Chapter 29: ...And the Right Hook
In the Capitol
Several of the victors were upset by what had happened to Bucky — but it was clear just looking at Peter Quill that he was beyond upset. He was incensed.
He was as quiet and serious as anyone had ever seen him as he listened to Tivan gleefully explaining the rules for the poison: the first hit was a "warning," a poison meant not to kill but to force whoever was hit to draw in attention — from mutts, other tributes, whatever else was out there. A second day without any deaths would have more serious consequences, as would a third, and so on.
It wasn't at all the system that the victors had been told, and Quill was mad.
"What … who would even suggest something like that?" Sam asked.
"I've got a few ideas," Quill said through his teeth, his gaze never leaving the screen as he ground out, "That kid is seventeen."
"Are there any eighteen-year-olds left?" Logan asked, looking more serious than worried as they watched the events unfold.
"Mine," Jess said quietly, frowning at the screen as, almost on cue, her own tribute and Two's girl could be seen investigating the noise.
"There's no way they're using age as their selection criteria," Henry replied as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "Though the chances of someone much younger getting hit with the toxin or venom are fairly high at this point."
Black Bolt lightly tapped Sam's arm and signed something to him, and Sam frowned. "Yeah, good point — we did get a preview."
"Well, it's not random," Rhodey pointed out. "Barnes was trapped anyway. He wouldn't have gotten into a fight if they hadn't drawn someone to him."
"And if it wasn't for those two …" Logan said with a tip of his head as it was clear Betsy and Remy were trying to help rather than finish him off. "He'd be perfect live bait."
"They might as well put him out of his misery," Bobbi said softly as she watched the two tributes try to dig Bucky out. "If it's specifically targeted like that…"
"You like giving up on people, don't you?" Logan shot her way. "Didn't peg you for a quitter."
"Not my tribute," Bobbi shot back.
"And that's all that matters," he replied with a glare.
"You'd rather he played live bait and dragged them down with him while he's screaming like that?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.
Almost on cue, there was a muted crack, and the screaming on screen stopped. Logan glanced up to see that Betsy had knocked out Peter's tribute and then looked back at the Two mentors. "All I know is she sure as hell didn't learn compassion from you two."
Viper waved her hand and looked irritated. "It's going to come back to haunt her," she said with a tone of finality.
"Not as much as not having a soul is going to come back and haunt you," Logan answered, totally dismissing her.
"How long do you think it lasts?" Jess broke in before Viper could say anything.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Henry said to the crowd at large, though he gave Charles a significant look before the two of them looked over toward Viper, who was clearly much more entertained now.
Quill shook his head at that and pointedly crossed the room to where Black Bolt was. "Listen, bud, you and I gotta talk about what you got your tribute, because if this keeps up, mine's gonna need it," he said in a low tone, steering the Twelve mentor away from the crowd as Black Bolt nodded his solemn understanding and the two went off in search of a more private setting.
Tahiti Wing
Coulson was pretty pleased with himself for pulling together this mission as quickly as he did — with Skye's help, of course.
And because the whole thing was her idea, he'd pulled her in to help run the mission, just so she could see both sides and get a better understanding of how they went from intel to mission work. She'd helped pick the teams out on who went to which district and which family, because, as much as she wanted to help the Awesomes to peek in on their families, it really was too much of a temptation, and they couldn't risk exposing the program when they were getting so close to the culmination of all their plans.
The whole of Tahiti was gathered in the largest briefing room they had, looking excited at the prospect of a mission that required all of them. "You're all early," Coulson said as he looked over the group. "Can't imagine why."
"It's a mystery," Clint agreed with a lazy grin and a nod as most of the other kids sort of smirked around the table.
"This is not an overly dangerous mission," Coulson told them. "And not one of you should be anywhere that will pull much attention, but I ask that for whatever team you're on, you keep the details of your individual assignment to your team only." As he looked around the room at the eager faces, he had to smirk. They would all understand very quickly why he wanted them to stay quiet. He gave Skye a little smile when the first one opened their folder and frowned.
Although Bobbi had been working with most of the kids on covert ops and counter interrogation techniques… some of them did not have poker faces. Peter was practically bouncing in place looking directly across the table toward Kurt and Clint was more or less staring at the file in front of him, falling into a deeper and deeper frown as he did so.
