literature

Hollow Scars 33 - Backfired

Deviation Actions

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Literature Text

Universe: Iron Man MCU Pre-Avengers
Pairing:
Tony Stark x Scarlett Damien (OC)
Theme:
Action, Drama, Plot-Heavy Romance

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Having traded shifts with one of the other guards that night so that he could be at the far end of the building, guiding in some of the trucked shipments of supplies for MedCo, Clint was more than preoccupied. Trucks had come and gone and he’d dropped no less than fourteen boxes while they unloaded. But now there was very little to do but wait for the reason he’d taken the shift that evening anyway. He was expecting a visitor.

The other guard he’d been partnered with for the night was stationed at the other end of the room now that the trucks had been sent on their way. The hours that past were spent with him half drifting to sleep or sometimes making conversation with Clint who had very little to say in response. To fit in amongst their kind he had to be quieter than he usually would’ve been.

When Clint had instructed Scarlett to be kind to the guards so that she would receive kindness in return he’d hoped he’d made the right decision. Some of them could be cruel and Scarlett had obviously been through enough though Clint was only aware of a fraction of how much.

Many of the guards were aware of exactly what MedCo was doing and wanted a share in the glory if they succeeded. Scarlett was lucky that most of the guards had pity on the women who were being held and often were far kinder than they were to the men who were imprisoned. A pretty face went a long way in situations like that and Clint both knew and understood why. But then again, many of the guards were ruthless and a number of them had been briefed on the situation that had been brewing with Scarlett. She was to be treated as a threat at all times and a few of the guards took their jobs very seriously.

Knowing what he was going to do that night the minutes seemed to tick on slower than ever while Hawkeye waited for his window of opportunity appear from behind the curtains.

After an agonizing few hours a loud thud behind him drew his attention toward the far end of the loading dock. Clint casually watched the guard drop to the ground in a heap then turned his attention back toward the large bay doors to keep a look out in case anyone saw, well, anyone besides him saw. Shuffling signaled that a struggle continued on at the other end of the room but Clint continued to pay it no mind. He’d just be getting in the way if he made a move to do anything about it. Shadow figures played on the bay doors in front of him so quickly that before he knew it, the struggle had ended.

Soon, without any sound of footsteps, a woman stood next to him, wiping her hands in front of her. Clint turned his gaze to the much shorter woman only momentarily before looking back toward the large gate. Next to him she held out her left arm and fiddled with a bulky piece of technology around her wrist. A cartridge dropped onto the ground before she replaced it with another.

“You couldn’t have had the decency to choke him out with your thighs? Being tazed by that thing is almost torture.” Still Clint didn’t bother making eye contact with the woman and instead checked the ammunition clip in his gun to make sure it was fully loaded.

“Is that what you would’ve done?” Natasha’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Yes, actually, it is.” Clint deliberated his answer then nodded his head resolutely and stuck to it. “It’s good to see you, Tasha.” Natasha bowed her head to acknowledge him in return then held out two clips of ammunition to her colleague.

“Are you ready?” Turning away from the loading docks, Natasha took in the large room, seemingly sizing up their options. She’d been preparing for this moment since she’d left Scarlett at the airport.

“Me? I was just waiting on you. You have no idea how slow time goes when you’re waiting.” Clint turned and started toward the large double doors at the far end of the room. There was enough space in the loading dock for four semi trucks to pull in if necessary but right now the doors were securely locked. Due to the sensitive nature of their current “cargo” the entire building had been locked down after the final shipment. Though, Clint had become aware that there were men in black sneaking through the lower levels evacuating patients and digging around in the laboratories. He had a feeling that they were working with the so called good guys so he’d ignored their presence as blissfully as the other guards who hadn’t even noticed them.

Natasha rolled her eyes before following her comrade. Across her back she had something he would want so with little time, despite her stature, she caught up to him. Near the double doors she stopped him and held out the long black object. Clint took it eagerly, his eyes sparkling playfully.

“You’re too much like Ronin without this.”

“You’re always right, Tasha what would I do without you?” Clint flipped a switch on the side of the staff and the edges flipped open, revealing a high tech bow. Then he took the scabbard Natasha had brought with him that matched his bow. With a few adjustments of his hand on the bow, Clint could control the high tech quiver and which arrowhead he’d use on his next shot. “This is exciting… Just like old times, isn’t it?” He patted the bow lovingly and then pushed open the doors to the next room. Natasha slid into the room when the two guards inside aimed their weapons and cried intruders.

