I love you all. The support for this story is blowing me away. I'm so glad you all like it so much! Also, this chapter seemed rough to me, so let me know what you guys think?
Peter's head shot up and he looked towards the door, alerting Natasha that the teenager had heard someone coming their way. Peter then glanced at the spy, who gave him a nod. Peter returned the gesture, showing that he was ready, though his face was tight in anticipation.
Soon the key was inserted into the lock, jangling loudly as the tumblers were turned. When the door was pushed open, four men came inside and made their way over to Natasha and Peter. The redhead waited another moment, then as soon as the guards were within arms reach, she made her move.
"Now!" she shouted, kicking her legs out and catching the men by her in the legs.
Peter brought his hands out from behind his back and went into his own assault. While Natasha was much more of a head-on attacker, Peter usually tried to keep his distance unless absolutely necessary. The room was too small for him to keep his distance this time, but he did stay as far back as he could, making them come to him, then flipping over their heads and using their own momentum against them.
Within a few moments, all four guards were subdued. Natasha's were limp on the ground, bruises already forming on their faces, while Peter's men were crumbled in heaps on the ground after running into the wall.
Peter fumbled around on one of the belts of the guards, grabbing a key that he used to unlock Natasha's manacles, then his own. Once her arms were free, the redhead reached into the pocket of the man she'd just knocked out and tossed the cell phone over to Peter as they left the room. "Call Stark."
Peter began dialing, but shouts from down the hallway encouraged the the two of them to start running. Their element of surprise was gone.
It was slightly difficult, dialing a number on a touch screen while running, but Peter finally managed to dial Stark's number, and he held the phone up to his ear as they continued running. Several rings went by, and Peter began to despair, thinking that his mentor wouldn't answer the unknown number, but the teenager's heart soared when the billionaire finally picked up.
"I don't know how you got this number, but-"
"Mr. Stark?"
"Kid! Where are you?"
Peter was about to say that he didn't know, but Stark beat him to the punch. "Nevermind, just keep the phone on. Friday's tracing the call now."
"Hey!" Natasha yelled, jerking her head for Peter to follow her down a different hallway.
"Hold on kid, we're coming now," Stark assured the teenager. Peter felt relief flow through his chest, but it didn't last long. His senses told him that something was coming. Instinctively, the teenager jumped high into the air and clung to the ceiling as a man barrelled towards him from the side with a yell. When he jumped, Peter had to use both hands to hold onto the roof, and he was forced to drop the phone.
Natasha heard the shout and turned to see what was going on. What she found was Peter dropping from the ceiling on top of the man who'd come out of the shadows. The teenager easily took the man out with the weight of his fall, but both escapees knew that they were far from safe. They continued running, leaving the phone abandoned on the ground.
"Kid?" Stark was yelling through the phone, but he was greeted with only silence. If anyone had been around, they would have heard the billionaire let out a string of curses.
From what Natasha could see, they were in some sort of multi-story compound. The quickest way to get out would be to get down the stairs just ahead of them.
"Kid!"
When Peter looked at her, Natasha nodded towards the staircase, and a look of understanding lit Peter's eyes up. He sped up as much as he could, passing the redhead and vaulting over the railing. It was only two flights of stairs, so Peter hit the floor fairly quickly, landing lightly on his feet. The teenager turned around in time to look for the spy. He saw her quickly approaching the staircase, but before she could jump, someone jumped at her from behind, and she was thrown into the railing.
Having dealt with much worse before, the redhead simply let her reflexes take over, kicking back and letting her foot connect solidly with her attacker's midsection. As he fell back though, he managed to grab Natasha's ankle and used his own fall to throw the redhead's feet into the air. With that added momentum, Natasha toppled over the side of the railing.
"Oh gosh," Peter muttered as his heart dropped, running forward to catch the spy. However, it wasn't the first time Natasha had been thrown over a railing, and her hands tightened on the bannister, stopping her fall. Her shoulders twisted funny, but she didn't let go.
"You okay?" Peter called up.
"Keep running," Natasha ordered in lieu of an answer. She looked down, gauging the distance. When she noticed Peter still standing there, she glared at him. "Go!"
Hoping the young man did as she ordered, she began swinging back and forth slightly, trying to get some more momentum. Finally, on a forward swing, the redhead let go of the railing. She fell through the air and landed on the floor, where she felt and heard a sickening pop in her ankle when she connected with the ground. She fell into a roll to avoid falling flat on her face, but when she tried to get up and take a step, she stumbled as her ankle flared painfully.
She would have tripped, but Peter had (not surprisingly) ignored her instructions to keep running, and he caught her arm, preventing her from falling again.
"I told you to go," she panted, though she didn't seem too upset about it.
"Sorry," he replied as he helped pull her along the hallway, not actually sounding all that sorry.
