-Chapter Four-

Avery rubbed her hands over her butt, feeling her annoyance growing with each passing second. She pushed her hips out towards the mirror for a moment longer before she let out a sigh and turned her gaze away from her own backside, fully dissatisfied with what she saw.

"Are you done?"

"I don't understand how these pants can make my ass look enormous and yet somehow flat all at the same time." Avery chanced a glance at her reflection once again, only to instantly regret it.

"Budget cuts. We aren't going in uniform, so you can stop worrying about your ass."

"You could have told me that before I got dressed." Avery snorted, reaching a hand down to pick up her equally unflattering S.H.I.E.L.D. issue jacket before she moved to her dresser to grab a change of clothes. He was wearing street clothes, ones that didn't make his posterior region look disgusting, she noticed, and had his bow and quiver strapped to his back. It was an odd contrast. She slipped into her bathroom and changed clothes quickly before she hurried back out. She threw her leather jacket on, waiting for Clint to tell her why he was there. It wasn't as if he came to visit her voluntarily. No one did. Once Fury had debriefed them on her abilities they tended to avoid her, even though she hadn't done anything to them personally. She didn't like to admit it, because it sounded desperate even in her mind, but she was really happy he was there. She had spent the last two months without much interaction and when Clint had showed up at her door telling her she had an assignment, she had practically jumped out of happiness.

"So…"

"Natasha is on assignment. Looks like I'm stuck with you."

"You're very charming, you know." Avery was used to the less than enthusiastic reaction she got from most of the agents that were forced to interact with her. The job tended to attract people with more secrets than hairs on their heads, and Avery, as much as she tried to control it, tended to make those people wary. Clint Barton was no exception, although he wasn't as bad as some. She had only spoken to him twice before this instance, so she was a bit unsure of why he was there. The only people she interacted with on a regular basis were her instructor, Dr. Fitz, and Fury when he thought to grace her with his presence and check up on her progress. "Why do you need me? Fury hasn't let me leave base for two months. Why now?"

Clint, who had been busy picking at some of the tchotchkes Avery had scattered around her quarters while she was changing, ignored her question. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Where are we going?" Avery's hands twitched as she tried to fight the urge to just force him to tell her. It would be easier, she knew that, but it wouldnt accomplish anything other than making him distrust her entirely. "I mean, I might need a thicker jacket or maybe some sunscreen if we're hitting up the tropics."

"We aren't going to the tropics."

"Damn. And here I thought you had finally realized your feelings for me and were whisking me away to some undisclosed romantic vacation."

"Gudrun." Clint put the slinky he had been holding back on her standard issue nightstand.

"You can call me Avery, you know." Avery swung open the door to her closet, searching around until she saw her favorite pair of worn in leather boots. She pointedly ignored the annoyed sigh Clint gave her when she sat on the ground to pull them onto her feet. She got the first one on before she realized that she had forgotten her socks. "Will you throw me a pair of socks?" Clint folded his arms over his chest, raising one of his eyebrows in an unimpressed manner. "Pretty please?"

He walked over to the single dresser she had and opened up the topmost drawer. "Why do you have so many pairs of underwear?"

"Why are you looking at my underwear?" Avery smirked over her shoulder, winking at him when she saw the look on his face. "Creep."

"Here." He tossed a pair of mismatched socks at her and closed the drawer before she could say anything else to him. "Now, let's go."

Avery shoved her feet into her socks and boots in hurried motion. She stood up and looked around her bleak room, thinking if there was anything else she needed. She didn't know where they were going so she felt a little bubble of anxiety, that might have actually been indigestion from the questionable tacos the night before, forming. This was the first time she was being let off base and she didn't exactly know what she was supposed to do. She forced herself to appear nonchalant about leaving, straightening her shoulders in a determined way as she walked to her door and walked out, leaving it open for Clint. When it took him a moment to follow her, she peeked back inside, smirking even wider at him despite her apprehension.

"We don't have all day, Clint."

"Shut up, Avery."

