Issue 19 YEAR FOUR MARCH Author: Lonni Holland

HAWKEYE Armed with a high-tech arsenal and the surpassing skill to use it, Clint Barton dons the familiar purple costume and fires justice from his bow.

Misery

cover art by Kevin Newburn

Previously, in Champions #36: Clint goes to meet Gayle Rogers at a restaurant. Not finding her there he heads back out into the street, only to be intercepted by the MOE, lead by the new Crimson Cowl.

Hawkeye looks to see that he's surrounded and says "Oh..."

"..... shit!"

Stupid, Barton, you are really stupid!!! It was a trap and you walked right into it with your eyes wide open and your fly down! Of all the dumb rookie stunts....

I had left my fighting gear with the skycycle, which was parked in the next block, then had changed to my civilian clothes. Now here I was facing down six major baddies all by myself, with nothing to defend myself with but my inimitable charm and good looks. Face it, I was a dead man.

Better try the charm. "Hi there, Cowlie. Out for a stroll by the sea are ya?" I looked around for a fast exit, hoping to maybe give them the slip and go grab my bow and quiver. It didn't look like I was going to get an opportunity though, unless I was very lucky. Then I noticed that Mankiller and Tiger Shark were closing in from either side. Hmmm, maybe I could make this work.

The Cowl didn't seem very impressed with my attempt to strike up a pleasant conversation. She just snapped, "Take him." then turned her back, fully expecting her orders to be carried out. Okay, that worked; if I only had to deal with some half-brained underlings maybe I stood a chance, as long as War Toy stayed out of it.

The two of them charged me. War Toy and Cyclone seemed to be standing back and watching and Flying Tiger... who knew? Pacing in his cage maybe? At any rate he didn't move towards me like Mankiller and Tiger Shark did. I tried to look like I was scared, then, as they reached me, I dropped to the ground and they slammed into each other. I guess all those Three Stooges shows really had taught me something. I scrambled to my feet and bolted down the alley towards the skycycle.

I could hear them right behind me, but I didn't dare slow down to look. As I ran I reached frantically into the bag I was carrying. It had my costume in it and it was a pity I hadn't stuck the bow and quiver in there, but maybe one of the modular arrowheads on the tunic straps... if I could just get my hands on them without falling on my face. There! I had one!

I tossed back a flare arrowhead and couldn't resist a backwards glance. It ignited right in front of the Tiger and he screeched to a halt, rubbing his eyes and batting at the sparks on his fur. Okay, that was one down, two still groggy and three to go. I fumbled for another arrowhead. Then I heard what I had been fearing.

"Running away from me, lover? Now that isn't very nice."

It was War Toy speaking, but it was Bobbi's voice I was hearing and it tore my heart open even as her energy beam hit me square in the back. I flipped at the switch on a tracer arrowhead even as I went down, hoping that they might bring my bag with them when they carted me off. Of course my thoughts weren't quite that coherent as I hit the ground. All I knew was a robot with my dead wife's brain patterns had just blasted me and it hurt like hell.

I was still awake when Mankiller hefted me over her shoulder, although just barely. She seemed to go out of her way to be rough and each bounce sent waves of pain through my body. My vision was dimming but I tried desperately to catch sight of anything, anything at all that might help me understand what was going on. Crimson Cowl seemed uninterested as she strode ahead, although it's hard to judge what anyone is feeling when you can't see their face. Cyclone, Tiger Shark and Flying Tiger were chuckling and gloating over their victory although the over grown kitty cat was still brushing soot off himself. I bit my lip to keep from moaning since Mankiller seemed to revel in hearing me in pain. But the hardest part was when War Toy reached over and stroked my cheek with her cold, metal hands. As I slipped into unconsciousness the last thing I saw was her gleaming adamatium face, a cruel mockery of my beloved wife. Oh, Bobbi.....

