A/N. Hiya :) Here's chapter 29 with some action in it, yay! Enjoy :D

CHAPTER XXIX

Natasha, Clint, and Tony geared up and hopped onto the first quinjet they saw. On the super speedy and super illegal flight to Berlin, Agent Hill briefed them via video chat on what was going on.

Apparently, Magda Austerlitz had been out with some of her girlfriends before going her separate way. She had elected to walk home when she had been attacked but she managed to get away and bring the chase through the busy city streets. The chase was still going on and the trio of Avengers were to put a stop to it and get the Austerlitz family back to SHIELD HQ for interrogation.

Within minutes, the three of them hopped off the jet and Tony suited up quickly before taking to the skies and shooting forward. According to SHIELD's sources, Mrs. Austerlitz was running down a street not too far from his location. Clint and Natasha followed by the rooftops and would catch up with him later.

Tony landed on the street full of crazed and scared people running every which way. There were many loud cries from all over and the inventor whipped his head back and forth, spinning around and around looking for the blonde woman.

JARVIS helped and he finally located her. She ran straight into a restaurant, quickly followed by five men with guns firing at her. Tony jumped up, catching himself with his thrusters before zooming forward and through the glass windows straight into the restaurant.

"No need to fear, Iron Man is here!" he shouted before landing on the floor. No one paid him any attention (which he didn't like one bit) because they were all scattered and hiding under tables as the five henchmen fired their guns trying to hit Magda.

Tony lifted his right arm, ready to use his repulsors – but he couldn't get a clear shot. There were innocent people hiding behind furniture behind the group of men who had now turned on him.

"Now or never," he said before flying forward and grabbing two men around the waist and lifting upwards, taking them straight through the roof up through the second floor and again through the ceiling to the top of the building before he dropped them onto the roof. They both rolled down before catching themselves on the edge and dangled there. "That should do it."

When Tony flew back down, Clint and Natasha had arrived and were playing bullet tag with the remaining three henchmen. The War Machine suit landed between them, bullets bouncing off him harmlessly as he straightened his knees. He turned his head towards the assassins. "Get Austerlitz and these people out of here. I got this."

The two of them nodded in sync before pocketing their guns and splitting up. Natasha ran for Magda while Clint started ushering people out. Tony turned to the three men. "Looks like it's just you and me boys."

The huge gun on his back whirred and began firing at them over his right shoulder. They all ducked but the one on the right wasn't fast enough and died with a cry of pain behind the table which they were using to hide from the opposition.

"Three down. Two to go."

The two men leaped out from their cover and began firing at the innocents instead of Tony. He was NOT okay with that. He shot forward with one arm out in front of him clenched in a fist and used the power in his thrusters to place it one well aimed punch to the jaw of the guy on the right. The minion spun around from the impact before dropping to the floor.

Tony suddenly found that he had a man on his back with a gun pressed to his helmet and firing. His head vibrated loudly and the shot was so close to his ears and fuzzed out his screen. He cried out and began wobbling, trying to shake the guy off. The suit wasn't originally built for him, so not only did it not fit like all his other suits did, but the armour was restricting in and of itself. He couldn't reach his arms back far enough to claw the guy off and none of his weapons were built to fire at such short range.

War Machine's screen blurred and Tony couldn't see where he was going. He tried to ram the guy on his back into the wall but he missed and fell on his butt.

"Ow. Hey guys, a little help?"

Clint heard the question on his comm from outside after getting everyone else out and drew his bow. He smirked. "I got him."

He let the arrow fly and it lodged into the man's throat with ease, drawing immediate blood. He choked and spluttered before sliding off of Tony's back and hitting the floor in his own puddle of red liquid.

Clint's amazing intuition was what saved him when his instincts told him to dive forward. He leaped back into the restaurant through the window just as a grenade went off in the exact spot he had just been standing. He rolled over the shards of broken glass and away from the explosion and coughed. He felt Tony's hand on his arm helping him up and heard the distinct sounds of the suit whirring ever time it moved.

"You okay there, Katniss?"

"Fine, Tony. Where's Natasha?"

"I'm here." The red head joined them to Clint's right with her gun drawn. "I knocked her out. She's in the supply closet."

"Clever." The archer drew his bow and aimed it at the window.

"Very." A box of missiles raised from his back and rested over his left shoulder like the cannon on his right. "I think those guys I left on the roof got down."

"You think?" Clint asked just as the two men from before hopped in through the door and became visible through the smoke.

They both dove to the side as Tony fired all his missiles in quick succession, completely wrecking the wall and bringing it to bits and pieces. The building began to crumble and shake.

"Tony, what did you do?!" Natasha screeched through clenched teeth. "The whole building is going to collapse!"

"Yeah well JARVIS says otherwise. Two more walls need to come down before that happens."

