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The sequel to Sorry About the Post-its (see description for link)

It's been exactly a year since…well, you know...
Anyway, we should do something special. I'll cook if you like. Tell me if you have any ideas.
Cap

What about a movie night? It was Clint's idea last time
Tasha

Good idea, I'll see if we have any decent DVD's
Banner

Okay, who bought more coffee? We already have a full jar
Tasha

I didn't
Cap

Not me
Banner

Nor me
Stark

I did
CB

****
There was a loud crack as her fist connected with her new partner's face.
Ooh, that must've hurt Tasha thought as the agent crashed to the ground in shock, a stream of blood springing from his nose.
"What did you do that for!?" he spluttered.
"It's called training. Get used to it. You'll get far worse out in the field,"
She turned and walked towards where her things hung on a hanger. The door closest to her opened and Agent Hill strode up to her.
"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed into her ear, "That's your new partner there. You're supposed to be training him, not beating him up at every opportunity,"
"I told you already, I work alone,"
"You wouldn't say that if Clint was still here,"
"Well he's NOT still here, is he?" Tasha snarled, "Now if you've not got any missions for me, you can leave me alone,"
Maria stood her ground.
"You've finished you're training for today," she said, "I suggest you should return home until we need you,"
Tasha grabbed her bag and left.
When she arrived back at Avengers Tower she found Tony, Steve and Bruce in the kitchen. Tony sat on the work surface, while the other two stood up against it with cups of coffee in their hands.
"Hey Tasha, you ok?" asked Bruce. Tasha threw her bag and it landed ungracefully on the other side of the room.
"No," she replied, in a harsher tone than she had intended. Sighing, she walked into the main kitchen area and opened one of the cupboards to get some coffee. She remembered that someone else had bought another jar, much to her annoyance.
She stopped.
There were now three jars of coffee in the cupboard.
"Ok, who keeps on buying coffee?"
Three pairs of eyes looked at her in confusion.
"No-one has. No-one's even been out today," said Bruce. Tasha pulled out the latest addition to the cupboard.
"Oh yeah? Then where did…" she stopped as her eyes rested on the brightly coloured post-it that had been stuck to the back of the jar.
NOT DEAD
CB
She froze.
"Tasha…?" asked Steve. Tony looked over her shoulder and read the note.
"Umm…ok…" he paused, not quite sure what to make of it. The other two crowded round.
"Anyone believe in ghosts?" asked Bruce.
****
Stark can you buy a new dishwasher 'cause it's broken AGAIN
Banner

Who did the washing last? Because I've lost my jumper
Cap

You know, it might be YOU who lost rather than one of US
Stark

I thought it was mine. Sorry
Banner

What? Ok…thanks for finding it for me
Cap

Gone to buy a new dishwasher
Stark

Nat can you go and get some more milk?
Banner

Milk in fridge
Tasha

Got you some more coffee
CB

To whoever it is who keeps on signing CB:
Quit screwing with us. We are Avengers. If we find you, you will regret it.
Stark

To the person signing CB:
Clint is definitely dead. It was confirmed by the doctors that he died in surgery.
Also he was CREMATED.
Just saying. Whoever you are, you can't be Clint
Banner

Tasha,
02:00 tonight. Kitchen. Stay hidden
CB
****
Tasha shifted where she sat under the work surface. A spider crawled over her hand, but she didn't flinch or scream in a girly way. She had a thing for spiders, being the Black Widow. She let it crawl away, and then pressed the light on her watch. 01:58. 2 more minutes. She sighed and leant back against the wall behind her, fiddling with the torch that lay across her lap.
The second it turned 02:00, two figures appeared at the window. They opened it silently and carefully climbed inside. The first had a bag on their back, and looked around somewhat nervously. Both were wearing night-vision goggles. The second pushed the first hard so that they moved further into the room.
"Stop stalling," he snarled, "Turn off the alarms and open the doors,"
The first moved slowly at first, but the second lost his patience and hit them round the head with their hand gun. The first quicken their pace and started fiddling with the console on the wall that controlled the security systems.
"Access authorised," JARVIS announced and the doors clicked open. Tasha frowned.
That couldn't be right. JARVIS was probably the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet.
You couldn't hack into him.
The two men went through the door and didn't return for a good 10 minutes. Tasha considered getting up and following them, when the first man came back. He grabbed a fresh post-it from the small table beside the Post-it Point and quickly scrawled a message. He stuck it to the glass wall (window, door, whatever it was), before slipping his bag off his back and reaching into it. He pulled out what looked like a jar of coffee, wrote another message on a post-it, stuck it onto the back of the jar and put it in the cupboard. He turned, and his face now looking in Tasha's direction.
Tasha took the opportunity and shone the torch on their face for a split second, before turning it off again.
She almost dropped it in shock.
Clint had stared back at her, cuts and bruises covering his face.
Before she could even react, however, the second man returned and grabbed Clint by his collar, pushing him hard against the wall.
"What was that light!?" he growled. Clint said nothing.
"I said, what was it?!" He took his hand gun and struck him across the face. Clint didn't cry out. Tasha could almost see him smiling.
"Why? Are you scared?" he taunted. The second man hit him again.
"What did you do?! Did you contact them? Did you?! How?"
Again, Clint said nothing. The second man let go of him and stalked angrily across the room. He past the place where Tasha sat, hidden. She held her breath as he moved past her. He continued until stopped at the Post-it Point. He scrutinised the notes, before his eyes fell upon whatever Clint had written.
"No!" he yelled, pulling the note off and ripping it up, throwing the pieces in the bin. He raced back towards Clint, pushing him towards the window.
"We are going, NOW," he ordered, "Get us out of here,"
They climbed up onto the window sill. Clint got out a grappling hook, attached it to the window ledge and dropped out to the window. The second man was right behind him.
There was silence for a few seconds, before the grappling hook somehow freed itself and fell out of the window.
There was only one person Tasha knew who could do that. He died a year ago.
Was this even possible?
Slowly, she got up from under the work surface and opened the cupboard where they kept the coffee. She pulled out the newest jar of their rapidly growing collection and shone a light on the post-it stuck to the back.
NOT DEAD
You're going to need this coffee
727, 14th Street, Manhattan
CB
Tasha couldn't help smiling to herself.
Clint was alive.
****
"Are you sure?"
Tasha nodded, taking a sip of coffee in an attempt to stay awake after last night's events.
Stark came over from where he had been examining the security panel.
"I can tell that someone's been tampering with it, but JARVIS's logs say that no-one with unauthorised access entered the Tower last night,"
"Clint has authorised access," said Tasha.
"If it even is Clint," muttered Bruce.
"It's Clint. It has to be,"
Steve sighed.
"Look, Tasha, I know how much you miss him. We all do. But it can't possibly be him. People don't come back from the dead, not matter how much you want them to,"
"It was two in the morning. Maybe you just really wanted it to be him, and so you thought it was him you saw when actually it was just someone who looked a bit like him,"
"It was HIM, ok? Who else would leave notes like he did?"
"Tasha…" said Steve.
"Don't!" she shouted, making him jump. She sighed, and stared at the floor and closed her eyes.
"It was him. I don't care if you don't believe me, or if you think I'm going mad. I know what I saw,"
No-one looked her in the eye.
"Fine," she said, "I'm going to check out this address. If anyone wants to come, they are welcome to,"
She had gone before anyone had chance to reply.
727 14th Street was a rather derelict-looking three storey block of flats on the edge of the city. Tasha pulled her hood over her head and crossed the empty road. Sticking to the shadows, she walked up to the front door. She considered how she was going to get in, suspecting that it wouldn't be as easy as just walking through the front door. She reached down to pull her gun out of her pocket when she noticed a brightly colour piece of paper stuck to the wall beside her.
Look down
CB
Tasha looked down.
Right by her feet was a drain.
She crouched down, got out her phone and shone the light into the darkness below her.
A large cage was hung from what she presumed was the ceiling of a basement. Inside the cage was a man with a gag around his mouth. They looked up as the light fell on them and waved a wad of post-it notes at her.
"Clint…" she mouthed, still finding it hard to believe that he was alive. She so badly wanted to talk to him, but she knew that with that gag round his mouth it would be impossible.
Suddenly an idea formed in her head.
"I'm coming back in a minute," she called down. Clint nodded.
She got up and ran back down the street as quickly as she could, unable to stop herself smiling as she did.
She was right. It HAD been Clint last night.
And he was most definitely NOT DEAD.
****
Nat's still not back, maybe someone should go look for her
Banner

She'll be fine. She's the Black Widow
Stark

I don't think she's fine. She hasn't been fine since Clint went
Steve

She is FINE, ok? Conversation over
Stark

Whose car keeps getting parked outside? It's really unnerving…
Maybe I'm just paranoid
Banner

Bruce, you were on the run from the government for years. Of course you're paranoid.
I'm sure it's fine
Steve

Went back to the dishwasher shop 'cause the one I got is broken
Already
Stark

Maybe you should just make one yourself
Steve

Went to buy milk
Okay, I'm worried about Tasha now, where is she?
Banner

Car is back again
Banner

Is anyone else bothered about all this?
Banner

Its fine, Bruce, shut up
Stark

Something is going on here
Banner

Does no-one else see it?
Banner

Hello?
Banner
****
I must look like an idiot, thought Tasha, as she sat on the pavement with a fishing line threaded down the drain.
But she couldn't have cared less.
There was a sharp tug on the line, and she reeled it up. Attached to the hook was a post-it. She smiled at the eccentricity of it all as she pulled the note off, unfolded it and read it.
How long have you been sitting there for?
CB
She turned the note over and scribbled a message on the other side.
Too long. But I don't care. I'm not leaving you
Tasha
She sent the note back down, amazed that Clint could even read it in the darkness he was surrounded by.
Tasha, go back to the tower. I'll be fine. We must have been at this for hours now
CB

They think I'm crazy
Tasha

Well you are! You've been sitting up there talking to a guy down a drain with post-its. And it's raining!!
CB

Says the guy who plagues an innocent group of superheroes with coffee jars
Tasha

Innocent?
CB

Okay you have a point
Tasha

I love you, Nat
CB

I know you do
Tasha

That was your cue to say 'I love you too'
CB

You already made me write enough mushy stuff when you died
Tasha

Did you write about how much you loved me?
CB

No, of course not, I'm not romantic like you
Tasha

You're lying
CB

Ha ha, yeah right
Tasha

It's so cold down here without you
CB

I'm cold too
Tasha

You should have brought a coat
CB

And you
Tasha

Didn't get much choice, since I suddenly found myself waking up three weeks ago WITHOUT one
CB

