Disclaimer: I do not own Portal, nor Marvel. I just like kicking their sand around.
"Tony, this is such a bad idea."
"I know, it's one of mine after all."
"Such a fucking bad idea, dude." Clint repeated, staring over the edge of the yawning pit that was the end of the office spaces they'd spent the last however many hours exploring. He was equipped with one of the portal guns now himself; they'd passed a little bit of time exploring his blue and purple beams and how they corresponded with each other, and worked out a pretty reasonable plan of action. Which meant that Clint was seriously considering the idea Tony had presented, that they had to go down before they went up...and that meant dropping into the bowels of Aperture itself, the very base of operations for the entire setup.
They were so fucked.
He took a deep breath, letting it out as he adjusted the gun on his left arm, shifting a little to check that the arms of his jumpsuit were still securely tied around his waist, leaving his black tank to the cool air. He'd left his grappling hook and line wrapped around his chest, while Tony was still busy making calculations and peeling down his own jumpsuit.
"Almost ready?"
"Almost, just gimme a sec...There. Alright. Now, the plan?"
"You shoot your red beam, I fire my purple on the opposite wall."
"Then the yellow and blue ones. Right. Work our way down the pipe by jumping between the portals."
"Christ, this is totally not cool, dude." Tony just snorted and flapped his hands a little.
"...Really, Barton? This is coming from the guy who routinely plays 'Catch the Archer' with the Hulk?"
"I trust Jolly Green, thank you very much, Iron Ass." He shot back, giving the engineer a half-hearted glare, only to get a laugh in return. "Look, this is still fuckin' scary, dude; I don't like going even deeper into this rat's nest."
"I know, I know, but trust me, the way out of these old salt mines is always through the one point no one remembers; to do that, we have to find the old part of Aperture, when Cave wasn't as careful, and he didn't have the super computer fully operational. There's always a way out; you know that better than anyone." Clint sighed but gave him a rueful smile, chuckling as he crouched down now, aiming for the white rectangle Tony had designated as his first target. Tony moved around to the opposite edge, and flashing him a half-salute, fired the first beam just as Clint pulled the trigger on his own. The portal opened, just as they'd practiced, and they fired the second round, these ones now perpendicular to the first pair.
"Ready?" That was Tony, just the tiniest waver of fear in his voice, and Clint had to grin, nodding.
"Ready." With that, Clint tossed himself off into the abyss, swinging the grappling hook in his free hand to catch the pipes up above, and using that momentum, he flashed into the red portal...and Tony followed a moment after, disappearing into the purple before they both reappeared, both screaming now as they shot the next two sets of portals into the walls, though whether it was through fear or adrenaline, not even Clint could say. He whooped as he passed through the third set, Tony a bare hair above him, and aimed for the fourth, a careless grin dancing over his face as he shot with perfect precision. The purple beam opened for him...and suddenly, there was no featureless white before him, only open air...
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" He screamed as Tony crashed into him from above, and they both went tumbling through the air, their momentum lost. It was Tony who saw the lone piece of white below them, and the wall of the building not too far away from it, and he got Clint's attention by howling in his ear, latching on to the archer like a leech.
"FIRE AT THE FUCKING FLOOR TILES AND THAT WALL! NOW!" Clint hissed a little as he grabbed at the archer's hair, and took aim, eyes sighting down the fat gun on his arm as sure as any sniper scope, and in an instant, the portal was opened, and they fell through it...with Clint landing flat on his back, Tony winded on top of him as the world righted itself and dimly, Clint realized they were next to the wall, on a bunch of dead and dying weeds. And Tony Stark was a lot fucking heavier than he looked.
"Off, Iron Ass, I can't breathe." He croaked out, giving Tony's shoulder a light shove. The engineer wrinkled his nose at him and rolled off, flipping him off as he eased up onto his heels and scanned the area, looking for all the world like a demented, orange-clad ferret. Clint sighed and sat up, rubbing his head and shaking off the dry flakes of leaf litter and decades-old dust, standing up at last to stroll around. "Alright, what's the plan now?" Tony just shrugged loosely, matching him stride for stride as they began to explore. The bottom of the complex was clearly designed just after the last World War; heavy shades of yellowish-cream and burnt orange lay under gray salt dust in the same, trademark craftsman style that had reigned in the fifties-era government buildings. Tony just chuckled as he set one hand on his hips.
"Well, that's pretty damn obvious. We get the fuck outta here."
…
Tony scratched at his throat, feeling an uncharacteristic itch all over his skin as he walked down memory lane into the first building. It was...it was all too much like the laboratories under Manhattan, out in the desert...those had been his first homes, after all, not the mansion in New York. This...this was memory and life and a family broken before it ever had a chance to become. It made his fucking skin crawl.
"Any idea what direction we need to go?" Clint's voice was soft, a little tired and none too curious for a change, and Tony almost blessed that lack, because today was not a day he wanted to spend holed up in his memories and the lost cause that was his life. He only smiled faintly at the archer and waved a hand toward the lab at the back.
"Let's head in here; knowing my old man and his associates, there's always a back door out of places like these."
"Really now? And how do we go about finding these?" Tony chuckled and started examining the beige carpeting, yanking up whole sections as he went.
"We examine every nook and cranny, and look for anything that seems out of place."
"Oh. Gotcha. Like this?" A shit-eating grin spread across the archer's face as he leaned against one wall, where a faint seam could be seen in just the right light...and Tony started laughing lightly.
"That right there. Thanks, Hawkass." Clint just flashed him a swift grin and nodded, and Tony came over to push on the wall. It budged maybe an inch, and both men had to shove it finally to the side, grunting and sweating for their efforts. Tony surveyed the entrance, and the dark hallway beyond it, and grinned a little. "Alrighty, now that we've found something that we weren't supposed to...let's cobble together a few more things and get a little rest, eh?" Clint gave him a faint look.
"I thought we couldn't sleep in this place?"
"We don't need to, but you and I both know that that might not remain the same. So let's get a little shut -eye and some scavenging done, then we'll head out." Clint sighed, and nodded, eyes roaming over the lab as he began to search it, and Tony glanced down into the darkness, shifting his own black shirt down enough to let the cool blue light of his reactor wash over the staircase leading up. "Alright...we can do this. We...we can do this. Right?"