I avoided Hawkeye as we arrived back to the base camp, which was actually put up and fenced around, spotlights watching the perimeter. There was a crane near the contamination area, which had white tubing around the hammer zone, and little hallways that you could walk in. I went to the main control center, which was monitoring the keyhole, which was the hammer and the surrounding area. Thunder crashes ahead of us, and the screens start hazing, twitching as if the thunder was affecting the circuits. "Sir, feed from the keyhole can barely penetrate the cloud cover. tech's barely working as it is, with all the interference that thing's giving off." An agent at the monitors states. "And we have a commercial aircraft flying right over us. Southwest Airlines, flight 5434."
"Reroute it like all the others." His higher up states.
"Hold a sec." The agent proclaims and I step closer to them, to the monitors. "We've got something outside the fence, west side." He points at the screen to show that something or someone had crawled under the fencing. The higher up then communicates over the comms to two other agents to go and check it out. I turned on my com before walking out of the security room, heading out into the night.
I glance around before hearing, "Agent down. We've got a perimeter breach." I growl before heading over to the weapon storage as the sirens start ringing. "Bravo quadrant, move!" Is shouted over the comms and I'm almost tempted to turn it off.
Thunder crashes overhead before a sudden downpour begins to pour down on me, chilling me to the core. "Entering south tunnel!" I glance towards there after grabbing my bow and quiver, Hawkeye's still there. I can see the target moving through the tunnels, taking down all of our Bravo quadrant without a second though.
"Target sighted, east tunnel!" I shout into the comms before I stop short, hearing Coulson.
"I need eye up high, with a gun." He orders and I dash over to the crane, jumping into it to find Hawkeye dashing over. He tosses his bow to me before hopping in, the crane moving up as I hand him his bow, the rain pouring down on us. "Summers, Barton? Talk to me." Coulson orders and I aim my bow, finding the target still tearing through our guards.
"You want us to slow him down, sir?" Hawkeye questions, aiming his bow at the target, the string pulled all the way pulled, his thumb against his jaw. "Or are you sending in more guys for him to beat up?"
"I'll let you know." Coulson states and I sigh, noticing how the sky above us was mostly concentrated on the keyhole. I peer into the keyhole to see the target get smacked in the neck by Big Johnny.
"Big Johnny on the scene." I whisper before cocking my bow again, aiming at the man in a blue t-shirt, which was drenched and showed his many muscles. "The target has muscles like Hawkeye. I repeat." I laugh as Hawkeye just shakes his head, never taking his eyes off the target. The target and Big Johnny begin fighting until Big Johnny runs at him, picking him up and tearing through the tubing, throwing the target to the muddy ground. They begin to fight until the target beats even Big Johnny, the crane moving to follow after them.
The target begins moving back towards the keyhole, and the crane swings back around. "Better call it, Coulson, 'cause I'm starting to root for this guy." Hawkeye states and I see both the target and Coulson enter the keyhole, the target watching the hammer and Coulson watching him. Hawkeye tightens the string. "Last chance, sir."
Coulson almost interrupts him. "Wait. I want to see this." We all watched as the target closed in on the hammer, a smug look appearing on his face. He gripped the handle before tugging, but like most, it did not budge. I sighed and lowered my bow, Hawkeye still ready. After trying to get the hammer out for a few seconds, he looked up at the heavens and yelled at them, falling to his knees. "All right, show's over. Ground units, move in." Coulson says over the comms unit. Hawkeye loosens his bow as he puts it down, the crane being lowered. He hops out before helping me out.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." He states as we head out over to the fences and exiting, going over to the sleeping, which also had a fully equipped bathroom. "You did good work today."
"I didn't do anything. I just came along for the ride-" I freeze as I feel like someone else's soul was nearby, out of their body.