Clint flipped a few switches on the grip of the bow and watched as the woman with short wavy red hair threw two disc-like objects in front of the guards. Both discs burst in a puff of smoke, disorienting the guards who lowered their guns out of instinct. Kicking the feet out from beneath the guard on the right, Natasha sprang back to a standing position, withdrew two more discs from the mechanical pieces on her wrists, pulled them apart to reveal a wire, then wrapped it around the neck of the guard closest, choking him until he dropped dead weight.

The guard behind her reached to grab her, too flustered to use the gun he held in his hand since he wanted to try and save his fellow guard but Natasha ducked low just in time as an arrow struck the guard in his side. It didn’t puncture his skin, but rather used a claw-like grip at the end of it to grab through clothing and into flesh before delivering a nasty shock that rendered the guard instantly unconscious.

Clint walked to Natasha’s side and pulled the arrow away from the guard before slipping it back into his quiver. The only problem with being an archer was that it was much harder to find extra ammunition. Offering Natasha a hand to get back to her feet, she took it gratefully even though she didn’t need it.

“This is more fun than old times.” She hunched over to search the pockets of the guards. Finding nothing of interest other than a few key cards they wouldn’t require since Clint had already obtained the ones necessary she took the clips from their guns and passed half of them onto Hawkeye before slipping the extras into an ammo belt on her leg. “We don’t often get to break the rules anymore when working for S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“That would be why you find it appealing. I meant working together was fun. We’re not teamed up too often anymore.” Clint scanned the room carefully in case anyone hid when they’d entered. With the guards on high alert it wasn’t likely that they would get to walk around so easily for very long. The men in black skulking around had likely alerted the guards on the lower levels. He was surprised that no alarms had gone off either, since they sometimes went off without being triggered on a boring day. His only guess was that the intruders had discovered a way to disable the alarm without cutting the power.

Very clever.

“Something’s not right here…” Natasha held up her hand to keep Hawkeye from moving any further through the room and just in time at that. The lights flickered unnaturally throughout the room and the doors in front of them opened along with the doors on the upper level where a metallic catwalk hung overhead.

“I hate when you’re right.” Clint held his bow at the ready but had a feeling that they were about to be drastically outnumbered. From the catwalk above entered a familiar figure that Clint had spent several weeks shadowing after S.H.I.E.L.D. had learned about his involvement with MedCo. Scott stood on the catwalk, hands neatly behind his back as he stared down at the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had immediately taken the defensive when they saw him enter the room. On his hip was a peculiar weapon neither hero recognized. They had the distinct feeling that they were about to become very familiar with it.

It had taken several hours for his eyes to darken after Scarlett had broken his nose earlier in the day, but now that they had Scott seemed more menacing and less human than before. Clint wanted to warn Natasha of just who they were dealing with but she seemed to understand the severity of the situation without his help.

“We knew that an agent had infiltrated our ranks a few weeks ago.” Scott began cautiously. From the door on the opposite end of the catwalk several men dressed from head to toe in military grade body armor walked unsteadily and stood waiting. Three guards stood blocking the open doors below as well. They swayed in place, as though their equilibrium was off set. Natasha had a rotten feeling about what lay beneath the helmets of the newcomers. She’d read reports on experiments done by MedCo but never thought she’d meet face to face with the end results.

“You didn’t let on, so I guess you’ve got a pretty good poker face.” Clint responded when it had been made clear by Scott that he wasn’t going to speak again until someone acknowledged him.

“It’s not that we didn’t let on, Mr. Barton, rather that we weren’t threatened. We’re far too well off to be concerned with S.H.I.E.L.D. Do you think we would’ve made our organization public if we were still worried about Nick Fury and his cavalcade of terrorism battling buffoons?” scoffing, Scott smirked down at the two. Standing silhouetted in the door nearest them was Erick, breathing heavily and looking worse for wear.

“If you knew about me why didn’t you dispose of me from the get go?”

