The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 6

I trace the wood grain of the table that Will and I are seated at when a voice forces me to focus on the women in front of me. "You know who we are." The person who I now know is Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a Black Widow, says as she gestures to the pile of files Director Fury gave to me. "It's only fair that you tell us who you are and why you're here."

After Fury left on some so called secret mission, the Avengers decided that Stark and Banner should try to figure out Ultron's next move while the rest of the team would stay at the farm house and interrogate Will and I. Now for the last hour Romanoff has been asking us the same questions over and over again, It's getting tedious.

"True, but I've never known anything in the world to be fair." She grits her teeth at my answer.

"Look, we're only here to stop the genocide happy robot same as you." Will says, probably trying to make up for my rudeness. Natasha chooses to ignore him and instead continues to glare at me. I don't think she likes me.

"How do you know about Ultron?" Captain Rogers speaks up. I try not to laugh.........out loud...........I fail.

"You mean besides the fact that's posted all over the media?" Will gives me a disapproving glance. I consider allowing him to be the one to continue the conversation, but Will is a horrible lier. A side effect of having the god of truth as a dad. "My father is very powerful." Natasha raises an eyebrow in interest. "I'm not saying who he is." She crosses her arms and leans back in her chair, displeased. "When he heard about Ultron he sent us here to help. " I finish.

"You're only kids, what could you do?" Steve echoes Stark's precious comment.

"If you're worried about our ability then we would be happy to demonstrate, but I've seen your files and no one here has any right to judge us on age alone." A silence settles over the room like morning fog as everyone's gaze becomes fixed on me.

"I'll take you up on your offer." Clint says, braking the silence. Black Widow sends a glare Clint's way, but he just brushes it off. "He's not wrong, and besides, if they're going to work with us then we might as well see what they can do."

"Will would be happy to show you his archery ability." I volunteer. Will looks conflicted between being excited to show off to his hero and annoyed that I pulled him into this dispute.

"Great, but we will have to go outside, my wife has a rule against using weapons in the house." Clint explains. I glance over at Natasha, waiting for her to object. She sighs in defeat.

"Fine." She says. A large smile spreads across Clint's face.

Will grabs his bow and quiver of arrow from where he put them on the floor next to him at the beginning of the interrogation while Clint collects a modern black compound bow from where it was discarded on a counter with his own quiver. Captain mumbles something about not being caught unprepared again before he leaves the room and comes back with the famous shield in hand. Gathering weapons before leaving the house, is it bad that this is normal for me?

"Follow me." Hawkeye tells us.

Will and I are the first ones out the door, relived that we're no longer expected to sit still. this quest might just work out after all. My optimistic thoughts are shattered by the sound of happy barking. Pro tip, never forget about you giant monster dog when trying to gain the trust of paranoid mortals. Mrs. O'Leary starts running towards me when she suddenly stops. Her excitement instantly dies when she spots the 3 Avengers exiting the house behind us. She bends down like she's about to attack and gives a warning growl. The situation isn't helped by the trigger happy Black Widow who has her gun aimed and poised to shoot. I should do something. I don't want Mrs. O'Leary to get hurt and I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to let her maul Romanoff, what a shame. With a sigh, I step in between their little showdown. Not the smartest move, but it's effective.