Hi guys! I'm so looking forward to Age of Ultron, so I watched some episodes of Earths Mightiest Heroes today again and this little story made its way into my mind.
The characters are Black Widow, Hawkeye and Mockingbird (no real pairings, I guess)
I don't know how many chapters it's going to have. Depends on my creativity ;)
I hope you like it! :) R&R!
He didn't feel cold anymore, when he opened his eyes he saw red, then black, than red again. A distant voice was telling him something. He brought a weak hand to his stomach, it felt moist- blood –
Clint was fighting. He wanted to open his eyes again, nothing. His vision stayed black, no red to be seen anymore. He passed out with the cracking sound of his broken com in his ear. What the hell had happened?
Clint Barton put his cup of coffee down again. Absently he was looking through some of the stuff Stark left there to read on his StarkPad. The other Avengers were still asleep or elsewhere. Still everyone of them had a private life and that was great. This way he and everyone else could keep their little secrets. He was sure everyone did have something he would never tell.
He was close to jumping when the ringtone of his phone broke the silence. Clint picked up the mobile and hesitated. It was SHIELD calling him. Sighing he answered the call: „Who's speaking?"
A deep voice echoed from the other end: „It's Director Fury. I need you on a mission with Black Widow- instantly!"
Hawkeye wasn't really enthusiastic about that: „Hey! I'm not your little handy-man. I'm an Avenger, so is Tasha. What is this about anyway?"
Fury's voice sounded concerned: „I would not bother you, if it was not highest level! I would call for Mockingbird, but that is the problem…"
Immediately Clint pricked up his ears: „What's wrong with Bobbie?"
Fury started explaining: „Two days ago I sent a team, led by Agent Morse, to AIM HQ, that we discovered in the Alps about a month ago. They were supposed to arrest one of their leaders for SHIELD to get as much information as possible. But… Mockingbird does not copy since about four hours. Something must have gone wrong. I need my best agents to find my team"
Clint stayed silent for a moment: „…Fine. Pick us up in one hour." He hung up and rose from his seat. He couldn't leave Bobbie all alone there, they grew close friends and maybe even more than that. Now he had to convince Natasha to join him on that mission, which wasn't always the easiest thing to do.
Before he even knocked on her door, he heard her soft voice from inside the room: „Who's there?" You wouldn't expect it any different from the perfect spy so he actually wasn't surprised: „It's Clint"
„Clint…", she paused, „come in." He opened the door and entered, right away he closed it again: „Natasha… I need your help."
She stopped reading what seemed to be some kind of protocoll and looked at him: „With what?"
„See… Nick Fury called me…"
She cut him off instantly: „Why would I want to be Fury's puppet again? Why would you?"
„It about Mockingbird, Tasha…"
Nat gritted her teeth. She would not let him see, that she was upset about him asking her to save his crush. But she would not let him know, she would never let her facade crumble. So instead of letting that heartbroken feeling affect her actions she smiled slightly: „What is that mission about?"
Clint started explaining, but she didn't really listen to him. Damn! Why didn't he realise what he meant to her?
After he was done speaking she just nodded: „Fine…" Without another word she pushed him out of her room and shut the door.
A little confused Clint looked at the door, then he started walking away. He got in the elevator quickly and left it at his floor again. He went into his room and put his suit on. Afterwards he started reading some of the stuff Fury had sent him, but he rapidly lost interest.
When the lift doors opened, Natasha was already waiting for him on the roof. She was standing by the railing, her sight distant, but still he knew, she had noticed his presence. Her catsuit shimmered a little, because of the rising sun- as did her eyes. On her left arm she was holding a jacket- whole in black too. Clint opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by the sound of a jet landing on the roof.
Tasha turned and started moving toward the aircraft. Her voice was soft and she didn't face Clint while talking: „Come on… no time to lose, right?"
A small smile crossed Clint's lips and he followed her close: „I didn't leave a message for Steve…"
The Black Widow, her eyes still focused on the jet, shared a brief grin: „Don't worry… I left a note in the kitchen and I told Jarvis as well." Clint nodded as an answer, then they got on the aircraft without another word.
During the time inside the jet none of them was talking a lot. To not make anyone feel uncomfortable with her eyes wandering around the small space given Natasha started reading Bobbies latest reports about the long-time mission.
