Disclaimer- I don't own the Avengers
.
.
.
Although Clint didn't want it to, the remaining part of the week passed quickly. He spent the night before his departure tossing and turning, before giving up sleep all together and heading for the deck. He sat as close to the edge as he could, and stared into the water churning below him.
Clint couldn't help thinking about how much everything had changed. And for once, it was a good change. He had spent his first night on the Helicarrier up on the deck, but the circumstances then had been entirely different. Clint actually trusted Phil- and he could never explain how much of a big thing that was. Because even before his mother's death, Clint had never really trusted anyone. But he knew Phil had his back, and that was a good feeling.
Quiet footsteps approached him from behind, and Clint turned to see Jane Griffin.
She smiled. "Can I join you?"
Clint shrugged, and then nodded. "How did you know I was here?" Clint asked as she sat down.
"It was just a feeling." Jane replied.
Clint nodded. Minutes passed in silence, with them both just staring out to sea.
"How are you?" Jane asked.
Clint hesitated. Then he nodded. "I'm good."
Jane smiled. "Hearing ok?"
"It's good, I like it." Clint said, smiling slightly as well.
"How are you feeling about advanced training?"
Clint hesitated again, focusing on the horizon. "Phil won't tell me about it too much… well he's not allowed to, but I don't like the uncertainty. I don't want to fail. But… I trust Phil to prepare me for whatever's going to happen."
Jane nodded. "You got it. Failure is nothing to be afraid of- if you don't complete it you can just try again next time, if you want to. No one is going to be mad at you."
Clint nodded too, and smiled slowly.
Jane sighed, and moved to stand. "Well, it's not too late to get a few more hours sleep in. Are you coming?"
"I'll be there in a minute." Clint said. He listened to Jane walk away, and the hatch slammed shut.
Clint sure as hell wasn't going to fail advanced training. He still had something to prove- to Green and all the other recruits, to the senior agents who didn't quite approve, to his father and all the others who said that he would never become anything. To Phil, Fury and Jane, who saw something more in him than a merciless assassin. None of them had seen anything yet.
.
After another ten minutes or so, Clint returned back into the Helicarrier. He was leaving in an hour so decided to head up to Phil's apartment to see whether he was awake.
The recruits left for advanced training with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, and even then, once they arrived they would be provided with new clothes- just one set for an entire month. Clint wasn't at all bothered about this. During his childhood he hadn't exactly had an overly extensive wardrobe, but as he grew older he often fell into theft to combat his poverty. But even so, he had never had many belongings as he travelled light.
Advanced training took place in some facilities on an island in an unknown location- Clint suspected Phil knew where it was, but he didn't tell him, and nor was he allowed to. They trained there for four weeks before leaving the island for an extreme environment to perform practice missions.
Phil opened the door after Clint had knocked only once, and beckoned the teenager inside.
"Did you sleep?" Phil asked after they sat on the couch.
Clint was sat facing him, cross-legged. "Not really. I went onto the deck- Jane was there."
Phil nodded.
For the next half an hour they talked about unimportant things. Clint was impressed how easily Phil kept up the small talk, and although for the life of him Clint couldn't remember what no earth they had talked about, he was distracted for an entire thirty minutes.
After this, however, Clint grew quieter and more withdrawn. His eyes kept flickering to the digital clock on the DVD player, and his responses became shorter.
Phil clapped in on the shoulder and said they should get going. He much preferred being early than late and the waiting around wasn't doing Clint any good.
The corridors were very nearly deserted, and they arrived in the hanger to find three figured waiting beside a quinjet. Firstly there was Agent Sampson who nodded at Clint and smiled briefly. Then there was an unfamiliar woman with dark hair drawn tightly back into a ponytail, and sharp, unemotional features. Finally, there was a figure Clint hadn't expected to see- Director Fury. Phil also looked somewhat surprised, but didn't comment.
