Believe it or not I titled this chapter BEFORE this overly long interlude. Fitting, huh? I will simply say "life happened", so two kids later, and also, now that I am no longer going blind I am going to finish this story.
It was a very simple and straightforward plan. Steve and Natasha move in on foot, setting charges around the perimeter as they went. While Steve located Thor and Natasha searched the third building, those charges would be remotely detonated by Coulson, along with the mini missiles Tony would fire on his descent into the base. This would draw the focus outward, making them believe the base was under attack instead of already infiltrated. In the confusion Tony would find Brackett and Clint, and Coulson would bring Banner in to secure Thor and extract the team.
It was well executed. The plan went perfectly… for almost an entire minute after Iron Man had taken off.
8
Steve had the shield ready to fly but waited as the man lowered to his knees, hands in the air. He hadn't encountered this situation yet. Going in, they knew this was a SHIELD facility and that SHIELD could have been infiltrated to a level that innocent agents could have been assigned to guard the base without being told the details. Since the base was listed as inactive and all personnel he had come across were in unmarked uniforms and had shot at Steve, despite the very obvious Captain America suit he was wearing, he hadn't given it much thought… until now.
"This is a SHIELD facility, Sir," the guard said carefully.
"Non active. Identify yourself," Steve commanded.
"Agent Anders, Sir. Bravo Tango 3722, I work security. Never been in the restricted areas," he added hastily, "I was told it was above my security clearance."
"Alright," Steve said, nodding, and threw his shield into the man's chest, knocking him back into the wall, unconscious. He quickly disarmed the man and secured him before continuing down the hall.
All in all, there was minimal security, the few cameras he had come across he was able to sneak by without detection. But there also shouldn't have been a way for anyone to find this place. If not for Clint planting that tracker.
Steve shook his head. There were still too many unanswered questions.
He came to a stop in front of large double doors; peeking through one of the small windows he caught sight of a few people in scrubs. This was it, where Thor was being kept, hopefully.
There was a key pad off to the side of the doors. Locked. He was going to have to break through. That would set off the alarm.
He didn't want to wait, the longer he did the more likely he would be detected, but jumping the gun wouldn't help his teammates.
Luckily, the alarms suddenly blaring solved his problem.
8
Natasha was stepping over a now unconscious guard when the alarm began sounding and she distantly heard the concussion of explosions and gunfire. Iron Man must have shown up early. Coulson wouldn't have let that happen without reason. She quickened her pace through the building, checking rooms for anything important.
Then Tony was swearing over the comms.
"Damn it!" Tony raged, followed by the sound of twisting and crashing metal. "Son of a bitch took a shower and left it in the damn locker room! He's not here!"
A door opening at the far end of the hall and a familiar angry voice, drew her attention.
"How did he get in?" he demanded into a radio, marching out of the room, "Secure-" His voice cut off as he stopped abruptly, eyes widening as they locked on Natasha.
"Sir? Sir?" sounded over the radio, but it was forgotten; background noise.
She held Spade's gaze. A second. Two.
His face was still but his eyes were calculating. The smugness seen in the video was gone but that wasn't enough.
Twisting her fists, the Widow's bites came to life.
There it was. A split second revealed the fear she wanted and had her surging forward.
8
As soon as Steve was through the door, the staff had scattered, not even trying to defend the area. Still, he was able to secure a few of them before his attention was drawn to an observation window, looking into one of the rooms.
Now he stood at the foot of Thor's table, not even a bed, but a table in which he was strapped down, unconscious and naked save for a thin blanket. He didn't appear injured but there were site marks drawn across his skin, some of which seemed smudged or, Steve's stomach turned, like they had been cut through and had already healed. There was no telling what they had done to him or were doing. A mass of wires and tubes connected Thor to various machines, all humming as they did god only knew what. The helpless feeling that washed over him was far too familiar lately and he quickly pushed it away.
This exact situation was why Bruce was waiting, he reminded himself.
He quickly moved to the room across the hallway and threw a location beacon to the ceiling, where it stuck and began beeping.
"Ready for you, Coulson," he said, heading back to Thor.
"Copy that, Captain."
