Hi. Me again. Another chapter up, I guess! R'n'R, again.
Should I carry on with this? Read to find out and suggest where Steve (Captain America) can come in to help.
Clint ran a hand through his hair, gasping for breath and trying to get the dull aching cramp out of his muscles. Natasha frowned as he sighed from exhaustion. Suddenly, she felt a slippery sensation creep around her ankle. Turning around, she could see a squid the size of a tank. Natasha screamed, hacked at the tentacle with her knife and dragged Clint into the middle of the rock. A fish the size of a laptop jumped out of the water, landing in the mouth of another fish the size of a car. Natasha looked around wildly, spotting huge fish and even a crab the size of a van crawling towards them. Mutants!
Tony was pottering around his office, when suddenly a tremor ran through his body. He looked at his hands, which were shaking, then he looked at his arc reactor.
"Pepper!" Tony yelled, and his girlfriend/wife/secretary came running.
"Batteries! We need batteries! Pepper, damn it..." Tony swore as the world spun and his heart began to sputter.
"Tony? What is it? What's wrong?" Pepper asked, crouching down beside him and feeling his forehead. "Fever?"
"Damn it, Pepper, the battery's failing! I need a new battery now!" Tony choked out.
"Ohmigod! Uh... um... ah..." Pepper looked around, panic setting in.
"What?" Tony mumbled, darkness creeping in on the edge of his vision as his heart stopped pumping blood regularly. He felt lethargic and had the overwhelming urge to sleep. He shut his eyes...
Pepper saw him fall unconscious, and she screamed,
"Jarvis!"
"Yes, Miss Pott-"
"Where are the damn batteries? Shit, Jarvis, I need batteries now! Tony's gonna die!"
"They are in the left drawer, behind-"
"Just open the damn door mechanically! Fuck you, Jarvis, now!" It was a good thing that artificial intelligence voices had no emotions. Otherwise Jarvis would have crumbled under Pepper's words, unless Tony had killed him with scathing words before.
"Yes, Miss Potts. Dum-E, if you please." Dum-E whirred over and opened a drawer at the other side of the room, then tossed them to Pepper in a strange whirr-reverse-flick-let go sequence. Pepper caught the battery and ran over to Tony. She yanked out the old battery, and squished the new one into the small, jagged hole left. Now all she had to do was wait and see if it worked.
Natasha was surrounded by bodies, most mutants, but one not. She sprinted nimbly over to Clint's still form, her brain numbing as the horrifying thoughts of being stuck with his corpse flashed through her mind. Then a more disturbing one set in - what if, while she had been attacking the mutants, she had killed him? Natasha listened to hit chest, and was relieved to hear a fluttering beat. Clint groaned, and sat up.
"Natasha?" Natasha slapped him hard, and instead of grinning, knowing he deserved it, he fell to his side, whimpering.
"Please don't kill me, Loki!" The strangled cry escaped his lips. Natasha stumbled back, startled. He was hallucinating - and she had to get him out of limbo lest he go mad.
"Please, please, please..." Clint was gasping and clutching imaginary wounds. "Please, don't... Help! Help me! Natasha! Thor! Steve, Tony, Nick, Maria... Somebody help..." Clint screamed a terrible, blood-curdling shriek and went limp. Natasha froze. Had his mind killed his body?
"Clint?" Natasha whispered, unsure of what to do. If he was dead, she would go crazy. But she was lucky.
"Na... Natasha? Tasha?" Clint opened his eyes, and squinted against the harsh light.
"It's okay, don't worry. We're okay for now..." Natasha soothed him, and for a moment he relaxed - but stiffened again a moment later.
"For now?" Natasha cursed. Shit. I shouldn't have said that...
"Natasha, answer me. What do you mean by for now?" Natasha looked away, her red locks tumbling over her face in the sea spray, until she jerked from a hand landing softly on her shoulder.
"Natasha, please... Just tell me." But Natasha couldn't speak as she saw a silhouette looming over Clint, and only emit a strangled squeak of horror escaping from her lips. Clint was puzzled at her expression, and turned around.
If anyone was around, they would have heard the most horrifying screams for the next hour, until everything went silent and the creature slunk back into the ocean.
Everything was still, except the lulling rush of waves lapping gently against the two people lying side-by-side on the rock, in the middle of the sea. Nothing stirred.
No noise except the soft waves and splashes. No human noises.
The agents lay still.