entrancelogs | This sure as hell isn't Budapest.

Entry tags:

This sure as hell isn't Budapest.

Who?: Clint Barton + Open.
What?: Arrival in Wonderland
When?: Early in the morning and throughout the day in wonderland.
Warnings?: There will be some most likely. He's coming straight from the end of the Avengers (with no shawarma. :( ) So expect them!

There's a symphony of aches and pains in his head, his back, his arms, but the word's come down. Stark's alive, Natasha's alive, the well deserved spoils of a victory deserved. Not to mention that the hulk - Banner, Bruce Banner has somehow cornered Loki.

That's really the last thing he remembers, getting ready to take the guy in. With back up behind him and sweet and clear adrenaline the world makes sense...until it doesn't.

He wonders briefly, idly, if he passed out because when he wakes up he's on grass, not cement or carpet. Everything aches but his bow is still in his hands and he still...smells like he crawled out of a fire fight.

The only difference is the mansion - the palatial mansion that makes him think of a dozen and one different places seen during what Fury called his "unique" youth. Clint preferred to think of it as misspent on days like today because the first thing he thought of upon seeing it was illusion.

Mirage even.

His vision flashes blue for a moment, from a combination of exhaustion and terror and he has to wonder if this is something Asgardian. If this is a Loki trick, if after everything he got away and he still has him. At least he still has his bow and he instantly goes to draw an arrow just to be on the safe side...

Only to find nothing. So okay maybe I didn't dream that last act... But he slips into espionage mode going through the list of what would any of the people he respects do - from Nick Fury right down to Captain America, amazed that Tony Stark and Captain America (Captain America, how crazy was that? Still?) had made the list.

So when he sees the pamphlets in the entrance hall (and what an entrance hall!) he flips one open, reads it, and leaves it casually on the table once it's done. Sure it makes sense but the whole thing had a suspicious air about it that reminded him of Loki. Who else would pull a beloved midgardian fable out of the air and use it to taunt someone under his control?

That's when it hits him. Standing there next to the pamphlets - he's scared. The weight of what he'd just done hits hard and it's a lot harder to take without back up or security. He buries it deep, very deep for processing later once he's sure that this is a Loki dream. He had a space in his head during all of that, he just had to figure out how to find it again since this was...considerably more vivid. (Unless that pamphlet was telling the truth-)

No.

That was stupid. Right?

Grabbing the pamphlet he keeps his bow off to the side. Exploration, then arrows, "Because I just love arrows."

One slightly limping archer, wandering through the entrance hall trying to make his way up to a higher vantage point. Don't be surprised if he hits or looks a little furtive. This place could very well be a figment of an overactive Asgardian imagination.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She hears him before she sees him. She's headed downstairs, vaguely thinking of breakfast and ~~more~~ coffee and possibly stopping in Tony's lab to see how things are progressing. The tread on the stairs is heavy, urgent, and that's enough to set off some alarms, but there's something familiar in it as she braces herself and waits for the source to come into sight.

When he does, she stands frozen a moment, caught between one step and the next and then she's headed forward, matching urgency in her steps, keeping in his line of sight, because she knows that expression on his face and something very bad had either just happened or was about to.

"Clint?"

Any surprise at his unexpected appearance is stifled for the moment - and really, she was done being surprised, they were nearly all here right now, apparently Wonderland liked the flavor of misfit superheroes. Which didn't explain Loki, but honestly what did? Instead she focused fully on him and the wild look in his eyes, all the tells she knew so well when he was hyper-vigilant and getting the hell out of dodge. She held up her hands where he could see, purposefully making no threatening moves just in case, because he was in full flight and sometimes logic was a little slower in coming than reaction.

Clint?

When he was first taken by Loki - days ago it seems (not that the man would ever leave) the God had asked him for assets to SHIELD. An organized list of the people who were the most dangerous in Barton's personal estimation. Natasha Romanoff, Natalia Romanova was number one. Not because of her skills but her capabilities. Later, much later Loki pressed him for more information that he gave, clinically detached from emotion, from their relationship.

"And how will you kill her Agent Barton. When I ask you to."

He'd given a description. Clinical and detached. New York helped and he'd been more then prepared to sit down and ask her how she coped...

He doesn't relax however. Looking at her.

"...Natasha."

Deep breath. The question is, is she real, or is this all in my head. he licked his lips.

"...What's my favorite movie. The one that I never tell anyone about."

