Thank you for the 120 views! I really appreciate it!
(Author's note #2: I just want to say how embarrassed I am for putting the wrong edit in. This one is the real chapter/edit.)
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Timeskip
Here we are, sitting at the table in the control room, head hung low. There were only five of us here; Nick, Steve, Tony, agent hill and me. I had bandages on my head and a look of grief on my face. I still can't believe that Phil's dead. I can't pull myself to do it.
Even though he did blackmail me into joining, which made me go through a ton of training and missions, he was still a friend. Sometimes he was like a father figure to me. I tried not to cry anymore than I have on the way here, but by doing so, My anger and sadness was eating me alive bits by bits.
I sat in the middle of Steve and Tony; both were as sad as I was.
Nick broke the silence by throwing certain cards onto the table. Phil's prized possession: his captain America cards. Some were covered in blood.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." He said to Steve. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Tesseract, banner, Thor.... I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had it coming." He continued to speak. We didn't say anything or do anything, besides keeping our heads down. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier." He walked passed Steve, and stopped behind my chair. "There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battle we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Tony abruptly stood up and quietly walked out of the room. I followed after, but not before hearing Nick finished his speech.
"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion."
——————----------.....
Third person's POV
"Clint. You're going to be all right." Natasha reassured, but Clint was still having some sort of negative reaction to it, denying it.
"You know that? Is that what you know? I've got no window. I have to flush him out." He panted, pulling his retrains that was tied to the bed.
"You got to level out. It's going to take time." She continued.
"You don't understand." He grunted a bit. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"
"Maybe you won't have to go through it if you told me about the tesseract project, instead of hiding it from me. Just saying." Frostbite said sarcastically and shrugged. "Hi, Clint. Remember me? The friend that you trusted?"
"He knows about it?" He asked Natasha, who replied,
"Cat jumped out when we planned on rescuing you."
"You think I won't eventually find out? Do you think that you can keep it hidden forever? Hah! That's rich." He laughed dryly before dropping it, eyeing them like a predator. "I thought that we were friends. I thought you were different."
"We only thought of what was best for you—" before she could finish, he cut her off with more outbursts.
"What was best for me? Don't give me that crap, Natasha. You, of all people, would know that I could help. Loki wouldn't stand a chance if I was there. The tesseract wouldn't have been stolen if I was there. In fact, none of this would've happened if I was there. So why? Are you guys really doing this for my well-being? Or is it because you don't trust me?"
"You're making this difficult, Frostbite—" again, he cut her off.
"Answer the question, Natasha. Did you not trust me enough to tell me this?"
"We just didn't want you get involved, okay?" Clint yelled, taking jack by surprise. "You have a choice, to stay here or leave."
"And you do too."
"No. No.." He shook his head repeatedly. "We're in too deep. S.H.I.E.L.D already have our data. They know everything about us now, but you... You only joined to look for your dad. So they don't know about you as much as they know about us."
"What are you saying, Clint? What is it that you're trying to prove?" He glared at him in confusion.
"What I'm saying is, you still have a chance to leave. A chance to be free from a life like this." He stared deep into his eyes. Natasha untied him and now he was free.
"We thought we were doing you a favour. We didn't think about how you would feel about that, nor give you a say in this matter. We're sorry." She hung her head low. Both of them looked down at the ground.
After hearing that, I was in shocked. I wronged them when they thought of what was right. But that begged the question.
"...Why? Why would you risk your own lives for me?"
"I thought we've shown you more than enough by now." He said, suddenly smiling coyly at him.
"You're like our family, frostbite. Remember what I told you when you finished your training? 'We have your back..?"
" 'And You have ours...' " I whispered in realization. They were with me then, they considered me as one of them, as their own, And I had the nerve to treat them that way... I thought. I bit my bottom lip and my tears fell. How foolish I was...
Then pairs of arms were wrapped around me, engulfing me in a warm hug.
"Don't ever forget that again, you hear?" Clint whispered, still smiling but with a different meaning behind it this time.
