets, but there is nothing on them, not even IDs. Someone must have cleaned them before they left.
Sam knows that they can´t reveal their identities to anyone, it could ruin their mission, so he tries to distract the cop a while longer: "Our friend was in this room, we just want to know what happened to her. Have you seen her? She is a white, medium height woman with red hair."
Steve is still looking around for any clues. He sees Natasha´s phone on the nightstand, he goes to pick it up and notices a folded paper with a star draw on it. He feels a little hopeful as he reaches for it because he knows it is from Natasha. He takes the paper and reads it:
I´M IN
BE AT THE OPPOSITE TOWER AT MIDNIGHT
WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL
The cop answers Sam with a heavy accent: "No! We just arrived here! But if you knew the person staying in this room, you should stay for questioning!"
Steve folds the paper and put it on his pocket with her phone. He then makes his way to the storage space to grab Natasha´s things. Luckily she isn´t like Tony Stark, and her thing are still inside her bag so he picks it up and makes his way to the door. The cop has his back to him since he is speaking to Sam, who occasionally glances at Steve to see what he is doing.
Sam sees Steve coming their way and replies to the cop to get his attention: "Sure! Anything we can do to help! We are staying on this floor too if you need to talk to us, room 306."
Steve sneaks out and makes his way to their room and the end of the hallway. When he goes in Sam continues: "I´m sorry to have bothered you officer. Have a good night." Sam makes his way to their room.
The police officer nods to Sam and then turns around to look inside the room. He wonders where the other man had gone to. He looks around the room suspicioly but finds nothing. So he shrugs his shoulders, goes back to the front door, closing it, and remains on his previous place, guarding the crime scene.
When Sam enters the room he says to Steve: "You are spending too much time with the spy, man. You´re sneaky, soldier!"
Steve looks at Sam, a half-smile on his face: "Yes, but I had help, thanks for distracting that officer."
"So, have you found anything?" Sam eagerly asks.
Steve hands the paper to Sam. Sam reads the note and says: "She is smart! KGB probably came here to get her, she put up a fight to cover the fact that she wanted to be caught and now she is in. Damn, she is good!"
"Yes, that sounds like the Black Widow´s style." Steve has seen Natasha take that course of action before, but never to get inside a dangerous place like KGB. He takes a deep breath and continues: "But I don´t know Sam, KGB is not an ordinary security agency. They are rough, especially with traitors, they will torture her. Maybe we should go and rescue her before anything bad happens."
Sam looks at Steve with a puzzled expression on his face: "What! Are you serious? Steve, she is not a damsel in distress, she is a master assassin! Did you see the size of those guys on her room´s floor? She can handle it. And besides, if we went in kicking the front door of KGB´s headquarters, we have a high chance of getting caught too. Who would help her then?"
Steve knows that was a bad plan, but he can´t just wait until midnight. He can´t stand the thought of anyone hurting Natasha or doing worse. He sits at the edge of his bed, stares at the floor and rubs his fingers against his temple.
Sam notices the distress of his friend, Steve is so bad at hiding his emotions and Sam knows him well enough to know what is bothering him: "Look Steve, you can´t let your feeling for her get in the way of the mission."
Steve looks up at Sam in disbelieve. He was about to say something but he just gives up, because he knows Sam is right. So he looks back at floor and let out an exasperation breath.
Sam taps him on the shoulder and says with a smile on his face: "Don´t worry, I´m sure she knows what she is doing." Steve doesn´t move he just keep staring blankly at the floor, so Sam continues: "Look, if she is not out of there by 01:00 a.m., we go in, but until then you should trust her instincts, she is your partner after all."
Steve now looks up at Sam and replies sadly: "Yes, I know."
"And if we want to help, we should get out of here before the cops come questioning us. We don´t wanna get stuck inside the Russian police department trying to explain everything." Sam says as he turns around and starts to gather his thing to put in his bag.
Steve knows that he is not thinking straight and that Sam got more reason than him at this moment, so he just tries to shake the bad thoughts from his mind, stands up and starts packing his things too.