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Chapter Text

The man stood, spear in hand, smoke rising from his coat.

"Sir, put down the spear," Fury said, stepping forwards. The man lowered the spear, and the end surged with a flash of blue electricity. Running on instinct, Natasha knocked Fury out of the way of the bolt of energy. She rolled lithely, back on her feet in time to open fire along with the rest of the soldiers.

Fury was rattled, but he made his way to the Tesseract under her covering fire. The man smashed through the soldiers, slamming them into walls and striking them with pulses from the spear. He shot another bolt of energy towards Natasha, and she doged, sparing a glance back at Fury. The look threw off her balance, and then the man was right in front of her.

She hit him hard and fast, but he seems to blur out of the way and then she was unbalanced. She spun into a sweeping kick, but he grabbed her from behind, moving faster than any human could, and threw her into the wall.

She kicked out, twisting her arm for a punch, but he grabbed her hair and forced her against the wall. She went for her pistol, but the man slammed her head against the wall. She went limp, held up only by the man who was pressing her to the wall.

He looked her over, eyes cold. "You will serve me," he said, accent flat. Then the tip of his spear was against her chest and Natasha couldn't thinkbreathethisisbad- and then Loki was angrily pressing his spear forwards again but I will not be controlled I willnotbecontrolled IWILLNOTBECONTROLLED and so Natasha drew her gun. Red Room training kicked in, she couldn't aim at Loki, so she had to make herself not useful. She pointed it at herself and fired.

Loki stepped back, the spray of her blood neatly avoided. Anger flickered across his features, but he turned away. Fury flinched at the gunshot, but turned as well to leave with the Tesseract. Loki called for him to stop, and he looked back.

Natasha was slumped against the wall, gun falling from limp fingers, her blood spreading slowly across the floor. Fury was saying meaningless words. Loki was responding to them. Selvig ignored them all, scanning the room, walking towards Natasha. The room was blacking out but she hazily thought he was coming to help. Then his eyes fell on her, empty and bright blue, and she could see something was wrong.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," he said. "The portal will collapse in on itself, burying us under thirty thousand tons of rock."

"Like the Pharaohs of Old." Fury said. Without fanfare, Selvig picked up Natasha's pistol and shot him in the chest. Fury went down hard, and Loki left the room, taking his new pets with him. After a few moments, Fury groaned and rolled over, pulling his walkie-talkie out.

"Hill, Selvig is compromised. They have the Tesseract, take them out," Static greeted him. "Dammit." He ran, stumbling over the uneven ground, to where Natasha was leaning on the wall, eyes glassy.

"Agent Romanov." he said, shaking her gently by the shoulder. "Agent Romanov! Natasha!" She stirred slightly, looking up at Fury kneeling next to her. "We need to move." he said.

"I will not be controlled," she muttered. "I will not, Iwillnotbecontrolled, controlled, not again, Loki, sir, his name is Loki."

"That's enough, Agent. Stay with me," Fury said, lifting Natasha easily. She put her arms around his neck, but loosely, without anything approaching a grip. "We're getting out of here.”

Clint was trying to figure out how to shoot four guys before any of them could shoot at him (He wasn't getting anywhere, but Nat could do it, so why couldn't he?) when his phone rang.

"Dammit," he whispered. He thought he'd turned that off. No, he knew he had turned it off. Which meant SHIELD was calling him. He lowered the bow and pulled out his phone, grateful that his enemies hadn't thought to fire their weapons yet.

Yep. It was SHIELD.

"I have to take this." he said, and without taking his eyes off of them raised the phone to his ear.

"Barton," Coulson's voice came over the phone. “We need you to come in.”

"Really? I'm working." Barton said, making a 'hang on a second' gesture at the mobsters. "I thought you valued work."

“This takes precedence.”

“I am in the middle of a very serious showdown. There are four guns pointed at me, Coulson, and I had to put down my bow because you people can’t wait five minutes.”

"Agent Romanov has been compromised." he said.

Clint felt his heart drop. "Fuck." He whispered. "Can you hold for a second?" he asked, and looked at the mobsters. "I need to take care of something."

"Bro," said the mobster closest to him. "Are you on the phone, bro?"

"Not cool, bro." Said another mobster. "At least pay attention to us when we're about to kill you bro."

"Okay, you were not about to kill me, 'bro'" Clint said, mocking their overuse of the word. "Because I was going to do something awesome. Lucky for you, I have to go. So instead of that thing, I'm going to do this."

He pulled an arrow from his quiver, hoping it was the right one. There were only so many times he could accidentally pull out a grappling hook arrow without making it look like an accident. He knocked and shot the arrow quickly, turning and letting the smoke fill the room.

"Where'd he go, bro?" He heard one of the mobsters say. Clint started to move to the door.

"Bro, there he is!" He heard someone yell before the sound of bullets being fired. He didn't know if any of them were anywhere near him, but he didn't want to find out and went running through the door.

Clint didn't stop running until he hit a street full of people, which he easily slipped into despite the bow and quiver on his back. He waited until he was sure no one was following him before he ducked into an alley and pulled the phone back up to his ear.

"What do you mean Romanov has been compromised?"

"She was shot."

"Don't lie to me, Coulson. Nat doesn't get shot. I don't know what kind of force field she has but no one has ever-"

"She shot herself."

"What?" Clint thought he couldn't feel any worse, but he felt his heart drop again. "She wouldn’t. Why would she-"

"Romanov has been in intensive care for the past few hours. We can't figure out what happened."

"And you were hoping I could." Clint said, and it wasn’t really a question so he took the silence that followed as a yes. "Where is she?"

"Currently in the hospital wing of the Triskelion."

"It'll take at least four hours to get there."

"I'll see you in three."

It hadn’t even been three hours when Clint sat at the side of Natasha’s bed, two fingers on her wrist because he had never trusted the heart monitors, eyes on her pale face and watching the rise and fall of her chest that was too slow and too shallow despite the tube feeding oxygen down her throat.

He could have told himself that she was asleep but even though he'd snuck by all the nurses, he knew that wasn’t true. She slept on her side with her arm above her head, and she never fell asleep in medical, and she would have woken up the instant he touched her hand.

“Clint.” said a voice from the door. Clint flinched and turned his head but never took his hand off of her wrist.

“Coulson.”

“How is she?”

“Breathing. Her pulse is weak, but steady.”

“The nurses said she should make a full recovery soon.”

“I can always tell when you’re lying.”

Coulson pulled a chair from the wall and sat next to Clint. “If it’s any consolation, Fury told me to say that.”

“The director knows I’m here too?”

“Everyone does. Why do you think there were so few staff?” After a pause, Coulson continued. “You’re very predictable.”

“Who did this?”

Coulson sighed. “He calls himself Loki. He came in, took the Tesseract, and left. Something about his spear turned Selvig and three others against us, and contact with it is what put Natasha in this condition."

“Loki?”

“Yeah. And I just finished all the paperwork for Thor.”

Clint couldn’t help but smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes and left as quickly as it had come. “When do I get a shot at him?”

“Soon. I’ll brief you as soon as we have the team together. Right now, I need you to go get the big guy.”

“Even if you knew where Thor was, which I know you don’t because you didn’t even try to make him clean up his mess, the only time I saw him was crying on the other side of my sights. We’re not exactly friends.”

“We don’t need another alien involved in this. You get the other big guy.”

“You don’t mean,” Coulson nodded. “God dammit.”

Bruce Banner watched as the girl he had followed disappeared out the window.

“Should have got payed up front, Banner.”

“Hey Doc.” said Clint, perched on the arm of a worn out chair, bow and quiver just out of reach. “Aren’t you supposed to be avoiding stress? This doesn’t seem like the place.”

“Avoiding stress isn’t the secret.”

“It’s drugs, isn’t it? You seem like a marijuana kind of guy.”

“You brought me to the edge of the city," Banner said, ignoring his witticism. "Smart. I assume the whole place is surrounded.”

“Yep.” Clint said, looking out a window. “I tried to tell them they’d do more harm than good, but I guess it’s a rule or something.”

“Who are you?”

“Clint Barton.”

“Are you here to kill me, Mr. Barton?”

“Agent. And I wasn’t planning on it. I’m here with SHIELD.”

“They found me.”

“I doubt they ever lost you. Probably kept their distance because most SHIELD agents aren’t very good at keeping non-hostiles, well, non-hostile.”

“You’re a SHIELD agent.”

“I’m not most.”

“And the other guy is definitely hostile.”

“I trust you.” Clint stood up and walked toward Banner, feeling every step he took away from his bow. “I need you to trust me.”

“Are the guns outside supposed to be a sign of trust?”

“Fury doesn’t trust anyone. Don’t take it personally, I doubt he trusts his own eyepatch.”

“What do you need me for?”

“The Tesseract.” Clint said, sitting on a chair and inviting Banner to sit on the chair across from him. “Ever heard of it? Small cube, blue and glowing, portal across space?” Clint watched as Bruce sat down. “No? Well, it emits enough energy to destroy the earth multiple times.”

“Does Fury want me to swallow it?”

Clint laughed. “That’s a good idea. Don’t know why we didn’t think of that.” He shook his head. “But I think Fury’s plan is a bit more technical. Something with gamma radiation. I don’t know, I generally let Natasha pay attention to the details.”

“Natasha?”

“My partner. She’s in the hospital because someone came through the Tesseract and tried to take over her mind. I’d like you to help us find him.”

“So you’re not after the monster?”

“Nope.”

“SHIELD is going to put me in a cage the moment I step outside, aren’t they?”