 

This was just way too cool. I had a brand spanking new uniform, some really hi-tech arrows and a target to use them on... the Avengers. Teach them to take me for granted anymore. I had a great new team and I was the leader and soon everyone would know it. I sent Wanda in to get them off their guard. She cuddled up to Cap, grabbed him and started necking with him. I thought the old coot was gonna pass out. The she purred, "I'm just wild about leaders. Of course I'm not sure that's you any longer." He looked pretty stunned as she continued, "In the old days it was customary for Knights to do battle for a lady's hand." That was my cue. I blasted the old war-horse square in the back with an electro arrow. As he fell I called out, "She means it's time for the old guys to step aside!" I took a shot at Ant Man and Waspie but the Witch took the little bug lady out for me. About then that tin plated jerk, Iron Man, decided he should get into it. Boy was he surprised when Thor whacked him into next week. Hank and Jan got back into action but Amora showed up and leveled Pym with one of her sleeper kisses and I nailed Jan with a shock arrow. That's when Cap blindsided me and knocked my bow away. "Ugh! I thought you were out!" "That was your first mistake, shooting me in the back was your second!" He sounded so arrogant and he didn't even get things in the right order, the big jerk. He continued, "Now without that bow, we'll fight on my terms." That suited me just fine. I punched him in the belly and said, "Say what you will, old man! When we're done, I'll be champ." Out of the corner of my eye I could see Iron Man and Thor going at it. Thor had Shellhead on the ropes a few times but the Tin Can wasn't giving up easy. Cap and I traded a few more punches but I could see Wanda circling behind us so I let him nail me good with a few as I maneuvered him into position. Meanwhile Thor had finally downed Stark and was getting ready to finish him off. Just then the Avenger's Thor showed up and started to hammer his doppelganger. The Scarlet Witch hexed Capster so I moved to lend our god guy a hand, or at least an arrow. I figured one of the super energy bolts that Loki had fixed me up with would turn the trick but then that jerk Iron Man made it back to his feet and nailed me with a repulsor blast. I lay on the ground and tried to see through the blackness. Blast it, I had to get up, I really...

....had to get up.

Oh man, these dreams, or what ever they were, were getting weirder all the time. I was gonna have to check them out one of these days, but right now I had more important things on my mind. I was lying on something lumpy and very uncomfortable, my whole body ached, my head was pounding and my mouth felt like a legion of gerbils has desecrated it. I figured I was already dead so I decided I had nothing to lose by trying to open my eyes. Man, was I wrong; the light bypassed my pupils and ripped straight into my brain, searing everything it hit along the way.

Everything inside me was telling me to close my eyes, curl up in a ball and pretend it would get better if I ignored it, but I couldn't. I'm a hero, damn it. Heroes don't do that. We shake off stuff, mumble things about flesh wounds, surmount impossible odds, save the world and the damsel in distress, blush when commended, then ride off into the sunset, right? Right.....

Okay, so I did close my eyes again, but just for a minute while I got my bearings. After all, I had been whacked by one of War Toy's blasts full strength before * and it didn't even knock me out then, just hurt a lot. Of course I was thirty feet tall at the time, so maybe that had helped. Whatever, right now I had to get up and figure out where the heck I was and how the heck I was gonna get to where I should be. Lord knows, where I should be certainly wasn't in the hands of the MOE.

* back in AWC #91

The room I was in was windowless, and they sure hadn't gone overboard on the furnishings. I was laying on a wrecked up mattress that had been tossed on the floor. That was it. There was some graying dingy flowered wallpaper that was hanging mostly in strips from the walls, a bare lightbulb in the fixture on the ceiling, a tattered calendar on a tack in the wall, the page turned to February, 1982 and the picture was of a bucolic country scene with a large stain across it that looked suspiciously like blood. Well, if I could get one of the MOE to stand real close and ignore what I was doing maybe I could stab them with the tack, like that was really going to help.

My best bet was to hope that my duffel bag had been brought with me to where ever this was, and that the tracer arrow was still working. Maybe the Whackos would be able to find me that way. Question was, when would they even start looking? After all, I was a big boy now. I didn't always come back to the compound at night. We didn't have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow and I had left word that I was heading out to meet Gayle. If I didn't show up they might just figure I had gotten lucky and think nothing more of it. Of course Quicksilver would have likely made some comment about my morals, or lack thereof, but that would be that.

