So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.
You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.
Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too.
DAY THREE
CHAPTER SIXTY THREE
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
0950 HOURS
WINONA DRIVE
CARMEL INDIANA
NORA
The sweat and tears were burning my eyes as much as the hot gravel of road before my feet left them for the cool but cutting grass of the yards. I blame my lack of noticing them quick enough on that, if had I seen them I wouldn't have screamed out his name or anything at all.
I just wanted to be found again before it was too late, but I wanted to be found by Loki, not by the five sets of surprised eyes dressed in camouflage tactical gear!
I cut between an Aces hardware and a small strip mall of restaurants, the line of trees giving me a little cover from sight until I cleared them that is and was standing on the black top of a parking lot.
They were in the parking lot, but the sight and sound of me drew their attention enough to make the man driving the army humvee stop, and while their surprise gave me a second to turn around and try to run the away, but I also lost that second when the slickness of bloody silk against grass made my foot fly out from beneath me, slowing my attempt at escape.
I don't know if it was the fact I was running away from, the fact that I was clearly injured, or something else that motivated the first pair of boots to sound against the ground behind me but I didn't care. They were going to keep me from getting back to the man with answers about my daughter, and add to the body count one way or another so all I cared about was trying to get away!
Catching enough of my weight to keep my chest from hitting the ground too, despite the fact my bloody palms slide against the grass I immediately start scrambling to get back to my feet but the effort fails at about half way to upright when the fastest one tackles me by the waist.
Having the weight of a grown man in armor and gear crash into the small of my back hurt, but I can't decide if it hurt more then my momentum driven skid across the cement as my body caught the weight of both, knocking the breath out of me and driving stars into my eyes as my head bounced off the curve of the curb.
The ringing distorted my hearing like water did, but it cleared up quick enough for me to hear the last half of his shout clearly. ". ...! ...'. ..T A GUN!"
His hands must of felt its bulk under Duncan's jacket where it was holstered in a bulletproof vest and he shouted for his friends to help restrain me before I had a choice to use it against him. Not that really have, even if I had remembered I had it all. In my panic I totally forgot I had that option available to me, or I did a second ago.
Still desperate to get away from everyone so dead set on stopping me I try to get my bleeding arms back under me and push myself back up but now that he knows I have a weapon he is having even less of my actions and crushing my wrist he jerks it away from its resting spot with the concrete, jerking it up between my back and his chest, and making my ability to balance our weight impossible, sending me back down and getting the wind knocked out of me again from the weight on my back.
By the time those stars cleared from my eyes they had enough hands and time to physically lift me up off the parking lot. By now I had all but the last out of the five around me so my continued struggles didn't get me anywhere, but that didn't stop me from trying.
The one who tackled me was the one who was holding most of my weight up, his arm crushing the space right below my ribs as he kept his grip tight enough to keep me from freeing the one arm he did have pinned. The fact he wasn't able to restrain both himself really didn't matter though because one of his friends easily caught the other while a third of their number set out to contain my legs. After I managed to kick him in the crotch a fourth made all of their jobs a lot easier by sucker punching me so hard in the stomach I think my spine bruised my organs.
With my ability to breath severely compromised from that pain and the unrelenting pressure against my chest the trip over to the humvee was a lot calmer, but apparently my lack of struggling in those seconds didn't earn me anything close to a reprieve even though it gave them a chance to tie my wrists with something plastic.
When I tried to lift my sore torso even an inch off the hood of the humvee and stop balancing my weight on my tip toes from the height difference my reward was one of them grabbing me by the hair and slamming my face back into the hot metal, the tacky dampness telling me they split my cheek in the process. It got even better as the same hand then jerked my head back up and the sound of something rustling in the breeze caught my attention before a sentence captured it completely with terror and despair. "Yeah, it's her. Welcome to the custody of the U.S Army Miss Elaine. Put her in the back."
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
0950 HOURS
WINONA DRIVE
CARMEL INDIANA
CLINT
I always knew Nora had it in her to scream, I heard it enough when I watched the recordings of her waking up from her nightmares. She'd fling herself up off her bed with such a sound, and then she'd crumble to the floor sobbing because she was still riding that fear adrenaline high but she couldn't remember what it was that scared her so damn much.
Hearing that sound again, unfiltered by a recording, and suddenly broken off and muffled only makes it that much more painful and infuriating. Whatever made her scream cut itself off was some kind of outside force, and when I find out what did it was going to pay.
Turns out that what's going to pay is five very unlucky men from the Indianapolis Army Reserve because they made the uneducated mistake of putting their hands on my baby sister. It's regrettable because I know they are just doing their job, and I didn't want Nora to ever have to see this side of my life, but I have this burning in my head that has nothing to do with my need to get her the hell out of there, and when the first poor bastard raises his hand to strike her again he doesn't get to raise it very far.
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
0950 HOURS
WINONA DRIVE
CARMEL INDIANA
NORA
I saw the blow coming, I was expecting it to come, I was even trying to squirm out of the way to avoid it but it didn't connect! There was just this wet impact sound a split second before the man about to hit me started screaming in pain and falling over his hands clutched at his head with the sight of a knife handle protruding past his fingers out of his ear!
