About to Blink

AN: Apologies for the long wait for this chapter. The muse had completely deserted me on this one, but hopefully its back now. Once again this chapter comes with the usual medical caveat that I am not a doctor. I do my best to research what I write but that doesn't mean it's actually right.

Bruce returned to his lab and went back to work. He thought he might actually be close to finding out how the Chitauri markers had managed to bind to Clint's body. As far as he could tell the reason why Clint had some control over his ability and Smoke didn't was because Clint had also been infected with the Dengue Fever virus. It looked like the virus had acted as a carrier and allowed Clint's body to accept the Chitauri material into his genome and then deal with the changes.

Viral vectors had been used for gene therapy for some time, so Bruce was somewhat annoyed at himself for missing this aspect of Clint's condition until now. Viruses bound to their hosts and introduced their genetic material into the host cell as part of their replication cycle, so were ideal tools to deliver genetic material. However, because this was an accidental exposure and combination, it had been very hard to spot.

Generally, if a viral vector was being used, then one would be chosen that didn't make the host sick, so this had all been highly unusual even before the alien biological content was brought into play. However, the more Bruce looked at the Chitauri material the more he realised that it just shouldn't be compatible with human biology. Their DNA was very different. The scientists as Eaglestar had managed to do something to the Chitauri material that had changed it enough that it was now at least partially compatible with human biology. He pitied their early test subjects, because he had no doubt that their end had been painful and gruesome.

Despite appearances, Clint had actually been very lucky. The adulterated, mosquito carried, viral vectored, mutated Chitauri material was just compatible enough that it hadn't killed him. It was probably responsible for his continuing fluctuating temperature, but it was hard to tell at this point what was just part of a normal recovery from Dengue Fever, what was a continuing symptom of the Chitauri serum and what was a side effect of teleporting. Bruce sometimes wondered how his life had taken such a bizarre turn that he was able to seriously consider writing "side effect of teleportation" in a patient's notes without it being a joke.

Having at least been able to clear up some of the mystery of Clint's condition, Bruce had turned his attention to the samples from Smoke. He knew that this analysis would be difficult because the particles maintained their strange electromagnetic properties even outside Smoke's body, so he couldn't use the vast majority of fancy equipment that Tony had provided for him in his lab. He contented himself with the old fashioned pieces that didn't require electricity or computers to work. He didn't need the electron microscope to get a good look at the cells in the sample.

However, the files from Eaglestar were somewhat more enlightening than any of his tests when it came to Smoke, but only made real sense when he added what he'd already figured out about Clint. There was a single note that a batch of test serum might have been contaminated due to one of the lab technicians having a cold. Normally such contamination would have meant that the test was invalidated or at the very least the batch of serum would have been thrown out, but they were short on genetic material and couldn't afford to lose it. It was shoddy lab work, but Bruce hadn't really expected anything else by this point. The test subject given the contaminated material had all survived, including Smoke. Bruce's theory about a viral carrier would seem to have been verified, except where Clint's had been Dengue Fever, Smoke's had been the common cold.

The problem was that he still had to work out a way to get Clint and Smoke back to normal, and so far he was having difficulty coming up with a way to reverse the process. However, at least he now had a starting point, so it really shouldn't be that hard.

He turned back to his samples of Smoke's material to find that one of the vials that he had taken was now empty. Bruce frowned. He knew that he'd sealed it because he needed those particles to continue his experiments.

"Jarvis, I'm missing some material from a sample. Put the lab on lock down, please. Full seals," said Bruce.

"Yes, Doctor Banner," replied Jarvis. There was the sound of quiet clicking as the door locked itself shut and then the air system stilled. "Please note that the air supply in this room is now limited."

Bruce riffled through a drawer in one of the chests of equipment and found the electromagnetic field meter. He turned it on and began sweeping the room. He only found EM readings from the single remaining sample. He wondered how long the sample had been missing and if he actually was just misremembering failing to seal the container, but he didn't think so. He walked towards the door and could detect faint readings coming from the door or possible the other side. Clearly his sample had escaped.

"Okay, Jarvis, you can unseal the room now," said Bruce.

