Problems: From Rookies to Babies.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

They were on a mission in Canada. Nothing too bad about this one it seemed. Or so it was meant to be pretty easy. There was word of a device being set up there by some unknown group, that was putting off strange readings. For one, they had no intil on the group, for another they had no idea what kind of device. Both things they needed to know about. Why? Because it’s SHIELD and they need to know everything.

It wasn’t top priority however. A training mission, really. Scout and Scoot as Coulson would call it. Since the events in New York, (and, you know, living and all) Fury had been placing him on smaller training missions, when he wasn’t keeping an eye on the Avengers. He had been officially moved to the ‘Ambassador to the Avengers’ as Sitwell laughed.

The point being? This was a simple training mission that won't stay so simple. Because of the need for eyes from a distance, Clint was pulled along as well, which suited Coulson fine, really, and it might have suited Barton fine as well.

But as I said, the mission was simple that didn’t stay simple. One of their rookie Agents got himself into a spot of trouble, captured by a dart to the neck and dragged inside. Another Agent followed him in, tracking. Phil knew she was a good tracker, but he didn’t like the next problem that followed.

Communications ceased to function once the Agent’s stepped inside the small base set inside the hill side. Great.

“Barton. Lost Meyers. Lost Hutchinson. Do you have eyes on Jackson?” Their third rookie who was with them.

Comments

[from_a_distance]

Clint does not at all speak Italian, but he is pretty good at deducing people's positions from sound, so as the man is cursing and giving orders, he fires off a shot in his direction, probably not as precise as he's used to, but close enough to hit they guy somewhere. As for whoever was being sent after him, Clint decided his cover was blown enough that he could risk leaning into the room to get a clear shot at him.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Phil was trying to hear out things as well. "He's sending someone out with the baby." He hissed to Clint, knowing Italian enough to pick that much up with out seeing. There was another exit, and if he knew where it lead he would have rounded onto it. Seeing as he had no clue, they needed into the room.

As Clint ducked in, Phil inched closer to the end of the open archway, still half on a step, leaning out to take a fast glance and lean back. He was letting Clint take care of the grunts.

Only there was a shout from above them. Phil turned to see him, gun raised, but his own fired, covering their backs as he took down mystery man number six.

Meanwhile, Clint's shot winged the Leader in the chest, but it seemed to do nothing. He's wearing armor. He's also drawn his own gun, but he's more interested in getting the child out and grabbing something else. He yelled at his men at the pod (Fools!) or something. And demanded they close the door and start the chamber!

Phil barely heard it but called to Clint. "Get Meyer's out of there!" Because just as Clint was making his move, one of the first downed men had just hastily reached up to shove the pod door closed.

[from_a_distance]

Clint was already heading down the stairs when Coulson gave the order, sprinting for the chamber. He didn't make it in time to stop the door closing, but he did manage to take the guy out just as it shut, knocking him out with a blow to the head. They were probably gonna need some info on what this thing did, so killing him was not their best option.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Good call. They needed SOME form of survivor to work information out of! Phil cleared the other body behind them, the one that fell half down the steps after he was shot. He make sure the gun was clear and covered Barton.

The moment the door closed however it glowed blue again. It was openble however, if you pulled the leaver at the side. This however was a distraction. The woman with the baby headed to another door, headed out it. The leader was hauling a canister with a redish liquid inside it, pulling it out of the machine and, trying to at least, shoot at Clint. Phil shot back first, as cover.

"Don't move, please!" He yelled to the other two people still standing. He repeated it in broken Italian, not a language he had full grasp of yet.

Don't move was clearly the green light to shoot at Clint and the door again and try to make a run for it.

[from_a_distance]

Given the situation, Clint chose to head for the lady with the baby rather than try to get Meyers out right now. Whatever they were doing with that kid was not okay with him, and he was going to stop it. He turned as he headed after her to return fire.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

The leader was moving towards another machine, hauling the cylinder with him and actually stepping into it. Though it wasn't a machine, but a possible way out, because if checked it was clear.

