Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Marvel or these characters.

..

"This looks pretty bad. Is it as bad as I think it is? Because it looks pretty bad."

Tony wondered if he was annoying Phil (that was his name, right?) by talking out loud. It was a bad habit, a nervous habit, and Dad was always getting annoyed with him for being too loud or talking too much.

But also, Tony was pretty sure that he was allowed to be nervous in this situation, because it definitely didn't look like anything was even close to being under control.

There was a big guy in a cape which would, you know, have probably been a lot more reassuring and maybe even superheroic if he wasn't totally knocked out cold on the floor over there. And Clint was also knocked out close by the superhero, plus Bruce seemed to be losing his fight against the Enchantress and her minion.

And yeah, Tony and Steve and Phil and Nat definitely had Loki outnumbered, but that wasn't exactly helpful when the guy had actual magic on his side.

Magic, yeah. That wasn't fair. Magic should not be allowed.

"We can take them," Steve said even as he struggled to lift the ray thingy. (Tony had begged Steve to let him shoot the ray gun thing, but Steve wouldn't let him near it. Just another totally-not-fair thing to add to his list for the day.)

Phil looked doubtful at best as he handed Nat to Tony. "Sure we can," he said out loud, even though his expression said something different.

"Nee," Nat said gleefully as she planted herself down next to Tony.

"Great. Babysitting again."

"Just try not to get yourselves killed, okay?" Steve shouted over the noise of Phil shooting his gun at Loki. The bullets passed right through him, so he must have been a copy or something. Which meant the real one was still hiding somewhere and was almost definitely going to cause problems for Tony.

Tony sighed and grabbed Nat's hand to try to drag her along, but—oh, great—she had spotted Clint.

"Kint," she said, tugging on Tony's arm and pointing over at Clint, who was still definitely unconscious.

"Yep. Good eye. You're really good at spotting people and remembering their names," Tony said quickly, trying to tug her out of harm's way.

(He saw, over in the corner, that Steve had used his blaster thing to knock the Enchantress off her feet, and with Bruce occupying the big guy, that just left Loki. Who was . . . where?)

"Kint," Nat said insistently, pointing over at Clint again, jabbing her finger in the air.

Then, to Tony's surprise, Nat swung around and bit him. Seriously, like a little monster. She just twirled around and sank her teeth into Tony's hand, and Tony yelped in both surprise and pain, pulling back.

Nat, now officially free from Tony's grasp, toddled off after Clint. Tony swore under his breath and tried to run after her, but she was fast, and she was good at avoiding every effort he made to grab her.

Tony had almost caught up to her when, in a flash of green, Loki appeared, leaning down to snatch Nat up before she could react.

"KINT!"

Tony winced and covered his ears—Nat was that loud. Seriously, she should not be that loud. Nothing should be that loud with tiny and underdeveloped lungs, right?

Still, Clint was unconscious last Tony checked, so Tony figured it was probably his job to go and get Nat back, wasn't it? He was supposed to be protecting her. And plus Clint would never, ever forgive Tony if he let anything happen to her.

Tony dove right at Loki, but the guy disappeared, and instead, Tony felt his entire chest slam to the floor, glowy circle thing and all.

…

Clint knew exactly what had woken him up when he opened his eyes. There was no way that he couldn't recognize Nat's voice.

Everything hurt a lot, and Clint was very sore, but he still managed to push himself up on his arms and look around.

Things didn't look very good. Tony looked like he had fallen over. Phil was shooting at the big guy that Thor had been fighting earlier, so Bruce had turned his attention to the Enchantress, who was using words that Clint didn't understand but was making a mental note of so that he could ask Barney about them later. Steve was running over to go help Tony.

He didn't see Nat for a moment until he noticed that Loki had appeared out of nowhere again, this time in a corner away from the action. He was holding Natasha, who had bitten down on his hand and refused to let go.

Clint's eyes widened. "Nat!" he shouted at her, but over the sound of gunshots, he wasn't sure that his voice could carry as well as hers.

He crawled over to where Thor was lying in a crumpled heap. "Wake up," he said, his voice shaky and scared. "Wake up, please. We need help. Please!"

Thor gave a soft sort of groan and started to stir, but Clint knew it wasn't going to be fast enough. Any moment now, Nat would lose her grip on Loki, and then what was going to happen to her?

And then Clint saw it, nestled underneath the folds of Thor's cape. It was a really big hammer, and it looked pretty heavy.

Maybe, just maybe, Clint could drop it on Loki's foot. It was totally a Kindergarten move, but it might be effective long enough to get Nat out of there.

Clint reached for the handle, then hesitated. It looked really big. Probably too big for him to move.

But he was a superhero, wasn't he? Even if he was just a sidekick, that still counted, right?

Clint reached out again, gripping the handle, and he was surprised to find that it felt light in his hands.

"Maybe it's magic," he whispered to himself as he tried to pick it up the rest of the way.

The problem was, even though it was light, it was still very big, so Clint had to grab it with both hands to almost sort of scoot it along behind him.

Luckily, Clint's plan had unexpected backup. As Clint dragged Thor's weapon along behind him, Steve had seen the situation with Nat and had switched directions away from helping Tony to help Nat. He hadn't even hesitated before he ran right into Loki at full force, knocking all three of them into a heap.

Nat rolled away from the fray (thankfully) and got back to her feet, her eyes swelling with tears and her face red as she screamed. But she didn't seem to be hurt, mostly just scared and angry as she stomped her feet and reached out to grab a chunk of Loki's hair. Her hands missed by only a few inches as Loki pulled his head out of the way and stood up, brushing Steve aside.

Steve rolled with the force of the shove and pulled a giant red arm thingy up in front of him. And then the red arm thingy shot a laser beam, and Clint knew that was why Steve was a superhero.

Loki only just barely dodged the blast from Steve's red arm thingy and angrily stretched out his arm, very nearly snatching the red arm thingy.

Steve rolled away again, and Clint saw his opening. With a mighty heave, he hoisted the hammer up onto his hip so that he could get better leverage and then swung it down with all his might.

It smashed into Loki's foot, and Loki cried out in surprise and pain, looking down to see what had happened.

Clint, who had fallen over with the force of his own swing, looked up at Loki with what he hoped was a convincingly triumphant grin, but he was surprised to see that, instead of looking at Clint, Loki was looking down at the hammer on his foot.

With wide eyes, Loki began to tug at his foot, but the hammer didn't budge. It just stayed there, pinning Loki down. Loki grabbed the handle and tried to tug at it, but that didn't work, either.

Clint grinned. "See?" he said over his shoulder to Nat, who was toddling his way with a huge grin on her face. "Told ya' I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

...

A/N: :D :D :D I have been building up to this scene since the start of the story. Don't worry; I have put the appropriate amount of thought into the use of Mjolnir, and I don't use it lightly. Clint doesn't fully understand the weight of his actions yet, and you'll just have to wait and see when they get big again for the repercussions ;)