“No cage-”

“Stop lying to me!” Bruce screamed, and Clint flinched back. He thought he should reach for a gun that wasn’t there, the bow that was lying too far away on the couch, but he knew they would do nothing but comfort him against the Hulk, so instead he put his hands up and slid back in his chair.

“I’m sorry.” Banner continued, seemingly under control again. “That was mean. I must not be as in control as I like to think.

“But you’re good now?” Clint let himself relax when Bruce nodded, then leaned his head out the window. “We’re good in here. You, by the door, yes I see you. If you come in here with that thing I will shoot you.” Clint watched the agent back away from the door before he sat back down.

“You have a gun?”

“No. But they don’t know that.” Clint leaned his elbows on the table. “So are you going to come with us?”

Chapter Text

Coulson was at Natasha's side. He couldn't leave her, especially now that Clint was on a mission. Natasha waking up alone in medical would probably cause enough damage that Loki, whoever he was, could just waltz right in.

Mostly, though, Coulson was worried. So he noticed immediately when Natasha's vitals started slowing. The nurses rushed in and he stood back, out of the way, eyes shadowed. They injected her with something, adrenaline was his guess, and her vitals stabilized, rising back to normal. The nurses fluttered around, and Coulson asked the obvious question.

"What happened?"

"She's lost a lot of blood lately," the head nurse said. "That's probably the main cause. But dealing with alien technology, well, we don't really know." She left Coulson standing at Natasha's bed, staring after them, holding a styrofoam cup of crappy coffee.

So he missed the quick spike in vitals as she woke up. He went to turn back around and found her on her feet, holding his gun. It was trained on him.

"кто ты?" she said. Who are you?

"друг," he said. A friend.

"I don't have friends." she said, and he caught her as she fell back into unconsciousness. Coulson stumbled, and Clint was through the door, breathing heavily.

“I’d just landed,” he panted, taking Natasha from Coulson’s arms and laying her gingerly back on the bed. “They said she was awake.”

“Briefly,” Coulson said. “How’d it go?”

“... He didn’t hulk out.” Clint said, not looking up at Coulson. “I think he might have said yes.”

“Is he here?” Coulson asked, looking out the door.

“Definitely. I put him in the lab, he’s running some sequence of tests with Tony.”

“You left Tony in a room with someone he could annoy into being the Hulk?”

“Oops.” Clint said, half-hearted and not really paying attention. His eyes were still focused on Natasha, and her vitals. He took her hand, two fingers resting on her wrist.

“I’ll go deal with them.” Coulson said. “Let me know if there’s any-”

“I will,” Clint said, his fingers light on Natasha’s weak pulse. Coulson left at a run.

The plane touched down, and Steve Rogers stepped out onto the tarmac. There was no one there. He turned back, and the pilot gave him a cursory shrug. She hadn’t talked at all on the way over, so he hadn’t really expected her to explain.

He stood there for a few moments watching the soldiers running drills. The director walked up, his black coat and dark skin in striking contrast to the light blue of the sky and ocean behind him.

“You might want to step inside, Captain Rogers.” Fury said, gesturing at the edge of the aircraft carrier. “It’s going to get a little hard to breathe.” Steve walked to the edge, looking over at the frothing ocean below. There was a rumble of machinery, and two huge turbines broke out of the water. Without looking away, Steve called back to Fury.

“Wasn’t an Agent Romanov supposed to meet me?”

“Agent Romanov is in the hospital. That’s part of the problem. I called you in to advise us on the Tesseract acting strangely.” The noise of the turbines was increasing, so Steve walked inside with Fury. A sudden hush as they walked inside the door, and he saw that they’d walked into a briefing room mounted on the bridge. It was occupied by a dark-haired woman with an air of authority, a nervous man in a tweed suit that Steve recognized as Dr. Banner, and a pacing, over-caffeinated man who strangely resembled Howard Stark. Fury raised his voice so they could all hear.

“Then a man walked into the basement of the most secure building in the world through a giant space portal, convinced four of my men to become his personal flying monkeys, and tried to control Agent Romanov as well.”

“What made her different?” Steve asked, biting back a snarky exclamation about flying monkeys out of respect. Barely.

“She’s ex-KGB,” the other woman said, stepping forwards. “Agent Hill, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She shook his hand. “We think her training and her previous experiences of being mind controlled were enough to allow her to break the control, at least partially.”

“Tony.” said the goateed man to Steve, curtly. He turned to Hill. “I heard she’s in the hospital. What happened?”

“We’re not entirely sure,” Fury said. “We think that she shot herself to prevent Loki from trying to use her.”

“Decreasing her value. Smart.” Banner said, nervously fiddling with the ends of his coat sleeves.

“Either that or she figured that the pain would be enough to break the mental hold on her.” Hill added. “But what we’re most concerned about right now is finding the Tesseract.”

“Word is that Dr. Banner here can do that,” Steve said.

“Is that the only word there is about me?” Banner said, with a faint smile.

“Only word I care about.” Steve said. “What do you need?”

“Alright, asshole.” Clint said, lining Loki’s head up in the line of the Quinjet’s fire. “Say goodbye to that stupid cow hat.” Over the comms, he heard a familiar voice.

“I’m not the one who’s out of time.” Captain America said. He was working with Captain America, which still seemed strange. Clint wondered if Coulson had gotten him to sign his trading cards yet.

“Put down the spear, Loki, or lose your head.” Clint said, pressing a button that allowed his voice to play through the loudspeakers on the outside of the Quinjet.

In an instant, a blast of blue light shot out from the end of the staff, headed for the jet. Clint jerked at the controls, but he was only able to move it enough that the blast took out one of the wings, and he struggled to crash the plane outside of the crowd of people.

“Shit, shit, shit.” he repeated, the sound mixed with the blare of alarms. His eye caught the flashing of a ‘right wing problem’ light. “Well no fucking shit, it’s not like the wing was shot or anything!” he screamed, his knuckles white from gripping the controls.

“Language, Agent Barton.” came a quiet voice over the comms, and then Steve went back to lecturing Loki.

“I have bigger problems than your innocent ears, Captain!” Clint yelled, anyway.

The plane wasn’t going to make it all the way across. Clint found himself missing Natasha for the hundredth time since he’d been called to leave her bed. She could have made it, he thought, no collateral.

As the nose neared the ground, a rock song started to play through the speakers and Clint felt the plane rising up again. “Need a lift?”

“Let me guess. Stark.” Clint said, relaxing back in his chair and reminding himself to breathe as Tony set the plane safely on the ground.

“That’s me. Duty calls.” And he was gone, headed back towards Captain America and Loki. “Make your move, reindeer games.” Clint heard him say as he climbed out of the ruined jet.

“Coulson.” Clint said into his comm. “We’ve got Loki. And we’re going to need another plane.”

Clint was flying the new Quinjet stiffly, fighting the temptation to turn and shoot Loki where he sat, handcuffed. Captain- no, Steve was strapped in next to him, and several armed guards. Stark had elected to fly behind them, saying he didn’t trust Clint’s flying.

A storm came swirling up ahead out of clear skies, and Clint felt an uneasy feeling settle into his gut. He was silent, though, and as the first crash of thunder rattled the plane he felt Loki shift behind him, chains rattling.

“What’s the matter?” he heard Steve ask. “Afraid of a little thunder?”

“I’m not overly fond of what follows.” Loki answered, smoothly, and the plane jerked as something heavy landed on it.

“We’ve got company.” Clint barked, just as the back ramp was torn open. He felt the cabin pressure drop, and he glanced back to see Thor storm in, grab Loki by the throat, and jump out with him. Steve started to unbuckle his seatbelt, and Clint tore his eyes away from the HOLE in HIS PLANE and struggled to keep the plane steady.

“I think Tony will get him, Cap,” he called over the noise. “I’d sit this one out. They’re basically gods.”

“There’s only one god, Agent.” Steve said. “And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” Clint shrugged.

“I’ll try to land the plane somewhere to wait for you,” he said, and Steve gave him a brisk nod and jumped out, still pulling on his parachute. “Yeah. This is gonna go well.” he said, under his breath.

“An army? From outer space?”

“That’s what he said, Cap.” Clint said, bored. “You haven’t even been here a month and you’re already getting to see your first alien invasion.”

“Does this happen often nowadays?” Steve said. “It wasn’t in the briefings.”

“No, Cap, it’s called sarcasm. Pretty sure they had that in the twenties.” Clint said, starting to bristle with irritation.

“So Loki’s building a portal to bring in his army. That’s what he took Selvig for.”

“Selvig?” Thor asked, concern suddenly showing in his face.

“Yes, Selvig. Your brother took your friend. Got control of his mind with his staff thing.” Clint said, and he was getting angrier.

Steve spoke up. “I think we need to be paying attention to why Loki let us take him.”

“I think Loki’s just insane.” Banner said, stepping behind the counter that held Loki’s scepter.

“Be careful how you speak of my brother.” Thor boomed.

“My best friend is dying because of him.” Clint said sharply, barely keeping himself in control, eyes steely as he stared at the Asgardian.

Thor paused a moment. “He’s adopted.”

“What did he need the Iridium for?” Banner asked.

“A stabilizing agent.” Tony walked in, right on cue. “Hey, Hawkguy, you’re welcome for you know, saving your life and everything earlier.”

“Hawkeye.”

“Say again?”

“It’s Hawkeye.”

“Is that not what I said?”

Clint stood up. “I’m going to go check on Natasha.”

“Is that really a priority here?” barked Fury. “This Loki has just walked away with the most dangerous weapon our world has ever known. We need you here, and we need a plan.” Tony turned on Fury.

“Oh, now you’re trying to keep him here?”