She had a certain tone when she said it, a certain expression. A person's mind could tell the difference between a real person and the imagined counter part that they created. If she was in his head she'd laugh coyly, amused, cute. If she wasn't...

He'd learned a lot from her. Learning how to read facial tics and queues. He'd be able to tell.

It was a game they've played before, although a game denoted it was purely for fun and not for necessity. There was nothing playful in this question. No, it was their own secret code for Are you real? and I don't know if you're who you're supposed to be and Do our stories match? and I've been compromised.

So often it was for her. She was more susceptible to it than most, despite her own mental defenses, her own constant vigilance, but she'd been conditioned for it from the start and sometimes... accidents happen. The world is full of people more than willing to press an advantage that presents itself and sometimes she just has shitty luck.

Now, though. This is not for her. This is for him and the panic she can see lurking in his gaze - his gaze, absent of the bright eerie blue glow that had so unnerved her. It's not there now but something has set him off, made him doubt himself and she gives him his answer with carefully chosen words.

There is nothing coy and amused in her answer, despite the hint of humor in the words themselves, just in case anyone - anything - is listening, because this is an answer for him alone and until she can get him somewhere safe and secure, she'll be as vague as possible, while still giving him what he needs.

"Barton, I've told you a hundred times, there is no way in hell I am helping you train a rabbit how to use a bow and arrow so you can have a tiny sidekick. It's not going to happen."

Edited 2014-05-05 21:55 (UTC)

He doesn't relax but the set of his shoulders eases and he lowers his hands slowly, ever so slowly, "I've been compromised. I'm still compromised -"

He lowers his hands. Her hair's different, the attitude's the same but the hair...

First things first.

"Loki's still inside my head. I need you to -" He holds out his hands, slow and shaking, "Take me in to Fury."

He looks wounded, hurt even, "...So much for the after party."

Edited 2014-05-05 22:05 (UTC)

If his stance eases, hers stiffens and she goes carefully still, not doing anything with his outstretched hands for a moment as she watches him warily.

"Explain that to me, Clint, before we do anything else. What do you mean he's still inside your head?"

"Exactly how it sounds!" His hands remain out, "He was just here. I had him, I was right in front of him and I had him covered but the ...the ... the bastard gets away from me! Comes out of nowhere and says that he's stuck with me." A figment of your imagination, a part of you

"...But it can't be him, because ... I mean Asgard wouldn't be stupid enough to let the guy out right?" cue heavy breathing, extensive confusion.

The bow clatters to the floor, "...Why is your hair longer then it was?"

Oh, she had so very much to explain and she wasn't even sure where to start. She pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger for a moment and took a breath, because there had not been enough coffee in her morning yet to deal with this.

"Okay look. I can... answer all that. Or most of that. But not here, because it's not secure and I'd rather do this where we can't be accidentally overheard. I have a room upstairs. Follow me?"

"Yeah okay."

And that's the beauty of it because when she explains he'll listen. He trusts her, he cares about her and it's actually her and not some loki inspired figment of his imagination. He drops his hands to his sides before ducking, picking up his bow and nodding mutely.

"...Just answer me honestly, we're not dead right? I really did have Loki cornered?"

"More than cornered, he was gone, out of our hair, you were fine. You did good, Clint. And I promise we're not dead. At least, not as far as I know," she added, motioning for him to follow her as she turned and moved back the way she came, mounting the stairs to the seventh floor where most of them were all... assembling, for lack of a better word. Not that anyone seemed to be up yet, it was rather early.

She stopped outside her door and pushed it open for him in invitation to enter. "Make yourself at home. Hungry? Thirsty?"

"...Stark promised us shawarma." He swallows, "...I saw him. He told me..." Things. terrible things.

He's limping slightly, "I think I sprained my ankle, I gotta wrap it."

That should be a big clue, he had one last- when they battled for New York.

"I could eat and sleep for a week I swear to god." If he can manage to sleep. He hasn't even confronted that possibility. Coming out of it after she hit his head... If I am out of it.

She waits until he's in the room before closing the door, making sure they're safe inside. She gives him a nudge towards the bed, which is the biggest surface in here to get comfortable on and he really looks like he needs one anyway, not that she trusts him to go of and get rested up on his own. She knows him too well. Not to mention she knows some of what he's going through right now, as well.

"Sit down. Get your foot propped up, I'll deal with that in a moment and no, you are not having shawarma right this moment, you can take that up with him when you see him."

