Archer’s Arrow [Codename: Hawkeye]

Hawkeye aka Claire Barton made sure her ponytail was secure and grabbed the handlebar above her as she got out her seat. Being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Special Ops wasn’t a walk in the park by any means, but it did have a tendency to get formulaic after a while. When S.H.I.E.L.D received intel that Dr. Bruce Banner had returned to the states after leaving the country months ago, they made sure to keep an eye on the ticking time bomb of a man. It seemed the doctor was breaking his habit of staying away from heavily populated areas if the recent sighting in Vegas was anything to go by. Director Fury had Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the rest of their crew sent to apprehend Banner and transport him to The Cube before the hulk-buster units created a PR disaster. 

Unfortunately General Ross and the hulk-busters managed to beat them to the target, and already began to agitate the now released gamma monster. Claire fought to hold back a laugh as Natasha told Ross to back down. Natasha’s voice briefly slipping back to her native Russian accent. Hawkeye pulled out her bow as Bobbi Morse’s voice rang over the intercom. “Hey, at least this beats working undercover. Right, Tasha?” Claire said with a smile as Natasha got up to stand next to her. The red headed spy merely rolled her eyes at the magenta and purple-clad archer’s remark as the helicraft bay door opened. Widow was always the professional one.

Hawkeye shot a tethered arrow at the ground, followed with two arrows sticking to the jade giant’s chest before zipping down on the tether. Landing in almost perfect sync next to Widow, Hawkeye couldn’t help but smirk at the monster’s expression. “Tick tick boom.” The hulk appeared to look confused by what she said as he looked down at the arrows on his chest. Which then made a rapid beep-beep sound before preceding to explode. 

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‘Alright! Now I’m ticked!’ The Hulk thought, as the smoke cleared. He slammed a monstrous emerald hand on the ground and glared at the two women in front of him. The hulk usually found fighting people rather fun, however after pummeling the absorbing man and almost all of Ross’ hulk-busters, the Hulk really wasn’t looking to get into a third fight. “You should both run now, ‘cause you just made me angry.” He growled warningly. Spy Girl raised an eyebrow, while Bow Girl smiled mockingly. “Really?” Bow Girl said as she nocked another arrow. “Cause from where I’m standing, you look more beat up than angry.” 

Although Hulk wasn’t up for a fight at the moment he figured he could stall while he (and/or Banner) could come up with an escape plan. ‘We definitely ought to be careful.’ Banner said in the back of hulk’s head. ‘We don’t know what these two want, so for now you should probably hold back.’ Hulk fought back a scoff. Given the fact that he was attacked made it pretty clear what the two women wanted. However listening to Banner has gotten hulk out of worse scuffles in the past and the two of them haven’t gotten caught yet. ‘Fine,’ Hulk thought. ‘But if you’re wrong and something happens-.’‘I know.’ Banner replied. 

The Hulk let out a roar and charged forward. Spy girl ran forward and the hulk got hit by another arrow before getting shot by spy girl’s wrist things. After getting hit by two more arrows, hulk reached out to grab the red-headed spy, but she quickly leapt over him and shot him in the back. Hulk tried to grab or smash (hulk wasn’t picky) the red-head a couple more times before she rolled under him and shot him in the face. 

The Hulk didn’t have time to react before being hit by a barrage of arrows.  Granted the only ones that came close to hurting were the electric arrow that shocked him, the arrow which encased him in ice, and the arrow he caught that exploded in his face stinging hulk’s eyes. But the fact that Hulk was starting to get really exhausted was getting harder and harder to ignore. 

‘I told you to keep an eye out for the one with the arrows.’‘Shut up Banner!’ Hulk snarled internally. He was honestly starting get a bit surprised, given how long the fight had been going for Hulk had half expected for Ross to do something stupid way earlier.

The Hulk blindly swung his arms wildly trying to hit anything, but both of his attackers were able to easily avoid his fists. He could hear one of the agents beginning to yell (at presumably Ross). It wasn’t until Hulk managed to grab one of them by the hair and rub the dust out of his eyes that he could see why. 

The tank that Ross was in had just fired a missile straight in the Hulk’s direction! The green-skinned creature dropped the agent he was holding, and leapt up, barreling head-first into the projectile. The collision was instant, causing a large explosion. Hulk as usual took the full brunt of it, sending him hurtling into a huge mesa. Pushing the rock off himself, Hulk turned to see the SHIELD plane about to crash. The Hulk could hear Banner urging him to do something. Hulk briefly hoped that he wasn’t going to regret this decision. In a rush of green, the Hulk jumped toward the plane, thrusting out his arm and catching the front with more force than could be humanly possible. Grabbing the side of the front with his other arm, the Hulk let out a roar as he set the plane down. Hulk took a heavy breath and took two giant steps backward, when he felt something shock him from behind. Having used up most of his energy in all the fights, Hulk could only roar in pain before crashing to the ground. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Banner!’ Hulk thought as he felt his giant form begin to shift. 

