A/N: Next chapter!
"Project Insight," Coulson said with a sigh, after talking to Fury. "Scheduled to go online in three weeks."
"What is it?" Clint asked.
"Three heavily armed, satellite-linked Helicarriers designed to proactively strike out against potential threats before they actually happen. Fury says that at least 219,571 people are targeted, including every single one of us. The targets were chosen using an algorithm designed by Arnim Zola to identify anyone who could be a threat to HYDRA, using the personal information available online and extrapolating their future activities." Coulson looked furious. "Just to give you an idea of their thoroughness, Allie is number 452 on that list, for being a shapeshifter and daughter of two Avengers, even though she hasn't even shown any interest in crime fighting or government work."
Everyone reacted wrathfully, and Black Widow spoke up next. "How do we take them down?"
Coulson explained what Fury knew about them. "And we'll have to make a plan on our own."
An alert began beeping.
Tony accessed it, and went pale behind his goatee. "We've got incoming," he barked. "They must have a trace on Fury or the information he accessed. We need to go."
The Avengers exploded into action. Tony, Jane, and Bruce started packing up the tech, Clint grabbed Allie and all their things, and the rest of the team cleaned up the cabin and gathered supplies. They were out of there before the HYDRA/SHIELD forces even breached the perimeter.
Thor then individually carried them out of the danger zone and dropped them off in the middle of nowhere. Allie rode as a snake, curled into the pocket of Bruce's sweater, since his body temperature was higher than anyone else's due to the Hulk, and he could protect her the best if they were caught.
They weren't caught, and soon they were all gathered in the middle of nowhere, in an old abandoned grain silo that would probably collapse if Thor sneezed. "We need another safe house to work from," Steve said.
"Thank you Captain Obvious," Tony retorted.
"Stark," Coulson said sharply.
"Hey, I've only had three cups of coffee today, so excuse me if I'm a bit testy."
Clint and Natasha were having a silent eyebrow conversation. Finally Clint sighed and nodded. "Okay, I have a place we can go. If any of you tell anyone else about this place, no one will ever find your bodies, understood?" This threat was not diminished by the fact that a tiny blue bird was sitting on his head.
Everyone nodded.
"Good. Now we need transportation."
Natasha and Steve went to steal a couple cars, "Where did you learn to hotwire cars?" "Nazi Germany," and picked up the group of superheroes. Allie insisted on riding with Bucky.
Divided into two cars, they made the trip to even further than the middle of nowhere by dinner time. Allie by this point had turned into a baby sloth out of sheer frustration and gone to sleep in Clint's hood. Since sloths slept most of a twenty-four hour day, she didn't wake up until they were pulling up to a large farmhouse with a barn in the back.
Clint got out of the car fist, and gently tugged Allie the sloth out of his hood. "Okay sweetie, time to wake up."
She turned into a girl, and stumbled sleepily against his legs. "Tired," she mumbled.
"Don't you want to make some friends?" Clint asked. "There might be cookies."
She perked up, and rubbed at her eyes. "I'm awake," she announced.
He took her hand and swung it between them as they walked up to the front door, the others falling in line behind him. "Okay," he said, before opening the door, "nobody freak out."
"You a secret hoarder or something?" Tony asked.
Clint ignored him and opened the door. "Laura? You guys in?" He led Allie and the Avengers into the living room.
A woman around Clint's age walked into the room from the kitchen, a basket of laundry on her hip. "Clint?" she exclaimed happily, and grabbed him in a hug.
He hugged her and kissed her cheek. "Hey Laura."
Laura turned to Natasha next and the two women hugged.
"Okay, not a bigamist then," Tony said quietly.
Coulson gave him a disapproving Look before stepping forward to give his own hug. "Mrs. Barton, good to see you again."
"You too, Agent Coulson."
Everyone's eyes went wide at this interaction. "Wait, I think I missed something," Tony said loudly. "Whose house are we in?"
