Disclaimer: I don't own the Avenger's
Chapter 2
The boy, an eleven year old Clint Barton, pulled back the arrow and aimed. He let go of the string and the arrow flew into the air and hit the centre of the target with a satisfying thwack. A small smile appeared on the boys face when he saw the arrow lodged firmly in the target. Clint remembered the first time he had hit the centre of the target. He was ten, nearly eleven at the time. He had ran to his brother and told him the great news, Barney was happy for his brother who had a great love for the weapon he was using. Barney had then proceeded to watch Clint as he had fired arrow after arrow at the target, all of them hitting it.
Barney had been growing more and more distant from Clint since then, leaving his younger brother to get on with his circus life and become good at what he likes. That was something Clint had done and was now known as Hawkeye, the best young archer around. Barney watched every performance Clint did on the stage and was happy for the young Barton.
Barton let loose another arrow and saw it hit the target again, this time directly above the first arrow. He then fired another two arrows so that there was a line of arrows in the centre of the target. Clint walked over towards the target and pulled out the arrows. He wrapped his fingers around the last arrow, the one in the centre, then let go. He walked back to his position away from the target and placed an arrow on the bow. He pulled back the string and aimed. He stood there for a couple of seconds and then let go of the string. The arrow soared through the air and hit where Clint had aimed.
The arrow that was left in the target.
There were now two arrows in the target, one buried in the other. Clint smiled and just managed to not shout out in joy. Stifling a yawn, Clint walked back over to the target and pulled the two arrows or to be more accurate an arrow and an arrow head with split wood coming out of it. As he walked back to the room he slept in with his brother, Clint couldn't stop smiling. Whenever Clint hit the centre of the target he couldn't help a small smile appearing on his face, but hitting the middle of the arrow shaft made the smile on Clint's face twice the size and every time he tried to stop the smile just came back.
"Barney, Barney, I just hit an arrow…" Clint stopped talking. There was no one in the small room. There were two beds and a draw for his and Barney's few possessions. "Barney?" Clint walked to the draw and slowly pulled it open. Only Clint's things were in there. Barney's were gone. He put his bow and arrows down on the bed and ran outside looking for his older brother. Where was he?
Clint rounded a bend of the outskirts of their small set up. What he saw shocked him. His brother was there but he was with swordsman, watching as the man beat up one of the performers. "Come on kid" Clint heard swordsman say to Barney who started to follow.
Swordsman turned around to look at Barney but saw Clint standing and watching them. "Get out of here now" he ordered Clint.
"What are you doing?" Clint asked, "Barney why are you helping him? Why are you stealing from Carson?"
"Clint get out of here, just go back to the tent" Barney hissed, "Now."
"No, you can't go, you can't leave me here."
"Clint just go ple…"
"No, he's right kid" Swordsman interrupted. "You can't leave your brother here alone. Why don't you join u?" he asked.
"What?" Clint asked shocked with what he was seeing and hearing.
"Come with us, help us out a little"
There was silence as Clint thought about what his teacher had said, what he had been asked to do. He had been asked to steal. He couldn't, he couldn't steal form someone that had given him a life and a home. "No, you can't."
"Don't do this" Swordsman said whilst Barney watched.
"I'll tell, I'll tell Carson it was you."
"Clint" Barney hissed. "Just go back, pretend you never saw anything."
"I, I can't. I can't steal from him. Carson gave us a home, a life." Clint watched as Swordsman whispered something to his brother and Barney nodded.
"Ok" he heard his brother say.
"A life, Clint what sought of life is this?" Barney said. "Look around, we live in tents and we perform like animals for money. This isn't a life; this isn't a life I want to live. If you want to stay then do that, but I'm going. Just pretend you saw nothing." Clint shook his head.
"No, I will tell." Swordsman started to walk towards Clint but Barney stopped him. For just under two minutes the two had an argument before Barney looked at Clint, an almost pained look on his face. He walked forwards and pulled out a knife and before Clint could do anything he felt pain erupt from his abdomen.
Clint woke in his bed. His heart was racing and his face was damp with sweat. He still didn't know why. So many years later and he didn't know why his brother had left him, whether he had done something wrong or not. The one thing Clint did know was that he had never forgiven his brother for what he did and he didn't know if he ever would.
