3266/Failure is Not Acceptable

Failure is Not Acceptable
Date of Scene:	27 November 2017
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Natasha is upset after failing to stop the assassination of the President. She is drowning her sorrows when Clint arrives to give her a pep talk. Some fellow agents arrive just as a bar fight breaks out, thanks to Natasha.
Cast of Characters:	Black Widow (Romanoff), Hawkeye (Barton), Winter Soldier, Virgil Aimes

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Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    Natasha never came into the office today. When asked, no one knew where she was although it would've been a simple matter to find her. She had her commlink. They could track her. She hadn't ghosted out as she was wont to do from time to time when it suited her.
    After moving the prisoner to a secure location the day before, Natasha had been busy with paperwork and debriefings. Many hours later, she was released to go home but the anti-mutant demonstrations had required SHIELD to respond. She had done so to assist with crowd control and to be sure no one got too rowdy. So far so good. It wasn't going to last. Everyone knew that things were going to explode at any moment.
    When she was notified of the situation with the shapeshifter impersonating the First Lady, that is when things went sideways for the Widow. She had failed. Failure was not something she could live with.
    Her options to cope were usually one of two things. She could beat the hell out of someone, usually fellow agents under the auspice of training. Or she could drink.
    She went with option two. The bar was seedy to say the least. Filled with lowlifes itching for a fight. The beer was warm, the lights were low and the music was coming out of a jukebox that looked about fifty years old. Natasha was seated in the far end of the room, back to a wall as she watched people and finished off another shot of vodka. There was a bottle which was halfway empty. She poured another.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
A cane is leaned against the bar. "Got another glass?" Clint asks as he sits down beside Widow. "Or do I need to get my own bottle?"

Clint had spent the better part of the day on the helicarrier helping run down leads on Darkholm, but now, he was here for his friend. He didn't push or pry, he just waited for her response falling into the easy rythum of their strange partnership.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    A flick of her hand to the bartender is all it takes. A moment later he arrives with a glass. "Another bottle," Natasha says upon his arrival. He heads back off to get one. While he is gone, Natasha keeps her eyes on the crowd instead of looking over to Clint. Despite the alcohol in her system, she's coiled and ready to do something, anything, perhaps hoping that a fight breaks out so she can work off her frustrations.
    He knows her better than most people. He's seen her like this before when she has failed. Or believes she has, even when it wasn't true. Once the second bottle arrives, then she glances over at her partner. "I was in the room with her."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Oh, Nat's likely going to get her wish. A guy with a cane, that was a victim to guys like the sort who hung out in a bar like this. That guy sitting down at the bar with the hottest woman in the joint, that was provocation. There are grumblings.

Clint doesn't seem to care, but he does notice, he smiles. He'd been out of sorts since the fight with Castiel. He'd been steamrolled and so he was eager to turn the tables on someone and let off some steam.

There's a nod given to the bartender as he brings a glass, then a bottle. "Thanks pal," Clint says before leaning on the bar, and pouring himself a stiff shot. "I know," he says to Nat. He manages to cram a lot into those two words, that these things happened, that sometimes the other guy wins, and also, fuck those things and those people.

Dropping his voice and glancing backwards briefly he says, "My balance is a little off, long story, but I should be able to keep up."

Back to normal volume. "We'll find her. You can let her know what you think of her when we do."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"She's more of a ghost than I have ever been," Natasha says in response to that. The ability to turn into another person is perfect for the life of a spy. There is no way to track someoen who can be anyone. They both know that. "I just feel..." She stops. He knows what she feels. That she looked the woman in the face and didn't read anything off about her. She frowns and tosses back the next shot. Then she removes her light leather jacket, revealing the black tank top she is wearing underneath. Her legs are covered in blue jeans. A pair of black boots complete the ensemble. There are no signs of weapons but she is never without when she is in public. She just hides them better than most people. He will be able to pick up on them. The gun in the boot, the knife at her back, under the shirt and running along her spine.
    As the grumbling starts, she smiles and keeps her face turned to Clint. Otherwise, he won't be able to read her lips, should the noise in the room swell so his hearing aids can't compensate. Which is when she notices they are missing. Her brow furrows. "Why is your balance off, Clint?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint gulps down the first shot relishing the burn of cheap hard booze rolling down his throat. He sets down the glass. "True, but everyone leaves a trail online, even shapeshifting mutants," Clint argues. Yep, Skye's had an influence on him. "Now catching her once we've found her digital trail, that's the hard part." Clint is ever the optimist or at least, he falls into that role when he needs to run counter to Nat's dark Russian moods. "As for looking her in the face and missing it wasn't her. You had other things on your mind Nat. There was a train car on the White House lawn and one of the most powerful mutants in the world out there with it." He pours another drink and downs it. "Cut yourself some slack."