How are you even alive?
Tasha

It's far too complicated for post-its. How long has it been?
CB

A year
Tasha

Seriously? I jumped a year? That's so weird
CB

Nothing's weird for me now. I've been hanging around with you for too long
Tasha
Before she could send the note back down, there were was a voice down below.
"Hey, Clint! I've got a present for you!"
The basement blazed with light as a figure rose up towards where Clint was being held. Their eyes burned with electrical power, and their whole body was bathed in a blue glow. They pointed their finger at Clint and a bolt of lightning shot out towards him. The moment it touched his leg it burnt away at the fabric of his trousers and the flesh beneath. Clint face contorted with pain and the man laughed.
"Do you like it? Pretty neat, huh?" Suddenly Tasha recognised him. This was the second man she had seen that night at the tower. He floated closer to the cage and untied the gag around Clint's mouth.
"Whose powers did you steal this time?" Clint snarled, breathing hard.
"It doesn't matter whose it was. It's mine now, and they're never going to get it back,"
Clint laughed dryly.
"You know you can't keep them. You know they always go back,"
"Not anymore. I've managed to work around that…unfortunate setback,"
"What did you do?"
"Oh it's quite logical really…if there is no-one for them to go back to, they stay with me. So I made sure there was no-one for them to go back to,"
"You killed them. You killed them all,"
"No, not ALL of them. You're making me sound like a heartless murderer,"
"But you just killed off your army. How do you plan to make this thing work without them?"
"Oh Clint, you don't understand. I don't need my army anymore…I AM my army, more powerful than all of them put together! Not even your stupid Avengers can stop me now,"
"They can, and believe me they will. They will hunt you down and hurt you so bad you'd wish you'd never been born,"
"No! They CAN'T stop me!"
The man started firing the lightning at Clint again. Tasha leapt to her feet and without a second thought forced the door open that she had been sitting beside the whole time she had been talking to Clint. Holding her gun close to her face, she slipped inside and began a hurried search for a way down into the basement. She found a set of stairs leading downwards, but as soon as she started to make her way down it, a man suddenly appeared in front of her.
"You cannot pass," they said. Tasha took the safety off her gun and pointed it at the man's head.
"This is loaded and I WILL fire,"
"Fine, shoot me. But you cannot pass,"
"Your choice," said Tasha, pulling the trigger.
The man recoiled as the bullet hit him, then stood up straight again, very much alive. Tasha blinked.
"Ok, what is this?" she muttered to herself. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out his own gun, grinning.
"This is loaded, and I WILL fire. You have five seconds,"
Tasha thought quickly. She was no use to Clint dead, but she could not leave him down there with that lunatic. Plus, she had to know what was going on, and Clint was the only one who could tell her. She studied the man's position, how he held the gun, where his weak spots were, and how hard she would have to hit him to incapacitate him. She knew exactly what she needed to do.
"3 seconds," the man said.
Tasha looked him in the eyes, and then attacked him.
The man had quick reflexes, but not quite quick enough. Tasha had him on the floor in just less than two seconds, exactly as she'd planned.
"Who's so tough now, eh?" she taunted.
"Time's up," the man managed to say, before firing the gun.
Tasha cried out as the bullet hit her in the leg, the sudden outburst of pain catching her off guard. She quickly got control of herself however, managing to kick the guy in the head, hoping to knock him unconscious. It did no good, the man pulling off the same trick as he did with the bullet, recoiling and then recovering immediately and standing up. Realising that she would have to push him away from her if she wanted to get down the stairs, she punched him in the face to surprise him before kicking him hard in the stomach, sending him to the other side of the hallway. Grabbing them opportunity, she raced down the stairs, ignoring the growing pain in her leg. Thankfully, the door at the bottom was open, so she ran straight through rather than crashing into it. She slammed it shut behind her, hoping to stall the man who was surely coming after her by now.
Not wasting a single moment, she ran forwards, using her phone as a makeshift torch, annoyed at herself for not bringing one with her. She surrounded by tons of cages, some in stacks that almost reached the ceiling. Most were empty, but there was a sense that they had been recently occupied. A few contained still, solitary figures. It wasn't until she saw one close up that she realised the figures were dead.
There was a bang behind her. The man had reached the door.
Tasha stopped and looked up at where Clint was hanging above her, his captor no longer firing lightning at him but instead talking to him through the cage. He had his back to her. She figured that if she aimed it right (and she knew she could) she could kill him with one shot to the head.
She readied her gun.
She aimed.
It was then that Clint saw her from his vantage point high above her.
"Tasha, NO!" he yelled.
Three things happened in the next second.
The first was that Clint's captor turned to see Tasha below him.
The second was that the other man appeared behind Tasha and punched her where she had been shot.
The third was that Tasha fired her gun, her aim now completely messed up.
The bullet hit Clint's captor in the shoulder and he cried out, dropping a few metres in surprise. The man pushed Tasha against one of the cages so her bad leg was pressed up against one of the bars. She refused to cry out even though the pain was immense, but she managed to elbow the guy in the face, which gave her a couple of seconds to get away. She started to climb up the cages as quickly as she could. Clint's captor began to fire the lightning at her, but she was too quick for him to land a blow. She reached the top of the stack she was on and leapt onto a higher stack close to her. The man below her had also started to climb, however he wasn't as nimble as Tasha, and he almost lost his balance so many times that Tasha laughed out loud. When she got to the top of the tallest stack, she found that there were more cages hanging from the ceiling, the same as the one Clint was in, only they were empty. She ran up and jumped onto one of them, trying to climb up it while it swung from side to side. She leapt onto the next one, and the next one, until she landed on Clint's. She fired at his captor again, this time hitting him in the leg. He dropped a few metres again, giving Tasha a chance to get to the lock on Clint's cage. She got out her knife and managed to unpick it. She got back onto the top and started to climb up the chain. Clint followed her, as his captor started firing the lightning at them again. A bolt hit the chain above Tasha, and the electricity surged through the metal. It didn't pass through her because she wasn't earthed, but the heat of it burnt her hands. She was almost at the top when she heard Clint cry out in shock.
"You ok?"
"Yeah," he said, slowing slightly, "Keep going!"
Tasha looked down at her belt and saw a small stun grenade. She smiled, having thought previously that she'd run out on her last mission. She activated it and threw it in the direction of Clint's captor.
"Brace yourself!" she yelled, hoping that Clint would be able to cover his ears as she reached the ceiling and pushed the drain cover away so that she could escape.
The basement flared with light and sound.
Slightly disorientated, since he'd only been able to cover one of his ears, Clint managed to climb out of the basement behind Tasha. He kicked the drain cover back into its place. Tasha leaned against the wall.
"No time for that," said Clint, grabbing her wrist, "He's going to be out of there any moment." He broke into a run, pulling her along with her. Just as they rounded the corner of the street, there was a crash behind them as Clint's captor burst through the drain, taking most of the pavement with him.
"RUN!" yelled Clint, and Tasha did, trying to ignore the growing pain in her leg. They dashed through an alleyway, across a road and down another. Clint's captor followed them in quick pursuit, and they themselves where starting to slow. Tasha looked down to see Clint's leg was bleeding.
"We can't outrun him!" she said, stopping and turning. Clint tried to pull her to get her running again.
"Tasha, come ON, what are you doing?!"
She didn't reply, but grabbed her knife and threw it at their pursuer.
"NO! Tasha, wait!" he cried. He pushed her arm so that her aim got screwed up. It didn't matter anyway, because the moment he saw the knife coming towards him, Clint's captor had vanished. Tasha turned to Clint, her eyes flaring with anger.
"What do you think you're doing?! He tried to kill you! You're not supposed to PROTECT him!!!"
"You don't understand…"
"You're right, I don't!"
"Tasha, he's my brother!"
She was taken aback.
"…What? Barney? But he's…?"
"…dead, I know. But then…so was I,"
Tasha leant against the wall they had stopped by.
"I couldn't let you kill him," he said.
She nodded.
"I know,"
She shifted slightly, and her leg seared with pain. She winced and looked down at the wound, thinking that she ought to get the bullet out of it. Clint followed her eyes and saw blood.
"Tasha, you've been shot!"
"No freaking duh,"
"Why didn't you SAY something?"
"Because it's fine," she said, wincing again as she tried to pull the bullet out. Clint knelt down, and carefully got it out for her.
"We've got to get back to the tower. Put your arm round my shoulder,"
"What? Why?"
"Because you can't walk on that leg,"
Tasha laughed.
"I just RAN on it. I think I can walk. Besides your leg's no better. He got you again didn't he? With the lightning stuff….how can he do that anyway?"
"I'll explain on the way. Now, arm on shoulder,"
"No, I'm fine," she said, starting to walk. Her leg was hurting a lot more now that she hadn't got an adrenaline rush to distract her, but she tried to hide it anyway, not wanting Clint to get worried about her again, or to think that she was weak. He knew her too well though, and stepped in front of her.
"Tasha," was all he said, in that no-nonsense tone that almost made her laugh. Instead she sighed.
"Fine. But only if you put your arm around MY shoulder too,"
Clint smiled and agreed, slipping his head under her arm. They started to walk slowly and awkwardly down the road. Tasha laughed as they almost fell over and Clint had to save them by using the wall for support.
"You ok?" he asked.
"Never been better,"
They walked further, Tasha finding herself to be leaning on Clint more than she like. He seemed to sense her discomfort and hugged her with the arm that he had wrapped around her shoulder. She smiled at him and seemed to relax a little, and then laughed when they nearly fell over again.
"This isn't really working," she said.
"I know," Clint grinned, "But when has that stopped us doing anything before,"
"You going to tell me what's been going on then?"
"Right...Barney met this guy about a month ago, who told him that he had a device that meant you could take people's powers,"
"Did it work?"
"Almost. Barney fixed it up and he tested it,"
"On who?"
"The guy who gave it to him. Turned out he had brainwashing powers. Barney turned on him, took his powers and killed him,"
Tasha failed to be shocked at this. Things like that weren't unusual where she came from.
"He's angry at me…I'm not sure why, but he blames me for everything that happened to him, everything that went wrong… he wants to get back at me so bad, but he couldn't before, because of the Avengers…when he got his hands on this device though…he just needed to get his own set of powers before he could come and get me, and so he's been capturing and brainwashing superheroes and mutants to become his own personal army. Only problem was that he couldn't keep the powers 'cause they didn't belong to him, and so whenever he was near someone whose power he'd stolen, it would go straight back into them….only now he's discovered that if you kill someone after you've taken their powers, you keep them forever. So he's killed them all,"
"But that doesn't explain why you're still alive,"
"One of the people he got was called Wanda Maximoff…you may have heard of her…"
"…No…"
"She goes by the name of the Scarlett Witch. She's a reality bender,"
"...She can alter reality?"
"Yeah, it's kinda crazy….but Barney managed to get her somehow, and he was trying to control her when she asked him why he was doing what he was. He said to get revenge on me, and she told him that I was dead. He didn't know that, and thought she was lying, and so he beat her up or something must have happened that meant she changed reality by mistake, and I guess that because she was thinking about me…"
"She brought you back…what was it like?"
"…Dark…cold…at first I tried to fight it, but there wasn't anything I could do and I guess I just slipped away…It felt like I was sleeping sometimes, or waiting for something to happen…and then there was noise and light and colour…it felt like my senses had exploded…that was when I first woke up, on the streets…I wandered for a bit, trying to get my head around everything, when I bumped into Barney, who was as angry as hell. Grabbed me and put me in that blasted cage and beat me up whenever he got bored. But that wasn't enough, he said. He knew that I didn't care half as much about myself as I did about you. About the Avengers. So he said he was going to burn the tower to the ground, with all of you inside it,"
"But…the coffee? How did you…when you were stuck in that cage?"
"He couldn't kill Wanda. He tried to take her powers, but she would just change reality and take them back. He hurt her though, he hurt her bad, but she managed to get me out of that cage for 5 minutes when he wasn't looking,"
"So you bought coffee?"
"Yeah. You should have seen Wanda's face when I got back,"
Tasha rolled her eyes. Clint was always the first to fool around back at the tower.
"It worked though, didn't it? You wouldn't be here otherwise,"
"But what were you doing in the tower?"
"He made me help him plant the explosives that were going to kill you all,"
"Err…maybe you could have SAID something about that? You know, so we could get OUT?"
"He was watching you. Every day he parked outside the tower and made sure you all didn't leave. So I couldn't tell you until I thought it was nearly done. Besides, I DID tell you. Only he ripped the note up, remember?"
Tasha thought back to that night when she had seen Clint and Barney in the tower. She remembered Barney walking right past her, up to the Post-it Point, seeing Clint's note and hitting him with his gun before he tore it up. She nodded.
"Was he…controlling you? You said he got the brainwashing powers off that guy…"
"No…I don't know if he couldn't make it work on me, or if he wanted me to be fully aware of the stuff I was doing, but he never brainwashed me. He threatened to kill the others if I didn't do what he said. And I thought that if I could get the message to you, it would be ok…"
"Clint…when is he going to blow us up?"
"I…I don't know…he didn't tell me, of course…"
"It'll be tonight. I know it. We've got to warn the others. Can you limp any faster?" she couldn't help but grin at him, still laughing to herself at how ridiculous they must look.
"I can carry you if you want. That would be faster,"
"No, you are not! Don't you even dare!"
****
The moment they walked into the tower, Bruce was upon them like a full on rainstorm.
"Tasha!" he cried the moment he saw her, pulling her into an embrace. He cast a glance at the man standing behind her, and then looked again when he saw who it was.
"Clint?!" he breathed in disbelief. He let go of Tasha and stared at Clint as if he was trying to decide if he was real or not.
"We have a problem," said Tasha.
"Yeah I know,"
"You do?"
"I can't find Tony or Steve anywhere,"
"That's not exactly unusual…"
"True, but that's not all. JARVIS has gone too,"
"What? That doesn't make sense. Artificial Intelligences don't go wandering off whenever they fancy,"
"I'm know, it's weird. It's like someone wiped him from the software,"
"Oh," said Clint, the first thing he'd said since he'd arrived.
"What?"
"Someone DID wipe him from the software. Barney's here, now,"
"Who's Barney?"
"Clint's brother. He's gone a little nuts, to say the least. Clint, where did he put the explosives?"
"Follow me," he said, leading them through the tower and down some stairs. Banner looked at Tasha, slightly bewildered. She smirked.
"Told you it was him," she said.
They passed by a first aid box, one of the few dotted around the tower for health and safety reasons. It caught Clint's eye and he pulled it off the wall and threw it at Tasha, who deftly caught it.
"What's this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Patch up your leg," he said.
"I told you, it's FINE –"
"You're losing blood. You need to put some pressure on it,"
Tasha was about to argue when she saw Clint's face, and thought better of it. Irritated, she stopped and clicked the box open.
"You go on, I'll catch you up. Take this," she said, pressing a radio into Clint's hand. He nodded, and led Banner far down the corridor. He turned right down some more stairs. Banner had to run to keep up with him, and couldn't help but notice the reddening bottom of Clint's trouser leg.
"Hey, Clint, you know YOUR leg's bleeding pretty bad too…maybe you should –"
"It's fine. So is Tasha's actually,"
"But you just said –"
"Bruce, this guy is not what you are expecting. He's my brother, normal like me, but he's so drunk on power that sometimes he doesn't know what he's doing…worse than that, he's unpredictable. Even I don't know what he's going to do next, and I understand him more than anyone. Tasha underestimates him; I can see it in her eyes. She thinks this will all end well. But all that has to happen is for her to take her guard down for a spilt second and she could end up dead. And I can't let that happen,"
Banner said nothing.
They arrived at a door at the bottom of the stairs. Slowly, Clint pushed it open.
Banner froze in horror.
Tony and Steve hung from the ceiling. By their necks.
Clint carried on walking, seemingly unnerved.
"It's fine," he said, "Look closer,"
Banner unwillingly complied, when he noticed that something wasn't quite right with the shape of the bodies…they were more flat than they should be…more saggy…then he saw their faces…or what wasn't a face…
"Are...are they…?"
"Dummies, yeah. He's trying to scare you, just ignore them,"
"Well he did a pretty good job," he said, as he breathed out slowly, realising how close he had been to hulking out. He looked at the room around him. He had never known that this place had even existed before today, not that he had ever been this far down the tower to find it. In fact, he had a feeling that they were actually UNDER the tower. The thought that the whole tower was on top of them that was slightly disconcerting at the least. The room itself was more of a hall it was so big. There were no lights on, but fires crackled fiercely in several places, bathing them in an orange glow. There were large crates that were stacked high pile upon pile. Banner didn't need to read the sides to know what was in them.
Explosives.
"He's gonna blow us to hell, isn't he?"
Clint nodded. He headed towards the crates and began searching for something.
"What are you –"
"He has Cap and Stark somewhere, probably in this room. They're probably unconscious. We need to find them and get them out before this all blows,"
Banner quickened his pace and began to look too. They searched separately for a good few minutes, when Banner reached the wall, only to discover that there was a door embedded in it. He cautiously eased it open.
"CLINT!" he yelled at the top of his voice. Clint ran from the other side room to find Banner kneeling on the floor beside an unconscious Stark. He noticed something wrong immediately.
No Steve.
"Oh no," he murmured to himself, before turning to Banner, "Wake him up, he might know where Cap is,"
Banner tried to shake him awake, but when that failed, he resorted to slapping him hard across the face. Stark groaned and rolled onto his side.
"Tony, where's Steve?" asked Banner. Stark blinked, and then sat up.
