Chapter 33: 'Dirty Tricks'

October 14

Howlett Manor

While the next few days were a little rough on not only Natasha and Clint but on Bobbi and Charles as they worked with Clint, Charles was sure that the self-destruct was no longer an issue, at least, even if Clint was still reluctant to talk outside of sign language unless it was in small snatches of conversation — or whispered words to Natasha.

But they were still making progress. And because they were, Charles and Bobbi both agreed that it was quickly getting to the point that they could let Clint up — as long as there was a way to get him down quickly should an emergency arise.

And with Natasha sticking to Clint, it fell on Logan to prepare a few able bodies to help.

"Alright, Charlie said they were gonna let Barton out of the restraints soon," Logan said to Scott and Peter Quill as the three of them walked into the training room. "So ... before that happens, I wanna show you what works best to stop him cold." He gestured for Scott to be ready to attack him. "Clint is some kinda acrobat. He's pretty damn flexible, so he can wiggle out of stuff he really shouldn't be able to."

Scott nodded thoughtfully. "If that's the case, some of the usual holds won't work," he said under his breath.

"No, they won't," Logan agreed. "When you get a hold of his wrist, clamp down hard. To the point you think you might break it."

Quill raised an eyebrow and gave Logan a theatrical wince. "I know it's important to stop him cold, but he's an archer. We don't exactly want to hurt his hands."

"Right. And because he's worried about it too, he'll stop when it hurts too much," Logan reasoned. "That's always in the back of his head, and it's also why you're practicing on me. If you go too far and break my wrist, no big deal." He paused and tipped his head to the side. "Well. Fitz might get twitchy. But I can deal with him."

Scott shook his head with a bit of a glare. "It's still a big deal," he argued, then sighed. "But I see the point. I won't break your wrist, though."

"I know," Logan replied. "Thought you two'd wanna know my reasonin'. That's all."

"Makes perfect sense to me," Quill said with a light shrug.

"Neither one of you's been trained like him. So let's get goin' with somethin' easy, start with a sure fire," Logan told him, offering Scott his arm. "Grab my wrist and twist, pull it around behind my back, grab the thumb, palm out, and pull up toward my head as far as you're comfortable."

"Alright." Scott stepped forward to follow Logan's instructions, though it wasn't lost on Logan that he stopped a bit shorter than Logan would have.

"Higher up. This is an easy one. You should be able to more or less stop him with one arm. You have a way to go before anything breaks or dislocates. And if you can get both arms, you're in business."

Scott nodded and readjusted, pulling harder as he grabbed Logan's thumb. When Logan took in a sharp breath, he let go and took a step back. "You alright?"

"You didn't do any damage, just got my attention. That's where you can stop. Just … don't let go of him when you get to that point. You can back down a little, but don't let go."

"Don't worry; I won't let him get free," Scott assured him quickly.

"Good. Now, I'm gonna be a giant pain in the ass. You try and pin me however it works best."

Scott couldn't help the smirk as he nodded. "Well, it's nice to hear you admit it."

Logan smiled the slightest. "Just return the favor sometime, eh?"

"I'll take it under consideration."

With a little shake of his head, Logan let out a breath and made a break for the door. Scott caught on fast and made a full tackle, easily knocking him to the ground, but once they got there, he was surprised at how hard it was to keep him there — until he did as Logan had warned and clamped down on his wrists and started playing dirty. A short time later, Scott had him solidly, and Logan smirked at him face-down in the mat.

"Nice. Just keep your guard up and be ready to fight dirty. Clint isn't gonna play fair. He'll try to head butt you, bite, kick, go for the groin; he's not above any of it, so be ready." Scott nodded and let him up so that Quill could do the same thing — though Quill didn't hesitate as much as Scott had and even tweaked Logan a little further.

"Little harder to practice when you're so you and Clint's so tall and skinny," Quill teased.

"Very funny, smartass," Logan grumbled. "But Clint can't pin me without help. If you can get me, you can get him."

"Fair enough; I'm just pointing out the test dummy is lacking."

"What else is new?" Logan muttered before shifting under Quill and changing the subject. "When they let him go, I'll be there to help too — because he's that dirty. I'm sure one of us should be enough, but I'm not real comfortable with Charlie in there when he's let loose."

"I'm with you there," Scott agreed with a little nod. "Better safe than sorry."

"You want a few tips on nasty tricks?"

Scott inclined his head slightly. "If it'll help keep him down," he said at the same time Quill chuckled and said, "You know it."