"I'm sure that these assignments may seem slightly of place when compared to the work you've been doing, but I'd like to assure you that this is preparation for the revolution," Coulson said before he glanced toward Skye. "And … a find that I have to credit entirely to Skye."
Natasha glanced up from her file to Skye with an expression that gave nothing away as she asked, almost politely, "Are these considered to be dangerous — or in danger?"
"Not dangerous at all," she answered quickly. "No no. This … these people will be the first that the Capitol will lash out at. I'm 98% sure of it, anyhow."
At that, several of the frowns deepened, and Luke shot a surreptitious glance Peter's way before he closed his file. "Then we're wasting time. Let's keep 'em safe."
"This is just the first step," Coulson said before the kids could get ahead of themselves. "We need to monitor them. We're reasonably sure that they will all be safe until the revolution begins, but we want to know that there are no strong Capitol supporters in the group. Not that it should be an issue with any of these people."
"And even if they are?" Clint asked, one eyebrow raised.
"I just need to know who would need to be isolated when we pull them out," Coulson assured him. "But they will all be pulled out."
"Then I'm with Luke. Let's get moving on this. Sooner the better," Clint said, sliding his file back to Coulson. "How soon can we get in the air?"
Coulson looked over to Skye as he spoke to the group at large. "Transports will be waiting as long as you don't have any more questions for Skye on this." He was smirking her way as she stared at him and tried not to draw too much attention to herself.
But the kids that could usually be counted on for questions seemed to be more or less biting their tongues — whether because, like Peter, they looked like they were ready to burst out with their secret assignments or whether they were processing, it was hard to tell. Still, the whole group of them made for the door, clearly of the mind to get going — except Natasha, who remained seated and perfectly still until the room was clear, her gaze on Skye and giving nothing away at all.
Skye looked up at her, wary, since she knew the girl's reputation. "Hi," she said, waving her fingertips Natasha's way. "Did you want a different assignment?"
"No," Natasha said, shaking her head lightly. "I had a question, but I didn't want the others to hear the answer if I didn't like it." She leaned forward, her fingertips trailing over the file in front of her as she dropped her voice to an almost deadly whisper. "Where did you get the names for these assignments?"
Skye's mouth dropped open the slightest as she took in a breath and glanced at Coulson, who nodded. "I pulled them directly from Ronan's hard drive," she replied.
Natasha's eyes flashed for a moment, but it was the only indication that she was bothered. "And what was he doing with names like this?" she breathed out.
"The Royals don't know a thing about Tahiti," Skye assured her. "I have checked over and over for any indication with a fine toothed comb. This is not that." She rested one hand on the stack of files gathered from the operatives. "This ... is leverage against the victors."
"That really doesn't make me feel any better," Natasha said frankly. "You know these children are thirteen?"
"I know," Skye replied, then let out a breath. "And some of the others are going to protect kids younger than that. Some of them down to four years old. I …. I did not pick out who Ronan and the royals use to make the victors compliant with their unreasonable demands."
Natasha let out a noise in the back of her throat, and her expression twisted into one of loathing as she glanced back down at the file, and at the name 'Wagner' at the top. "You can not tell Kurt these things."
"I had no intention to," Skye said. "That's why we mixed them up — and why Coulson wanted you to keep them to yourselves. You were picked for Kurt's family because we know you won't let it slip who it is that you're helping." She looked much more comfortable talking to Natasha by that time, now that she knew they were more or less on the same page. "Everyone is going to protect people that have been threatened because of one victor or another — and all of them are for victors on our side."
"I'm sure it will be a relief to them when we get these people to safety," Natasha remarked as she stood up and picked up the file to hand it to Skye.
"That's what we're hoping," she replied. "They'll be fighting with us when the revolution starts. We don't need that hanging over their heads while they're doing that."
"You did good," Natasha said to Skye with a little smirk.
"I'm working on more," she replied with almost a proud smile. "But I think that'll be a different team. For vastly different reasons."
"When you do find more names, call me. For whatever you need," Natasha told her, still smirking her way. "If this is what you're working on, I'd like to be part of not only protection... but your vastly different side of the operation as well."
Skye's eyebrows raised a bit, and she glanced over to Coulson, who just smirked wider and said, "I'll be sure keep that in mind, Miss Romanoff, but AD Hill has a team picked out already for that list." Coulson's smirk morphed into a crooked smile as he continued. "She said something about wanting them to know someone was coming for them. Though I'm not entirely sure what that's all about."
