Disclaimer: I do not own MARVEL or any of it's characters. Though I did name my child Clint. LOL ;p
Tony hissed in pain as his body slammed into the desk positioned closest to the lab door. He had tried to stop himself but his socked feet slid across the polished tiled floor. Normally, he'd loved to slip and slid across the floor. Hell, he once challenged Clint to a sliding race. But who knew the archer would consider himself a weapon and so he'd know the exact amount of force needed to shoot himself down the hall. Of course today wasn't a normal day. Spinning around, Tony caught sight of the stairwell door he had used closing shut, the lab door beyond not doing the same. Whatever lead he once had was ruined with the slow motion of the automatic close. Groaning, Tony moved around the table and shifted deeper into the lab. Things weren't going well for him at the moment. Of all the times for technology to backfire against him.
"JARVIS, close the door!" Tony cried. Nothing happened. Frowning, he looked up toward the video monitor positioned closest to him. JARVIS was normally a lot faster than this. "JARV?"
"I am unable to do so. My systems are currently down," JARVIS reminded, sounding slightly annoyed and put off as he had reminded Tony various other times already. Tony cursed to himself. It wasn't until now that he realized how much he relied on the AI. Yeah, Tony knew that JARVIS could be hacked and used against him. Or JARVIS could be shut off, or worse, destroyed but he never really considered that it would happen while he was alive. He also never thought about if JARVIS went down during a battle or an attack on the tower. It was going to be his own fault now. In the back of his mind, Tony made plan to come up with various backups to make sure nothing like this could happen again.
Rushing back over to the lab door, Tony slammed it closed. Thankfully this door still had a manual lock from when Tony had panic attacks and needed to hide from Pepper. Making sure to use that to lock the door, the genius glanced into the hall. Clint stepped out of the stairwell door in that second. His bow was drawn back with one of the arrows that Tony had made for him the week before, one that both knew was perfected. Tony knew this arrow was an electric arrow designed to give a shock hard enough to knock even Thor unconscious. And right now, Clint had it aimed at Tony's ARC reactor. Clint released the arrow and both men watched as it forcefully hit the glass door. Electricity raced across the glass. Tony winced, knowing that if that had indeed hit him, he would have been knocked out or even worse, short circuited his reactor.
"Lock integrity down to 70%."
"Thanks, J," Tony sarcastically answered, glaring up to the monitor once again. Clint walked up to the door and placed a hand on the glass. Tony had specifically designed this door so that it didn't even look like there was anything there but with a command to JARVIS he could turn it opaque so that he could have his privacy. Clint smirked at it and looked into the lab. His blue eyes focusing on Tony's brown ones.
"With JARVIS hacked, I could open this door. Just a simple command. Better find a weapon, Stark," Clint taunted, relaxing back on his heels as he watched the billionaire. Tony winced again, reminded of the Manhattan attack and Clint's earlier attack on the Helicarrier. Clint wasn't just an archer. He had a military mind and he used it. Unbeknownst to the genius, the archer noticed the wince and also thought back to the incident and wondered if maybe this whole thing was actually a good idea.
Spinning around, Tony spotted something sitting on his lab desk. It was Natasha's Widow Bites. He had been working on them, trying to improve them for the spy. A few days after she had moved in, she mentioned that it would be nice to have a fast acting sleeping agent in her bites so that she could take a person alive, if needed. Tony took it upon himself to create one. He almost had it perfected now and so he had taken her Widow Bites to fit the cartridge inside of the weapons. Smiling now, Tony rushed over to his desk but before he reached it, he slipped. Reaching out with both hands he caught the edge of his desk and the edge of Bruce's closest desk. Both tables had vials on them that dropped to the floor and mixed. Thankfully none of them broke open.
"Don't kill yourself before I get in there!" Clint laughed even though his eyes showed concern for the genius. Tony shifted to his knees and glanced over at the archer. Clint kneeled on the floor and pulled out a set of lock picks, taking the slower route to break into the room. Tony rolled his eyes.
"Ha, ha," Tony growled, grabbing for the first vial he could find. He paused before hooking it up into the Widow Bite closest to him. Bruce, the day before, had asked Tony for some vials in order to store something he had been working on. Tony had handed over some extra ones from his pile without question. It was now, as he stared at the vial in his hands that he wished that he had paid attention to what Bruce had been working on. The genius believed it had something to do with a time reversal serum, which he thought was ridiculous, so he must be wrong. But what Tony did remember was Bruce said the serum wasn't finished, so it should pose no danger to Clint if that's what he accidentally grabbed.
