"This is a bad idea," proclaimed Stark as he watched Clint stuff their unconscious prisoner into the trunk of the car.
"Pretty much par for the course then." Barton slammed the trunk closed and moved to open the door to the back seat. He threw his duffel bag and closed the door. "Get in," he ordered Stark as he climbed into the driver's seat.
"What! We're just going to drive around with a guy in the trunk?" asked Tony as he put his seat belt on. He'd seen enough movies to know that that didn't end well.
"We'll leave him in the trunk and SHIELD can come and collect him from where we end up ditching the car. We have to get a move on because once they find out that you've escaped they're going to double up on reinforcements on the rest of the team and start making plans to move them. If that happens, we're done before we get going."
They had a four hour drive to get to the location Hydra was holding Bruce. While Tony wasn't sure if he approved of Barton's hidden talents, but they did produce results. The prisoner spilled his guts giving Hawkeye the location for Banner and a small idea of what kind of force they were going to be contending with. Hired help was still just hired help and the thug didn't have any real insightful information regarding Hydra's master plan involving the Avengers.
Whatever they were planning, Tony hoped they thought it out because he pitied anyone that thought they could do to Banner what they did to him. He would secretly enjoy the show because he was a fan of anyone that decided to torture him and his friends getting their asses handed to them but the Hulk educing rage they would bring forth was really overkill, and no one could be that stupid, could they?
Tony lay next to Hawkeye on the roof across the street from the warehouse that Banner was supposed to be in. Stark glanced briefly at the Hydra personnel patrolling the grounds while Clint watched through a set of binoculars. The agent was searching the windows to try and get confirmation on their captive teammate.
"You know bird watching really isn't my thing," muttered Stark. Really, all of this wasn't his thing without his suit. He liked to believe that he was smart enough to overcome anything, but looking around, this was going to take skill that Tony just didn't possess as a regular guy. He would deny it to anyone, but Zalle might have a point about training to fight outside their element.
"Shut up Stark," snapped Clint. The assassin never moved a muscle except to shift the binoculars. Tony was envious of his calm and collected demeanour. "Got him; second floor fifth window over."
Clint started to army crawl backwards away from the ledge, and Tony followed suit though it was a less graceful than Barton. Taking the back fire escape, the pair moved back to their car.
Bruce watched with mild curiosity, the flurry of activity around him. He'd been locked in a cage for four days under threat not to move or turn any shade close to green or Steve was going to pay the price. He'd been forced to watch a constant live video feed of Rogers being tortured, which was enough to make Banner want to unleash the Big Guy, but it had been made very clear that they could and would kill Steve at the first sign of trouble. He hoped the rest of the team was alright and that someone was on their way to rescue them.
That morning Bruce had been moved from his cage to this makeshift lab and strapped down to the table. There wasn't anything pleasant laying around and the doctor could only hope that they weren't going to be using any of the devices on him, because he knew at the first spark of pain there would be no stopping the Hulk from emerging.
Bruce watched as one of the goons wheeled over a machine that hummed to life after he flicked a switch. Picking up the two rods attached, the henchman tapped them together causing sparks to fly. Banner sighed, did they really think electrocution was the way to go.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," warned Bruce, "It will end badly for both of us."
"What's it look like?" asked Tony as he watched Barton hiding weapons on his person.
"They're threatening him with torture." Clint handed Stark a set of explosives. "Wait for my signal then set the timers for five minutes, then get the hell out of the way. I need these set up on the support beams on the first floor of the building to the left of the warehouse."
An angry roar echoed through the industrial site. "You don't think they'd..." shuddered Stark. The Hulk would demolish everything including any clues they could use to find the rest of the team. If the Big Guy was as pissed as he sounded, he might not stop his reign of destruction when he happened upon his teammates.
Clint chuckled as he snapped his bow open. "They're not the brightest."
The pair ran back towards the warehouse feeling the ground shake beneath them. When they rounded the corner the warehouse was crumbling and the Hydra agents were scrambling for cover like ants.
"Okay, so Bruce can rescue himself. Who's next?" asked Stark as he took in the destruction that only took the Hulk four minutes to create.
"Stay here," ordered Barton as he placed his arrow back in his quiver in exchange for a Hulk sedative one. The archer ran into the middle of the chaos and took aim at the large green beast. Just as the arrow left his bow a bullet sliced his right arm. He hissed in pain but didn't drop his bow. Clint managed to pull a second arrow with a taser head and loosed it at the Hydra agent that had taken the shot at him.