I sniffled, wiping my tears off, before answering. "Y-Yeah, I won't. I'm sorry for all I've said. You had your reasons and I concluded it too quickly."
"It doesn't matter now. We forgive you." She patted my back softly.
Then the door opened up, revealing captain in his suit.
"Time to— Oh, was I interrupting something?"
"Yes. We were having a beautiful moment." Clint faked an angry tone. I almost laughed at his reaction. He was flustered as heck. How naive captain was, for believing his simple lie.
"Oh— I didn't mean to. I'll wait out until you're done." He turned around, preparing to leave, but I stopped him.
"Wait, clint was just joking. But you did ruin the moment." I half-teased him, earning a slap at the back of my head from Natasha.
"Don't worry, Steve. You didn't ruin anything. These idiots are just messing with you."
"Okay. But this is important. We need to get to New York quickly. Can any of you fly a jet?" He asked.
"I can." Clint raised his hand up.
"You got a suit?"
"Yeah."
"Then suit up."
-----—–—--------
After we 'suit' up, like captain ordered, we went to the jet room and I'm not gonna lie, but I felt like a badass walking there.
We went into one of the many jets, but then one of the engineers stopped us, saying we weren't authorized to be here.
"Son, don't." Steve told.
The guy reluctantly followed Captain's order and left the jet. Clint went to the control panel and off we go.
-------———–------
We had reached NYC, and it sounded so chaotic, I didn't need to look to confirm it. We were still in the air as Natasha and Clint was helping Thor with Loki. Ended up getting one of the two engines blasted and made us, who had no seatbelt or any retains, hold on for dear life until landed.
Clint opened the entrance and we made our way to the battlefield. Passing a few upside down cars, we heard a roar that almost match Hulk's.
In the sky, at the portal, a huge snake-like creature came out. It was covered in armor, flying above us.
"Stark, are you seeing this?" Captain asked through the comms.
"Seeing. Still working on believing. Where's banner? Has he shown up yet?" He asked back. I already knew what he was planning to do with him.
"Banner?"
"Just keep me posted. Jarvis, find me a soft spot." He flew closer to the horrid creature and attempted to get its attention.
"I hope he has a plan B for that." I whispered to myself with a disapproval look.
We continued moving to another part of the area, and looking for civilians in need. We arrived at the bridge and saw many of them running away. Those aliens were shooting at them as they ran. Some were trapped in their vehicles while others hid in the many buildings of Manhattan; both groups were fearing for their lives.
"They're fish in a barrel down there." Steve commented.
Heavy 'Thud' sounds came from behind us, only for us to turn around and realized those were the incoming aliens. Clint immediately pulled out his arrows and began shooting, along with Natasha and her guns.
"We got this. It's good. Go." She said, shooting at them casually.
"Do you think you can hold them off?" Captain asked, just to make sure. I pulled out my own weapon, which Nat gave me for my Birthday, two handguns, and covered my lower body in ice.
"Captain." Clint called out. "It would be my genuine pleasure."
He nodded at him and we jumped down for the bridge. Captain held off the enemies while I helped out the civilians trapped in their cars. Thinking that I was done, I returned to shooting their brains out.
Then a pleading cry and banging was heard from the building on my left. It was a woman in her thirties, face stained with tears, hitting the glass loudly. "Please, help! My little girl is still trapped inside the car!"
"Where's your car, ma'am?"
"Up ahead, in front of the jewelry store." She whimpered.
I made my way to the said location while trying to dodge/kill these things. And Just as I suspected, everything is flipped over or on its side here as well. I peeked through the shattered windows of the cars, looking for the trapped child. And soon I found her, she laid passed out in the back seat of a black Ford. I penetrated the locked door with my iced arm and ripped it out of the vehicle. Tossing it aside, I reached in and gently grabbed her. After successfully taking her out, I glanced behind me through the car's door, and saw one of them raising its weapon and blasted. My instinct kicked in and pulled me to my left to dodge. Using my left arm to bounce me back up, I backflipped and reached for my gun. Feeling dread when it was not there, I immediately rushed to one of the cars and hid. I panted, flipping through my mind, looking for any plans that popped up. By now, we were definitely surrounded and I know that because those things are screeching at us in their annoying and deafening voice. Then I heard the little girl spoke, but it was an adult's voice. A grown woman's to be precise.
