Nick Fury - Mid-April 1990
Ever since word had reached SHIELD of an amazing archer and knife thrower running the circus tracks, Nick had known that the kid would represent an incredible asset if he were ever to be brought in.
Not only because if trained correctly, this young Clint Barton would grow to become the greatest marksman in the world, but also possibly the best and most trustworthy agents of all: with his background, it seemed like Clint was a good judge of character, even though he had made some bad choices in life.
And, if SHIELD didn't pull him from those choices, he would continue down a life of crime that would mean his termination. If Nick wanted to avoid anything, that was it. And so, when Melinda May had brought word that sending in Bobbi Morse, one of their finest agents, in to gather intel on the kid, had ended in utter and complete failure, Fury had to begin thinking of another approach.
Of course, there was the inevitable question of bringing in the King and Queen of this chess board – Peggy Carter and Alexander Pierce – but that would mean compromising his idea. If he were to tell them why he wanted an expert marksman, and why he wanted this agent to become something special – a leader and more than that, for a team that he wished to create – then they might grow too curious. Maybe Peggy Carter would understand his wishes, but he was more cautious towards Alexander Pierce.
Pierce always had been the political one of them, whereas Carter would have followed her heart and the right way, even if it meant making some wrong political choices.
But, in the end, after enough discussions back and forth with Maria Hill, his trusted advisor, he decided to go for it. Without breaking through to the FBI and bringing in Barney Barton, this Clint Barton's older brother, there was going to be absolutely no way of bringing the kid in either. If anyone knew where to find him, it would be the older sibling. He was absolutely sure of it.
So, when Nick decided to bring in some of the higher chess pieces, it wasn't Pierce's door he knocked on. It was a busy Peggy Carter, still mourning over the loss of Howard and Maria Stark in that dreadful car crash that had rendered their son, Anthony Stark, orphan and heir of a kingdom of riches.
“Miss Carter, ma'am,” Nick said, as he heard her accept him into her office. When he pushed the door, he saw files scattered across her desk, the results of tests on the cosmic cube one of them.
“Director Fury,” her voice replied, and he cracked a smile as he saw her light up. She too didn't appreciate Pierce as much as him, and he knew all too well what it meant to be a woman in a man's world. He'd witnessed it first hand. Especially a world of spies. “What can I do for you? It's been a while since you knocked on my door, and last time it was to ask a favor.”
A light chuckle escaped Nick's lips as he stretched his back, trying to look presentable to this woman who had helped Stark found modern day SHIELD, this woman who had known Captain America himself, and this woman who had treaded against all of the prejudice the world had thrown at her.
“Well, you're not wrong,” he started, before pulling out the file on Clint Barton – aka Hawkeye – and handing it to her. As he waited for her to take the file, he continued, “I need your view on something.”
As she took the file from his hands and sat down at the edge of the table, he went on. “I've been tracking this young kid from Iowa for a couple of years now, and he's vanished. As you can see on the file, he's got an incredible skillset that we want. Well, actually that I want,” he corrected, before moving on, “We've reached a dead end, because he has disappeared from the surface of the Earth, and the only person who might be able to get him out of hiding is his brother, Barney Barton.”
Nick paused, letting her take in the information, as she shuffled through some of the pages, some of the pictures of young Clint Barton. His personal data – height, weight, the last time they had managed to estimate it, his skills, his probable IQ. Everything was in there, all they needed was to actually get their hands on him to make sure and verify it all.
“And what seems to be the problem to getting to this, Charles Bernard Barton?” she asked him, as she read the paragraph on Clint's family. There wasn't much information in there – other than Barney inheriting the family farm because lack of kin, and the fact that he had decided to set it up again after getting his job with the FBI, there was nothing.
“He's an FBI agent, ma'am, and the Federal Bureau doesn't want us to get near him. That is, unless someone important asks them. Someone like you.”
Better be as precise as possible, Fury thought, and he cocked his head in her direction, to emphazise even further.
“Why not ask Pierce? He seems to be the one pushing to more inter-agency cooperation?” she said, looking up from the file. She was still as efficient as ever, Nick had to admit it.
“I'm afraid that Pierce might look at it the wrong way and estimate it to be a loss of resources. Look elsewhere for an expert marksman – we have other ongoing operations to look out for those, which is where we got the first look on this Clint Barton kid. But the others – one of them calling himself Bullseye, and another one, Brock Rumlow – don't seem to have the same stamina as this kid right there.” Fury paused yet again, before taking the time to think about what he was going to say.