Natasha smiled his way, an honest smile. "Lucky team," she said.
"I really wouldn't want to be anyone on that list," Coulson said. "But … if they need backup, I think you'd be a good choice for that assignment."
"Or if you want to switch things up and give them a break for a while," Natasha teased.
"More likely than not, this person won't need a break from it," Coulson said. "But if you want to watch …I know Hill will have a body cam on infiltration. She always does."
Natasha waved her hand. "Maybe I'll take you up — but I'm sure I can find other projects worth my time." She smiled. "Pass on my regards to AD Hill and the director, would you?" she said sweetly as she swept out of the room.
District Twelve
Wade knew exactly why he'd gotten Twelve for an assignment. It was easy enough to figure out, plain enough to see … He was Coulson's favorite. Clearly. And Coulson wanted him not only to bug the Bishops' house ... for … whatever convoluted reason … but also to make sure that Wade had the opportunity to grab something from Twelve to bring back to sweet, sweet Cassielang.
What that was, he had no idea, but it was happening. Somehow.
He did the mission in an inducer, dressed to look like any one of the miners working there, and he'd timed his arrival just so that he had hit the ground between shifts — so an extra guy milling about wouldn't be too suspicious. But when he worked through the town from the area he'd bugged before, down to the slightly more ritzy area of houses and businesses cobbed up right downtown, he slipped off into an alley to flip off the inducer.
He had frowned to himself when he'd heard that Cassielang's stepdad was a Sentinel, but that didn't mean too terribly much to Wade. He was a professional. He could get past one grumpy cop to grab something from her room for her.
I hope she was a unicorn lover, he thought to himself as he scaled the wall to slip into the Bishop's second story window — since he had to do that before he could move on to Cassielang's surprise.
He was fast, and it was clear before he'd scaled the wall that no one was around, so he tried to keep from humming to himself as he leisurely placed the bugs in every room of the house … well. Not every room. He refused to bug the bathroom, since .. well. He sure didn't want to see Kate's dad with his pants down. Ever.
But the rest of the house … it was a breeze. He did pat a teddybear on the head on what had to have been Kate's bed with a little "Hi there, Tiger." Then, he all but skipped from the room and down the stairs.
From there, it was a matter of slipping out again and finding which Sentinel's house was Cassies'. Which was going to be hard. Because he wasn't entirely sure what the stepdad's name was.
Usually, he was good at details, but this guys' name was like a hundred other Sentinel's names, and he just … it melted into the soggy part of his brain and never really did take root.
So. It then became a matter of breaking into several Sentinel's houses. Which was a little more of a task than he'd set out to do. He had to hide the squeal, though, when he dropped into the fourth house and, after a quick glance around the living room, spotted a photo of Cassie and her mom and stepdad still on the mantle.
He was extra cautious as he made his way through the house, but when it was apparent that no one was home, he switched over to a little more playful tone as he started very quietly singing the Mission Impossible theme song to himself, as he dramatically snuck up the stairs.
When he found Cassie's room, he was grinning for a second, hands clasped under his chin as he just had to let out a sigh. She had been so adorable. More so than even now — which was kind of impossible, he was pretty sure.
He took his time looking over the room for something that she would really really appreciate. He looked over the various things on the bookshelf, and then the dresser — mostly appropriate for very small girls, but then …
On the bed, lying on the pillows, was what had to be the ugliest rabbit he'd ever seen in his life. It was threadbare in spots and frankly looked like it belonged in a horror film, but there it was in a place of prominence, so … it had to have been her favorite.
He didn't think twice before he snatched up the rabbit and started to head for the door. He was partway out of her room when he stopped and backed up, looking at the picture on the wall nearest the light switch of a very young Cassie with a man that was most definitely not the Sentinel on the pictures downstairs.
The thought wasn't even fully formed when he just lifted it off the wall and stuck it in his jacket alongside the ugly rabbit.
"Best mission ever," he sang out quietly as he slid down the banister and skipped to the back door.
July 12 - Day Six of the Games
District Two
Clint was glad Coulson had given him the names that he had, because it just put everything in place for the suspicions he'd had for a while now. Dating Bobbi … it was fun, but it was also enlightening about a few things. She was a great actress and all, but he wasn't stupid, despite what people might think.
So the fact that Bobbi's family was on this "list" that Skye had composed ... it was the final piece of the puzzle. All he'd been missing was what these people had on her, and this was it.