Clint turned to face them. "You guys remember that time I told you about my brother?"
"The mercenary one?"
"That's the one. Laura is his wife. I hid her and the kids from anyone who might hold a grudge against Barney. The only ones who knew were Fury, Coulson, and Tasha."
"Wait, kids?" Darcy asked.
Two small blurs raced into the living room and collided against the two spies. "Uncle Clint! Auntie Nat!" the boy and girl clamored, respectively, until they got their hugs and hair ruffles.
"Guys, this is Laura, Lila, and Cooper," Clint said. "You all know who these guys are, and that's Bucky, Sam, Jane, and Darcy." He knelt and held a hand out to Allie who was hiding behind Thor's leg. "Come say hi to your cousins, baby."
Allie shuffled to his side and faced the other half of the Barton clan with wide eyes. "Hi," she whispered.
Laura smiled at her. "It's very nice to meet you Allie."
Lila bounced in place. "Hi! I'm six."
"I'm five."
"I'm eight," Cooper added.
Lila took Allie's hand gently. "You want to see my room? I have toys!"
Allie looked at her parents.
"You can go play," Natasha said, nodding.
Allie was ushered away upstairs by the two kids.
"Sorry to drop in on you like this, Laur, but it was an emergency," Clint said.
She waved a hand. "It's fine, really." She sobered. "I saw the news. Didn't tell the kids."
"Good. They don't need that on their minds." Clint faced the Avengers again. "So, we can set up the tech center in the barn and get everyone set up upstairs. It'll be cramped, sorry, but we'll fit."
"Sorry to inconvenience you," said ever-polite Steve.
"It's fine," Laura said cheerfully. "Good thing I just went food shopping." She touched Natasha on the arm. "Nat, can you get the spare bedrooms? I'm gonna move the kids in with me."
"Sure."
Everyone dispersed to put things away and figure out the tech center for the barn. Clint and Thor started raiding the kitchen for dinner supplies, and Sam and Bucky started pulling out the security measures.
Natasha went upstairs to scope out the rooms and what needed doing, and came upon the three kids playing trains in the playroom.
"Mommy look!" Allie ran over to her and held up the train. "We should get twains when we go home again. They're so much fun, and you can build your own twacks."
Natasha smiled and smoothed her hair. "Sure baby." She knelt and whispered in her ear, "have you shown them your special power?"
Allie shook her head. "No, don't wanna."
"Why not?"
"I don't know them," Allie whispered back, her little brow furrowed.
"They know how to keep a secret, it's okay."
Allie shook her head uncertainly.
"Okay baby, whenever you feel like telling them, it's okay."
"Mkay." Allie pressed a kiss to Natasha's cheek and returned to the train set with Lila.
Cooper came over to Natasha. "She's really shy, huh?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah she is, Coop."
He nodded, determined. "She's our cousin now, i'll take care of her."
Natasha ruffled his hair fondly. "Thank you Cooper."
He gave her a smile and returned to his trains.
A~A~A~A
Clint, Thor, and Sam managed to managed to make enough dinner to feed everyone, and they all gathered to eat. Steve had to drag a reluctant Tony out of the barn to get him to eat something.
Dinner was awkward, since no one wanted to mention anything classified. So they let Cooper and Lila chatter about their school, and their projects and their chickens. Allie chimed in with questions about chickens, and as soon as they finished eating they made a beeline for the barn. Thor went with them to keep an eye on them, and to keep them away from Tony and Bruce's equipment.
The rest of the evening they stayed and played in the barn, and Clint finally came to grab the kids for bed. He scooped Allie off the ground and covered her face in scratchy kisses. "Bedtime," he announced, as Allie giggled into his shoulder.
"Aww, Uncle Clin," Cooper whined.
"Nope, bed time. Your mom said so."
"Aw." They raced out of the barn to the house and Clint trudged back to the house, Allie on his hip. "Did you have fun baby?" Clint asked.
