Let's Talk Benefits
By: Kuroi Atropos
Rating: T
Genre: Primarily Drama/Family/Action, with a touch of Suspense and Comedy.
Pairings: While pairings are brought up, they are mostly minor/side plots. Tony/Pepper, Thor/Jane, Bruce/Betty, Past Ethan/all cannon relationships, assumed Clint/Natasha, past (and toyed with present) Clint/Coulson, and eventual Clint/Ethan, along with lots of other thrown about accusations.
Warnings: Mentions of brainwashing, some violence, some technobabble.
Summary: Clint Barton doesn't have a lot of time to prepare the IMF for S.H.I.E.L.D. going up in flames, even if he does have a modicum of sway as William Brandt. Still, he figures he can probably get a solid benefits package out of the deal if he survives his life coming down around his ears again.
Not completely cannon compatible with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but I tried to keep it as close as I could.
XxXxX
Chapter One
XxXxX
The best way for Benji to describe William Brandt's behavior for the last day or so was "twitchy."
While the entire team getting dragged into the office building in DC that functioned as the undercover HQ of the IMF for questioning about a mission that, to their knowledge, hadn't reached FUBAR levels was annoying, it wasn't unusual enough that the rest of them were doing more than grumbling. The normally unflappable Agent/Analyst hadn't reacted in an overly odd manner either, however the rest of his field team couldn't help but share looks as they noted his fingers twitching at proverbial shadows. Add in the fact that he was having staring contests with random IMF personnel, whose reactions ranged from amused to annoyed to downright terrified, there was reason for concern.
It had gotten to the point where Benji caught himself quadruple-checking his systems and helping Jane as she ran through her own quadruple-checks on their personal equipment packs and raided the supply rooms for extra back-ups. Ethan was just hovering even closer to Will than he usually did, his snark kicking into high gear (both Benji and Jane bit back smirks at that and upped their bets on when their leader would finally ask their analyst out.)
"Agent Dunn!" Benji withheld a scowl as he ignored the forensic computer analyst that was trying to make him go over his hack of the GHR Bank's email system AGAIN in favor of running another test on the improved facial recognition software he had designed. Upgrading his personal software and checking his backdoor accesses wasn't as visible as what Jane was doing to prepare, but if something went down, it would likely be just as useful. If he used those said back doors to try and check a few things above his clearance level, well, it wasn't like either Ethan or Will would really care or actually do anything even if it was brought up. The two highest ranking members of their team technically maintained the IMF line on compartmentalization and need to know, and even followed it more often than not. Still they had a healthy respect for other Agents doing what they did best and an even healthier disregard for what they considered stupid orders that they thought might get their people killed.
Even more than other teams that had clearance level imbalances, their team just accepted that because of his position Will sometimes had additional information he couldn't even give a hint of having, and for the most part they were okay with that. They trusted that if it was something that really impacted them or something he truly needed help with, the Non-Disclosure Agreements would meet the proverbial shredder.
All in all, it meant that even though they really wanted to confront Will about being at that extra, mostly hidden level of cautious, most likely his reactions weren't because the team was in trouble for something. Will would probably have told them to disappear like he had when the interim Secretary between the lately departed one and the current one had fabricated evidence against them and tried to pin a screw up on them. Instead they had all just nodded at each other and checked their resources, contacts, and backdoors while circling Will protectively.
Especially as all they found were hushed not-rumors that often times happened with intelligence agencies that something big had happened with S.H.I.E.L.D., the Agency that ran the Avengers among other things, but no one had any facts. Even Ethan hadn't been able to dig anything solid up though, and he had been pressing everyone he knew given the excessive number of closed door meetings Will had been in. It could have just been that they were hypersensitive to the meetings right now since they meant that one of them couldn't be right by Will, but in Benji's perfectly humble opinion there had been less meetings after the incident with the bananas and balloons in Bucharest.
Even if the meetings turned out to be nothing, and Will's twitchiness was just him having enough trouble with someone in his personal life that he couldn't keep it from impacting his job, no one messed with their analyst. Their prep wouldn't be for nothing as Jane and Ethan would no doubt do something terrifying and Benji would have anything the person had ever done come back to haunt them and add them to every sex offender registry on the planet to make their life even more miserable just for kicks.
"Agent Dunn, are you even listening!" Benji looked up from his screen at the nitwit that was obviously trying too hard to be Abby Sciuto from NCIS and put on his best Ethan-glare.
