Fractured

The lawn of the White House was utter chaos as the Quinjet landed. Bucky and Tony were the first two down the ramp, followed by the rest of the team. Reporters were already flashing their cameras outside of the police tape DCPD had already established. Helicopters were already hovering overhead and SWAT vehicles were on standby. “Natasha, you want to go talk to our friends in blue and ask what they know so far?” Tony asked, turning to the Widow who was fixing the Widow Bites on her cuffs.

She simply gave him a curt nod before running over to the control center. “Barnes, I want you to take Wilson and the twins. FRIDAY’s scans are picking up multiple heat signatures through the White House. It looks like some of the partygoers are hiding from Hydra. Get them out as fast as you can. Got that, Speedy Gonzalez?”

Pietro made a confused face. “I don’t get the reference.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll explain later,” Sam replied, patting the kid on the shoulder and pulling them as they followed Barnes away from the group. Once they left Tony turned to Kate and Clint. “We need eyes inside. Nat and I are going to go in to “negotiate” but I want you two to follow us in and use one of the secret entrances they have inside the Oval Office.”

“Well, if they’re secret passages, how are we going to find them?” Kate asked, looking between the two of them. Clint shook his head. “You probably don’t want to know…”

“I hacked the schematics from the Secret Service database.”

“And there it is…”

“You’ll find them in your email, Barton.” Clint gave him a camp smirk. “Great. Stolen confidential information on my cell phone. What can possibly go wrong with that?”

“Tony!” Natasha called as she came running back, “They said to call the office. They’ve been waiting for us.”

“FRIDAY?”

// Already on it, Sir. //

Tony brought up the screen in front of the four of them so Clint, Kate and Natasha could see and hear what was going on. The phone rang two times before a voice answered. “I was wondering when you’d get our invitation, Stark.”

“Rumlow,” Tony greeted, appearing as nonchalant as ever, “I wasn’t aware you had gotten out of the Vault. Do they know you’re missing? I doubt they let you go on good behavior.”

“Very funny, Stark. We both know it will take more than the Vault to hold me. By the way, how’s Rogers? I really owe him for bringing that building down on me.”

Everyone visibly stiffened when Steve was brought up. “Oh, you know, you’re not worth disrupting his Cancun vacation. Guess you’ll have to settle for little old me.”

“And your team. I’m not an idiot. I know you brought the gang with you.”

“Well, you certainly are not smart enough to master this plan. So how about you put on the man in charge so we can talk negotiations.”

“Oh no, Stark, you get me. Here’s the deal – you come in. Alone. And without your armored suit. Then we’ll talk.”

“How about me and Romanoff?” Tony offered, looking over at Natasha for a moment, “Then she can take the President and his family to safety.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment, proving that Tony was right – Rumlow wasn’t the one calling the shots here. “Fine.”

“I’m also bringing Barton and another inside with me,” he explained, knowing that they were probably going to be monitoring the cameras, “They’re just going to escort me in and wait outside to help Natasha.”

“You mean Kate Bishop?”

This time it was Clint to stiffen himself. Tony was confused – how did they know? Evidently, Rumlow caught onto it. “Yeah, Barton, we know about your little fledgling. There’s someone here who wants to say something.”

Clint and Tony exchanged glances as they heard the phone being handed off to someone. “Barton…” William Cross’s voice sang on the phone, “You and I still have a score to settle.”

“Well I’m not doing anything right now,” Clint replied, earning him a hit from Tony. The facemask might have been covering Tony’s actual face but Clint could already tell what look Tony was giving him – stick to the plan. “Or are you too pussy-footed to leave that office and face me?”

Cross growled and was about to say something when the phone got yanked back and Rumlow came back on the line. “Door’s already open for you, Stark. Don’t keep us waiting too long. Cross over here looks pissed and I don’t know what he’s going to do.”

The line went dead seconds later. “Well…that went better than expected,” Tony announced before FRIDAY opened the suit and Tony stepped out. Clint and Natasha gave him a confused look as he appeared to be in a suit. “What? I had to look my best for the press once we saved the President.”

“Only you, Tony,” Clint muttered as he shook his head. Natasha just smirked as she started walking towards the front door with Tony, Clint and Kate following behind. As they started approaching Clint reached into his quiver and pulled out a USB arrow and handed it to Kate. “Once inside, there’s bound to be a couple goons watching us to make sure we don’t go sneaking off. I’ll cause a distraction and you’ll get to the security booth and plug this in. It will put the cameras on a loop throughout the building so we can sneak around without being spotted. Got it?”

