So, sorry for the lack of updates guys, really thought I was going to have time this summer, sadly I go back to school in a week :( I hate it...so here's an update and I will be typing like mad to finish the next chapter for you. This chapter is very long so it should hold until I can get 4 finished
Chapter Three- No Turning Back
"...and that means you too, Mr. Stark."
The intercom of the Helicarrier crackled off. Fury's voice had just been on it, telling all the Avengers and Elaina to report to the main deck right away. That little bit about Tony had been added quickly after, Elaina now had the feeling Tony didn't always come when he was supposed to. Elaina had quickly turned to walk back to the main deck, she knew they had to be getting close to Durov's lab by Elaina arrived on the deck she saw Fury standing by the table, his hands behind his back as usual. Tony, Bruce, and Natasha were already sitting at the table.
"Agent Barton, please, take a seat," Fury said.
Elaina slid into an empty chair beside Tony as Clint and Steve walked onto the deck. Clint sat next to Natasha, Steve next to Elaina.
"Now that everyone's here we can begin. Miss Barton, I assume you're familiar with the inside of this lab?" Fury asked.
"Yes, sir, very much so," Elaina replied.
"Good. Then you can tell me where all the entrances and exits are?" Fury said handing her a map with the lab on it.
"There are entrances here, here, and here," Elaina said pointing to the far west, east, and south of the building. "It's divided into eight different lab rooms, two common rooms, and a room I've never been in but I know where it is. Each lab room has two entrances or exits from it and clear, glass walling. The common rooms are enforced with concrete walls, have places to sit, a couch or chair, and a wood table. One of the rooms has only one door, the other has two. Now, all of the labs and the unknown room are underground about...twenty feet, the two common rooms are aboveground and there's a second story that houses a main power panels and an elevator and a stair case that leads into the labs. There are about five or seven foot aisles between each lab room."
Elaina paused, noticing all of the Avengers and Fury were looking at her with shocked expressions. For some reason she could hardly take the stares that she knew meant no harm. She closed her eyes, memories from her past flooding into her mind, that room, the boy, the love that was never really there. She felt a comforting hand on her arm, she looked down to see Steve's concerned face looking up at her. She gave him a weak smile before sighing and continuing.
"Anything else you need to know?" she asked Fury with a hint of humor.
"I think that'll do, Agent, thank you," Fury replied. "So here's how it's gonna go. Stark, Romanoff, you're gonna go in and search up top, find the panels and that elevator. Stark, hack into those panels which I'm assuming also hold wires for the technology?"
At this he looked at Elaina, who nodded.
"Get all the info you can and cut off the elevator while Agent Romanoff covers you. Agents Barton, both of you go underground and search those labs for any signs of weapons or Durov himself. Dr. Banner, Stark's going to feed you that info, see what you can make of it from up here. Captain Rogers, you're gonna be on stand-by in case things don't go our way, I only want a few of you in there so we don't raise suspicion. I figured you could lead them from up here," Fury continued.
"I'd be glad to,sir," Steve said.
"Both teams are going to enter here," Fury said pointing to the east entrance. "It's the furthest from the main panels and stairs that Agent Barton pointed out, but it's also the furthest from the heat signatures we picked up. We sure as hell don't want any of you walking into an ambush."
"And what if we don't find anything of use?" Natasha asked leaning on her forearms on the table.
"Don't worry about that, Miss Romanoff, I'm sure we'll find something we can use," Fury said. "If not, we'll still have people we can interrogate."
The next couple hours were spent checking weapons, preparing for the mission, and doing anything else that needed to be done for the mission to go as planned. Fury wanted the team to have the cover of night, even though they were in a very remote location. They were at least three-hundred miles north of any civilization, the closest south being the city of Krasnoyarsk. Elaina was nervously checking over her gun for about the eighth time, she'd been on missions like this before, but never with the Avengers. The chance to prove that S.H.I.E.L.D had made the right decision in choosing her was with the success of the mission. She especially didn't want to screw up in front of a team that had saved the world, she knew they liked and accepted her, but to her failure wasn't an option. Not many agents in S.H.I.E.L.D got to work directly with the Avengers so the pressure to deliver was also on her shoulders as well. Elaina looked up from cleaning her gun to see Steve walk into the room where she and the rest of the Avengers sat or stood.
