Chapter Four
It was the third location on Stark's list, and it was Burma this time, not India. It took just a couple of flashing his photo around before she was driven to an isolated hut in the middle of nowhere. Gesturing her thanks to the helpful young man, she fished a couple of Ks and handed them over before stepping out of the rickshaw. She surveyed the shack before her and headed straight for where the sound of pounding seems to be coming from.
Stepping into a wide space, her eyes captured the simple bed at one corner. The entire room, however, seemed to be consisted of long tables littered with various flasks and tubes and other scientific paraphernalia. Her eyes finally settled on the figure huddled over a microscope at the far corner of the room and she took a deep breath before attempting to speak out. But Bruce Banner beat her to it.
"What are you doing here, Natasha?" he asked, simply without even turning around to face her.
She waited for her nerves to settle before replying, instead making her way slowly towards him. She forced out a dry chuckle. "Can't you take a proper break like most normal people do?" she said instead in an attempt to lighten the mood.
He turned around and fixed her with a pointed stare. "Yeah, I'll be sure to do that. Once I get a handle on the whole turning green and being a danger to humanity thing," he said, drily as he slowly peeled off the disposable gloves from his hands.
"Danger to aliens, too," Natasha quipped, flashing him her trademark smirk. "And self-righteous robots."
He shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips but his eyes remained hard as he continued to watch her. "And what is it this time, Natasha? Aliens or robots?"
Natasha dropped her lighthearted façade at the piercing question. She shrugged, "I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than that."
Bruce snorted, shaking his head, "It always is, isn't it, Natasha? And I gather you you've been sent to retrieve the other guy, which by the way I'd just like to comment on the balls of that person who actually believe that it was a good idea to send you to get me."
- "Tony sent me."
"Of course it's Tony," he said with a laugh, not completely without humour this time. "Well, you can tell Tony that I don't do this anymore. And anyway, you've got the other Avengers to, how would you phrase it, 'fight the good fight', don't you?"
"That's just it, Bruce," said Natasha, keeping her eyes locked on him. "We don't have the whole Avengers. It's just Tony and me. And Vision. Well, four, if you count the seventeen-year-old Tony recruited recently. Four and a half, counting Rhodey and his broken back."
Bruce frowned at this and leaned his body forward, as if feeling himself sucked in against his will. "What happened? Where's Cap? Thor? And Hawkeye?"
Natasha grimaced, trying to brace herself for a full explanation of how things turned to shit. "Thor has been incommunicado since leaving for Asgard after Sokovia. And Cap and Hawkeye…," she took a deep breath, "It's sort of a long story and I know this is not what you want to hear, but the sooner you get on the jet, the sooner we can brief you on what's been going on."
Bruce shook his head, laughing drily as he took a step back. "I never said I'd go with you, Natasha."
Natasha clenched her jaw, looking away, searching for the right words to convey how dire the situation was at home. Not finding anything, she just shook her head and locked her green eyes with his. "Do you really think I'd be here if the situation wasn't so urgent?"
He searched her eyes for a full second before asking, quietly, "How bad is it, Natasha?"
She did not even hesitate, "Bad, really bad."
"I have a bad feeling about this, Cap," Clint muttered into his earpiece as he adjusted the oxygen mask.
"I've done this once before, Barton. And I didn't have backup the last time," Steve replied calmly.
"Precisely why I got a bad feeling. You think they wouldn't have vamped up their security since our last prison break?" he asked, skeptically.
Steve's eyes reflected none of the nervousness that Clint was feeling. "T'challa reassured me that the floor plan we have is the latest one. Yes, they've up their security but fortunately for us, we have an inside person," he said with a reassuring nod, meaning Tchalla whom no one yet suspected of harbouring the most wanted group of super powered.
Clint gave a resigned sigh. "Okay, cap. You lead, I follow," he said and waited for Steve to jump before taking the plunge himself into the deep water.
The X men detainees were being held in the same underwater prison that Steve had broken him out of. T'challa had shared with them detailed plans of the prison, noting the areas with heavy security. They have gone over the plan over and over, until everyone was confident that there was no loophole. Basically, Steve and Clint, as the most experienced of the fugitive Avengers would be do doing the infiltrating and rescue mission. Wanda, Sam and Sharon would serve as standbys at strategic posts, away from the main action but close enough to assist in case the plan went south. They have all decided that T'challa should sit this one out, considering the UN and the US government still believe that the Black Panther was not in any way affiliated with them. Antman was in the wind, and has been since the day Steve broke them out. They all understood his need to stay close to his daughter, a sentiment Clint was inclined to more and more these days. He reassured himself with the thought that this might well be his last mission. That Steve would agree to lay low once they've succeeded in freeing the X Men kids.
But Clint could not ignore the heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Ten minutes later, Steve and Clint climbed up on the platform connecting to the underwater prison, taking care not to be noticed.
"Cap, status report," – Sam's voice came through loud and clear through the earpiece.
"We're on board. I'll go on ahead and scout for guards," the Captain quietly reported and with a nod to Clint, went forward.