"There was a guy...the one who beat me up…got Steve too,"
"Yeah, where did he TAKE him?" Clint pressed.
"He left him in the kitchen…took me down here…I –"
"Banner, take him outside then meet me upstairs. Be as quick as you can,"
Banner nodded, and then pulled Stark onto his feet, much to his annoyance.
"I'm fine," he protested, before nearly falling over again.
"Stark, just because you're Iron Man doesn't make you invincible. You have a bad concussion, ok?" Banner helped him to his feet again and quickly led him across the room and up the stairs. Clint followed them for a while, before leaving to go further into the Tower. He hit the lift, punching in the number of the highest floor he could go to, after which he would have to take the stairs. As he willed for it to go faster, the radio Tasha had given him buzzed into life.
"Clint, what's going on?! Bruce just said that you –"
"Tasha, you need to get out of here NOW. There is a room down there full of explosives that could blow at any minute,"
"Yeah? Then what are YOU doing then?"
"…Nothing. Just stay where you are,"
"No, I'm coming after you. Where are you?"
"No, you can't. Tasha, he WILL kill you,"
"And I don't have to deal with people like him every day? Just tell me where you are and I can come and help you,"
He said nothing.
"CLINT! Let me HELP you!! I…" she trailed off.
"I don't want you to die again," she said, her voice quiet. Clint sighed.
"I'll be fine. I promise you. Just don't follow me, please,"
Tasha said nothing. Clint slipped the radio into his pocket and leant his head against the wall.
Suddenly the lift doors pinged open. Clint raced out, round the corner and up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He reached the right floor and snuck through the hallway into the kitchen. He suddenly realised that he was completely unarmed. Cursing under his breath at his stupidity, he moved past the glass panel that was the Post-it Point and into the kitchen.
The room was filled to the brim with explosives.
Clint moved further in, watching his feet as there were wires all over the floor. Searching quickly, it took him less than a minute to find Cap, unconscious and tied to the table. The knot was entangled in more wires still. Frowning, Clint took one wire between his fingers and followed it to its source: a large object covered by a tarpaulin. Carefully he pulled the tarpaulin away to reveal a metal device with two clocks above it, one about a minute ahead of the other. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were for.
The first clock would reach 18:00 and the explosives under the tower would detonate.
The second clock would reach 18:00 a minute later, and the device would blow all the bombs in the kitchen.
He had ten minutes to get Cap free and out of the building.
He raced back to the table and began to untie the rope, trying not to disturb the wires too much, worried that he might accidently trip an explosion. After what seemed like far too long, he managed to pull Cap away from the table, and towards the Post-it Point. Suddenly the kitchen flared with light and lighting arched towards them. Clint cursed under his breath as he dodged out of the way, the bolt missing him and hitting the Post-it Point instead. The glass shattered, showering them in sharp shards. Barney ran towards his brother and shoved him hard against the wall, causing him to hit his head. Clint retaliated, punching him across the face and making his nose bleed. Barney zapped his leg again with the lightning, but Clint merely winced as he searched the room quickly for some kind of weapon. His eyes fell upon the shards of glass on the floor. He grabbed one and aimed it so that it skimmed past his brother's arm, cutting into him only slightly. Clint was still unwilling to kill Barney, although he was beginning to think that he might have to. But before he got the chance, Barney was upon him, a knife in his hand. Clint tried to wriggle out of his grip, but his brother was stronger than him and pushed him to the floor. He touched the side of Clint's head and a blue glow rippled from his index finger. Clint tensed up as the electricity passed through him, and Barney grinned. Taking his finger away, he slashed Clint's arm with the knife, expecting him to be unconscious.
He wasn't.
Clint got his hand round his neck and pulled him to the ground. Barney yelled in frustration and tried to get up again, but Clint held him firmly on the ground, standing up and holding him down with his foot. Thinking quickly, Barney closed his eyes and concentrated. The table near what was once the Post-it Point suddenly threw itself at Clint, who ducked just in time. The glass on the floor rose slowly, and then raced towards him. He tried to get out of the way again, but one caught him on the face, another cutting his leg. Barney scrambled to his feet while his brother was distracted and pulled him into a headlock, brandishing his knife, just as Banner and Tasha burst into the room.
For a second, no-one said anything. Banner tried to move towards Cap, who still lay unconscious on the floor, but Barney shook his head.
"Ah, ah, ah, no moving," he tutted, and then pressed the knife harder into Clint's neck, not quite breaking the skin, "No moving or Clint gets it. Don't think for a SECOND that I won't,"
"You wouldn't kill your own brother…" Banner said.
"You bet I would," he snarled, "Now stay exactly where you are…"
A force field surrounded Tasha, Banner and Cap, crackling with purple energy. Tasha shoved it as hard as she could but only succeeded in burning her shoulder. Clint shot a glance towards the clocks on the metal device.
7 minutes left.
"Let them go!" he yelled, struggling against Barney's grip, "You can do whatever you want to me, just let them go!"
Barney said nothing concentrating hard on maintaining the shield, but he smirked at his brother's outcry and pressed the knife even further into his neck, drawing blood. He walked backwards, dragging Clint along with him.
"Enjoy the party," he called as he disappeared down the corridor that led to their bedrooms, "Sorry I'm not going to be around when things get explosive,"
Banner looked at Tasha, hiding his fear so darn well that if it had be anyone but Tasha, they would have thought that he was the calmest man in the world.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said, "I don't suppose the other guy can tear through force shields, can he?"
"I don't want to try. Not in this thing. Someone – something that big would kill us all outright in this tiny space,"
Tasha looked down the corridor that Clint and his brother had just disappeared down. If she was going to die, she wanted him to be the last thing she thought of.
****
"Barney, let them go NOW!" Clint yelled. Again, he didn't answer. Suddenly Clint realised just how much concentration it was taking for him to keep the shield around Tasha and the others. He smiled slightly, thinking quickly how he could use that to his advantage.
"Hey Barney," he said teasingly, "Guess what?"
"What?" his brother grunted.
Clint stamped down hard on his brothers foot.
"You're it!" he grinned. Barney cried out in shock, almost letting Clint go. Taking the opportunity, Clint writhed out of his grip and started to run back, when Barney pointed a finger down the hall, and a large door that had apparently been ripped out of its frame blocked the corridor. Clint stopped just before he ran right into it.
"No. You're getting us both out of here NOW," Barney growled.
Clint turned and stared his brother coldly.
"No, brother. Find your own way out,"
He ran towards the window, but Barney grabbed him before he got there and tackled him to the floor. Clint yelled and punched his brother in the face.
5 minutes.
****
Just as Cap stirred from his comatose state, the force shield evaporated around them. Banner looked up in disbelief.
"Wha…?" he breathed.
Tasha leapt into action, racing for the stairs, only halting when she realised Banner was still on the floor with Cap.
"Come on!" she yelled, "If we want to get out, we have to go NOW,"
"We won't make it," he said, "What's the point?"
"Don't say that until we're dead," she said, helping Cap to his feet. "Can you run?" she asked.
"I can try," he said. The three of them broke into a run.
"Wait!" said Banner, suddenly running back for something.
"Bruce!" Tasha cried, "Now is NOT the time to –"
"I know!" he said, returning with a weirdly large tray that had been lying on the floor somewhere in the kitchen, "But we'll never make it down the stairs or in the lift. We need something much MUCH quicker. Now, the top part of the tower is sloped towards a slightly lower building with a flat roof…"
Tasha eyed the tray warily, realising that, due to its peculiar size, it was just big enough for three adults to sit on.
"You're not seriously suggesting…"
"Oh yes, you BET I am," he couldn't help but grin, leading them to the nearest window with a large window sill. He turned to the other two.
"Who wants to go on the front?"
Tasha shook her head.
"It was your idea,"
Banner rolled his eyes and sat on the tray.
"Cap in the middle, since he's the one who was unconscious a minute ago. Now hurry! We probably have only seconds left!"
Cap and Tasha got on the tray. Banner looked at the sloped glass below them, and then at the vertical drop several hundred metres away from that. He swallowed nervously.
"When we land, we're going to have to run as fast as we can to clear the blast radius ok? Are we ready?"
"Just send us to our deaths, already," murmured Tasha, trying not to grin as adrenaline pumped through her veins.
Banner shrugged and slowly pushed the tray from the window sill.
"Here we gooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Tasha resisted the urge to scream as they plummeted downwards. She clung onto Cap for dear life, who clung onto Banner, who raised his arms in the air and whooped. The tray gained momentum as they slid at a terrifying speed towards the edge of the tower. Tasha vaguely heard the sound of a chopper nearby through the deafening wind that whooshed past her ears. She buried her face into Cap's shoulders, just as they reached the edge and soared into the air.
She braved a peek downwards and saw EXACTLY how far they would fall if this didn't work. She looked away, tightening her grip around Cap. Cap looked behind them, at the tower that was going to blow any second and the news chopper that flew with them.
Banner looked at the sky and smiled.
The moment lingered for much longer than a moment.
Suddenly the building below rushed up to meet them and they landed with an incredible bump. They all jerked forwards and Banner's arm landed on the roof, friction tearing away at his skin as the momentum sent them careering across the concrete. He gasped in shock and somehow managed to roll off the tray where he sat, blinking.
The other two crashed into the top of an air vent that stuck out of the building. Dazed, they got up. Tasha rubbed her head as she staggered towards where Banner was.
"Banner! You ok?" she yelled. He blinked again, and then got to his feet, his arm raw and bleeding.
"Yeah," he replied, trying to think through the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He looked back at the tower, and suddenly everything clicked into place.
"RUN!" he yelled, sprinting towards a door that he hoped would lead to a stairwell. However, it was locked, and so he ran right into it. He yelled in anger, then closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing.
"Banner…" asked Tasha warily.
"I'm fine…" he murmured, "I just need to, you know, stay calm. Won't be a minute,"
"Not trying to rush you or anything, but we may not HAVE a minute. Is it locked?" she asked. Banner nodded.
"Right," she huffed, racing over to the edge of the roof and peering over the edge. There was a metal staircase down the side of the building in case of a fire. Tasha smiled. Perfect.
"Ok, down this ladder NOW guys!" she yelled. Banner and Cap ran towards her and they began to descend as fast as they could down the metal rungs.
"Guys? You know when the first set of bombs go off…we're in a bad place…you know, because of the freaking SHOCKWAVES and all…" warned Banner.
Before the other two had chance to reply, the first clock in the tower reached 18:00, and the entire underneath of the tower exploded.
There was a loud rumble, like a strong earthquake. The ground shuddered far below them and the building they were climbing down shook. The noise quietened.
Tasha frowned.
"The tower didn't fall down…there wasn't any smoke…" she said, "How is that–"
"It takes more than that to bring a tower down," said Banner, "That why there were two sets of explosives. The tower's now structurally unstable, which means that when the explosives at the top go off, the whole thing will just collapse,"
"How long have we got?" asked Cap.
"Less than a minute," said Tasha, looking down the ladder at how far they still had to go. No way were they going to get down that in time. However, there was a little platform further down. It would be perfect, but it would be a lot safer than staying where they were….
"Get down to that platform!" she told the other two, "We can hunker down there until things calm down a bit,"
They climbed as quickly as they could, aware of the time ticking by second by second. Tasha swung from the ladder onto the platform and looked down over the railings. The drop below them stretched out for a good few hundred metres away. Cap joined her, looking at Banner who was on the ladder above him.
The top of Avengers Tower erupted with fire.
The space exploded with sound, shockwaves ripping through the air. The shaking began again, this time worse, and Banner had to cling on to the ladder for dear life. There was a loud rumble as the tower began to collapse, billowing out clouds of smoke and dust like hell had opened up beneath them. There were screams from down below as people who had been unwise enough to stick around after the first explosion realised the danger they were in. The dust cloud grew bigger, consuming the three avengers and coating them in grey ash. Banner coughed and shut his eyes. He wished that he could cover his mouth, but he couldn't let go of the ladder.
"Banner! Climb down!" Cap yelled. He shook his head, not opening his mouth for a second. The shaking continued for a few more seconds, before it resided. The air cleared a little and Tasha looked down at the ground. She couldn't see much, but a few lights from emergency vehicles dimly flashed below them. She turned back to see Banner slowly making his way down the ladder again.
"You ready to carry on going down?" she asked. Banner nodded.
"You can open your mouth, you know. You're still breathing in dust through your nose, so it's not exactly going to make much difference,"
Banner shrugged, mouth still firmly shut. Cap was looking up, thinking.
"Do you think Clint made it out?" he asked. Tasha was caught off guard. It was possible that he hadn't, and if he had, he was likely with his brother, who would probably finish him off at the first chance he got. She didn't know what to think. She had been so close to having him back, and then he was gone. Just like that. A torrent of emotions suddenly flooded through her veins. It was worse than when she had lost him the first time.
She decided, right there and then, that he had to be alive. Because she didn't know what she would do if he wasn't.
"He's fine," she said, "He's probably somewhere down there waiting for us,"
Cap wasn't convinced, but he nodded.
"We should get moving again," he said. Tasha agreed and continued down the ladder, the other two following close behind. They climbed for at least ten minutes before they finally arrived on the ground again. The rubble from the tower had spilled out into the surrounding streets, creating little mountains of bricks, glass, wires, computer bits and other junk that had been smashed beyond recognition. They climbed onto it and as the air cleared even more, the dim shapes of black SHIELD cars could just be seen a few metres away from where they stood. Tasha raced down the rubble towards the silhouettes that were moving around nearby.
"Hello?" she yelled, "Who is that?"
"Tasha?" they breathed in disbelief, "Tasha, is that you?!"
"Yeah," she said rolling her eyes. She recognised that voice – it belonged to Agent Kat Collins, one of the agents SHIELD had unsuccessfully tried to pair with her a few months ago. She was a nice enough girl, but Tasha had little time for her, especially as she was supposed to be replacing Clint, something that could never be done. Clint. If he was alive (which he WAS, she told herself) then it was likely he was around here.
"Have you seen–" she started, then stopped, realising that to Kat, or to any of the other SHIELD agents, Clint had died a year ago. If she asked for him, she would be deemed crazy, even if the other Avengers said they'd seen him too. Post-Traumatic Stress, they would say, would have caused them to think something happened when actually it had all been in their heads. That Clint had been dead for a year now and perhaps it was time they got over it.
But he had been alive. He still was alive. He had to be.
"Huh? Have I seen who?" asked Kat.
Tasha waved it off, thinking.
"Where's Agent Hill?" she asked.
"In the Helicarrier,"
Tasha grabbed her radio from her belt and clicked it on.
"Agent Hill, do you copy?"
"Agent Romanoff, good to hear your voice. Did we get everyone out?"
"I…I don't know…Can you scan for life signs, or look at the rubble with heat sensors or something?"
"I'll see what I can do. Hill out,"
Kat frowned.
"Who was left in there? We got everyone out when Banner told us something was up. Everyone except Stark and Rogers, but Rogers is here and Stark's back there," she indicated to the mass of SHIELD cars behind her, "So who was left?"
Tasha didn't reply. Cap appeared by her side.
"Nat…I doubt he made it...the likelihood that he got out fast enough is–"
"Steve," said Banner, and he stopped. Tasha stared hard at the radio in her hand, waiting.
"Would someone like to tell me what's going on? Who was left in there?!" Kat exclaimed, and got no response.
Suddenly the radio crackled into life.
"This is Agent Hill; we're scanning the area now. Standby,"
They waited.
"…Nothing…there's no-one in there…well, no-one alive. Are you looking for someone in particular?"
"Yes," said Tasha.
"Did they have a radio or another device that we can use to contact them?"
"Yes! Yes he did! He had a radio," Tasha exclaimed, kicking herself for not thinking of that beforehand, "I'll try him now, Romanoff out,"
She adjusted the frequency on the dial at the top and pressed the talk button.
"Clint? Clint do you read me?" she said. Kat frowned.
"Wha…? But…Tasha, he's–"
Tasha scowled at her and she stopped talking. The radio gave them a load of static and nothing else. Tasha adjusted the dial and tried again.
"Clint? Can you hear me? Clint!"
No answer.
"There must be something wrong with this radio," she muttered, adjusting the dial again. Cap walked up next to her, held her hands and calmly took the radio out of them. Tasha let him, staring at the floor.
"He's not dead. He can't be…not again…" she said, her voice barely a whisper. Cap pulled her into a gentle hug, and she buried her face into his shoulder. Banner watched them from where he stood a couple of metres away, lost in thought. Kat, unsure of what to do, looked behind her at the flurry of activity that seemed distant through the dust that was beginning to settle on the ground.
Time moved slower and slower, until it seemed to stand still.
"He's still alive…he's still alive…" Tasha found herself murmuring over and over. Cap hugged her slightly tighter.
And then there was silence, save the sound of paper from the tower fluttering to the ground like white ghosts amongst all the grey.
****
'…We've received reports of an explosion in one of the towers on Manhattan Island. We're going now to our reporter on the scene. Mark, what can you tell us?
Thanks, Hayley. Yes, as you can see behind me, there is a rather ominous plume of smoke rising from the skyline of Manhattan Island. What we thought at first to be a small, localised earthquake, turned out to be the first of two explosions in what we believe to be Avengers Tower, which collapsed about half an hour ago. We don't yet know if anyone was actually in the tower during the explosion, or if anyone has been hurt, but we'll give you an update the moment we hear something…'

