Molly & Clint | Sunday Afternoon

[x-hawkeye.livejournal.com]

Clint's looking for scrap metal. He finds Molly instead and they find they have some unusual things in common.


Molly had forgotten what living at the mansion felt like sometimes. The biggest thing about it was having to live there 24/7 without really leaving. Sure, people took her out to buy clothes and whatnot, but they still saw her as being too young to be out on her own. Or at least, not experienced enough to wander around town by herself.

It wasn't like she was going to go hunt monsters or something. There weren't any in this region of the country anyway, according to Sif. And that was only under special circumstances, like magic, portal, or scientific creation.

So she found ways to keep herself occupied. She was working on the motorcycle. It wasn't ready yet for her propulsion system so she was working on repairing the existing parts. After a bit she saw one of the other cars and decided to take a look at that one too. Sliding underneath the car, Molly tinkered around with it a bit but didn't like how low it was. Not seeing a jack nearby, she lifted it up over her head a bit to get a better look, balancing it with her knees while she fiddled with her hands.

"My ex man brought his new girlfriend - she's like 'oh - my - god...' I'm just gonna shake. And to the fella over there with the hella good hair, won't you come over, baby, we can shake - shake - shake... yeaaaaah..."

Clint had heard there was spare metal in the garage, either scrap from older cars that no one needed anymore or newer things just around for the taking. He wanted to see about restocking his quiver of custom arrows but he also wanted to tinker with weighting the shafts a bit, see how that affected the velocity and impact depth.

Of course, then he heard someone singing T. Swift and he couldn't just let that go. "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate - baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake," he chimed in, laughing a little.

And then a guy joined in, a guy with a familiar voice that Molly recognized. The guy walked into the room and it suddenly hit her that it was Clint. He looked a lot different, older like Matt 2.0, with a buzzcut. And then Molly got a little too surprised and accidentally threw the car at the ceiling when she jumped. Luckily she didn't throw it too hard and the ceilings were pretty high so it didn't actually hit anything.

"Oh crap," she blurted, quickly reaching out to catch the car. Carefully setting the car down, she slipped out from underneath it and lightly patted it with a sheepish frown. She was wearing a pair of overalls and a brown shirt with a bandanna tied around her head that made her look very much like Rosie the Riveter. "Oops."

Clint laughed a little. "Let me guess - super strength. Not many people I know who can accidentally bench press a car."

Molly rubbed the back of her neck. "Yep," she said. The underside was going to be a wee bit dented from the impact of her catching it. Wademan or Scott might be a wee bit unhappy. She extended her hand.

"Molly Hayes, human wrecking ball."

Taking her hand, Clint gave it a shake before deadpanning, "Are you gonna bust into Miley Cyrus now?"

Squinting thoughtfully, Molly shook her head. "Nah, I think the song's about like...her boyfriend and if I'm singing it to you you're way too old for me," she said with a grin.

"So do I get your name or should I just call you Backup Singer #1?"

Yep, she was doing well. It was getting a little easier to be around the alternate people. But it was still really weird that a lot of them were not the same age they used to be.

"I kinda like Backup Singer #1," Clint said, grinning. It wasn't often people told him he was too old for them, but she looked to be in her teens, so it was a valid observation. "But you can call me Clint when we're not performing. It's nice to meet you."

Molly offered her hand, smiling. "Nice to meet you--" She suddenly pulled her hand away, realizing she'd already shook his hand and casually put it behind her back like she meant to do that. "Waaait...Clint? A guy I met said he had a brother named Clint....Matt Murdock? Are you that Clint? If so, apparently we're destined to fight each other over grilled cheese sandwiches." She shrugged.

"Sorry. Sworn enemies. You understand."

Sif had taught her deception. It was an important part of battle. And part of her didn't like practicing it here, going through the motions of meeting people she already knew. But she just knew their names, their faces. They could've been a lot different. This new Doctor Jean wasn't tearing apart realities OR married to Cyclops, after all. She didn't wanna presume.

Clint snorted a small laugh. "I'm not that bad when it comes to grilled cheese sandwiches," he said, shaking his head. "But okay, we can roll with the sworn enemies thing. I guess this means I have to walk around singing Katy Perry now?"

"Yep," Molly said with a grin. "All day every day. Me, I like some Led Zeppelin as my intro song. You can totally have Katy if you want. Matty said you were good at grilled cheese. But if you're not...that kinda makes me sad. I really wanted a nemesis."