He would not admit that it still needed work as the other man just raised an eyebrow.
XxXxX
There were a couple of things that had flown through Clint Barton's mind when he received a text from one of Natasha's more secure emergency numbers.
None of them had been even remotely good.
The two word phrase, "is people," was a signal that he currently couldn't trust anyone, at all, especially the governments or other assorted agencies that served them. It wasn't quite a run for the hills, but it was the last step away from it. He also hadn't received a back ping from his latest report to Agent Blake even though it was tagged for top priority and dealt with another cache of Chitauri weaponry. Plus the fact that he had been in meeting after meeting about something causing S.H.I.E.L.D. to lock ranks and cutoff most communication in the midst of an agency wide manhunt for an individual undisclosed to other agencies…
But the cherry on top was that Nat's text went to his William Brandt phone. She never broke covers like that. Natasha had to have found something terrifying that she needed him to know about immediately, rather than sending it to his Clint phone and waiting for him to check it.
Ultimately, it wasn't surprising that Ethan and the rest of his team were looking at him worriedly. He was never as good at keeping his cover as Nat was. Instead he was pretty sure that his IMF team might be able to tell that he was debating how much he trusted them with things other than his life, along the fact that he had pretty much come to the conclusion that the new IMF Secretary would be a bigger hindrance alive if he needed to split.
As Clint stared down the new Secretary over yet another batch of stupid reports and other completely unneeded red tape in relation to using the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sudden lock in ranks to re-stabilize the IMF position in Africa, he decided that he mostly, really truly mostly, trusted his IMF team. Not because of what they had done in the past, though that helped, but because he was sure that if he killed the Director right now, the others would help him hide the body.
Still, until he got word from Natasha, he would hold off on sharing anything because she was the only person left that Clint did trust completely.
"Are we boring you, Agent Brandt?" Will snapped his attention to one of the Secretary's new cronies, a Director with more titles than sense, and bit back the comment from Clint that came to mind. The guy took a step back and Will scowled internally, he'd let a bit too much of Clint out there. Seriously, this was why Natasha was the better spy and he really should just be told to shoot things, no matter what Coulson had said.
He smiled brightly, "Not at all." He flicked the file he had been looking closed. At least he could blow off some steam by freaking them out with his memory. You'd think with all the brilliant people that these politicians dealt with daily, they wouldn't mind a little demonstration of nearly eidetic memory.
XxXxX
Jane scowled as she thumbed through another batch of possible facial recognition matches from the traffic cameras around Wills condo. Their ever resourceful Analyst had slipped their net last night before Ethan could 'show up with some brews to watch the game.' If Jane hadn't been a little worried that Will might have pulled an Ethan and taken a solo mission to spare them from some horrible-administratively mandated fate, Jane would really have approved of the creative levels of swearing that Ethan had achieved.
Now, after five hours of increasingly worried searching, they still had no sign of the fourth member of their team. They had regrouped at IMF HQ to quietly tap their various resources and see if they could dig anything up, Ethan to try and sweet talk leads out of the Secretary and his various Directors, and Benji to the techs, with Jane running interference for them both and following up anything that needed an extra set of eyes.
This meant that Jane was rather surprised when a chat window popped up on her tablet screen from Kathy at the front desk, basically telling her to get down to the main Security Desk before Will arranged to have everyone in the lobby fired on general principle. Will was trying to get someone into the building without a sign in or badge with a combination of his position and well-filed, properly approved paperwork, however a newbie was being particularly obtuse to the point no one else could get a word in edgewise.
Jane had no issue terrifying people in her rush to get down there even as she fired a text to Ethan and Benji.
When she got down there though, she felt more than a bit surprised.
Jane really did have to take a moment to blink and stare at Will. It was unusual to see him wear anything besides impeccably tailored, high end business wear, but he was pulling off the chunky turtleneck sweater, leather jacket, and slightly baggy jeans over combat boots rather well.
It didn't hurt that he had an obvious fire to his eyes and was in particularly fine form as he shredded the Junior Agent that apparently had a hard time figuring out what a form GAI128 meant in relation to the slightly bemused, curly haired man that had wandered in with him a few minutes before. Even if the man seemed somewhat familiar, Jane couldn't really figure out why this man rated one of the highest private accesses you could get to the building.
Still…
"Need any help, Will?" She asked from right behind the Junior Agent's ear, causing him to jump and belatedly reach for his gun. The piece was snatched out of his reach and the magazine released before he could blink by a scowling Will that had moved fast enough to even startle Jane. That was a very quick reaction time, even for him.
