uthor Note: NEWLY EDITED! I HAVE FINISHED THE REVISIONS UP TO AND INCLUDING CHAPTER 9! EXPECT SOME AMAZING CHANGES!
Disclaimer: the Number preceding the book title refers to which number in my overall avengers time line this stories falls in.
Summery: Clint, recovering from the events of a plane crash, finds himself trapped in Stark Tower with a hard case of boredom. When his quest to escape has him yanking Pepper off the roof, Tony decides to take him for a night out. But not all is as it seems when Stark and the others are kidnapped, leaving Clint and Banner to go to their rescue. What mysterious figure from Clint and Natasha's past has returned? And what is she planning?
Titanium Hawkeye
Prologue
I'm bulletproof,
nothing to lose
fire away, fire away
ricochet,
you take your aim
fire away, fire away
you shoot me down,
but I won't fall
I am titanium
you shoot me down,
but I won't fall
I am titanium
The fate of the world should never be left in his hands. Maybe Tony Stark's, possibly even Thor's, but never his. A certain level of responsibility came from having every living creature in the room relying on you to make that right call. Clint Barton did not feel like having so much at stake resting on only his shoulders. He was in a place out of reach, beyond help, and had all of 3.5 seconds to make the right call. No Coulson existed to guide him. No SHIELD operatives took up his place to bark in his ear. So he had to make that choice himself.
Unleash the Hulk or Not? That was his choice.
"Don't freak out." Clint whispered.
Bruce flashed green, his hands turned to fists. But despite these outward appearances of rage he remained relatively calm. "Bruce Banner, Hulk, Avenger, scientist . . ." he began to mouth to himself.
Clint waited for him to speak. Bruce taught him a similar technique to help him through the months following Loki's possession to keep his own mind from shattering to pieces.
"Say it." Bruce commanded. His voice deepened with a growl behind it.
"Are you sure you want me to say it?"
Bruce's eyes snapped open. They progressed from the simple clarity to a hard and deathly black. Clint decided to hide the intimate details temporarily, so he kept it simple to hold the Hulk in a little longer. The situation required tact. Careful planning. Spy work. It did not need the Hulk to go barreling through that Hell hole below them.
"They're running him under a faucet." He half lied. In actuality, the unknown men down there had Tony on his back with a soaked towel over his face as they let all of New York Bay pour over his mouth and nose. Besides being shot through another interdimensional portal, that was Stark's worst fear.
"They're water boarding him?" Bruce didn't glaze over facts.
Clint swallowed. His Adam's apple bobbed as he weighed what the result of his answer might be. No use in keeping it from the guy when he could just stand up and look for himself. "Uh, yes they ARE—"
His final word rose from the whisper he first intended on to an exclamation of fear. If there was one guy the secret agents should have nabbed first, it was Bruce Banner. Clint could be knocked out, Natasha locked up, Tony water boarded, the Captain shot (a few thousand times), and Thor . . . well whatever they did to him Clint didn't have a name for.
None of that shined a light to what these unknown agents should have done to Bruce Banner. Or, more importantly, what they should have done to the Incredible Hulk. Clint didn't want the part-time doctor going green so quick. Barton wanted the opportunity to snipe a few guys first and even the odds a little, or maybe get a better idea of what they were up against. But the Hulk knew one thing and one thing alone.
Smash.
please continue!