Disclaimer- I don't own the Avengers.
Warning- Mild-ish violence
.
.
The sun was fat and yellow, but despite being low on the horizon the heat was beating down. Clint's pack was heavy, and made walking on the sand even harder as it gave way beneath his feet. The sand got everywhere, rubbing between the cotton fabric and his skin, inside his socks and in his eyes. The sunglasses did little to calm the sun's glare.
They wanted to get to the compound before nightfall, when the temperatures would drop drastically. But there were no landmarks. Their situation lay primarily in the hands of their map and compass.
The mission brief had been presented to them the morning after their arrival. They had parachuted into the desert and were to hike towards one of SHIELD's fake base. The base was owned and run by SHIELD, equipped along with its usual team of agents. Its purpose was primarily for training agents.
After running surveillance on the base for twenty-four hours the team had to get inside, collect intel and sneak back out without being seen. It sounded relatively easy, but of course the agents knew the team were coming.
"Super fake bad guy base…" Rachel mused quietly. Conversation had been infrequent simply because there wasn't much to talk about. Rachel was more in charge of navigation due to her extensive piloting training. Clint wasn't entirely comfortable with giving the scatty agent-to-be all the responsibility but didn't argue.
"You know, I'd quite like to be a super fake bad guy." Rachel continued. No one commented. "I mean, you get to do all the bad guy stuff… you know, the sass, the sarcasm… but without actually doing bad guy stuff."
Chris looked across at her slowly. "Are you're gonna turn dark side?"
Rachel grinned. "I don't reckon the paycheque is as good." She was silent for a moment more. "You know… we should play a game."
Linus sighed quietly.
"What game?" Clint asked warily.
"I spy with my little eye… something beginning with S."
Clint smiled as he listened to the conversation unfold beside him.
"I really hate this game." Kieran sighed.
"Ditto." Chris added.
"Sand?" Clint suggested.
Rachel whooped. "Give your self a brownie point Hawkeye! OK, I spy with my little eye… something beginning with S."
"Isn't it Clint's go?"
"He who holds the map is king." Rachel replied firmly.
"Sand?"
"Nope."
"…Sky?"
"Well done Linus. I spy with my little eye… something beginning with S."
"…Sand?"
"Wow you're good at this…"
.
After a while longer the game grew tedious and silence fell again. A slight wind picked up and the recruits pulled their bandanas over their faces as the sand whipped around them. The sun fell further towards the horizon and the light receded. Clint was growing wary when suddenly he grinned.
"Hey! I spy with my little eye something beginning with S." He pointed ahead.
Rachel squinted, and then grinned also. "Super fake bad guy base?"
.
They set up the tent about a hundred metres from the base behind a small outcrop of rock. The compound itself was nothing but a small L shaped building. If it wasn't for the tall barbed wire fence that enclosed it and the countless heavily armed guards, it would have looked mostly inconspicuous and average other than being situated in the middle of the desert.
Linus and Kieran volunteered to take the first watch, and Clint and Chris would follow. But even though it was hours until he had to take over the older recruits, he couldn't sleep. At first he thought the uneasy feeling inside him was nerves, but as it escalated, it felt more similar to dread. He drifted into an uneasy sleep, only to be woken shortly after.
Clint dressed quickly in black cargo trousers and a black hoodie, sitting carefully behind the rocks and laying his rifle beside him. He kept his pistol in the holster strapped to his thigh. A moment later Chris nodded his greeting and set up on the other side of the camp to watch their backs.
The base seemed momentarily dormant. No one came in or out, not that he would have suspected them to- there was no road and very few vehicles would be able to drive over hundreds of miles of sand. The aerial images in their mission brief had shown a small helicopter pad on the opposite side of the base, now hidden from view. The guards worked on two hour shifts, and although there were only four guards outside the security seemed to be tight- Clint didn't see how there were going to get in or out easily. They weren't going to get inside without a fight, unless Linus could cook up some kind of-
Suddenly Clint leaned forward. Maybe it had been a trick of the light. Or maybe not. If it wasn't for his spectacular eyesight, Clint wouldn't have picked them out at all. But coming from the east side of the base were five men in black, almost invisible in the darkness. But Clint could see by the stealthiest of their movements that they weren't friends to them or the fake bad guys.