Tony loaded the vial into the closest Widow Bite and spun around. Clint, who had been on his knees a second before, was standing as the door slowly and menacingly opened. The archer was smiling, almost like he believed that Tony would put up a fight. Tony didn't wait a second. He lifted the Bite and pressed the newest button he installed to release a dart filled with the agent he had created. The dart landed in Clint's arm. Stumbling for a second in surprise, Clint looked down at it. For a moment the two just stared at it. That moment was broken when Clint looked back at Tony with a raised eyebrow.
"What was that supposed to do?" Clint questioned. Tony's shoulders dropped. Either he had used Bruce's serum or his sleeping agent didn't work. Figuring Bruce wouldn't be stupid enough to leave his serum behind; Tony assumed his sleeping agent didn't work. Clint was now smirking in humor.
"Supposed to put you to sleep," Tony grunted, looking at the Widow Bite with distain. He was certain that he and JARVIS had tested it well enough to know that it would work. What went wrong? Did it not go into the dart? Was it too weak? What? Clint nodded, accepting the answer with little more than that. He had no idea what Tony actually could have done to him.
"Be best to make sure it actually does work before trying it on an enemy. Wouldn't want them more ticked off at you then before," Clint suggested, humor tinting his voice. Tony sighed, agreeing with the archer. This day was just not his day.
"Yeah, that would have been smart," Tony muttered before dropping the Bite on his desk. Clint shifted to help Tony pick up all the items that had dropped off the two desks. Groaning, Tony leaned down as well. Absently, Tony noted that Clint didn't touch the vials, so instead he went for them and carefully handled them. "So, I lost again?"
"Basically. Good idea going to the lab, though," Clint replied. Tony nodded beginning to see why training like this was actually good. This was the tenth time Clint had run through an attack on the tower. Only once had he been anywhere close to winning and that had been when Clint decided to let JARVIS help. "We should get you some trust worthy weapons though. That don't rely on JARVIS to use. We can hide them throughout the tower."
"What is with you hiding weapons everywhere? I don't need a gun under my pillow," Tony moaned, dropping down to sit at his desk. He turned to face his, laying the vials carefully down so as to not break any before slamming his head down onto the desk. Clint snorted, shifting to sit on the corner of Bruce's desk.
"Not a gun, a dagger. And you have no idea how many assassin sneak up on people in bed. May be cliché but it works," Clint responded. Tony groaned.
"So basically, I should be prepared to be killed or attacked in every room?"
"No, the kitchen is safe… Well, unless you run to it while being attacked." Tony paused. He hadn't expected that. Slowly, he glanced over at Clint. Clint had a smile on his face, almost as if he was joking. Tony frowned.
"What?" he stammered. Clint smirked and stood up off the desk.
"The kitchen has too many dangers for a potential attacker. You got the knives, pots, pans, oven, stove, microwave, and other such things. Only a newbie or an idiot would start an attack there," Clint explained. Tony chuckled as he thought about attacking an enemy with a butter knife and a frying pan. "If you can get a good enough head start on an attacker, the kitchen or the lab is the best place to make a stand."
"Then you get to tell Pepper it's okay for me to hoard food in here," Tony joked. Clint laughed, shaking his head. Tony glanced over at the archer, beginning to worry that he had actually used Bruce's serum and not his sleeping agent. It would have made him somewhat tired by now, even if it was a small dose. "Aren't you even the tiniest bit sleepy?"
"No," Clint muttered wondering if that was a good or a bad thing. Wanting to blow it off as nothing, Clint focused on the genius. He smiled. "Guess you suck at sleeping agents."
"Yeah, I guess," Tony mumbled as he picked up some of the vials that had dropped onto the ground. Clint had thought it best not to touch them so they were all where Tony left them on the desk. Tony knew that he had created four vials that he marked with a pink line down the side. He was currently holding two of them and there were three more vials on the desk.
"Well, if you got the rest of this, I'm gonna go check out the security plans for the lower floors. Wouldn't want an employee to get hurt when someone tries to attack us," Clint said before turning to leave. Tony nodded, not really listening to Clint anymore. Used to being blown off by the genius, Clint shrugged and left. Tony didn't even notice. Instead he focused on the remaining vials. Picking them up as carefully as he could, Tony sorted through them. Four vials had a pink line. Panicking, Tony emptied the vial from the Widow Bite. No pink line.
"Shit," Tony cursed. "J! We need to make sure this crap didn't work."
