The Old Man's War // Maria Hill

Anger, that was the emotion going through Henry's mind as he started to use sling weapons, ammo and armour over his body. Henry was angry at SHIELD, he was angry at SHIELD's director, he was angry at the people who are currently holding the Deputy Director of SHIELD. Henry observed the traffic, and he saw his target, the boss of those whom are holding the Deputy Director, his car was driving pass a underpass.. He had arranged for the road to be blocked,  just so Henry could have a brief chat. The cars in the front and rear of the underpass stopped when the target was in the middle of the underpass.

Henry slowly approached the target vehicle in a serene rage. The bodyguards of the target attempted to stop him from reaching the target, but Henry would have none of that, he calmly and quickly fired a round into their head. The bodyguards soon learned better and decided to stay inside the bullet proof vehicle. That would not save them, once Henry reached the vehicle, he simply fired multiple shotgun slugs into the windshield to weaken the glass and then he smashed a tear gas canister into vehicle. Henry intended to gas his target out, if they refuse to leave, he would have to use a more crude method in opening the doors.

As expected his target could not stand the pain and opened the doors for Henry. Henry then dragged his target for a friendly chat, nothing to be afraid of, they would not suffer, too much. Henry's friend was screaming and begging for his life the entire time Henry was dragging his friend. Henry gave a chuckle at the reasoning of his own private war. The Deputy Director was his daughter. It was funny, Henry never actually met his daughter, his job prevented it, and the Director also prevented it, and used it as a bargaining chip to ensure Henry's continued loyalty and to also ensure he does not decide to retire. Losing such a valuable source of information would be disastrous for SHIELD.

It wasn't often that Maria Hill showed emotion. She prided herself on being as emotionally-detached as possible when it came to anything somehow involving her job. But today the woman was a range of emotions. Scared, upset, but most of all, absolutely pissed. And not the low-key anger that the idiots at work saw, but proper rage which, had she been a certain doctor, would have transformed her into a giant green rampaging monster.

Today had been like something out her worst nightmare. She'd gone through hell and back, and as far as she could tell, the day wasn't even close to finished. SHIELD's UK base had been ambushed and destroyed. It had been an apocalypse; death and destruction everywhere. She'd seen colleagues that she'd talked to over coffee or sparred with at the gym turning against those that considered them friends and killing them in cold blood. She'd seen acquaintances being shot down and gasping for their last breaths in front of her eyes while all she could do was step over them and continue on. She'd seen rookies searching for their senior officers, sheer panic in their eyes as they attempted to shoot their attackers, only to be gunned down first.

Then there was Coulson. She wasn't even sure what had happened to him after she'd been dragged away. Her eyes widened and she bit her lip as her mind instantly jumped to the worst scenario. She shook her head to get rid of these thoughts. He couldn't be dead. Not after everything. If he'd survived Loki, he could survive this. He was Superman, he'd survive this.

Now Maria was stuck in a concrete cell big enough only for a filthy mattress and for a rusty sink. When I get out of here, I'm gonna kill every last fucker responsible for this, she thought, pacing the tiny cell furiously. She kicked at the mattress, scowling in disgust at it. That thing looked like it was the breeding ground for some new strand of super-bacteria that could kill all of Europe if it spread. She doubted even HazMat would want to take it. Stalking up to the door and standing on her tiptoes, she peeked out through the bars. Cells identical to hers lined the walls as far as her eyes could see. Well that's just great! A string of expletives left her lips, calming her just a little.

Despite knowing full well that she had none of Thor's or Captain America's strength, she yanked at the bars with all her might. The logical part of her brain told her it was useless, but survival instinct was beginning to kick in. A howl of pain escaped her lips as she heard the distinct pop of a shoulder dislocating. She blinked away the involuntary tears that sprang to her eyes and began to stretch and rotate her arm like she'd been taught back in the Armed Forces, mind springing back to the day's events. How the fuck could this even happen?!



_{STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: ---
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0. if you erase this credit & she finds out then she'll either come & steal all your cookies or send you to the realm of eternal tickling: your choice.}

She walked into the room which held the prisoner, the deputy director of SHIELD. Patience had been hired for her unique skills in extracting information from uncooperative guests. She took a moment to observe her new friend, through the peek hole built into the cell door. She saw the guests, futile efforts to escape, and could not help but laugh at how pathetic the guest, was acting. Patience knew she was going to enjoy her session with the guest, she would also be well compensated for any information she could pry from the guests soon to be cold and dead body.

