ya_assemble | [AI] If there was a better way to go then it would find me

Clint takes half a step back when she gets in his face, honestly a little intimidated by the sudden ferocity of her approach. He's ready to just raise his hands and try to charm her into being less in-his-face, even if she's full of shit, but then she brings up... that.

And he gets angry.

"Well, at least I was never in a compulsive lying phase like you, lady," he all-but-shouts back, getting in her face right back. "The Avengers haven't even existed for five years, let alone employed some knock-off hack like you!"

Deep breaths, Kate. Deep breaths and self control and not breaking your mentor's nose just because he happens to be a tiny dumbass at the moment.

...on the other hand, his nose is weirdly straight-looking right now. It could use a few more breaks, just for familiarity's sake.

Instead, her hand snaps out to grab his collar - there's really no need to drag him any closer, but at least the threat of half-choking him gives her a little control over the situation.

"Listen, you little punk. You're an Avenger, which means that the weird time travel shit? Happens. All the time. Learn to suck it up and stop being offended by the future's existence. And second, I would love to prove how freaking wrong you are and teach you just who is the superior Hawkeye, but that's going to have to futzing wait."

She releases him and rocks back on her heels, sucking in a breath and trying to get herself to calm down. It's hard. It's really hard. God, she'd forgotten how easily Clint can get under her skin when they're not getting along - especially when he's this young and dumb, apparently.

"Because I feel like standing on the street screaming at each other when we don't know where we are or what weird time-slash-interdimensional travel nonsense is going on is a really bad idea. Don't you think, Hawkeye?"

She is so. So lucky. That Clint doesn't hit girls. Unless they're being evil, but that's a different thing. This is just annoying.

He wants to punch her. He wants to keep yelling and he wants to prove she's wrong. But he has grown as a person! He... is imagining the disapproving look of Steve's if he keeps yelling in the street and giving the Avengers a bad name.

Plus, knockoff rich bitch is right - having an argument in the middle of the street when he has no idea when or where he is, or when/where his team is? Not the brightest of ideas.

He doesn't like having to make that call himself, because he prefers to just plow ahead until Steve says "stop", but what can you do? He should be mature, and professional, and show Knockoff Lady that he's a better Avenger than she's deluded herself into thinking she is.

"Fine." He grits his teeth, takes a deep breath, and puts on his showman's smile. It's... both startlingly believable and likely to be unsettling to Kate, who's used to his more self-deprecating smiles when he's trying to pretend everything's fine. "What do you suggest we do?"

She eyes him for a moment, weirdly unsettled by the smile - it's so far from the one she knows, it grates as false, makes the hair stand up on the back of her neck because something's wrong. Of course it's wrong. Everything's wrong with this.

She composes herself, though, straightening her back and smiling right back. It's her sharp-edged camera smile, warm enough to fool most people with teeth behind it.

"This looks like it's still New York. Sort of. So I think the first step is finding someone who can tell us if there's an Avengers Tower, or an Avengers Mansion, or something, and working from there. We can't be the only heroes here. That's not how these things work."

He sees the teeth. Somehow that, along with her willingness to get in his face, is what makes him feel like she might be worth listening to.

That probably says something about him.

"So we ask someone which way to go to find wherever they are in this New York, and they can sort things out," Clint finishes, then adds under his breath, "and dispel your delusions of being Hawkeye..."

"Oh, will you let it go?" she growls as she turns to stalk off down the street in search of someone who looks like they might be helpful to them. "You don't see Cap complaining when someone else picks up the shield. But no, I have to pick this futzing jerk to name myself after..."

Most of the last part was more to herself than Clint, but it's loud enough that he can hear. She could have been Mockingbird. Don't make her regret her choices.

"As if Cap would let anyone else do that." Clint sounds so, so sure as he follows her as casually as he can muster under the circumstances. It's almost a shame to smack him upside the head with reality. Almost.

"And seriously, futzing? Wow, what, do you do children's parties or something? Fuckin' ridiculous."

"I picked it up from you, jackass. So I don't know, you futzing tell me. Now shut up and try to look like a dumb tourist. It shouldn't be hard for you."

There's a guy hanging outside a convenience store who looks like he might be useful. The bows are a little weird for a pair of lost tourists, but whatever, it's New York. Maybe. She hopes.

"Hi! So we're a little turned around..."

Five minutes later they have confirmation that Avengers Tower exists, and a set of directions Kate's pretty sure she can follow, though the geography's off from the city she knows. Mission accomplished - they'll have this sorted out in no time.

(You'd think her time in California would have taught her to be a little less cocky. You would be, in most cases, very wrong about that.)

It's not a very long walk. Okay, it's kind of a long walk, a good half hour, but it's an easy walk, and Clint mostly spends it ignoring Kate and pretending he's not sulking, and also trying to make sense of all this.

She's right, as much as he hates to admit it - she has more information than he does. She clearly knows who he is, and she's clearly comfortable in her role, which means that she can't be from anything other than his future, or a possible future, because he hasn't been a hero long enough for a copycat to feel that familiar.

It rankles, but it also makes him feel a little protective - doesn't help that she's gorgeous and confident and probably able to kick his ass with one hand behind her back, like Natasha was.

