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Chapter 3
Natasha shuddered at the thought of Clint taking one of his own arrows. She prayed it hadn't been the explosive type. Pushing the thought from her mind, she and Thor began to canvass the area until they found the discarded arrowhead that the Jinn had pulled from Clint's shoulder.
"I am sorry," Thor said noticing the change in her face.
"It doesn't mean he's dead." Natasha replied, hoping her voice didn't crack. Normally she was tough as nails, but this was Clint. She knew that when it came to him she wore her heart on her sleeve no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
Thor nodded solemn before noticing some odd colored ashes on the ground near the arrowhead. Kneeling, he pinched a small amount of the ash between his finger tips.
"There was a fire here recently."
"There was no fire," a female voice of Indian descent replied.
Thor and Natasha whirled around to find a young woman dressed in a blue sari standing behind them.
"The ash is from the flameless smoke of a Jinn."
"A Jinn?" Natasha repeated as the woman stepped closer.
"What is a Jinn?" Thor asked carefully.
Natasha looked back at him. "Jinn is the Islamic term for a genie; a supernatural spirit with the power to grant wishes. They are mentioned in Qur'an as spirits of free will. They have the power to travel to and from a parallel universe. "
"As they were granted the power of free will, they can be either good or evil," the woman in the sari answered.
Natasha crossed her arms over her chest eying the strange woman. "Forgive me for being so forward but how do you know Jinn was here. Did you see something?"
"I saw the Jinn attack the archer."
Natasha's piercing eyes narrowed. It was a well known fact that Jinn's were invisible to the human eye. They were only seen by those who were being granted wishes or stalked. "Who are you?"
"My name is Ava. I am a watcher." The woman replied, disappearing as Natasha began to step forward.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Uh, What?"
Steve looked dumbfounded as he tried the word Jinn on his tongue. Every moment he spent as an Avenger further convinced him that there was more to the world than what his old fashioned notions could comprehend.
"A Jinn, it's a genie." Tony returned. "You know like in the Disney movie Aladdin; Big blue Genie, grants three wishes…"
"Aladdin?" Steve questioned further perplexed.
"Forget him," Bruce added. "I think a better question is what would a Jinn want with Clint?"
"Vengeance," Natasha answered. Like the rest of them Clint had a lot of enemies and a Jinn would make the perfect weapon; an invisible being with the power to follow your every move without anyone being the wiser?
"But who?"
"That's what you have to find out. Preferably fast," Fury countered entering the room. "Not that I need to tell you this, but the lab confirmed that it was indeed Barton's blood on the quiver. So at the very least he's injured, if not dead."
Natasha felt her stomach knot at the thought of life without had been the whole reason she had defected to the States and joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Against her will her heart began to hammer against her chest.
Tony leaned back in his chair. "Assuming that Barton is alive, how do we go about finding this Jinn?"
Bruce raised his hand. "It has to be summoned."
"And you know this how?" Tony returned with a hint of amusement.
"While I was in Calcutta I tried using a Jinn to help me rid the beast. Needless to say the beast vanquished it before I had time to ask for my wish."
"So, how do we summon it?" Natasha asked not willing to waste another second on idle discussion.
Bruce started to become a bit uneasy. "Well…you need a dark room and uh…candy."
"Sounds kinky," Tony quipped. "But I'm game."
Berman's Lair
Clint's eyes began to move rapidly beneath his closed lids.
Berman feared that the archer's training with S.H.E.I.L.D. may have made him immune to the Jinn's tricks. Whatever the reason it was clear to the doctor that Clint had made some sort of connection in the dream world.
Circling around the slab, Berman reached over and tore open Clint's vest to reveal a festering wound. Snapping his fingers, Berman summoned the Jinn.
"It appears Agent Barton is putting things together faster than we thought," Berman told the malicious spirit.
The Jinn looked down at the unconscious agent and began to inspect the shoulder wound. In the magical realm, wounds could act as a window to reality. What happened to the victim in the real world would eventually find its way to the dream world and vice-versa.
"Time to step it up a bit don't you think?"
The Jinn silently agreed and moved to the head of the slab, placing his fingers on either side of Clint's temples and in a flash the dream world changed.
Dream World
"Clint? I asked if you were alright?"
"I'm good," Clint tore his hand away from his aching shoulder as the fortune teller slipped inside a private tent.
"Well c'mon, we need to get eyes on the target," Dream Natasha prodded as the earth beneath them began to shake violently. Pandemonium erupted in time with the sky opening up and releasing a storm of fiery hailstones. One by one the hailstones fell igniting everything they touched.
"I think the target just found us!" Clint yelled reaching for where his quiver should have been. Huh? He was never without.
"We need to take cover!" Natasha shouted as she and Clint bolted out of the way of a falling beam.
"We're being attacked at both ends!" Clint returned latching onto her hand. Together they ran stumbling on the ground that was rumbling beneath their feet. Out in the open they were moving targets. In fact, it was if someone were aiming for them.