She has a minifridge in her room and she's been stocking it when she thought about it. Ellen's warnings about the closets possibly eventually wearing out has been making her give a lot of thought into storing in emergency supplies. For the moment, she only pulls out a bottle of water and tosses it in his direction before turning towards the closet.

"You'll have to make do with something a little simpler instead," she tosses back over her shoulder as she stops in front of the closet doors for a moment to think hard and hope this isn't one of the time the magic flakes on her. A moment later, she's pulling out a mug of soup - tomato with bacon pieces and cheese added in. A strange combination, in her opinion, but she's long told Clint he has terrible taste and this is no exception.

Looking as if pulling a mug of steaming fresh soup out of a closet was no big deal, she crossed back across the room to where he was getting comfortable on the bed. "Here. Eat up. You look like hell."

He stares at the soup and the water before smiling a little softly. Grabbing one of the pillows he keeps himself sitting up before blowing on the soup. His smile is soft, "...Thanks."

He'll take a couple of cautious sips before looking back at her, "...Soup's good."

He knows what it cost you to make it. He leans back, "...So I want to ask - I mean...Don't be offended but your hair's longer. Is it a wig?"

"No. It's the real thing," she answers as she slides onto the bed, props herself up next to him, her long legs stretched out beside his. "There's a lot I have to catch you up on and you;re going to have to bear with me, because some of it is pretty out there but just... trust me, okay? I'll prove it as best I can if you give me some time."

"First of all, we're not in New York. As far as we can tell, we're not even on earth anymore. We're not alone though. Most of the team is here too and probably about a hundred or so others we don't know. Tony's calling it a pocket dimension, whatever that means. Everyone else here is calling it Wonderland. Yes, like the book, movie, whatever medium you want to pick from. We're stuck here, dragged from all over different worlds, realms, and even times."

"Which is the reason for the hair," she adds, glancing over at him to meet his gaze. "It was April before I got dragged here. 2014."

He nearly spits out the soup and gets up - causing his angle to spasm. Electricity shoots around on top of his foot and he stares at her, "...2014."

"...Did I get the vacation pay fury owed me?" It's the wrong time to make a joke and he realizes it, but he shakes it off and nods to her, "...Right. 2014."

Her hand catches him in the chest - both steadying and calming and she doesn't miss his faint flinch, reminded of his ankle. "Sit still, dummy," she chides him fondly, sliding off the bed and going to retrieve her emergency kit. Because of course she has one handy. Look who her teammates are.

"Yes, it was 2014 for me, but that doesn't mean it is for the rest of them. The entire team - those of us here, anyway - are all from... different times, like this place plucked us all out of time at different intervals. Cap and I are the farthest ahead so far and are close to the same time before showing up here. Tony's back from a few months after New York. You... You're still from New York, from how you greeted me, so there's that. And no, you didn't get vacation pay. As far as I knew, you never vanished. You've been busy working jobs for Fury."

He usually only works for Fury when there's bad jobs going on. He finishes the soup with a contented noise before frowning.

"...I'm going to keep submitting to human resources. Don't you doubt it."

"...What's the world situation? Between you and the captain?"

It's always the Captain with him, "I mean - when you guys are? Fury only has me on custodial duty like that if things are really ugly."

Out of everyone she'll have to explain this to, giving it to him is going to be the hardest. It's not something she wants to do, wishes she could just skip it entirely and leave him with his illusions of safety back home. Relative safety. SHIELD had always been that for both of them. A home, a harbor. Now...

Unfortunately too many people know for her to keep this under wraps and she doubts he'd appreciate her keeping this from him. So she takes a deep breath and carefully chooses the words she gives him.

"Yeah, you could say that. I... Clint. Things happened. Not right away, if that makes you feel better. We actually finally took that vacation for a bit after New York, Fury thought it best we lay low for a little while until the dust settled and you... Well, you looked like you do now, in that you sorely needed it," she added, wry fondness in her voice as she reached out and ruffled his hair.

"But we did get back to work. We did a few missions, although Fury has had me working with Steve a bit, getting him adjusted. You've been on a few tac missions, he's kept you hopping. Before I got here, you were on a long-term one. I don't know the details of it, but you still kept in contact where you could."

She paused, gathered her thoughts, her lips pressed into a thin line. "I guess what started all this was Fury sent me on a recon mission with Steve and the strike team. Mercenaries took one of SHIELD's launch ships and we were deployed to recover it. But Fury wanted me to recover information the ship was carrying. He didn't tell me why and I didn't ask, but I got it back to him. And then there was an attack on his life. In broad daylight, in the middle of DC, completely out in the open. He was in critical condition afterwards. When I got to the hospital, it was just in time to watch him die on the operating table."