"I'm not really nemesis material, though," Clint said, still smiling. "And I meant I'm not serious enough about grilled cheese sandwiches to become somebody's nemesis. I make 'em. I think they're good. But I'm not gonna call you out if you wanna add some bacon or switch up your cheeses or whatever. Not like that dude on reddit who went off on people for confusing melts and grilled cheeses."

"Really?" Molly said, frowning. "Not cool." Anyone could make their grilled cheese any way they wanted to. She laughed. "You're too nice to be my nemesis anyway. I just always wanted one. So do you have powers too, like Matty?"

"Yeah, my eyes. There's some physical mutation stuff going on with them, but I've also got spatial awareness, so that's fun. And faster reflexes. What about you?"

"Super strength and unsquishableness...invulnerability," Molly explained. She tilted her head. "What does spatial awareness mean?" She never did ask Clint 1.0.

"I can tell where everything in the garage is in relation to me," Clint said. "You could throw something at me and I'd move just out of the way enough for it to miss me by however much I wanted it to miss me."

Molly blinked. "Seriously?" she said, grinning broadly. "That's awesome! Even blindfolded?"

Clint gave a hand waggle. "I haven't done a lot of practicing blindfolded, since my eyes are pretty important for everything else, but. It's like. Okay, say we're in a room and there's a bunch of lights hanging from the ceiling. They're all set to fall for some reason, but not at the same time. Like on timers. I could look at the room, see where the lights currently are, know where they're going to be when they fall, and walk blindfolded through the room as they fell."

"Dude, that's so cool," Molly said, unable to stop grinning as she took a seat on one of the stools to clean off a couple of tools. "So do you cheat at darts when you're at a bar?"

Laughing, Clint shook his head. "I just don't play darts. It's not cheating if I do it without thinking. Like, it's not cheating for you to not get squished by something. I'd have to consciously miss, which wouldn't be much fun for me, usually."

Molly curled her nose. "Yeah. That'd be boring. So I guess most games are out then? Like pool too and stuff?"

"Depends on who I'm playing with," Clint said, still smiling. "But usually it's not fun for other people. Like, whoever I'm playing against." He shrugged. "I can usually entertain myself by making up rules and things that only I have to stick to."

"Like what?"

"For pool specifically - I have to make straight shots, no ricochets off the sides. Or I have to ricochet it at least twice. Things like that."

"Huh," Molly said thoughtfully, nodding. It seemed limiting but with his powers he had to do it. Sort of like how she had to make sure to treat everything very carefully, or blammo! She eyed the car a little. It didn't look too bad. Maybe she wouldn't get in trouble. "Did you need something, by the way? I know where some of the stuff is."

"Extra metal - scraps and the like," Clint said. "That's what I came in looking for. I used up most of my sedation and taser arrows. Normally I'd just recycle, but they kind of broke on the dude I was attempting to take down at the time, so repairs are in order. Or I need to just make completely new ones."

Molly perked up excitedly. He never really said what he did for a living but it sounded pretty fun so far. Maybe he was an X-Person? "There's not a lot but I think they keep it in that bin over there," she said, pointing to a container near the door. "You use a bow and arrow? Dude...I have a bow I brought with me from Asgard. If you wanna borrow it some time you totally can, by the way."

Clint was a grown man. He was twenty-eight years old. He was not going to squee about an Asgardian bow. No matter how much he wanted to. "Yeah, bows and arrows. I've got a pretty good collection going - been using them since I was... seven? Maybe? Been trying to get Thor to at least give me the schematics for an Asgardian bow for ages, though. Do you think it's possible I could borrow yours and see about reverse engineering it?"

Resting her chin on the table, Molly grinned broadly. She could tell he was positively giddy. And that was awesome. She got giddy cause he was. But she played it cool, for now. "Maaaaybe. You'll have to find a substitute metal for it, though. The metal they use on Asgard is like nothing here in Midgard. It has special--" It took her a moment but she suddenly realized he name dropped someone. "Wait, you know THOR? Aw man I always wanted to meet him! He lives here now and doesn't travel back that much. What's he like?"

Grinning, Clint said, "I can work on a composite alloy, no problem and yeah, I know Thor. We go out for pints sometimes. He and Doc Foster are kind of hilarious, but she's got the most impressive brain. He's given me some pointers and suggestions for modifications for some weapons - arrowheads and the like. But archery's not really his thing, so he doesn't have a bow and, like you said, he doesn't go back and forth, so he couldn't just go get me one."

"Yeah, he likes his hammer a lot. I hear it's got like...magic powers or something," Molly said. He who so ever be worthy....science couldn't determine that, could it? "And you can totally borrow my bow! I could help if you wanted. I got to visit the armory and the blacksmith a lot while I was there. But I mostly liked working with the machines and stuff. Everything's so advanced there."

