Chapter 15: No Heart Beat
Clint struggled frantically against his bonds. His wrists were burning from the rope digging into his skin, but that didn't matter. All he cared about was that Tyler was outside of the room he was in, and she was locked in a fist fight with Loki. Of all of the things she could have done, she went deep into a secret enemy headquarters, somehow ended up alone, and then decided to fight the damn Asgardian god of mischief. By herself. With hardly two months of training. And no experience in the field. Not to mention that bandage on her arm. The hell did she do to get that?
Clint shook his head. Not important, not at all. He needed to escape and get to Tyler so that she didn't kill herse—so that Loki didn't kill her. Although by the transitive property, if Tyler died then it would be her fault. She was the one who stole the jet. Even if she wouldn't have really been able to escape the hangar without his and Natasha's help… So, it would also be his fault.
He hated his conscience sometimes, really.
He continued to twist his hands around in the ropes that tied his wrists together behind the chair. When he was first being tied up, he had unfortunately been under sedation, so he couldn't clench any of his muscles up to make himself larger and give him wiggle room, as he would have done otherwise. Lucky for him, though, if he tried hard enough he would be able to free himself. He wasn't sure who had tied his bonds, but considering the fact that he could still feel his hands: the idiot wasn't too smart. He had just enough space in the ropes to pull out, given the right amount of time and conditions. Tyler fighting Loki was the perfect incentive to spur him on.
He hadn't been able to find a time to escape due to the fact that either Loki was always in the room brooding over some selfish thing, or he was being knocked around like a punching bag, or he was knocked out from said punching bag sessions. It was actually sort of sad that he was unable to find the right moment until some preppy billionaire's daughter came frolicking in and provided a suitable distraction. He meant that in the best way possible, of course, although he would not deny the fact that he wanted to knock some sense into that rookie as soon as he was loose. Which would take a while, since he hadn't even pulled out one of his hands…
His motivation was raised moments later, however, when Loki pinned Tyler to the wall. Clint wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but as soon as the kid began to twist in pain, he knew that he needed to get out and fast. Unfortunately by the time he freed himself, with no small amount of rope burns, Loki was striding out of the room and Tyler had collapsed on the floor. He wasted no time in picking up his chair and tossing it through the glass of the window separating him and Tyler.
As soon as it was shattered, he jumped over the part of wall that had been below the window. He sprinted the short distance between him and Tyler, and dove to the floor next to her with a shout that was somewhere in between concern and anger.
"Tyler, come on, stay with me," he ordered as he supported her head on his arm and lightly patted her face a few times with his free hand. It worked for a moment – she blinked and opened her eyes a bit wider than before – but then her rapid breathing stopped almost entirely, and her eyes slid shut. Clint shook her once, twice, but she didn't wake up. He clenched his teeth and tentatively reached out two fingers to feel her pulse. It was there, but it was weak. He couldn't do much for her, especially with the impending danger that could be approaching outside the door.
Gently, he laid her back onto the floor and stood up. He glanced around the room and located Tyler's gun where it had been discarded during her fight with Loki. He picked it up and shoved it into the back of his belt, and then walked over to the chair he had thrown to break the glass. He took that with him as he stalked over toward the door and wrenched it open. He stuck his head out and glanced around, not really expecting to see anyone but certainly hoping that Loki was stupid enough to stay there. He wasn't, and the hallway was empty, so Clint shut the door and leaned the chair up against it so that no one could enter while he tried to figure out what Loki did to Tyler.
He kneeled next to her and once again checked her pulse, just to be safe. It seemed weaker from when he first checked it only moments ago. He clenched his jaw and lifted her up so that she was leaning against the wall. He couldn't be sure what he should do until he knew what exactly was wrong with Tyler, so he began to feel around her for any wounds. He even removed the bandage on her arm, but there was nothing aside from the abrasions he assumed she attained before she arrived; they were only a few small scratches. He rewrapped the bandage and simply sat there and stared at Tyler whose color seemed to be paling by the second.
"Well, you're not helping in any way, shape, or form, Ty," he said rather uselessly. Unless Loki did something to her insides, there was nothing wrong. No blood, no bruises, no broken bones or sprains. At least none that he could feel or see. Perhaps it would be best to simply carry her out and take her to the SHIELD base to see a doctor, although he didn't rightly know how he would be able to do that on his own. He would not only have to bear her weight, he would also probably need to fight his way past hundreds of Cerberus agents.
As if on cue, the knob on the door rattled, at first softly but then rather violently. Clint looked up and froze. He made no sound nor movement, hoping that whoever it was decided to just walk away. He had no such luck. The person on the other side began to ram into the door in an attempt to force it open. Clint knew that the chair wouldn't hold for long, so he picked Tyler up and moved her out of the line of fire for when the agents on the other side gained access to the room. He then took out his gun and hid behind the corner of the mini entrance hallway, ready to step out and shoot when necessary.
It took quite a few long moments for the agents to get the door open, and as soon as Clint heard the shuffling of their feet, he stepped around the corner with the gun held out in front of him. He would have pulled the trigger – and he very nearly did – if he wasn't met with a thick head of red hair and a pair of green eyes. Natasha looked surprised to see him, and so was he because he had suspected that Tyler somehow came alone. Although he supposed that wasn't exactly probable considering she couldn't even commandeer one of SHIELD's jets without assistance.