Avery leaned back into her seat, tapping her heels on the ground. Clint, who had chosen a seat as far away from her as possible, glanced up. She tapped her feet louder when she noticed his eyes trailing down to her boots. She was practically stomping them by the time he snapped at her to be quiet. She smirked over at him and tried not to take it personally when he didn't return the favor. He went back to ignoring her, which left Avery with no other options for entertaining herself. She wished that, for some odd reason, they weren't leaving base in the first place. She had been stuck in the training wing for two months and had imagined what it would be like when Fury finally sent her out on an assignment. Going to New York hadn't exactly crossed her mind.

Avery had only been to New York once. Her mother had taken them when Avery was ten to go a see a Broadway play. It had quickly backfired when the person sitting next to them had promptly confessed to double homicide during the intermission.

For some reason, New York had never had quite the same appeal for Avery since them.

"We'll be landing in 3 minutes, Sir." Clint stood up. He pulled off his bow and quiver and placed it in the seat he had just vacated. He noticed her watching him with narrowed eyes.

"We'll be blending in."

"Ah. I guess you would stand out with a giant bow strapped to your back." She stood up as well, shaking out her limbs. She felt idiotic for doing so, but she had seen the other agents doing that before sparring practice, so she thought it might be the appropriate thing to do. "Only losers like archery anyway."

His only response was a glare that she was certain he practiced in the mirror.

"I'm kidding, of course."

"There was an incident in New York approximately three days ago involving species unknown. A biological weapon was released in a high population area that led to the partial mutation of police officers and pedestrians in the area. A cure was administered and all negative side effects were reversed within a couple of hours under hospital supervision. Multiple onlookers reported sightings of a large lizard-like creature as well as a man dressed in a red and blue costume shooting webs out of his hands like a spider. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been monitoring the situation over the last couple of months, however, because of recent events, intervention is now necessary."

Avery was silent for a moment, taking in all the official sounding information for a moment before she finally spoke. "Wicked."

"What?"

"This is like a real assignment. Like for real. I thought Fury was sending us to stop a particularly rowdy bunch of hooligans from tagging a park bench or something. But, this is like real shit."

Clint blinked at her, seeming to try and decide how to respond to her words before he turned away from her, shaking his head. "Director Fury seemed to think it was time you got out and tested your..." He paused, bending down to pick up a small case. "Abilities."

"Oh." Avery instantly felt all her excitement, which had sprung up out of nowhere after Clint told her about their assignment, disappear entirely.

"Oh, what?" Clint seemed hesitant to ask her why she had suddenly switched from being excited to moody in a matter of seconds.

"I'm not going to use my, well, my powers."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to. Look last time I did, I got kidnapped by a super-secret agency and haven't been able to go home since. Well, you guys aren't actually that secret, but whatever. The answer is still no."

"That's the reason you're here."

"Really? I thought it was for devilish sense of humor and great smile."

"Fine. I'll just tell Fury that you're refusing to comply. You can go back to the hole for two more months if you want, or you can use your abilities to help S.H.I.E.L.D. and prove you worth all the money and time that's been spent training you so you don't end up spilling secrets that could get you, or someone else, killed, or worse. Now, are you going to stop acting like a child?"

"Maybe we do need to go to the tropics. You could really use some R & R for all that stress and anger you have pent up." When he glared at her, she threw her hands up in a defeated way. "Okay, fine. But I can't guarantee that this will work out in the way you guys hope. I can't control it as good as I like to pretend and if things start to go badly there's no telling what will happen."

"Follow my lead and nothing bad should happen. There will be back up agents around the perimeter just in case things get out of hand."

The plane began to dip, causing Avery, who had very little experience with flying, to stumble. She immediately sat back in her seat, sticking her hands up underneath her legs. She could tell Clint was watching her warily, but she ignored him. As happy as she was to be getting away from base for a little while, she wasn't happy about the reason. She had known that eventually they would ask her to use her powers, but she kept thinking it would be later rather than sooner. Stress made them harder to control and, as a general rule of thumb, she liked to avoid situations that put unnecessary stress on her. There was a reason she had chosen the middle of the New Mexican desert. New York was filled with people and people meant stress and stress meant Avery got to know a lot more about them than she would like. She had tried to avoid using her powers after what had happened with Jane Foster for obvious reasons. Now that she was being asked to use them, and more troubling, keep them under control completely, she wasn't exactly sure what would happen.

