Not That Lucky

#26: There Are No Strings On Me

"Wait a second", Tony called out over the comm unit. He was still circling the shielded building taking out any soldiers that stepped out the doors. He scoffed in his suit, "—can we circle back to the important issue here? Rogers thinks I owe the jar $20. That's absurd. It should be $10 at most."

At Iron Man's words, Steve rolled his eyes. Up ahead he could see a truck of HYDRA soldiers driving straight toward him. "You think you just owe 10 bucks? 10?" Steve sucked in a sharp breath then dove forward over the handlebars to throw his bike straight into the front of the truck. It exploded immediately. Steve glanced around, "We decided the F word was $20." He shook his head. "It's not like you can't afford that."

"It's the dang principle of it!" Tony called back.

Thor chimed in over his own earpiece, "Aj shared the rules with me before we left, and the word 'fuck' does cost you 20, Stark."

"I can't believe I'm asking this, but where's Clint?" Tony replied. He was not going to lose the cursing war that started randomly a couple weeks ago. He'd let one of these HYDRA soldiers fly around in his suit before he did. "I want his opinion."

"He's decided to take a vow of silence." Natasha chuckled. Clint poked his head out from behind a tree hoping to catch the eye of someone so he could celebrate the moment Tony asked for his opinion. Unfortunately, the only person close to him was the Hulk, and based on the way the green beast was slamming a truck into the ground repeatedly he did not care about this monumental moment in Clint's life.

"Is this the same Clint Barton we all know? Dumpster man?" Thor questioned in shock. Clint fired another arrow and bit down on his lip to hold back his retort. Dumpster man, his ass. What did the god of thunder know?

"Clint has 45 more bucks in his jar than everyone else combined." Natasha explained as she held a soldier in a choke hold. "He's 100% gonna lose the bet unless he stops swearing entirely, and he knows the only way that's gonna happen is if he never speaks again."

"Maybe we should take $10 out of his jar for self-awareness." Steve said then grunted as he threw his shield out. It bounced off a tree and into the chest of a soldier trying to sneak up on him from the side. The shield bounced back and he caught it, "That plus Tony owing $20 could really help his chances."

"Gee golly, Rogers, you're really lighting my candles." Tony snapped and slid across the stone pathway taking out a group of soldiers.

"That sounds vaguely sexual, Tony. Do you wanna tell us something?" Natasha spoke knowing that Clint was somewhere in the woods probably biting his lip off to hold back his own witty comment.

"Sir, the city is taking fire." JARVIS cut into their typical battle banter.

"Well, we know Strucker's not going to worry about civilian casualties." Tony turned his focus back to the task at hand. He double barreled in the air to avoid turret fire. His screen lit up as footage from the closet city was pulled up. He nodded, "Send in the Iron Legion."

JARVIS confirmed the order, and Tony went back to looking for a way in. The sooner they got back the sooner he could convince Aj to side with him on the money issue.

__________

"We will not yield! The Americans sent their circus freaks to test us!" Strucker yelled out to his crowd of dumbass soldiers. Vincent leaned against the wall with his legs crossed at his ankles. The Avengers were right outside these walls kicking ass, and Vincent needed to get out of here yesterday. He told the idiot nazi once and he'd say it again: He was not about to pick a fist fight with the fucking Avengers.