Part Two – Found
Ororo and Sue both apologised, but had to excuse themselves from the mission. They all understood. If anything happened to Storm, leadership of the X-Men would devolve to Wolverine, which was probably the worst idea anyone had ever heard. And if anything happened to Sue, the Fantastic Four would be neither Fantastic nor Four. Plus there was still something going on with her and Dr Doom that she wouldn't discuss but quite possibly prevented the super-villain from blowing up the world, so they couldn't risk it.
"I'll leave you Kitty and Rogue," Ororo opened her hand towards the two younger women (and why did no one ever call Rogue by her real name, huh? Anna Marie wasn't that bad).
"I'm not taking children into – whatever we're going into," Natasha started.
"I'm twenty-one," Rogue said firmly.
"And I'm going," Kitty said just as firmly, "and good luck stopping me."
"We really can't," Maria pointed out when Natasha looked stubborn. "She even walks through Sue's force-fields."
Sue and Ororo looked at each other. "We'd better go," Sue decided, "before we find out too much about what you're up to and someone asks. I'm really not good at lying to Reed."
"Do you want any more backup?" Ororo asked. "You can have the jet, Rogue can fly it. I could send Log-"
"No!" it was a chorus from everyone in the room. Ororo smiled slightly and tried again. "Bobby?"
"No," from both Rogue and Kitty. They glanced at each other, glanced away again, smirked. When Rogue had a few drinks their first lunch (obviously they didn't give Kitty any) she'd started talking about Iceman and how eventually they'd both given up on him when they decided he liked playing them off against each other a little too much. There was some sort of crazy kiss-me-chase-me thing going with Kitty and Colossus now – mainly involving Kitty chasing and Colossus running, because hello, under-age – and Darcy was sure Rogue had a thing for Wolverine. Because clearly she was insane.
"We're gonna keep this to just us," Maria said firmly. "Involving any of the men is a no-no. We need to be subtle, and none of them are good at that."
"No shit, Sherlock!" Darcy grinned. No one was pointing at her and saying she couldn't go. Maybe they just hadn't noticed she was there yet? But they didn't tell her to leave, so she was gonna stick around for a while yet. Someone needed to be the voice of reason in this whole shit-show, and it looked like Maria and Pepper weren't putting their hands up.
Sue and Ororo left, and the six of them remaining gathered around the table, leftover dishes and glasses being swept to one side as they started planning.
Darcy was never afterwards sure how she ended up agreeing to run communications from inside the X-Jet while the others went into the facility to get HawtGuy out. Probably, she eventually decided, because they had to leave someone behind to mind the store and she was the obvious choice. Sitting in an invisible aeroplane just listening to them being fantastically kickass seemed like cheating, though.
Although the job got a little bit harder when Tony Stark hacked them and started shouting over the comm demanding to know what the fuck they were doing, they'd said they were just going out for drinks and why was Pepper's cell-phone in Europe?
"This is why we left the men out of it," Pepper said sharply over the comm just as something blew up in the not-far-enough-distance and the jet rocked slightly on its wheels. Darcy clutched at the arms of her seat, alarmed.
"You brought your phone, Pep?" Maria said disbelievingly, and Pepper sighed.
"Forgot to leave it behind. He'd have noticed that too, believe me. Tony? Fuck off. We're busy, and you aren't going to get here in time to help."
Tony spluttered, but Darcy had by now managed to figure out how to cut him out of the circuit and did so. She listened to a few more minutes of battle chatter, mainly Maria, Pepper and Rogue – Natasha almost never said anything and Kitty had gone silent except for occasional hushed check-ins – and then suddenly Kitty's voice came loud and clear.
"I've found him. And he's not alone. Fuck me, Barton, what have you done this time?"
"You know I'm not going to fuck you, little cat, you're far too young for me," drawled a low, husky voice that almost made Darcy wet herself. My God, HawtGuy's voice was as sexy as his arms. "I understand I've been cast in the role of prince-needing-to-be-rescued by the SuperGirls, but I assure you it's not necessary, ladies."
Obviously Kitty had given Hawkeye the spare comm she'd put in her pocket for him.
"You are so dead, Barton," Natasha said menacingly.
"Don't be like that, Nat, you know you love me."
"Not after you just called me a SuperGirl."
There was giggling over the comm. Both Rogue and Kitty, Darcy saw, looking at the traces on her computer screen. And – Maria?!
"If we could possibly get back to the issue of the rescue," Hawkeye drawled after a moment waiting for the giggles to die down, "I am not in need of rescuing, but I have two young friends here who are."
"They're in some sort of freaky cells," Kitty sounded a bit breathless. "I can get in but I can't get them out. I think we're going to need explosives."
"On my way," came Natasha's curt response.
It all went a bit quiet after that, except for the increasingly frequent explosions. Darcy tried to keep her cool, pinging all their comms regularly and getting acknowledgements back. Hawkeye sighed after the third time she pinged him.
"Stop pinging me, Maria, I'll let you know if there's a problem!"
"I'm not pinging you, I'm shooting opposition off your ass," Maria said a bit breathlessly. "Darcy's running comms."
There was silence for a moment. Then "Who's Darcy? One of yours, kitten?"
"No. She's with you guys. Avengers," Kitty clarified.
"Excuse me," Darcy said, offended, "I can introduce myself to HawtGuy just fine."
Giggles broke out again, and she realised she'd called him HawtGuy instead of Hawkeye. Squeezing her eyes shut, she was glad he couldn't see her scarlet cheeks. Well, this was going to be really embarrassing.
"I'm looking forward to it, sugar," that voice that should be totally illegal purred. "It'll be my genuine pleasure. Hopefully yours too."