Even if he doesn't like her, Hawkeyes should probably stick together. Not that he'll tell her that, but as they come up to the building, he's come to the conclusion that he's going to give her shit for the name, but wait and see how she shoots and fights before he gives her shit for anything else.

"...Okay, I'll admit," he says, looking up at Avengers Tower, "This is a lot fancier than I was expecting."

She glances over at him, a little amused despite herself. "Didn't you live in the Mansion, still? I mean, it's not as huge, but it was still pretty impressive."

Looking at this Tower, she's pretty sure it's the old one - the one that came down a few years ago, and got rebuilt into the one they're in now. Doesn't matter. It's still Avengers Tower. If they can just get one person to come down to talk to them...

She marches inside and right up to the receptionist, exactly like she belongs here. Because she does. She's an Avenger, damn it, and so is this jerk behind her, and they have every right to be in this place.

"Hi. I'm Hawkeye, and this is Hawkeye. We need to talk to an Avenger."

Fortunately, Avengers is open to the general public, or, at least part of the main lobby. There are several security checkpoints just past the receptionist, staffed with armed HAMMER soldiers.

The receptionist looks up at Kate when she arrives, and smiles politely. She's used to this kind of thing, children coming in here and claiming to be an Avenger so they can get inside and meet the real heroes. There's already a procedure in place for that, so she's calm and professional as she responds. "Sure thing, young lady. Just let me give Director Osborn a call and let him know that you're here. I'm sure he'll be right with you."

That might be her first clue as to just how messed up things are right now, but a call is placed, though rather than contact the Director, its to the Security Office. The receptionist keeps her voice professional and polite, going through the script as she's trained to do, and keeps and occasionally glances up to see if she needs to use the emergency code word.

Midway through a sentence, however, something seems to change. She stops, and looks over at Clint and Kate, before turning her attention back to the conversation. There's a quick series of "Yes"es and "Mmhmm"s before an "I understand," just before she hangs up.

"Ms. Bishop, Mr. Barton," she addresses them. "Iron Man will be down to greet you momentarily. If you wouldn't mind waiting over there," she motions, indicating a seated waiting area, "he'll be with you shorty."

Kate's stomach rolls, her whole body tensing, when she says the name Osborn. She doesn't move from the desk, her expression doesn't falter much, but she does flick a glance to the doors to be certain they've got a clear exit if this all goes south.

But she said Iron Man, not Iron Patriot. She knows their real names, which... okay, aren't that hard to find out at home if you go digging, but aren't exactly public knowledge either. Something's weird here, and maybe they should bolt now, but Kate's just a little more inclined to stick it out and see what if she can figure out what the hell is going on.

She smiles at the receptionist and thanks her quietly before moving over to the waiting area, though she leans up against a wall rather than sitting, shifting her bow so she can reach it easily. She leans in to Clint and mutters, "Heads up, this might go bad fast."

The only thing Clint can really think, when the receptionist knows their names, is Huh, I guess the knockoff really is an Avenger. It's kind of a relief, in a way, 'cause at least it means he's not dealing with some crazy intense delusional lady with a bow.

He doesn't really want to think about that "what happened to free up the name for her to take?" thing, though.

Once they're in the waiting area, though, that's when things start getting interesting, because suddenly she's all nervous and getting ready for a fight. It's enough to convince him that putting his bow down and sitting in one of those (really comfy-looking) chairs is a bad idea.

"Yeah?" he asks, his lips barely moving. "How do you know?"

"Osborn. Long story, but he is not a friend. Of any of us."

'Us' being the Avengers and the superhero community at large. Getting into the history is just way too much trouble right now. She lets out a slow breath and shoots another nervous glance at the door and then the elevator.

"But I don't know. Maybe it's weird timeline stuff. Or parallel universe stuff. It could be okay."

The slightly high-pitched edge trying to creep out in her voice suggests she doesn't expect it to be okay... but it could be.

Well, if the current Hawkeye were to find both the old Hawkeyes, this would definitely go sideways fast, with sharp pointy things flying in every direction. They really don't need that kind of headache right now, so ~~Bullseye~~ Hawkeye was kept on ice, while Nate decided to handle this himself.

Granted, he might not be the best option for this either. Most of his run-ins with his former teammates had been tense, contentious, and borderline hostile. At the least, he hoped he could talk to Kate for bit, before things got too testy between them.

It didn't take him long to arrive, and he entered the lobby in full red and gold armor. But even with that, it was easily clear that this wasn't the Iron Man that either of them remember, the armor was too slim, and its wearer wasn't quite tall enough to pass for Tony.

"Hawkeye." He greeted, looking at Kate. The armor did nothing to hide his voice, or the bit of ironic amusement in his tone. He half wondered if Kate would recognize his voice alone.

He turned his attention to Clint quickly after and... tilted his head slightly. Wasn't that Hawkeye supposed to be older in this era? Curious, that...

"And Hawkeye. Its been a while."

Kate pushes herself away from the wall as Iron Man shows up - in full armor, with his faceplate down, which sure is reassuring. (No, it's really not. At all.)