Her breath catches at that, her voice strained with the emotions still all too close to the surface from those days of uncertainty and fear, but she continues, because she needs to get this out. "They were after the information he'd had me retrieve for him, but he'd managed to pass it to Steve before... SHIELD tried to get it from him, but whatever Fury said to him - and what happened to him - got Steve's suspicions up and not even SHIELD stands much of a chance when the Captain gets stubborn over something. Their mistake. He found me and we tried to crack the encryption on it, but by that point we were both on the run and all I could manage to do was get a location for the information's origin."

"We ended up in New Jersey, of all places. An old abandoned Army base. Steve said it was where he first trained, but SHIELD had had an early base in a bunker there. And a hidden base even deeper beneath that. And that's... where it all went to hell."

She took a deep breath, drawing her knees up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She flicked a gaze at his face before fixing her eyes on a point across the room. "We found a huge room filled with computer servers. Ancient tech. Turns out it was from the seventies and it actually held the brain and the knowledge of a former Hydra agent SHIELD had recruited in the early days. A man named Arnim Zola. Steve knew him from the war. He - It - told us what we were dealing with. That Hydra hadn't died with the Red Skull, it just... went into deep cover. Within the heart of SHIELD. They've been at the center from the start, working unseen and unnoticed, getting rid of any threat that got too close. Their goal was still the same, but instead of forcing humanity to give up its freedom forcefully, they've been playing the long game to get the world to surrender it voluntarily in the name of safety, security. And we... just happened to stumble into the endgame."

Edited 2014-05-06 14:47 (UTC)

He'd made an agreement with himself mentally that he couldn't trust someone who was watching his back unless he trusted them completely. He believed Natasha. Cardinal rule for SHIELD was that Fury lied, Coulson withheld, Maria did as she was told but Natasha could go her own way.

So he's prepared to listen and accept, even believe, and when she talks he believes her. Even as the story gets darker and darker. When the emotion hits her about Fury he remembers an agent who trusted in a stupid carnie kid - kept him from a life of crime. So the color drains out of his face and he continues to listen but he unconsciously leans towards her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. When she curls up he gently tightens his grip - but his grip tightens for real when they mention Hydra, SHIELD, corruption. His grip tightens for real.

Everything that had been true about his life. Stumble into the endgame.

So he tugs her towards her and leans his head against her neck. Staring at the same point on the wall. Fury's dead. The guy who gave him his start. Coulson's alive. And Loki ... I may have forced your devotion but you decided who to save and who to slaughter.

"...So the Captain's in charge. Or Phil."

He needs a chain of command, "I can live with that."

Edited 2014-05-06 14:59 (UTC)

She's shaking her head before he even finishes that sentence, leaning into the warmth of his hold, a subtle shift in position, because she knows he needs to give it.

"No, Clint. It gets worse." That's stated with a soft laugh that holds little humor, because what she'd revealed so far had been bad enough.

"SHIELD was working on something called Project Insight. Next-gen helicarriers with an advanced targeting systems that networked with orbiting satellites. It was supposed to be the greatest weapon against terrorist organizations, but Hydra had been behind it all along. There was a targeting algorithm designed by Zola to find any potential threats to what Hydra was pulling off. It could take out targets by the thousands in a matter of minutes. When Steve and I clued in to Hydra being behind what SHIELD was up to, we started putting pieces together. Pierce was involved - the top of the top. And Sitwell too. He was on the ship that carried the information. We got the details from him, but before we could do anything about it, the Strike team caught up with us."

She left out the attack by the Winter Soldier, had purposefully not mentioned him at all because that wasn't an explanation she could give. Not yet, even though if there was anyone she would confide in, it was him.

"Things might have gone badly there, but Hill showed up, got us out of custody, took us to one of the secret bunkers. You know Fury's got them scattered all over. And he was using this one personally. Not dead, faked it, needed the attempt to look real so they'd stop trying." She tries for humor at that but it falls flat. "We compared notes and it was just us to deal with this. No time to call in anyone else, we had hours at most. Fury, Hill, Cap and Sam - a friend of Steve's who's now been partially recruited, you'd like him, I think. It was Steve that made the call. SHIELD and Hydra were too deeply entangled and there was no extricating them. There wasn't time and if one was going down, they'd both end up going. Not even Fury could really argue that, although he tried."

