Chapter 12
The Madhouse
"Clint?" Bruce moved into the cell past the TV, that was still on. He glanced at it to see what it could be showing only to step back away from it. He recognized the images of himself in S.H.I.E.L.D. medical after the incident, the sound playing to accompany the images was from the incident itself. He could hear the orders go through from Fury that told Natasha and Clint to leave him behind and the promise of being there soon. Bruce stared at it for a long moment as the memories surfaced again, more aggressively than before. He shook his head and turned the TV off finally and moved closer to Clint. Natasha was in the hallway holding off the guards who were coming, before she had Hulk to help her but Bruce was needed to break into the system to get Clint out. The constant sound of gun shots reminded Bruce that he was on a time limit.
"Clint? You gotta answer me." He crouched down in front of the other man who was still chained up. He was covered in scratches and dried blood, his eyes seemed almost lifeless to Bruce. "Come on you idiot don't you dare ignore me." Bruce shook him a bit, "We need to get you out of here."
"Are you here to kill me?" Clint asked tilting his head slightly, "Or just here to play mind games like the last? Remind me of what happened?"
"What are you talked about?" Bruce questioned, "Snap out of it Clint we need to help Natasha."
"Ha, heard that before," Clint shook his head, "I'm not falling for it. Does your boss know you turned the TV off? Thought he liked it left on. Or you gonna get some revenge for the man you don't even know and finally shoot me? Stinkin' shapeshifters, always taking faces that don't belong to you, playing mind games with everyone."
"What have they done to you?" Bruce questioned out loud. He moved over the mechanism that held Clint and place and started to take it apart, "Come on Clint it's me, actually me. You need to pull yourself together."
"Heh, let me guess you're another one of those decoys they have," Clint muttered, "any moment the Natasha one is going to come through that door then something will shoot you both in front of me. Let me watch you both die, that's been done before. Don't tell me you're running out of tricks already."
Bruce didn't bother saying anything else; he decided this really wasn't the place to snap Clint out of this. He focused on getting the chains undone and getting Clint out of there. Natasha moved over to the doorway ducking inside the room to cover herself from enemy fire. She leaned out to take a few shots before glancing at Bruce, "Bruce, what's taking so long?"
"Clint's broken and there are a lot of chains, I might be a genius but things still take time to take apart," Bruce grumbled freeing one of the Clint's hands and moving onto the next. "I don't know how to deal with the other without letting Hulk out but this room is too cramped to do it safely without hurting you two."
"Starting to think we don't have a choice," Natasha replied, "we're already in serious trouble with the guards as it is; we're going to get hurt one way or another."
"This is when you get shot," Clint muttered, "Every time just two quick bangs. Then they leave the decoys in here for hours and then slowly bleed out so I can watch. Sometimes they beg for mercy, ask me to kill them to end the pain but I can't help."
"Clint we're not decoys," Bruce grumbled as he continued to work on the other arm as best he could, "We're flesh and blood. Whatever they've shown you isn't real."
"Those images on the screen were pretty real," Clint replied, his voice was dead, completely devoid of emotion, "I should know I was there when they were taken."
"I know Clint," Bruce muttered, "I need you to believe me just this once though. Please, we're going to need you to fight."
"Nothing to fight for," Clint muttered again as Bruce freed his other arm.
Bruce walked over the Clint looking at the rest of the chains before looking at Natasha, "Tash you're going to need to finish this. I can't pick locks nearly as fast."
"Then you'll need to hold them off," Natasha replied, "Not sure how good you are at doing that without the other half coming out to play. But if he comes out to play you'd release the other prisoners and there are some in this place who should be in here and will try to kill us if we let them out."
"I don't know starting to think the other prisoners would be a great distraction," Bruce replied, "But less shooting at us probably a good thing. Either way we're not moving without Clint and I can't pick locks the way you can."
"Damn it," Natasha growled before taking a few more shots and tossing a hand gun towards Bruce which he awkwardly caught, "Try to hold them off." She and Bruce switched places, Bruce firing the gun down the hall at times with calculated shots, though that didn't mean they were always good or fast enough. Natasha set to work on the rest of the chains getting them off of Clint quickly. "Alright, Bruce grab Clint. We need to carry him to the pickup spot."
"Right," Bruce nodded and the two once again switched places as Bruce returned the gun to Natasha before grabbing one of Clint's arms and pulling it over his shoulders, "come on Clint."
"S'not real," Clint mumbled, "It'll just happen again."
"Yep heard you the first time," Bruce grumbled, "Don't care you'll figure this out soon enough. But at the very least stop being a completely dead weight."
"Tyrell's got a plan, he's gonna win," Clint continued to mumble, "gonna collect what he came for then…" He trailed off as he looked at the ground. Bruce started to drag Clint out of the room, barely able to hold the other man up. Natasha covered the two while Bruce moved down the hallway as he could with Clint.
"You're not making this easy," Bruce grumbled, "Really you're not. Natasha, how much farther before we're out?"
"Just around the corner, through the double doors, you need to hack their security system then you can do your thing without releasing the other prisoners," Natasha yelled firing some shots at S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were starting to charge towards the group.
