Hey, guys, I'm back! So I replaced chapter 19 with an actual chapter, but I was told that y'all didn't get an update, possibly because I didn't publish a new chapter, I replaced it. Anyhoo I'm alive and kicking! I would strongly recommend you go back and read chapter 19. Like right now. Did you do it? Good, then enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 20: A Potentially Sewersidle mission

Nat glared at the door as she scooted over to Clint's unconscious form, cradling his head on her lap, and doing her best to tend to his wounds. This plan had gone horribly wrong. What else was new? She was supposed to have been caught by a suspicious hostile force, and determine if they were being controlled by Doctor Doom and escape, but dumb sweet Clint had realized that something was wrong. The first tip-off was the fact that over her hidden mic, he had heard that Doom not only was controlling them but was there, and Clint had come to her rescue and been caught by Doom, (who of course had this planned and set up from the beginning.) Nat had underestimated him, and that pissed her off, more at herself than Doom. Though she wasn't exactly pleased with him.

She noticed a particularly bad cut on Clint's temple. She tried to bandage it as best she could, but they were limited on what clothing they could tear up. She took off the shirt Clint had given her, leaving her with only a tank top, and began to rip it up when the door began to open. She quickly stuffed the shirt into a small hole in the wall and covered it with the broken chunk of concrete. Doom, for all his obsession with machines and cleanliness, did not keep those standards for his prisoners. She was a little insulted when she had first been brought to their "cell" which was Doom's private sewer. He had slapped metal doors on a pipe and voila, you had a smelly dirty and rat-infested sewer cell.

As the door opened a man peered in and seeing her in a tank top, grinned and stepped into the room. He dropped a water bottle at his feet, and Nat smiled maybe she could have some fun, and maybe escape while she was at it. She heard Clint groan and began to stir behind her. Now was the perfect time to strike. She stood up and seductively walked over to the guard who grinned, setting his rifle aside and opening his arms to welcome her. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. This idiot had just given her his weapon, and an opportunity to take him out. She walked up to him, bent down as if to pick up the bottle, then dropped and swept his legs out from under him with a kick. Before he hit the ground she had him in a chokehold and waited until he stopped squirming. Then quickly retrieved the shirt and began tearing it into long strips.


Clint opened his eyes to Nat choking out a guard, then tying him up with strips of the guard's undershirt and Clint's shirt. He closed his eyes again. Such was the life of Strike Team Alpha. Every mission went wrong and they always found a way out. This time it seemed like their game plan was to take everyone down with t-shirts. He opened his eyes and stumbled to his feet. "Ow," he groaned. "I hurt." Nat looked at him, startled to see him on his feet so soon. Well, her manner of startled meant her eyebrows were raised about half a centimeter. She finished tying up the guard, and Clint figured Doom would probably take care of him after he learned they had escaped. He would have felt sorry for the guy if he hadn't just tried to kiss Nat and been a complete incompetent fool. Actually no, he wouldn't. Even if that wasn't what he saw through his pain hazed vision. Hawkeye tried to sigh and grunted, which made his potentially broken ribs hurt even more. Nat cast him a worried glance. At least, he was pretty sure she was worried, he wasn't feeling very perceptive right at that moment.

Without needing to talk, Nat tossed Clint the guard's clothes and he agonizingly pulled them over his uniform. Taking the rifle he marched her out and towards the exit. At least, he hoped it was an exit. It had a giant red sign he thought said exit, but his vision was blurry and he almost stumbled as they got closer to the door. Nat kept walking, wanting to dart back and help him, but she couldn't. Not this time.

He inwardly sighed. Soon he would be out in the sunshine and a fresh breeze. They were only ten feet away from the door when a guard stopped them.


"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" He barked. Or tried to. The young man's voice cracked and he blushed, then shouted. "I asked you a question, soldier!"

Clint just wanted to collapse into a little ball onto the floor and go to sleep. He had been beaten and interrogated and starved for the past two weeks and he just wanted a nice breath of fresh air. And this guy was stopping them because of a superiority complex? And the fact that Clint was marching a prisoner outside alone without backup, but that was irrelevant. He stared tiredly at the man then said. "I'm just following orders. Doom said he wanted to take her outside and feed her to the dogs or something, I don't know. I just want to go on break."

