3906/Tidepool: Beginning of the Endgame

Tidepool: Beginning of the Endgame
Date of Scene:	18 February 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	A meeting before the end! Skye, May and Clint meet to discuss the end of Skye's undercover operation. There is also ramen and salad.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Melinda May, Quake
Tinyplot:	Rising Tide

---

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
People were getting antsy. Yeah, sure the Avengers and others had got something of an internet back up and running, the world needed the real thing and that meant the Rising Tide had to go. Clint was getting antsy too, the mission was going long and after his last meeting with Skye, he knew she was ready for this to be over too.

So, when the comms window opened, he fired off a quick message to Skye and May:

>> Meeting, usual place. Will have food.

Melinda May has posed:
Food? Clearly, Barton's idea of food. And unless he actually bothered to cook, she knows what that'll be. So, when she arrives at the indicated 'usual place', she's carrying a solid pound of salad in a lidded bowl, three different kinds of dressing, a dozen and a half still-hot-from-the-bakery bread rolls, and a couple of liter-sized water bottles.

There's a knock at the door, mostly because May doesn't have enough free hands to pick the lock.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
At the knock on the door, Clint moves from his kitchenette to go and open the door. Seeing May there, with food, he chuckles softly. "Didn't trust me huh?" he asks as he moves aside to let her in offering to take the bowl off her hands.

Inside there's a pot boiling on the stove and a three packs of ramen, some frozen vegitables, sliced ham and three eggs on a cutting board nearby. "Figured, we'd do fancier ramen, y'know, what with it being Skye and all." Though, by now she may well be sick of the stuff.

Melinda May has posed:
"You're making //real// ramen? I have to say I'm impressed, Barton." And, the salad should go just find with the noodle soup, unless he's making some bizarre flavor combination. But, considering the base is the bricks of noodles, it can't be too bizarre. "You have any eggs handy?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint's grins, "Yep," he says turning from the door and wandering back to the pot. "The real deal," he says as he takes the noodles and lays them in the pot to boil. "And got three eggs right here on the cutting board." He nods in their direction. He turns back to the noodles, sparing a glance for the clock on the stove. "So, how have you been?"

Melinda May has posed:
May nods in approval. Having let Clint take the bowl of salad, she follows him into the kitchen with the rest of the foodstuffs and sets them safely out of the way. Then she reclaims the salad bowl and removes the lid, revealing that she'd not yet bothered to mix the contents. That means there are slices of green onion, slivers of carrot, pieces of mushroom, and many other goodies that could be dropped directly into the ramen.

"I've been busy." She sets the bowl of veggies that not yet officially a salad next to the other items being prepped to go into the ramen. "Made a trip out to Gotham, got yelled at by someone who's probably about twelve years old."

Quake has posed:
>> Be there or be square.

The return message was relayed via the usual channels.

It was all coming to a head, which was making Skye antsy. She was *so* close to done with this all... and so dangerously close to things going horribly wrong. She knew that the worst time for making mistakes was when you saw the finish line and got excited about things. Which meant she had to play it more careful than usual.

She was bringing her rig with her - it might be paranoia, but she'd learned to trust that gut instinct. And the ICER too. She would hand that off tonight; it wouldn't do to let that fall into Rising Tide hands, and she knew once endgame was hit, she wouldn't be coming back to the safehouse. On that note, she didn't want to chance she'd been found by Karl or any of the outside thugs he'd hired. There was too much on her gear that could be used against her, even if she'd been utterly careful to wipe as much as she could as she went.

She took extra trains. Got out stops early and walked the rest of the way. In short, she wasn't taking any chances. Even if she felt a little silly. The only concession she made to risk was stopping at Gino's for their usual beer.

Ten minutes after meeting time, she arrives, letting herself in with her own key.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
>> See you then.

Clint gives the salad fixings in the bowl a look before he begins to raid the for the ramen, some are dropped on the cutting board for later others go right into the boiling water to soften. "A kid yelled at you? So, when does he get out of the hospital?" he asks with a grin. "Or did you just give him the old Vulcan death-stare?"

The sound of the key in the lock, has Clint turning from the stove, his body tensing as if for a fight but when he sees Skye, he smiles and steps forward to pull her into a hug, "Hey, good to see you," he greets.

Melinda May has posed:
"He's immune to staring, he's a Gotham kid." And, if Clint catches what May's silently implying there, he's more than just some kid who happens to live in Gotham. But, there will be no chance for further explanations, as Skye has arrived.

