Steady... She told herself. The string on her bow was pulled tightly with an arrow nestled gently in the slide. The target was prowling through the cars on the road. The panther was obviously not interested in a meal at the moment. Which was good, that way none of the innocent people around it would be eaten right now. However, the fact that it was around so many people made it really difficult to target the creature. It was too likely that she could miss the creature altogether and hit one of the people. So, she relaxed her bow. A solid target on the over-sized-man-eating panther would have to wait till later. Later when the panther was away from the mass population. She watched the panther and pondered it's behavior, why was it acting in an almost defensive manner? Then the creature moved out from behind the car it had been unintentionally using for cover. It's teats were obviously swollen like that of a nursing cat. She has babies. She thought to herself. Babies posed a bigger problem, she would have to find the little guys before neutralizing the female. To do so she would follow the creature. She slid her arrow back into the quiver and headed down the fire escape of the building she'd been using as a perch and into the ally. On her way to the road she kept one eye on the target and one eye on her path. A shadowy figure appeared beside her and she continued toward the creatures path. She tried to ignore the shadow but she felt a familiar presence.
"The Avengers will take care of this mess." The shadow spoke in that familiar and comforting voice. She stopped walking.
"Oh dear Clint, if only it were that easy." Cassandra Blake replied. She knew as well as anyone else that the Avengers would deal with the immediate threat, the panther in the city. The problem though is that the bigger threat might actually be the kittens and the male panther.
"Cassandra, one of our own is going to die if we don't get that creature." The man said as he stepped out of the shadows.
"Oh yes, the anti-venom. Here's the problem, Clint, you guys had your chance to deal with the problem. You sent the Hulk in by himself and he failed. The president trusted your Avenger Initiative to solve the problem and y'all failed so he came to me."
"Bruce is going to die." He sounded almost desperate, almost as if he was asking for her help rather than trying to deter her.
"Clint, life isn't always rainbows and butterflies. Isn't that what you told me?"
"I told you that when we broke up Cassandra, not when someone's life was on the line." Clint defended himself. Maybe her comment had been a little cruel but so had his the first time he'd said it.
"Are you sure about that?" She glared at her counterpart and backed away. "I have more than just emotional scars Clint." With that she ran out into the street and followed the path of screaming people. Apparently the creature had decided it was hungry.
"Cassandra, at least let us help you!" Clint shouted after her. She felt a bit of compassion in his voice, almost as if he was holding on as much as she was. No, that's stupid. She thought to herself.
"I work alone!" She shouted back. The creature came into sight and she loaded an arrow into her bow. Through the chaos she could hear the familiar metallic clink of Clint loading his own arrow. She turned to see him standing just behind her. He had the same sense of desperation in his eyes as earlier. Bruce Banner must be a really close friend to elicit such an emotional response from Clint Barton. "Clint!" She called to him. "Don't kill her! We need to find her den or else we're going to have bigger problems on our hands."
"Den?" He questioned as he relaxed his bow just a tad.
"Yes, den. She's acting in a defensive manner which tells me that she's trying to stay alive to protect someone. Plus, her swollen teats are a dead giveaway of a nursing mother." She explained. She loaded a tracking arrow into her bow and shot it at the creature just behind the shoulders. The arrow made contact, eliciting a load roar from the creature and causing her to turn in the direction of the two archers.
"Now she's mad!" Clint exclaimed. "Sure we can't find the babes without her?"
"It's not likely." Cassandra replied. "Plus, we need to take care of the male first, we really don't want to deal with a made male-oversized-man-eating..."
"I get it." Clint interrupted. "But I suggest we run, or we're gonna be the eaten men."
"Agreed." Finally something we can agree on today... Cassandra thought to herself as she ran after Clint.
"Grab onto me!" He shouted to her as he stopped and began loading an arrow.
"What?" She questioned, if he thought giving him a hug would fix their problem he was mistaken.
"We're going up." He said as he nodded to the building next to them and then to the grappler arrow he had loaded into his bow. "This cat is ground bound isn't she?"
"For the most part yeah."
"Then stop arguing and grab on." After a short pause that was ended by a load roar behind them she grabbed onto Clint in a bear hug fashion. He fired the grappler and they lifted off the ground seconds later. "See, it's not so bad." He stated as they landed on the roof of the building and the cat ran by. He stared into her eyes with one strong arm wrapped around her holding her close to him. The moment seemed unending. It ended when a jet like object whizzed by and caused both of them to run to the edge of the building. The object, or rather Ironman, flew straight at the panther and released a volley of fire into her. He connected in several key places and the cat fell to the found covered in blood and barely breathing.
"That idiot!" Cassandra screamed. "And you! You had no intention of following her!"
"Not at first no." Clint replied. "But after you said the thing about the pissed of daddy cat, yeah I did want to find the den. I had no way of communicating that to Tony." He said as he gripped her arm when she tried to storm off.
"Let go of me Clint!" She ordered.
"I can't. I have an objective and I think you're the only one that can actually help me fulfill it."