“We have our orders,” Steve said, stepping forwards. “Although I can see you’re not the kind of guy to respect them.”

“We are not soldiers!” Tony shouted, and Clint heard Banner and Fury talking behind him, their voices rising to shouts as well. Suddenly angry, he joined into the fray. Then Fury suddenly went silent, and he spun to see Banner standing there, holding Loki’s scepter.

“We are not a team!” he shouted, but Steve and Tony were still bickering. “We’re a time bomb!”
The gem in the end of the scepter was glowing, and Fury had his gun out now. Clint suddenly got that this was wrong, this wasn’t the Banner he’d talked to, and Steve was shoving Tony and that was wrong too but he couldn’t think, couldn’t figure out a way to fix this. He couldn’t think of anything but how he wanted to leave, to return to the hospital room and remind himself that Natasha’s heart was still beating and to lean into Coulson and worry together.

“Banner, you can’t use that thing.” Tony said, “So just put it down.” Banner twitched, his pupils dilating suddenly, and the staff lit up blue, a bolt shooting off and shattering the glass wall to his right. There was a sharp retort as Fury’s gun went off, and Banner jerked, looking down at his arm where blood was starting to run.

“Bad idea, bad idea.” Clint said, running to grab the scepter. Banner hit him, his arms and chest swelling, and Clint smashed into the other wall and felt the air get pushed out of his chest. He tried to get up, dizzy, and made out a huge green figure smashing into the control hub of the Helicarrier. “Very bad.”

Chapter Text

Coulson was not pleased. He was still in Natasha’s room, and he was still watching her, but it was out of the corner of his eye. He had a tablet streaming the video of Banner hulking out on the Hellicarrier’s deck, and he was watching Clint with the eye of a trained handler but the concern of a worried boyfriend. He was also hunched in his chair, and when he saw Barton fly into the wall he drew in a sharp breath. Natasha spoke without moving at all or opening her eyes.

“Where am I? What’s wrong?” she said, and although her voice was flat and unemotional, she was trembling.

“Nothing,” Coulson said, glancing up and noting her new symptoms with concern. “How are you-”

Natasha didn’t answer, didn’t hear. She was eight years old, and in dual weapons and English training.

“Do you think that your opponents will move in such a predictable fashion?” her instructor barked. “Do better.” She gestured at one of the other students, practicing her dance on the yard nearby. “You, come here.” The girl walked up, cautiously.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“You have been doing poorly in classes lately.”

“But, miss, I’m improving, and…”

“Because Natalia is tutoring you, no? This is unacceptable.” She handed the loaded Glock to Natalia. “Now, practice your aim on an acceptable target. Make up for this weakness. If you fail-”

“I will not fail.” said Natalia, fighting to keep her voice level. She knew how this game worked. She aimed, and the girl turned to run before a single shot brought her down…

“Natasha! Nat! Calm down!” Coulson had abandoned his tablet, struggling to hold Natasha to the bed, trying to keep her shaking to a minimum.

“My name,” muttered Natasha, calming down and knocking Coulson’s hands away. “Is Natalia.”

~~~

Tony was running as soon as he saw Barton get hit. This was his fault, he should have remembered from the packet he’d read that the alien gems had effects on mental states. His movement caught the eye of Bann- no, not Banner, not at all. He felt a flash of primeval fear, which gave him a nice adrenaline boost.

“Tony!” shouted Hill. It was nice that someone cared. “What the hell are you doing, you’re unarmed! You idiot!” Well, mostly nice. He snagged a pistol from a junior agent who lay unconscious by their desktop. He glanced at the screen as he stood up. Seriously, this guy was playing Galaga? Well, to each their own. He fired three times on the Hulk, earning him the undivided attention of one of the most feared beings on the planet and Captain America chewing him out through the headset.

The Hulk swept a fist across the room, smashing through a bank of computers. With a electrical snapping noise, they died, and Tony was mentally calculating how long he had before the rotors shut down as he ran for the window. Not long.

“Jarvis!” he yelled, activating his wrist comm. “Suit deploy catch to my location!” And he shot out the window ahead of him and jumped through, tearing two ragged cuts in his back.

“Tony!” Cap’s voice was a faint buzz as he plummeted, but he saw the Hulk stumble and fall after him, smashing out the nearby rotor as he fell, so he felt a quick flush of accomplishment at successfully getting the Hulk out of the Helicarrier. Then he realized that enough rotors had been destroyed that the carrier was going to fall and- then the mortal panic over his own fall took over.

~~~

Thor had not bothered with the Hulk when the chaos began. Banner had been holding Loki’s scepter when he had transformed, and so this was Loki’s plan, Loki’s fault. A lot of things had been Loki’s fault recently.

Mjolnir in hand, Thor marched down to where Fury had been keeping Loki. “Brother!” came Loki’s voice. “How nice of you to stop by! And here I thought you were never going to visit.”

“What have you done!” It was more of a demand than a question.

“Whatever could you mean? I’ve been sitting right here all day, not even a scepter to play with.”
“I know you did this, Loki, what have you done to Banner?”

“Nothing that wasn’t going to happen already.”

“Your scepter. It turned them against each other.”

“The scepter only amplified their hatred.” Loki stood. “I was simply trying to show you why you should not revere the humans as you do. Even with the destruction of their world looming over their heads, they could not work together long enough to save it.”

“Your actions will result in the deaths of everyone on board this ship, including you!”

“Will they?” Thor turned around at the sound of the door opening behind them.

“Sir!” someone said. “The Helicarrier is being secured. What would you like us to do?”

“Open the cage. It’s that panel on your left.” The agent pressed a couple of buttons and the door slid open. Loki started to walk out.

“Loki!” Thor screamed, running toward the cage. He reached it just in time to see Loki disappear, and the door shut behind him, trapping Thor in the cage.

“The best part about magic, dear brother, is that it never ceases to confuse the weak minded.” Loki said, now next to the control panel. He lifted a clear box that contained a bright red button. “They threatened to kill me with this.” he said, fingers ghosting over the edge of the button. “Want to find out if it works?” Loki paused, then slammed his fist into the button, and Thor felt the entire room drop.

~~~

It took Clint a few moments to figure out why he was running. Concussion, he thought, Loki and then scepter and finally Hulk.

Clint had heard plenty of stories about the Hulk in action, about the terror involved in seeing a creature of pure rage level buildings with no control, no patterns. He had been told that in the case of a Hulk rampage the only hope, save for bringing in Betty Ross, was to leave everything and run.

Running felt wrong, he had to admit.

Not that he really had a choice in the matter. As soon as Bruce had lost control, Hill had screamed at everyone in the room to leave, and Clint had been swept up in the rush of people trying to get out the door. He wouldn’t have been much help anyway, without a bow or a gun or so much as a slingshot, not to mention the fact that he still couldn’t see correctly.

Clint couldn’t breathe, either, he realized as he kept moving. There were too many people, and there was too much noise, and he couldn’t get a decent breath in to clear his head. He needed fresh air, he needed to escape from the crowd.

Escape.

He latched onto the word, trying to remember where the escape pods were, because that he could do, if only he could remember this one thing.

Then his pre-planned escape route suddenly came clear in his mind. “This way!” he yelled. In their panicked state, the scattered agents were quick to follow orders. Before long Clint had a large following of agents who thought he looked confident enough to lead them in the right direction. He struggled to remember the schematics of the building, a right, a left, two more rights, and by some miracle they made it to a line in escape pods.

“Alright!” he yelled, stepping onto a trash can, and the room went silent. “Everyone in a pod, as many as you can fit, let’s-” He was cut off by the blare of an alarm and the sudden shake of the floor that meant the ship was beginning to fall out of the sky.

All eyes were on him, and he couldn’t figure out why until he remembered that he was standing on a trash can barking orders. “Well, Go! Start in the back!”

~~~

Tony was was going to die. He knew he had made the last stupid decision of his life, taken the last risk, and now he was going to meet the ground in a way he definitely wouldn’t survive. He jerked as his helmet wrapped around his head and he heard the smooth voice of Jarvis.

"Suit is en route. Please slow your fall and stabilize yourself,"

"How the fuck-" Tony began, but Jarvis was already explaining.

"Extend your arms and legs to maximize air resistance."

"Don't you think I know that, J!" Tony shouted, but he did it, and the armor locked in around him, boosters coming online a bare forty feet above the ground. Hulk smashed into the dirt below him and Tony flew back towards the Helicarrier.

"Thanks, Jarvis." Tony panted. "Relay all comms through the helmet."

"Yes, sir." Almost immediately, Steve's voice came through the comms.

“I’m on the Helicarrier, Barton got most of the bridge personnel out, and I think the others are evacuated but there’s a few of us left, the carrier is going down, hostile personnel are onboard, and there are no more escape pods. Does anybody copy?”

“This is Stark, I copy,” Tony said, heading towards the life signs that Jarvis was helpfully highlighting for him. “I’m almost there, hang on.”

“Stark!” Steve said, and the relief in his voice was actually tangible. “I thought you were dead.”

“Guess this day is just full of surprises.” Tony said, scanning the remaining carrier. “The structural integrity of the next room over is okay, and it’s pretty small so I can probably handle it.”

“The broom cabinet?” Steve asked.

“A multiuse technical equip- yes, the broom cabinet. Get everyone in there now.”

“On it,” Steve barked, and the comm caught his voice as he herded the last junior agents into the room. Tony caught sight of a few other life signs, before the rattle of gunfire and the spray of bullets reached his suit.