The Hulk raged for a few more minutes effectively sending the few remaining Hydra goons fleeing the scene. Clint moved over to the thug he knocked out and dragged his body back to the car. The thud of the Hulk dropping sounded behind him.
Tony was leaning against the car as Barton came around the corner. Seeing the burden his friend was carrying, he moved over to help him out. "You're never going to make friends this way Barton."
"Not so interested in friends as information Stark. We're taking this van," explained Clint as he pointed to the vehicle parked across the parking lot. Tony grumbled, but helped drag the unconscious man over and held him as Clint picked the lock to open the doors in the back. Leaving Stark to watch the tied and gagged prisoner, Hawkeye made his way back to retrieve Banner.
The archer pulled Bruce over his shoulder and carried him back to their getaway vehicle. Barton breathed through the pain in his arm that his burden amplified but he couldn't afford to stop now. Clint put Bruce in the back beside Tony and the Hydra agent then climbed into the driver's seat.
They pulled up in front of a seedy motel; the kind that didn't ask questions of any kind. Barton got them a room at the end of the row of accommodations and got everyone inside. Stark watched from the door as Hawkeye deposited Bruce on the bed to finish sleeping off effects of the sedative. He opted to wait out in the main room with the unconscious doctor while Clint had a little persuasive chat with the Hydra agent in the bathroom. Tony didn't really want to know why the assassin chose that room but Clint had mumbled something about easy clean up.
The billionaire was grateful for the extent that his teammate was willing to go to save the team and he had never been under the delusion that stuff like this didn't happen but it just didn't jive with the picture he had been painting of Barton since the archer became a constant in his life.
The muffled groan from the bed pulled Stark's attention. "Rise and shine, Bruce." Tony grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and offered it to a still sleepy Banner. Bruce took the bottle gratefully along with the aspirin Tony scrounged up.
"What happened?" asked the doctor.
"Hydra got the drop on us, if you can believe that. But never fear, Clint's an archer on a mission; SHIELD is doing its usual good job so it's you, me and Barton. We still have to rescue Cap and Thor. You wouldn't happen to know what happened to them would you?"
A scream of pain from the bathroom caused Bruce to tense. It wasn't Barton's voice, but somehow that didn't make him feel any better. "I don't know about Thor, but I know they have Steve. They were tor..." his voice trailed off for a moment as Clint emerged from the bathroom covered in blood. The archer turned off the light and closed the door behind him then made his way to the kitchen sink to try and clean up. Bruce followed him with his eyes, but continued to answer Stark's question. "They were torturing him for information; I had to watch it on a video feed. They said if I transformed they would kill him."
"So what changed, Doc?" asked Clint who was casually leaning against the counter like this was an everyday occurrence. Bruce eyed him sceptically, taking in all the blood that covered his friend. When he final found a patch of blood that actually belonged to the archer he made his way over to help patch the wound.
"Their leader was insistent that they leave me alone, but he left this morning. One of his lackeys thought he could do better, get me to talk. It didn't work out so well for him." He finished bandaging Clint's arm and Barton nodded appreciatively.
"Is there anything you can remember about where they were keeping Rogers?"
"From what it looked like it was a concrete room with a handful of guards. They didn't tell me where they were keeping him and I don't remember anything from after the battle. I wish I could be more help." Bruce sat next to Tony on the bed and gave an apologetic sigh. He could see the condition Stark was in and knew how horrible Steve looked last time he saw him. There was Thor to worry about as well; he hoped the Asgardian was faring better than the rest of them.
"This ringleader give you a name?" Barton was all business.
Banner racked his brain. He knew it had been mentioned, the man had tried to take the 'let's all be friends' tact with him to start with. "Jäger? I think that was it."
"The hunter," whispered Barton. Louder for everyone to hear he continued, "You two should make your way back to SHIELD."
Stark protested, "and what are you going to do? We still have to rescue Thor and Rogers!"
"I'm going to get them back. Based on what our friend in there told me," Clint pointed towards the bathroom, "I have a pretty good idea where to go next."
"You're not going alone. We're a team, we do this together." Stark let out a huff, "I'm starting to sound like Rogers."
Part of Clint felt relieved at the sentiment, but the last few months could argue that point. On the other hand, it would be nice to know people he trusted had his back on this one.
