NO. - FOR THE GREATER GOOD
"Take me instead," "Run!", Ritual Sacrifice

~~~

Laura Barton is a simple woman with a simple routine. She woke up, prepared herself for a new day, got Lila and Cooper ready for school, and then worried over Clint and their best friend about whatever mission they were currently on. Occasionally things changed, but never as drastically as the time Laura got herself involved in a hostage situation.

Cooper grabbed his younger sister's hand and together they walked up their school's front steps. Laura watched from the car and waved, smiling. She checked her to-do list and crossed off the first line. With Clint off on a mission with Natasha, Laura was busy with everything. Of course, he had promised to renovate a spare room in their house when Clint got back (again), so there wasn't much to buy in terms of supplies yet. Laura decided to skip a few of the chores on her list while she was in town, and instead go to the bank.

It was supposed to be an easy in and out. Laura only wanted to withdraw some extra cash before a trip in grocery shopping tomorrow. But alas, plans usually go to shit (any S.H.I.E.L.D agent like Natasha can confirm that).

As soon as she pulled into the bank's parking lot, Laura knew something was terribly wrong. It was a small bank, but still usually had several cars outside. No vehicles were in sight except for a few in the employee parking. A pedestrian walked by with their collar pulled up around their neck — totally not suspicious. Unfortunately, Laura had already been noticed. The man nodded in her direction and adjusted his coat, showing the slight bulge of a gun. Normal civilians typically wouldn't know this, then again, Laura was the wife and friend of S.H.I.E.L.D agents and Avengers.

Laura would've grabbed the firearm underneath the middle of both front car seats, but feared that any sudden movement would trigger (literally) something to happen.

Minutes later, and Laura found herself on her knees on the bank floor with a few other civilians. She recognized her neighbor Joe and the mother to one of Cooper's friends. It was eerily silent and Laura imagined you could hear a pin drop.

One of their captors was carrying a glowing box. A green light seemed to pour out like liquid from an engraving on one side, glowing in a way that unsettled Laura. He put the box down and unscrewed the lid. Smoke and cloudy foam sizzled, rising from the box and spilling out onto the once clean bank floor. The light changed from green to blue to purple before disappearing completely. Pulling out a flat grey circular device, the man inspected it.

"The time is now," he said. "We require our sacrifices, Landon."

Another person shakily told him, "Murphy, the S.H.I.E.L.D agents are upstairs."

And just like that, Laura froze.

It couldn't have been a coincidence, right? There was no way that Murphy wasn't referring to Clint and Natasha as the agents being sacrificed (whatever the hell that meant). How'd Murphy know that this was the town where Clint lived? Laura racked her brain for anything he'd told her about his most recent mission. All Clint said was something about going west with Natasha for some strange distress call. It had been intended to be an undercover job, in and out.

"Take me instead," Joe spoke up bravely. He stood up, ignoring the guns now pointed at his chest.

Murphy chuckled. "You fool... I mean, I'll give it to you — you're brave. But so very stupid. None of you—" he gestured to Laura and the rest of the hostages— "understand what this does." He grinned and held up the same device as earlier.

"This is the Aporrofitíras. It'll absorb the blood of those we see fit for our mission."

"Mission to accomplish what exactly?" Joe asked. "Y'know, normal people donate blood at blood drives, with needles and stuff."

"Funny that—"

Before Murphy could finish his sentence, the sudden sound and heat from an explosion came from upstairs. Laura was uncertain to whether that was a sign of good or bad news. Who set it off? And how? She didn't exactly think that Clint and Natasha were in a convenient position to blow stuff up, but they were full of surprises, after all.

"Run!" A feminine voice shouted. Another loud band — a gunshot — came from the hallway near the stairs. Someone slammed into the wooden railing. Laura allowed herself to grin as she recognized both the voice and familiar red hair belonging to one Natasha Romanoff. "This place is gonna blow!"

Laura mustered up her strength and knocked her elbow back to hit her captor's nose. He fell back and dropped his gun. The shot went wide and luckily missed everyone. Joe dived for it and secured the firearm, pointing it at Murphy. Landon and another hooded person tumbled to the ground after falling from the top level.

Minutes passed and there was silence. Murphy was on the ground, weapons gone. Laura was honestly a little surprised how good the teamwork was of their little town. Then again, a boost of adrenaline usually did the trick in life or death situations like the one they'd just experienced.

Meanwhile upstairs, Natasha ignored the bullet biting in her shoulder and instead focused her attention on the hostiles coming in her and Clint's direction. She swiveled up onto one man's shoulders and flung him into the railing, hitting his head on the way down. Clint knocked out two more and fussed over her wound.

"You should be more careful!" He yelled.

Natasha got knocked backwards, but flipped herself up before her back could connect with the floor. "What, you think I was trying to get shot, Barton?"

They didn't actually know where they were. The original mission had been scheduled to last for at least a week, starting with a distress signal in the middle of Colorado. Fury saw something suspicious in it and thought that there was a connection to some sort of enhanced individual. A day later and they had been kidnapped in a Nebraskan motel after successfully infiltrating and stealing a glowy thingy, as Clint had put it. S.H.I.E.L.D just loved to keep track of people and devices like this one.

The only things said to both assassins since ending up here had been by some morons named Landon and Murphy, only saying: "Blood," and "Ritual," and "For the greater good." A very nice combination of words if you asked Clint and Natasha.

A wad of C4 was attached to the middle of the room they'd originally woken up in. Clint was good at disassembling explosives, but he knew he couldn't manage it in under a minutes worth of time while Natasha had confirmed there to be hostages in the building.  It wasn't much, but C4 was still very reactive due to whatever the hell the stuff is made out of.

Laura and the others exited the building quickly. She didn't want to leave Clint and Natasha, but Joe had pulled her along. Damn you, Joseph! Part of her also had a gut feeling they'd be fine, training and experience with similar situations coming into the playing field. After what seemed like hours, the front window on the middle of the building, located above the doors, shattered as a bullet flew through. Natasha and Clint flew through and landed in a roll.

They got to their feet hastily and started sprinting closer into town where everyone had gathered. Clint coughed and grinned cheekily at Laura. A lot of people gaped at the person they all knew as the 'military husband to Laura Barton' — just a small lie on their part. Oh, and the bank finally exploded and smoke rose up from the inside.

She looked over Clint and immediately noticed the way he was favoring his non-dominant hand over the other. Natasha clearly didn't seem to mind the bullet in her shoulder, freely bleeding out. A cut was beneath her right eye and had already dried in the hot sun.

"Uh, ma'am? I-I think you're bleeding," Joe stuttered out.

Natasha blinked with a smirk. "I know."