"Yes, Doctor Banner," replied Jarvis and again he could hear the small clicks of seals being released.

As they were removed, a cloud of black smoke filtered itself under the door. If Bruce had thought that Jarvis would be fast enough then he'd have ordered the lab sealed again, but he was fairly certain that he wouldn't even get the words out before Smoke would be on him, choking him. He backed away and said three more important words very quickly:

"Jarvis, panic button."

An alarm began to sound, but Smoke didn't seem terribly interested in Bruce or the alarm. Instead he went straight for the samples of Clint's blood that Bruce had been working on, while Bruce tried desperately to calm his rising pulse rate.

Steve found Natasha in Tony's lab. He was intrigued by her message to him, and the fact that she had left the Infirmary at all suggested that Clint's condition had improved. This was a good sign.

"How's Hawkeye?" asked Steve.

"Exhausted, but Bruce thinks he'll be fine once he's rested and they've got his blood glucose levels back to normal. I left him sleeping," said Natasha.

Steve nodded. Sleep sounded like it was the best thing for Clint at the moment. "And Tony? And Halifax?"

"Tony was also sleeping and his body temperature was nearly back to normal," said Natasha. "Halifax is out of surgery, which was declared a success and they're just waiting for him to come round from the anaesthetic."

"So the Infirmary was quiet and you decided to get some work done?" asked Steve, with a small smile. He received a slight incline of the head from Natasha. "What's this plan involving a potential buyer? I looked up Dennis Keller. He's an arms dealer."

Natasha nodded. She pulled up his picture. "He very rarely makes deals himself. SHIELD doesn't have any record of him meeting with the Corvallos before. I think we could send someone in pretending to be him and fake a buy."

"Okay, but first we have to take Keller out of the picture, and get him to tell us how he's going to make contact. Then we'll need someone to pretend to be him. Tony's too well known, Crossfire would recognise Clint, I don't think Thor would understand the concept of undercover work and we definitely shouldn't put Bruce in stressful situations. Does SHIELD have any agents who'd be willing to do it?"

"I thought you could do it," said Natasha.

"Me? I'm not really good at that sort of thing," said Steve. "I'm not a convincing liar. You know that. It's why Fury leaves that stuff to you and Clint."

"Normally I'd agree, but we don't have much time. We need to send a SHIELD team in to capture Keller now if we're going to do this and I don't know another agent that speaks French and German, and is currently familiar with the situation and the weapons that Keller wants to buy."

Steve sighed. "Someone will recognise me."

"Not very many people have seen you in the flesh, even the footage after the battle for New York was blurry and mostly on phone cameras. You didn't take your mask off at the Corvallo party, so I think we have a good chance. We'll dye your hair and give you a beard like Keller's. You'll be unrecognisable enough," said Natasha.

"You're not going to take "no" for an answer on this, are you?" said Steve.

Natasha gave him one of her dangerous smiles. Then an alarm began to sound and their plan to deal with the arms sale was suddenly not their top priority.

The alarm sounding woke the three sleeping men in the Infirmary. Clint reached for a weapon before he remembered that he didn't have any because he was in the Infirmary, and the act of reaching made him realise that he was still ridiculously weak. Moving was going to take effort and Bruce would probably kill him for trying when he was supposed to be resting. But there was an alarm going off and it was the alarm that meant the Tower was under attack.

Clint could hear Tony blearily shouting "Jarvis, who hit the panic button?"

"Doctor Banner," replied Jarvis.

"Shit," swore Tony, and began throwing off his blankets.

"Stay in bed, Tony," said Clint, whilst detaching his IV line.

"I will if you will," said Tony, having realised that he too was attached to a piece of plastic tubing. He pulled at the tape. "You're still exhausted."

Clint rolled his eyes.

"With respect, sirs," said Halifax, who had made it into a sitting position despite considerable wincing. "Neither of you should be getting up."

"Yeah, and you're supposed to be recovering from shoulder surgery. Don't make me order you to stay put, October," said Clint, forcing his legs over the side of the bed and pushing himself into a standing position.