Before her team was sent on that, as now known, one way trip to that AIM-base, Agent Morse determined undercover as an AIM-Agent.
Her protocols were quite accurate- somehow like her own ones. That made her hate Morse even more. Maybe she was just searching for reasons to hate that woman, maybe it was because Bobbie grew a little too close to Clint while they were working together, but she would never admit that of course.
The whole room was dark, but not too dark to see actually. There was a small kerosene lamp standing in a corner, its glow was barely bright enough to illuminate the whole room.
The room itself… well… it was big enough for the simple wooden chair she was chained to and maybe two more of these chairs.
The walls, the floor and the ceiling were made of cold, dark-grey concrete and there was no window- it would have been a surprise if there had been one although.
Barbara Morse sighed faintly and then tried to free herself from the metal bonds around her wrists and ankles. She couldn't even move them a bit and gave it up after a few minutes. Frustrated she leaned back again. She was still wearing her costume with one detail missing- they had taken her mask away.
When the heavy metal door swung open Bobbie looked up instantly. With a stern expression glued to his face a high-leveled AIM-general entered and closed the door behind him straight away.
He had a chair with him and placed it opposite Bobbie. Unhurriedly he sat himself down, he was just staring at Mockingbird. Minutes past, not a sound was to be heard. Bobbie used that time to muster every inch of the man. Dark brown hair, emerald eyes, but cold as ice, despite their colour.
His uniform was all black with the logo of AIM on it, several medals pinned on the fabric beneath the logo. Simple black shoes, not elegant, more like sneakers. His skin was tanned, but still more white than any other colour she knew to describe skin.
Eventually the man raised his voice: „Well… Look who we got here- Agent 629. Or should I now better call you Mockingbird?"
Bobbie said nothing. She just looked at him defiantly. The man cleared his throat, before he spoke up again: „What can you tell us about SHIELD? Names? Plans? Prisoners?"
Morse remained silent, trying not to show any emotion, when the man hauled a knife.
His voice still calm he let his fingers glide over the side of the blade: „You know… My daughter once wanted a bird as a pet. I bought her a mockingbird.
Barbara sighed: „I am sorry for interrupting, but I think I am old enough to go without your little bed time story. I mean- What's next? Once upon a time, you telling me a fairytale?" The man's response was harsh: „In fairytales everyone lives happily ever after, but not all stories are like fairytales. See… first my little darling loved the bird, but the animal never opened its beak. It should have been there to sing it's little melodies all day long. But the bird refused to tweet… and of what use is a silent mockingbird? Do you imagine what I do to birds like that one, Agent Morse?"
Bobbie jewed on her lower lip. She didn't answer the question. The man looked at the knife and then back to Bobbie: „I break it's neck."
Blandly Agent Morse raised her gaze to meet the eyes of the general. The ice was gone, there was just insanity in these eyes. This was not worth it. Bobbie wouldn't say a word, she had to protect her friends, she had to protect SHIELD even if she had to die.
Clint and Natasha told the team Fury had sent them to go back to HQ. They needed to stay undercover and for that they preferred to operate alone. Natasha noticed that Clint didn't seem as concentrated as usual. She furrowed her brows with worry- hopefully he wouldn't be unwary. Getting caught would probably be the end of everything. AIM did never make deals- especially when it came to SHIELD.
The helicopter dropt them on one of the mountains, the AIM base below them, but they could see it from their current position. The two assassins were making their way through the knee-deep snow. They were on guard every single second, especially when they got near the building.
The two of them managed to sneak into the AIM base through a window. Easy to open for master assassins of course. Without making a sound they swung themselves up into one of the ventilation shafts. Natasha was leading, Clint was following her. As silently as possible he whispered: „We need a plan to get outta here. With randomly erring around we will never find Bobbie."
Natasha sighed softly: „Clint… let's get to a secure area first, then we can probably ask one of the agents 'bout Morse- in our way."
Clint hesitantly nodded- they needed to be fast. Bobbie was clearly in danger, otherwise she would have called Fury already.
Tasha abruptly stopped, when she saw the Controlling-room through the bars of the ventilation shaft directly in front of her. „Perfect…", she muttered and turned her head to Clint, „Controlling-room below, two agents, one in front of the displays, one by the door. I will go for the door."
