3436/So You Wanna Be an Avenger

So You Wanna Be an Avenger
Date of Scene:	19 December 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Hawkeye and Rogue go for pizza and discuss Rogue joining the Avengers. Clint decides to offer his support.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Rogue

---

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
It'd been a few days since Strange had dropped off Clint's present and asked him a favor: help Rogue get into the Avengers. Clint's answer had been qualified to give him time to research but now that he'd had that time he'd given her a call and invited her down to his favourite pizza joint for a talk. So, while he waits, he chats away with Gino, the owner, sucking down a cup of espresso which he had to admit wasn't that bad. "So, yeah, not that you're busy today," he smiles in the face of Gino's glower. "Can you give me and the lady some space back there? Avengers business," he explains.

"As long as you're not fooling around on your lady, friend fine by me. And, hey, say hi to Cap for me. Bring him down here sometime," comes Gino's reply.

Clint smiles. "Never, and I'll ask him, okay?"

Rogue has posed:
It hadn't taken Rogue too long to get to the pizza place. She'd used her 'ALF' decorated skateboard to make it through the back alleys and sidwealks. It was pretty cold out so she had on a black wool hat on over her two-toned colred hair, a black wool jacket and some dark brown jeans with black boots.

The skate-boarding mutant made her way to the front of the shop and then hopped off the board board popping it up off the ground where she swiftly stowed it via a sewn-in hanger inside of her jacket so that the board would dangling at the side of her right hip/thigh.

Rogue wandered into the shop and tilted her head back, chin up defiantly as she looked around the interior of the place... like a tuff teenager. She had black eyeliner around her otherwise brilliantly bright green eyes and she just glared at the whole place.

She made her way toward where Clint was... she definitely would stand out visually compared to the average person, a pretty face and that very unique hair coloring.

"Heya." She said in a smokey voice. "You Barton?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint watches Rogue coming, she definitely stood out in the Sk8tr chick get up and the two-tone hair.

When she greets him he confirms with a nod, "Yep, Clint Barton," he says, checking for gloves before he offers his hand. He'd done his reading. "You must be Anne-Marie, or do you prefer Rogue?" he asks before reaching into his wallet to pull out some money to put on the counter.

"Hook us up with some slices and drinks," he says, before looking back to Rogue. "You hungry?"

Rogue has posed:
She had gloves on, skin tight black gloves that were safe enough to let them exchange a hand shake and she had an alarmingly firm grip.

After shaking she'd show him a soft smile and a nod. "I can eat." She'd reply to him as she leaned her skateboard against the side of the seat and then took her hat off the top of her head, ran a hand through the wild mane of hair around her head. She sat down a moment later and slinked out of her wool coat, she had a dark green tanktop on beneath it and her gloves went up past her elbows.

"I prefer whateve'ah folks like callin' me." She replied to him in a thick southern accent with a little smirk on her dark red lips. "Rogue's fine though." She leaned back in her chair then and put her hands onto her lap. "Stephen said ya'll might be lookin' for some more muscle?" Hard to believe a girl like her should be the 'muscle' since she looked more like a model out of a skateboard fashion catalogue.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint notes the firm grip and smiled, "Great, Rogue it is. Get what ever you like and meet me back in the dining room," he says, before taking a couple of his regular slices from Gino and wandering back to the dining room to pick out a table.

When Rogue joins him, Clint nods, "So, we are looking for muscle," in truth, after the invasion, they had a lot of slots to fill with more established Avengers taking time off. "But we're less about what you can do, and why you want to do it? Not to get all job interview-y on you, but why do you want to be an Avenger?

Rogue has posed:
Rogue would spend time picking out what she wanted and she came back with some hawaiian pizza slices, two of them, she was a big fan of the pineapple pizza and she'd fight anyone who talked poorly of it! She'd seat herself with him and when he asked his question she'd show a slight grin.

Rogue looked away from him for a moment and she drew in a breath. "Doctor strange brought it up. Said he could maybe make it a thing..." She put her green eyes back onto Clint then. "Ya'll got Carol Danvers on your team, right?" She asked him. "Has she told ya what I did to you?" She'd further ask, but not really wait for an answer. "Bout two years ago it was fairly big on the news that someone attacked Carol... nearly killed her by weakenin' her and then dumpin her off'a the Golden Gate Bridge."

Rogue reached out for the bubbly cup of raspberry coke she'd gotten herself. "I was the person who did that t'her." She muttered, drawing the cup back to her lips for a sip.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint watches Rogue carefully, the Avenger had been a round the block a few times, and wasn't going to judge right away, hell some of his past wasn't exactly clean and bright either. Taking a sip of his Diet Coke, he waits fort her to look to him and meets her gaze with a friendly expression.

"Yeah, Carol's on the team," he says having some idea of where this was going. When the rest comes out he nods, "I'd found some of the details of that incident online, basic stuff, how about you fill me in on the details? What really happened?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue set her drink back down after taking a sip from it. "What really happened is... Mystique." She told him, her pale green eyes going back over to the Avenger across from her. "The same very Mystique that ya'll are tryin' t'track down for the murder'a that mutant hatin' president we just fortunately parted ways with." Sounds as though she's not all that broken up about Underwood's death.