"We've got one hour until drop down, suit up and get ready to go," Steve said.
The Avengers smiled at his "suit up" line, making Elaina think that it was something of a joke to them.
Tony was the only one to leave the room, most likely to put on his Iron Man suit. Natasha already wore her black, tight-leather S.H.I.E.L.D uniform with her long-sleeve shirt zipped down in its usual v-neck style. Clint wore his leather vest with the S.H.I.E.L.D emblem on one shoulder and black pants tucked into boots, he also wore a black light jacket with the collar turned up. Elaina, too, wore a jacket over her usual uniform, she could already see the white snow swirling outside the Helicarrier, highlighted by the black of night. Elaina turned as she heard the sharp snap of Clint's bow opening, she watched as he placed his black quiver over his shoulder and placed his armguard under his jacket sleeve. Elaina put her gun in its holster, placing a spare in a holster around her waist.
"It's pretty rough out here," came Tony's voice from the earpieces.
Elaina knew everyone had also heard him because of Natasha's defeated smile.
"That's why you have the suit," came Natasha's voice.
"Oh, sweet Natasha, I have this suit for much more than protection from mother nature," was Tony's reply.
Elaina knew Tony's high-tech iron suit was resistant to most any weather; wind, rain, lighting, and the occasional missile or two. The flashy red and goldish-yellow paint scheme of the armor was a little too visible, not to mention the glowing blue-lighted triangle on the chest of the armor, the rectangles on the helmet for him to see through, and the glowing circles on his palms.
"Alright, drop down in five minutes!" Elaina hadn't even noticed Steve had walked into the room again.
Their team boarded a smaller Quinjet that hovered above the east entrance of the white-roofed lab. They were about thirty feet above the ground, as low as the jet could hover in the harsh weather. Elaina was wondering how they were going to get down, she could hardly see Tony on the ground -only the glowing spots on the suit were visible- though he was almost invisible in the harsh blizzard they were facing. Clint was suddenly at the edge of the jet's open door, a very long coil of rope in his hand.
"Let's do this my way," Clint said starting to tie the end of the rope through a ring inside the jet.
"'Your way' doesn't look too promising, Clint," Elaina said nervously.
Clint gave her a half-smile while still focusing on the extremely complicated knot he was tying through the metal ring on the wall of the jet. Elaina recognized the knot, only assassins like her, Clint, and Natasha knew how to tie it successfully, assassins were really the only ones who had use of it. It was very useful if you wanted to tie someone to a chair without fear of them getting loose.
Clint finished the knot and threw the rope out of the back of the plane. Elaina watched as the line thrashed like an angered snake in the high-speed winds of the blizzard. She didn't like heights to start with, but this, this was crazy. She'd told herself she wouldn't let any one of the Avengers, especially Tony, know about her fear of heights, she knew from Tony she'd never hear the end of it.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea with the wind and all?" Elaina asked over a loud gust of wind that blew through the open jet. The wind cut through her light jacket, chilling her to the bone. Stark-white snowflakes blew into the open back of the jet, melting quickly in its hot interior. Elaina was glad they were about to go into the shelter of the lab, no matter how dangerous it could turn out to be. Natasha was the first one to literally brave the storm, she grabbed the rope between her gloved hands and slowly slid down it. When she was almost to the ground Clint held out his hand toward the rope.
"After you," he said to Elaina.
She gave him a faltering smile, steeling her nerves and going over the edge of the jet.
The wind tossed the rope back and forth, beating and battering Elaina as she slid down it. She had an iron grip on the rope as it wound between her fingers, threatening to slip through her grasp. She could see Clint some feet above her also fighting to stay on the rope.
"I'm on the ground, it's not much better down here," came Natasha's voice through the earpieces.
Her voice was broken and hard to hear over the howling wind.
"Elaina and I are on our way down, we're about a quarter of the way down," Clint said.
Elaina looked down over her shoulder, she was at least ten feet off the snowy ground below. She was glad she'd worn full gloves in stead of her usual fingerless gloves when the rope started slipping through her hands. She tightened her grip on it, not fearing chaffing, but it didn't do her any good. A sudden updraft of the frosty wind carried the rest of the rope through Elaina's hands. She had a split-second to realize this before she fell. The impact into the ground from ten feet hurt less than she would have imagined if she'd had the time to, though her thoughts were before realizing that she had fallen into a mound of snow.