The two new arrivals stood a short distance away and watched as the recruits trickled in. Firstly there was a woman with dark hair, a massive grin and an easy, relaxed air. And then came two identical men of a medium height and build with curly blond locks and deep tans. Finally appeared a man with black hair that stood up in all directions as if he had been electrocuted. He was tall and very thin, with stick like limbs that looked as if he would fall over in a high wind. They were followed by an older agent whom Clint took to be their handler.
"So," Sampson began. "This is all of us. Cue the emotional goodbyes- you won't be seeing this place for another month, if all goes well. When you're done, come aboard." Sampson and the other agent entered the quinjet.
"Good luck." Fury said, his eyes lingering on Clint longer than the others before stepping back in a swirl of black leather.
Phil turned to Clint, and clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, I'll see you in a month."
Clint smiled back briefly, and nodded. "Sure." Not exactly one for emotional goodbyes- or goodbyes at all, as Clint usually ran off before anyone had realised that he was gone- Clint boarded the jet.
He took a seat just behind the middle of the quinjet, hoping that the other recruits would sit in front of him. Gradually they entered, and Clint glared at them until they sat in front.
Sampson gave Fury and Phil a wave before heaving the door closed. The other agent entered the cockpit, and the jet ascended into the sky.
"Right, gather round." Sampson said. "Barton, move forward, they won't bite."
Clint glared half heartedly, but moved into a seat opposite the twins.
"Right, we'd better introduce ourselves." Sampson said. "That's Agent Davies, and she's my second in command." The agent in the cockpit gave a vague wave, before making slight adjustments to their course.
"I'm Agent Sampson, and I'm in charge of advanced training. You will call me Agent or sir at all times, and do whatever I tell you to do. Advanced training isn't going to be easy. It will probably be one of the hardest things you will ever do. There are no days off, no set hours, and if you do something wrong you will do it again until you do it right. You are free to leave at any time, but once you have done so, you will not return until next time. There's no shame in failure, but we encourage you not to drop out- you don't want to go through all of this for a second time. This month will not only teach you to be a better agent, but to develop better team skills also. By the end, you will be prepared for anything." Agent Sampson finished seriously.
There was a pause for everything to sink in before one of the twins spoke. "Well, we're Chris and Kieran Carter. We're twenty-three years old and are training to become field agents."
"And who is who?" Asked the woman, raising an eyebrow.
One of them smirked. "I'm Kieran.
"And I'm Chris." Said the other.
"But if you tell us apart, you get twenty bucks. Hell, even our mother often couldn't do it." Kieran said, grinning.
The cheerful woman grinned back. "You're on" She said. "But anyway, I'm Rachel Jackson. Twenty two years old, training to become a kick-ass pilot." Rachel was tanned, with long brown hair and brown eyes.
"Linus Fitz." Said the younger man with crazy hair. His eyes were bright and excited, and he occasionally jumped up and down in his seat, looking almost like a gangly, hyperactive spider. "Twenty years old, training to become an engineer."
They all turned to Clint, who glared back. "Clint Barton." He said finally, keeping his face blank. "Training to become a field agent."
"And how old are you?" Rachel asked insistently.
"What does it matter?" Clint shot back sharply, curling his hands into fists as his glare intensified.
"Hey, your freaky ass glare doesn't scare me kid." Rachel replied, grinning despite herself.
Clint went to argue, but Sampson cut in, trying not to smile. "Alright, enough. Depending on the training exercises, you may have to work in pairs, or bigger groups. So the Carter twins are together along with Fitz, and Barton, please don't kill Jackson."
Clint internally groaned. Rachel sent him the most irritating grin possible.
Sampson moved into the co-pilot's seat and an easy conversation started among the recruits.
"Yeah so he followed me to collage and then followed my into the military-"One of the twins began, but was interrupted by the other.
"Well actually it we me who joined the army first-"
"It was not."
"Was too.
"Was not-"
"Are you gonna tell the story?" Rachel asked, her voice layered with amusement.
"Yeah, well anyway." Chris/Kieran cleared his throat. "So we decided the military wasn't quite what we were looking for. So after watching Men in Black we tried for the CIA, and after being awesome there for a while SHIELD came along."
