4892/Changeling: How to Kill a Hacker

Changeling: How to Kill a Hacker
Date of Scene:	11 July 2018
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Skye and Clint meet to talk about how to free Genus. Turns out
Cast of Characters:	Daredevil, Quake
Tinyplot:	Changeling

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Daredevil has posed:
While some of what Matt had to talk about with Skye was business, Matt didn't want to talk SHIELD and Hand in the office, so when Matt called Skye about the progress he made, he suggested meeting at his place. It seemed simple enough. He had beer plus leftover pizza in the fridge and the odds of getting accosted by more gangsters was limited.

Coming home from work shortly before the appointed time Matt changes from his suit and tie to a t-shirt and jeans. Making his way across the apartment, feeling the dying rays of dusk on his arms, he opens the fridge and grabs one of those beers. Despite the hour it was still hot and humid in the city, and so the beer goes unopened but placed against his forehead a moment to drink in the cold sweat on the bottle before the top is twisted off.

All the while he listens for his guest to arrive.

Quake has posed:
Skye had kissed Clint's cheek and announced she had plans for the evening - perfect, as it was monitor duty night for him anyway. She intimated that she'd maaaaaaybe show up afterwords and help keep him.. alert for the rest of his shift? At any rate, she's assured him she's off to speak to an old friend and shoot the shit, so please don't worry about her.

Matt's place is easy enough to find, and she makes her way to his door, giving a succinct little rap upon it when she gets there. What she didn't tell Clint was it might not all be shooting the shit. It most likely wasn't shooting the shit and catching up on old times. Mostly likely, this was going to be about Genus, wrapped up in the pretty little bow of two old friends having pizza and drinking beer so that anyone who might be peering at either of them wasn't any the wiser that other things were underfoot.

So she brought zeppole for dessert - fresh from Gino's, even.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt hears Skye coming of course and can smell the zeppole when the elevator is still on the floor bellow. So when she raps on his door, he opens it right away. "Hey, Skye," he says stepping out of the way of the door. His nostrils flare his expression shifts from merely welcoming to amused. "Is that Ginos?" he asks nodding for her to enter.

He takes a moment to let his other senses in, getting a snap shot of his surroundings through smells, sounds and the semi-tactile impressions of his radar sense. There was food being cooked, a couple arguing a couple floor down, someone in 6B needed a shower, but there was no sign of anyone tailing Skye. He closes the doors to his senses again and comes back to the moment, closing the door behind Skye as she enters.

Quake has posed:
Skye holds up the bag she's brought with her when Matt opens the door, and shakes it.

"You know it. By the way, Gino says I'm still too good for... wait, joke is less funny with you." There's a laugh from the young woman. "It's sort of a running thing with my partner."

Yes, partner. She's been practicing saying that instead of boyfriend. Though she's not tried it out on Clint yet. That... is still a little bit terrifying. A whole new parameter to them.

"Thought we might want dessert to go with that pizza you promised." Skye easily enters his apartment, and lets him close the door behind her.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt grins, "High praise," he says of Gino's running joke. "Your partner is an Avenger right? The guy with the arrows?" the vague description is offered as a tease. "A friend of mine ran into him last year, said something about having a billionaire on the team making the Avengers too snobby to slum it down on the streets." His tone is good natured and drips with a bit of irony, given his little foursome had Danny Rand in the mix.

"And sounds good," Matt says leading Skye out of the entry way into the rest of the loft. "Welcome, grab a seat in the living room, I'll stick the pizza in the oven to warm and grab you a beer. The pizza is from Gino's too, but the beer is most definitely not," he promises with a smile as he heads for the kitchen.

Quake has posed:
Skye gives a trademark grin, even if it's lost upon Matt in his blindness, and shrugs. "So I hear. I didn't know it when I hooked up with him. But, yeah. Clint Barton - Hawkeye. Truth be told it was a little bit weird finding out. And the billionaire would be Tony Stark. Egotistic playboy manchild. Brilliant mind, but not always the soul of think first act later. And yes, I know the irony of me saying that."

There's a laugh when Matt says the beer is not from Gino's. "Hey! don't knock the frou-frou." That she calls it frou-frou says a lot about the fact that she knows how utterly ridiculous calling it beer truly is.