"TONY!"

The philanthropist turned around just in time to get assaulted with a blue blast that knocked him all the way into the back wall. He groaned as more smoke blocked his vision through the mask.

Up front, Clint and Natasha dove behind the table they'd set up before and began playing bullet tag again, except the other team had some sort of… customized, blue blast weapon. Soon, their table was blow away by the blast and it trapped both spies against the wall.

That was when Tony got up from his huge dent in the wall and stepped in front of them. "Why don't you save yourselves the trouble and just get out of here."

The two men exchanged looks before firing at him again with what he now recognized as a cannon of some sort that fit around each of their arms like his Iron Man suit's gloves. Tony quickly crossed his arms and activated a function that literally dug his feet into the ground so that he wouldn't be blown away. He grunted as he was slowly pushed back toward the table and that sat on top of his two teammates and the floorboards broke as he was pushed further and further away from the enemy.

"Jarvis… activate… the back-up missiles."

"Already on it, Sir."

Another pack of missiles rose over his left shoulder and began firing at the two men over the blue rays that were still coming. There was a blast and Tony shielded his face with his arms despite the suit – human instinct. When the smoke cleared, all he saw was rubble and dust.

Perfect.

He turned to the table and lifted it off of his friends with ease. "Guys?"

They both groaned and stirred, pushing themselves up into sitting positions. The billionaire held out both hands to help them up and they both accepted.

"Nice work guys, I'd say I kicked their asses. But you guys helped too, I mean, someone had to lock a woman in a closet."

Natasha cocked her gun begrudgingly. "Don't test me, Stark."

"Hey, I'm wearing the suit. I'm indestructible right now. I can test you all I wa-"

Natasha and Clint both rushed forward on either side of him and he turned only to watch them both tackle the last man standing at the same time. She jumped and caught his neck with her thighs before contorting her body to propel him onto his back while the archer used his own legs to twist the man's limbs out from under him, knocking him on his back as easily as blowing a piece of paper down. The two assassins landed in different crouches back to back before Clint pulled an arrow from his quiver and fired faster than you could say "I". The man was dead before his head hit the ground.

"Alright fine. So your contribution grew a little. I'd still say that I did all of the work."

Barton and Romanoff ignored him and made their way to the closet while sheathing their weapons. Tony opted to remain in the suit because of all the smoke in the air and the fear that maybe another one would show up. As Clint and Natasha opened the door that led to Magda, the ex-playboy leaned against a pillar with one hand – and completely knocked it over. The entire building began to quake and Black Hawk turned to glower at him.

Tony threw his hands up in the air in a half shrug. "What? It's not my fault!"

"Sir, by my calculations, the building will collapse in approximately thirty-four seconds. Thirty-three. Thirty-two." JARVIS displayed the countdown on Tony's screen.

"Oh boy. Get her out of here, let's go!" He waved his arm in the direction of what used to be the door but was now a giant gaping hole.
Clint grabbed Magda and carried her bridal style as the three of them made their way toward the outside with Tony bringing up the rear. Just as he was about to get out, he paused, letting the others out ahead of him. "Be right back!"

"TONY!" The two of them exclaimed before War Machine disappeared back inside. Natasha made to follow him when the front entrance caved in and the top of the building began to tip towards them. "RUN!" She and Clint slid and jumped over cars just as the building fell not a meter behind them, sending them crashing to the ground in front of an oncoming car which quickly swerved and hit a fire hydrant which exploded and began to make it rain. The car alarm was the noisiest thing in the city streets at that point.

Clint and Natasha coughed and sat up, looking back at the building. They stared in disbelief, not wanting to think that Tony was really gone. But then something shook in the middle of the pile of rubble and a silver metal hand popped out from the rubble. It pushed against the bricks and War Machine's dented head popped out next. He pulled himself from the rubble and the suit appeared completely warped but he seemed fine. But that was when the pulled one of the men out from under him. He had flown back in to save the man's life – the only one who wasn't dead. And he was a killer.

Tony coughed and lifted the face plate, waving the air in front of his face. "Woo! Was that me? Sorry guys, I had shawarma the other day. Stuff like this tends to happen when I eat that stuff." He dragged the man over the pile towards Clintasha and Magda while people gathered around them in awe and pictures began to flash. So much for a low profile.

"Can you fly?" Clint asked.

"Don't think so. Too battered and bruised for that. But oh, I'm fine, no worries! Thanks for asking."

"Why'd you save him?" Natasha asked, jerking her head towards the man in his hands.

"Figured he'd be a good person to interrogate. Thought we'd bring him back to base."

"So you risked your life to save him?"

"Pffft! I'm in the suit! I'm fine." He moved all parts of his body to demonstrate his point. "Nothing's even broken! It's a win win."