Letting Clint go to greet the wayward hacker, she checks on ramen in progress to make sure everything's okay, and is pleasantly surprised to see there's nothing for her to do.

Quake has posed:
It's with relief that Skye lets herself in, dropping her things behind her at the door as she turns and locks it. Then she's caught up in Clint's arms with that hug, returning it fiercely before offering up her lips for a kiss.

"Hey you. And what smells so good?" A peek reveals he's not alone, not that she's surprised. "Oh, hey May. Actually glad you're here too. I have shit for you two. Well, Fury, but you'll do for starters."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Oh, one of those kids," Clint says with a nod. He knew the type of kid she meant. "Bat-kid or no, you should have still kicked his ass," he jokes. He wasn't about to really suggest kicking the ass of a kid, even one who suited on the nightly to fight the crazies that lived in Gotham.

Skye's offered kisses is accepted with a brush of his lips against hers and a squeeze of her arm. "Hey," he answers back his eyes lingering on hers, before he can't help but smirk a little. "And it's ramen," he says letting that sink in for a few moments before he quickly adds, "The real stuff," even as he prepares to defend himself from the swatting that is to come.

Melinda May has posed:
"Hey," May says by way of greeting to Skye, as she gets herself a glass and one of the bottles of water and steps out of the kitchen, proving that it's not HER doing the cooking this time. She moves to sit at the table and fill the glass.

"If you have shit for us, I'd rather it wait until after we've eaten."

Quake has posed:
That May isn't cooking is totally a surprise. Though that surprise is mitigated by Clint's telling her what supper is going to be.

"Is that some sort of a Skye joke, Hotshot?"

Her lips twist over a grin as she swats his ass.

"I'll have you know my ramen is perfectly surviceable as a food substitute."

She should know, she's been living off of it for years now. But she nods to May.

"Gotcha. Oh, I have something for you, though. And this one shouldn't wait. Quickdraw Carson might be missing it." Skye bends down and retrieves the ICER from her bag. "I'd say apologize to him for me, but I'm hoping you wait until after this is all over to clock it in. I just don't want it in my hands when it all goes down."

And, understandably, if May returns it to the Armoury before the operation is over, questions might be raised about how she got her hands on it.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Miiight be," Clint says before he jumps at the swat on his ass. "Hey, totally not ass swat worthy," he teases before he walks around the outside of the island to move back to the stove. "Hey, it was me who chose the dinner, so, I'm on board with the value of ramen, just note," he holds up one of the clear plastic packages. "No Mr Noodle or Sapporo Ichiban in sight."

Clint's expression is one of barely contained amusement when Skye produces Agent Carson's ICER. Since his Carson's run in with Skye in Mutant Town the other agents had been calling him 'Quickdraw' for being beaten by the IT girl. No idea how Skye heard the nickname though...none at all.

Melinda May has posed:
May ever so eloquently responds to SKye producing Carson's ICER by raising an eyebrow. And that's it. It wasn't handed to her, she wasn't there when it left Carson's possession, she has zero say in the matter. And she's perfectly fine with it that way.

Quake has posed:
Skye smirks. "Yeah. He forgot who trained me."

Yeah, Skye is more than a little smug about the whole thing. Mind you, after this, nobody is going to look at her like she's just the IT girl anymore.

"So, homemade ramen, huh?"

Her nose crinkles like she expects this is not only some kind of hoax, but that she's going to regret this somehow.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint grins, "His mistake," he says before turning back to the ramen and adding the last few ingredients. As much as he hated this mission, he did love what it had done for Skye's confidence as an agent. She'd come a long way from the Agent-in-Training with one foot out the door she'd started as. "And yeah, it's going to be good, so take off your jacket and sit your ass down," he says lightly. "And May, if you can get the salad going we should be ready to eat in a just a minute."

Quake has posed:
Skye makes mincing movements with the fingers of one hand. Clearly a 'blah blah blah I can see your mouth moving but I can't hear you' gesture. Followed by a smirk and a flashed handsign for 'asshole'.

Still, she takes off her jacket, tossing it over the back of the couch, and throwing her bag over there as well.