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“-laire? Claire!” Claire’s eyes snapped open as she almost fell out of her seat. Natasha was leaning over her, looking concerned. “Are you okay?” She asked. “Of course.” Claire muttered, leaning back. “Why wouldn’t I be?” Natasha frowned, her gaze narrowing slightly. “You’re messing with your hair.” Claire looked sheepish as she stopped tugging a strand of her blonde hair wrapped around her finger. “Sorry. I’m just a little out of sorts I guess.” Natasha nodded, understanding. “It’s been a long day.” 

Claire thought that was an understatement. She looked back towards the screen, trying make sense of the images of hulk-related destruction in front of her. Natasha’s brows furrowed, quickly realizing why her partner was so sullen. “Barbara and the rest of the team are heading into Vegas, would that help take your mind off things?” Natasha offered. Claire briefly considered it, looking to Natasha at the mention of Bobbi. “No,” she shook her head. “I think i’d rather just stay behind, wouldn’t wanna kill the mood.”  Natasha nodded, touching the blonde’s arm reassuringly. “Alright. Are you sure you’ll be fine, Любовь?” Claire smiled a bit and nodded. “I’m sure.” Natasha gave one final nod, leaving the Helicraft. 

Claire sighed and shut off the monitor. Pulling her cowl back over her head, Claire steeled her resolve and headed down the ramp towards the Cube. She needed answers and she was going to get them.

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‘Being inside The Cube after doing so much research on it was frankly a bit ironic’, Bruce thought to himself. However upon seeing Dr. Leonard Samson was one of the staff, a small bit of Bruce’s anger mixed with the hulk’s rage at being held captive. He attempted to convince Leonard of SHIELD’s ulterior motives but the fellow doctor didn’t appear to listen and just preceded with taking a blood sample from him. “You have to believe me, Bruce. With the resources I have here, I will find a cure for you.” “Leonard, don’t! I stopped trying to cure the Hulk a long time ago.” Even though he knew Leonard probably didn’t believe him anyway, Bruce continued on. “I reached out to him. There’s a place in this world for the Hulk. But this isn’t it.” Leonard simply put the blood sample in a briefcase with a disappointed sigh. “I’m not going to give up Bruce, even if you have.” As Leonard walked out of the cell with the briefcase, a masked woman dressed in a purple (or was it magenta?) tunic with a quiver full of arrows walked in. 

‘One of the special ops agents SHIELD sent to bring me in.’ Bruce thought, as in the back of his head he heard the Hulk growl out an insult. The woman stood there and tilted her head slightly as she peered at him, as if he was an extremely frustrating puzzle she was bent on solving. 

Bruce couldn’t help but let out a slight scoff. “Let me guess. You thought I’d be bigger?” “Funny.” the agent replied, placing her hands behind her back. “The Hulk- He’s a monster, right? I mean, that’s what they told us. That’s what everyone thinks.” Bruce fought the urge to raise an eyebrow. Throughout all his years of sharing a body with the Hulk, it was extremely rare to find someone who didn’t automatically buy into Ross and SHIELD’s grossly exaggerated half-truths about the Hulk. So to hear a presumably high ranking SHIELD agent appear to question this was unexpected. The agent continued on, traces of doubt becoming more evident in her voice. 

“Military and SHIELD have been chasing him for years. He’s caused untold destruction. He’s a monster.” “What do you think?” Bruce asked, ignoring the angry rant the Hulk was currently making. There was clearly a reason behind why the agent came to his cell to question him. “Why did the Hulk save that ship?” The agent asked, her neutral expression breaking a tiny bit. “He could’ve just escaped. I saw it. He had a way out, but he saved my crew instead. Why?” “You’re a SHIELD agent, right?” Bruce said. “Yeah. So?” the agent put her hands on her hips and appeared to raise an eyebrow but it was hard to tell because of the cowl. “Maybe the question you should be asking is what SHIELD and the Hulk-busters want the Hulk for.” 