There was a door straight ahead of them, and now that she was a little more accustomed to the pain, Natasha was able to block it out and put more weight on her injured ankle, though she still had a heavy limp. When the two of them burst through the door though, they skidded to a stop though as they were met with no way out. At least, no easy way. There were windows about six feet up, but no other doors besides the one they had just come through.
Peter met Natasha's gaze. She could see it in the boy's eyes; he was scared, but his resolve was also apparent. She gave a short nod, and they both turned around to face their pursuers in sync.
Natasha took out the first three men that attacked her with ease, though she was having to use her injured ankle. She had been trained to fight through minor injuries like that though, so it was already ingrained in her movements. After flipping one man onto his back, she then rolled him up right as one of his companions shot at her, using the man as a human shield. Once he was taken care of, Natasha slung the limp body at another approaching man, making them both tumble to the ground. While they were distracted, she took a two-step running jump and leapt up, landing on another man's shoulders and jamming her elbow into his neck. When he collapsed in pain, Natasha rolled forward straight into her next attacker.
Peter was doing well, his training with Natasha playing in the back of his mind as he ducked punches, avoided leg swipes, and yanked guns out of the hands of the men attacking him. His enhanced strength and reflexes were playing a large part in his success as well.
It seemed like they were doing so well, but suddenly the kid felt something off. His spidey senses had been going haywire since they'd escaped their room, but the feeling that something was wrong increased tenfold. He wanted to look for what was causing the distress signal, but the men attacking him demanded his attention more. However, when he heard the cocking of a gun, the teenager ignored his attackers. He looked to over at the door and saw Alexei level his gun at Natasha, almost in slow motion.
Immediately, Peter ran forward, launching himself at Natasha trying to knock her out of the way just as Shostokov pulled the trigger.
A bang echoed around the room, and Natasha whirled around just in time to see Peter jump in front of her, then fall to the ground. She tried catching him, but more men had caught up with them. They grabbed her and jabbed a taser into her neck, dropping her like a rock. She hit the ground hard, but when hands reached down to grab her again, she used the last reserves of her energy and adrenaline to fight back. She wrapped her legs around one of her attacker's necks, using the momentum to swing herself upwards and send him crashing down. The shock from the taser had made her vision fuzzy, and she felt her limbs trembling, but she managed to get to her feet. Things almost seemed to be going her way, until she felt something pinch her arm.
When she glanced over, a syringe was being extracted from her arm. Knowing she had precious few moments until whatever was in the vial took effect, she let out a grunt and shoved her foot into the man's sternum. Not even the sound of the cracking bone gave Natasha pleasure as she staggered over to the fallen teenager.
"Kid?" she said, collapsing onto her hands and knees next to Peter. Part of her collapse was because she wanted to check on the kid, but another part was because the pain in her ankle was suddenly much more apparent, probably thanks to whatever drug she'd been given, which was also starting to take ahold of her. "Kid?"
Peter groaned as if he heard her talking to him, but he didn't open his eyes.
Natasha's world began spinning, but she tried blinking the effects away as she pressed down on Peter's gunshot wound. It was a gut shot, and Natasha knew just by looking at it that if the kid hadn't had super powers, it would have been a fatal shot. As it was, she could tell he was fading. Or was that herself? Her head was pounding with the lightheadedness one gets right before passing out, and no matter how hard she fought against it, she knew she had seconds at the most before she was lost. She used those last few seconds to press down harder on Peter's wound, trying to staunch the blood flow and give him a bit more of a chance to survive.
Unfortunately, those few seconds passed by much faster than she wanted, and she soon felt herself falling to the side. Before she hit the ground, she vaguely felt hands catch her and lift her up, but it was at that moment that the last of the fight went out of her, and she went limp as she fell into unconsciousness.
0-0-0
"Get her into one of the trucks," Alexei ordered as his men exited the room, towing an unconscious Black Widow. The henchmen nodded and hurried towards the exit. Alexei looked back in the room, thinking to himself that he should go in and make sure the teenager was dead, but the proximity alarms began blaring, alerting the Russian that someone, more than likely whoever his two prisoners had contacted, had breached perimeter. Deciding the boy wasn't worth his time or capture, Alexei turned and ran out the door.
0-0-0
Stark hovered in the air as Clint and Steve raced through the gate that the billionaire had just blown to kingdom come.
"Friday, scan for Romanoff and the kid."
"On it, Boss."
Stark watched as Rogers threw his shield at the handle, completely breaking the handle off and making it easy for the two-hundred pound super soldier to simply smash through the door without even breaking stride.
Stark blasted a hole in a wall and flew into the building, using everything he had to scan the building for signs of the two captives.
"Friday, anything?"
His AI didn't even have a chance to finish her response before Clint cut in.
"Stark." Barton's tone of voice caused Stark's heart to skip a few beats. "You need to get down here."
