∆ {1⁵} {LONDON} ∆

ROXI KNEW SHE wouldn't find comfort in waiting and resting for long. She had to move, she had to be active, not just let time crawl by like she had in the earlier years of her life, just waiting for something to happen. That never worked, you had to do something to get what you wanted; the world never gave it to you. That was why her first mission when she had completed her training with S.H.I.E.L.D had been personal. She had gone back to the house of her last guardian, equipped with a gun and some knives. It hadn't been too hard to complete her job. The man had been sprawled out on the floor in the cold-tiled kitchen, with a bottle of liquor in his hand. At first, she'd been hesitant if she could complete her task, but the drink in his hand brought back all the horrible memories, and she hadn't waited for a second longer to raise the gun and fire. She remembered the way she'd exited the building, slipping the silencer off of the gun and quietly making her way back to headquarters. That night was the first time she'd written a name down in the black book she now treasured so carefully, and now the book held answers to questions that many were dying to know. Sometimes literally. It went around in circles, kill a person, write their name down, then use their contacts to get information on the next target. On and on it went, in an endless loop, sin after sin, and it would continue as such until the devil finally caught up with her. But that wasn't today, and Roxi was bored.

It had only been five minutes since Natasha had told her she needed to rest, but at the moment, Roxi found it impossible. Her whole body was itching to get up and move, to train, anything other than lying still in a medical ward, and try and be calm. She found that combat calmed her more than peace and quiet because the silence would grow thick and weigh heavy on her nerves and she would convince herself that there was something wrong when it was just her being overly paranoid about every situation. She couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, her conscience screaming at her that something was wrong, that the quiet was too quiet, that the medical bed was slightly too soft, that every sound was the whispering voices of old ghosts as they plotted to kill her. Roxi couldn't stand it any longer.

She practically leaped from her bead, as though someone had shocked her with some kind of taser, and grabbed her leather jacket from where it lay on the chair next to her bed. Before she did anything else, she picked up her black book, laptop, and pen, depositing them in her room again, before she continued to her destination. She made her way along the corridors, past hurrying agents, some of who had sheets of paper cascading out of their arms in rapid waterfalls, and others who were completely focused on the tablets in their hands. When she finally reached the room she wanted to be in, she was slightly relieved to find it completely empty. She didn't know how many more people she could deal with today, especially because her mind was in overdrive after the taunting silence of the medical ward.

She did a few laps around the room to warm herself up, accompanied by a few stretches before she made her way over to the weapons area. She traced her hand over barrels of guns and pistols, and the handles of swords before her eyes landed on a familiar weapon, and she allowed herself a small smile as she gripped the handle of the quarterstaff, allowing memories to surge through her head in a euphoric rush, before she frowned slightly, focusing on one in particular.

The rain beat against the pane in a mad attempt to permeate the dingy hotel room that had been rented for her for the mission. Of course, it being in London, the weather was determined to be as horrible as possible. Behind her, Clint was checking his arrows, making sure none of them were broken, in hope that they wouldn't backfire on the pair. Roxi's quarterstaff lay on the table. Although it didn't look like a particularly lethal weapon, she was very skilled with it and could take someone out with it quite easily if she had a reason to, or purely if she wanted to. 

"They're going to be the same that they were two minutes ago, Agent Barton." She told him, watching his reflection in the grimy glass that if you cleaned thoroughly, you would be able to see a dingy back alley through. 

"I know, but it never hurts to take precautions," he replied, not looking up from the arrowhead he was inspecting.

"No, it doesn't. I know that better than anyone." That caused Clint to look up at her briefly.

"I'm sure you do," he responded quietly, before refocusing his attention on the weapon in his hands. Roxi drew her eyes from the alley below the window with a slight sigh, her eyes raking the hotel room once more.

"We should get going," she told him, picking the quarterstaff off the table. It wasn't her only weapon since it lacked immediate lethality if someone was to be attacked with it, so to help in that department, she also had a pair of handguns and a few throwing knives here and there. 

"Yeah, if we want to wait for an hour when we get there," Clint countered, obviously keen on staying out of the rain.

"Or if we want to properly scout out the location and have some idea of where we're going," Roxi corrected him, turning around to face him as he opened his mouth to respond somehow, but then closed it again.

