Natasha and Bruce took the plane to a remote area. At first Bruce thought that perhaps the pilot had gotten the location wrong, there didn't seem to be anything but trees. Natasha put her hand on Bruce's shoulder.
"They were particularly smart, the base is under ground. Are you going to be okay?" She was looking at him with an expression that clearly said that she was concerned.
Bruce took another deep breath and tried to ignore the sour feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew that if he lost control while they were underground, things would get very bad, very quickly. "Just do me a favour?"
She backed up a step. "What?"
"If something goes wrong. If things start to get bad…don't leave me down there." He put his glasses on a shelf; he knew that there was a good chance that he wouldn't be able to contain 'the other guy' and there was no sense in losing another pair of glasses.
"Bruce? What did I tell you when we were in the lab?" She waited for his answer.
"I know what you said. But like I said, there are still something about this entire mission that doesn't sit well. And what really bugs me is how does someone like Clint manage to get himself captured in the first place? I mean, he's a master assassin, and excellent marksman and ever since that thing with Loki he has been extremely careful about knowing his surroundings. I just don't get it." As he spoke he took off his jacket.
Natasha bit her lip. There was a reason but she was pretty sure that if Bruce didn't know that was because Clint has chosen not to tell him for a reason. "They got the drop on him. He's good but we aren't like Steve or you, we are just human. He fucked up. It happens. Now get ready, we have to jump the rest of the way. We can't risk landing the plane and having them discover us. We can't help him if we are captured too."
As he got on his parachute, Natasha ignored the growl that she heard. She just hoped that he would be able to keep his cool. She knew that a growl is really nothing to worry about; she had heard him do things like that all the time in the lab. She strapped on her own parachute, closed her eyes and jumped.
Clint had all of the air knocked out of his lungs as he was punched in the chest. He shook his head and spit in the direction of the man who had punched him. He could see their mouths moving but couldn't tell what they were saying. The one who had punched him was laughing. He shut his eyes; if he couldn't see them then he could pretend that he was somewhere else and that it was someone else.
His head rocked backwards as he was punched in the face. He could feel blood drip out of his nose. He let his head fall forward and let his body relax. He knew that at this point if he pretended that he was unconscious perhaps they would leave him alone. There were some solid punches to his ribs and it took all the willpower that he had not to shy away from the punches or scream in agony as he felt his ribs cracking.
For the first time in a long time, Clint found the silence comforting. It allowed him to drift in his mind; to go to that place that he had created a long time ago. A place where the pain couldn't get him. He knew that going inside of his head wasn't the best thing for him to do, he should be keeping an eye on his surroundings but it wouldn't make any difference. If he opened his eyes, they would just continue with the beating, so no, for now he would pretend to be unconscious. He knew that by now SHIELD would have noticed that he was missing and they would send someone to find him. He prayed that it was Natasha. He knew that she would kill anyone who tried to hurt him.