Hey Guys! So I decided that since I have taken such a crazy long time to update recently that I'd spend every waking moment of my spare time working on this story. No promises that the next update will be this fast, but I'll try my very best to get it out soon. But enough of that. Here's chapter Eleven. Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination.
Chapter Eleven: Hawkeye
As we make our way down the dim hallway of our enemies' compound I keep a close eye on my team mates and our surroundings, prepared for an attack at any moment. Every crunch of gravel under our feet sends my senses into overdrive and all of my muscles tense at the sound. My mind reels from the events of the past three and a half days and I keep waiting for someone to jump out and attack us. I feel like we're being watched constantly. The farther we walk, the worse the feeling gets. By the time we turn into the sixth hallway, it's become so intense that I can barely contain my anxiety. I see something move in the corner of my eye and I whirl in its direction. All that meets my gaze is the shadow cast by the light that illuminates our path. Natasha, who had been walking directly in front of me, notices my sudden absence and turns to face me.
"Clint, what is it?" There's an edge in her voice that I've only heard on a few occasions, and on all of those occasions we always ended up nearly dying.
"Something's following us." She immediately settles into a fighting stance, ready for a fight.
"Do you know what it is?" Honestly I have no clue but before I get the chance to tell her that, a scraping sound draws all of our attention to the right. I can just barely see a figure in the darkness where it currently stands. Thor, not know for his patience, steps out in front of the group.
"Show yourself creature!" I'm expecting an attack to follow the Asguardian's commands, what I don't expect is the inhumane growl that is suddenly ripping through the hallway. The figure in the shadows slowly starts to step out into the light. My eyebrows knit together in confusion when I see what it is. A man is standing a mere fifteen feet from me, his blue skin nearly glowing in the dim light. Armor covers of his skin and there's a helmet placed firmly on his head. The intruder is massive, he even towers over Thor and the staff he carries looks like it could take down even an Asguardian in one blow. He glares at me with pure hatred in his eyes, their sapphire irises alight with anger. I glance over at Thor, who's eyes are wide with shock.
"He's gone absolutely mad." I'm puzzled at his response.
"Who has?" I ask. For a minute I don't get an answer. "Thor, what is that thing." He finally seems to snap out of his daze.
"He is a Kree."
"In case you haven't noticed, Thor, the rest of us are from earth and don't have quite as extensive knowledge of other species as you. So, care to explain?" I address my friend quickly, my eyes never leaving our new guest. Thor finally gains enough coherent thought to give me an actual answer.
"The Kree are an alien race that reside on a planet called Hala. They haven't intervened with humans in years." It's at that exact moment that the Kree decides to attack. The behemoth launches himself at Thor with lightning speed and plows him straight into a wall. The God of Thunder smashes through the concrete and only has a split second to recover before the creature is upon him again. The Kree swings his staff in a wide arc, aiming for Thor's head but my friend ducks just in time to avoid having his brains scrambled. Steve suddenly joins the fray and wraps his arms around the other man's throat trying to cut off his breathing. All this does is make him angry and he promptly grabs the Captain and hurls him across the room with a strength I've never seen before. The intruder heads towards where Cap lay and while he's distracted I run to Thor who's just now standing up.
"How is this possible? He just tossed Captain freaking America around like a rag doll and didn't even break a sweat!" My Asguardian friend glances between me and the Kree before answering.
"The conditions on their planet are different from Earth's and that causes them to be stronger and faster on Midguard than any other planet. They posses superhuman strength and agility when they enter the earth's atmosphere."
"Ok. So how to we beat him then?" Thor hesitates for a moment.
"They can't breathe our air because there isn't enough nitrogen, which means they have to have some sort of breathing device such as an air filter. If we can remove it, he'll be forced to either leave or die from lack of oxygen." I nod.
"I can work with that." I turn to see the Kree advancing on Steve, who's backed into a corner. Acting without hesitation, I pick up a rock about the size of my hand and hurl it directly at the monster's head, striking it right in the middle of his skull. The man turns around, rage burning in his eyes. Ok so that probably wasn't my best idea, but with all the things I've done in my life I figured why not add "pissed off an alien killer from another planet" to the list. Thanks to my somewhat stupid efforts, the creature is now barreling towards me like a freight train. I waiting until he's less than five feet away before diving off to the left out of his path, causing him to run headfirst into a concrete wall. The structure crumbles under the force of the impact. Much to my dismay I hear an enraged scream and suddenly he's coming right back. "Tony I need you to find his breathing device!" At first he looks confused but not even two seconds later Stark is nodding and running through every possible scenario of where it could be. I take off at a dead sprint down the hallway, the Kree not far behind. When we reach a corner I try to pull the same move I had earlier but this time when I try to dive out of the way he simply grabs my leg and hurls me down the corridor. I land with a thud and before I know it Natasha is by my side.