Deep down Clint missed his brother but never did he show it. Slowly his fingers relaxed from the fist he had them in. Letting out a sigh Clint took the cover of his pillow. It was slightly damp with sweat and Clint really didn't feel like sleeping on a sweaty pillow later on. The pillow cover ended up at the bottom of the bed in a crumpled heap. He would get that cleaned later. Clint put on some clean clothes, dark blue jeans and a black hoodie, and looked at his alarm clock.
The clock on the bedside table showed that it was seven o'clock in the morning. With a stretch and a yawn Clint made his way out of his room and into the kitchen of the Avenger's tower. Steve was already there reading a book and Natasha was also there watching the T.V. whilst enjoying a bowl of cereal. As Clint walked in both Steve and Natasha looked up and they both smiled a greeting. Clint smiled back and put some bread in the toaster.
His heart was still pumping hard from the nightmare he had had. He had had worse but this one stuck in his head for the longest. He guessed it was because that one thing that happened so long ago had changed his life entirely. If Barney hadn't left him then Clint wouldn't have ended up joining SHIELD and he wouldn't have become one of the Avenger's. He wouldn't have the friends he has now. When the toast popped back up Clint put some butter on it and took a bite. As he sat on the sofa Natasha looked away from the T.V. "Good sleep?" she asked.
"Yeh, normally I wake up far earlier than this." Natasha gave Clint a disbelieving stare and Clint looked back in confusion. Steve glanced at the two on the sofa. Maybe Tony was right about them, they could end up together. As Thor walked into the kitchen Natasha got up pulling Clint along behind her. When they were both in a corridor alone she stopped and turned towards Clint.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing, I had a great sleep." There was a crunch as Clint took another bite from his toast.
"Look I know when you're hiding something. Did you have a nightmare?" she asked. Clint knew he could tell her, Natasha had been his friend for many years and she told him nearly everything.
"No." Clint looked at Natasha. "I told you I slept fine. Now all I am is a little hungry" he said finishing off his toast. Natasha looked at him. Clint let out a sigh, "How did you know?"
"I know you and I know when you're lying to me, even if you are trained to lie, you can't lie to me. Plus you were completely silent as you came in. You always come in happy and cheerful and make some kind of joke." Natasha's voice was soft as she spoke to Clint. "And you smell sweaty" she added as an afterthought. Clint let out a small laugh.
"Bad enough that I need a shower?" The red haired agent nodded and let out a small laugh.
"Definitely, what was it about?"
"Nothing just, just about my brother" Clint confessed. Natasha looked at her closest friend. "About him leaving," Clint finished. There was silence for a while as both thought about what Clint had said. Then something that never happened, happened. Natasha gave Clint a small, quick hug not knowing another way to comfort him. When they broke apart Clint looked at Natasha.
"What was that for?" he asked. Natasha shrugged her shoulders. "I'm going to go to the gym," Natasha smiled and watched Clint leave.
-LINE BREAK-
Tony waited for Fury to arrive. Tony had found 'The hacker', as they now called the man that was trying to gain access to SHIELD, and Tony had called Fury straight away and had text Bruce to let him know too. Tony had been sitting in a chair with his legs resting up on a table when the alarm went off, signalling that 'The hacker' had tried once again. Unfortunately for Tony he had fallen from the chair in shock and landed badly on his elbow which now hurt a lot. Tony was pretty sure that it was already bruising.
He had instantly got up from the floor and ran over to the computer and saw the dot on the screen showing that 'The hacker' was still in New York. After a minute the dot zoomed in on the map of New York to a road not far from the Avenger's tower. That's when he got out his phone and called Fury. Maybe he wouldn't have to listen to the siren going off again.
Fury walked through the door of the lab, his coat flowing out behind him like it was Thor's cloak. Like always Fury was wearing all black and mostly leather. His eye patch covering his left eye making him look like a pirate. No one knew what had happened to Fury's eye. Not many people had the guts to ask. Tony had gone to ask once but then stopped when he saw Natasha giving him a warning shake of her head. "So you've found him." Fury walked into the centre of the room again. He noticed that the pile of metal from the last time he had been in this room had gone. In fact the room looked far cleaner; Bruce had probably cleaned whilst he was waiting.