Darcy put her head on the desk. "Natasha, you didn't tell me he was a slut," she said, trying desperately to joke her way out of this enormous hole she'd dug for herself. "I thought you were the one who had a problem with exclusivity?"
"Oh, I'll be exclusively yours anytime, sugar," Hawkeye promised right behind her ear, and she whipped round to see him standing there grinning smugly down at her, his eyes raking over her appreciatively.
The effect was somewhat ruined by the unconscious dark-haired girl in his arms. Kitty stood at his shoulder, trying to look apologetic, but unable to stop giggling.
"Enough, Shadowcat," Darcy said, trying and failing to sound menacing. "Who's this? Put her down here, please," she indicated the triage bay.
"Her name's Wanda. She's a mutant, she was held captive here..."
Darcy had a really weird sensation. Everything in front of her eyes was blurring, but she didn't feel faint or sick. She lifted a hand and waved it in front of her face in confusion. Hawkeye sighed as he settled Wanda gently on the stretcher.
"Quicksilver, stop it. She can't even see you, you're going to make her sick."
The blurring condensed suddenly into a young man – a boy, really. White-haired and blue-eyed, he crouched nervously, protectively, beside the unconscious girl on the stretcher.
"This is Pietro. Quicksilver. He's Wanda's twin," Hawkeye introduced. Rogue came belting into the jet at that moment, flung herself into the pilot's seat and started flipping switches. No one gave her a second glance. "They were the subjects of the research at this place."
"Oh," Darcy's heart broke for the two kids. They couldn't be older than about fifteen, even younger than Kitty. She moved slowly, not wanting to startle Pietro. "It's all right," she soothed in as gentle a voice as she could manage. "I've got first aid training." And thank God Bruce had suggested that, so she could assist him when the other Avengers suffered wounds. "Will you let me look? I promise I won't hurt her."
Pietro looked at Hawkeye. The older man nodded at him, and the boy moved slowly back from his sister, allowing Darcy close.
Maria was next into the jet, Pepper and Natasha hard on her heels, Pepper still glowing faintly around the edges, and Rogue had them in the air even before the ramp was closed. Darcy wobbled as they picked up altitude, and strong hands steadied her.
"Thank you." She still didn't want to look at Hawkeye. She'd deal with the embarrassment later. Right now there was a patient to treat. She gently thumbed up Wanda's eyelid and shone a light in her eye.
"No!" she didn't even see the movement from Pietro, but the light was struck from her hand and went skittering across the floor. Darcy shook her stinging hand with a gasp of shock.
"Hit her again, boy, and I'll break you in half," Hawkeye snarled, and Pietro cowered down as though it wasn't an empty threat.
"How are you even going to catch him?" Darcy asked practically, "it's all right, he didn't hurt me. Pietro, I need to see if your sister's eyes are reacting to light. She might have a concussion. How did she get knocked out?"
"She didn't, she fainted," Hawkeye said. "Overused her power. Nat's explosives only blew their cells partly. Wanda's telekinetic, she did the rest."
"I see." Darcy could see bloodstains under Wanda's nostrils and at her earlobes now. Sue had told her of similar effects, and since Sue was the only person she knew who had a mental power anything like this, that was all the reference she had to go on. "Well – there's not much I can do for that. Any other injuries to her?"
There weren't.
"Anyone else?"
Maria rather sheepishly presented a cut on her arm which Darcy dressed. They all settled down for the flight home, Darcy tactfully asking Pietro to help her buckle a couple of straps over Wanda's body to keep her in place just in case she slid around on the stretcher. The boy refused a seat himself and sat down by his sister, wild eyes watching everyone else. Except Hawkeye. There was obviously an established trust there.
Natasha embraced her partner once, roughly, and then punched him hard in the guts.
"Nice to see you too," he huffed, bending over. Natasha responded with a storm of Russian he just laughed at and said;
"You and I remember Budapest very differently, I'm sure I've told you that before."
Natasha sniffed and sat down with her back to him pointedly. Pepper patted his arm, smilingly saying she was glad to see him well.
"Ouch, fuck, Pepper!" he looked at the singed skin in shock.
"Sorry!" she sat down hastily, closing her eyes and obviously concentrating. Darcy hoped the seats were fireproof.
Maria had taken the co-pilot's seat after Darcy had dressed her wound, and Kitty was already asleep. Shadowcat could sleep anywhere.
"Let me take a look at that," Darcy said shyly when Hawkeye's eyes turned to her. She totally got where his nickname came from. Those eyes. She knew he was a long-range sniper, but they were really intense, a deep grey-blue. She felt as though she was pinned to the spot.
"At what?" he gave her a suggestive smile.
"The burn Pepper just gave you," she said. "Those biceps are a work of art and it would be a shame to spoil them with a handprint-shaped scar, huh? Girls might think someone's branded you."
He gave her an absolutely filthy grin, letting her push him into a seat. "You could put a handprint on me any time. I wouldn't mind getting branded by your hands."
"Wow, you really are a slut," Darcy said admiringly. "Does this dirty-talk pick-up method work for you often?"
She didn't understand the look Barton gave Wanda's unconscious form. "I'm hoping it will this time."
"What is with you? You don't even know me!" Darcy slapped burn cream on the mark on his arm with unnecessary force. He didn't even wince. Of course, he didn't know that she was being rough not because he was annoying her, but because otherwise she'd be tempted to start caressing his biceps. Because. Those. Arms.
"Not yet." The suggestive grin again, followed by another glance at Wanda.
"And if you keep looking at her like that, I'm going to report you for paedophilia," she snapped, tossing a dressing in his lap. "She can't even be half your age."
Agent Barton laughed, picked up the dressing and opened it, slapping it on his arm. "I'll share the joke later, Darcy. I don't think you're in the mood just now."
Comments please? There's one more part of this to come.