"Let me guess. May brought the green stuff. You know we're not cattle, right? Or rabbits?" Still, she's secretly glad of the salad. She's actually gotten tired of eating ramen and takeout since going undercover. Her time with Clint totally spoiled her on the concept of eating.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint catches the hand gestures in their reflection on the stainless steel hood to his stove. He lifts his hand to echo those gestures in return. "Yeah, yeah, can't hear you Keyboard," he says with a laugh as the soup is ready. He grabs a couple of his big cereal bowls and a ladle and gets spooning.

"She did, and hey, greens are important or something," he says with a smile. "I am sure I read it somewhere."

Not like Clint didn't eat well, I mean look at him, good metabolism or no, no one rolls with the Avengers on pizza alone.

Melinda May has posed:
While Clint is finishing up and serving the ramen, May moves to retrieve the large serving bowl of salad and its lid and taking a few moments to shake the whole thing and evenly mix the ingredients. Hopefully. That and the dressings and bread are added to the table and May's back in her seat just in time to be out of the way of the incoming ramen. "We're omnivores, skye, not rodents. We can't live on carbohydrates alone."

Quake has posed:
Skye crinkles her nose at May. "Hey, I made it this far."

She settles into a chair and starts dishing out salad regardless of her complaints, taking a moment to poke fun at Clint, "What? No. You, read? Say it isn't so."

Totally averting her eyes after that as she continues to calmly dish out greens, knowing full well she's not only poked fun at him, but he's liable to retaliate.

She'd missed this.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Well, had it read to me," Clint says with a grin as the last of the soup is dished out. "I'm not a computer nerd like you," he says picking up two of the bowls and taking them out to the dining table and setting them down for May and Skye before cycling back to the kitchen for his.

On the way he give's Skye's shoulder a swat with a good-natured chuckle.

He'd missed this too.

Returning to the table he sets down his bowl and says, "Alright, let's dig in."

Melinda May has posed:
May serves herself up a moderate portion of the salad to go with the soup while the couple banter and swat at each other. She'd never admit it to anyone, not even under the harshest torture, but she kind of missed this too.

"Oh, Skye, next time you're free to accompany me on an outing, you're going with me to Gotham. There's someone there you should meet."

Quake has posed:
Skye laughs when she's swatted. She knows when she scored a win. "I'd have settled for an interpretor, but nice comeback Hotshot. Almost worthy of a gold star there. We'll take the training wheels off soon if you keep that up."

She rips a piece of bread off and sets it beside her bowl while she considers the ramen appreciatively.

"Gotham, huh? Who'd I piss off there?"

The ramen is dug into with gusto, her eyes widening as the taste hits her palatte. "fuuuck. This shit is good."

Score two for Clint, plus the likelihood that the packaged stuff might never make it into their home again.. well, except for the fact that Skye still didn't cook and sometimes had to forage for herself.

"Oh, almost forgot! I brought the beer."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint laughs as he comes back with his soup. "Ouch, Keyboard, ouch." He sits down and says, "See how I am not taking the easy route, linking training wheels to a short joke," he smiles across the table at her, even as he gives he ankle a gentle kick with his foot in place of a swat. "I've grown."

The mention of Gotham gets a look, from Clint to May. "That kid?" he asks her.

At the mention of beer though he pushes up from the table and goes to find it, while he does his phone buzzes with a text, he checks the screen and smiles.

"Hey Skye, can I go hang with Tony in Vegas? You totally won't mind, right?" he asks, bringing back the beer. He shows Skye and May the screen. It read:

Tony >> Veeeeeeeeeeegas?

Melinda May has posed:
May looks at Clint's phone, then shakes her head with an ever so faint frown. Typical Stark. "No," she tells Clint, and then, just for good measure, she takes a moment to pull out her phone phone and send a message to Tony.

May >> Stark, no.

Quake has posed:
Skye continues to slurp up ramen (what? in some cultures it's a compliment to the chef!) and mutters, "Look, you want to go to Vegas, be my guest, but you should know the other shoe is going to drop any day now. We've been put on notice by Karl. Could be anytime within the next 48."

She finishes a slurp and nods to May, smirking at what she's rightly guessed is the other woman sending a message off to Stark telling him in no uncertain terms that there will be no Vegas trip. At least not until this job was done.

"So, he's pulled in all this security. We're all going to be there. It's a single strike. Some sort of virus insertion or something. He's frying the backbone of the net we took down. Like making it inert permanently. Leaving you guys with just the cobbled shit."