"Iron Man," Natasha's voice cut through, sounding urgent. "You need to hook into the security system and save everything you can right now."
"And you're doing what?" Tony asked, his voice aggressively flippant over the sound of his repulsors blasting and muffled gunfire.
Natasha grunted and then gunfire sounded on her end as well. "Occupied!" she snapped. "Just do it Tony, they're purging the system. Everything is going to be gone in less than a minute."
"I am also occupied with goons so you're lucky I am the multitask master." There was a heavy breathing pause, then, "Alright, hooked in and JARVIS is on it."
The ceiling across the hall from Steve collapsed followed by a platform lowering through the hole carrying Bruce and Coulson.
"Thor's in there," Steve directed, keeping watch in the hallway while Bruce passed by him, faltering only a second as he took in the room, then began started flipping switches and unhooking bags.
Tony's voice came over the comms again, tinged with suspicion, "The security footage is pretty important, Widow. So it would take something more important to keep you from holding up in the room and getting it done yourself." There was a pause. "Something must have pulled you away fast. . . . Or someone."
"I don't have time for this," Natasha snapped.
"You're chasing Spade aren't you?" Tony demanded.
"Focus Iron Man," Steve tried, hoping to break the rising tension.
"I am! JARVIS is getting everything he can but most of it is either gone or corrupted. I can piece it together later. You're chasing Spade, Widow, where are you?"
There was a soft click over the line as Natasha's comm was turned off.
"Natasha!"
8
Tony cursed as he finished off the last of the guards that had swarmed the locker room and set his comm to receiving only. Fine, he was in the security system, he could find her himself.
"Get me her location, J." Basically by himself.
I have it, Sir, however, you might be interested in a different location.
Security footage opened to the front in his helmet and Tony's breath caught. It was Clint. He was facing away from the camera but he didn't need to see his face to recognize him. He was in a barren cell, curled into a ball on a cot, leaning against the wall.
"Where is he?" Tony managed to ask.
In this building, Sir. One hundred meters from you.
888888888
Cursing Tony's persistence, Natasha knew she needed to end this before he was able to find them.
A Taser Disk shot out from the Widow's Bite barely missing Spade as it flew past his head and attached to the door in front him releasing a blue current that danced over the metal.
Spade swore, turning at the last second to avoid colliding with electrified door.
Natasha took advantage of the seconds he lost and slammed into him, driving her knee into his gut. He grunted, grabbing her knee with his left hand as they fought over his gun in his right. There was still one or two shots left in it so she quickly detached the spring and used it to beat over his head.
Spade yelled and used his grip on her knee to spin her around and slam her into the wall.
Pain shot through her arm but she wrapped her free leg around his side keep a grip on him as she brought her fist in to hit him with her Bite.
He dropped the now useless gun and grabbed her arm just below the Bite bracer to keep it from connecting with him.
She felt his body shift, preparing to slam her to the ground. She quickly moved her leg up and over his left arm and used his own force to flip him forward with her, twisting as they landed and was rewarded with a grouping of snaps from his shoulder down through his arm and a scream of pain from Spade. Without letting go of his arm she smashed her heel into his face twice before he lashed out with a knife slicing across her shin, forcing her to release him and roll backwards to her feet.
Spade's left arm hung uselessly at his side. Blood smeared across his cheek from his broken nose.
A Taser Disk was ready but she waited, letting him finish getting to his feet before she fired it off, enjoying the sight of him hitting the ground and convulsing.
It was so tempting to just kill him now. It would be easy. Spade might be a masterful liar, a half decent sniper, but he couldn't measure up to her in a fight and at this point the fighting was over. She turned him over and clicked his wrists into the restraints from her belt. She could take a knife to his throat now. End it. She could even make it last. She knew how to make his death as painful as possible.
But they needed him alive, needed the information he had.
The image of Spade cupping Clint's face flashed through her mind and she began breaking the fingers of his right hand, each snap eliciting a new cry of pain from the barely conscious man.
Alive didn't mean he wasn't going to be in a considerable amount of pain.
She was on the index finger of his left hand when a SHIELD Strike team burst through the door.
