2013-09-20 - Cutscene: The Rise of Hawkette Pt. 2

After Kate passed out the second time, Clint made arrangements to get her to a regular hospital. Sure the Avengers medical bay was state of the art but it was also un-staffed and Clint wasn’t going to burden the Avengers with cleaning up after him. Especially after back to back fights with Tony and Jarvis. So yeah, to the hospital, besides, the guys looking for her thought they were looking for him. So she’d be safe.

Clint on the other hand, well, he could handle himself. So, he went to the last place it was sensible to go, home.

There were still a couple of squad cars outside his place when he got there, he’d asked for them. Not for him, but for the people in his building.

People with kids.

He stopped by the store on the way, and got the cops a case of beer and some sandwiches. The beer was for off-duty, of course but it never hurt to earn a little good will with the boys in blue. He even posed for pictures.

Weird being a celebrity sometimes. He wondered how Tony and the Fantastic Four dealt with it.

Fortunately the rest of his morning and afternoon brought him back down to Earth. His place was a mess the electrics were fried thanks to Kate’s electro-arrow, plus there was blood all over his floor. Oh, and Amanda called to tell him they were done. So that made his personal life a mess too.

No girlfriend, blood on the floor, no power. The Clint Barton hat trick.

He paid for cleaners and an electrician and sacked out on the couch for a bit with a beer while they worked. Or tried to anyhow, Kate was still on his mind.

“What was the kid thinking?” he mutters to himself staring at the ceiling.

“Wha?” the electrician calls from the fuse box. The little name patch on his shirt reads Gus.

“Nothing,” Clint mutters sleepily. His head still pounding from the sucker punch the guys laid on him last night. He takes a sip of his beer.

“Hey, did you want this arrow? It looks pretty fancy.”

Clint looks up at Gus holding the arrow Kate had used. “Yeah sure,” he says holding out his hand.

Gus tosses it to him. “Nice throw,” Clint says as he catches it. “Nice catch. So you really one of those Avengers?”

“Some days,” Clint replies as he studies the arrow in the light coming through his newly broken window.

Right, he needed to call the glass guy too. Egh, Tomorrow.

The arrow as pretty fancy; he should know it was a lot like his, different construction, sure, and held less of a charge, but then Kate didn’t have the benefit of the resources of the Avengers.

“Not bad.”

Curious now, Clint swings his legs over the side of the couch and gets up. The cops took the arrows that Kate had hit the bad guys with, but he’d pulled one she’d fired into his wall to hide the fact there had been a second archer. He digs that arrow out of the closet and has a look. It was the same high quality make as the electro-arrow, with high end light weight cable trailing behind it. Expensive stuff, but it was clearly handmade.

“Huh,” Clint says.

Remembering that he had started a search on Avengers PDA back at the mansion, he pulls it out of his pocket and heads back to the couch. Sinking down he brings up the holo-display, and an array of news articles and other files appear above the device.

“Oh wow, that’s cool,” Gus says from the fuse box. “That like one of those S-Holoboxes? My kid’s bugging me about getting him one for Christmas.”

Clint looks away from the screen for the moment. “Yeah, something like that.” He glances around the room, spotting the box in question he jerks his head in that direction. “Box on your left by the TV, you can take it with you when you’re done. Got my S-Holobox and a couple of the games. Never got around to hooking it up.”

“Serious?”

“Yeah, why not. I could use some karma. Now if you don’t mind…”

“Oh, sure, sorry, and um, thanks.”

“De nada,” Clint says waving his hand at the Gus. His eyes already back on the files.

Kate Bishop. Daughter of publishing magnate Derek Bishop, mother killed while on a trip for a charity in Africa. Sister, married, and there was a hostage incident on her wedding day. Wonderful. Still, family is super rich despite the family business going through upheavals in the digital age. Stack of pictures from the society pages of the Bugle and Globe, Kate in ridiculously expensive dresses with various rich pretty boys. One of the top ten most eligible bachelorettes in New York, etc, etc.

Clint studies one of the pictures for a moment. “She looks bored,” he says, despite the picture showing her smiling on the arm of rich kid’s arm. The artful but artificial way she clung to her date for the shot, and the way the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes gave it away.

He moves on. He calls up some more official reports on the wedding incident. Nothing much there, oh, two suspects incapacitated /before/ SWAT made entry. Nice, Kate.

Clint wonders if that was the moment that did it for her, the one that turned her from Kate the socialite to Kate the wannabe Hawkeye. He digs a bit and finds he’s wrong. Martial arts awards. Archery medals. All before the wedding and so he digs deeper. Then…

“Oh.”

A report on an incident in Central Park.

“Oh shit. Kate.”

Clint sits back and runs his hands over his face, remembering something Kate said to him about the number of women she helped; emphasis on the women. Shit, he just wants to give the stupid kid a hug or something for what she’s been through and here he was threatening her with jail time.

Letting out a long slow sigh, he closes the report and takes a second just to stare into the holo-screen.

“You okay?” Gus asks quietly over by the fuse box.

“Just realizing I’m an asshole Gus,” Clint replies not looking away from the screen.

“Been there,” Gus replies sagely.

“Heh.”

Clint gets back to the research. This time it’s news articles, people saved from attackers, keyword arrow. Most of it is just the Clint Barton highlight reel, but one or two don’t match up. Places he’s never been, incidents he doesn’t remember. He writes down where they happened and turns off the PDA.

“Going for a walk Gus, if I’m not back by quitting time. Just head out. And remember to take that box with you for your kid. I think I really need that karma.”

“Sure, and thanks again.”

Clint is already out the door.