"That's what I thought, let's go," she continued, the quarterstaff gripped in her hand. She made her way out of the room, with Clint close behind her, his weapons hidden in various ways because carrying a bow and arrow around wasn't exactly inconspicuous. Roxi's quarterstaff divided into quarters and could magnetically attach, so they were easy to hide up the sleeves of her jacket or in her boots if they were long enough. The streets of London were quieter than New York, but by no means less busy. Even in the pouring rain, swarms of people made their way around London, some heading to the Underground stations, the majority having umbrellas propped over their heads as a temporary shelter from the weather. The sky was dark, grey and clouded over, and water ran in rivers down the sides of the roads into the drains situated periodically along the street. The place they needed to get to was an abandoned tank and aircraft factory and had been desolate for around 3 years. 

The building was in the middle of a street, set in between two other buildings, although they were also abandoned, this one had an air of danger and foreboding around it that the others didn't hold. A temporary metal gate stood around the factory, which was overgrown with crawling, creeping, curling plants, the green paint on the massive doors beginning to fade, peel, and chip. The vast windows had many small square panes, a third of them missing entirely and the rest shadowed with thin spiderwebs of cracks, some lancing across several squares, making it harder to see in or out. 

S.H.I.E.L.D had received information that one of the more dangerous gangs that roamed London's streets had started to meet here. The leader of the group was an old soldier, who'd decided the quiet was too unnerving, and that he'd rather be fighting and in danger, than sitting relaxed and safe at home, where the silence and every sudden sound brought back flashes of the war he'd fought in. He'd become angry at himself, fuelled by grief and pain, and had redirected that anger towards people he believed had done something wrong. The two agents had orders to cross him off, as well as any members of the group they could without putting themselves in a compromising position.

Roxi glanced behind her at Clint, who was glancing around the street, checking they weren't being watched. When he looked back around, she gestured with her head towards the old building, and she began to scan for possible entries that wouldn't alert anyone who might use the building. She noticed that the building to the right of the factory seemed to be much more accessible, and the rooves were relatively level. It provided both an entry and exit point. She didn't tell Clint what she was doing, instead, she moved straight towards the building. Around the side, there were a set of rusted stairs (that were probably used as a fire escape), which she tested tentatively with one foot, to see if they would hold her weight, or if they would collapse. She made her way up quickly, only pausing briefly to check the next step, which helped, because at one point because one of the metal plates about half-way up creaked ominously, and she made a point to skip it. 

Eventually, she made her way to the top, with Clint arriving a moment later, as he looked around, she continued across the roof, hoping she could trust him to have her back. She looked at the distance between the two roofs, gauging whether she could jump it. More specifically, if she would be able to jump back if she needed to. The roof she was currently on was slightly taller than the other, which would make it harder if she did need to escape this way. She could possibly make it, but possibly wouldn't cut it. She at least needed probably. How could she improve her chances? An idea struck her, and she set to work, creating a device, setting it securely in a pair of metal brackets that rested near the top of the building. She glanced at Clint.

"Time?" The rain had lightened, although the sky showed no sign of doing the same, but instead seemed to hold promise to darken even more. 

"We've got half an hour," he told her. In that time, he'd been walking around the rooftop, scouting out all potential escape routes anyone may use. Roxi nodded before backing up a bit, looking at the edge of the rooftop. Clint gave her an odd look, trying to figure out what she was doing. When Roxi started running toward the edge, he realized what her intentions were and he yelled at her, but she blocked it out. If she jumped a moment too late, her foot could catch on the edge of the roof and propel her towards the ground. Too early, and she wouldn't make it, and would fall. She counted down the steps. Three, two, one. She jumped. She felt the top of her combat boot brush the slightly raised edge of the roof, and for a fleeting moment, she thought it'd caught and she'd plummet to her death. But then, her feet came in contact with the factory roof, and she let out a sigh of relief, carefully repainting her cool mask of indifference onto her face, before turning to Clint with an expectant look. He quickly covered up his shocked expression, and just gave her a look. She gestured for him to follow and he gave her an 'are you mad' look. 

"What's wrong? I thought Hawks are flying birds!" she called over to him, grinning slightly. A moment later, he was standing next to her.

"You're so easy to manipulate," Roxi told him, smiling slightly. He gave her another look, which she ignored. Instead, she managed to find a window broken enough for her to slip in, which she did, ignoring the shards of glass left in the frames. Her combat boots hit the ground with a slight crunch, prompting her to look down. There were tiny shards of glass scattered on the ground like crystalline sand. That meant that someone had broken in, though it was impossible to tell how recently. But then, Roxi caught sight of a thin strip of the factory floor where there was no dust, probably swept aside by a channel of feet. That meant that someone had been here recently.

"Barton. Stand still for a moment," she ordered him. He did as she instructed, but shot her a quizzical glance.