"I can't believe this is my life," Logan said under his breath before he raised his voice to a normal level. "No tellin' if you ever might need 'em down the line."

"Well, you said he plays dirty." Scott gestured for Logan to meet him as he settled into a readier stance. "If nothing else, I'd like to know what he might try."

Logan nodded and simply started to walk him through all the dirty stuff he'd seen Clint do — both in the field and when it was Clint that was trying to keep Logan down. He was pretty sure they'd need to know all of it.

October 15

Howlett Manor

Natasha had of course insisted on being there when the restraints came off on Clint, though as a precaution, anyone who had been on the team that was ambushed the first time they went after Clint as well as the follow-up team — and anyone that Clint had been ordered to arrest like Steve — was barred from coming.

So for the moment, it was just Natasha and Scott in the room — which was more than enough to stop Clint if something went wrong.

But, to their surprise, once the restraints had come off, Clint just sat up and stretched, rubbing his wrists and ankles for a while with an almost disbelieving sort of look on his face.

"Well, alright," he said very quietly, turning to Natasha and Scott with a shrug. That was easy, he signed her way.

She smirked at him and rested a hand on his knee. "See? You'll be back to playing with that mangy mutt of yours and coming up with names for Kate's little baby in no time."

Gotta name the mangy mutt too.

She chuckled. "That's your job."

Right. He nodded. Got distracted.

Scott watched the back and forth for a while, not catching most of it, before he cleared his throat. "So ... now I guess we bring in the others," he said. "See if you can make more progress upright for a while, huh?"

Would be a nice change, Clint signed Natasha's way with a smirk that had a whole other kind of trouble behind it, and she rolled her eyes at him.

Charles came in a short moment later with a hopeful look on his face as he watched Clint and closed the door behind himself. "Mr. Barton," he said, smiling warmly. "It's nice to see you on your feet."

Clint signed something to Natasha that Charles couldn't see, and she laughed before she turned his way. "He … agrees," she said with an ill-hidden smirk.

"Nice to hear," Charles said, letting his smile widen. "How is the progress going otherwise? Any trouble with your visitors so far?"

Clint shook his head with a tentative smile. Not since Wade, he signed, and Natasha smirked as she relayed the message.

"Well that's enough to be a problem for anyone," Charles agreed.

"So, what's the next step?" Natasha asked in a low tone as she took a small step toward Charles. "Do we need to… I just want to be sure that he's clear of that self-destruct, but I don't want to make him feel cornered to check it," she admitted.

"Who would you like to have assist you?" Charles asked.

Natasha bit her lip. "He does alright with Logan," she admitted. "I would ask Bobbi, but this whole thing has been hard enough for her… And she'd been doing the hard work while I bring coffee. Give her some time with Hunter."

"Then why don't you ask Logan to come down," Charles said, gesturing for Natasha to make the request.

Natasha glanced toward Clint for a moment, who shrugged easily, before she slipped out the door to do just that, temporarily leaving Clint without a reliable translator in the meantime as he just sort of scuffed the ground with one foot.

A short while later, Natasha stepped in again, with Logan right behind her. Logan followed her a short distance back and stopped in the middle of the room before Clint acknowledged them at all. He had just smirked Natasha's way when his gaze found Logan, and the only warning Logan had was the slight tense in Clint's muscles before he flat out tackled Logan to the ground.

Logan pushed back and started to fight him off, and if it wasn't for the fact that Clint was really giving it his best shot, Logan would have thought it was a joke. Though he didn't miss that Clint wasn't going for kill shots either. Charles shouted for someone to intervene — only for Logan to tell them to back off... and moments later, he gave up the fight to see what Clint had planned.

Once Clint had Logan in a satisfying enough pin that he could be reasonably sure Logan wasn't going anywhere, he glanced up and looked around the room almost expectantly before his expression turned suddenly confused when it was clear to him that there wasn't anyone for him to turn Logan over to. He paused, still working it out, though no one moved to stop him either until he just put an elbow in Logan's temple to knock him out until he could figure out what to do and stepped back from the shorter young man, still with that same incredibly confused expression.

"What are you looking for, Mr. Barton?" Charles asked quickly.

"Kazi," Clint said. "Or whoever's in charge."

"And when you find them, then what?" Charles asked.

"Then I turn him in and find the next one," Clint said.

"Who else are you looking for?"

Clint shrugged lightly. "Anyone on the president's list."

"Who's on the list? Perhaps I can help."

