𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬

The battle for Bucky Barnes (or rather the Winter Soldier) was ongoing. And nobody was giving up — hence why Tony Stark has gone to Queens to recruit a 15-year old kid — Spiderman.

But he wasn't the only one gathering allies — Clint Barton was on his way to get his. Accompanied by Pierre Maximoff, of course.

"How you doing? You good?" Clint asked Pietro as they walked towards Avengers HQ — it was time for brother and sister to reunite.

Clint hadn't lost touch with Pietro, not after everything the man had done for him. There would always, always be a part of him that cared for the younger man — the man who had sacrificed himself so he could live.

If it wasn't for Ava, Clint would have Pietro's blood on his hands. But he didn't.

"I'm good." Pietro smiled, thinking about Ava and the lady who worked at the grocery store around the corner from their home. "Very good. And you?"

"Eh, I'm good too. Can't say I haven't missed this, though." Clint commented, aiming his arrow a distance away from the HQ. It'd provide the perfect distraction.

"No, no. I'll take it further." Pietro told him, stealing the explosive arrow from him before running.

As he was running, he realised that he too had missed this. The feeling of running in the way only he could — the way nothing could stop him and how nobody could see him. He missed the blue trail that marked all the places he'd been — but only for a second before they disappeared.

Maybe he wasn't all that bothered about Steve calling him and Ava away from home.

After slowing down, he quickly threw the arrow a couple metres ahead of him, before dashing and standing beside Clint, slightly out of breath.

"Huh. I guess you did get it further." Clint shrugged, only receiving a smirk from the oldest Maximoff twin. "Let's go." Clint spoke quickly after noticing Vision depart. Pietro grabbed him, and ran with a hand on his neck until they arrived in the kitchen, where his sister stood.

A knife was hurtled across the room, stopping only inches from Clint's face. His eyes crossed slightly as he stared at it.

"Guess we shoulda knocked." He spoke jokingly.

"Oh my god!" Wanda gaped at the two, thinking Clint was on his farm and Pietro was at home with Ava. "What are you doing here?" She asked, concerned and confused.

"Disappointing my kids." Clint replied, referring to how he was supposed to be retired. He shot arrows across both sides of the room. "I'm supposed to go water-skiing." Clint elaborated.

"Wanda, Cap needs our help." Pietro spoke, looking softly at his twin.

"Clint! Pietro!" Vision calls, making the trio turn to him. Pietro glared, feeling his twin grasp his hand. He tightened his hold.
"You should not be here." Vision said, mostly referring to Clint.

"Really? I retire for, what— like five minutes? And it all goes to shit." Clint replied, after turning to face Vision.

"Please consider the consequences of your actions." Vision said wisely, to which Pietro scoffed.

"Okay. They're considered." Clint replied mockingly. "Okay, we gotta go. It's this way." He said, moving towards the door as the Vision got caught in a crackling blue force field.

"I've caused enough problems." Wanda muttered, looking completely lost.

"No, look at me—" Pietro said, his hands holding the sides of her face. "You've caused no problems. You listen? None." He told her firmly (his English still not perfect), watching emotion flicker through her eyes.

"You gotta help me, Wanda." Clint sighed, "Look, you wanna mope, you can go to high school. You wanna make amends, you gotta get off your ass." He told the woman, watching hesitation continue to linger on her face.

Pietro and Wanda separated, but he still looked to her for her answer.

"Shit!" Clint exclaimed, seeing Vision destroy the force field arrows with the stone in his forehead. Then, the red being advanced towards Hawkeyes, rearing a fist backwards before knocking the man to the ground.

"I knew I should've stretched!" Clint ground out, standing back up after quickly recovering. The man extended a baton, aiming to hit Vision, but the weapon just goes straight through him.

Pietro moves forward, ready to assist Clint, but Vision threw a sudden punch that knocked him backwards, stumbling over one of Clint's outstretched feet and falling to land on his butt.

Clint attempted to punch Vision, but he was unsuccessful. So, he resorted to his batons again — which was proved just as useless as before when it broke.

Pietro jumped back up, speeding around Vision and looking for some sort of weapon.

Clint moved to kick Vision, but his leg phased right through him — he couldn't win, not like this.

Vision grabbed Clint in a headlock, knowing he'd won. He felt a sudden increase in wind and just stopped the arrow Pietro had thrown at his shoulder.

"You can't overpower me." Vision said, to both Clint and Pietro, who glared.

"I know I can't. But she can."

All attention turned to Wanda, who looked done with their fighting.
"Vision, that's enough. Let him go. I'm leaving." She spoke with finality, eyes hardening.

"I can't let you." Vision told her, almost sadly, as his grip tightened on Clint. This did not help the situation — at all.

Wanda spread her hands apart, red mist glowing around them as she removed Clint from the Vision's grasp.
"I'm sorry."

"I'm not." Pietro stated firmly — Vision had just gotten on his bad side.

Vision faltered. "If you do this..." he spoke, almost carefully, "they will never stop being afraid of you.

She took a deep breath.

"I can't control their fear. Only my own."

Wanda took a step closer, the energy around her hands glowing brighter. The same glow appeared around Vision, almost from the inside, before she slammed him down multiple floors.

"Oh. Come on, we got one more stop." Clint said, noticing the twins smile at each other as Pietro squeezed her hand in reassurance. He was so very proud.

●

Jackson Rhodes was sat on an uncomfortable wooden stool in the garage of his best friend's house. And while this may not seem unusual in any way... it was.

And it was unusual because Jackson was building something — something that would help the whole world.

He called it 'The Neutraliser' because — well, actually, just because he thought it sounded quite cool.

It was an intricate design involving the concept of changing plastic and other polluting objects into, well... helpful things. Like seeds, oxygen, even water. It wasn't complete — not by any means. In fact, it was far from complete.

That might've been because of the other thing he'd built recently. It was an object that spread across his chest, giving him special abilities he could remove whenever he chose to. He didn't have a name, yet, but he was getting there.

Even so, when his best friend, Paisley, came inside with a nervous expression, announcing that (and I quote), "To— Tony Stark is here. Like, in my house. Oh my god."
He wasn't all that surprised.

After all, the man was practically like an uncle to him.

But he never expected the man would need his help.

author's note!—

hiii! so um... i just kinda winged it and this came out.
let's all welcome my new character Jackson Rhodes, the nephew of Rhodey :)
also, paisley was just a kinda spur of the moment idea, but she's here now!

anyway, I hope you enjoy! :)