She doesn't recognize the voice at first - it's familiar enough to make her even more uneasy, but it's been years, long enough that she doesn't immediately pin it down. She watches him oddly, eyes narrowed, while the pieces slowly settle in her brain... and when it finally clicks, the realization totally bypasses the part of her brain where common sense lives and goes straight to the Hawkeye place of feelings and bad decisions.

She has an arrow on the string in an instant, aimed at the faceplate of the armor. It might be an explosive arrow. Give her a reason to fire it and find out.

"Nate?" she says, less of a question and more of a snarl. "What the hell did you do now?"

That was a bad decision, because there are suddenly about a dozen or so guns pointed in her direction. They don't fire, though, especially since Nate immediately gave the order to hold.

He'd rather not have to shoot her, though he's starting to wonder if he should have ever formed the Young Avengers to begin with. But apparently every attempt to change his fate comes back to bite him; why would Kate be any different?

"Actually," he starts, taking off his helmet so that she can see that, yes, its definitely Nate. "I didn't have anything to do with this. No version of me did. Turns out you people are capable of screwing up not one but two different universes all by yourselves."

"Woah, woah, okay!" There are explosive arrows and guns involved now, this was not what Clint expected when Kate said "things might go bad". Lunatic woman!

He grabs Kate's arm and tries to haul her aim down, doing his best to smile charmingly at this Nate fellow who is definitely not the Iron Man Clint remembers. (Have they all been replaced? What is even happening?) "Clearly we have come to exactly the wrong place for the day we've been having, so we're gonna go and let you folks get on with your business."

Kate please agree. Even if they try to keep the two of them here, they can bust out if Kate isn't trying to kill their boss.

She jerks away from Clint's attempt to pull her arm down, keeping her attention - and her aim - fixed on Nate. Sure, now there are guns aimed at her, but if she's going to die, she's at least taking some of these assholes down with her.

She's not even sure how they're getting out of this anyway, and she feels a pang of guilt for dragging Clint into it. He doesn't deserve this.

"Are you kidding me? The last time I saw you, you murdered my friend. You're hanging out with the Dark Avengers. There's obviously time travel bullshit going on. Please explain why I'm supposed to believe anything you tell me."

Nate was willing to let Clint talk Kate down, the last thing anyone needed was for this to become a clusterfuck. But the moment she mentioned murder, his expression went from neutral to virtually gobsmacked, and his mind got stuck there. He didn't even hear past that, about the 'Dark Avengers,' nor about offering up an explanation.

"Murdered?" He has no idea what she meant, because the only person he ever killed was... himself. Technically speaking. Despite the fact that there's a potentially explosive arrow pointed at him (not to mention the potentially explosive situation surrounding them), he took a step towards Kate. "What the hell are you talking about?"

His face is what makes her hesitate. She doesn't think he could fake that kind of confusion, and even if she's stopped believing he can escape his future... he hasn't been there yet. She believes that much.

On the other hand, he's still here, apparently working with Osborn, and she doesn't believe he's not even a little responsible for their current situation. What else would he be doing here, in this time and place?

She lowers her bow, just a little, without letting up the tension on the string. "Get the guns off us and I'll tell you. I won't even shoot you before I do it."

That was hardly reassuring, and the way Nate's expression flattened seemed to indicate that. For a moment, he looked over at Clint, but realized quickly that he wasn't going to be of much help. Give the probable point in time that he came from, he likely didn't know anything. Which meant Kate would be his only source for answers.

Great.

It was a simple hand gesture from him, and all of the soldiers began lowering their weapons. Granted, none of the holstered their guns or moved away, and Nate wasn't willing to order them to. But it was a start.

"Start talking."

Fine, she promised. Please don't shoot me, she thinks desperately, before slowly lowering her bow, carefully letting off the tension on the string.

"Cassie died." There's anger in her voice, barely in check. It's not Nate's fault, exactly, but she can't help but feel that if he hadn't brought them back to that time, if they'd never run into Cassie's dad, things would have turned out differently. The rest though... the rest she can absolutely blame him for. "And then you killed Vision because you were jealous, and took off to go be Kang or something, so excuse me if I don't feel like we're really on hugging terms right now."

Even if she did lower her weapon, he still looked as if she had just shot him through the heart. He honestly didn't know what to say about any of this, or even process this.

"Cassie... what...?"

Cassie died. Or dies, rather. Or might die? Or...

"Wait.. when did-- where? How? Why?"

He was going to need a few more details than just a handful of sentences to process this.

Oh boy, here they go. She doesn't really want to have this conversation with him - especially not with a dozen guys not quite pointing guns at her - but there's really no getting out of it at this point.

"The Scarlet Witch came back - it's complicated, don't make me explain that part, but Billy sort of started an international incident in Latveria. You got involved for some reason and dragged us all to just before Wanda went crazy, and that's where we ran into Cassie's dad. He came back with us, and Cass-" Her throat closes off for a second, and she has to blink back tears and swallow hard before she can talk again. It's been years, but they don't... talk about Cassie's death. No one talks about it. "Cassie got killed trying to protect her dad from Doom. None of us could do anything to help her."

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