Avery stared at the ground, trying to count her heartbeats, when the plane landed with a soft thud.

"You need to relax." Clint said, drawing her away from her counting.

"I'm fine."

"I've read the transcripts from your instructor. He noticed that when you were under a great amount of stress you have a harder time controlling it." She finally looked up at him, noticing that he didn't look as annoyed with her as he usually did. "If you feel like it's starting to get away from you, tell me. I've had a talk a few people down from the ledge a time or two."

Avery nodded slowly, not entirely sure if she believed him completely. She knew he meant it to sound like he had the situation under control, but she couldn't help but think he had no idea what he was dealing with when it came to her. She allowed him to have his delusions, however, and forced herself to put a smile on her face. "Let's go get that lizard."

"Oh, the lizard is dead. We're going after the spider."

"We look like pedophiles." Avery said, peering out from behind the bush at the school in front of them. Midtown Science High School looked about as normal as most high schools did. Avery considered herself to be an expert on the matter, considering how many she had attended. She looked over at Clint, expecting to see him responding in some way to her statement. He didn't. He simply kept his gaze on the high school. Avery watched him for a moment longer before she too turned her attention back to the virtually deserted school yard. "You know, I don't think many spiders enroll themselves in high school. I think they're more into things like spin class or weaving at the local community center."

No response.

"Get it? Spin class? Weaving? It's a spider joke."

"Be quiet, Avery."

Avery stuck her tongue out at him, but followed his instructions all the same. She wished he had picked a shadier spot. The sun was beating down on her, making her sweat underneath her leather jacket. She didn't dare take it off, considering Clint had forced her to wear a bullet proof vest over her shirt. While she was thankful that on the off chance they were going to be shot at she would have protection, she wasn't thankful for the heat it added. She was certain by the end of the day she would be stewing in her own stinky juices.

After three hours sitting outside the school, Avery gave up watching the doors. She sat down in the scrubby grass cross-legged, perfectly content with letting Clint keep watch. It certainly wasn't as fun or exciting as she had expected when she heard it involved humans of the possible lizard and spider variety to be. In fact, it was quite boring. Clint didn't seem to mind that time was moving at a glacial pace in the hot sun. Avery noticed enough for the both of them and reminded him as much as possible while they sat there.

"Maybe he isn't here. Maybe he broke one of his eight legs."

"Whoever told you you were funny lied to your face." Clint said, glancing over at her. "Of all the spider jokes, you had to go with something about eight legs."

"You didn't seem to understand my other ones so I thought I would dumb it down for you."

"That's very considerate of you."

Avery shifted her position, ignoring how moist her pants were. She was happy that Clint was finally seeming to warm up to her. People usually avoided her after they spilled their guts to her, not before, so the metaphorical shunning she had gotten during her time at S.H.I.E.L.D. had caught her a little off guard. She didn't mind, per say, but she couldn't deny that she liked it when people took the time to actually talk to her, even if it was forced by a certain eye-patch wearing director in this case.

"I know this is probably a stupid question…" Avery started, moving so that she could see the front entrance of the school again.

"There are no stupid questions, only stupid questioners."

"Regardless, we keep talking about spiders and I keep pretending to know what the hell we're talking about so I'll look cool or whatever, but something has been bothering me."

"And what would that be?"

"We aren't talking about an actual spider right?"

"No, we aren't."

"Good, because spiders scare the shit out of me." Avery confessed, wiping some of the sweat on her neck off with her equally sweaty hand. He laughed, which surprised Avery so much she jumped at the sound. She watched him for a moment, half expecting him to be faking, before she joined in in an uncomfortable way.

He looked back at the school, still chuckling to himself for a moment before he stood up suddenly. Avery, as slow on the uptake as ever, stood up as well, looking around to see what he had seen. He pulled the little box of from under his shirt and opened it quickly. Avery hadn't even noticed he had brought it with him, which was yet another reminder that S.H.I.E.L.D. might be placing a bit more faith in her spying abilities that they should have. The little box held what looked like a dart gun with a few almost lethal looking darts. Clint loaded the darts into the gun before he pushed his way out of the bushes and ran towards the school. Avery stood there, wondering what on earth was happening, before she decided she was probably meant to follow along after him.