'…In other news, we've been informed that Avengers Tower has collapsed after an explosion on the top most floors. The reason for the explosion is yet unknown. We're waiting for more information…'

'…Back to Manhattan, we have footage from our helicopter that was in the area after the crew heard about a bomb scare in Avengers Tower. Our reporter, James was on board at the time, and they have captured some amazing images of three people escaping from the top floor by sliding down the sloped side of the tower on what appears to be an oversized dinner tray. If you watch, you can also see the tower collapsing seconds after the top floors explode. We believe that this was the second of two explosions, the first occurring underneath the tower, making it structurally unstable so that on the second explosion it collapsed. We haven't received information about casualties yet, but stay tuned to see how this story evolves…'

'…We have good reason to believe that there were only two people in the tower when it collapsed, due to the fact that an evacuation had been ordered 40 minutes before the first explosion. One has been confirmed as the Avenger Clint Barton, but the identity of the other has not been revealed by the special services. The other people involved in the incident are recovering in a government facility…'

Hey guys, have you check out the news? We're all over it.
Oh, and I found a new Post-it Point
Stark

Stark, will you stop sticking post-it's on the SHIELD equipment? Fury's getting really mad at you
Maria

Avengers: How's this for a temporary Post-it Point? I mean, we pass by it all the time and it's not in the way…
Banner

Anyone else miss Avengers Tower?
Cap

Every day. No offense to SHIELD or anything, but their base sucks
Stark

I miss Clint more
Tasha

Where's your room, Steve?
Stark

…Opposite yours…
Cap

Oh.
Where's MY room?
Stark

I'm rolling my eyes
Banner

I'll show you later
Steve

Hey Banner, you know that on that clip of you three sliding down the tower, you look like you're having way too much fun
Stark

Ha ha, yeah I know
Banner

You know, as soon as the new tower's finished, life's going to get back to normal really quickly. When will it be done?
Cap

No idea
Stark

How can you say that things will get back to normal? Things haven't been normal for a VERY long time!
Banner

How are guys over it yet? He's gone. And he's not coming back.
Tasha

****
Four weeks later
Tasha walked along the corridor and up to her locker to get her stuff ready for training. She clicked her key into the lock and opened the door.
She froze.
Inside, there was a coffee jar with a post-it stuck to it. It read:
NOT DEAD
CB
She stepped backwards, only to feel something tickling her hair. Whipping around, she found another post-it hanging from a fishing line in front of her.
Look up
CB
She looked up and saw that there was an air vent above her. The grating, however, had been removed and in its place was Clint, who waved at her cheerily.
"Clint!? You're…but…the tower, it collapsed…how did you…?"
Clint scowled at her.
"Of all people, Tasha, I thought you would know that jumping of tall buildings and surviving is NOT difficult for me,"
She frowned. Clint sighed.
"Found a grappling hook in my bedroom,"
Tasha laughed. She'd forgotten that she'd left all his stuff in there.
Because, to be honest, she had still be desperately hoping that he would come back.
And he had.
"Why didn't you radio me?" she asked, slightly annoyed at him for letting her believe he was dead for about a month. He reached for something in his pocket, and then threw it down to her once he had retrieved it. She caught it and looked at it, a rather messed up looking radio.
"Broke it. Sorry,"
Tasha rolled her eyes.
"What about Barney? What happened to him?"
"Teleported out, left me to blow up, the jerk. At least I got to beat him up first,"
"You gonna come down then?" she asked.
In reply, he swung his legs over the opening and jumped down to join her. He landed in front of her, and they looked at each other for a few seconds, caught in the moment. Then, without warning, Clint pulled her into a tight hug. Tasha gasped in surprise, then smiled, realising how good it was to be held in his arms again.
"I missed you," she said.
Clint smiled.
"I missed you too. More than anything else in the whole world. I thought of you every day, and I'm so sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner,"
"Shut up," she replied, hugging him tighter. They stood there in the corridor, locked in an embrace that seemed to last forever, neither of them wanting it to end.
Finally, Clint's grip loosened and he held Tasha at arm's length.
"How about some coffee?" he said.
Tasha grinned.
"Coffee sounds great,"