The woman made it through the door and was running, wedge heel boots slapping the hard ground hard as she nearly sprinted. It was a long hall way, with no turns, and seemed to slope down. The baby in her arms, crying with such strong anger.

Phil moved as Clint ran off, headed to the mechine with Meyers in it and looking for a way to stop it. To open it. He found the leaver, hauling it down strongly and hearing the door hiss open. He then took off for the leader, moving to the machine and doing the same to it, opening the hatch to see a very long curving tunnel dug out in the hill side. "Shit..." He hissed to himself, trying to see where Barton disappeared to.

He could go in after him, and not know what he might be headed into. Or he could let him go until he had his back up return. But they had an Agent to deal with in a pod, and Clint was after a baby. With a tight fist he backed up again, away from it, and went to check on Meyer.

[from_a_distance]

Clint tore off down the hallway after her. There was no way he was letting that baby out of his sight, practically leaping down the hall with the slope of it.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

She could hear him gaining on her, so she stopped running, turning to hold the baby close and ... one might think as a shield, as she called out in broken English. "Please don't shoot! I have baby!" Her hand moving into the the bundle of the baby, as if to hold it close, or to get something small...

[from_a_distance]

Clint was betting on the latter, and he stepped closer slowly. He was fairly certain he could shoot her and dash in to catch the baby as she fell, but he wasn't sure he wanted to take the risk she'd do something desperate.

"Just put it down and we'll be fine," he said, wishing he'd picked up more useful Italian in the circus than just swear words.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

"P-please. D-don't. Shoot!" It sounded like someone trying to remember how to speak English disparately. Like she was worried he'd shoot her if she didn't get the words out right. She was backing up, still moving away, down the long tunnel.

Her hand still awkwardly placed in the bundle. "I have baby!" She repeated again, still moving backwards...

[from_a_distance]

"I see you have a baby, lady," Clint says, still heading toward her. "But if you don't stop moving, I'm gonna stop letting that be a problem for me real quick."

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Welp, so much for that.

She pulled a gun, right from the babies bundle, and pointed it at him, firing three shots just as she started to run again. The Baby screaming louder now at the loud bang shots.

The woman had a few problems now though. The way out was up a ladder. She needed two hands. The baby was loud and annoying. She stopped suddenly yelling "You want the baby!? Take it!" And thus threw, yes, she threw the baby his way, under handed toss, a little bundle of blanket and screaming kid. She then took off for the ladder out.

[from_a_distance]

Clint was ready for the shots, but she still grazed his shoulder. Not enough to throw him too much off balance, though, and he managed to catch the baby in his right arm, cradling it carefully against his body.

"Shit. Fuck! Shit," he snapped out, then glanced down at the bundle and mumbled, "Sorry, kid."

There was no way he could go after the woman and keep the baby, so he shifted to make sure the bundle was secure and then headed back the way he'd come to see if he could help Coulson and Meyers.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Coulson had lost the leader. The woman had gotten away from Barton. Meyers was now laying on the floor, shivering, and looking a bit older then when he went in.

Phil had pulled his coat off, covering Meyers who was grasped to it, shaking a bit. He was then looking around for some form of device to shut down to get the communications working. He trusted Barton to get the woman and baby so he didn't follow yet. They needed the coms.

But at the gun shots he hissed, moving to the door where the long hall way was, looking in and not seeing anything. He told Meyers to hang on and he started down into the tunnel, only to stop as a figure was headed back. Not a female figure. "What happened, Barton?"

The child in the mans arms was crying, because really? This was all very traumatic, thank you!

[from_a_distance]

"She got away," Clint answered shortly, ignoring the blood flowing down his arm. "How's Meyers?"

[istillbelieveinheroes]

"Alive." He said flatly, about Meyers. So much for catching the woman too. At least Clint kept one of them alive in the room there. They could get info from him, and now they had this base location.

"You're hurt." He said, not as a question, but a note of his own sight, seeing the blood as Barton came closer. The baby crying loudly, little bundled arms trying to fight but cant, all wrapped up. It's a very angry baby.