Clint for his part is dressed in a leather racing bike jacket of purple and black (of course), blue jeans and a t-shirt.

Yep no hearing aids, and a cane to boot. "I can hear again," he says. "Fixing it messed with my inner ear. Threw my balance off." She'd know he didn't have any surgeries planned or booked even if such a thing could fix his problem.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    That snaps her attention away from her pity party. "What?! How?" Natasha demands, turning on her barstool to face him fully. She even reaches up a hand as though to touch his ear, as though that would help solve the mystery, but stops herself halfway and drops her hand back to her lap. She knows that surgically, they still hadn't found a way to fix that problem. They could clone people and all number of other medical miracles but his hearing being returned had thus far evaded medical procedures. So for him to suddenly be able to hear...
    His balance being off has her frowning a little as she considers the milling figures that are starting to work each other up, steeling themselves to approach the pair at the bar and start trouble. He'll still be able to handle himself, she's sure. She'll just keep a closer eye on him than she might otherwise.
    Absently, she fills their glasses one last time.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint turns, keeping the goons in his peripherals while he answers Nat's question. "Short version, it was a guy claiming to be an angel, felt bad about beating me up so he healed me, /all/ of me." By the look he gives Nat, he's not being funny and all of it, it sort of scared the shit out of him, however glib he may sound about it. It's also why he was glad to find Nat in a bar. He needed the drink, and the fight, as well. "There's a report back at work with the details," he says then flashes a bit of a self-effacing smile. "Leave it to me to some how fuck myself up by getting healed."

He nods thanks when she pours him his drink and he downs it, knowing that Nat would compensate for his weakness. It's why he brought it up.

"Big guy at your six, Nat," he says. "Favouring his right leg a bit." The bar thugs had just about enough nerve now to come play.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    "An angel?" That is said with no emotion attached but the idea strikes her as ludicrous. It shouldn't. They have demons working in BPRD down in WAND so why would the concept of angels be any different. Wait, healing angels. She remembers Cyberdragon recently getting hurt and being healed. "Brunette in a rumpled trenchcoat, by chance?" It woudld be too convenient for that to be true.
    As he warns about the one behind her, it earns a wicked grin from Natasha as she gives Clint a salute with her shot glass. "You know I like 'em big." Then she downs the vodka before slamming the glass upside down on the bar. Then she raises her voice as she keeps her eyes on Clint. "I had heard this place was filled with tough guys. Apparently, we screwed up and arrived on ladies night instead."
    That did it. All hell breaks loose.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Yep," Clint says. "I told him most guys go for god if they're claiming supernatural power, but apparently this guys an underachiever," he says with casual glibness. Though when she mentions Cyberdragon's story, his eyes widen a little, telling Nat what she needed to know before he answers, "Yeah, that's the guy. Think he's stalking people from work? May knows him too."

"I recall," Clint says putting his own glass down on the bar in similar fashion. He turns, grabbing his cane as he does, knowing Nat was going to say something provocative. He wasn't disappointed. He's grinning when the first guy comes at him, a wiry guy, but looked tough as a coffin nail. But apparently not as tough as Clint's cane, which sends him toppling to the sticky bar room floor.

He glances down at the thing, "Gonna keep this," he says, before he parries a guy's punch with it and before landing one of his own in the man's face.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    The big guy behind her is the first one to swing. He didn't like being called a lady. Go figure that a crowd like this would take that as an insult.
    Natasha ducks under his arm and swings in closer, going for a punch to the stomach then stepping away as he makes a grab for her. She brings up a foot, taking him in the kidney with it. A moment later and she is grabbing the arm that is swung her way, using it to flip herself upwards as her legs wrap around the thug's head. Between her momentum and her weight, she twists her body to the side and he falls like a tree in the forest. She releases a moment before he hits the floor, landing in a crouch. Her hands go no where near that nasty floor.
    More are moving in and she smiles. "You should get one that folds up though. Easier to carry. I know a guy who can get you a really sturdy one." Then she is stepping up to the next guy and going for a quick punch to the throat which has him falling back gasping for air.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Bucky decides he needs a drink to help drown his woes and thoughts....that, and he wanted to check on Natasha. though when he can hear noises of a fight from the distance he's at, he becomes suspicious, and enters warily. Dressed incognito and definately looking like the average joe, Bucky straightens his baseball cap before he walks in.

aaaaaand there's the woman he's looking for. Natasha in a bar brawl. What else could be new. But! He knew she could handle herself, and he also sees Clint duking it out with the locals as well. Taking a small sigh, Bucky bobs and weaves past people, walking up to the bar casually to order a drink.