"You have to leave. They're coming for you."
I raised my brows in question to the little lady. "The only ones coming for me has us surrounded." I said back, but all I got was snores. She was sleeping.
What the actual fuck was that? I shook my head and calmed myself. No time for that. Bigger things are happening and if I don't get us out of here soon, we're totally screwed.
Eventually one did show up, but it was a really bad one. The plan is that I make a shield and a sword, hid the girl here, run at them, like an maniac, and somehow manage myself to kill them all. It was a win or lose plan, but I was desperate, so I went with it.
Prepping myself, mentally and physically, I laid the girl down next to the car and charged at them with my weapons. I swooped in and slashed its neck open. They started shooting in rapid fire and lifted my shield up to cover myself.
I dug my sword into the ground and replaced them with two ice daggers. Aiming them, just like how Clint taught me, and threw it at them. It swirled pass all the laser and stabbed two of them right in the heart, if they have any.
I scanned through the area and it seemed that only four were cornering us.
One left, and it's the bastard to put us in this mess.
I picked up the sword and a brilliant idea popped up. I smirked devilishly at how sadistic my mind is right now. I tossed it at him, just like how I did with the last two, but he dodged it. After throwing it, I flashed behind him and grabbed the handle of sword before pushing the blade into him.
"No hard feelings, but you almost killed me, pal."
It let out one last screech before laying down motionless. I took a breather for a bit, wiping the sweat off my forehead. The sword melted, along with the shield. I walked back to where I left the kid and lifted her up.
I returned to the building that woman was in. The woman was outside, holding her arms out for the kid and tears of joy were pouring out.
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!" She said in appreciation and went inside.
"They're coming for you."
Don't know why, but that sentence kept repeating in my mind, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
Get your head in the game, Jack. This is the second thing I have to worry about right now. The war comes first and that includes avenging Phil.
I hurried back to captain who was shouting orders at the police.
"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" He retaliated.
Then those aliens appeared behind captain and he took them out easily, reaping one of their arms off too.
The police stood in aw'ed, but quickly ordered them to do as Captain instructed. I jumped onto the car and stood next to him, panting a bit, and still had that blaster stick with me.
"Where have you been? I was worried sick when I couldn't find you." He glared at me in disapproval.
"I'm sorry. I was getting a child to safety. She was a bit further away from where we fought." I explained.
"Just stick close to me, okay?" Captain commanded, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Understood, captain." I left a mental note about it, and was a bit hurt by his little scolding. But I know he just cares about his teammates.
Soon Clint and Natasha came to us, Thor too. They were all injured like us. "What's the story upstairs?"
"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." He reported.
"Thor's right. We need to deal with these guys first."
"How do we do this?" Natasha asked, standing next to me.
"As a team." Captain told.
"I lost the guns. The one you gave me." I whispered.
"I'll get you new ones."
"Sweet."
"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor exclaimed.
"Yeah? Well, get in line." Clint retorted.
"Clint, be nice. We need everyone to win this war." I scolded him with a frown.
"He's right. Loki's going to keep this focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got stark up top. He's going to need us to..." He stopped mid-sentence when he saw Bruce, riding on a motorcycle before parking it. Everyone was tensed when they saw him. Probably because he turned into hulk and smashed multiple areas in the Helicarrier.
He awkwardly walked over to us. "So, this all seems horrible."
"I've seen worse." Said Natasha.
"Sorry."
"No, we could use a little worse at the moment." I implied. He looked at me in confusion for suggesting such a thing.
"Stark, we got him."
"Banner?" Tony asked
"Just like you said." He confirmed.
"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." I heard through the comms. He flew to us and brought the war snake with him.
"I don't see how that's a party." Said Natasha, when she saw it.
"Exactly what I was gonna say." I told her.
"Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
"That's my secret, Captain." He turned back and looked at him in the eyes. "I'm always angry."
[End of chapter 9]