"I hate Russia," Elaina groaned, getting up.
She got to her feet, making sure she hadn't hurt herself and brushed the snow off her clothes and out of her hair. She could see the lights of the lab in the distance, someone was definitely there, they were in the middle of nowhere and not another soul knew about this place besides S.H.I.E.L.D and Durov. In the background she could hear the soft flow of water from the small bend in the Yenisei River that the lab was located near.
"Nice fall down the rabbit hole, Alice," Elaina turned to see Tony in his suit.
She rolled her eyes at him, walking away. Clint had let go of the two feet of rope he had left, landing next to Natasha. Elaina loaded her gun, walking over to them.
"Ready to blow the roof off this hell hole?" she asked them.
Clint took one of his black arrows from his quiver and his bow from around his back.
He knocked the arrow, "I'd be glad to."
Natasha loaded her own gun, "Make that two."
Tony soon joined them and they walked through the snow to the building. When they reached the doors of the east entrance Elaina knew as soon as they stepped through the doors there would be no turning back.
Natasha surveyed the double doors made of reinforced, bullet-proof glass. Elaina's eyes were elsewhere, on the complicated keypad on the wall next to the doors. She walked up to the high-tech gadget that could have been made by Tony Stark himself, looking for a way to hack into it if necessary. She didn't know if it was an assassin thing, hacking, but she knew that she, Natasha, and Clint were all very good at it. A closer look at the keypad showed her she didn't need to hack this thing at all. It was a six-digit pass code followed by a single-word password.
"So, what's the situation? Are we going to shoot the lock off? Break the doors? Any of this going to involve my help?" Tony asked.
"No, it's a six-digit pass followed by a word," Elaina explained. "And if we get it wrong even once I'm sure we're standing on top of trap doors that will drop us straight down into who-knows-what. Durov's favorite method of punishment is trap doors, I'll promise you that."
"So, hack it?" Clint suggested starting to replace the tip of his arrow with another specific one.
"Not necessary. I'm sure even if we hack it we'll trip some sort of alarm, also ending with us dropping to our deaths."
"Then what? How do you suggest we get in, 007?" Tony replied sarcastically.
Elaina closed her eyes, thinking of six numbers and a word, now would be when she could prove herself; to use her past experience to help them carry on with the mission. However, failure, even a slight misconception or slip in her memory, could cost not only her life, but the Avengers' as well.
"I know the pass codes," she said looking down at the keypad.
"Are you sure? Sure without any small, reason or unreasonable, even crazy or erratic doubt?" Tony said.
"I'm sure," Elaina insisted.
"Are you?" Natasha asked.
"Nat, trust her," Clint said forcibly.
She wiped the accumulating snow from the keypad, Elaina entered six digits, 031704, the day they met, the keypad flashed giving her the letters to enter the word. Her fingers flew over the keypad, making sure to hit only the letters she wanted. Behind her she could feel the tension in her team, each bracing in case the worst should happen. Not only were the letters getting snowed upon, they were in Russian.
Good thing I'm very skilled at Russian, Elaina thought trying to release her nerves slightly.
She entered the last letter, ready to be dropped.
The Avengers, wound so tightly with anxiety, all jumped back in response to the noise of the door popping open. Warm air seeped through the jar in the door, spilling over Elaina's feet. She took a step back, looking back at the Avengers who all audibly sighed in relief. Elaina herself had sighed when the door had opened, glad she hadn't caused all of them to be captured or killed.
"Director Fury, we're in," Elaina said into her earpiece.
"Very good, I'll let Captain Rogers take it from here," Fury's voice came back.
"Alright, first, you need to get control of the video monitors, Stark, think you're up to it?" Steve said.
"Of course," Tony said.
"Widow, cover him," Steve said using Natasha's code name.
Elaina knew the reason Tony didn't have a code name was because he'd already revealed to the world he was Iron Man, so it didn't matter.
"Guys, don't split up yet, wait until we get a hold of those cameras. Hawkeye, Eagle, cover Stark and Widow," Steve said to Elaina and Clint.