A man comes behind him to grab his shoulder and bucky casually elbows him right in between the nose and forehead. Out like a light. "Thank you." he says humbly when he receives his drink.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Definitely," Clint takes a glancing blow off his ribs, he counters with a headbut that breaks the other guy's nose. "Give me," he parries, a punch then hooks a leg with the cane and yanks. "his number. These things are useful."

He's found a little space where the guys are working up the courage to come at him again.

Wait, is that Barnes?

The distraction is enough and one of the guys comes at him. Clint gives him a kick. Bad call, his balance is still recovering and while he connects, he ends up on his ass.

He gets up, swinging the cane around him to clear some space, while he does he sees Bucky order a drink. "Really? You're sitting this one out? What is this, '39-'41 or something?" he asks, before having to throw another punch.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I'll ask him about it for you," Natasha counters as she...well, counters. A punch was aiming for her head and she blocks, bringing an uppercut to his chin and sending the man sprawling. She follows with a kick to the chin to knock him out cold. "He's kind of private."
    As Clint goes down, she is already taking a step that way but she should've known better. He's already up and wielding that cane like an expert. Instead she ducks under another blow from the side, going for a side kick and stopping the man in his tracks. "Barnes? Here?" She turns her head to the bar, spotting the figure that is probably the man in question although she can't really see his face. Too busy to worry about it either as she dodges pool cue swung in her direction.
    "That's right. Sit on your butt and let us do the work. Order another bottle of vodka for us while you're at it."

Virgil Aimes has posed:
Walking into the bar on Bucky's tail, Virgil is wearing an inconspicuous Yankees hat that sits low on his forehead, and a pair of eyeglasses which also sit a bit too low on his face. He is dressed like a civilian who buys too much of his clothes through L.L. Bean, and given the bar, might stand out a touch, but he'd had his assignment to train by following the Winter Soldier around as unnoticed as he could.

In the field, this would be handled by a team that rotates to prevent his repetitive appearances from becoming obvious, and with SHIELD they had equipment too. Virgil has neither, so he sort of expects to be noticed by the experienced solder with the metal arm.

Walking into the bar, he finds it in chaos and immediately ducks a flying beer mug.

"Whoa there!" he says to a guy and grabs the guy with a wrist lock and throws him out onto the sidewalk for a bit of road rash to the face. "I'm walkin' here!" he does his best Midnight Cowboy impression.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Barnes hears both of Natasha's and Clint's complaints at him, but he just shrugs, ordering two more Vodka's and just rolling with it. Another guy tries to Punch Bucky, but he just leans out of the way and with his metal arm, throws him at a table across the room....then returns to his seated position and drinking his Vodka.

"Hm...not very good..." he mumbles only to himself. He knew he was being tailed. He knew when he was being tailed. BUt he was just waiting to confront his pursuer...and when it's revealed to be Virgil, Bucky just takes a sigh.

"You two can handle it. Me on board and it's overkill." he states crystal clear, looking in perfect bliss and the only normal person there amidst all the chaos.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The three guys on Clint's side of the bar, rush him. This isn't going to go well with his balance shot. He's picked up, and tossed against a table, knocking it over. Yeah, he may have overestimated just how ready for this he was. Still, he's in it, too late now. One guy gets the cane thrown in his face the next gets his legs swept out from under him, the third rushes over to punch him and gets a kick from the ground, his foot driving into his gut knocking the wind out of him.

Clint rolls onto his front and gets to his feet, grabbing the wall. "Got a bit of a Madrid situation happening here," he says to Nat. That was the one where Clint had been wounded early on, and had to drag himself through the mission.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    Natasha's demeanor shifts from flippant and joyful to downright serious with Clint's admission. What was just a big of fun with the local thugs has turned into her protective instincts coming out. May liked to call her Mama Bear at those times.
    The three men near Natasha pay the price for being between her and her partner in battle. She leaps, catching the first around the throat and using the momentum to swing herself around so her feet connect with the face of the second. As the man she is holding starts to go down, she shifts her grip as her legs wrap around the third man's neck. She releases the first as he topples then whiplashes her body so the third goes down. Landing atop him, she punches him then kicks the first, leaving the three of them there in a pile as she rushes to Clint's side.
    "I am going to carry you out of here," she mutters. "Barnes! He goes down you have fireman duty instead of me!" She isn't going to let that happen.

Virgil Aimes has posed:
Standing in the doorway, Virgil turns back to the room after kicking the guy outside again to push him towards a pile of newspapers piled up by the curb. "Dick!" he says to the guy. Then, seeing that Romanov and Barton are in there. Seeing how things are going for the gimp, he reaches over and grabs a handful of darts off the dartboard a few steps from the bar, and under hands them towards the guy.

