Title: That's New
Fandom: The Avengers (movie)
Summary: The mission was a trap and Clint was not walking back into that trap, no matter what. Everyone would just have to deal with the new Clint until someone could figure out how to fix it. (Temporary gender swap)
Characters: Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, Dr. Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, random unimportant OCs.
Pairing(s): no telling who'll end-up with who
WARNING: has a temporary, unwanted, sex change to the main character (also I'm a slasher so it may get slashy. As in you should be warned that I'm a shipper of female/female, male/male and male/female pairings, so leave now if you're at all homophobic or heterophobic).
Disclaimer: None of the Avengers belong to me, and I was a big on comics as a kid but I'm basing this solely off the movies and ignoring comic verse because that gives me so much more leway.
AN: None of this is Betaed by anyone but me so sorry for any mistakes.
Chapter 1: Lab Rat
It turned from a simple information-gathering mission into a desperate race for freedom after being injected with an unknown drug in just moments. One minute he thought the scientist and his guards had no idea Clint was anywhere nearby and the next he was hit by some sort of dart. He was knocked out almost instantly, falling off his perch and right into their hands. Luckily he'd built up resistances to most drugs and was conscious again within minutes. But it only took a few minutes for the scientist to start injecting Clint with a strange, faintly lavender coloured, serum.
As the scientist stepped back and ordered his goons to lock Clint up in "observation room one" as he called it Clint snapped into action. Ignoring the intense waves of pain rippling through his body Clint grabbed his nearby bow and used it like a staff to knock his enemies out of his way before dashing off into the night. He led them around the city a little before back tracking and losing them. Listening to the scientist back at his lab he discovered that the man had spread rumours to trick SHIELD into sending an Agent to investigate so he could have a new lab rat.
"Find him! It shouldn't be that hard, he will be in enough pain by now that he won't be able to function much longer." Except that it was in Cantonese since he was currently in Hong Cong, still, as one of the best SHIELD Agents, Clint understood many languages.
If he'd had anything close to a normal life that might have been true and he'd be close to collapsing, maybe for the man's other subjects it was too painful, but Clint had a much higher pain tolerance than average. As it happened with people who had a tough childhood Clint could tolerate a lot more than most people. So he snuck back out of the scientist's lair, left a coded message at the extraction point, and holed-up in an abandoned apartment building, in the slums across town, and after taking the proper precautions finally let his body give in and curl-up in pain.
He wasn't sure how long he spent passed out except that it had been nearing dawn by the time he blacked out and when he woke it was dark out again. Thankful that he always set up a well-stocked nest, safe house, before every mission he drew more blood and labelled it with the time and, after checking, the date. Now he had a few vials from a couple hours after the injection and a few more from almost twenty-four hours after the incident. Of course he knew what it had done to him, according to what that scientist told his head-henchman, but the blood would be important to the scientists, like Bruce and whoever worked for Tony, figuring out how to reverse what the serum did to Clint.
Genetic engineering crap, he was going to be the next scientific freak of nature like Steve, or Bruce. The only difference was that this wasn't really something that made him a better fighter. It might make him a better assassin or spy but probably didn't improve much beyond giving him the element of surprise in a few more cases. He took the rest of the night to do some warm-ups and basic fighting moves, making sure he was well prepared to protect himself even if he was slightly compromised. Now the problem was getting out.
That scientist knew what Clint normally looked like so he probably also knew what Clint looked like right now. Clint had to lay low for a while to make sure he could avoid recapture. So avoid the lunatics who experimented on him and in the meantime get used to the modifications that serum made to his body. He drew blood again after another few hours, detailing how long it had been and what he'd figured out since then. Once he felt safe leaving the nest he had the vials shipped to a Dr. Natalie Romanova via Stark Industries, Natasha would understand the coded messages inside and Bruce and Tony would use their resources to investigate his blood.
Eventually he'd need to find a way out of the country. None of his old fake passports would work any more so he had to take the time to find the right connections in the underworld to get a new one made. Clint needed new clothes, a new identity, and probably a bit of a new outlook on life. This was going to be a tough few, however long the situation lasted.
One month after SHIELD Agent Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye, disappeared on a reconnaissance mission in Asia, exact location classified, Claire Branston, freelance photojournalist and feminist rights activist born and raised in France, flew into New York City from Paris.
AN: Yeah, don't know what to say about this one except that don't worry Clint will end up perfectly back to normal...eventually.
Read and Review because I've got my stories already, but if someone likes one or asks for more then I will post more for them.