Patience opened the door to the guests living quarters and walked in, keeping a gun in her hand pointed at the guest. "Hello, I am here to welcome you to our wonderful resort and to show you to the spa for some beauty treatment." Patience said with a cruel smile on her face, she was going to have alot of fun and maybe even make a new friend today. Patience then called for some assistance in bringing the guest to the spa. Patience had this wonderful treatment in mind, it was a little something she liked to call, Palestinian hanging. International law claimed that it was illegal for her to do what she had in mind, but to hell with international law.

Patience then closed the door and went to the spa. Once she was at the spa, Patience prepared the treatment, for the esteemed guest. As she prepared the treatment she went and dropped the needle for a record, classical music was always good for treatment. Now all Patience had to do was to wait for the esteemed guest, then prepare and perform the treatment.

Wincing as she heard the pop that signalled that her shoulder had popped back in place, Maria sunk down onto the floor, leaning against the wall. Bringing her knees up, she rested her elbows on them and hid her face in her hands. How the hell am I gonna get out of this one? she thought, a low sigh leaving her lips. The sound of water dripping down could be heard from somewhere inside the other cells, and with every drop her frustration grew. A low growl left her lips and Maria scrunched her eyes up as she tried to block out the sound, mind turning over possible ways that she could escape. It came up with none.

As she sat, her thoughts turned to Coulson and despite how bleak the situation seemed, she couldn't help but smile slightly. Her mind idly turned over their first meeting, Phil's death, his resurrection, the many cases they'd worked together. "Hey, Agent Fanboy - grab your porcupine team and come find me, yeah?" she whispered into the empty cell, swallowing the lump in her throat that had settled there over the fact that she might not make it out of here alive to see him again. "I've got the situation totally under control, but I'd love some back-up..." Funny how capture made you re-evaluate who mattered in your life. If she got out of here alive, she might even tell him so.

Cradling her poor arm, she got up and tried the door. Maybe the idiots forgot to lock it when they left. Just as her fingers grazed the handle, a smug blonde strutted in, welcoming her to the hell-hole. "Go to hell, Barbie," Maria retorted, rolling her eyes and taking a disgusted step back. She snorted as the blonde called for back-up to drag Maria out of the cell. So high and mighty behind her gun, and yet she needs back-up to deal with me...

"If you're going to torture me to try and get me to spill all of SHIELD's dirty secrets, you might as well kill me now. I'm not going to talk," she stated as she walked, her expression calm but with hatred sparking in her eyes. If that was the entire reason for the ambush, she was not about to let her colleagues die in vain.



_{STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: i think i'm gonna end up crying through this
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0. if you erase this credit & she finds out then she'll either come & steal all your cookies or send you to the realm of eternal tickling: your choice.}

Patience looked at her guest and listened to what the guest had to say, she then smiled, good this one would not crack easily, all the more fun. Patience then ordered her assistants to tie the guest up and get the hanging part of palestinian hanging in place. Patience then reached for a hood and said in a amused tone "I can be rather convincing at times, and I trust you understand the concept of Palestinian Hanging's, I am sure your organization has used them in the past, nobody is coming for you they already think you are dead, my friends here tell me your friends have already given up looking for you." A lie but lies can be rather useful in interrorgations. Patience then placed the hood on the guest and watched her assistance's begin hanging the guest, at the same time Patience took a seat and started to read a file on the guest, and all the people she associated with.

"You don't know my friends," Maria retorted, thinking at once of the loyal Coulson and the various agents of Fury's new team. She knew they wouldn't stop, not until they either rescued her or found her dead body. One way or another, she knew that eventually they would come, no matter how long it took. She only hoped that she was still alive by that point. "They will never give up looking for me. Not until they find my bloodied corpse. So watch your back," the brunette snarled.

Next minute she was plunged into darkness as the loathsome blonde put a hood over her eyes. Maria knew all about the torture that was going to happen next. She had never personally performed the Strappado technique on anyone, but she'd certainly heard of a few other agents using it on some of the more stubborn criminals. It was no wonder that the agents that used it always got confessions in the end; the whole business was just nasty.

The blonde's goons started hoisting her into the air, and as the rope binding her wrists was yanked higher and higher, Maria gritted her teeth at the searing pain emanating from her arms. She scrunched her eyes up tight against the pain, trying to keep her breaths steady. She refused to make any noise at all to indicate that she was in pain. That would just give the blonde bitch a power trip and Maria wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.

