#damnitriley

Clint waited to hear the people inside coughing before sneaking inside the bank for a moment and hiding behind a desk, using some infrared googles to scope out the hostiles and hostages. He made his way to the teller counter, taking down two hostiles and disarming them as he controlled his breathing.

Willy gagged from the gas, the stress finally reached in impasse. He fell to his knees disregarding everything that was going on in the background. His only focus was his rapid heartbeat and the difficulty breathing. Eyesight gone he mentally kicked himself for being this weak. ‘Damn it Riley there’s no time for sadness.’ Willy smiled at the friendly but serious tone of that voice inside his head, the voice of his best friend.

“Damn it.” Willy opened his eyes as he surveyed the area. He was at the bank and now instead of insurgents and his squad-mates, he saw unconscious gunmen with relieved hostages. He noticed a man equipped with a bow and arrow. ‘Is that even legal to carry? Was he the one that saved us? How the hell did I survive?’ Willy was still kneeling and staring at the man like a fool.

“Uh…..” ‘No! Don’t attract attention to yourself you IDIOT’ Willy grimaced at how stupid he sounded.

After having taken down all of the hostiles, Clint made his way to the man with the gun located on the other side of the bank. He could just be a decoy and actually be the one that was behind this criminal act or he could actually be a helpful and heroic citizen. Either way, he needed to be checked out before tying up the hostiles he took down, otherwise, Clint could be in trouble and end up having a bullet to the brain or knife in the back.

Approaching the position of Willy’s ‘uh’ Clint was armed and showed Willy he wouldn’t mind taking him out as well if need to. “Who are you? And why do you have a gun with you?” With his weapons in arm and maintaining a good distance to be able to watch the hostiles he had taken out and Willy, he wanted to know answers and needed to know them fast.

“Were you or were you not helping them rob the bank?,” he demanded from Willy.

Willy bowed his head at the accusing tone in the man’s question. All he could really remember was seeing his best friend being held hostage by an insurgent. ‘In Afghanistan…oh dear god not again.’ Willy looked in the man’s eyes.

“I wasn’t helping them, I just. To tell you the truth, I sorta went into soldier mode when one of them pointed a gun at me…uh. Hi, the name is Willy and what is your name super hero? Don’t tell me you are really a super hero because really…I just.” Willy fidgeted at the man’s attention and wanted to just hide under a rock. ‘The commander will probably laugh his ass off if this goes public. I can already see it now, U.S Army soldier a damsel in distress saved by a handsome archer.’ Willy wanted to die right there and then, he kept his face from showing the emotional upheavel that was occuring inside his mind, atleast he hoped he didn’t show.

Clint’s eyes could tell just how worried the man was and didn’t see no ill intentions so he lowered his bow and thanked the man with a simple, “I’d like to thank you for your service. You did a good job here, other than one injured teller, the bank is safe.”

He then quickly made his way back to the slightly conscience hostiles, zip tying their arms and then leading them outside to the police. He had realized it’d probably be best to give the credit to the soldier inside so while briefing the police officers on what had happened, he introduced himself as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and told them that the situation had been taken care of long before he managed to get inside the bank. He also IDed the private to the cops so he gets the appropriate amount of publicity.

After a few minutes, he made his way back to the semi-frightened Willy. “I told them that you took care of the hostiles before I got here,” Clint flashed his S.H.I.E.L.D. id quickly before properly introducing himself. “I am S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Clint Barton, what is your name, soldier?”

 ’What? Why would he do that?’ Willy nervously stood up. He had heard some stories about S.H.I.E.L.D. He never wanted to get on the bad side of that organization that’s for sure.

“Uh, yeah it’s Private William Riley but everyone just calls me Willy.” Willy held out his hand. ‘I should ask him about that bow and the arrows. ‘I never knew arrows could go through that thick of glass.’ Curiosity made Willy forget he was staring at Clint rather fan boyishly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Private Riley.” Clint despite being more lax than S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, namely Cap, preferred, he didn’t want to disrespect the soldier. He took Riley’s hand and firmly shoot it.

He could tell that the soldier was nervous at first but was now staring at him strangely. “Do I have something on my face?” Clint asked as his brow rose behind his purple sunglasses. Even on his day off, Clint didn’t stay away from his toys and his favorite color. After a moment, he grinned and took out a pen, “do you need me to sign anything, Private?” He was becoming familiar with that look even though most of the time it’s not addressed towards him unlike other more influential Avengers like Cap or Tony.

“Heh thanks…” Willy gave a big smile. ‘I…I never heard of this guy.’ He didn’t want to embarass both of them so he felt around his cargo pants’ pockets looking for something to write on. He took out a piece of paper.

“Oh, HAHAHAHAHA.” Willy bursted out laughing at the very reason for even coming to the bank. ‘Dang so much has happened I forgot I even had my paycheck…not that the bank would be doing business anytime soon,’ Willy groaned in sudden defeat, ‘Then I won’t be able to get my medication.’ He stood there, check in hand, looking rather dejected. ‘What am I going to do?’

Realizing Riley wasn’t exactly wanting an autograph, he hands Riley back the piece of paper with his S.H.I.E.L.D. number. “In case you happened to be caught up in something like this again, give me a call. I’ll cover your back, Willy.”

Extending his hand once more, things seemed normal. It wasn’t until a sudden screeching overhead where a couple of very low flying bombers (military aircraft specifically made for dropping bombs on targets below) soared nearly at the height of the skyscrapers. Clint ran outside to have a good look of the very loud and low aircrafts and tried to comm S.H.I.E.L.D. to find out exactly what’s going on.

