Collecting a Soul

Jim took three steps forward.

An arrow came flying through the air, silent and fast as lightning, like an owl diving from the clouds.

Its tip was no ordinary arrowhead. A specially designed electrical tip unleashed a high-voltage current the instant it pierced Jim's back. Blue arcs danced across his body like glowing snakes.

Jim's body went rigid.

His healing ability could repair physical damage, but electricity did more than that. It struck his nervous system directly, making his muscles spasm, stopping his heart, and short-circuiting his brain.

Jim dropped to his knees, bracing himself on the ground with both hands. Cold sweat poured down his forehead. His healing ability strained desperately to repair the nerve endings the current had burned away.

But the high-voltage current kept coursing through him. It did not vanish at once, and it dealt another blow to a mind already burdened by one gunshot wound after another.

A second arrow flew in from another direction.

This one carried an explosive tip. It detonated beside Jim, throwing him to the ground as fragments drove into his body.

His healing ability worked to repair the damage, but far more slowly than before. It had not grown weaker. His body and mind were simply taking too much damage at once for it to keep up.

Steve turned toward the direction the arrows had come from.

The enhanced eyesight granted by the Super Soldier Serum let him clearly see the rooftop of a building across the street. A man in a purple tactical suit stood there, holding a collapsible bow. The bowstring still seemed to be trembling.

Hawkeye. Clint Barton. A Level 7 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of the Avengers. He, too, had been ordered by Nick Fury to keep Russell's hotel under covert surveillance.

He glanced at