Clint turned Charles' way and tipped his head to the side, clearly working it out for himself. "Logan," he said, gesturing to the unconscious former victor. "Peter, Gwen, Miles… Tony…"

"Is that all?" Charles asked.

"Those are the top priority," Clint admitted. He glanced toward Logan and shifted a little. "Anyone who spoke out on air is on the list."

Charles nodded. "Mr. Barton, I'd like very much if you relaxed," he said, already starting to get Clint in the right mindset to hypnotize. "Your target is down. He's not going anywhere."

At that, Clint glanced toward Logan with a little frown before he nodded Charles' way. "Yes, sir."

Charles glanced over at Quill and Scott, who were moving toward where Logan was lying on the ground. "Don't touch him," Charles advised before he took the time to get Clint under and start to remove the triggers — now that they knew who he was supposed to go after.

It took a little while, and when Clint came out of it, Logan was still on the floor. Clint frowned to himself when he saw Logan, then glanced around the room. What happened? he asked, signing this time.

Charles let out a long breath. "We found a hidden command," he told him.

What was it? Clint asked, frowning harder still.

"Capture those that spoke out against Osborn on air."

How far did I get? Clint asked.

"You got him down before you couldn't find who was in charge," Charles admitted. "Then you knocked him out to figure out what to do."

Clint winced the slightest bit and muttered out a little, "Sorry."

"Logan's idea to let you go to it," Quill said. "Don't need to apologize."

"It was actually helpful. You reported who you were after, so at least we know now instead of having to find out on a trial basis," Scott added.

"Which means those guys are all benched for now, right?" Quill said. "At least for anything in the country."

"That's what masks are for, Peter," Natasha said with a smirk.

"Yeah, but … you guys said he was made even with the mask on and no claws," Quill pointed out.

"And not captured still," Natasha said. "We'll be fine."

"You were talking," Charles said, redirecting the conversation to Clint.

Clint paused at that and rubbed the back of his neck. Reporting, he corrected Charles. Not allowed to talk.

"We'll try to work on that next session then," Charles said before he gestured for Scott to wake Logan up. "But for now, we should check that our work was good."

Clint took half a step back and watched nervously as Scott shook Logan awake, his hands clenching and unclenching in fists as he watched.

It took Logan a minute to get himself together enough to get upright, but when he did, he gave Scott a pat on the shoulder to leave again as he waited to see what Clint was going to do, standing up straight and trying to shake the fog out of his head.

Clint watched Logan carefully, even as Logan came a few steps his way, and he was still reflexively opening and closing his hands, but there was at least no tackle this time. Logan glanced between Charles and Clint and started walking toward CLint, purposely pushing it until he was only an arms length away. Clint was halfway holding his breath, at least aware now of what the problem was and glancing convulsively toward Charles, but Charles didn't make a move to stop the encounter either.

"You okay, Barton?" Logan asked.

Clint shook his head lightly and made the quick sign for 'sorry' with his thumb over his knuckles.

"You sure you don't wanna try again?" Logan said.

Clint nodded and took a slight step back until he hit the wall, which only got Logan to step toward him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Shake it off."

Stop, Clint signed.

I can take it, Logan signed back.

Clint let out a sigh and shook his head. Don't do that to me.

All I did was let you win.

So back off.

Logan put both hands up and took a measured step back, still watching him closely.

Clint didn't take his gaze off of Logan. Nat… I'm done.

At that Logan let out a breath and relaxed, continuing to walk backward. "Maybe next time," Logan said.

Sometime when I'm sure it's me who wins, Clint replied.

Ain't never gonna happen, Blondie. Logan shot him a little smirk and turned away from him, shooing out Scott and Quill, though he left Charles to decide on his own if more work was warranted today or not.

And while the group downstairs was working with Clint, Bobbi had taken the opportunity to find a quiet part of the gardens on the estate to catch her breath and get some time away from that work.

It was a lot harder than she'd thought it would be, working with Clint. Not just because it was always hard to get back into that mindset, but because it was Clint.

She still cared about him, deeply, even if things had changed between them after Hydra. It was hard to watch him hurt.

"Taking a break?"

Bobbi looked up and smiled, scooting over to make room for Kate to sit down on the bench next to her. "Yeah. And you?"

"I needed fresh air," Kate said with a shrug. She sat down next to Bobbi and bumped her shoulder. "You okay?"

"I will be."

Kate nodded and then leaned over to rest her head on Bobbi's shoulder. "I love him too," she said, simply, and Bobbi just had to smile at that and rest her head on Kate's as the two of them fell into silence.