Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's a good one!
Chapter 14 – Repeating History
Natasha ran away from the group and through New York's streets. Citizens were running terrified in every direction that was leading away from Osborn Tower. Natasha risked a glance up to the tower only to see numerous explosions coming from around the gun. All the time the gun was still firing so Natasha could only guess that the explosions were being caused by the Hulk hitting some kind of force field. Though by judging by the explosions he wasn't being successful in breaching the force field.
Natasha was quickly snapped out of her thoughts by a scream close by her. Her head snapped to the side to see a girl no older than six trapped against the wall with an Oscorp Agent pointing a gun at her head. On the next building (Natasha presumed) the girl's Mother was in the same position screaming for her child. Without thinking Natasha sprinted towards the Agent about to shoot the girl, rugby tackled him out the way before breaking his neck. Next she shot a Widow Bite at the other Agent who was holding the Mum hostage.
"Run, get out of here," Natasha hissed. The Mum nodded before running to her daughter, picking her and running away shielding the girl with her body. Not allowing herself to stop, Natasha ran once again to the nearest group of Oscorp Agents taking them out one by one. With her legs wrapped around the neck of one of the Agents she heard a voice come through the com link in her ear.
"How close is Hulk to taking down the weapon? The buildings are falling like there's no tomorrow and at this rate there might not be!" Rose grunted.
"From what I can see he can't break the force field, Adder. Iron Man, Rescue he could use some tech support," Hawkeye told them.
"Rescue go up and help him," Cap ordered through the coms.
"On it!" she cried back. Natasha grunted as she took a jab at the side but quickly kicked the man over the railings of the bridge she was currently on. With the last man kicked over the bridge she looked up to see Rescue flying to Osborn Tower. Natasha had hardly moved when someone shouted on her.
"WIDOW GET DOWN!" Rose cried. Natasha dropped to the ground before crawling to the car Rose was crouched behind. As she crawled a grenade was chucked over her head. Quickly she chucked herself behind the car as the grenade exploded. She looked to her left to see Rose who had a trail of blood running down her forehead.
"What happened to you?" Natasha asked.
"An Agent I worked with in the field a couple of times saw me and started to attack me with a knife screaming about how I betrayed the organisation. What happened to you?" Rose shrugged whilst going up to shot. Natasha quickly got up as well and shot a few bullets before they both ducked back down.
"What do you mean 'what happened to me?'" she asked. As far as Natasha knew she didn't have any cuts.
"You've got a gash across your forehead, heads up," she growled. Rose took out another grenade, took the pin out with her teeth before chucking it over the bridge. The grenade landed right in the middle of a group of Oscorp Agents who were running along the street below. Natasha reached up and felt her forehead. Sure enough she felt blood oozing out of her forehead. Natasha shrugged it off, she'd have worse and besides the enhancers will heal it soon enough.
"Hey, Barton. It's just like Budapest all over again!" Rose smirked. At this Natasha's ears spiked up.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently," Barton hissed through the coms. Rose smirked as both Natasha and Rose jumped up and started shooting again. Natasha furrowed her eyebrows. Now that's just odd, how the hell did they say the exact same thing as her and Clint did during the Battle of Manhattan?!
An hour later the gun was still firing at the surrounding cities and now Oscorps Agents were starting to place the bombs. Adder and Widow stuck by each other watching one another's backs. Together they had got rid of ten bombs and news of more being turned off was being shouted through the coms.
"Cap, none of this is going to be doing any good unless we shut down the weapons and stop all these Agents coming in!" Natasha growled.
"My thought exactly!" Rose agreed.
"I know! I know!" he cried.
"CAP TEN O'CLOCK!" Hill cried. There was a couple of minute's gap during which Rose and Natasha glanced at each other nervously.
"Thanks for the heads up," Cap muttered, "Stark. New order, go to Oscorp's New York base and take it out. They'll all be coming from there."
"Righto Spangles!" Iron Man chirped.
"Rescue how's the gun coming?" Cap asked.