"Clint," a voice greeted from behind Natasha. Clint lowered his gun and looked past his partner to see yet another surprise guest. Steve leaned forward to see past the corner Clint had been hiding behind, but he didn't reach quite far enough. "Have you run into Tyler?" he asked.
Clint nodded and walked to where she lay leaning against the wall. Steve and Natasha followed, and an almost inaudible groan could be heard from the Black Widow.
"What happened?" she asked.
"No idea," Clint shrugged. "She came in to free me, but Loki was waiting for her and-"
"Wait a minute, Loki?" Steve interrupted with a sharp look in Clint's direction. "I thought he was taken back to Asgard."
"Apparently not. He was here, and I think he was waiting for her to show up alone. It was as though he knew she would. He talked to her like he was trying to figure her out or something, I don't know. In any case, the conversation didn't go well and Tyler ended up in a fist fight with the bastard. I'm not sure what he did, but he pushed her against the wall and did something to cause her to black out from pain."
"Have you tried to wake her?" Natasha questioned.
"Of course. She didn't respond at all, and her pulse is very weak."
Steve nodded. "She does look pale."
He kneeled next to her and like Clint before him, he felt her neck for a pulse. The room fell silent in suspense as Steve counted the seconds and beats of her heart for a minute.
"Thirty-one," he stated grimly. "And possibly falling." He let his hand fall from her and looked up at Clint. "You have no idea what is wrong?"
Clint merely shook his head. Natasha looked between the two for a moment and then disappeared from the room. When she returned only seconds later, she met her fellow agents with a hard stare.
"There are Cerberus agents approaching, we don't have the luxury of protecting her."
Steve scowled. "So, what? Are you going to leave her here?"
"Don't be stupid," Natasha huffed. "I'm going to jumpstart her heart."
Steve looked confused as Natasha took a step toward Tyler, but Clint grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"You are not going to tase her," he said firmly. "That is too dangerous."
"And do you have a better plan? This place will be swarming with Cerberus agents in only a few minutes, and we need to be able to escape. We can't do that if one of us is trying to carry her out. If we wake her, we will be numbered twice as many as we would be if we let her remain unconscious. Besides, Steve said her heart rate is probably falling. She needs a jumpstart if she is going to live."
Clint didn't look happy, but it was probably safer to let Natasha try than to leave Tyler as she was. He let go of his partner's arm, and Natasha knelt down next to Tyler with a determined gaze. Steve stood and moved to the doorway in case any of the agents reached them before Ty was awake. Clint just watched as Natasha prepared one of her Tasers and abruptly shoved it into Tyler's side. It was only a second before Ty gasped and opened her eyes wide with the sudden jolt.
Natasha removed her hand and Tyler relaxed against the wall with a hiss.
"What the hell," she groaned. She tilted her head back and grimaced as the pain ebbed away. When she could, she opened her eyes and glared at Natasha who only smirked.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," she said.
"If I hear that one more time I'm going to shoot something," Tyler growled. As she looked around, her expression became confused until her eyes landed on Clint. Her lips lifted into a slight smile of relief and she was about to say something, but Steve interrupted with a shout from the door.
"They're close, we need to go!"
Tyler looked toward where his voice came from, but had little time to react as Natasha hoisted her to her feet.
"Can you walk?" she asked.
"Uh, I think s-"
"Good, then let's go."
She removed her hold of Tyler's arms, and the rookie nearly fell over if not for the wall next to her. She frowned and shook her head a bit to hopefully get rid of the grogginess that came from her passing out. When her vision cleared, she became aware of Clint's hand in front of her, holding the gun he had earlier given her. She frowned and looked up at him.
"What about you?"
Before he could respond, Natasha returned from wherever she had disappeared to and threw a bow and quiver at Clint, who only just caught them.
"Found these in one of the rooms and figured you'd probably want them. Now we need to move."
With that, she turned on her heel and once again left the room. Clint tossed the gun to Ty who caught it with a bit of a struggle, due to the fact that she still felt half asleep. She wasn't even sure how she had blacked out in the first place, she didn't remember much. But she had little time to try, and even less now that Clint had also left the room. She hurried to catch up to the group as they walked swiftly down the darkened halls of the Cerberus base. She wondered briefly how Steve and Natasha were able to get around the closed door, but that train of thought was interrupted when the hall erupted into a series of loud shots, and all three of her senior agents threw themselves against the walls behind a few supports that blocked the shower of bullets that hailed from nowhere.
Tyler was quick to follow suit, and hid behind one of the supports on the right wall with Clint. Steve and Natasha were on the other side. Before any of the agents could make a move, Clint flipped a few switches on his bow to change the arrowhead of one of his arrows, and when it was set he stepped out from behind the pillar just long enough to fire it, and then ducked behind the metal again to avoid the bullets still raining on them.
"Brace yourself," he shouted to Tyler above the noise, and only a moment later said noise was silenced and instead overtaken by a louder one. The hallway exploded into searing heat and flames as the bomb in the arrowhead detonated. Mere seconds after the flames died down, the SHIELD agents moved as one unit through the carnage, without verbal communication. Tyler only knew when to move because of her newfound ability. Unsteady though she was, she now found it easier to use it, or rather she was more aware of it. She would have likely taken a few moments to walk after her seniors had it not been for her anticipation of their movement.