"No, but thank you," Will stated with a scowl. "Danners here was going to let us in now."
This particular Junior Agent, who had been witness to both Will and Jane having made it through metal detectors at least twice, and was now dealing with Will's impeccably processed forms to let the man at his side in without any type of security check no matter how suspicious he seemed, finally seemed to get a clue and waved the two men on.
Will's smile as he stalked forward was slightly predatory and Jane almost didn't know what to think as it was such an unusual look on his face. Still she fell in beside her teammate and his guest on the way towards the elevators.
"Jane, we need the team in the Situation Room ASAP."
Jane nodded, pulling out her phone to send another text to the others as she followed after Will and the rather-too-familiar-for-her-comfort stranger that was keeping up with him stride for stride. "Gear?"
Will gave a short barking laugh that was so unlike him it almost had her reaching for her gun. "Anything Benji needs to help hack everything in the world?" He said with a sarcastic edge that was pure Will after having been made to deal with heights on top of too many meetings with the new Secretary and the gaggle of idiot yes-men that he had brought in to fill positions left vacant by the Ghost Protocol and too little coffee.
"Shouldn't we just call To-" the man started only to have Will pivot and glare at him, and proceed to walk backwards down the hall for a few steps. It was oddly fascinating to watch the two men have a silent communication through the use of various raised eyebrows and grimaces. Jane wasn't sure what was more disturbing, that William Brandt was walking backwards or that he was actually really good at it. While Will was in top form for an Agent and fit in well with them, he really did act more like an Analyst, all proper and buttoned up, the perfect straight man to their insanity, and you'd never see him doing something random like walking backwards.
By the time Will had to spin around to stop from running into the people waiting at the elevators, the silent conversation had ended with the curly haired guy finally shrugging and rolling his eyes. They traveled up to the Sit-Room by the time Jane finished her back-and-forth with Benji via text (the secured text service worked through the internal network, cell signals were much more iffy). Ethan was already there without her having to contact him, waiting with a raised eyebrow. Jane was half tempted to make a comment about people using their words, but Will looked fairly grim faced and even more skittish than he had the past few days. The person Will was escorting seemed perfectly okay with that behavior from him, which meant either he knew Will under different circumstances than they did, or only through bad enough situations for Will to be behaving this way.
Then Will's head tilt to Ethan had their team leader sliding into mission mode and Jane on pure instinct followed.
They entered the SitRoom and as always, when the former Head Analyst (who was still Head Analyst in all but name truthfully) entered the room, all of the other Analysts snapped just a bit more to attention even if their eyes never left their screens.
Will led the team over to one of the 3D tables that had recently been installed and brought it online, and Jane glared a few people into moving so that she could commandeer the surrounding workstations for Benji while Ethan watched the room with narrowed eyes. Will leaned over and whispered something to his guest as he flicked a few screens over to him. The man nodded and expertly began manipulating them.
Jane watched as (with a rather unusual disregard for privacy rules) Will started opening up several personnel files. Without even needing a moment to adjust to the high-tech tables, the curly-haired-guy was quickly bringing up and preparing a series of communication connections, adding more occasionally when Will muttered something. With a glance at Jane and Ethan, Will flipped through the files he had up, as if comparing them to a mental list before he nodded and flicked his fingers over the screen. A moment later, both Jane and Ethan's phones beeped.
Will waved them in close and muttered low. "Jane, I need the people on your list in this room within the next half hour with a full escort, keep them in the back so they can't see the screens and don't let them talk to each other, and keep an eye out for signals. Ethan, yours are at other Op Centers or in the field, get people you trust and bring them in, they're not allowed to communicate with anyone else in any way. Try to keep this as quiet as possible, we can't tip any of them off that we're moving this early."
"What is going on, Will?" Ethan asked, his gaze boring into Will. "What's the goal here?"
Will looked at him a little incredulously, like he couldn't quite believe that he was having to answer these questions now. "What's going on and the goal is to get the people on those lists isolated before any damage can be done."
"I need more, Will. If there's a threat to the IMF we need to neutralize it," Ethan stated.
Will shook his head, "I can't risk it."
"You're trusting us to help with this, you need to trust us with why, Will," their leader almost hissed. Jane looked back and forth between Ethan's hyper focused, 'I need control of this' face and Will's slightly frustrated, time crunch pissy look and sighed. Even if they got out of whatever this was okay, Ethan and Will would probably be having words about this later.