“Few unfriendlies near you, Cap.” he called over the radio. “Stay low, I’ll take them out.” He fired a few quick bursts of the repulsor beams, knocking the men off of their precarious perches and cutting through some of the debris blocking his path to Cap and the other agents.
~~~
Barton was getting increasingly more concerned. There was the sounds of gunfire and explosions from other parts of the helicarrier.

It was hard to think, but that shouldn’t be happening. Were enemy agents in play? Had the Hulk managed to stay on the carrier?

He waved the last few groups towards the last few escape pods just as the doors to the hallway slid open. The sharp report of a handgun, and one of the escaping agents slumped to the ground. Barton picked up the gun of the fallen agent, firing at the crowd of agents coming in.

The other agents were frantically pressing forwards to the last two escape pods, but he knelt by the hit agent, feeling for a pulse. Nothing. He couldn’t care about this yet, though.

He took another few shots, keeping the other agents at bay. No kill shots, no matter what was happening, these people were his friends, but enough to scare them off, to blow a couple of kneecaps and get them off his tail. He glanced back- every pod was gone. He felt a sharp spike of triumph- as weird as everything was being, he’d been Good. He’d gotten the other agents out.

Then the hallway jerked, dropping downwards a foot, and Clint remembered the crumbling, falling portion of the Helicarrier he was on. The hallway tore, sending the Loki-controlled agents flying out into the open air, and Clint tumbled to the end, almost falling out, barely catching himself on an exposed beam. He hung there, seconds from falling after the other agents.

~~~

A lifesign flashed up on the HUD, and Tony caught a glimpse of Barton clinging to the edge of a falling hallway. He swooped low, grabbing Barton and flying along the hallway, twisting so that it was his suit crashing into a wall and not Barton. The man was shouting something, but somehow he’d lost his comms, so Tony shrugged and ignored him.

The beams supporting Cap’s room creaked under sudden strain, and Tony pushed Barton in just before Cap slammed the door shut. Then the beams gave way. Over the comms, there were screams.

“Tony, better make it quick!” Cap shouted, and then his suit had latched on. He strained upwards with full repulsor power, slowing their fall, but not enough.

“Jarvis, full power to repulsors.”

“Already done, sir.”

“All power to thrusters! Shut down comms, scanners, life support! Slow us down!” The screens went dark, Jarvis went silent, but their fall slowed. Then the power was gone and Tony and the room fell the last ten feet to the ground. Tony was trapped in his suit, dark and silent, laying on his side. After what felt like an eternity, his mask was ripped off and the concerned face of Steve Rogers appeared in his view.

“Tony?”

“Heya Cap. Is everyone alright?”

“A few broken bones and a lot of bruises. You?”

“Well, I’m fine, but I wore out all the power in this suit slowing your fall. It’ll take it a while to recharge.”

“Doesn’t that mean that your arc reactor-” started Cap.

“Oh look, you did read part of the homework.” said Tony, managing a faint grin. “If I avoid exertion for a while, I should be fine.” Jarvis silently booted up the interface again and power spread through the suit. Tony sat up slowly, trying to be careful of Cap crouched over him.

“No broken bones,” he said, finally, as he stood. “Let’s get those injured to the closest hospital. Jarvis?”

“Local SHIELD paramedics are on their way, sir. The nearest hospital is the Triskelion,”

Barton staggered over from the others. He looked rather shell-shocked.

“Twice in one day,” he said to Cap. “I must be losing my touch.”

“What?” Cap asked, always polite.

“I keep saving his life,” Tony explained. “I’d offer you guys a ride to the hospital-”

“No!” Barton said quickly.

“I said I would,” Tony continued, “Only my suit is still almost dead.”

“We can ride along on top of the ambulances.” said Barton.

“Do you think they’ll let us?” Steve asked.