"I have numerous records of Dr. Banner's various tests. Not a single version, including this one, worked in the way he had hoped. If you wish, I can load the tests onto your tablet before I go into my mandatory maintenance shut down tonight," JARVIS answered. Tony froze.
"Oh shit, is that tonight?" Tony called having forgotten all about it.
"Yes, I have been reminding you for the past week," JARVIS smartly retorted. Tony snorted. It would be like him to forget and even worse, not pay attention to the AI.
"Do our other guests know?"
"I have informed them multiple times as well, sir. But many of them are out for the night."
"Good… Good…" Tony muttered as he looked the vials. He couldn't help but feel that something was going to happen. "I'm gonna work on this... Leave my stuff running when you shut down."
"Very well, sir. I shall inform, Miss Potts that you may not return to bed tonight."
Clint was only asleep for around an hour when his eyes snapped open. He knew this because he had gone to sleep at around 11… It was now 12:15. With a deep sigh, Clint wondered what made him wake. He couldn't remember having a nightmare. There was no tell-tale sign of that vertical dropping jump that sometimes wakes him. The room was silent and the perfect temp as usual. So what woke him?
A sharp pain pierced his side. Almost like someone snapped one of his ribs in half. Panicked, Clint reached for his side only to find that his arms wouldn't move. In fact, his whole body was frozen stiff. Every muscle was locked into position. Assessing himself, Clint realized he had curled into a fetal position. Frowning, Clint tried to remember why but before a thought could form, more pain ripped through his frame. Stunned at the force of it, he gasped.
"Ah!" he cried, his voice sounding different from before. It was almost higher pitched. More pain made the archer thankfully unfreeze. Sadly, he had to use that moment to curl up tighter. It was here that Clint noticed something weird. His pajamas felt really loose. Almost like he had lost ten or more pounds in the time he slept. Glancing down at his feet, he saw that his bottoms were dangling down over his toes. It was almost like he had somehow been shrunk. His mind flashed to his training exercise with Tony. 'Stark! It had to be him!' Clint angrily thought to himself as more pain spread through him. This time he really focused on it. The feeling was strange. Not just pain but almost like he could feel his body changing and adjusting. But to what it was changing to, Clint couldn't guess. But he knew who could. "JA... JARVIS!" Clint gasped, forgetting the AI was down for the night. "JARVIS!"
No answer. Clint moaned when a stronger pain flowed over him. He couldn't believe this. 'Why can't JARVIS hear me?' Clint desperately thought. For a moment he wished that Natasha hadn't gone off on her mission so that she'd be either sleeping next to him or he'd be in her room. It was here that Clint remembered what happened at dinner when Natasha left. JARVIS had mentioned that he was going to be in maintenance mode and unresponsive. 'Of all freaking nights!' Clint moaned. The pain was beginning to get worse. But Clint suddenly found he couldn't cry out. Actually, all his muscles seemed to have re-stiffened. He couldn't even breathe! 'I'm gonna die!' Clint mentally cried, trying to think of a way to let someone know he was in trouble. Sadly, there was no way now. Slowly, he began to black out. His body taking that moment to relax enough to spike in pain.
"Nat!" he croaked just before completely fading out.
ALMOST TWENTY - FOUR HOURS EARLIER
Bruce was the first to wake up. It wasn't that unusual. Out of everyone, Bruce, Clint and Steve tended to trade off being the first ones awake. Today, Bruce won due to nervousness over visiting an old science friend. The doc had gotten in contact with this man over his experiment to get rid of Hulk. While Bruce was certain that his serum was right, it was too unstable. He couldn't tell if the serum would age him, turn him into a baby or worse, kill him outright. Never mind that JARVIS couldn't predict how Hulk would react to the serum. But, the man he was going to see had an idea on a final ingredient to stabilize the serum. Yawning, Bruce shook his head and entered the kitchen.
"JARVIS, please turn on the coffee machine," Bruce politely ordered. He didn't even look to see if the AI had done as asked. Without fail, JARVIS had always followed every order that anyone had given. So, without checking, Bruce got to work on the other items he needed for the communal breakfast that the Avengers enjoyed each morning. Bruce always enjoyed toast, scrambled eggs, and some fruit. Steve usually ate toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, and an apple or two. Clint was simple with scrambled eggs, bacon and a bagel. Natasha normally just had some fruit and toast. Occasionally she'd accept some eggs, sausage or bacon but never at the same time. Pepper would go for oatmeal with fruit and toast. Tony… Well, he tended to not eat but when he did, amazingly enough he stuck with berries. Thor was the biggest eater of all. Pancakes, waffles, pop tarts, sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, oatmeal and whatever else he could get the others to make. Thankfully he wasn't here so the menu was limited down.
