A/N: Thank you so much to those who've reviewed thus far. This is a longer chapter, but be prepared, in all likelihood there won't be an update until next Monday. Please let me know what you think, I value your feedback tremendously. You're wonderful, really.
-Kingshammer
S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, 1000
"Mr. Murdock is stable Director. His lung was punctured by a fractured rib but we were able to restore the damage. He'll be fine in a month or two," reported the doctor in charge of emergency surgery for the helicarrier.
"Thank you for your work," replied Fury. The doctor nodded and departed.
"He shouldn't have been out last night. Those guys were strong. They would have killed him if he was on his own," said Natasha quietly. She and Clint were waiting with Fury outside the medical unit.
"They're more than strong, they're unstoppable. I'm not sure that the electricity that stopped them as much as they just gave out," supplied Clint, rubbing his tired eyes. Natasha and Clint had taken an opportunity to get cleaned up and power nap while Daredevil was in surgery, but the druggies had given them a run for their money and they were still exhausted.
"Did they say anything about who they are or what they're doing?" asked Fury. Clint glanced at Natasha, but she didn't say anything. Clint looked up at Fury.
"The woman said something to Natasha. She said 'this is only the beginning, douche,' or something like that" replied Clint. Natasha rolled her eyes but still didn't say anything. Fury's eye narrowed on her.
"And do you have to say about that, Agent Romanoff? What does it mean? Beginning of what?" he asked. His tone demanded a response, forcing Natasha to look up.
"The word is doch'. It's Russian for daughter," replied Natasha.
"And why would someone call you daughter in your native language?" asked Fury.
"There could be several reasons, none of which I want to speculate on right now. One thing is for certain, though. Whoever is behind this isn't done. We need to go back out there and figure out what's going on," she replied. Fury stared her down with his one eye, looking like he wanted to question her. He thought better of it.
"Go back tonight. Try to question them. Figure this thing out. Dismissed," said Fury.
Hell's Kitchen rooftop, 1200
"You gonna tell me what's bugging you or am I gonna have to continue to walk on eggshells?" asked Clint after an hour of near silence.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean," replied Natasha, not looking at him. Hell's Kitchen was quiet. Fortunately for them, it'd been raining all day, driving people inside. With no Daredevil to protect them, it was a good thing.
"Oh no? You haven't said a word that wasn't strictly necessary since Fury briefed us on this mission. I tried to talk to you after talking to Fury this morning, and you brushed me off. I can tell that this whole thing has you freaked out, but you won't say anything. Tash, I thought we were beyond the super secrecy, at least with each other," he said. At first Natasha said nothing, looking out at the streets below. Finally she sighed and glanced at Clint.
"I'm sorry Clint. It's this Super Serum talk. It's got me edgy and worried," she admitted. She looked down while she said it, fidgeting with her Widow's Bite bracelet.
"Why though? It's superhero stuff, we've seen it before with Steve," he asked. He wanted to grab her hand, make her look at him. He refrained.
"It's not just Steve, it's –"
"OD to Black Widow," chirped the radio.
"Go for Black Widow," replied Natasha instantly. Clint scoffed at the interruption.
"We've just got visual on a disturbance with our desired targets east of you, heading north of 54th Street on Second Avenue. Move in that direction and make contact with codename Spiderman. He has engaged the targets."
"10-4. OD, advise how many targets" replied Natasha. She and Clint were already moving across buildings down to the street where they'd parked the Acura NSX that S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps on the group for their operatives.
"Four targets spotted," came the reply. Clint groaned.
"We're gonna be sore for weeks," he muttered.
Ten minutes later, the pair were heading north on Second Avenue. It was eerily quiet. The street lamps were on, but the streets were clear of people.
"This is not right, this is strange. Hawkeye to OD," Clint called out. The lack of people unnerved him. It was New York, there were always people out. There wasn't a soul in sight.
"Hawkeye"
"OD, we're not seeing anything on Second Avenue north of 54th Street. There aren't even people out here, no civilians," he reported. His head was on a swivel, looking for something, anything as Natasha drove.
