Notes: Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that I now have a tumblr for you to stalk! You can find me there as CaptainScotch, just be aware that it is NSFW.
Chapter 17: A Clever Betrayal
"How did they find us?" Clint hissed to Natasha. She swatted him on the shoulder and snapped at him to be quiet. For someone who was as lethal as a bird of prey when it came to his work, Clint could be surprisingly noisy if he was feeling edgy. Natasha stuck her head out of the bushes and watched as the men headed out the same door they'd made their escape from. They poked around but obviously had no idea where the two spies went. They were joined by four more allies and spoke in hushed voices not far from their hiding spot.
"Send Stark a text describing them; he can fry them and they'll never see him coming." Natasha murmured. Clint did as he was told, and then they waited. It had been over an hour that they'd been hiding in the shrubs. Tony had to be close to their location by now... Unless something had happened to him. Clint bit the inside of his cheek and prayed that wasn't the case as one of the men finally got the fucking brilliant idea to come have a look at the shrubs.
He never made it.
Just as he leaned over, a repulsor blast hit him square in the gut. His scream of shock and pain was deafening in the silence as the force of the blow threw him against the concrete wall of Merv's Bar and Grill.
"What the -!" Another of the tea party scouts shouted, but his words were cut off as a streak of silver blew past him, grabbed two more of them by the throats and threw them to ground with enough force to instantly kill them. The sound of bone snapping as they hit the parking lot was like something out of a shitty horror flick.
"Was that Rhodes?" Clint asked as he stumbled from the shrubs and shot one of the other guards in the head with his handgun.
"Too fast, and too small. Also definitely not Stark." Natasha replied and jammed a taser against one of the last two scout's throats. He fell to the ground writhing. The last one, managed a horrified whimper as he was crushed against a wall with Iron Man's fist at his throat and a repulsor shoved in his face.
"Talk and do it fast – where's the boss?" Tony demanded. Clint heaved a sigh of relief and dropped his handgun back into its holster. Natasha kept hers loaded and trained on the freshly tased man squirming in her grip.
"I couldn't tell you if I wanted to!" The man hissed through clenched teeth.
"Don't bother, Stark. He doesn't know. The only ones that might are his personal bodyguards, and he keeps them at his side at all times." Natasha nearly dropped the gun when she heard the familiar voice.
"Jesus Christ, Is that - !?" Clint said shrilly, and spun around to see the unidentified silver armor walking in their direction – dragging a half-dead insurgent by the ankles behind her.
"Good to see you, Agent Barton. I honestly thought the two of you would be dead by now and that this was a waste of time. I'm glad that's not the case." Hollie said vacantly and threw the man she'd dragged over at Tony's feet. "This one knows where the base is. So I can blow it hell." Hollie added with a smirk that was hidden behind her helmet.
"You might not want to do that. Not yet anyway." Natasha said quietly. "What was your father's name again?"
"My Papa? Why?" Hollie said, frowning.
"We'll talk about it later. There's someone we should probably repay the favor of freeing us, and save his ass before the fireworks start." Natasha replied. "What should we do with these two? I was thinking we should tie them and lock them in somewhere..."
"Good enough. There's no point in killing them if they can't rat us out." Hollie agreed.
"So, uh, exactly when did you build that?" Clint asked as he and Tony restrained the two men and made sure they weren't carrying anything that would alert their allies of their location. They dragged them into an empty hay loft in the large barn on the other side of town and left them there. Odds were no one would find them until morning at the very least. ...But their work would be good and done by then.
"Yesterday." Tony said in a bored tone. Clint looked like he swallowed a bug and Tony laughed heartily. "Chill, man. I'm kidding. Actually, I started it the day after Christmas as a kind of plan-B if Bruce and Doctor Strange hadn't been able to work their magic. It has a learning AI system, separate from Jarvis, that's able to predict her movements for her."
"She can walk..." Clint said, shaking his head in awe as they headed back outside.
"Yup, and kick some serious ass. I am a genius." Tony said smugly as they made their way back across town to the bar where Natasha and Hollie were making short work of hiding the bodies.
When they reached them, the girls were sitting on the edge of a brick retaining wall near the shrub Natasha and Clint had been hiding in earlier. Hollie had her faceplate open and had taken off her gauntlets to reapply the make-up hiding her scar. Natasha was furiously typing something on her phone, probably trying to get ahold of Fury again.
"Fury hasn't responded to any of the calls or texts we've sent." Natasha said as Tony and Clint joined them. "Something isn't right here."
