Renegade (Marvel/ Captain America)

Chapter 7: Not Quite Human

Tatum's pov:

After traveling for seven more hours, I give in and take a break. I stop at a small hotel, wanting to compose a plan of attack for when I take HOPE down tomorrow. Releasing a sigh, I plop down cross-legged on the bed. I pull out my laptop and open it up. I stop when I see the picture I picked up in the safehouse, of the family.... Of my family. I set my jaw and pick up the photo I was so young. So happy.... innocent. I could never say the same today. It was taken the time we moved to a new house in Georgia. On the back, our new address is scrawled in my mother's neat handwriting. It was taken only two days before my parents died. And a certain industry was involved with their murders... Biting my lip, I force myself to focus. I lay down the picture on the bed's comforter, before turning to my laptop.

My first mistake: stopping. I never even considered that HOPE could catch up to me. I've been so far ahead of them... Until I hear the resounding crash of my door being kicked down. "Shit!" I hiss quietly. I knew they'd find me sooner or later. If Logan and Yukio could track me down... so could HOPE. Just not this soon. I scramble off the bed as quickly as possible. I slam the laptop shut and stuff it into my backpack. I have ten seconds before they round the corner and see me, at most. Slinging my backpack over my shoulders, I head towards the window.

Well, that's my plan before a HOPE agent in black comes crashing through the window. I mutter a curse and slam the butt of my gun into my enemy's temple. Down he goes, but it makes no difference. I'm quickly surrounded. Crap. Not good. I have agents on all possible points of exit. Time to create my own path. One problem: they all have guns trained on me. So, I fake a move right and suddenly drop to the ground at the last second. As I had hoped, the enemy agents open fire.... And shoot each other. I hop to my feet, seeing there's still about ten guys left. Whoop de doo.

"Hands in the air!" The man who I assume to be the leader shouts. I pretend to do so for a moment.... but reach for my gun unnoticeably."Hm.... Maybe not." Whipping out my pistol, I shoot an agent in the hand, making him drop his weapon. And all hell breaks loose.

I begin to work my way over to the nearest exit; the door of my room. Punching a man in the jaw, my senses and brain register many things at once. Which means I have to do what Professor Xavier taught me, and focus only on the essential things. I duck a swing and bring my foot down into an enemy's kneecap, earning a loud yell. The agent is then silenced by my gun slamming into his head.

I'm almost to my escape route, most of the agents unconscious, when one takes me by surprise. I was taking care of one of his buddies. A knife is buried into my thigh and I mutter a not-so-flattering word. Turning, I see it was the leader who got the hit on me.... And I recognize him. Luke Powers. One of HOPE's main puppets. This man was the one I saw on the night my parents died... "You!" I growl murderously, but am allowed no time to end him. Another agent fires his gun, and the bullet grazes my shoulder. I pull the knife out of my thigh and throw it at the agent of HOPE, taking him down. Smashing another man who is in my way into the wall, I sprint out the door and into the hallway. To my relief, there's no more agents here. I run to the best of my ability for the staircase... Only to be met by Spangles and Birdboy.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I exclaim. Before either of them can react, I grab the good old Captain's arm and throw him into his friend. That should distract them. I then swing the door to the staircase open and run full-speed down it. The HOPE agents left are still obviously on my tail, and I can't stop. Two things I don't notice: some of my blood dripped on the ground when I made me getaway. And the picture is still back in my room. Too pumped full of adrenaline to notice, I race towards my bike and take off.

Steve's pov:

Clint and I recover as quickly as possible, but Black took us by surprise. We figured out she was here from a residential report. By the time we have regained our balance, the woman has disappeared down the steps. We're about to follow in pursuit, when a voice interrupts us.

"That won't be necessary, Captain." I look over to see a man with black, cropped hair and cold blue eyes approaching us, five armed men in tow. I raise an eyebrow at them. They all appear to be wearing HOPE uniforms.

"And you are?"

The leader steps forward and shakes my hand with an emotionless smile. "Luke Powers." I've heard of this guy before. One if the founders of HOPE. He's very well-renown around the world. But the man always reminds me of a snake.

"I thank you for your... efforts, Captain. But we have everything under control. We will be pursuing the criminal solo from now on." Powers informs us matter-of-factly. Clint crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow. "Under whose authority?"

Powers chuckles. "My own. Thank you, but your service, along with SHIELD's, is no longer needed."

He then walks off with the agents following closely.

Alright. Something's obviously up.

"What the hell was that? They just want to take us off the case after requesting our assistance?" Clint questions. I shake my head, eyebrows knitting.

"Something isn't right. We need to contact Natasha. And collect anything we can." I reply.

"Wait. We're still going after Black?"

I shake my head. "Not exactly... But there is something going on. And I intend to find out what."

It doesn't take us long to find something incredibly important. Blood. Tatum Black's, more importantly. We know it's hers, because it is right near the spot where we ran into Black. There's an amount of blood on the floor that will be good enough to have analyzed. And then we can finally find out exactly what we're dealing with.

We then walk towards what we were earlier informed was Blacks room. We're stunned to see twelve men lying unconscious on the ground there.

"What....?" I murmur. Clint shakes his head. "They beat us to her." And then she beat them. We begin to look around for anything that could be useful. Walking near the bed, my foot accidentally kicks something. The object skitters under the bed. Eyebrows furrowing curiously, I kneel down and retrieve a photograph. To my shock, the girl in the picture looks just like Black would have when she was younger. Flipping it over, I see writing on the back in black ink:

Moving day for the Blacks!
672 Elm Street, Atlanta, Georgia

I look over at Clint. This is what we've been looking for. The missing puzzle piece. "You might want to see this.

................

Back at SHIELD headquarters, Clint and I wait for the verdict on the blood sample. Dr. Bruce Banner is running the tests. We have no idea what to think about what Natasha just told us. The CIA had tried to kill her. Both them and HOPE are onviously not as innocent as we thought. Why go through so much trouble to have Black killed? What happened that was big enough to cover up with an out-of-context video? Most importantly: what are they hiding?

"So. You'll go to Atlanta. I'll keep going after Black, and Nat will look into what HOPE's up to."

Clint nods his agreement. If we want to figure things out, there's only one place to start: the beginning. We have to find out Black's motives. Her story, what makes her tick. And this is the only way how. I have to keep up with Black, in order to try to figure things out. Something big is no doubt about to go down. Natasha is still in the field, and will remain there as we try to unearth the truth. We both look up when Bruce walks back into the room, appearing to be deep in thought. I can practically see the gears turning in his head.

"Well?" Clint asks. We both want to know if our hunch was correct. The doctor takes off his wire-rimmed glasses, letting out a sigh.

"Well, you were right. Black is not quite human."