Hawkeye's roar caught the attention of Black Widow, who was currently weaving through dozens of gun-toting soldiers. A bullet had already grazed her calf.
Yet the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent merely gritted her teeth with a stifled grunt, raising her pistol to take down the two soldiers closest to her before executing a combat roll across the ground.
The remaining soldiers raised their rifles, sending a dense hail of bullets spraying over the spot where Black Widow had just been, forcing her to complete another quick roll as she shouted:
"Cover me! Clint! Fast!"
Hawkeye's teeth were gritted so hard they nearly bled. He couldn't bring himself to believe that Jack Monroe—a kid who had survived the Battle of Manhattan and was even subtly regarded by the U.S. government as the "second Bucky"—had died just like that.
Yet watching Jack Monroe's throat get slit clean open, not even a miracle could bring him back to life now.
Hawkeye cast a glance at Black Widow, not understanding why she suddenly needed his cover or what she intended to do.
Still, out of sheer trust in his comrade, Hawkeye converged on Black Widow's position without a moment's hesitation, casually stripping arrows from several corpses and shoving them into the quiver behind his back.
With a series of metallic clicks, he reloaded his quiver, yet Hawkeye didn't use his bow; instead, he snatched up a rifle from the ground.
"Natasha! What are you doing?!" Hawkeye asked through gritted teeth as he laid down covering fire for Black Widow with the rifle.
Jack Monroe was dead; Hawkeye didn't even know how he was going to face Batman when they got back.
He remembered with absolute clarity how much importance Batman placed on this young man—Batman had even spent half a day discussing Jack's psychological state with Captain America out of concern, ultimately deciding to keep him by Cap's side.
During their recent training sessions, Hawkeye had also learned about Jack Monroe's background. He knew how rare it was in this world for a good kid who suffered endless hardship to still greet every day with a smile.
Putting himself in Jack's shoes, Hawkeye knew he could never have matched Jack Monroe's resilience.
Under Hawkeye's cover, Black Widow swiftly reached Jack Monroe's side.
At that moment, Bucky was still standing on the spot, staring unblinkingly at the corpse lying on the ground, his mind seemingly miles away.
He offered zero reaction even as Black Widow and Hawkeye approached under mutual cover.
Whoosh!
Without a second thought, Hawkeye swung the rifle stock straight at the back of Bucky's head.
Yet a familiar scene played out once more: faced with the rifle stock, Bucky reacted instantly, tilting his head slightly.
Hawkeye's strike landed squarely on his shoulder instead.
In the next second, the opponent spun around, a hand darting out like lightning to grab the hand Hawkeye used to hold the rifle. Yanking Hawkeye toward him with violent force, Bucky drove a heavy knee straight into Hawkeye's abdomen.
Black Widow failed to escape his onslaught as well, receiving a kick that sent her flying three meters through the air, crashing down beside Jack Monroe's body.
Just as the opponent drew the pitch-black combat knife once more, reversing his grip to slit the throats of both agents and lay them to rest alongside Jack Monroe, a whistling sound suddenly echoed from afar.
The Vibranium shield came spinning wildly through the air from hundreds of meters away, flying straight toward Bucky's head.
Captain America had heard Hawkeye's roar from the distance, and with his exceptional eyesight, he had spotted Jack Monroe lying on the ground through the throng of soldiers.
Ignoring his own injuries, Captain America endured several brutal attacks as he charged toward Hawkeye and Black Widow.
Seeing Hawkeye and Black Widow outmatched by Bucky, Cap threw his shield with every ounce of strength he possessed, to the extent that even after traversing a hundred meters, the shield's momentum remained undiminished.
Yet if even Hawkeye could sense the incoming shield, how could Bucky miss it? He spun around abruptly, catching the high-speed spinning round shield with a single hand.
The shield hummed violently before Bucky whipped his body around, hurling it back outward with strength on par with Captain America's own.
Bucky cast another glance at Hawkeye and Black Widow.
The combined threat level of those two agents was far lower than that of Captain America, who was charging over like a rampaging bull.
Weighing his options, Bucky decisively tightened his grip on the black combat knife and charged forward to meet Captain America.
