For those of you that have been following this story, I know sometimes doesn't send e-mails the right way. Please go back and read from Chapter 25 and on cause I posted all of them today.


Tony grunted as he woke to the sounds of punches landing on something soft and squishy. Opening his eyes, the billionaire saw that Clint was getting his ass handed to him by some big, burly HYDRA agent. Not that Clint could defend himself seeing as he was tied to a chair. Steve, on the other side of the room, was still unconscious.

"HEY! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Tony screamed at the man beating Clint. The man paused before turning to glare at him. It took Tony two seconds to realize he was now in deep shit.

"That... All... You... Got?" came a very soft, painful slur from Clint as the S.H.I.E.L.D agent rolled his head back to look up at the man towering over him. The man snarled before slamming his fist back into Clint's face. Clint grunted and twisted his head with the punch to try and lessen the blow. When it was over, he cracked up laughing.

"You nuts," the man said, sounding rather shocked that the archer was laughing at him. Clint didn't respond. It was Tony's fist sign that something may be wrong with his hearing aids. Obviously, Clint didn't have his sunglasses anymore. That made Tony briefly wonder how well Pepper's idea would work but ignored it when someone else walked in. This looked to be the head person.

"You get an answer?" the person asked. The other man shook his head no. This new guy rolled his eyes before looking over to Tony. "Ah, maybe you could answer."

"Depends," Tony snapped.

"What does S.H.I.E.L.D want with us?" the man inquired.

"Uh... Nothing. Actually we are here to get my tech back," Tony answered honestly. The man frowned and the genius could tell that he didn't believe him. "It's true! Yeah, S.H.I.E.L.D was curious as to what you were doing but when they saw signs of my tech, they called me and my friends in to get them back."

"Really? You get your own tech back?" the man incredulously questioned. Tony nodded, surprised that this man didn't believe he was Iron Man. "You? Mr. Billionaire? Mr. Playboy?"

"How long has it been since you've seen the news?" Tony countered. The man laughed. "I am Iron Man!"

"And I am the Dalai Lama," the man joked. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Didn't you see my suit?"

"That piece of tin?" the man laughed. Tony frowned before the man pulled a phone out of his pocket and loaded something on the screen. When he turned it to Tony, the genius could see the now ruined pieces of his armor. Shock filled him.

"What the hell did you do to my suit?"

"We had to get you out somehow." Tony just stared at the picture, his heart growing heavy as he realized he just lost another suit. After having promised Pepper that he wouldn't build another one, he was very rapidly running out of suits. Many of them he could just fix but this one... This one was a goner. "I am actually very proud of our work."

"I'm partly surprised you weren't more careful about it. Maybe you could have learned from it and built your own," Tony snarked. The man laughed. This time there was a groan from the other side of the room and Tony finally remembered his two friends in the room with them. Clint had been keeping silent as he craned his neck to look back at Tony and the other man, but without knowing what was going on, the archer couldn't comment. But Steve was just now waking up.

"Ah, Captain! Finally joining us!" the man called. Tony winced. Steve had talked very little about his past. But one big thing he had mentioned was who Tony finally figured out was standing before him. Steve jerked awake in surprise at the once familiar voice.

"Red Skull?" Steve softly muttered before he turned and looked straight into the man's eyes. He nodded with a pleased expression on his face.

"I had heard rumors that you were working closely with Stark. And so, I figured if I got a hold of some of his tech, then you would come running to help him," Skull mentioned.

"So wait, all this was a trap for Steve?" Tony asked. Skull looked back at him.

"Most of it. I didn't know that S.H.I.E.L.D would have been involved as well," Skull admitted before walking back toward the door. Clint smirked when he finally realized that he'd be able to see Skull's lips and understand what was going on. He had been trying to follow the conversation by reading Tony's lips and when the billionaire mentioned Steve, he glanced over to him.

"So, what do you want me for?" Steve wondered aloud. Skull looked back at him.

"I am dying, Captain," Skull quickly retorted. No one responded to that. Steve's eyes went wide in surprise while Tony hissed a breath of surprise. "The very serum that changed us both is now killing me."

"And you think I have the answer?" Steve figured. Skull nodded. "Well, I don't. I don't know what Erskine did to make it work for me."

