THINKING OUT LOUD || Avengers

-)Twenty One: I'm Literally Shocked(-

"You're running out of arrows."

"Thanks, kid." Clint said as he pulled the bowstring taught once more, "Didn't need the narration."

"You're running out of arrows," Dan repeated, "And you won't be able to stop the bad guys from getting in."

Clint ducked down into cover as he reached for his next arrow, "Yeah, what I said before? That was sarcasm. The narration's actually pretty annoying."

"I can help." Dan asserted, "I have a black belt."

"In what?" Clint demanded incredulously, "Origami?"

Dani straightened her back, "Yes, actually."

"Clint." Nat's voice echoed over the coms, "Status report."

The archer frowned, "Well, I've got three arrows left and our young Jedi master can make one kickass paper aeroplane, so we're looking peachy. How's things on your end?"

"The big guy's causing trouble. Think you can take him out?"

"Carthas?" Dani asked, before remembering that her com had been deactivated, lest the HYDRA people figure out where she was by virtue of their technologically gifted leader. She looked up at Clint, "Does she mean Carthas?"

"I've got him in my sights." Clint ignored her.

"No, Bird Man," Dani shook her head and shifted forwards, "You can't go after Carthas. Your quiver has electrics. He'll-"

"Argh!" Clint fell to the ground, shaking all over. Dani hurriedly darted forwards, searching his pockets until she found a little disc. Electrical impulse discs. Tony had said, Break that and it will send out a signal to disrupt any circuitry on your person.

Dan used Clint's fingers to snap the circle in half, and the spy went still.

"Barton?" Nat's voice sounded panicked, "Clint, come in."

Shakily, Dani reached up a hand and turned her com on, "He's down. Carthas took him out. I... I think he's breathing."

"Whatever you've done-" Nat began, tone bristling.

"Squirt." Tony interrupted, "I thought we told you to keep off the coms."

Steeling herself, Dani stood up. For the first time, she could see the carnage that stretched out around her. Black clothed bodies strewn around the crater. She was sure they would be faces she'd recognise if she looked closer. And right there, in the middle of it, fighting like a tornado of red hair and badassery, was Natasha Romanoff.

And it was then she realised something.

"You can't do this alone." Dani said, sounding surprised to hear the words herself.

"Squirt, whatever you're thinking-" Tony began.

"Carthas is coming over the other side." Dan exposited, "If he gets down there, Coffee won't be able to hold it. You need a distraction."

It was like Steve's fear was palpable, "Dan, no-"

Dani snapped her disc in half and felt her earpiece go silent. Settling into her game face (which was sort of confused constipation), she swung herself over the side of the roof and through the door to the top level of the base.

The room was bare, like a lobby that had yet to be furnished. At the end of it, set right into the centre of a plaster wall, were the lift doors that nobody could afford to be let through. Now that she was inside, Dan could feel the whole place thrumming with an energy she couldn't fully understand, like skimming the surface of the ocean and letting your mind invent the things below.