Pawprints

"I really wish villains won't perpetuate the stereotype." Clint grumbled to Natasha, who ignored him. The location of Tony's no-good kidnappers was...an abandoned warehouse. Typical. Steve had already drilled them on the plan, with a few additions from Clint ("Why can't Natasha use bigger guns? They'll give her more ammunition and we can destroy them even more!").

As the QuinJet landed a distance away from the warehouse, the Avengers were busy suiting up. Steve gripped his shield tightly, Natasha was putting weapons in every one of her invisible pockets, Clint was selecting arrows, and Bruce...Bruce was wearing his extra stretchy shorts for Code Green.

"Alright, Avengers," Steve said solemnly, "The mission we have today is to extract Tony Stark, our teammate, and save him from kidnappers. Al-" Just then, Clint cut in, smirking, "Not only that, we should make sure to pound the kidnappers into the ground and destroy every single one of them." Steve looked like he was about to argue, but the rest of his teammates were already trooping out of the QuinJet hurriedly. Steve sighed and quickly followed.

First, Clint and Natasha sneaked up the roof to gather intel. The warehouse was rather large, and it took a while for them to locate a single guard. Natasha whispered to Clint, "The guards are all concentrated around here, so we should be getting closer to where Tony's being held." Clint surreptitiously took out three guards with a few well-placed shots, and Natasha and Clint dropped down and continued searching. Then, Clint's eyes fell upon a vent. He lit up, and, before Natasha could blink, was safely inside it. "Clint!" Natasha hissed, glancing around wildly. "This isn't part of the plan!"

"I'm improvising!" Clint retorted. "Anyway, the next part is all you being spy-y and badass! You don't need my help, so I'm being useful!" Natasha rolled her eyes, but, to Clint's delight, gestured for him to continue as she ducked out of sight. As soon as Natasha was gone, Clint scrambled away from the vent opening, keeping an eye out for any clue as he looked down from above. He saw Natasha, and with a hint of pride, noticed she was strategically taking down guards as she went along.

"Kssh...kssh...Clint? Nat? What's going on? Is it time yet?" Steve's tinny voice coming from the comms made Clint stop and reply, "Nothing yet, we'll tell you when it's time."

Worming his way along the vents, he suddenly noticed a large amount of guards surrounding a room. Natasha seemed to have noticed it too, as she subtly looked up from her crouched hiding position on the floor. Clint made eye contact with her, and slowly nodded.

"Cap, we think we've pinpointed where Tony is. There are too many for stealth- We have to strike fast. I'm going to try and see if I can disable the lights to give us an advantage- Come in on my signal." As Clint set off to disable the lights, Bruce piped up nervously, "Is this a Code Green?" Clint paused for a moment, before answering, "I'm not sure, Bruce. We'll have to wait and see."

As he heard Bruce's acknowledgement, Clint hurried along the vents, keeping an eye out for anything that looked like it...controlled the lights. What were those things called again? A light box? That didn't sound right. Ah well, Clint would just call it the switchy-light-thingy. He'd know it when he'd see it, definitely. Hopefully. Maybe...At this point, Clint was sweating as he frantically tried to remember what the switchy-light-thingy looked like. It was big, bulky, did it have multiple buttons on it? Shit...he couldn't remember.

Then, it was as if God had heard his prayers and decided that today, Clint would be rewarded for his hard dutiful work in S.H.I.E.L.D. Well, at least that was what Clint thought as he heard a voice emanate from below him. "Oh my God, why must I guard this stupid light box thingy?" Clint had to stop himself from doing a fist pump- he would've hit the metal ceiling above him, hurting his hand and probably giving his position away in the process. Peering below him through a grate, he saw a burly guard, wearing a coat and running a meaty hand through his oily hair. Beside him, seemingly surrounded by a godly aura...was the BOX. It was an easy take-out. Almost too easy...

As Clint shot the man almost casually, he lowered himself down with a self-satisfied smile. THE BOX WAS THERE. He'd done it! Clint hummed as he dismantled the box. He was lucky that Tony taught him how to disable something beforehand. But wait...hadn't he fallen asleep during the lecture? Now was NOT the time to dwell on such thoughts. There were three wires-red, green and purple. "Now, was it disable the green wire first or the red one first? Do I leave the purple?" Clint realized, to his horror, that he had no idea what to do. As he was about to inform the Captain of his situation, about five guards came rushing in, staring in alarm at Clint, who had just enough time to think, "Ah, to hell with it," before slicing the three wires cleanly. Clint's heart sank as nothing happened, and the guards gave a yell of fury and charged at him, some aiming to get the alarm button behind him...

The the entire room turned pitch black. He immediately heard chaos erupt outside causing him to smile.

Clint had to whoop, thinking, "I did it!" Then he thought again, realizing, "Oh wait, there are five guards charging towards me." Then he moved. Rolling to the side, he shot wildly towards where some scuffling noises were coming from. Judging from the yell he heard, he had shot someone. His primary target was to keep the guards away from the alarm button, which was sure to alert the Boss, or whatever goons called their master these days. The air suddenly left him as something ("someone, you moron," His brain supplied, sounding suspiciously like Tony) barreled into him, causing him to go "oof!" as he was tossed to a side. The captain must have heard him, as his voice blared in his ears, "Clint? What's going on?" Clint scrambled away, kicking his assailant hopefully in the face before wheezing, "Lights are down, come in and destroy 'em." Immediately, he heard Cap respond with, "Roger that" which made him grin and remember the inside joke he and Tony had had...

Then he remembered the man he was grappling with and instinctively rolled to a side, hearing the man hit the floor with a loud thump, right where he had been just seconds before. But then, he felt another guard kick him in the solar plexus, causing him to be winded for a while. He shot another arrow, hearing it hit its mark judging from the gurgle that emitted from that spot. There was an anguished cry of, "DAVE!" before two guards jumped on him, another one ("With a footprint on his face," Clint thought gleefully, albeit with a little fear) wrenching the bow from his hands and pinning him down. Clint, with all his agent training, fought back, but these were trained henchmen, and there were THREE of them, for goodness' sake...

Clint struggled futilely as a fourth guard, limping with an arrow sticking out of his thigh, looked at him murderously before raising a large dagger. Clint braced himself for the inevitable pain...

There was a loud thunk as a familiar shield came soaring through the air, hitting two of the guards, including the one holding the dagger, and rendering them unconscious. "Cap!" Clint breathed a sigh of relief as the Star Spangled Banner himself came into view, lifting one guard off Clint with a grunt. Clint flipped around and kicked the last guard (he had been staring at the Captain, still processing how quickly the tables had turned) in the stomach and drove an arrow through his thigh, smirking, "Now you match with the other guard!" as he howled in pain.

"You alright?" Steve called, still exchanging blows with the last guard. Clint nodded, gave a word of thanks, steeled himself, and headed into the battlefield, leaving Steve to finish off the last guard.