"Whatever. Let's just get back to the jet, get the kids, and fly back. Since our cover's been blown, you can take the suit off."

"Umm… don't think I can. It's gonna be hell to try, anyway. Think I'll do it with Platypus' help when we get back."

"Fine then. Lead the way."

"Why don't you? You're the only one not carrying something extra."

"Stark…"

"Fine! Fine. Sheesh. Looks like it's someone's time of month!"

She shot him in the arm.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"I thought you were The Invincible Iron Man?" she asked sarcastically.

"I am. But it still hurts, you know."

"Sure it does."

"It does!" So the entire way back, he complained about how she shouldn't have shot him even if she knew that it wouldn't hurt him. It took a while to lose the paparazzi that had shown up but they did it and found their quinjet easily. They all hopped in and Natasha restrained both Magda and the unidentified man while Clint started the jet and Tony popped the helmet off.

Ten minutes later, Tony had half an arm and a boot removed as well and Clint dropped off Natasha to go pick up the kids. She hid all her weapons from sight and knocked on the door. A child of no more than ten years old opened the door.

"Kann ich Ihnen helfen?" she looked up at the tall red head with no emotion on her face.

Natasha internally winced. Clint really should have been the one to do this. At least he spoke German. She cleared her throat. "Do you speak English, by chance?"

She nodded her head. "Ya, almost everyone in Germany speaks English."

Well that might have been good to know earlier. "Okay then, well… I need you and your two brothers to come with me."

She stepped back and pressed the door closed a little bit more. "How do you know about my brothers?"

Natasha internally winced again. She was not good with children. Why had Clint stayed behind again? Oh yeah, because he needed to fly the damn jet. He was the one who was good with children, not her. She sighed. "I'm… part of the police. We know everything."

The little blonde girl gave her a disbelieving look. "I'm not stupid. Show me a badge."

Natasha brandished her SHIELD badge to the kid, feeling somewhat ridiculous that she had to prove herself to some ten year old girl. "My name is Natasha Romanoff and I need you and your siblings to come with me. We're going to fly a plane where your mother is waiting for you and go somewhere safe."

She eyed the Black Widow with extreme skeptism. "Just because you have a badge, does not mean I can trust you."

Smart kid. "Look, if you don't come with me I'll be forced to take you with me whether you like it or not, so go get your brothers and come back here."

The girl slammed the door in her face and Natasha sighed. She was going to have to do this the hard way. She kicked the door open with a kiai (a battle cry used in martial arts) and it whacked the wall with a loud THUD before swinging lightly back towards her.

She pushed it open and stepped inside. The house was rather small and she knew exactly where a kid would hide when afraid. At least, she knew where she had hid as a child when she was afraid. She opened the kitchen cupboards underneath the sink and sure enough, there was the little girl hiding with her two twin baby brothers in her arms. She screamed and Natasha quickly sprayed them with knockout gas before taking them all into her arms at once (oof! They're heavy) and carrying them out the front door with some difficulty. It was even harder to climb the rope ladder to get to the floating quinjet with three kids on her person.

When she finally reached the top, Tony practically had a heart attack. "Are you fucking crazy?!" he grabbed the sleeping twins (they were sleeping before Natasha sprayed their sister) from her and set them down on the bench as she climbed the remainder of the way in. Tony took the girl from her too and set her next to her mother. "Using knockout gas on children! What the fuck were you thinking?!"

"It's harmless! I wouldn't use actually strong drugs on children! What kind of person do you think I am?"

"One who sucks with children!"

"She wouldn't come willingly!"

"Because you scared her off!"

"I'm the Black Widow! Not some babysitter!"

They bickered all the way back to base, where Fury and Hill immediately took the Austerlitz family and enemy number five into interrogation – you know, once they woke up.

The henchman woke up first. He was in the questioning room with Clint Barton: one of the scariest and most threatening agents SHEILD had ever had. The anonymous minion was handcuffed to the table in front of him and Clint stood a few feet away with his arms crossed, displaying his well-toned arm muscles.

"Bout time. I was about ready to wake you up myself," he said as the man looked around his surroundings, confused.

"Where am I?"

"Oh, you speak English, good."

"Everyone speaks English in Germany. It is rare you find someone who doesn't."

"I know. But you didn't speak during the fight so it was just nice to see that we weren't going to have to force you to switch tongues." He rested one palm on the table in front of him and the henchman leaned back a little.

"Where am I?" he reiterated, steadily backed up by narrowed eyes.

"That depends. Are you HYDRA?"

"What do you think?"

"Personally, I think you are," Clint pulled back the chair on his side, scraping it against the floor, before plopping down in it backwards so that he leaned his forearms against the top of the back of the chair. "But you're gonna have to confirm that for me."

