The Traitor, The Avenger, And The Killer

Playing For Keeps

Hill and Osborn hadn't cared to stick around for the show in the briefing room — probably because they didn't care to hang around Clint and Noh for longer than necessarily, honestly. But the two men were watching the feed of the mission in relative silence. They weren't interested for the moment in lashing out or sassing their captors, instead half holding their breaths — both of them absolutely ready to jump into a fight if something went wrong.

And of course, it was almost inevitable that it did — when the feed cut very suddenly. When Clint replayed the last few seconds of footage, they could see the camera pointing down at the ground, and Clint studied the angle with his head tilted the same way the camera would have been before he said, "She caught it on something."

"Purposely?" Noh asked.

Clint raised both eyebrows high. "Oh. I'm sure she'd never do that."

Noh just had to chuckle the slightest bit, though it hadn't changed the worried expression on his face. "Do you think that would be grounds for..."

"No, not in the helicarrier itself. They put her down, and a SHIELD agent could find her."

"Perhaps that is what she was hoping for," Noh said almost too quietly for Clint to catch it.

"Yeah, well, I'm not saying they won't do something about it when she's somewhere they know they can recover her," Clint pointed out with a deep frown.

"You seem to have insight into how they think."

"I got along with Hill for a long time when she was in SHIELD. You know, before she went off the deep end?" Clint shrugged. "Took over her team for her actually. Turns out her tight leash backfired on her even back then."

Most of the feed consisted of Daken's muted reminders on time, though the relaxed tone of his voice made it clear that she was on schedule or ahead of it. It was the only indicator they had once the camera was suddenly out entirely, all the way up to when she apparently returned to Daken missing a sizable chunk of her uniform, but with the file in hand.

"Well, now we know how she 'caught' the wire," Clint muttered, unable to hide the smirk. "How long do you think before Hill reads her the riot act when she gets back? When I worked with her, it was usually pretty immediate."

"Yes, but she will have to beat Norman Osborn to the punch, and when I worked with him, he was gleeful about reminding us who was in charge."

"We'll flip a coin." Clint shrugged lightly, his tone flippant and hiding the honest concern.

The two settled back to wait for K's return, their relaxed postures a total contrast to the looks of worry as they both knew there would be at least some kind of consequences for K's... creativity.

They knew it wouldn't be long to wait when Osborn and Hill returned to the room and took their seats, though neither of them addressed Noh's or Clint's presence for the time being. Norman looked annoyed, and though Hill was trying to hide it, she had a purple flush to her complexion that gave away her frustration as well.

"That's a good shade on you, Maria," Clint said conversationally. "The purple. Don't think I've seen you wear it before." She glared and didn't look at him, so he turned toward Osborn. "We could dye your hair to match it, and then everyone would know you're the newest supervillain duo on the block. You should advertise that better. Coordinated looks. Maybe match your wardrobes. The green tie doesn't go with her black ensemble, Normy."

This time, he got a very dry look from Osborn. "Tell you what, Barton. Keep your mouth shut on your own, and I won't glue it shut."

Clint responded with an unmistakable one fingered sign but fell into silence for a bit — more because Daken and K were making their approach than for anything else. Any other time, he'd probably mouth off to Osborn more, but K was in a precarious enough position as it was without him making their captors even angrier.