8
It was only seconds before Tony was at the cell door, the hallways behind him a blur. He was only just able to stop himself from blasting the door open and landing inside the cell, but with JARVIS in the base system it opened smoothly at his arrival.
Clint didn't react as Tony stepped into the room; not even a twitch.
"Clint?"
His vitals are stable, Sir. He doesn't appear to have any additional injuries.
Tony nodded and quickly looked around. For better or worse, as he took in the room so did the suit. Every inch scanned. Zeroing in on the holes in the ceiling, the chains on the floor by the pillar… blood in the cracks around the drain. There were newspaper clippings hanging on the wall across from the cot. He spared it a second's glance and in that second each one was stored, ready to go over; and he would be going over every second of this cell... later.
"Clint," Tony tried again, hoping the man would turn his head away from the blank back wall, but was again disappointed. Had the archer regressed back to silence in his presence? He reached out toward Clint but pulled his hand back, flexing it in the suit.
"J?"
There are currently no threats in the building, Sir.
The back of the suit opened and he stepped out, moving quickly to the Clint's side, only hesitating a second before putting a hand on his shoulder, moving around and crouching down to see his face.
His breath caught. Clint's wasn't staring at the back wall. His eyes were vacant.
Tony shook him. "Clint? Clint look at me," he demanded, beginning to sound desperate. "Cupid?"
JARVIS' sounded from the suit, His heart rate is steady, Sir. I do not believe he is aware of your presence.
Grabbing Clint's jaw, he tried to force him to make eye contact but it didn't matter, it was like he was invisible.
"Shit."
8
They were just strapping Thor down for transport and Coulson talking to someone over the radio, when Tony's voice came over the comm again.
"I need you here. You need to come get us right now."
"Who are you with, Iron Man?" Steve asked.
"Clint. I...I don't know if I should move him. JARVIS is sending a signal to the quinjet. Come down ten feet to the north. There's a room next to this one."
"The STRIKE teams are here and are securing any remaining hostiles." Coulson announced from the co-pilot's seat, headset held to his ear, as he listened to someone on the line.
"That explains the calm out here," Steve said, noting the lack of artillery fire. "We're clear to come to you Tony," he motioned for the pilot to go, "and are on our way."
"We'll keep you informed," Coulson said, then turned around to face the team, "They had a run in with Widow. She's almost done with them, then she'll meet us where Tony and Clint are."
"Is there a problem there?" Steve asked.
"Not exactly. She's turning custody of Brackett over to the STRIKE team."
"She got to him and she's letting SHIELD take him?" Bruce asked, surprised.
Coulson nodded, "They insisted but they're probably regretting it now. She contacted Fury directly to confirm identities and get every agent's information. She said she's holding them personally responsible if he gets away."
Bruce almost felt sorry for them but after everything that had happened he was leaning more toward the Hulk's method of problem solving.
"Target locked," the pilot reported. "Blowing through."
There was a muffled explosion, then, "Moving into position. The elevator is clear to use."
Bruce grabbed a med kit and Steve were lowered down through the opening, Steve at the ready. This building was supposedly cleared but they were all beyond done with surprises; they weren't taking any chances.
Entering the cell, Bruce should have been, but wasn't, surprised that Tony was out of his suit, because while his self preservation in the face of terrorists was legendary, it flew out the window when it came to anyone he cared about.
Bruce could huff about it for all the good it would do, right now Tony's sole focus was the man on the bed.
Tony only moved back enough to let Bruce in, hovering over his shoulder as he finally got a good look at Clint. Unlike with Thor, there wasn't an urgency to pack them up and get out; he took his time checking his friend's vitals and responses. But as each minute passed the truth of the situation weighed down on Bruce's heart.
He shook his head, turning back to his team, "He's catatonic."
"Why?" Tony demanded, his voice bordering on frantic, "I don't understand. He planted the tracker, he knew we were-"
The men startled as one when Natasha was suddenly in the room rushing to Clint, her face furious. She grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him. "Damn it, Clint! We came for you too, not just Thor!"
Steve looked on, his face turning to one of horror.
Bruce could feel his own features mirroring it as the realization dawned.
"We came for you!" Natasha continued to rage, her voice breaking when Clint's eyes remained empty, "I came for you!"