Title: Glass Spire
Author: Ash Gray Kitsune
Fandom(s): Avengers Movieverse, Portal
Pairings: ClintxTony
Disclaimer: I do not own either of the Portal games, nor do I own the Avengers movie.
A/N: Computer crapped out, and I've been stuck for three months with my hand and a notebook. And Tony's made numerous dirty jokes about that. So, after a long few months, the second chapter!
Glass Spire
The computers were long since fried, but Clint gathered up cording and parts nonetheless, fashioning as long a rappelling line as he could out of the plastic and copper. The grappling hook Tony had half-assed sketched out with a piece of burnt metal went together mostly right, and Clint tested the strength with his weight, satisfied when he didn't fall flat on his ass. It didn't fold up like his other ones, and he'd have to be careful about it catching, but coiling up the makeshift rope, he had to admit that Stark wasn't half-bad at this MacGuyver thing.
At the moment, Tony was sorting through a pile of tech up to his waist, casually throwing the discarded pieces over his shoulder with an expletive and the occasional grimace. Clint just grinned a little and glanced over the abandoned offices once more as he wove cords together in a complicated braid. When the scientists had left, they'd also abandoned their research; two of the four hours they'd spent here already had been filled with Tony's frantic reading of everything he could get his greedy paws on, and Clint was grateful that he'd taken the time to translate to idiotese for him…because what was in those papers had stopped the archer cold.
They created portals…real life, honest to god portals, not just put a hole in a wall. The drawings and photographs were simple, and chillingly honest; the one of the guy grinning and waving from the ceiling after sticking his arm into the wall nearly made Clint panic right then and there. Add to the turret designs of the little walking robots that were supposed to shoot the shit out of intruders…he shivered, just a little. It was more than terrifying, and he hated being without weapons and his partner. Natasha would have been nonplussed, sure, but…she adapted to roles like this easily.
Clint didn't. Not like this. He was a sniper, for god's sake; he focused down the barrel of a rifle or the shaft of an arrow, and he took out the target, packed up, went home. He didn't…he didn't do things like this, deep under the earth. That alone had nearly made him panic; he wasn't claustrophobic, but he hated being so far from the sky, from air that wasn't staving off his hunger and thirst. He hated being without the team…
"Hey, birdbrain." Clint rolled his eyes and turned to see Tony staring down at a tablet, examining the spider-webbed surface, eyes steadfastly avoiding his, and Clint bit back a groan. Goddammit, don't let this turn into a talk about feelings.
"What?" Tony sighed a little, tossing the tablet aside.
"Wondering what the team's up to." The archer shrugged, hunching a little over his braiding and wondering that a little himself.
"Probably trying to figure out where the fuck our stupid asses got lost." A snort came from the genius now buried in the trash pile, and Tony just snickered.
"…We really need to stop drinking together, don't we?"
"Yeah, but then Natasha loses her blackmail."
"Yeah, we wouldn't want that. But something tells me this wasn't the result of a bender."
"Hate to say this, but I agree. Last thing I remember is falling asleep on the couch across from you." Tony gave him an odd look over his shoulder.
"…Were we watching Wall-E?" Clint gave him a similar look, swallowing back the sudden rise of nervousness.
"Yeah…"
"And then we woke up here, you to a scream, me to a talking eyeball." Tony tossed the last of the computer parts aside and held up a scrap of paper, this one much older than the research papers left behind. Their photos, newer ones at odds with the paper they were stapled to, were half-covered in notations and figures, and Clint instinctively moved away from it, holding his line like a teddy bear to his chest.
"We were kidnapped."
…
To say that Tony was pissed was an understatement; the engineer's face had twisted when Clint's mouth had popped open and said those three little words, and he growled, tossing the paper aside. It had shown little more than their heights, weights, and simple drawings of a bow and his repulsor system…but it was too much. He snarled a little and kicked a monitor in; he fucking hated getting kidnapped, hated it like he hated Victor Von Doom and being handed shit.
