Old Friends Chapter 17
By: Cadet Deming
I don't own the rights to Captain America or The Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Rated T for violence, language, drug references, death, and implied child abuse and adult situations. Please read and review, it's encouraging.
Natasha raced through the hallways of the courthouse. She fired at the terrorists with the bracelets on her wrists, nicknamed her "Widow's Stings". They all wore black masks, with only their eyes and mouths exposed. Everyone hand fangs, as if they were vampires. Natasha was used to fighting "Gods and monsters," by now, so almost nothing could surprise her.
The building darkened as the lights flickered off. The emergency lights flipped on and one of her attackers hissed at her. He squeezed off a bullet to her chest.
She had on a bulletproof vest, but still felt the pain of the impact. She didn't want to get hit again.
Natasha decked her attacker in the jaw. It was something she had done a million times before but the collision felt different, as if she was hitting a sponge. His face flattened from the impact, but bounced back before her eyes.
That actually did startle her, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. So she aimed and fired at him. This time he convulsed from the hit of her "Sting" and fell down.
Another Serpent Squad member fired at her. She ducked and he turned tail and ran. She followed him, firing off more blasts. This one was almost supernaturally quick, and managed to dodge her shots.
He ran through a door onto the roof. She followed him, almost blinded by the glare of rooftop sunlight.
Natasha finally managed to hit him with one of her Stings and he collapsed. She heard the click of a bullet chamber behind her head.
She recognized Brock's voice instantly, "Put your hands on your head and turn around slowly."
She swore in Russian, cursing herself for being led into a trap, but complied and faced him. He wore another skull-faced mask, but this one had a mouth hole. He grinned, showing he had the same fangs as the rest of the Squad. He clutched his gun with fingerless gloves. His fingernails were sharpened to claw-like points.
Brock said, "I was hoping it would be Rogers to come barreling through that door on another one of his borderline-suicidal attacks. I guess I'll have to settle for you."
She deadpanned, "Sorry I'm your second choice."
"Romanoff, you've always been a second-rater. You've never lived up to your rep. I mean, you're supposed to be the world's greatest spy, but you couldn't even see HYDRA right under your nose. All those years we fought side-by-side and you didn't even suspect me. You're not as good as you think you are."
She thought back to all that she remembered of his fighting style. One advantage of battling former allies was she knew their strengths and weaknesses. She recalled a mission they had gone on together where he sustained an injury on his left ankle. He'd never completely recovered.
Natasha said, "You're right. I guess you are better at being a two-faced, lying treasonous bastard than I am. How is your face doing? It must hurt for you to…"
She kicked him in the left shin, near his former injury. It knocked him over and he dropped the gun. She twisted around to run, but he grabbed at her right foot and pulled her back.
He bit into her calve. She'd been bitten by humans before, but this was different. It felt like two hot needles boring into her.
The pain was replaced by a stiffness, as if her muscles were locking up. She fell forward. Natasha tried to crawl away, but the feeling spread through her body. Paralysis coursed through her flesh. All of her years of training, every form of partial arts she perfected, any way of outsmarting her opponents was useless if she succumbed to this impotence.
Brock flipped her over onto her back and loomed over her. "Did I mention HYDRA made me venomous? There's a neurotoxin coursing through your veins. You'll be dead in minutes, maybe an hour, tops. It's a painful way to go."
She said, "You've always been poison Brock. At least you're finally honest about it."
He loomed over her. He looked bigger than she remembered, or maybe her vision was starting to go.
He said, "It's ironic. A woman named after the black widow spider ends up dying from a venom bite."
"I'm not dead yet!"
Her voice sounded like a stranger's. The confidence she carried had been drained away.
She tried to lift her arms to fire at him, but couldn't move. It was getting harder for her to breathe.
Her life flashed before her eyes. She thought of everything she regretted: that she spent so much time working for the wrong side, that her last conversation with Clint was a fight, and that she never told Steve she loved him. She had to live through this. She had to fix things.
He picked up his gun. "Tell you what. Out of professional courtesy I'll give you a choice. I could just shoot you and end this now. Poison isn't a warrior's way to die."
She spat out the Russian equivalent of "Go F*&k yourself."
From the look in his eyes he understood her.
He said, "If you're going to be such a bitch about things, I will put a bullet in you after all. In your stomach, where it will hurt the most."
Brock aimed his weapon at her. She steeled herself for death.
A swirl of black swept in behind Brock. She thought it was her eyesight going bad, but realized it was Sam Wilson in his flight suit.
Sam called, "Incoming, HYDRA asshole!"
He carried Brock away over the rooftop.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Steve's first instinct was to protect the civilians and those who couldn't help themselves. He wanted them to stop screaming. He noticed after how well-coordinated their first attack was, they seemed to be more chaotic now, as if they were leaderless and just attacking at random.