Finally Will bowed his head a little, before meeting Ethan's stare pleadingly.
"I'm sorry. I can't risk explaining it quite yet. But I need your help, please." Ethan looked for something in his eyes, and whatever it was he found it, nodding in acquiescence before stepping away to start checking his phone. Jane gave Will a quick nod herself before slipping out of the room and stalking towards the Head of Security's office while reviewing her own files.
XxXxX
Bruce tapped his finger to the side of the contact button for Tony. He had all of the feeds for S.H.I.E.L.D. and pretty much every alphabet agency Bruce had heard of regardless of country (along with a few even he hadn't) set up like Clint had asked, but he was a little concerned with how Clint was acting. Bruce was almost, but not quite, ashamed of the fact that he kept checking to see if Clint's eyes had the blue haze of the Tesseract's energy.
It really didn't help his stress levels that these other people—who were most decidedly not S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents but in between the building and the attitudes had that same super-secret quasi-military vibe—were calling Clint by a different name. He especially noted that they all acted rather concerned by his current behavior as well, though just like Bruce they were still trusting him.
"Just a bit longer, Doc," Clint muttered as he intently watched Security bring several people into the back of the room even as he kept processing various screens and initiating various programs. There was a rather excited man (Bruce was pretty sure he was the Benji mentioned earlier) leading a team of techies near them that would jump whenever Clint would throw a screen at him. It was like he was almost, but not quite used to the holo-screens and 3D tech. He also kept stealing glances at Clint, then flicking his eyes to the other two people that Clint was communicating most with. Even with his nervousness the man had expertly lead the techs in setting up a rig that could pretty much do as Clint had requested earlier and hack the entire world as Clint still wasn't providing any more specifics.
The reminder of which was enough to make him start tapping his finger again.
Something was definitely up, and Bruce didn't like where any of his thoughts were taking him.
"Benji, ready to forward transmission, process the download, and prep the counter blocks. On my mark."
"Will," the man looked up a little apprehensively, before nodding. Well, that confirmed he was Benji. "Our system should be able to handle some of the specs you've given me, and I'm ready to tap a few other supercomputers if needed, but I don't-"
"I've got everyone, Will. They're catching on something isn't right and are getting pretty nervous though," the Natasha like woman, Jane, interrupted as she moved up to them again. "The Secretary caught wind of things and he's on his way in. Same with Larson." Bruce didn't know who the Secretary or Larson were, but Clint looked about as happy as he had when he'd been dragged off for interrogation immediately after shawarma.
His scowl was actually quite impressive and Bruce sighed.
Some type of annoying bureaucrat was just what he needed after he'd been dragged in by Clint without the chance to stop for his normal tea on top of the promise of dealing with Fury after whatever scheme the archer (which, by default, meant Natasha too) was about to set into play. Whatever it was would have to be good, since Clint didn't look nervous in the least though he was twitchy and annoyed.
"Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be bad for my blood pressure?" Bruce asked.
"Because Doc, the world is about to get turned upside down again," Clint smiled that predatory smile again.
"Uh, what do you mean by that, Will? 'Cause you know, I'd really like to avoid our team being disavowed again. That was not pleasant at all," Benji practically whined. 'Again?' Bruce thought questioningly. Whatever 'disavowed' was didn't sound pleasant, and Benji was saying it had already happened to Clint's team before. Which brought up the thought that, really, another team? How many were he and Natasha on?
With no response to Benji's comment other than his grin gaining a slightly manic edge to it, Clint turned back to his own screen. "Get Tony on, Bruce."
Bruce tapped the screen to initiate the call through Tony's emergency number. Luckily it only took two rings for the billionaire to answer. "BIG GREEN! I'm glad that you called! I have th-"
"Tony!" Bruce called out.
"-is absolutely awesome idea for a way to bre-"
Bruce sighed as he heard Benji start fanboying in the background about it being the Tony Stark. "Tony! Focus on me for a second!" Bruce tried again, especially since he saw Clint twitch from the reflection on his screen.
"You are harshing my creative vibe, Bruce!"
"Stark! We don't have time for this!" Clint grit out as he spun Bruce's screen to glare at Tony.
"Legolas! You are getting taken off of the fun list."
"I'll cry into my pillow later, Tin Man," Clint snapped rather uncharacteristically and tapped a few buttons on his own screen. "I'm sending some data to Jarvis."