Seeing the two clash in close quarters, Hawkeye breathed a sigh of relief, discarding the rifle in his hand and re-nocking an arrow to his longbow to cover Black Widow.
Even so, he had no idea what Black Widow was actually doing.
Hawkeye stole a quick glance, only to see Black Widow enduring the excruciating agony in her abdomen as she pulled a finger-sized device from her waist.
Black Widow placed the device against Jack Monroe's head and pressed a button on top with firm pressure.
Instantly!
The small device gave off a sound of compressed gas releasing. Hawkeye saw with crystal clarity as two micro-needles popped out from the bottom of the device, penetrating clean through Jack Monroe's skull.
The finger-length device emitted a faint hum as a narrow progress bar illuminated across its display.
"What is that doing?!" Hawkeye's eyes were bloodshot. "Don't tell me this is another secret mission Nick Fury assigned to you!"
Black Widow watched Hawkeye fire an arrow, dropping a soldier in the distance.
She shook her head, shifting her focus back to the progress bar on the device planted on Jack Monroe's head:
"Before we left, Batman gave this to me."
"Batman? Don't tell me Jack Monroe's death was part of his plan all along!" Hawkeye's voice turned raspy.
Having asked the question, he almost lacked the courage to hear Black Widow's answer, terrified of hearing the absolute last thing he wanted to hear—
That "Jack Monroe's death was personally orchestrated by Batman."
"No," Black Widow said. "Batman told me this was prepared strictly as a contingency."
"What does it do? I saw it pierce Jack's skull!" Hawkeye breathed a sigh of relief and asked.
"Extract his memories before his brain completely loses vitality," Black Widow said.
Beep!
As Black Widow finished speaking, the memory extraction device signaled that its progress bar was full.
Pulling it off with a firm yank, Black Widow looked at the two tiny pinpricks left on the head of Jack Monroe's corpse, falling silent for a moment:
"To be honest, I don't know if this will even work either."
With that, Black Widow stood up, carefully stowing the device containing Jack Monroe's memories into her pocket before picking up her two handguns from the deck again.
She was about to call out to Hawkeye to hoist Jack Monroe's body onto his shoulders so the three of them, along with Captain America, could retreat together.
Yet turning her head, she saw Captain America taking a one-sided beating. No matter how fiercely Bucky swung his fists, Cap merely defended passively with his shield, refusing to land a single offensive strike.
"Steve!" Black Widow shouted through gritted teeth. "What are you doing?!"
Bang!
Captain America's shield took another heavy punch from Bucky, emitting a deep hum. Cap's expression lacked its usual composure; Black Widow could even catch a trace of panic in his eyes.
"It's Bucky," Captain America said.
"Your old partner? James Buchanan Barnes?!" Black Widow yelled.
Captain America remained silent. The man before him was identical to Bucky, yet he seemed to have lost his memory, recognizing Cap not at all.
"We need to retreat! Get Jack's body and get out of here!" Hawkeye shouted.
"It's too late," Black Widow said, shaking her head.
Pouring out from inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, a continuous stream of armed soldiers was surging toward their position.
At the same time, several military vehicles had started their engines, heavy machine guns mounted atop them.
According to their original plan, even if Captain America was intercepted by Bucky, he would have been able to subdue the target, allowing the four of them—including Jack Monroe—to pull out with Bucky in an orderly retreat.
Now, however, Jack Monroe was dead, and Cap was so bound by sentiment toward his former comrade that he couldn't bring himself to strike back with lethal force.
Black Widow and Hawkeye exchanged a glance, reaching a silent understanding as both of their eyes reddened simultaneously.
Black Widow raised her pistols, laying down a burst of rapid fire toward Bucky to break Captain America free.
"Move!" Black Widow barked at Captain America. Seeing him still staring at Bucky, she stepped up and kicked Cap squarely in the back.
With the plan compromised, Captain America could only steal one last glance back at Bucky before fleeing into the distance alongside Black Widow.
Hawkeye, meanwhile, pulled a long arrow from behind his back, drawing his bowstring tight as he aimed down at Jack Monroe's corpse on the ground.
An incendiary arrow was released, embedding itself into Jack Monroe's body before detonating with a loud BOOM, igniting into flames that briefly blocked the advancing soldiers in pursuit.
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