Kate nodded as she put the arrow into her quiver. “You know, I probably could just take the arrowhead.”

Clint smirked. “It’s no fun that way.”

“You’re such a child, sometimes.”

“So I’ve been told.”

The four of them walked in and, as Clint predicted, there were four goons waiting for them. Tony gave Clint and Kate a look and they nodded. “Natasha,” Tony smirked, holding out his arm to the Black Widow, who just smirked as she took it. They followed two of the goons while the other two stayed behind with Clint and Kate. Should have left all four. Would have at least made it somewhat challenging for Barton, Tony thought to himself as they followed their escort to the double doors of the Oval Office.

Show time.

The doors swung open and when they did, Tony got a good grasp at the situation they had landed themselves in. The President and his family were sitting huddled on the couch in the center of the room while a few Hydra agents had their guns leveled on them. Sitting behind the President’s desk was Rumlow, his feet kicked up on the desk and Cross standing behind him. “Well, I have to admit, I thought that you would at least try something,” Rumlow announced as he pushed himself to his feet, “but then again, I guess you don’t want to the President and his family’s blood on your hands, now do you?”

“I’m here, Rumlow, just like you wanted. No Iron Man armor or anything. So, talk.”

Rumlow smirked as he looked at the camera feed he had in front of him. “So Barton and Bishop are listening. I didn’t know Barton had it in him.”

“Are we just going to stand here so you can prattle on like an idiot or are we going to take care of the real problem here,” Tony stated, wanting to keep Rumlow’s eyes on him and not the cameras. “What do you want?”

Rumlow laughed as he walked around the desk. “Me? Oh, there’s a lot that I want. But we’re not here for what I want. We’re here because you have something someone else wants and I just want to cash in the money from it.”

“Let me guess – the Iron Man technology. You villains are so predictable.”

Rumlow shook his head. “No, Stark – you.”

It was probably meant to be menacing but Tony found it oddly humorous. “Well, get in line. You and a bunch of other people want me for many reasons. But hey, I’m here like you wanted and if it’s really me that you want, let Romanoff take the President and his family and get out of here. Then we can talk about what it is you want with me.”

“Tony…” Natasha warned next to him but he shook his head, “It’s okay, dear, we’re just going to have a friendly chat, right Rumlow?”

Rumlow looked at Cross and gave him a nod. When he did the guys around the President and his family lowered their guns. “Go ahead, Romanoff, take them to safety.”

Natasha gave Tony one more glance but when he nodded she knew what they had to do. The President came first. She stepped towards them and helped them to their feet before ushering them out of the office. Once the doors closed Tony turned to Rumlow and narrowed his eyes as he noticed that Cross had seemed to disappear during the moving of the family. Well that’s not good.

Every Hydra agent now turned their weapons onto Tony who raised his hands instinctively. “Alright, Rumlow, you have me. What do you want?”

