Chapter 6 – Courtroom Attack

'One more afternoon,' Tony groans as he sinks back into the chair once the waitress leaves with their order, 'one more afternoon and then we can leave. One more afternoon and I don't have to look at that goddamn smarmy face of that bastard's lawyer and not resist the urge to repulsor him in the face.'

'If I didn't know Pepper, I'd wonder how you actually managed to run a company for so long,' Rhodes sighs, shaking his head.

'Clint you alright?' Bruce asks, frowning at the archer.

'Yeah,' the archer responds, squinting out of the window, 'yeah just saw something out the corner of my eye that's all. Don't worry it's nothing.'

'We're all getting a bit jumpy, be good to have all the team together again,' Rhodes adds.

'What did you think you saw?' Tony asks.

'Just a bit of light reflecting off something, probably just from the window of a bus driving by or something,' he replies. The waitress arrives with their drinks and interrupts any more conversation until she leaves.

'What time are we leaving tomorrow?' Bruce asks as he takes a sip of his tea.

'As soon as everyone's up we'll get on the quinjet and go,' he responds, gulping down his coffee as though it's his lifeline.

'Which means Tony is going to pull an all-nighter and be sitting in the quinjet waiting for everyone tomorrow morning,' Rhodes rolls his eyes.

'Am not,' he retorts. At his friend's raised eyebrow, he amends his statement. 'Well I'm not planning to.'

'Which means you've thought about it,' Bruce sighs in a way that is as long-suffering as any sigh Pepper ever gave him.

'Hey now-'

'Tony get down!' Clint slamming into his side and sending them both sprawling to the ground from his chair cuts off his retort, the next thing he hears is a crack from the table. He looks up over Clint's shoulder to see a bullet hole in the table. Rhodes and Bruce have already scrambled to their feet and Rhodes is looking out of the window looking for where the bullet came from.

'Across the street, building on the corner, fifteenth floor,' Clint shouts to him as he jumps to his feet. 'Saw the light reflect off the gun.'

'Shit. Tony, you and Bruce should head back to the compound, we'll meet you there,' Rhodes tells him.

'I'm not running away, Rhodey.'

'You're the goddamn target, Tony!'

'Guys, somethings happening out on the street,' Bruce cuts through the argument, and the sound of yelling finally reaches the rest of the group.

'Move!' Clint's the first one to action again as he shoves both Rhodes and Bruce to the side and into Tony; all four of them slamming into the side wall as what appears to be some form of armoured truck smashes through the front of the café.

Tony presses the arc reactor, putting his sunglasses into his jacket pocket as the nanites spread out to cover him. 'Rhodey you and Bruce get the civilians out of harms way. Brucie baby? Try not to go green on us alright? Clint you think you can help without any- where the hell did those come from?'

Clint just shrugs and spins the two knives in his hands. 'You spend as much time with Nat as I have and you learn some tricks on where to hide weapons.'

'I do not want to know,' Bruce groans, and he and Rhodes begin to shepherd the panicking customers and staff of the café out of the back doors.

'FRIDAY? Get the NYPD to set up a road block and start on citizen evac and I want someone to go after Hammer to make sure that slime ball doesn't get out.'

'Sure thing, boss,' the AI responds as the doors to the vehicle are kicked open and gunmen start to jump down.

'If we get a few of them down I'll be able to borrow some of their guns and be a little more useful,' Clint tells him, before ducking down between the tables and making his way around.

'Stun dart some of them, FRI.'

'Sure thing, boss. And boss? Looks like we've got another truck incoming. This one is heading for the courtroom.'

'Of course it is,' he growls as the men in front of them collapse to the ground. 'Clint! This was just the distraction. We got another one headed straight for the courthouse!'

'Why am I not surprised?' comes the frustrated reply as he rifles through some of the men's pockets to get some additional ammo before slipping a couple of handguns into his waistband and picking up a larger rifle. 'Right, lets go do damage control.'

'FRIDAY can you get a War Machine suit inbound?'

'Already on it boss. Arrival is estimated in five minutes.'

'Rhodey! Got you a suit coming in a few minutes. Think you'll be alright till then?' he yells across the café.

'Just go, Tones! We'll be fine,' Rhodes waves him off.

'You ready Katniss?'

'Born ready,' Clint grins at him.

Tony blasts through the windows of the café just as a second armoured vehicle comes speeding around the corner and heads straight for the entrance to the courtroom, flying through and leaving Clint to catch up. Sure could do with Pete's webs right about now, he thinks, aiming at one of the tyres and sending a shot into it that blows it, sending the vehicle off course for a few metres, before the driver gets it under control. 'Damn it! Alright let's turn this thing.' He aims at the remaining tyres and manages to blow them, but not before the vehicle launches itself up the steps with enough force to then send it sailing straight through the doors.

