Chance For Reunions

Mr. Summers Goes To Washington

In Clint's apartment in Bed Stuy, the TV was on, as usual, playing the latest news while everyone in the apartment was going through the latest intel. Both Hawkeyes and Deadpool had just gotten back from another run, and while they hadn't gotten much in the way of files, they had accumulated a few injuries — which meant the Hawks were both in bandages again.

Natasha was sitting with Clint on the couch in front of his TV as she helped him re-wrap the bandages around his wrist, while the news was playing the latest in the political wrap-up.

"It's been two weeks since Congress reconvened, and still, progress on the mutant tracking bill has completely stalled in committee. While the committee chair blamed the delay on a debate over an amendment that would prevent access to the tracking data for private organizations outside of the government, Senator Robbins released a statement this morning accusing mutants of being somehow behind the delay."

"This is just pandering," Robbins said in the clip they played of his press conference. "The only reason this hasn't passed is that six representatives in one single committee are too scared to take a stand for what's right because of the recent media smear campaign. These were people who were fully behind my bill until the pressure was on — but what can you expect from a bunch of spineless establishment politicians?"

Clint snorted at the television. "It's like watching Gerry throw a tantrum."

"Only Gerry is more mature about it," Natasha corrected him with a smirk that had Clint grinning at her outright and kissing her cheek just to do it.

The news switched over to coverage of the weather from there, especially with a pretty good winter storm expected in a few days, and Clint turned the volume down as he turned to Natasha with a little grin. "Sounds like we might get snowed in," he teased.

"I'm Russian," she said with a little smirk. "This? Is nothing."

"That's too bad," he said with a shrug. "I have plenty of coffee and other ways to keep warm."

"Oooh, yeah, we should go now," Wade said from where he had his feet propped up on the table while he read through some files. "Just need to put up some mood-setting candles ... maybe leave a bottle of wine conspicuously on the table ... drag the dog with us so he's not scarred....you know. Because every minute watching that is like seven dog minutes. Then we just... put on the Barry White and let nature take its course."

Kate laughed at that and leaned over to ruffle Lucky's ears. "What do you say, Lucky, wanna go for a walk?" she asked, then had to laugh when not only did Lucky start to wag his tail excitedly — but Krissy, who was playing on the floor with Kurt and trying very hard to see everything all at once, saw Lucky's tail and immediately burst into giggles as she tried to do the same thing.

But before Kate could get Lucky's leash, chaos very quickly broke out when the window shattered as a device of some kind detonated an EMP. The lights all went out as well as the TV — and Clint's hearing aid.

It took everyone a second to adjust to the sudden darkness, but even disoriented, there was no mistaking the fact that there were soldiers bursting in from the outside windows, and Clint could smell the brimstone that meant Kurt had teleported off with Krissy even if he couldn't hear the high-pitched shout of "Kurt, get her out of here!" that Kate was repeating as the soldiers came in.

The darkness didn't last long, though; shortly afterward, the soldiers threw in flashbangs, which had not only Clint but everyone else unable to hear a thing — or to see either.

Natasha and Clint had at least some inkling of what was happening when the EMP had gone off, so they'd tried to do what they could to cover their eyes (and ears in Natasha's case). So they were the first to start trying to give it back to these guys who had shown up to ruin their day.