“Miss Carter, I'm absolutely sure that this Barton kid there, he will turn out to be one of the best agents SHIELD has ever had the pleasure to have in their employment. With the proper training and the proper guidance, he will be able to become an asset as valuabe as myself.” It wasn't often that he had to defend his decisions to a higher order or higher ranking officer, but this was one of them. And, as soon as he'd read the file on Clint Barton, he had felt that the kid would turn out to be the precious gemstone they were looking for. Or at least, that he was looking for.
“You know it all too well, we need Agents who are more than soldiers, ready to take orders. We need Agents who are able to decide whether the mission we give them is the right one or not – and to decide when to question it. You've witnessed it yourself, our enemies are growing stronger and we need to start looking elsewhere than the Academy for proper Agents,” Fury kept on going, as he watched Carter's eyes go back and forth to the picture on the wall behind him where he knew she kept a portrait of Steve Rogers, the original Captain America.
“We can't match up with their powers – the KGB has words out on an unknown asset, as fickle as a ghost, he's supposedly killed several times in the past – including JFK even though that hasn't been confirmed yet – and of the Black Widow program, the same one you ran into when you went into Russia with the Howling Commandos during your time in the field. And that's just the Russians,” he went on, ignoring all his usual protocols – he wasn't used to talking this much, but if he needed to convince her of the importance of this player, he had to go all in. He would have nothing more to bluff with if she decided to decline him, but he knew that Peggy Carter would listen to him.
“If we look at the Germans, at the terrorist movements in the East, with the Ten Rings moving together, we might soon become irrelevant in a world where secret intelligence has been outmatched by special agents. We need to start setting up a team, much like the one Erskine worked on, but with agents capable of performing different tasks, at different times. And I believe, that as long as Captain America remains Missing In Action, this Clint Barton kid might prove to be the first chess piece on a new playing board.”
Taking in a deep breath, Nick watched her face, as she had stopped reading the lines in the file, in favor of listening to his gospel. He wasn't sure – she was very good at keeping her face stern, and until she spoke, he had no idea if he had been heard or not.
“So you want me to speak to the Director of the FBI and see if we can gain access to their agent Barney Barton and get to know if he has any intel on this, as you put it mildly, kid?”
Well, when she put it like that, it didn't sound like much, but he nodded anyway. “Yes ma'am.”
“Well then, seems like I have a phonecall to make.”
Nick wouldn't exactly have put it as a heavy weight lifting from his shoulders, but he felt the relief flood over him as he saw her smile back at him, handing him the file on Clint Barton. Frowning, he hesitated to taking it back from her. “Don't you want to keep it?” he questioned, as she moved back to her desk, moving the papers on the cosmic cube to the side.
“No, I've seen and heard all I need to know about this kid, I won't need to know more. I trust your judgement to be impeccable, and if you deem this young boy worthy of resources and effort, then I will do my part in getting him back to the flock,” she replied, looking up to him, a mischievious glint in her eyes. “I trust your word, Nick, and if you need me to do this for you, then I will be more than happy to.”
Nodding, he knew a cue when he got one. “I'll let you carry on, then,” he stated, as they both greeted each other with a nod, and he exited, Clint Barton's file in his hand.
As soon as he was out of the room, he took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. He had never spoken with such conviction about Clint Barton before, but he was sure that he was worth it – he seemed to be a genuinely good boy. There was something about the kid that had made Nick stick to him, and nothing would ever make him bulge. Sure, they had made contact with Rumlow, and he had agreed to join SHIELD, but he still wanted Barton more. If Peggy Carter could get access to Barney Barton with a phonecall, he knew most of his troubles would be over.
Walking back to his office, he pondered over the recent developments in the world close to SHIELD – Stark Enterprises had lost their head and gained a new one in Obadiah Stane who would watch over Howard Stark's inheritance until the son and heir, Anthony Stark came of age; a lead on the ever elusive Black Widow training program from their Russian side with the murder of a politician's daughter – Drakov – for no more reason than his disrespectful attitudes towards the old forces that ruled the Russian empire; the military trying to recreate the Super Soldier serum that Erskine had used on volunteer Stephen Rogers (and always failing to, much to his dismay)...
