5483/Changeling: Fathers and Daughters

Changeling: Fathers and Daughters
Date of Scene:	02 October 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	A captured Neon Dragon flips, painting a very different picture of Skye's father than the madman she knows.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Quake
Tinyplot:	Changeling

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Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The word came from Agent Shen assigned to interrogate Chang Yu, the member of the Neon Dragons captured on the docks, the leader of the group sent to kidnap Clint, and the word was that Chang Yu wanted to talk; but only to Skye.

"He wouldn't say why," Agent Shen informs her. "Just that it had to be you, given he's said jack all since we brought him in, I thought it might be worth a try."

The agent waits for a reply.

Quake has posed:
Skye had been poking at her laptop - she's supposed to be looking for leads on Genus, but the whole matter of Clint's kidnapping, and the recent goings on with the telepaths in their custody, and other matters, not the least of which was the fact that her father was a psychopathic killer, had left her distracted and unfocused. Unable to settle down into her work.

"Hrm. Me?" Skye nods to herself. "I could go talk to him. Is there a security detail on board to cover?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Agent Shen nods. "Yeah, and he'll be chained to the table the whole time you're in there.," he explained. "I don't know if you got the latest updates, but it sounds like his buddies in the Dragons aren't too happy with him and put a hit team on finding his family. We let him find out, kind of hoping that this is what's spurring on this whole sudden desire to talk."

Shen rubs the back of his neck. "Though if he's trying to take you out, he'll have cuffs on and the security team will be right outside the door. That going to work?"

Quake has posed:
"Wait, what? Someone told him that I'm family? Whose bright idea was that?" Because really, the last thing Skye needed was people spilling her secrets all over the place.

Belatedly, she realizes the man means the hit was out on Chang Yu's family. "Oh. Sorry. I'm just a bit edgy." Only a *little* bit edgy. Riiight. "This whole thing is a mess. Fine. Let's go. I wasn't getting work done anyway."

She closes up her laptop and stuffs it into her satchel. Maybe, she thinks, this little talk will allow her to get some work done after.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Wait, no, no," Shen begins before Skye latches onto what he meant and corrects things.

"Yeah, the Dragons are gunning for his family. Seems like he's taking the blame for the big blow up at the docks, the Gotham crew is /pissed/," Shen says leading the way to security. "And thanks for doing this, anything you can find out from this guy would be a help."

Quake has posed:
Skye gives a grim little nod. There had been too many losses leading up to that fight, and too many more that would happen if they didn't get to the bottom of all this. That Clint had been retrieved safely, and mostly without harm, had not changed the fact that things could have gone much worse, and that there was a lot at stake in getting some answers.

"Don't mention it," Skye says, forcing a twisted little smile to her lips. "Part of the job, right? Lead on."

She follows the man to where Chang awaits her questioning.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
True to Agent Shen's word, a security team is waiting outside the interogation room when he and Skye arrives. The monitor above the door shows the same plain walled interogation room like Skye had spent time in after Tidepool. Chang Yu, bald, straight backed, sits in a grey jumpsuit with his arms chained to the desk.

Shen says, "Make sure you don't have any loose items in your pockets when you go in," he says offering her a plastic tub to put those items in. "We'll be watching on the monitors, if he tries something we'll come in, also if he decides to be an asshole and try and pretend he doesn't speak English, wave me in and I'll translate."

Quake has posed:
Skye empties her pockets. She does hesitate when it comes to her lighter. That she wants to keep. Wants to be able to shut out matters being spoken of in the room. But it's not just a weapon, it's a weapon with considerable damage capability. Fire is quite a potent equalizer; even if Chang is restrained, should he get free..

In the end, she makes a decision that has less to do with the danger of keeping the lighter on her, than it does acknowledging that the time for secrets in this matter was fast coming to a close.

It's with conscious effort that she puts the last of her loose items into the bin, and nods that she's ready to be waved into the room.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Shen takes the tub and sets it aside then giving a nod to the security team, they open the door.

The man waiting inside looks up, eyes flashing with recognition when he sees Skye. He almost tires to stand but the rattling of his cuffs stops him.

Instead he simply says, "Thank you for seeing me."

Quake has posed:
Skye doesn't smile back. But she does come and sit down. She wasn't sure until she did so that she would.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here because I have a team who you and your people are putting in danger. So don't get too excited yet."

She presses her lips together, almost scowling. Almost, but not quite. In some ways she knows her anger is just displaced. This man might be a criminal, and he might have been part and parcel of the harm done to Clint, but ultimately, it was her father, and all the mess surrounding the things she was learning about her life that were responsible for her anger. As such, she was trying not to let her actions come from the wrong place.

"You wanted to see me? Why?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Chang Yu nods, "I understand," he says his voice reminding her of the one she heard using Clint's phone arranging the meet.

"Why you? Your father is a man of honour and I hope that trait carried on to his daughter, like I hope it has carried on to mine. I hoped we could talk and perhaps come to an arragement that would let me save my family."

Quake has posed:
There's that thin, pursed line of lips from Skye. Near disgust.

"A man of honour? He had my boyfriend kidnapped. You were.. you were trying to kill someone. You *hurt* him. What kind of monster does that? What kind of honour makes that okay?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Chang looks up at Skye from where he sits, "Yes, he did all of that,, and he is clearly not well, but he also saved my daughter and helped me get revenge on the men who hurt her. Those were the acts of an honourable man. And he has done more than that to ensure you are safe."

Chang lets those words sink in.

"I can tell you more if you like."