"Yeah, I'm getti-" Tony blinked and immediately sobered. "This is-"
"I know what it is, Tony. We need to stream the feed in the first batch globally and help the distribution of the secondary file batch, I've got things set up here to process most of it, but we need to pick the feed up in the first place — it should be anytime now, but I know exactly how fast your back door access and those credentials will get you through so you need to start now. The other transmissions should take care of themselves."
"Do you know wh-"
"I can't risk anything else through any channel quite yet. It will make sense soon, unfortunately." Clint looked as sad as Bruce had seen him since those first days after Manhattan when they'd run into each other as they went in and out of various meetings.
"I've already got frequency for the feed, it's really just the Triskelion's Internal Intercom though, so unless you want messages about field day or something not sure what good it's going to do you."
"Great, Benji, what's the number of that Port I had you set up earlier?"
"Will, I really don-"
"Port number, Benji."
"3378."
"Port 3378 on the server I am sending you should be prepped for Jarvis. That'll allow him to access the IMF system. Stick to what I've flagged and the data packet transmission that is about to transmit from S.H.I.E.L.D. please." Tony waved a hand idly, his eyes darting back and forth as he looked over everything that Clint had sent.
"I am connecting now," came the British voice through the screen and Benji had yet another minor fanboy moment in the background as he realized, 'that's the Jarvis, like the most advanced and incredible AI ever! Will!'.
"We'll need to prep for the-"
"What the hell, Barton!" Tony suddenly yelled. "Natasha being a traitor? Not something I see, but you two are super spy assassin twins of doom. No one knows what either of you're thinking. But Cap? There is no way Cap's a traitor!"
The entire room around them froze at Tony's words and Clint tilted his head in the screen's direction, obviously annoyed.
Bruce took in Clint's form, which was settling into the relaxed readiness that it normally did before he started shooting things in response to Tony's glare. He glanced at the non S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents that were realizing Tony had called Clint a name they didn't recognize and that Clint had just had them set up what amounted to a global communications and security system override. Bruce stepped back out of the line of fire and away from the desk just in case, though several eyes tracked his movements.
"I'll ask it again, what is Fury thinking?" Tony, who for all his ability to be oblivious to things that he would rather not think about, was still remarkably intuitive to tense situations, especially if he caused them. Still, Tony was always willing to give an Avenger a second shot, which was why he was continuing to work on the holographic keyboards that now covered their view of him. The results of that were that Bruce could track the computer windows that started to remotely shift or locked down on their end as Tony processed through them, quickly shutting down any electronic method someone could use to stop Clint from doing what he was doing.
This was probably a good idea as suddenly from behind Bruce came one of the most annoying throat clearing noises that he had ever heard. Bruce turned around and saw the dark haired man—Ethan maybe?—from before with two older guys that screamed 'annoying bureaucrats with too much power' to Bruce's trained, grant seeking senses. Given the flat look on Clint's face, he took another step back so that archer could handle the idiots without having to worry overly much about Bruce accidentally getting shot by any of the increasingly twitchy trigger fingers in the room. If anyone wanted to shoot Bruce they would be doing it on purpose which meant Bruce would have relatively little issue with the Other Guy smashing them.
"Want to explain what is going on here, Agent Brandt?" One of the men questioned with an expression Bruce could only call a condescending sneer, complete with an extra kind of smug appreciation as he spoke Clint's title. Bruce's tension levels were slightly mollified by the way pretty much everyone in the room shot various looks of annoyance at man.
"Secretary Boxter, Mr. Larson, until I say so, this is above your clearance," Clint stated simply and turned back to his screen, pulling up a few things that Bruce recognized as various S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies through the remote window that Tony and Jarvis had just created on his screen. Bruce watched Tony eyeball Clint for a second before narrowing his eyes and glancing to Bruce who shrugged; he had no idea what was going on. Tony raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth before he was cut off by the other of the two paper pushers.
"Agent Brandt, or should I say, Barton, you had better re-think that statement." Bruce sighed as he watched Tony's eyes narrow.
Great….
"And you are?" came Tony's voice came through in that overly-sweet, 'aren't you cute' sounding way that he used with particularly dumb reporters and 90% of politicians.
Well, Bruce had heard from the rumor mill how Tony shut down Ross before. This was bound to be equally entertaining.
The one that had cut Tony off gave the video feed a look that rivaled the previous one leveled at Clint and said, "I'm Secretary Daniel Boxter, Head of the Impossible Mission Force, and whatever is going on in this Agency doesn't concern you, Stark. S.H.I.E.L.D. may pander to stuck-up rich boys, but I don't."