She takes an easy perch on the couch, curling one leg up and underneath her in a relaxed fashion.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt doesn't know Skye well enough to guess facial expression by her body language but he got the gist by the tone of her voice. "How did you not know?" Matt asks getting the pizza from the fridge. "I mean you could excuse /me/ not figuring it out, but from what Foggy says the guy is on posters." There's a smile from Matt as he turns on the oven then sticks the pizza in box and all to warm up. "Oh, Foggy says hi by the way, said he'd report me to the ethics board for stealing his client," the last is added lightly. "I am pretty sure he was joking."

He goes to the fridge and gets a beer for Skye and snatches up the beer from earlier and walks them out to the kitchen.

"And yeah, heard of Tony Stark, never met him though, but what you're saying matches what I've read about him on page 6," meaning the society page.

He grins about the beer, handing one to Skye then cracking his and sinking into one of the chairs opposite her. "I grew up drinking in Hell's Kitchen, I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to frou-frou, though I've got a friend with a birthday tomorrow that'll hate it, might need to get her six-pack."

Quake has posed:
Skye snorts. "He was my client. Not the other way around. I came to you.. well, actually, I guess I came looking for Foggy that day. Either of you, really. I just needed a lawyer."

There's a shrug from the woman as she takes the offered beer, cracking it open with ease, and taking a sip.

"We'll just not tell Clint or Gino I'm drinking this. And I have no clue how I didn't know. He was just this asshole agent shooting at me in a training mission. Ended up doing a two on one with another agent as a bonding exercise.. I just thought he was some tall blonde with a bow. Bit of a cocky showoff." Her lips twist as she says it, remembering. And remembering the sizzling heat of that elevator ride. And the hindsight hilarity of how blind she and Clint had been about their attraction to one another from the start. "And I'm not really a modern pop culture junky. More a retro chick."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt laughs, "Try telling him that," he says. "I think he's just mad because he thinks you're cute," he says. "Hm, he might not have wanted me to say that," he says knowing full well he was pushing Foggy under a bus. It was a small bus as far as those things go so he figured it'd be taken under friendly joshing.

"Attorney-client privilege, my lips are sealed," he says about the beer with an easy grin. The rest is met with a growing smile, he could sense the rise in her temperature and the uptick in heart rate when she reminisced about meeting Barton. It was one of the earliest signs he learned to read: love. "That also sounds like what I've heard about Hawkeye," he says of the cocky blonde with a bow. "And I hear you on modern pop culture, I haven't seen a movie since 2007," he jokes lightly and takes a sip of his beer.

"But anyhow, glad you found someone, I know, for us, for where we come from it can be hard to find someone you can really let in."

Quake has posed:
Skye smiles to herself, remembering the early days with Clint - and how far they'd come. How he felt like they'd always been together. "He was such an ass. Still is half the time. But I don't know, in our job you kinda need that sometimes. We do shit all the time that isn't easy and at the end of the day you want to just be free and.. yeah. Just accepted."

She sighs and makes a wry sort of sound. "He didn't actually believe I had no clue who he was when we found out. Can't remember how long we'd been together then. For awhile anyway."

Though something in how he says that last has her her tilting her head somewhat to regard the man. "You too, huh?"

The information that Foggy had thought her cute was filed away under interesting. Cute really wasn't a way Skye thought of herself. At least not that way.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt gives Skye a moment with her memories and when she remarks about needing to feel free and accepted he nods, "Know the feeling," he says. His double life didn't allow for a lot of either, especially lately.

"So, on a scale of one to ten, how hurt was he that you didn't recognize him?" he asks with a smile.

The question about him finding someone who accepted him, gets a small, slow nod. "Yeah, but it didn't work out," he says giving a shrug that belied the tragedy of it all. "It's alright, I have friends," most of whom were mad at him.

He takes a swig of beer then quickly changes the subject "So, I've got good news, I can get your friend free, but there's some bad news to go with it." Standard coping tactics from where they came from.

