Scott & Clint | Tuesday Morning (backdated)

[x-hawkeye.livejournal.com]

Clint's X-Man debriefing.


Clint handed Summers three file folders. "The first one is a copy of my official statement, as received by Director Brand of SWORD. The second is a copy of my official statement, as received by SSA Coulson and Director Fury of SHIELD. The third is a copy of the NDA I signed for SHIELD and SWORD. Just so you're aware of what I won't be telling you about my work history. Unless, of course, I find myself in a situation that constitutes imminent danger to myself, others, or national security. In which case you'll be debriefed by SHIELD and asked to sign an NDA of your own."

Scott reached out to pick up the reports, paging through them as he commented, "I wouldn't worry too much about that. It doesn't seem like we're on the best of terms with SHIELD at the moment, so I don't think Fury will be calling me in to the Triskellion anytime soon." Unless it was for questioning. After their run in with the Avengers, Scott was understandably cautious when it came to anything to do with SHIELD. But then, this was Clint. Only it wasn't. And Scott wasn't sure how much he could trust the young man in front of him. "So why don't you tell me what you can in your own words?" He said eventually putting down the folders.

"Well, you know my brother Matt. He works for Worthington. He's how I knew about this place, how I got introduced. I spent a fair bit of time ferrying him back and forth from the city while on vacation, got to know some of your people here. Then SWORD recalled me and sent me back to Alaska," Clint said. It was all standard, readily available information. Information he hadn't actually passed on to SHIELD. "While there, I encountered an object which I later determined was, in fact, a cryogenic tube. That realization came about only when the tube itself opened and dumped out a man. That happened while a thief attempted to steal the tube. The man from the tube was, I assume, extremely disoriented. Testing of various components of the tube, prior to the thief's arrival, of course, indicated it was very, very old.

"Anyway, the man was aggressive. The thief and I attempted to subdue him. We failed and the thief was knocked unconscious. I attempted to draw the man's attention away from the thief and I succeeded, only to be cornered shortly thereafter. Fortunately for me, the man fell unconscious before he could land what I assume would have been an incapacitating blow and I was able to ensure he was adequately restrained before dosing him with a sedative and making contact with one of your people, a Miss Clarice Ferguson. She arrived and assisted me in transporting the man here, to your medical facilities, where I believe he still is." Clint paused, considered naming the thief, and chose not to. Undoubtedly there were psychics here who could pick the information from his mind, but he'd rather deal with Miss Storm's duplicity himself.

"While I contacted Miss Ferguson, the thief escaped, making off with the empty tube." After pausing again to make sure he hadn't left anything out, Clint finished with, "I did contact one of my former superiors at SHIELD and I have been debriefed by him. As I said, they received two reports on the events at the Alaska facility, the more detailed of which will be viewed only by a supervisory special agent and Director Fury himself."

"Sounds like a bad set of coincidences," Scott noted. "We've all been there, but it doesn't make it any easier when it happens to you. And this came across Nick Fury's desk as well?" Scott steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair. "You couldn't recognize the thief? I'm surprised SHIELD hasn't dragged them back in - kicking and screaming if they have to. Doesn't seem like the best policy for them to let people like that sneak into their bases."

"Considering the amount of work whoever it was put into getting into the facility - seriously, the redundancies have redundancies that have triple failsafes locked in... and I saw the video, there was literally no one there despite the rope showing up and the door opening. Then, thanks to our unconscious friend, everything electronic fritzed out. We're talking world-class thief here, Mister Summers. And believe me, SHIELD is probably already on top of getting everything they possibly can on any and everyone who might have had even the slightest chance of pulling off something like that." Clint sat back in his own chair, quirking a small smile. "But that's out of my hands now. I turned in my resignation before coming here with Miss Ferguson."

"Yeah, about that." Scott sighed and leaned forward. "Without breaking your NDA can you tell me why you resigned? From the sounds of it you still had the trust of Fury and Coulson, otherwise they wouldn't have debriefed you personally and Nick Fury... isn't a man who shares his trust lightly. I can't believe that loosing an artifact to someone who can defeat all of SHIELD's security would be enough to force you to leave."

"Have you ever met Abigail Brand?" Clint asked, honest curiosity in his voice as he mirrored Scott's posture and leaned forward.

"I... have had that honour yes," Scott replied as the pieces started to fall into place.