"Low blow, sir, low blow," said Halifax, with a shake of his head. Clint noticed that his injured arm was in a sling, but that didn't seem to be stopping him from getting moving. "I've asked you not to call me that."

"October?!" asked Tony, with amusement. "Toby isn't short for Tobias?"

"Unfortunately, it isn't," replied Halifax, with resignation, as he too began the process of removing the IV line from his arm. "But only Hawkeye gets to call me that."

"Prerogative of being your training officer and pulling your ass out of the fire that time in Islamabad," replied Clint.

"Can't I trade you never calling me that again for the time I rescued you from a Hydra sub?" asked Halifax.

"You could have, if I hadn't just stopped a horde of alien cockroaches from taking down the quinjet that you were flying," replied Clint, hanging onto the bed until the room stopped spinning around him.

"There's always going to be something isn't there?" replied Halifax.

Clint just gave him a quirk of his lips to let him know that, yes, he would always be October to Hawkeye, and, no, there was nothing he could do about that. It was at least partly to give him the seconds he needed to regain his balance.

He then decided that he needed to do something about the fact that he was wearing scrubs and they weren't the warmest thing to be in at the moment. Tony especially didn't need to get cold right now. He looked around for the cupboard with the emergency clothing in it. It wasn't at all unusual to enter the infirmary in one set of clothes and have to leave in another. Ruined clothes were something of an occupational hazard when you worked as a superhero. He found the cupboard and grabbed a sweatshirt and pants in his size, pulling them on as quickly as he could manage. A wave of dizziness washed over him and he leant against the wall for a moment.

"Bruce is going to kill all three of us," said Tony, looking from the wobbly archer to the agent with his arm in a sling, and then back to his own discarded IV. "This had better not be a false alarm. Jarvis, put me through to Steve."

"Communications are down, sir," replied Jarvis.

"Damn it," said Clint. "Smoke. He must have gotten out."

Clint passed Tony a selection of clothes from the cupboard.

"That's not possible. He was in a sealed room." Tony pulled on the sweatshirt and pants.

"And yet we have no communications," replied Clint.

"Are you actually up to walking?" Tony asked, looking at Clint, who was still leaning against the wall.

Clint just glared at him. "Are you?"

"Me? I just had hypothermia. I'm practically back to normal. You're the one that looks like he's still about to drop down dead at any moment."

Clint gave Tony the finger, which as usual just provoked a grin from the billionaire.

"When you two are done," interjected Halifax in his softly southern accent, "we should go and find out what's going on."

Tony threw the agent a pair of sweatpants, which he caught with his single good hand and then proceeded to put on. There was no point trying to get on a sweatshirt with his arm in a sling, and Halifax was right they really needed to get moving.

Clint felt beyond tired. He knew that his body was still basically running on empty despite the calories that he'd consumed earlier and the glucose IV that had been plugged into his vein. He felt like he'd missed more than a couple of meals and he knew that he was dehydrated because of the annoying headache that was spreading across his skull. His hands were still trembling and every step was an effort, but he wasn't staying in bed if the Tower was under attack.

"Let's move," said Clint.

"Okay, nearest weapons?" asked Halifax.

"My lab, on the floor below," said Tony, just as Clint said, "cupboard in the corridor."

Clint smirked as Tony just gave him a look. "Just how many hidden weapons caches do you have in my Tower?"

"A few," replied Clint.

"Jarvis, what state is the armour in?"

"The suit's power supply is recharging. It sustained damage in the battle with the miniature leviathans, and it does not currently have self-sustaining propulsion. It needs the arc reactor to provide sufficient energy."

"So I've got to go and get it?" asked Tony, with incredulous annoyance.

"That is the case, yes, sir," said Jarvis.

"Damn it, Jarvis. Okay, I need to get to my armour."

"Right, weapons first and then armour," said Clint. They cautiously moved out of the room that they were in and into the corridor that linked the various medical rooms that were collectively termed "the Infirmary".

"What is it with people attacking my Tower this week," said Tony.

"That is a good question," said Clint, dragging himself to the weapons cache that he'd placed behind a panel in the wall.

