Clint's homestead, Missouri-
-June 2, 2010, 1940h local-
Clint has been enjoying his vacation time. The last mission in New Mexico got out of control extremely fast. Who knew Norse Gods and nigh-indestructible murder bots could make everything more complicated. He wouldn't say it out loud but he's kinda thankful that Naruto was there to take on the heavyweights.
Clint has a tendency to renovate his homestead whenever he has extended vacation time. The recent target of his 'hobby', the front porch. Now, this should be like any other of his past projects, just a peaceful way to project his desire to rebuild what he destroys. However, there's something different this time.
"You really shouldn't do something like this at night. It's better to do this in the morning. Enjoy the time with your family." A female voice said behind Clint causing him to release a breath.
"If somebody told me that fighting literal Gods wouldn't be the craziest thing that would happen to me this week, I wouldn't believe them in a thousand years..." Clint said with a glib tone. "I mean seriously every one of you has nothing in common."
The two-tailed, blue flame cat, Matatabi, jumped down from the railing and ambled towards Clint.
"We're balls of almost infinite energy that acquired consciousness and physical form. Not much makes sense about us." Matatabi countered.
Clint had to concede with that reasoning. Some things just don't make sense in this world. He stood up and went inside his house with the flaming cat following him. The interior can only be described as chaotic. Lila and Cooper were running around the living room chasing a small red fox and horse-dolphin with a massive blue and green beetle flying over them. There's also a brown rat thing jeering from inside a pot. A red gorilla was hanging down the overhead lighting. Finally, a brown ox-octopus thingy, a slug, and a blue tortoise were sitting in a basin of water while chatting with Laura.
"When did this house a petting zoo?" Clint asked to himself.
"When you said yes to Naruto." Matatabi replied.
"He said he needs some space for his pets! I thought he meant a horse or even a lion!"
"That's what you get assuming things..." Matatabi jumped to Clint's head and made herself comfortable. At that point, Clint's just too resigned to complain. "And just to be clear, we already punished him for calling us pets."
"Ha! What did you guys do?" Clint asked while navigating his way through the living room chaos towards his wife.
"We told on him to Natasha."
Clint physically flinched hearing the cat's answer. Nat has earned her reputation to being a hardass.
"God bless his soul..." Clint approached Laura and gave her a peck on the cheek. "What're we making?"
"We're going to have gyudon..." Laura replied while chopping some onions and garlic. "Gyuki's been teaching me how to cook some Japanese cuisine."
"What? Not seafood?" Clint joked before releasing a chuckle.
"We had octopus takoyaki when you were gone..." Laura deadpanned. Clint scrunched his forehead in confusion. He then slowly turned towards the basin and stared at the very prominent tentacles moving around. "Oh my god. We bought some."
"You bought an octopus in the middle of nowhere Missouri?"
"There's the one specialty food shop in the Town. Just had to place an advance order."
"Is it good?"
"Good enough. Could've been more crispy." Gyuki interjected.
"You ate some too? Isn't that weird?"
"Not really. Had to taste if your wife made it right."
"Lila loved it. I'm thinking of making some more in the future." Laura excitedly replied.
Clint was about to reply when somebody knocked on the door which caused both him and Laura to go into high alert. The homestead was the most secure safehouse he have. His neighbors, if you could call them that as they're at least a mile away, know not to visit after hours as long as it wasn't an emergency. So it's extremely peculiar that someone would come visiting at this time.
"Take the kids. I'll answer the door." Clint said in a low tone while working his towards his bow.
"Don't worry. It's just Naruto..." Matatabi spoke up before releasing a humming sound. "Well, maybe you should worry. Cause you know, he's Naruto."
Clint released a full-blown groan hearing the name. Naruto could just somehow make everything... lively and lively was the last thing he wants at this time. He walked towards the door and opened it, revealing a grinning Naruto with a cooler.
"Brought food..." Naruto announced with a smile. "Just wanted to see if you want to watch the news."
"The news?" Clint whispered to himself. "What did you do now?" He asked while practically sprinting towards the TV.
From behind him, he could hear Lila shouting Naruto's name in joy and the fox thing saying something about not being a stuffed toy and stuff but he's to focus on his current task to think about anything else. He turned the tv on and scanned the channels until eventually, he caught something from a local New York channel.
"... Local police finally lifted the local air traffic restrictions above the Stark Expo. So for the first time, we would be able to see what's happening in the Expo itself..." A man reported while practically shouting into his mic. "There! There! Point it there!" The camera turned towards the fight. Two giants were fighting with some 'smaller' men putting in some shots. A massive armor can also be seen fighting two IronMan suits, and again, while somebody else was taking some potshots here and there. Clint could clearly see that one of those fighters was Natasha. "It's a fight of heroes versus villains. Tony Stark, along with Colonel Rhodes, a few other heroes, and The Hulk of Culver and Brazil, are fighting a monster and a robot or an armor just like the Ironman suit."
Clint had his eyes glued to the TV, watching the battle.
"So what's happening? Oh, and thank you for the food..." Laura said while organizing and reheating the food from the cooler. She can't really hear the television from the kitchen. "I mean, I never saw Clint so glued to the TV before. Well, except for sports."
"It's the 'Battle of Stark Expo'. Don't know if that name would stick but that's what I'm calling it. Can you pass me the red bowl? Thanks..." Naruto continued while transferring the food. "In an absolutely shocking turn of events that wasn't manipulated whatsoever, two individuals with unique capabilities happened to wreak havoc in New York at the same time."
