Avengers: Vengeance

Burial at Sewer

Hawkeye stumbled through the filth, his path lit by the occasional gutter overhead. He ignored the pain in his leg and the overwhelming stench around him, focusing on the task of moving the package instead. The distant explosion of the grenade made his heart lurch, but he had to believe that Matt was safe. Doom's people weren't known for mercy, as evidenced by the Freedom Fighters that had already been mercilessly slaughtered by them.

His thoughts flashed to the Maria Hill and he immediately clamped down on that. He couldn't dwell on the past, even if the sight of her dismembered head still haunted his dreams. And she was only the latest in a long line of executions. Doom's people made it their personal hobby to decapitate and display the heads of any who would oppose the ironclad regime. Hill had been preceded in death by Coulson, Scott Lang, T,Challa, and Rhodes to name a few. Doom's murderous assassins had been very thorough in whittling down their numbers.

"Hawkeye to team- I'm placing prox arrows. Don't come through the tunnel entrance I took." Raising his bow, he spun and fired several proximity arrows. They'd be after him, he knew. His only chance was to slow them down until he carried out the task of passing the package to the next freedom fighter. It was like a morbid relay race and he couldn't help but chuckle.

But it wasn't a laughing matter. Doom's people were feared throughout the empire. Romanoff and Belova led a small army of Black Widows- each of them highly-skilled and capable of acts so atrocious that the mere mention of a Widow was enough to elicit fear from even the most law-abiding citizens. But they were just part of the overall terror.

The Winter Soldier, a figure formerly thought to be an urban legend in the intelligence community, was a nightmare come to life and he doled out punishment without blinking an eye.

Then there was Captain Doom. During World War II he'd been the hero known as Captain America- a formerly frail young man who volunteered himself to science in order to become the super soldier- America's secret weapon against the enemy. After he'd disappeared in a plane crash, he'd been presumed dead. Then Hydra located him and subjected him to the same programming as the Winter Soldier. For a time he'd been known as Captain Hydra, but when Doom seized control and built his empire, he acquired the super soldier and renamed him. Not for the first time, Hawkeye reflected on the tragedy that Hydra had thawed the man out first. The Steve Rogers of old wouldn't have hesitated to join their cause.

Now he just chops heads off with his fucking shield.

He came upon a turn and took it, quickly shooting more arrows into the walls behind him. Turning back around, he flinched at the sound of gunfire popping from in front of him. He dove to the ground, his mouth filling with the filthy water. He spat it out and ignored the foulness of the situation. Taking aim, he fired an arrow filled with a small canister of teargas. The fumes filled the tunnel ahead of him and he watched as the Winter Soldier stepped through them, his face protected by a dark mask. His metallic arm glinted in the random lighting overhead and the smoking assault rifle looked right at home cradled in his hands.

Hawkeye chewed his lip and began to unleash every arrow he had. Anything to slow the man down.

He's not a man. Oh, God.

Winter Soldier threw himself into a nearby alcove before peering around the wall and firing again. But Hawkeye was nowhere to be seen. Scowling, he stalked down the tunnel and toward the archer's last location, his weapon ready. As he moved, Hawkeye clung to the ceiling with every ounce of strength he had, praying all the while that the assassin wouldn't look up.

"Where is he?" The familiar voice of Cap asked.

Winter Soldier turned around and watched as Cap walked out of the dissipating gas. "Hiding. But he's nearby. He's injured. Can't get far."