At that, Tony burst out laughing. Actually, Bruce had to hide a smile himself. "You think Fury 'panders' to me? No, Fury just knows a good investment when he sees one. You obviously don't have even his level of brains, which, I'm sure, is why I've never heard of you before." And then he turned to Clint. "Why am I listening to this idiot?"
Clint smirked, "I was wondering the same thing."
"Brandt!" Boxter yelled, making the mistake of grabbing Clint's arm. Bruce wasn't sure why Clint didn't just end the guy for that, but this entire thing was strange. "Security, place Agent Brandt or Barton or whatever his name is under arrest for espionage. Agent Dunn, shut these things down immediately! I don't know what he has told you, but-"
"Secretary, I would re-think what you're doing," most-likely-Ethan interjected as he stepped right up into Boxter's space. Bruce noticed that he had the same body placement that Clint and Natasha used when they were still giving the person they were backing up room to move on their own. It was basically an intimidation stance, and one that had all the Security people freezing. Interesting, so even though Clint and this guy weren't in charge, they definitely held more loyalty.
At that point Bruce really couldn't help it. He might be just as lost as Tony at this point, confused and a little nervous, but this seemed like it was big. And right now, his only option was trusting Clint; the fact that this Secretary guy and his crony were pissing him off was just a bonus. Bruce stood taller, drawing some of the room's attention to himself, his face a mask of calm civility as he addressed the bureaucrats. "I wouldn't advise arresting my friend. It might make me angry."
"And why should I care about whether you are angry or not?" Boxter asked snidely.
Bruce just smiled.
"Uh, trust me, you don't want to make him mad. I'd really rather not lose every piece of equipment in the room...if we're lucky," Clint stated, actually looking a little worried. "We really, really need this set up right now."
"And why is that?" The other man, Larson, asked snidely, and Clint opened his mouth to answer before the main frequency that Clint had had Tony pull up, the Internal Intercom, dinged.
"Perfect timing," Clint said, with what Bruce could only describe as a sad smile.
Using that nearly supernatural quickness that both Clint and Natasha could display at times, Clint flipped Secretary Boxter to the floor and triggered the S.H.I.E.L.D. frequency before anyone could do anything. Suddenly Steve—no, this was full on I-am-Captain-America-do-what-I-say-right-now started talking and all of the forwarding connections that they had set up triggered perfectly, broadcasting his words across the planet. As Cap went on, Bruce felt his heart drop, and all he could do was stare horrified at the fluctuating audio level line that followed the voice transmission.
"Oh my God…" Bruce whispered.
Bruce saw movement out of the corner of his eye and in a blink, Clint had a handgun pointed at the group of people corralled in the back, Jane and Ethan following his lead on where to point their weapons without blinking, and all of them froze, staring at Clint, specifically.
"But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay," Cap stated, voice somber, and Bruce watched Clint's face twist into a sad looking smirk. "And if I'm the only one, then so be it."
One of the people in the back twitched and without hesitation, Clint put a bullet between his eyes. The man fell to the ground, a gun falling with a thud beside him.
Guns from dozens of people in the room flew up, either landing on Clint and his friends who kept their guns aimed steadily to the group in the back, or joining them in aiming at the group in the back as Cap finished. "But I'm willing to bet I'm not."
The transmission cut off, and Bruce had no idea what to say as he stared at the person Clint had just killed. Clint said it for him.
"You just heard a Sit-Rep from Captain America himself. If anyone in this room, especially you S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents in the back, so much as moves a muscle before you're cleared you'll be joining him," Clint switched to one of those one handed grips that only he and Natasha could truly seem to pull off, and he started typing on his screen with his other one in a new window that popped up with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.
"Tony, lock all outside communication from this room until we clear everyone. Benji, hook this board up to the channel I just gave you, then get your hands off your keyboard," Clint called as he quickly typed in what looked like a series of usernames and passwords. ("Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god….." Benji was frantically whispering even as he complied, his screen the only one in the room that didn't flash to a lock screen. Bruce felt pretty much the same.) After a brief loading screen, a disembodied synthetic voice came from the tables speakers. "Provide Identification."
"ID: Hawkeye. Authorization: Barton, Clint. Serial: 8-553-692. Access Code: B84W-Trickshot-P69C-TA."
