The first man fell to the ground, arrow sticking out of his chest. The second started firing blindly to where he thought the arrow came from, but before he managed to get his second shot off there was an arrow sticking out of his chest too. The rest, realising there was an accurate marksman firing on them, retreated and hid behind a boulder.
Silently, two by two, the men fell to the floor. They had neither seen nor heard Romanov and May creep around them and attack from behind. Once all of the men were disposed of, Coulson put a bullet into the obstacle course mechanism.
"Ok, Skye. How do we destroy this thing for good? And get their latest sacrifices out of here?" he asked Skye over their comms.
"To destroy it you could blow up the ride?"
"Serious suggestions here, Skye!"
"I'm being serious. Set the charges and escape using the tunnel. When you get to the water trap room set them off. It gives you plenty of time to get out."
"And what about the gits who run out the front door?" May asked.
"A small squadron of Marines are headed to your location, as well as the local police force. Apparently Fury pulled some strings, and the police have been wanting to arrest the carnival employees for some time."
"A charge will destroy the evidence." Coulson argued.
"I have the schematics for the whole thing here, and Hollie has just told me she will testify."
"Fine, let's do it!" Coulson agreed, defeated. Hawkeye took a charge device out of his pack and armed it. Together they made it back to the room with the vent. May placed another charge in the room and they helped the six, now conscious, would be victims into the grate. Hawkeye went first, followed by May, the six, Coulson and Romanov. Without having to stop and chose directions they were in the bat room in no time at all. While Coulson fended the bats off, Hawkeye and May were shepherding the six through the trapdoor and Romanov placed another charge. They made their way down the corridor to the river. Amber swung the rope back to Hawkeye. He set the first of the six across onto the other side. Realising there was going to a bit of a squeeze, Kain and Fitz put their rebreathers in their mouths and opened the door to the sulphur room. When they got to the water trap room Kain gave his rebreather to Fitz who took it back to the river edge. There were now three of the six on their side of the bank, so Fitz took Simmons and Amber's rebreathers, added them to Kains. He gave them to the three and showed them what to do. He took them across to Kain who showed them the way out up the rope.
"Wait at the top." He told them as they set off, one by one, up the rope.
Fitz went back for the last three victims and repeated the process. The third trip he made was to give Amber and Simmons their rebreathers back to them. And the rest of the team made it back to the water trap room. May closed the door and again jimmied it with a knife. Water immediately started rushing in. They had figured that this way was quicker than using the rope.
"You guys want to move up the opening, the water is going to rush in" Coulson shouted up to the six scared people hiding in the opening.]
"Yeah, just don't go outside!" Hawkeye added.
When they had reached three quarters of the way up the side Coulson pressed a button on the remote he had attached to his collarbone. In the distance they heard a loud grumbling noise.
"What did you do?" Simmons asked
"Blew up the trap." Romanov told her, using the rope to get through the opening before they lost the chance. She pulled Fitz up, then Simmons and Amber. By the time she reached for May the water level was at the lower lip of the opening. May splashed through it and reached back for a hand. She caught one and pulled at the same time Romanov did. When the two men had climbed to their feet they set off up the tunnel, Romanov and Coulson working their way to the front. They stepped out of the door to the parking lot and came face to face with two hundred Marines.
"I'm Phil Coulson, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D" Coulson shouted, stepping forward a few steps.
One of the Marines stepped forward.
"Agent Coulson, we've been expecting you. I'm Colonel Warrington. I understand this is your show? That was some fireworks display you put on." He said, eyeing up the team.
"That's right. We need to get these people to safety." He said, waving his hand at the six people they had rescued, before continuing "and don't underestimate my team."
"Coulson, look." May said, pointing towards the carnival. Employees were beginning to arm themselves with whatever they could get their hands on.
"Fitz, Simmons in the car. Amber, Kain, I'm going to leave the choice up to you. You can come in with us, but it will be like the Covenant Raid all over again." Coulson ordered as Hawkeye headed for higher ground and Romanov turned her spider bites back on.
"I'm in." Said Amber, checking both of her guns and grabbing a couple more magazines of ammunition.
"I'll stay here and protect Fitz, Simmons." Kain offered.
"Colonel, keep your men back, only fire if we fail."
"But there's only five of you."
"More like four and a half" Coulson retorted, eyeing up Amber, wondering if she was really ready for this.
They set off for the gate. Romanov kicked out and the flimsy padlock flew off and landed on the ground with a thwack. She headed to the left, May to the right and Amber and Coulson progressed through the middle. They could hear the Marines getting into position behind them.
The carnival employees advanced on the team. Hawkeye picked a few off with his arrows. Coulson could hear the crackle of Romanov's spider bites working furiously. He saw a guy trying to sneak up on Amber. He grabbed her by the throat, and to her credit, she knocked him out.
Then the bullet hit him in the shoulder.
"That'll teach me to get distracted in a firefight" He thought before he fired at the person who shot him.
He noticed the arrows had stopped flying and Hawkeye was in front of him, using his bow like a staff. He had run out of arrows, but he was as deadly with just the bow as he was with its counterpart.
"Oof"
Coulson turned in time to see someone take a knee to Amber's ribcage, winding her. She had progressed a lot since Ward had given in and agreed to train her, but she was getting tired. Coulson fired at the person fighting Amber (he couldn't tell if it was a man or woman). He shot them, but the bullet passed straight through and caught Amber on the arm. To her credit, she kept firing her gun and fighting.
Someone had got hold of May and was trying to pull her hair out. She twisted her body and hit him in the throat. He collapsed to the floor, struggling to breathe.
A quick survey told him more than half of their numbers were down.
Colonel Warrington tossed him a loud speaker.
"If you surrender now, you will escape unharmed. If you don't you will be met with fatal resistance."
Machine gun fire erupted around his feet.
"I'll take that as a no then shall I?" Coulson asked through the loudspeaker, before dropping it and opening fire once more. The five of them fired until there were only three people left. The team surrounded them, all five pointing their guns in more or less the same location. Right between the eyes.
"So who is behind this?" Coulson asked them.
Two of them pointed to the third, who Coulson recognised as the ride attendant from the previous night.
"You're not from the crazy bin are you?" he asked, as May fitted him with a pair of handcuffs.
"Not quite, although there are some who would still call us that."
"Who the hell are you then?"
"Us? We're S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson told him, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out to Colonel Warrington, who was stood, mouth hitting the floor, waiting for them.
Coulson led his team back to the cars and assessed their injuries. Other than a few bullet wounds that were relatively superficial they had escaped with minor cuts and bruises.