“If you weren’t worried about backlash from S.H.I.E.L.D. then why is he still alive?” Natasha echoed Clint’s sentiment but kept her eyes on the hulking beast that was slowly making his way toward them. She knew how this was going to play out and she couldn’t see any easy way out of it. The flickering lights finally stabilized. Erick seemed to be causing some sort of electronic interference that had temporarily damaged the lights and other electronic devices in the room. After some time near them, it seemed the effect was wearing off. Natasha knew their best option would be escape but that would mean leaving Scarlett behind and as far as she was concerned that wasn’t an option. It was likely Clint felt the same way he’d always been awkwardly chivalrous.

“Because we’re not stupid.” Scott rolled his eyes and then walked toward the edge of the catwalk where a metallic staircase led to the main level. “But we’ve talked enough. We no longer require your services.” Scott smiled politely at Clint then turned his attention to Erick and frowned. “Take them.

Erick grumbled in response, his mouth hanging open unnaturally wide with some terrible goop hanging out of it and dripping to the floor. For as zombie-like as he seemed, he moved unnaturally fast. The men who had gathered awkwardly on the catwalk were jumping over the railing and landing around Natasha and Clint, quickly surrounding them.

“This is going to be more fun than I expected.” Natasha whispered to Clint though she wasn’t quite sure that it was going to be very fun at all. They were grossly outnumbered and she still had a bad feeling about the armed men lumbering toward them. Something about their clumsy steps made her worry.

“Erick’s the bigger threat from what I’ve read.” Clint whispered back, arming his bow after pressing a few buttons on the hilt of his bow. “Take him out first.”

“Before or after the gang takes us down? There’s a flaw in your plan, Hawkeye.” Natasha eyed the stairwell in hopes she could use it to her aid, but being behind Scott it was too hard to get to and likely not worth the risk.

“What happened to this being fun?” Clint laughed under his breath but was just as concerned as Natasha was. Their odds were low. In a confined space with nowhere to hide, they weren’t able to play to their strengths. Plus Clint had heard stories about Erick and while he looked worse for wear, he knew that the creature was formidable and damn near impossible to kill. Scott was done playing games with them. He had no intentions of telling them more than they needed to know but it didn’t look as though he intended to fight them either. No, it seemed as though he was more interested in watching them suffer.

“What do we do?” Natasha whispered as the troops assisting Erick closed ranks. Clint aimed his bow and artfully shot an arrow between the helmet and body armor of one of the heavily armed guards coming toward them. The guard stumbled and fell backwards, but the other guards didn’t seem at all bothered or intimidated that one of their comrades had fallen.

“Hope we get lucky.”

“You have absolutely no luck, you know that right?” Natasha withdrew both her handguns from their holsters and aimed them at the guards coming toward them. Quickly she shot at three of the surrounding guards, which there were at least a dozen of, neither one of them got an exact count, but none of them fell despite each shot hitting their target. “Hawkeye…”

“Aim for the head?” Clint fired another arrow but the arrowhead ricocheted off of the helmet when the guard lumbered off course. Scott laughed at the other end of the room but didn’t make any moves or give any commands.

“Easier said than done.” Natasha was beginning to think the only option left was to bail on the fight and come back from a different angle. But Clint had made it clear that Scarlett needed their help and the longer they waited the worse off she would be. The formidable monster lumbered around the room, waiting for orders to attack or move but making no effort to go after the duo of master assassins surrounded by zombie-like guards.

“They’re not attacking us.” Clint hesitated to waste another arrowhead if he missed. It would be much easier to take the guards down in close combat but the guards seemed as aware of that as they were and one by one each raised a stun gun toward them.

“That’s because they don’t want to kill us.” Natasha braced herself for what would come next or to make a mad scramble onto Clint’s back so she could jump up and catch the catwalk. But then it would leave Clint vulnerable and as skilled as he was he was nowhere near as nimble as she was and as she had mentioned earlier his luck was absolutely dreadful. It hadn’t been an insult when she’d said it, merely a statement of fact.

“Crap.” Clint muttered under his breath then whispered. “Remember that time in Chicago? When there was that nasty blackout?”

“You really think that’s going to work here?” Before Clint could respond the lights began to flicker again.

“Erick, control yourself!” Scott hissed at the monster that stared back at him blankly, clearly just as confused as he was. Much like a strobe light the bulbs flashed overhead and then seconds later went out entirely. What happened next was in confusing flashes of light made by the spark at the end of a gun. Natasha didn’t hesitate, whatever had happened to cause the lights to go out the guards and Scott hadn’t anticipated it and it gave them the opportunity they needed to gain the upper hand.