"What do you mean, the cat is already going to die."
"Yes, but Bruce isn't. I need your help to create the anti-venom."
"You just don't get it do you? There's more at stake than Bruce!"
"I know that, please help me." He pleaded softly. He really was prepared to do anything to help his friend and really she was being childish.
"Clint, I'm not a doctor." She stated quietly.
"Yes, but you know quite a bit about her." He pointed to the cat who was still hanging on by some thread of a miracle.
"I hate you." She stated. "Just so we're clear."
"Well, after I broke up with you and told you life's not always rainbows and butterflies who could blame you. But, in my defense, I was under the influence of some alien technology at the time."
"That's no excuse."
"Yeah because being forced to do things you don't want to do and literally not being able to fight it isn't an acceptable reason for anything is it? Maybe I should be put away for the people I killed while I was under Loki's magic too."
"Whatever, get me down there." Cassandra stated as she pointed to the cat on the ground. "Hopefully, Ramboman didn't damage the venom glands."
"It's Ironman." Clint corrected as he reloaded the grappler arrow. He wrapped an arm around her and smiled. "Hang on." He said. He release his grip on her just long enough to shoot the arrow at the next building. She held on as they jumped from the roof and the grappler allowed them to fall gently to the ground.
"You enjoyed that far too much." She commented about his smile.
"Yeah well, maybe I'm not over you." He stated as they walked toward the downed creature.
"Whatever, you broke up with me, not the other way around."
"Come on Cas, I was literally not in control of my actions." He defended himself again.
"That's not what you said then." She stated. It was true. He had called her when he was under the influence of Loki's magic and had broke it off with her.
"Cas, it's just not gonna work. Not everything is rainbows and butterflies. This is the one thing I'm in control of right now. Just trust me on this, please." She remembered his words as if he'd said them five minutes before. "Just stay away from me." His words echoed in her mind and heart.
"Oh come on." He stated. "I was trying to protect you!"
"From what?" She turned to face him. Silence ensued, he couldn't tell her that he didn't want to risk something from his work would hurt her, never mind the fact that she was in the same line of work.
"Guys, I could really use a hand." Tony Stark interrupted them as he walked up in his Ironman suit.
"You freaking Bastard!" Cassandra turned to face him. "You just screwed up my whole operation."
"If your operation was to watch the cat eat the entire city before sundown, sure, I ruined it." Tony replied snidely.
"The cat's got a den Tony, a freaking den full of those things. Cassandra here was going to follow her back to it and deal with the whole mess at once." Clint defended her, not that she needed it.
"And as soon as the male finds out you killed his mate he's going to go into a rage." Cassandra added, obviously angry. "Way to get hundreds killed." She walked over to the cat who had finally given up her hold on life. She was riddled with wounds from Tony's attack. "Ohmigod, couldn't hold back could you? Just let go all your rage on the poor thing. This is overkill Ironman." She said his name in a mocking tone.
"That creature attacked my friend. He might die." Tony defended himself.
"Yeah, let's not think about the hundreds of unsuspecting citizens the male is going to kill before we can stop him. We'll only think about Bruce and keeping Bruce alive." Cassandra retorted.
"That's a bit of an exaggeration isn't it?" Tony questioned.
"No, it's not. How many people did this one kill in the last three days?"
"She's got a point." Clint stated.
"Okay, let's take this guy back to the helicarrier and see if we can get the Hulk back on his feet." Tony suggested, trying to get the focus off him and the mistake he had just made.
"Yeah, good luck with that." Cassandra replied as her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Restricted. That could mean only one thing. She hit the answer button.
"Cassandra, look at the mess around you. How many people died before Ironman had to step in to finish the job I assigned you?" The Presidents voice came on the line.
"Mr. President I realize that this is a disaster, but we have a bigger problem on our hands now." She said into the phone. "I think you should make the order for all citizens to stay indoors. There's about to be a very angry male panther running around."
"What do you mean?" He questioned.
"She was nursing a litter which means that she has a mate. Male cats don't tend to take the death of their mate very kindly, they usually set out to avenge the death. Now that Ironman killed her the male is going to go into a blood rage and kill anything in his path." She explained.
"Cassandra," he sighed, "I want you to work with the Avengers on this one." The President stated.
"Mr. President with all due respect, I can do this one on my own more efficiently than I can with the Avengers."
"I know that, but if you're working with them maybe we can prevent this mess from growing any more than it already has." He had a point.
"Yes sir, I understand." She replied.
"And sweetie, give the man a chance."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm talking about Hawkeye, Pumpkin, just give him a chance." The line went dead before she could argue.
"The President thinks we should work together." She stated as she turned back to Tony and Clint. "I've requested he put out an order for the citizens to stay indoors until we get this fixed."
"Will that help?" Tony asked.
"I hope so, if not, you have hundreds of lives on your hands." She stated with more than a bit of anger directed at him.
"Let's take this to the helicarrier." Clint suggested. "That way we're not here when her lover comes knocking."