Clint rose slowly to wake the others, but darted round at the sickening muffled noise- silencers didn't completely stop the sound of a bullet. A man fell on the far side of the base, but the projectile didn't fit with the first group of men- and sure enough Clint picket out a further seven men west side.
Clint called out Chris's name under his breathe, and the twin appeared in a flurry of sand. Clint held a finger to his lips and then whispered "Wake the others. Looks like we have some real bad guys on out hands."
Chris's eyes widened, and he darted into the tent. By the time he emerged with the others, fully armed, the hostile force had taken out three more men.
"Twelve men," Clint whispered, "five from the east side and the remaining seven are approaching from the west side. Forget the mission, we have to save the remaining agents-"
"Remaining?" Rachel hissed.
"They've taken out four all four guards already. And this isn't part of the exercise- those were real gunshots."
"I didn't hear-" Kieran began, but Linus hurriedly cut him off.
"Silencers. He whispered.
Clint nodded quickly. "Me and Kieran and will take the west side, then you guys take the east. Fire a green flare if you've taken out the agents, and red if you need help. After that meet me outside the entrance on the right side of the building. Be careful- this isn't a drill. Go quietly, because if they see you you're dead- there are five of us and twelve of them. Use silencers. The only advantage we have is that they're not expecting us. Understand?"
There was silence for a moment as everyone stared at Clint with wide eyes and mouths open. Rachel was the first to shake herself awake. "Uh, yeah, ok."
Clint nodded, checking his ammo and strapping a serrated knife to his other thigh and a backup gun to his ankle. He looked up again before nodding again, and turning into the darkness.
Kieran swallowed hard and whispered "Good luck." He looked warily at his twin before darting off after the archer.
Clint's adrenalin kicked in and the assassin mindset pushed back the fear and dread, the part of him that knew that it he messed up now it wasn't just his life on the line, but the lives of his team, his friends. But thinking like that would help none of them. He locked away his feelings at the back of his head and nothing lay before him but the task in front. He attached the silencer onto his gun, and Kieran fumbled to do the same beside him. Clint slung his rifle over his shoulder and glanced across at the older man beside him. His skin was pale and his hands shook.
"We're not going to die tonight." Clint said quietly, but firmly.
Kieran glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and bit his lip. "Twelve of them and five of us. Or two of us and seven of them…" He shook his head slowly, a muscle jumping in his jaw. "You ever fought with odds that bad?" he asked bitterly.
Clint raised an eyebrow but kept his face blank. "Countless times. And I'm still alive."
Kieran stared, and then nodded slowly after realising that Clint wasn't lying, or even exaggerating.
There was a muffled bang and a yell from the other side of the compound and Kieran's expression grew blank. Clint forced himself not to think of whom that had hit- his side or theirs. He and Kieran took off at a run, and Clint swung his rifle round to his front, taking down three men with headshots before they had even turned around. The remaining four turned quickly, one receiving a shot in the arm and then the chest from Kieran. Clint dove into a forward roll which brought him within arms length of the final men. After knocking the gun out of the hands of the first, he downed him with a roundhouse kick. Another head shot and then Clint whirled around, pushing the arm of the man behind him upwards as he tried to take a shot at the archer's back. Clint snapped his neck, and turned to find Kieran finishing off the last man with a bullet to the forehead. Clint caught the older man by the shoulder and they took off running just as a green flare burst into the air. The metal gate swung open freely- the power seemed to have died. The rest of the team were waiting for them inside the gate, bruised, bloodied but very much alive.
Clint took in their pale, panicked complexions. "Everyone ok?" He asked quickly. They nodded.