Clint was a little more confused than Natasha was but sprang into action when someone else appeared on his side and urged him forward. A third person had joined the fray and was going from soldier to soldier making calculated stabs with a small dagger. He recognized the messy brown hair from earlier but didn’t exclaim her name in case Scott and Erick hadn’t yet realized who had joined them.

“What are you doing here?” He seemed astonished that Scarlett had managed her way out of the prison cell he’d earlier left her in but guessed that he had underestimated her as Natasha had told him he had on the phone.

“Does it really matter?” Scarlett grabbed one of the guards who was clumsily moving toward them and dug her knife deep into the back of his neck before slashing and kicking him to the side. Scott was cursing and yelling at the other end of the room.

Scarlett! Smart move! Cutting the lights…” Scott hissed in aggravation. They couldn’t see what he was doing but he was obviously on the move by the sound of his voice.

“Don’t worry about him,” whispered Scarlett. Someone landed next to her low on the ground but she turned her attention to one of the guards blindly lunging for him. “Smaller fish so we can reach the bigger ones.” Next to her Natasha was strangling one of the guards who had managed to get their hands on her.

Clint was firing arrows in the dark, having slipped on a pair of glasses that aided his sight in the shadows. The whistle of arrows flying by one by one signaled that the guards were being taken down. The arrowheads he’d chosen to use were strong enough to make their way through the heavy duty visors on the helmets obstructing their aim of the soldier’s heads. Once he’d figured out a strategy the battle became much easier for him.

But suddenly Clint was lifted from the ground by something large that he guessed was Erick. With a comical squeal he was picked up and launched across the room. Sparks lit up the floor nearby as he tried to gather his bearings in the darkness. Scott had found flares and was tossing them around the room to aid his soldiers, revealing that the person who had come to assist them was indeed Scarlett as he had suspected. On her way to find Tony in the depths of the prison she had heard the commotion and couldn’t rightly leave Natasha and Clint in the hands of those who hunted them at least not in good conscience.

There was that pesky moral compass she’d begun to hate so much.

When had the damn thing started to point north? Either way, she figured that they had, most likely, shown up to try and save her as Clint had promised to help her get out that evening but instead they’d been found out by Scott and his goons. Hopefully by the time she got to Tony he would still be alive and okay. She doubted that they’d kill him when he was as powerful and useful as he was, particularly since they so desperately wanted to get to her because of all the trouble she’d caused. That was the problem with letting someone into your life. The moment your enemies discovered who they were they became a liability.

She was starting to realize that the trouble had actually been caused by Scott and not by her. But, if she had caused Scott to lose his mind then wasn’t the trouble actually her fault anyway, if nothing else by proxy? She couldn’t think about it at the moment, not when there was so much going on but that repetitive nagging voice in the back of her mind continued to remind her that she couldn’t avoid it forever. But she couldn’t rightly deal with it at the moment either.

Silhouetted in the darkness she could see Scott and he looked angry but wasn’t attacking anyone, rather stepping carefully through the room and moving toward the stairs that led up the catwalk.

“You take care of these guys, I’m going after him. We can’t let him go.” Scarlett whispered to Natasha who nodded to confirm orders. Clint was getting to his feet and saw the monster at the far end of the room that had launched him to the ground. Aiming his bow, he chose an explosive arrowhead and shot the creature in the chest. The arrow exploded on impact but Erick didn’t fall. Unearthly sounds of pain echoed throughout the large room and while dark colored blood oozed out of the gaping wound created in the creature’s chest, Erick persisted.

“No you don’t.” Scarlett jumped over the railing of the staircase and though her side was aching and she felt sick to her stomach, it was much easier to ignore when she was this close to getting even with Scott. She didn’t want to kill him, oh no, not after what he’d done to himself and the nasty things he’d said to her. She wasn’t exactly okay with what had to be done but she knew there was no other choice to be made. He had to be turned over to S.H.I.E.L.D. and live the rest of his life knowing the things that he’d done and the horrors he had caused.