He tapped the panel in just the right spot to displace it and pulled it off the wall easily. He handed a pistol with a spare clip to Halifax, who checked the gun and then shoved the clip in his pocket. Clint pulled out one of his least favourite retractable bows, but that was why he kept it here. This was for emergencies, and an alarm sounding in the Tower and no communications definitely counted. He grabbed a second hand gun and pushed it into the waistband of his sweatpants. Then he grabbed the cloth quiver and meagre supply of arrows that lived here. There were twenty, all of them basic heads, none of which would work against Smoke. Then again the guns weren't going to be much use either. He took them anyway.

Tony frowned. "Give me the gun."

"No," said Clint.

"You're vibrating. Your codename might as well be Quiver, not Hawkeye."

"Very funny, Tony. I see what you did there. Archery pun. Very clever."

"Give me the gun," said Tony, again.

Clint reluctantly pulled the gun out of his waistband and handed it to Tony. The problem was that he actually agreed with Tony. He couldn't fire a gun like this. He was better with a bow and could probably compensate for the shaking when he was on the top form. Unfortunately he really wasn't on top form. He'd just have to do his best. Tony wisely didn't say any more and proved that he knew what to do with a gun by checking the clip and pulling back the slide. This made Clint feel slightly better, and he reminded himself that Tony had been an arms dealer, so this wasn't at all surprising.

Clint indicated that they should move out, and Halifax took an executive decision to take point. Clint was not okay with that, but he'd trained the Agent, so he knew he was quite capable of handling himself and dealing with any average threat that came their way. Smoke wasn't average though. However, just as he couldn't fault Tony for taking the gun, he couldn't fault Halifax for leading. He was less badly hurt than Clint and would have better reaction times. That didn't stop Clint putting an arrow to his bow and scanning the corridor and stairwell as they moved towards the labs.

Bruce's main lab was just down the corridor from Tony's, and the doors to both were wide open. Suddenly Smoke was billowing out into the corridor from Bruce's Lab and Steve and Natasha were following.

Steve took one look at the approaching team members and shouted at them, "get back!" He wasn't looking at Smoke. He and Natasha were moving away from a threat inside the lab. They understood why a moment later when a roar ripped through the building.

"Oh hell," said Tony. "I'm putting on the suit."

"Yeah, put on the suit," said Clint.

Tony took off into his lab and Clint could see him stepping back into the suit, just as his attention was drawn by the sound of heavy footsteps thumping rapidly into the hall.

"Oh crap," said Halifax.

Steve and Natasha backed away towards Clint and Halifax. The Hulk swung a punch at Smoke, and his fist became tangled in the black fog. This just enraged the Hulk further. The wall didn't survive the step back that the Hulk took when he lost his balance. Tony hovered into view.

"Uh, no, we really don't need the Hulk redecorating," said Tony. "He'll bring the Tower down around us."

"Well, if anyone has any ideas on how we deal with this, shout them out now," said Natasha.

"We need to get them to take this outside, or at least the Hulk," said Steve. He hefted his shield in front of himself and looked back towards Tony. "Did you get anywhere with your anti-Smoke countermeasures?"

"I didn't have time," Tony snapped back, his voice distorted by his helmet. "But Hawkeye's EMP arrow should do the trick."

"That's great, but my EMP arrow is with my recurve in my quarters, Tony," said Clint.

"Luckily, I was making some replacements for you," said Tony. "They're in the lab. Think you can fire them and not hit our big green friend? They're only short range effect."

"Have you met me?" Clint gave Tony his least impressed look. Of course he could hit Smoke without touching the Hulk, he was insulted that Tony had even asked.

"Yeah, but you're not normally suffering from exhaustion and hypoglycaemia," replied Tony.

"Can we table this discussion for another time?" Steve shouted, with annoyance.

Tony shot back into the lab and returned with two arrows in his hand, just as the Hulk put another hole in the wall of Bruce's lab. When the Physicist came back to them, the damage the Hulk was doing might just be enough to send him green again. Tony slapped the arrows into Clint's hand.

"Automatic trigger?" asked Clint, looking quickly to Tony.

