Cookies
'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
~ With Luke in the simulated world, 2 years later ~
"We're back!" Luke announced as he stepped into 'The Farm'.
The Farm was a codename referring to the farmhouse that Clint's family resided in. Luke had been officially introduced to the Bartons a few months back. Although he knew about the Bartons beforehand, he still had a role to play. So, he acted surprised.
Luke had even gone as far as to refuse to believe it when his mentor, Natasha, had confirmed Clint's words, instead stating that he would believe them when he saw the family.
"LUKE!" / "NAT!"
Came the simultaneous cheerful voices of a young boy and girl, as both Luke and Natasha were being attacked by incoming projectiles aimed at their body. Standing their grounds, both of them met the projectiles with ease.
"Hey there Cooper!" / "There's my little angel!"
Luke and Natasha greeted as they returned the hug from Cooper and Lila respectively.
Since meeting Clint's family, Luke has become a brother figure to Cooper, who had not made it a secret that he had wanted to be like Luke when he grew up.
"Sometimes I think that both my children love the two of you more than they do me." Clint said amusedly with a sigh at the actions of his children.
At his admission, both Cooper and Lila looked at each other before nodding. Suddenly, they got down from both Luke and Natasha before launching themselves at their father.
"Daddy!"
Catching both his children, Clint could only forgive them.
"Ahh my two sunshines! I knew you loved me more!" Clint said, earning giggles from Cooper and Lila, a chuckle from Natasha, and finally a grunt from Luke.
"Some day old man. Some day." Luke remarked.
This had gotten him a slap to the head by Laura, "Those are his kids, Luke. Behave yourself or else."
At this, Luke scoffed light-heartedly, "Some day ol-"
Before he could finish, he was met with the threatening glare of both Laura and Natasha, daring him to finish his sentence. Choosing wisely to remain silent and not do so, Luke turned around and whistled as he walked away, pretending as if nothing happened.
However, before he could get far, a hand had grabbed his shoulder as he heard Natasha's cold voice.
"Downstairs. Now."
Natasha then walked to the basement, where there was a boxing ring and various equipment for training.
"Fuck. . ." Luke could only bemoan his situation as he resigned himself to what lay ahead and followed after Natasha.
Seeing their interaction, Laura walked up to Clint before asking him, "How close?"
"Too close." Clint sighed.
~ Flashback to the trios most recent mission ~
"Our mission is to locate the international arms dealer, only known as 'Chief'. We don't have the information on his real name, his background, his supplier nor how he managed to get to where he is today. Thankfully, one of our guys picked up a transmission about a deal going down tomorrow night by the docks." Clint briefed.
"This guy has evaded us since we first discovered him, and Fury wants this guy captured, so he's not taking any chances and will be sending us in."
"Enemy numbers?" Luke inquired.
"Unclear, but believed to be a few dozen and highly armed."
"Stealth or hard engage?" Came Natasha's question.
"Stealth. But if that doesn't work," Clint started as he looked at Luke.
"Hey don't look at me man, I can do stealth." Luke said defensively, "I really can!"
"Then we can engage the enemy, weapons hot." Clint finished.
It had been a year and some months since Clint and Natasha had picked up Luke during their mission to survey the Ukrainian scientist Dravkowski. Unknown to the trio at the time, Dravkowski had been meeting with Chief in order to get some components he needed to develop a new explosive.
While Luke's mission was to monitor Dravkowski, Natasha and Clint's mission had been to gather intel on who Dravkowski had been working for. Unexpectedly, they came across Chief during this time and had tried to capture him, to which they failed. From that moment on, Chief had been placed onto SHIELD's radar, but had remained elusive ever since.
"Got it, we go in quiet, and when shit hits the fan, we go guns blazing." Luke said, only to receive the unimpressed stares from his two other teammates.
"What?" Luke could only look confused.
~ Fast forward to the night of the deal, at the docks ~
"'I can do stealth' he said. 'I really can' he said." Clint remarked as the trio were currently hiding behind cover, facing an onslaught of gunfire from the enemy.
"I said I'm sorry! Besides, it's not my fault the guy was standing at the far end of a hallway, and he just so happened to see me!" Luke replied with an apologetic tone.
"Can the two of you stop bickering and focus!"
Natasha reprimanded before shooting down another enemy stupid enough to stand in the open. As if flipping a switch, Luke and Clint had both turned serious and began returning fire with precision.
The stealth approach had been going well until Luke had been spotted. The guard who saw him had taken a shot towards him, but thankfully he was merely a henchman of the buyer, thus his accuracy was close to non-existent, and missed his shot.
However, this had sounded the alarm and now the entire enemy forces within the docks knew that there were uninvited guests in the area. When Chief, who had been negotiating the terms of the agreement at the time, had heard the gunshots, he knew that the organization that had been following him had caught up to him.
He was confused as to how this organization had found out about him. Chief had always been low-key in his dealings. Ensuring that there weren't any 'Loose ends'. One day, in a routine meeting with a buyer, he had been caught unprepared by a group of three people who were highly trained. However, Chief was not just an ordinary arms dealer.
- End of Chapter 23 -