MARCH 2011: TRISKELION
As the only one in the tech department working the night shift for the weekend, Katherine had the office to herself. Which meant she could play her music as loud as she wanted and push herself across the room on her rolling chair without any complaints. The downside was, after another sleepless night thanks to her neighbors and their large lung capacity, she struggled to stay awake. She was on her fourth cup of coffee and still fighting to keep her eyes open. Part of that might be more from boredom. She hadn't gotten any files since she'd clocked in. What was the point of night shift if no one needed data analyzed? Maybe she could hack the CIA again. She hadn't done that in a while.
Plopping down on her office chair with her new cup of coffee, she pushed off the wall with her feet and rolled back towards her computer station. She pulled up a web browser window just as a file pinged on her dashboard and her earpiece started connecting with whichever agent needed her. The CIA would have to wait.
"This is Agent Lee. What can I do for you, Agent Romanoff?" Kat asked, clicking open the file.
"Katherine," Natasha said. Thank god it was Lee, she needed the best, but she hadn't expected it. Jumping onto the shoulders of one of Hammer's guards, she twisted him up in her legs before bringing him to the ground. "I need your hacking skills."
"What's my target?"
"Hammer industries. The computer being used to control the drones at Stark Expo."
"I wanted to go to that, but couldn't get the leave approved in time," Katherine mused as her fingers flew over her keyboard, trying to find an access point to the system.
"That's good news for the both of us."
"Bad news for Hammer Industries," Kat said when she finally found a roundabout way in when trying a back door didn't work.
Just as she was about to bring up the file running the Stark Suits she was booted out. Whoever had control of the computer was smart. He volleyed codes back at her, making her fight to keep access.
"How's it going?" Nat asked when the silence on Katherine's end stretched longer than normal. Like Clint, Katherine rarely kept quiet while working.
"If you have to ask, not good," Katherine said, typing so furiously she was almost afraid she'd pop a key off her keyboard. She gave a hoot when she finally booted him out, gaining control over some of the drones.
"He's good, but I'm better," she said. With a few more key strokes she ordered the drones she'd accessed to shoot each other until each one had disappeared from the system.
"Impressive," Nat said. "I'm on my way to the control room now, so just keep Ivan out until I can get there."
There were muffled sounds of a fight from Agent Romanoff's end. For as hard as it'd been to get access to the system, it was easy to keep control of it. Out of curiosity, and boredom, she hacked the camera feeds to watch the path of destruction Agent Romanoff left behind. She was about to warn her about one of the guards sneaking up on her, but Natasha maced him before she could utter a word.
Flitting through the different security cameras, she stopped on the one in the computer lab. Instead of seeing her opponent bent over his keyboard, she found an empty chair. No wonder it was so easy keeping control of the network. She wasn't fighting anyone for it anymore.
"So, your evil mastermind is gone," Katherine commented, just before Agent Romanoff crashed through the door of the computer room.
"Damn," she muttered, "all that work for nothing."
"Not nothing." She was pretty sure Agent Romanoff had put the pressure on Ivan and had been the reason he left. "Now that he's gone, I can give Lieutenant Rhodes control of his suit."
With a few lines of code she had Lieutenant Rhodes back in control and gave Agent Romanoff access to Stark via video and com. From what she saw, it wasn't looking good.
"Okay, I'm going to need you back on drone hacking duty. They've got Tony and Rhodes surrounded."
"Yeah, it's gonna take some time. I only hacked the air force drones. Each military branch of drone has a different code language." Even without someone countering her code, it could take a while to get control of the other drones. "I'm going off com, but I'll be active. If you need me, call me."
She'd need her full concentration to get through all the drones, and she wasn't confident she could keep from letting a few curses fly. She didn't think Agent Romanoff would report her for unprofessional conduct if she cursed, but she didn't really know her well enough to be certain.
"Who were you talking to?" Tony asked Natalie, or Natasha. Whoever she really was.
"My tech genius who hacked both your system and Vanko's," Nat said with a smile. She loved it when someone showed Tony up. "She's in the process of gaining control of the other drones."
"Well tell your sidekick I've got this covered, but I'd love to have a conversation with her later, on how she hacked my system without Jarvis detecting her. Maybe offer her a job."