"On impact," confirmed Iron Man.

He put one between his teeth and fitted the other to his bow. The pullback was hard and all his muscles protested, but it wasn't impossible. He wouldn't be able to pull back and take his time to aim, but then he hardly ever did that. The problem was that he was trembling with both effort and low blood sugar. This wasn't going to be his best shot, but he'd done everything he could to compensate for his compromised abilities. He controlled his breathing and let the arrow fly.

It flew perfectly through Smoke and hit the wall behind him where it automatically triggered. The arrow emitted a pale blue light and suddenly the cloud of smoke dropped to the ground. The red eyes were gone and the floor was covered in black dust.

"That I did not expect," said Tony.

"Did we just kill Smoke?" asked Clint. The question went unanswered because the Hulk roared again and turned to look at the assembled Avengers. The only thing that stopped him charging at them was the fact that his foot was caught in some metal reinforcing rods that had been helping to hold up the wall.

Steve looked to Natasha. "Call SHIELD. Tell them to evacuate Central Park and put Operation Play Date into effect."

Natasha gave a rapid nod of her head and pulled out her phone.

"What is Operation Play Date?" asked Tony. "You named it didn't you? You should never be allowed to name anything."

"Tony, focus. I need a lift to the ground," replied Steve. "Then the three of you need to get back to the Infirmary and stay there."

"Perhaps I can oblige instead," boomed a familiar voice. Thor was coming towards them from the other end of the corridor, Mjolnir held firmly in his fist. "I see that the beast is upon our friend. Your plan is to lead him away?" he asked, looking at Steve.

"Exactly," said Steve. "SHIELD should be clearing us a path to Central Park now. We just need to keep him occupied and contained long enough that Bruce can calm down."

"Then allow me," said Thor, heading for the nearest window, which just happened to be the one in Bruce's lab. He sent Mjolnir flying through it.

"There's going to be nothing left of my Tower once you two have finished with it," said Tony.

Thor's Hammer returned to him with physics defying precision. Clint would love to know how a hammer could manage to do the things the Mjolnir did, but he guessed it was all part and parcel of being the weapon of a god.

"Banner!" shouted Thor, and swung Mjolnir in the direction of the Hulk. "We have unsettled business between us! I would know which of us is the stronger and I was denied a suitable end to our fight last time."

The Hulk didn't need much prompting to turn on Thor. The jeering and hammer swinging was quite enough to get his attention. He roared and charged. Thor and Steve rapidly positioned themselves by the broken window and waited. The Hulk smashed his was past the door into Bruce's lab, creating another massive hole in a wall that could barely be called that anymore. It wasn't difficult for the two Avengers to sidestep the charging green mass so that he plummeted out of the window.

"You're sure that you're up for this?" asked Steve, as he and Thor watched the Hulk land safely, if somewhat hard, on the street below. The enquiry wasn't exactly genuine, it was more of a teasing taunt of the kind that Clint had heard pass between the two before. Or "macho warrior nonsense" as Tony referred to it.

"Why? Do you have plans to be elsewhere?" asked Thor, good naturedly.

"Not anymore," replied Steve, with a smile. He held out an arm towards Thor.

Thor grabbed the offered arm with his own, and swung Mjolnir ahead of him so that the two of them flew out of the window. With the Hulk at least partially dealt with, the rest of the team relaxed. Unfortunately Clint realised that he'd partially been holding himself together with adrenaline produced in response to the situation. As it began to leave his system, he started to feel the effects of his exertions again. His knees refused to lock and he felt himself crumpling towards the floor. Halifax was just able to get into position to cushion his fall and stop him simply slumping hard against the wall.

"Crap," said Clint, with a sigh. This crash was hard, but at least he didn't feel like he was about to lose consciousness.

"You three need to get back to the Infirmary," said Natasha, putting her gun away and heading for Clint. "I don't know what you thought you were doing coming down here in the first place."

"Helping," said Tony. "We thought we were helping. Although that was hardly worth putting my armour on for."

"What about Smoke?" asked Clint. "Is that it? Is he dead?"