I got to my feet, checked to see if I could hear anything at the door (I couldn't) and then started to pace. I really needed to do something and this room didn't leave me a lot of possibilities. Maybe someone would hear me and come check on me and I might have a chance to..... a chance to..... hell, I had no idea what I was expecting a chance to do but sitting on my butt was gonna drive me crazy. I started to pound on the door and holler for someone to get in here.

My hands hurt from the banging before I managed to get a reaction. The lock turned; I jumped back ready to spring. Crimson Cowl entered and I dove at her. That lasted about three seconds. Mankiller grabbed me by the shirt, hefted me up, shook me a couple of times then threw me across the room into a wall. If I didn't know better I'd think she didn't like me.

As I got my wits collected and crawled to my knees other members of the Masters of Evil entered. I had to smile when I saw the scorched marks on Flying Tiger's fur but all that got me was another shot in the chops, this time from Tiger Shark.

"Enough!" Cowl's words cracked like a whip and the MOE jumped to obey. She sure had some hold on them, although I can't say I'm a big fan of leadership by intimidation. She turned back to me. "Hawkeye, we have met before * and your accursed West Coast Avengers denied me what I wanted, your computer files. I offer you one last chance. Reveal your computer access codes now, or perish. You have ten seconds."

* in WCA 105 and 106

Gotta try to talk my way out of this, she sounded serious.

"Nine..."

"Look, Cowlie...."

"Eight..."

"You don't actually think that I'd..."

"Seven...."

"Come on, lady, give me a break...."

"Six...."

"If you just surrender peacefully I'll try to..."

"Five..."

I turned to the others. "Don't any of you..."

"Four..."

"Mankiller?" Bad choice, Barton...

"Three..."

"Cyclone?" He looked more sympathetic.

"Two..."

"You know I can't give you those..."

"One..."

"......"

Okay, so what I said there was unprintable.

The Crimson Cowl pulled her cape tighter in an almost disapproving manner. She turned to Mankiller. "You may have him. Kill him. I care not if you take five minutes or five days. I want to see the body when the job is completed, but the condition of it is of no concern to me, as long as the heart no longer beats."

As she left the room, Mankiller came closer. "Oh, this is going to be fun." I tried to defend myself as she hauled me to my feet but I was still pretty groggy and she brought her knee up into my solar plexus hard. After that I was too busy trying to remember how to breathe for a bit. "Flying Tiger, get a chair, Tiger Shark, you dig up some wire and pliers. Cyclone, you want in on this or are you just going to watch, as usual?"

"Mon petite, je pense qui..."

"Speak English, you big frog."

"Mais oui, I just t'ink dat he ees the Avenger, no? Will not zee others want... qu'elle est le mot.... vengeance?"

Mankiller laughed. "Of course they will, Frenchie. That's half the fun." She turned back to me, grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. Her lips just inches from mine she continued, "Of course, the other half is making them beg for mercy."

"Better get a breath mint first," I croaked. Sure, it was stupid, but whoever said I was that smart? It earned me a fist to the face, and my vision went foggy again for a second. Good thing too, cause about then the others got back and I really didn't want to see what they were going to do to me with the wire.

Just minutes later I could sure feel what they had done. I was tied to a wooden chair, wire wrapped around my legs, hands and up around my throat. If I moved, even slightly, I could feel it cut off the circulation in my fingers and bite into my neck. Not tight enough to kill me or anything, just enough to turn any motion into sheer torment. Mankiller stood in front of me and cracked her knuckles. Oh brother, it was going to be a very, long day.

 

I hauled myself up from the ground and looked around, a bit confused. The battle still raged on. What a sight! Two Gods of Thunder duking it out in front of Avengers headquarters. Hey, I was the leader, I had better get back into it. My bow was somewhere, but I didn't need that to take out Captain America. I grabbed his shoulder, turned him around and.... pow! I had to admit the old coot was pretty tough. We traded blows for a while and he was holding his own. Then everything changed. A crash behind us, a flash of light and the bellow, "Victory is mine!" I could feel new power coursing through me and I knew that Cap and his buddies were toast. Loki was here. I decided to rub it in. "Party's over Cap, our side just won!" Then the power started to feel wrong. Amora and Thor were appealing to Loki. We were his allies, what on earth was he doing? As he blasted us I knew... the dirty traitor. I had backed the wrong horse and it had sure thrown me. I went to the ground and as I lost consciousness I realized... he wasn't the traitor, I was. Lord, I had been duped, enchanted, made to turn against my friends and teammates. Aw Cap, how could I have betrayed you guys like this....