So for the first time in a while, Clint went into this mission without any of the usual flippant attitude. For as much as he liked to joke around, he was actually trained well, and breaking and entering a house in the nice part of Two filled with civilians? It was the kind of cakewalk he'd usually just float through, but this time, he was a lot more precise about it.
He'd be lying if he said part of it wasn't curiosity, too. Bobbi didn't talk much about herself, not really, so it was interesting to see all the family portraits around the place. Mom, Dad, sweet kid brother who looked like he worshipped his big sister in just about every picture they had of the two of them before her Games…. All of them blonde and grinning.
Picture perfect family, he couldn't help but think, smirking to himself. Sounded about right for Bobbi.
It wasn't too much work getting the place bugged, especially because, as family of the victor, they spent plenty of time at Bobbi's place, and that was already under surveillance by SHIELD, to keep tabs. Because Fury was one paranoid director.
Clint shook his head to himself as he let himself back out the window of the little home. It was smaller, actually, than he remembered his own home being growing up, but then, everything had looked bigger back then, so he wasn't quite sure. Not like it had been picket fences and smiling family pictures back then anyway, but it was nice to see someone had that in Two at least.
They probably had no idea what Bobbi did for SHIELD. They didn't even lock their back door.
Clint didn't much feel like sightseeing. He wasn't sentimental about Two, and the only nostalgia tour he might have taken was three neighborhoods down and had been one of the homes he and Barney ran from, so he'd rather skip it anyway. So he stuck his hands in his pockets and made his way back to the small jet. He had one last stop to make, this time in the Capitol.
He knew about Hunter; he'd seen the guy around the Capitol when he had been there for his own Games. Nice guy, thicker accent than some of the other escorts, and he seemed to get on well with Bobbi.
Of course, Hunter wasn't exactly home when Clint arrived at the Capitol. The Games were still going on, and anyone associated with them would be out partying or at one of the many massive plazas where Capitolites could gather and watch the Games together, place bets, that kind of thing. So once again, Clint had next to no trouble breaking in.
Hunter had a security system, but it was basic — that was really the only difference between this guy and Bobbi's family.
For a former escort, Hunter's place wasn't too extravagant either. Just the basics: furniture, not much in the way of decorations. The guy lived like a bachelor, if the pizza box in the fridge was any indication.
Since it was only an apartment and not a whole house, this job took Clint significantly less time than the last — about as long as it took him to finish off a slice of cold pizza, actually. He reset the alarm and let himself out, and with that, he headed back to SHIELD, keeping to the shadows as the sound of parties echoed around him and, even outside and in back streets, he could hear the running commentary from Tivan and Uatu on the morning's events, some kind of speculation about how expensive a sponsorship had been.
He wouldn't tell Bobbi a word of the mission he'd been on, but he couldn't help smiling to himself all the way back. He hadn't seen her in a month and a half since the victors were sent back to their home districts ahead of the Games, but ... it was nice to be there for her all the same.
District Seven
"Come on, Sin … this is going to be fun," Jan said as she bumped the younger girl's shoulder. "This is my turf! And it's totally awesome!"
"You've been hanging out with Kate too much," Sin said with a smirk.
"No," she said shaking her head lightly. "I've been away from home for too long, and I miss it." She smiled her way. "Besides, you have an easy one. No one is ever around the orphanage. The kids are out until dark this time of year, and the adults are usually in town while the kids are running wild."
"I could have done something more challenging," Sin sighed.
"Maybe," Jan said. "But you also have more to wire than I do, all things considered."
"Even with that huge house?" Sin asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Oh, I'm not wiring the whole house," she said, shaking her head. "The old man only uses a handful of rooms — his office, his room, and the sitting room. That's all I need to do — and I can't wait to get in that place."
"Why?" Sin scrunched up her nose. "What's so special about it?"
"It's the biggest place in the district," Jan said. "And no one's been invited inside in years! Not since … well. There was a murder …"
"You should have led with that," Sin said, finally showing some interest as she raised both eyebrows and turned Jan's way.
Jan grinned at the opportunity to pass on some well-known local rumors. "The kids all say the place is haunted — and it looks like it from the outside."
"Hard to be haunted when someone's still living there, isn't it?" Sin asked.
"Ah, but you haven't met the Old Man."
"Looks like the undead, I take it?" Sin asked, grinning a little at the mental image.
"No, he's just mean as hell," Jan said. "He pretty much hates everyone."