"In the end, the plan was two parts. Steve and Sam took the helicarriers, replaced the targeting system with our own chips so we could take out the helicarriers before they could take out everyone else. Hill and I took the Triskelion. She took the operations center; I took Pierce. And then I hacked the databases and leaked everything that SHIELD and HYDRA had in the system into the world. It's all out there now. In the open. No more secrets. And in the end, no more SHIELD. Hydra lost it's cover, it can't hide behind us any longer, because we've left them nowhere to hide."

And left themselves in the same unfortunate state.

Oh.

His shoulders stiffen. You have to find someone who can help get Loki out of your head but SHIELD had been disbanded and at the same time...the idea that the place has been destroyed...

God he wants to laugh and that's what scares him the most. It's sudden, like a lightning storm in his heart. So much for unity, so much for anonymity. So much...

He runs his fingers on his opposite hand through his hair, keeping an arm around her shoulders.

"...Are you okay?"

She laughs for him, low and humorless and leans more fully into him, tilting her head until she can drop it on his shoulder.

"Of course. I'm fine." It was a lie, and not a very well executed one, but they both knew better. He knew her too well for her to be able to pull that off without considerable effort and honestly, at the moment she didn't have the energy to bother.

"All that and I only managed to get shot once," she quipped, giving him a rueful smile, but she's obviously fine now - she's had time to heal up, although she's still not a hundred percent. "I topped your helicarrier crash record. Or partly. Technically Cap did it, but I got to help. We even landed one in the middle of the Triskelion. Or what was the Triskelion."

Which she makes light of, because the pair of them have always shared a strange and twisted sense of humor. Especially when things were grim.

"I always knew you were a terrible pilot." Yes, their gallows humor, "...Phil's here."

He raises a hand to stroke her hair, "....And Cap right? and Stark. And ... one of Thor's friends."

There's a pause, "What's our next move."

"There's a reason I only co-pilot," she counters, sticking her tongue out at him in a juvenile play of humor. "I leave the hard parts to you."

The mention of Phil is a whole other conversation entirely and she can't help but feel a frissure of anger again at being kept in the dark for so long. "Saw him, did you? Yes. He's here. Did he fill you in on what happened?"

"Otherwise it's us and Steve and Tony. Pepper Potts is here - Tony's CEO. Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, they were both with Thor in New Mexico." And Greenwich, but she'd skipped that part, along with what had happened to Tony and the Mandarin. "Bucky Barnes is here, too. He was one of Cap's Commandos back in the war. And... Loki. Apparently we're arriving en masse, although we're still missing a few. And we're still trying to figure out what we're dealing with before we make any moves. This is a little out of all our elements."

He listens to all of that - Doctor foster and Lewis, he knows them both. (Except for calling poor Darcy Marcy. Oops.) before he nods mutely, "...I remember Barnes from the uh - Cap comics."

That he'd talk to Phil about. Woops, "...Doctor Foster tried to break Thor out of jail once."

When she says Loki's out however his eyes narrow, "....So he's actually here.

We have this confirmed."

Everything else can wait til this is settled, "Asgard really did let him go."

She snickers at that, looking bemused as she leans back against him once more, curling up comfortably. "Somehow I don't think the comics were all that accurate when it came to him, but he's certainly intriguing."

And then the conversation turns back to Loki and she stifles an agitated sigh. "Yes, he's here. He... uh. There was an event, strange magical something or other, a few days back. Everyone was breaking into song, it was really ridiculous. Loki and Cap ended up verbally dueling with Disney ballads. Yeah, you heard me right. No, I wouldn't believe me either. But it still happened. He was actually... one of the first people I met here, although he tried for a disguise. Didn't completely pull it off all the way, however." Although she wondered if he'd really been trying?

"And Asgard didn't let him go. Not like you think. There was an incident last fall. Asgard had problems with another realm, one that had an old grudge. I don't know all the details, there were a lot of things that were classified above my level and I didn't press. Loki supposedly gave Thor his assistance in stopping them before they got to earth this time and other than making a mess in Greenwich, we didn't have as much of a disaster as the last time. Loki is still on Asgard, as far as I know. Or was. We were assured he never stepped foot on earth. And I believe Thor takes that responsibility very seriously."

This sure as hell isn't Budapest.

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brace for tl;dr wordvomit

Re: brace for tl;dr wordvomit

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