If he could get some new players into the game, it would seem like a much stronger accomplishement than just keeping the Agency afloat. When he reached his office, he shut the door and dialled up Maria Hill's number, to brief her on the development – Agent Peggy Carter agreeing to help them get to Barney Barton.
Three days later, it felt like a breakthrough finally happened in the Barton case. Not only had the FBI made contact to tell them that a potential lend of Agent Barney Barton would be possible given the right circumstances, but a video on a local news station was paged to him directly.
It was a documentary about a local circus, nothing big, three horses and an elephant, none of the over-the-top performing circuses with an entire zoo in their hold, but it still had the merit of catching his eye. And, for good reason, because there, in the background of the video showing the raising of the tent, a little bit blurred, was Clint Barton. He had done his best to avoid getting caught on camera this far, and the multitudes of scenarios suddenly gaining life in Nick's head made him pause for a while. He paged the information out to Hill, May and Coulson, and soon, they were all sitting in his office again, discussing the reason as to why this footage suddenly surfaced after over three months silence from the boy.
“D'you think it's a way for him to communicate with Barney? Let him know that he knows what's going on?” Coulson asked, as he saw the footage, undisputably recognizing the young archer. He wouldn't have done this mistake after remaining as good as dead to the world for over three months.
“Letting this surface now has got to mean that he knows we're closing in on him, he's probably trying to show us how confident he is in that he will never come in and that we will never pin him down,” Hill stated, as she exchanged a glance with May, who in return replied that:
“I think it's more of a false trail, to get us worked up and send out agents to track him down. By the time we get to the circus and ask around, he'll be long gone. It's getting more important now than ever to get our hands on his older brother, because otherwise he might soon leave the country and then it will be impossible to find him for sure.”
Nodding, Nick silenced them all with one hand as he looked down at a printed screenshot from the documentary. “We don't know yet what this means. What we do know is that the FBI has arranged for Barney Barton to come into our ranks, as a lease, for as long as we deem fit – getting Peggy Carter into the game loosened their protocols quite a bit,” he stated, as he eyed May longer than the others, knowing it was her idea to bring Carter in on the situation.
“We are to make contact with the older brother, and keep an eye out for any other communication between the two of them. If it means tailing him until he slips up, so be it. I want Clint Barton found as soon as possible,” he finished, as he dismissed them all. Melinda May stayed behind after Hill and Coulson had left the room, crossing her arms as she always did.
“We know that you want to create a special response team, sir, and we agree with you,” she began, and Nick frowned. There had to be a but in there somewhere. “We've discussed with Coulson, that it might be appropriate to look elsewhere for agents fitting that category, and that it might be a good call to include more people on the team than you already have crossed out.”
Nick shook his head. “No, we need one team that might work as exactly that – a team. We need to make sure to find the key players before adding the pawns, and I will not look into replacements until Clint Barton falls through as Hawkeye. I need him to be the cataclyst of this project.”
Getting the authorization to get Barney Barton turned out to be the easy part of the collaboration. For as soon as SHIELD contacted him, sending Agent Hill and Agent May in to accompany him from his FBI headquarters to his new SHIELD headquarters, he said absolutely nothing of use.
They had thought that he would maybe give them the silent treatment, but Nick soon found out that the older Barton possessed the ability to bullshit his way out of everything without even giving an ounce of information about anything at all. The ratio of words per minute that he was able to give out to protect himself and his younger brother seemed to be unbreakable. In the beginning, they tried with direct questions, before turning to other diverging approaches to get the intel out of him, and each time, they failed.
But, as Hill and May weren't getting anywhere with the older brother, apparently dead set on making their life hell, Nick decided that he would go in and talk with him. He saw no other way, after the list of failed intel gathering attempts grew longer and longer. So, as he set his boots into Barney's headquarters to wait for the red-headed agent to come back from his interview session with Agent May, he thought about the best way to put it.
Maybe if he played a game of chicken – see who would chicken out first? Putting his little brother's life on the line would be a good way to gamble, even though it would be dangerous. If Barney understood that they were desperate enough to terminate Clint's life if it was absolutely sure that he wouldn't join, then maybe Barney could convince the younger boy to come in.
He heard the footsteps of the older Barton before he saw him on the other side of the glass door and he braced himself for first contact. He was sure that Barney knew who he was, and there wouldn't be a long time where his window was open. Barney would probably throw him out – if he had understood anything about the Barton boys, it meant that they would never betray one another.