“I don’t think they’ll stop us.” Barton and Tony said in unison, then looked at each other in amusement.

~~~

“What the hell is happening!” Coulson yelled, finally losing his calm. The tablet had shown Stark jumping out a window, closely followed by Hulk, Then the helicarrier started to fall. The last video feed of Clint was him fighting off hostiles in the falling Helicarrier. Then a distant explosion had rocked the building.

Natasha was still confused, but she’d always known the signs of an invading force better than she knew herself or who she worked for, so this didn’t really hamper her efficiency. Coulson was on the phone, trying to connect to several people and so she borrowed his pistol. When her door was kicked down, she rolled off of the bed, returning fire. Outside her window, she heard shouts about a metal man and America, but that was just background noise.

A rattle of gunfire shattered the window, and she took a minute to kick the legs out from under Coulson. She was strangely fond of him, so it wouldn’t do to have whoever it was attacking her now killing him before she figured out who he was.
A few minutes later, the door burst open and a man ran in, a quiver on his back and a bow in his hand. Natasha shot at him as a matter of fact, although he ducked back out of the room, dodging her shots. The Red Room didn’t send in backup for people who failed in their missions, and she was pretty sure she must have failed in hers.

“Мы должны идти.” he said, from outside the door. We have to go.

She relaxed a little at the sound of Russian, and shoved Coulson at him. To her mild surprise, the men embraced.

“Cap’s hurt pretty bad outside, and Tony is stuck in his armor with no power.” Clint explained, taking the tablet from Coulson and laying it on the table. “How’s Nat? Besides shooting at me?”

“Russian.” Coulson answered. “Still KGB, probably still Red Room. She’s going to tear open her stitches at this rate.”

“Right.” the archer said, turning to her. “Знак алый.” The sign is scarlet. “Let’s get out of here, now. We have allies to pick up. The mission is still in progress.”

“Yes.” she said, and snagged another gun from a body as she walked out of her hospital room.

Chapter Text

“Loki!” Thor slammed Mjolnir against the glass as the cage dropped out of the plane. He didn’t know if what his brother said was true and a fall that far would kill him, but he wasn’t eager to find out.

Gaining his footing proved to be more difficult than it was when he tried to fight an army from atop a Auðumbla, and even when he did it became harder to aim. He had left a spiderweb crack in the glass when he hit it the first time, and he tried to align himself with it as the cage came tumbling down to Earth. Finally it evened out enough for him to get his footing. He thrust forward, hitting the glass with all the strength he could muster.

It didn’t crack, he realized as the cage buried itself into the ground.

"These are our allies," Clint said.

He could almost hear Natasha internally raising her eyebrows at the man dressed in the American flag.

"Are you with SHIELD?" Tony asked, apparently without recognizing her, and there was a slight pause before Natasha responded in a perfect, clipped British accent.

"I am with SHIELD, yes." Steve drew in a quick breath, and Clint figured he was thinking of Peggy Carter. He'd almost forgotten how good Natasha was at undercover missions. She glanced briefly at Clint, to verify she was choosing the correct cover.

He gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. She turned back to the front, where Steve and Tony were walking and allowed a very faint limp to creep into her walk. She'd called it- Steve noticed immediately.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said, which would have been more convincing if she hadn't bled through her shirt. Clint marveled that she'd managed to keep it concealed up to this point.

"Looks like you tore your stitches," said Tony, grimacing in sympathy. "That's gotta be pretty painful."

"It's fine," Natasha said, and Clint could see both of them starting to respect her. She was effortlessly playing them, showing just enough weakness to earn their respect for overcoming it.

"This might be entertaining," Coulson said under his breath, and if Clint wasn't so worried about losing the real Natasha it might have been harder to bite back his smile.

Waking up after turning into the Hulk was almost the same as waking up with a hangover, except it was about a thousand times worse. Bruce’s entire body ached and his head throbbed as fragments of what happened pieced themselves together.

He was standing in the Helicarrier, holding the scepter, and Tony said something, and there was a gunshot and then there was the other guy. There were more gunshots, and he ran after them, through computers, through the engine, through the window, and he was falling. He spun around, still hitting, still trying to take out his undying anger on whatever he could even as the ground rushed toward him. He saw another person falling, and he reached for them, not to help but-

“Tony.” He whispered. “What did I do.” He hung his head in his hands and tried to breathe, his body shaking with the effort.

“Are you okay, mister?” A voice came from above him. A young girl in jeans and a yellow plaid shirt looked down with worry in her eyes. “Looked like you hit the ground pretty hard.”

“I’m fine.” He said, standing, quickly becoming aware that he was wearing nothing. “I just-”

“Have a headache?” she guessed. “Adults always use that when they think you can’t handle what’s really wrong. But you don’t have to tell me. Here,” She slid down the edge of the crater he had been sitting in and held out a pair of pants and a T-shirt. “I brought you these. They’re my brother’s, so don’t rip ‘em, cuz he’ll be mad at me if he comes home and his pants are ripped.”

Bruce didn’t take the clothes immediately, knowing that this girl was too close to him, that she had seen him falling so she had seen the other guy and she should have been afraid but here she was, standing right next to him and offering him kindness in the form of a black shirt with Darth Vader’s helmet on it. “Thank you.” He said at last, taking the clothes. The girl didn’t move while he put them on.

“Hi, I’m Judy and I’m nine years old,” she stuck out a hand and didn’t move it until Bruce took it. “Wanna meet my sister? She’s right outside.” She didn’t wait for him to respond before scrambling up the crater and yelling, “Alice! You can come in, he’s a person.”

“Shapeshifter!” came the faint shout from outside.

“What does it matter if he’s a shapeshifter? He’s nice and needs help.” Slowly a younger girl in a pink dress appeared and hid behind Judy. “This is Alice. She’s five.”

“Five and a half.” Alice whispered.

“Right, five and a half. Half is important when it’s 10% of your life.” Judy said, matter-of-fact. “What’s your name?”

“Bruce.” He said, now fully clothed but still a little afraid to climb the crater and meet the girls.

“Are you an alien?” Alice said, popping her head out from behind her sister.

“Of course he’s not, silly,” Judy turned so that Alice was now facing Bruce. “Aliens can’t speak English.” She looked back over at Bruce. “You need a ride somewhere, Mister Bruce? Cuz my daddy’s going to be home soon and he can take you wherever you need to be.”

“No, I should go,” he walked up the crater and started to walk through the field he had landed in.

Judy followed him, jogging to keep up. “Then take my bike. I’m getting a new one soon anyway.”

“I can’t take your bike,” he insisted, but Judy was persistent. He ended up leaving on a bike that was too big to be hers with a map, $20, a bottle of water, a box of Oreos, and an obligation to pay them back by coming to dinner one day.

It wasn't the first time that the Red Room codes Natasha had taught Clint had come in handy, and he hated the fact that it wouldn’t be the last. He watched as Natalia went to work, movements so different from Natasha’s that it was painful to look at. Even her eyes were different, looking with a calculating glare that was more spy than human.

Tony and Steve, of course, didn’t notice, because they had never met Natasha. Or Natalia, really. No, they had met a SHIELD agent who didn’t exist and who Clint wanted gone more than anything. It had taken them no time at all to be convinced that she was an ally.

Especially once the shooting started.

Right, the shooting. He should have been paying attention to the shooting instead of the fact that his best friend had no idea who he was, because he had completely lost track of what was happening.

“Great job, Barton,” he mumbled to himself, “Can’t even focus when bullets are flying.”

Luckily, Natalia was an even better fighter than Natasha, no doubt because she had less regard for the well-being of bystanders. The two were facing different ends of the hallway outside her hospital room, which was currently occupied by an injured super soldier, a whiny billionaire, and an agent who hadn’t slept enough to put up with them.

Clint took aim at two women emerging from the elevator at the end of the hall, taking a pause to determine whether or not they were friendly. Two gunshots rang out and the women fell to the ground.

“Seriously, Nat, stop taking out my targets.”

“извините” Sorry.

“Right. Not Nat.” He sighed, walking over to the women. “Are you at least using non-lethals?”

“No.”

“I thought I told you,” Clint knelt, recognizing one of the women from where he had seen her in the hallways and in briefings, trying not to feel upset by the fact that he had never bothered learning her name. “We don’t want to kill these people.”

“They’re shooting at us.”

“Yes, but they’re friends. Allies.”

“You need better allies.”

“They’ve been brainwashed.”

“That’s no excuse.”

Clint took a breath, trying not to think about the secrets he knew about Natasha’s past, the horror stories she told him during the quieter parts of operations he had long forgotten the targets of. The repeated brain washings, torture training from childhood, their control over everything; what she did, ate, said, thought, even when they were nowhere near her. He wondered if this Natalia had started to remember all of the things she had done that the Red Room had tried to make her forget.

The glass had shattered around him, digging into his skin whenever he tried to move. The metal beams had bent and warped, the top of the cage now close enough to touch if he could only move his hand. The cage was dark except for a sliver of light where the dirt hadn’t fully covered it up. Even the slight movements Thor could make sent pain shooting across his body, and he had to remind himself to breathe.

He lost track of time that way, trying to determine if this would be the thing that killed him and fighting through every moment to make sure it didn’t.

Eventually he heard voices from outside.

“They weren’t kidding, this really does look like a spaceship.”

“Stop gaping and hand me those, will you?”

Thor heard something slip into the gap in the metal, saw a shadow fall where there had once been his only source of light. He was left in darkness thinking he had finally stopped breathing until the whir of a machine started. Light began to pour in, and he shut his eyes against the pain of it.

“Jaws of life, for the win.” said the second voice. “Go check it out while I put these away.”

“Holy shit,” said the first voice. “There’s somebody in here!”

“You better not be joking, Adam, because I will not let you push me in there.”

“I’m serious.” Thor heard a crunch as Adam pushed through the crack and landed on the shattered glass. He walked toward Thor and knelt in front of him. “Are you okay?”

Thor tried to respond, but all he could manage was a groan.

“Oh my God, he’s alive.” Adam said. “Jen! This guy’s alive! Call the ambulance and get me a stretcher, I don’t know how long this thing’s going to hold up!” He turned back to Thor. “I’m Adam Hopkins, I’m with the fire department and I’m here to help.”

“I got the stretcher.” said Jen from outside.

“Great, get in here and help me.”

Jen landed with another crunch and walked the stretcher until it was parallel to Thor’s body. “We’re assuming back injury, right?”

“He fell from the sky. No back injury would be more of a miracle than him surviving.”

“Alright. We’ll roll him on.” She positioned herself at his legs while Adam went to his torso. “Three, two, lift.” Thor winced with the pain of the movement before he was placed gently on the plastic stretcher. The two people moved to either end of the stretcher. “Lift him in three, two, one.”

“Jesus Christ, he’s heavy.” Adam groaned.

Eventually, the two were able to lift Thor up and out of the ground. They set him on the down and other people began to surround him.

“What’s your name?” asked a voice as someone carried him into an ambulance.

“Thor.” he whispered. “My hammer.”

“It’s in there, isn’t it?” Adam asked. “Hold on, I’ll go get it.”

“Only the worthy-” Thor started, but Adam returned a few minutes later with the hammer in hand.

“Here you go. Now these people are going to take you to the hospital.”

“The Avengers, need my help, can’t defeat Loki,” he mumbled before Jen cut him off.

“I don’t care if the word is ending, you’re going to a hospital.” Jen left the ambulance and turned to Adam. “Your daughters are going to love this aren’t they?”

Adam laughed a little. “Alice will. Judy is never going to believe me.”

With that, the doors of the ambulance closed and the vehicle started moving.

“Are you getting finished in there?” Clint asked without taking his eyes off of another target. “I think these guys are getting smarter.” He said, shooting an electric arrow that knocked six of them unconscious.

“The armor is still recharging, and Cap’s got six bullet wounds, so just calm down, okay?” Tony said from inside the hospital room they had made base.

“I am being shot at.” Clint said. “Shot at! Do you know what that means? There are bullets flying at me and most of them could kill me if I don’t pay attention to them. So hurry it up.”

"All right," Tony growled. "I can run the armor at half capacity." The door swung open and slammed shut, Tony, in his armor, stepping out into the hallway. His faceplate snapped into place and he shot off a quick repulsor beam at an attacking soldier. Natalia brought down three behind him, shooting directly over his shoulder. Tony flinched away from the gunshot, but Natalia didn't seem bothered and kept guarding the door. There were muffled shouts from inside, and Coulson stormed into the hallway.

"Banner has been spotted, but he left and has no comms. Thor's ambulance is being rerouted here, but he didn't even try to save the Helicarrier." he said, gritting his teeth. "Tony is still struggling to get along with Cap-"

"He insulted me and scolded me like, well, like Pepper!" Tony interjected. "He's not Pepper."

"Right." Coulson said, with heavy irony. "So right now the Avengers initiative is falling apart when we need it most." He leaned into Barton's shoulder with a sigh of relief. "I don't know how to keep us together."

It took Bruce about three miles to realize he didn't know where to go. He could try to run, but he didn't have any plans, and he could only live off of Oreos and $20 for so long. He didn't know where SHIELD was, or if they'd take him in after he smashed apart their secret flying base and killed Tony.

His hands shook on the handlebars, and he let himself swerve towards the middle of the road. An ambulance screeched to a halt, sirens blaring. Bruce, embarrassed and ashamed, moved to drag his bike out of the way when he heard a familiar booming voice.

"Halt! This is Dr. Banner of Studying Radiation! Please take him aboard this chariot!"

"Thor?" Bruce asked, bewildered. The ambulance doors swung open to reveal two paramedics leaning over Thor. His hammer was on the floor next to him.

"Thor? What happened to you?" Bruce asked, concerned.

"This is getting ridiculous," one paramedic said. "Do you know this guy?"

"Uhh, yes sir." Bruce said.

"May he be permitted to accompany me to the place of healing?" Thor asked hoarsely, and the paramedics hustled Bruce to an out of the way corner.

"We're being rerouted to the Triskelion hospital," the driver said, listening to the radio. "A lot of wounded near there, and we're to help transport."

"We'll drop you off there, then," the paramedic said to Thor. "They are excellent doctors, don't worry."

"They're still coming?" Tony said, breaking the quiet. "We need to stop the source- we need to go after Loki."

"He must be close," Barton agreed. "He has to touch each person he brainwashes so-" he paused. "Oh. She left to find him?" Natalia was nowhere to be seen. There was a thud, and a sniper fell from a high vantage point, rifle slipping from his limp hand. Natalia stepped back out of the shadows, and Tony blasted the figure creeping up behind her.

"Well done, you two," came a tired voice, and Steve Rogers in full uniform stepped out from the room. "Let's move."

Sirens wailed and Barton cursed under his breath.

"They called in the ambulances, he wants more casualties. We have to get out there and turn them around!" Barron said, worry rising in his throat. Paramedics carrying wounded would be streaming into the area. Tony indicated a wall with a gloved fist.

"Stand back," he said, and blew a hole in the wall. "Okay, through here." He grabbed Steve and blasted through the hole, as Barton drew a grappling arrow. Coulson hooked his arms around Barton's neck, and they dove out after the other two. Natasha climbed down, falling a bit behind and bleeding more heavily from her stitches.

"This is just like Budapest all over again," she said, weakly, sitting down, and Clint noticed a thousand little things about how she moved and talked that was Natasha again but mostly-

"You and I remember Budapest very- wait, you remember Budapest?" She gave him a hint of a smirk, but her face was still taut with pain.

“Wait,” Tony stopped. “What happened to your accent?”

“It was fake.” Natasha responded plainly. “A cover. I needed to make sure we could trust you.” She tried to stand up, but Clint could see her wince, twisting to one side. “Sorry, we don’t have time for a proper introduction, but I’m Natasha Romanov. We’ve met.”

Tony might have said something that was lost to a blast and a collapsing section of the wall.

"Barton, Stark, get to the civilians. I got her." Coulson said. Cap nodded. And they left.

It was probably the longest car ride of Bruce’s life. After Thor had finished talking about what he had done while Bruce was falling to the ground and convinced the paramedics that Asgardians healed quickly, the cabin had gone silent.

“Anybody want an Oreo?” Bruce asked, trying to break the awkward tension. He pulled out the package and offered them around the room. Thor and the firefighters each took one, the paramedics claiming they had already eaten but thanking him anyway and then the room went silent again.

He was almost thankful when the bullets began hitting the side of the ambulance, causing the occupants to flinch with the first ping. There was a crash of glass, and as the vehicle began to swerve out of control Bruce took a second to realize that the driver had been shot.

There was no time to panic before the car jerked backward and stopped. The doors were thrown open to reveal Iron Man with a background of chaos and gunfire.

“There you guys are.” He said. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“Tony.” Bruce said, shocked. “I thought I’d- I thought you were dead.”

“Nope.” Tony said, leading the group out of the ambulance. “Got the armor to me just in time. Nice shirt, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Bruce looked down, seeing the Darth Vader helmet across his chest. “I’m borrowing it from some friends.”

"We got Banner and Thor," came Tony's voice over Coulson's headset. "Hostiles are converging on the hospital, near Coulson and Natasha."

"Meet at their location," Steve said.

"Why are you in charge?" Tony barked.

"I will fight those under my brother's spell, not retreat," Thor boomed unexpectedly. He must have gotten a com unit.

"They're called the Avengers for a reason," Natasha said quietly to Coulson, keeping clear of his mic. "They need a uniting cause. They need something to avenge." Coulson gave her a long stare.

"What are you suggesting?" he asked.

"Officially, nothing." Natasha said, her face calm. "Am I right?" Coulson paused, weighing the angles.

“Yes." he said finally.

"We need backup!" Clint yelled into his comm, and Coulson's calm voice answered.

"We're en route. All other agents are already mobilized."

Coulson was not a field officer and Natasha was recovering from amnesia and a bullet wound. Not a solid backup team.

"Who is coming?" Thor asked, tossing his hammer between his hands and surveying the group of brainwashed agents marching towards them.

"Coulson and Natasha." Clint said shortly, reaching for an arrow.

"Ah, yes, Man of Iron has told me much of Son of Coul and some of the Lady Natasha. You two are lovers?"

"No." Clint said, nocking an arrow and sighting along the shaft. "Used to be, but we work better as partners."

"She is hurt, is she not?" Thor asked. "And yet she still marches to battle. A brave soul. I feel she would get along well with Lady Sif."

Barton released the arrow, letting it fire into the center of the front row. The electricity jumped between the close packed agents, taking down several rows. "Sure."

Then the remainder of the agents rushed forwards. Tony caught a few with small explosives, Cap smashed his shield into the first few, and Thor threw his hammer in a mysteriously curved fashion. Natasha slashed the throat of one, and Coulson had a semiautomatic gun he'd picked up somewhere that he aimed at knee caps to keep them away. The next few minutes were chaos. There wasn't a team fighting, there were a few scattered individuals. Thor was too hurt, Bruce couldn't shift, Natasha was limping, and Barton's head was still ringing from the concussion.

Then Natasha stopped answering the comms and Clint stopped breathing.

"Widow!" Cap shouted, tossing his shield at an opponent behind Tony. "What's your status!"

"Where was the Lady Natasha seen last?" Thor asked, from where he was smashing through a platoon. Tony interrupted.

"Jarvis, scan for Natasha's life signs," he barked, and the comms were chatter free for the longest three seconds of Clint's life.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but her life signs appear to have vanished about a minute after she stopped answering her comms."

There wasn't time to think about it. Civilians and wounded were streaming out of the hospital and into the line of fire, so Clint shut down. He went into autopilot, shooting, dodging, weaving through crowds and directing the panicking masses towards relative safety.

Tony swore quietly under his breath, and Thor lit up the sky with lightning, aiming it at the unfortunate remnants of the attacking force.

Cap was at Barton's side the moment the fight was over. He didn't say anything, just lightly rested his hand on the small of Clint's back. That shouldn't mean anything but it was all that was keeping him anchored.

Natasha was dead.

Chapter Text

Clint was silent, the controls of the Quinjet Fury had sent them humming under his hands. He could hear the rumble of voices from the back- Steve slow and quiet, Tony fast and angry.

“She died fighting because she hadn’t given up hope!” Steve finally snapped. “I don’t care if it’s a hopeless fight. We’re fighting it.” Clint’s hands went white-knuckled on the console and Coulson stepped into the cockpit, bent under the mantle.

“How are you doing?” he said, voice pitched low and quiet.

“I’ll feel a lot better once I can put an arrow through Loki’s eye.” Clint growled.

“We don’t know what Loki’s next move will be.” Coulson said. “I don’t- did Nat say anything to you? Did she see anything when Loki was trying to control her?” Clint shook his head.

“She said he was melodramatic. He wasn’t fighting, he was putting on a show. But she didn’t notice anything when he was-”” he broke off. “I should focus on flying.” Coulson nodded, stepping back into the midst of the rest of the Avengers.

“He’s melodramatic,” Coulson said, and heads turned towards him. “He wants a show.” Tony shook his head.

“Why are you all so calm about this?” he said, spinning a small wrench quickly in his hands. “We just fought half of SHIELD,” Steve brushed against Tony’s back.

“We need you to focus, Tony.” he said. “You know the physics best. What does he need?”

“Elevation,” Tony muttered. “A mountain, tower, anywhere he could find. And if he’s bringing an army through the gate, he’ll want somewhere populated.”

“But he wants attention, praise,” Coulson said. “A monument to himself, his name on the highest-” he broke off, and everyone turned to look at Tony.

“Clint!” Coulson yelled, running up to the front of the plane. “Set a course for Stark Tower!” From the back, Coulson vaguely heard Steve talking to Tony.

“Seriously? You have a tower?”