The back doors are thrown open and Tony just has time to realise the guy is holding a rocket launcher before he's spiralling out of the way and desperately hoping Clint wasn't directly behind him. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees the other man jumping down behind a low wall for some cover before the rocket lands in the café and explodes.

'Shit! Rhodey! Bruce!' Tony knows he should be focussing on the enemies coming out of the vehicle but all he can think about is his two friends potentially trapped under a huge amount of rubble. 'FRIDAY?'

'There's multiple heat signatures still registering boss, and it looks like-'

An ear-splitting roar comes from the café.

'One of them is Hulk?' Tony offers as a finish to his AI's sentence. 'Shit, we need to get Hulk contained and I don't have Veronica.'

'I'll get him,' Clint waves at him. 'You deal with the truck.'

'Clint-'

'Just go!' the archer yells and heads back towards the café.

'I'm going to regret this,' he mutters to himself, then turns to face the other enemies.

'This is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid,' Clint chants as he jumps back into the café through the blasted out window. 'Rhodey? Hulk?'

Another roar gives him his answer for where the second person is: behind a chunk of fallen building.

'Clint?' Rhodes' voice comes through faintly.

'You guys alright? Okay stupid question: are you guys still in once piece?'

'Just about,' comes the reply, 'we've got three people stuck in here with us. Hulk came out and managed to catch the roof, but I don't think he can move it without anything coming down and crushing the rest of us.'

'Right well let's see if I can make some space for you guys to crawl through or something. You got any room to move stuff your side?'

'We're packed in like sardines huddling under Hulk as it is.'

'Damn it,' Clint curses softly. Just then he hears the sound of Tony's suit approaching. 'Hang on Rhodey, Tony's coming. Maybe his suit can help get you out of this.' He turns, mouth already open to ask for the genius' input when he realises his mistake: it's not Tony's suit it's Rhodes'.

'Nice of him to join the party.'

'Actually, Rhodey it's your War Machine suit,' Clint tells him. 'You think I can get it programmed to move shit?'

'Get it in, Clint,' comes the reply.

'Excuse me, what?'

'Get in the suit and use it to move this stuff, and hurry it up. Just know one thing: you so much as scratch it and I'm using you for target practise.'

'Right… you do realise I've never used one of these things before, right?'

'Clint! We don't have time!'

'Alright, alright, keep your shirt on,' he cautiously approaches the suit. 'Hey, uh, think I could, um, come inside?' The suit opens smoothly, leaving space for him to step backwards into it. 'Oh man this is so cool. And also terrifying. Hey! What the-' with the suit now encasing him Clint's able to see the forms of the trapped people under Hulk through the debris, and the computer immediately starts calculating the best route to get to them. 'Oh man this is awesome. Why didn't I ask Tony for one of these before?'

'Clint are you in Rhodey's suit?' Tony's voice comes through the helmet.

'Uh, yeah? Tony, man, these things are awesome!'

'Why are you in Rhodey's suit?'

'To use the extra horse power to get some of this shit moved so I can help get them out. How do I even use this thing?'

'Oh for the love of….just walk and move like you would normally. You won't be flying so we'll leave that lesson for another day.'

'Right, got it. How's things your end?'

'Just hurry up and give me a hand would you?'

'Right, right, sorry. Now I see why Peter loves his suit so much. This must have been like all his dreams come true at once.' He focusses back on the task at hand. 'Right, Hulk buddy can you hear me?'

Another roar is his answer.

'Perfect. Think you can hold that stuff up a little longer while I try and clear a hole for everyone?'

'Hulk strong!'

'Yeah I know you are, Big Guy, just didn't want to put too much on you. Now listen, Hulk, if you feel anything above you start to become unstable? I need you to tell me so I can stop moving things, you got it?'

'Hulk not stupid,' is his response.

'Never said you were, buddy,' Clint says as he moves forward and starts to clear through the debris, 'just wanted to check you could hear properly through this helmet and all the rocks.' He hears a grunt in response which he guesses means he's forgiven and continues to get to work.

It feels like it takes hours before there's finally a hole big enough and stable enough for the first of the trapped civilians to be coached through by Rhodes and Clint; Clint steps out of the War Machine suit and has it stand sentry in case anyone tries to attack them from behind whilst he lays on his front and helps pull the three trapped in there with Rhodes and Hulk one by one.

'That all of them?' he calls through.