The agent narrowed her eyes and Bruce took it as a sign to keep talking. “Open your eyes! Look around this place. Look at the monsters here. Do you really think The Cube is a jail?” The Shield agent stayed silent as he hoped she was at least contemplating what he was saying. “And now they have samples of my blood- the Hulk’s blood. You think they want to cure me? They don’t. They want to make more of me.” If the Shield agent seemed to believe him it certainly didn’t show on her face. She turned on her heel and began to leave, pausing to briefly assess him over her shoulder before finally leaving, the cell bars clanking in place behind her. Bruce let a sigh, hanging his head. ‘Alright. Good talk.’ He thought.

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After she left Banner’s cell, Claire was even more frustrated. She was hoping to at least get some concrete answers, but now after attempting to interrogate the imprisoned scientist all she was left with was even more questions. As Claire walked back down the cell block, she couldn’t help but consider Banner’s argument which actually did make some sense. She suddenly paused in the middle of the hallway when she noticed-. “Natasha?” Claire hadn’t expected to see the redhead at all after turning down going to the after-mission party. Keeping out of sight, Claire watched the other woman walk into the room that held blood samples taken from all the prisoners before coming out holding a container which presumably had one of the blood samples in it. “What are you doing Natasha?” The agent wondered aloud. 

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 If Claire wasn’t suspicious before, then she certainly was now. That night, she got to work, marching into the currently empty helicraft and quickly logging into SHIELD’s computer network using voice command. “Bring up all communications and field reports by the Black Widow.” She commanded, sinking into the chair. ‘Files are not located on the network.’

 “Well, where are they located?” Claire asked, trying keep the irritation out of her voice. ‘Romanoff, Natasha. Code name: Black Widow. Records transferred to a remote computer.’‘Ok , today is really trying my patience.’ Claire thought with a grimace. “Okay. Fine. Whatever. Connect to the remote computer.” ‘Password required.’ After attempting the obvious password choices and getting denied each time, Claire was frankly kind of miffed. ‘Ok, think. My password’s something personally significant so-?’ “Claire?” She guessed, half joking. ‘Access denied.’ “Come on, you stupid piece of junk! I just-.” She paused for a beat before giving her last guess. “Red room.” ‘Access granted.’ 

Claire grinned. “Finally! Play the most recent report.” A blue image of Black Widow appeared in front of her. She appeared to be having a conversation (fully using her Russian accent) with someone Claire couldn’t make out, talking about SHIELD not suspecting anything and arranging a meeting in order to deliver the sample. “Computer, give me visual. Who’s she talking to?” Claire’s eyes widened in horror as the image cleared. “Good work, Widow. Hydra is pleased.”

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As Claire trailed behind Black Widow on her sky cycle, she stuffed down all the emotions she had accumulated throughout the day. She had initially planned on confronting Widow before she left but missed her just as she was leaving with the blood sample. If Claire was thinking more rationally she would have called for back-up before following Widow, but right now Claire had tunnel vision. She was going to get answers. Hawkeye stealthily climbed up onto a Mesa to observe the exchange. Right before widow could hand over the container to one of the two hydra goons, she shot an arrow puncturing the container and knocking out of Widow’s hands. Both Widow and the goon looked up as Hawkeye drew another arrow, the moonlight behind her gleaming off her bow.

 “Why did you do it? Why? We’ve been partners for years.” Claire shouted, emotion leaking from her voice. “Tell me the truth. You owe it to me, Natasha.” She said, her gaze firm. The red haired woman looked away for a moment before turning back to her, her green eyes blank and unfeeling, a scowl on her face. “The real question is why did you do it? Why did you betray SHIELD to Hydra?” The words hit her like a knife to the back and her heart froze in place. 

“Was it the power, Claire, or just the money?” Widow continued to speak as she walked forward, her eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?” Claire spat, hoping Natasha wasn’t doing what she feared she was. “The Banner samples are worth millions to the right people, but you know that.” “Natasha, what’s going on?” Claire yelled, half demanding and half pleading as the hydra goons looked at each other. 

Black Widow turned abruptly, shooting the hydra goons with her wrist blasters. Just then Claire hears the whir of a helicraft, feels the harsh glow of a spotlight, and before she can register what happened-. “Hawkeye is a double agent for Hydra. Take her down.” “What?!” Hawkeye’s statement that she wasn’t the double agent was ignored as shield agents started to fire their rifles at her, and Hawkeye went on instinct. She fired arrow after arrow, incapacitating as many shield agents as she can, knocking the last one out with her bow. Suddenly she felt an electric shock hit her from behind. Claire let out a cry of pain before slumping to the ground unconscious.