~~~

“Loki has shown me more than power. He has shown me… he has shown me the truth.” Erik Selvig said, his eyes alight with maniac passion.

“The truth? Here’s the truth,” a woman said, quietly. “He turned you against your friends, your allies, and your protector. He set SHIELD against itself. Half of our agents are injured or dead, and the Triskelion hospital is in shambles.”

“You need to see the truth. You need to accept Loki as the rightful ruler of Asgard,” Erik said, seemingly unhearing. “Then, you will know peace.”

“Do you know where you are?” she asked, her voice without inflection. “What is your name?”

“These things do not matter beside the glorious war,” Erik said, and he turned towards the door.

“Erik.” she said, her voice lower now. “You need to tell me where Loki is going.”

“You mean to stop him,” Erik said, turning back from the door. “You mean to shut it down.”

“Shut what down?” she asked, and he lunged at her. She sidestepped, pulling the door shut. “Erik, how do I shut it down?”

“You can’t fight against yourself,” he mumbled, then pulled a gun out, fumbling at the safety. She knocked it from his hands, and as her taser went off he crumpled to the ground.

~~~

“Reports are coming in that a beam of blue light is shooting from the top of Stark Tower,” the radio said. “Rumor is that the famous arc reactor is malfunctioning, but Stark Industries is claiming no knowledge of the source.”

“Pepper, pick up your damn phone,” Tony was muttering, pacing in the back of the airplane.

“We’ve set up a live reporting booth in Manhattan, we’ll go to our reporters there. How is it?” the radio crackled, and Thor leaned forwards.

“That is the sound of magic disrupting this broadcast.” he said, face grave. “The portal is beginning to open.”

“The beam appears to be spreading into a kind of pool in the sky,” the reporter said. “Wait, I think I can see space through it- what’s that? I’m getting reports that there appear to be creatures pouring from the opening, they are opening fire, I advise anyone in New York evacuate immediately, repeat-” Barton cut off the radio.

“We’re in visual range,” he called. “I can see Stark Tower, there’s some kind of device creating the light.”

“Open fire!” Cap yelled, and the rattle of the guns started over the sound of the chaos from the street below. Eric Selvig dove out of the way, and Loki ran out onto the balcony, staff glowing the same blue as the machine. He fired a bolt at the plane, and it spiraled out of the sky, crashing onto several advancing alien warriors. Cap, Coulson, and Clint ran out of the plane, weapons drawn and shield ready. Thor and Tony landed next to them, and Banner stumbled away from Thor, who’d set him down. They all looked up at the sound of a roar, and saw a creature, armored and massive, come through the portal.

“Comms up?” Cap said, and everyone nodded. “Dr. Banner,” he continued. “This would be a really good time to get angry.”

“That’s my secret, Cap.” Bruce said, turning towards it. “I’m always angry.” And with a ripple he started to grow, going green, fist coming up and smashing the creature into the ground.

“All right, Iron Man!” Cap yelled. “You’re perimeter. No more collateral damage. 2-block radius, anything gets out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash. Barton, you’re scout, you call out strays and patterns. Thor, keep as many as you can from getting through that portal. I’ll evacuate civilians. Damn, we need someone to go after Loki. Hulk?” Hulk looked at him, disdain in his eyes. “Fine. Hulk, smash.” Hulk grinned, and leaped after the closest giant creature.

The next few minutes were chaos. Tony took down a whale with a giant explosion, launching himself almost into a building. Hulk pulled another flying creature away from an office building as Cap evacuated the building. Thor lit up the portal with lighting, using a clock tower as a conducting rod. Civilians were mostly clear, and Barton was calling out where they weren’t, taking out strays.