"If we step outside the area that's been cleared of dust, they'll see our footprints. They'll know we're here," Roxi looked up, finding a metal grid-work of beams and poles, "Oh look, some rafters. A perfect place for you to make a nest." Clint didn't even bother to give her a look, instead climbing the metal column that ran up the wall beside them, using the screws that protruded unevenly from the sides of the beam and the crossing bars of metal that were built for support as hand and footholds. Roxi glanced around for where she could hide and found a lower set of bars and poles crossed in a loose gridlock, which was probably used for parts storage when the factory was still in use. If there was a 'hayloft', then there had to be a way to get up there. Her eyes focused on a rusted ladder and she smiled slightly. She tested her weight on it before climbing up to the 'hayloft'. She looked up to Clint, seeing him ready his bow and arrow, and pulled out part of her quarterstaff.

They were waiting like that for the next twenty minutes before there was finally some movement above her. Clint gave her a signal showing that someone was coming, and she immediately tensed, out of pure instinct, running through the stages of the mission in her head. Observe; find out as much as you can, then cross off the target as quietly as possible, and then get the hell out of there. There was the faint sound of voices, before two figures entered the same way she and Clint had. The first to come through was a stronger man, broad-shouldered and tall, obviously well trained in combat. Behind him, came an even stronger man, with a huge build and an emotionless face, worn with age and exhaustion. This was the Soldier, the leader of the group. He still wore his faded army uniform, which surprised Roxi. She thought that he would've tried to distance himself from his past, as she had, but apparently, he had not. 

From her perch, Roxi managed to hear that they were mumbling about some kind of meeting.  She shifted slightly, trying to get closer so she could hear a little more. It didn't work very well, and all she was able to get out of it was that the meeting would be soon. They hadn't known about that, and that put a slight frown on her face. This could complicate things. She crept forward again, carefully spreading out her weight in an attempt to make no sound. This time, she managed to hear a snippet of conversation before the men turned away.

"Is the package on its way?" The Soldier asked.

"Yes sir."  Roxi faintly remembered Fury warning the pair of agents that the group may have some sort of weapon. It seemed likely that that was the package.

"Good. The rest of you?" Roxi wondered why he had worded it that way. The rest of you. Like he wasn't a part of them, though she supposed he viewed himself above them. He saw himself as the leader, the Captain of this strange ship. 

"Should be here soon,-" That was when the men turned away, facing the shell of a tank that had been abandoned halfway through building, and squatted like some kind of monstrous toad on the dusty floor. She took a moment to glance back up at Clint to check everything was okay with him. He was still in the same position, an arrow nocked to his bow as he surveyed the warehouse below him, but his eyes caught hers when he noticed her watching him, and he gave a slight nod to signify that he had heard, or at least gotten the gist of the conversation. She turned back slowly, scanning over the building floor to familiarise herself with the layout.

It was a fairly big room, about half the size of a football pitch, and had pale cement floors, covered with a thick layer of dust, with grime festering in the corners. The walls were red brick, crumbling and cracked, with the cement in between half-missing, worn away by rain and wind that dove through the shattered windows and lashed against the brick, weakening the structure of the building. On the floor, there were various metal carcasses littered around the place, spare caterpillar tracks piling in one corner, turbines piled in another. All of the half-assembled war machines were rusted and useless, suspended like their engines had been ripped out and stranded on a battlefield, with various parts strewn around them. In the middle of the room, pressed against the right wall was some kind of platform. There was a slightly higher level, and a much bigger, lower level, where there were suspicious stains of maroon on the silvery-grey metal.

Her attention was brought off of the room and its contents when people began to file in, swinging themselves up through the window, instead of down like she and Clint had done. That meant they didn't use the roof. The first two turned their backs on the abandoned tank they had been scrutinizing while they were talking so that they now faced the rows of people. Roxi noticed that there were very few women in the crowd and that the majority of the group were men who looked like they thought with their muscles and gave no regard to anything other than to follow orders. All in all, there were around 20 people in the room, excluding her and Clint. 10 each. The odds were looking interesting. 

The gathering had begun to pique her interest, and she knew any extra information she could gather would be appreciated by Fury. The Soldier stood on top of the raised platform, looking down at the lines of people as though they were his own personal army - which they very well could be. He watched them a second longer, before his voice rang out through the still room.

"I have an announcement to make. Soon, the package will arrive. Soon, we will be able to help rid the world of sin. Soon, we will be able to achieve what we have been striving for. We will be able to bring down the structure of society with a single act. We will have the power we have always deserved." The wind picked up slightly outside, and Roxi heard it begin to whistle through the exposed ventilation shafts that ran through the building. She wished subtly that he would hurry up with his evil monologue so she could complete her mission and have a nice, warm cup of tea and change into some dry clothes.

