A/N: I make no profit from this nor do I own any of the characters.
Flasback
'Thoughts'
"Speaking over the phone"
"Speaking"
Chapter 3: Master Of Your Domain prt 2
Joey was just putting the bow and arrows he'd been using back into their place in the shed; wincing from the cut he had accidently given himself from holding the string too tightly. He looked down at the cut. It was a long sliver down his palm. He conceded at that time to never go without wearing the gloves simply because they were 'difficult to get off.'
Joey was surprised that the cut wasn't bleeding out, despite the fact he'd been using both his hands to put the equipment away. He still needed to clean it and bandage it though. Joey knew that Buck kept some of the basic supplies for cuts and bandages because of the blonde's past incidents with getting cut on either the bow string or the arrows.
He left the shed and when he walked up to the house, Joey saw a black van in the driveway. He frowned; if Buck had been expecting someone he would've told Joey to beat it once the teen had shown up. Joey cautiously opened the door and walked in, he took a look around the entrance before making his way to the bathroom; that's usually where the supplies were kept.
As soon as he opened the cabinet, he took of his sunglasses and started cleaning up his cut. The peroxide stung like hell, but it had to get cleaned. He the wrapped a long strip of the white bandage around his palm and sealed it up with medical tape.
Joey couldn't explain it though, but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and once he closed the cabinet mirror; he froze. Beyond his reflection was the look into the living room; and on the floor behind the couch in the mirror was a crumpled form on the floor.
Joey turned back in alarm and he sprinted over to the fallen form. While he tried to wake Buck up, his mind was screaming at him that if there was still a van out in the driveway that whoever did this was still in the house.
Joey seemed to acknowledge this too little too late as his head snapped up; only to get punched in the jaw and he saw a flash of blond hair before he hit the floor. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Buck being dragged out of sight by a blond man.
Joey awoke later on with a painfully stinging jaw. He staggered to his feet and searched for the phone. Why had someone kidnapped Buck though? That question was replied too with too many variables that Joey's Know-It-All ability came up with and he had to take a steadying breath to stop himself from throwing up.
Whether he was here or not, Joey knew Buck wouldn't have appreciated having a sick teenager in his house.
Once Joey reached the phone, he paused. He knew he should call the cops, but there was something stopping him from doing it. If it had been any other situation, calling the cops would have been priority number one, but at this moment…
Making up his mind, Joey dialed a number and waited for the other person to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Clint, I didn't know what else to do, I didn't know if I should've called the cops first or-"
"Why would you have needed to call the cops?" Clint asked sharply from the other line. "What happened and where are you?"
"I'm at Buck's. I was putting away the arrows and bow I was using, but I cut my palm on the string, so I had to come inside to use the medical supplies." Joey relayed. "That's when I saw the black van in the driveway and went in thinking that someone had just come over, but after I finished cleaning my cut, I saw Buck lying on the floor in the mirror. I went to wake him up, but then someone punched me in the jaw pretty hard and I blacked out. When I woke up, Buck was gone."
There was a pause on other line. "The van, did you get enough of a look at it to know the make?"
"It was a black Chevy van I think. I was just coming into the house so I didn't see the license plate." Joey said.
"What about the person? Did you get a look at 'em before they knock you out?"
Joey grimaced as he rubbed his jaw. "Yeah, sorta. The guy had blond hair, but other than that I didn't get a good look at him." He replied. "So what should I do? Call the cops then?"
There was a pause. "Yes, do that, but," Clint added in a rather sharp tone, "I want you to do it anonymously. I don't want you anywhere near there when the cops show up, so you better be long gone. And don't leave any trace that you were there to begin with, got it?"
Joey was actually rather shocked to be hearing this. "What, why?"
"It's just something I don't want you to get involved in, please, just…stay out of it?"
If possible, this was even more shocking. Joey knew that his honorary father never begged, so he knew the severity of what he was asking. He swallowed audibly before he answered. "Sure, okay." There was a brief goodbye on both parties before Joey called the police tip hotline.
Joey felt confused. Confused and guilty. If he had been quicker on the dodge, he might have been able hold the blond guy off, but Joey was under no illusion that he could've done more than just give the guy a reason to kill him other than being an annoyance.
Joey was all too aware that the guy could've just killed him instead of knocking him out.
Then there was the confusion. Why had Clint told him how to evade the police? And more importantly, why did he want him to stay out of it? Then of course there was the obvious question of why someone would want Buck; as far as Joey knew, the guy was just a grouchy old man who had taught him and Clint to shoot.
The next day, most of his questions were answered when he peeked through his bed room door at the T.V and heard the news reporter giving report of yesterday; and what he heard made his eyes widen.
"...there is no clue as of yet to who might have kidnapped Buck Chisholm, the former mercenary and supervillain known as Trick Shot. The only detail police are confirming is the pair of sunglasses left in the bathroom belonging to an unknown male…"
'Oh. Shit.' Joey thought. 'Clint's gonna kill me he said not too-wait, Buck was a supervillain?'
This had to be the most surprisingly thing he's ever found out. Aside from him learning he was a mutant, but did this mean that Clint knew Buck had been a supervillain? Joey quietly closed the door and relocked the door.
No wonder Clint had told him to stay out of it.
But unbeknownst to Joey, at that exact moment, the national fingerprint database had come up with the name 'Joey Wheeler' from the fingerprints on the sunglasses.
