Chapter Five

Clint frowned looking up at Tony in disbelief.

"Someone else?" he asked. "Another project? This is what Hornet is?" Tony nodded, showing Steve the screen.

"So, are they going to be forced on us along with this Greyhound?" the Captain called, sounding almost tired. Clint could see the strain on his face; as if he had just had something dropped on him.

"Not that I know of. What's wrong, Steve?" He shook his head, sitting down quickly. Tony hesitated, looking at Clint for help. Things were still slightly tense between the pair of them, and Tony wasn't the best at giving emotional support. Clint took the seat next to Steve, uncomfortable as he saw something less than confident on the Captain's face.

"Doesn't matter." The mask was pulled up again, making Steve look like Natasha for a moment as he made his face go back to the calm leader persona. "What have you got on this Hornet then?" Clint wasn't buying it, not for one moment.

"Nothing really. The file's almost empty. Here." Tony magnified the text. "Project Hornet. Location: Nevada, status: decommissioned. And then, wait." Tony scrolled down to the only paragraph of text in the file, before the whole page shut them out again. "Damn. Show's over, come back once I've finished wrestling with this thing again."

"Steve," Clint called quietly, the super soldier was already out of the door before he could fall in step with him. "What's wrong, Captain?" There was a silence as Clint had to lengthen his stride to keep up with the taller man.

"The others aren't coming back from Orlando as planned," he answered. "General Ross showed up at the SHIELD base, demanding that we hand Doctor Banner over. They've gone to ground in Florida, whilst Coulson and Fury argue the legalities." Clint stared at the floor, momentarily aghast before his mask slipped on. He didn't waste more than half a second worrying about Natasha and Juliette; they knew what they were doing. It was Bruce he was preoccupied with. The man would be ready to run, just when he didn't have to.

"Is there anything we can do?" Clint knew the answer before he even asked. Fury and Phil would be handling it, Natasha and Juliette had Bruce safely tucked away. Steve shook his head, stopping in the gym doorway with a sigh.

"Apparently there's a problem. Technically Ross is responsible for the control and whereabouts of the Hulk. Fury doesn't have the right to call Hulk in, not that that's possible. I don't understand, only that they're talking about Bruce as if he is a sack of potatoes and it's wrong." Clint understood that, and more than Steve did. The Hulk, and Bruce, had been Ross' problem until the Avengers happened. Now that they had disclosed Bruce's location, it wasn't surprising that Ross had resurfaced.

"Get used to it," Clint suggested. "They talk like that about everyone, as assets not people. Can't you pull your weight; you're the team leader after all?" Steve had the right to overrule surely, when it came to who was on his team or not.

"I don't know, I tried to ask but straight answers don't come. If there's something I can do to bring Banner back I will." Steve paused, taking a punching bag off the rack and hooking it up. "I doubt I'll have any official power. Fury wants us to take on these other Avengers, so why give me the authority to refuse?" Clint had to admit that the captain was right. Fury had a tenuous grasp of the Avengers at best, only Natasha and Clint himself would take a direct order. Fury manipulated the others, but he couldn't control them. Giving Steve official authority over who was and was not an Avenger would shatter even the semblance of control the director had.

"I know SHIELD hasn't given you much reason to trust them, but they trust you. They'll give you the team, and all the power you need to keep it together." Phil would at least, Clint was sure of that. They had Phil. He left Steve to his punching bag, the last retreat for the Captain who was effectively powerless to help Bruce, and went to his room. There, Clint pulled up a screen and called Phil.

"Clint," Phil was in his room, frowning at something on his desk as he gave the odd peek up to his laptop screen.

"Do you have a moment?" Clint asked, savouring the ability to just ask that again. To hear the half frustrated, half resigned sigh as Phil nodded. "What's going on with Banner? Steve-" Phil raised his eyebrows as Clint called his hero by his first name. "Is worried he won't have the power to stop Ross taking Bruce. Is there anything we can do?" Phil shook his head, and Clint was pained to see that it was greyer than he remembered before the, incident. Phil hadn't regained much of his weight, nor his colour even after months in recovery.

"We're fighting a legal battle here as well as trying to stop Ross' men in Florida. As Fury said four years ago, Hulk is Ross' problem. Turns out that we regret that remark now."

"Can't Steve step in? Bruce is an Avenger, that's got to mean something? Ross can't take him away for god knows what." Phil gave him that tired, almost patronising smile that was always followed by an explanation.

"Fury won't give Captain Rogers Champion status. With that he could form a team for any reason, and anyone in it would take orders from him only for the duration. That would take Ross' legal ammunition away, but Fury won't do it."

"What the hell not? He's Captain America; he won't mess around or be a threat!"

"I know that, Clint. The council don't want to lose control of the Avengers." Phil looked tired, rubbing his forehead as if it was a mission gone wrong. Once only the worst case scenarios would have made him look like that. A knife in the heart certainly changed things.

"A special director can give Champion status," Clint said slowly. "That means you or Hill could, without Fury or the council knowing."

"No, Clint, it would be revoked and we have to toe the line. The whole missile fiasco has wrenched a gap between Fury and the council and we're on thin ice here. Maria and I won't take that risk. Captain Rogers will have his teammates back, and we'll side-line Ross for good. Just let me work out how without killing our own military." Clint nodded, moving to switch the screen off. "Clint?" He looked up, smiling at the tone.

"I'm fine," he answered before Phil even needed to ask. "And I've got something to show you. Steve signed your cards, the ones Fury didn't wreck." Phil's face split into a brief grin, before the tired Agent Coulson came back into play.

"I'll talk to you once we've got this sorted." Clint signed off, wishing he had something good to go back and tell Steve. He thought it would be best if the Captain was left to take it out on the punching bags for a while.