On the floor of the hall were the bodies of the Cerberus agents who were foolish enough to engage three of the most famous SHIELD agents. The smell of burnt flesh was nauseating, and Tyler felt the need to vomit. Thankfully, before she could, they passed by the unfortunate Cerberus men and continued on down the hall where the smell had not yet reached. The group Clint had decimated was small, only about five men, and there were bound to be more on the way. Or at least there should have been, but there were already piles of bodies that Tyler assumed were the enemies that Steve and Natasha took care of on the way to find her. A thought occurred to her as Steve navigated through the labyrinth of halls as though he had lived there for his whole life. She waited to voice her thoughts until they stopped for a moment to make sure there were no other agents around a corner they had to turn.
"How do you know where you're going?" she asked.
Natasha was the one to answer. "We found a map."
Tyler furrowed her brow. Map? There was no map that she could see. Perhaps they memorized it? She didn't think she had blacked out long enough for that. Whatever the case, she wasn't given time to inquire more about it because the group of agents again began to move down the hall. She had not been paying attention, and so had to jog to catch up. It wasn't a long jog or even a short sprint, just a few quick steps. It should not have made her tired or out of breath. Yet, it did. Her vision danced in front of her as she followed behind her trainers, and she had to blink and shake her head several times before it died down. Even then she felt tipsy, but she did her best to keep up and stay alert.
There were several other skirmishes the group had to survive as they snaked quickly through the halls. Tyler couldn't decide whether she was pleased with herself or absolutely horrified. She didn't want to get in the way, but in a gun battle the amount of fire power each side had could be paramount. So she helped, and was sure she had killed at least a few men. She supposed she shouldn't really be so borderline with her emotions, they probably deserved what they got. Still, it was nothing if not strange to think that she of all people killed other people. She might have enjoyed fighting and explosions and watching violent movies and assassinating people in video games, but she never thought that she would be a part of one. It was… disconcerting. Especially when she thought of all the ways she had controlled her characters to kill someone. That would mean that she could do all of that stuff, too, right? She almost didn't want to know.
But, odd or not, it was happening. And there wasn't really anything she could do about it but shove the notion to the back of her mind and keep pushing on until she and the others were safe. It took a lot longer than she would have liked, and she was sure someone had been hit with a bullet along the way, but none in the group halted their progress. Even when Steve led them to an escape hatch and out into the scorching desert, they continued to move. She couldn't very well stop their progress because of a little dizziness. Tyler had no idea where they would go to once they were outside, especially when Cerberus not only had hundreds of agents, but both planes and cars. If they tried to return to SHIELD on foot they would surely be caught or shot.
Despite the odds, it seemed Steve and Natasha were intent on leaving with nothing but their clothes and guns. They went straight toward an outcropping of rocks and, instead of continuing on like Tyler expected, they stopped and took shelter behind the formation. They continued to fire at the few Cerberus agents who had followed, but they were running low on ammo. Tyler didn't want to say anything, but the fact that they were so close to the base and had only so many bullets left, she sort of wanted to question the plan they had come up with. After all, it wasn't much of a plan if they were all killed in the end. That would actually be rather counterproductive. Before she could say anything about it, however, Clint voiced her thoughts.
"Do you guys even have an extraction unit?" he asked between firing arrows. Tyler was surprised at how many different arrowheads he had.
"We do," Steve replied, "but they seem to be late."
"Something that really should have been expected considering the agent you chose to fly the jet," Natasha said sarcastically.
"Hey, he's a good kid. And a much better flier than the other guy you wanted. He's also much more respectful."
"As a front! Once you really see who he is, he's an immature little-"
"Do you think we can argue about this later?" Clint interrupted. The other two agents just looked at him and continued to fire at the oncoming Cerberus grunts. Tyler could hardly hold in her smile at her trainers' bickering. The only way she could mask it up was by shooting again.
This went on for several minutes before the Cerberus buffoons thought about getting into their armored cars, and helicopters as well. Tyler had forgotten about those. Clint cursed under his breath and looked all around them. The cars were splitting up so they would come from all sides, and the helicopters took to the air much too quickly for comfort. They had no escape on foot, although if they could take one of the cars there was a chance. An extremely minuscule chance, but still larger than if they were trying to run back to SHIELD's headquarters.
"Get down!" Steve suddenly shouted. Tyler didn't even think, she just did. She was on the ground in seconds, along with the others, and in the next instant a loud explosion impacted the rock face opposite the side they were on. Dust and bits of stone flew in all directions, some landing on top of the group but thankfully none were large. The rock was still intact enough to hide behind, but it wouldn't be for much longer. Not only that, but the Cerberus agents were close enough for Tyler to hear their animalistic battle cries as they charged toward their escaped prisoners. Natasha, Steve, and Clint recovered quickly and began to shoot at their attackers again, but Tyler remained crouched on the ground as she fumbled with her gun to release the empty case of bullets and reload with a new one.
