Party Tricks

14

Clint wasted no time assembling his weapons. He grabbed his bow, threw a quiver full of arrows on his back, put a gun in his holster and sheathed a knife on his belt. Armed with Trick's note in his back pocket, he headed for the exit.

Natasha stepped in his path.

"Move, Nat," he growled.

"Clint, you have to bring Trick in."

"Oh, now you wanna talk?" He shoved past her but she grabbed his arm.

"I needed you to calm down. This isn't like you, Barton. Don't lose your head."

He yanked his arm from her grasp, "You're in on this, so why don't you just tell me what I need to know."

She took a breath and looked at him sideways, "You need to bring Trick in."

"Like hell I do."

"Clint, listen to me. Trick has been on your tail for months. We've kept him at bay, but now Fury wants you to bring him in."

"Why?"

Natasha glanced at the floor. She knew he wasn't going to like this. "To turn him."

"Fury'll be a lucky bastard if I bring his corpse in. And you, Nat," he shook his head, "if I find out you set Darcy up for this..." He ground his teeth together and shoved past her a final time. He was sure that words couldn't convey the rage he felt toward Romanov at that moment, much less toward Fury. But for now, he would simply have to direct it at Trick.

Darcy had put up one hell of a fight for an unarmed girl. I mean, she didn't even have her purse to whack the creepy old guy with, much less her tazer. Damn it, how could she have gone out without her tazer? It was definitely Clint's fault. Or maybe Natasha's. Possibly Jane's when she thought about it. She was always telling her how unladylike it was to go around threatening to taze people.

Look where that had gotten her.

Tied to a damn chair in the middle of some dark, musty, abandoned building. She was like a walking cliche now. Or sitting. Whatever.

I mean seriously. An abandoned building? Why couldn't kidnappers take their victims to shopping malls or something. That would be awesome, right?

Attention shoppers! Today we have Miss Darcy Lewis on display. She was kidnapped for no good reason. She just wanted to greet her superhero boyfriend with coffee and look how well that turned out!

Okay, so she could see why they chose abandoned buildings, but sometimes her life felt like a movie. Sometimes it was like a really awesome romantic comedy where she was kissing superheroes on the roof and being interrupted by other superheroes. And sometimes it was like a bad sci fi movie where really hot aliens try to take over the Earth. Other times... It was this. One of those confusing movies where you have no idea where the lead character is or how they ended up there and you just really wish they'd stop internally monologuing long enough to figure it out.

Honestly, she was just trying to keep from freaking out. Take charge, Darcy!

She raised her head up and squinted into the darkness. She didn't remember it being that late out which led her to believe that Mr. Devious Creepypants had blacked out the windows somehow. If there were windows. She couldn't be sure.

Seriously, it was like pitch black in there.

"Hello," she called out. Her voice echoed through what promised to be a very large, very empty building. "Creepy dude, are you there?"

His laughter filled the space, but it was far from menacing. It sputtered, came and went with a coarseness that could come from nothing but age.

"Oh boy," she muttered to herself.

Out of nowhere, a light flickered on above her head and she could see now that Mr. Devious Creepypants was standing over her.

"Hello, dear Darcy," he grinned, revealing a set of mostly rotting teeth. A foul stench accompanied them, making Darcy cough.

"Dude, tictac," she said, turning her head.

"This isn't a joke," he demanded.

"Yeah, I got that. Tied to a chair, here."

Darcy was scared shitless but being scared was apparently making her witty and sarcastic. She liked to think she was calling on some awesome defense mechanism.

"So, Darcy, what shall we do with you?" He traced a finger along her jaw.

"How bout you tell me your name so I can stop mentally referring to you as Mr. Devious Creepypants."

Mr. Devious Creepypant's jaw flexed, "Trick."

Darcy scoffed, "Your mother give you that name?"

"The carnival did."

Darcy straightened a little. The carnival?

"You and I, Darcy, are going to wait here until your little boyfriend shows up, and when he does, I'm gonna kill him like I should've a long time ago."

Clint. The carnival. It couldn't be a coincidence.

And damn it, she was bait. That was so... Cliche. Why couldn't the guy ever be bait? Or better yet, why have bait at all? Ugh.

Okay, focus Darcy. Get him talking.

"How do you know Clint?" she asked slowly. God, it sounded like they were chatting at a party and not as kidnapper and kidnappee.

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Trick moved closer and smirked (seriously, tictac), "I taught him everything he knows."

Clint's mind was a raging storm as he made his way to meet Trick. As much as he hated it, Natasha was right, he needed to calm down if he was going to figure this out.

He knew he had all the pieces of the puzzle now, he just needed to put them together.

His little birdie, Natasha, she had helped with setting Darcy up with him. And he had felt like something was... Amiss.

What else?

The break in at Darcy's apartment. It had been too clean, too thorough. Too... Professional.

Her week off coinciding with his week of ordered rest...

And now apparently someone had set her up to get kidnapped. Someone he strongly suspected was Natasha.

Taken together it did seem a little concocted. But why? Why would Natasha or even SHIELD go to that trouble to get him and Darcy together.

Was their sole purpose to bait his old mentor?

It didn't make much sense, honestly. But either way, it was clear that Natasha had been in on it. And she was, no doubt, well aware that Darcy would be in danger at some point.

As far as Clint was concerned, that was inexcusable.

He locked that thought away for now. He couldn't afford distractions at the moment. His job now was to rescue Darcy.

Hey! I know it's nearly Thursday but I just finished this chapter because I've been quite ill all week. Hopefully it meets your expectations as I'm a bit too drugged up to tell if it meets mine :P

Darcy is one snarky gal, eh? I didn't want her capture to be too serious because honestly, that's no fun!

As always, let me know what you think. (I know, I know... No Clint/Darce in this chapter either! Sigh.)

Until next time...

Cheers!