Description
The sequel to Sorry About the Post-its (see description for link)

It's been exactly a year since…well, you know...
Anyway, we should do something special. I'll cook if you like. Tell me if you have any ideas.
Cap

What about a movie night? It was Clint's idea last time
Tasha

Good idea, I'll see if we have any decent DVD's
Banner

Okay, who bought more coffee? We already have a full jar
Tasha

I didn't
Cap

Not me
Banner

Nor me
Stark

I did
CB

****
There was a loud crack as her fist connected with her new partner's face.
Ooh, that must've hurt Tasha thought as the agent crashed to the ground in shock, a stream of blood springing from his nose.
"What did you do that for!?" he spluttered.
"It's called training. Get used to it. You'll get far worse out in the field,"
She turned and walked towards where her things hung on a hanger. The door closest to her opened and Agent Hill strode up to her.
"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed into her ear, "That's your new partner there. You're supposed to be training him, not beating him up at every opportunity,"
"I told you already, I work alone,"
"You wouldn't say that if Clint was still here,"
"Well he's NOT still here, is he?" Tasha snarled, "Now if you've not got any missions for me, you can leave me alone,"
Maria stood her ground.
"You've finished you're training for today," she said, "I suggest you should return home until we need you,"
Tasha grabbed her bag and left.
When she arrived back at Avengers Tower she found Tony, Steve and Bruce in the kitchen. Tony sat on the work surface, while the other two stood up against it with cups of coffee in their hands.
"Hey Tasha, you ok?" asked Bruce. Tasha threw her bag and it landed ungracefully on the other side of the room.
"No," she replied, in a harsher tone than she had intended. Sighing, she walked into the main kitchen area and opened one of the cupboards to get some coffee. She remembered that someone else had bought another jar, much to her annoyance.
She stopped.
There were now three jars of coffee in the cupboard.
"Ok, who keeps on buying coffee?"
Three pairs of eyes looked at her in confusion.
"No-one has. No-one's even been out today," said Bruce. Tasha pulled out the latest addition to the cupboard.
"Oh yeah? Then where did…" she stopped as her eyes rested on the brightly coloured post-it that had been stuck to the back of the jar.
NOT DEAD
CB
She froze.
"Tasha…?" asked Steve. Tony looked over her shoulder and read the note.
"Umm…ok…" he paused, not quite sure what to make of it. The other two crowded round.
"Anyone believe in ghosts?" asked Bruce.
****
Stark can you buy a new dishwasher 'cause it's broken AGAIN
Banner

Who did the washing last? Because I've lost my jumper
Cap

You know, it might be YOU who lost rather than one of US
Stark

I thought it was mine. Sorry
Banner

What? Ok…thanks for finding it for me
Cap

Gone to buy a new dishwasher
Stark

Nat can you go and get some more milk?
Banner

Milk in fridge
Tasha

Got you some more coffee
CB

To whoever it is who keeps on signing CB:
Quit screwing with us. We are Avengers. If we find you, you will regret it.
Stark

To the person signing CB:
Clint is definitely dead. It was confirmed by the doctors that he died in surgery.
Also he was CREMATED.
Just saying. Whoever you are, you can't be Clint
Banner

Tasha,
02:00 tonight. Kitchen. Stay hidden
CB
****
Tasha shifted where she sat under the work surface. A spider crawled over her hand, but she didn't flinch or scream in a girly way. She had a thing for spiders, being the Black Widow. She let it crawl away, and then pressed the light on her watch. 01:58. 2 more minutes. She sighed and leant back against the wall behind her, fiddling with the torch that lay across her lap.
The second it turned 02:00, two figures appeared at the window. They opened it silently and carefully climbed inside. The first had a bag on their back, and looked around somewhat nervously. Both were wearing night-vision goggles. The second pushed the first hard so that they moved further into the room.
"Stop stalling," he snarled, "Turn off the alarms and open the doors,"
The first moved slowly at first, but the second lost his patience and hit them round the head with their hand gun. The first quicken their pace and started fiddling with the console on the wall that controlled the security systems.
"Access authorised," JARVIS announced and the doors clicked open. Tasha frowned.
That couldn't be right. JARVIS was probably the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet.
You couldn't hack into him.
The two men went through the door and didn't return for a good 10 minutes. Tasha considered getting up and following them, when the first man came back. He grabbed a fresh post-it from the small table beside the Post-it Point and quickly scrawled a message. He stuck it to the glass wall (window, door, whatever it was), before slipping his bag off his back and reaching into it. He pulled out what looked like a jar of coffee, wrote another message on a post-it, stuck it onto the back of the jar and put it in the cupboard. He turned, and his face now looking in Tasha's direction.
Tasha took the opportunity and shone the torch on their face for a split second, before turning it off again.
She almost dropped it in shock.
Clint had stared back at her, cuts and bruises covering his face.
Before she could even react, however, the second man returned and grabbed Clint by his collar, pushing him hard against the wall.
"What was that light!?" he growled. Clint said nothing.
"I said, what was it?!" He took his hand gun and struck him across the face. Clint didn't cry out. Tasha could almost see him smiling.
"Why? Are you scared?" he taunted. The second man hit him again.
"What did you do?! Did you contact them? Did you?! How?"
Again, Clint said nothing. The second man let go of him and stalked angrily across the room. He past the place where Tasha sat, hidden. She held her breath as he moved past her. He continued until stopped at the Post-it Point. He scrutinised the notes, before his eyes fell upon whatever Clint had written.
"No!" he yelled, pulling the note off and ripping it up, throwing the pieces in the bin. He raced back towards Clint, pushing him towards the window.
"We are going, NOW," he ordered, "Get us out of here,"
They climbed up onto the window sill. Clint got out a grappling hook, attached it to the window ledge and dropped out to the window. The second man was right behind him.
There was silence for a few seconds, before the grappling hook somehow freed itself and fell out of the window.
There was only one person Tasha knew who could do that. He died a year ago.
Was this even possible?
Slowly, she got up from under the work surface and opened the cupboard where they kept the coffee. She pulled out the newest jar of their rapidly growing collection and shone a light on the post-it stuck to the back.
NOT DEAD
You're going to need this coffee
727, 14th Street, Manhattan
CB
Tasha couldn't help smiling to herself.
Clint was alive.
****
"Are you sure?"
Tasha nodded, taking a sip of coffee in an attempt to stay awake after last night's events.
Stark came over from where he had been examining the security panel.
"I can tell that someone's been tampering with it, but JARVIS's logs say that no-one with unauthorised access entered the Tower last night,"
"Clint has authorised access," said Tasha.
"If it even is Clint," muttered Bruce.
"It's Clint. It has to be,"
Steve sighed.
"Look, Tasha, I know how much you miss him. We all do. But it can't possibly be him. People don't come back from the dead, not matter how much you want them to,"
"It was two in the morning. Maybe you just really wanted it to be him, and so you thought it was him you saw when actually it was just someone who looked a bit like him,"
"It was HIM, ok? Who else would leave notes like he did?"
"Tasha…" said Steve.
"Don't!" she shouted, making him jump. She sighed, and stared at the floor and closed her eyes.
"It was him. I don't care if you don't believe me, or if you think I'm going mad. I know what I saw,"
No-one looked her in the eye.
"Fine," she said, "I'm going to check out this address. If anyone wants to come, they are welcome to,"
She had gone before anyone had chance to reply.
727 14th Street was a rather derelict-looking three storey block of flats on the edge of the city. Tasha pulled her hood over her head and crossed the empty road. Sticking to the shadows, she walked up to the front door. She considered how she was going to get in, suspecting that it wouldn't be as easy as just walking through the front door. She reached down to pull her gun out of her pocket when she noticed a brightly colour piece of paper stuck to the wall beside her.
Look down
CB
Tasha looked down.
Right by her feet was a drain.
She crouched down, got out her phone and shone the light into the darkness below her.
A large cage was hung from what she presumed was the ceiling of a basement. Inside the cage was a man with a gag around his mouth. They looked up as the light fell on them and waved a wad of post-it notes at her.
"Clint…" she mouthed, still finding it hard to believe that he was alive. She so badly wanted to talk to him, but she knew that with that gag round his mouth it would be impossible.
Suddenly an idea formed in her head.
"I'm coming back in a minute," she called down. Clint nodded.
She got up and ran back down the street as quickly as she could, unable to stop herself smiling as she did.
She was right. It HAD been Clint last night.
And he was most definitely NOT DEAD.
****
Nat's still not back, maybe someone should go look for her
Banner

She'll be fine. She's the Black Widow
Stark

I don't think she's fine. She hasn't been fine since Clint went
Steve

She is FINE, ok? Conversation over
Stark

Whose car keeps getting parked outside? It's really unnerving…
Maybe I'm just paranoid
Banner

Bruce, you were on the run from the government for years. Of course you're paranoid.
I'm sure it's fine
Steve

Went back to the dishwasher shop 'cause the one I got is broken
Already
Stark

Maybe you should just make one yourself
Steve

Went to buy milk
Okay, I'm worried about Tasha now, where is she?
Banner

Car is back again
Banner

Is anyone else bothered about all this?
Banner

Its fine, Bruce, shut up
Stark

Something is going on here
Banner

Does no-one else see it?
Banner

Hello?
Banner
****
I must look like an idiot, thought Tasha, as she sat on the pavement with a fishing line threaded down the drain.
But she couldn't have cared less.
There was a sharp tug on the line, and she reeled it up. Attached to the hook was a post-it. She smiled at the eccentricity of it all as she pulled the note off, unfolded it and read it.
How long have you been sitting there for?
CB
She turned the note over and scribbled a message on the other side.
Too long. But I don't care. I'm not leaving you
Tasha
She sent the note back down, amazed that Clint could even read it in the darkness he was surrounded by.
Tasha, go back to the tower. I'll be fine. We must have been at this for hours now
CB

They think I'm crazy
Tasha

Well you are! You've been sitting up there talking to a guy down a drain with post-its. And it's raining!!
CB

Says the guy who plagues an innocent group of superheroes with coffee jars
Tasha

Innocent?
CB

Okay you have a point
Tasha

I love you, Nat
CB

I know you do
Tasha

That was your cue to say 'I love you too'
CB

You already made me write enough mushy stuff when you died
Tasha

Did you write about how much you loved me?
CB

No, of course not, I'm not romantic like you
Tasha

You're lying
CB

Ha ha, yeah right
Tasha

It's so cold down here without you
CB

I'm cold too
Tasha

You should have brought a coat
CB

And you
Tasha

Didn't get much choice, since I suddenly found myself waking up three weeks ago WITHOUT one
CB