"Great another door to hack," Bruce continued down the hall quickly. He could hear the gun shots from both the agents and Natasha which urged him on. He made it to the door she had mentioned and glared at the pad going through the possible combination. He shook his head and set Clint down before prying the box open to look at the wires. He quickly ripped a few out and rewired a few others causing the door to unlock. "Ha, that was easy." He picked Clint up again and dragged him through the door with Natasha right behind him and froze. There was a rather large group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents gathered around all aimed at the three. "Well that's just great." Among the group was Tyrell who was flanked by a large male, easily as large as Thor maybe larger and someone Bruce thought was a female but couldn't tell since they were in heavy armor. There were odd sounds coming from the group and they certainly weren't human. "Tash, you wanna take Clint?"
Natasha didn't move assessing the situation in her head as she looked at each agent who blocked their way.
"Well I'm glad you two have made this easy for me," Tyrell grinned, "Now why not make it easier on yourselves. Agent Romanoff if you'd be so kind as to drop your weapons and if Dr. Banner would be kind enough to set Agent Barton down we can make this all go a lot smoother." He shook his head when Bruce and Natasha didn't move and just glared at him. "Really Agent Romanoff, must you play tough? Thanks to you we were able to find Dr. Banner a lot faster. It seemed it would have taken far too long before Agent Barton said anything other than how much he no longer like himself. Even then he might not have been able to remember where Dr. Banner was. Who knows? Without your help we might not have found him in time. I am glad Agent Barton dropped the attitude but he's still at least a week away from being reformed into what I want him to be. Now if you would kindly return him to his cell for me, or perhaps he'd be kind enough to go there himself. Agent Barton, what do you think?"
Bruce shot a glare at Natasha when Tyrell talked about finding him but as Tyrell went on Bruce's glare shifted to Clint. He grabbed Clint's shoulder when he felt the man move and whispered through gritted teeth, "Clint, don't you dare go back."
"Now then, I have places for each of you but what will happen is all up to you," Tyrell continued, "You can surrender now and then make it easy on everyone and become part of the collection or you can try to fight. Then you'll be trained just as Agent Barton is. I will remove everything you are, take the fight out of you and then slowly place what you should be inside of you."
"Been there, done that," Natasha replied, "Haven't done this though." With that she took a shot at Tyrell yet what should have been a clear shot was stopped by a sudden move from the large male agent beside Tyrell.
"Hard way it is," Tyrell shrugged. A gun went off from another agent though this shot was aimed at Natasha and was a clear hit. Bruce watched Natasha fell from a direct hit to the chest, what looked like a shot to her heart though it was slightly off, thankfully. Tyrell tilted his head when Natasha went down, "Well that was a waste. I suppose two will have to do for now. Try not to kill them off."
Bruce dropped Clint once Natasha hit the ground and didn't get up, every part of him let loose in that instant. "Now you've made me angry." Bruce's body rapidly expanded as his eyes shifted to green. He saw some of the agents I the line falter, taking a step back. Others stood their ground and Tyrell just grinned with excitement. The pain of Bruce's body couldn't even come close to matching his rage at everything and he knew exactly where to aim it. All of that rage from before. The anger of being left behind, the torture, living alone, being feared, everything, now it's time to let that out and smash. Hulk let out an enraged roar as he continued to grow, leaping at the agent who had shot first. His massive hand wrapped around their leg allowing him to toss them into another agent. "Hulk smash!"
"Oh this is wonderful," Tyrell commented, "Always love to see fights between future collection and current. However we are short on time. Varou, Ace, please make this quick."
The large man who had taken the shot and the woman beside Tyrell went towards Hulk. Within a moment the armor had been torn off of both of them. The large man, Varou as Tyrell had called him, had his body change rapidly taking what could be described as some form of Lycanthrope. "Hulk smash wolf man before."
"Varou is a man from what was known as Earth-7085, a virus infected most of the world turning them into what you see before you. Packs formed and those who weren't infected were food, simple as that. Most were beyond saving when I was there, beasts that only ever wanted flesh. Varou was a loner, and had found ways to control his hunger. Because of that I chose to raise him above all of that, I gave him a new name and even more control. In return he pledged loyalty to me and will stay by my side until one of us is dead."
The woman Ace on the other hand changed dispelling an illusion put on her by Tyrell becoming an insect like creature with fanged jaws. Her skull was triangular and flat with a birthmark of a battle axe between her large eyes. "Marvelous isn't she? Ace, as I've taken to calling her, was of Brood World. Found her when she was young before that world was destroyed. Now my collection is her hive after some modifications. She'll do anything to defend her hive. Now then careful you two, I don't want to kill them like the other one."