Elaina wasn't very attached to her code name, mainly because Tony used it to poke fun at her and Clint having the same last name. She didn't mind it was also her code name because she tended to work alone most times, she was a loner, that she wouldn't deny. She took her gun from the holster around her thigh, holding it toward the ground with her back to Natasha. Clint was beside her, the tip of his arrow pointed at the ground.
"The camera wires are with the main panels, just keep moving straight ahead," Elaina said, trying to keep her voice down.
They moved together across the slick black floor, Elaina's senses heightening as she tried to make out anything that moved.
Weapons went up in a second when an odd sound echoed through the building. In the dim lighting every shadow seemed like it could be a potential threat.
"Well, at least we know we can all react quickly if we need to," Tony said, no doubt trying to release some tension.
"Oh, look," he added in a sarcastically-cheerful voice.
Elaina looked back over her shoulder, they were at the stairs leading to the second floor of the lab. Tony and Natasha went up the black stairs first, Clint and Elaina following them up.
"To the left a few feet, they should be on the wall," Elaina said to Tony.
They walked a few steps before coming to a large, blank wall the color of the floor. On the wall were two black hatches that blended in with the color of the wall. Tony flipped open the hatch of the first one, revealing three uniformed clusters of wires. Elaina watched as he looked over all of the wires, picking one out of the apparent hundreds, and placed a device with S.H.I.E.L.D's emblem on it on the wire. She recognized the bug when she saw it as a result of her taking inventory of all of S.H.I.E.L.D's technology one day when she got overly bored. The bug would hack into the cameras and shoot the video feeds back to a computer on the Helicarrier.
"Director, Captain? You getting any of the videos?" Elaina said into her earpiece.
"Yes, we've got it, good job," Fury said.
"Go ahead and split up. Stark, Widow, stay there and get the rest of the info from those wires. Eagle, Hawkeye, you two go search underground for the weapon or Durov," Steve said.
Elaina nodded to Clint, having him nod back.
"Good luck, you two," Elaina said to Tony and Natasha.
"The same to you," Natasha said to Elaina and Clint.
Elaina walked to her left down the wall, using it as cover, Clint following her. She rounded a corner to her right with her gun aimed in front of her as to not be caught by surprise, Clint flanked her closely covering her back. They moved down another long, narrow hallway with Elaina having to concentrate to see anything in the still dim light. She knew Clint could see far better than she could under any condition -what earned him the name Hawkeye- including darkness, but seeing as he didn't know this place as well as she did she had to take the lead for time's-sake. Elaina did feel safe, though, with Clint covering her she would trust him with her life, which was exactly what hung in the balance for both of them; their lives. Elaina stopped at a thick door with a single window, like the ones people would see leading to hotel staircases. She entered an authorization code in the lock on the door, the door opening with a click. Elaina went through the door, her gun still aimed to kill, Clint behind her with his bow still loaded. Both of them descended the stairs, unaware if any threats awaited them.
The stairs led further into the ground, each flight decreasing in temperature. Elaina pulled her jacket closer around her, still keeping a firm hand on her gun. She counted down the floors they descended by noting when doors appeared on the landings of the stairs. When they reached the landing of the fifth floor under Elaina motioned to Clint, he moved beside her.
"Be ready for any and everything, there aren't any cameras inside this door so Stark and Widow can't help us; we're on our own," Elaina whispered entering another code on the locked door. "Ready?"
Clint nodded. Elaina quickly went through the door, pivoting in a circle to make sure no one had been waiting for them. Clint came behind her doing the same thing, his bowstring drawn back. He slowly released the tension in the bowstring, letting the arrow tip drop toward the floor when she motioned that it was clear.
"Black Widow, Stark, Captain, we're down in the labs, no sign of anyone or thing, keep an eye on the monitors outside the fifth staircase down, don't let anyone sneak in on us," Elaina said into her earpiece.
"I'll do that, Eagle, just see what you can get for us," Steve said. "Good luck."
