Budapest

Chapter 22:

Natasha: I ran over to Clint. I shook him. "Clint, are you okay?" I said. I realized he still couldn't hear me. He turned over and looked at me. "What happened?" he asked. Then he touched his ear for a second time.

I signed to him, "Drakeov got to you."

"Am I okay?" he signed

I nodded.

Clint smiled. Then he signed, "Now we're even."

I shook my head. Then a look of pure worry crossed Clint's face.

"Bomb?" he signed.

"I'll need your help," I signed back.

"Let's go," Clint signed.

Clint: I hated when the world was silent. Even when I was little I always slept with my hearing aids in, even though the doctor had told me not, because the sounds around me would help me fall asleep. I couldn't help smiling at Natasha's knowledge of American Sign Language.

"Where are my hearing aids?" I asked Natasha.

She looked grim. Then she walked across the floor and put something in her hands, then showed me. My hearing aids were busted apart in her hand. I shook my head sadly. I signed to her, "I knew I should have gotten the implants."

She smiled to herself. "We have to go," she signed looking up. I followed her line of sight, and saw a set of guys running towards us. I jumped on my feet ignoring the pain from doing so, and started running. I grabbed her hand. We dashed out the door, but our path was met by more men. I saw Natasha mouthing something, I assumed to herself. I ran into a room, going. I found a window, and attempted to open it. It was glued shut, immovable. My eyes flicked back to Natasha, who signed, "Hurry." I assumed the men were a few footsteps from the room. I grabbed her, wrapping my arms around her, then, threw the two of us out the window. I positioned us to fall on the roof of the building next to us, then, postitioned myself below her. I fell on my back, and for a moment, couldn't breathe. "Come on we have to keep moving," Natasha signed panicked. She grabbed my arm, pulling me up and we took off again. We ran from roof to roof, men chasing us from ever angle. I felt a bullet fly past my back, so close it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"Follow me," Natasha signed over her shoulder. Then she jumped off the edge of th roof. I looked over the edge cautiously, and found a tight awning to break my fall. I thought a quick prayer to myself, then jumped. I landed on my feet next to her. She started looking up at windows. I decided not to question why. Then she ran into a door. I followed, confused. She ran into a room, and then stopped. She bent over and picked something up. She turned and handed it to me. My bow. I had barely even noticed its absence, but I knew it would make the world of a difference.

"You may want this,"she signed. I took it, then grabbed the quiver from the ground next to her. I slung both over my shoulder.

"Let's go," I signed frantically. She followed in an instant.

Until she stopped dead in her tracks. "What?" I signed.

She shook her head, "Be careful. They just signaled all KGB agents of what I did," she signed. I gave her a questioning look.

She smiled to herself, then signed, "Drakeov is dead."

Just then a bomb exploded from under a taxi by us. It flew back, and nearly hit each of us. I was blew back from the black, landing funny on my leg.

Natasha: I looked around us for where the bomb, or more likely granade, had come from. I saw Wint, standing on top of a building. He had a rifle now, and was aimed at Clint, who was struggling to get up after a wierd fall. For being Fury's best guy, he really was a hastle. I positioned my stance in front of Clint. "If you're going to hit him," I yelled up, "You have to go through me."

Wint moved his shot the tiniest bit to the left. I knelt down, and made my entire body shield Clint. I looked Wint dead in the eyes. His eyes revealed nothing on whether or not he would take the shot. Then he turned, lowering his gun.

When I looked up again, there were KGB all around us. Clint positioned himself behind the taxi, and started shooting taking down KGB after KGB. I started shooting behind us before I started to shoot some of the people next to Clint. We started shooting together.

Then, in the distance, I saw people appearing. Not KGB. Fury lead the pack. Then they started shooting KGB too. "Barton," Fury said, "Seems like a bigger mess than normal."

Clint tapped his ear and made a slashing sign across his throat.

"I told you to get the implants," Fury signed.

"I'm going to take the government building," I told Fury, "There's a bomb about to blow, that is if I don't stop it."

"Take Barton with," Fury said, "We'll take the ground here."

I grabbed Barton's hand, and pulled him with me.

We ran together, shooting at people in different directions. I gave him signals for those things he couldn't hear. We made it up to the Politcal Building.

The doors were guarded by some pretty good agents. We shot in throught the glass to get in, and one guy approached too close. I elbowed him, then kneed to the crotch. Finally I punched high, and he fell back. I took his gun and started shooting the men at the doors. We started towards the stairs, where I knew the bomb would be on the second floor. I kicked the door in to find a man waiting for us. I pulled the trigger just as a arrow came flying past my ear. I turned to looked at Clint. "I got him first," he signed. Then he darted past me, pulling the bloody arrow from the agents chest, then we kept going.

We made it up to the room with the bomb. It had been armed only 5 seconds before hand. We could be too late. "Go," I signed to Clint, "I'll handle this. Go back and help Fury."

Clint shook his head. "Go!" I signed. He shook his head again. I didn't have time to fight with him on this. I started looking at the bomb. 18 seconds. I looked through the different wires sticking off of it. I had to think for what Drakeov would do. 16 seconds. Red wouldn't be it. Drakeov believe Red stood for blood, or for Russia. He would make that the one you'd think to cut, but would make it blow in an instant. 15 seconds. Blue was for knowledge. As in the knowledge it would take not ccut that wire. 14 seconds. Two couples of wires were twisted together. One green and yellow, one red and blue again. I could rule out red and blue. 10 seconds. It was between green and yellow. It would be one of the two. Not both. A gun shot rang out from behind me, and I heard a person fall. I looked back just long enough to see there was a man with an arrow in his chest laying on the floor. 8 seconds. Yellow. Green. Yellow. Green. Which one. Green was go a tactic most American's learned to disarm bombs. Yellow it was. Or was it reverse phycology. He wanted me to cut yellow. No. It was yellow. 5 seconds. 50/50 chance right. 4 seconds. "Please Lord let this be right," I whispered. 3 seconds.

Snip.