"It's happening again," Clint muttered as Hulk charged at the two creatures. Varou met him head on, it was clear he wasn't as strong as the Hulk but he was able to slow him down and hold his ground somewhat, his feet dug into the ground as Hulk grabbed his arms and pushed against him. Varou had slowed Hulk down enough for Ace to get onto his back, clinging to his massive body trying to bite and claw him. Hulk let go of one of Varou's arms to grab Ace in an attempt to rip her off of his back though once he had let go of Varou's arm the beast took a shot to claw into Hulk. Despite how thick Hulk's skin was the enhancements Varou had allowed him to break it causing Hulk to let out a painful roar. Varou took the moment of distraction to get out of Hulk's grip and pull one of his arms to the side, ripping into it constantly to stop it from healing. Ace took the shot at Hulk's now injured harm to hit her stinger right into the wound. Hulk's arm started to burn as the venom entered his system, his body would fight it off but it was still causing him immense pain, more than he was used to dealing with. Hulk ripped his arm away from the two but in doing so the gashes became larger and the two simply latched onto him again and continued their assault.
"Finish this," Tyrell ordered, "No need to rip his limbs off. Take him down and let's move on."
"Every time it's the same," Clint muttered looking from where Hulk was fighting to Natasha. He remembered watched the decoys die in front of him, the sounds they would make. He didn't want to watch Hulk fight anymore he just waited for those sounds to come from Natasha and remind him that this was all planned. He saw Natasha's chest move just barely but there was no sound. There was no gagging, no big show of pain, no begging for death just that slight move. He could see the blood coming from the wound slowly but still there was no noise other than Hulk fighting. This seemed more painful than all of the other times. "If I'm wrong…" Clint finally forced himself up from the ground to his hands and knees. "Gotta try. Can't just let it happen. Not tied down this time." Even if this was all a trick he knew it'd be worse if he didn't try something since he could this time.
His hand reached out towards the gun Natasha had dropped only a few inches away. "Hang on, I got this…" Clint gripped the gun slowly raising it up; it felt right in his hands. It'd been too long since he had gripped anything by choice really. He glanced around at the agents watching Hulk fight; no one was watching him so no one was going to stop him. He took aim, his breathing becoming staggered from his fear and doubt. His hand shook at first, "Damn it Clint, you're a marksman, not just any marksman either the best. If you're gonna do something do it right. One shot and this all ends."
He had another moment of doubt, different from the others, one shot and this all ends. That was true in more than one way. He could turn the gun on himself, but if this was a trick then the bullets in it would blanks and do nothing, if this was real he'd leave Hulk to fight alone. He thought about the cell and how he wanted this all over, he didn't want to go back but he still thought he'd end up back there. If this was real though, if he shot himself and just gave up then Hulk would fall and in turn Bruce who would end up taking his place in that cell. Finally he remembered finding Bruce and how he looked, he remembered what he looked like in medical, if he gave up right here then that would happen again only no one was going to save him this time. He thought of one final thing if this was real then they had just shot Natasha and she was at best barely alive beside him. That crossed a line. His hand stopped shaking and the fear and doubt left him. "This ends." He closed his eyes and took the shot only to smirk when Ace let out a screech of pain.
Hulk's eyes grew wide as Ace let go of him and fell to the ground leaving him only with Varou to deal with. Hulk smirked, "Time for Hulk to smash." Varou was distracted by Ace falling giving Hulk a chance to grab his head. Hulk started to squeeze in order to force Varou to completely let go of him before tossing him through a wall. Hulk roared glaring at Tyrell who clearly was not happy about where this fight was going.
Several of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents moved to protect Tyrell from Hulk's rage as Tyrell thought of the best way to defend himself or at least get even. "Agents take aim at Agent Barton, he's chosen his side so remove him."
Hulk had taken a few steps forward but at that order and seeing the agents start to turn on Clint, Hulk withdrew. Jumping over to Clint to guard the smaller man with his body, Hulk growled as the bullets started to hit him instead of Clint. "Hulk, we need to get out of here. We need to get Natasha help, grab her and let's go. Please, we can't fight them here." Hulk stared at Clint who was still holding the gun and seemed uncertain but was pushing that aside to figure things out.
After a moment Hulk nodded and picked Natasha up, she was still barely breathing and her body was starting to give out. Hulk looked back at Clint who shook his head, wanting to slow the agents down so that Hulk and Natasha could get out however Hulk wasn't one to listen to everything Clint wanted. Hulk shifted Natasha so he could hold her in one arm against his body before grabbing Clint's leg and jumping. He went head first through the roof and landed away from the Madhouse. He looked over his shoulder to see if anything followed him but saw nothing.
Hulk started to jump again to head back for the military base and Bruce's old lab, though about half way there he did get annoyed by Clint's complaints about being carried by his leg and thus let the man hang onto his back.
Varou had gotten back up and walked over to Tyrell though he wasn't in a condition to fight right away. "Leave them," Tyrell ordered to the agents who were getting ready to follow Hulk, "We'll be able to get after them soon enough. Varou call the others when you feel better we need to move full force and quickly if we're going to make up for lost time. This has proven that the best way to get them out of hiding is to go for their teammates so that's what we're going to do."
((As usually most of these characters do not belong to me. Tyrell is mine though redesigned as were the original Varou himself is an OC but where he comes from is pure Marvel same with Ace but the brood race is Marvel's.))