"I doubt he's aiding them. Not willingly at least." Hollie interjected.
"Jarvis would have picked up something if the call came from anywhere else, or if someone was using any kind of voice altering equipment to sound like Fury." Tony supplied, at a loss.
"He's a hostage, actually." All four of them jumped to their feet, weapons at the ready.
"Agent Hill." Natasha said cordially and lowered her gun. "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough to follow Stark and Barton back here, but I just got to town. Had to walk, there was an ambush waiting for us." Maria Hill said flatly and nodded at Clint to lower his bow, which he did. Tony sighed, which just sounded like a rush of static in Hollie's earpiece, and killed the power to his repulsors. Hollie had been (very uncharacteristically) caught unaware, and was still trying to get the gauntlets back on.
"Good to see you alive, Steel." Maria added to Hollie who gave her a stiff nod. "We've known for a while though, since we caught the trail of the mafia trying to hunt you down a while back."
"Is that why there's a couple of dead would-be assassins in my penthouse? Courtesy of your moles, I guess?" Tony asked sarcastically.
"Probably. Anyway, we need to get Fury out of their hands and do what we can to seize the base." Maria said with zero sense of humor.
"No. We won't." Hollie said suddenly.
"What...?" Tony muttered incredulously.
"SHIELD wouldn't have sent you here without a response team – where are they?" The widow asked, catching on immediately.
"Dead. These weren't the only scouts they had us surrounded -"
"Wrong. Your hair's perfect, your clip is fully loaded – yes I can tell from here, there's not a single bit of dust on you, and your makeup was recently applied. You didn't walk here, you weren't ambushed and if there was a fight, you weren't involved. And the real Agent hill never calls me 'Steel'. Only Hollie." Hollie explained. Maria sighed and rolled her eyes.
"I expected better from you, Assunta." She replied with a sneer.
"Ah, I see. You do realize that I have to kill you now that you've seen my face, right? Mia? How many years has it been? Five? Are you still Dante's little bitch? Where's that fat pig hiding?" Hollie asked, aiming a repulsor at her. Maria just shrugged and peeled off an expertly made latex mask that she carelessly cast aside. The twenty-something year old woman underneath looked nothing like Maria Hill. Her face was marred by a horrendous purple burn scar, and her real hair (that was hidden under a wig) was pure white.
"You'll have to catch me first, La Volpe." She said in a mocking tone and bolted. With a roar of pure hate, Hollie took off after her, narrowly avoiding the side of a building as she activated the thrusters.
Mia was fast, and climbed up the side of the barn where they'd hid the insurgents like some kind of monkey. She dodged several of Hollie's repulsor blasts with ease – taunting her as she did. There was no time to underestimate her. The military won't the only ones who'd tried to replicate the serum used on Captain America, and Mia was the result of the mafia's attempts. Granted, she was no hulk or Steve Rogers, but she had speed, agility and above average strength on her side. ...At the cost of her mental stability. She was highly unpredictable and outright vicious if she wasn't kept on a strict regimen of anti-psychotic drugs.
"Miss Steel, the power level is currently at forty percent. Flight requires thirty percent; it is advised that you -" Hollie ignored Jarvis as a plan formed in her mind. There was a large puddle on the ground on the side of the barn, and a pile of unused copper pipes stacked beside it.
Hollie made a show of diving for Mia, but purposely missed and collided with the pile of pipes. Several of them rolled over into the puddle, and Mia staggered to the edge of the barn. With nowhere to go, she climbed down and hopped into the puddle, just like Hollie wanted. When she went in for the kill, it wasn't Mia she targeted, but the closet copper pipe touching the water.
"Jarvis, active the static barrier!" Hollie commanded.
"There is not enough power left to maintain fli-"
"Do it!" Hollie screamed, and grabbed a hold of the pipe just as the shield activated. The result was instant. Mia screamed and was dead within seconds as the powerful electrical current traveled through the water and fried her like fresh calamari. Not Hollie, however even though she hadn't been able to avoid the surge of electricity.
"The power level is at twenty-five percent." She heard Jarvis say as she fell to her hands and knees panting. Her skin felt like it was one fire, her chest ached, and she was sure that if she took the helmet off she'd have an afro. "It is also advised that you seek immediate medical attention as you appear to be suffering cardiac arrest."
"Jarvis, shut up please." Hollie said, fighting to catch her breath but it felt like there was a ton of bricks on her chest.
The last thing Hollie was aware of before she passed out cold, was Tony demanding that she answer him through the comm system that was somehow still online.