Chapter 17
Technovore
"You know what I hate?" It had probably been only two minutes since they were away from Bruce and Steve and Clint was already complaining. At least he was trying to get back to normal.
"When people touch your stuff, when people burn your food," Natasha started to list off everything Clint hated.
"I mean this time," Clint's gaze narrowed at Natasha's response but continued on with his complaint, "How big this place is. How are we supposed to find Tony?"
"We don't," Natsha stated, "We find the bar and we wait for him to find us using JARVIS."
"So we get drunk?" Clint grinned at that, "Bruce and Steve will be sorry they missed out." Clint followed Natasha down a few floors and into a room. Clint was amazed that she still knew her way around the tower after so long. The two ended up in exactly what Clint expected, a large open room that was decorated as Tony decorated everything. There was the usual bar in a corner which the two walked over to looking through what was available, Tony certainly didn't cheap out when it came to alcohol. There were soft echoes of the fight raging many floors below them that Clint could hear, the sound of Hulk smashing and roaring. He looked at Natasha aware she couldn't hear it, "Sounds like Hulk and Steve are having fun."
"Good for them," Natasha commented sitting down on one of the bar stools while Clint continued to shuffle around behind through the various alcohol. She reached over and grabbed one of the bottles of vodka that were in her reach opening it she waited to take a drink. "JARVIS, please inform Mr. Stark of where we are and tell him to come here."
The automated voice came on, "Mr. Stark is currently preparing to deal with the other guests near the entrance. I will inform him of your arrival though, Agent Romanoff."
"Tell him to ignore his guests in the entrance and to come up here, the entrance is covered but these guys want him to show up in his armor," Natasha stated then took a drink, "inform him I'll kick his ass if he doesn't get up here."
"Very well, I will inform Mr. Stark at once."
Clint smirked at that wondering of Tony would be stubborn enough to risk Natasha's wrath. He was looking through the different whiskeys that were available, he knew of a lot of them but the rows upon rows of different makes and types amused him. He had settled on one thing in his mind, he was going to find whatever was the hardest for Tony to get because he may not get another chance to try it.
"Mr. Stark is on his way up now."
It was maybe another three minutes before Tony barged in his suit with his helmet open, by then Clint had settled on a whiskey and was pouring himself another shot. Tony's face clearly showed his anger at being demanded up there, though there were traces of relief showing that he wasn't alone against AIM, that didn't stop him from yelling, "Care to tell me why you are demanding I get up here when my home is being invaded? We go for months without ever speaking to each other, no letters, no calls, no visits, nothing! Then you show up out of nowhere with Hulk and Steve while AIM is attacking. Why are you two just sitting around when AIM is trying to take everything? Can't you think of a better time to-" Tony cut himself off realizing that both Clint and Natasha were drinking.
They didn't answer him they just continued in silence with their chosen drink as if both were now lost in thought. Here they were basically on a mission from Tony could tell and they were drinking. The next soft comment out of him was met only with a nod from both of them, "It's that bad?" Tony's anger at them being there melted away, "Why did you want me up here and not fighting them? Why are you two even here? Why is Hulk back? Why is Steve here? What's going on?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised," Natasha stated before taking another swig of vodka and setting the bottle down. "We've been branded traitors. Now the new leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. is out after all of us and has made alliances with everyone to come after us. We came here to warn you after saving Steve; we hoped we could make it in time to warn you. Instead we got here just as AIM showed up. Bruce and Steve agreed to go face them head on while our job was to find you and keep you safe. Get you back to the quinjet."
"Why is Hulk here?" Tony asked, "Last time I checked none of us were on speaking terms with him."
Natasha looked at the vodka again contemplating drinking more as her mind went over everything that had happened since they were in Alaska only a few days ago. Asking Bruce to help and forget the past, seeing the gamma base, what Hill had told them, rescuing Clint, nearly getting killed in one shot, seeing Fury again, saving Steve all of it leading them here. "I asked him to help me," she finally stated, "I had nowhere else to go and by some miracle he agreed." There was a long, painful minute of silence after that.
"So the team is getting back together?" Tony commented finally breaking the silence he couldn't keep the slight smile forming on his face as he said that, "Why aren't we down fighting beside out team mates? That's what we do."
"They have a creature," Clint took over now so that Natasha could start drinking again. Clint looked at his shot glass of whiskey, deciding to down the shot before explaining, "It eats technology. A Technovore or something. We're afraid that if you end up down there it'll go for your suit and your… well…" Clint pointed at the arc reactor.
"The reactor," Tony nodded understanding with a hand going to cover it defensively, "Still we can't leave them down there."
"Hulk and Steve know what they're doing we need to keep you safe and get you on the jet," Natasha replied, "should be easy now."
Clearly she had spoken too soon. They heard the movement in the vents, something big and metal crawling through them. The clicks of metal claws tapping on the vents and the scrapes of metal on metal as something was pulled through. The sounds were fast paced and growing louder by the second. Clint had been the first to hear the approach, his bow at the ready and the whiskey long forgotten. "We've got company."
Natasha had her gun out and Tony's face plate closed. The three looked around spotting the vent openings, they couldn't pin point the creature though so it became a wild look around wondering which vent would pop open with a nasty of surprise. The echoes of the sounds through the vent made it sound like it was everywhere causing their panic to rise. "We need to get Tony to the roof," Natasha decided she couldn't stand it in that room waiting for the thing to come, "we move now before it gets out. Get the wheels up and take it at range. I doubt it can fly."
