Okay, I cannot tell you how much it pains me to say that the next thing I have to write is Bunker 37! Augh! Like, I loovve Bunker 37, but the ending of this chapter really hurts me and I just... augh!

So, enjoy! hehe...

-mariahills-capsicle

Fort Payne- Ventilation System

2100R (UTC-5)

29JUN2012

So far, Hank was not having the best of days. Besides the fact that his ribs were still bruised and aching, and now he was on a secret mission to take over a Hydra base, he was also frustrated that he had yet to find the time to tell Janet why he had laughed when she had shared her true feelings.

It had been the happiest moment of his life, and he had screwed it up. Dammit, Hank. Now either of them could die, or both of them could die and she'd never know.

"Listen, Jan," He said quickly over their comm system. "There's been something I've been trying to-"

"Alright, you two." Clint's voice cut through in their ears. "Nat and I have got the comm system all set up now and we're looking at the blueprints on our fancy bracelets. You're gonna want to head straight for a while, but pretty soon you're going to want to go up."

"Very specific, Barton." Jan sighed.

"I have no sympathy for whatever is making both of you so pissed this morning. Look, we have a mission. Oh- Now!" Barton screamed. Both Jan and Hank flew to a halt, and looked up.

"Now, now?! Up?" Janet asked.

"Yes." Natasha replied. "Head up from here. The second vent that you see leading off from the main one is the one you want to take. It will lead you directly to the security room."

The two ant-sized avengers made their way up the air shaft. I have to tell her now before it's too late. Hank thought.

"Anyways, Janet… look, about the other day-"

"Here we are." Janet landed lightly on the floor of the new shaft, leading off to their left.

"You're on the third floor now. About meters ahead is the access point to the Security room." Clint said. Janet and Hank carefully flew over to where they saw the vent. Looking down through the slots they saw the whole expanse of the security room.

"It looks like we've got four or five guys down there. Not too bad." Hank frowned. "We should be able to take them. The hard part's going to be figuring out how to shut down the system."

"That's not going to be the hard part." Tony's voice was heard over the comm system.

"Says you." Janet flipped down her face mask again. "Let's go." Hank turned to the ant that had helped him through the shaft.

"Stay here." He instructed. He and Janet climbed down through the slots on the vent, and then dropped down. As he fell, Hank grew in size, and was big just as he hit the floor. He slammed his fist across the face of the Hydra guard that had turned to see him, and then shrunk again, racing towards the next soldier's leg. Meanwhile, Janet shot a couple stingers, taking out a couple guys of her own Hank grew big again, to tackle a soldier, when someone grabbed him from behind, choking him.

"SHIELD's attempts have always been pathetic." The Hydra soldier hissed, "But I didn't know it would reach the point of them sending bugs to infiltrate-" There was a clunk and the soldier crumpled at Hank's feet. Hank spun around to find Janet standing there with a smirk. In her hands she held one of the other soldiers' batons. She dropped it quickly, turning towards the huge computer console in front of them. Hank went to the door, looking quickly out the window, he slammed the slot shut, blocking the view from the outside. Then he locked the door. He was sure that they'd be able to open it from the outside with some sort of key, but at least they'd have a warning before the door was opened.

"Okay, what do we do? There's so many buttons here… it's so huge!" Janet gasped.

"Antman, do you have the thumb drive?"

"No, I forgot it- Of course, I have the thumb drive." Hank sighed. He stepped up to the computer, pulling the little thumb drive out from a little pouch in his suit.

"Give me that." Janet grabbed it from his hands. "Stark, where do I plug this in?"

"Well… preferably… a USB port."

"That's helpful." Janet glared.

"Jan, give me the thumb drive." Hank said.

"No. I've got this, okay, Hank?"

"Jan, give me the-"

"Would you two shut the fuck up until the thumb drive is actually in a USB port?" Tony snapped. Janet huffed and slapped the thumb drive down on Hank's palm. Hank quickly located a slot for USB drives and slid the thumb drive into place. The screens in front of him cut out for a minute, and then came back on with green text on the bottom. Hank squinted to read it.

"'Haha! Fuck you, Hydra.'? Really?"

"What can I say. They've been cruising for this ever since I found out they killed my parents- those assholes. Lets get to work." Tony said. "On to part two."

"What about us?" Janet asked.

"You sit tight, make sure no one comes in and discovers the system has been tampered with. My virus should be installed in about… thirty more seconds, so then you can pull the thumb drive out. I want that thing back, it's my baby." Stark replied.

"Whatever you say." Hank sighed. He turned to see that Janet had taken off her helmet. She sat leaning against the wall, biting her lip nervously. "You okay?" Hank asked.

"Fuck you." Janet replied. Hank blinked.

"W-what?" He knew she was angry at him, but he hadn't realized she would resort to that. She was Janet, and he had never heard Janet-

"I don't want to talk to you right now, Hank."

"About that..." Hank pulled off his helmet and sat down next to her. "I… um… Look, Janet, I've been trying to tell you this since everything that happened the other day. I didn't laugh at you because I don't feel the same way. The fact is, I laughed because I never thought I'd hear you say those words. I..." There was a shout from outside, someone kicked the door. Janet and Hank both jumped up.

"You don't think I'm an idiot… for… falling in love with you?" Janet whispered. She quickly shrunk down again. Hank took a position by the door, waiting for whoever was outside to burst in.

"No!" He cried. "I meant to tell you after I laughed, but you-" The door burst open, "Ran out before I could!" Hank slammed his fist across the first Hydra soldier that came in. Janet shot the next with one of her energy pulses.

