Barton neared the block where Damon and their alleged escapee were currently still hidden, just as he heard Cap's voice reply over the comms; ”there's an attempted break on the Base's prison sub-level, C Block,” he started to answer, voice lowered again; “one Asgardian and one mutant. I can slow them down, but I don't think a few arrows are going to stop them.” Not Alvaro, anyway; Damon was another story, but Clint didn't particularly want to aim for him if he didn't have to. Clint paused briefly before speaking again, only now registering where Cap's location was; ”... you seriously ran all the way to Manhattan for a cup of coffee?” he diverted from the issue at hand for a second, before stopping himself ”never mind; bigger problems. Might want to get that last cup to-go, Rogers; it could get a little chaotic over here, soon.”
No sooner and not at all to the archer's surprise, Tony's voice was the next to tune in over the private comms, most likely alerted to the situation by JARVIS. Glad as he was to hear the other man was back, Clint gave a bit of an eye-roll at Tony's last comment; “that you wouldn't do? That really isn't saying much, Stark...” he replied, tuning both of his fellow Avengers out for a brief minute as soon as Damon's voice echoed down the hall, interrupting any further communication with them. ”Whatever you're both about to do, try to make it quick if you can help it” he added quickly before returning back to the problem at hand.
The archer lowered his bow somewhat as soon as Damon announced that he was stepping out. Was this about to count as something he shouldn't do? Probably. ”I won't if you don't,” Clint called back, stepping away from the cover of the wall and around around the opposite corner; seeing Damon appear with his hands raised, he kept his weapon on hand but didn't aim it, trusting Wanda's son to keep his word even if he definitely didn't trust the prisoner he was protecting. He couldn't help but be a little shocked by what he was hearing; even though SHIELD most likely already had all of this information about the little girl in their files, it was the first time Barton had heard anything about it. But whatever Damon was banking on, it didn't change the fact that he couldn't let them walk out even if he wanted to. He had heard, though, that the girl had given some of the other agents quite the scare the night before, but that Nat supposedly had the issue under control, and Clint was inclined to believe her. ”Deals are off the table, Maximoff,” he replied to Damon's attempts; ”You can go, and as long as you do so without any damage, I won't stop you. But the prisoner stays put.”
This situation was going to go from bad to worse before either Stark or Cap could get there, he was pretty sure of it; the possibility was more and more concerning not only for his sake, but also for Natasha who was still only a few blocks down from them, and for Avalon and the rest of the Base's inhabitants, if their prisoner managed to make it off the prison sub-level. Alvaro wasn't trying to force his way out, yet, and Clint had a feeling Damon had a lot to do with that, but that wasn't going to last long...
“Nat's gonna kill me for this...” Clint muttered under his breath before he let out a frustrated sigh; despite the fact that they'd all been given orders by Hill not to inform either Loki or his son of each others whereabouts, that cat was already out of the bag, courtesy of Wanda's son. Confirming it was maybe not his best laid out plan, but Barton was running short on time for plans, and if it bought him a greater chance to apprehend them before they could escape and cause an even bigger issue, the archer couldn't make it worse at that point... “kid, you're just going to have to trust me, here,” he tried again, “you're still protecting them, that's your job now, whatever; the best way you can do that right now, though, is to stand down.” God, was he really having this discussion? Arguing in the defense of Loki or anyone in relation to him wasn't exactly on the archer's list of things to do that day, or any day, but here they were... ”Loki wasn't arrested, Damon, he was found.” And quite frankly, damn lucky he was still alive; ”and the girl, they're still figuring out how she wandered here. Your guess as to what the hell happened is as good as ours, but whoever decided to target Loki probably won't stop with him.” Well, he was sure he had their attention now; if Nat didn't kill him for this later, then Hill certainly would when she made it back. ”As ridiculous as it sounds, they're a lot safer here than they would be out there; no one here is going to hurt anyone if they don't have to.” And, as much as Clint personally hated it, for now Loki remained under the same protection; as much as he would have rather put an arrow through Loki's skull and been done with this, they still needed the mischief god alive if they hoped to make any progress against the Chitauri. Alive, and cooperative, which is why they couldn't afford to lose Alvaro, either. "Look, like it or not, kid, you know I'm right about this."