That was easier said than done. Clint had about a foot on her height wise and was in substantially better shape. That didn't stop him from sprinting away, following along after a shape that Avery thought looked distinctly human.

Avery struggled to keep breathing as she sprinted after him, determined not to lose him. It was her first time out and about, after the whole Jane Foster incident, and she wasn't about to go screwing it up badly enough to get herself put back into isolation for yet another indefinite amount of time. Clint had chased the person beyond the school grounds and into an area that Avery would have avoided if the situation had been different. The amount of graffiti was enough to make her question the area altogether. She had just about lost them when she came upon Clint holding the person against a wall in a side alley. Avery skidded to a halt and walked over to them, thoroughly embarrassed about how heavily she was breathing.

"You could have told me there would be running involved." Avery wheezed, coming up to stand next to Clint and the unknown person.

"The target was getting away."

Avery looked over at said target, instantly wondering about Clint's ability to pick out questionable looking people in a crowd. Skinny teenage boys certainly didn't seem like the type to be involved with biological agents, dangerous or otherwise. He was tall and looked like he could each a sandwich or twenty and had messy brown hair that just barely brushed the tops of his glasses.

"He's a kid, Clint."

"His name is Peter Parker. In addition to being a high school student he likes to dress up in a costume and swing around New York on webs."

Avery, finally having enough of feeling like she was going to have a heat stroke, stripped off her leather jacket and tied it around her waist. "He's the spider?"

"Who are you?" The kid, Peter, asked. His words seemed slightly slurred, like they were hard for him to say. "What do you want?"

"Why is he talking like that?"

"He shot me with something." Peter said, indignation mixing with alarm.

"You shot him?" Avery turned to Clint. "He's like twelve."

"Seventeen, actually."

"I wouldn't have shot you if you would've listened to me when I told you to stop running." Clint said, ignoring the way Avery was looking at him. "But that's hardly relevant. I want to know how you got these abilities."

Avery wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. She had thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was a bit shady, but she had never thought they would be the kind to bully children. Apparently, she had been horribly misinformed during her time in isolation.

"Who are you?" Peter asked again, trying to get out of Clint's vice-like grip on his shoulder.

"We work for someone that's noticed you. You made quite a stir with the whole lizard incident, Parker. You've officially made it impossible to ignore you. Now, tell me where you got these abilities." Clint said, still holding Peter by the shoulder.

"No." Avery was afraid Peter was going to say that. She closed her eyes, hoping in a rather foolish way that Clint would just leave it at that. She knew he wouldn't, however.

"Avery, do it."

"I don't really thin…"

"Now."

Peter turned his gaze on Avery, fear written all over his face. He tried to scoot back from her when she stepped forward, but the large brick wall he was being held up against prevented him from doing so. She thought she might have been just as scared as he was. She didn't know what sort of things he was going to say. After all these years, people never failed to surprise and disappoint her with the secrets they carried. Seventeen year olds were no exception. "I'm Avery, by the way." Avery said as a way of stalling. "And I'm really sorry about this." She didn't exactly expect it to work the way Clint wanted. She had made it very clear that she didn't make people tell the truth. She wasn't sure why that was so hard for people to understand.

She closed her eyes, trying her best to stay in control as she touched his arm with the very tip of her pointer finger.

"I was bit by a spider and now I can do all sorts of things that should be impossible. It isn't contagious or anything like that."

Avery immediately removed her hand, forcing herself to pull back her abilities.

"What was that?" Peter asked, his face expressing the usual look of violation that most people sported after they realized what Avery had done. "How did you do that?"

"It's not as cool as being able to swing from webs." Avery stepped back, feeling very mean for having forced a kid to spill his secret. "But I guess it has its uses."

"I'll say. How does it work? Do you just touch people and they tell the truth or…"

"Okay, enough chitchat." Clint cut off their conversation before it could go any further. "I'll keep it simple, kid. You made a name for yourself with what happened three days ago. S.H.I.E.L.D. will be watching you from now on. You do anything, and I mean anything, that hints at being a threat we'll be back for you. Got it?"