'Yeah, that's all. Just me to come now and then Hulk doesn't have to worry about us,' Rhodes calls back, then curses. 'Shit! Clint the hole isn't big enough for my braces to fit through.'

'I can't make it any bigger, Rhodey,' he calls back, 'or it'll become unstable. What if I send the suit through?'

There's a long pause and Clint's about to call through again when he gets a response. 'I'm going to have to take the braces off. Once I reach my suit it can act as the brace, but it means I'm going to need you to pull me through most of the way.'

'Rhodey-'

'Clint we don't have much choice. Can you help me through?'

Clint swallows. 'Yeah, I'll come part the way in now so you don't have to come so far,' he calls, and crawls a little further into the hole. There's the sound of pained grunts from the other side and then Rhodes' arms and head appear in front of him, the man in obviously considerable pain. 'Grab onto me,' he says, reaching forwards until their hands are linked. 'You ready?'

'Just pull,' Rhodes grits out from between clenched teeth, as Clint hauls him towards him. It's not easy, being stuck in a confined space and Rhodes isn't the lightest of men with the amount of muscle he's built up over the years, but they manage to get him nearly face to face with Clint.

'Alright let me wriggle back then I can get you mostly out.' As he starts to move back there's a horrible vibration through the building and the debris above them starts to groan.

'What was that?' Rhodes asks.

'Just crawl!' Clint fires back, nearly braining himself as he pushes himself back to give Rhodes space to crawl with one arm, the other still linked with his own so he can haul the man along. Hulk's roar of warning not needed as everything above them starts to shift.

'Clint go!'

'Not without you,' he snaps, feeling his lower body now free of the hole. Both of them half crawling and half dragging or being dragged as dust flies up all around them. Clint thinks he feels other hands on him, dragging him backwards as the dust becomes blinding.

Rhodes' hand gets pulled from his and he opens his mouth to shout for the other man, but only ends up coughing as he inhales the dust. He's fully free from the hole and he struggles out of the grip of the other hands on him.

'Rhodey!' he coughs. 'Rhodey!'

'Clint,' Rhodes' pained voice comes through the fog of dust and Clint crawls towards it, finding the other man safe with two of the civilians having helped to drag him out. He now realises the hands that were dragging him must have belonged to the third person they'd saved.

A huge roar, and Hulk bursts out of the last of the debris, landing in front of them with a satisfied huff once he sees both of them are safe. The War Machine armour glides over and seamlessly melds itself to Rhodes' form.

'Oh man that's better,' the helmet stays down so Clint can see the look of relief on his face when his lower body gets the support it needs. 'Hey Clint? Thanks man.'

'Just don't go scaring me like that again yeah?'

'Hulk helped!'

Clint laughs and grins up at him. 'Hulk, buddy, if it weren't for you there would have been no point in me being here. We missed you, Big Guy, it's good to have you back.'

Hulk runs his fist over his mouth, in a move that Clint learned a long time ago he does when he doesn't know what to say. 'Hulk glad both safe.'

'We're sure glad you're safe too, Hulk,' Rhodes agrees. 'Now how about we go see if Tony needs help?'

'Boss?'

'What is it FRIDAY?' Tony pushes away the medic tending to the cut above his eye. It's nearly two hours later and the clean up is in progress, thankfully no one has been killed, but there are some serious injuries. Hammer has also remained in custody, so Tony's focussing on breathing a big sigh of relief.

'Boss I think you should see this: news footage from Vienna.'

Tony looks at what his AI is showing him and feels his face go white.

'Tony? What's happened?' Clint asks.

'We need to get to the rest of the team now,' he says. 'FRIDAY I want a Quinjet ready to go by the time we get to the facility. Guys? Car. Now!'

A/N: I am so sorry I'm so late posting this chapter. I really hope it's worth the delay.

Thank you so much for all your reviews and I am so sorry I haven't yet had chance to respond. I'm hoping to respond to all of them by the end of the day. Please do keep letting me know what you think about the story, I do love to hear your thoughts.

Love always,

L x

As always here is your sneak peek:

Sam opens his mouth to reply when there's an ear shattering explosion from in front of them and the two cars in front, one carrying some of the team and one carrying their escort, launch into the air. Their driver slams on the breaks and Natasha just has time to shove Sam into some semblance of the brace position before their car flips over, spinning a couple of times before it comes to a rest on its roof. Behind them she hears the squeal of tyres as the other car carrying their team comes to a stop.

'Sam? You alright?' she manages to ask.

There's no response.

'Sam? Sam!' she turns to look at him, seeing the man's eyes are closed and tries not to panic. 'Dammit, don't do this to me bird brain.'