Chapter 3
Clint’s POV:
The first few days with the new team have been nothing short of good. We haven’t gotten called out so I’m getting a little antsy. But there’s a gym and shooting range here so I can go down there to unwind. Everyone’s been really polite and open, especially about their issues. Tony had a nightmare the other night that Steve helped him through. Bruce had a panic attack earlier this morning and I flinched from a glass breaking. Since we all have been through similar situations, everyone is incredibly supportive. No one criticizes you or laughs at you for having a moment.
I’m on dish duty tonight, which I haven’t done in a long while. I barely remember standing on a stool helping my mom do it before things took a turn. One of the few peaceful memories I have of my mom. While I wash the dishes and reflect on my mom, I realize just how tranquil these household chores are. They bring some sort of peace that I haven’t felt for years. It brings you back down. Grounds you in some mundane way.
“Need some help drying?” Steve suddenly asked as he appeared out of thin air, causing me to jump a little, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s alright,” I said, as I handed him a plate I rinsed the soapy water off of, “I was just lost in my thoughts.”
“Anything in particular?” he asked.
“My mom,” I answered, taking a chance and actually providing an honest answer for once, “Was thinking of how peaceful mundane tasks like this are. The last time I remember doing dishes was with her when I was little before things took a turn for the worse.”
“I get it, mundane tasks are great to ground you,” he replied as he grabbed another plate, “One of the last things I remember doing with my mom is helping her plant flowers in our garden. Don’t tell anybody but that’s my guilty pleasure. Sometimes I sneak away to this little alleyway I found and plant some flowers.”
“Hmm,” I hummed as I smiled at the picture in my mind of Captain America sneaking away to plant flowers.
“You did great at paintball today too,” he told me, “Was a good team building idea.”
“Thanks,” I said, “Wasn’t really fair I hid up in a tree and took you guys out.”
“Well that lets us learn different tactics and discover new things about each other,” he countered, “I learn that you think outside the box and use what’s around you. Normally when people think of paintball they just think of people playing on one level. You didn’t. You took a higher position when no one else thought of it.”
“Never thought of it that way,” I said as I thought of the different perspective Steve was giving me.
Before I had a chance to respond, an alarm went off that calls us to arms. It’s an alarm that sounds and Tony added red lights in case I didn’t have my hearing aids in. Even let me hear the alarm so it didn’t startle me the first time it went off. Even though I know what it is and I expect to hear it, it still makes me jump.
Steve and I set down the dishes and ran, with everyone else that needed a ride, to the quinjet. Steve, Nat, and Bruce got suited up while I flew to the coordinates Jarvis sent to my screen.
“What do we got Stark?” Steve asked over the comms as I fired up the quinjet and took off.
“More of my brother’s aliens have come to Earth to wreak havoc,” Thor interrupted.
“Thanks Thor,” Steve sighed at the interruption, “Anything else to add Stark?”
“Not really since Point Break here stole my thunder,” he sarcastically said, “There are aliens here and they are just causing the most chaos possible in a 2, about to be 3, block radius.”
“Got it,” Steve said and then gave orders to the three of us before I landed and we all took off, comms on, suited up, and ready to attack.
I positioned myself on top of building and fired arrows while simultaneously calling out shots to my team below.
We made progress, got some people to safety and killed some aliens. There were little groups of aliens going further down the street. Stretching out which caused us to separate into three sections, Steve and I, Nat and Hulk, and Thor and Tony.
Steve and I are working well, I’m getting as many as I can for him while also watching my back. Out of the corner of my eye I see some people cornered on the roof across from me. They were running from an alien in the corporate building and got trapped on the roof with the alien.
“Cap! I’ve got some people trapped on the roof across from me!” I yelled into my comms.
“I can’t get there fast enough! Anybody else nearby?” Steve asked as he threw his body weight into an alien’s arms and they both dropped to the ground, “Clint, no one’s close enough. Do you think they can hold on?”
“No I don’t,” I said as I grabbed one of my special arrows and fired it at the concrete structure around the door leading to the roof, “I’m going.”
“How are you going to get over there?” Steve asked.
“Did you forget to tell us you fly or what Barton?” Tony asked.
“Zipline,” I answered as I swung my bow over the line and took off between the two buildings. I could tell the line wasn’t holding well right when I was off the roof. That was the only vantage point I could use besides the side of the building itself, which would’ve made me be low to get to the civilians. I just crossed my fingers it would hold long enough for me to at least get close enough.
The line snapped and I started to fall. I heard Steve yell my name and bark orders for someone to get to me. I was luckily close enough to grab onto the ledge of the building and slam my torso into the side of the building. I threw my bow on top of the building and pulled myself up and over the ledge.
“You okay Clint?” Steve asked.
“Peachy Cap,” I answered as I stood and walked towards the four aliens holding the people hostage on top of the roof.
In a split second, I raised my bow and fired an arrow straight into one of their heads dropping them to the ground. Great. Three to go. One fired their weapon at me which I rolled out of the way before rising to my feet and hitting it’s hand with my bow, causing their weapon to fall to the ground. The two of us tangoed in some hand and hand combat before I delivered a kick to the chest that sent them over the edge of the building.
I turned around and saw the third one going towards the civilians, weapon raised. I grabbed my knife from the back of my suit, ran and jumped on the back of the alien. Slitting its throat so it couldn’t harm anybody else. I dropped with it but quickly rose to my feet when I saw the last alien have a kid with a gun to its head.
“Shit. Okay, hand him over,” I ordered as I wiped the alien's blood off on my pant leg, “You don’t want to hurt the kid.”
“Is he really trying to reason with an alien right now?” Tony asked.
“Shut up Tony,” I snapped as I felt a bead of sweat run down the side of my face while I motioned for the rest of the civilians to go through the fire exit on the top of the roof, “Steve, I got 15 civilians coming to you from my building.”
“Got it,” he said.
“Okay, kid, what’s your name?” I asked.
“Henry,” he sobbed.
“Henry, that’s a great name. My name is Clint,” I told him as I twisted the knife in my hand, “Alright, I’m going to get you out of here, okay? Just keep looking at me.”
Knowing I had Henry’s eyes on me, I took my knife and threw it, lodging itself in the alien’s skull.
“Come here!” I yelled as the alien dropped and I held my arms open for the little boy, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said as he clung to me for dear life.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said as my heart stopped at the sudden beeping I heard.
I turned towards the last alien that had dropped and they had a bomb in their other hand. They armed it right before they died. I’m not familiar enough with alien bombs but I know bombs normally don’t give you a lot of time before they go off.
With limited options, I scooped Henry up in my arms and ran towards the fire escape. I yelled as much information to the team as I could while I ran down the stairs as fast as I could. I jumped down two flights of stairs before the bomb went off.
Henry was still in my arms, I got to a corner of the stairwell and covered him with my body as the debris fell around us.
“Clint!” Steve yelled as the bomb went off before my world went black.