Prologue- New Assignment

New York- SHEILD Headquarters, March 13, 2008 (07:30)

Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton

Clint was bored, as he rolled a quarter along the back of his hand, again and again. Riding the elevator from the ground floor all the way to the top was very time-consuming.

Ding. The doors opened and two agents stepped on. Especially, when it has to stop every few floors for other people. 'Director really needs a direct elevator to his office.' Clint thought.

The two agents nodded at him, and then went back to what they were talking about before entering. Clint didn't care about some reported man dressed as a rhino robbing the banks of New York, so he zoned their conversation out.

The two agents stepped off a few floors later. But Clint was joined by another. He immediately recognized Fury's ‘yes’ man. Clint nodded at him, as he absently grabbed the quarter and replaced it on the back of his hand.

"Clint, you going to a rock concert?" Agent Phil Coulson asked him.

"Yeah Phil, and after playing the drums for a couple hours I will end the night cuddling with your girlfriend." Cling remarked. He had just finished a six-month undercover assignment and had been forced to grow out his hair for the cover. After wrapping it up, he was immediately called in to report to the Director.

Coulson made a face, before admitting. "We broke up. Too many missed dates."

Clint knew how that felt. He too had missed too many dates, many times just as he was supposed to leave to meet up and he would get called in for some mission or another. He was still frustrated being called in so quickly, and felt the knee jerk to continue his burn, to taunt Coulson.

Instead, he explains. "That sucks man. And no I'm just coming in after a long-term undercover assignment."

Coulson nodded as he said. "Oh right. The carnival thing. I heard about that… So you're going to the Director for debriefing?"

"Yep." Clint muttered.

"Well, you're not going to find him in his office. Peggy Charter is here, and he is giving her a tour of the building." The shorter man added off-handedly.

Clint flicked the quarter into the air and slapped it. The medium-sized coin flew and smacked the emergency stop button, on the other side of the small room, before dropping to the floor. Soon the alarm started as the lift suddenly stopped.

"What?!" Clint snapped after the alarm stopped blaring.

Coulson explained cold faced as ever. "The Director is spending most of his time in Hanger 3, has been for the better part of a week…"

As he did, Clint pried open the doors as far as they would go and slipped out of the elevator. Once outside, he reached back in enough to grab the quarter, as he did Coulson asked. "What are you doing?"

"Taking the stairs." Clint responded angrily, the man no longer able to hide his frustration.

And so he did. Clint jogged down the sixty floors that he already had ridden up. At the sub-basement doors, he needed to pull his ID out to unlock the door. Clint had to pass several armed checkpoints to get to Hanger 3. Once there he stepped out onto a catwalk. Inside the hanger was a massive metal 'V' shaped craft. The craft was covered in tons of ice.

"Well, that's not a helicarrier." Clint commented.

"Excellent eyes Agent Burton." Directory Fury said, drawing Clint's eyes away from the craft. His bald black boss was standing with two older people. The older man was wearing a SHEILD uniform and a fedora hat, while the woman was in a business suit. One looked their age, while the other looked younger than he should. Clint knew them on sight. They were both required topics at SHEILD Academy. She was Peggy Charter, founder and first Director of SHEILD, and the man was Timothy Dugan one of SHIELD'S first agents. "A moment Peggy." Fury said to her before walking towards Clint.

"Of course Nicholas." The older woman said with a British accent. Even for being in her late eighties, Clint had to admit she looked good. She then turned to Agent Dugan and they began talking about some miracle their 'Steve' had done.

"You're late." Were the next words out of Fury's mouth.

"Forget late, I was told to report to your office, I get halfway there and Coulson says you're down here." Clint snapped. He leaned in close and whispered. "I missed the birth of my daughter for you, and you call me in for another assignment before I can even check on them." Then in a normal tone adds. "So what's the mission?"

Fury looks him over, before smiling. "Good. You will need that backbone for this mission." Clint must have given him a face, because the Director laughed, and then said louder. "Agent Dugan, meet your new commander."

The older man in the hat nodded and said. "Commander Barton. I've heard good things."

"Mission briefing is in two hours. Shower, shave, and cut your hair. And whatever else you do in the interim is between you and the walls." Fury said before leaning closer, in a whisper he added. "You knew what you were signing up for with this job, before you took it. Before you started sleeping with Agent Bailey. You knew, the mission comes first… don't blame me, when the world comes calling."