How are you even alive?
Tasha

It's far too complicated for post-its. How long has it been?
CB

A year
Tasha

Seriously? I jumped a year? That's so weird
CB

Nothing's weird for me now. I've been hanging around with you for too long
Tasha
Before she could send the note back down, there were was a voice down below.
"Hey, Clint! I've got a present for you!"
The basement blazed with light as a figure rose up towards where Clint was being held. Their eyes burned with electrical power, and their whole body was bathed in a blue glow. They pointed their finger at Clint and a bolt of lightning shot out towards him. The moment it touched his leg it burnt away at the fabric of his trousers and the flesh beneath. Clint face contorted with pain and the man laughed.
"Do you like it? Pretty neat, huh?" Suddenly Tasha recognised him. This was the second man she had seen that night at the tower. He floated closer to the cage and untied the gag around Clint's mouth.
"Whose powers did you steal this time?" Clint snarled, breathing hard.
"It doesn't matter whose it was. It's mine now, and they're never going to get it back,"
Clint laughed dryly.
"You know you can't keep them. You know they always go back,"
"Not anymore. I've managed to work around that…unfortunate setback,"
"What did you do?"
"Oh it's quite logical really…if there is no-one for them to go back to, they stay with me. So I made sure there was no-one for them to go back to,"
"You killed them. You killed them all,"
"No, not ALL of them. You're making me sound like a heartless murderer,"
"But you just killed off your army. How do you plan to make this thing work without them?"
"Oh Clint, you don't understand. I don't need my army anymore…I AM my army, more powerful than all of them put together! Not even your stupid Avengers can stop me now,"
"They can, and believe me they will. They will hunt you down and hurt you so bad you'd wish you'd never been born,"
"No! They CAN'T stop me!"
The man started firing the lightning at Clint again. Tasha leapt to her feet and without a second thought forced the door open that she had been sitting beside the whole time she had been talking to Clint. Holding her gun close to her face, she slipped inside and began a hurried search for a way down into the basement. She found a set of stairs leading downwards, but as soon as she started to make her way down it, a man suddenly appeared in front of her.
"You cannot pass," they said. Tasha took the safety off her gun and pointed it at the man's head.
"This is loaded and I WILL fire,"
"Fine, shoot me. But you cannot pass,"
"Your choice," said Tasha, pulling the trigger.
The man recoiled as the bullet hit him, then stood up straight again, very much alive. Tasha blinked.
"Ok, what is this?" she muttered to herself. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out his own gun, grinning.
"This is loaded, and I WILL fire. You have five seconds,"
Tasha thought quickly. She was no use to Clint dead, but she could not leave him down there with that lunatic. Plus, she had to know what was going on, and Clint was the only one who could tell her. She studied the man's position, how he held the gun, where his weak spots were, and how hard she would have to hit him to incapacitate him. She knew exactly what she needed to do.
"3 seconds," the man said.
Tasha looked him in the eyes, and then attacked him.
The man had quick reflexes, but not quite quick enough. Tasha had him on the floor in just less than two seconds, exactly as she'd planned.
"Who's so tough now, eh?" she taunted.
"Time's up," the man managed to say, before firing the gun.
Tasha cried out as the bullet hit her in the leg, the sudden outburst of pain catching her off guard. She quickly got control of herself however, managing to kick the guy in the head, hoping to knock him unconscious. It did no good, the man pulling off the same trick as he did with the bullet, recoiling and then recovering immediately and standing up. Realising that she would have to push him away from her if she wanted to get down the stairs, she punched him in the face to surprise him before kicking him hard in the stomach, sending him to the other side of the hallway. Grabbing them opportunity, she raced down the stairs, ignoring the growing pain in her leg. Thankfully, the door at the bottom was open, so she ran straight through rather than crashing into it. She slammed it shut behind her, hoping to stall the man who was surely coming after her by now.
Not wasting a single moment, she ran forwards, using her phone as a makeshift torch, annoyed at herself for not bringing one with her. She surrounded by tons of cages, some in stacks that almost reached the ceiling. Most were empty, but there was a sense that they had been recently occupied. A few contained still, solitary figures. It wasn't until she saw one close up that she realised the figures were dead.
There was a bang behind her. The man had reached the door.
Tasha stopped and looked up at where Clint was hanging above her, his captor no longer firing lightning at him but instead talking to him through the cage. He had his back to her. She figured that if she aimed it right (and she knew she could) she could kill him with one shot to the head.
She readied her gun.
She aimed.
It was then that Clint saw her from his vantage point high above her.
"Tasha, NO!" he yelled.
Three things happened in the next second.
The first was that Clint's captor turned to see Tasha below him.
The second was that the other man appeared behind Tasha and punched her where she had been shot.
The third was that Tasha fired her gun, her aim now completely messed up.
The bullet hit Clint's captor in the shoulder and he cried out, dropping a few metres in surprise. The man pushed Tasha against one of the cages so her bad leg was pressed up against one of the bars. She refused to cry out even though the pain was immense, but she managed to elbow the guy in the face, which gave her a couple of seconds to get away. She started to climb up the cages as quickly as she could. Clint's captor began to fire the lightning at her, but she was too quick for him to land a blow. She reached the top of the stack she was on and leapt onto a higher stack close to her. The man below her had also started to climb, however he wasn't as nimble as Tasha, and he almost lost his balance so many times that Tasha laughed out loud. When she got to the top of the tallest stack, she found that there were more cages hanging from the ceiling, the same as the one Clint was in, only they were empty. She ran up and jumped onto one of them, trying to climb up it while it swung from side to side. She leapt onto the next one, and the next one, until she landed on Clint's. She fired at his captor again, this time hitting him in the leg. He dropped a few metres again, giving Tasha a chance to get to the lock on Clint's cage. She got out her knife and managed to unpick it. She got back onto the top and started to climb up the chain. Clint followed her, as his captor started firing the lightning at them again. A bolt hit the chain above Tasha, and the electricity surged through the metal. It didn't pass through her because she wasn't earthed, but the heat of it burnt her hands. She was almost at the top when she heard Clint cry out in shock.
"You ok?"
"Yeah," he said, slowing slightly, "Keep going!"
Tasha looked down at her belt and saw a small stun grenade. She smiled, having thought previously that she'd run out on her last mission. She activated it and threw it in the direction of Clint's captor.
"Brace yourself!" she yelled, hoping that Clint would be able to cover his ears as she reached the ceiling and pushed the drain cover away so that she could escape.
The basement flared with light and sound.
Slightly disorientated, since he'd only been able to cover one of his ears, Clint managed to climb out of the basement behind Tasha. He kicked the drain cover back into its place. Tasha leaned against the wall.
"No time for that," said Clint, grabbing her wrist, "He's going to be out of there any moment." He broke into a run, pulling her along with her. Just as they rounded the corner of the street, there was a crash behind them as Clint's captor burst through the drain, taking most of the pavement with him.
"RUN!" yelled Clint, and Tasha did, trying to ignore the growing pain in her leg. They dashed through an alleyway, across a road and down another. Clint's captor followed them in quick pursuit, and they themselves where starting to slow. Tasha looked down to see Clint's leg was bleeding.
"We can't outrun him!" she said, stopping and turning. Clint tried to pull her to get her running again.
"Tasha, come ON, what are you doing?!"
She didn't reply, but grabbed her knife and threw it at their pursuer.
"NO! Tasha, wait!" he cried. He pushed her arm so that her aim got screwed up. It didn't matter anyway, because the moment he saw the knife coming towards him, Clint's captor had vanished. Tasha turned to Clint, her eyes flaring with anger.
"What do you think you're doing?! He tried to kill you! You're not supposed to PROTECT him!!!"
"You don't understand…"
"You're right, I don't!"
"Tasha, he's my brother!"
She was taken aback.
"…What? Barney? But he's…?"
"…dead, I know. But then…so was I,"
Tasha leant against the wall they had stopped by.
"I couldn't let you kill him," he said.
She nodded.
"I know,"
She shifted slightly, and her leg seared with pain. She winced and looked down at the wound, thinking that she ought to get the bullet out of it. Clint followed her eyes and saw blood.
"Tasha, you've been shot!"
"No freaking duh,"
"Why didn't you SAY something?"
"Because it's fine," she said, wincing again as she tried to pull the bullet out. Clint knelt down, and carefully got it out for her.
"We've got to get back to the tower. Put your arm round my shoulder,"
"What? Why?"
"Because you can't walk on that leg,"
Tasha laughed.
"I just RAN on it. I think I can walk. Besides your leg's no better. He got you again didn't he? With the lightning stuff….how can he do that anyway?"
"I'll explain on the way. Now, arm on shoulder,"
"No, I'm fine," she said, starting to walk. Her leg was hurting a lot more now that she hadn't got an adrenaline rush to distract her, but she tried to hide it anyway, not wanting Clint to get worried about her again, or to think that she was weak. He knew her too well though, and stepped in front of her.
"Tasha," was all he said, in that no-nonsense tone that almost made her laugh. Instead she sighed.
"Fine. But only if you put your arm around MY shoulder too,"
Clint smiled and agreed, slipping his head under her arm. They started to walk slowly and awkwardly down the road. Tasha laughed as they almost fell over and Clint had to save them by using the wall for support.
"You ok?" he asked.
"Never been better,"
They walked further, Tasha finding herself to be leaning on Clint more than she like. He seemed to sense her discomfort and hugged her with the arm that he had wrapped around her shoulder. She smiled at him and seemed to relax a little, and then laughed when they nearly fell over again.
"This isn't really working," she said.
"I know," Clint grinned, "But when has that stopped us doing anything before,"
"You going to tell me what's been going on then?"
"Right...Barney met this guy about a month ago, who told him that he had a device that meant you could take people's powers,"
"Did it work?"
"Almost. Barney fixed it up and he tested it,"
"On who?"
"The guy who gave it to him. Turned out he had brainwashing powers. Barney turned on him, took his powers and killed him,"
Tasha failed to be shocked at this. Things like that weren't unusual where she came from.
"He's angry at me…I'm not sure why, but he blames me for everything that happened to him, everything that went wrong… he wants to get back at me so bad, but he couldn't before, because of the Avengers…when he got his hands on this device though…he just needed to get his own set of powers before he could come and get me, and so he's been capturing and brainwashing superheroes and mutants to become his own personal army. Only problem was that he couldn't keep the powers 'cause they didn't belong to him, and so whenever he was near someone whose power he'd stolen, it would go straight back into them….only now he's discovered that if you kill someone after you've taken their powers, you keep them forever. So he's killed them all,"
"But that doesn't explain why you're still alive,"
"One of the people he got was called Wanda Maximoff…you may have heard of her…"
"…No…"
"She goes by the name of the Scarlett Witch. She's a reality bender,"
"...She can alter reality?"
"Yeah, it's kinda crazy….but Barney managed to get her somehow, and he was trying to control her when she asked him why he was doing what he was. He said to get revenge on me, and she told him that I was dead. He didn't know that, and thought she was lying, and so he beat her up or something must have happened that meant she changed reality by mistake, and I guess that because she was thinking about me…"
"She brought you back…what was it like?"
"…Dark…cold…at first I tried to fight it, but there wasn't anything I could do and I guess I just slipped away…It felt like I was sleeping sometimes, or waiting for something to happen…and then there was noise and light and colour…it felt like my senses had exploded…that was when I first woke up, on the streets…I wandered for a bit, trying to get my head around everything, when I bumped into Barney, who was as angry as hell. Grabbed me and put me in that blasted cage and beat me up whenever he got bored. But that wasn't enough, he said. He knew that I didn't care half as much about myself as I did about you. About the Avengers. So he said he was going to burn the tower to the ground, with all of you inside it,"
"But…the coffee? How did you…when you were stuck in that cage?"
"He couldn't kill Wanda. He tried to take her powers, but she would just change reality and take them back. He hurt her though, he hurt her bad, but she managed to get me out of that cage for 5 minutes when he wasn't looking,"
"So you bought coffee?"
"Yeah. You should have seen Wanda's face when I got back,"
Tasha rolled her eyes. Clint was always the first to fool around back at the tower.
"It worked though, didn't it? You wouldn't be here otherwise,"
"But what were you doing in the tower?"
"He made me help him plant the explosives that were going to kill you all,"
"Err…maybe you could have SAID something about that? You know, so we could get OUT?"
"He was watching you. Every day he parked outside the tower and made sure you all didn't leave. So I couldn't tell you until I thought it was nearly done. Besides, I DID tell you. Only he ripped the note up, remember?"
Tasha thought back to that night when she had seen Clint and Barney in the tower. She remembered Barney walking right past her, up to the Post-it Point, seeing Clint's note and hitting him with his gun before he tore it up. She nodded.
"Was he…controlling you? You said he got the brainwashing powers off that guy…"
"No…I don't know if he couldn't make it work on me, or if he wanted me to be fully aware of the stuff I was doing, but he never brainwashed me. He threatened to kill the others if I didn't do what he said. And I thought that if I could get the message to you, it would be ok…"
"Clint…when is he going to blow us up?"
"I…I don't know…he didn't tell me, of course…"
"It'll be tonight. I know it. We've got to warn the others. Can you limp any faster?" she couldn't help but grin at him, still laughing to herself at how ridiculous they must look.
"I can carry you if you want. That would be faster,"
"No, you are not! Don't you even dare!"
****
The moment they walked into the tower, Bruce was upon them like a full on rainstorm.
"Tasha!" he cried the moment he saw her, pulling her into an embrace. He cast a glance at the man standing behind her, and then looked again when he saw who it was.
"Clint?!" he breathed in disbelief. He let go of Tasha and stared at Clint as if he was trying to decide if he was real or not.
"We have a problem," said Tasha.
"Yeah I know,"
"You do?"
"I can't find Tony or Steve anywhere,"
"That's not exactly unusual…"
"True, but that's not all. JARVIS has gone too,"
"What? That doesn't make sense. Artificial Intelligences don't go wandering off whenever they fancy,"
"I'm know, it's weird. It's like someone wiped him from the software,"
"Oh," said Clint, the first thing he'd said since he'd arrived.
"What?"
"Someone DID wipe him from the software. Barney's here, now,"
"Who's Barney?"
"Clint's brother. He's gone a little nuts, to say the least. Clint, where did he put the explosives?"
"Follow me," he said, leading them through the tower and down some stairs. Banner looked at Tasha, slightly bewildered. She smirked.
"Told you it was him," she said.
They passed by a first aid box, one of the few dotted around the tower for health and safety reasons. It caught Clint's eye and he pulled it off the wall and threw it at Tasha, who deftly caught it.
"What's this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Patch up your leg," he said.
"I told you, it's FINE –"
"You're losing blood. You need to put some pressure on it,"
Tasha was about to argue when she saw Clint's face, and thought better of it. Irritated, she stopped and clicked the box open.
"You go on, I'll catch you up. Take this," she said, pressing a radio into Clint's hand. He nodded, and led Banner far down the corridor. He turned right down some more stairs. Banner had to run to keep up with him, and couldn't help but notice the reddening bottom of Clint's trouser leg.
"Hey, Clint, you know YOUR leg's bleeding pretty bad too…maybe you should –"
"It's fine. So is Tasha's actually,"
"But you just said –"
"Bruce, this guy is not what you are expecting. He's my brother, normal like me, but he's so drunk on power that sometimes he doesn't know what he's doing…worse than that, he's unpredictable. Even I don't know what he's going to do next, and I understand him more than anyone. Tasha underestimates him; I can see it in her eyes. She thinks this will all end well. But all that has to happen is for her to take her guard down for a spilt second and she could end up dead. And I can't let that happen,"
Banner said nothing.
They arrived at a door at the bottom of the stairs. Slowly, Clint pushed it open.
Banner froze in horror.
Tony and Steve hung from the ceiling. By their necks.
Clint carried on walking, seemingly unnerved.
"It's fine," he said, "Look closer,"
Banner unwillingly complied, when he noticed that something wasn't quite right with the shape of the bodies…they were more flat than they should be…more saggy…then he saw their faces…or what wasn't a face…
"Are...are they…?"
"Dummies, yeah. He's trying to scare you, just ignore them,"
"Well he did a pretty good job," he said, as he breathed out slowly, realising how close he had been to hulking out. He looked at the room around him. He had never known that this place had even existed before today, not that he had ever been this far down the tower to find it. In fact, he had a feeling that they were actually UNDER the tower. The thought that the whole tower was on top of them that was slightly disconcerting at the least. The room itself was more of a hall it was so big. There were no lights on, but fires crackled fiercely in several places, bathing them in an orange glow. There were large crates that were stacked high pile upon pile. Banner didn't need to read the sides to know what was in them.
Explosives.
"He's gonna blow us to hell, isn't he?"
Clint nodded. He headed towards the crates and began searching for something.
"What are you –"
"He has Cap and Stark somewhere, probably in this room. They're probably unconscious. We need to find them and get them out before this all blows,"
Banner quickened his pace and began to look too. They searched separately for a good few minutes, when Banner reached the wall, only to discover that there was a door embedded in it. He cautiously eased it open.
"CLINT!" he yelled at the top of his voice. Clint ran from the other side room to find Banner kneeling on the floor beside an unconscious Stark. He noticed something wrong immediately.
No Steve.
"Oh no," he murmured to himself, before turning to Banner, "Wake him up, he might know where Cap is,"
Banner tried to shake him awake, but when that failed, he resorted to slapping him hard across the face. Stark groaned and rolled onto his side.
"Tony, where's Steve?" asked Banner. Stark blinked, and then sat up.
