Hawkeye X Reader- Chapter 46 Guerrilla Warfare

You pulled your hair back into a tight ponytail, gazing up at the towering building before you. It was made of an outdated grey brick that bore several years’ worth of built up grime. The many uniform windows glinted back at you villainously in the late afternoon sunlight, they were like a hundred sets of eyes watching your every move. You fiddled with the sais strapped to your waist. Before Natasha had found you in the Whitehouse she had found the weapon stores and appropriated a few choice items, including your sais.
“Are you sure this is the place?” You turned to Maria who was standing about a meter behind you.
She nodded, loading ammo into her small handgun. “It matches the description Agent Romanoff gave me.”
You turned back to the rundown, outdated office block. Fury had decided that your goal of protecting Clint would best be used to actually free him and the others. Surprisingly Maria was the one to volunteer to go with you, you knew very little of her but she seemed a highly capable agent.
“Ready to go Agent _____?”
Cracking your knuckles you smiled. “Let’s do this.”

*

Fury, Natasha and Thor watched as the scientist tinkered away with some small electronic devices made from the discarded technology that littered the streets.
“So these are going to work?” Natasha questioned skeptically.
Soldering wires together the scientist glanced up. “If all goes to plan, yes they will work.”
A frown crinkled Thor’s brow. “And these coloured threads will stop ______’s father from sending his message?”
The scientist sighed in exasperation. “They won’t stop him, but they will block the signal. Now please, I need complete silence if I’m going to do this right.”
“But how?” Thor continued to question.
The scientist clenched his jaw. “If I can get them collaborated properly, they will emit a strong radio signal that can stamp out any other signal being sent in the immediate vicinity.”

Thor’s eyes glazed over as he tried to make sense of all these strange new words. What was this radio signal that everyone kept talking about? He opened his mouth to ask when he felt a hand grab his arm.  
He looked down meeting the clear blue eyes of the warrior woman Natasha Romanoff. In some ways she was a lot like his friend Sif.
“Let’s leave him to his work, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to answer your questions later,” Natasha forced a smile. “How about we go raid the kitchens and find some food?”
Thor grinned from ear to ear. “I hope there are pop tarts!”

*

Bullets flied over your head, wasps with a killer sting. Crouched behind an overturned desk you kept your head tucked down praying that the guards had a bad aim. At a sidelong glance you could see that Maria was in much the same predicament, back pressed up against an alcove just out of the bite of the bullets. You pulled a small silver orb from your belt, rolling it between your thumb and forefinger. To a layman it would look like nothing more than a ball bearing but it was in fact a small capsule of pepper spray. Once it was activated you would have only 30 seconds until it released a cloud of condensed mace which would hopefully incapacitate anyone nearby. However the downside was that it would most likely be recycled in the air-condition and probably affect both you and Maria as well. You had never been maced before and so had no idea what to expect, if by chance it was as bad as everyone said there was a real risk that you wouldn’t be able to work through it. You continued to roll the small unassuming ball between your fingers trying to come up with something, anything else that could get you out of the current situation unscathed. Alas no other method came to mind.

Twisting the two joined ends of the sphere you called out to Maria, hoping that your voice could be heard over the gunfire. “Close your eyes.”
Before awaiting her reply you rolled the ball across the floor, listening as it clicked against a wall. A guard called out urging his fellow men to retreat but it was too late, a large stream of vapor poured out of the tiny ball with a hiss. You heard the men and women crying out and coughing as they were assaulted by the mace. Clearing the back of your throat and wiping tears from your own eyes you stood taking advantage of the window you had created. Maria was by your side as you slashed out with your sais, wounding the guards around you. You coughed as tears flooded down your cheeks.
“Come on.” Maria urged, her own eyes bloodshot and tear rimmed.
You blindly followed behind her, wiping your eyes with the back of your hand.

After a brief discussion you both decided to use the stairs instead of the rickety old elevator. Not only did they appear a lot safer, but they would allow you to keep an ear out for any oncoming guards. According to Natasha the floor being used as a prison was on the seventh level which meant you had six flights to ascend. The last time you had to climb a lot of stairs you were bleeding to death so you definitely weren’t looking forward to it now. Maria automatically took the lead, climbing the stairs two at a time a gun drawn at all times. The stairwell was dusty, damp and dimly lit with emergency lights. Graffiti smeared the walls in colorful flashes of abuse and indiscernible scribbles. The strong scent of urine burnt your nostrils; this building must have been occupied by homeless until a few weeks ago. You traced your fingers over large fuchsia coloured bubble letters that declared Obama to be the Anti-Christ. You had to stifle a giggle, these people evidently didn’t really know what true evil was. At the fourth flight Maria silently gestured for you to stop. You did so, bracing your back against the wall as she pressed an ear to the chipped door.
“I think we should take the elevator the rest of the way.” She whispered.
You frowned. “We’ve already discussed this, the elevator leaves us too vulnerable.”
Pulling away from the door she flipped a strand of hair from her face. “So does this staircase, we’re vulnerable wherever we go. I just think that this is taking too long, they know that we’re here by now and there are only so many places to hide in this shit hole.”
You bit your lip weighing up the options. “But if Clint is injured we’ll need the elevator-“
“If Clint is injured we don’t have much time to waste,” She stated simply, cutting you off.  “Steve and Tony should be able to handle carrying him anyway.”
You nodded. “Makes sense I suppose. Ok.”
She smiled turning to the door and slowly forcing the rusty hinges to swing open.