Quake has posed:
"On a scale of one to ten?" Skye laughs. "I think about an 8? Maybe a 9. He was pretty disgusted, I think. And that only after he believed me when I said I had no clue. For a bit he actually thought I was pulling his leg."

She doesn't make light of Matt's answer to her question, though. "That sucks. I guess if I were a romantic I'd say maybe it was for the best. Or you'll find someone else. Not actually sure I believe any of that. I still wake up some days wondering how this is my life."

Her beer is sipped.

And... there it is, finally, the reason he'd invited her over. "Well, duh," Skye snarks when he tells her. "There's always bad news. Let me guess, there's a price, huh?" And the way Matt said it suggested that it wasn't going to be monetary. She wasn't sure why she was so confident about that guess, but she was. "So, hit me with it. What's this friend of yours want so badly they're willing to make a trade?"

Daredevil has posed:
Matt chuckles. "I bet," he says about Clint being disgusted. "All that work saving the world and you still didn't know who he was."

"Yeah, not sure I believe it either," then suddenly, he stands and moves to the kitchen. "Crap, the pizza." He'd gotten lost in the talking and forgotten to keep his nose trained on the smells from the oven. He yanks the box out quickly throwing it on the counter and turning off the oven. A quick survey though finds some salvageable pieces, he plates them and brings them back to the living room.

Despite the distraction of the pizza giving him an out, he returns to the subject at hand. "I'm sure I could find someone, but would I want them? There's been other women since, but, I dunno, parts of it are right, but it's not enough, it's like being a few degrees of a turn off of a combination, close, but not enough to open the lock." He sets the plate down and sits again, snagging his beer.

"You're lucky you found someone who fit," he says with a hint of sadness but the words are no less sincere for its presence.

Another swig of beer and it's on to business. "Not quite, the price is covered, the bad news is, that to get out Genus has to die."

Quake has posed:
"Trust me, he was disgusted. And why would I lie about something like that? I mean, wouldn't most girls want to flaunt they'd snagged an Avenger? One of the cuter ones at that."

Skye snorts.

"Anyway, he still brings it up every now and then and teases me about it. But I don't know. I wasn't looking for someone. Pretty much preferred to keep people as far away from me as possible, really. You know, the whole system kid schtick." She shrugs. "Funny story, that. Guess who else rode the garbage bag express."

Clint, obviously. Her words an allusion to the bag of belongings most system kids had as they were shunted from one foster home to another. "And I guess. I mean, no real reason to try and force things. Nothing wrong with casual. That Claire chick, she seemed okay. She into that sort of thing?"

She waits patiently for the pizza, and can't help a bit of a smirk as the rescued slices are brought out. "You cook like I do." Munching on a bite as Matt explains what the price is. "Of course that's what your friend wants. Because faking someone's death is easy.. wait, that is what you meant, right? This wasn't some setup for the fact your friend told you to take a long hike off a short cliff and the only way Genus would be freed was over his dead body?" Like really dead, not just pretend dead. Pretend dead might be trickier to arrange, but it was infinitely easier to come back from.

Daredevil has posed:
"Most would, I imagine," Matt agrees with a nod. "But it sounds like the two of you like to mess with each other, so maybe it's that, the disbelief."

The news Clint was another system kid made sense. He knew a few people like that who made it work, bonding over shitty childhoods. "Heh, lucked out there, mine was more Gabana bags than garbage bags," he says with a slight smile. Though that was only part of the truth, sure she had money, but she had suffered no less loss than either Matt or Skye had. "Still one of us though," he amends. "In her way."

Matt laughs at the mention of Claire. "Maybe, at one point, but now," he shakes his head. "I fucked that up. Most of my friends are mad at me about the friend that has Genus. I mean it's fair, it's brought down a world of shit on us, but yeah, that's not ever going to happen."

"Heh," Matt says about the pizza. "I am usually more on the ball but it's been a busy week. The food shortages have everyone on edge, keeps my nights busy." He smiles at the confusion at just what sort of dead he'd meant. "Definitely fake dead. I sort of went out on a limb to figure your work friends could pull that off. Ideally, it works best if they think he killed himself and then stays hidden until we can sort things out with the rest of the organization that's holding him."

