Chapter 5: Slow and steady

Natasha followed the pair down to the range, making sure they were completely oblivious to her presence. Once they got down there, she hopped onto one of the support beams where she had a good vantage point of the pair without being seen.

Clint grabbed of his recurve bows that Stark hadn't had chance to tamper with from the weapons rack and turned to Luke, who was looking around the room nervously. He trusted Clint, but new places still made him slightly anxious.

"So how much do you know about archery?" Clint asked Luke, smiling inside at the boy's nervousness. He recognised it from what he used to be like, but worse. He wanted to help the boy relax.

"Um…nothing, nothing at all sir. It's just that I saw a video of you in New York, and I wanted to shoot like you. I've never had an idol before." The boy stuttered, looking up at the archer quickly then looked down quickly, blushing. That made Clint grin like a Cheshire cat. He was honoured that someone looked up to him because during his childhood he was always looked down upon even though his skills brought in money.

"Alright let's get started. Also, call me Clint, not sir." As he said that he stood behind Luke, and put his hands round him. He placed the boy's small hands on the bow. "Wow," he thought, "This guy has tiny hands..." He shook his head, and came back to the present before his mind started conjuring up awkward images of what those hands could do. "Okay, now pull the string back." Luke struggled to pull on the tight cord, so Clint helped him. As he put his hands round the boys, he felt Luke take a deep breath.

"Exhale and release." Clint told him. They breathed out and let go in unison and the arrow hit the centre of the bull's eye. "Well done, that was awesome for a first try." Clint praised the boy, keeping their bodies pressed together.

"It was only because you were helping me, otherwise I wouldn't have even been able to pull the bow back." Luke protested. Why is Clint being nice to me? Luke asked himself. I don't deserve the praise.

Stop thinking that. You do deserve it.

LEXI! Get out of my head!

Well stop shouting it then! Anyway you should relax, and just go with the flow. Clint's interested, look at him.

Luke threw up a mental barrier to his best friend. What was she on about? He wondered. Interested in what?

He looked up and realised Clint was talking to him,

"Um sorry, what did you say?" He blushed furiously, feeling really stupid.

"I said, now it's your turn to do it on your own. Just remember your body position." Clint said to him, smiling. The boy was obviously a dreamer, which was useful when your job forced you to face reality on a daily basis.

"I'll try." Luke raised the bow, and looked at the target. He could do this, he told himself. He envisioned the arrow going through the one Clint had helped him shoot. He drew the string back and fired. The arrow went right through the shaft of the one he'd shot before. He turned, shocked, to Clint, who was looking at him with a sense of wonder.

"Wow. You're a natural. It took me months to learn that."

"Um, thanks, I suppose." Luke said, not knowing to do with his body, so he ran his fingers through his hair. He'd had more praise in the past hour than he'd had in his life.

"How well can you fight?" Clint asked the boy. He didn't give him chance to think. He ran and attacked. He expected Luke to be good at fighting, seeing as he'd been picked up by SHIELD in the middle of a fight, but thought he relied on his powers a lot. He was wrong.

Luke saw Clint go into a run, and tensed. As soon as the older man got close enough to harm him, he ducked and swung his leg out. Clint jumped it, but as he went to land, Luke hooked his shoulder up into the archer's knee and stood. Clint fell backwards, and Luke jumped onto him, pinning Clint's neck with his arm. The archer tried to struggle, but couldn't because of the boys grip on his neck. If this was a fight he would be dead by now. Luke leaned forward, his brown hair brushing the archer's neck and whispered, "I win.". As he drew his head back, he looked like he was going to do something else, but decided not to. He jumped up and ran for the door, slamming it behind him. Clint lay there, confused. Who the hell was this boy and why was it that every time Clint saw him he wanted to claim him for himself? He stood up slowly, and headed for his room to have a cold shower.

Once they'd both left, Natasha climbed out the shaft. They obviously liked each other, but Luke still needed time to adjust, she thought. Time to put that Level 10 clearance to good use, she thought to herself.

Meanwhile in Tony's lab...

"How much longer till it's done?" she whined to Tony, who'd blindfolded her briefly while he put the finishing touches to her suit.

"Alright miss impatient, it's done" he said taking the blindfold off. She was speechless. It was better than she'd imagined. It was a dark purple, with black sides. It was pretty much everything proof, so she wouldn't get hurt. Her hands were left open so she could use her magic. She also had black knee-high combat boots. She loved it. She turned and did something VERY unusual for her: she hugged Tony.

"Thank you." she mumbled into his chest.

"It's alright Lexi. Go try it on."

She grabbed it and ran off to try it on. As she emerged, Tony was amazed. She looked like a storm goddess in human form. They ran upstairs to show the others and found the Norse god of thunder has returned to Earth.

"So you must be Thor. I'm Alexis. You need me so let's play nice, shall we?" She said to Thor, obviously unintimidated by his height of muscles. Thor was perplexed by the girl. She was like fire, beautiful but obviously dangerous.

"Lady Alexis, I am pleased to meet you. Loki had escaped here, to Midgard. I have been informed of your plan, and agree. I think we should move now, before my brother has chance to cause trouble." Thor said to Alexis, thinking it best to treat the girl with respect. He was sure she would have no problem flooring him, no matter how small she was.

"YES! Let's go then. Wait, where's Luke?"

"Upstairs." Clint answered, rubbing his neck. It was still sore.

"I see you made the mistake of fighting him. Idiot. Give me a moment and he'll be here." Alexis mocked the archer.

Luke, get your lazy butt down here, we're going to set the plan into motion.

Alright but don't expect me to work with Barton, Luke replied.

Alexis thought to herself, that's exactly what I'm expecting you to do. She laughed to herself as Luke walked through the lift doors. She stuck her tongue out at Clint, who glared at her.

"Alright then people, let's get this show on the road. We've got the god of mischief to catch!"