Then everything just goes crazy around me!
I can hear boots pounding across the pavement and then the man who had been holding me is suddenly no longer there, and my body is falling without any grace! My back erupts in another current of pain when I land my one hands, arms, elbows and shoulders take all of my weight on them with the reappearance of gravity again.
But I'm not alone in my fall! The one who was holding me is falling with me too! His left leg is suddenly not underneath him and his body takes him face first into the the concrete because his hands aren't quick enough to catch him since they were in the middle of trying to bring up his gun!
The next one isn't loosing his feet as easily though. One of them is running towards me again to catch me before I can try to escape and he is almost on top of me. He doesn't get that far though! A body in black clothes stops him, a body I know! One of Clint's hands shoots out toward the soldier's throat before there is something gleaming red wetly running down his throat, and Clint's other hand is driving a knife into his stomach!
"NORA! CLOSE YOUR EYES!" My ears hear those words but my mind doesn't understand them at all, and my body doesn't even know how to obey them. It just keeps looking at what is happening, wide-eyed and shaking as Clint keeps going!
He rips the knife from the now falling soldier's stomach like it had no resistance and whirls around, twisting at his hips and slashing another throat, this time one of a man who was foolish enough to try to run up on him! It's so close I can feel the blood hitting my skin! People are dying, and they're dying right above me!
Another tries to get to Clint, to catch him and stop him too! The knife swings down and arcs back up this time, catching the soldier under his armor and driving into the flesh behind his ribs and deeper into his heart! Clint's knife moves with so much momentum it lifts him off his feet and he slams him onto his back, the man's body bouncing as his legs fall limply behind his skull before the rest of him lands too.
The one that lost his footing is back up again, but he is falling again too just as quickly. Clint's arm is outstretched and empty but there is an inch of the knife sticking out were a man's eye should be and I swear I can still hear someone crying!
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
0950 HOURS
WINONA DRIVE
CARMEL INDIANA
CLINT
Calm down Barton! Calm the fuck down! I'm trying so hard to order my body to relax, trying to command my heart to stop beating so quickly and make the adrenaline in my blood burn out by sheer force of will, but it isn't working! That wired feeling isn't going away, that wish to hurt things, that 'thing's' hunger isn't going away! It's weaker than me now, this thing that took control of me but it's not gone yet! I can feel its hunger fighting me for control, I've felt it fighting me this whole time! 'It' isn't satisfied with five kills, 'it' wants more, 'it' wants her again! No! Dammit! No! You don't get her! You never get her!
She is right there, right next to me, and she is looking at me! She was looking the whole time! She was looking the whole time! I need to get my control back. But then I realize I can still hear the sound of life. I left one alive, and it doesn't take me long to realize its the poor bastard with the knife in his ear canal. Don't look at me Nora, please. I can get rid of this hunger with him and keep her safe from me. Don't listen Princess, don't look.
Her eyes are so wide, filled with tears, and she is shaking as she keep looks at me. She is shaking so hard. Even her breath is shaky, it's coming out so fast I don't think she is even breathing in completely! She's going to hyperventilate at this rate, and that worries me. I don't try to stop her though. It might be better if she faints. I really don't want her to be awake right now. I don't want her to see my eyes. But I know she already has.
I can tell by the way she is struggling now that I'm moving closer to her. Her body trying to roll over and so she can get back on her feet as I move toward her! She is crying, I can hear the whimpering echo behind the tape on her mouth before it rises into a scream as I catch her by the waist, putting her over my shoulder and restraining her legs and body when she tries struggles so hard to kick me and throw herself off me!
The door of the Humvee is still open, and it is exactly where I plan to put her. I don't know what became of our third party but I don't have time to drag her struggling back to that yard and he isn't here so I set her down as carefully as I can in the back seat. I know she is in pain, thanks to them there are new injuries on her too. Thinking about those men hurting her only makes the hunger of that 'thing' stronger.
Gritting my teeth I try to shake it off. I regret that reaction right away as I hear her voice let out another whimper and see her eyes fixed on my face.
She is terrified of me again, and she has every right to be. I just killed four men right in front of her and it didn't even take me twenty seconds! She thinks I'm not her Clint anymore, and why shouldn't she, when I know I have 'its' glowing eyes again.
The monster who wears the skin of her friend, that's what she sees right now when she looks at me. That's what she wants to retreats from. The moment my hands are no longer holding her legs she is doing just that, scooting backwards oblivious to the blood from her injuries smearing across the seat divider as she tries to get as far away from me as possible. All she wants to do is get away from me; she either doesn't remember or care that she can't get the door open with her hands like that.
"I'm so sorry Princess." Her eyes widen even further hearing those words and that tone, and I can hear her breath stop before I close the door trapping her inside. I'm doing this to keep her safe. I won't let this man scream again, she won't hear a sound of what I'm about to do to him. It's only going to take me twenty seconds, I can give 'it' enough with just twenty seconds.