The Stark Shadow

The Reunion

- Collins -

The week following Tony's little stunt, the area surrounding the compound was swarming with reporters. Tony had told me not to leave unless absolutely necessary, at least not until we had a plan for Pierce. The irony of Tony releasing my identity to the public for him to protect me while simultaneously having me stay within the grounds was not lost on me.

I hadn't seen much of Steve since that night and any time I did, he was deep in a conversation with Tony. It was like peering into the window of a boys' club that I was very clearly not invited into.

This particular morning, the pair was nowhere to be found. No one was. I seemed to be alone in the compound. "Jarvis? Where is everyone?"

"It appears that Director Fury has requested a meeting with Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers. Dr. Banner is conducting research elsewhere and Miss Romanoff is, well, Miss Romanoff."

"Fair. Well, if they come back and anyone needs me, I'll be in the lab."

I threw on a hooded sweater, my fingers brushing across the scar on my side as I pulled it down. I looked at the discolored skin in the mirror and sighed. Bruce has done his best to minimize the scarring, but the damage was too severe.

The motion sensor lights flickered on as I entered the lab. Transparent imaging screens dropped down from their hiding places in the ceiling, blinking on as I flipped the switch to power up the rest of the equipment in the room.

Tony loved tinkering especially when he was restless–which was often–but that didn't mean he always finished the projects he started. Most of the time I finished his little ideas for him.

I plopped myself into the swivel chair and opened up the box shoved in the corner of the room with "LEGOLAS" scrawled on it in Tony's handwriting. After digging around I found the flash drive and plugged it into the computer. The imaging screens flashed with unfinished schematics. "Always finishing your homework for you." I popped in the comms earpieces that I rigged to function as earbuds and put on some music while I got to work.

After what I thought was only a couple of hours, I looked up at the clock on the wall that blinked back at me: 4:29PM. I had already worked way past lunch and was making so much progress that I didn't want to stop. I brought all the equipment I was working on down to the training room to test it out. My fingers flew across the imaging screens, recalibrating the stats for the first arrow.

"Here goes nothing."

~~~

- Clint -

"What the shit," I muttered under my breath as I turned the corner onto the street about half a mile away from the front gate of the compound. The area was swarming with reporters with microphones and cameras, vans parked on the side of the road with satellites broadcasting whatever news they were trying to get.

The Avengers headquarters location wasn't a secret and most people knew better to stay away, but this was something else. Had I missed something?

After pulling up to the gate and punching in the security code, I parked the car by the entrance and went inside. Most days I would be greeted by Nat wandering the main floor, but she was MIA. Didn't know where she was, but I always knew she'd be back giving me shit in no time.

The compound was quiet except for the sounds of small explosions coming from the direction of the training room. I peeled off my leather jacket and threw it onto the couch in the lobby along with my keys and followed the muffled explosions down to the training room.

"Well, I'll be damned," I whispered to myself as I stood in the shadows of the hallway just outside of the door.

I saw Collins pick up an arrow at the end of a long row of them all laid out on the table. She set it in place, lifting the bow as she pulled the arrow back until her hand rested on her cheek. I could see her take a breath before releasing the arrow and seeing it cut through the air and impaling the target across the room. A small red light blinked three times before setting off a small smoke screen that filled the room. Before the air cleared and I could see into the room again, the familiar thwipping sound of an arrow flew past my ear and pierced the wall behind me.

"You missed," I smirked.

"Who said I was aiming for you?"

I looked behind me where the arrow stuck out of the wall. A blue light blinked before sending a shock through my body as I fell to the floor.

Collins strode over confidently and smiled down at me, reaching an arm out. "Don't you know it's rude to try and sneak up on people?"

I laughed as I took her hand and lifted myself up. Her hair was in a loose ponytail with strands falling all over her face which meant that she'd been working long hours on another project again. "Hasn't anyone taught you it's rude to shoot arrows at people?"

"I didn't hit you, now did I?" Her lips curled up in a smirk as she looked up at me. "Hey there, Hawkeye."

"Been a while, Shadow."