Things Bucky Barnes Doesn't Do Well

Share Lab Space

The arrow sunk into the target, hitting the bulls-eye. As the last four had. "You may be a better shot than me," Bucky acquiesced, looking at his own target.

Clint smiled. "I wouldn't say that," he said cheerfully. "Just with arrows."

"Yeah, I guess HYDRA didn't think training me with a bow was worth their time for some reason," he replied, and Clint laughed.

"What, they didn't think medieval technology would pay off for you? Short-sighted, man."

"It doesn't seem like them," Bucky agreed, unstringing his bow after watching Clint do the same. They gathered their spent arrows and Clint inspected them to see if any needed repairs before reuse. "I've heard you improved on the original idea," he said while he watched Clint work.

The brought a smile to the archer's face. "Well, most guys don't go down right away just because they've got an arrow in 'em. Makes some of them pretty angry, in fact. Not that guns are necessarily any different, but people sure get pissed when they've got an arrow in their chest. If it didn't kill them, of course."

It was more than Bucky had heard the man say all at once, and was a little relieved – he hadn't been sure where he stood with the spy. Especially what with his connection to Natasha. "What kinds of things have you made?"

Clint thoughtfully looked up at the distant ceiling, possibly counting. "Explosives of varying blast radii, nets, electrified and otherwise, Tasers, grappling hooks." He shrugged, returning to his task. "Nothing too clever," he added.

Bucky wasn't sure what that meant. Certainly creating a device that would not affect how he aimed the projectile to which it was attached would be tricky and require some cleverness. "How do you make sure to keep it weighted correctly?"

Finished, Clint tucked the unharmed arrows into his quiver and kept four that were slightly bent in his hand as he swung the quiver over his shoulder. "Practice, mostly," he answered, turning to leave the range.

Uncertainly, Bucky leaned forward on his toes and glanced around the room as if looking for clues. They were alone in the large, echoing space; it smelled faintly of vinyl from the mats lining the walls to deafen the noise. It was a shooting range, too; archery was not a loud hobby. He hadn't expected to be invited to target practice today, since the two of them rarely spoke outside of missions. Now he was wary of overstepping his welcome.

"You want to see how it's done?" Clint called over his shoulder.

"Sure," Bucky replied, striding quickly to catch up, and hoping his eagerness wasn't too obvious.

Clint left his quiver in one of the lockers near the door and headed toward the elevator. They rode it in silence up to one of the labs. Bucky was somewhat apprehensive to find that it was Tony's lab. One of them, anyway; not one of the open labs for anyone to use, and not Bruce's, either. He wasn't sure what to think about that.

"Stark's always got the best tech," Clint explained as he stepped out of the elevator. "It's a good place to get ideas."

Tony was an accommodating host, but Bucky didn't think he'd be too happy to share his lab. Still, he was new here and Clint surely knew what he was doing. "Are you going to put repulsor beams on your arrows?" he asked instead.

With a snort, Clint headed toward a mostly empty table, setting down the arrows and pushing back the mechanical detritus that littered most surfaces. "Tried it, almost singed off my eyebrows," he replied.

Picturing that, Bucky smiled. "Alright, so, what's the plan?"

Clint turned around to face him, leaning against the table. "We're looking for Dendrotoxin. It'll be in a vial, kinda blue and glowy."

"Alright."

They split up to search. The lab was messy, but Bucky could tell there was a method to Tony's madness. Things were grouped in somewhat logical locations, and he suspected that the genius had no trouble finding whatever he wanted. It did make it more difficult for them, though, since they didn't know Tony's thought process. After about twenty minutes of searching through things that Bucky was mostly unable to identify, he found a little tray with four vials rolling around on it. The color reminded him of ice, and he shivered a little.

"This it?" he asked, lifting the tray carefully.

A grin spread on Clint's face, and he hopped over the nearest table to get a closer look. "Good job, Barnes," the archer told him, taking the tray away.

He followed Clint back to the table with the arrows and watched in silence as he pulled a couple small metal pieces out of his pocket. They were all the same size, and he guessed that they were used to attach to his arrows while in the quiver.

"What does it do?" he asked, motioning toward the liquid.

Glancing at him briefly, Clint opened one of the vials. "They call it an icer. Brings down folks without killing 'em. Pretty useful, in our line of work. You should see about getting some bullets made of the stuff."

He frowned a little, wondering who he would ask about such a thing. It did sound like a good idea. "And it'll work on your arrows?"

"Who knows? Worth a try," Clint replied. He poured the dendrotoxin into two of the metal pieces, then looked around. "Will you look at that," he said suddenly, putting his work down and walking to the next table over.

There was a 4" by 8" square with eighteen holes drilled into it. Only half of them were full, with what looked like tiny missiles. Bucky leaned forward to get a good look, deciding that they were, in fact, missiles, though he'd never seen any so small before. Not that his handlers had generally considered small weaponry worth his time. He thought he remembered seeing Tony use them while in his suit. They were heat-seeking and very effective.

"You don't think Stark'll mind if I borrow these, do you?" Clint asked, picking one up and turning it over to inspect it.

Bucky didn't know about that, but he would like to see them in action, especially on an arrow. "Depends on how many you borrow," he replied.

Clint snorted and picked up another one. "Just two. He probably won't even miss them. If they work, I'll ask him for more." He turned back and set about attaching one to each of the remaining damaged arrows. For testing, Bucky supposed.

"Hey, Kung Jin, Jackson Briggs. More of what, dare I ask?" Tony's voice interrupted them.

They both turned around quickly, probably guiltily.

"These little missiles," Clint replied calmly.

Tony walked over and looked at the assembled arrows, raising an eyebrow. "What do you want them to do?"

"Shock and Awe. Like the shrapnel ones I've already got. I want to put several of these in an arrowhead that will split at the height of the arc and go after multiple targets," Clint explained, gesturing while he did so.

Nodding along, Tony moved the pieces around thoughtfully. "Sure, let's see what we can do." He glanced up at Bucky questioningly. "You gonna let me look at that arm of yours?"

"Barnes wants some icer bullets," Clint said.

Tony looked between the two of them. "Yeah, that's all. My arm's fine," Bucky clarified.

"Alright," Tony replied a little wistfully, then pulled out a box and handed it to Bucky. "Let me know when you run low."

"Thanks," he replied, and watched them work for a few moments. "You think you could put an EMP in it?"

"You planning on knocking out our wifi?" Tony asked, but turned to get a better look.

"Seems useful," he replied, and Tony nodded before setting to work.