"You mean-"

"Janet, I've been trying to tell you for the past two days now, and I'm sorry, I never…." Hank tripped the last one that entered the room, and Janet shot him quickly in the back of the neck. As she did she grew back up to her full size, slammed the door shut and locked it.

"You mean…?"

"God, I love you." Hank grinned. "I love you, Janet. I always have. I just never knew how to tell you." She reached out and took his hand, he pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry."

"God, Hank, don't be." She reached up and pulled him into a kiss, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He smiled, once again thinking: I never, in a million years, thought that this would happen.

"Time to enact Part two!" Tony screamed through the comms.

"Lets go." Clint whispered. He and Natasha jumped up from their hiding spot in the field. Now that the alarms were down they'd use the same access point as Hank and Janet had used. Clint pulled out a small pouch of tools and carefully took down the cover of the vent. Than he and the former Hydra assassin, climbed in, heading for the second floor.

"Once we get to communications, our job's going to be easy." Natasha whispered, her thick Russian accent made him feel calm, and comfortable. He liked her, being around her made him smile. She was a good friend. They crawled until they reached the air shaft Janet and Hank had flown up to reach the third floor. They would climb up only to the second. Clint grabbed one of his rope arrows and shot it up to the top of the vent above them and began to climb, Natasha followed. Floor two.

The plan was simple. Drop down in the communications room, take out any Hydra soldiers they encountered. From there they would use one of Tony's handy viruses to cut out any outside communication. No one would be allowed to contact the base and no one in the base would be allowed to contact anyone outside, supposedly. If everything went as planned than this might actually work. Clint had low hopes, as usual.

It had been easy for Janet and Hank to be quiet in the tiny shaft, Clint on the other hand was having difficulty. He was in such a small and enclosed space. His arms and legs kept smacking too hard against the edges and Natasha kept shushing him. He was relieved when they finally reached the communications access vent. Once again he pulled out his little pouch of tools, and carefully pulled the grating up to the other side.

"How many?" Natasha whispered.

"Ten or eleven. I can't quite see them all." Clint replied.

"Ready?" Natasha asked.

"Fuck yeah." They both knew that it would be too dangerous to use one of his explosive arrows, someone could avoid it's disaster and call for reinforcements. They had to jump right in the middle of the men, and make sure no one reached the computer before they had time to plug in the virus. Clint dropped down from the shaft, and instantly shot someone in the chest, near the computer. Everyone came rushing at him- there were twelve or thirteen guys at least, he had miscounted. Nat leaped down gracefully and took a stance next to him. Her lips twisted into a rare smile.

"This should be easy." She said, cracking her knuckles. Hydra hit her and Clint like a bulldozer, but they stood strong, and only moments later they stood tall above the unconscious or dead men victoriously. "You have the thumb drive?" Natasha asked.

"Yep." Clint pulled the little piece of technology from his pouch and plugged it into the huge computer in front of him. There was a flash. "Haha! Fuck you, Hydra." Appeared at the bottom of every screen in little green letters. Clint rolled his eyes.

"Tony, we're-" All the lights suddenly went black, and when they flickered back on the computer was booting up normally. A tall man in a suit stood by the door, a large remote control held tightly in his hand.

"You zink zat a tiny computer virus can break my computers?" He smirked. He had a thick German accent. His blond hair was slicked back, and his blue eyes were cold. "Natalia." He nodded to Natasha who, on command, swung her fist and punched Clint across the chin. Clint toppled from shock more than the punch.

"Admiral..." Natasha purred.

"Don't play games vith me, Natalia." The Admiral narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not playing games." She sighed. "You think that I would leave you, when you've given me so much?"

"N-natasha?" Clint choked.

"I have learned much." She smiled, leaning forward, and resting her hand on the Admiral's chest, "And I'm ready to come back to you. As you probably guess I tried to leave you messages, darling, but… I suppose everyone who works for you are too stupid to figure them out. It would have been too dangerous to be blatant. I hope you can understand."

"Of course. And vhat shall ve do vith zis one?" The Admiral gestured to Clint. Natasha turned around, her green eyes empty of emotion.

"Him? Oh, he doesn't matter. Once we've prevented the take over of this fort, and we've had our fun with him… we'll kill him."

REVIEW FOR CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:

Black' Victor Cachat: Common theory is that if a man does not want lots of authority and power despite being qualified, shove it on him even harder. Also, I oppose Clintasha only because that means no Clint/Laura. I write Brutasha, but I am okay with other Natasha pairings unless they mean no Laura.

I like how you did this, in that while Steve is the leader he still delegates the planning who actually know the technology and infiltrating. Good leadership right there

Don't worry about finding Bucky, Steve. He will come to you. In fact, you might want to get some of those tranqs Tony mentioned

Yeah... I've shipped Clintasha from the beginning, so it's kind of one of my favorites. I've read some Brutasha, and it was really cute! The problem I had with it in the movie was it was sooo, sooooooo sudden. Like, if they had maybe hinted at it in the first one I would have been more accepting of it in the MCU. I dunno. Everyone has their opinion. I'm glad you like this fanfic anyways! Some people just stop reading fanfics because they have a ship they don't like (I'll admit, I have been guilty of that before, though generally I am pretty open to reading fics with new ships. That's how I discovered most of my OTPs *cough* Captain Hill *cough*).

I figure that that's the kind of person Steve is. He knows where his limits are. One of them definitely being technology.

Heheh... That's funny because... uhh... you'll just have to see... :)

Thank you for reviewing! :D

Reviews are super, super helpful to me! They keep me encouraged so that I set aside time for putting more words down!

Thanks so much!