I was awake in my room, staring out the window at the dark streets of New York. Cars zipped by, like little streaks of red and white light. My thoughts were interrupted by a voice.
"Mavis, I think you should go to Mr. Barton's bedroom." Jarvis informed me, and I complied.
There was a anxious beeping noise, and I quickly searched for the source of the annoying sound. Attached to the wrist of Clint Barton was a black bracelet, indicating his heart rate. 120 beats per minute it said. Clint Barton was having a nightmare.
But when I turned on the lights, I was completely amazed. There was an intricate system of objects placed along his bedside table and the shelf above his bed. When his bracelet started indicating an accelerated heartbeat, a separate device would start to vibrate, knocking over a book, which pushed a ball along a track. This continued until a bucket of water on the shelf above Clint's head would be tipped over, effectively waking Clint up. This would've worked, except Clint hadn't properly calculated the momentum of a pendulum.
So I took the bucket and dumped its contents onto Clint's head. Cuz I'm just nice like that.
Clint bolted upward, the water in his hair made it look more brown then sandy blonde. He looked at me.
"Gym. Now". I nodded.
After the Avengers found out that I had asthma and a pace maker, they all started treating me differently. Natasha no longer trained me as vigorously as before. Tony no longer called me down to his workshop to ask me to fetch him another cup of coffee. Bruce watched me carefully, to make sure that I was not over exerting myself.
Clint was different.
If anything, he trained me even harder, pushing me to run faster and do more reps. I hated it at first. After, I began to appreciate what he was doing.
Work myself harder to overcome my weaknesses.
It was somewhat counterintuitive but Clint seemed to have the same philosophy.
Hence, I was running myself to death on a treadmill and Clint was standing beside me watching.
Finally he tapped a cold water bottle against me arm. It was his way of telling me that I was done.
Stepping off the treadmill, I sat beside Clint on the bench and sipped from the newly acquired water bottle.
We sat in silence.
He talked first.
"Do you ever feel...out of place?" He asked. I invited him with my eyes to elaborate. "Do you ever feel like a monster, in a herd of beautiful gazelle?".
I didn't say anything. Was there a time where I didn't feel like that when I was with the avengers?
I slowly nodded my head.
"Me too" said Clint. There was a pregnant pause. "I killed a lot of people" he said, sounding completely broken. "So many died because of me".
"They all told you that it wasn't your fault?" I asked him. He nodded, clearly not believing what they had said. There was no point in me telling him the same thing, it wouldn't make any difference.
"There is always hope for a caterpillar, so that it may turn into a butterfly one day." I said. Clint rolled his eyes and walked out of the gym.
"I wish" he said over his shoulder.
"Me too" I whispered, after he left.
"So according to SHIELD intelligence, Hydra's main base is here" said Steven Rogers, sticking a thumbtack on a spot on a map.
Clint was sharpening an arrow with a dagger in his hand, he winked at me when I entered the room.
Tony was sitting with his feet up the table, fiddling with some device in his hands.
Natasha was assembling and disassembling a gun on the table, timing herself. I was pretty sure that 2 seconds was an inhuman record and that she broke the stopwatch.
Bruce appeared to be the only one listening but, even he was at risk at falling asleep.
"Guys, focus!" Steve said pleadingly, begging me with his eyes to help him. He so owes me.
"Alright cupcakes!" I said slapping the table. Tony dropped whatever he was holding and bumped his head on the table when leaning over to get it. Clint slipped and cut himself with the dagger. Natasha had no reaction other than the fact that it took a whole second longer to assemble her gun.
Prick.
"This fight is a big one, that only you can participate in. It is relevant to all of you, more than you'd realize." I started to pace around the room.
"Tony", I said, pointing at him. "You have had battles against the 10 Rings and AIM?" He nodded. "Evidence suggests that those organizations were really branches of HYDRA". He looked shocked at this and I moved on.
"Clint", I said, now stopping in front of him. "HYRDA is the reason that Budapest happened". He swallowed.
"Natasha. What you believed was the KGB was really a rogue branch of HYDRA". She had a look of pain on her face, as if remembering the dark past she had to go through.
"Bruce", I said, approaching the last member of the Avengers. "You don't really have any connection to HYDRA, so I just need you to bear with me for now". He nodded.
"The point is, HYDRA is a highly advanced organization that needs to be stopped. The sooner you guys start taking that seriously, the soon they will be stopped".
"How do we know that we can trust you?" Natasha asked, still sceptical about what I had said earlier. "How do you know so much about our past? This information is not put in any reports or files in SHIELD".
I walked to the front of the room, looking down the long conference table. "There are other sources of intelligence, other than SHIELD". An argument began to break out among the Avengers.
"But", I continued. "But, you will trust me, because you have no other choice". Silence spread across the room like a thick layer of butter on bread.
"I have a plan".
Guys, I haven't gotten a single review since my 7th chapter! And the reviews are all by the same person under different names! Whoever you are, thank you! Thanks to all who read, favourited and followed my story! Feedback is always appreciated.