There was shouting and gunfire outside that drew Tony’s attention away for a moment. This is getting worse was his final thought until someone hit him over the back of the head with the butt of a rifle. His vision went cloudy and everything became muffled. The last thing he saw was Hydra goons in black reaching down to grab him, the door bursting open and a voice yelling, “Tony!”

~~~

Moments earlier….

Clint watched as Natasha and Tony disappeared down the hall and made the right-hand turn towards the office. When they did he smiled at the two goons and gave them a nod. “So I’m curious – what does Hydra pay, exactly, to hire so many mercenaries?”

Kate peered over at him with a confused expression which probably mimicked the expression on the guards’ faces. “I mean, really. I know mercenary work pays well, especially freelance. So…seriously, what is it?”

Clint took a step towards them and they raised their guns, pointing the muzzles at him. “Don’t move another step, Barton.”

His hands went up but he just laughed. “Come on, I’m just asking questions here.”

Kate realized what he was doing and silently stepped towards the security booth. Clint caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and knew he needed to keep their attention on him. He took another step and noticed how they stiffened a bit in their posture. “Oh come on, I just want to…” but he cut off his own sentence as he dove forward at the guy closest to him and began to fight for the rifle. With the close proximity of him to the goon he knew the other guy wouldn’t want to waste a round in case Clint gained control of the rifle. He grabbed the rifle strap and unclipped it quickly before wrapping it around the guy’s neck and pulling to choke him and pull him in front of him as a human shield.

Clint glanced over the other guy’s shoulder and noticed Kate in the security booth typing away as the USB arrow did it’s thing. Just need a bit more time. As the guy he was choking went limp Clint stepped closer to the other guy, waiting until he was close enough to let go and leap at the other, the strap in his hands and using it to wrap around the rifle and pull out of his grip. With the rifle on the floor Clint reached into his quiver and pulled out the tranquilizer arrow to stick into the guy’s neck and knock him out in seconds. Kate came running back out, looking at the two guys on the floor. “When are you going to teach me to do that?”

“When you’re older. Come on, we need to go back up Tony.”

Clint had his phone out and was using the schematics to guide him through the maze of the White House. “Okay, there are four escape entrances out of the Oval Office. Go down this hall, take a left and look for the Jefferson painting. It’s right behind that panel. I’ll take the Lincoln entrance.”

“You sure splitting up is a good idea?”

“It never is,” he muttered as he pulled out his bow, “But we need to have a vantage on both sides and we can’t do that if we’re going through the same entrance.”

Kate nodded. “Try not to get yourself shot, Clint.”

“I can’t make any promises, kid.” Kate shook her head as she ran down the hall. Once she was out of sight Clint began heading towards the Lincoln entrance.

“That was a nice trick, Barton,” he heard Cross say from behind him, making him spin around with his bow drawn. It appeared Cross knew about the secret doors too. “Ready for round two?”

“Depends,” Clint said, keeping his bow trained on Cross, “You going to try to cheat again?”

“Well, you don’t have your kid to come save you, now, do you?” Cross teased, keeping his hands out to his side. “Come on, Barton, don’t think you can beat me without your bow?”

“Oh, I know I can,” Clint replied, lowering his bow and tucking both it and the arrow away while pulling out a smoke bomb arrowhead to hide in his palm. He would need it if he needed to get a clean getaway. Clint got into his fighting stance and noticed how Cross brought his hands up to into fists in front of him. “We’ll see about that.”

Cross ran at Clint and Clint easily ducked the punch that was aimed at his face, diving left and throwing a quick blow to Cross’ unprotected side. Cross grunted and turned to try and swipe at Clint but Clint rolled back out of the way before standing back in his defensive position. Cross threw another punch and Clint slid to the right, only to get knocked back by a punch thrown up into Clint’s ribs. He stumbled back, hitting the wall and quickly dodged the punch aimed for his face. Clint was about to go for a punch when he heard gunshots in the building. “What’s going on?” he called in the comms before avoiding another punch.

“I got the President and his family out but it looks like someone found the two guys you left at the front door,” Natasha replied, ”What’s your locations?”

There was a grunt before Kate replied, “Someone sent agents to cover the entrances, Clint!” Kate called and his heart dropped. Shit, Kate! “The rest of the guests have been evacuated,” Bucky came on, “We’re headed back in to help out. Clint, Kate, where are you?”

Clint was about to answer when Cross landed a hit in his jaw, sending him back into the wall. He got up and threw a wild punch, tuning out the chatter on the comms as he focused on trying to end the fight to go find Kate. Cross grabbed Clint by the collar and lifted him up before throwing him down the hall, Clint grunting as he hit and slid down the tiles. “Kinda busy here….where’s Tony?”

“He’s still in the Oval Office. Clint,” Natasha paused and Clint gripped the smoke bomb in his hand a bit tighter, “They wanted him.”

Clint knew what he had to do. “I’m on my way. Nat, get Kate outta here. I’m getting Tony.”

Clint threw the smoke bomb at Cross, waiting until he was engulfed with smoke before running down the hall towards the Lincoln portrait. He didn’t waste time to enter, drawing his bow and notching an arrow as he climbed through, aiming up at Rumlow.

Until he saw Tony on the ground. “Tony!”

Much to Clint’s surprise, Cross had already escaped the smoke bomb and followed Clint. He used his momentary distraction of Tony on the ground to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold, forcing him to drop his bow and grab onto his arm that was cutting off his breathing. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Cross hissed in Clint’s ear.

Clint could hear Natasha yelling in the comms for him to answer her but his focus was that on Rumlow who appeared in front of him. “Remember the plan, Cross,” Rumlow replied, “Boss wanted both of them.”

Clint’s eyes narrowed in confusion until he saw the needle in Rumlow’s hand. “Nighty night, Barton,” he sang before sinking it into Clint’s arm.

And then everything went black.

TBC…