[from_a_distance]

Clint shook his head, not in denial, just letting him know it's not important. "It's fine. I'm going deaf, but it's fine."

He can't blame the kid, really, but he kinda wants to.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

It's important if he's bleeding! But... he does understand. A flesh wound perhaps? It's not like the man hasn't had a few of those before. The deaf comment however made Coulson hold his hands out for the child.

"Here. Get a bandage or some pressure on that. I'll need your help getting Meyers out."

[from_a_distance]

"It's fine," Clint insisted again, though he was more than happy to hand over the baby. "Just grazed me."

He was also fine with getting a bandage on it as soon as he was sure Coulson had the baby. He grabbed the downed scientist's lab coat and ripped off a strip of cloth to make a pressure bandage.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Coulson took the baby, careful in his arms. Poor thing, he wondered what they did to it. "Good. Though being shot while saving a baby is pretty noble." He teased softly, watching the little bundle. He didn't see the fact that the baby had bee nthrown, or had a gun so close to it's little head. If he'd known, he'd understand the angery crying more. As it was, he didn't mind too much. He tried calming it down ith movement, moving back around the round room now.

"Meyers? Still with us?"

Meyers used to be a young man. Now he looks like he aged 20 years in 20 seconds. It didn't look bad on him, but there was no way he was meant to be that old. The man was seated now, on the ground, holding Coulson's coat around him and shivering. He nodded. "Yessir." The word mumbled out.

Phil looked to Clint with a side eyed shot. What ever the machine was, it aged the man. "Barton. Let's get these two out and back to Jackson and communication. I want a clean up crew and some Intel out here to figure out what the hell they did to Meyer and this kid." And he shhh'ed the baby in his arms again. The child calming down faster in Coulson's arms.

[from_a_distance]

"You got it, boss," Clint said, quickly finishing his bandage before moving toward Meyers. "Got a way with kids," he remarked with a faint smirk as the baby calmed down.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Phil's fiddling with his ear piece, wishing it was working now. He wanted contact with Jackson now, thanks. But he caught Clint's comment, looking slightly surprised, for all of a second, before smiling.

"Not really. She's just aware that she's safer now. No reason to yell." A nearly whispered 'is there?' to the baby might have gone unheard. Might not have.

Meyers took what ever help he could to get to his feet. He was closer to Clint's age now, if not older, so he wasn't out of shape, just drained by what ever happened to him.

[from_a_distance]

Clint heard it, and it made him smile a bit.

"Right...let's get her out of here, then," he says, nodding to Meyers as well once he's sure the guy can make it on his own, no serious injuries.

[istillbelieveinheroes]

Getting Meyers out was easy. He wasn't a old man, just not as young a he used to be. Once they were outside again, communications picked up once more. Phil gave orders for a pick up as well as the need for a team to come in and take care of the site. Clean up.

There was going to be a lot of paper work to do.

When he tried to pass the baby off to a medic to be checked out, she wouldn't stop crying. Phil had even stepped back for a bit, watching someone try to fuss over Barton for wounds, only to be distracted with the crying child.

After some time, a female medic, clearly not used to children, looked frustrated, like she had a headache. Phil stepped in, reaching a hand out to the child, finger brushing at her hair line lightly. "Shhhh, what's all the fuss about?" He said to the baby, then gave a smile to the woman, indicating she could hand the baby over.

It was almost instant, the crying stopped and the fussing died down. Before he could even bring her to his chest, close and secure, she'd closed her eyes and sniffled in her sleep.

"You've got some magic to you, Agent Coulson" The woman said, sounding deeply grateful. "Doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her. We need to take her back to the facility and have her fully checked out however." She seemed to linger on those words, looking at him.

Phil understood, frowning at the child. "I suppose I could help transport her. Once my driver is done being harassed by the medics." He tipped his head over towards Barton at that.

[from_a_distance]

Clint didn't let the medic fuss over him for long. There was much insisting that he was okay, and eventually he ended up resorting to threatening glances until the young man wisely backed away.

Once he was free, he headed back over to where Phil was with the baby. "She gonna be okay?"