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

Clint's been pretty quiet this whole time, mostly because a) he doesn't want to get shot, b) this seems like kind of a personal conversation, and c) he has no idea what's going on. But then she starts talking about Wanda and that? That gets his attention and won't let it go.

"Wait wait, go back, Wanda what?"

Kate would hold up a hand to shush him, if both hands weren't on her bow. Instead, she just shoots him an aggravated look, lips pressed together.

"Later." Under her breath, she adds, "Assuming we get out of this alive."

His eyebrows furrowed, mostly because he was trying to figure out when something like that could've happened. Traversing time was next to impossible with all the damage that was done, and there was no way he'd do that if he knew he was risking Cassie's life. This didn't add up to him, and when Clint opened his mouth, it just another reminder of how screwy things were.

He was about to address Clint when he remembered that their conversation wasn't exactly private at the moment. He glanced at one of the guards, but decided not to call them off just yet.

"We'll get to that in a moment," he answered Clint, amending Kate's answer before returning his attention to her.

"I need you to answer one more thing: do you remember a massive Skrull invasion taking place? And if so, how long ago was it?

"I know it seems completely nonsensical to ask," he added, anticipating some resistance from Kate. "But this is important."

"I remember it. That was... almost five years ago. A year before Cassie died."

She raises an eyebrow. What does this have to do with anything? Or did you just want to orient yourself in the timestream before you go screwing with it?

...she's aware her attitude toward ~~Kang~~ Nate is not as charitable as it could be, but the fact that he's got an army of guys with guns backing him makes it hard for her to feel bad about that.

That was a surprising answer, enough so that even the guards were murmuring among themselves. For his part, Nate simply raised his eyebrows in surprise before they furrowed again. His expression shifted to something thoughtful as he tried to work out what this could possibly mean. She was a new arrival here, but came from the future? Or a future, rather, given that she didn't know he was here.

"Hm..."

He brought a hand to his chin as he tried to work out the possible math in his head, but eventually remembered that he wasn't exactly alone at the moment. He looked at Kate and Clint, then turned towards the guards to address them.

"Give us a minute," he instructed them. "And make sure we aren't disturbed."

The guards complied, albeit a bit hesitantly given that Kate still had her bow out. But, while none of them liked taking orders from a kid, they all knew better than to question one of Osborn's Avengers.

With them finally gone, he once again focused on the Hawkeyes.

"Do either of you remember the Cataclysm?" Because if not, there was going to be ~~a mountain of expository dialogue to climb~~ a whole lot that he was going to explain.

Kate's surprised he actually sent the guards out. She doesn't relax, not really (if nothing else, she knows Nate could kill her with his hands in that armor, if he decided to), but a few less guns in the room definitely helps her mood.

She flicks a glance to Clint just to confirm that he's as clueless as she is - not that she expected much from Mr. Brand New Avenger here. Looking back to Nate, she shakes her head. "No. Should we?"

He let out a long breath, because whoo boy, this was going to be an issue. Nothing to do now but at least try to get them both up to speed.

"Come with me," he instructed as he turned, intent on heading towards one of the conference rooms. "There's a lot that I need to catch you two up on. The world's a bigger mess than you know, and it's going to take a while to explain it all."

At this point, Kate's pretty sure he's not lying. His reaction, and that of the guards, was a little too genuine for that. She slowly returns the arrow to her quiver, but hesitates before she actually follows him.

"Wait. Are we going to get arrested or murdered by Osborn's Avengers if we go with you? Honestly?"

He paused briefly, looking over his shoulder at them.

"If things were going to go down that route..." you'd both be dead already. "...we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"He's got a point," she murmurs to Clint. "But if you want to take off now, I wouldn't blame you. Sorry I got you into this."

She doesn't wait for him to answer before she follows after Nate, squaring her shoulders and bracing herself against whatever's coming.

"Yeah, well, it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me," he mumbles as he follows after her and Nate. "Anyway, I'm not gonna leave a girl in trouble just to save my own ass."

...It's the thought that counts, right?

He really hopes they don't die.

They weren't going to die. (Maybe). At least Nate had no intention of killing them (right now).

Instead, he led them past the security checkpoints, and further up into the tower, into one of the conference rooms. It was your standard fare with a long table, huge windows with a nice view of Manhattan. If they looked, they could easily see the Empire State Building. And if they looked a little bit closer, they could see the shadow of the other Empire State Building in New New York.

Once they were situated, he told them about the situation... or what he knew about it, at best. Three years ago was the skrull invasion. Two and a half years ago, something even worse happened. He had no details to give, because he wasn't there, just that heroes from both worlds went off to fight some major threat... and failed.

