Hawkeye II

Up in their room, she kissed him back, and remarked, "Well, a place like this is still limited to those who can afford it. Though there's salons of all kinds of prices for people."

She then went to discard her robe and started to change into her dress.

Several hours into the morning, in the fact, the sun was getting high in the sky out back when Kate finally started to wake up. Opening her eyes however, was a horrible idea since there was not so pleasant feeling like something was lancing through her eyeballs and into her brain when she tried. Her mouth tasted weird, and her head was beginning to pound.

"Oh no..." she groaned and rolled to the side, trying to retch some more covers from Will to cover her face.

Drinking the night before might be fun, but the morning after belongs to Hangover Time.

The street lead the pair out onto Park Avenue, around 71st. There were a lot of shops and restaurants along here by the look of the bustling shoppers in the summer heat, many with rain gear. It felt like the sky might open up anytime now. It was a main drag so there were plenty of cabs going along the streets to catch. But Kate was more focused on something other than the upscale boutiques and bistros.

"Oh, good, we're right near it. Come on, it's by the Park." She then tugged him along 71st.

She had finished her latest painting of Will, and she hoped it would be a promising Trump to find him. It had been weeks, maybe months. She's lost track. Her dark side felt even more empowered since they have walked the broken pattern. At times she thought it would kill her, but that other side kept her safe from the sparks and kept her moving.

She had been practicing on her own, too. Magic, Trumps, Pattern. The demon side coaching her more than Branden at times it seemed. And she was listening more to it.

Kate had been up in her bedroom, reading over some books she got from the public library, some were self help books about maximizing potential. One was actually called Find your inner mutant of all things. Obviously just a way to sell books when it came out, and now it had been buried toward one of the back shelves after the Sentinels were sent to monitor mutants more closely. She wasn't sure why, but right now she was finding the books fascinating as her memory stored the contents.

She then got a call on her phone, which luckily there was no way for it to be bugged. No powers and a minor, plus her father's money stopped that idea.

"Hello?"

Patriot was calling to ask about sneaking out for patrol again.

"Sure, be right there? Meeting by your place? Oh, there. All right." She set the books aside, and got changed into her Hawkeye costume. Putting the notions aside for now.

Later on, after they stopped what first looked like an old (dead) villain named 8-Ball, but turned out to be some lame fanboy who wanted to break into crime. Felt good to knock some sense into him before the police showed up. They ducked into the sewers to escape.

While they were walking around, listening to the distant roar of the subway, Hawkeye then asked, "Eli, I'll understand if you don't want to talk about this. But back before your grandpa's transfusion... if somebody had offered you training instead of the MGH, but you weren't sure of the drawbacks or the ethics of the person offering... would you?"

He stopped and then stared at her, "Why are you even asking, Kate? You don't think you need powers, do you? Thought you were above that."

"Sometimes I think it might help a little, sure. And I'm not above anything, Eli."

He shook his head, and asked her, "You saying somebody made you an offer?"

Hawkeye nodded, and then started to explain some of the recent events. But not all.

Patriot frowned, wondering what she was leaving out, and suspected he might know. He then started to explain more about what it was like being under the influence of the MGH, and only realizing afterwards what the price of it was. What was being given up.

"Whatever the offer is, Kate. I don't think it's worth it. You saw what I was like on that stuff, I wasn't myself."

"You're still a hothead."

"Hey! I'm not as bad now. Man, give me some credit."

She remarked, "I do. And I already agreed to ignore him from now on."

"Training's one thing, this sounds more like something else."

She nodded again, and they continued along, the conversation shifting to lighter topics again as they headed to their respective homes.

She kept Will's hand closely linked in hers as she opened the door to a place that was full of metal, and underground. Realizing how strange and disturbing it must look to the medieval man with dark memories she squeezed his hand a little tighter. Looked quiet enough around this hallway at least for the time being as she walked along in her Hawkeye costume. Her boots making slight noise against the tiled floor.