"Ghost?" Hawkeye question me and I don't respond as I phase out of my body, heading towards the other soul, which was by the security center, moving towards the keyhole. I head there in my ethereal form to find a man in a tux and scarf with slicked back black hair trying to grab the hammer out of the rock. He tried harder before letting go, looking at the sky, and leaving, looking back at me before he did and smiling, before disappearing as he walked through someone. I phase back and gasp. Hawkeye helps me up from where I had fallen to the ground and I dash back into the base, but Hawkeye stops me from entering the rain. "Ghost, what's wrong?"
"Someone else can phase like me." I whisper and glance back at him. "He phased and talked to the target and then tried to obtain the hammer. I don't know if he saw me, but I could see him. Wait... He did see me. He smiled at me. Hawk. He saw me. He knows what I can do." Hawkeye grabs my shoulders before leading me out into the night, the rain having stopped.
"We need to inform Coulson." Hawkeye murmured and I nodded. We headed over to the security center entering as a researcher from before came by.
"I'm here to talk to the man you have in your cell." The man, Selvig says to the higher up from before. The higher up walks off to get Coulson and Selvig turns to look at me and Hawkeye. I nod at him before going over and returning the iPod I had taken.
"Here, this is from your building. It was nice to meet you." I whisper before walking back over to Hawkeye, who was focused on Coulson, who had just come out of the interrogation room.
"How do you know this man?" Coulson questions and Selvig looks up at Coulson.
"Donald Blake, well he-" Selvig starts explaining, but Coulson interrupts him.
"His name is Donald Blake?" Coulson questions and I knew they were running diagnostics now.
"Dr. Donald Blake."
"You have dangerous coworkers, Dr. Selvig."
"He was distraught when he found out that you've taken all our research. That was years of his life, gone!" Coulson glances at the agent manning the computer that tells if the information is true or not. "You can understand how a man could go off like that. A big, faceless organization like yours coming in with their jackbooted thugs and..." Selvig had been looking over at me and Hawkeye before Coulson glanced over at Selvig. "That's how he put it." Selvig says in his defense and Coulson nods somewhat, me smiling slightly.
"That still doesn't explain how he managed to tear through our security."
"Steroids! He's a bit of a fitness nut."
The agent glances over from the computer towards Coulson. "Sir?" Coulson turns to look at the screen, which showed a driver's license with the target's face and name, but it also showed that the data was falsified.
Coulson glances back at Selvig, "It says here that he's an M.D."
"Well, he is! Or he was. He switched careers and became a physicist. A brilliant physicist. He's a wonderful man. He's a man in pain." Coulson must accept this to a degree, because he leads Selvig back to the target before me and Hawkeye start to walk away, thinking that we would just inform Coulson when he got the chance.
We didn't get very far until we got a message from Coulson. "Follow them." Coulson says over comms. We head over to the nearest vehicle and hop in, following the van that had the target and Selvig within it. Hawkeye stayed at a distance to not alert them that they were being followed.
"Hey, Hawk?" I whisper and Hawkeye quickly gazes at me. "What are you thinking about?"
"What our next mission is going to be. Why?"
"When I was in your head before... you were thinking about me a lot."
"Ghost." Hawkeye warned and I turned in my seat to look straight at him. "Don't."
"Why were you thinking about me so much? Was it just because that I was near you and you began to think of me after I was about to go into your head...? Or what?"
"We are on a mission." Hawkeye proclaims and I know that he wont' further the subject.
"We are going to talk about this later." I mumble before turning the radio on and listening to the music.
After a few minutes, we follow Selvig to a bar, which I nod at. It would make sense to get a drink after what has been going on lately. I was about to get out and follow when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out and answered it. "Summers. You and Barton are needed back on base." Fury's voice commanded through the phone. "Pick-up is immediate on northeast side of town." And with that, Fury hangs up.
"Northeast side of town, immediate pick-up." I say to Hawkeye, who backs up and drives over there, us finding a quinjet landing, Fury on the inside, waiting for us. "This is a fantastic way to end a mission."