"But! That's another day. Today we must continue to please our predecessors and train for the inevitable. Buckley," he gestured to one man, who stepped forward, looking slightly nervous, "and Hooper." A second man stepped out of the lines. He was much bigger in build, broader and stronger, with a sharp face. The two men made their way up onto the platform and Roxi suddenly realized what was about to happen and cringed slightly.

The Soldier made his way up to the second level of the platform to watch, a slightly twisted look of expectancy on his face. The two men faced each other as the rest of the group grew closer to the platform, which Roxi now realized was some kind of stage. The Soldier gave the two men a nod and they began to fight. 'Hooper' lurched forward, and Roxi could imagine feeling the ground shake as he moved.  Hooper knocked Buckley back, and Roxi took the time to examine the supports of the grid she was on. The metal pipes looked fairly strong and were held up by thin but strong girders, and the contraption looked like it could overall hold about a ton of weight. She hoped that it wouldn't need to hold that much weight any time soon. Her attention was brought back to the stage when Buckley hit the floor with a thud, and she shuffled slightly to try and remain unseen, but for a second, the man's eyes rested exactly where she had been, before his vision flitted away. Roxi let out a small sigh of relief, believing they were still undiscovered, that was until Buckley raised his arm and pointed past Roxi to Clint, who hadn't been able to move out of view.

"Intruder!" Instantly, the stage fight was forgotten as the mess of people below them scrambled for weapons, and The Soldier's face twisted into disdain. Roxi's hand leapt to one of the Glock 26 pistols that were strapped to her thighs and she pulled it out, completely prepared to use it, her quarterstaff in her other hand. Clint nocked an arrow to his bow and shot it, marking their first opponent down. Roxi carefully aimed and shot, alerting the gaggle to her presence, causing them to panic slightly as another person fell dead. The Soldier's face churned into something akin to worry, just as Roxi's gun clicked empty. About half of the group were down now, with the help of Clint, and she decided it was safe enough to drop down and fight with her quarterstaff. She tucked the empty pistol back into its holster and dropped herself through one of the wide gaps in the metal grid, landing on top of an empty shell of a tank, the staff gripped tightly in one hand. She trusted Clint to watch her back while she did this. She spun the weapon around, making sure she still had the feel for it before she whacked the end off of the head of the first person who ran at her. Clint continued to fire as Roxi jumped down off of the war machine's corpse and onto the cement floor, stirring up a flurry of dust as she moved to her next opponent. This was the man named Hooper, who seemed overly confident that he could take out a female S.H.I.E.L.D agent who attacked people with a metal stick. 

Roxi knew that she had to be careful and keep emotions from interfering in the field. Hooper was heavyset and strong, but he moved slowly and out more of his weight on his right side. With that in mind, she didn't move as he charged at her, instead waiting until he was only a few meters away, before proceeding with her attack. She stepped swiftly out of his way, allowing his momentum to carry him forwards, stumbling slightly. She spun around with the staff out, knocking the back of his knees and causing him to fall onto all fours. He got up quickly, spinning around and swinging his fist at her, which she only just had time to dodge before she slammed the end of the staff into Hooper's stomach, winding him before she slammed the quarterstaff off of Hooper's head, causing to crumple to the ground with a crack. An arrow whizzed past her ear into a person who had gotten just to close to her for Clint's liking while she had been taking out Hooper. She didn't have time to thank him or see exactly how close the person had got to her, instead she moved onto fighting the next person in the small crowd around her. This happened to be one of the few women who had been standing in the organized crowd, who was smaller than Roxi, as well as probably lighter. If Roxi charged at her the way Buckley had done, the woman could do exactly the same thing and use her bigger size and weight to her advantage, which would make it much harder for Roxi to get a good hit. 

So instead, she stood and waited, staring the 5'4 woman straight in her eye, as if telling her to move. After a few moments of staring, the woman gave in and ran towards Roxi. Leaning slightly on one foot, Roxi waited for the woman to come close enough and take a swing at her so she could gauge her strength. The woman's fist came around faster than Roxi expected, causing it to slam into her jaw and making her stumble back a little before she recovered and blocked the woman's other swing with her quarterstaff, before swinging it hard into the woman's neck, causing her to collapse to the ground beside Hooper. 

When she looked around, Roxi saw that Clint had dealt with the rest of the group while she was fighting hand-to-hand, picking them off one by one with his arrows. Now, the only one left (that she could see anyway) was The Soldier, who the whole time had been standing on the top level of the stage, watching the skirmish distastefully. Clint made his way down from the rafters as Roxi slowly walked towards the man, slowly taking out and arming her other pistol. She waited until Clint reached her side and they casually made their way towards the stage, and a to Roxi's surprise, The Soldier came down to meet them. She raised the gun and pointed it at his forehead.