Friday lit up a section of the building where Barton was, and the billionaire flew towards his companion. He used thermal to see where Barton was inside the room, then blasted a hole in the wall far enough away so he wouldn't hurt whoever was in the room.
The sight of Barton crouched over the limp form made Tony's heart stop for what felt like several beats.
"Sh—talk to me Barton."
Clint looked up at the billionaire. "It's bad, Tony," he said gravely.
Stark clenched his teeth, glad that he was wearing a helmet so Clint couldn't see his expression.
"I've called it in, medical's coming. They're minutes away," Clint said, pressing down on the teenager's wound. When the young man didn't even react to the pain, Stark's heart rate escalated.
"Friday?"
"He's alive, but his vitals are low. He needs immediate medical attention."
Tony was about to pick the kid up and meet medical halfway, but the voice of reason cut in.
"Stark, did you find Natasha?"
Stark hadn't even seen Steve come in behind them.
When Tony didn't answer, Steve prodded again. "Stark?"
Stark huffed. "Friday?"
"Miss Romanoff isn't in the building, but there are three trucks about a mile away, going fast," the AI supplied. Stark looked down at the teenager, shutting his eyes tightly. He knew what Steve was going to say next.
"Tony, you're the only one who can catch up to the truck," Rogers reminded him. Tony didn't answer. He wanted to just ignore the rest of the world and get the kid the medical attention he needed, but he Steve's statement also rang true. He was part of a team now; he needed to help his teammates, and he had to trust that his teammates would stay with the teenager.
"We'll keep him alive," Steve promised, as if he'd heard Stark's thoughts.
"Stark, I'll come," Barton said, standing up and unslinging his bow. Tony didn't respond, but Steve took over Clint's position, pressing down on Peter's wound. Stark grabbed Clint's arm, but before the two of them took off, the billionaire looked back at Steve.
"I'll keep him alive," Steve repeated.
Stark ground his teeth together again, but without another word he took off, flying through the holes he'd already blasted in the wall.
The two heroes caught up to the truck convoy quickly, and Stark released an arsenal at the tires of the trucks, which ruptured with loud pops. The billionaire coasted close to the ground and released his grasp on Clint, who fell into a roll before springing back to his feet and firing his arrows. The archer seemed like he didn't even have to look where he was aiming; all his arrows found their marks.
"Friday, where is she?"
Thermal images popped up on Tony's HUD, and in the middle truck there was a figure lying on the ground. That had to be her. Stark landed on the roof of the truck with a loud thud, his feet denting wherever he stepped. He dug his fingers into the top and ripped the roof off, revealing several men inside, and just like he'd suspected, Natasha was lying on the ground. Bullets immediately began flying all around and striking his armor, but the billionaire wasn't even fazed as his suit targeted and took out the hostiles.
Once all the men shooting at him were taken care of, Stark jumped down inside and scooped up the limp Natasha in his arms. He fired off into the sky and quickly found Clint surrounded by downed henchmen.
"Stark!"
Tony touched down next to Clint, who relieved the billionaire of his red headed friend. "Get back to the kid," Clint instructed. "I've got her; meet med in the air."
"What about the rest of the men?" Stark asked as he fired a repulsor beam at an approaching enemy.
Clint set Natasha gently on the ground and pulled out his bow again. "I got a few tricks up my quiver," he assured the billionaire with a smirk. "Go."
Stark wanted to agree and take off, but he also didn't want to leave Barton alone with an unconscious Natasha. Even with how good the archer was, and even if he did take out all the men coming towards them, it would take him too long to get back to the compound carrying the unconscious woman.
"Not happening. Hold on." Stark reached out and grabbed both spies, blasting off into the air and ignoring Barton's yelled protesting.
A few moments later, too long for Tony's liking, they finally got back to the room where Peter and Steve were waiting.
"Stark," Steve said when he saw the billionaire land beside him. Tony released his hold on Clint and Natasha, setting the redhead on the ground more gently than he did Clint. The archer shook himself off once Stark let go, glaring at the billionaire.
"Take care of her," Stark instructed, gesturing to Natasha. "I'm taking him."
"Is that a good idea?" Steve asked, reluctant to step away from the teenager.
"He's bleeding out, Steve. I'm meeting the med team halfway."
Without waiting for the Captain's response, Stark shouldered past the super soldier and knelt down, picking up the teenager more gently than one would think the suit had the ability to.
"Hold on, kid," Stark muttered as he took to the skies. A little louder, he instructed, "Friday, alert whatever medical team is coming that I'm comin' in hot."
"Will do, Boss."
Stark scanned the horizon, looking for the medical team. "Come on," he muttered. "Where are they?"
Okay, so I edited this on my lunch break at work (which is now running over XD) so if it's rough/you find mistakes, let me know and I'll do my best to fix it! Sorry if it's disappointing XD
Let me know what you think!