"Abigail Brand is the Director of SWORD. Now, since SWORD is a part of SHIELD and the facility I was guarding happened to store SHIELD property, Fury and Coulson debriefed me. Which was lucky. Because, quite frankly, all my cards on the table, I'm a mutant. You'll notice the differences in the reports once you look over the one that went to Brand. She doesn't officially know about my x-gene status, though I believe she suspects." Clint tapped one of the folders. "I don't dislike Brand, per se, but I think she's in a difficult spot at the agency and M-Day didn't help. My personal views and actions led me to come into conflict with my partner at SWORD. A physical altercation occurred in the field. They put me on ice - literally, given where they sent me.

"I could probably have transferred back to SHIELD from SWORD after this, but working with Doc Foster and Thor, going over things to find the scientific answers to baffling questions and phenomena - that's what I wanted to do. And given the way everything's been post M-Day... honestly, I'm really tired of listening to people badmouth mutants while I sit there next to them, passing, and they have no idea. I can't say anything one way or the other." Exhaling slowly, making himself relax a bit, Clint finished, "But the good thing is, I've got Coulson's trust and Fury trusts Coulson. So whatever your operation here, I can work within the bounds of my NDA to help. Fair warning, of course, that if something happens here that I deem big enough - dangerous enough - I will inform Coulson."

"That's what I'm nervous about," Scott admitted. "I know Fury knows about us, has for a while. But he's never had a first hand look at what we do." He smiled wryly at Clint. "Some of the things we've seen would make Fury's hair curl - might keep him up at night. But I'm not sure we want the government knowing everything that goes on here. Especially given the... state of relations that exists between us and SHIELD right now."

"I'm not a spy, Mister Summers," Clint said. "I mean, I can infiltrate if I have to, but that's not my happy fun place. I didn't agree to spy for Fury or Coulson, that's not why I'm here." He paused, considered his options, then said, "Say I'm researching something for the Xavier Institute. During the course of my research, I go into the field to investigate an anomaly. While in the field, I - and whatever team is deemed necessary for my field excursion - run into a giant, sentient octopus. We upset the octopus. The octopus decides it's going to destroy New York City to get back at us. I'd give Fury a heads up that a giant, sentient octopus is making a bee-line for the city. I'm not going to tell him anything about the research I was doing. I'm not going to tell him anything about the team I was with. Just the octopus."

Scott nodded slowly, "I can understand that. And in the case of a catastrophe, it would certainly be nice to have SHIELD mobilizing to help with evacuations." Scott paused to collect his thoughts before continuing, "I don't think that you're a spy but I do think that, despite quitting SHIELD, you haven't left the mindset of being a SHIELD agent. I don't suppose it's something that you can just walk away from, not if you're the genuine article. But for example, how do you feel about demonic invasions in the middle of New York?

"Know any witches?" Clint asked, expression wry. "Or experts in the occult?" He paused, a look of mild realization coming over him. "Of course you do. I made one of them breakfast in the mansion kitchen." Laughing softly, he shook his head before continuing, "But what are you asking me about with regard to demonic invasions? What my personal role would be during one? What the overall plan should be if one occurs? Who's most likely to cause one? Who's best suited to stop one? Would I tell Fury about how you handle one?"

Shrugging, Clint finished, "I'm good with logistics. Organizing. I can spot patterns. I'm good with hand to hand if it's necessary and, not to be immodest, I'm an excellent shot with pretty much any projectile, though I prefer a bow and arrows. So far as plans go, evacuate everyone if possible, contain the threat, and call in people who actually know things about demons to deal with whatever's causing it. I'd have to ask people about who and what might cause one and how to stop it. I'd tell Fury one had almost happened, assuming it didn't go full-blown invasion, and I'd tell him what to look out for in the future. But that's all. Your operation is your operation. I have no desire to spill your secrets, just like I won't be spilling SHIELD or SWORD's."

"You'll get a chance to test yourself against that sooner rather than later. Demon invasions are just another morning around here," Scott commented offhandedly. "Mostly, when something like that happens around here, everyone pitches in to contain the situation till the experts can ascertain the source and lock down the day's particular brand of crazy. The trouble with magic is it has a tendency to strike out of the blue and by the time you know what's happening you have creatures out of the worst Chulthu story scurrying all over the mansion. It's hell on the cleaning bills," he noted.

"I can't really object to giving Nick one more nightmare to deal with in his spare time. The man's more suspicious than I am." The X-Man sighed "It sucks that you're caught in the middle, but it seems like you have a pretty good grasp on the lines you're not willing to cross and I can respect that. If I ever do push too hard, just let Adrienne know. She's pretty good at kicking my ass when I start letting things overwhelm me." Scott stood up and held out a hand to Clint, "Welcome to the mansion Mister Barton. I'm sure you're going to fit right in."