Howdy everybody! Just want to let you know…for the sake of realism I have bumped up the age of Kyla to 20. I thought it would be more realistic that a nineteen-year-old would be recruited by SHIELD and would have better relations with the team later on. I made this change in the first chapter, but just in case you didn't catch it, now you know! Thanks to everyone who's commented and are adding this to their favorites list. Keep reviewing!

-E.H.

"Sir, if I may suggest…"

"Shut it Jarvis."

Tony Stark didn't usually wear clothes that concealed his identity. Why would he? He had nothing to hide. He typically preferred name brands, cheap sweats at formal dinners, or the occasional AC/DC t-shirt. Now though, for the sake of stealth, he was wearing a hoodie and torn jeans which he had bought off of a very nice street vender who smelled like sweat. Even though it was well over 90 degrees outside he still had the hood up and kept mostly to the shadows. He had a large backpack on (also bought from a street vender) and inside it was his travel-sized suit. Obviously wearing it would be conspicuous, but he really wished some crime would come along so he had an excuse to put on the air conditioned armor. Damn it was hot…

Jarvis was undoubtedly going to suggest where he should first look for Clint Barton, but hey, this was like an Easter egg hunt and he didn't want the AI spoiling all of the fun.

"Barton, Barton, Barton…" Stark muttered to himself, scanning the abandoned street he was currently strolling through. Only three other people were in sight, a young kid watching him through a window and two men listening to a beaten-up radio on a stoop. He had long since left the nicer part of the city…that was for sure. Now he was in what could accurately be described as the slums. He wondered if Stark Industries was doing any work here…he never really paid attention in those charity meetings; didn't he do enough for charity as Iron Man? Then again…this place gave his equal parts guilt and the willies. He was sorry for the conditions these people had to live in, but also more than a little concerned about the threat of being mugged.

If I were Clint Barton… He thought, looking at the rooftops. He ended that chain of thought almost immediately. He didn't want to think like Clint Barton. They didn't know each other very well, but they didn't seem to get along. Clint apparently thought Tony was obnoxious and a show-off and Tony thought that Clint was a show off and a bad conversationalist.

Clint had been in SHIELD far longer than Stark, but in the short time they had known each other it had become clear to Tony that Barton didn't follow orders terribly well. This made the fact that he had not reported in for several days cause little alarm for Fury or Hill, but for Tony it was a touch out of the ordinary. Clint didn't follow orders, but at least he knew to tell someone before he did. Stark had nothing to do, so why not check it out? Just to be safe…

Tony continued down the street, trying to avoid eye contact with the two radio listeners and turned into an alley. He doubted he would see Barton casually strolling down a main road, bow in hand. More likely he was ninja-creeping his way down a dark alley somewhere. Stark just walked, not really paying attention to where he was…that is, until he realized that he was hopelessly lost. He had lost track of time while doing mental calculations of his suit's new thruster system and was surprised to find that it was nearly dark when he came back to his senses. Great. It was dark and he was lost.

The alley he was in looked exactly like every other alley he had come through…dirty, dark, smelly… He sighed and leaned against a wall, going through his options. He could keep walking until something happened, he could find somewhere to spend the night, or he could… His eyes drifted over the ground and he took a double-take. About five feet away a red stain streaked cross the alley to the opposite wall. Blood.

"Ew…" Tony said to himself, scooting a little further down the wall, away from the dried bloodstain. He didn't want to know what, or who, had died there. He shook his head and tried to think of his third option, but was once again distracted. There, not two feet to his right, was an arrow.

"I'll be damned…" He muttered, kneeing down and picking it up. He examined it, recognizing it immediately as Clint's. It was slightly bent in the middle and the tip was dented and dull, like something had crushed it. Tony frowned and looked around again. His eyes once again fell on the dried blood. "Crud." He said under his breath, now wondering whether it was Clint's blood or someone the archer had shot. The arrow didn't have blood on it.

Stark looked up at the building opposite him where the blood-trail led to. It was a two-story building made of brick, and at the lip of the flat rooftop was another bloodstain. Tony swore and ran to a fire escape a little further down the alleyway. As he pulled down the retractable ladder and started to climb he wondered who had fallen, or had been pushed, from the rooftop. Reaching the top he immediately headed to the place the bloodstain was on the edge. It didn't take a genius to see that a fight had occurred there. Splatters of blood, spent arrows, dented air vents, and conspicuous-looking bullet holes covered the roof, only adding to Tony's well concealed sense of dread. Where was Clint?

Deciding to be as logical about this as possible, Stark examined the lip of the wall, squinting his eyes in the dark as he searched to rough brick surface. A tuft of black and maroon fabric was stuck on the edge where Barton had been pushed. Stark stood up and groaned. So either Clint was dead and they had taken the body, or he had dragged himself to safety and was alive, but hiding. He looked out over the dim lights of the city as the sun continued to set, casting the slums in a depressing shadow.

"Jarvis?" Tony said quietly.

"Yes sir?" Answered the AI.

"I'm done fooling around here. Is that new heart-beat sensor working yet?"

"It is still in early development sir, but it is fully operational up to three square miles at present."

"Good. Scan for all human beings with heartbeats that suggest physical injury."

"Doing it now, sir."