A breath was taken in then and she shook her head and looked down at her plate of food. "Mystique's had a thing for Carol for a long time now. She used me t'try'n take her out. When I touch people I absorb'em, but its generally on temporary. Mystique wanted t'know what would happen if I kept holdin' on though. So she orchestrated a way t'ensure I wouldn't let go." Rogue severed off a piece of the pie with a metal fork.

"Once I realized what was goin' on and that she intended on keepin Carol indefinitely for me to 'leach' off'a her whenever Mystique wanted me too... I threw Carol over the edge'a the bridge... t'save her. From me. From the Brotherhood."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The name Mystique makes Clint frown, yeah, he'd heard of her, the whole world had by now. He snorts at Rogue's lack of concern over Underwood's death, to be honest, Clint didn't care much either, except that Underwood's death was under Nat's watch, and that pissed him off. He cuts in to ask, "Don't suppose you know anything about her to help us find her?" he asks. It was the wrong time to be asking he knew, but as hard as everyone had been looking, he couldn't pass up the chance.

After that he shuts up and listens. His face showing away, his concern and a then some revulsion for what Mystique had planned for Carol.

"Probably the only time anyone will say this in the history of ever, but glad you dropped my friend off a bridge," he says with a slight smile. It was a rough tale and there was a lot of hollow, empty platitudes he could offer right now, but having been somewhere similar, he knew they were meaningless, so he jokes instead.

"So what then? Ran from the Brotherhood?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue smirked at his question about Mystique after taking a forking of food and then shaking her head while looking downward. "Only that she's here in the city somewhere. I haven't seen'er or spoken to'er in... two'n half years now?" She'd say, looking up again there at the end. "But I got some contacts in the Brotherhood who live here in Manhattan and they say she's here. Mutant Town, probably." She shrugged her shoulders then. "Ya don't stand much've a chance'a findin' her, sorry t'say."

Rogue knew a few ways that they could draw her out, but they would be savage and she didn't think the Avengers would do any of them...

After an inhale of air though, the southern belle showed a faint smile. "But yeah, after the Bridge, I got disenchanted with the whole rhetoric'a the Brotehrhood, so I bailed... Spent the next two years on the street, dealin' with all the power that I stole from Carol and all the head problems it gave me too... Til I got picked up Alberta by... some... carin' folks from Xavier's School."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint nods slow about Mystique being in the city. Though that she was in Mutant Town, only a short ways away, didn't make it any more likely to they'd get her. He smiles, picking up his slice and folding it. He may have been Midwest born, but he ate pizza like a New Yorker. After his bite is swallowed, he wipes his mouth with he back of his hand. "I agree with you about finding Mystique, in Mutant Town, no chance."

It was probably for the best Rogue didn't share her ideas, the Avengers might not go for them, but Clint's other bosses, at SHIELD might.

"Right, Strange told me you knew Professor Xavier, he seems like a good man from what I've seen of him. Actually, hold on, so did you keep Carol's powers for those two years?" he asks. "They didn't fade?"

Rogue has posed:
"Yeah." Rogue muttered. "I seen the patrols lookin' for her, its pointless... She could be INSIDE one'a those patrol cars and the person sittin' next to her probably wouldn't even know it."

With an exhale then Rogue shook her head again and took another little fork stab of cut up pizza and then a sip from her soda. She dabbed at her lips with a napkin and then smirked at Clint.

"Not just the powers, but her memories 'nd personality quirks... I tuck my laces inta my boots at the foot'a my bed almost every night. I fold the damn sheets on it in some weird militaristic style with perfect creases'n triangular shapes... I know things about fighter jets an' helicopters I ain't even been in or seen before. I got--" Rogue slowly shoodk her head. "Visions'a special forces missions 'nd training inside'a my head just floatin' around. Used t'be, before I went to Xavier's? That'd black out for periods'a time, and 'become Carol'-- or at least a screwed up version'a her-- and I'd wake up sometimes days later in random places, like in a tent out in the woods somewhere."

Rogue's head softly shook side to side. "Xavier and his grew, helped clear that kinda stuff up for me. Let me be mostly me again."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"I believe that's what they call security theatre," Clint says of the patrols. "Making it look like we're doing something so people feel safer. But yeah, it's pretty pointless."

Taking a bite of pizza Clint chews and listens and not for the first time is glad he wasn't born with powers. Or at least, not with Rogues. "So you got the whole deal huh?" he asks both impressed and horrified, though, when she mentions the military creases and stowing her boots at the foot of her bed, he can't help but smile. Yep, that was definitely Carol alright. "Do you have her impulse to make fun of the Army like she does? If so, Cap's going to love you," Clint grins.