"Yeah. They're weally nice. They have kitties in the barn loft and dat's what we were play wif. Dere's a weally pwetty one dat's got patches and I think I might be it later."
"That's cool." He kissed her hair. "Ready for bed?"
"Nah." She wriggled down from his hold and ran into the house.
He found her comfortably seated in Bucky's metal arm as he and Steve discussed the merits of telling the president the entire situation. "Hi daddy," Allie said sweetly, her arms around Bucky's neck.
"Hi Allie. Bedtime."
"No tank you." She turned into a snake and slithered into Bucky's sleeve.
The two supersoldiers grinned.
Clint grinned too, but he didn't let it show in his voice as he said, "C'mon Allie. You gotta take a bath, and mommy's going to read you a new story. Isn't that exciting?"
A tiny snake head poked out of Bucky's sleeve, and a tiny tongue flickered.
"Peekaboo," Clint said, giving her a grin.
She slithered out of the sleeve and into Clint's hand, twining around his fingers. She stayed like that as he carried her upstairs, and turned into a girl to get in the bath.
Allie had an excellent bath, and then was tucked into bed with her Bucky bear. Natasha read her a story from Lila's collection, and sang her to sleep. Allie sighed in complete contentment and turned into a puppy, burying her little nose in her pillow.
Natasha smiled softly and left her to sleep. She joined the others downstairs. Laura took one look at the set of their faces and hastily excused herself goodnight.
"So," Tony said, "we've been looking at the specs for the helicarriers, and we think we've got a plan to take them down."
"I'm sensing a but," Steve said.
"Sensing the butt, you're adjusting to the twenty-first century," Tony said approvingly.
"Stark."
"Sorry, that was just too good an opportunity. However, yes, there is a but."
Bruce spoke up. "We don't have access to the technology to make the chips that would stop the helicarriers from being able to target anyone on the kill lists. So, we need to find a place where we won't be found by SHIELD and we can manufacture the chips, and then from there we can go to the three helicarriers and implant the chips, and make them self-destruct before they even manage to launch them."
Steve nodded slowly, his mind whirring with strategies. "Does anyone have any ideas of where we can go?"
Coulson, of all people, shrugged.
Tony half-raised a hand. "I think I know a place, but we need a quin-jet with stealth technology."
"Then we need something a little less obvious than your suit to hijack a quin-jet," Clint retorted.
"I can reach the helicarrier, but I will need someone for technical support," Thor volunteered.
Sam cleared his throat with a slight cough. "Ahem. I think I might be able to help with that."
Coulson smirked. "Are you finally going to tell them about your wings, Sam?"
Sam's jaw dropped. "You knew!"
"Of course I knew."
"What's going on?" Steve demanded.
Sam explained how he had been an EXO-7 jetpack operator. "The only one left is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall."
Steve looked at Natasha. She shrugged. "Won't be a problem," Steve said firmly.
"Twelve-inch steel wall," Clint sniggered. "Ah, Budapest."
Natasha punched him in the shoulder.
"Ow, hey!" Clint quickly hid behind Bruce. "Can't hit Bruce!" he reminded her.
Natasha narrowed her eyes at him. "Mention Budapest again and the Hulk will be the least of your problems."
"Yes ma'am," Clint said, still hiding behind their teammate.
Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Sam headed off to Fort Meade. The rest of the team was to lay low and guard the civilians.
Before they left, Clint went upstairs and kissed Allie's hair gently. "Allie, sweetheart, wake up."
"Daddy?" she asked drowsily, blinking up at him. "Wh's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing baby." He cuddled her close. "It's just, Steve, mommy, Sam, and I are going on a mission. We'll be back soon, okay?"
"Mkay. Stay safe, kay?"
"We will. I love you baby."
"Wuv you," she murmured, still mostly asleep as she hugged him.
He tucked her back into bed, and went back downstairs.
"Ready?" Steve asked.
"Ready, Cap."
A~A~A~A