She was blinking an unnatural amount and occasionally shaking her head as her unsteady fingers handled the weapon. It seemed to her that she had four hands, and two guns. In fact, there were also two Clint's, two Natasha's, and possibly three or four Steve's. She stopped what she was doing and looked around her for a moment in a daze. The gun shots around her seemed to become quieter, as though she were watching from a large distance away. And for some reason, she felt cold. She was in the middle of the desert and, though the sun was setting, it was safe to say that earlier she felt as though she were in an oven. At that point in time, however, her left arm was numb and the warm desert breeze that blew across the land seemed like ice. Like Loki's voice as he chanted those strange words. Her ears began to ring slightly as she tried to recall what exactly Loki had said.
The words were much of a jumble, and she had no idea what the language was, but there was something there. Something she could understand, just under the surface. It was almost as though something was calling out, maybe to her, but also possibly not. It seemed like…
"Tyler!"
She jolted, her eyes widened as she looked around her in confusion at the chaos she had momentarily left behind. She felt a hand on her face and she stopped trying to move her head against its solidity. She tried to see what was in front of her, but all she could make out was a pair of emerald eyes, boring into her with fire-like glee. She stared. She knew that they couldn't be there, but that didn't help the fact that she saw them. She just stared.
"Tyler, look at me!"
Something shook her and suddenly, the eyes she saw were replaced with ones that were a steely gray, and full of both fight and concern. She was breathing heavily, she realized. But he wasn't. He was just looking into her eyes, waiting for her to resurface from whatever spell she had been put under.
"Clint," she said, although it came out as more of a whisper.
Clint just continued to look at her with a confused and troubled frown. "Are you alright?" he asked, somehow able to make his voice quiet despite the fact that there was still gunfire going on around them. Tyler could only nod, and it wasn't very convincing. It was just a small shake of her head. Clint narrowed his eyes and was about to say something else, but Tyler wanted to break her trend. Her trend of helplessness; she always felt that she was a burden around her trainers. So she smiled and placed a hand on Clint's shoulder.
"I'm fine," she insisted, and much more convincingly so, although she didn't think she would be able to stand on her own. Nevertheless, she pushed herself to her feet, Clint right behind, and she finished loading her gun. The situation was only getting worse, with the helicopters hovering dangerously close to them, and the cars not too far behind. Steve was doing his best to hold them off with the machine gun he had, but he was on his last string of bullets. They would soon be overrun – it was a miracle they weren't already.
It wasn't very long before both Steve and Natasha ran out of bullets, Tyler had two left, and Clint only had one last arrow. Determined to fight until the last, Clint aimed at one of the helicopters and released the bowstring. Much like in the Cerberus hall, the arrowhead detonated once it was attached, and the helicopter spun out of control. The group willed it to run into the other helicopter that was next to it, but the pilot was quick enough to pull away. It did, however, fall on top of a few of the cars. Clint made no obvious reaction, other than to look at his fellow agents.
"Anyone have any bullets left?" he asked. Tyler immediately held out her gun, which Clint took and aimed at the last helicopter. He shot once; nothing happened. He shot one more time, the helicopter wavered. He had aimed for the pilot, and it seemed that he hit him, for the aircraft veered off to the side. The group of SHIELD agents froze in anticipation, but at the last moment before the copter rammed into the ground, it was pulled up. Again, Clint cursed. He pulled the trigger, but the bullets had depleted.
"Co-pilot," he hissed with a scowl. "Well, that's it. It was a noble attempt, but we're screwed."
"And you call me pessimistic," Natasha huffed. "There will be more foot soldiers soon, we can take them out and use their ammo."
Steve nodded and motioned to the rock around them. "Move into different places and hide. We might be able to take them by surprise."
The group agreed silently, and all turned to carry out their leader's orders, but a quiet buzzing in the distance caught their attention. The sound came from toward the base, behind the helicopter that survived Clint's bullets. It was only moments before they realized that the noise was a mass of five or so copters, and possibly more to come.
"Hide!" Steve reiterated firmly, and with haste the agents dove under shrubs and behind rocks.
The first helicopter reached their area and hovered for a moment with no action, but then suddenly bullets poured down upon the rocks. Many fell much too close to Tyler for her comfort, but she knew better than to move. If she did, she would be seen and shot before she could say the word "apple." Of course, it didn't help that her vision was once again blurring in and out of focus as she shivered from imagined cold. She doubted that she could move even if she wanted to.
When the pilot of the helicopter realized that he was getting nowhere shooting from one direction, he started to circle around the clump of rocks, and all the while the machine guns were still firing. As the aircraft circled, it became closer and closer to each of the SHIELD agents. There was not much that they could do but press themselves up against the rocks and stay still. The copter was too high to reach, and though they had all searched their clothing for a possible stray bullet, they had none. It seemed that their escape attempt only made the whole situation worse.
And then unexpectedly, the copter stopped firing. A loud explosion shook the air and rumbled through the sky. The SHIELD agents looked up to see the aircraft falling to the ground like a bouquet of fire and smoke. At first it seemed impossible, but through the billowing smoke a jet appeared. Specifically, the jet Natasha had originally flown to Algeria.
