5499/Changeling: Absent Without Leave

Changeling: Absent Without Leave
Date of Scene:	05 October 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye's escaped, Clint kept it secret, May is unsurprised and Lumley is mad.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Quake, Melinda May
Tinyplot:	Changeling

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Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Earlier...

Clint hated being cooped up. Always had meaning protective custody had not been sitting well with him even with the whole Triskelion at his disposal. For the most part he spent his time training and going over intel on the Dragons, on The Benefactor and any reports coming in about Cal, in short the people keeping him here.

Though he had been down on the range before coming back to the apartment in the Trisk. Dressed in jogging pants and a tank top he'd dropped his bow and quiver on the grey-not-purple pretender couch and headed to the kitchen for a beer.

That's when he saw it, the note, it read: I'll explain when I get back. <3 Skye

It was stuck to the beer.

She knew him so well.

Sighing he took a beer out of the sixer and hip checked the door closed.

This wasn't good, right? I mean, it didn't say where she was going, but 'I'll explain when I get back' in Skye was rarely something good. Still, he knew she could handle herself, and well, he didn't blame her for wanting to get out, hell he was just pissed she didn't call him to join her.

"Ugh," he says, as he cracks his beer. He trades the beer to his right hand and checks his watch, "She's got four hours," he says to himself, and plunks himself down on the couch beside his gear.

It'd been a long day, and a week with too little sleep. A beer and a couple of games of Bass Pro 10 later, he's asleep.

Quake has posed:
His transition back to SHIELD had been rough. Sure, the whole agent in training thing made sense, and it spared him a lot of explaining - most of the folks he ran into didn't even know who he was. They saw the 'in training' bit and he was just another face in the crowd. Which suited Lumley fine while he struggled to get back on his feet and decide if SHIELD was really where he wanted to be.

Right now, though, he did want to be here, because here was how he was going to deal with the problem of Cal Johnson. One thing Lumley *was* sure of, he was tired of that monster ruining his life.

Which is why he'd been struggling so hard to remember any details - any - that might help with the search for Skye's father, and put the monster away. He'd thought he'd remembered something about that day. It was a trivial little thing - probably nothing, but it wasn't anything that was on the official records. His partner had picked it up. In fact, up until now, Lumley had thought it had travelled with Skye.

What he'd found was it had been stored away with his partner's personal effects - the ones they'd been unable to deliver to her family because she'd had none.

And that was how he'd found out that Skye wasn't in the Triskelion.

Which left him few a few choices of what to do. Ultimately, though, Assistant Director May is where he headed. She wasn't just level headed, she knew the girl. If there was anyone who could get to the bottom of this, it would be she.

Melinda May has posed:
May is not difficult to find, something she is currently VERY displeased about. But, until Hill comes back and she can stop having to play Deputy Director, she has to deal with it. She still spends most of every day wanting to punch something. Or someone.

Completely unaware that Skye has gone and done something staggeringly stupid, she's just leaving the Command center in search of something even vaguely palatable to eat when Lumley manages to track her down. The agent-in-training doesn't get more than half of his explanation out before she's frowning and turning to head for Clint and Skye's current quarters at a surprisingly brisk pace considering her height.

She gives only one cursory knock on the door before overriding the lock to step inside.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

"Huh, what?" Clint groans as there's a knock at his door.

Then the door opens and May and Lumley (?) are coming through his door. He's still much like he arrived in a tank top and jogging pants, boots kicked off on the floor, empty beer can on it's side on the coffee table.

He gets to his feet.

"Hey, what gives, me and Skye could have been naked in here," Clint complains, it was a cover though a stall to buy time because he could guess why they were there.

He glances at his watch and boggles. How long had he been asleep?

Quake has posed:
Lumley had lain his concerns out for Agent May, "Look, I'm not saying she's a monster, but her father sure is. And I know how it is for all them system kid types. Always was a reason we snapped them up. Not just no family to worry about them, but no family for them to get messed in the head about. Likely she's run off to grab some stuff at home. Not sure. But sure would be a bitch if she's gone off to join that dad of hers and let herself be talked into some romantic notion of being a family."

By then, Clint has the door open.

"Uh, no offense sir."

Lumley has the grace to look uncomfortable.

Melinda May has posed:
And Lumley's concerns are exactly why May just barged in to the two agents' quarters the way she did. Skye is more than smart enough to know WHY protective custody was ordered in the first place, and just reckless enough to not care when something important to her comes down the pike.

May can only hope that Skye bothered to tell Clint where she was going.

"Tell us where Skye has gone," she tells the archer without so much as a 'hello, how have you been?' and his casual attire along with the console game on the TV are ignored just as easily as if she HAD barged in on him and Skye in some state of undress. Though she might have preferred that simply because that would mean that Skye had NOT flown the coop.

Damnit.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"No problem. And welcome back by the way," Clint says to Lumley first before addressing the tiny Asian woman likely about to kick his ass. "And I don't know, she left a note saying she'd explain everything when she got back. Sort of a wide window of possiblities there."

He was hoping she'd just gone to check on her friend Matt, or maybe went off to talk to her super-secret friends, both were likely, but then so was her looking for Cal.

Quake has posed:
Lumley regards the senior agent, and the oh so obviously being played video game, and the open beer.

"So. Let me get this straight. Your girlfriend has gone of to do who knows what, leaves you a note, and you decide now's as good a time as any to sit your ass down and play a game of.. what is that? Fishing?"

Lumley isn't up on video games.

