I wasn't the least bit surprised to wake up in the S.H.I.E.L.D. medical bay, stuck up in bed and forced to wear one of those paper gowns whilst an IV slowly filled me back up again with blood. There was a doctor in the room who was familiar to me- Starbright I think his name was, and he was looking back at me with that patronising smile all doctors seem to do. I waited for him to say something about what a nasty accident I'd had, or I was lucky to be alive; just the usual doctor stuff. Instead he told me that Fury wanted to speak to me as soon as I woke up and that I'd better prepare because he didn't look happy.
But be honest, when have we ever seen a happy Fury?
I decided to let him make the first move, vent whatever anger he had out whilst I checked to see if there was still a hole in my back. If there still was a hole then it was going to be stitched up which meant I couldn't heal it. Sure enough there was a stitched up line indicating that I hadn't completely healed it before I passed out. Of course that meant I'd still have a huge hole in my leg and would end up with a couple of neat scars.
"Any idea who sent Bullseye after you?" he asked, rather pointlessly since there was only one person or 'company' rather who did it.
"Oscorp," I replied casually, watching him carefully for any signs of impending doom. "Guess they were mad I didn't say goodbye."
To be honest though I had no idea why they would send someone out to kill me- where they hiding something there they didn't want anyone to find out about? Something they'd obviously thought that I was investigating.
"Did you see anything that would give them reason to attack you?" asked Clint. I hadn't noticed that he was in the room, leaning against the wall whilst Fury stood at the foot of the bed.
"Nothing," I replied, running a hand through my hair and wracking my brain in case there was something that I'd overlooked. But the only thing that seemed vaguely odd was that every person seemed to keep giving me evil looks because of my government status.
"Well in any case, if they haven't already found you survived they will and they may send another assassin," said Fury. "In which case we need someone more experienced to keep you alive."
Did he mean I was going to have a babysitter? Suddenly I realised why Hawkeye was present. I clenched my teeth slightly, knowing this was going to interfere with my… well, work I suppose you could call it. I knew I should be grateful that it was him watching me and not someone I didn't know, but I needed to speak to Loki about why my magic suddenly decided to play hooky and let me get hurt in the first place.
"I'll assume that you'll want to continue with your… investigation?" asked Fury, and I nodded firmly. "Well from now on you'll have Agent Barton tagging along with you."
So much for me working alone on this one.
/
Afterwards, Fury did treat me to a lecture that seemed to just be the same point expressed in loads of different ways- he didn't seem as concerned as I did about my magic and instead just told me to train harder. So you can imagine that I was seething as we made our way back to my place- Clint and me.
"You're not sharing the bed with me," I told him as we walked in, flicking on the lights and doing a quick study to make sure that Loki hadn't made an appearance. Clint probably thought that I was checking to make sure that no-one had broken in here, but didn't bother to check himself and just collapsed on the sofa.
"You're so cruel," he said, flicking through the book I had placed on the coffee table before picking up the remote and flicking through the channels.
"And you're an excellent guard- I feel safer already," I replied, with much more sarcasm. It sure didn't look like anyone was or had been here so I joined him and begrudgingly let him flick through. I picked up my phone, looking through my missed calls and texts; a few get well texts from the others. Several were calls and texts from an unknown number- no prizes for guessing who.
I think you were right about the powers- Peter.
Something weird is happening to me.
Do you think you could help me?
If you really meant it then can you help me before I destroy more school property?
It took a few seconds for that one to click- the hoop. That happened on the day his uncle died. I swallowed nervously as I checked the date, it was several days ago. Just how long had I been out? With a quick glance at Clint I went back to reading the texts and then sent one of my own.
You there kid?
Surprisingly he was quick to text back.
Yeah.
Sorry for the late reply. You still need help?
This time there was a considerable pause.
Meet me at this address.
Again there was along pause, before he actually sent the 'address' and I didn't have to know the exact details to know why it was a bridge.
"Hey Clint, you might want to bring your bow."
/
"So you gonna tell me what this is about?" he asked, fingering his mechanised quiver as the taxi slowly approached the bridge.
"Well it's kinda hard to miss," I replied, looking out for any sign of the Lizard as the taxi crawled forward another few inches.
"Does it have anything to do with that."
I looked over to where he was pointing and saw the other taxi that was parked well out of the way- the one with the back ripped entirely open.
"Yes it does," I said, looking with a sense of fear at the wreck. "We'd best go on foot from here out."