"Move!" Steve shouted. The agents all stood on his command, and ran toward the jet as it lowered itself toward the ground. It did not touch down – it still needed to fire at the other oncoming helicopters – but the boarding ramp was lowered so they could dive in. Steve was the first to reach it, and he stayed at the edge to make sure everyone got on. Natasha was next – she shouted to the pilot as she boarded that "it was about damn time" – and then Clint, but Steve did not see Tyler. He stopped Clint and asked him where she was, and Clint turned around with wide eyes. He searched the rocks for a moment and before Steve could do or say anything he jumped out of the jet again.
Natasha had turned around and watched the short exchange, so she went straight to the pilot and told him to stay low and keep firing.
"That isn't a very smart idea," the pilot shouted back over the roar of the engine and sound of the guns. "We're sitting ducks here."
"That so, Chrissy? Well, two of our agents are still on the ground. Stay here until they return safely."
The pilot looked as though he wanted to say something else, but he thought better of it and settled with, "It's Chris. For the umpteenth time."
Natasha didn't respond, but rather she moved toward the edge of the platform with Steve to watch over Clint and Tyler's progress.
On the ground, Clint dived behind one of the rocks as machine gun fire followed him. He stayed there for a minute until he spotted a patch of black material hidden in some scraggly bushes. He sprinted over to the mass and dropped to his knee beside it. Tyler was curled up on the ground and shivering. Her skin had become pallor once again and when Clint tried to wake her by lightly shaking her shoulder, it didn't work.
"Come on, Tyler, you held on this long, you have to wake up," he said firmly. He shook her again, harder this time, but she still didn't respond. He pulled her up into a sitting position to get a better look at her. While her eyes weren't entirely open, she was slightly conscious. "Tyler," he repeated. "Stand up."
She looked at him through half-closed eyelids as though she was in some sort of dream-state. At first he thought that she couldn't understand him at all, but then she held up her hand. He looked at it for a moment, not quite taking her meaning, but soon figured it out. He stood up and grabbed onto her hand to pull her up next to him. She was hardly much help, but she did get to her feet. She had to wrap an arm around his shoulders to keep herself from falling back down.
As soon as she was able to move, Clint half-carried her toward the jet. Thankfully, Chris moved it closer to the cover of rocks so there was less chance of them getting shot as they travelled painfully slow across the open desert. By some stroke of luck, none of the helicopters that were still functioning tried to shoot them. Cerberus was more focused on disabling the jet, which had a lot more durability than Clint previously gave it credit for. When they reached the lowered platform, Clint, despite Tyler's likely wishes, picked her up by the waist and handed her up to Steve who had been waiting. He then jumped onto the platform and shouted for Chris to go. The pilot listened, and once everyone was safely inside the cockpit of the jet, the platform was lifted.
Steve had taken Tyler to one of the passenger seats, and sat down next to her as he tried to figure out what was wrong. He was talking to her, but she made no response to anything he said. Clint stood in front of her and crouched down so that he was a little lower than her eye level. Even when he was so close, she seemed not to notice he was there. It was as though she was looking straight through him. And still she was pale and covered in goose bumps, shivering from cold that wasn't there.
"Tyler," Clint said and grabbed her face between his hands in a feeble attempt to snap her out of whatever was happening. She stared into nothingness as Clint looked into her eyes for some sign that she was cognitively present.
"I'm sorry to interrupt whatever you're doing," Chris said, "but if you want to survive the few jets coming our way, I would suggest you buckle up."
Clint paused for a few moments in a last hope that Tyler would somehow wake up, but she did not. So he and Steve worked together to strap her into her seat, and then he sat on the side of her that Steve wasn't occupying. Natasha sat next to him.
In the next few moments, the jet spiraled through the air as the pilot executed all the maneuvers he could to dodge the incoming missiles and bullets. The co-pilot, who had been strangely silent until now, spoke in what sounded like some sort of Chinese dialect. The pilot responded in kind, and they had a brief conversation. The both of them were able to carry out all their tactics successfully – Chris dodging around bullets, and the co-pilot firing them – and soon all of the Cerberus jets were masses of smoke and flame.
As soon as Chris righted the jet and said they were in the clear for the time being, both Clint and Steve turned to the side to check on Tyler. She hadn't changed at all, or if she did then she was worse. She was practically white, despite her normal golden tan color. She was breathing heavily and her eyes seemed to be fogged over. When Clint reached out to feel her forehead, his eyes widened with surprise and he pulled his hand back quickly.
"She feels colder than ice," he said. He reached his hand out again and since he was expecting the cold, it wasn't so bad, but still it was biting. "Being this cold is… it should be physically impossible without getting frostbite, or even dying."
Steve frowned. "How is that possible?"
Clint shook his head. "It shouldn't be."
Natasha eyed Tyler for a moment, then called out to Chris. "How fast can you get us back to base?"
"An hour and a half at most," he replied.
"Make it forty-five minutes at most."
Chris glanced back at her, and then at Tyler. He nodded, and then the jet was moving faster. It continued to gain speed until it maxed out. It was generally dangerous to fly so fast – the fuel might run out or the engine could overheat – but the SHIELD HQ was thankfully close enough for it not to matter. The jet remained silent for a while, both Steve and Clint checking Tyler from time to time to make sure she wasn't getting worse. The silence lasted only for a while, however. It was Natasha who broke it.