"Clint you idiot! You're gonna get yourself killed!" I roll my eyes and slowly stand up, with help from my partner. Before I can shoot back a witty retort the villain is already advancing on us once again. I'm about to turn and run, when I see it; a tube is running from inside his armor up into his helmet where it connects to his mouth. It's a breathing tube. Forming a plan in my head I turn to my companion.
"Run." She stares at me, shocked, before quickly glaring.
"Oh hell no, I'm not about to leave you to do whatever it is that you're thinking about in that bird brain of yours." I sigh loudly in exasperation.
"I'll be fine, Nat. I just need you to trust me, ok?" Reluctantly she nods and backs away slowly, glaring at me the whole time. I turn back to face the angry Kree and brace myself for his next attack. Just as I expected, he barrels straight towards me. Perfect. I force myself to remain still as the behemoth bares down on me. He's fifteen feet and closing in fast. Every instinct in my body is telling me to run, but I can't. Eight feet. I can see the sweat beading down his forehead as he careens toward me. Five feet. My muscles tense as I ready myself for action. Two feet. I drop to a crouch and begin to slide across the floor at the same time reaching up towards the man's breathing tube. He reaches down to grab me and I take the opportunity to rip the tube from his throat. I contort my body so that I narrowly avoid the massive hand that's reaching out for me and I end up directly behind him. My opponent turns to attack me but suddenly begins clutching at his neck, gasping for breath. He glares at me through slotted eyes and begins to try and repair his only way for surviving on our Earth. I use his current disability to my advantage and land a hard kick to the side of his head which knocks him over. He goes limp on the ground, dead. The other Avengers sprint to my side and cast one glance at the creature before the six of us take off down the hallway. Seconds later I hear Loki's angered voice, who undoubtedly was the one who brought the Kree into our world, followed by loud exclamations by Trickshot and the Red Skull. Steve suddenly comes up short, causing Bruce to go smashing into his back and nearly knocking him to the ground. The Captain expresses a silent apology before motioning towards the door that we have stopped in front of. There's a small window that allows us to see into the room that lay behind it. My eyes light up when I see just what makes up its contents. Our weapons are all stacked up in what looks to be an armory. Our enemies were either too stupid to think to properly hide them, or they didn't think we'd escape. Either way I'm happy to take advantage of our stroke of good luck and I slowly make my way through the door. Without hesitation I head straight towards my precious bow. Gingerly I pick it up before turning to grab my quiver. The others are quick to do the same with their own weapons. Once we've all acquired our preferred choice of defense, Steve takes charge.
"Red Skull and the others already know that we've beaten the Kree that they sent after us, so that means they'll be looking for us. There's no way we can take all of them on in our weakened state, so we're gonna have to think of another way to beat them. The only way we're gonna get out of here alive is if we work together. If we can make to the exit without getting killed we can make a run for the Quinjet and get the hell out of here." The rest of us nod, Steve's speech having been the right motivation. All of us ready our weapons and gather around the door, waiting for the right moment. Tony's voice suddenly breaks the silence.
"It's not bad enough that we had to be tortured for three days and then left to die, no we had to fight a wannabe blue man group from hell and now we're gonna run out into the freaking Arctic in nothing but the clothes on our backs in hopes that we can make it to our super secret airplane before getting killed by our worst enemies. I swear our lives suck sometimes." Starks outburst causes a grin to come over my face, even in the worst of situations that guy can lighten the mood. However the joking atmosphere quickly dissipates when footsteps sound down the hallway. If we're going to move, we have to go now. Steve reaches out for the doorknob and I take a deep breath. Cap swings the door open and the six of us sprint through the exit, weapons ready for battle.
Well that's it for chapter Eleven! i hope you enjoyed it! As I said earlier I'm going to try and update faster but no promises. Until the next exciting chapter!