Clint took a breath because he couldn't refute what his boss was telling him. He nodded. Then he nodded toward his two seniors. Before turning around and heading back upstairs, and its barracks.

He did as was ordered, and showered. Went to the barber and met SHIELD standards for grooming. And then he made a long, apologetic, phone call. His daughter was sleeping when he called; as she wasn't more than a month old. He told Laura that he would try and stop by before the end of the year. But she too understood that the job was important, after all, she had worked it too before they were married.

When he hung up the phone, the speakers were calling him. "Agent Barton to meeting room six-two."

Clint released a breath knowing that he wouldn't need to go all the way up to the director's office. And he then made his way to the meeting room. It didn't take him long and he was there with technically minutes to spare. But even still there was a small crowd gathered outside of the room. Most of them were young and impressionably Agents, probably fresh recruits from the academy. But then he saw that they weren't outside the meeting room he was supposed to go to, but the one next door.

"Make way." Clint said to the group. He had to say it twice before they would begin to move for him.

And then he made his way to the room he was supposed to report to. On his way past, he noticed that the 'Director' Peggie Charter was telling stories in the room next to his. 'Of course, there was a gathering.' He thought. As he opened the door and stepped into the room he needed to be.

Director Fury was calmly sitting behind a table, not at the desk facing the room, but at one of the many tables that agents would sit at to get their mission details. As he sat there, he peeled an apple with a pocket knife.

"Should it bother me that I don't pull as much as a crowd as she does, Agent Barton?" Fury asked without taking his eye off the apple.

"I think you should be more worried about what events you will have to live through to pull such a crowd, sir." Clint said in reply, as he approached the multiple folders on the table. He opened the first one and saw a personal file of someone he didn't recognize. "Who's Erik Lensheer? It says here he served with Agent Dugan in WW2."

Fury didn't look away from his apple as he answered. "He did. He was a Jew and the Howlers recused him from a concentration camp before, legally, we Americans legitimately joined the war. And he volunteered to help them beat back the Nazis for the rest of the war. Tell me what you know about Magneto?"

Clint stood tall before he answered. "He is a wanted terrorist. He's attacked industrial plants, chemical plants, and several military centers. He often hijacks a board cast to make a statement always advocating for the rights of mutants. What about him?"

"They're the same man." Fury said before eating a slice of an apple.

Clint tried to think about the implications that one of the Howling Commandos, war heroes all, had become a pro-mutant, maybe not a terrorist, but at least a freedom fighter. More than that, what would that do to the image of SHIELD? Almost all of the surviving Commandos were founding members of the agency.

"Sir, what is the mission?" the Agent said with his stiffest poker face.

The Director put the apple down and pulled out a tablet. He switched what it was showing before presenting it to Clint. As the Agent looked at it, Clint saw images of a rainforest. He guessed it was the Amazon before Fury explained. "Over two weeks ago, we received intel. Outrageous intel… That there is a topic jungle in a region of the South Pole.'

"We then confirmed it with three separate sources. The first one is a public one. The mercenaries that fled from there after a failed mission. The second was ours. A satellite that took a couple days to get in position. And the last is one of our oldest, most private, and confidential sources. They didn't say much, but did say it's there."

"Not elimination." Clint asked for clarification.

"No, not directly. But I won't lie, that is still a possibility." Fury says before standing up. "Intel indicates that the Brotherhood of Mutants has a base in this special region. Your mission is to lead six agents, first to the region, and once there you are to investigate and access." Fury moved to be standing beside Clint as he talked.

Clint grabbed another folder, pinned to the outside of it was the list of agents assigned to the mission. The top of the list was his own name, but in the list were two names that he had seen used as examples of people to follow in SHIELD training meetings. "Why am I in charge?" He muttered as he read the list.

"Because you're not biased." Fury answered his rhetorical question. "Dum-Dum has a history with Lensheer, so I can't trust him to take the shot, as he might hesitate when it comes time to do it. And Agent Garrett is too trigger-happy for my taste. So while he is one of our best combatants. I can't trust him not to just shoot first, and ask questions never."

Clint reread the list. Then cracked the file, as he suspected two of them were newbies, fresh from the Academy. And another other he didn't know was a lab rat. This Agent Parker had made a name for himself finding cures to chemical tracers used by the Black Widows. That cure prevented the Red Room from tracking our agents later, but the man wasn't known for being a field agent.