Clint nodded, "Tony, go. We'll slow it down and be right behind you." Tony was into the stairwell within moments, taking the elevator wasn't an option. The creature would easily attack it but flying up the stairs, Tony could do that. Clint and Natasha were only a few steps behind him looking over their shoulders waiting for the creature to follow. The sounds of things crashing and breaking informed them that the creature was after them. "Tash it's right behind us!" Clint was right, both agents turning to prepare themselves for the oncoming beast. It was larger than they expected, towering over them as it got closer. Clint released his first arrow which bounced off the metal body. "Not good." Tash started to shoot but it the shots were only able to slow the creature down for a few seconds, which was better than nothing.
"Anyone got a plan?" Natasha called out running up the stairs when her first clip had emptied.
Clint shot off a sonic arrow, if it worked it'd also affect Natasha but thanks to his higher tech hearing aids he could grab Natasha and keep running as long as it also affected the creature. On the bright side, he didn't have to grab Natasha; on the down side the beast ate his arrow. "That bastard ate my arrow!" Clint yelled out the obvious.
"Guess some of your trick arrows count as tech to it," Natasha replied. Clint could tell she was running out of breath and energy. He started to realize how long it had been since any of them had gotten some sleep, or even had a decent meal. Plus there was that injury, Bruce had only just patched it up and now here they were trying to fend off a creature that was taking everything they could dish out at it. This really wasn't looking good for them.
Clint was running out of breath himself, his heart pounding and his legs begging him to stop. How many stories was this place again? He liked being high up but this was ridiculous. That's when it hit him, thinking about how tall the tower was. "Tony!" Clint yelled out, Tony had gotten far ahead of them thanks to his suit but was close enough to answer Clint.
"What is it Barton?" Tony was less than amused at the interruption.
"You need to take Natasha, carry her up to the top," Clint demanded, it looked like Natasha intended to argue but she was too tired to put up a good fight about it.
"Might as well grab Clint too he's going to collapse any second," Natasha puffed out.
Tony rolled his eyes, not that they could see with his helmet on. He flew back down and grabbed them both before flying up the rest of the stairs. Clint hated it, sure he liked being up high and flying but he hated Tony's flying. Still at least there were only a few floors left. Soon enough Clint was back on solid ground beside Natasha. Tony slammed the roof access door shut. "Great now what?" Tony questioned, "I haven't had a chance to scan the creature to try to find any weak points."
"Simple," Clint grinned, "We're going to use you as bait." He walked over to the edge of the building, "If Tash is right and that thing can't fly it'll charge at you if you stand over on this edge. You fly up at the last minute and it'll fall."
"That… That might work," Natasha looked completely confused at Clint, "Since when do you make plans that might work?"
"I am a man of many talents," Clint grinned but the sudden hammering on the thick metal door behind them reminded them all that they didn't have time for jokes, granted that never stopped him before. "Tash and I will get on the quinjet, get it off the ground so the creature doesn't go for it. We'll be there if you need us to back you up."
Tony nodded, he didn't like the idea of being bait but if he left the creature alone it'd simply eat everything in his tower which he liked even less. He moved over to the edge of the roof and watched the door, "If you two let me die, I'm coming back to haunt your asses."
"You'd be busy haunting Steve's," Clint yelled back running to the quinjet. Still not the best time for jokes Clint. He was inside and in the pilot's seat scrambling to get it started. "Come on, come on, come on." He started to mutter over and over again until it finally started and he got it off the ground. Just in time for the door to get knocked down.
The Technovore looked to the quinjet at first then over at Tony who was throwing taunts at the creature. It seemed like the plan was going the exact way it did in Clint's head. The creature charged, Tony dodged and the creature couldn't stop. Clint grinned widely as the creature started to fall but then there was a sudden movement and it stopped falling. Its tongue had darted out and wrapped around one of Tony's legs allowing the creature to hang off of him. Clint certainly hadn't expected the tongue of this creature to be that strong.
"That's not good," Clint stated the obvious. He was considering shooting the creature with the gun from the quinjet but with the low accuracy of the gun and its rapid fire he doubted even he could make the shot. He looked at Natasha wondering if she had a plan.
Natasha had been sitting down in the co-pilot seat with a hand over the bullet would as if it was hurting. She had watched everything happen and returned Clint's look. She thought about how the creature had flinched when she shot at it in the stairwell. "Open the back door and keep this thing steady." Clint would probably be better at hitting the creature but she couldn't keep the jet as steady and still as he could. She walked towards the back finding a thick elastic cord to tie around herself. She tied the other end to the seats in the back making sure it was secure before loading a new clip into her gun. She stood by the now open back door, the wind powerful at this height threatening to make everything harder.
She took aim at the creature, aiming for the head as Tony lashed around trying to knock it off of him. He was shooting his repulsers at it and starting to lose height, worse was it seemed the creature was somehow getting his foot closer to its mouth. Natasha saw its legs scrambling trying to get a hold of the edge of the tower, if it did get a hold then the plan would be out the window completely. The quinjet moved very little thanks to Clint but it was still enough to keep Natasha nervous. She kept telling herself she couldn't be nervous, she had to push that to the side.
After a deep breath she let all of the training take over. She distanced herself, distanced her emotions just as she'd been taught to do for all of those years. She focused on the job, not the people involved. Gently she squeezed the trigger. After the first shot the rest became standard, several more shots in rapid succession all aimed at Technovore's face. The creature flinched slightly at the first but then the rapid ones hit and it naturally was forced to give up on Tony. It started to fall its legs scraping at the side of the building, trying to stop itself. It was no good.
Tony flew onto the jet landing beside Natasha. The leg of his armor was damaged heavily from the tongue of Technovore but at least it was over. "Thanks but next time, faster is better," Tony breathed out as he opened his helmet and took his seat.
"Let's get the others," Natasha took her seat beside Clint as the door closed, "Steve and Hulk should be done by now."
((As usual the characters don't belong to me.))