"Your particular hobby will bite you in the ass one day." Laura chided with a scolding tone.
"Eh. I'll just cross the bridge when the time comes..." Naruto replied. "By the way, how're the guys doing?"
"They're great. Lila and Cooper really like being around them and they're able to look after the kids too from time to time..." Laura answered while placing the plates and utensils on the table. "Some of them have worrying manners and vocabulary though but I already taught them to behave in front of the kids."
"Wow! I'm impressed. I never managed to teach them to be polite."
"It's because you lack that particular virtue."
"Sticks and stones, Laura. Sticks and stones."
Laura just shook her head in amusement at Naruto's answer.
-Stark Expo, New York-
-June 2, 2010, 2050h local-
Jessica got thrown away when a particular ground attack by the Abomination caused rocks to fly in all directions. Natasha managed to soften the impact by tackling Jess mid-air towards the bushes. Nat stood up slowly while checking for injuries before helping Jess up.
"You okay?" Nat asked.
"Just peachy..." Jessica straightened her back, causing a few pops. "I'm all for a good smackdown but this is just ridiculous."
"You're right. We're at a stalemate. We need something to break the balance." Nat replied.
It's a bit hard to believe that a group with the Hulk, two super-soldiers, two advance exosuits, a super spy, an enhanced individual, and a former special operative as support couldn't put down Vanko and Blonsky. However, a few factors was working against the heroes. Tony and Rhodey's suits were low on ammo and energy. Steve and Peggy were running on fumes. While the Hulk's raw strength was a league of its own, Blonky's training proves to be effective in dealing damage. His hard bony under armor doesn't certainly help with both offense and defense. Vanko's smart fighting style plays off well in Blonsky as he aims to 'support' his temporary ally.
Nat stared at the fight. Stark and Rhodes focused on Vanko while Banner was on Blonsky. Rogers and Carter were bouncing of the two as needed.
"Stark!" Natasha called out.
"A little busy!" Stark replied.
"We'll hold Vanko. Everyone else focus on Blonsky! We're just exhausting ourselves like this."
Stark hesitated for a second before quickly changing target, to which Rhodes followed suit. Vanko was about to launch his whip but Jessica grabbed hold of his arm.
"Round two, bitch."
-Clint's homestead, Missouri-
-June 2, 2010, 1955h local-
"Ha! Finally! They're doing something different!" Naruto shouted out of nowhere.
"No shouting on the table." Lila said with a singsong voice causing Laura to snicker.
Clint, on the other hand, still had his eyes glued on the television even while his eating.
"That thing right there..." Naruto said while pointing to the TV. "Would give Fury's Avengers initiative a bit more weight." That was able to take Clint's eyes away from the TV.
"Avengers Initiative? I heard a bit but Fury wouldn't tell me much. Even Coulson's a bit dodgy."
"I wouldn't usually tolerate work talk on the table but I'm curious too. So spill." Laura joined in.
Naruto took a sip of water before answering.
"It's Fury's brainchild. To bring a group of extraordinary people together to achieve something greater than themselves..." Naruto started. "But of course it's Fury so it's a bit darker than that. It's his failsafe in case SHIELD fails him and with HYDRA in the mix, it's an increasing threat."
"So who's in that group?" Laura asked.
"As of now? Stark, Banner, Rogers, Romanoff..." Naruto stared at Clint dead in the eye. "And Barton."
Clint scoffed hearing the list.
"It's gonna fail. Everybody's too different in ideologies and way of thinking. Some are also incredibly volatile..." Clint gave his honest assessment. "Not to mention the more than likely clash between Stark and Rogers."
"All valid points..." Naruto conceded. "But with the threat level, the Avengers Initiative is supposed to deal with. You guys can't afford to fail."
That sent shivers down Clint and Laura's spine. Disregarding Naruto's implied threat level, there's one thing they can't get out of their minds. What the hell was a guy with a bow and arrow supposed to do at that level.
"Oh. It looks like they're just about done."
-Stark Expo, New York-
-June 2, 2010, 2100h local-
"You lose, Stark." Vanko said with a grin before laughing hysterically. His arc reactors started beeping.
Almost everyone immediately connected the dots. Tony grabbed hold of Nat and Jess's clothes before flying away. Rhodey did the same with Steve and Peggy. They were in mid-flight when all the Hammerdrones and Vanko's suit blew up, devastating everything around them. The group landed on the rooftop where Eric was nestled.
"Sheesh. The insurance company would go broke." Tony let out, trying to inject some humor in the situation.
Everyone except for Tony, Rhodey, and Eric, which already walked out of his hole, was already slumped on the ground, exhausted from the battle. Steve was about to remove his mask when Nat spoke up.
"Better keep that on, Cap. There's still some media helicopter flying around. You don't want that much attention now..." The name partially startled Steve as he put in the effort to hide his identity. "Don't be surprised, Cap. You're as famous as they come. It'll be hard not to recognize you."
As Nat was done speaking, something large dropped somewhere at the backside of the building. They turned around and saw the Hulk. The Hulk intensely stared at them for a moment before he slowly shrunk. The sequence of events was a weird yet fascinating thing to watch. In the end, all that's left was an average-looking guy with only ripped, stretched-out pants covering his lower half.
"So... I'm... I'm Bruce Banner..." Bruce introduced himself. "Talk about a crazy day, huh."