Clint kneeled and crouched against the wall, eyes on guard for any movement.
"All clear, Hawkeye."
Upon hearing that, Clint began to quickly and lithely climb for the highest tower ahead. Without hesitation, he took down the one solitary guard. As he took his post on the roof, he skillfully let loose his arrows on three more guards, making sure to aim the tranquilizer-filled tip on their arms so as to minimize fatality. He barely had time to reach for another arrow before he felt a sudden onslaught of what felt like cold steel binding his arms together. He looked down with a frown to watch in disbelief at the strands of webs locking his arms.
"So sorry about this, man," came a voice to his left side and he turned to find himself face-to-face with the kid in the spider mask.
Clint was however quick to react as he aimed a powerful kick to the kid's groin area. "Not as sorry as I am about that," he retorted as Spiderman went down to his knees with a sound of agony.
But Clint did not wait, instead he made use of the sharp edge of the roof to loosen the spider knot. He then shot a rope arrow on the next building, using this to swing down to the deck, running as soon as his feet hit the ground. "It's a trap, Cap! We've gotta go. Now!" he yelled out.
"Negative. Not until we've got the kids ou…-umph."
"Cap?" Clint paused, waiting for the Captain to respond.
Sounds of fighting ensued. "Cap? Hawkeye?" Sam's voice yelled out. "Scarlet Witch! Agent 13! Are you on the move?"
"Already on my way, Sam," Wanda replied.
"It's a trap, Falcon," Clint bellowed as he caught sight of Captain America trying to fight off bolts of currents aimed in his direction by Ironman, the shield newly developed by T'challa firmly in his hand.
"The Avengers were waiting for us!" If it felt funny to be referring to the Avengers and not meaning himself, he was past caring as he equipped his bow, and let loose an explosive arrow that found it's target to the wall next to Ironman. It immediately let off an explosion that caused Ironman to spin backwards in the air, allowing Captain America to pick himself up.
"Lucky shot, Hawkeye!" Ironman called out, tauntingly and Clint rolled his eyes. Just as at the airport, there was a surreal sense to their fighting. They were trading punches and shooting explosives at each other but it felt far from real. Like as if they were a bunch of eight-year-olds and playing war.
This impression was quickly shattered as Captain America launched himself straight at Ironman and immediately started pummeling the latter in between frustrated grunts. "They're just kids, Tony!"
That shook Clint from his minor paralysis and he remembered his objective. Without a second look at the two former teammates, he sprinted in the direction of the metal door and made his way into the dome prison. He did not slow down once he was inside, doing quick work of the four-five guards heading in his direction. At the back of his head, a suspicious thought was telling him that the whole thing felt too easy. In fact, with the exception of Ironman and Spiderman, none of the guards they encountered really put up much of a fight. But he pushed these thoughts aside and focused on releasing the three superheroes.
Once he reached the circular room, it was a matter of inputting the correct sets of numbers into the control panel as instructed by Tchalla, releasing the iron doors to the cells.
"Are you kids okay?" he asked, grabbing hold of the slight figure the closest to him.
"Yeah, yeah, just need to get out of here," the only boy among the three replied, one arm around another girl, this one with a single strand of silver hair.
"Fantastic. Now follow this way, please," Clint directed, not waiting for them to reply.
They were almost out of the building when Vision appeared to block their way. "I am sorry, Hawkeye, but I simply cannot let you through," he said as apologetically as a former A.I could get, which Clint has to admit, was pretty much.
"Not a problem," the tiny girl cracked and Clint watched as she became intangible, allowing her to pass through Vision. Had the situation not been so urgent, Clint would have laughed at the irony of someone doing to Vision the very thing he repeatedly do to others. Evidently Vision felt the same way judging from the perplexed look on his face. This minute distraction allowed the boy to quickly aim a spray of – ice? Really?- that succeeded in freezing the android where he stood.
"Neat trick," Clint remarked, seriously impressed then shook himself and started leading them onward again. "But it won't work for long with this one. Quick!"
As they made their way outside, the sight that greeted them was grim indeed. On one side, Ironman was fending off Captain America and Falcon who were not in any way pulling their punches. Far away, he could see Agent 13 incapacitated by Spiderman's special web. Scarlet Witch, on the other hand, seemed to be holding her own, sending waves after waves of energy that was repeatedly pushing Spiderman back.
Clint breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed they were going to pull this off after all. As soon as he was thinking this, however, he could hear the sounds of armed men taking positions surrounding them. He allowed himself a grunt of disbelief. Do they really think an army of regular, armed men can succeed where Ironman, Spiderman and Vision seemed to be failing?
Wanda verbalized this thought when she yelled out, "You really believe you can take us down?"
Just as she was saying this, a loud thumph could be heard in the distance. The hair at the back of Clint's head stood on end at the sound. The ground shook repeatedly and he experienced a sinking feeling at the bottom of his stomach.
Sure enough, with a gravity-defying leap that shook the earth upon landing, the Incredible Hulk stood in the middle of all the fighting and let out a big roar.
"Oh, fuck," Clint muttered, and braced for the fight of his life.