Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of "Mission: Impossible"; they belong to Paramount. I also don't own Clint or the Avengers, they belong to the monstrosity that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"Brothers in Arms" Universe Timeline: This one takes place after "Mission: Avengers" but before "No Strings Attached."

Author's Note: I've got an outline this time! I actually know where this is going! Someone asked me one time in a review if I'd do a story where I stuck Clint with the IMF team and well...they got their wish.

Chapter One: Business as Usual
Minsk, Belarus & Washington, D.C.

"Benji? Benji, do you copy?" William Brandt pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He glanced up at the bank of computer monitors in front of him, a satellite picture of an old WWII-era Soviet airstrip in Minsk, Belarus, staring back at him. "Benji…" He hated being stateside while the rest of the team was in the field. Although honestly, after the past two years, it's kind of a nice break. Nothing is exploding, I'm not fighting aliens, giant suits of metal aren't trying to kill me…

"Shit."

Over the secure line, he heard Benji swear. Will blinked and returned his focus to the satellite feeds. Well. That can't be a good sign…Benji normally was a pretty placid guy. "Where's Ethan?" he asked Benji. He hadn't heard from their fearless leader in awhile.

That didn't worry him near as much as what was on the A400 that was about to take off. Nerve gas, on its' way to terrorists. Ethan often went incommunicado on missions when he was focused on something; and Will was learning to just go with it.

"I don't know; we're on radio silence," Benji confirmed Will's suspicions.

Will rolled his eyes. How completely unhelpful. "That plane cannot take off with the package on it. Do you understand?"

"We're working on it," another voice cut into the feed, and if Will had been holding a phone, he'd have dropped it.

"Luther?" he demanded. "What the hell are you doing there?" Luther Stickell was an old friend and IMF teammate of Ethan's. Will had only met him once, in Seattle, after the Ghost Protocol incident. The mountain of a man scared the hell out of him. But he was supposed to be… "I thought you were on assignment in Malaysia?"

"I am in Malaysia," Luther's baritone informed him. "I've been here for two days. But Benji needed my help." He sounded out of breath. Will did not want to know why.

"I didn't need help," Benji objected, sounding mildly affronted. "I just needed…assistance. It's a different thing."

Will heard Luther snort. This is not even remotely funny, he thought as he ran a hand over his face. "The package is still on the plane," Will reminded them, pacing the room.

"We understand the package is on the plane," Benji replied placatingly, like he was talking to a two year old. "We're trying to cripple it remotely."

Will paused in his pacing. "You can do that?" he asked.

"We can if the pilot's got the satellite uplink on," Luther told him.

"And how do we access the uplink?" Will felt like he didn't want to know the answer.

It was a few seconds before Luther answered him. "It involves hacking a Russian satellite," Luther said finally.

Will threw his hands in the air. Oh of course it does. "I can't authorize that!" Will protested.

Luther's voice was nonchalant. "Which is why I didn't ask permission," he said. Will heard something metal being pulled apart on Luther's end of the conversation.

"We are under investigation for misconduct!" Will reminded the two of them. He felt like throwing something. This was supposed to be an easy mission, he thought to himself. But of course, it had to go to hell in a handbasket. Like everything else lately.

It seemed like the world had just gotten back to normal after the Battle of New York. Or as normal as the world could get now…Two years ago, an alien race called the Chitauri had come pouring through a hole in the sky, led by a god of not-so-mythical proportions. Will's brother Clint had been at the heart of it, literally.

His twin brother, Clint Brandt, more commonly known as Clint Barton, code name Hawkeye. One of the six superheroes known as The Avengers.

The problem was, the IMF team headed by the legendary Ethan Hunt was having its' fair share of problems in getting missions accomplished lately, even with your average garden-variety terrorists, and this current screw-up was just another in a string of missions not going according to plan. Will wondered if the string of screw-ups had something partly to do with the makeup of the team being changed with the departure of Jane Carter.

Not that Will was ever going to suggest that…seeing as how it was his fault.

"The package is onboard. What do you want me to do?" Luther shot back, interrupting Will's train of thought and bringing him back to the IMF control room, where there was now a radiating blur of yellows and oranges on the thermal imaging…"Shit," Will uttered his own curse, realizing what he was seeing. "I'm reading a heat bloom, Benji! The engines are starting!"

"Yeah, I'm aware of that," Benji yelled at him. "But I can't do anything 'til I'm connected to the satellite." He sounded annoyed, but it was probably directed more at Luther than Will for the time being.

Or at least, Will hoped.

"Benji, you're connected!" Luther barked over the comm, and Will heard furious typing on Benji's end.

"The package is still on the plane!" Will reminded them unnecessarily, earning him a "Shut up!" from both Benji and Luther.

"Shut down the fuel pump," Luther told Benji.

"Uh…mechanicals are locked out," Benji replied. The keystrokes came faster.

"Electrical?" Will offered.

"Oh, that might work," Benji perked up. Then, "…..No, can't get in."

"Hydraulics," Will instructed.

"Encrypted!" Benji shot back, and this time, the annoyance in his voice was directed at Will.

Will closed his eyes and leaned over the table. "Benji-"

"Yeah yeah, the package is still on the plane!" Benji groused. "Do you want to fly here and do my job?"

Before Will could shoot back a sarcastic reply, another voice came over the comms, this one sounding a lot calmer than the men already on it. "Benji, can you open the door?"

Will's jaw dropped. "Ethan?" he yelled, furious that their team leader was just now checking in. "Where the hell are you?"