"And we're supposed to believe you don't know where she's gone? Not sure I'mm buying that.. sir. Because what I see here is a man dragging his heels reporting a missing Agent under protective custody. That smacks of you damn well know what you think she's up to and you're covering her ass."

To May, "Pretty sure we can track her last actions down?" Other than it's Skye, and she's pretty good at covering video and data tracks. Mind you, her visit to the Neon Dragon is totally recorded and is likely to give a lead or three.

Melinda May has posed:
While Lumley clearly has no qualms about calling Clint out, May knows he's likely doing a good enough job of kicking himself now so she doesn't add to it. Instead, she calls in to Ops and asks for any and all footage of Skye's whereabouts in the Triskelion for the past... seven hours, after she gives Clint, the game, and the beer another glance.

But, while they have to wait for those results, she shakes her head no at the agent in training to stop his tirade from continuing. "You might need to suit up, Barton. If Skye's off base, we'll need to track her down and if necessary get her back." She doesn't have to go into any details, she's confident that the archer can infer the rest on his own.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint was indeed kicking himself and Lumley wasn't helping with that. The archer bristles.

"Hey, Lumely, what's six more than one?" he asks the man, talking levels, Clint's seven to Lumley's one. He was pulling rank here. Not something Barton did often, which is a sure sign to May that Lumley got to him.

"I'll suit up, but seriously, I've got now clue where she went, I just trust her, you know, since we trained her to be what she is," he says before adding, through gritted teeth, "And Lumley's right, there might be something to the interrogation vid."

If the guy gave up something about Skye's father.

Quake has posed:
Lumley just shakes his head. "I was pulling rank before you even knew we existed, boy. And that girl of yours is only around here today because of me and my team, so you wanna pull rank, you go ahead.. SIR.. but I ain't sorry for saying what needed saying. I came back for that girl. Not you."

Lumley nods about the interrogation. May's already on top of that, and it's on its way to her location.

When talk of suiting up enters the conversation, though, he does tone it down enough to say in quiet tones, "Wouldn't mind being part of that. Kinda feel obligated to see this through."

Skye's case had stuck with him through the years. He'd be glad to see it resolved.

Melinda May has posed:
"Enough. Both of you. We need to review the footage and see if we can figure where Skye would have gone and when. If you two choose to keep bickering like children, I'll leave you both here and go after her myself. Understood?"

With that said, May picks up the first tablet her eyes land on and quickly enters her credentials to access the data she'd requested. She makes a mental note to commend whomever in Ops compiled the data, because they flagged Skye's movements with time and location stamps and organized them with one particular set highlighted. Those are the ones she goes to first.

Interesting.

Quake has posed:
As it happens, Skye didn't cover her tracks. At least not in the way she would were she to not want anyone to find her.

First thing of note is easily accessible. Skye visited the leader of the Neon Dragons who was in their custody. Notably, she didn't take her lighter in - everything in that discussion is on record, and can be listened to. The gist: Skye traded protection for the man's young daughter in exchange for information about her father, and how to find him. It seems the tale the man tells of her father is not what everyone has seen so far.

There is also mention of a hit that had been put out on both Skye and Clint by the Dragons.

Almost immediately after that, Skye puts in an order to motorpool for Gretel.

She does take advantage of shift change, and the fact that she and jigger requests and such, and that she's not under house arrest, but protective custody, to slip out under full view of all tracking. Her flight is totally legit under anything registered by SHIELD - other than the fact she's not supposed to have left for her own protection.

Notobably, she was given some co-ordinates in Mikwaulkee (from her talk with the Dragon leader). Persumably she's looked them up, but as they aren't on file, that was likely done on her personal computer.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Yes ma'am," Clint says and shuts up. Though he does pause to watch the footage. If he had, he'd have acted sooner.

"Jesus, she's going after her Dad," he says. The co-ordinates don't immediately ping for Barton, except as being somewhere in around the Great Lakes. Wow, that was a hell of a trip...

"So, where do we meet up before we go after her?" he asks the other agents, meaning after they gear up.

Quake has posed:
Lumley is experienced enough he doesn't need to look smug, or chastized. They've a job to do, so he defers to May in this. "I'll need time to gear up. Hoping I might be allocated more than the training guns." Yeah, a request will have to be put in. That's easily covered, though.

Melinda May has posed:
As soon as they're done watching the footage, May is calling in to Ops again. "I'm getting a quinjet prepped, Barton. Pick who you want to go with you."

As much as she wants to go out there herself to get Skye back, her current duties are going to prevent it. She's hared off enough as it is.

"You're to keep me constantly appraised. Check in every hour, no matter what."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint figured they'd be going with a jet. "Sure thing, Lumley, you're in. Let's grab a tactical team, and if Fitzsimmons have anything that can take down Cal, I'll grab it on the way to the jet." Naturally he means non-lethally, if he wanted to take him down lethally he'd just get an anti-tank rifle.

As for others to include, he puts a call out to a handful of available agents he can trust. "I'd call the Hulk but Milwaukee isn't that bad of a town," Clint jokes, plus he figured Banner would be looking for the missing mansion around now.

"And right, check ins every hour," the way he says it sounds like he means it. He had some things to make up for here.

He heads for the door, "Lumley, meet me on the tarmac."

Melinda May has posed:
May nods to Clint and Lumley and shuts the tablet back down before turning and leaving. Now she gets the oh so FUN task of filling out the paper work giving both Barton and Skye approval to be out and about... even if Skye's paperwork is being done after the fact.

And she has EVERY intention of having a serious chat with the younger agent when she returns.