"What's in the package?" she asked coldly, trying to get him to squeal as quickly as she could so they could get the hell out of this old dank warehouse in London and have her cup of tea.

"Why should you know? You killed a good portion of my men!" Roxi frowned slightly at that. Why was he talking so strangely? And 'a good portion'? What was that supposed to mean? While she stewed in her thoughts, Clint took it upon himself to answer.

"And you've killed plenty of other people. Now answer the question." It clicked in Roxi's head just as a gunshot filled the air - and not from the Glock 26 in her hands. The Soldier dropped dead in front of them and she instinctively ducked behind the nearest half-tank, hoping for sanctuary as she scanned for the sniper. When she couldn't find one in the room, she guessed they were in another building, which meant she couldn't easily eliminate the threat. She sent a glance over to Clint who was also sheltering behind a piece of dead machinery, as if asking him to take out the sniper if he could find them. He met her gaze and nodded slightly, waiting in silence for the sniper to fire again. As soon as they did (the shot ricocheted off of the tank shell centimetres above her head), Clint followed the direction that the bullet had come from and fired an arrow once he found the culprit. There was one last shot before he pulled back around the corner of the old tank engine he was behind, as the last bullet streaked through the air.

Both she and Clint followed the path of the bullet with their eyes, tracing its path through the air, still watching as it slammed into one of the metal girders near The Soldier's body, causing a spark to fly off and catch onto something. It took a few precious seconds of time where the spark burned along something on the floor before they realized what was happening.

The second that she realized what it was, Roxi was sprinting for the door - well, the shattered window that they had come in through, Clint only a few steps behind. As soon as she stepped onto the slight ledge of a windowsill that was just outside, turning around swiftly, and for a moment, almost losing her balance. Clint quickly jumped up next to her, just as she jumped and grabbed hold of the small ledge of stone that was just above the window, and pulled herself up so that she stood on her tiptoes on the ledge, barely staying there, before she swiftly reached up and grabbed onto the edge of the flat roof, clambering over the edge and waiting for Clint to join her - which he did a moment later. Roxi split her quarterstaff, giving two pieces to him, before opening her mouth to tell him what to do, then realized it would sound crazy, and settled for

"Just do what I do!" She gripped her piece of her quarterstaff and began running towards the edge of the roof for the second time that day, back towards the building they'd come up. Because the building they were on was a foot and a half lower than the other one, she'd attached the last piece of her staff to the side of the higher building, so that when they needed to get out of the warehouse, it could help get them up.

So, when she reached the edge off the roof, she jumped, holding out her one section of the staff out in front of her, holding her breath until she heard the strong whirr of the magnet, and her arms jolted slightly as the piece in her hands connected to the one fixed to the wall. Her arms at this point were screaming at her, so as quickly and carefully as she could, she pulled herself up and onto the higher roof, letting out a huff of breath, standing up and turning around, turning her gaze to Clint. He gave her an incredulous look and yelled

"Are you crazy?!"

"Probably!" Roxi shouted back, "But if you don't want to get blown up, you'll jump!" Clint glanced behind him one more time, before he sighed and muttered something to himself, before copying her actions, letting out a surprisingly high-pitched yell as he crossed the gap. She helped pull him up, just as the warehouse exploded into vibrant flames, the heat hitting Roxi's face in a shock-wave. She bent over, hands resting on her thighs, holding her up as sweat trickled down her brow from the heat, looking back towards the now shattered building that lay in ruins, fires still burning as smoke drifted into the sky. Sirens began to wail as the rain strengthened, causing the fire to hiss and crackle. Over the noise, Roxi turned to Clint and said

"You scream like a girl."

She was jolted out of her reverie by raised voices a floor above her and slightly to the left. It took a moment for her to realize that the voices belonged to the rest of the Avengers and Fury. She tried to focus on the shouts, the training quarterstaff still gripped in her hand, straining to hear anything that was going on.

That was when the side of the helicarrier exploded.

{A/N:} Hello Marvel fans. I know this chapter took ages to get out and I'm really sorry about that but I struggle more with original parts and things like that. I realize that I've been working on this a month, but I had lots of writer's block, and it's a much longer chapter than normal. I'm sorry if this isn't what you wanted for this chapter, but I wanted to show that Roxi does have some experience with Clint. Thank you to those of you who have already voted, it means so much to me. Please vote and comment to let me know how to improve my story. Thanks for reading this (very, very long) chapter,

JabberJay11

5325 words

Written: 08/ 07/20

Published: 09/ 07/20