The man looked around. He didn't see any cameras. "Hail HYDRA!" He banged his fists on the table for emphasis.

Clint didn't even flinch. "Was that so hard? Let's see if you can do just as good with the next question. Who do you work for?"

"I just told you, HYDRA."

"Not the organization. The leader. Who is your leader?"

"I do not know his name. But he calls himself the Neo Red Skull."

"Does he have red hair and red eyes?"

The soldier looked shocked and reeled back, but couldn't go far with his cuffs. "Y-yes…"

Clint smirked at the fear in the other guy's eyes. "Tell me his name."

"I don't know."

"Tell me his name."

"I don't know!"

"TELL ME HIS NAME!" The archer shouted while standing up, knocking his chair over and slammed his fists onto the table.

Anonymous HYDRA minion jumped backward and fell off his chair. "He says he's related to the Red Skull!" he confessed with his arms in front of his face like a makeshift shield. "He claims to be a Schmidt!"

Clint was momentarily thrown off. He was back to his interrogating self within a millisecond. "Get back in your chair." The man scrambled to do so and scooted as far away from the assassin as he could. "I realize now that maybe we didn't start this interrogation off right. Tell me you name, and I'll tell you mine."

After a bit of hesitation, the man seemed to realize that he was fully and truly trapped. "I'll tell you everything you want to know… IF… you tell the others that I died. The HYDRA followers. If they find out about my betrayal I'm done for."

"No problem. But you'll be in SHIELD custody for a while."

"S'better than with them."

"So tell me soldier, what's your name?"

"Luther."

"Good. Last name?"

"I do not have one."

"Everyone has one, dumb ass."

He rolled his eyes. "I do not remember mine. I was never told."

"Okay, never mind. I didn't come here to learn about your ever so interesting back story. Anyway, as promised, my name is Clint Barton, otherwise known as Hawkeye."

"I know. You are very famous."

"Thank you."

"I saw your circus, once."

Clint froze.

"You were very good. Very young too."

"You do realize that I can tell when you're changing subjects, right?"

"You do realize that I am not an idiot and can tell when you are doing the same, right?"

They glared at each other uneasily. "Look, Luther, why did you want to kill Magda Austerlitz."

He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "I did not."

"Then what was the point of the mission?"

"To kill her. But I did not want to."

"Why would you need to kill her?"

"She is a liability."

"How so?"

Luther looked Clint straight in the eye. "Her husband is dead. Neo Red Skull ordered the hit on her as soon as he found out."

"How did he die?"

The henchman remained silent for a long time. "I'm sure the only reason you are in Germany is to look for your missing friends, yes?" Clint nodded. "And you know that HYDRA has taken them, yes? Well, in one of their attempts to escape, Captain America killed Mr. Austerlitz."

"How?"

"In the footage, it was a kick to the head. That was all it took."

Clint whistled. "So why does Mrs. Austerlitz have to be involved at all?"

"Neo Red Skull does not want anyone to have any possible connections to HYDRA and does not want anyone to start holding a grudge against him."

"It's a little late for that."

"Anyone else."

"So he needed five guys to take her out?"

"He predicted your involvement in trying to protect the innocent if we made a scene. Which we did. Accidentally, of course."

"Of course. That technology that you used against us, the one that shot blue stuff, what was it?"

Luther shrugged. "I do not know. It was just given to me and I was shown how to use it. It is a powerful weapon. That is all I really need to know."

"Don't give me that bullshit, this is a weapons division."

"Not anymore. You forget that we are not under Hitler anymore. We run everything ourselves and have our own divisions. I am not in the weapons division."

"What are you in, then?"

"… assassination."

"Right, well… now that we know all of that crap, let's cut to the chase." Clint leaned forward over the table so that they were almost nose to nose. "Where are Captain America and his girlfriend being held?"

"I do not know."

Clint ground his teeth. "You have to know."

"You think that because I am HYDRA, I know everything about your enemy. But you are wrong. We have one large base and we have two small encampments. I work in one of those. They are not there, I assure you of that. But I do not know where the other bases would be even if I could tell you which one they were in. So I repeat to you, I do not know."

"Where's your small encampment?"

"… was not paying attention on the flight here. I would imagine it is somewhere in Berlin."

"That doesn't help."

He shrugged. "What can you do? I am of no use to you now. I do not know where your friends are, but if I had to take a wild guess, I would say they are in the rather large base we have."

"Can you at least give me general idea of where you think it might be?"

Luther scrunched up his face in thought. "Perhaps… Hamburg, Germany? I do not know any more than that. It is just something that popped into my head. I might not even be right."

Clint regarded the man for a long time before abruptly pushing away from the table. "That's all for now. Thank you for your cooperation Mister… Luther."

The man nodded and Clint exited the room, dreading having to tell the other Avengers the bad news.