Quake has posed:
"Now, yeah, he teases me. Back then he was disgusted. Think he'd gotten quite used to the fangirl following. Though, really, not sure why he'd have stuck with me longer than a night if he thought that was really what I was." Skye ponders that and shrugs.

"And she, huh? This friend of yours. That's her, huh? That's the girl." Because of course it was. There was no other way this played out. The making a deal. His friends being angry. His belief that he could ask this of her.

Not that Skye dwells solely on that. "Fake his own death might not be the best idea. Too easy for one of those ninja he speaks.. oh my god. Your fucking friend is the Hand. Jesus, Matt. What the hell?"

The rest of her thoughts forgotten for the moment.

Daredevil has posed:
"There's a lot of degrees of separation from fan girl to someone who knows who you are," Matt opines. "Maybe he thought you were somewhere on the saner end of that spectrum?" he offers with a shrug.

Really he had no clue.

Yeah, it really did make sense that the girl would be his friend? Why else would he keep ties to the Hand.

"Yeah it's her," he begins. "And making it look like suicide works because there's no-"

Then there it was. The incredulous tone, the shock. It was beginning to become and old and hated song.

"She's there because she took a deal, keep fighting and die, or join them, lead them and maybe stop the worst of what they were doing. And she has. To be honest she's probably done more good with that one move with all my years of punching out muggers and gangsters. So, yeah, she's the leader of the Hand, but only for so long before it kills her, in the meantime she's going to be able to save your friend."

Quake has posed:
Skye sets her pizza and beer on the table in front of her and rubs her temples. "I have to stop talking to people. I am collecting secrets faster than Gretel got parking tickets."

She takes a long breath and considers. "Wow, go big or go home, huh? So, your friend is the leader of the Hand. And.. yeah."

In the greater scheme of things, Skye really should have expected this. "I must be slipping..."

"Right, as I was starting to say, if he fakes his own death, you run the risk that someone under her will know it's a fake. Or try to finish him off just to make sure. Having someone else kill him, and do it in such a way as he's dragged off to hospital and pronouced.. splashy press release... new leader of what used to be the Rising Tide taken out in... not sure what yet, but pretty sure we can rig something up with SHIELD."

That thought completed, Skye takes a long look at Matt. "I don't know what to say. I'm not sure.. No, actually, that's a lie. I set Genus up to be a fucking covert operative for us. So part of this is my fault. But more to the point, I get it. I get how people get caught up in it all tryng to do better with the lousy shit sandwich they've been given. Not really sure how you can argue taking over an international criminal ring like the Hand is the better good, but I'm at least willing to entertain the notion that you, and quite possibly she, believes it."

"Just who the hell goes from fighting them to joining them? Like, that's a huge lateral sideways move. I mean, people just don't up and change their values like that. So what's the story?"

Daredevil has posed:
Matt can't help but ask, "Gretel?"

Though for the rest he sits in stoney silence. even as she does give him the benefit of the doubt.

Matt gathers his thoughts in that silence and when they are collect them he gives the breath. "Like I said, she was one of us, an orphan, except where we got nuns, she got a fanatic named Stick who trained her to be a soldier in his war against the Hand. She was good at it, but when Stick, he trained me too you see, tried to use me as object lesson on what not to become. It backfired, we found a connection and fell in love. She left Stick, and struck out on her own, but she kept fighting the war. She did well too, killed a lot of their guys including two out of five of their leaders," he pauses adjusting things as he goes.

"God, I feel like Danny when I have to tell people about this stuff," Matt mutters. "The thing you need to know about the Hand is that their leaders have basically been around forever, it's made death their big boogy-man. More so than most people, they've been alive for centuries, so to their mind they've got more to lose than you or me. Elektra killed two of them. That scared the crap out of the other three, so they came to the table and made a truce. They'd surrender to her leadership if Elektra stopped her private war. Though, I don't think either side really believed that was the end. Elektra didn't anyhow, she thought she could win the war by accepting, use the position to finish them off. She was wrong, and when she realized it, she decided to at least reduce the harm the Hand does before they take her out, and they will take her out. So, it was less a betrayal of principles as a kamikaze attack gone wrong. "

Matt looks at his beer and sets it down.