He’d intentionally sent her into the arms of the devil on more than two occasions and now she’d do the same to him, but only so he wouldn’t hurt anyone else. It wasn’t for selfish means as it had been for him. After what he’d been responsible for in the villages across the world that she’d visited in the weeks past, Scarlett wanted him to feel the guilt of his actions.

“What are you going to do, Scarlett? Shoot me?” Scott moved closer to her, daring her to make a move but she aimed her gun at him, the one that Sergei had given to her, right at his chest.

“If I have to.” Scott seemed surprised by Scarlett’s determination. The weakness and frailty he’d earlier witnessed had dissipated entirely, leaving behind the look that he’d long hated.

She was going to finish the job, even against his better judgment just as he had always despised.

“You already hesitated too long.” Scott’s stunned expression twisted into a malevolent smirk. The crash behind Scarlett on the stairs nearly knocked her off of her feet. The railing broke and the screech of twisting and creaking metal deafened everyone in the room except for the guards who seemed not to notice the commotion in the last. If Scarlett had to guess then she thought they were the same sorts of beast that Erick was but without the additional strength and unnatural powers. They were simply harder to kill and were probably failed attempts at something bigger and more powerful.

Before she could turn around, Erick had grabbed her off of her feet and threw her across the room the way that he’d thrown Clint earlier. Hawkeye and Natasha had been keeping their eye out for her while they picked off the guards that remained. There were only a handful of them left that hadn’t fallen to the ground useless.

“Scarlett!” Clint shot an arrow that sprung open with hooks on the end that dug into the ceiling and propelled him onto the catwalk. On his way up he caught her arm and pulled her up with him. Natasha fired her gun at the beast and though it staggered on its way up the stairs it was barely phased by it.

“All that will do is make him angrier!” Scott shouted with a nasty smile on his face while he backed up toward the door. In the sparks of the flares he looked especially wicked. Scarlett was balancing on the edge of the catwalk, trying to judge how much it would hurt to jump from there to the floor. Usually it would be no problem at all but given how weak she’d become over the past week with the beatings she’d taken and the illness she’d suffered, she wasn’t sure it was worth breaking a bone to get around Erick to get to Scott.

“What is that thing?” Natasha yelled up to Clint who was retrieving the grappling hook from its place in the ceiling and putting it back into his electronic quiver.

“Used to be one of the MedCo heads. Erick. I shot him.” Scarlett watched as Natasha reloaded her weapon with ease and then aimed it at Erick who was becoming frustrated enough with Natasha to go after her.

“I’m assuming he didn’t look like this when you shot him.” Clint widened his eyes. He was aware of the experiments that MedCo had been conducting but as a low level guard he hadn’t been privy to seeing any of those experiments first hand even if he had heard rumors of Erick’s existence.

“Nerdy guy, tall, skinny, glasses… Real prick, too. Threatened me and left me no choice. I shot him with his own gun.” Scarlett walked along the edge of the catwalk on the wrong side of the railing and grabbed onto it tightly to keep from falling when the floor shook as Erick leapt toward Natasha who narrowly jumped out of the way. She triggered the tazers on her wrists and shot them at Erick but the monster mumbled in annoyance and continued after her. “Last time I saw him he could still talk at least, but I did set him on fire and shoot every bit of ammunition I had into him.”

“So you shot him and set him on fire on two different occasions?” Clint was still in disbelief but had offered her a hand to keep her from losing her balance as the room shook.

“It’s been a really long few months.” Scarlett sighed but then waved off his hand. “Are you good enough with that thing to keep shooting if say… someone was hanging off of its back and stabbing the hell out of it?”

“Yeah… I guess. Is that going to happen?” Clint widened his eyes but saw the beast going after Natasha. Instinctively he shot another explosive arrow at it and threw it off course, closer to the bottom of the catwalk.

Scarlett didn’t answer and instead leapt off of the railing and onto Erick’s back. Cringing she pouted as she felt how squishy and unnatural his charred and scarred skin felt against her fingertips.

“Gross… so gross!” Scarlett kept one hand around Erick’s maimed neck and flipped around the small blade she’d been using to kill the guards and began to cut at what remained of its face. If it couldn’t see them then it couldn’t kill them, right? It was simple logic.

“What if we tie it up?” Clint shouted to Scarlett.