"I think one more hit should do it. Hulk smash!" she ordered. Everyone who was still left on the island heard the Hulk's ear splitting roar erupt from the tower. Anyone who was in sight of the tower stopped and stared up at it as another explosion shook the city. This time though it was bigger, greater and the faint blue glow that had been surrounding the gun fell down. Every remaining civilians ran screaming once again away from the tower. Once the blue glow had died down completely. Rescue ordered the Hulk to smash the weapon again. This time instead of sparks of blue fire erupted from the weapon there was a massive explosion sending parts flying into the air. They all held their breath. The weapon was destroyed but did they make it? Everyone knew the Hulk would but Pepper… even with her Iron Man suit that blast could have killed her. If she did die that would be the one to push Stark over the edge. He was already borderline crazy after his six month old daughter was snatched from his arms leaving him to be shot in the chest and left for dead. That's how he got his arc reactor in this dimension. They all breathed a sigh of relief when the Hulk landed and put Rescue down in front of them. Quickly they regrouped by the Hulk and Rescue as it's kind of hard to miss a giant green monster in the middle of New York. The remaining Oscorp Agents seemed to have the same idea as just before Hawkeye came down he came over the coms.
"Cap, the remaining Oscorp Agents have gathered at the base of Osborn tower. All of them every last one, if we strike now then we can get them out of New York for good," Hawkeye muttered. All of them looked at the Captain waiting for his decision. The Oscorp Agents were panicked, it was obvious. If they strike now it would be the best time to.
"Let's go, if we don't they'll have time to plan." Cap muttered before walking off. They all followed before they broke into a run.
They'd just reached the tower when another boom shook the island. This time it wasn't from the tower but somewhere further away. The explosion drew everyone's attention to somewhere south of where they were. Natasha had a feeling she knew what it was but she needed conformation. One thing she'd learnt from all her years of experience was to never jump to conclusions.
"The base is gone. I'm on the way to your location now," Iron Man came through the coms. There that was her conformation. With Iron Man's word they looked at the Captain for their orders. Hawkeye dropped down beside Adder and checked her over quickly.
"I feel terrible doing this…" Cap sighed.
"Don't be, they're mindless people none of them show any signs of regret about what they're doing. Hundreds are already dead possibly even into the thousands," Jane told him. Cap sighed for a second before nodding.
"Let's go. Take them out." He whispered. Everyone nodded before rushing out from behind the building. The Oscorp Agents were taken completely by surprise and they didn't put up much of a fight. There were only about twelve Agents left when a cry came up.
"Agent Barton? Agent Stalingrad?" Everyone stopped. Just as they did two Agents pushed through the remaining Oscorp Agents to come up to Clinton and Rose.
"May? Ward? Not you too…" Rose hissed. After the takeover of S.H.I.E.L.D. a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents got to stay, Ward, May, Simmons-Fitz, Fitz, Sitwell, Brandt, Morse, Hill, Stalingrad, Barton, Coulson, Ross, Lewis, Foster and Crichton were the ones that got to stay. Out of them Sitwell, Brandt, Morse and Crichton had left all hope of S.H.I.E.L.D. ever remerging and joined Osborn's side completely and now it looks like Ward and May have left too.
"No, we've not. We never would, you know this. You have to trust us," May looked at Rose and Clinton. It took a minute for them to decide if they should or not eventually the two nodded. May and Ward smiled before Ward spoke.
"We got information over the coms just after the weapon was destroyed from the Helicarrier, it's gone critical now everyone on the Helicarrier lives are in danger," Ward started.
"It's Osborn; he's lost it, completely. He's not letting anyone on or off the Helicarrier and is holding some Agents in a room hostage so if you guys get on the ship he has some leverage," May told them. They were about to reply when Ward stuck up his hand for them to be quiet.
"New information, Osborn says if you lot don't show your faces he'll start killing and he'll start with the most valuable to one of you," he repeated. They all froze one by one they started to pick out everyone who knew where there most valuable friends were. Eventually they narrowed it down to Rose and Clinton. Natasha looked at the two worried for them.
"Where are the people you care most about that aren't here?" she asked carefully. Both of them took a moment before answering simultaneously.
"The Helicarrier."