"OD to Hawkeye, target should be at you nin-" before the dispatcher could finish the message, something slammed into the driver's side of the vehicle. The car was shoved to the right side of the street, flipping onto the passenger side.
Clint shook his head, dazed by the sudden impact, his ears ringing. He looked up and to his left.
"Found them OD," he muttered. Still shaking his head, trying to clear the fuzziness Clint spoke out.
"Tasha? Natasha, are you alright? Natasha" he asked, his voice growing louder when she didn't respond. He looked to his left to see her unconscious in her seat. Quickly he unbuckled his seatbelt.
"OD to Hawkeye, sitrep!" the voice on the radio was Nick Fury.
"Something plowed into the side of our car, it's out of commission, Black Widow is unresponsive," just then, Natasha groaned. "Well, mostly unresponsive." Clint rolled in his seat so that his feet were on the passenger side window and he was crouched down, putting his head next to Natasha's.
"Natasha, come on talk to me," he said, gently cradling her head in both his hands. Natasha blinked, her eyes still unfocused.
"C-Clint? Car's…down," she muttered. She grimaced suddenly in pain, but when she opened her eyes, they were clearer. She reached up and grabbed one of Clint's hands.
"I'll be fine. Up in a minute. Get out the car, help Spiderman," she said, stifling another grimace. Clint envied her ability to recover from trauma so quickly. It was obvious she was in pain, but her mind was already back in the game.
"I can't leave you here," replied Clint. Something smashed into a nearby building, hard enough to make the car tremor.
"You have to. I'll follow, I promise," she said. Clint looked up out the driver side window and down back at her. She couldn't see his forehead but it wasn't hard to tell his brow was furrowed in concern. Natasha rolled her eyes.
"You need to go," she said again. This time, she pressed a button on her Widow's Bite bracelet. The bracelet and lines along the front and back of her black gloves lit up. She backhanded the cracked glass of driver's side window. When her knuckles met the window a flash of light as the electrical current from her gloves blasted the glass out.
"Go Clint. I'll be right behind you, I just need a minute," he looked up again and back at her. She squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him she'd be fine. He must have gotten the picture because he placed his hands on the outside of the blown out window and hauled himself up and out to the side of the car.
The scene outside the car was disastrous. The building at the corner of the intersection where Clint and Natasha had been hit had a crater in it, one of the juiced up druggies temporarily trapped there by Spiderman's webs. Looking down at the car, Clint saw another of the targets, the force behind their impact. He quickly loaded an arrow to his bow and jumped down to investigate. The target was already dead.
Just as he was wondering where the other two targets were, Clint heard a yell above his head. To his horror, he saw one druggie scaling a building, his hands and feet kicking through the concrete creating his own foot and handholds. Another using the same method must have jumped out at Spiderman. He missed but he caught the web Spiderman was swinging on, severing the connection to the building, bringing both the hero and attacker hurtling to the ground. Seeing the pair falling the druggie climbing the building launched himself off towards them.
"Oh no you don't," muttered Clint. His arrow struck its target in the ribs as he fell through the air. Instantly the druggie lit up blue and white as the electrical current caused his body to convulse. His momentum halted he fell to the ground like a stone. Spiderman and his attacker did no better, Spiderman landing on a car, his attacker onto the street. Despite the four story drop, the man got back after a moment on the ground.
"What the hell?" said Clint before running over to the attacker. The man who'd brought Spiderman down was no druggie. This man was huge and all muscle. He wore no identifying clothing, just black pants and shirt. Clint released another stun arrow as he ran. The man turned and caught it, breaking it in his hand. Not good, though Clint to himself. At a loss for what else to do, he jumped forward, tackling the man.
"Glad you finally made it to the party. I thought I was gonna have to hog all the fun," said Spiderman as he rolled off the car, shaking the dizziness from his head.