“Stop yelling and act, okay? You don’t need confirmation for every little thing!” Scarlett shouted in return. Natasha was down below, dealing with guards who had come running into the room to aid those who had fallen by their hand. She was very quickly being overwhelmed. As skilled as she was, there was only so much she could do in a tight space with a monster barreling around them. Clint fired several arrows at the guards that were surrounding Natasha so she could help Scarlett who was trying desperately to wrestle her way around to Erick’s face so she could do some real damage, but was stabbing where she could when she had the chance.

“Scarlett, be careful!” Natasha shouted as the blood that oozed from one of Erick’s many wounds touched the metal on the floor and corroded it upon its touch. “That stuff is toxic!”

“Great. This has been the worst day.” Scarlett muttered under her breath before taking another slice at Erick’s flesh but strategically so the blood wouldn’t drip on where her limbs were wrapped around him. Hawkeye readied his bow and shot arrows at him, ones with long lengths of wire that were then fastened to the railing of the catwalk.

“That should slow him down a little!”

“Where’s Scott? Don’t lose him!” Scarlett used one of the wires that Clint shot toward Erick to steady herself and then wrapped it around Erick’s neck as he stumbled. Angry and frustrated, he growled and flailed wildly in an attempt to get her off of his back. Natasha slid between the monster’s legs and was about to fire a shot at him to help slow him down and urge him closer to Clint so he could continue his capture of the creature but Scott grabbed the arm that held her gun. As the shot went off it ripped through the metal of the catwalk near Scarlett and narrowly missing Hawkeye as it ripped through the floor.

“Watch it!” Scarlett shouted but then squealed as Erick grabbed her by the ankle and swung her around wildly.

“Sorry!” Natasha knocked Scott’s grip away and then jumped toward him. Much to her surprise he jumped out of the way and she landed on the floor, rolling backwards and jumping back to her feet so she wouldn’t be targeted by him.

Erick tossed Scarlett to the ground and she curled up to minimize the area of her body that would take the blow on the ground. Her landing was softened by the bodies of the reanimated guards that had been eradicated. Even now she could see that their flesh was starting to fade and disintegrate. They must have been just barely held together by whatever science had brought them back to life or had altered them.

As she got to her feet, Erick stared at her and behind his dull and bloodied gaze she could see recognition.

“Uh-oh.” Scarlett scrambled to her feet and made a mad dash across the room. If she could get closer to Scott then maybe it would minimize the damage Erick planned on doing to her. He still wanted revenge, even as a shell of a human being he wanted it so badly it was a palpable change in the room.

“What is he doing? Tasha, what’s he doing?” Clint shouted aiming his bow but unsure of where to shoot or why. Erick growled loudly, throwing several of the guards out of his way. As Natasha aimed her gun at him he swung wildly and she flew across the room, knocking right into the destroyed railing of the stairwell. When she didn’t get up, Clint cursed and tried to make his way to her. Scott was trying desperately to wrangle the creature that had gone mad with rage.

Stop! What are you doing?” Scott shouted, jumping out of the way as Erick flailed angrily. The beast was stopped in his tracks by the arrowheads that were trapped within his flesh the wires pulling at the metal of the catwalk that groaned in objection to his tug.

“Oh, this is so bad.” Scarlett muttered, then waved her arms over her head. “Hey asshole! Killing you twice wasn’t enough, huh? Third time’s a charm.” If she could keep him away from the far end of the catwalk then it would give Clint a chance to get down and to Natasha before someone took her away or the catwalk collapsed and with the way Erick was thrashing and flailing she guessed only precious few seconds remained.

And she was right about that.

Erick, even in his debilitated state, seemed to realize that while he was trapped by the wires he couldn’t go far and get to his target. He grabbed onto the wires and pulled. At first the catwalk just shook and Clint lost his balance. Before he could race to the end of the catwalk, Erick pulled a second time on the wires and the catwalk squealed and ripped apart, the railings tearing off entirely and flying across the room.

Clint jumped as the floor beneath him collapsed and made a mad grab for the edge of what remained of the stairs. He barely made it but just when he thought he could pull himself back up he was grabbed around his waist and pulled back down to the ground where he fell on top of the guard who had been the source of his lost balance.

“That backfired a little I think!” Clint groaned as he elbowed the guard beneath him then swung his bow at him. The edges were sharpened so he could use them as blades to defend himself in close combat.