"There was a guy...the one who beat me up…got Steve too,"
"Yeah, where did he TAKE him?" Clint pressed.
"He left him in the kitchen…took me down here…I –"
"Banner, take him outside then meet me upstairs. Be as quick as you can,"
Banner nodded, and then pulled Stark onto his feet, much to his annoyance.
"I'm fine," he protested, before nearly falling over again.
"Stark, just because you're Iron Man doesn't make you invincible. You have a bad concussion, ok?" Banner helped him to his feet again and quickly led him across the room and up the stairs. Clint followed them for a while, before leaving to go further into the Tower. He hit the lift, punching in the number of the highest floor he could go to, after which he would have to take the stairs. As he willed for it to go faster, the radio Tasha had given him buzzed into life.
"Clint, what's going on?! Bruce just said that you –"
"Tasha, you need to get out of here NOW. There is a room down there full of explosives that could blow at any minute,"
"Yeah? Then what are YOU doing then?"
"…Nothing. Just stay where you are,"
"No, I'm coming after you. Where are you?"
"No, you can't. Tasha, he WILL kill you,"
"And I don't have to deal with people like him every day? Just tell me where you are and I can come and help you,"
He said nothing.
"CLINT! Let me HELP you!! I…" she trailed off.
"I don't want you to die again," she said, her voice quiet. Clint sighed.
"I'll be fine. I promise you. Just don't follow me, please,"
Tasha said nothing. Clint slipped the radio into his pocket and leant his head against the wall.
Suddenly the lift doors pinged open. Clint raced out, round the corner and up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He reached the right floor and snuck through the hallway into the kitchen. He suddenly realised that he was completely unarmed. Cursing under his breath at his stupidity, he moved past the glass panel that was the Post-it Point and into the kitchen.
The room was filled to the brim with explosives.
Clint moved further in, watching his feet as there were wires all over the floor. Searching quickly, it took him less than a minute to find Cap, unconscious and tied to the table. The knot was entangled in more wires still. Frowning, Clint took one wire between his fingers and followed it to its source: a large object covered by a tarpaulin. Carefully he pulled the tarpaulin away to reveal a metal device with two clocks above it, one about a minute ahead of the other. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were for.
The first clock would reach 18:00 and the explosives under the tower would detonate.
The second clock would reach 18:00 a minute later, and the device would blow all the bombs in the kitchen.
He had ten minutes to get Cap free and out of the building.
He raced back to the table and began to untie the rope, trying not to disturb the wires too much, worried that he might accidently trip an explosion. After what seemed like far too long, he managed to pull Cap away from the table, and towards the Post-it Point. Suddenly the kitchen flared with light and lighting arched towards them. Clint cursed under his breath as he dodged out of the way, the bolt missing him and hitting the Post-it Point instead. The glass shattered, showering them in sharp shards. Barney ran towards his brother and shoved him hard against the wall, causing him to hit his head. Clint retaliated, punching him across the face and making his nose bleed. Barney zapped his leg again with the lightning, but Clint merely winced as he searched the room quickly for some kind of weapon. His eyes fell upon the shards of glass on the floor. He grabbed one and aimed it so that it skimmed past his brother's arm, cutting into him only slightly. Clint was still unwilling to kill Barney, although he was beginning to think that he might have to. But before he got the chance, Barney was upon him, a knife in his hand. Clint tried to wriggle out of his grip, but his brother was stronger than him and pushed him to the floor. He touched the side of Clint's head and a blue glow rippled from his index finger. Clint tensed up as the electricity passed through him, and Barney grinned. Taking his finger away, he slashed Clint's arm with the knife, expecting him to be unconscious.
He wasn't.
Clint got his hand round his neck and pulled him to the ground. Barney yelled in frustration and tried to get up again, but Clint held him firmly on the ground, standing up and holding him down with his foot. Thinking quickly, Barney closed his eyes and concentrated. The table near what was once the Post-it Point suddenly threw itself at Clint, who ducked just in time. The glass on the floor rose slowly, and then raced towards him. He tried to get out of the way again, but one caught him on the face, another cutting his leg. Barney scrambled to his feet while his brother was distracted and pulled him into a headlock, brandishing his knife, just as Banner and Tasha burst into the room.
For a second, no-one said anything. Banner tried to move towards Cap, who still lay unconscious on the floor, but Barney shook his head.
"Ah, ah, ah, no moving," he tutted, and then pressed the knife harder into Clint's neck, not quite breaking the skin, "No moving or Clint gets it. Don't think for a SECOND that I won't,"
"You wouldn't kill your own brother…" Banner said.
"You bet I would," he snarled, "Now stay exactly where you are…"
A force field surrounded Tasha, Banner and Cap, crackling with purple energy. Tasha shoved it as hard as she could but only succeeded in burning her shoulder. Clint shot a glance towards the clocks on the metal device.
7 minutes left.
"Let them go!" he yelled, struggling against Barney's grip, "You can do whatever you want to me, just let them go!"
Barney said nothing concentrating hard on maintaining the shield, but he smirked at his brother's outcry and pressed the knife even further into his neck, drawing blood. He walked backwards, dragging Clint along with him.
"Enjoy the party," he called as he disappeared down the corridor that led to their bedrooms, "Sorry I'm not going to be around when things get explosive,"
Banner looked at Tasha, hiding his fear so darn well that if it had be anyone but Tasha, they would have thought that he was the calmest man in the world.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said, "I don't suppose the other guy can tear through force shields, can he?"
"I don't want to try. Not in this thing. Someone – something that big would kill us all outright in this tiny space,"
Tasha looked down the corridor that Clint and his brother had just disappeared down. If she was going to die, she wanted him to be the last thing she thought of.
****
"Barney, let them go NOW!" Clint yelled. Again, he didn't answer. Suddenly Clint realised just how much concentration it was taking for him to keep the shield around Tasha and the others. He smiled slightly, thinking quickly how he could use that to his advantage.
"Hey Barney," he said teasingly, "Guess what?"
"What?" his brother grunted.
Clint stamped down hard on his brothers foot.
"You're it!" he grinned. Barney cried out in shock, almost letting Clint go. Taking the opportunity, Clint writhed out of his grip and started to run back, when Barney pointed a finger down the hall, and a large door that had apparently been ripped out of its frame blocked the corridor. Clint stopped just before he ran right into it.
"No. You're getting us both out of here NOW," Barney growled.
Clint turned and stared his brother coldly.
"No, brother. Find your own way out,"
He ran towards the window, but Barney grabbed him before he got there and tackled him to the floor. Clint yelled and punched his brother in the face.
5 minutes.
****
Just as Cap stirred from his comatose state, the force shield evaporated around them. Banner looked up in disbelief.
"Wha…?" he breathed.
Tasha leapt into action, racing for the stairs, only halting when she realised Banner was still on the floor with Cap.
"Come on!" she yelled, "If we want to get out, we have to go NOW,"
"We won't make it," he said, "What's the point?"
"Don't say that until we're dead," she said, helping Cap to his feet. "Can you run?" she asked.
"I can try," he said. The three of them broke into a run.
"Wait!" said Banner, suddenly running back for something.
"Bruce!" Tasha cried, "Now is NOT the time to –"
"I know!" he said, returning with a weirdly large tray that had been lying on the floor somewhere in the kitchen, "But we'll never make it down the stairs or in the lift. We need something much MUCH quicker. Now, the top part of the tower is sloped towards a slightly lower building with a flat roof…"
Tasha eyed the tray warily, realising that, due to its peculiar size, it was just big enough for three adults to sit on.
"You're not seriously suggesting…"
"Oh yes, you BET I am," he couldn't help but grin, leading them to the nearest window with a large window sill. He turned to the other two.
"Who wants to go on the front?"
Tasha shook her head.
"It was your idea,"
Banner rolled his eyes and sat on the tray.
"Cap in the middle, since he's the one who was unconscious a minute ago. Now hurry! We probably have only seconds left!"
Cap and Tasha got on the tray. Banner looked at the sloped glass below them, and then at the vertical drop several hundred metres away from that. He swallowed nervously.
"When we land, we're going to have to run as fast as we can to clear the blast radius ok? Are we ready?"
"Just send us to our deaths, already," murmured Tasha, trying not to grin as adrenaline pumped through her veins.
Banner shrugged and slowly pushed the tray from the window sill.
"Here we gooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Tasha resisted the urge to scream as they plummeted downwards. She clung onto Cap for dear life, who clung onto Banner, who raised his arms in the air and whooped. The tray gained momentum as they slid at a terrifying speed towards the edge of the tower. Tasha vaguely heard the sound of a chopper nearby through the deafening wind that whooshed past her ears. She buried her face into Cap's shoulders, just as they reached the edge and soared into the air.
She braved a peek downwards and saw EXACTLY how far they would fall if this didn't work. She looked away, tightening her grip around Cap. Cap looked behind them, at the tower that was going to blow any second and the news chopper that flew with them.
Banner looked at the sky and smiled.
The moment lingered for much longer than a moment.
Suddenly the building below rushed up to meet them and they landed with an incredible bump. They all jerked forwards and Banner's arm landed on the roof, friction tearing away at his skin as the momentum sent them careering across the concrete. He gasped in shock and somehow managed to roll off the tray where he sat, blinking.
The other two crashed into the top of an air vent that stuck out of the building. Dazed, they got up. Tasha rubbed her head as she staggered towards where Banner was.
"Banner! You ok?" she yelled. He blinked again, and then got to his feet, his arm raw and bleeding.
"Yeah," he replied, trying to think through the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He looked back at the tower, and suddenly everything clicked into place.
"RUN!" he yelled, sprinting towards a door that he hoped would lead to a stairwell. However, it was locked, and so he ran right into it. He yelled in anger, then closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing.
"Banner…" asked Tasha warily.
"I'm fine…" he murmured, "I just need to, you know, stay calm. Won't be a minute,"
"Not trying to rush you or anything, but we may not HAVE a minute. Is it locked?" she asked. Banner nodded.
"Right," she huffed, racing over to the edge of the roof and peering over the edge. There was a metal staircase down the side of the building in case of a fire. Tasha smiled. Perfect.
"Ok, down this ladder NOW guys!" she yelled. Banner and Cap ran towards her and they began to descend as fast as they could down the metal rungs.
"Guys? You know when the first set of bombs go off…we're in a bad place…you know, because of the freaking SHOCKWAVES and all…" warned Banner.
Before the other two had chance to reply, the first clock in the tower reached 18:00, and the entire underneath of the tower exploded.
There was a loud rumble, like a strong earthquake. The ground shuddered far below them and the building they were climbing down shook. The noise quietened.
Tasha frowned.
"The tower didn't fall down…there wasn't any smoke…" she said, "How is that–"
"It takes more than that to bring a tower down," said Banner, "That why there were two sets of explosives. The tower's now structurally unstable, which means that when the explosives at the top go off, the whole thing will just collapse,"
"How long have we got?" asked Cap.
"Less than a minute," said Tasha, looking down the ladder at how far they still had to go. No way were they going to get down that in time. However, there was a little platform further down. It would be perfect, but it would be a lot safer than staying where they were….
"Get down to that platform!" she told the other two, "We can hunker down there until things calm down a bit,"
They climbed as quickly as they could, aware of the time ticking by second by second. Tasha swung from the ladder onto the platform and looked down over the railings. The drop below them stretched out for a good few hundred metres away. Cap joined her, looking at Banner who was on the ladder above him.
The top of Avengers Tower erupted with fire.
The space exploded with sound, shockwaves ripping through the air. The shaking began again, this time worse, and Banner had to cling on to the ladder for dear life. There was a loud rumble as the tower began to collapse, billowing out clouds of smoke and dust like hell had opened up beneath them. There were screams from down below as people who had been unwise enough to stick around after the first explosion realised the danger they were in. The dust cloud grew bigger, consuming the three avengers and coating them in grey ash. Banner coughed and shut his eyes. He wished that he could cover his mouth, but he couldn't let go of the ladder.
"Banner! Climb down!" Cap yelled. He shook his head, not opening his mouth for a second. The shaking continued for a few more seconds, before it resided. The air cleared a little and Tasha looked down at the ground. She couldn't see much, but a few lights from emergency vehicles dimly flashed below them. She turned back to see Banner slowly making his way down the ladder again.
"You ready to carry on going down?" she asked. Banner nodded.
"You can open your mouth, you know. You're still breathing in dust through your nose, so it's not exactly going to make much difference,"
Banner shrugged, mouth still firmly shut. Cap was looking up, thinking.
"Do you think Clint made it out?" he asked. Tasha was caught off guard. It was possible that he hadn't, and if he had, he was likely with his brother, who would probably finish him off at the first chance he got. She didn't know what to think. She had been so close to having him back, and then he was gone. Just like that. A torrent of emotions suddenly flooded through her veins. It was worse than when she had lost him the first time.
She decided, right there and then, that he had to be alive. Because she didn't know what she would do if he wasn't.
"He's fine," she said, "He's probably somewhere down there waiting for us,"
Cap wasn't convinced, but he nodded.
"We should get moving again," he said. Tasha agreed and continued down the ladder, the other two following close behind. They climbed for at least ten minutes before they finally arrived on the ground again. The rubble from the tower had spilled out into the surrounding streets, creating little mountains of bricks, glass, wires, computer bits and other junk that had been smashed beyond recognition. They climbed onto it and as the air cleared even more, the dim shapes of black SHIELD cars could just be seen a few metres away from where they stood. Tasha raced down the rubble towards the silhouettes that were moving around nearby.
"Hello?" she yelled, "Who is that?"
"Tasha?" they breathed in disbelief, "Tasha, is that you?!"
"Yeah," she said rolling her eyes. She recognised that voice – it belonged to Agent Kat Collins, one of the agents SHIELD had unsuccessfully tried to pair with her a few months ago. She was a nice enough girl, but Tasha had little time for her, especially as she was supposed to be replacing Clint, something that could never be done. Clint. If he was alive (which he WAS, she told herself) then it was likely he was around here.
"Have you seen–" she started, then stopped, realising that to Kat, or to any of the other SHIELD agents, Clint had died a year ago. If she asked for him, she would be deemed crazy, even if the other Avengers said they'd seen him too. Post-Traumatic Stress, they would say, would have caused them to think something happened when actually it had all been in their heads. That Clint had been dead for a year now and perhaps it was time they got over it.
But he had been alive. He still was alive. He had to be.
"Huh? Have I seen who?" asked Kat.
Tasha waved it off, thinking.
"Where's Agent Hill?" she asked.
"In the Helicarrier,"
Tasha grabbed her radio from her belt and clicked it on.
"Agent Hill, do you copy?"
"Agent Romanoff, good to hear your voice. Did we get everyone out?"
"I…I don't know…Can you scan for life signs, or look at the rubble with heat sensors or something?"
"I'll see what I can do. Hill out,"
Kat frowned.
"Who was left in there? We got everyone out when Banner told us something was up. Everyone except Stark and Rogers, but Rogers is here and Stark's back there," she indicated to the mass of SHIELD cars behind her, "So who was left?"
Tasha didn't reply. Cap appeared by her side.
"Nat…I doubt he made it...the likelihood that he got out fast enough is–"
"Steve," said Banner, and he stopped. Tasha stared hard at the radio in her hand, waiting.
"Would someone like to tell me what's going on? Who was left in there?!" Kat exclaimed, and got no response.
Suddenly the radio crackled into life.
"This is Agent Hill; we're scanning the area now. Standby,"
They waited.
"…Nothing…there's no-one in there…well, no-one alive. Are you looking for someone in particular?"
"Yes," said Tasha.
"Did they have a radio or another device that we can use to contact them?"
"Yes! Yes he did! He had a radio," Tasha exclaimed, kicking herself for not thinking of that beforehand, "I'll try him now, Romanoff out,"
She adjusted the frequency on the dial at the top and pressed the talk button.
"Clint? Clint do you read me?" she said. Kat frowned.
"Wha…? But…Tasha, he's–"
Tasha scowled at her and she stopped talking. The radio gave them a load of static and nothing else. Tasha adjusted the dial and tried again.
"Clint? Can you hear me? Clint!"
No answer.
"There must be something wrong with this radio," she muttered, adjusting the dial again. Cap walked up next to her, held her hands and calmly took the radio out of them. Tasha let him, staring at the floor.
"He's not dead. He can't be…not again…" she said, her voice barely a whisper. Cap pulled her into a gentle hug, and she buried her face into his shoulder. Banner watched them from where he stood a couple of metres away, lost in thought. Kat, unsure of what to do, looked behind her at the flurry of activity that seemed distant through the dust that was beginning to settle on the ground.
Time moved slower and slower, until it seemed to stand still.
"He's still alive…he's still alive…" Tasha found herself murmuring over and over. Cap hugged her slightly tighter.
And then there was silence, save the sound of paper from the tower fluttering to the ground like white ghosts amongst all the grey.
****
'…We've received reports of an explosion in one of the towers on Manhattan Island. We're going now to our reporter on the scene. Mark, what can you tell us?
Thanks, Hayley. Yes, as you can see behind me, there is a rather ominous plume of smoke rising from the skyline of Manhattan Island. What we thought at first to be a small, localised earthquake, turned out to be the first of two explosions in what we believe to be Avengers Tower, which collapsed about half an hour ago. We don't yet know if anyone was actually in the tower during the explosion, or if anyone has been hurt, but we'll give you an update the moment we hear something…'

