Whatever had happened to make everything go wrong - was it Kate's sneeze, Clint's subsequent 'ssh' or something completely different that had brought attention to them (probably not) - they now had less than a minute to make it out of the laboratory before it was not only full of scientists but also swarmed with trigger-happy Hydra goons.

"Move!" Clint hollered already from the other side by the gate, trying to get Kate to hurry across the lab to him, avoiding any of the brave enough scientists wielding their scalpels. She at least had to admit, it really was brave. Not very advisable if they didn't have any fighting experience but brave nevertheless.

Kate grabbed the flash drive plugged into the computer she had been working on, pocketed it and started dashing towards Clint, both of their bows still slung around their backs. They wouldn't help all too much in this situation. The lab was too crowded and the scientists too eager to get a cut in. Their fists would have to do.

Kate ran as fast as she could. However, when she reached the middle of the lab, just hardly ten yards away from Clint, she suddenly felt someone grab ahold of her hair, yanking her backwards in one swift motion.

Kate cried out loud, more out of anger than hurt, but didn't waste time to throw the first punch at the scientist who had grabbed her hair. There was no time to cringe as she felt his nose give way to the force exerted by her fist and his scalpel clattered to the floor as she was already continuing her sprint across the lab.

Clint had his hand stretched out towards her and Kate could literally count the way the yards between them were diminishing with each move she made.

They knew the gate shutting on them would be a possibility. However none of them had anticipated it shutting as quickly as it did. With a bang it clattered onto the ground, separating Clint and Kate successfully from each other.

Kate let out a strained groan and could still hear Clint's faint shouts through the wall of metal but no matter what he kept shouting about, she had to act on her own and fast.

Turning around, she faced the remaining ten scientists, all with victorious smiles on their faces. Kate's stomach churned but there were more important things to think about. The team was relying on her. Clint was relying on her. She could do it. "Okay boys, who wants to go first?"

/

However Clint had managed to avoid the oncoming Hydra goons, he didn't know. He didn't even need to know if it meant he could get Kate out of that lab safe and sound. But none of the five gates leading to the lab would budge and slowly but surely he was giving up hope. Even if Kate had been able to defend herself against the remaining scientists, which he was sure of, she couldn't get out the lab before Hydra got in.

The mission hadn't even been supposed to be complicated. That's what pissed him off the most. Apart from the fact that he had dragged Kate into all of it and that she was now the one who was locked in. But he would make time for the ensuing guilt later on.

Trying to get in through one of the many gates again, Clint threw his fist against the metal and let out a frustrated shout. But through a small speaker by the keypad and fingerprint scanner next to the door suddenly a variety of sounds and beeps rang out and the gate opened just as fast as it had closed before. Had Hydra actually this bad of tech that sheer violence could break it down? But by the first glance he caught of the other side he scolded himself for ever thinking that his fist could have opened the gate.

On the other side of the gate a frazzled Kate was standing, a finger in her hand, pressed against the fingerprint scanner, most of the scientists unconscious and strewn across the lab behind her.

Clint raised his eyebrows at her and the very clearly severed finger in her hand.

"In my defense, I wasn't the one who cut it off."

"I'm gonna forget this ever happened. But we need to get out of here. They should have caught up with us by now. Let's go, Hawkeye."