“Ya think?” Scarlett scoffed but then jumped across the room the best she could as Erick came barreling after her. He ran so fast that he lost his balance and couldn’t stop when he’d reached the end and slammed carelessly into the wall. The remaining guards were swarming Natasha where she collapsed on the broken stairwell.

Clint fought off the guard behind him but the darkness increased as the flares became buried or went out. Scarlett ran blindly from Erick, trying to judge by his sounds where he was running and ducking low when he got too close so she could slip between his legs and avoid being clobbered by him. She couldn’t think of what else to do. It was too dangerous to set him on fire here and shooting him did nothing but cause his corrosive blood to splatter across the room and cause further problems.

They could only run around in circles for so long and if she couldn’t keep her eye on Scott she knew he would weasel his way out of the room to save his own sorry ass. When it came down to it, all Scott cared about was himself. That was how it had always been! Even when they were dating he cared more about how she treated him than he cared about how he treated her and therein lay the problem that worsened over the years and compounded over time.

“Tasha? Tasha, can you hear me?” Clint yelled when he finally made his way over to the guards who had picked up the Black Widow and were carrying her toward the door. With surprising ease he swung his bow and took out both guards before they could attempt retaliation. The guards were running low, there were only a handful left and it didn’t look like any further backup was being called to that part of the building. With Erick rampaging around the room and practically tearing it apart, he was surprised that fire alarms hadn’t sounded. The halls of the facility were as quiet as they had ever been and now Clint was more convinced than ever that someone had tampered with the wiring of the building before the dark figures had entered earlier.

Natasha stirred when Clint tapped her cheek and instantly jumped at him, knocking him to the ground and placing her forearm against his throat to choke him. Clint held his hands up defensively on either side of him to assure her she meant him no harm. She then smacked him on the cheek in return and jumped away from him.

“Let’s finish this up.” She nodded once she’d gathered her bearings.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine, you’re wasting time Barton.” Natasha shot him a look but then smiled to let him know she was just fine, despite the blood that dripped down the side of her face. There would be time to assess wounds later. It would do them no good to stop before they were out of danger. Natasha pulled a flashlight from her utility belt and attached it to one of her handguns once she’d retrieved them from the ruined staircase.

Scarlett was having a hell of a time staying away from Erick. The monster was hell bent on getting to her and exacting some terrible form of revenge which Scarlett assumed involved her dying horribly. When he’d once been bent on making her suffer he no longer seemed concerned with the effort involved. Obviously she was much too hard to capture so killing seemed like the only option left.

When he grabbed her ankle again to keep her from slipping away, she kicked at him with her other foot. He lost his grip but as she slid away, he slammed his body into her, squishing her against the wall. Squealing in surprise, Scarlett slumped to the floor with the wind knocked out of her when he pulled away. Before she could get back to her feet, Erick was hovering over her, a wicked half toothed grin on his face, bloodied drool dripping from each fang.

Scarlett stared at the creature hovering just above her and waited for him to make his move secretly hoping that Natasha or Clint would make their next move.

“No!” A shot rang out and ripped into Erick’s skull but didn’t pass through the other side. Something burst and Scarlett watched in awe as shocks of electricity ran through his face. Then the life faded from the monster’s eyes and he collapsed. Scarlett narrowly slid out of the way of his oversized heavy corpse before it fell. “It’s not her time yet.” Scott’s lip twitched in anger, holding the strange shaped gun that Clint had earlier noticed him wielding.

Scarlett stared at Scott who was still looking at her, holding that formidable gun but not aiming it at her. He had just saved her life but what for? Was there some part of him that was still the sweet man who had trouble asking her out on a first date and had shown up with flowers after she’d initially told him she wasn’t interested? Or was that just wishful thinking and he was hoping to keep her alive so she would suffer as one of the experiments he wanted her to become?

Clint seized opportunity while Natasha took out the remaining guards and went after Scott. Hooking his bow over his shoulder he grabbed his handgun and aimed. But Scott was faster than he’d expected and dodged the shot. With his bare hands he mangled the door on the bottom floor so that he couldn’t be followed easily and ran down the hallway.

“Damnit.” Clint lowered the gun and placed it back in his holster. It wasn’t often that he missed his target with any kind of weapon and it flustered him.