"Good morning, Bruce," Steve called as he entered the room just as Bruce began working on the scrambled eggs for himself and Clint. Steve normally had his sunny side up and Bruce wasn't all that great at doing that. Bruce nodded a welcome to the super solider as he worked on stirring up the still watery mix. Steve grabbed for some more eggs and went to work on his set. Thankfully Tony had redone the main kitchen when the others moved in to make it almost as large as a five star restaurant's. "I thought I'd be the first one up this morning."
"Yeah, well… Couldn't really sleep," Bruce admitted. Steve paused in his work, allowing an egg yellow to burst. Groaning, Steve started over. Bruce smiled at the solider as he cracked open a bunch more eggs for another few servings. Though the kitchen was huge, the pots and pans were normal sized and sometimes couldn't carry the load.
"Is it about your friend?" Steve questioned. Bruce sighed but nodded.
"I haven't seen him since long before Hulk. And now, out of the blue, he had something that could help me? It just..." Bruce trailed off, unsure what to say. Steve nodded, understanding what Bruce meant.
"You don't believe him?" Steve asked. Bruce paused, surprised that Steve hit at the heart of the issue. Slowly he sighed and then shrugged, turning to face the solider.
"I don't know. I… I've been betrayed so many times in the past. But… I just can't go around not trusting people for the rest of my life," Bruce mumbled. Steve frowned deeply. He didn't realize the amount damage that had been done to Bruce in his past. Who wouldn't believe their friends? Why would someone use that connection?
"It's important to trust people," Steve replied, unsure how to respond. Bruce paused and wondered if the super solider meant the team or his old friend. Sighing, Bruce finished with the eggs and began to work on the bacon.
"Yeah, guess it is," Bruce muttered, still unsure who he meant. Steve smiled, almost as if he sensed what was bothering Bruce.
"Hey, don't worry. I'll be there too," Steve soothed. Bruce nodded. He had almost forgotten that Fury had ordered Steve to watch over Bruce. Apparently, Hulk had garnered a lot of attention lately, especially considering the green guy was part of the Avengers. Never mind that Bruce had mentioned the fact that he was worried about visiting this friend when he mentioned it. It was then that Natasha entered the kitchen. Neither man had noticed that she dropped a rather full looking bag in the hall or that she was dressed in her S.H.I.E.L.D uniform.
"How long till breakfast?" she greeted as she moved toward the fridge to grab some fruit. Bruce turned to look at her and nodded a greeting. Steve paused in his egg making to smile warmly at her. Bruce focused on the amount of food that the duo had cooked before calculating the time left.
"Ten more minutes or so," Bruce estimated as Steve finished his eggs and began to work on the sausages. Nodding, she opened the fridge door. Scrounging around for a minute or too, she backed out with an apple in her mouth and another one in her hand. Bruce sighed. "Not joining us?"
"Got a mission brief in an hour," Natasha moaned, munching on the bite of apple that she had in her mouth. Steve frowned. The day before, Thor had returned to the tower, after visiting Jane Foster and claimed that he needed to visit Asgard and would not return for some time. Then Bruce had mentioned his meeting and Steve remembered volunteering to escort the good doctor. Now Natasha was leaving on a mission. Was someone trying to separate them all? And if so, why? What would happen if they all split up?
"I still work for S.H.I.E.L.D. You can't stop that," Natasha told Steve as she misunderstood his upset expression. Steve looked up at her in surprise. Did she really think that that was what was bothering him?
"I know!" Steve defended. His face turned to more perplexed. "But I just… Don't like us all splitting up right now."
"It's gonna happen. Nothing you can do about it," Natasha mentioned. Steve nodded, feeling like something was going to happen while he watched over Bruce. Natasha bit into her first apple and chewed on the fruit as she watched Steve. Bruce finished his last bit of food for breakfast and began shifting everything over to the table. At this point, Natasha might actually have time to join them in their meal.
"Can you tell us about this mission?" Steve inquired, finishing the last bit of his own cooking. Natasha frowned, biting into her apple again to delay her answer. She thought about it before shaking her head no. Steve understood but didn't like it one bit. He was the leader of the Avengers. He should know what they are doing and where they were all going to be. "How long will you be gone?"
