Hawkeye: Agony

Noblemen Wear Shining Armour

'Woah hey hey. You didn't cry like this when I died, did ya?' Barney took a knee in front of my cell, 'Would have been embarrassing having my lil bro bawling,' He smirked at me when I looked up.

I couldn't think of a witty response back. Or..any response other than sobs. So, in true dork fashion, I just reached a finger through the bars and poked him in his muscled chest to see if he was real.
"Oh they're real alright,' He joked and flexed, but then laughed when he realised I wasn't checking out his physique. 'Ah that's awkward.'
'Yeah..' I managed to stifle out with a small chuckle, 'You're really alive..'
'In the flesh!' He opened his arms to say 'tadaaa!' and then added, 'Which you already checked,' with another grin.
I smiled and took a moment's pause before glancing him over, '...And wearing my suit?' I looked up at him wearily, 'What are you doing here? How are you here?'

Barney contemplated for a moment and then looked the cell door over, 'I'm here because you shouldn't be here. That's all. Now, what the hell do all of these fancy arrows do? Come on, which one breaks the lock?' He took a knee and flung the quiver off of his shoulder, tilting it so I could see.

'...Are you crazy??' I stared at him, 'I can't just run away. This isn't like running from dad..!'
I could see some fear in his face, like I'd touched a nerve.
It only took seconds for him to smile and joke again, 'Okay, I'll just try them all,' He shrugged and pulled one out.
'Barney!' I grabbed his wrist, pushing my whole body with the chains tight against the bars just to reach. I just shook my head, unable to say everything I needed to say in the time he had to make himself scarce.
'What are you doing..?'
'Saving you,' He shrugged a little but sat back on the floor, 'Because that's what you've been doing, right? "Hawkeye"?' He smiled a little, 'A friend has been telling me all of your little stories. I thought, people still needed Hawkeye until I could get you back.'
He went more serious, 'But, look... You all need to get out of here. They're going to_.' He choked a little. It must be bad. I haven't seen this guy ever get emotional, let alone struggle to talk.
'All of us need to leave. Tonight. They're going to move you all to separate floors and sink the ship. The only way for Colonel Ross to kill them two friends of yours, is to keep you all apart so you can't free each other.'

Bucky shot up, banging his cell bars once, loudly, with his metal fist, 'What? How the hell do you know?'

Barney looked over and met his gaze and held it. It was long and awkward. Barney never responded, he instead turned back to me and said more forcefully, 'Which arrow, Buddy?'

"Buddy". We still hadn't changed. Our teenage years weren't all that far away. For all I knew, it could have been days for him. If not, why hadn't he met with me sooner?

I took a second then pointed, 'We have about three minutes until smoke will set off the alarms.'
'Wow, three?' He smirked down at me cockily as he hopped to his feet, 'I thought this would be harder,' and with a striking pose, he threw three arrows in one spin, all landing in each lock, followed by smoke dribbling out of them. Our doors flung open.
'Come on. We have a jet to catch,' he held down a large hand to help me stand, back lit by the dim lighting, the Hawkeye crest on his chest shone brightly.

I took his hand with both of mine, chained at the wrists, and stood.
Bucky walked over, with a strange scowl on his face that I hadn't seen before. It wasn't the same snarl that the soldier had. It was almost like he had been shot down.
Was Barney stealing all of his dashing charm?

I left them to their little glaring contest as I went over and helped Wanda, since she was bound so much that walking looked difficult.
'I've got you kid,' I smiled as I casually flicked off the cuffs like they were never locked. An old circus swordsman taught me that one. I'm not going to tell you how, that would ruin it.

I hoisted up Wanda on to her feet and then worked on getting the jacket off of her.
'I hope you boys know the way out of here,' She muttered when her mouth was released. She had signs of strain from not talking in so long.
'Ah she talks,' Barney smiled, 'And I do, but we don't have long left, so maybe hurry it up lil bro.'
'I don't see you helping...' Bucky murmered from under his hair.
The glaring contest resumed once more with a few mumbled curse words, until,_.

BANG.

**

It was like the whole world went white, then red, and then hot. Really really hot. I thought it was a bullet, because of the force that hit my chest, and the watery sensation that followed. But it wasn't blood pooling: we were in a pool.
Thinking my lungs had taken a hit, I tried to get a big breath of air, only to lose all sensation of breathing completely.
The shock of the water rushing down into my lungs forced my eyes wide open.
Water. Water everywhere.
They'd blown up the ship, just like Barney said.

The heat was from fire, forming at every interval where the bombs had been set. It looks like it was all of the security cameras, so they could have picked us off one by one whenever they had wanted.

I tried to look around, but the ship having so many holes in it forced a really strong current, that was tossing me around into every piece of rubble available.
A hard hit to the back made me gasp again, losing more air, possibly the last bit I had as I was thrown through some of the burning orange flames, that hurt a lot less than it should have under water.

Orange.. Red. Why did I see red?
Wanda.
I looked around, trying to spot some other form of colour in the vast blues and silvers reflecting across my vision.
Thank god I'm Hawkeye and not Mole-eye.

She was trapped under some rubble, still unable to use her powers, as I hadn't finished setting her free from all of the power cancelling technology.
She wasn't moving.

I quickly looked around, and using the last ounce of brain power that I had, I tried to use my own super power. I can turn anything into a weapon. Grabbing a loose cable from the airlock doors, I swam down to Wanda. Tying the cable around the rubble, and letting the current wash away the broken door, and the trap along with it.
With a struggling swim, I scooped up Wanda and held her tightly: but with no arms, the current threw us out of control.
Spinning, I looped a leg around what looked to be a window frame - the force being enough to dislocate my knee with a painful snap. But, I had some bearings now.

The current was trying to throw us out of the ship, to calm waters. Excruciatingly untying my leg from the frame, I used my last ounce of sense to join the current again, pushing Wanda up when I felt we were slightly orientated: hoping she would float to the surface.

I couldn't swim, I couldn't breathe. The ringing in my ears was louder and louder until it slowly sounded like a flat-lining heart monitor. I had asked for this, right? Drowning.

The last thing I saw was a shimmer of light before I shut my eyes.
I thought it was the near death experience of 'going into the light.'
"Nooo don't go!" I hear you saying, "The story isn't over!"

Well luckily for you, it was actually even more cliché than that.
The light was a reflection, from a silver hand, as it dived back into the water:
It grabbed my shirt, and then I was gone.