Nat's partner gave her a small nod before the redhead left the shaft and turned to the door. Moments later Clint followed her and headed for the agent, who wasn't looking at the monitors any more. Puzzled he stared at Tasha and then Clint, who seized the moment of surprise and quickly knocked him out with a few well placed hits. He was getting better at hand-to-hand-combat ever since he took up training lessons with Steve at the tower.
Clint shot Natasha a look and when he knew she was safe and monitoring the door for him he started searching for Bobbie on the computerscreens.
Systematically Clint was scanning the monitors for any signs of Barbara Morse. Nervously he was tapping on the the table with his fingers in a quite fast pace. He stopped when his gaze came to rest on one screen in the left lower corner. There were two people in a room. One was a tall man, he was standing his chair being left empty. The other one was a blonde girl, wearing a suit and that made him sure it was Bobbie. It was her Mockingbird- suit.
Without thinking about it again the archer rushed out of the room, leaving a confused Natasha behind.
The Black Widow froze when her partner scurried out of the room. Before she could do anything her feet were moving, following him, she heard her own voice: „Hawkeye, no! You're blowing our cover!"
But Barton didn't listen, he was running through the base without thinking about any consequences, without recognising the agents following them. He needed to help Bobbie out.
Agent Morse didn't wince when the blade scarified along the inside of her arm. She didn't open her mouth to let out the screams she was holding, she didn't speak. The last thing she'd do was begging for mercy. The situation was looking bad for her, but she had still honor and pride.
The general was still calm, but there was something threateningly in his accents: „You'll sing for me now… or I'm going to redesign your little costume." Bobbie just sat there with her head bowed.
„Nothing?", the man shook his head and gave her a sharp grin, „Pathetic." He grabbed the knife tighter and cut Mockingbird's shoulders.
Bobbie felt pain flashing through her whole body. She felt the warmth of blood around the wound. The red liquid leaking from the cut, coloring her suit. An aphonic scream escaped her throat.
The general was about to stab her, when he let out a scream and turned.
Bobbie could see the back of an arrow sticking out of the general's back, a second later the blood-soaked tip of another arrow followed. The man didn't even let out another scream. His muscles went numb and he fell to the floor, clearing Bobbies sight for Hawkeye, who was standing in the doorframe. Instantly he laid his bow down and unfettered her from her chains: „You okay?"
Bobbie nodded slightly: „Thanks for coming." A smirk crossed her lips: „I thought you weren't listening to Fury anymore."
Clint smiled lightly: „Not doing this for Fury… I couldn't let you hang in there any longer."
Natasha's voice was interrupting the little conversation between them: „Sorry for stopping you from chatting! But…" The Black Widow was dodging a bullet and attacked the AIM-agents with her two guns, „I would love some help here!"
Clint let go of Bobbie and shot several arrows at the attackers. Bobbie stopped before stepping out of the room: „Fighting won't do it! We have to get out of here!" Clint quickly thought that over and beckoned her over. Mockingbird followed Clint and Nat in the direction of the main door. Clint turned while running, he aimed at the floor before the agents' feet. He placed an arrow on that spot and continued running.
Immediately it started belching smoke.
Leaving the foes behind they made it to the door only to find even more of the AIM-agents waiting for them outside the door.
Natasha stopped when she saw about thrity weapons leveled at them. They had to be fast now or more would come and they wouldn't be able to handle that anymore. With outstreched arms she activated her Widow's Bite. Two of the soldiers suffered from the electricity and hit the ground.
Clint stared at the agents, but when he noticed Natasha and Bobbie starting to attack he longed for his exploding arrows automatically. He was so used to all the fights and cruelty. He was used to protecting himself and those who were with him. All his life he had been Hawkeye. He was used to managing things on his own, even as a kid he had done that, especially after the death of his parents.
He was longing for another arrow in his quiver, when he saw a man leveling his gun at Mockingbird. He turned and ignored his old target: „Bobbie! Watch out!" Before the man could pull the trigger, an arrow pierced his hand. He dropped the weapon and stared at Clint.