~~~

It was only a minute before Clint was on the roof of a building at the edge of the fight but the streets below had turned to chaos. Iron Man was firing at one of the whale-like beasts but was unable to pierce through it’s armor. Hulk was fighting the ships from the side of a building, slamming them into the walls. Clint saw movement behind the windows.

“Cap! The building Hulk’s on, there are people in there, get them out.”

“On it!”

Clint watched the streak of red, white, and blue run toward the building, taking out aliens on his way.

A flash of lightning caught Clint’s attention, and he turned to watch Thor fighting a line of aliens, dodging flashes of blue light from their weapons. A ship sailed over him, coming closer to the fighting.

“Thor, above you.” Clint said, and not a moment later the ship was hit with a bolt of lightning and sent crashing to the ground.

Iron Man shot past Clint, a dozen alien ships following in his wake. “Jesus, Stark, how’d you get so many of them after you?”

“One of my many talents.” Tony responded. “Any tips for how to shake ‘em?”

“They can’t turn too well.” Clint said. “Try making some tighter turns.”

“Got it.” Tony said, and began winding his way around buildings, under tunnels.

“We’ve got to get that portal closed!” Cap yelled to no one in particular.

Clint spied a flash of gold, curved horns on a helmet and a green “I got eyes on Loki.” He aimed his bow and fired an arrow at the supposed god’s head. “He’s on Stark Tower with the portal device and Selvig.” Clint let the arrow fly, watching as it sailed right on target toward Loki’s face. Loki caught the arrow the instant before it would have hit his face, and the explosive charge went off, sending him staggering backward and the helmet flying off his head.

“Screw you and your stupid helmet too.” He fired four more arrows at the platform the two were standing on.

He saw movement behind him and he pulled out another arrow. He spun the arrow in his hand before he turned and stabbed the arrow into the alien’s neck. It slumped to the ground. He felt something on his shoulder so he turned and stabbed another in the chest. Three more aliens came after him. The first charged toward him, but a step to the side and a kick to the back sent it sailing over the edge of the building. The second stopped next to him, but he stabbed in in the chest with an arrow and spun until it hung over the edge. He used his foot to push it off of the arrow and send it falling to the ground along the with first.

The third seemed to learn from the other’s mistakes, choosing to stay back instead of charging at him. Clint responded by charging at it, arrow in his hand still dripping from the last one. He stepped up on the barrier around the edge of the roof and jumped, sinking the arrow into it’s neck.

As Clint landed and the alien fell, he spoke into the comms. “Hey, Nat, did you see-” He stopped as he remembered. “Right.” She’s dead, he thought, but he couldn’t bare to say it out loud.

Clint turned back to Loki and the portal on Stark Tower. “It’s Selvig, he’s, he’s shooting at Loki!” Clint tried to aim, but Selvig stood between him and Loki. “I can’t get a good shot, someone has to get in there.”

“I will handle my brother.” Thor said. Clint watched a streak of silver and red tackle Loki off of the tower.

“Thanks, Thor.” He said, shooting another alien over his shoulder without turning around.

“Barton.” He heard over the comms but it wasn’t Cap or any of the Avengers.

“Fury?”

“I need you to get the Avengers out of New York.”

“You do it.” Clint said, firing an arrow at one of the passing alien ships and watching it spiral toward the ground. “You’re on the comms.”

“SHIELD hacked the feed. You’re the only one who can hear me.”

“Why not just tell them yourself?”

“The Avengers don’t trust me. Not yet.”

“I wonder why.” Clint said sarcastically as he fired another shot. He knew he was going to run out of arrows soon, so he was using them for maximum effect.

“You have to get the Avengers out of the city.”

“Why?”

“Because they need to survive.”

Clint knew what that meant. “What are you going to do?” he said, barely above a whisper. Fury sighed.

“They’ve decided to blow it up.”

“You’re going to kill millions of people.” He said, anger rising in his chest. “And they’re still going to come, no bomb is going to close that portal, you’re making-”

“Barton! This wasn't my plan!"  Fury yelled, then paused to regain composure. “The nuke has been sent. It’s too late.”

“It is not too late, you find a way! You put something in it’s path, you do something, anything! You-  You stop it!”

“Romanov would have agreed with me-”

“If you think that’s what she would do then you don't - didn’t -  know her!” Clint yelled, but Fury didn’t reply.

Instead, he heard an achingly familiar voice, “I can close the portal. Does anybody copy?”

~~~

Dodging gunfire was something Natasha did far too often in her life. Dodging Clint's gunfire was something she hoped to never do again. But it did give her cover as Erik authenticity.

The cybermask was disorientingly clear from the wearer’s perspective, and even with the clothes Natasha was still surprised when Loki accepted her fiddling with the machine.

“It has to be adjusted for maximum duration of the portal,” she said, the cybermask keeping her voice a perfect imitation of Selvig's. He nodded, and turned to leave, but he paused, and looked over his shoulder.

“What did the Tesseract show you?” he asked, and Natasha looked back, unflinching.

“The truth.” she said, and Loki split into a grin, walking back into Stark Tower, reaching for his spear from where it was leaning against the wall, reflecting or glowing in a pale blue gleam. “You can't fight against yourself.”

Natasha realized just as his hand was about to close on it, and she drew her pistol, firing on him twice. Loki spun, dodging the first bullet, his face twisting with fury as the second bullet hit him in the shoulder. Natasha fired again, and pulled out a second pistol. He stumbled backwards, blood running from his chest and leg. He grabbed the staff, lowering it at Natasha, when a blur of scarlet and silver tackled him off of the tower.

“Thank you, Thor,” Natasha muttered, grabbing the staff off of the ground. A shock of energy ran through her, and the Red Room flashed before her eyes, but she’d just been through it and it had lost some of its power. She blinked the visions back, focusing on the stream of energy surrounded by the bubble. The spear cut through the impenetrable shield easily, and she tapped at her wrist computer to activate her virus.

~~~

“Sir,” Jarvis said suddenly. “Incoming communication from,” he hesitated. “Apparently, myself, sir.” Tony fade a face as he fried another alien.

“Go ahead.” he said, sharply.

“Tony.” said Natasha, and he tried to avoid crashing his suit into a wall. “Put me on comms.”

“What the hell! You’re dead!” he said, then “Jarvis, do it.”

“I can close the portal,” she said, coughing. “Does anybody copy?”

“Close it!” Cap shouted.

“Don’t!” Clint yelled. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Does it have anything to do with aliens? Because I think this would solve that.” Tony said.

“There’s a missile coming our way.”

“What?” Cap asked.

“You know, nuke. As in big boom, probably soon.”

“We have to stop it.”

“Really? I just thought we’d let the whole city blow up.”

Tony looked up at the sky as the chatter continued, watching the alien forces streaming out of the portal. “Jarvis?”

“Tracking the missile now, sir.” A second later, the location popped up on the screen.

“Don’t worry, guys.” Tony said. “I know just where to put it.”

~~~

Natasha watched Tony take off as Clint used the line from a grappling hook arrow as a zipline to get himself across the rooftops.

“Nat-” he started, but she shushed him and pointed to where Tony was disappearing on the horizon.

“Stark, what are you doing?” Steve yelled.

“Relax, Cap. Trust me on this.” Tony said, but he sounded unsure. “Just keep that portal open.”

He returned a moment later, slowly getting larger as Natasha tried to figure out what he was doing.

“Is that the nuke?” Clint yelled a second before Tony shot past Natasha and up toward the portal above her head.

“Tony, you can’t-”

“This thing is about to explode, we don’t have much time for arguing, Cap.” Tony said, disappearing into the stars in the portal. “Romanov? Close it.”

“What? No, you have to get out of there first.” Steve responded immediately.

“If we wait too much longer New York is going to be in the blast zone.” Natasha said. “I have to close it.” Even as she said it, she waited until she could see signs of the explosions on the ships floating above her head to push the spear forward. The tension was almost audible. The spear hit the core of the energy stream, and the light stopped as a sharp blast knocked Natasha a step backwards.

The portal began to close and she looked above her.

“Come on, Stark.” she whispered.

~~~

The aliens all dropped the instant the missile connected with the ship, leaving Steve to watch, not breathing, as the portal closed. He almost lost hope when he noticed a speck falling from where the portal had been a second earlier.

“It’s Stark!” Clint confirmed. “He’s not using the suit, he’s just falling.”

“Hulk?” He said, a little louder and a little faster than he’d intended. “Catch.”

The Hulk smiled before taking off toward where Tony was falling, jumping up and catching the armored man then sliding down a building across from the tower. Without meaning to, Steve was running to the base of the building , arriving just as Hulk placed Tony on the ground.

“Stark.” Steve said, kneeling next the the armor. “Tony, talk to me.” There was no response. “We have to get this faceplate off.” He leaned over Tony and tried to find some sort of release.

Hulk’s hand appeared next to him, covering the face of the armor and ripping the faceplate off.

“That works, too.” Steve said. He focused on Tony’s face, trying to check for any signs of life. He almost didn’t notice Thor land next to him and Clint and Natasha walk toward them, Natasha’s arm over Clint’s shoulders and Clint’s around her waist. “Come on, Stark.”

Suddenly, Tony sucked in a breath and his eyes shot open, looking around before settling on Steve. “Did we win?”

Steve checked around him for more of the aliens despite the fact that he knew the answer. He looked back down and smiled. “Yeah, we did.”