"We have to talk about it," she said. "We need to do something."
"We have nothing to go off of," Clint pointed out. "He disappeared, and as far as we knew until an hour ago, he was supposed to be in prison on his home planet."
"But she's right," Steve agreed. "We're going to have to inform Fury, or we might have to go through another New York invasion again."
"Do pardon me, but are we talking about Loki?" Chris asked curiously, but was ignored.
"Unless we stop him before that happens," Natasha finished for Steve, and then looked at Clint. "Did you notice anything about him that seemed sort of… Tesseract-ish?"
Clint shook his head. "I got no vibes like that, although he could easily be hiding it somewhere."
Steve frowned in thought for a moment, his fingers lightly rubbing his chin. "No," he said, "I don't think that is a possibility. He's a trickster and can create illusions, but if the Tesseract was supposed to be the energy source that teleported Thor and the not-Loki back to Asgard, I don't think it would have been possible to present a fake. Not unless he somehow used the Tesseract to create a double, which is probably not very likely, I would guess. I'm not exactly the go-to on these things, but…"
"So we are talking about Loki," Chris interrupted again.
"But why would he give up something so powerful just to keep out of suspicions? It doesn't seem very like him. He doesn't care if people are suspicious – he wants them to be."
Natasha shook her head and responded to Clint, "It's not like him to just give up, either. There was really no way for him to gain the Tesseract without arousing some form of suspicion that he probably guessed to be too dangerous. I think he was biding his time until he found an opportunity."
"Which happened to be Tyler?" Clint asked with disbelief. "He'd never seen her before their confrontation in Cerberus base."
As if on cue, a strained cough came from Tyler and everyone turned toward her with alarm. Clint tried to check her pulse, and he suddenly became very worried. She was still breathing, but he could not detect a heartbeat.
"I can't feel her pulse," he said. Tyler had a sheen of sweat on her forehead that was still icy to the touch, and she was breathing as though she had run twelve miles, but her heart was not beating. Her muscles were clenched up in pain and a groan sounded from her throat, but her heart was not beating.
Natasha turned quickly in her seat to face the front of the jet. "Chris, how far?"
"Not far, we'll touch down in fifteen minutes," he called over his shoulder.
"Make it ten."
"Ma'am, I can't fly this jet any faster than-"
"Or I will ask you to train with me again."
Chris scowled. The last time she did that he had no choice, and needless to say he was beat up pretty bad. He wasn't incompetent when it came to fighting, it was just that Natasha was… well, Natasha.
"I can only go as fast as this jet does," Chris insisted, "but I'll try. Don't sue me."
The jet again fell silent, aside from Chris as he fiddled around with the controls.
"Come in, Big Red. This is Omega Fourteen, do you copy?" Chris asked into the microphone eventually. He waited for a response. When he received none, he repeated his question. Again he waited, and that time the base replied. He answered with a request that probably wasn't anything new, but still a hassle to carry out. "Yes, I'm going to ask you to keep the runway clear of all personnel and vehicles for the next fifteen minutes, or until I touch down." There was a pause as the base replied. "An agent has been injured and needs to be taken to the hospital ASAP. I need the runway so I don't have to wait for a place to park up close." Another pause. "Alright, thank you Big Red, this is Omega Fourteen: out."
The rest of the ride was absolutely quiet. Nothing but Tyler's heavy breaths and the jet engine's roar disturbed the silence. It lasted only a few minutes longer, as the jet lowered to land on the runway. Normally, Chris should have reduced the speed a little before landing, but due to Natasha's threat he was willing to do something a little risky. As the jet touched down, it was rocked side to side from the force. The wheels screeched as Chris applied the brakes, and the jet jumped a few times before it remained sanctioned to the ground.
Chris received quick instructions from one of the overseeing agents of the flight deck over the comm. system, and he swiftly pulled in to the closest place in the base. Clint was in motion before the jet had fully come to a stop. He unstrapped Tyler who was still freezing, and barely conscious. He pulled her into his arms and shouted for Chris to open the platform. He did, and as soon as it was opened wide enough for Clint to fit through with Tyler, he jumped through the opening and began a full-out sprint to the nearest hospital room. In truth, it probably would have been better for Steve to do it since, yes, Clint had been beaten and he had lost a lot of blood, but for some reason he didn't want to let the super soldier do it. Perhaps it was some deranged bit of selfishness, or the fact that it was mainly his fault that Tyler had even encountered Loki in the first place.
Whatever it was, it didn't matter, because he had no idea what the hell was going on with Tyler and it scared him senseless. Mostly because if Tony found out about what happened, he would probably hunt Clint down and blast him with lasers until he was a pile of ashes.
In the middle of one of the steel hallways of the HQ, Clint abruptly slowed down as he passed Doctor Banner. He wondered for a split second what the doctor was doing there, but pushed the thought right out of his mind.
"Nearest room?" Clint asked without bothering to greet him.
"Second door on the right," Bruce said quickly as he turned around and followed Clint. "What happened?"
"No time to explain," Clint replied bluntly. "She needs help."