Two earths were imperfectly smashed into one. He even had a holographic map to show just how messed up things were. Fourteen billion people were now living on top of each other, which was about as chaotic as they could imagine. Only worse, since all the heroes who left didn't immediately come back.

He also mentioned that, when he first left the Young Avengers (they'll explain later, Clint) to return to his time, whatever the hell happened here knocked him off course, and he was snapped back here with his armor. He was rescued by HAMMER, and was recruited by them to join The Avengers as Iron Man. (He conveniently left out the part where Jonas' program was fried on re-entry to this time period, but he did mention that he was stranded here, as something was preventing him from going back into the timestream.)

"Other heroes have also been returning," he continued, "including Cassie." He let that hang in the air for just a moment, before he pushed on. "The thing is, almost all of them can remember most things just prior to the Cataclysm, which makes the two of you anomalies of a sort. You're from well before the Cataclysm ever happened," referring to Clint, "while you're from some point after, from a future where it never happened... I wonder why that is."

Granted, he had just dumped A LOT on them, but the fact that they were here, now, seemed to occupy his focus more than anything else. It was a bit of a puzzle if one started to think about it.

Kate has her hands flat on the table, using the solidity of it to ground herself while her head's spinning. A part of her wants to call him a liar, but the proof's there in the map he showed them, the world outside the window, the tower they're sitting in. And Cassie's alive. That's the part she's having a hard time getting past. Her best friend's alive, and it's really hard to find anything else quite as important under the circumstances.

Right. This Cataclysm. And the fact that she's from a future that apparently shouldn't exist.

"I don't know, you're the time traveler here. Am I the only one from after all this happened? That you know of?"

"That I know of, yeah," he confirmed, though it wasn't like he and the other heroes were exchanging information about this. There could be more, for all he knew about it.

Though that it was Kate and Clint was the part that was a mystery to him. They were... well, calling them ordinary humans would be kind of a stretch, but they didn't have any powers in the slightest, so why would they get plucked further out in time than anyone else.

"Its going to take some time to figure out why that is, but we can worry about that later. You're going to need some time to get yourselves acclimated."

"No kidding," she snorts softly. "So is this the part where you invite us to join your Avengers? Because whatever HAMMER's done here, I can tell you now that's not happening."

Sorry, Clint. You don't get a choice here.

"Where are the real Avengers?" Where's Cassie?

"Look, kid, this has all been real informative, but where is Captain America?"

Clint? Clint has priorities. And those priorities include FINDING STEVE, for a number of reasons. He doesn't know what HAMMER is, he doesn't know who Cassie is, he's not sure how he feels about this time travel and universes collapsing in on each other or whatever, but he knows that he can deal with it better if Steve's around giving the orders.

Even if he fully intends to complain about every single one.

"And I don't mean some knockoff like you and baby Hawk here, I mean actual Steve Rogers Captain America. 'Cause I hate to break it to you, but if he ain't here on your team or whatever? Neither am I."

"You act like you'd even be welcome on the team," said a man in the doorway, his arms crossed. "Position's already filled."

If he looked absolutely thrilled over the fact he was currently waltzing around in Clint's costume, it was because he was. Rubbing it in the face of the real thing like this was priceless.

He gestured towards Kate.

"She, on the other hand, can stay," he said, eyes roving up and down her body. "She fills out the costume real well."

They are the real Avengers, and Nate was about to make that point when Hawkeye decided to butt in on the proceedings. Nate could only facepalm when he heard Hawkeye at the door.

Of all the times... of all the people...

"Save it for Ms. Marvel," he spat out, not even looking at Lester for the moment. He hoped the guy would leave, but by now, he knew better. Even Osborn had trouble with him sometimes.

"Hawkeye," he spoke, motioning towards Bullseye. "Hawkeye and Hawkeye," he introduced Kate and Clint. "Hawkeye and Hawkeye; Hawkeye."

And he thought time travel was confusing...

But with the introductions done, he took a moment to focus on Lester again. "Was there something you wanted?" A beat. "Aside from an opportunity to be a sleaze?"

Kate stands up the moment Bullseye walks in, already tensing to fight. She's never tangled with him personally, but she saw enough of him when Osborn's fake Avengers were parading around that she recognizes him perfectly well.

And... gross. She shoots him a disgusted look and somehow resists the impulse to cross her arms over her chest. She'd rather keep her hands near her bow, if she needs it.

"Yeah, I know him. By reputation, anyway." The look she's giving him suggests she's seriously considering removing important parts of his anatomy if he makes one more sketchy comment.

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

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