She reaches for a beer. "But here's the thing, right? I figured something out. Someone was asking me what it was Karl wanted out of this all, and I think I have it. That cobbled bit of shit? He wanted that. And it hit me. The Hydra computers, and the decommissioned satellites. Karl was after those. You guys all put them into play for him. I mean, sure it's also the whole repsonse times and what you all would come up with, but yeah, that. And.."

And here was the kicker of what she's figured out.

"And, here's the thing, Karl doesn't want Rising Tide to survive this. He's been ripping it apart since the beginning. I couldn't figure that out before, but I did. He's trying to get an in with Hydra. The computers? The satellites? Putting the elite all into one room? We're not walking away from this operation as Rising Tide no matter how it goes down. That security isn't there to protect us. It's to give us no choice."

It's all there, spelling out why getting there in time when it all goes down is going to be important. And perhaps scaring Clint a little as to what could happen to Skye if they didn't.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint smirks as he cranes his neck to look over at May's phone as she types her message. He laughs when he sees it and settles back, shaking his head to Skye. "Nah, I can't go until you're safe, and hell, if I do go then I want you to come with me. Hell, you too May, we've all been through hell."

To show he's serious he types in his own response to Tony:

>> Duuude watching out for Buttercup. Another time?'

Though the smile he wears when he types that message soon fades as he hears everything Skye has to say. "Please tell me you know where this spot is going to be in advance?" he asks. That way they could pull her out now and still do the raid and take down the Rising Tide. He somehow doubted it was going to be that simple but he had to ask.

"So, what can we do to stop these guys from burning things down? Also, those satellites that Karl wants for Hydra, anything we can do to them, make sure he can't use them, or if he does, we're watching his every move."

Quake has posed:
Skye crinkles her nose, and frowns. "No. I don't know the spot. Just what we're going to be doing in theory, and that only because once this starts I'm Karl's right hand, not Miles, and that we're going to be backed by security. You can thank that Pennyworth asshole for that."

Even if she knows, or believes fully, that Karl had Saffron killed. Pennyworth just helped him out by taking down Momento.

"Not sure what we can do. Hopefully my contact can help. I've got a line on getting Genus out." Her gaze flicks to May who she's made the decision can know about this little move. "As for the other, we want them to have their hands on those things. Fuck, we mess with them, then we lose the best line we have on watching what they're doing. Sure, we'll have to pry everything apart for what's a false lead and what isn't, but best guess is they're going to think we've forgotten about that shit. It's the missing piece, really. The whole what did they get out of allowing this to happen and not just frying shit to begin with. They needed partial access to let it all go down. It's like a house of cards."

Skye doesn't look happy, as she knows she's right smack in the middle of ground zero on this, and any mistakes in timing could prove deadly for her. Or another stint undercover, only this time in Hydra.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint knew the answer was going to be something like that, that Karl would hide the location of their final hack until the last possible moment to stop them from doing exactly what they planned to be doing.

"Met the guy actually, he didn't seem like the type," Clint says of Pennyworth, not so much as a defense of the man but an admission of surprise.

He nods about the satellites, "Then we leave them up, keep an eye on those sats and watch what they do with them," he says. Not that the final call would be his, but it seemed like the smart play, they had an asset the enemy didn't know about.

Clint can read the worry on Skye's face and he leans forward to offer her his hand across the table. "We'll get you out," he promises. "You can count on it."

Quake has posed:
Skye makes a face and shrugs. "It's that or I'm undercover in Hydra. And no, we are not suggesting that to Fury." Because she could already see it happening.

Melinda May has posed:
May eats quietly as Skye explains what she's learned and deduced about Karl's endgame. Clint asks a few intelligent questions, and Skye expresses concern that she'll end up working undercover in Hydra. At this, she simply reaches into her jacket and sets something about the size of a small USB memory stick on the table in front of Skye. She's probably seen similar devices around SHIELD before. It's a small transmitter, designed to be completely inert and passive and even have all of the normal functions of a USB memory stick. But once correctly activated, it will transmit her location.

May then goes back to her meal.

Quake has posed:
May's offering is taken with a nod of thanks.

That, Skye thought with a nod to all she'd learned in the past year, and most recently in her sojourn back in The Rising Tide, was the difference. They had her back in SHIELD. She was one of them. Come hell or high water, they'd do their best by her, and she held the proof of that in the palm of her hand.

She gives another nod and a smile. It was going to be alright. Everything was going to be alright.