Rachel nodded. "My story's similar. I was a pilot in the RAF and after a tricky extraction mission in Sudan, SHIELD recruited me."
"I don't have any military experience." Linus admitted. "But SHIELD recruited me after my internship at Stark Industries."
"You've met Tony Stark?" Rachel demanded, her eyes wide.
"I don't like Tony Stark" Chris/Kieran said, frowning.
"When he's working on something, away from the outside eye, he's nothing like what he's like on the media. He's a fantastic engineer." Linus said enthusiastically.
"Damn I would love to meet Tony Stark" Rachel said wistfully.
Chris and Kieran smirked.
Clint didn't join in their conversation. Instead he moved into the seat closest to the window, and looked outside. Their voices were replaced by the patter of rain, and Clint struggled to stay awake due to the lull of the engine. But he forced his eyes to stay open, refusing to sleep in the company of others.
The sun rose to reveal the ocean- there was no land in sight, and the weather cleared.
Clint didn't know how long they were in the air for, but after a few hours Sampson appeared again and gave them all sandwiches. A while after a small island came into view. Agent Davies lowered the quinjet and Clint could pick out the features. The majority of the landscape was covered in trees, and the coast was littered with coves, beaches and towering cliffs.
The other recruits yawned and stretched, and everyone got to their feet. Sampson led the way off the quinjet.
They had landed on a dusty airstrip surrounded by trees. About two hundred metres ahead was a small clearing with two small buildings built of red brick. They entered the building on the left, and found a small common area with a pool table, and two doors, one leading into a small canteen and the other leading into a short corridor. In this corridor were three doors on the right hand side, and two on the left.
"You will be taking room number one. There will be six named beds with a chest underneath containing your basic equipment. Respect each other; if you argue then you sort it out yourselves. The washing facilities are at the end of the corridor in room five. I'm in room two and Agent Davies is in room four, but we don't want you knocking on our doors in the middle of the night for any crisis less important than somebody dying. Understood?" They nodded. "Right. Sort everything out in your rooms, dinner will be in the canteen in half an hour."
Their room was fairly long and narrow, but didn't feel overly enclosed due to the large skylight. Clint's bed was situated beside the window at the end of the room, with Rachel to his right. Once again, he groaned. The twins were in the middle of the room, with Linus and a spare bed at the other end.
Their wooden chests contained some clothes and basic equipment which Clint inspected briefly before heading to the canteen.
In the canteen there was a kitchen area where a large, dark skinned woman was cooking, and then a dining room area with two square tables.
Due to the seating arrangements, Clint actually had to sit with other people for once, with the recruits taking one table and Sampson, Davies and the cook taking the other.
Clint ate quietly, and quickly, not taking part in the other's discussions. He left just as Rachel tried to engage him in conversation.
Clint returned to the room, and lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
He wasn't sure how he was feeling about the entire situation. He was no longer so cripplingly afraid of failing, and the other recruits seemed no more experienced than he. Although a number of them had been in military settings, he also had experiences with firing a gun, to say the least. However he hadn't worked in a team setting in a long time, and certainly didn't trust anyone else to watch his back, apart from possibly Phil. He was also worried about sleeping in the same room as other people. It was an unnerving, unfamiliar situation.
They door suddenly opened and Rachel leaned into the room. "Hey, we're gonna play pool. Do you wanna come?"
Clint frowned. "I'm alright."
Rachel shrugged. "Whatever man. I guess team Barack will be going solo for the moment."
Clint rose so that he was leaning on his elbows. "Team what?"
"Barack. Barton and Jackson. It's our new team name. It was actually very hard to create- I considered Clinchel but it sounded like an STI, Rint sounded like some sort of mould and Barjack doesn't have the ring. I get that Barack is already taken, but..." Rachel trailed off, shrugging aimlessly. Clint just stared. "Well yeah, anyway. Adios." Rachel closed the door.
Clint rolled his eyes.
In the end he must have actually fallen asleep, as he was woken up again by a flurry of movement as the other recruits entered the room. The sky had darkened, and Clint squinted at his watch face to discover that it was ten o'clock already.