'…In other news, we've been informed that Avengers Tower has collapsed after an explosion on the top most floors. The reason for the explosion is yet unknown. We're waiting for more information…'

'…Back to Manhattan, we have footage from our helicopter that was in the area after the crew heard about a bomb scare in Avengers Tower. Our reporter, James was on board at the time, and they have captured some amazing images of three people escaping from the top floor by sliding down the sloped side of the tower on what appears to be an oversized dinner tray. If you watch, you can also see the tower collapsing seconds after the top floors explode. We believe that this was the second of two explosions, the first occurring underneath the tower, making it structurally unstable so that on the second explosion it collapsed. We haven't received information about casualties yet, but stay tuned to see how this story evolves…'

'…We have good reason to believe that there were only two people in the tower when it collapsed, due to the fact that an evacuation had been ordered 40 minutes before the first explosion. One has been confirmed as the Avenger Clint Barton, but the identity of the other has not been revealed by the special services. The other people involved in the incident are recovering in a government facility…'

Hey guys, have you check out the news? We're all over it.
Oh, and I found a new Post-it Point
Stark

Stark, will you stop sticking post-it's on the SHIELD equipment? Fury's getting really mad at you
Maria

Avengers: How's this for a temporary Post-it Point? I mean, we pass by it all the time and it's not in the way…
Banner

Anyone else miss Avengers Tower?
Cap

Every day. No offense to SHIELD or anything, but their base sucks
Stark

I miss Clint more
Tasha

Where's your room, Steve?
Stark

…Opposite yours…
Cap

Oh.
Where's MY room?
Stark

I'm rolling my eyes
Banner

I'll show you later
Steve

Hey Banner, you know that on that clip of you three sliding down the tower, you look like you're having way too much fun
Stark

Ha ha, yeah I know
Banner

You know, as soon as the new tower's finished, life's going to get back to normal really quickly. When will it be done?
Cap

No idea
Stark

How can you say that things will get back to normal? Things haven't been normal for a VERY long time!
Banner

How are guys over it yet? He's gone. And he's not coming back.
Tasha

****
Four weeks later
Tasha walked along the corridor and up to her locker to get her stuff ready for training. She clicked her key into the lock and opened the door.
She froze.
Inside, there was a coffee jar with a post-it stuck to it. It read:
NOT DEAD
CB
She stepped backwards, only to feel something tickling her hair. Whipping around, she found another post-it hanging from a fishing line in front of her.
Look up
CB
She looked up and saw that there was an air vent above her. The grating, however, had been removed and in its place was Clint, who waved at her cheerily.
"Clint!? You're…but…the tower, it collapsed…how did you…?"
Clint scowled at her.
"Of all people, Tasha, I thought you would know that jumping of tall buildings and surviving is NOT difficult for me,"
She frowned. Clint sighed.
"Found a grappling hook in my bedroom,"
Tasha laughed. She'd forgotten that she'd left all his stuff in there.
Because, to be honest, she had still be desperately hoping that he would come back.
And he had.
"Why didn't you radio me?" she asked, slightly annoyed at him for letting her believe he was dead for about a month. He reached for something in his pocket, and then threw it down to her once he had retrieved it. She caught it and looked at it, a rather messed up looking radio.
"Broke it. Sorry,"
Tasha rolled her eyes.
"What about Barney? What happened to him?"
"Teleported out, left me to blow up, the jerk. At least I got to beat him up first,"
"You gonna come down then?" she asked.
In reply, he swung his legs over the opening and jumped down to join her. He landed in front of her, and they looked at each other for a few seconds, caught in the moment. Then, without warning, Clint pulled her into a tight hug. Tasha gasped in surprise, then smiled, realising how good it was to be held in his arms again.
"I missed you," she said.
Clint smiled.
"I missed you too. More than anything else in the whole world. I thought of you every day, and I'm so sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner,"
"Shut up," she replied, hugging him tighter. They stood there in the corridor, locked in an embrace that seemed to last forever, neither of them wanting it to end.
Finally, Clint's grip loosened and he held Tasha at arm's length.
"How about some coffee?" he said.
Tasha grinned.
"Coffee sounds great,"