"By the plane!" Ethan Hunt yelled back over the drone of the propellers. "Benji, can you open the door?" he asked their tech again. He sounded like he was running. From where or to where, Will had no idea. He'd stopped trying to keep track of Ethan. It was too much work.

"Uh…maybe?" Benji floundered.

"Then open it when I tell you!" Ethan ordered.

What in the hell is he….Will frowned. No. I don't want to know.

Ethan's voice came over the comms again. "I'm on the plane, open the door!" Will could barely hear him. He stared at the satellite feeds, trying to see where Ethan was, but didn't see their fearless leader anywhere in the picture.

"How'd you get in plane?" Will yelled over the comm.

"Not in. On."

Will turned to one of the techs in the room. "Zoom in!" he ordered her, and the young woman's hands flew across the keyboard, bringing up a single screen shot of the A400 starting to roll down the runway. They can't take off…they can't take off-Will's jaw dropped. The enhanced zoom was showing the right side of the plane. Specifically, the parachutist door, to which hung a solitary figure with longish brown hair…"Shit!" Will swore, this time aloud. "Ethan?!"

Ethan's voice came over the comm, insistent. "Open the door! Benji!"

"Yeah, yeah okay…." Benji was stumbling over his syllables now, obviously in hurry-up mode. Will could hear the keystrokes coming fast and furious.

Will grabbed his hair in both hands. "Benji!" he yelled at their tech in the field. "Open that door right now!" The A400 was a few hundred feet in the air and climbing fast. He could see Ethan's fingers dug into the grooves in the door, saw his feet starting to lose purchase on the wing. Oh Jesus….

"Come on!" he heard Luther urging, half a world away. "Come on!"

"I'm trying!" Benji yelled at the both of them. There were several moments of tense silence. Then, "Yes! Got it!" Benji yelled triumphantly.

Will watched the screen. The tech in the room fiddled with the zoom, getting as close as the satellite could while trying to keep up with the accelerating and climbing plane. Ethan was still clinging to the side of the plane. Down in the corner of the feed, Will could see the cargo ramp slowly lowering. "Benji! That's the wrong door!" he yelled. "That's the cargo bay!"

"Everything's in Cyrillic!" Benji yelled back at him. "It's like someone dumped out a box of Lucky Charms and made them into an alphabet!"

Will gripped the sides of the table until his knuckles were white. "Benji!"

The door on the side of the plane popped open and Ethan slipped inside. Will released his grip on the table, breathing heavily. Ethan Hunt had pulled a lot of crazy stunts in the time Will had known him, but this was by far the craziest. "Ethan?" he asked into his mic. He waited.

No response.

Then, something slipped off the cargo ramp and dropped into the sky. A moment later, a parachute billowed out.

Ethan's voice came over the comm., wind whipping past the microphone. "Hey, Brandt. Got the package off the plane. Mission accomplished."

"Oh, shut up," Will bit back, throwing his headset across the room.

Undisclosed Location
Helicarrier

Ensign Ryan Lind stared at the man standing in front of him in awe. Next to him, his friend and fellow SHIELD agent Claire Kyle gripped his arm excitedly. Someone coughed, and Ryan shot them a Look. "Shut up," he whispered.

Clint Barton ignored him, sighting down the length of his arrow. His eyes were zeroed in on the target at the end of the hangar bay, 330 feet down. He could hear the hushed whispers.

"No way in hell."

"Another twenty says he hits the target but not the bullseye."

"Shut up!" That was Lind again, and Clint had to refrain from rolling his eyes. He took a breath, pulled the string taught. Then, he let go. The arrow flew silently down the length of the helicarrier, and buried itself in the center circle. Down at the end, he heard someone yell, "Holy shit!"

Clint grinned, allowing his recurve to collapse into something more manageable, and checked his watch. "And that concludes our show," he said with a grin. He glanced meaningfully at Ensign Lind, saw the kid's eyes go wide, before ducking into the elevator and making his way up to the flight deck.

"Agent Barton!" the air officer greeted him as the doors slid back. "They're landing shortly!" He pointed up into the crystal-clear sky, where Clint could just make out the burn of a quinjet engine silhouetted against the black.

"Which one are we taking back to DC?" he asked him over the din of the flight deck operations.

"231!" the air officer responded. He nodded to a singular jet currently being fueled. Clint nodded and gave him a small salute. He jogged over to the jet and started running it through pre-flight check. Behind him, he heard the jet with his partner, Natasha Romanoff, and Captain America, land on the deck. The engines were running down outside just as he was getting his clearance to take off.

"231, Tower. Skies are clear."

"Roger that," Clint responded, then craned around in the pilot's seat. "Welcome aboard Hawk Air, I'll be your pilot this evening," he greeted his Avengers teammates. Both of them looked dog tired from their mission. He got a smile from Natasha…and nothing from Steve. "Hey, Cap," he greeted the Avengers de facto leader. Captain America said nothing as he strapped into his seat, pulling his helmet off and letting it fall to the floor beside him.

Clint frowned as Natasha came up to sit next to him in the copilot's chair. "Rough night?" he asked. He'd been tasked with picking up the second half of Strike Team Delta and Cap after a mission in the Indian Ocean and bring them back to DC for debriefing.

"The usual," Natasha responded, putting her headset on. Out of the corner of his eye, Clint caught Steve give her a sideways glance before closing his eyes.

"Uh…huh," Clint replied. "Whatever you say."