Elaina looked around, it was mostly darkness besides the blue glow illuminating the dozen glass rooms all around the floor. The floor itself was massive, an, at least, ten-foot aisle ran between the dozen rooms, six on each side of the aisle. Smaller aisles of six or seven foot across separated each room from the other, the rooms were square and twenty foot across each. The glass walls of each room reached up to the fifteen-foot ceiling. Elaina walked down the main aisle slowly, quietly, looking through the glass into the first lab room. She saw the sorts, microscopes, a computer, vials, beakers, a table and some other instruments that resembled ones that she'd seen in Dr. Banner's lab. She didn't see anything unusual so she moved to the next room. She did this, Clint double-checking the rooms after her, until she came to the sixth room. Inside, it was just like the others except for stacks of papers in folders sitting on the table. The folders were marked in Russian, but in an odd Russian she didn't quite understand, like some sort of code. Elaina saw she would have to enter a pass-code into the door to open it, also unlike the others. She entered a code into the lock the word "incorrect" in Russian flashed across the screen, she nervously rethought and entered another pass-code getting the same result. Clint had come beside her, looking at the lock as well. She knew what she was about to do was rash and downright stupid by some means, but for those papers to be locked up they must be important and they might contribute to something not in the electronic system. She entered one more pass-code and heard a click, but it wasn't from the door. Suddenly, the floor dropped from beneath Elaina and Clint, and they both fell.
A short scream escaped Elaina's lips as both of them fell quickly through darkness. The sense of falling without knowing the end was to Elaina like riding a roller coaster blindfolded. It all happened so fast she couldn't even see Clint above her. Before she could really panic there was a whistle through the air and she was jerked sharply to a sudden halt. Elaina looked up, Clint had grabbed her forearm, stopping her fall. Clint himself was holding on to his bow, a long wire was attached to the bow and went all the way up to the square of light above them about a hundred feet. Elaina dared a look below her and immediately regretted it, all she saw was darkness, pure black, that went on for what seemed like forever.
"Are you okay?" Clint asked her.
"I think so. You?"
"I'm fine, looks like you were right...about the trap doors," Clint said.
"Uh huh. This is not how envisioned the start of our mission going," Elaina said.
"What did you envision? That we would waltz in here and Durov would willingly hand himself over within the hour?" came Tony's sarcastic voice through the earpieces.
"No, but I didn't expect to be hanging at least two hundred feet above the ground by a wire," Elaina said harshly to Tony.
"Ooh, I think that was a blow to you, Hawkeye," Tony said.
Clint looked down at Elaina, "You really don't like me?" he asked jokingly in a mock-saddened voice.
Elaina sighed, she was cornered by these two, and Clint she did not mind, she'd put him in this mess. But Tony...Tony was getting on her last nerve.
"I like you plenty, Hawkeye, I just...I'm not too fond of heights,"
She really didn't want to reveal her fear of heights, especially with Tony listening, but she didn't want Clint to think this was his fault.
"An eagle is scared of heights!? How ironic is that," Tony said laughing innocently, not really trying to hurt Elaina.
She'd had it with him, though.
"Can it and do your job, Stark," Elaina snapped.
"Fine, but don't ask for any help from me,"Tony said.
Elaina looked up at Clint.
"I'm really sorry about this. How do you think we're going to get out of this?" she asked casually.
"Is it me, my bow, or my skills you don't trust?" Clint asked.
"None of the above, I trust all of that and you," Elaina said. "I really don't like heights."
"So, you didn't just make that up to get Tony off your case?" Clint asked.
"No! I really am, I swear," Elaina said.
There was a short silence between them.
"In that case, I think I know how we're going to get back up there," Clint said nodding to the floor above. "Please don't freak out, I don't want to drop you."
Elaina hung her head, sighing in defeat.
"Okay," she said.
Clint moved his thumb over a button on his bow and pressed it, the wire started retracting pulling both of them up to the floor.
The floor was getting closer, the wire gradually getting shorter. When the two reached the square of light where they had fallen through Clint pulled himself over the edge of the floor, helping Elaina up after him. She saw him pluck the arrow he'd shot from the floor. The arrow's tip looked much like a head of a grappling hook, but it was harpooned in the ground.
"You don't know how grateful I am for your archery skills right now," Elaina said to Clint as he replaced his arrow to the quiver.
He smiled at her, picking another arrow from his quiver and loading his bow with it.
"I'm thankful for them now, too," Clint said.
"Thanks for saving me, I would have been screwed without you," Elaina said.
Clint laughed, "No problem."
"Let's just bust the stupid door and get those folders, I'm not getting dropped through the floor again," Elaina said drawing out her gun.