He turned into the room and laid her gently but quickly down onto the bed. Bruce immediately launched into an examination, and almost immediately he was frowning as though he couldn't solve one of his own math equations. Clint had actually seen that happen before, it was hilarious. But that thought barely flitted through his mind before it was gone.
"Do you know what's wrong?" Clint asked. Bruce glanced at him and shook his head, but other than that continued his work. Clint stood off to the side of the room, well aware that in order to determine anything, Banner needed his space.
It wasn't very long before Natasha showed up to the room. She remained in the doorway for a moment before she looked at Clint.
"You need medical attention, too," she stated.
Clint just shook his head. How could he leave the room just because he had a couple scrapes and bruises?
"She blames herself, you know. That's why she wanted to come along. She won't be amused if she wakes up and you're still beat up and bloody."
Clint grimaced. She was right.
"Fine," he grumbled, "but I'm not leaving this room."
Natasha just rolled her eyes. "Stubborn."
She turned around and left the room. Bruce seemed not to have made any headway on Tyler's condition, and the teenager still looked to be getting worse. Clint wondered if she'd be able to pull through whatever Loki did to her, or if what he did would somehow scar her. He knew Loki – knew that he liked to play with his prey before he ended their lives. If Tyler was truly the one Loki wanted to see then there was little chance he merely wanted her to go through a small bit of pain. It was likely that whatever happened would affect Tyler not just in the present but in the future as well.
"Can you tell me anything about what happened?" Bruce asked as he worked on Tyler. Clint was thankful for the break in the silence.
"I'm not exactly sure how he did it," Clint replied after a moment of contemplation. "He and Tyler were fighting when it happened. He pushed her up against the wall and I think he put some sort of spell on her. I couldn't hear, but I'm pretty sure he was saying something that wasn't in English. Anyway, whatever he said caused Tyler immense pain, and after Loki left she was extremely disoriented and even blacked out for a time. I'm sure you feel how cold she is, that didn't happen until after Natasha woke her up. By Tasing her."
Bruce glanced up at Clint with a small smile. "Why does that not surprise me?"
Before Clint could say more, Natasha returned, this time with another doctor in tow. She pointed forcefully at one of the guest chairs at the side of the room and Clint reluctantly sat down. Natasha sat in the other chair and watched both Bruce and the other doctor as they worked. The room was thick with silence, aside from the occasional moan from Tyler which made Clint want to punch something. The doctor working on Clint finished quickly, likely due to the agent's tenseness, and told him to take it easy for a while, but the suggestion didn't register. He was too busy thinking about which arrow he wanted to fire into Loki's eye socket. He could go with an electrocuting one, or possibly one with a bomb. Or maybe the grapple hook one, to cause more cuts. Then again, he could join a few of those together somehow, if he truly tried. Or he could ask tech to do it which would make it a hell of a lot more effective…
"Relax," Natasha said suddenly, and Clint pulled his eyes away from staring into Loki's inevitable, painful death, and toward his partner.
"What?"
Natasha just looked at him. "You're clenching your muscles like you're going through a torture session. She'll be fine. If she really is Tony's kid, then she won't die, especially when someone wants her to."
"I will take that as a compliment," a voice said from the door of the room. Clint and Natasha looked up to see Tony dressed in the suit he had been wearing since his arrival. Clint was actually surprised he was even alive, considering that the last he heard of him was that he was blown up in his own home. Tony didn't even wait for a reply from them before he turned to Bruce. "So what's the scoop, doc?"
Bruce didn't answer right away, but rather finished checking Tyler's vitals – for the fourth time – and then stood slowly.
"I'll need to do some blood tests before I can find anything out," he said.
Tony paused for a moment before he nodded and walked into the room. He sat on the other bed next to the one Tyler was in and stared at her, eyes dark with menace. Bruce just hurried and grabbed some syringes with which to take some blood samples.
Tony then turned to Clint and Natasha with a look that clearly said, don't you dare lie to me. "What happened?"
"Loki," Natasha said bluntly. Clint looked at her like she was crazy, but she continued without falter. "He was the one who arranged everything, and he put her under some Asgardian magic or something."
Tony stared at her for a moment, his mouth slightly ajar. "Did he do this from a jail cell, or…?"
"He escaped, or was never caught in the first place."
"Uh-huh. You expect me to believe that. Honestly, I thought you were a better than that – or at least not quite as stupid. So did we capture him after the alien attack just for kicks? Set him free to pick some daisies?"
"We're just as in the dark as you are, Tony."
"Really? Because that's a little out of character, don't you think?"
Natasha didn't respond, and Tony raised his eyebrows, daring her to deny him.
"Tony, don't you think that if we knew what was going on, we'd be doing everything we could to stop him?"
Tony shrugged. "I don't know, you've let issues get pretty bad before. Not pointing fingers or anything, but who was doing the testing on the glowing cube in the first place?"
"Tony," Clint snapped, exasperated. "I'm just as surprised as you, we all are. Whining about it isn't going to help."
"Whining? Who's whining?" Tony looked around and made eye contact with Dr. Banner. "Were you whining?"
"We believe Loki faked his capture," Natasha brought the conversation back to its more important focus. "And we think he was simply waiting for the correct opportunity to-"
"Put a spell on my daughter? He doesn't know about her. No one does." He stopped and looked at the two agents. "Except for you guys."