Steve shouted, "Everyone do not panic! We have the situation under control."
One of the snake-terrorists screamed, "Only HYDRA has true control! Your defenses are useless against us! Safety is an illusion! We will destroy all who oppose…"
The terrorist fell silent after Carol Danvers shot him.
She said, "Jesus Christ. Do these guys ever stop monologing?"
Steve said, "At least when they lecture it makes them easier to hit. And please don't take the Lord's Name in vain."
"It's true what they say. You really are a Boy Scout."
"I graduated to Eagle Scout."
"Don't Eagles eat snakes?"
"That's more a question for Sam."
He deflected incoming bullets with his shield. He counted five civilian and three Serpent Squad casualties so far. A few people that had been bitten by the Squad lay motionless. He recognized the effects of snakebites and knew they had to get medical attention immediately or could die.
He said to Carol, "Can you have your Air Force personnel and the police carry the bite victims away?"
"I'm on it."
The lights flickered out and were replaced by low wattage emergency lighting. The bullets slowed down.
Steve fought his way through to Madame Hydra. He assumed she was their leader. She lay motionless on the ground. He kneeled next to her to check if she was dead or alive and checked for a pulse.
She grabbed him, kissed him on the lips, and bit down hard. He pulled back in shock and smacked her, surprised at the level of his own revulsion.
Madame Hydra smiled and wiped his blood from her mouth. "You're quite a man Captain Rogers. It's too bad the perfect kiss is the kiss of death."
He felt a numbness spreading from his lips. She kicked him in the side. He grabbed her leg and bent it back. With his strength on a normal human being, her leg should have been broken, but instead it just contorted.
She elbowed him in the face, but the impact was softened by her arm curving around him. Steve assumed she must have done something to her bones to make them more flexible. In combat that helped with defense, but not necessarily offense.
He kicked her where he knew she had no bones, above her hips. She let out a yelp of pain and slashed at him with her fingernails. It felt like getting mauled by a mountain lion, but he kept fighting her.
Madame Hydra said, "You should be slowing down by now. A normal man would be on his knees. It's that bloody Super Soldier serum in you!"
"Great deduction Ma'am. Are you a doctor?"
"Don't call me Ma'am!"
She kneed him in the groin. He wore a protective barrier so it didn't hurt as much as it could have.
Steve grabbed her leg and threw her back onto the ground. He tried to pin her down, but she was too slippery. Handcuffs would be useless on someone like her.
Madame Hydra grabbed his neck and strangled him. She dug into him with her talons. He strangled her back.
The super soldier serum made his metabolism four times faster than a regular person, so he could also last four times as long without oxygen. He hoped to outlast her.
Her grip finally loosened and her body went limp. He held on longer to be safe. She had fooled him once before.
Carol walked in front of him and kicked Madame Hydra hard. "Yep. She's out. You can let go now."
"Just double-checking. Alert any arresting officers that handcuffs may be useless against the Serpent Squad's bone structures. They need to use handcuffs. Or body bags. Have you heard from Sam? He was supposed to be patrolling the roof."
She frowned. "No. He hasn't checked in with me in over an hour."
"I haven't heard from Natasha either."
Steve pressed his communications link. "Natasha, do you read me? Nat are you there?"
The silence was deafening.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Brock was knocked off of his feet in a blur of wings. Strong hands pinned his arms back. He was pulled off of the roof. The ground opened up under his feet. The building was 15 stories tall, so it was a long way down. Brock tried to reach the knife in his holster.
Sam Wilson said, "I wouldn't try that if I were you. You wouldn't want me to drop you."
Brock wanted to kill him, but if he did they'd both fall. The pavement underneath was filled with hordes of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. Did he really want to die now?
Brock said, "Falcon isn't it? I remember you. When we get back on the ground, you and I are gonna have a reckoning."
"This is the reckoning, Rumlow. I'm winning. Air Force beats Navy Seal. Or former Navy, you bein' a traitor and all."
"Serpent Squad beats not good enough to be an Avenger."
Sam's voice got defensive, "I am good enough to be an Avenger!"
Brock liked that he was getting to him. They were getting closer to the ground.
Brock said, "Snakes beat birds."
"No. Birds beat snakes. Have you seen the national flag of Mexico? It's an Eagle chowing down on a rattlesnake."
"I never paid much attention. National flags are just something to be destroyed when HYDRA takes over the world."
"Do you really still believe in that shit? Are you willing to let your own head get cut off for some terrorist propaganda machine?"
Brock looked down at the ground beneath him. He thought of his options. He definitely didn't want to go to jail.
He jammed his claws back into Sam. "I'm willing to die if I get to take you all with me!"
Sam dropped him and Brock fell to the ground.
To Be Continued.