The seconds dragged on, each one feeling like an hour to Maria. As the pain began to worsen, she bit the inside of  her lip hard, tasting blood. No, this wouldn't do. She wouldn't last very long at all like this. She needed to disassociate herself from the pain. Ignore it completely. Only then might she have a chance to survive it. Taking a deep breath, she began to float away. Away from her body, strung up and dangling like a broken toy. Away to where the pain could not be felt. She'd make it through this, whatever it took.



_{STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: ---
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0. if you erase this credit & she finds out then she'll either come & steal all your cookies or send you to the realm of eternal tickling: your choice.}

Henry just finished questioning his friend and knew where they were holding the deputy director, his daughter, Henry was also informed they had hired a specialist for the deputy director. He was not pleased, Henry was going to make all of these people pay for what they had done. He would make them suffer. He will destroy everything they held dear, he would break their very soul, then he would let them live, let them live in the humiliation, let them live as a broken shell. He was not going to let them live in magnanimous mercy, he was going to let them live in cruel mercy, the type of fate worse than death itself, the type of fate where they would beg for the opportunity to die, but they would never be granted it, the type of fate where many would not even wish upon their worst of enemies. Civilized people simply did not do this to each other, civilization relied upon the principle that we treat our criminals better than they treat us, but Henry knew he had shed the ethics of civilization a long time a long, he was now of a darker and more primal mold, he was a outlier, a person whom no longer abides by the rules of civilizations.

Henry walked away from his friend, the bastard no longer had any information Henry needed, thus he calmly and methodically raised his arm and aimed his gun, he then fired multiple shots into each of his friends kneecaps and arms, he then whispered to his friend in a calm and friendly tone "I will be paying a visit to your family when I am done, you will go through everything I am going through and much much more." Henry frightened himself at the monster his years of working with other monsters has made him, but he was a necessary evil, what he was doing was for the greater good. Henry was making a better world for future generations, SHIELD was making a better world for future generations, but SHIELD and people like Henry had no place in this better world, they were just as much of the problem as the solution. Henry knew that he was reviled by everyone but these fellow monsters, he knew that civilization would not hesitate to arrest, imprison and then execute him for the crimes he had done in the name of the greater good in the past.

Henry arrived at the location where his daughter was being held, he brought with him a large van which was filled with weapons. He was going to use his cover as a weapons dealer to maximum effect. He drove up to the front door and merely mentioned their bosses name and informed them he was delivering a new shipment of weapons, all of these would would get their dreams, their hopes, everything they value destroyed by him once he rescued his daughter. Henry would do the things civilization refrained from, he would be the necessary monster, the monster that the world needs at the moment and will be discarded and destroyed once his job was done.

Once Henry was inside he started to look for the location were his daughter was being held, at the same time he was placing explosives all around the facility and he called in SHIELD back up. He was also placing beacons to mark positions where he wanted SHIELD to bomb to oblivion ten times over. Henry would destroy them all, those who survived would have everything they valued destroyed, this was going to be a great day for them.

The sound of pages being turned could be heard and Maria could only assume that Blondie was reading her file. Brilliant. Yet another person who was to know her life story without her actually wanting them to. At least all of her friends and associates were within SHIELD and could protect themselves to a degree if the blonde wanted to go after them; no civilian friends or family for her to worry about.  Well, there is one you're welcome to get your hands on, Maria thought wryly. Not that she was even sure if her father was still alive. By now he'd probably drunk himself to death.

As minute after horrid minute dragged on, the pain that Maria had been doing so well at disassociating from began to seep back. Just a twinge at first, sharp pains in her wrists and shoulders. And then as she began to lose focus, the excruciating pain that her body was enduring hit her like a sledgehammer. She felt like she was being ripped apart by some invisible force, all of her muscles screaming in protest. She bit her lip again, trying to stop any sort of whimper or groan from escaping, and once again she tasted blood. She was stronger than this. There was no way she'd let anyone, least of all her torturer, hear her suffer. That wasn't how she did things.

"Getting bored yet?" she asked, her teeth gritted. She tried to wriggle about in an attempt to relieve some of the tension from her wrists and shoulders, but that resulted in her muscles screaming out in agony and a gasp left her lips. Get yourself together, Hill! You've been in worse situations than this! And indeed she had been. It had just been much too long since she'd been in one; she was rather out of practice. Attempting to once again shut out the pain, Maria drawled, making herself sound bored with the whole ordeal. "I know you were hoping for some screaming and sobbing, but I'm afraid you're all out of luck. This is all very dull, actually."