"Awesome - you'll have to tell me what it's like. Thor's given me some idea, but nothing makes up for actually going there yourself, y'know? But Doc Foster still hasn't gotten the Bifrost figured out - scientific explanations and all that. I mean, she can detect the anomalies that indicate it's opening or will be opening or has recently opened, but actually making one herself..." Clint trailed off, shaking his head a little.

"Yeah, I dunno how to do that myself. Heimdall and the Allfather are pretty hush hush about it since it's a major thoroughfare. Don't want people finding ways in other than the Bifrost and trying to invade. I mostly just used it. It's kinda like....jumping off a cliff. Okay, it's just like that. Except at the bottom is somewhere else," Molly said. "But people've managed to get in and out before. Like me and Tandy and Ty when Loki sent us here. Asgard's totally beautiful, by the way! It's like Lord of the Rings, except better. But if you go... time moves faster. It was like years for us but just like...months for here. So, that's kinda...y'know, the trade off. I'd go back tomorrow to visit if I could!"

"I was gonna say, Thor's mentioned that his brother has secret ways in and out, to other worlds and the like," Clint said. "I'd like to get my hands on some of that tech, I'm not gonna lie. But yeah, I imagine they'd all be pretty particular about keeping the secrets of the Bifrost to themselves." He smiled again. "We'll have to see if we can work out the bow design sometime, though. I'm around a fair bit, now that I've quit SWORD, but it might take some coordination, still."

Molly blinked. Something about that sentence wasn't quite right, but she'd bite anyway. "You....quit using a sword? Or did you mean something else?"

"No, SWORD - Sentient World Observation and Response Department," Clint clarified. "Sister agency to SHIELD, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."

"SHIELD, I know that one! But the other one I didn't...Both sound pretty cool. Why'd you quit?" Molly said, tilting her head. So he probably wasn't an X-Person.

Tilting his head right back at her, Clint asked, "Have you been read in on all the weirdness that goes on here?"

Molly quirked a brow. He thought it was weird but she was used to it by now after so much time living it. Living with superheroes was normal for her. "....Yep?"

"So I was at this SWORD warehouse facility as punishment for hitting my partner when he tried to shoot a guy we were pretty sure was a mutant. And there was this tube - a cryogenic tube, apparently. Sue Storm broke into the facility to steal the tube, but the energy surges that'd been building up within the tube for a while finally hit their peak and kind of spit this dude out. Togadude. He wasn't happy at getting dropped on the floor, I guess, and attacked me and Sue. We tried to subdue him, that didn't work. Then Sue passed out, the dude passed out, I got him here and Sue disappeared. With the tube. I need to find her and figure out what she did with it, I wanted to study it," Clint said, frowning now as he trailed off.

Sue. Sue Storm. Of all the people who died, Sue was one of the ones Molly actually saw that day. The memory of Sue's body, lying in the rubble like a broken, lumpy, discarded doll, flashed through her mind, distracting her from most of what Clint was saying. She caught herself, after a moment, blinking. "Sorry I just....got distracted by cryo tubes....So the guy was in a toga, and you and this woman named Sue tried to fight him and...then they both...passed out? Why didn't you pass out?"

"Her issue was powers-related and I'm going to guess his was more 'just got out of cryo-sleep after however many decades/centuries.' My powers don't work the way Sue's do and the cryo-sleep wasn't an issue for me, so. I managed to stay conscious for the entire debacle." Clint forced another smile even as he finally walked over toward the barrel she'd indicated before. Digging through the top layer of scrap, he frowned again.

"Huh," Molly said. She didn't know invisible powers could make someone pass out. Weird. Noticing the frown, she tilted her head. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just thinking. I need to find Sue." He needed to read her the riot act for a) leaving him behind and b) stealing that cryotube while c) making him deal with their unfriendly guest solo. "Anyway, thanks for pointing me toward the scrap metal. I'll talk to some friends about the metal alloy for that bow and drop you a line when I'm ready. Maybe we can meet up and you can let me test fire it some time?"

Molly grinned. "Totally! I've got a sword too if you're into that."

"I might take you on the sword thing - maybe you can teach me a thing or two," Clint said. He'd found a few pieces of scrap metal he thought he could use to make an adequate prototype for the new grappling arrow he'd been tinkering with. He'd also found several pieces of metal that he thought he could probably purify enough to start replenishing his supply. "Until then, m'lady." Clint gave her an adequate approximation of a formal bow, topped it off with a flourish and a roguish smile, and then headed for the door.