Gah!

That was cold.

A glass of water in the face had brought me around, again. How many times was this, three? six? a dozen? I had lost count. I had barely opened my eyes a crack when Tiger Shark slapped me. He and Mankiller were practically giggling, they were enjoying this so much. Sadists. Flying Tiger had gotten a couple of licks in, but his claws had raked my side pretty good and Mankiller had made him back off. She told him she expected to have fun with me for days and he would have finished me off way too quickly. Right now quickly sounded pretty good to me.

No, damn it! I wasn't going to give up. Even if I couldn't get free I'd still keep fighting. I was an Avenger, dammit, and Avengers don't just give up and die. I tried to shake my head to clear it a bit. All I succeeded in doing was digging the wire deeper into the sides of my neck. Someone belted me in the side and I thought I felt a rib crack. No idea who it was though, my eyes were so swollen I couldn't open them wide enough to see that far.

From the back of the room I could hear Cyclone. "Cher, theese eez enough. C'est... it is much blood. You will kill him."

"Shut up, Windy! Of course I'll kill him." Funny how she sounded delighted by the prospect. "Isn't that what Crimson Cowl told us to do? Just don't get in the way of me enjoying every lovely, agonizing minute of it."

Nice to know I was making her happy. I tried to lick my lips so I could say something clever but didn't have much luck. She and Tiger Shark started beating on me again, not even very hard but with what they had already done it still ached like crazy. I tried not to but I moaned a bit and could see those tell tale black flickers at the sides of my already hazy vision. I was going to pass out again when suddenly there was an earsplitting bellow.

"What are you doing to him?!? He's MINE!"

I could hear a blast of some sort echo through the room and could vaguely see Mankiller, Tiger Shark and Flying Tiger whipping through the air. I caught a glimpse of light on a metal body. It was War Toy and boy, was she pissed.

"I told z'em to stop, vraiment... really..." Cyclone sounded petrified.

I slumped a bit as War Toy undid the wires that were holding me in the chair. It wasn't deliberate, I just didn't have the strength to keep myself up. Next thing I knew she had me in her arms and was carefully carrying me out of the room.

"The Cowl promised him to me. That is the only reason I am even with you losers. He is mine and you have no right to damage him."

Funny, she sounded like she was actually concerned. All she had ever tried to do was to kill me, and any other human that was around. I didn't get it, but at this point my mind was so fogged I barely got my own name.

I must have passed out again for a bit cause next thing I knew I was lying on a bed and someone was bathing my face with a cold cloth. Man, that felt good. The Whackos must have gotten here and found me. My ribs were taped up, no one was hitting me and there were no wires digging into me when I moved. I figured I'd keep my eyes closed a bit; no sense opening them and spoiling the dream.

"Hawkeye? Are you all right?"

"Mmmm..."

"Just relax, lover. I won't let anyone hurt you again."

"Bobbi?"

Okay, I figured maybe I should open my eyes, just a tiny bit. Everything looked gray and whispy but then I realized my eyelashes were still in the way. I opened them a bit more. Bobbi! It was her costume, it was her voice.... open them just a little more.

Alkhema!?!

"Don't be frightened, Clint. Everything is all right." War Toy? "Listen, can't you hear it?"

I was confused but I listened. Off in the distance I could hear the sounds of a battle.

"Your friends are here to rescue you." She had been holding me in her arms but laid me back on the bed. "Just lie still, now. You were badly hurt but help will be here soon."

War Toy? What was she doing. I could barely see her as she rose to leave.

"I'll see you again.... darling." She kissed my cheek and left.

War Toy???? Having her want to kill me herself I could understand but....

War Toy????

Barton, what have you gotten yourself into this time!?!

Lonni Holland
December 18, 1999

lonni@paratime.ca