"He means that in the least threatening way possible, of course. Because, threatening minors is never cool, right Clint?"

"We'll be in touch, Parker."

"Who are you? Actually, more importantly, who are they?" Peter pointed over his shoulder. Avery followed the line of his hand, not sure what she was expecting to see. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents surrounding the alley seemed like a bit of overkill, considering they were all pointing guns at Peter.

"They have a flair for dramatics, obviously." Avery said, shooting a dry look at Clint, who had finally decided to remove his hand from Peter's shoulder.

"Obviously."

"Alright, enough you two. Parker, stay out of trouble."

He stepped back from Peter and began to walk out of the alley. He waved his hand at the agents, watching them as they all slunk back off to wherever they had come from before he turned back to Avery. "Let's go."

"That's it?" Avery asked, surprised at how quickly they were leaving.

"That's it. He isn't a threat and we've made it clear that if he becomes one, he'll have us to answer to."

Avery tuned back to Peter, smiling at him when she saw how confused he looked. "It was great to meet you, Peter."

"Wait! Before you leave, I have a question."

"Shoot." Avery said, rolling her eyes when she saw the annoyed look on Clint's face at the delay. "The question of course, not webs."

"Funny. But really, how'd you find me?"

"We're able to find anyone. A kid dressing up like a spider is hardly a challenge for us." Clint answered before Avery could open her mouth to respond.

"If it makes you feel any better, they found me even when I wasn't dressing up and swinging around town."

"No, you were just busy stealing classified intel." Clint said sarcastically, sticking the small dart gun into the holster he had strapped underneath his jacket.

"Stealing is a really harsh word."

"Doesn't change the facts."

"Can I go?" Peter asked, cutting across their conversation before it could go any further.

"Yea. You can go." Clint waved his hand, shooting Avery a look out of the corner of his eyes.

"See you around, Spidey." Avery said, earning a scoff from both Clint and Peter.

"It's Spider-Man, actually." Peter said, kicking his skateboard up into his hand. Avery was impressed at his dexterity, considering he was still recovering from the dart. "And no offense, but I don't really hope to see either of you ever again." He threw his skateboard on the ground and ran along beside it before jumping on it and riding it out of the alley and out of their sights. Avery watched him leave, fully aware of Clint marching off in the direction they had come from and leaving her behind.

"Avery."

She turned on her heel, giving the deserted alley one last glance as she jogged to catch up with Clint. He led her back to where they had been dropped off by a car in front of the high school. It took them about ten minute to get back there, thanks in no small part to the amount of students milling about around the school grounds. Avery instantly felt anxious being around so many people and moved a little faster to catch up with Clint. He was walking with purposeful strides, ignoring the looks they were getting from some of the students. He opened the door to the car for Avery when they got back to it, slipping in behind her and slamming the door shut with a loud snap. The cabin was quiet after that.

The driver, the same one who had dropped them off, drove back in the direction of where the plane had dropped them off, in complete silence.

"You were nice to him." Clint said, breaking the silence after what had felt like an eternity. Avery turned her gaze from the window and onto him, surprised at the manner in which he chose to start a conversation.

"I like to think I'm nice so…"

"You wouldn't even make eye contact with me when we first met." Clint reminded her, pulling off his jacket. The cabin of the car was uncomfortably hot and smelled of sweat.

"Well, you picked the wrong time to introduce yourself." Avery said, peering out at the buildings that they passed by.

"You did well. You were able to control it."

"Peter didn't exactly stress me out."

"Fury will be pleased."

"I guess I passed the test." Avery leaned back in her seat, resting her head against the leather. Her hair stuck to her neck and to the head rest.

"Solid C+ effort."

"Shut up, Clint." Clint only laughed, allowing the conversation to drop, leaving only silence instead. Avery peeked over at him, smirking to herself when she saw that he was still smiling. She supposed that it had been a good day. She had been able to control her abilities, which was something that she normally couldn't guarantee. It caused a small amount of hope to build up within her chest. She was always cautious about being hopeful, however.

She always ended up disappointing herself in the end, so she didn't have much faith that this brief period of control would last. They never did.