Chance For Reunions

Don't Touch The Hawkeyes

As for the three heroes that had gone into Madripoor... they were in more trouble than they had bargained for, especially since the Department wanted to know exactly what information they had managed to get their hands on... and they wanted new information from the heroes as well.

"HEY!" Wade shouted with a snarl. "Leave Donatello alone! He's the lonesome George of his kind! He's better than you!"

"One outta three ain't bad," Clint said through his teeth before he couldn't stop the cry as the doctor 'questioning' the three captives broke another finger on his left hand. It was a frustratingly familiar situation; he was with the other two, and the bad guys were making them watch each other. This soon after the invasion and the Kree, the familiarity was doing more to upset Clint than the actual torture — not that he would give that away.

"We saw the files that Richards collected on you," the doctor told Clint calmly. "Very interesting."

Clint had to admit... that wasn't what he wanted to hear, especially considering what all they were learning about what happened to people the Department turned their interest to. So he shook his head and pasted on a crooked smirk. "I'm flattered, doc. Didn't know Iowa corn redneck carnies counted much as interesting."

"It's more the slight healing capabilities," the doc said, leveling with him — a cold smile in place — as Clint wondered how the heck these guys had figured that out. "We need to start looking into how useful it is."

"Didn't realize you wanted to know what your own hands tasted like so bad, but I'll be feeding them to you in about five seconds if you don't futzing back off of him," Kate said in what could only be described as a growl. Out of the three of them, Kate had the least experience with this kind of setup, and Clint was honestly concerned, because he could see the way she had her hands clenched to keep them from shaking.

She gave him grief for treating her like a kid sidekick, but... Clint had hoped that he could keep her away from the kind of trouble that would get her pinned down for torture for torture's sake instead of experimentation, but... well...

"Don't worry," the doctor told Kate. "I'll get to you too in good time. And I'll start with your shoulder."

When Kate just fell into a glare at that but couldn't come up with a snappy retort, Clint broke in with, "Don't worry, Katie Kate. He'll be too busy with the interesting Hawkeye. You're fine."

"At least for a little while. Are you all quite sure you don't want to share where your friends are?" The doc looked at each of them in turn, his expression the very image of patience.

"Already told you it's the corner of None of Your Business and Screw You," Kate snarled, and Clint couldn't help but smirk — Kate was coming up with new answers every time, and he was kind of proud. She had some pretty great zingers when they asked her how to get into the mansion, too — which they asked her more than the guys because she lived there. Clint's favorite so far was the entrance through the nonexistent pool on the roof.

But he was getting tired of watching these guys try to work Kate over for information — whether or not she was his sidekick, she was family, after all — so he jumped in too: "Yeah, you're not gonna get them or the mansion, so give it a rest, wouldja?"

"Oh, we don't care about the mansion anymore," the doc said, stepping away from Clint for a moment. "It's not an issue."

"What are you talking about?" Kate asked, her eyes a bit wider than before.

"It's not an issue," he repeated calmly. "We know they're not there."

"Coulda told you that if you watched the news," Clint muttered, though he was watching Kate.