"Yes, 'The hacker' was in a café not far from the Avenger's tower. That was about five minutes ago, he may still be there but I don't know for sure." Fury nodded and walked over to the screen, Tony was right, not that Fury believed he wasn't, 'The hacker' was in a café only a few streets away from the Avenger's. Bruce walked into the lab at that moment. His clothes were creased in places and his hair was tangled and knotted. The man also had grey bags under his eyes. He had probably been sleeping. Bruce and Tony had been taking it in turns to be in the lab whilst the other went and had a snack or rest or just have some time to relax.
"Have you found him?" Bruce asked as he unsuccessfully tried to flatten down his hair. Tony nodded and took a sip or his coffee.
"The chance that he's still there is low, but I can go down there now and look," Tony offered. Fury stood in silence as if he was thinking about it.
"You can't," Tony looked at Bruce in confusion. "You're Tony Stark, everyone knows who you are and everyone knows that you're Iron Man. 'The hacker', he's been trying for a week, he would know what you look like and he would certainly know that you're an Avenger and working for SHIELD. I can't go, I couldn't risk the other guy coming out and killing someone, not in a small shop where most people may be having their lunch."
"He's right, we need someone that no one would recognise by sight." Tony and Bruce nodded.
"Steve and Thor can't do it either, they wouldn't know what sought of thing to look for, especially Thor who still doesn't fully understand a computer yet. Clint or Natasha would probably be our best bet." Bruce rubbed his eyes as he spoke.
"I'll get Phil to call one of them" Fury stated as he sat down in one of the chairs. It was surprisingly comfortable for a metal chair.
-LINE BREAK-
The café wasn't very big, it was square with all the walls a cream colour except for the front wall which was mostly made of glass as a window to look out of. There were six tables in the café with four chairs around each, there were a few waiters giving food to people and at the back of the room was the cash register. There were four tables outside of the shop so people could eat outside on a sunny day. The place was mostly full with only a few tables spare.
Natasha walked in and looked around before taking a seat at one of the tables. Not long after a woman walked over and asked what Natasha wanted. Natasha asked for a coffee and then the women left and went behind the counter at the back of the room.
Natasha didn't even know how she had ended up here. Phil had called her and explained they had found 'The hacker' and that she was to go to the location and find him. She didn't have much information to go by either. She didn't know what the man looked like, if he was a man. For all SHIELD knows, the person they were looking for may not even be a man. Tony had told her that the person would probably have a laptop and be ready to leave at any minute, but that was all they knew.
Natasha had chosen a table against the wall so that she could see everything in the place and no one could come up behind her. She pulled out her phone and pretended to be texting someone. As she did this her eyes flicked about the place looking for a person on a laptop. There were two. One inside next to the door and the other outside in the sun, the man inside wore a shirt and tie whilst the other had a coat on and jeans. Why he was wearing a coat in this weather was a complete mystery to Natasha who was hot in the sleeveless top she wore.
The phone vibrated in Natasha's hand and she clicked answer.
"Natasha" she said into the phone.
"It's Tony, have you found the guy yet?" Tony asked down the phone. Natasha had been told they would communicate on the phone instead of an ear piece so that she would draw less attention to herself.
"Not yet" Natasha replied as the waitress came back with her drink. Natasha smiled at the waitress. "Thanks," she said and the waitress smiled and walked off.
"Thanks, Thanks for what I didn't do anything."
"Not you Tony, I was talking to the waitress." Natasha could just imagine Tony smiling, he knew that she wasn't talking to him.
"Is there anyone with a laptop?" he asked.
"There's one inside and one outside" she said. "I think it's the one outside but I'm not positive. I'll call you when I know." With that said Natasha hung up and put the phone back in her pocket, checking that her gun was still tucked into her trousers as she did it. She took a sip of her coffee and leant her head on her arm. Keeping an eye on the men from the corner of her eye she saw the one outside start to pack away his laptop and put it in a backpack. There was a breeze as he opened the door and walked into the room. He stopped at the counter and then paid. It was then Natasha saw it. A glint of a weapon as the sunlight caught it.
The man looked at Natasha as if he could feel her looking at him and Natasha quickly looked away. Now she could feel him staring at her and then all of a sudden he ran from the café. Natasha abruptly stood from her chair, the force pushing it backwards onto the floor, and ran after him.
So what did you think to this chapter? Hopefully you liked it. Again please review and tell me what you thought, if you have any questions about it or didn't understand something let me know too. I would like to thank salwyn77, Shelly2728 and pulchritude96 for reviewing last time. Thank you. Anyway I should be able to update this soon. Bye.
