Red Hood meets Marvel

Ditching the Avengers

A/N: I am so sorry you guys! This chapter took way to long to get out here, but life decided to start moving like a freight train and tried leaving my ass behind, so there was a lot of running to catch up and sadly writing was one of the things that got left behind for a while there! But here it is, finally! The next chapter! I hope you all enjoy it and thank you all for being so lovely and patient! Reading your reviews has been so wonderful and encouraging and I can't thank you enough!

When Tony first called the team in to check on this mess, Clint hadn't really known what to expect. The Cap was still away on his third mission since joining Shield after his big welcome to the future road trip across the U.S., and Thor was who knows where in backass end of nowhere space dealing with his evil little bitch of a brother. Bruce was present, but then, also, Bruce, and whereas Clint had grown to appreciate the Hulk, (especially after seeing the footage of him throwing Loki around like a ragdoll, that had made Clint's year,), Hulk was more one of those, "in case of emergency" options rather than everyday mission, and that just left him and Nat to pick up the call. Which normally, Clint was a-okay with, he could not ask for a better or more badass partner, but when it's Tony Stark who is calling something in, the man with an ego that could fill up an entire skyscraper (and had because what else could you call Stark tower?), well. Let's just say Clint would've liked to have a few more heavy hitters with them.

When Stark then told them that there was a new player in New York, and that it was potentially some version of Red Skull (because seriously with that face what else could you be playing at? Even if it wasn't the Nazi bastard himself through some kind of wibbly wobbly timey wimey weirdness, (which in a world with Norse gods, 95 year old science experiments who still looked to be in their early 30's, portals to other worlds, and more, things like this started to seem more and more likely), then it could still be, and more likely was, a copycat playing into Red Skull's likeness to emulate the psycho for his own sick schemes), well. Clint had certainly seen stranger. At this point the only thing that he thought could possibly surprise him was if this Red Skull look alike was actually some do-gooder superhero from an alternate dimension where none of them existed, because surely if things got to that far, Clint must have lost his marbles somewhere along the way. Probably in Budapest, honestly. Though the invasion of New York was definitely a hearty contender...

So when Tony said he had set up a meeting with at the very least someone with connections to the impostor, if not the man himself, Clint was wary. Because if that didn't scream "It's a trap!" louder than Admiral Ackbar, Clint wasn't sure what would. When Nat asked how he had set that up and Tony started to clam up, Clint started to have a bad feeling about all of it. When Tony admitted the communication had been passed along through kids, Clint was ready to punch Stark in the face and kick him where the sun don't shine till his grandkids were feeling it, because they were little kids, goddamnit Tony! When Tony backpedaled and said he had placed 24/7 security subtly around the Orphanage to protect the little tikes, created a subprogram in JARVIS to constantly double and triple check that no suspicious individuals got into any type of range to those kids, and had quadruple checked each and every employee and volunteer that had ever had anything to do with the orphanage, Clint settled for breaking his nose.

If there was one damn rule that Clint never broke, and never fucking would for all he might sometimes play fast and loose with the rules(cough, bringing in a deadly enemy assassin instead of killing her as ordered, cough), it was never put innocents in danger if you can damn well help it. Especially if they're kids. Having the kids call up the one damn person you're trying to protect them from for a fucking meet and greet with the local superheroes and law enforcement was a fucking moronic idea, even if you took precautions about it. It gave the bad guys way too much motivation to hurt the kids, and Clint would not stand for that. Especially with the reminder of Lila and Cooper at home. They were three and five respectively, and it horrified him to imagine them living on the streets, much less in the situation these kids were, in contact with someone donning a similar mask to Red fucking Skull!