Quake has posed:
Skye doesn't want to hear this tale. She has no desire to see her father in any light than that which will leave her able to keep her friends safe. But knowing what her father had done to engender this loyality, and understanding the man better - /THAT/ - would also keep her friends safe.

"I'm listening," she says, trying not to sound as angry and dismissive as she feels.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Chang grasps the tiny thread of interest like a life line. "I live in Madripoor, have you been? If you have you know Lowtown is a miserable place, your father worked there, in our territory, he had a clinic, a tiny place, near a noodle shop. Anyhow, I never paid your father any mind, but the people in the area they seemed to love him. I learned why when one of my rivals tried to take my life, the," he swears in Chinese. "Missed and hit my daughter. She was bleeding out on the street, I clutched her to me and I thought all was lost before your father came, he took her from me, took her back to the clinic while I followed and spent the next four hours saving her life with too few supplies, and my constant interference."

He looks down at the memory, and looks up his face pained. "I owed him for that and then all the more for his help in taking apart those responsible for the crime. It is why when he came to us having heard of your tresspasses against us in Hong Kong, he came and bargained for yor pardon, and why when he came to me with this idea of his, this trade, I took it to our leadership on his behalf."

His eyes tilt down again as he tugs idly at his cuffs. "So, I am hoping you will help me save my daughter now, in exchange, if you want, I can help you find him. I know he longs to meet you."

Quake has posed:
Skye's features work around and through anger and distrust, and interest she's resentful of allowing herself to have. She can't help it, though - this picture of her father is fathoms away from the man she knows.

"I'm supposed to feel.. what? Do you know how many people he's killed? I watched him try and.." To be fair, Skye didn't know what Cal's plans for Lumley were. It was entirely possible that Cal was trying to save Lumley from Hydra - certainly to use him to leverage Skye, but possibly also to save him. She shook her head to clear that thought away.

"I've been to Madripoor," she answers the man. "You know I have."

His words stir up all sorts of other emotions, though. Most of them a deep seated feeling of responsibility for what was now to come. Not because Cal was her father, but because in a warped way, she and Clint had started this with their job in Hong Kong, and while she didn't feel pity for the criminal in the sense that he /was/ a criminal - she also knew that out there was a very likely innocent girl who hadn't asked for any of this, and was now in danger.

Because of her.

"You know I'll look all of this up, right? You. Your family. This daughter you claim you have."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Chang looks at her, shrewd eyes taking in her expression. "I am hoping you are feeling merciful, I know what I've done will likely see me in prison for the rest of my very short life, but, my daughter, if she can be saved..." he trails off the shrewdness in his eyes replaced with emotion. "She is an innocent, and I am hoping you have the same kindness in your heart as your father had."

"I know, I've seen it, he has done bad things many of them-" he checks that line of thought and switches gears. "And I know you will look into this, I know who you are, and your involvement in the Rising Tide."

Quake has posed:
"Everyone knows of my involvement in the Rising Tide. If you expected that to make some sort of difference, sorry, you misplayed that. I can't be leveraged with it."

Well, possibly. In some specific instances, but not in this one. And certainly not by him.

"How old is she?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"No, I merely said it to say I expected, indeed hoped you would look, if anyone is going to find her before the Dragons do, it would be someone with your skills," Chang explains.

The second question is met with a quick answer: "Ten, and her name is Shufen."

Quake has posed:
Skye nods. And without her volition, her features soften. "I'll do what I can. And when I find her, who do I take her to?" Because if there's one thing Skye can say with certainty, she's not about to adopt a kid. She and Clint have enough on their plates right now, even if they were the having kids sorts. A child be default... it was bad enough she was going to feel somewhat responsible for this girl no matter where she placed her.

"The Dragons are dangerous to my people. I can help your daughter better if I know more about them." She says this, even though what she really wants is to ask more about her father.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Chang notes the softening features and allows himself a small smile. "My cousins live in Starling. Take her there after I am sent to prison, the Dragons will get to me there, and will no longer need to find my daughter."

As to the Dragons, he frowns, the idea of betrayal not sitting well with him even after being betrayed in turn. "What do you want to know?"

Quake has posed:
Skye recognizes that frown for what it is.

"Enough to keep your daughter safe," she says simply, turning tables on him. Knowing full well the emotional blackmail she's employing, even as she also knows it's both utterly true, and necessary: the best way to rescue the girl, and to keep her safe, were the same things that would help her people.

"Then I'll listen to whatever else you want me to about my father."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
There is a slightly stunned look from Chang at that, before he concedes to the logic of it.

"The Madripoori faction, my faction of the Dragons will be after my daughter, they're centered on Lowtown and I can explain where to find them and where to find my daughter," he says and does exactly that laying out locations of hangouts and businesses, as well as the place that his daughter would have likely sought shelter at.

"Besides them, I can provide information on the Dragons in Gotham. From what your agents told me their leader, Tony Li, called for the hit," he says. "I don't know their operations well but this is what I know..." he gives over the information, what safehouses and contacts he knows.

"Will that be enough?" he asks.

Quake has posed:
Skye nods, listening, and filing all he says away in her mind, even as she knows it is being recorded. And when he's done, she also does as she promised, and listens to whatever else he might wish to impart about her father, adding only, in the end, "How do I find him? My father. If I wanted to talk to him, how do I find him?"

Knowing full well as she says it that she's moved from the bounds of rhetorical into reality. She has every intention of looking Cal up. Even if it's going to mean sneaking out of the Trisk to do so.