Agent Mikaelson

Chapter 8: Recruiting

Hope's POV:

After the reveal Steve has me break James out of his makeshift restrain before questioning him on the other Winter Soldiers. "Who were they?" He asks. "Their most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in Hydra history, and that was before the serum."

"They all turn out like you?" "Worse." "The doctor, could he control them?" I ask, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. He tenses, but doesn't pull away. "Enough." "Said he wanted to see an empire fall." Steve quotes.

"With these guys, he could do it. They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight...infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a while country down in one night, you'd never see them coming."

Sam goes over to talk to Steve while I remain in my place, seated on an upside down bucket next to James. He has that broken look in his eye again. I haven't seen that look in a while and it hurts to see it back after all our hard work. I rub his shoulder soothingly.

"Hey, none of this is your fault." I tell him. "But it is." "Remember all we've accomplished over these past few months. You're stronger than this." He finally meets my eyes. "Thing is, today proved that I'm really not." Those words hurt.

If only there was some way to deprogram his brain. I mean, there's compulsion therapy for people, but it's extremely painful, and this isn't the same thing as compulsion, but yet...it is. I just wish I could help him more than I can.

Then it strikes me when I overhear Sam say something. "I know a guy." I jump up and all of them look at me. "I know two." "Who?" "Clint and Wanda. Not Vision, he's too much of a peacekeeper, but the others-" "Wanda already has so much on her shoulders right now Hope." Steve chides.

"So do all of us. Sure, she's getting blamed for what happened on your mission, but face it, she's an Avenger and she's just as much a part of this as we are. I know it's hard to be a young girl with a lot of power. It's scary, but she needs to be there, if not for us, then for herself. Just let me try."

He thinks for a moment before sighing and nodding. "Fine." I smile at this. He gives me the airport location and I turn back to James. "I have to go do something, but I'll meet you all at the airport, ok?" I ask. He nods, standing.

"Thank you, for everything you've done and sacrificed for me." I smile at this before reaching up and throwing my arms around his shoulders. He tenses, but eventually hugs me back. "I'd do it all again in a heartbeat." With that I pull away and back up.

"I'll be back in a few hours." He nods and I close my eyes. I've only successfully teleported myself twice and it cost a lot of energy, but I'm a vampire now, I have extra magic reserves to call on. "What's she doing?" Sam asks. Then I feel like I'm being sucked through a straw.

I gasp as I land, stumbling a little. When I regain my balance I look up at the building in front of me. Perfect. I jog up to Clint's front door and knock. Laura answers with a shocked look on her face.

"Hope? What are you doing here? I mean, it's great to see you, but Clint didn't tell me you were coming." "Kind of a last minute thing, can I speak to him?" I ask. She nods, smiling softly. She steps aside for me.

"Come on in, the kids have been asking about you for a while now. Lila! Cooper! There's someone here y'all don't want to miss!" She call, walking further into the house. There are loud footsteps and soon Lila and Cooper appear, grins on their faces.

"Aunt Hope!" They yell, tackling me in hugs. I laugh, hugging them back as well. "Hey munchkins. Look how big you two have gotten." "We're not munchkins! We're big kids." Cooper argues. I laugh again. "Of course you are little man." "Hope?"

I turn to see Clint standing behind me, a shocked look on his face. I smile as he pulls me into a hug. "Uh, you two, why don't you go check on your mom and see if she needs help with Nathanial." "Ok dad!" They yell, running off after giving me one more hug. He then turns to me.

"Nathanial?" I ask. "Yeah, he was born right after you disappeared. It's so good to see you Supergirl." He tells me, smiling. I laugh at the old nickname that I'm pretty sure Tony gave me. "It's good to see you too Clint, but I'm not here on a casual visit I'm afraid."

His face turns serious. "What's going on?" "I'm sure you've heard of everything that's happened these past few days." "Yeah, I've heard of it, what's really going on H?" He asks, nodding for me to continue.

"Well, long story short, we're trying to stop a lot of people from dying, but the government only sees James as the threat so now they're after us and we need help. I understand that you're retired, but we need all the help we can get." "I'm in." He says without hesitation. "What?"

"I'm in." "Clint maybe you want to think about this for a second, I mean, if we fail, you'll be locked up. Your family-" "Would understand. I want to help. Just give me five minutes to get my gear and we can go." I smile and hug him again. "Thank you Clint." "Of course H."

With that he jogs upstairs to get his things. This is really happening. It feels like everything is moving so fast. I got Clint of board, now the only person I have to convince is Wanda, but the thing is...how am I going to get past Vision. He's the real factor I have to figure out.

Maybe Clint will have an idea for that. Yeah...maybe.