Chapter 247: What a Black Widow
Without any verbal communication, Mockingbird Barbara Morse demonstrated extremely capable military proficiency. Her right hand's index and middle fingers pressed together, pointing toward Hawkeye. Then index and middle fingers straightened together, remaining three fingers forming fist, pointing outside the cage.
Under her tactical sign language commands, guards distributed throughout Hawkeye's cage immediately separated two individuals stepping forward, lifting Hawkeye from the floor.
Exiting the cage, traversing corridors, passing security zones—the group headed straight toward Cube Prison's summit.
A helicopter had already completed pre-startup. As guards threw unconscious Hawkeye into the cabin and closed doors, pre-programmed flight routes immediately activated.
Propellers whirled loudly. The helicopter carrying Hawkeye rapidly ascended high, flying toward New York's direction.
"Good luck."
Watching the helicopter disappear into sky, Agent Nineteen Barbara Morse exhaled with relief, waving to signal team members returning to Cube Prison.
"Dismissed on site."
The unconsciousness-inducing fog that had previously filled Cube Prison had now vanished completely under efficient air purification systems. Barbara addressed her subordinates.
Watching these weapon-carrying guards dispersing individually, Barbara Morse slung her weapon behind her back, opening the cage door adjacent to Hawkeye's.
The criminal inside currently remained unconscious. Barbara stepped forward, single-handedly grabbing his collar.
SMACK!
A heavy slap descended. This criminal's half-face immediately swelled red. The pain on his face awakened him from unconsciousness.
The criminal's first reaction upon awakening was attempting grabbing Barbara's arm to subdue her.
But Mockingbird Barbara apparently anticipated this. Following momentum, one shoulder throw flung the criminal from left to right, then heavily kicked him toward the corner.
"Been restraining myself forever. Damn." Barbara lowered her center of gravity, adopting combat stance while beckoning the criminal. "Come."
The criminal—kicked by Barbara into wall collision—couldn't restrain pained howls, clutching his stomach while baring teeth:
"Damn, told you countless times—Black Widow sent me! Friendly!"
This criminal was unmistakably Hydra's "Crossbones" Brock Rumlow—who'd cooperated with Black Widow stealing Tesseract data from Adirondack Mountains facility, then transported it via human courier to Cube Prison.
"Foolish boy." Mockingbird Barbara's right thumb slowly wiped her nose tip. "Black Widow played your Hydra completely. You're still kept in the dark?"
Crossbones Rumlow's ears twitched. Disregarding abdominal and back pain, he rolled from ground:
"What do you mean?"
"Fight once. Win and I'll tell you." Barbara grinned. "Previously stuck at sea constantly. Now confined in this broken prison constantly. I haven't tasted beating Hydra for too long."
Crossbones Rumlow—however stupid—vaguely understood now:
"You're SHIELD? Then this Cube Prison isn't the secret base Black Widow told me about—it's your SHIELD prison?"
"What else?" Barbara raised one eyebrow.
"Good. What a Black Widow." Crossbones gritted teeth. "I should've guessed she's a double agent."
Barbara—seeing Crossbones continuously refusing engaging her—withdrew combat stance, crossing arms while leaning against walls:
"What else did you deduce?"
Crossbones Rumlow's mouth opened wide. This time his turn—both fists raised before himself:
"Remove all my shackles. Fight me once. Win and I'll tell you."
As prisoner, Crossbones wore collar around his neck. Chains from the collar connected separately to both hands and feet, preventing straightening arms and legs completely.
"Fine. Deal." Barbara's face similarly displayed smiles. First removing the long rifle on her back, opening doors while casually tossing it to soldiers outside.
Then she approached Crossbones Rumlow, using keys to remove heavy shackles from his body.
CLATTER!
The instant shackles separated from Crossbones Rumlow, he suddenly moved. One hand grabbed iron chains, one hand grabbed toward Barbara.
Chains in his hands resembled living serpents shaking through air, attempting binding Barbara.
But Barbara Morse showed zero concern. One close-distance high kick—extremely bizarre—one foot flew from ground, kicking Crossbones's jaw.
Simultaneously her upper body's waist twisted, driving elbow tip's hawkbeak bone blocking Crossbones's hand grabbing toward her.
One exchange—both individuals retreated two steps each.
CLATTER CLATTER...
Crossbones—one hand holding chains, one hand's back wiping mouth corners kicked producing saliva—observed Mockingbird Barbara with sinister smile:
"Worthy of SHIELD."
Barbara Morse slowly lowered her highly raised foot, twisting her neck in position. Consecutive subtle cracking sounds—her face displayed slight satisfaction:
"Less talk. Again!"
Three minutes later, Barbara Morse sat with crossed legs on what should've been Crossbones Rumlow's chair, disdainfully observing bruised-face Crossbones collapsed aside:
"Tell me—what else do you know?"
Crossbones's one eye swelled massively. One testicle crushed. Two right ribs broken.
But he remained unconcerned.
Truly discussing capability, he wasn't weaker than Mockingbird Barbara. Losing to her purely resulted from recent imprisonment making his body excessively weak.
After all, within SHIELD prisons, they didn't emphasize humanitarian treatment, providing good meals for prisoners.
Crossbones Rumlow could eat daily only minimally sustaining physiological functions.
Facing Mockingbird Barbara's inquiry, Crossbones laughed:
"You genuinely want knowing? I didn't deduce anything."
Mockingbird Barbara snorted through her nose, re-locking shackles onto Crossbones's body, turning to heavily close cage doors, leaving Crossbones alone inside.
"Hahaha! HAHAHAHA!"
Barbara departed. Crossbones's mouth immediately opened wide, laughing wildly on the ground without image concerns—seemingly unable feeling post-beating pain—laughing until tears emerged.
"How could I deduce nothing?"
"HAHAHAHA!"
"SHIELD! HAHAHAHA!"
Crossbones laughed while pounding floors. His appearance almost exceeded hearing Hydra became President-level joy.
Considerable time later, Crossbones ceased laughing, observing tightly closed cage doors while sneering repeatedly:
"I deduced... your SHIELD has already been infiltrated by Hydra. So thoroughly that Black Widow couldn't even find trustworthy people transporting materials. Could only reverse-operate, deceiving me that Cube Prison was Hydra territory, having me transport materials!"
"I desperately protected data, avoiding SHIELD discovery. Even defending against our own people... Result? Perfectly benefited SHIELD."
"No one would imagine Hydra hands actually held SHIELD's critical data!"
---
Simultaneously. Departing from Cube Prison, flying toward New York—aboard the helicopter.
Unconscious Hawkeye Clint Barton rolled upright in one motion. Movements so agile—completely unlike someone just awakening.
On his left side's cabin floor lay neatly folded complete purple sleeveless combat suit. Right side's floor held his bow and quiver.
Within two-three movements, prison garments were removed. That purple sleeveless combat suit was re-worn.
Rapidly inspecting the longbow, Hawkeye's arm applied slight force. The entire bow immediately folded into one long staff, then snapped in half and placed behind him.
Quiver also went onto his back. Hawkeye surveyed surroundings, then rapidly approached the cockpit.
Here—completely empty. The helicopter was autopiloting.
A backpack rested on the pilot's seat. Hawkeye ripped open its zipper. Inside were hundreds of various functional arrowheads.
Beyond these originally-his equipment, the entire helicopter interior had been searched countless times by Hawkeye without discovering any message-type materials.
Lifting the backpack and setting it aside, Hawkeye sat in the cockpit, donning headphones while observing the helicopter's auto-navigation destination:
"New York. Oscorp Tower?"
***
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