Natasha paused. "Are you accusing us of-"
"Am I?" Tony smirked and stood up. "No, you wouldn't do that. But perhaps someone else would. I'm sure there have been leaks in your agency before."
"Even if someone did inform him of Tyler, that still leaves the question of why," Clint pointed out. "What does he need with a…" he paused and considered his next words, "teenage girl with no experience in god-like things."
Tony raised an eyebrow but didn't try to question what Clint was going to say before he paused. "He has a reason, he always does."
Then, before anyone could respond, a gasp came from the door where yet another visitor was standing. Jackie walked in quickly and stood by Tyler's side. She reached out and grabbed onto her friend's hand, and she let out yet another gasp. She knelt down and took Tyler's hand in both of hers, then looked to the people around her.
"What happened?"
This is becoming a very repetitive question, Clint thought. But his answer would have to change this time, considering Jackie did not have actual clearance for the information, and he didn't want to raise a panic if anyone learned of Loki. There was no doubt that Steve was informing the Director, who would then decide what to do with the information. Even Tony was lucky to find anything out.
"She was poisoned by one of the men at Cerberus," he said quickly, but not too quickly. Jackie looked heartbroken as she turned her eyes back to her friend.
"And after she just got over poisoning from a snake, too. Will she be alright?"
Everyone looked at Bruce, who had just finished collecting three vials of blood. He paused when he sensed all of the eyes on him, and then he looked up from what he was doing.
"I'll know when I get results on these, but I'm pretty sure we'll know what's wrong soon."
Even if we have to call in a favor from an Asgardian god.
He left that part out, but Jackie seemed not to notice they were hiding anything from her. She just returned her attention to Tyler. Bruce stood where he was for a moment and seemed as though he wanted to say something, but he wasn't looking directly at anyone. He started a few motions to grab something or walk out the door, but he didn't follow through. He just stopped and looked at the SHIELD agents and Tony.
"Hey, um, can I speak to you three outside real quick?"
All three nodded and stood immediately, and before Jackie could protest they were in the hallway with the door shut behind them. Six expectant eyes turned toward Bruce as he wrung his hands together with a contemplative expression.
"Her blood is warm," he finally said. Silence. "Her blood is warm, even though her skin is freezing. And her blood is running through her veins even though her heart is not beating."
"And that means?"
Bruce looked at Tony. "I don't know. It's not possible. She should be dead, or in a coma, or have frostbite. Something."
Natasha spoke, her brow furrowed. "So what exactly are you saying?"
Bruce didn't answer for a long time. "I won't know anything until I run tests on her blood. But even then I highly doubt I'll be able to figure anything out, if what you say is true and Loki put some spell on Tyler. He could very well have put some sort of magical barrier to prevent any understanding."
"I wouldn't put it past him," Clint practically snarled.
"But will she stay alive until we can find out what's wrong?"
Everyone looked at Tony, and then again at Bruce. Bruce just shook his head.
"I don't know. But I think if Loki wanted to kill her, then he would have just broke her neck or stabbed her with a knife. Or even put her under some form of mind-control, this just doesn't fit his personality as far as we've seen him."
Tony nodded.
"Great, well, if that's all – I'm going to help throughout this whole ordeal. And no I don't care if its top-secret super-agent crap."
Neither Clint nor Natasha had any protests, so Bruce nodded. "Start by helping me examine her blood."
"Right."
"And you two," Bruce looked at the assassins. "I have a feeling that someone is going to want to know just what is happening. Keep people out of our way if you can, and fill in Steve when he's done talking to Fury."
The agents nodded, and the group was about to split into pairs when suddenly the door to the room flew open and Jackie stood there, wide-eyed and out of breath.
"I don't know what's happening, but she's freaking out."
She didn't even need to say anything, all four pushed their way past the girl – Tony in the lead – and they halted when they saw Tyler. She was writhing on the bed, twisting and thrashing about in pain. She also spoke every few seconds in a language none of them could understand. It almost seemed like something from The Exorcist, except that it was very real and much more terrifying. Bruce jolted forward and fumbled around with the supplies he left lying open on the small table beside Tyler's bed.
"Hold her down!" he shouted when he found what he was looking for. Tony and Clint were there in an instant, and they struggled to keep Tyler's arms and legs from kicking out. She continued to curl in pain even against the two men's strength. It seemed as though she would shove them off and possibly hurt herself, but soon Bruce was injecting sedative into her blood stream. At first it seemed not to work, until slowly Tyler calmed until she was in a sleep-like state. The room fell silent, and everyone shared horrified glances.
"What the hell just happened?" Jackie asked, her voice hardly a whisper.
Bruce hesitated before he slowly shook his head, just once.
"In other words," Clint said, "He has no fucking clue. Not that anyone else does, either."
Unfortunately, that truth rang for all of them. And that truth could be the terrible success of Loki's plan.
(A/N): Ah, such suspense. I'm sure you all hate me very much. That makes me happy. XD Sorry for not posting sooner, a lot of stuff came up in the past two weeks. But yay, I posted in less than a month! I'm getting better! :D And hopefully I'll beat that record again. Reviews might help. Yah? Lol. Thanks all for reading!
-KC