There very few times in his entire career when Slade came close to outright having a need to go change his pants. The first time started when he found his wife pointing a gun right at him, though on that occasion, he had it coming and one could even make an argument that he let it happen. The second time within his long career that Slade had come close to having a need to change his pants was the time Slade had against his better judgement, taken a deal that would have required him to try and kill Lobo.
As of now, he once had a terrible feeling in his gut as he saw the man in the owl costume smile. When the knives came out, he hardly had enough time to stop the force of the blow. Even when his hands wrapped straight around the arm, it still came at an almost frightening speed as the servos of the owlsuit proved far stronger than the enhanced muscle and bone of Slade's already impressive strength. It was only his natural reflexes that saved him from having to take three talons through the heart. Instead, he would merely have three scars upon the chest. Snarling in pain, the assassin punched the owl right in the face, knocking him back.
"There's more of them!" Natalia announced as from all around them, the Crime Syndicate's thugs grabbed their firearms to kill these interlopers.
"Then we get the hell out of here warp speed!" Slade called as his hand went into his pocket to grab the glass piece while his other hand tapped his phone. The tactical vision lit straight up, as did their exit way.
"Come on! Hurry!" Slade called as he threw down gas pellets in all directions. If one thing impressed him as he and his companions found themselves milling throughout the smoke, it was that Hawkeye managed to shoot a man dead-on with an arrow despite having his eyes closed. He wasn't totally sure that anyone could see him, but frankly, when the bullets were flying, he didn't really care. It was when he exited the large... whatever room it was that when he found all four other people still alive and behind him that he knew everyone was fine.
"Okay. This way." Slade called. "Pick up the pace!"
There were plenty of times in Hawkeye's life when the world erupted into total chaos. This could be an excellent example when unknown men were firing randomly at him. Nevertheless, as typical of himself, he kept his cool as he sent arrows into whoever had the stones to stand between him and his way. The adrenaline pulsed in his veins as he stood besides Nat who was firing her pistols like a maniac. A maniac that could somehow land every single shot she fired.
"How do you know where we're going?!" He called as he swung his bow and knocked a random thug to the ground.
"Okay Mr. Smartass, if you got a better route, you're free to move in that direction!" Slade retorted as he pointed at the mass of thugs with a motley array of weapons.
"He knows where he's going. Trust him on that." The quiet girl with the cat ears reassured as she reloaded her gun. It was almost... almost... unnerving to how calm she and her friend remained in the midst of total chaos. He had heard of child soldiers before, but those were typically the ones who panicked at the first shots and were little more than cannon fodder for the scum that employed them. These two? Nah. He knew a badass when he saw one, and someone who can somehow hit every single one of their shots with an aged relic of a gun was someone who really knew what they were doing. Perhaps that made him even more uneasy. The thoughts of child soldiers however would be literally pushed out of his mind when he saw the man lighting the Molotov.
"These people are crazy!" Eila commented as she saw the flaming bottle sail over the crowd. To her surprise, Hawkeye managed to shoot the projectile right out of the air, causing glass shards to break harmlessly over them, while a oddity of flame burst between them and the massive mob which apparently had decided to put away their guns. Unbeknownst to her and anyone else, the things within the room were "valuable" and having thugs with guns wasn't exactly the best way to keep those things in working condition. For example... the gas pipes in the factory...
"Wait a second... these are gas pipes!" Eila commented as she looked at the men who had now pulled out knives and bludgeoning instruments.
"Why do you think they stopped shooting?! Someone messes up, and we can all forget about living!" Slade replied as he grabbed his gun and began to fire straight into the crowd. Which... kind... of... makes... no... sense... considering what he just said. Eila of course, decided it was better than to make some smart comment about what Slade was saying on one end, and what he was doing on the other. It seemed as though not EVERYONE was smart enough to realize an accident would blow this entire place sky high, when a bullet smashed a window just above her head. She looked down, it was one small drop down into a river which then went down a waterfall that was one helluva long drop. God forbid anyone go down there...