"Yay!" Tony said, weakly raising his arm from where he lay on the ground, drained armor weighing him down. "Go team!" Natasha managed a weak half smile from where she was leaning on Barton.

Steve made a huff of half exasperation and half amusement. "Let's not come in tomorrow." Tony continued. Hulk looked proud of his catch, and Thor was warily eyeing Hulk.

"We're not done yet," Cap said. "Where's Loki?" Thor looked up, irritation blooming on his face.

"I found Loki, but someone had gotten to him first. He had several bad wounds from a Midgardian gun," Thor said.

"Some poetic justice to that," said Coulson, walking out with a full SHIELD team. Clint felt Natasha shift beside him and he smiled.

"Where is he now?" Coulson asked Thor.

"Restrained by Asgardian means," Thor said, sadly. “He will do no more damage here.”

"Unofficial SHIELD reports are barely 400 casualties and almost 18,000 evacuated safely," Coulson said, to the team now. "You did good."

Hulk shifted, and then suddenly he was Bruce and Bruce collapsed, with Natasha and Clint both shifting out of the way and Thor barely catching him.

"So. What now?" Tony asked, as Cap lifted him to his feet and Thor put Banner over his shoulders.

“How about dinner?” Bruce said, struggling free from Thor's grip and staggering to a standing position. “I owe someone dinner.”

Chapter Text

“You know, Banner, when you said ‘I owe someone dinner’ I thought you meant a date, or you were going to treat us to something,” Tony said, crossing his arms. “A farmhouse forty-five minutes outside the city never crossed my mind.”

“Shut up.” Bruce said, raising his hand to the door to knock.

“I got it!” A voice yelled from inside. The man who opened the door looked at them. The Avengers were huddled onto his doorstep, still covered in dust and in most cases, smears of blood. Natasha and Tony were still unsteady on their feet, and Steve winced as he reached for a handshake. The man returned it politely, looking a little shocked for a second before pointing at Thor. “Hey, I know you. You’re the guy. From the spaceship thing.”

“You’re the fighter of fires!” Thor said with a smile. “This man saved my life.”

“Yeah. Just doing my job.” Adam shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey, you’re the guys from New York, right?” He pointed at Cap. “You saved my life. What are you doing here?”

A small girl appeared next to Adam. “Bruce!” she yelled.

Adam turned his head to look at her. “You know them?”

“He’s the one who made the crater in the field.”

“Ah,” Adam turned back to the Avengers. “Let me guess, you’re Bruce.” He said, pointing.

Bruce nodded. “That’s me.”

“Adam Hopkins.” He stuck out a hand, which Bruce shook. “Judy has not stopped talking about you.”

“Yeah, she sort of ordered me to come to dinner.”

“She does that.” Adam laughed and stepped back from the door. “Please, come inside.”

The Avengers walked in, one at a time, and Judy skipped after them as they walked into a dining room with six chairs around a worn-out sun-bleached wooden table. Thor placed a plastic bag onto the table, and beamed at the room.

“We have brought food for our wonderful hosts!” he boomed.

“Oh, thank god.” Adam sighed. “I was worried we didn’t have enough to feed this many.”

“We gotcha.” Clint said, stepping into the kitchen and setting down two grocery bags he had been carrying. “We’ll just go ahead and make some, what is this, spaghetti?”

“You cook?” Tony asked, sitting on the couch.

“Not really, but I’m the only one of us not currently bleeding.”

“I’m not bleeding.” Adam said.

“Yes, but we’re intruding, so I’ll make dinner. Spaghetti isn’t that hard, is it?” Clint said, searching for a pot in the cabinets. Judy appeared next to him and pointed to one. He opened it, picking a pot from the top and setting on the counter.

“Wrong pot.” Judy said, replacing the pot with another. “Silly.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were such an expert.”

“I’m better at this than you.”

“Which one of us saved the world recently?”

“I did.” When Clint opened his mouth to protest, she continued. “I helped Bruce.”

“Oh, no, that doesn’t-”

“Clint.” Natasha said from the other room. “Stop arguing with the nine year old.”

Clint stared at the girl, who gave him a devilish smile and stuck her tongue out at him before running out of the kitchen and into the room with the others.

“Get back here, you brat!” Clint said, starting to run after her.

“Barton!” Tony said once he made it to the entrance to the room. “Cook.”

“Fine.” he turned as Judy jumped into the seat between Bruce and Thor. She and the god looked at each other and smiled.

Clint was grumbling from the kitchen and Tony was complaining about how old the TV in the main room was when Natasha noticed another girl walking down the stairs, face hidden behind a worn brown teddy bear. She did a little half-wave and the girl mimicked her movements, stopping at the base of the stairs next to the chair Natasha was sitting on.

“You’re the one who shut the portal.” The girl whispered without moving the bear, making it almost impossible for Natasha to hear her. “You stopped them.”

“It was a team effort, really.” Natasha said, softly. “But yeah, I guess I did. I’m Natasha.”

“Alice.” The girl said.

“I like your bear, Alice.”

“Thanks. Her name is B.”

“Just B?” Alice nodded.

“Widow?” Steve asked. “Who are you talking to?”

Natasha turned from where she was leaning over the arm of the chair and Judy spoke. “Alice! Come on over, Bruce came back, you remember Bruce from yesterday, and he brought friends!”

“Come on over, baby, they don’t bite.” Adam said softly.

~~~

By the time everyone gathered around the table for dinner each of the children had a favorite Avenger and each Avenger had a favorite child, though neither would admit to any of it.

Talk around the table was light. Judy told them about her school and how she wanted to be an inventor like Tony, which he wasn’t really sure how to respond to. Clint teased everyone at the table and was teased in return. The pasta was a little overcooked and the sauce was cold but the table wasn’t really focused on eating. No one mentioned aliens or the end of the world. It was nice.

It was only after the end credits for “Finding Nemo,” had finished that Steve thought about moving. He glanced around the room at Judy asleep on Bruce’s chest, Thor on the floor next to them, Natasha’s head on Clint’s stomach and Alice curled in her arm, and Tony’s feet hanging off the edge of the couch Steve was struggling not to fall asleep on. He started to get up when Adam whispered, “You can stay.”

“We should get out of your hair-”

“Nonsense.” He grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. “It’s late, it’s been a long day, and everyone’s tired. You can leave in the morning.”

~~~

Clint didn’t expect the cleanup to be the hard part, but it took weeks. Steve was working on the ground, wearing a stupid disguise that no one was fooled by but no one pointed out. Natasha was called back into SHIELD, and Tony was making new tech 24/7. Clint and Bruce sort of wandered off into the cleaning crews, where no one knew who they were and everyone talked about the Avengers.

He’d expected to be disappointed, mocked, for using a bow, for not being a rage monster or comic book character or genius billionaire playboy philanthropist or literal god, but Hawkeye was just as much of a hero to the crews as Captain America. His scouting had saved hundreds, even thousands of lives, and his arrows and evacuations had saved just as many. Even Black Widow was mentioned a few times in relation to the portal suddenly closing.

So when cleanup is done and he’s gotten a message from Natasha saying she’s back from duty he just wants to curl up in a ball and sleep for a week. That’s when they get the bad news. The Triskelion was still a mess, which they were not in charge of cleaning up, but which also meant that the SHIELD quarters of Clint and Natasha were unusable.

He was also not expecting what happened next. His phone rang just about thirty minutes after he found out.

“Hey,” Tony said, sounding slightly out of breath. “So, Pepper says you don’t have anywhere to stay, so I guess the band is getting back together.”

“What?” Clint managed, checking caller ID to ensure this was actually what he thought it was.

“Well, Bruce didn’t have anywhere to stay since he wasn’t even living in this country, so he’s staying in one of the many guest rooms in the tower, and Thor got stuck here on cleanup duty so he’s staying here too, and Cap just moved in because people kept breaking into his apartment,” Tony rattled off, hardly pausing to breathe. “So I guess you’re moving in too.”

“What about Natasha?” Clint said, blinking hard and trying to process the continuous stream of information that was Tony Stark.

“Ew, girls?” Tony said, sarcasm heavy in his voice. “I won’t have them around the place. Actually, she said she wouldn’t move in until you did. I think you’re the guinea pig.” Clint snorted, and walked towards the nearest subway entrance.

“Send me the address?” he asked. “I’m taking the subway.”

“Seriously?” Tony asked.

“Rich kid.”

“Hawkguy.”

~~~

They celebrated their first night in the tower with another movie. It was an accident, because they meant to have a late dinner. But the dining room was too formal and the chairs were too uncomfortable for the injured and too confining for Thor, so they grabbed plates heaped with food and ate in the rec room. Jarvis offered a film, and there was almost half an hour of heated debate before they finally settled on Robots. By the end of the film it was later than they’d expected and everyone had shifted closer to each other, leaning and slouching into more comfortable positions.

The light of the credits played over the scene that filled the rec room, and Bruce looked around, noting with amusement he was the last one awake. He was curled up, barefoot and wrapped in an unjustly soft blanket, with Thor a warm weight against his side. Natasha was curled into the line of Clint’s side, and Coulson’s arm was around Clint’s other shoulder. Tony had fallen asleep stretched out on the ground, his bare feet sticking out from under the blanket. Steve was in the easy chair, and he was so quiet that Bruce had thought he was asleep, but he was watching the credits with patient eyes. Clint shifted and Coulson grumbled. Tony stirred on the floor, and without opening his eyes he asked Jarvis to put on another movie.

“"The Princess Bride, by S. Morgenstern, Chapter One.  Buttercup was raised on a small farm in the country of Florin…”

The End