Chapter 33: Morris' Base

Over 1,000 square acres made up Clint's farm. It's boundaries were very clearly marked by a simple wire fence. The eastern half was devoted to livestock, the western to agriculture. It took dozens of suits to man the perimeter, and two large repulser canons sat evenly spaced in the middle of the farm.

Morris had plenty of devices to broadcast his frequency and seal in Nadya Ryker. He wasn't pleased with it but he had an EM bomb to fry anything and everything turned on within two miles of the detonation point. It would take care of the suits on guard. He still fussed over the map as the final preparations began. Any gap in the signal that allowed the girl to use her powers left him with the potential to lose control of the situation- minus Cul of course. If the wraiths failed to rile the heroes against each other he'd have at least Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes loose- hopefully the EM would at least disable the metal arm.

"How much time are you budgeting for our spree?" Albatross buckled blades and holsters to his light armor.

"Twenty minutes, less if John Ryker is everything they say he is."

"And the child?"

"My master awaits my signal. Once I have so much as a hand on Nadya he will bring us directly to him. He has many children, some as special as she is. It will not be difficult for him to break her, she'll never see this world again."

"You're one of those children, I take it?"

Morris nodded, "I have been augmented for strategic advantage. One of my more pathetic sisters is lost to my father. He is keen to replace her with someone worthy."

"If I chose to go with you, would I become one of his children too?"

Morris only laughed, but the meaning was clear enough. He wasn't worth of the "honor". Still, Albatross would rule one of the master's territories for him- an entire solar system most likely. It wouldn't be such an awful way to spend his long life. Especially knowing Natasha Romanoff's corpse was feeding the soil back on Earth.

"How are they?"

"The same," Inessa kept a watchful eye on Clint and Natasha in the Valley, though she refused to listen in as well.

"So, no change from the last time you asked, 60 seconds ago."

"You can criticize when you have a team of your own to lead. This one is mine and I'll check on them as often as I damn well please!" Steve and Bucky had been arguing all afternoon. It was driving the team crazy. Inessa studied them carefully, but she couldn't see the creatures from before, and nothing they tried would stop it.

"Morris plans to make you two fight," Banner reminded them yet again, "so just knock it off until we're all too dead to care."

"Oh, yeah, letting your men sit around and get ready to die instead of at least pretending they have a prayer must be a very subtle technique. I can feel the leadership now. Wait- before we start fighting maybe we should form a suicide pack, or at least decide if we're catching or killing, cause that little disagreement got both our asses handed to us with Dennisson!"

"My leadership was no issue when you actually followed orders instead of flaunting them! At least Inessa's listening to me!" Steve's phone buzzed and he retrieved the text, "Sinthea Schmidt is Red Skull's daughter."

Bucky rolled his eyes, "Oh well that changes everything! Oh wait- NO IT DOESN'T!" he caught sight of Tony putting a hand in his pocket and rounded on him temporarily, "If you hit us with Widow Bites one more time I swear to god you'll die before Morris even gets here." Tony let go of the mini tazer and pulled out a stick of gum instead, "Good choice."

"You don't threaten members of my team!"

"I'll threaten whoever I want to! If not for me, you'd be dead in the Potomac!"

"If not for me you'd still be waving the Hydra banner!"

Bucky scoffed, "You're just pissed that when you were the one falling to your death, I actually jumped to save you."

"INTO A RIVER. YOU JUMPED INTO A RIVER! In case you didn't notice when you splattered the first time- land is slightly harder! Survival is a lot more difficult!"

"I survived!"

"Oh, yeah, you did a wonderful job. Bravo. How many murders again? And is Inessa your only torture victim or is there a whole warehouse full of them?"

Inessa had enough. She got up and, ignoring Steve's demand for her to sit down (which set the argument in a shiny new direction) she went upstairs where it was quieter.

She peeked in on Natasha and Clint again. Their gestures were less animated- but that could just be exhaustion. At least they looked like they were talking it tout. She curled up on her bed, very much alone. At least, nearly.

"How's it going kiddo?" Sam sat on the edge of the bed and sighed, "Maybe when Clint and Nat are done we should lock one of the guys in there too. At least that would be quieter."

"I can't see the monsters, but it has to be them again. Pain isn't helping stop it this time."

"Bright side? It got you speaking again."

Inessa was quiet, but she could hear Steve and Bucky as loudly as ever. "Bucky is going to leave."

Sam nodded, "Probably. He won't do it until he knows you're safe though. He needs time to figure things out, I don't think he can do that here."

Inessa swallowed and hugged her knees to her chest, still lying on her side, "The Hydra base in Japan finished Project Helius. The devices weren't powerful enough to open a door. I don't think they knew it could do more than make people invisible. I had to blow it up. I had to destroy it."

Sam considered her words, "We'll break that to Steve a while later, OK? Like, months. The man is looking for an excuse to crash and burn, we'll both have to do our parts to keep that from happening. He's been fighting too long. He forgot how to live between the battles."

"You're not mad?"

Sam chuckled, "There's too much of that going around right now. Clint, Nat, Steve, Bucky- they didn't leave any for the rest of us. Thank you for telling me the truth."

Inessa rolled over to face him, "I could save you all. You don't have to die."

"Morris wants us dead as much as he wants you. He's not giving up one for the other. Handing yourself over will accomplish nothing."

"No," she hadn't thought of that, "I mean... I could lock us in the Valley- maybe bring the whole farmhouse. We could hide for as long as possible. If Morris couldn't find us-"

"He lets Cul loose and everyone dies- if not at Cul's hands then at those of whoever Asgard sends to pulverize the world. We're heroes. It means we really want to run, we want to go screaming for the hills, but we don't. You know that."

"I do. But you'd all be safe. I could lock it down. Nothing in, nothing out. Nothing making people crazy, no life-sucking gods, no psychics, no-" she froze and sat up suddenly, mouth open. She hardly dared to breathe in case it somehow ruined the thought dancing through her head. Everything she knew supported it, but she kept running through it until she was certain. Could they be that lucky? "Come on!"

"I like that look, it means good things," Sam followed, smiling.

Inessa ran down the stairs. Steve and Bucky were still shouting, naturally. "BE QUIET!" they stopped and turned. Before either could so much as cough and prompt some other verbal assault from the other she opened the door to the Valley and dropped Clint and Natasha in the living room, "Be quiet!" she wouldn't let them speak either.

One last time she ran through the scenario in her head. Again, it came up positive. "I know how to do it. I know how to stop Cul Borson!"

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