"Ah, but I will. You see, Erskine wasn't the only one with the serum. Though mine was not complete, I can use our DNA to figure out what I was missing," Skull explained. Steve shook his head.

"I won't allow it," Steve growled. Skull smiled.

"I figured that," he said before removing a small device from his pocket and pressing the button. Right away, Steve and Tony could hear a loud, high pitched wail that hurt their heads and made the two scream. Clint winced at the sound but it didn't bother him as much as it bothered the others. Skull just laughed at it before releasing the button. "That sonic device could do a lot of damage. Well, to make it really hurt you, I needed to up the power and so it could make these two go deaf rather quickly."

"So what, you'll turn that on every time Steve refuses?" Clint finally spoke. Skull glanced down at the injured agent and sneered. He hated dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D. Nodding, he then turned back to Steve.

"So, what will it be?"

"It'll be you giving up," Clint declared before surprising the Skull by jumping out of his seat and body slamming the super soldier into the door. Under the pressure, it broke and the two collapsed into the hall. With Skull's attention on Tony and Steve for so long, Clint had been able to find some of his smaller weapons in his hidden pockets and used them to escape from his bindings. It was only thanks to his surprise attack that he had been able to knock the man back as far as he did. What sucked even worse, Skull had pressed the button on the sonic device and it was blaring right next to Clint's head. With them in the hall, Steve and Tony had a lessened effect from the device but their screams were just loud enough for Clint to slightly hear over the sonic noise.

"GET OFF!" Skull screamed over the noise but Clint ignored him due to the sounds of his teammates. He had to get that sonic device away from them. Reaching for it, Clint wrapped his hands around the device just as Skull got over his shock and began fighting back. And of course, Skull was just as strong as Steve, which was a lot stronger then Clint. The two began struggling, each not losing their grip on the sonic device.

"Give up!" Clint snapped at Skull before decking the man and loosening some of the skin. Thankfully, he had been warned about how Red Skull got his name and was only minorly disgusted when Skull began pulling the skin off of his face. While distracted with his peeling face, Skull released his grip on the sonic device and Clint's frame. So, with a quick jab to Skull's gut, Clint snatched the device and jumped to his feet. He was slightly surprised when it got louder.

"Ha! I have made that device so that it responds only to my own hand!" Skull declared before slowly getting to his feet. "You will never get it to shut off before it deafens you and your friend!"

"You should really watch the news some time. That way, you'd find out, I'm already deaf," Clint informed the Skull before turning around and sprinting off, intent on destroying the device. Skull screamed in rage before making chase after him which left Steve and Tony to do as they wished to escape.


Clint was found a few hours later. He was a good distance from the warehouse and laying on the ground unconscious. The sonic device was a ruined mess on the ground before him and there were a few new minor injuries to his body. But not a single sign of Red Skull. Tony and Steve had easily escaped their bonds after Skull and Clint had left and then they promptly went on a rampage that ended up in some exploding tech which exploded the building while they watched. After finding Clint again, Tony was able to use some of their remaining tech that HYDRA had found in their crash site to call into S.H.I.E.L.D for a lift back home. Once there, Clint was quickly brought to the medical area to wait until he woke.

He woke an hour after arriving and was quickly put under numerous tests on his hearing thanks to Steve's and Tony's pressuring. The news they found out from that was not great. Skull's sonic device did as promised. Even after healing as well as they had and even the limited amount of hearing that Clint had after that, the sonic device exploded his ear drums and made him permanently deaf.

"At least we all got used to this before," Clint had joked as soon as the news was given to him. All the Avengers crowded into the room as they smirked at his joke. Even Fury, Pepper and surprisingly Coulson was in the room as well. "And hell, now we can perfect those hearing aids and even those kickass glasses!"

"Actually, I was thinking wireless contacts," Tony responded.

"Where is the microchips gonna go?" Bruce countered. Tony shrugged.

"We got time to figure it out," Tony declared. Clint smiled.

"Well, we have the best team on the job to do it," Steve mentioned, ending the fighting between the two scientists. Coulson cleared his throat.

"Actually, Fitz and Simmons have been working on aids that can get surgically implanted behind your ears that can give you your hearing back. They can't last through an EMP but they will not be damaged and they'll turn back on an hour later," Coulson suggested. Clint smiled.

"Sounds great. Now, are you going to be our handler again?"