"That's not a haunting, then. That's just people being, well, people," Sin said.
"That's a person trying to keep up with the devil," Jan countered. "The guy's a piece of work."
"And all I got was rowdy street kids," Sin said, scowling and shaking her head. "Wanna trade?"
"What? You want to go to the sweetest Sentinel's place instead? Because the house on the hill is mine."
"You should learn to share with the younger, less experienced operatives," Sin said with the slightest trace of a snicker.
"Maybe I would if the younger, less experienced operatives shared with me once in a while," Jan said. "You guys hog up all the missions."
"Not my fault you're wrapped up in your idiot genius husband," Sin said, waving her hand dismissively. "Why don't you talk to Kate and Kurt? Give them another year or so, and they can play distracted newlyweds. You can pick up their slack."
"You don't know them very well then," Jan said. "I doubt they'll stop for long — or slow down."
"So ... less than a year."
Jan laughed outright. "Oh, you are funny. Like they could sit still for that long," she said with a grin. "Okay. Have you been to Seven yet?"
"Not on my own," Sin admitted.
"Okay, well, this time of year, it's really easy to sneak around, but everyone is usually outside, so just … take your time moving and keep out of the ferns, okay? They look like a great place to hide, but you so do not want to do that, because that's where the bears hide."
"Got it. Have fun at the haunted house," Sin said with a little smirk and a salute before she headed off into the trees for the coordinates Coulson had given for the orphanage.
Jan shook her head and headed toward the Sentinel's place. Might as well do the sunny side of the mission first. Besides, if what she'd read from Coulson and Skye was right, chances were good that the kids from the orphanage would either be there at the Hudson's place or playing in Groot's garden in the victor's village. Either way, she'd have to take care of that first before dinner time rolled around.
She was a little irritated to see that, while most of the kids weren't there, a couple were — and Mrs. Hudson was outside with them, showing them how to clean the fish that her husband had caught on his day off. Because of course it was his day off. Of course she'd have to sneak around a Sentinel's house in black mission gear while the Sentinel was inside it.
She shook her head at her luck and snuck in the back door after watching closer to be sure that Mr. Hudson wasn't nearby. She startled halfway through the job when she bumped a bedside table and the Sentinel in the shower called out for his wife at the noise. She stared, wide-eyed, sure she was going to get caught, but when he didn't press, she hurried through her job, praying that the woman outside hadn't heard him call.
As it was, she had to slip into a closet as Heather and the two kids came in and passed through the living room on their way to the kitchen. But the door was left wide open, and she just darted out of it before anything else could happen to give her a closer call.
"I hope Sin's having a better time at the orphanage," Jan muttered to herself as she rushed off between buildings and through the trees on the way to the Howlett house.
But Sin was not — in fact — having a better time at the orphanage.
She'd had an easy enough time with the building itself, since Coulson and Skye wanted the offices wired. They wanted to know which way the people running the show were tilting, so that they knew how much danger the kids were in. Sin could understand that.
What she couldn't understand was how, after all the hours of training she had poured into making sure she was a good operative, no less than four small girls still managed to sneak up on her as she let herself down from the window of the orphanage. She turned around, and there they were, all of them with hands on their hips, one little blonde clearly in the lead.
"Are you like the other ninja-guys that were here last winter?" the little blonde asked with a scowl on her face.
Sin moved to skirt around the kids — they weren't part of her mission — but they weren't about to let her get away that easily, practically surrounding her as they made sure to cut off any easy avenue of escape.
"Hey. You gonna answer me, or do we gotta do this the hard way?" the blonde challenged.
Sin let out a sigh. "That… it depends on who the ninja-guys were. Were they bad guys?"
"They lit a fire for us after we got away from the bad guys," a little dark-haired girl answered.
Sin was glad that the mask hid her smirk. Yeah, that sounded like most of the guys in the Tahiti program.
"After they dropped a load of logs on the nasty lady," the tiny redhead with freckles across the bridge of her nose added.
"That definitely sounds like my … friends," Sin said with a little nod.
The blonde took a few steps closer, her face screwed up into a scowl. "You don't sound too sure about that, lady."
"I'm not very good at making friends. But I do work with them," Sin tried to explain. "I'm just checking on things here. They're somewhere else right now, probably dropping logs on someone else."
"What's your name?" the blonde asked, crossing her arms.
"I can't tell you that. What's yours?" Sin challenged.
