A/N: It's been forever and I apologize. Sometimes I just don't know what to do with a story! However, today my inspiration returned to work on this guy a little more. Future chapters coming soon :P

Chapter 14

"Clint, I've got news," Kate announced over their shared comm.

I fumbled with it before managing to push the button. "You better have news!" I barked, eyeing the flames. "Are you in there? Where's Natasha? And you better not have drugged me!"

"You have a concussion, Clint, I didn't need to," Kate replied dryly. "The fire's not real. I've killed Agent Hill but Natasha isn't coming back and they're using the hologram as a defense mechanism. Hang on, I'll be out in a sec."

"No way, I'm coming in after you," I jerked the side door open and climbed out, pretending the ground didn't sway underneath of me when I did. Weren't concussions supposed to get better with time? This one was making my head pound so hard I could barely think.

"Clint, you dummy!"

"You're breaking up," I lied, tucking the comm in my belt. "Lemme talk to Nat. I can convince her."

A long, streaking sound echoed above my head. I looked up to see a quinjet, ready to fire, fly low over the Tower. Something minuscule, too tiny for the average person to spot, dropped from it as it passed.

"That's them. I know it. Cap's people just passed over. They'll burn this Tower for real, Kate. I've gotta get her out first."

"Clint, I am not hauling your ass around—"

"I'll do that myself, thanks."

Ignoring the rest of her protests, I painfully flexed my shredded hands and grabbed my weapons, only able to hold them at all because of the wrapping Kate had had in her glovebox (she gets beat up a lot, too. [Job description]).

This was the last fight I wanted to be participating in, but given Natasha, I didn't exactly have a choice.

"Okay, I'm coming in."

"You little—"

I sidled up to the side door for the fire escape and picked the lock in seconds. Soon, I could feel the blissful coolness of the inside air conditioning. Sure enough, the fire was as fake as it came.

Things used to be as simple with Nat as they were with Wanda.

Okay, that wasn't exactly simple, but she used to be so different back in the day. She used to TRUST me.

It was time to see if that pull still held anything, anything at all.

…

"Eyes on the bug," Sharon called out as they approached the Tower. "Scott, Hope, come in!"

She opened up the communication link, knowing she was risking something by doing so.

"We're in," Scott's voice came from over the line. "But there's a big, angry green guy just waiting to squish us like bugs."

"Please stop making awful jokes," Hope groaned over the speaker, grunting as she engaged in some kind of struggle. "We can't find the disk. Banner must have hidden it somewhere before he changed."

"Hang tight," Sharon replied. "I'm sending Steve and Bucky in after you."

"What about me?" Sam exclaimed, his voice also sounding through the speakers. Far away, still at the airport, he struggled to fight off dozens more of Tony's bots. He'd managed to help Scott and Hope sneak away (they were easy to hide when in their smaller forms) but he'd been fairly strung up.

"You get me and Wanda as backup," she smirked, veering the jet around in a wide circle above the Tower. She glanced back at the two men in the hold. "You losers ready to fly?"

"Buck," Steve was saying exasperatedly, "I don't need a parachute. I'm made of solid—"

"Skin and bones," Bucky replied firmly, hoisting the pack on his back in spite of his friend's protests. "The same crap you've always been made of, punk. Now don't take that off, or you might just cause your mom to start stirring in her grave."

"That's cold," Steve winced.

"So am I," Bucky smirked, displaying his metal arm in a semi-threatening manner.

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Drop-off is coming up in three. Two. One!"

Both of them leaped from the open hold, wind catching them instantly as the jet continued speeding away.

The high-rising top of the Tower came rushing into view, more and more quickly along with the rest of the New York skyline.

"Where's our target point?" Bucky yelled through his comm to Steve, having not seen the Tower before.

A low rumble echoed even through the air as it rushed past their ears. Suddenly, far below them, a huge green body came tumbling through the side of a tall building, and another roar shook the planet.

Steve blinked. "That's the one."

The two of them veered toward the roof, tugging at their parachutes.

…

Clint crept into Tony's garage, moving as quietly as he possibly could. He could hear the rumble from up above and he guessed that something was coming his way, but he had no idea what.

He only hoped he could find Nat and get out of there before something worse happened.

As if fate was reading his thoughts, a familiar red-and-blue suit suddenly appeared within his line of vision. "Oh, hey!" exclaimed a voice he'd heard before, "There you are! You were kind of hiding—"

Clint punched at him, which he blocked and countered with a few more of his own moves.

"—in plain sight!"

Parker slid out of the way of a few blows and projected a web toward the quivers on Clint's back. Clint grabbed the arrows himself and slung himself forward, all points extended toward the other's midsection. A sharp tug on the web, however, quickly spun him around in a circle, momentarily disorienting him.

"If you were hiding at all, that is," Parker continued, still sounding totally rested.

This was a walk in the park for him, but of course Clint was just getting warmed up.

"Last time I saw you, we were friends! I remember you from that dumpster, remember? And that guy with the horns? What was his name, Daredevil?"

Peter elbowed him roughly in the jaw, sending his head spinning again. It took him way longer to get up than it should have.

"Hey, what's wrong? Can't keep up, old man?"

He slid right over with the help of another web to the other side of the room.

"I could do this all day!"

Clint grunted in pain, getting up on one knee to draw his bow. "I could do it for a lifetime."

"You—just—don't—give up, do you?" Parker grunted, ramming him into the wall as Clint grabbed desperately for a pressure point, a muscle, anything he could use to fight back. The younger man finally backed off, shaking his head as Clint helplessly slipped to the ground, fighting back unconsciousness and gagging on the blood that was trying to come up from his stomach.

Clint's head ached and felt as though it was on fire at the same time. He couldn't think, everything he saw was too fuzzy to make out, his limbs had no strength left in them, and he knew from all the blood and by the fact that he couldn't seem to avoid curling in on himself that he was bleeding internally, a bad bleed since it was literally all over him and he didn't even know where some of it was coming from.

So why had Peter backed off?

The ground shook underneath. He knew without consciously thinking of the word that represented the big, hairy green guy. Hulk came bursting into the room, knocking the sliding metal doors to the ground with a loud CRASH!

Peter backed even further away. He kicked Clint's arrows over closer to him, as if that would maybe help to make the fight a little more fair.

Some kind of sick joke.

He was used to fighting when there was no fight left in him. There was literally no good reason to explain why he was still alive, after over twenty years of living with that mentality.

Hulk roared louder than Clint had ever heard him, his eyes red and bloodshot with rage as he charged straight for Clint.

Holding his breath against the surge of pain about to blow through him, Clint shoved his torso up and fell to the side where his arrows were. Hulk's fist came forward and he dodged, shoving one of the points into the back of his hand.

"There's always a way out."

Coulson's voice was pulsing in his ears. His old trainer had taught him that from the first day; never let him forget.

"Always a way out."

Clint gagged on his own blood, stumbling upward, but he managed to force himself to his feet.

"It may not always be a good one, and it might get you killed. But Clint—"

Hulk charged.

"Don't ever let me see you sit there and give up when there's a way out."

Clint put his head down and ran, straight under the giant Banner's legs, sliding underneath as his foot caught the ground and pulled him back down again. He moaned in pain, struggling to raise himself up a second time.

Hulk spun around, grabbing Clint by his left shoulder and yanking him upward. He screamed as the joint popped out of place, tearing muscle and ligaments and everything else in there.

Hulk was going to smash him against the steel-plated floor. Nobody could survive that.

Onboard the quinjet, over ten miles away, Wanda heard him scream.

Plz leave a review and tell me your thoughts!