Ahh... hi. Sorry, I'm awful at updating, I know. I'll update quicker now, I think I'm done having writer's block for now. Anyway. Enjoy! And remember to review, so that I remember to update!
Guess whaaat? I still don't own Avengers! Shocking, I know!
Chapter Eleven-Take One For the Team
"You were right. SHIELD's going to be here very soon to finish what they started." And for all his skill at hiding how he truly feels, Tony can't keep the alarm out of his voice.
For a long moment, the room is silent and it feels as though they are all holding their breath, and one by one, they turn to stare at Clint.
"No."
Clint turns and faces them with his hand on the chip in his neck. His eyes are leveled and fixed on the elevator door, past the faces ranging in expression from concerned to confused. "They're not going to trace me back here."
"What are you saying? Of course they'll track you here." Bruce's voice is reminiscent of a fed-up teacher speaking to someone that doesn't understand the simplest of problems.
"No, there's no way we're going to be able to trick a SHIELD tracking device, they don't seem to use things that don't work often, and I'm sure something like is impossible to trick," Tony adds.
"I'm not going to trick it. I'm leaving. I'm going to get as far away from here as I can before they find me." Clint starts towards the elevator, his hand reaching back to feel his arrows. Natasha, watching unhappily, realizes that he only did that to reassure her, to tell her that he's not going to just turn himself in without a fight. So she nods at him, a jerky motion, so that he knows that she isn't happy about his plan, but she won't stop him. And with Natasha's reluctant approval of the plan, Bruce, Tony, and Thor step back and let him go towards the exit.
"They'll kill you," Steve snaps. "You're not doing this. Absolutely not."
"It's the best we can do right now. We can't lead SHIELD here, and clearly none of the rest of you have tracking devices, right? So I'm the problem. I have to leave." Clint smirked a bit. "Besides. I've taken on aliens, I can handle SHIELD's less competent assassins."
It's not true, of course. It's going to be just him against an onslaught, eventually he'll have to break. And Clint knows it, judging by the way his face is set. Set for defeat, prepared to lose for something bigger. He's not just going to give up, but he doesn't think he's coming back.
Steve looks around the room, looks at the projected computer screens, the bright flashing lights that he doesn't think he'll ever understand, certainly not right now, and picks up his shield. "I'm coming with you."
Tony rolls his eyes and goes back to his computers. "Of course you are."
And so they leave in silence, an unspoken salute from the rest of the team following them down the elevator and out into the garage. Clint feels Loki's eyes on him the whole time, narrowed and watchful, and maybe just a tiny bit uncertain. But he is quiet, and Clint isn't sure whether he should be annoyed or relieved by the peace in his mind.
Clint gets in the driver's seat of the SHIELD car, barely waiting for Steve to get in before peeling out of the garage and into the traffic of New York.
"Where will we go?" Steve asks, hand clinching around the door handle instinctively as the car swerved through traffic with all the finesse that a sedan will allow.
Clint is silent for a moment, mind working quickly, mapping out escape routes and ideal locations for a clean fight, searching for an idea that gives them a chance for success. And then when his mind settles on a plan, he jerks the steering wheel, skidding down a street and slamming on the brakes, completely stopping the mild traffic on the street.
Clint gets out of the car and runs for the filthy stairs of the Subway entrance, barely taking time to slam the door shut. Steve follows and then overtakes Clint, bounding down the stairs, picking up on the plan before Clint has to say anything.
They don't exactly blend as they board the next train, with their weapons and sweaty twitchiness and red, white, and blue shining shield, but when the commuters swarm, they're concealed and become nothing more than two ordinary men.
Except, of course, for the tracking device. Clint couldn't feel it before, but now he can, it stings of sweat and heat and the oncoming swarm of SHIELD agents. His hands unconsciously creeps back towards it, and Steve can see that he's shaking.
"We'll be fine," Steve says quietly, voice barely understandable over the din of commuters.
Clint nods a bit, preoccupied with staring out the window of the train at the lights flashing by in the tunnel. "If you had to, could you pry those doors open?"
Steve follows Clint's gaze to the doors of the train. "Yes." And they're of the same mind again, on the same page, without even saying a word. They both can see that if they need to, they can force their way out of the train, into the tiny space between the concrete wall and the tracks.
The train is slowing down, stopping, and in the midst of the everyday commuters filling the platform, Clint can pick out the SHIELD agents, standing still, eyes scanning the length of the train before settling unnervingly on Clint and Steve.
"Good, because you might have to."