"Need to find a place you can hide until I can introduced you to Cap. At least my teammates can vouch for you now as well. Everybody's really nervous with the plans to get into the prison now."

Their team had been in the underground facility for a while now, and everyone was tense, pacing. The Young Avengers were invited in on some of the meetings, but many just turned into shouting matches between the adult heroes. Unsure of what to do or what actions to take. Especially now Iron Man was a figurehead for the Pro-Registration Avengers, while Captain America lead the Secret Avengers underground. Hiding in shadows with fake identities. But their own group had been ordered to stay put, Cap telling them that they were his soldiers, and they would be needed soon enough.

It didn't stop the team from sneaking out to steal a jet out to California to assist a group of runaways. Many with powers. After some miscommunication, disagreements, and then squaring off against Noh-Varr, and a SHIELD secret lab to rescue their friends, there was a sort of truce between the groups. Still didn't mean they didn't get holy hell from Cap, Luke, and others when they returned to the facility. Berating them all for risking their location, and risking getting arrested. Even when Kate and Eli went on about how they were in the right to still help others, Cap just buffeted their responses away.

----------

Back to lockdown again for some days after that...only to get a distress call. A major one, a petrochemical plant on fire, and everybody was scrambled out of the facility to assist with rescue efforts. All forces were transported via Cloak and Wiccan. Definitely not the best way to travel by far, but there was little time to react before they were all there.

And then Cable yelled, "Get the hell out of here, boys! It's a trap!" Suddenly Cloak and Wiccan were knocked out with tranquilizers darts while Iron Man's team was now approaching them.

A final claim of amnesty...rejected. And then the battle began in earnest. Everybody was reacting, Hawkeye was firing arrows as quickly as she could get a bead on someone. Patriot nearby fighting Spiderman, while The Thing was punching Hulkling. It was getting harder to keep track what was going on. Iron Man was barreling into Captain America.

Suddenly there was loud crackle of lightning as the heavens themselves seem to split in two.
She could hear Patriot saying, "What the hell...?" as they looked upward, and then screamed as lightning struck the very earth they stood on. Sending them all in the air. She could barely roll to the side to stand up as everyone stared at the seeming sight of Thor back from the dead.

Thor, who was trying to kill them all.

Reed Richards put him into standby after Iron Man activated a sound frequency that shrieked into everyone's skulls. Her ears were still ringing a little after an explosion knocked Iron Man to the side.

"Somebody switched it off!" Whether she meant the frequency or the fake Thor, or both, it didn't matter now.

"So what are you waiting for?" Daredevil berated Hawkeye who nodded and stood up to fight back again, arrows aimed at the ready once more.

Then Goliath grew to take on Thor...only to take a lightning attack through his stomach, killing the giant hero in an instance.

She was staring up in terror as the seeming thunder god declared, "" And there was no time but to brace for impact, and pray for a miracle.

That miracle came in the form of Sue Storm creating a forcefield around them all, and ordering them all to "Get out of here. NOW!" They then tried to grab as many as the wounded and injured as they could, and used Cloak to teleport back to the facility.

They walked through the door, and it lead out to a street a few blocks from the warehouse where the team now trained.

Kate got out her cellphone, and texted a message, her other hand linked with Will's.

"Just letting Cassie and the others know we're on our way. Another example of modern technology, a lot quicker than trying to call across a town square, and longer distance," She held up the phone to show him the modern device.

The door is opened to a sunny day in New York. Light breeze and clouds overhead. Not that it would be easy to see from where they were on the upper east side in Manhattan.  The street was quieter here, so not as much taxis and cars as some other ones. But it still meant some regular traffic.  It was early spring so there was still a light chill to the air. Jacket weather, not coat.

Kate glanced over at Will in his 21 century disguise she had bought for him, "Well, any preference in where you'd like to see first? It's a short walk to the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan from here. Those are two of the city's known art museums. The Metropolitan even has a very nice collection of Medieval art and armoury."