He'd set the system up himself with a dozen fail safes and even more security measures. Anyone who could hack into that without tripping a metaphorical alarm would be worth having on his payroll; working for him instead of against.
"Sorry Tony, she works for SHIELD."
"I'm sure I can pay her better."
"There's more to it than money." She was fairly confident Katherine wouldn't give up SHIELD, who had Clint, for a job with Stark.
PRESENT DAY: NEW MEXICO
"Hey, what's going on?" Kat asked through Clint's com as half a dozen black cars pulled away from their tunnel system toward town.
"Fake Doctor Blake, also known as Thor, has visitors. They're going to check it out."
"And they're not taking you?" She'd have thought they'd want backup should things get violent.
"I'm pretty sure we're both grounded after our stint last night." Though it had resulted in useable data for the team, Stillwell still couldn't get over the fact they'd bent his rules and broken chain of command to get it. "Besides, my main job is to babysit the hammer."
"Now's your chance to shoot a fancy arrow at it. All supervisors are off the premises."
"It's not as fun if there's no risk of getting caught."
"I'm not even going to touch the dysfunction of that statement," Kat said. "But I will ask if you want some company while you sit in epic boredom."
She'd already sifted through the useful portions of Jane Foster's hard drive and set up a system to automatically reroute any flights around the hammer.
"Bring a hat, the sun is brutal up here."
She grabbed two black ball caps with SHIELD's logo before climbing up to sit with Clint, handing one to him. He was right, the sun was burn-your-retina's bright with no cloud coverage. Pulling her ponytail through the back of the cap, she paused when Clint pulled her glasses from her face and slipped them on.
"Woah, you're blind," he said, blinking rapidly as his eyes tried to focus but couldn't with the lenses.
"It's called being nearsighted," Kat said.
"I wouldn't know. I've got 20/20. So how far can you see without these?" he asked, holding the glasses out to her.
"Not very far," she admitted, glancing sideways at him. "How well can you hear without your hearing aids?
"Not very well," he shrugged. "But I'm very good at reading people's lips."
"Do you ever use sign language?"
"I learned, but not many other people know it, so I hardly use it."
After the incident that left him with roughly 20% of his hearing, he'd thrown himself into learning everything he could to help him thrive in his new situation, and he also learned how unforgiving being deaf in a world made for the hearing was.
He was lucky. SHIELD had all the latest tech and was able to give him his ears back, for the most part, via his hearing aids. Still, there were times his ears felt too full, claustrophobic in a way, and he wanted to rip the hearing aids out. But few situations would allow him not to use his hearing aids without making everything harder.
"Teach me," Kat said, turning to face him.
"What?"
"We have time to kill and it could be fun knowing a language most people wouldn't understand but us."
Clint wasn't sure what to say. No one in SHIELD had ever shown interest in learning sign language, especially not once he had his hearing aids. Nat had tried, but for someone who was multi-lingual she kind of sucked at it. Frustrated, she gave up after a couple weeks.
"I can't teach you a whole language in a matter of a few hours." He didn't know if he could take Kat giving up on it when she realized how hard it was.
"You can start. Just think of all the insults we can trade behind Sitwell's back."
They started with the alphabet and finger spelling. Clint would reach out to adjust her finger placement every now and then, but she was a surprisingly fast learner, able to speed spell much sooner than Clint had when learning.
"I'm a tech specialist, having fast fingers is a job requirement." Especially when the agents she helped normally worked under enemy fire and the faster she got answers the sooner they could get to safety.
"So, when do we get to the swear words?" she asked.
Clint smiled. She was the same as him when he started learning the language. Clearing his throat, he gave her the answer his instructor had told him.
"Usually people learn the everyday words first: hello, boy, girl, happy, thank you. Words like that."
"Swear words are everyday words," she said, making Clint chuckle.
"Mimic me," Clint said as he folded all his right fingers down until only the pinky and the pointer finger were left up, like a bull's horns.
Moving his arms out in front of him, his right hand was by his shoulder with the elbow tilted down landing chest level. His left hand rested just below his right elbow tilting down so that elbow hit at his waist. Keeping his right pointer and pinky fingers up, he opened and closed his left fingers to finish the sign.
