Metal Birds?

1: Impossible

Clint's fist hit the wall with surprising strength, considering he had spent the last few days fighting robots. He instantly regretted the decision and crumbled down to his knees, forehead hitting the wall. He cradled his hand and mentally punched himself in the face. His muscles ached and the cuts on his arms stung and his eyes hurt and his heart was heavy. You might be wondering why all of this pain was happening to our poor main character.

Well, Clint Barton saw his responsibility die right in front of his very own eyes.

~~~

His responsibility was Pietro Maximoff. Pietro Maximoff died in the battle between the Avengers and Ultron, a world-protection program gone rouge. Ultron shoved J.A.R.V.I.S. (to be known as 'Jarvis' from now on) into hibernation mode. Ultron then took a mechanical body of his own and tried to take over the world. In the process of stopping him, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner uploaded Jarvis' interface into the android body Ultron was trying to build for himself. That android body contained one of the six Infinity Stones and was thus named "the Vision" or "Vision" after the magical stone in his head.

Vision teamed up with the Avengers and the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda, to stop Ultron. They won the battle and a new Avengers facility was formed, as well as a new Avengers 'team', to be trained by Captain America and Black Widow.

On the last day of the battle however, when the Avengers were getting all the civilians of Sokovia off the floating island (Ultron's fault) and into S.H.I.E.L.D. (to be referred to a 'Shield' from now on) carriers, Clint Barton ran out into the rubble to save a young boy who had gotten trapped. He got the boy out and was on his way back to the carrier when one of Ultron's minion robots came out of nowhere and started shooting at him. Pietro Maximoff, being able to go faster than the speed of sound, ran at his super speed and flipped a car up in front of Clint and the boy to save them, and also smashed the robot to pieces.

Despite his epic display of heroicess, Pietro was shot several times in the torso by the robot before he smashed it. He fell dead right in front of Clint. Which brings us to now.

Our broken hero sat on the floor with his head against the wall, cradling his bloody fist as his entire body shook. He was angry and he was upset and he was extremely sad, very nearly depressed. Clint's body heaved and one gut-wrenching sob tore itself out of his lungs and clawed it's way up his throat and out into the room. Tears single streamed down his face and he shook violently, collapsing completely onto the cold tile floor.

Seconds later, his head was in Natasha Romanoff's lap and she was rubbing his back soothingly, whispering to him in both English and Russian. "Hey, you're okay. Everything will be okay. Глубокие вдохи, хорошо?" Clint had no idea what she was saying in Russian but it didn't matter because he couldn't hear her anyway. His hearing aids had fallen out and he was too distracted by his sadness and his intensely negative thoughts to notice her at all.

You couldn't save him.

It's your fault he's dead.

His sister lost her best friend so why are you sad?

You should feel bad. The kid died because of you.

Negative thoughts obscured his views of anything else and he wasn't able to move, see, or feel anything for at least ten minutes as he shook on the floor, crying. When Clint finally came to, he clutched Natasha's hand as hard as he could and wished for it all to go away.

"Nat," he croaked, but he couldn't even hear himself. "Nat? Nat, what's going on?" The pitch of his voice rose and became frantic, searching for an answer. He clutched her arm tighter but she felt no pain. Even if she did, she didn't express it. She just continued petting his hair and searched for his hearing aids. When she found them, she carefully placed one in his ear and adjusted it to the volume she knew he was okay with.

"Клинт? Ты слышишь меня?" she asked softly. "Clint? Can you hear me?" she repeated in English. He nodded and pressing his face into her stomach, clutching her hand tight.

"It hurts," he groaned, shaking. She nodded and rubbed his back, soothing him.

"I know mishk, I know. Mishk, listen buddy, you're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine," she insisted.

"He's dead!" Clint cried out. "He's dead and it's my fault!"

"Who's dead?" a soft voice called from the doorway.

"Go away!" Clint yelled, making his voice sound deep and intimidating. "I need some time!"

"I can see that, but why do you need time. No one is dead," the person insisted. Clint recognized the accent and scoffed.

"Listen Wanda, I don't have time for this crap." Natasha looked up and froze. "Tash?" Clint whispered, turning his head to look up at her. Her face was pale as though she'd seen a ghost and she was staring at the doorway, wide eyed. "Tash, who is it? You're freaking me out."

"Clint," she breathed out, pushing his face away from her. "Clint, look." He grumbled something incoherent and sat up, spinning around on the tile to tell the person off.

"Listen, kid, I need some emotional time, which I never seem to get anyways, and I would appre-" He stopped talking once he saw who was in the doorway. "No. No, this is fake!" he yelled, clutching the sides of his head. "Stop! STOP IT! LEAVE ME ALONE!" he screamed, falling to the ground face-first in agony. When would his brain quit it with the illusions? He had been having too many illusions of seeing him, just standing around. He was done.

"Clint?" the person asked softly, concern edging their voice.

"THIS IS ALL FAKE! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Clint screeched, sobbing into the floor. Standing in the doorway was a man with grey eyes that were wide in concern. Standing in the doorway was the fastest man alive.

Standing in the doorway was Pietro Maximoff, back from the dead.