The man hesitated. His boss had said something about his potential and placed him in charge of the patrols, and now this guy was claiming that Doom had ordered the prisoner in his section to be taken outside. This could be a test, or Doom just didn't bother to tell him about his plans. Unless, a light bulb went off in the man's head, but he quickly dismissed it. What idiots would steal a guard costume and try and escape in it? The young man peered closely at the "guard". He did look like the guy who had been captured recently but come on. That's the crazy kind of stuff that happened in movies! The man shuffled his feet. He had no idea what to do, and he certainly wasn't going to go crawling to his boss for orders. Looked back at the man, absentmindedly chewing his lip.

Clint tried again. "Sir, please can I just take her outside so I can eat my lunch?"

The young man squinted at him. Was this guy laughing at him? No, he was just tired-wait! His mouth moved! Was that a smirk, or a grimace. He felt anger rising in him. How dare this lowly foot soldier mock him! He pulled out his gun and leveled it at the guard's face. "You want a break? I can give you a long break if that's what you want!"


Clint forced himself not to roll his eyes, and look like a tired lazy guard. The young man took offense to his lack of fear and hit him across the face with the gun. "Show better respect to your...betters!" The young man screamed, stumbling over his awkward wording.

Nat was pissed. She leaped at the man, swinging herself into his back and jamming her hand down on a pressure point that would momentarily cut off circulation to his brain, knocking him out. She made sure he was unconscious, then quickly dragged him behind a pile of boxes. She didn't have time to tie him up, but he wouldn't stay down for long. Nat let Clint lean on her as they left the sewers and Clint felt anticipation for the sunshine and a cool breeze well up within him as they stepped out. At first, he was confused, and then he was furious. Outside it was dark and snowing, and cold. And Doom stood in the doorway, followed by half a baker's dozen dogs. Clint could've sworn he was almost as startled and angry as he was. Doom gripped Clint around the throat and lifted him in the air, slamming him against the wall while commanding his dogs to lunged at Nat.

"You!" Doom growled. "You have a thorn in my side ever since you infiltrated my compound!"

"Well," Clint choked out. "You could let us go."


Doom let out some kind of sound between a screech and growl and a constipated grunt and struck Clint across the face, then slammed a fist into his stomach multiple times. After his little hissy fit, he let an unconscious intruder collapse on the floor then turned his wrath on his other prisoner, who was trying to fend off his dogs. Doom let out an imperceptible growl as he took in the scene. Three of his dogs lay dead while the four others were trying to take the fiesty broad down. As he approached, she used what he could now see was a knife she had lifted off of one of his guards to slice the throat of another. The beast tried to keep fighting but its legs buckled and collapsed right in front of him. He barked an order and the dogs ran over and stood behind him. The woman stood, panting in front of him, knife dripping with the blood of his precious pets. He sighed kneeling to caress the body of his dead creature.

"Such a waste of life. She was expecting, you know. Poor pups, murdered before they were even born. But of course, you're used to that line of work aren't you, Natalia?" Doom smirked under his mask, his sensors detecting an increase in her heart rate. He loved playing games with people's minds. But even more, he loved making them realize how horrible they were. So when the woman spun, kicking at his head, he didn't block or attack. He backed up to the wall and aimed an energy weapon at Barton's head. "So," he began conversationally, "you have a choice. Crawl back to your precious shield, and do your duty, let another one of your friend's deaths be on your conscious. Or, surrender, and try to find a way to escape with an injured partner. Which will be even more difficult, because that was my favorite dog, and I look forward to making you pay for her death. And the deaths of her children. They would have made such good pets!" He lamented. "But the Black Widow had other ideas didn't she?"

His bitter laughter boomed into the night sky. "So choose, Alianova. Choose your life, or his. Because I don't intend on letting you escape into death. Oh no, I will make you watch his pain, then inflict it on you. I will try to keep him alive, to let his pain torment you, but he won't last long. Of course, if you run, your guilt will eat you up from the inside! Ho-ho! I would love to watch that, my love."


Natasha glared at the man. Years of training in the Red Room told her to leave Clint. "Don't help anyone unless they can help you or they need your trust." Purred the Matron in her mind.

And Clint's voice echoed back. "No! We're in this together." She knew he would do the same thing for her, but he had left her when the first encountered Doom, then come back for her. She didn't know what to do. No, she did. She was not going to let Clint die, and add more red to her ledger, but she wasn't going to let the mission fail. She was going to take option C. She was going to do what she did best. She smirked at Doom, and said…

To be continued….. Hopefully : )


Sooooo...I might have made a tinsy little tiny mistake with the ages of our two favorite assassins. Oops! So I will be going back and fixing that, so if you notice a sudden jump in age or time passed up, that's why. Anyway, part two will come out. Eventually. I mean, probably. Just cross your fingers okay?