Really IMPORTANT NOTE:
Hey guys... I feel like an idiot. *Face palm.. I accidentally chose the wrong chapter to upload (THE REALLY ACTION PACKED GRAPHIC VIOLENCE CHAPTER) last upload, so the chapter you recently read is actually the fifth chapter. I have published this real chapter four in-between, where it is SUPPOSED to go.
So this is the real chapter four, and the chapter I uploaded a few days ago is the real chapter 5. So please, read this chapter, and then read the next chapter, it will make a lot more sense.
Part I: Abberation
Real Chapter IV: Are
One Day Prior
Location: Stark Tower
Time: 11:07:57
Knock... Knock...
Clint looks up, startled, and even more so when Fury walks through the door with a big black bag slung over his shoulder. He watches as Steve visibly tenses, and notices his own pale arms start shivering.
The cards he'd been using for go-fish sink to the table top, the two he was going to play looks up at him dejectedly. Well? Get on with it!
The cheerfulness in the air is gone with the Director, a big leach that both scares Clint and makes him grow restless.
Fury clears his throat, "I'm glad to see you're recovering, Clint."
"Thank you, Director," Clint curses himself when his voice cracks, really stupid voice? Now?
Yes, Clint had been released from the infirmary this morning. After his animosity had run it's course through and through, and he no longer felt like tearing off Banner's head, they deemed him fit to be released with the only possibility of Physical Therapy in after hours. The nurses had also given him some soothing medicine for his burning, rattling lungs, saying some sort of poison had infected them. How was still unknown, but going back to his room he had noticed a broken arrow. Feeling an immediate distaste for it, even though it was part of his research project, with thick rubber gloves he'd carefully thrown it away in the incarcerator, hoping flippantly that the metal burned.
He'd slowly began to feel like himself again. His strength returned and the pain in his calf drained away.
Clint snaps to attention when Director speaks again, hoping his newfound daydreaming tendencies will burn away quickly.
"Then to business, gentlemen." Fury proposes, sits down in the third chair of Clint's small table, and bringing out a laptop; places in a thumb drive into the USB port. He turns it on, no doubt enters an incredibly difficult password (I_am_FURYOUS.007) and turns to show it to the two Avengers.
In the incredibly complex coding, which Clint can't even begin to decipher (extremely long strands of a mix of HEX, Binary, and ASCII mixed with a health dose of gibberish) he spots several highlighted strands.
"Our best technicians attempted to decode this, but they couldn't figure anything else out besides five names grouped together at one sector here," Fury points on the screen to the highlighted part (extra special gibberish), "Which say..." and he gestures towards his pen pad after he furiously (get it?) scribbles on to it.
Written on it in tight backhand slant is:
Thompson,
Comber,
Dylan,
Meyers,
And an unknown tabooed name that sends Clint's blood practically to a freezing boil:
Jackson.
Fury studies the faces of both soldiers, looking for recognition, and no doubt picks up on Clint's hesitation. He then reaches back in to his bag and draws out five files. He flicks through the first one, before setting it down.
"These are the five men we have narrowed down from the last names in the coded message." Fury says, "These names are also coincidentally a part of your of the original one hundred sixty-seven."
Clint flips opens random file, Comber's,
Murdered fourteen men in New York throughout his time of being a Gang leader of Vulg. Caught on December 24 and sentenced to Death Row...
He quickly flips shut the file before he's permanently scarred for life.
"What do you want us to do?" Clint finds his voice, triumphant when it doesn't crack this time.
"I believe it's time to tell all of the Avengers of your 'undercover' mission. We're going to need all of them to take down whatever man we're looking for." Fury pins both of them with his gaze.
Clint looks at Steve, who smirks slightly, "Assemble the Avengers."
The Avengers sit at a circular table, the kind of table that projects equality and fairness. Fury had already explained everything about the two men's 'undercover' mission, and while no one complains, distrust is evident in the eyes. Clint feels dreadful when he realizes that while Natasha isn't angry that he didn't tell her about his 'undercover' mission, she also isn't happy.
A cough startles him, and Clint looks up at Fury, who is decorating a presentation board. His cough isn't a I-need-to-cough-because-my-throat-is-bugging-me, it's a I-am-coughing-to-get-you-alls-attention. It works, and in milliseconds all of the seated Avengers look up.
Clint discretely studies the board, which detailedly describes each of the five men, and possible sightings at various points around the world.
Then Fury starts speaking rapidly, like a machine gun, "Earlier this morning I got an anonymous tip that the man we're looking for, whoever that may be, is going to be at Staz in Miami tonight."
