Changeling: Almost Too Late
| Changeling: Almost Too Late | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 13 May 2019 |
| Location: | Himalayan Mountains, Tibet, Arnim Zola's Secret Base |
| Synopsis: | Summary needed (Language Warning)
(OOC: Just a quick cutscene for the SHIELD Changeling plotine, following +scene 7438 and +scene 7447 respectively) |
| Cast of Characters: | Hawkeye (Barton) |
| Tinyplot: | Changeling |
A long flight, a HALO jump from a cloaked quinjet and a high altitude hump through the snow of the Himalayas and Clint Barton was in place above the location of Zola's base. The plan was to set up an observation post, monitor the base and provide intel for the big guns when they showed up, but unfortunately, like most plans that one didn't survive contact with the enemy.
Zola was pulling out. Hell he'd basically pulled out already. The theft of the jet in Cuba had tipped their hand and now Zola was scurrying for cover.
The base, it looked more like a village really, was all but abandoned and a handful of Hydra goons were loading equipment, supplies and people into a pair of Hydra quadcopters. Clint lifts his binoculars and studies the prisoners, noting the blinking inhibitor collars around their necks.
"Shit."
Clint hit record on the binoculars and swept them across the village and the handful of people being loaded into the quadcopter.
Decision time...
He could fire an EMP arrow, given the wind and distance he was confident he could drop it in the middle of the prisoners, disable their collars and the quadcopter they were being loaded into.
That'd be when the Hydra goons opened up and killed them all.
He was equally sure he could hit the pair of copters with explosive arrows and disable them. Trapped on the mountain and knowing there were enemy nearby the smart play for the Hydra guys would be use the prisoners as hostages and call for reinforcements.
Problem was, Clint was sure he'd heard a couple more quadcopters taking off before he got eyes on the base, which meant their reinforcements were closer than his.
Looking back to the prisoners, Clint saw one of them looking back, a girl somewhere in her teens with big ears like a bat. She was looking right at him.
Jesus, had she heard him this far out?
His hand jerked towards his quiver before he stopped himself, visions of firing a spread of arrows at the guards, following it with the EMP then the explosive arrows to the 'copters flashing through his brain. Though it was the answering flash that stopped him one of the goons surviving the shot and pulling the trigger on the prisoners and the bat eared girl and her friends being mowed down.
"Crap," he mutters, lifting his binoculars back up to look at the girl.
There really was only one play.
"Sorry," he says, hoping the wind would take it to the girl's sensitive ears.
Clint watches as the prisoners were loaded aboard the quadcopter and as it and it's twin lift off Clint rises to a rifleman's crouch in the snow, clicking open his bow before selecting a tracer arrow and firing.
The arrow arcs, hanging in the slow specked void for a moment before shattering launching a tracer the size of a dime against the hull of the retreating aircraft.
Watching the thing vanish into the sky Clint pulls brings up his comms, "Shaw, Barbour? You picking up my tracker?"
"Affirmative," comes the reply from Shaw on the quinjet.
"Great, keep on it and stay out of sight, that's our shot at finding where Zola's running to."
Clint pushes himself up to his feet groaning inwardly at the distance between him and the now abandoned base.
"Also, call in a team to secure the base, they can take their time though, I've got some exploring to do..."