That’s when one of the bomber’s dropped something, Clint immediately called for everyone to run inside the building as he tried to find something he could use to overshoot the “bomb“‘s trajectory to hit the bay rather than the street below but failed to figure something out by the time the bomb seemed to burst. Clint watched in horror as he was helpless to do anything against.

Within seconds the bomb turned into hundreds of millions of nanobots. Each finding a target and latching onto them, taking over their mind and causing them to drop like flies for minutes as it reprogrammed their mind. Clint had been in the middle of the street when he slowly begins to wake up.

Willy woke up dazed and confused but as flashes of memories returned he remembered about Clint. ‘The bombers…oh my god CLINT’ Willy quickly got up and ran out of the bank, jumping over unconscious civilians. Willy ran out and soon spotted Clint. ‘Thank god he is still intact.’

“Clint, how you feeling?” Willy helped Clint sit up. He looked Clint over, trying to spot any wounds, he found none.

Clint slowly regained consciousness, the nanobots had caused him to forget about the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D., all of those happy times with friends had been replaced with memories of Afghanistan with Riley. As his ‘best friend’ was checking up on him, he looked at his bow. “Did I get them, Willy? Or are we gonna lose our check?”

After they had come back from Afghanistan, Clint had wanted to make life easier for them. So he signed themselves to be mercenaries, getting paid to do people’s dirty work or to become hitmen. So far the job wasn’t all too bad with Clint’s precision shooting and hawk like vision, Willy seemed to be doing well as well with the heavier machinery such as pistols and machine guns. Even in the military, Clint couldn’t give up his bows and arrows. It actually saved their lives for relying on such ‘archaic’ weaponry when captured by insurgents.

He stood up and took a look around, grinning when he realized the bank situation was clear.

“We’re gonna eat well tonight Clint.” Willy came up and patted Clint’s shoulder.

“Hey Clint…did we do all this damage?” Willy looked around and he honestly couldn’t believe those arrows could produce a wave to drop so many people. They weren’t hurt not that he cared.

“We better go Clint, those cops are waking up.” Willy waited for Clint.

When told that they’ll be eating well tonight, Clint’s grin grew. There’s nothing to argue with when your meal has been promised to you.

Clint looked around, observing the damage and just the entire street knocked out and looked at it all with extreme disbelief, “I don’t know what the hell happened, here but we should leave before we’re put to blame.” He moved along the cars as he was taught as a soldier when entering a new premises and/or about to attack someone, he wasn’t sure who had done all of this but was sure they must still be around if that were the case and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

He lead Willy to his apartment, “let’s recap on what happened. All I remember is helping you take down those robbers, that’s about it.”

Willy closed his eyes and concentrated on what happened after that. ‘I don’t…wait.’

“There were these bombers…why’d you go out to the street Clint? Thought you would remember the sound of incoming bombers hahaha. It hasn’t been that long since Afghanistan has it? Remember the damn Airforce tried to puff out their chest by bringing in those bombers and then they just left those to gather sand and shit.” ‘Stupid Airforce thinking they are all that.’ Willy was in a bad mood from the thoughts that raced through his mind.

“Other than hearing the bombers, I don’t remember either Clint.” Willy gave an apologetic look as he went to grab them something to drink.

“Listen, Willy. As a Green Beret, I’ve known exactly what it was but think about it, how could the United States not know about hostile planes coming to attack New York City?” He took his purple sunglasses off and set them on the table, “oh man, Will, what if all of this is some sort of terrorist attack, instead of dropping a bomb on us, they were that low to drop some sort of gas?”

Realizing just how possible it is, he looked shocked at his friend. “What’re we going to do? Being out on the street, I thought I could use a foam arrow to eliminate the threat of the bomb they’d drop but the bomb disappeared, Will. It just fucking disappeared into thin air!”

He was outraged that the government didn’t shoot down the bombers before flying over US soil, but he was also shocked when he recalled looking at the bomber to find it’s country of origin. Instead of a recognizable flag, it had some sort of upside pyramid. “Shit, what’s the pyramid and ‘all seeing eye’ associated with?” His thoughts stumbled upon different terrorist organizations he could think of, overlooking the thought of it being the Illuminati.

Giving Clint a bottle of water Willy sat down and tried to think of possible terrorist groups. ‘I got nothing…’ Willy leaned to the side of the couch and let out a groan of anger. ‘Sure we are mercs now but…I at least still care for my country but the Army wouldn’t mind putting the two of us in prison. We can’t get involved in this…I hope Clint doesn’t start trying to be a hero.’ Willy turned to Clint with a questioning look.

“What’s on your mind Clint?”

Clint paced back and forth as he took a few chugs of the water. Stopping against the  living room wall, he pounded his fist against it. There was something going on and the city of New York had just been hit, they were blind and didn’t know what the situation was. You’d think there would have been some kind of evacuation attempt when hostile planes flew across the Atlantic or American soil.

So there he was, with absolutely no idea of what to do next other than see if any of their other Green Beret buddies would be able to give them a heads up of what type of shit is going on in New York City.

“I get it, you’re worried about getting a record despite how much we’ve done for this country but we’re not the threat here. We can actually help and if that gas or whatever it was the bomber dropped on us is deadly, we might as well die heroes!” He had his pride on the line and he couldn’t help having this gut feeling that things were wrong. He reached into his pants pocket and removed his phone, “I’m gonna find out what the pyramid means, in the meantime see if you can get Sargent Wallace on the line.”