"A week if we're lucky. If not, maybe a month or two," Natasha admitted. Steve nodded, really not liking the time table that she gave. Figuring the conversation was done and knowing that she had to get going soon, she backed up toward the hall. "Well, I better get going."
"Bye," Steve and Bruce called together as Natasha turned around and ran right into a still half asleep Clint. Surprised, Clint shot out with the heel of his palm aiming straight at Natasha's jaw. She dodged before grabbing Clint's wrist. Spinning it and themselves around, Natasha pinned Clint to the nearest wall with his arm behind his back.
"You awake now?" Natasha muttered into Clint's ear. Clint nodded. She hesitated for only a moment before releasing him. Once free, Clint shifted to look at her while holding his now red wrist. Natasha waved to her ears, making sure that the archer's hearing aids were in. Clint nodded again pouting as he wished that he had been more aware of what was going on around him.
"Sorry," he mumbled, sounding pretty much like crap. Natasha shrugged it off but looked him over. It looked like he was suffering from a hangover or something. Figuring that Steve and Bruce could deal with the archer fine, she turned and grabbed her bag. Clint frowned at the rather heavy looking object. "Mission?"
"Yep," she answered before heading toward the elevator. Pressing the down button, she then turned to Clint as she waited. Clint sighed. This day was so not turning out how he had hoped.
"See ya," he said as the doors opened. She nodded before entering and watched him turn toward the kitchen as the doors closed. Clint moaned to himself as he headed into the kitchen, bypassed Bruce and Steve before entering the sitting area and plopping himself down. Steve and Bruce just ignored it as they continued to put the food down on the table. Once done, they joined him. Slowly, the duo began filling up their own plates but they watched as Clint didn't do the same. A few minutes passed as Bruce and Steve enjoyed breakfast until finally, Bruce looked to Steve to see if the solider had noticed that Clint wasn't eating.
"Clint, are you feeling well?" Bruce wondered, ever the doctor even if that actually wasn't his field of study. Jerked out of his thoughts, Clint looked up at the doc and nodded. Bruce's frown deepened when the archer didn't actually speak. It had only been a month since Clint's recent brush with death. The same month where Clint had opened up to everyone but since then… He seemed rather reluctant to stay open. "You going to eat?
"Uh… Not really hungry," Clint admitted but to sooth the doc, he grabbed an extra slice of toast. Bruce and Steve decided to let the subject die there. Something was wrong, they just didn't know what.
"So, it's just you and Tony for a couple of days," Steve mentioned, trying to start a conversation with the archer. Clint looked at him in surprise. Slowly, Steve could see realization dawn on him. With Thor in Asgard, Natasha having just left on a mission, and Steve escorting Bruce to see his old friend, that just left the genius and Clint.
"Oh… Huh," Clint mumbled, already formulating plans in his head as to what to do.
"Gonna do anything special?" Steve inquired, knowing that Clint was already planning things. Clint shrugged as his mind was working slower than normal.
"Hadn't really thought of anything," Clint said, having yet to form a full plan in his head. Steve nodded.
"Why not try some training?" Steve suggested. Bruce snorted, an image of Tony in the Iron Man armor dodging arrows as Clint kept a rapid fire pace forming in his mind. Steve smiled as Clint's face let up. Apparently, the archer had a similar image. Or something a bit more detrimental to Tony's health.
"Training? Yeah!" Clint called, sounding rather maniacal. Bruce and Steve traded looks as they wondered if this was a good idea. A large smiled formed on Clint's face as he finally began to load his plate up with food. Training required energy. To get energy, he needed to eat. Steve frowned. Maybe this was the bad feeling he was getting. And dang it all, he started it. "Could be a lot of fun."
So what do you think? I'm so excited for this story. I couldn't wait to post it! I'm not done with it yet but I have like 23 or 24 chapters already finished. I haven't counted in a while and the ideas just keep flowing. Oh my god! I hope you all like it. Anyways, I hope to post once a week.
For those of you who have read my other stories and know about my currently 1 and a half year old, he is doing okay. Having a large spout of diarrhea which is causing a really bad diaper rash that no amount of creams seem to be fixing. We've been in and out of his doctor's office at least four times this week alone over it but he is still a rather happy kiddo. He still isn't really speaking. Basically 'dad', 'all done', 'I did it', and 'no'. We're starting to get 'more' but nothing else. He seems to understand what we want from him and so we think he just wants to wait until he is sure he has it perfected before trying. Who knows. Either way. Until next week!