"Now it's the situation we're stuck with. She's doing the best she can to stay alive and keep the Hand in check, and I mostly just stay out of the way, so I don't get used against her."

Quake has posed:
"Geez, you and your friends don't do shit by half measures, do you?" And this coming from the girl who shot her partner, and helped a criminal organization cripple the world's data movement. Literally bringng the world to its knees.

"And this whole lives forever bullshit, that's what it is, right?" Even as her head swam around the fact she'd sat and had a tactical meeting with the god of war - who'd then spent a good fifteen minutes at least trying to fend her off like she was offering to drop her drawers for him when she was trying to give him another bit of information.

"I have no clue who Danny is, but I'll take your word on the feeling like him. I take it he says a lot of unbelievable stuff, only he believes it, huh?"

Daredevil has posed:
"Yeah, they really don't. Especially not her," Matt says meaning Elektra though he doesn't say her name.

"No, as far as I know they've got something that lets them live forever, it's sort of their big deal, the living forever thing is also why their men worship them, like they're some kind of gods," Matt says. It did paint a pretty striking picture for why Elektra was able to do what she did, she'd slain two immortals. That definitely made an impression.

"He's one of our friends," Matt explains of Danny. "He had an interesting childhood and yeah, says a lot of stuff people don't believe."

Matt felt going into mystical cities and dragons be a bit much along side immortals. Best it comes out a bit at a time.

"Anyhow, whether they're really immortal or not, the threat they pose is real, but, my friend can get your friend out. So, we fake a big attack that gets him dragged off to the hospital and pronounced away from everyone. The question is then, who do we blame for the attack? The Hand will need to avenge the attack on their property."

Quake has posed:
"Hrm," Skye mulls. Frankly, she's not sure what to make of the whole immortal thing. She's not even sure if it matters who believes what. What she does know is that whether or not it's true, they needed a plan to get Genus out of there, and that had nothing to do with whether or not she believed Matt's story about the Hand and their leaders. "I think I might have to talk to my team about some options, but I know at least one scenario that might work. Given his past history."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, he was there himself when he learned about the immortal bit. It took time to digest.

"Figured you might need to talk to them, yeah," he says leaning to grab a slice of pizza. "Do I want to know the details of that scenario? Or better if I'm in the dark?" he asks.

Quake has posed:
"You'll know as much as you need to know," Skye says with a shrug, all traces of lightness gone from her voice. "Whch is to say, you may not know much of anything. What you haven't heard you can't accidentally blab. And if I understand it correctly, your friend is leaving it to outside sources so that she's not involved. Probably better all the way around."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt's levity vanishes with Skye's, he takes a bite of the pizza then sets it down, nodding. "Works for me," he says. He wasn't a spy, but his own profession had it's layers of secrecy. He knew the best way to keep a secret was to keep it to the fewest people possible. "So, from here just leave it in your hands unless you need me for something specific?" he asks for the sake of clarity.

Quake has posed:
"Exactly." Skye nods. Matt knew the drill. It was like client-attorney privilege, only bumped up a few notches. More lives involed. Bigger chance of death. "Anything you need of me? SHIELD?"

Daredevil has posed:
Matt considers the question, then shakes his head. "Nothing right now," he says. "We're holding together, though if that offer doesn't expire, we may need help later," he says, before he adds with a touch of lightness. "Besides doing this," he nods at the pizza and beer. "For real sometime." He was short on people he could talk to.

Quake has posed:
There's an easy grin from Skye as she gets up from the couch. "You bet. You're my oldest friend. After you, there's Genus. Then SHIELD folks. Don't have enough connections to throw them away lightly."

"I'll see myself out, but yeah. For real, sometime soon. For now, though? Gotta figure this out. Sooner the better. Enjoy the zeppoli, Matt."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt grins as he takes in Skye's tone, he almost looks releived. "Me either," Matt says of his own meagre connections.

He nods then, "Will do, and let me know if you need anything else from me," he says as Skye takes her leave.

Quake has posed:
And with that, and lots of deep thoughts to keep her company, Skye is off and heading back to the Trisk, taking time to shoot Clint a quick text saying she had some work to do and she'd explain later.