“Agent Barton,” Nick stated, as soon as Barney walked passed the doorframe into his headquarters and turned on the light. Immediately alert, Barney reached for a non-existent gun at his side and turned around to face his would-be opponent. As he rapidly assessed the situation, Nick saw understanding wash over his face. “I'm here to talk to you about-”
“My brother, yeah, I know, I heard you the first twenty times,” the younger agent interrupted, and Nick had to give it to him, he was spirited. “I'm not gonna change my mind because they send in the boss, Clint's gone I don't know where and he don't want to be found,” he continued, to what Nick raised a finger.
“Ah, but I think you do.” That gave the younger redhead reason to pause. “We have found evidence that you two communicate via several platforms, including what seems to be national television.” It was, of course a bluff (there was no evidence, except a hunch), but Barney didn't need to know that.
As much as he had been worried, Nick had to admit that Barney had an extremely good pokerface. However, he continued before Barney managed to get a word out.
“I believe that when I give you the right options, no, the two only options, you will change your mind. You're very good at keeping people out of your head and heart, Agent Barton, but I believe that the way into that fortress of yours is closely linked to your little brother, Clint.” He paused one more time, as Barney frowned.
“The deal is this: get Clint to accept our offer and come into SHIELD ranks, go through all training and accept becoming an agent – if he proves to be worth all the ruffle, of course – or he dies. Simple as that.”
Reaching into one of the pockets of his jacket, Nick pulled out an enveloppe and handed it to Barney. “We have evidence of Clint's collaboration in three different murders. He might not have been the mastermind behind them, but he was the trigger finger.” He saw the older sibling take the enveloppe, and open it cautiously as if it were poisonous, and slowly, he pulled out the three different photos of three bodies. The same injury in the larynx. And, then, Nick knew that he had hit the right chord.
“If Clint doesn't agree, we could pin these murders on him and put him away for life. Although, three first degree murders, that could get him down on death charge, right?” He smiled, almost hungrily. “You're the Federal Agent, you tell me if the electric chair is such a stretch.”
Pushing the pictures back inside the enveloppe, Barney threw it at Nick, refusing to have anymore to do with it. “If we close a deal, he walks free of all charges?” Nick nodded. “Even if he turns out to not be what you're looking for?” Barney questioned, then, and Nick nodded yet again.
“We know about his hearing issues, as well as the fall he suffered from the hands of Jacques DuQuesne, Agent Barton. I'm fairly sure we know what we're getting into by asking you to bring him in,” Nick said, but Barney shook his head.
“Hell no you're not,” the redhead replied, stiffly. “Clint's a force to be reckoned with once he gets somethin' on his mind. You'll get to witness it soon enough.”
Raising an eyebrow, Nick pursed his lips, unimpressed. “Barton, believe me, we've seen plenty of stuff you wouldn't dream of. This is an institution created on the strange and on the odd, because of what these things can bring out in each other. I doubt a soon to be twenty year old will be such a force to be reckoned with,” he stated, almost challenging.
“I'll let you be the judge of that,” Barney spat out, before walking back to the door of his headquarters, clearly inviting Nick to exit the premises. He obliged, not saying another word to the agent. While exiting, he heard Barney chuckle, which made him turn around.
“Something you wanna say?” Nick asked, trying to sound unimpressed. He obviously succeeded.
“Ten bucks says you're wrong about of my baby brother,” Barney said, putting out his hand. Oh, a bet. Nick liked that spirit, and he recognized there the survival instinct of a kid who had been through hell and made it back alive. He nodded, accepting the bet, and they shook their hands, making it official.
There had been no real need for them to finish off such a deal, not in this fashion, but Nick liked it. With all the intel they had managed to gather on both Barton kids, he was fairly sure he knew what he was getting into. He was absolutely one hundred percent sure that Clint could grow to become a great Agent and a great example in team leading when the time would call for it.
Walking up the corridor, back to his own office and files, he looked down at the hand he had used to bet with. Maybe there was some unknown factor that they had strangely forgotten. But, somehow, with both Hill, May, Coulson, and even the young Bobbi Morse in on the case, he felt that they had covered every angle of the Hawkeye issue. Perhaps bringing in the older brother would offer another insight to the mission at hand. And, perhaps, that would be the best thing to happen before they actually got their hands on the young boy...