Tony whistles, "Dang, that's the most expensive restaurant in Florida!" He then counts on his fingers, "I've been there... twice."
Fury turns his one eye of destruction and doom onto Tony, who visibly shakes in what Clint only describes as absolute fear.
Steve speaks up, "How do we know the tip was valid? Or that one of these men is for sure the man is Sparta's Assassin?"
Fury turns his eye on Steve, "To answer your first question; we don't, but that's the best bet we have so far. Secondly, this is a direct transmission from Sparta about a year and a half ago about five qualifying but possible recruits that already had in depth police records that they wanted to induct into the position of assassin."
"So, assuming that it was one of these men, we have our lead." He finishes, with one deft nod.
"But what about —" Steve starts again, but is quickly cut off by Fury when he jams his palms onto the table, roughly shaking it.
"It isn't your job to know all the facts, it's mine. Just bash somebody's head in, that's all you're being paid for anyway." Fury quickly rants, agitation webbed across his face.
"I don't get paid," murmurs Steve, but Clint is the only one who catches it.
"The oldest man on here is," Tony looks at the files quickly, "thirty-eight, the youngest nineteen. Why does this require all of the Avengers? I'm pretty sure that even Clint could take out all five of them."
Clint ignores the obvious jibe at his skills, but does pin Tony with his most threatening glare. Tony cockily grins back at him, and Clint imagines bashing in his face with a hammer...
Obviously annoyed, especially because Tony completely disregards what Fury says, Fury says, "If this person can trick the entire government and agency's, then he's not a force to take on alone."
"Besides, it's not like we're taking all of them on, four of these men are dead." Fury says, "Only one is alive now, they all died at various points of last year."
This time Clint has a question, "How do we know that all of them haven't escaped death?"
"Do you want all five to be alive?" Fury shoots back, "No? Then shut up."
Clint feels stupid like a chastised child, which isn't exactly a rare experience being around expert technicians, doctors, and all around smart people. He's not exactly dumb, if his ACT score of 26 is anything to go on.
But then again his IQ is only 101... and his College GPA was horrendous. Hehe... not that he actually finished college.
Suddenly Clint feels self conscious when he realized all eyes are on him, and instantly knows from the amount of teachers and students that have done the exact same thing, that he's been asked a question.
"W-what?" He asks self consciously.
"Will you lead this InOp mission?" Fury repeats, and despite the fact Clint feels like hiding under a rock right now, he steels his nerves and slowly nods.
Something changes in Clint today, the archer who stands back, lets others leads, is at the top pecking order. He feels fearless, powerful.
Tony pins him with a glare, but the small smile Natasha sends him totally makes up for it. He knows she's proud of him, and that there are no hard feelings.
That's when he feels a slight rattling in lungs, and woozy, his head starts thumping terribly. He starts choking on air, not being able to breathe, but no one notices — not one.
Jarvis suddenly speaks, "Clint's breathing pattern has seemed to be disrupted, please check for further diagnostics."
Steve whips around, and with calculating eyes decides to thump Clint hard on the back. The nothingness lodged in his throat evaporates, but all the Avengers continue to stare at him.
Fury in particular, "Soldier, I can't let you go on this mission. Not in this state."
Clint looks at the ground dejectedly, once again degraded.
"Yes sir."
One Day Prior
Location: Miami, Florida
Time: 04:43:06
My Russian Blue cat named Lily stares up at me from her perch on my book shelf. Her luminous green eyes seem to pull apart all my secrets, as only a feline can do.
"Hi," I manage, my voice lodged with what I think feels like dry cotton.
She meows, which practically makes my heart swell twice it's size — my cat is the only happiness I can afford at this point.
"Im being sent on a new mission... But I already knew about it. Boss thinks his encryptions are so hard to crack, but really, the FBI's firewall is more complex than him, the FBI. Meyers could hack them with both hands tied behind his back." I shake my head, lost in a crazy, insane state. "Anyway, I found out about it three weeks ago, and already mapped out my choice of action. I made an arrangement with a black market man who says he knows where the warehouse is, but can only pass me the info through a highly trained mercenary."
My cat smiles in a weird, gruesome way that lengthens her canines. She cocks her head, asking a silent question, Kill Plan?
"Yeah, I got that covered, Lily. Boss won't know what hit him, and I never break my promises."
I have to repress my smile, I'll strip him limb from limb, gouge his eyes after he sees his hideousness.
I'll kill him, because that's what I'm made for — killing.
A laugh burst from my mouth, a crazy wild sound that stems only from the euphoria of completely demolishing anyone I feel like bestowing the horror upon.
Anyone who knows binary, what does this say?
01000010 01101111 01100010 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
— Jay