The blonde looked over one shoulder and then back to Sin, and in a flash, the four little girls flat-out attacked her. They took her legs out first, and each of them moved to pin a limb to the ground before the blonde answered her. "I was told to take down strangers that won't tell me their name."
Sin had no idea what to do with this. She could handle bad guys trying to take her down, or sparring partners, but the oldest in this group was, what, eight? What the heck was she supposed to do with tiny assailants like this? "Come on, let me up. I've got to get home."
"Tell me your name first," the blonde said.
"Did the other ninja guys tell you theirs?"
"No, but when I told my friend about them, he said I needed to know their names."
"But they were good guys, right?"
"Good guys aren't always good all the time," she replied wisely. "'Specially ones creepin' around little kids."
"I'm not creeping." Sin sounded supremely insulted.
"Black ninja suit … sneakin' in a window. Looks an awful lot like creepin'," the redhead said.
"I'm creeping on the people in charge," Sin tried to explain. "Just to make sure they're not mean."
The girls shared a look between themselves. "I think she's telling the truth, Elsie," the dark-haired girl said quietly.
Elsie shot her a look and looked down at Sin. "I'm going to let you up. But if I think you're lying — the whole bunch of us are gonna take you down."
"Great. I'm leaving anyway."
"I thought you were checking out the people running this place," the redhead said with a frown. "We can show you where they like to stay."
Sin paused. She'd already wired the offices, but… "If it's not the offices, that would be good."
"They're not in the offices too much," Elsie said. "But they have a lounge … it used to be an art room."
"Show me."
The little pack of girls led the way through the halls, stopping and peeking around corners almost in formation as they took Sin down to the lounge — which, thankfully, was empty. "We'll watch for you," one of them whispered before the girls did indeed turn their backs and spread out to watch around the corners.
Sin shook her head. What did they teach these girls at this place? But she pushed that question aside for the moment and focused instead on getting the place wired before she turned to the small army of determined little girls. "Thanks, I'm done here. Anyplace else I should know about?"
The girls shared a look and shook their heads. "Not really," Elsie said. "But the next time I see you, you better be ready to give me a name."
"Or you'll take me down again?" Sin asked.
"Hard," the redhead agreed. "We were nice about it this time."
"Well, we'll see if there even is a next time," Sin said, already making a mental note to tell Coulson that he'd better make sure whoever was in charge of getting these kids out of danger was not a secret operative.
Jan, meanwhile, had slipped into the Howlett place with no trouble. Security was next to non-existent, though she was sure that back when John was in charge of the place, there were a lot more people around — which would have made sneaking in next to impossible.
But with the old man in charge, it was a cakewalk for anyone so inclined to even try. The place was like a museum, which was nice to see, but a little disappointing for someone that had heard all the rumors. No haunting bloodstain anywhere that Jan saw anyhow … and wiring the rooms that Coulson had instructed her to wire was pretty straightforward once she figured out where they were.
Everything she'd needed to do was on the main level, which was also a bit disappointing because the more she saw, the more she wanted to explore. But when her comm went off signaling that Sin had finished up, she let out a little sigh and turned away from the tempting-looking hall of doors and past the grand staircase that was calling her name to just … take a little peek.
If this guy was trouble, there'd be time to poke around later when they set up better surveillance, but if what Jan knew about him was true … that wasn't going to happen. He was just mean. He wasn't a Capitol supporter. Not really. Just mean.
Finally, she slipped out of the house and high-tailed it to the transport. "Your timing is awful," Jan said with a little frown Sin's way when she got there. "I could have used another ten, fifteen minutes. Or more."
"Yeah? Well, I was escaping a small girl army," Sin grumbled, her arms crossed over her chest.
Jan had to laugh at that. "Oh, that sounds terrible."
"It was. They wouldn't let me leave, because I wouldn't give them my name," Sin grouched. "How are you supposed to fight off kids?"
"You could have made a name up," Jan pointed out. "And how could they stop you from leaving?"
"They surrounded me and took a limb apiece," Sin said. "And I don't fight kids."
"Awww, you liked them," Jan said as she reached over and ruffled Sin's hair quickly. "Do you wish you'd been part of a small girl army?"
Sin batted Jan's hand away and glared at her. "Stop that."
"Come on, you should probably tell Coulson about your 'army'."
Sin just stuck her tongue out at Jan but allowed the older girl to set the coordinates as they headed back home.