"Welcome, Hawkeye." The screen switched to an almost root directory/BIOS style screen. "Immediate redirect in place. Connecting to Assistant Director Hill."
A message window popped up next to the original screen that was currently loading multiple lines, most flashing red.
A line of text moved across it that was read to the room in that same computerized voice: "BW in - CA and A1 moving to targets - R incoming - sending dl 1 now, 2 and 3 eta below. Going to text only."
Clint double tapped the etas and large countdowns from the given times started on one of the main screens. He swallowed for a moment before he double tapped another of the reports and underneath the countdowns, one of the Alerts expanded. Now Bruce could see that it was a casualty list, as a new name and condition scrolled out on the bottom.
"Jarvis, please lock onto the incoming data transfer. Run the included targeting algorithm and send warnings to get as far underground as possible to the people designated and/or prep for a possible incoming missile strike."
"Sir?"
"Do it, Jarvis," Tony snapped, seething. He was also quickly working across all the screens that were popping up in front of him even as his suit built up around him. "I'm on my way to the Triskelion now."
"Leave that to Cap and Black Widow, Tony."
"Like He-"
"Iron Man! I'm sending you coordinates for the Cube. It's in a prison for captured high threat targets. Sitwell," Clint swallowed, "given that Sitwell was in charge of assigning Agents there and that he was a damned HYDRA traitor I need you and War Machine there."
"Yeah well considering I'm on at least 3 of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s high thre-"
"Some of the current people incarcerated there are Emil Blonsky, AKA the Abomination, Viktor Doom, Samuel Sterns, Justin Hammer, and Nathaniel Essex," Clint interrupted calmly, even as he kept working screens. "I trust Cap and Nat to do what they need to do, just like I trust that Thor is making his way to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy to try and protect those kids like I asked, I am trusting you to help where we need you." Even through the closed faceplate of the suit, Bruce could tell that Tony was having a hard time deciding whether to go along with what Clint was asking, or to do his own thing like normal. Bruce on the other hand knew two of the names on that list personally.
"Tony, go, please. We're close to the Triskelion and I can be there if needed," Bruce chimed in stepping over the gaping idiot Boxter on the ground and starting to pull data through the table again. He ignored the rumble of smashsmashsmashsmashsmash in the back of his head and forced himself to focus. Jarvis, as helpful as ever, displayed the algorithm results, many of them already highlighting the fact that all of the Avengers were on it. Bruce viciously held back the Hulk as Betty's name flashed across the screen. Jarvis was also compiling a list from Clint and Hill of people they had confirmed to be HYDRA. The number of people on it made Bruce feel nauseous.
"Fine," Stark bit out. "Switching to suit systems. This is going to slow down some of your direct requests for me though, Legolas. Jarvis, temporarily increase Bruce and Clint's access to match Peppers, and provide help with interfacing and utilizing our systems to any techies they approve within the Fahrenheit protocols."
"Understood, Sir."
Clint nodded. "Thanks, Tony."
The screen went dead as Iron Man's repulsors flared, and an audio connection to his suit sprung up minimized in the corner.
"Will-" Ethan stated as he turned a little from the people he still had his gun trained on, and took a step towards the archer and in a blink, Clint had the hand that had been typing pointing a second gun dead center of the man's forehead. Ethan promptly froze.
Clint actually looked apologetic as he stated, "Ethan, aside from Bruce, I probably trust you more than anyone else in this building, but there were people I trusted more that turned out to be HYDRA. Push me and you will learn first-hand why I am the best damn shot on the planet."
The man nodded, a look of resigned understanding on his face, and Bruce almost felt bad for him. But Clint was right.
Fury was dead.
The Avengers had been betrayed by S.H.I.E.L.D. itself and S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ was in the middle of a bloodbath right now as Cap and Black Widow fought to bring the new Helicarriers down.
And their enemies…
Sitwell, Rumlow, Alpha team...
Their enemies had been their friends not even a week ago.
And if the Avengers immediate contacts and support could be HYDRA, then anyone could be. HYDRA was in the very infrastructure used to catch it to the point a member of the World Security Council was a traitor. They had all the tools, all the access, to pick out everyone that could hurt them, and if Project Insight launched they would be able to.
And wasn't that an idea…
"Clint!" Bruce called out. Even though Clint didn't take his focus off Ethan and the rest of the room, Bruce could feel his attention. He quickly pulled up the RFID tags for the badges in the room and ran it against the targeting data provided by the algorithm in the first data transfer that Jarvis was currently handling, feeding the resulting dataset through the Stark Industries Supercomputer for an added speed boost. While that answer set was returning he started on the entire IMF roster that Clint had given him access to and he executed that query right as his first answer set came back.