Before he could protest I climbed out of the vehicle and began to jog past the traffic in order to get onto the bridge. No doubt I looked a sight to the people in the cars and judging from the apparent interest in me they hadn't seen Dr Connors at all- how you can miss him was beyond me. Hawkeye caught up to me and we were soon both running, his bow ready and my magic stirring as it readied for the fight.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" he asked as there was a loud thus ahead of us and people started to scream. I jumped up onto the nearest car and called my magic to my hand where I brightened the glow holding it above my head as it lit the surrounding area.
It didn't take long to find Dr Connors.
"What happened to normal villains?" asked Hawkeye, as the Lizard roared at us, turning his back and going back to stalking his prey. Clint pulled an arrow out and fired it. It hit the Lizard in the shoulder and it pulled it out before turning to look at us before charging. It grabbed a nearby car and launched it right at us. "I could do with a normal villain right now."
On reflex I held my hand up and forced the magic to flow from my hand in all directions until it formed a circular shape and the car hit it with a loud bang, falling harmlessly to the ground- well it crushed another car, but no-one was in that one. In the commotion the Lizard had vanished, which wasn't a major concern for me because the impact of the car had not been entirely absorbed by the shield and some had transferred up my arm. It had also required more magic than I was used to using in one go and was exhausting.
"That's a new trick," commented the archer, putting an arm out to steady me whilst keeping out a vigilance for the Lizard. "When'd you learn that one?"
"Just now," I replied, watching the magic recede once again. "And shouldn't we be more focused on finding the Lizard?"
A cars alarm went off in the distance, and we watched as another car was lifted. We both knew this wouldn't end well and hurried forward to stop him, but it was already thrown over the edge and before Hawkeye could use one of his many arrows a figure swung by and shot a line at the car. Several more cars went the way of the first and all were stopped by the person who I was pretty sure was Peter.
"Does all this have something to do with your trip to Oscorp," asked the archer as we went on, trying to keep the Lizard in sight.
"Talk later, stop Lizard now," I replied as yet another car went over, again stopped by Peter- and we could now see him clearly.
"Somebody help! Help! My kid is trapped!" shouted a man, and at once all three of us were caught in a dilemma- save the kid or stop the Lizard.
"You go stop the Lizard," I told Hawkeye. "I'll help with the kid."
He didn't argue as he saw the Lizard preparing to go over the side of the bridge and ran after him. Peter was still stuck between the two so I decided to play the nutter and jump over the side of the bridge. In all retrospect no the greatest idea I'd ever had and I'd advise anyone against doing the same.
At the last second I remembered to loosen my body so that when I di land on the back of the car the impact didn't break my legs. It swung haphazardly and it only hit me then what an idiot I was being. Placing my hand on the back windscreen I sent out a pulse which disintegrated the glass.
"Calm down," I said soothingly to the kid, who had started to panic, and I could see the fear in his eyes as he turned to look at me. "I'm here to help you."
Climbing in, I made my way to the back of the drivers seat and smile calmly at the little boy even though inside I was panicking.
"So what's your name?" I asked him, sneaking a quick glance upwards to see Peter swinging his way down here as the car lurched forward another few inches. Looking around I spotted the bag with the name on it. "Okay Jack, I'm going to need you to keep calm whilst I get you out of here."
I leant across, placing my arm around him as I prepared to undo the seatbelt. A loud ping echoed through my ears as I looked up to see the thread snap and the car began to plummet. Why couldn't I have just left it to Peter? Speak of the devil. A red and blue figure swung across and grabbed the back of the car.
"You might want to hurry up Agent," said Peter, I imagined through clenched teeth. The kid began to panic again at the sight of the masked figure and I mentally banged my head against the seat.
"It's okay, he's a friend," I told the kid. "He's here to help- now hold on."
I reached to undo the buckle, struggling a bit before it came loose and pulling the kid in close as I prepared to climb out.
"Really fast please," he said as the headlights caught fire and it spread over the body. "This isn't easy."
"Neither's this," I snapped back as I climbed back out, holding Jack close and grabbing hold of Peter before he let the car go, wrapping his now free arm around me as we watched the fiery wreck plummet into the river. "When you asked to meet me here I assumed you'd already be battling the Lizard."
"Who was your boyfriend?" asked Peter as he hauled us back up, unsurprised that I knew who he was. Climbing back over the railing I handed the kid back to the dad and gave a wave to Hawkeye, who looked like he'd banged his head on something judging from the blood on his head. He didn't look pleased and part of me knew it wasn't just because the lizard had got away.
"Well wasn't that fun?" I asked with a grin.