Natasha walked over to where Scarlett stood and waved her hand in front of her friend’s face when she noticed her staring off into the distance. Scarlett knocked her hand out of the way and walked over to Erick’s limp corpse. With her foot she kicked him to make sure he wasn’t coming back to life. Then she took her gun and aimed it at his head and shot the remainder of her clip into him. Clint and Natasha exchanged wary glances then looked back to Scarlett.

“Just in case.” Scarlett shrugged then retrieved a clip of ammunition from one of the fallen guards to replace the one she’d spent, grabbing a few extra for the remainder of their escape. “I thought he was dead on two prior other occasions, I wasn’t going to risk it a third.” Sighing she looked around the room and knew that she had to go after Tony. In all the chaos she’d nearly forgotten that was why she was still inside the facility at all.

“Do you feel better now?” Clint couldn’t help but be a little amused, if not a little troubled by what had just occurred. MedCo was far further along in their devious human experiments than he had anticipated. S.H.I.E.L.D. would have to step up their game and quickly at the rate they were going.

“A little.” Scarlett shrugged and then winced. Every part of her was uncomfortable and in pain. Coughing, she leaned forward and spat out the ick that came from her throat. After this she would need to see at least ten different kinds of doctors.

“You see, Hawkeye? I told you that Scarlett could handle herself. We probably didn’t need to come in here. We probably made it worse.” Natasha scolded her partner and swatted him away when he tried to take a look at the cut on her head.

“I was just being cautious. Like you said, she was sick and beaten up but… looks like none of that really mattered.” Clint smiled knowingly.

“Look, as much as I would really like to have a Full House moment here, we don’t really have the time.” Scarlett wiped her mouth to make sure that none of the drool or blood had gotten on her. It was obvious by the fact that it wasn’t burning her flesh that there wasn’t any but she couldn’t help but feel like she was covered in something gross after what she had witnessed. It was better to obsess over that than it was to obsess over her mental health that seemed in a steady decline over the weeks past.

“I don’t get to be Uncle Jesse?” Clint pouted, proud of himself for getting the reference but then smiled sheepishly when Natasha rolled her eyes at him.

“You two have to secure the building. Sergei and his men are running through here but if they’re going to be up against those forces then they’re doomed. Call for backup from S.H.I.E.L.D. or something… do whatever you need to, but make sure you have this place in lockdown and gain control from those MedCo bastards. Two heads of the company are left. Marcia and Mikhail. Marcia’s a bitch but the real threat is Mikhail. He’s a regular sociopath.” Scarlett furrowed her brow, counting out the heads of MedCo on her fingers. She still looked to Erick’s corpse suspiciously as though it were going to get back up at any second and start after her. Scarlett was so finished with so many people wanting a piece of her.

“You’re not coming with us.” It wasn’t a question but rather a certainty that Natasha needed an explanation for.

“Tony’s trapped somewhere in here because of me.” Scarlett averted her eyes and looked toward the mangled door. “My guess is Scott has gone straight for him because he knows that’s where I plan on going.”

“And hopes to trap you,” grimaced Clint. “Which he’ll do if you go.”

“Well, I’ll just have to be careful, won’t I?” She nodded resolutely in response but then looked to Natasha knowingly. Clint was nice enough but didn’t know her like the Black Widow did. “I have to go after him. He got locked up in here to try and save me, I just know it. He has this weird… white knight in shining armor thing going on. It’s cute and all but stupid.”

“Okay.” Natasha nodded much to Clint’s surprise but he didn’t vocally object. “You find your boy and we’ll handle the rest. Just don’t do something stupid.”

“Like get myself killed, you mean? Yeah, I’ll do my best.” Scarlett laughed but there was little humor in her voice. Looking down at Erick’s corpse one last time she hesitated before walking away from it and starting toward the half destroyed door that she would have to knock off of its hinges to get through.

“Would you feel better if we set him on fire?” Clint called to her as she finally got the door free.

“I would, actually.” Scarlett nodded and Clint smiled then pulled a lighter from his pocket. At least someone seemed to get her sense of humor. Scarlett pulled the door away and started in a rush down the hall where she hoped she would find Scott and Tony. She knew that she could trust Clint and Natasha to handle what remained of the MedCo guards.
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mcaputo123187's avatar
My god that was some battle you really need to draw Erickso I can get a better idea what he looks like.