"The targeting algorithm is pulling up your William Brandt ID on top of your Hawkeye ID, so that was still secure somehow. Other targets in this room on top of you and me are Ethan Hunt, Benji Dunn, Jane Carter, Natalie Connors, Helen Tanner, and Maxwell Winner."
Bruce didn't think he'd ever seen such a look of relief cross someone's face as the one that crossed Clint's right then, and Clint's gun dropped from Ethan like it weighed as much as the Hulk. Ethan, Jane, and even Benji to a degree just seemed to nod, while the three other people Bruce named jumped in near panic. One of the Security Agents was quick enough to pull the two confirmed non-HYDRA people away from the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, and to his credit didn't flinch when Clint's remaining gun tracked him. Several people glanced at the Analyst that was currently sagging against her station, a mix between terror and pride on her face, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents just looked like they were going to be sick.
"Guys, I-"
"What do you need us to do?" Jane asked, cutting him off.
"Call it, Clint," Ethan backed-up. The room, which had been dead silent before, suddenly broke out in agreeing shouts. Despite the severity of the situation Bruce had to duck his head to hide a smile and the Other Guy let out a throaty chuckle that echoed through his mind at Clint's stunned look.
The sudden clamoring was broken off by Benji's panicked shout. "I am touching my keyboard please don't shoot me!" The Agent slammed his hands to his keyboard and started typing as fast as Tony did when he was in a pissing match with Reed Richards. "We're getting that massive data dump you called out earlier and I should have believed you but I didn't because you're the best analyst on the planet, but I just thought you didn't really realize the data size you were talking about! We need to start shifting this volume across our servers and opening more load balancers or we're going to crash because I wasn't prepared for this! Our current system configuration can't take any more of this, Will—I mean Clint!"
Bruce glanced at the countdowns and sure enough, the first one was currently reading straight zeros. He started to notice other monitors beginning to flare with system alerts as well.
"Agent Dunn," said Jarvis through the table speakers, "I am currently opening several Stark Industries servers for your use. Agent Barton, please note that through Agent Romanov's tracking program I count 7,692 entities receiving this download. I understand that you seemed prepared for this, but given that this appears to be every S.H.I.E.L.D. file, including levels classified that even Mr. Stark has been unable to access thus far, would you like me to try and mitigate this?"
Bruce's head snapped to the screen and he heard Benji whisper, "Oh my God," again.
"No, Jarvis. Cap made the call. S.H.I.E.L.D. is done." Bruce couldn't help but look up to make sure Clint seemed as okay as he could get since the pain in that last sentence choked his voice a bit. "Ethan, any leverage that you've got, we need to get back up to the Cube for Iron Man and War Machine, to the Academy to help evacuate, and to start pulling S.H.I.E.L.D. UCs and teams out from ops. Everything and anyone is now compromised so any advanced weapons caches that they can make it too before the bad guys would be good, too. Jane, I'm sending you a list of people we currently know are HYDRA, we need to start getting as many of them in custody as fast as we can."
"Mission accepted," Ethan stated as he stepped forward and placed a hand on Clint's shoulder, a supportive look on his face. A moment later he pulled out his phone and moved to one of the computers.
"Hold it right there!" The bureaucrat that Clint hadn't sent to the floor earlier snapped, stepping forward. "You've always been off, Brandt! And before anything else happens you are going to be answering some questions!" Larson was practically snarling by the time he finished and he had the sheer audacity to walk straight into Clint's line of fire on his aimed gun.
As if on cue, a scream sounded from the back of the room where the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents had been gathered. Bruce spun around to see the terrified expressions on most of the faces around her as a smirking woman with long black hair pulled a pen out of one of the Security Agent's neck with a psychotic smirk on her face.
XxXxX
Notes: So I kind of had several ideas for some Phil/Clint stories, along with some Will/Ethan stories and then Captain America 2 happened and despite some issues that I had with the movie I suddenly had all these little "might be cool if" ideas kind of smack together into a plot bunny/story from the theological realm of eternal torment.
Please let me know what you thought of it! :)
Edit: 06/27/2015 - fixed some grammar and formatting issues that I spotted.
Edit: 08/21/2015 - fixed yet more grammar and formatting and others issues that I found... One day... *headdesk*