The other recruits didn't seem to have any problem changing in front of each other, though Clint was the first into his pyjamas.
The bathroom reminded Clint of a school toilet, with showers curtained off at the end of the room, cubicles to the left and sinks to the right. There was a small shelf where they found a pack of six multicoloured toothbrushes, and a few bottles of unisex shampoo and shower gel.
"Unisex shampoo?" One of the twins asked.
"You can actually get that?" The other added.
"And no conditioner." Rachel observed in dismay. "I'm going to end up frizzier than a poodle in a tumble drier." She suddenly stabbed a finger in Clint's face, making him flinch. "A smile!" She yelled. "I made him smile! Ten points to Jackson!" And then she waltzed into a cubicle.
The remaining recruits exchanged a glance. "She's crazy." Linus stated blandly. Everyone nodded.
Clint was the first to brush his teeth and the first back into his bed.
However, he wasn't the first to sleep. In fact, lay awake long after the others. After a while he gave up lying still and crept out of the room.
He explored the rest of the building but found nothing new. Room three was a bunkroom like theirs, but was empty, and the beds were bare. He was surprised that the outside door was open; inferring that this meant the rest of the island was unoccupied.
The other building was locked, but by peering through the windows Clint could see lots of important looking locked crates, and a row of rifles hanging upon the opposite wall. It seemed to be some sort of storage space.
Clint wanted to have a look over some of the rest of the island, but was slightly worried about getting lost, or stumbling into somewhere he wasn't supposed to go- the last thing he wanted was the shame of being sent back to the Helicarrier.
Instead Clint climbed onto the top of the storage building, and sat cross-legged on the flat roof.
They must have been far, far away from any civilisation, as the sky was fresh and free of light pollution. The stars were clearer than Clint had ever seen before, and were more like tiny torches instead of pinpricks of light. The feeling of being away from everyone else was fantastic and very much like what he used to daydream of.
The sky darkened from navy to pitch black, and the stars stood out even brighter. The air was fresh, and just a little chilly for his pyjamas which consisted of solely a lose black t-shirt and black shorts.
He was startled out of his peaceful state of mind by a sharp voice from the ground. "Barton, get down."
Clint internally swore, and jumped down from the roof, landing easily in a crouch.
Sampson caught sight of Clint's wariness, and his expression softened. "You're not in trouble," He said, "But I would prefer it if you slept in a bed, not on the roof. Back inside now."
Clint nodded, running his hand through his hair tiredly.
"Just because the doors are unlocked doesn't mean I don't know when one of you goes walkabout." Sampson said amusedly as Clint reached the bunkroom door. "See you tomorrow Barton, bright and early."
Clint didn't miss Rachel's curious look as he closed the door carefully behind him. But neither of them commented, and he slept soundly that night.
.
.
.
.
Hello! So Clint has departed for Advanced training at last! It was fun creating new characters- originally there were seven, but they all got whittled down in the various editing stages. It also took me ages to come up with a name for Linus' character- I've gone through too many to count. I wanted it to be unusual as he's an eccentric guy, but I'm still not entirely happy with it, though I went with it anyway because I'd ran out of ideas.
I'm not used to this kind of writing style- the next few chapter will be a lot more action than psychology-ish hurt comfort kind of stuff, and it is pretty far out of my comfort zone. However this is Marvel, and I feel like I have to have some action somewhere! So I apologise if my writing goes a bit off, but I'll try my best.
Rachel was never meant to turn out so strange, it just kind of happened. However her purpose is for Clint to learn how to develop a relationship with someone other than Phil- however, I'm sad to say there will be no romance.
In other news, I haven't yet finalized the summaries but I hope to have them ready by the next update. I've decided to probably do the story set after the film as part of the A Childhood Lost universe, however I've realised that although I have lost of ideas I don't yet know how to fit it all together, and I'm going to focus more on the idea that I'm extremely excited about, which doesn't yet have any kind of name.
So, thank you for reading! Please follow and review- I'm nearly at 50 followers, which is amazing! Thanks so much for the reviews, I love reading then and the support is fantastic. Thank you!