_{STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry and patience
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: ---
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0.}

Let the chaos begin, let the damnation of all begin. Henry though as he took out a detonator for the explosives from his coat and press it down. He then calmly putted on a balaclava and gas mask, he would be death itself to the fools who have angered him, he would be the apocalypse to them, he would end everything they held dear. Walking down the hallways, Henry started to preform a methodical search of the area, and killed anyone he saw that was not his daughter, they all deserved it, mercy was for men from men, but we all know this was not a fight between men, this was a fight between the primal forces, Henry knew he was a monster, but so was everyone he was about to kill. Mercy would not be granted to any of them, nor would he receive any mercy.

Henry's advance was one of bloodshed, these enemies are receiving his great gifts, they had just bought bullets from him, but not in the day that wanted. They were getting all these bullets and explosives for free from him. Henry then started to throw tear gas grenades, they would cry and then he would kill them, death was here, he was collecting his dues. Henry was burning with fury and perfectly calm at the same time.

"A bit, but you will eventually crack, they all do." Patience said as she finished reading the file one Maria. Patience then ordered her assistants to lift Maria up higher, and to get something to weight Maria down even more. The more pain the better. Patience then heard explosions and gunfire in the distance, thus she knew they were under attack, thus Patience ordered the guards to bring the guest down, they were going to move her to another location right now. Patience then said to Maria "Indeed it looks like your friends are more persistent than we thought, but don't worry, you'll be dead before they can reach you." To be honest though, Patience was worried, but she also knew as long as she had the deputy director, she had a bargaining chip.

"If you really think that you'll be the one to crack me, you are sorely mistaken, Barbie," Maria retorted, carrying on with the bored demeanour. It really wasn't all that bad once she managed to shut the pain out. But it was getting rather dull just hanging there. What was Barbie waiting for? For Maria's arms to fall off? Or for her to start spilling every single dirty secret that SHIELD kept hidden? In both cases she'd be waiting a very long time.

The sound of gunfire and explosions reached her ears, perking her up a bit. Sounded like her back-up was here. Brilliant. Now all she needed was for Blondie to leave her alone with the two guards and the rest of the escape would be a piece of cake. She wouldn't have been all that worried about the blonde (Maria knew that she would be able to take her out), except for the fact that she had a gun and that didn't make the playing field very even at all. As the guards hoisted her down and she regained her footing, Maria smirked underneath her hood at the comment. "I won't be the dead one, I assure you. Besides, you're all talk and no action. Drop the gun and let's go a couple of rounds. I'm bored of your idle threats."



STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry and patience
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: ---
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0.

A cruel female laugh sounded at Maria's words and a noiseless gesture was made to the guards. A rough push on the small of her back sent her crashing down onto the cold concrete. A nudge-kick in her side followed, an obvious gesture for the brunette to get back on her feet. "Now now, be nice to our guest," the blonde stated, raising an amused eyebrow at her henchman. Maria gritted her teeth at the sound of her voice. Oh how she wanted to string the bitch up and hand out some of her own medicine to her.

A gruff sound of assent was heard, before one of the brutes grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and dragged her towards the door, Maria's tiptoes just dragging along the oil-stained concrete. The brunette's collar dug into her throat and instinctively she brought her hands up, wedging her fingers in between fabric and skin. Death by asphyxiation would be a very anticlimactic way to die, given the circumstances.

Twisting, Maria kicked backwards as hard as she could muster. Her feet collided with something soft, causing the man to drop her. Curling up and rolling as she fell to prevent any further damage to herself, she jumped up, listening out to the possible location of her assailants. Arms roughly grabbed her and she received a sharp punch to her face. The brunette tasted blood, and next second head-butted the air where she guessed a head would roughly be. An intelligible grunt of pain yielded proof that her aim had been correct, and she kicked out again, hitting one of the grunts straight in the shin with a bone-breaking crunch.

She ducked as a charge detonated, sending shrapnel flying through the room. Next second shots were fired and with a dull thud, the bulky guards fell to the floor. Blinking at the bright light as her hood came off, Maria studied the man that was apparently filling the role of rescuer for today. It took her a moment to dig around in her memory bank and put name to face, but she managed. Agent Henry Wilcox. A damn fine agent by all accounts, though she hadn't dealt with him up until now.

"Ah, so my cavalry in well-tailored suits finally decided to make an appearance. Very kind of them," she commented, getting up and rubbing at her wrists as she was untied. Taking the gun from the man, she wiped at her bleeding lip with the back of her hand before examining the gun and cocking it. "Thanks." Walking over to the blonde, Maria regarded her with a look of hatred. Her fingers twitched over the trigger as she aimed it at her head, contemplating whether she would actually lose any sleep over shooting her interrogator.