Except this…this was far worse. He had no idea where to go; there wasn't something so simple as schematics or a fucking map or blueprint to show them the way out, and in a massive ass abandoned salt mine made over into an enormous scientific testing facility? It was like working through a rabbit warren, except that Wonderland wasn't on the other side. So, he rubbed his face and tried to think…tried to think of something, anything, that might help them out. Unfortunately…the only way left for them to go was back out into the service ducts, and he didn't think there was much more left in the darkness…which meant they had to turn towards the light.
Fuck.
"Hey, Tony?" It was odd to hear Clint use his name; most of the time it was Doctor Robotnik or Stark or Iron Man…of course, he always called the archer Link or Barton or Hawkass.
"Yeah?"
"What the hell is that?" Tony turned to where Clint was pointing through the glazed window, into a former storage room, he figured…where a pair of odd looking weapons hung from simple cradles, grasping claws on the front looking rather terrifying.
"I have no idea. Shall we?" Hawkeye shrugged and set his coil of computer rope down to walk over and shoulder aside the broken glass panel. Tony slipped by him and hopped down into the room, slowly examining the weapons before even daring to touch one. He knew most of the tech wasn't too violent in terms of activation here; that was one thing he'd kept from his father's rants about Cave, and he was thankful, for a change, that he had. The guns, he supposed they were guns, were simple to use, with a toggle switch above the trigger that intrigued him, and slowly, he pulled it on over his arm, pointing it at the white paneled wall…
And pulled the trigger.
A beam of red energy blasted from the tip, and knocked him back a little; when he looked up at Clint's intake of breath, his eyes went wide.
"Holy fuck…"
"Stark, you just created a portal."
…
Clint stared, wide-eyed, as Tony preceded to toggle the switch over, and a similar beam of energy, this one gold, shot out to form a second portal…and they had the oddest experience of looking in one, and seeing themselves in the other. He sat down on his ass on the ledge, absolutely stunned as Tony began to jump back and forth between them, his manic grin growing until it was almost terrifying, and the archer shivered a little, too nervous still to even shift closer to the other gun.
This was…wow. This was science of a level that left Iron Man and The Hulk in the dust, science so profound and dangerous as to traverse on the realm of the gods…and he knew Thor would probably just be proud of his 'human friends' for rediscovering it. Loki, on the other hand…He resolutely shut out those dangerous green eyes and fought to control his breathing, willing calmness into himself despite the fact that his control was badly shaken.
"Clint?" Tony's voice broke the spiral of emotion and terror, and Clint clung to it, turning tired blue eyes to confused brown, understanding slowly dawning between them. "Hey…whatcha need?" Not for the first time, he was thankful that the genius understood, that all of his team understood, and Clint reached out with a shaky hand and tugged on Tony's suit, pulling him close enough to rest his head against the other man's chest. A familiar, usually grease-stained hand stroked through his hair and he settled his breathing, realizing that Tony was doing the same.
"Normally, I don't condone this sort of touchy-feely crap…but we're kinda out of the realm of normal, so just let me know if you need something, okay? I know this isn't really your favorite sort of place, and its gotta fuck with you right now…But…um….fuck, I really suck at this-"
"Tony?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut the fuck up."
"…Gotcha."
A/N: So, finally updating! Sorry this has taken so long, folks…also, review answers, starting with the most recent~
Guest 2 - I can't answer the first question yet (that would be spoilers!), and as for mentioning Umbrella, yes, I know they're different universes, totally different fandoms. It's a tongue-in-cheek reference to the connections between Portal, Half-Life, and the initial designs of Resident Evil/Biohazard. It was meant to be funny, not something to be taken seriously, so I apologize for the confusion.
LazerPoweredCucumber - First, I love your screen name. Second, thank you! I really worked to make Tony and Clint believable, since of the members of the team, they're possibly the most average guys there.
Archer83 - -wicked grin- HERE YA GO!
Guest 1 - I live to serve!
Ideographer - Thank you so very much! There'll be more offhand references later on to other game universes, I promise, and definitely more internal monologue; they're both so fun to poke and prod!
Party-Like-A-Hawkstar - -laughs- Yup! Thanks for reading!
Shadow Haloed Angel - Darlin', you make everything better. Also, your crazy is so damn sexy.