In Tony's defense, he had no other choice. The Iron Man suit was specially programmed to only work on him, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. (Hydra?)- whoever- agents that had beamed him up searching his belongings was a given.
Throw the flash drive onto the force field? Who knew whether that would work. No, Tony knew exactly what he had to do.
The flash drive slowly integrated itself into the Iron Man database- became part of it, plastic particles dispersing through one of many microtubes and metal melding likewise- and Tony learned what exactly it was that had caused Coulson to run in such secrecy.
He'd opened the Pandora's box.
...
"It is a shame we could not give him an Asgardian funeral." At least Thor had let Loki die with a weapon in his hands, albeit an unusual one. Magic had always been Loki's general art of choice.
The rest of them were silent until the Wolverine looked up. "I hear a chopper picking up pace in the Northeast direction."
"That's got to be them." The Captain started on a sprint, Thor right behind him. The Wolverine came up on the left, occasionally uttering direction changes. It must have been a thirty-minute jog that ensued before they cleared the forest. Now around them was yellow grassy plain and an easily visible aircraft heading for a slate building on a rocky incline.
They all paused to catch their breath, receiving the information they needed and knowing at this point that outrunning a quinjet was basically impossible.
"They are taking Stark to a mountainous dwelling," Thor stated.
"It's a step up from the abandoned shack," Logan reasoned.
Steve studied the terrain that led up to the building. It would take, at best, one or two days. Which was going to be too late. But too late was a given if they didn't at least try. "Alright, maybe it would be best to take a break. Eat, rest, do whatever you need to do. I plan to make a straight shot for as far as we can go, and I need you at your best. We're in this together."
Apparently they weren't in it together, because Hawkeye was nowhere to be found. It was the first time in forty minutes that Steve turned around. Natasha was breathing heavily, but Clint? Gone.
"Nat?"
Natasha shook her head. "I think we lost him." She didn't seem too worried about it, but she was busy trying to maintain her heartrate, so the expression was convoluted.
Steve sighed, scanning the line of trees they just left. "Five minutes." If Clint didn't make it by the time they restarted, he wasn't sure what they'd do.
"He'll find us, if he's not lost." Unless Hydra took him, which made no sense. Steve hadn't seen any false agents since the ambush.
The quinjet was well close to docking now, but it was too far away to be the source of the noise Steve was hearing.
Dudududududuududududududududuud- It was louder now, and still just as fast. Steve turned towards the noise.
The noise was a man. The man was running. He was running along the edge of the forest and straight towards them. Straight, specifically, towards Steve. But Steve dodged and the man barreled straight into Thor. Thor fell back with an 'oomph' and tried to push the man off him, but when that failed to work he swung his hammer at the hand that was holding him down.
The man screamed and let go. His arm was severely misshaped underneath his suit, and he clenched his fist, falling to the floor himself. But there was no blood. Steve and Logan encircled him while Thor got up.
"Who are you?"
The man rubbed his shoulder and looked up with hatred. He wore a mask, but Steve couldn't help but think he looked familiar.
He kicked at Thor's knees and rolled himself off the ground faster than Steve could stop him, then ran towards the mountain.
"Are we following in pursuit?" Nat drew herself up, bouncing on the balls of her feet, preparing for the next long stretch.
"If he gets there before us whatever cover we have is blown." Steve still couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen the man before.
"Captain Rogers." Thor had drawn close while they ran, and he'd done so intentionally. "Mjolnir struck that man's arm like a piece of armor."
Steve wrinkled his brow. "What do you mean?"
"It was more akin to metal than to flesh."
...
Clint was in the dumps. Because yeah, he was fit, but he couldn't run a marathon.
You're what, 41?
This was why they was going to fail. The world was going to end because some guy with a bow and arrow- really cool arrows, by the way- couldn't keep up with his super powered teammates. Even Nat had been hit with some serum back in the day, back when she was still a Russian spy and the country was experimenting. And Thor…
Dude, Thor can fly. He's like Mary Poppins with a hammer.
At times like this, Clint felt just a little- okay, really embarrassed. But there was nothing he could do.
Yeah, okay, you're not super powered. But you're a whiz with arrows and you have a job.
Clint braced himself and kept on running. It was going to take a while.