"Probably not," said Tony, "I think I just managed to separate the bonds between his molecules. I expect if we put him back together and recharged him, he'd be fine again. But since the double-crossing loser is wanted by SHIELD, he might as well stay that way until we can transfer him to the fridge."

"Yeah, I guess he's not giving us anymore information now, even if we do find him a cure," observed Natasha. "But before all this, Steve and I had formulated a plan of sorts." She put two fingers to Clint's wrist and felt for his pulse. "You three all need your heads examined."

"Did you honestly expect us to stay in the Infirmary whilst the Tower was under attack?" asked Tony.

"I think she kind of did," replied Clint, before Natasha could give a more cutting answer.

Pepper came running down the hallway at that moment. "Oh my god! What happened?"

Tony flipped up his mask. "We live with Bruce Banner, that's what happened. Jarvis, get the hazmat cleaning bot out to suck up the remains of the smoke monster. Pepper, we're going to need a window repaired in his lab and some walls, and probably other stuff."

"Really? I find three people who should be in the Infirmary tooled up and standing in the middle of a corridor that looks like a hurricane hit it, and that's what you say to me?" Pepper was completely livid. "Get out of that suit and back to the Infirmary, Tony."

Tony sighed. "Jarvis. If you wouldn't mind."

"Of course, sir," replied Jarvis.

Tony's armour removed itself from his body and flew off into his lab.

"I'd love to go back to the Infirmary, but I think I might need a hand," said Clint, who was now sat on the floor in a rather uncomfortable position.

Natasha and Agent Halifax together managed to get Clint to his feet, and then the rather sorry party made their way back to the Infirmary where everyone retook their beds. They had to wait for Doctor Henderson to return and re-site the removed IV lines, which then led to further telling off about their escape from the Infirmary, but at least no damage had been done. Halifax was already dropping into a doze by the time the medical professionals had finished their work, which wasn't that surprising given the recent shoulder surgery, and Clint was fairly certain that he himself wouldn't be far behind.

"What was your plan?" he asked Natasha, once he was lying back on fluffed pillows, and nibbling on more high energy crackers.

"Get Steve to go in undercover as an arms dealer," said Natasha. "None of the Corvallo family or their employees have seen his face."

Clint raised an eyebrow. "You do know that Steve can't lie to save himself?"

"I do, but he wouldn't have to be that convincing, just buy us enough time to confirm that the weapons are there before we go in and take everyone down," said Natasha.

"I think we might have a problem there then," said Tony, who of course had been listening in. He now held up a StarkPad showing a video. Clint had no idea where the Pad had come from, possibly Pepper had left it there earlier. "Apparently Thor and Captain America versus the Hulk is the best entertainment on TV these days."

The video footage on the StarkPad was clearly coverage by one of the news channels. It showed Steve and Thor fighting the Hulk in Central Park, although it was almost looking like a tag team wrestling match. Pepper was doing her best to get Tony to put the Pad down, but he was waving her off whilst the other members of his team examined the action. Clint wasn't exactly sure what Tony was trying to point out, but his low blood sugar was definitely making his brain work harder than normal.

"The green guy isn't really even trying," said Clint. "I told you all that Bruce was doing better at being in control when he Hulks out."

"For a guy whose call sign is Hawkeye, you're spectacularly failing to spot the flaw in our redheaded assassin's otherwise perfect plan." Tony pointed to the screen.

"Steve's not wearing his uniform," said Natasha. "His face is being plastered across hundreds of TV screen without his mask on."

"There goes our secret weapons buy," moaned Clint. "And our only other lead is now dust on the floor."

"Not quite," said Natasha. "Dennis Keller is still in town, and I've still got a SHIELD team ready to pick him up. This isn't over. We'll just need someone else to play the role of arms dealer. Who do we trust, Clint?"

Clint frowned for a moment. The pool of candidates was limited. They'd need a SHIELD agent who could handle themselves and could be rapidly brought up to speed on the situation.

"Hey, October," shouted Clint, which had the desired effect of startling Agent Halifax awake again. "Don't get too comfy. You're needed to help out with an arms deal."