"What are we saying?" she asked as she copied him.
"A very useful term when referring to anyone on the black-ops team," Clint said. "Bullshit."
"I like it," she said, her eyes shining. "What else do you have for me?"
Time passed in new signs learned as Clint demonstrated and Kat followed. He was in the middle of teaching her 'bastard' when the hammer, which had been securely stuck in the dirt the past few days, launched into the air.
"That's…new," Clint said, jumping to his feet as he watched the hammer disappear. "It's headed towards town."
"Should we follow it?" she asked. "I mean, you are it's body guard."
"It would be reckless to shirk my duties," he said. With a shared look, Kat made a beeline for the ladder while Clint used the ropes from the crane positioned beside the pit to make his way down.
Katherine, having proven herself the driver with the biggest lead foot, drove. Kicking up dirt behind them, they sped towards town. Kat slid the car to a park beside the other black SHIELD sedans. Sitwell stood by one of the cars, waving the dust cloud away with one hand. When he saw Katherine and Clint exiting the car his face hardened.
"Agent Lee, I'm afraid I'm going to have to add 'problem with authority' to your file at the end of this mission."
"I asked her to come," Clint said, as he circled around the vehicle. "I'm guarding the hammer and the hammer left towards town. I needed the fastest driver to get me hear so I can follow my orders."
"Then I'll need to talk with both of your supervisors. Some serious changes need to be made in how you execute said orders," Sitwell said while Clint made the sign for 'asshole' behind his back. Kat attempted to fight a smile by biting her bottom lip, but her lips still twitched at the edges.
"I'm sure director Fury will appreciate your feedback," Clint said, tone high on sarcasm, when Sitwell turned towards him. "Now, about the hammer?"
"It's gone," Coulson said, approaching the caravan of cars. "Let's grab some food and prepare debriefings. Our mission here is over."
The debriefing was done as a group back at the temporary base. Coulson described what had happened in town, the big metal destroyer and Thor's friends getting their butts handed to him before he got his hammer back and ended it all. How Thor promised to help protect earth and had returned to his home planet. Silence met the end of the story. Coming to New Mexico and finding out there actually were aliens, and that at least some of them look very much like humans was…unexpected. And weird. And a lot to take in.
"Any questions?" Coulson asked, instantly regretting it when Barton and Lee's hands immediately went up.
"I don't know anything more about aliens than what I just told you," he sighed. They both lowered their hands. "Great, now wheels up in 40 minutes. Those going to the Triskelion, you're on jet A, New York, jet B, and LA, jet C."
The agents dispersed after that, packing up their personal items as well as the tech brought in. Kat unhooked the last computer system, placing it into a foam padded case when Clint joined her.
"So, how'd you like your first taste of field work?" he asked.
"It was a lot more waiting and a lot less action than I thought," she said. "Angie will be equal parts happy and disappointed that we were never in the crossfire of bullets."
"But we did meet an Alien slash god up close and personal."
"Very true. What about you? Where does this rank in your lineup of missions?"
"It's definitely not the worst," he said, his gaze penetrating as he kept eye contact. "I got to meet you."
"Hopefully I didn't disappoint," she said, ducking her head and tucking her hair behind her ear. One of her fears should she ever meet Clint in person was that she wouldn't live up to what he expected after all their conversations.
"I wasn't disappointed," Clint assured her.
Coulson interrupted before Katherine could find an appropriate response. It was time for Clint to board the jet to New York with the other agents.
A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you liked this update. I had fun writing it. This weekend I saw Avengers: Endgame and it sparked some Marvel inspiration. So, I finished this chapter before it slipped away. Hopefully, the inspiration is here to stay. Anyways, until next time!
To the Guest whose butt was sore from waiting on the edge of their seat before the last post: I'm sorry your butt probably got even more sore waiting for this update, but I hope you enjoyed it!
To the guest who flippin loves this story: I'm so happy you're katxclint trash. I hope you continue to enjoy them and I'm sorry for making you wait so long.
To the guest who has to know who the engineering guy is: it's a silent nod to an Agents of SHIELD character, and I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna bring him in as a full cameo in this story yet or not.
To the guest who asked me to keep going: Here's the next installment :)
Thanks to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed. You're the best.
Rach
xoxo