As soon as the darts sail from his hand, he calls out a quick, "Head's up!" to Clint, only to eat a punch to the face. His head turned sideways for a second before it snaps back and he grabs his attacker by the head, snaps the guy's head against his knee, and then shoves the front door of the bar open again to throw the guy out onto the street.

There, he encounters the first guy he threw out there and ends up sort of wrestling with a guy, only to end up throwing that guy back out onto the street again after several scrabbling moments in the weird confines of the doorway.

"Beat it."

Winter Soldier has posed:
When Barnes finally sees Clint looking wounded, that's when barnes stands up. Moving towards the few more remaining bar fighters. He has that look that a Nat would remember...that cold stare and unflinching demeanor, one that reflected the harshness and cruelty of winter.

a bottle flies towards his head and he catches it, smashing it against a man charging him. then proceeds to throw said man at the bottle-thrower. Two down. Then he looks to Nat, speaking in Russion. <<Get him out of here Natalia.>> and he proceeds to easily fight off two more men. who soon find themselves on the ground. one with a broken arm, and the other a broken ankle.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint snatches the darts out of the air, "Thanks," he says, before he says to Nat. "I /hope/ you don't need to," before he glances back to Virigil. "That the new guy?"

When Bucky wades in Clint falls back, holding onto the darts in case he got into trouble. "Go, work off some steam," he tells his partner as he moves to stand next to the wall.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
<<He'll be fine. Just needs to sit this one out. No breaking, just bruinsing.>> Natasha slips into Russian easily. As Clint moves to the wall, she falls into step near Barnes. Interestingly it's just as familiar although this isn't he man she knew in the past as her comrade in arms. He is but he isn't. Yet, the familiar feel of it, him having her back in a brawl, can't be ignored. She does turn her head to the door to see Virgil, giving a bit of a shrug. "I guess so. Haven't met him before. At least he's helping."
    Which is when the punch connects with her cheek. She blocks the second and captures the arm, using an aikido throw to send the man to the floor as she curses in Russian.

Virgil Aimes has posed:
Standing by the door, Virgil doesn't have much to do now that the herd is getting thinned so quickly. He just sort of stands there, waiting for anyone to get close so that he can throw them outside and thin the herd even further without needing to send anyone to the hospital. Though when he hears those bones snap from the Winter Soldier he grimaces a little, and reaches into his pocket to pull out his SHIELD issued phone.

He writes a quick text requesting that SHIELD sends an ambulance on the sly, but then deletes it before hitting send.

Mostly because while he doesn't want some civvie to end up with a gimp leg and miss out on work, he doesn't think the hits were bad enough that they can't get themselves there. Nevermind that it's during the Christmas season

Peeking his head back out the door, he looks both ways up the street, and then promptly but calmly walks through the bar and towards the back door.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Bucky would crack his neck a little bit after disposing of the last man. Roundhouse kicking him in the head for a quick knockout. Then he sighs, fixes his baseball cap, returns to his seat, and drinks his vodka.

Apparently that was his warmup for the day.

"You alright Clint?" He hands him one of the vodkas that Nat mocked him into ordering.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Thanks," Clint says as he takes the vodka from Bucky. "Nostrovia," he says and then downs the drink in a single gulp. He glances around the bar with a bit of a smirk on his face. "So, we should probably be elsewhere. Back to the Trisk?"

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    "Yeah. The new guy has the right idea," Natasha says, spotting Virgil making for the rear exit. She does take a moment to put on her jacket first, a bit of a bruise already starting to show on her cheek where that one punch managed to get through. She starts to turn to the door then stops and shifts back to the bar. She picks up her shot and raises it in the air. "Spasibo. This helped."
    The vodka goes down on a single shot, the glass landing on the bar with her other one. She does snatch up the mostly empty bottle she had there from earlier and carries it with her toward the back exit.

Virgil Aimes has posed:
Walking down the back alley, Virgil is avoiding dumpsters, and casually walking along. Hands in his pockets, he only pulls out his phone after a few dozen yards and decides, after that long moment, to send a text to send an ambulance. Just in case. Concussions can turn bad, unattended, and sometimes drunk people didn't seek the help they needed.

TEXT: Send ambulance to my loc.

He waits there for the text to be received, tagged with his location, and then starts walking again, putting his phone away. Whistling Christmas tunes as he walks.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Bucky gives a small nod to Barton. "Nostrovia." he says in return before he fully downs his drink as tradition followed. But then, he follows the rest of his cadre of highly skilled agents as they all head out the back.

"Should I ask why this particular brawl started?" he looks to Natasha.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Bucky's toast is met with a nod and as people withdraw, Clint ducks down to scoop up his cane off the floor before heading out after the others. When Bucky asks about the fight, Clint answer for Nat. "Therapy."