The Persuader

Hawkeye traveled alone through the city, when a massive black limousine caught his attention.

The luxurious car pulled to a stop nearby. With an electronic hum, one of the heavily tinted rear Windows lowered. Hawkeye could not see who was inside.

A very warm and friendly male voice beckoned to him. "Hello, friend," he says. "Please, hop in for a moment." his simple request was spoken with such warmth and sincerity, Hawkeye felt utterly compelled to comply.

After entering the limo, the vehicle sped off. After traveling along in NY traffic for a short while, the limo was attacked. As soon as the limousine was under attack by other cars, it was as if some form of mind control released Hawkeye. He looked to the other passenger, and now saw a man in a high-tech helmet with a gizmo pointed at him. Hawkeye immediately became defensive and grabbed the other passenger. "Who are you?! What do you want with me?" Hawkeye asked.

"My name is Roland Rayburn, and I'm a mutant capable of hypnotic suggestion. I was sent by my client to 'persuade' you to attend a very special meeting." The Persuader confessed.

"Who's your client, and what is this meeting about?!" Hawkeye inquired as he watched the enemy vehicles close in.

"My client has chosen to use the alias Kingpin, and i believe the nature of the meeting to involve resolving the current gang war, but i can't be sure…" The Persuader stated.

Infuriated by being kidnapped by an agent of Wilson Fisk, Hawkeye violently grabbed the Persuader by the collar of his uniform.

"Please don't hurt me! I mean you know harm!" the Persuader cried, as he also attempted to influence Hawkeye's mind with his mutant power.

"Who are these goons after us?!"

"Members of the Faces of Fear, I believe. I may have made the mistake of using my client's personal transport to retrieve you. This limo made us a target."

Suddenly, one of the enemy vehicles rammed violently into the rear passenger side of the limousine, nearly sending them into oncoming traffic. "Dammit." Hawkeye muttered.

Reaching into the purple duffel bag he had been carrying home with him, Hawkeye withdrew his famous compound bow and an arrow. Knocking the arrow, Hawkeye then rolled down a window and leaned out of it. Sitting on the sill of the window, and looking back at the tailing cars. The faces of fear chasing them had begun to pepper the limo with fire from assault rifles as it barreled behind them down New York streets at top speeds.

Hawkeye took a deep breath and held it as bullets whizzed passed his head, before exhaling and loosing his arrow. With a thwip and a whistle the arrow rocketed through the air and windshield of the rearmost following vehicle. It pierced into the shoulder of the driver, who screamed in pain and veered off the road into a guard rail.

As another vehicle closed the gap to ram the limousine, Hawkeye reached his free hand in through the window and gestured for The persuader to hand him more ammunition. The Persuader obliged and handed him two arrows from his duffel bag. Hawkeye fired the first, a cable arrow from his specialty arrows made by Stark, that stuck into the side of a nearby freezer semi. The connecting cable severed the top half of the gangsters car off. Releasing the cable and drawing the second arrow, a smoke-bomb arrow burst on the exposed seat between the faces of fear members. Disoriented by the smoke, the car veered off the road.

Reaching in for more arrows, the Persuader handed him another. He fired and a sonic arrow screeched down the road, narrowly missing either of the remaining pursuants. "Give me another! Just give me any damn arrow i have left!" Hawkeye shouted.

When handed another arrow Hawkeye fired and an explosive arrow nailed the front driver-side wheel of one of the cars and sent it flipping through the air as a flaming heap of metal. "Perfect!" Hawkeye whooped. "Acid arrow next."

The Persuader handed him another arrow. "This feels too heavy to be the--" Hawkeye commented as he fired the arrow.

The head if the arrow burst to release a bola that wrapped itself around the AK-47 of a faces of fear who had been firing it from the still chasing car.

"Dammit, I said Acid Arrow!" Hawkeye shouted angrily.

"I don't know what that means, none of these are labeled!" The persuader pleaded.

Hawkeye pulled himself back through the window into the limousine. He looked i to his bag at the two remaining arrows. After close inspection, Hawkeye opened the sunroof of the limousine. "Back in a second."

Then, Hawkeye leapt from the roof of the limousine onto the hood of the pursuing vehicle. He slammed the head of a special suction-cup arrow onto the hood to keep from bei g thrown. He then crawled up tothe driver side window and threw the final arrow, an electrified arrow i to the drivers lap. With hundreds of volts of electricty coursing through his groin the driver slammed the throttle and sent his car slamming into the rear of the limousine. Hawkeye was thrown in the collision, but landed on the roof of the limousine where he promptly pulled himself back in through the still open sunroof.

Shortly after making sure the limousine had lost its tail, it stopped in front of the massive Fisk Tower. "Please come into this building with me," The Persuader said, using the full extent of his hypnotic suggestion. "I want you to meet a friend of mine."

-

Meanwhile, many of the other Heroes for Hire engaged in their usual civilian activities. While watching TV, Jessica Jones' favorite program was interrupted by a breaking news broadcast. An obnoxiously handsome and well-groomed news anchor said: "This just in, we have received an official report from the United States Coast Guard regarding the status of the Roxxon Oil Spill. They have informed us that matters are much worse than previously predicted, partially due to storms that have prevented work crews from cleaning up our coast.

"At the time the accident occurred, authorities at Roxxon Oil Company claimed it would be rectified before the hazardous chemicals ever reached our shoreline. It now seems their observations were on the optimistic side, in favor of their company.

"Now the Coast Guard has concluded its survey and study and states that a very large oil slick will reach the coast of Long Island within a week. Damage is predicted to run into the costs of hundreds of millions of dollars. People living along the shoreline are advised to take necessary precautions. In the next few days swimming, fishing, and boating will become temporarily prohibited.

"Officials at Roxxon submitted a statement declaring they intended to do everything within their power to prevent the oil slick from reaching shore. We will have more reports as matters develop. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program."

-

It was not long before Hawkeye's absence became apparent. Within hours of lacking communication, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Heroes for Hire were considering him to have been abducted. But, all worries were put aside when Black Widow received a specially delivered message.

The missive she received was in a very large and expensive envelope,with her name flamboyantly scribed across the front. Inside was a sheet of gold leaf. Etched into it was the following message:

'Wilson Fisk respectfully requests the presence of the bearer of this missive, and their associates, at a meeting of minds to be held in the Penthouse of Fisk Tower. All guests, excluding the dear Clint Barton whose company i have been enjoying, shall arrive at Midnight of this evening to discuss matters concerning the safety of New York's populace.

Signed, Wilson Fisk.'

-

The Cage-Jones family had not been present, as they decided to visit the site of the oil spill, and volunteer their aid in any way they could. The slick was located 10 miles of the coast of Long Island, and stretched for nearly 2 miles.

The sea was very rough and choppy. It appeared there was a storm brewing. Up ahead were at least 30 small boats accompanied by 2 larger tankers. All of the vessels had "ROXXON OIL" painted on their side in bold black letters. The water around the boats was thick and gooey with oil. Workmen were laying out long lines of netting in attempts to contain the spill, but the lashing waves made their efforts nearly impossible and extremely dangerous.

Without powers to control or manipulate the weather, there was not much they could do to help. In fact, they even became nuisances to the Roxxon officials who wanted no more potential liabilities. Eventually a storm broke, forcing the fleet to return to shore. Propelled by powerful waves, the unsightly oil slick continued its trajectory towards Long Island.