Back to business. "So, now that Xavier's helped you, no more black outs?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue nodded softly at the part about security theater and she took anotehr forkful of pizza bites and then she glanced down at her plate and smirked softly. "The Army does enough of a job makin' fun'a itself. I don't even really gotta say anythin' about it." She flashed a grin, signifying that that was apparently a 'yes' to that question.

The mutant with the snow-white bangs gently nodded her head, those very same bangs gently waving on either sides of her face as she did so. "No more blackouts. And Doctor Strange removed the active personalities'a all the othe'ah folks that I've absorbed on a lesser level throughout the years. But yeah, Carol was already the loudest, and... I've retained everything she had. From flight, to rippin' busses in half, to bullets bouncin' off'a my chest like they were nerf darts."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint grins at the joke, "Good to see the best parts stuck around, I always like her line about Army standing for Air-Force Rejected Me Yesterday," Clint says with a smile.

The rest confirms much of what Clint had guessed by this point, Rogue was pretty much a second Carol, which, meant she more than fit the bill for muscle. He scrubs a hand through his short hair and says, "So, definitely sounds like you're fit for the job on the powers side, but back to what I said earlier? Do you want to be an Avenger?" he says. "Also, not for nothing, we're sort of this big weird family, I know that's not for everyone, especially people like yourself, who've been out on their own a long time. I was one of those myself."

Rogue has posed:
The first part from Clint made Rogue grin, she could see the humor in it and the Carol side of her was very fond of that saying... her nodding indicated. Rogue's side of her mind really wasn't that into the military in the world, she grew up the daughter of two hippies who lived and died (mysteriously) on their commune in Mississippi, so there was a clashing of styles inside of Anna-Marie's mind that were somehow trying to work together.

At his question though, she remained silent in thought for awhile before sipping her soda and shaking her head. "Is it okay if I say 'No, not really?'" She asked, looking up at him then and assuming that was the last thing he'd expect--she figured he was hounded by people all the time to join that team.

"Lemme explain.." And she exhaled heavily. "Ya'll are judged, like, constantly. I see stuff up about your group on the tv and the internet, like... day in and day out. Ya get turned inta like 'rockstars' over what ya'll are tryin' t'do for this world. And part'a me is afraid'a that. Part'a me wants t'be able t'just walk down the street and not get pointed at and whispered about, or piled on for pictures and photo ops. Ya know?"

Rogue gently shook her head side to side once then. "But at the same time. I got these abilities, and the trainin' and... its not right for me t'not help people that need help. It ain't right for me t'ignore the wrongs in the world'n tryin' fix'em. I'm about t'turn nineteen here in a month... which means I probably got a lotta years left'a helpin' folks out. Which just 'feels' like the right thing t'do."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Well, that was a new answer. Like Rogue said, a lot of would-be heroes kept knocking on their door, so it was strange to see one not want to be an Avenger. He sits back and takes a sip of his drink while she explains. Her reasons make sense, there's no doubt both for and against. "We do get a lot of attention, and it can be a lot to take for some people. I know it was adjustment for me when I started and literally grew up in the Circus. Though despite all the fame and photo ops and all the rest, I have to say, end of the day, the work we do balances it out, same with the feeling of being on the team. It just makes you want to be better, or at least, that's what it does for me."

He scratches at his head, "You've definitely got the chops, and it sounds like your heart is in the right place, so, if you want, I can take this to the team for a vote. If they approve, you're on the team, or at least the Young Avengers, because of your age. Either way, it'd mean the same things, you can live at the mansion, train with us, fight with us, show up to our silly holiday parties, all the perks," he says with a grin. "So, what do you think?"

Rogue has posed:
While he spoke, the southern girl forked at her food and took little chopped-up bites from it before drawing in another breath at his last words there.

She looked up at him then and showed him a smile. "One circus to anothe'ah, huh?" She quiqetly/softly said to the older-one across from her.

A shrug of her bare shoulders and a single nod of her head later and Rogue looked back down at her food. "Yeah, I'd be down for it. Don't know how well I'd fit in, but hey... if ya'll need a flyin' - wise crackin- tank... Well." She looked back up at him and smiled at him in a way that would easily be considered flirtatious in nature.

"Then I'm your girl." She added in that smokey/husky voice of hers and capped it with a playful grin. One thing about this teenager, she seemed pretty comfortable with herself and not afraid of much.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint takes a sip of his drink, "Yeah, pretty much," he says of moving from one circus to the other.

"Only way to find out if you fit, is try it," Clint says before that flirtatious smile brings a slight quirk of a frown to his lips. "Nice," he says. "Well we can definitely on the team," he says leaving anything else she might have had in mind where it was. "Anyhow, let's lunch and when we're done I'll run this up to the team."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue flirted with everyone, Clint would find that out in the coming days if they were to partner up into a team format... it was just part of how she reacted to the world and the awkward social situations around her... she liked to watch people squirm when they were flirted with by a girl that 'couldn't be touched'.

A slight nod was given then and she huffed out a quick exhale. "Sounds good t'me, Miste'ah Barton." She'd say to him then before adding further. "Good food. I'mma have t'come back here sometime soon."