More men were coming. Clint was off guard, he was so focused on protecting Morse that he forgot to take care of himself. A gunshot was heard, a moment later the bullet met flesh. Hawkeye opened his mouth, but the scream got stuck in his throat. He gasped out. The bloodspot on his stomach grew. It was getting hard to keep standing –pain. Barton pressed one hand on the wound and looked at it –red. Too much blood. He had to keep fighting, but he couldn't.
Another bullet followed. It pierced Clint only centimeters above the first one. If it didn't hurt that much, he would probably laugh these guys out of court, because they had the worst target he had ever seen in his enire life. But that didn't happen. The archer fell down on his knees. He gritted his teeth and tried to stay on his knees. He would not allow himself to fall down, to pass out. He was a goddamn agent, so he had to stay strong. That was what he had been trained for.
Clints vision blurred, he couldn't avoid a silent scream to pass his lips. Natasha's distant voice echoed in his ears. He couldn't see her, everything was way too loud and way too dark and his whole body fucking hurt.
With ease the Black Widow ducked under the gunshots. With one shot for each of the agents she fought her way back to her teammates. Clinging to her two guns she got closer, step by step. Her attention was suddently cought by Clint falling to his knees. In that moment the world stopped. Everything happened in slow motion from now on. The bastard who did that to the archer had a dirty grin on his face. Natasha was sure that he would never grin again, when she was done with him.
One more time the man aimed his gun at Barton, but Natasha wouldn't let this happen. As firmly as she was able to she kicked her leg into the stomach of an agent, who blocked her way. Immediately the readheaded spy shot her Widow's Sting at the shooter. The man shook uncontrollable and went to the ground. Natasha ran to Clint's side and grabbed his arm in order to support him: „Clint… hold on, okay?"
As an answer she just received a moan from the fallen man. Trying to hide her concerned expression she parried the attackers coming near them with her electroshocks. „Morse!", she screamed hoping for Bobbie to have a plan how to get the three of them out of there. Unfortunately Mockingbird was nowhere near to be seen. More AIM-agents were coming and the Black Widow desperately tried to keep them away from Hawkeye.
Then everything happened awefullly fast. One moment Natasha was fighting off those guys attacking them, the next she found herself on the ground, face down. Pain was emitting from the spot between her shoulder blades. When she tried to get up again it was getting worse, followed by a strong blow on the back of her head, making it impossible to stay awake for the Russian beauty. Her thoughts with Clint and how she failed in protecting him, the terrible image of those agents killing both of them stuck in her head before she drove into unconsciousness.
When she realised she had no weapon, because they took her battle-staves away, she quickly diarmed two of the agents. She had to go with guns for today.
She had to swallow several blows, but she never let them get too close. This was a nearly hopeless situation, inhibititions were in the wrong place here, hesitating before killing the attackers could mean death.
No agent attacking from any side slipped Bobbie's gaze. But one thing she did not realise- it could have ended terrible, but thanks to Clint it didn't. When she heard Clint yelling at her, Mockingbird instantly turned only to see a gunman, who should have killed her, falling to the ground- an arrow piercing his heart. But what was coming afterwards was like a nightmare. A moment later a gunshot was to be heard above the battle-noise. Clint's expression was contorting with pain- a blood stain spreading on his stomach.
Without any hesitation Bobbie started running. She had to help Clint, she had to find a way to save him. She owed him her life and how was she repaying that? She had to find a way! Battling through AIM-agents more furiously now she finally reached Clint after what felt like too long. The Black Widow was already on the ground when she reached them.
„You sick bastards make me mad!", with one bullet Bobbie shot the agent, who knocked Natasha out, down.
Her mind was running, they had to get away from the agents. They had to go into hiding or they would be screwed. The agents were coming closer again and one managed to kick her away. Morse landed besides Clint. He was now lieing in a puddle of his own blood. She bit her bottom lip when suddenly she saw his quiver. She pressed one finger to the cog on the bottom of the thing until the right option was chosen. Bobbie grabbed an arrow and Hawkeye's bow. She prayed to whoever may be up there and fired it as far as she could onto the building. Quickly she grabbed Clint and Natasha. The arrow ended up on the roof and fixed itself there. The rope fixed to it furled itself and pulled the three assassins upwards leaving the confused AIM-agents behind.
Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave me a review so I know if I should continue. ;)