She walked over to the lab room the folders were stacked in, aimed her gun, and shot the glass wall beside the door. The entire panel shattered and fell in a loud clamor, crashing into tiny pieces against the ground. Elaina held her gun aloft -her ears still ringing from the loud sounds- walking through the hole she made in the glass, her boots crunching over the shattered pieces on the floor.
"Uh, guys, we've got company," Natasha said.
"'We?'" was Elaina's reply.
"You two," Natasha corrected.
Elaina looked to Clint, both locked eyes in dismay.
"How many?" Elaina asked in a low tone.
"At least five, heavily armed, they're on the fourth floor heading down you two better get out of there," Natasha said.
"Shit," Elaina mumbled.
She quickly grabbed the folders off the table and zipped them up in her jacket. She turned, walking back out of the room, catching her arm on a fragment of glass in the doorway. She ignored the pain in her forearm and walked back to Clint.
"Let's go," Clint said when she reached him.
"We can't, there's only one way out," Elaina said her voice dropping to a whisper.
"But you told Fury..."
"I meant those," Elaina said swinging her good arm toward the lab room. "I'm sorry, but we're trapped."
The door to the room banged open, angered shouts in Russian following. Elaina and Clint ran, hiding behind two of the many pillars supporting the ceiling. They were in the cover of darkness, the light from the lab rooms not reaching near them. Elaina could hardly see, but was comforted by the fact that the people hunting them couldn't either. She pressed her back against the pillar trying to quiet her breathing because of the dead silence in the room.
"Krovʹ? Tam vse v krovi. Naĭdite ikh!"Blood? There's blood. Find them! a man whispered sternly in Russian.
Elaina's eyes widened, looking down at her arm. Where she had caught it on the glass was a long, thin cut that was, in fact, bleeding. Her head whipped to the side as she heard the slide of two objects together, she saw Clint drawing back the arrow in his bow. He didn't even need to give her a warning before aiming the arrow behind him at the door, she'd already seen that familiar gleam in his eyes even in the darkness. Clint released the arrow, having it sail across the room and collide with the floor. In seconds the place where the arrow landed exploded, flashing a silhouette of a person in the flames. Clint turned to the side and hid back behind the pillar, drawing and knocking another arrow. Elaina reloaded her gun before the room recovered from the explosion and turned back to silence.
When the flames from the explosion died, there were low whispers in Russian from other men. The blast had apparently only taken out one because there were four distinct voices. Elaina couldn't tell if any of the others had been injured, she'd like to bet they were. She stayed behind the pillar, as did Clint, until two of the men walked between the pillars. They didn't see Elaina or Clint, so Elaina nodded to Clint. One of the men walked a few steps forward, stopping right beside Elaina's pillar. Before he could see her she caught him in the throat with her fist, knocking his breath out. As he shielded his throat, coughing, Elaina swept his feet from under him throwing him to the floor. He reached for the assault rifle he carried, but she kicked it from his grasp into her own hands. She slammed the butt of the rifle against the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. Elaina turned in time to see Clint knock his assaulter out with his bow.
"You're welcome," Clint said suddenly.
Elaina's face must have betrayed her confusion.
"For your hand-to-hand practice," Clint clarified.
She smiled at him and then focused on the darkness in front of them.
"Two down, two to go," Elaina whispered to Clint and into her earpiece.
The two moved cautiously forward in the dark, their eyes alert for any slight shift in the darkness.
"I know it's not usually the best idea, but we should split up," Elaina whispered to Clint. "It'll just be easier."
"It wouldn't be a very good idea, for any other group, but seeing as we've both proven we can handle ourselves..." Clint said.
Elaina smiled, moving slowly away from him to the left. She tried to skirt the light coming from the rooms in an attempt to go undetected. She could no longer see Clint, both of their dark-colored S.H.I.E.L.D clothes made it easier to blend into the dark. Elaina moved to the far side of the room with her gun close to her, but still able to be wielded if necessary. When she was the furthest possible from the door she felt the presence of someone behind her. She knew it wasn't Clint, for two reasons, one being that they'd decided to split up then he should be on the other side of the room. The other reason being that even if they hadn't split up, Clint was only a few inches taller than her, and this presence looming, characteristics of someone much taller than her. Weigh out every single possibility and outcome, then act; that is what Elaina had been taught. She did this, she knew a gun was pointed at her back, now all she had to do was act.