"Cut off all the gas flow into that room and seal the doors!" Owlman ordered as he barged into the technician's office.
"What... why?"
"Do you not see the trespassers? Seal the doors. On my command, we are going to blow that room sky-high!"
"Sir... aren't you worried that..."
"That's why we're going to seal the doors you dolt!" The owl shot as the technician quickly did as he was told. Not like he was going to miss any of those thugs that were currently trapped in there anyways...
"They're closing the doors." Nat commented as she heard the sounds of metal clanking upon metal. Realization slapped her harder than a rocket launcher as the sound of pipes breaking. "Oh no... oh no..."
"GET OUT THE WINDOW. NOW!" Slade ordered as he saw many of the thugs run straight out the remaining exit. The only way out was that window, and it was just barely large enough to let one person go out at a time...
"Slade, you should go first." Hawkeye commented. "You're the biggest."
"No, I should go last, or I am going to trap you all in." Slade replied. "Come on pal, move it!"
The archer wasn't exactly briefed on the assassin being the type that would tell you to jump to safety first, which did hit him on the surprising side. Squeezing through, the archer made it out with little incident as he landed onto the ground, a few feet away from the rapid river. He looked up as he saw Sanya wedge herself through and jump out.
"Alright kid. You going to go next? Or you?" Slade asked as the gas poured into the room at a faster rate.
"You go. I am the fastest." Eila grinned as she gestured at Widow who nodded with a slight look of concern. She jumped out almost effortlessly, landing with Sanya and Clint who looked up at the window with much anxiety.
Eila was about to jump. That was when the sounds of a pipebomb being thrown in by the vents reached her ears. A pipebomb with the timer set to 7 seconds.
Needless to say, when she was already reaching herself out the window, she was somewhat confused to why Slade would grab her and pull her far back. She was more surprised than confused when he began to bolt at the window with more speed than a man of his age could ever muster, and it wasn't until they were mere steps away from the not the window, but the wall did Eila finally realize what Slade was doing.
The explosion hit at about the same time he hit the wall. He tore right through it, much to the discomfort of Eila who then found herself in an extra discomforting situation as Slade... well... running through a wall wasn't something he did much... and let's just say he never looked out the window, because he landed right into the stream.
He was a naturally strong swimmer, but the sheer speed of the current coupled with the fact he had the wind knocked straight out of him made him unable to resist the current. With that, he was dragged straight down the waterfall. Eila found herself at a similar fate.
"Eila!" Sanya cried out as she watched the drop. At this rate, the current would have already carried them away, assuming they were still alive from the fall. She wanted to almost jump herself, until she heard the sounds of men looking for bodies.
"We got to move! And fast!" Hawkeye ordered as he tugged at Sanya's sleeves. "We'll meet up with them down there!"
"Ow." Eila groaned as she dragged herself out of the river. In front of her, she saw Slade taking off his battered gloves. "You could have at least tried not aiming for the water?"
"Sure. How about aiming for the drop or the explosion?" Slade shot back as he sat down for a moment and took a deep breath. "Goddamn."
"Yeah... so... um..."
"Where's everyone else? Up there. Where are we? Down here."
"So what are we waiting for then?"
"Look kid, I WOULD go find them. But we got a few problems on our hands. First... you got any goddamn clue to what this whole forest even looks like? And then on top of that, what this whole goddamn island even looks like? No? Good. Then I think it's best that we try our best to get a clue instead of charging blindly into the thick of things. Besides, it's going to be dark soon. Now then, I know Sanya seems to like the night, and she can hear perfectly well enough in the dark. Unless you got some night vision, then I don't think we're going to be too good at night."
"What.... scared of the dark?"
"Not afraid of the dark kid. There's something in the dark that YOU should be afraid of." Slade said as thought about whether or not the guy in the owlsuit would be any similar to the guy in the batsuit. Stronger. Much stronger.
"So... what are we going to do here huh? Sit here?"
"No."
"Then... what?"
"I... am going to contemplate on how this is bringing back some bad memories." Slade replied as he pointed at the broken ruins of a certain airplane.
