MC4A; Hogwarts
Stacked With: Hogwarts; BAON
Individual Challenges: In a Flash (Y); Yellow Ribbon (N); Yellow Ribbon Redux (N); SHIELD MC (x2) (N)
Representations: Phil Coulson; Clint Barton; Time loop
Bonus Challenges: Teat Juice
Prompts: "Are you ready?" / "No." / "Me neither." (auction); Fight (365 words); Jumping (Insane Prompts)
Word count: 959
Step 4. Find a way out.
Being stuck in a time loop with a booklet that was supposed to help and actually knew nothing was not Phil's idea of fun. Add to the mix a cocky archer who was having far too much fun contemplating getting away with murder due to time constantly being rewritten, and Phil's stress levels ended up quite high. It would help tremendously if they knew how they ended up in a time loop. What would be even better was how to get out of the time loop.
The protocol booklet for time was no help in figuring out how exactly they were supposed to break the time loop and they had been through the same day approximately sixty times by now. Around Day 10, they had stopped bothering with the call out to protect the city from being destroyed. That had been how they were trapped in the first place and having to fight the same battle quickly got tiresome. Besides, they needed to find a way out of the loop.
Not that there had been any success on that front. Both Phil and Clint had read through the Time booklet and determined that it would be no further help to them. No previous SHIELD agent had been stuck in a time loop according to the records and as such, SHIELD didn't have much information on them except that they were possible.
After Day 13, Phil had decided to use the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep from both constant looping and the week of late nights before he and Clint had been thrown back. He had been directed to a nest of pillows and blankets by Clint when the other man had discovered him curled up on a couch in a rarely-used breakroom.
Without even questioning the fact that Clint had a nest in SHIELD, Phil had collapsed down and fallen asleep within moments. He had woken up several hours later to find Clint nestled in a separate pile and a plate of Macy's cheesecake near his head. Macy made the best cheesecake, Phil reflected as he ate the treat. It was sheer luck that they were repeating a day where Macy was in charge of the kitchen and it was something they were both grateful for.
Day 15 had them realising that there was nothing was saying they had to stay in the SHIELD building, or even within close vicinity of it. That was when the road trips had started. Even though they lived in New York, they had never had the time to see it as civilians. There had never been a moment they could take and just go and see the Statue of Liberty or the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
Now they had as much time as they wanted—or until they figured out how to break the loop or it broke on its own. Of course, they could only go so far before the loop reset but they managed to see many of the things that they always meant to but never got around to doing so. It was rather nice not having to run off and save the world every other day—even if the reason they weren't running off was because the day would just reset even if they lost the battel to save it.
Eventually though, the repetition grew tiresome and they found themselves back in the SHIELD archives. Day 60 was when Clint stumbled on a report about an 0-8-4 that emitted a green light and those affected by it claimed to have been caught it in a time loop. It was the breakthrough they needed.
"Are you ready?" Clint asked Phil as they stood ready to end the loop.
Phil thought about the days he had spent in the loop with Clint. How he had been well rested for what seemed to be the first time in a century; how he and Clint had discovered that without the strain of SHIELD missions, they actually clicked quite well together. He would miss the ease of not having to worry if the world was going to end. He would miss being able to ignore SHIELD alerts and instead stay curled up around Clint.
Instead of saying all of that, he said, "No."
Clint grinned at him. "Me neither."
"You know, when you suggested we commit murder during the time loop," Phil commented, "I didn't think you were suggesting our own murder."
"This is nothing, Phil. I jump off buildings all the time."
"Yes, and I catch you."
Clint held out his hand and wiggled his fingers, inviting Phil to grasp it. After he had done so, Clint said, "This time we're catching each other."
"That was incredibly cheesy."
"Worked though."
Phil had to admit that it had. With one last glance at the New York skyline, both he and Clint jumped. There was a moment of sheer terror as they fell through the air. Frantic thoughts of whether the report was right or if they had got it wrong. Then they landed.
Phil found his hands wrapped around Lola's steering wheel with Clint sitting next to him grasping his bow. Both of them were out of breath and the sound of battle was all around them. They had done it, they had returned to the moment they had left. An explosion rocked the floating car and Phil's mind instantly clicked over to battle mode. He'd deal with returning to a proper flow of time later. For now, he had to stop a battle.
Luckily, he knew precisely how to do that with maximum efficiency and minimum casualties.
Step 4. Find a way out.
Note: If loop is caused by a green light, refer to report A187-H.