A long moment passed and finally Maria turned away, shaking her head. No, she wouldn't do this. She couldn't allow herself to stoop to such low levels just out of revenge. She was better than that. She had to be better than that, even if she didn't want to be. She looked up at the bearded agent, her face an expressionless mask. "Which way, Agent?"



STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry and patience
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: for anyone reading along, john gave me permission to god-mode the goons and patience. just for the record
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0.

"Well we have two choice, we can wait, or we can do the fun way, its your choice my girl." Henry said, the last few words had more than one meaning, to the typical listener it would have just been heard in a condescending tone, but in reality Henry just accidentally let slip his relationship with the Deputy Director. A relationship that the Director, one Nicholas Fury was using to ensure Henry's loyalty to the cause. "The fun way involves explosives and fighting our way back to the front door, we can even add the extra challenge of non lethally taking them out so SHIELD can give some retribution latter, I would advise we take the fun way." Henry then glanced at the unconscious blonde and offered "If you want to make her life a living hell, I know someone whom can do it."

Henry was then looking at his watch once more, he was seeing how much longer would it take for SHIELD to touch down on ground, Henry already heard the distant sound of Quinjet engines approaching the base, that mean't they were near and attempting to secure a landing zone. "Well it seems the rest of the children have arrived, now we have to make a decision my girl, are we to go and greet them or wait for them." Henry was carefully to refer to the other agents as children and the Deputy Director as my girl to disguise his earlier slip up, to make it just seem to be a part of his typical speech style. Henry could not have his daughter discovering his identity, too risky for all parties involved.

Maria raised an eyebrow at the agent's familiar way of speaking to her, but let it slide. Right now she had more important things to deal with, like getting out of this place. The whole experience had been very...interesting but now she wanted to get back to Base, have an hour long shower to wash the smell of death off of her, and down at least two cups of coffee. This being-kept-prisoner malarkey was beginning to give her caffeine withdrawals. And that was dangerous, with any SHIELD agent.

"Do you really have to ask?" she asked with a slight grin and a rise of her eyebrow. Now that she was free from restraints and didn't have a gun trained on her, she was in much higher spirits. Now the fun could begin - getting back at the bastards who audacity to kidnap her and treat her as they did. Maria was not one to forget a grudge easily; she would make sure that whoever was responsible will pay. "The fun way of course. The more explosions, the better," she added, looking over at the blonde on the floor, her eyes cold. "She's not going anywhere. I'll get the boys to pick her up once they get here. Maybe they might be able to get some secrets out of her in interrogation. Revenge will be so much more sweeter when we've got her on our own turf."

At Wilcox's next question about whether to wait or go meet them, Maria gave a playful snort. "They'll take forever. It'll be faster to just to meet 'em out front. Means that we can have fun with whatever survivors you left here," she added, wondering exactly how many Agent Wilcox had taken out while getting to her. A good fair few, she'd wager. "Besides, waiting's boring." Stretching out and shaking out her arms and legs to loosen the muscles out after her hanging, she headed to the door. "Coming?" she called back over her shoulder. "I want to blow things up..!"



STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: henry and patience
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: for anyone reading along, john gave me permission to god-mode the goons and patience. just for the record
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0.

Henry looked once more onto the blonde whom had tortured his daughter, he was angry and furious, he tried to control himself from executing the bitch that instant, but he could not. Henry tightened his grip on his weapon and aimed it at the woman with rage and anger in his eyes. He raised the pistol up to the bitches head, and pulled the trigger, ending the bitches life at that instant. Henry then realized what he did and decided to quickly come up with a lie, "Fun way it is then, can't have her waking up and running away." it was sort of the truth, Henry would not have the bitch waking up and walk or run away, he could not allow that to happen.

Henry took out a couple of grenades and tossed them over to Maria, saying in a friendly tone, "Catch." he was rather pleased at the woman his daughter had become. Most parents would be pulling their hairs out if their child worked for a spy agency, but Henry, he was different, he was a spy, he was a agent of SHIELD and he was quite pleased that his daughter turned out to be a efficient and deadly agent of SHIELD. Henry then put on a gas mask and took out another gas mask from a duffel bag that he carried with him, the bag contained his equipment. Henry handed the second mask over to Maria and asked "Are you ready my girl? Should we let the fun begin?"