They made their way to the side door. Clint cocked his gun and eased it open. They were greeted with a deserted hallway. They made there way inside silently, reaching the end of the corridor before finding their fifth dead body. Linus winced at the bloody wound, but once it became evident that the man wasn't breathing, they moved on.
The impostors had been efficient, and had taken down the SHIELD compound far too easily. But who were they? And had it been a coincidence that they had turned up on the very same night as the recruits?
The corridor then split, so Rachel and Clint took the right turning, Linus and the twins taking the left. They made their way silently through the compound, but found none alive.
"How come they're all dead?" Rachel whispered, swallowing hard.
Clint sighed and glanced warily behind them. "There must have been another team. Maybe they came in through the back of the building- that way we wouldn't have seen them."
"But how did they get here?"
Clint shrugged. "Same way as we did? Flew in and then walked."
"Surely we would have heard an aircraft?"
Clint frowned. "I don't have all the answers."
Rachel sighed heavily, and nodded. The corridor in front of them came to and end, but they were faced with an ominous looking steel door. They exchanged a glance, and then Clint beckoned for Rachel to come behind him. She nodded, and he threw the door open. Rachel gasped. A silent, gleaming jet lay in the centre of the circler room before them. Rachel nodded slowly. "I want one."
"Could you fly this thing?" Clint asked, running his hand along it's side.
"I can fly anything short of a spaceship." She replied, grinning weakly. "And even then I'd be willing to give it a go."
Clint nodded slowly, scanning the room. Then he grinned. "Look- a phone." On the opposite wall hung a telephone. Rachel sagged with relief but frowned after picking it up. She turned to face Clint, slamming it back down. "It's dead."
"They took the power out- the gates were open, remember?" Clint said, frowning.
"But there'd be a radio in the jet." Rachel pointed out excitably.
Clint smiled back briefly, and then grew serious. "But first we have to get back to the others."
"Why not contact SHIELD first?" Rachel asked, bewildered as they headed back to the door.
"Because if there was another team, they might still be inside." Just as he spoke, a scatter of gunfire sounded off to the distance.
The two remaining recruits took off running, skidding down the hallway. Suddenly Clint stopped and threw out his arm.
"Put down the weapons." A harsh voice snarled from around the corner. There was no movement, so the man spoke again; "Put down the weapons or I shoot your skinny friend again." Rachel stiffened beside him, and there was another brief stretch of silence before it was broken by the sound of guns being placed on the floor. Clint eased himself round the corner and was faced with a horrible sight- ten men dressed in black surrounded their three team mates, one of whom, Linus, was clutching his bloody side. His pale skin was even paler than usual.
"Very good. Lie on the floor, hands on your heads." The man speaking was side on from Clint, and he could see his tanned skin and dark hair.
The recruits obeyed, but Kieran demanded, "Who are you? What do you want?"
The man chuckled as the other man began to tie their hands and feet. "It does not matter who I am. It only matters who I work for."
"And who's he?" Chris asked, wincing as the rope was wound extra tight around his hands.
The man chuckled again. "She. Her name is Irina Tchoverick."
.
.
.
So this was so not meant to happen. Originally they were going to do their final practice missions and everything would go great, the end. But then this happened and I'm not entirely sure how but I really like this idea, so I'm going to continue with it.
So Clint's old enemy has come back to haunt him! I said Irina would return but I didn't intend for it to happen that quickly. If you can't remember who she is, it's mostly explained in the last chapter of Too Far Gone.
The next chapter will be full of even more action and drama, Rachel will learn a little more about Clint and Clint will go all badass assassin mode. A well missed earlier character may turn up in one way or another but I'm more entirely sure yet. However the update will be on time as I know mostly what's going to happen.
Thank you for all the reviews and follows from last chapter! You are all amazing and I am grateful in ways I cannot express in words! Please review because the support is super amazing, and thank you for all the follows as well :D So I'll see you all soon, please tell me what you thought. Thanks for reading! :D