"Not a chance bug boy," grunted Clint. The large attacker had managed to get on his back and kick Clint off of him. He advanced on the archer as Spiderman shot a web at his ankles, tripping him. The man snarled and grabbed the web yanking it towards himself. Spiderman came with it but shot two webs directly into the man's eyes. Yelling, the man flailed about, trying to scrape the goo out of his eyes. Before he could get a chance to hit anything, Spiderman spun webs around him, securing his arms to his sides. The big man tripped and fell to the ground, still yelling and thrashing around.
"Nice work bug boy, neat and clean," remarked Clint, looking down at the man.
"Why thank you. They didn't send you alone did they?" asked Spiderman. Clint could hear he was panting, tired.
"No, Natasha's in the car. She was rattled by that hit," replied Clint.
"I guess that's my fault. I managed to shove him out into the intersection just as your car was coming through," replied Spiderman apologetically.
"No worries, I'm sure she'll be - "
"Hawkeye, down!" yelled Spiderman, shoving himself into the other hero as a chunk of building went soaring over their heads.
"These guys don't stop do they?" said Spiderman. He jumped and rolled towards the junkie that Clint had initially stunned. On his feet he lunged up with an uppercut, catching the attacker under the jaw. His neck snapped back but in the same motion with lightning speed he grabbed Spiderman's arm.
A moment later, Spiderman was on the ground screaming as his shoulder was completely dislocated.
Clint didn't miss a beat. Spiderman was barely down before an arrow drove straight through the junkie's eye.
"OD to Hawkeye, you are reminded that we need suspects to interrogate," came the instant chirp of the radio.
"Reflex, OD, reflex," he snapped back. "You're gonna be alright buddy." Clint reached down to push Spiderman's shoulder back in place, but stopped as he heard snapping behind him.
The big man on the ground was ripping through Spiderman's webs. The multiple cuts inflicted by the strong web binding didn't faze him and with one violent scrape he clawed the webbing away from his eyes. Soon he and Clint were going at it, trading kicks and punches, Clint trying desperately not to be hit too hard by the super human.
"Who do you work for," barked Clint, ducking around a punch to land a hit on the man's kidney. The man grunted and Clint used the opportunity to drive his knee into the man's back, making him fall to his knees. Clint drove an elbow into the back of his head, knocking him forward. With a roar the man swung his fist back. Hawkeye dodged it and used the opportunity to drive a knee into the man's sternum and press a drawn arrow to his throat.
"Who sent you?" he asked, pressing the arrow on the man's throat.
"The reign of superheroes is over," replied the man. There was something familiar in his accent.
"Didn't answer my question. Try again. Who do you work for? asked Clint, accentuating his question by pushing the arrow tip into his throat slightly, drawing blood.
"Our doch knows. This is only the beginning. Your time is done," he replied. Before Hawkeye could say anything else, the man's head fell back and his body relaxed, blood trickling out his nose.
"Damnit," muttered Clint. Distracted, he heard the footsteps too late. A foot connected with the side of his face, sending him sprawling and his bow out of his hands. The attacker Spiderman trapped had gotten loose. Clint braced himself for the next hit but it didn't come. He looked up just as Natasha jumped onto his attacker's back. She put her fists directly onto his neck. Her gloves and Widow's Bites glowed blue as 30,000 volts of electricity poured into the man. He dropped to his knees and Natasha grabbed his shirt and shoved him to the ground. A moment later his hands were secured behind his back and he was rolled over.
"Where'd you get the drugs?" she asked. The man's eyes were still wild but the electricity had stunned his body.
"Where?" she barked, jerking him at the collar.
"Drugs come to us. A man, in the dark. More...rush, more...high. All we had to do was attack superheroes," he managed to sputter, his head beginning to twitch a little.
"Names?" growled Natasha.
"No names, aren't you listening? Came from...the darkness," he whispered, his head falling back, dead.
"Tasha, we're going to have to talk," said Clint, rubbing his sore head. "You okay?"
"Fine I think, just bruised. You?" she replied, ignoring his comment about talking entirely.
"Making it," he said.
"Me too! You know I am so glad everyone made it through that experience in one piece," came a voice from the ground, followed by a groan.
"Funny stuff bug boy. Let's get you back to the carrier," said Hawkeye.