Ducking your head around the corner of the doorway you singled out three guards, sipping coffee as they shuffled a deck of cards. Maria rolled her eyes mouthing the word ‘idiots’ before creeping towards them in a crouch. You took a slightly wider route and when Maria put one of them in a choke hold you slammed your fist into the back of one of their heads with a sickening crunch. Before his limp body even had the chance to slide down to the worn carpet the third man had snatched up his nightstick and clipped you on the side of the head with it. For a moment the world swayed and you had to grab a chair to steady yourself, which you then promptly lifted and swung at the guard knocking him off of his feet. He groaned clutching his ribs with one hand and fumbling for his baton with the other but before he could grasp it Maria aimed a sharp blow to the side of his head, knocking him out.
“How’s your head?” She asked shaking out her hand.
You prodded your head with your fingertips, frowning as they came away bloody. “I’ll survive, I’m usually faster than that.”
She shrugged. “You can’t always be the fastest. C’mon I think the lift is this way.”

The elevator was every bit as rundown as it had first appeared. The carpet was so threadbare it was almost inexistent, the single mirror that took up ¾ of the far wall was smashed and only one of the four overhead lights worked but it flickered constantly. Maria pushed the tarnished button that had a number seven stuck on it with a round sticker before leaning up against one of the walls. You frowned at the small box you had found yourself confined in, it smelt of a mixture of mice and dust. A voice so distorted that it was incompressible came over the speaker before the lift began to make its slow climb up the remaining three floors.
“You know, there is probably a big chance that this elevator will break down.” You stated as you moved to stand beside Maria.
She crossed her arms, glancing at her warped reflection in the smashed mirror. “You can climb right?”
“Climb?” You questioned.
“We’ll just climb up the elevator shaft.” She replied, wiping a smudge of dirt from her cheek.
You felt your heart pick up pace at the mention of climbing. One thing that you weren’t that good at was climbing. Mainly due to the fear of heights you tried to keep secret.

After what felt like a millennium the Elevator finally made it to the seventh floor. The doors opened and the speaker crackled with the distorted voice. Flashing Maria a tentative smile you stepped out first, cautiously looking around the new floor. Unlike all of the others this level had been thoroughly cleaned and updated. The carpet was still threadbare and stained in places but it lacked the thick scattering of dust that all of the other floors seemed to possess. All of the walls had received a fresh coat of ivory paint, covering all graffiti that may have been present and there didn’t seem to be any abandoned office supplies anywhere in sight.
Maria scratched her eyebrow looking left and then right. “Shame there aren’t any signs.”
“I don’t think we need any, look.”
You pointed to a pair of women dressed in matching light grey singlets and black tights. They were leisurely making their way out of a nearby room, talking in hushed tones.
“I officially hate my job.” The shorter of the two proclaimed.  
Her companion replied in a strong Brazilian accent. “You’re getting paid to keep your eyes on four gorgeous men, what’s to hate?”
The American rolled her eyes replying sarcastically. “Yeah, it’s great doing nothing all day but watching people sulk in cells.”
The Brazilian had opened her mouth to reply but at that moment she suddenly noticed you and Maria.

Maria acted instantly, cocking her pistol and then firing once and then twice. The two women’s bodies crumpled to the floor in a pile. You gawped at the sight eyes wide and mouth partially open.
“There’s no time for messing around ______, this is a war and people die in a war.” Maria stated, obviously picking up on your moment of shock.
You knew she was right, you had killed a number of people yourself but it still didn’t seem justified.
Maria strode out towards the door, stepping over the small puddle of blood beginning to form on the carpet. “Get your weapons ready, everyone on this floor would have heard that.”
Sliding the sais from your belt you moved to join her, giving the bodies of the women as wide a berth as possible. Maria reached out for the doorknob hand just about to wrap around it when the door was flung open. A huff of breath was forced from your lungs and everything began to move in slow motion. A guard stood on the other side of the door an assault rifle at the ready, she pulled the trigger and the gun went off. Dropping down to the ground you rolled to the side away from the initial stream of bullets. Maria screamed out, she wasn’t as lucky. She was hit in the stomach twice and then as she turned to run the ribs. Her gun left her hand and she collapsed on the floor, a low moan bubbling from her throat. Leaping up you sprinted toward the guard as she tried to reload her rifle. She tried to block your blows with her rifle but there was only so much she could do. You were nimble and moved both of the sais in perfect synchronization they slashed out knocking the weapon from the woman’s hands. She brought her hands up to defend herself but you stabbed out with such force that your sai pierced straight through her hand, coming out at the other side. Her screams echoed throughout the hall before you buried your other sai in her abdomen. She gasped as you retracted both weapons with the grace of a master of martial arts and then fell to her knees. Without even giving the guard a second look you rushed to the aid of Maria, praying that she was still alive.