"Can we talk about the elephant in the room sir?" Clint asked.

Fury nodded, before saying "Agent Moonstar is a mutant. Admitted it herself before taking her first field test, all of which she passed with flying colors. And she claims to have her powers under wraps and hasn't lost control once in the three years she has been here. She had undergone three missions since joining, and has never lost control. Honestly, I think she will be an asset if you do meet the Brotherhood."

"Wait! Agent Moonstar is a mutant?!" Clint asked as he flipped back to her file.

"Let me guess, you saw that she was a pretty face, and that she was your co-pilot and didn't see anything else?” Fury asked, as Clint read. In the file, she claimed to be able to get information from animals and able to induce illusions in people. Said illusions could get serious if done regularly, she may lose control of them and cause them to be experienced by more than her target. So she suggested the use of her powers for minor distractions only.

"Any other Enhanced on the team I should know about?" Clint asked as he closed the files.

"Is there?" Fury asked as he stared Clint in the eye. It would be both, but the Director was missing his left one. Even the eye path didn't completely cover his gnarly scars above and below the eye socket.

Clint had heard the rumors too. He was too good of a shot. Guns, thrown, even primitive weapons, it didn't matter he never seemed to miss. "I don't know sir?" He finally admitted.

Fury smirked before replying "And like the Army, under my command. It's don't ask, don't care."

"No offense sir, but you just asked." Clint pointed out.

Fury spoke as he moved back to his original seat, and the apple. "I asked if there was more that you know about, and you said there wasn't. And that's good enough for me. And if you didn't know, both Agents Dugan and Garrett are. The former with a chemical formula, and the latter with cybernetics." Once seated, he asked Clint. "Any other questions Commander?"

"Timetable?" Clint muttered hoping to maybe sneak a trip back to the farm and see his kid.

"You should ship out in the next thirty-two hours, or less." Fury answered before eating another slice.

"That soon?" Clint asked, somewhat surprised.

The Director put down the apple as he admitted. "I would send you sooner if I could, but Agent Parker and Agent Moonstar are still inbound. But both should be back by tomorrow morning. And they still haven't been briefed. Once they have been you should be good to go. Oh, and Agent Triplett is taking his field certification test today, so you may be a man down if he fails. But I doubt he will. He is the grandson of Trip-wire after all."

'Great more ties to the founders of the agency.' Barton thought.

"Why?" Clint wondered.

"Technically it's not our jurisdiction." Fury said, before crushing the half-eaten apple in his hand. "The World Security Council has ruled that this discovery is to be given to the East Division of SHIELD. Since the closet access would be from our Australia branch. Director Pierce, doesn't want to exert any of his assets or resources on this. So he is waiting for the public world to go. And in six to eight weeks, the US will be sending a battle fleet to investigate, which is when East Division will be getting off their asses to look at the region, and advise our allies."

Fury took a deep breath, before asking. "And guess who will be to blame if that investigation ends in disaster?"

"Not Director Pierce." Clint guested.

"No." Fury agreed. He then stood back up and took a napkin and cleaned the apple goo off of his glove. "So you will leave as soon as possible. You will be heading on a supersonic transport to our base near Puerto Montt, Chill. Where your team will be armed and readied to board a Mark three quinjet. You are cleared for the mark three aren't you?"

"The new ones with the optical camouflage, yes sir." Clint admitted.

"From there you will fly to a SHIELD supply ship off of the coast of Fiji, which will resupply your jet's fuel. If they ask, you are headed to Melbourne, Australia for mission debriefing. But you will head to the new special region once in the air." Fury finished illustrating the mission plan to Agent Barton and took a breath. "If you are still in the region when the US investigation arrives, I can't promise what will happen to you, should the East Division's people get wind of it… Well on the upside I suspect, should that happen you'll get to spend more time with Agent Bailey."

"Mrs. Barton." Clint corrected but then nodded in understanding. Before sitting down and began to read toughly all the files before him. After seeing a term he was unfamiliar with, had asked the Director. "File keeps saying something about sightings of megafauna? Are we talking elephants and tigers?"

"Nope." Fury shook his head before smiling. "Think bigger." His boss added before tossing a packet of photos towards him.

The top photo was a little blurry, and the scale was at first hard to make out till you realize that the large lizard's head was in amongst and was taller than the trees around it.

"Dinosaurs?" Clint asked flabbergasted