Disarm, whoever was behind her had the advantage. Elaina pivoted, seeing the barrel of the assault rifle and immediately grabbing it. Three shots were fired into the ground before she forced it out of the assaulter's hands and threw it across the room. She ducked, avoiding a fist over her head, and tucked into a roll evading some kicks at her. She rose halfway in a kneel, firing at her attacker. No sooner did she hear him crumple to the ground when she started running back across the room as fast as she could. Shots had been fired, whoever was hunting her and Clint were now aware the two knew they were being followed. Elaina didn't care that she could be a very easy target running in the light, Clint was in danger. She knew it was near impossible to sneak up on him and there was only one person after him, so why did she fear for his safety?
Sounds of struggle threw Elaina to a halt in between two lab rooms. She looked around, trying to find the cause of the commotion even though she already knew what it was. Suddenly, she ducked, hearing something fly over her head. She turned with her arms up in a defensive position, in front of her stood a man a foot taller than her. He was heavily built, his shoulders wide and arms rippling with muscles. Elaina assumed he could take her out with just his hands, though he still carried a sleek, black pistol. Immediately, her mind started on its reflexes assessing the situation like an equation. Advantages came first, a major one being size. She was half the size of the man in front of her which meant she could move much faster, her agility was her advantage. Elaina jumped to her right, firing her gun at the man's legs. He shot blindly at her as she disappeared into the darkness, she wasn't stupid, she wouldn't fight in the light where she was easily seen. She noticed she had wounded the man, he was leaning over holding his bleeding calf. He chance was now she came out of the dark and kicked the man's gun out of his other hand. Before she could make her escape he grabbed her leg, throwing her off balance. Elaina crashed to the floor and quickly scrambled for her gun. When she didn't find it quickly enough for her liking she pushed herself off the ground in one fluid movement. She moved like a dancer, graceful and agile, blocking and dodging a few blows and then delivering her own blows. The man and Elaina went like this back and forth.
They pushed each other back between the lab rooms, moving a few inches with every blow. When Elaina finally laid eyes on Clint she wasn't happy with what she did see. He was fighting with a man about his size and build, strong muscles, but quick reflexes. The man's gun laid a few feet from them, Clint's bow a foot from him. Clint's advantage was clear, he had his knife in one hand, the man had nothing but his own fists. If she'd had time to Elaina would have been overly curious about how Clint had been separated from his bow in the first place. She threw all her attention back to her fight, her arms shuddering under the man's harsh blows she blocked. One of his blows she used against him, using his momentum to throw him back. He stumbled and she used it to throw a kick at him, but it was promptly blocked. In her peripheral vision Elaina saw Clint, who was on his knees now, dive for his bow. He'd already loaded it and pulled back the bowstring by the time he turned back on the other man. Elaina got behind her assaulter trying to gain the upper hand, but it seemed impossible at the moment. She grabbed his arm and he grabbed her long hair, striking her in the face, the pain was harsh, but bearable. He pulled her around so her back was to him, her feet barely touched the ground, so he was dragging her. She clenched her teeth together, holding back a scream of pain, she was blindly trying to kick him in the shins so he would let go. None of her blows landed. Her only relief from the hair-pulling came in a wave of confusion. A sharp pain struck her in the side of her thigh and she fell to the floor with a scream.
Elaina wasn't one to cry at just anything, she had a high pain tolerance. She'd been trained to resist pain, but whatever just hit her brought tears to her eyes. She had heard an odd twang seconds before the pain, the man had let go of her. To add to her confusion right after she hit the ground gunfire had crossed right above her head, where she would have been standing. Elaina laid on her stomach trying to see what it was causing her so much pain before the man returned for her. When she saw the cause of her pain it only confused and hurt her -emotionally- even further. A long, sleek black shaft of a black-feathered arrow stuck up from her thigh, the silver tip half embedded in the muscle.
Hawkeye...
She looked to her side, trying to find Clint, with one thought in her mind: He never misses. She saw him, but was alarmed when she did, he was lying on his side on the floor, a thin line of blood running from the side of his head.
"Oh, my God! Hawkeye..." Elaina said to herself in a whisper trying to move closer to him, the pain making it hard.
