I love that we're all in love with Blake.

Chapter 161: Bourbon & Jaws Part Four

Falling Towards a Live Shark Tank, Manhattan - 15:18 PM

Merida swings herself and Blake around as they continue to plummet towards the shark tank. Once they're spinning, she fights against the dizziness pounding against her skull. She builds up energy and throws her upper body to change their trajectory. Fuck it if her poncho falls over again. Thankfully, the arrowhead she threw exploded and created a giant wad of putty for them to land on instead of crashing into shipment containers. Given that they're full of weapons, she would've hated to set off some fragile explosives.

Merida and Blake roll off the sticky putty wad that feels like clay. Their ankles are still bound as they rush to hide behind a desk. As the henchmen yell orders and assemble, preparing to likely kill them, Merida frees their ankles with her screwdriver. She looks at Blake who, for some reason, looks more uneasy on the ground than when they were dangling above the giant shark.

"Are you good?" Merida whispers.

"Still processing," Blake responds. "I think I have carpal tunnel."

"You're fine." She lightly taps his cheeks to add some colour back into his face.

Merida peeks over the desk for a second to scope the scene and come up with a plan. The shark tank takes up most of the space and there's a giant shark swimming in there. Looks like a Great White, not fully grown. Henchmen are on either side of the tank, armed with standard Glocks. Her bow is in the tank but she still has her poncho, a screwdriver, and some arrows.

Easy.

Merida pulls out her phone from her poncho and opens a chat before sliding it over to Blake. "Send a picture of at least one crate with a clear serial number and say 'Fear not, the child will not die.'"

"What the fuck?"

"Rasputin!"

Blake pauses for a moment before quickly snapping the picture. "What about you?"

"Just send it!"

Merida slides over and opens the desk drawer, praising the Asgardian gods as she pulls out a bottle of vodka. She leafs through her remaining arrows and breaks off another arrow's head to shove inside the vodka bottle. She wishes she could drink it herself, but maybe if there's a leftover. At least she has a new bottle of rum at home. Merida takes out a lighter, happy she brought one, and smiles at Blake as she clicks a flame.

"I hate the smell of turpentine," she says with a tempting grin. Her explosive arrows contain turpentine since it's highly flammable and sensitive.

Merida tears off a piece of her poncho to shove inside the vodka bottle since something in her Molotov cocktail needs to carry the flame. Before she uses it, she locates the icer the henchmen took from Blake when it fell out and slides it back to him.

"Should I use this stun-gun?" Blake says. He finished sending the information and has her phone in his pocket.

"It's an icer and only if I miss," Merida responds.

Merida lights the poncho piece in the vodka bottle before hurling it over her head. Once it shatters on the ground and starts a fire, she leaps over the desk and runs into action. As she predicted, her bow has made it to the edge of the tank. She spots the shark's head at the other end so she reaches for it. The moment her bow is out of the water, the shark jumps out. Water pours out of the tank, creating a small tidal wave when the shark returns underneath.

So much for her cocktail. At least she has her bow back.

Merida shakes off the water on her bow as she drops to her knees to block a shot. She loads her bow and bends back to fire at someone behind her. Merida runs forwards as she takes out her boomerang arrow. She fires it and she charges to kick someone, ducking as the arrow comes back to knock down a henchman approaching her from behind.

One man tries to grab Merida's bow but she puts both her hands on it. She spins it around before leaping up, wrapping her legs around his neck to force them both to the ground.

Merida glances back at Blake and sees a henchman nearing him. She loads her bow as he's grabbed from behind but watches as he whips himself back, throwing his head to knock him over. He then leans forwards to grab the man's leg through his own so he slams to the ground.

She nods approvingly as Blake rushes to her side.

"Agent Mer, we have to leave," Blake says. "Whoever you sent the message to responded and they're coming with Father Rasputin, whatever the fuck that means. Let's get out of here."

Merida shakes her head. "Not until-"

They're stopped when another henchman has an assault rifle pointed at them. Rapid-fire. Instead of immediately firing, Merida takes the chance to try and extract more information on why SHIELD weapons are here. She thought they would be using them but their weapons are standard black-market crap. If they have access to SHIELD weapons, then why are they still in sealed boxes?

"If you're wired, give it up," the henchman orders.

On cue, Blake tosses a wire into the shark tank. The shark doesn't react and keeps swimming around.

"What the fuck," Merida says in hushed Russian.

"It's okay," Blake responds in the same language. "I'm not letting you die."

"Russian spies!" The henchman yells. "You two will pay!"

Merida cringes because did he really say that and accuse them of such? Before she could take care of him, she notices Blake's finger twitch on the trigger of his icer. He doesn't point or fire, but he ejects the weapon's clip and whips it straight at his head.

"Wow," Merida states because that technique worked.

"What?" Blake asks. "I believed him!"

He grabs her hand and they run.

"You did not grab my hand!" Merida yells as they run around the shark tank and through the shelving unit.

"You've been grabbing mine the whole time!" He yells back.

They weave through the shelves, outrunning the henchmen who follow them with loaded weapons. She tries to count how much SHIELD weaponry and possibly tech was stolen. She isn't sure how all this could've been brought here without anyone noticing unless it was an inside job. Her eyes fall to where Blake's holding her hand. He's rolled up his sleeve and she catches his tattoo. Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent underneath.

New plan. Forget running around like headless chickens through a maze, they need to take up time until their ride gets here ... and she doesn't even have an ETA. Blake would've mentioned one if it was given. Freaking Rasputin.

Merida tightens her grip on Blake's hand and changes their direction. They run down a new hall, running back towards the shark tank. Once they're in the open, Merida notices something being thrown at them, not bullets shooting them. She jumps ahead, feeling the magnetic bounding ropes bind her and Blake together as they fall beside the shark tank. Oops. They got caught again. Don't make this a fight.

"This isn't a trap," Merida whispers. "Can't be. I don't even think anyone's in charge here or else they would've bothered us already."

"Okay, to tell you the truth, I didn't have a lead here. One of your friends told me this was a drug cartel they wanted you to investigate," Blake admits. "They said you'd say no if they asked you themselves."

Merida doesn't have time to dissect that whole revelation. "That's sketchy as fuck and you know I don't have a lot of friends. Who was it?"

"She didn't give me a name but she wrote Fear not, the child will not die on a napkin. My gut said to trust it, especially now since you just said it yourself. She's the one you texted, right?"

Merida burns, hands balling into fists once she connects the dots. "Oh, that Sokovian son of a-"

Merida squints her eyes as the windows above her shatter and the doors are busted down. Familiar orders she's heard countless times ring in her ears and she smiles.