She was determined, though, to see that he was alright so she pushed aside the pain and crawled, dragging her injured leg. Relief washed over her when she saw he was breathing, he'd only been knocked unconscious.
"Hawkeye's down," Elaina said into her earpiece. "He's fine, but unconscious. Two targets are loose, I'm injured and they'll be coming back for me next I'm sure. Stark, Widow, one of you needs to get down here and fast."
She searched, much to her discomfort, for her gun and eventually found it.
"Are you alright, Elaina?" Natasha asked.
"Minor injures, but if the targets come back I'm-"
Pain erupted in the side of her head and everything went black.
She walked down the dark aisle, searching for the light switch. She found it and flipped it on, bathing the place in florescent light from the large cylindrical bulbs above. Twenty-four long faces turned to look at her seeming to expect food. She smiled at the curious horses that sounded small whinnies and nickers as if to say "What's holding you?" Thirty minutes later the horses were happily munching on grain and their water buckets in the process of being filled. Her senses were filled with the homey smells of the large stable; sweet hay, horses, and the sharp smell of grain. Others complained how "awful" barns smelt, she loved the smell it reminded her of her childhood. She walked over to one of the horses, a gorgeous shining black mare.
"How am I going to do it, girl?" she asked the mare.
She placed her forehead against the mare's, the mare looked at her with knowledgeable eyes.
"Do what?" the voice made her jump.
She turned and saw him standing in the doorway. He was a few inches taller than her and a few years older, his dark hair complemented his tanned skin. She smiled.
"Tell my father I'll be staying longer than expected, he's very strict about schedules. Especially when it comes to horses he doesn't understand why I love it so much."
Maybe it was bad how easily lies came to her now.
"That's unfortunate. Do you know what they say to me? 'Don't fall for the stable girl' ,'The stable girl? How could you love her?' but I don't care, I have fallen for you and no one will change that."
Great, she thought, I'm that person who's going to change it.
"Wanna go for a ride?" she asked.
He smiled walking to the tack room at the back of the stable.
"Always," he said going in the room.
The smell of leather hit her as she entered the room after him,another smell she much enjoyed.
Soon they mounted their horses -she the black mare and he a tall dapple gray gelding- and cantered off into the night. She raced him up a small hill in the mountain valley. She laughed, looking back over her shoulder, as her mare galloped past his gelding. The mare flicked her tail at the gelding as if to copy her rider's laughter in her own way. Eventually, he caught up and passed her, the gelding switching roles with the mare.
Now, she thought as the gelding pulled further ahead, now are never, this is your chance. Take it!
She pulled the mare into a slow, collected gallop gathering her reins in one hand. She used her free hand to grab the small gun out of the saddlebags on the back of the caramel-colored, English saddle. Rightly, saddlebags shouldn't be on the back of an English saddle, but she'd made another lie, leaving him to believe he was going to get something lovely out of it. A perforated cylinder was attached to the end of he barrel of the gun, a silencer. Without having to think about it she aimed and fired the gun. The mare's ears flicked back at the muted shot, but nothing more, which was why she had chosen that mare above others, she was calm and sturdy. He fell from the gelding's back, hitting the hard ground below, the gelding shied and slid to a halt. She hadn't killed him, no, she'd been paid to make him suffer, she didn't like it, but she had to. She had hit him square between the shoulders, the smell of blood would soon attract the big mountain cats that strolled around the stable much too often. No German Shepherd guard dog at the barn would be able to protect him so far away as they were. She leaned down and grabbed the reins of the gelding that was much more skiddish than her mare, and led him back to the barn beside her mare with a set of reins in each hand.
"Elaina...? Elaina! Elaina, are you okay? What happened!" Natasha's concerned voice was blurry through her earpiece.
Darkness engulfed her again, silence and darkness surrounded her. When she became somewhat semiconscious again she could feel herself being lifted off the ground. An arm was under her left arm, another under her knees, her torso went unsupported. She opened her eyes halfway and saw a light glow in front of them.
Tony.
"Clint..." she managed painfully for a second.
"He's fine, Natasha got him," came Tony's voice, it sounded distant to her.
She was already slipping back into the dark silence when the mental relief of Tony's words hit her. She let the dark and silence come willingly.
There you go, I am working on finishing 4 asap...i will upload when I'm done. Oh, and excuse me if the Russian is wrong...I dont speak it